Transcripts For SFGTV LIVE BOS Govt Audits And Oversight Committee 20160519

[gavel] good morning and welcome to the government audit and Oversight Committee of the San Francisco board of supervisors, i am the share of the committee, aaron peskin, and joined by supervisor yee, and sitting in for member london breed is comptis, and i want to thank the folks for sfgtv for the broadcast, clerk. Please be sure that all devices are silenced, items acted on today will appear on june 7 board of supervisors agenda. Please read the first item. To discuss the codes for Motor Vehicle tracking systems and all Motor Vehicles by the city. Thank you, this item is brought to us by supervisor yee, the floor is yours. Thank you, chair peskin, morning, everybody, the item we are talking about is telematics, and this is a technology that has gps along with capabilities to collect data on speed, mechanical diagnosis, safety and other information. In other jurisdictions this technology has shown significant benefits early on including increasing safety, substantial cost savings. Has been used to correct, train and coach, to improve driving habits. Decrease inappropriate or unauthorized use of the vehicles and shown to have environmental benefits and reducing emission. Typically San Francisco leads the nation in setting precedence but in this case we are actually behind the curve. Many commercial fleets and nearly every commercial industry has gps or Similar Technology in their vehicles. As a member of the board i noticed a trend in having to approve sentiments related to our citys fleet. So in february of 2015, i requested our budget and legislative analyst to do a report on cost, benefits and potential of teg telematics as it aligns with our city for reduced waste and safety and safer driving. The benefits are proven and clear. In the past several years we have spent millions in judgments and claims in our citys fleets. Telematics has the ability to monitor safety liability. And San Francisco have 184 vehicles in their fleet, cost 100,000 and save 60,000 in the first month, the county awarded 360,000 in the first months, and this is in gas savings. Telematics has the ability to gofence which trigger alerts from unauthorized use. This technology is a tool for us to be fiscally responsible and accountable to our public dollars. I imagine that the benefits will be demonstrated early on in these and many other counties. And in sf recognizes and for the fleet for enhanced safety. And mta for safe in light rails and buses and trolleys. In 2012 after the first year of operation bus accidents dropped with 50 decrease. Mtagps alone with Driver Training has significantly reduced the number of accidents. Basically we have cost savings and safer streets and its better for the environment. And currently in this legislation there are several exceptions of the citys fleet including the Sheriff Department and probation departments. However, there is overwhelming evidence that this technology can not only increase safety and save public dollars but a powerful tool for those departments and increased response for the safety and Law Enforcement. There are several large cities and jurisdictions where Law Enforcements have seen tremendous benefits from telematic technology, including yellow county and new york city. Who have used Similar Technology for over 15 years. New York Police Department were the first in their fleet to implement and similar to San Francisco has a vision zero is a visionzero city. However, i recognize the unique role and special consideration that needs to be taken for our Law Enforcement and this is the reason my office has been in touch with these cities and has directed the city administrator to specifically address the citys ability to address confidentiality for the use of Law Enforcement or investigations. I look forward to introducing trailing legislation in the coming months regarding these exemptions. Typically again as i was saying, San Francisco lead in many items, but in this case we are actually following [inaudible] county and new york city and so forth. As a chair of the zerovision city and following fatal accidents and this will increase safety and improve driving habits and potentially save lives. Telematic is aligned with our city goals, and funding with the city administrator and Staff Support has already been budgeted. I am proud to have this legislation heard in committee today and hope i have full support of my colleagues. So i have any questions or comments . Supervisor compost, any questions . Supervisor yee. Lets go to Public Comments, i have a couple of speakers. I have three speaker cards. Alice rogers, and janice paluka and jan lee. If you come forward, each speaker will have two minutes. First speaker please. Good morning, committee members, i am cathy paluka, on behalf of walk sf and members i am here to urge you to support telematic legislation. I would like to thank supervisor yee for being a zero vision champion, and this legislation that will be a very important tool to help our city get to zero traffic deaths by 2024. As you know we are not making great progress right now and we need all the tools available to us to reach vision zero. We are excited about this legislation, one thing that the Technology Allows us to do, is track speeding that we know is the number one collision factor, and hard braking can be tracked and acceleration. And this tool will help us track the city drivers and we know that city drivers make up the large number of vehicles on the streets. We support this legislation but we think it could go farther, we would like this legislation to be in 100 of city vehicles, including the Police Department. As mentioned other Police Departments have successfully used telematics and we think that our Police Department should lead by example. We urge you to support this legislation for vision zero, and we urge you to make it more robust by extending it to 100 of vehicles including city police. Thank you, next speaker please. Hello, i am janice lee, i am the advocacy director of vehicle coalition. And speaking on behalf of our 10,000 members, i am urging this committee today to pass the ordinance put forth by supervisor yee for the telematics system in all cityowned vehicles. Yesterday i attended San Franciscos annual ride of silence, we were joined by nearly 100 other bike riders to honor those lives lost on our streets. And joined by other folks that ride their bikes every day, having to live with this fear. And despite that in the last week, we had four people rideing and hit by drivers, in district 3 a couple of days ago, and one hit by an sfpd squad car on second street. Our city has embraced vision zero, we need to do everything we can and use every tool in the tool box to get there. This technology is in use and proven to work and from the report from february, 2014 shows. This ordinance will hold the city and the drivers of the city vehicles to the highest standards, adding another tool in our vision zero tool box. For any situation where a city vehicle is involved in a crash, that also happened this year. This is an area where the private sector is ahead of the public sector. This is proven to work and we stand with other members of the Vision Zero Coalition today to pass this ordinance. Thank you, mrs. Lee, other members of the public. Good morning, i am alice rogers and active with the south Beach Mission Bay Association and i am here to support the previous two speakers and their comprehensive requests for 100 implementation across our city fleets. Our regular large segment of the city is a member of the Vision Zero Coalition and strongly want us to use all tools available. Thank you, mrs. Rogers. If no other members of the public to comment on item 1, Public Comment is closed, any department that would like to testify on this ordinance . There is plenty of information in the file from various departments. Okay, before we send this to the full board. I just want to thank supervisor yee for working on this for quite some time, i reviewed the file over the weekend, last weekend and you obviously have been working on this for a long time. There was money for it in the current year budget. Money in it for the coming year budget. A lot of correspondence between supervisor yees office and many of the departments who have overcome their initial resistance to this. So i want to commend supervisor yee and his staff for their many months of work on this. And supervisor campos, if there are any comments. Briefly if i may, mr. Chairman. I want to thank supervisor yee and his office for all the work on this. I knowa because of labor issues and requirements under the law, there are some departments not included here. I look forward to making sure that those are included once we go through that process. But i am very proud to support this, and with that i would like to make a motion to move this item forward with a positive recommendation. If we can do one little bit of House Keeping before that, that is to excuse supervisor breed from this meeting, motion from supervisor yee take without objection and a motion by supervisor campos to send to the board with full recommendation. Yes, i would like to say this has been a long road and hope to bear the fruits of this labor. Especially two of my staff members, my former aide, mrs. Armeno, and more currently erica maybar. And we concur in those thanks to supervisor yees staff a without objection we will send item 1 to the full board with recommendation. Madam clerk, please read the next item. Item 2, ordinance admending the administrative cord for aprecisely and appraisal review for acquisition and conveys of Real Property that the standards conform to the professional practice. Thank you, this piece of legislation has not been in the works as long as supervisor yees previous legislation. Probably something i should have undertaken under the board of supervisors a decade ago. I noticed when i was first reelected and took office in december, that he had a rather hodgepodge outdated administrative code provision as it relates to the citys acquisition and disposition of Real Property, that is property owned by the people of San Francisco by and through the city and county. To that end, with the great work of my staff. Lee hepener, we started to look at other cities and the United States of america do and to that end offered a wholesale rewriting of chapter 23 of administrative code for the standard process of purchase, sale, and lease and jurisdictional transfers of Real Property. Simply stated, if the city buys or sales property, this legislation will require that it be appraised by a qualified appraiser. Who is a member of the Appraisal Institute and a statelicensed appraisal. Further as the United States of america, and the state of california have long done, it requires that these appraisals be reviewed by an independent third party. Or by a third party if appraisals above a certain threshold as a matter of sale or lease. It further requires that the Effective Date of evaluation be not earlier than nine months than the proposed disposition of the Real Property is brought to this board of supervisors. I want to thank the host of departments that have worked with my staff. Ranging from the port of San Francisco, the airport, the Public Utilities commission. But most of all our department of real estate, john updike, and his staff have been very helpful and cooperative in crafting this legislation. And i very much appreciate their work. I think i neglected to mention the Municipal Transportation Agency who also worked with mr. Updike and my staff on this matter. And finally i want to thank deputy City Attorney carol wong for her excellent work in crafting this legislation. I am happy to go into the details. I know that we were not able to accommodate all of the requests of primarily enterprise departments. But i think in our effort to have a standardization of the citys appraisal and evaluation process have done it in a fair manner. But i am sorry if the puc is a little upset. But i know you will get over it. Having said that, before i introduce some minor amendments, mr. Updike, would you like to come forward and make any remarks on behalf of the department of real estate. Thank you chair. John updike, director of real estate. As you noted and i certainly echo your thanks to lee hefner for his work and carol wong and the departments. I think we saw good amendments through the discussions. This is a catalyst for me to hiring appraisal, a member appraisal. Which real estate as best we can tell in the last several decades never had on staff. We have always been dependent on consultant s as appraisals. And this could help address the concerns particularly from the enterprise agencies of the need of swift transactions. And having that will be helpful, and thank you for bringing this forward, that was a helpful element to gain that position authority. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you, mr. Updike, any questions from the members of the committee . Seeing none. Let me touch on a few changes i would like to introduce today. They are set forth on page 5, section 23. 2. Where we would the new section read as follows, from the enterprise agencies. The new section, transfers of pusuant property to this article would be paid for no less than 100 of the appraised value, except where the board that is the board of supervisors determines a lesser sum would serve a public purpose. And provide that the Public Utility Commission be paid at least of the historical cost of such Real Property. That would be the first amendment. And then on page 8, in section 23. 30. At the top of page 8 strike the Airport Commission at line 2. And that is because the airport successfully argued that pursuant to Aviation Administration standards they are subject to federal laws as it relates to appraisal. And so we have deleted them from this legislation. At line 8, insert see if i can do this in a better way. If the market rent of the lease is more than 45 per square foot at base rent, the administrator obtain the market rent for the lease, and unless, insert 1, the commission or agency determines acquiring the market rent would interfere with the core function under the city charter, insert 2, the board of supervisors found by resolution that a lesser sum would further a public purpose, or 3, if it interfere with the Port Commission parameter rate lease, mr. Benson and your department successfully argued that, those would be my proposed changes. And department City Attorney do you have comments on those changes or others . Deputy City Attorney, you handed me your draft earlier. There is one proposed amendment in that draft that you didnt read out, which is in section 23. 30, lease of Real Property. That the director of property, the second to last sentence of the first paragraph of that section. States that the director of property shall arrange for such lease to be highest bidder for the purposes of bidding and for no. Etc. , insert a or b, a lesser sum will further a public purpose. Thank you, and going back to 23. 30, we called the board, the board of supervisors, should we in 23. 20, say the board shall be the board of supervisors. Sounds good to me. Okay, i will insert, supervisors there. Colleagues. Second. I would like to move those amendments. With that, are there any other departments that would like to speak to item 2, the revisions of chapter 23, administrative code, very exciting stuff. Mr. Benson on behalf of the board of San Francisco, good morning. Chair peskin and memberss of the committee, appreciate the time that your office spent working with us on the proposed amendment that you just read. I think we would appreciate the opportunity between now and the board to work on the exact phrasing of that, i am not sure that interference is the right way to approach it. But the concept is sound. And really appreciate your legislative aide, lee, was available after hours last night to continue talking to us. The other one issue that we appreciate continuing to discuss, historic rehabilitation projects reviewed by real estate firm. They dont lend themselves to appraisal, because they are so complicated and appreciate continued dialogue on that. If my colleagues are willing to afford this to the full board, i am willing to have the conversation with you and your department over the next 10 days before it gets to the full board. Thank you so much. Mr. Gibbener. On mr. Bensons first point about the exact wording of subsection 3, in 23. 20, and one object of the interference question, just say 3. The Port Commission or the executive of the port, determines that the market rate of the requirement would conflict with the rental rate for the proposed lease. I like that, i assume that the staff would prefer port director over Port Commission, is that true mr. Benson . Yes. Colleagues i would like to adopt mr. Gibbeners sensible idea, because it will reduce the conversations i have to have with brad over the coming days, is that acceptable . Yes. Any Department Staff that want to speak to item 2. Any members of the public that want to comment on our appraisal methodology of acquisition or transfer of Real Property of the people of San Francisco. Seeing none. Public comment is closed. And thank you again to my staff lee hefner and deputy City Attorney wong, and john updike and the department of real estate. Why dont we take those amendments without objection, and forward the matter to the full board as amended with recommendation. Madam clerk, please read the next item. Item 3, a resolution receiving and approving annual reports for the Central Market district for calendar year 2014, submitted by the department and approved district of 1994. Mr. Cortis, from the office of Economic Development, good morning. Good morning, i am chris cortis, i am a project manager for the office of economic and Workforce Development, and part of the team that oversees the cbd program. Today we have the calendar year 201415 Central Market annual report. This means we only have one left . Two left three left. We are getting there. Almost there. As you may know the state law is governed by the 1994 act and article 15 that was introduced by supervisor peskin in 2005. Excuse me the resolution for this report covers calendar year 2014, owed ensures that all cbds are meeting their annual plans. Conducting financial reviews and provides the board of supervisors with a summary memo in your packet today. The Central Market Community District covers approximately 800 parcels. And you see a map on the screen or in your packet as well. Its a property based cbd, its initial operating budget was 1,143,528. 42 renewed in 2013 and set to expire. The staff is here to report on the programmatic achievements on cbd. With the Main Service Areas Public Safety and clean management and Economic Development. Obed staff reviewed the benchmarks for cbd. Benchmark 1 within 10 points of the Management Plan. And benchmark 2, within 300 of the actuals come from the revenue. And benchmark 3, whether the budget was within 10 of the actuals, and benchmark 4 whether cbd is carrying over from the previous budget year. For benchmark 1, cbd met its benchmark and had all Service Categories within 10 points. For benchmark 2, the cbd went above the requirement with from nonbudget revenue. And benchmark 3 met the code. And for the carryover the cbd designated how it would be forwarded in the calendar year. In conclusion cbd has proved their plan in the district, the organization did a commendable job of raising 9 and 200 in nonassessment revenue in addition to what they were supposed to raise to support the district. And they continue to partner well with the Community Organizations and municipal organizations to fulfill their Management Plans. And they maintain an active board of directors and robust committees. With me is the project director of the cbd. Good morning, tracy, and thank you for that presentation. Good morning, director of Central Market cbd. I have a few slides to augment chriss report. 2014 was a big year for us. We renewed for 15 years, doubled in size. The blue parcels you see here are original district. We picked up the parcels in green, including the 16th corridor that was redevelopment area. Our budget in 2014 was 1. 2 million, this is how those private resources were spent. For our cleaning and maintenance program, i wanted to highlight a few of our primary areas here. Human and animal waste removal, graffiti and i syringes, and showing the average. For Public Safety we have a Community Guide program, and Community Ambassador program. We have extensively trained Community Ambassadors and addressing trespassing and illegal vending. And we have [inaudible] from the San Francisco Police Department as needed to support our team in the field as well as district stakeholders and visitors. In terms of Economic Development that was added to our Management Plan in 2014. We work with urban solutions who is in our district. To enhance business attraction, retention and expansion and they do a lot of stabilization work for us. And they helped us to maintain tulong restaurant on 14th street. We had Development Sites with a lot of plywood lining our sidewalks and we teamed with buena vista and the arts. We have an amazing art walk every year on the 16th corridor, called two blocks of walk. We are in our sixth year, and supervisor kim has been an active part of that walk every year. We have that coming up september 16th and we hope to attract over 5,000 people to 16th street for that event this year. We worked with the community as well as multiple city agencies primarily development of public works. On stevenson alley guidelines, and we are concerned about the blocks on fifth and eighth street and you see that we have three Hotels Opening on these blocks in next five years. And because of our stevenson alley and they are putting their emphasis on stevenson alley than Market Street. And to see how we are leveraging our resources for city agencies to achieve their work. We have additional grants with obd, to include the art district and tenderloin district. We have advocated for several Pedestrian Safety enhancements to supervisor kims office that resulted in streetlights and walks in our district. Working with the 3,000 cyclists that come down Market Street every day to patronize our Small Businesses. And one thing that we are so proud of is our sro hotel guide that we worked to produce, we have 38 sro hotels in our district. 23 of them on the first two blocks of sixth street alone. And the majority of those sro hotels have no Facility Management onsite. So we came up with a guide to help those hotels with operational issues both outside of their building and inside their building and very well received. Thank you. Thank you, tracy. And thank you for your work and for the work of your staff. Are there any members of the public who would like to testify on item 3. I see a representative of supervisor kim, mrs. Lopez, any comments on behalf of supervisor kim and this cbd is obviously in the heart of district 6. Yes, it is, supervisor. We just wanted to commend the Central Market Community Benefit district for all the amazing work, and for becoming a fabric of the tenderloin central ma market, we are a sponsor and want to invite everyone to the Central Market event and to make this a sustainable and livable area. Thank you, and thank you to the market. Seeing no members of the public to testify on item 3, Public Comment is closed. And colleagues if there is no objection, we will send this resolution to the full board with recommendation. So moved. Without objection, that will be the order. [gavel] madam clerk, please read item 4. And before you do that, do you need to make an announcement . No, okay. Go ahead, mrs. Major. Item 4, hearing on the implementation of legacy district and historical grant and mayor office aide Nicole Elliott and directing the office of director to report. First of all, sure, come on up, mrs. Whitehouse. Lead me comment my colleague, supervisor campos, that last year heard loud and clear the stories of struggle of Small Businesses and longterm Small Businesses that are an integral part of the fabric of our neighborhood commercial districts. That are more than just places to shop or to eat. But are really apart of the communities that make San Francisco such a wonderful place to live. As we have seen with residential affordability commercial affordability has been greatly challenged in this over heated, superheated economy. We read about it in the paper, we experience it in person. As longterm legacy businesses are forced out because of higher rent. And to that end, supervisor campos championed a Legacy Business Initiative which the people of San Francisco embraced, proposition j, on last novembers ballot. And unfortunately many of us have heard from many of you that six months later our collective attempts to get you the relief, the Financial Relief that proposition j promised has been slow in coming, if at all. With that i want to commend supervisor campos, for having the initiative and to hold the citys feet to the fire to allow this long overdue piece of relief to come forward, and with that i will like to turn this over to supervisor campos. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and thank you for not only cosponsoring this hearing, but actually taking your own steps to hold the city accountable by getting more information. I will be very brief, because i really want to hear from the Small Business owners that are here. Its tough to run a business. And the last thing you want is spend your morning, your time in city hall. We want to get you out of here. I will be very frank, very honest. We did reach an agreement with the mayor yesterday to move forward to fund this effort. And i thank the mayors budget direct director, the staff for making that happen. But i am very frustrated. I am very disappointed that we find ourselves where we are today. The fact is that the registry was created by legislation over a year ago. And even though businesses 65 has been nominated not a single forwarded to the commission. Someone in discussing this issue with the Mayors Office, why should we make the priority of this program when there are other things that we can focus on. The thing is that we dont have to make that decision in city hall. That decision has been made by the voters of San Francisco. When they voted for prop j, even those arguments were made, is this really a priority. And i think that the reason why the voters of San Francisco voted for prop j. They understand that what makes San Francisco unique, the fact that we are a city of neighborhoods. And what makes each neighborhood unique is the very specialized, interesting businesses that are in this neighborhood. Harvey milk used to say that San Francisco is a community of neighborhoods. Well, neighborhoods cannot be what they are without these legacies businesses. And from my perspective, when i saw how the city treated some of these tech companies. What happened with twitter, there were dozens of millions of dollars given in tax breaks. When we went out of our way to change routes for muni. I mean we rolled out the red carpet for these big Corporate Giants so that we could keep them here. And if we can do that for them, why has it taken us so long to get to this point for the mom and pop businesses that have made San Francisco what it is . And why is it that six months after the voters passed a measure, there is still no enforcement by the city and county of San Francisco. The mayor, and we are grateful for the money, they are not doing us a favor by giving us the money that is here. This is what the voters expect with their money. That they paid for in taxes. And the contribution and the amount that has been identified is a good start, but its not the end of it. It allows us to move the Program Forward but its not sufficient. And i know that supervisor peskin and i, my staff, my chief of staff, lee hefner who is staffing him on this issue, we are not going away until we do the right thing by this program. Because if we dont, i think we are denying a piece of our history. Because the businesses that we are trying to save are a part of San Francisco. So thats why i am so passionate about this. Thats why i really feel that its so its good that we making progress. But so sad that we are here, it really is. And i know that the board of supervisors is not going to let this happen again. With that mr. Chair, i dont know how you want to proceed, i dont know if you want to turn it over to the Small Businesses first or how you want to approach it. It sounds like to me you want to give the public an opportunity to comment. Why dont we start by hearing from members of the public as to your experiences, and then we will circle back around with city staff and the Mayors Office. I have a list of speaker cards, i will read them off, but if you line up you already got it figured out. [calling names] hi, good morning, i am nicky cooper, i am the Second Generation owner maam, if you pull that microphone down, we will hear you perfectly. Good morning, my name is nicky cooper, i am a Second Generation owner of two jacks nicks place. I want to give a huge amount of gratitude to supervisor campos, for this program, it means so much to myself and my family. My parents opened two jacks in 1997, we will be celebrating our 40th year next year. When i was asked to speak, i wanted to focus on the word legacy. I looked it up on the internet, and the first word i saw was inheritance. And for me thats the pinnacle of what my business is. Because my father is a native of San Francisco, he grew up in potrero hill projects. My mother is from a small town. I do not come from a family that can pass down a 2 million inheritance to me. My grandparents are from the south, they didnt graduate from elementary school. So i dont have old money, but what i do have is my parents business. And thats my inheritance. And to be able to pass that down to my children. And family is a part of that, our values. Hardworking people. Honest. Integrity. That is my inheritance. And i want to say as a group, as a group of people and humanitarians, we all want to feel like we are safe. And thats what this prop does, it makes us feel safe to protect what we have worked so hard for. Our blood, our sweat and our tears have gone in this business. Me missing out on some of my kids sports activities. Tell us where your business is located. 401 haight street. Thank you. As people we want to be fulfilled and we want meaning and purpose to our lives. We want a sense of connection. We want to be loved by others and respected by others and again we want to feel safe. My business and this prop actually keeps those aspects of our lives in place. So want to say thank you again. Thank you. I dont know if you guys have any questions for me. If we do, we will let you know. Lets hear from everybody, thank you. Next speaker please. I would like to propose two scenarios. Scenario 1, september 3 and prop j is on the ballot. I realize i am truly a legacy Business Owner and i go down to vote for it. And as a technicality, the city stops me from voting on this measure. I am not saying that the city would, but saying under this scenario they did. If i could prove i had a right for that vote, i believe i would have a case against the city, i would have a felony case disin franchisement. And scenario 2, i go down to vote on prop j, 5743 in favor of prop j. Nothing happens, seven months later there is no one in charge of this program and no funding for this program. You essentially have ignored my vote. No difference from felony disenfranchisement i can see, my question is, what is the difference between the two . Thank you, sir, appreciate your comments. Mrs. Saner, good to see you. Good morning from a legacy business in district 3. Yes, my name is marilyn saner, i am a San Francisco native. Originally from potrero hill. So i have seen lots of changes. I am the power of attorney for Richard Simmons for the business known as specks. We celebrated our 48th anniversary. Specks opened the bar in april, 1968 and the sole owner, the bar has been in the same location these 48 years. Specks has created a neighborhood place where everyone is welcomed and shown the warmth and caring as a family member. For some its their home away from home. Their safe place, and as herb king said, a poor mans country club. And i am guessing that someone has passed through. When you come to specks, you talk to the person next to you, we have no tv or electronics. With the changes in the city and with all the big numbers regarding the price of rent and watching longterm established businesses close their doors. Many people in San Francisco were happy for the passing of prop j. With the expectation that city leaders who are our employees would implement the program. And here we are in may, six months later and nothing has been done. Nothing. In todays climate when mistrust of government is at an alltime high, i would think that you would be on top of this and get the work done that the voters have told you to do. But you arent. Specks and other longterm businesses would love to receive and could certainly use this money. But when we do our budgets and negotiate our leases [inaudible] on this when we cant trust mrs. Saner. Yes. Are your employees members of the hotel and restaurant workers . Yes, we are a union bar. Thank you. If you would like wrap up quickly. Yes, i want to take my 90 yearold mother and friend to lunch, i will talk faster. When we do our budgets and negotiate our leases we really need this money to depend on and trust that you are going to do that. And my main point, this is all based on trust. You trust on voters to vote for you and put you in office. And i understand that the mayor made this promise yesterday, what is he waiting for . Can we trust him to do what he said he would do, i hope we can. In closing, do what the people voted for and prove yourself to be trustworthy servants for the people and help protect specks that make San Francisco, San Francisco and stop by the bar. Thank you, next speaker. Good morning, i am tony [inaudible], i am the lone star at 135 harrison street. Hold on im a little nervous. The lone star has been in operation for 30 years. We are an Important Community space and a fundraising venue. We over the years have raised thousands of dollars for h. I. V. aids and Breast Cancer and homelessness and continue to do so. We have three years left on our lease. We always have had a very Good Relationship with our landlord, about i have been unable to secure a new lease. When i heard of prop j and thought it was perfect for businesses like mine. And through myself in prop j and so happy when it passed and i filled out my paperwork and waited and that was six months ago. Last week my landlord told me that he plans to list the building that houses the lone star on the open market. I feel that the end is near for my business, i am going to lose my lifes work and my employees lose their jobs and the people of San Francisco lose an important part of their history. My message is very simple. The people have spoken, dont delay. Help preserve the fabric of San Francisco, thank you. Thank you, tony. Next speaker please. Following tony, i am also a little nervous, i am scott wright, and one of the owners of moby dick bar in the castro. We see ourselves as a huge part of the community, we see ourselves as a community. And our employees see themselves as part of the community. However we found it difficult to believe that there is any support for Small Business. And this proposition has brought that support to us, that we would like to believe is there. The longer you are there, and we are going to be there 40 years next year. The harder it is that you cant exist forever. But without this type of support and the recognition of Small Business, our ability to continue to serve the community is at risk. So we really need the support. And help. Thank you. Supervisor campos and peskin, amazing to see your support, not always there from the other supervisors but thank you for your help. Thank you, scott. And before the next speaker, macrani is a legacy business, i will tell you how much, his father made my parents wedding rings. Dan mackrani creative design, my father opened the business on upper grant avenue in the fall of 1948 and has been continuous for 67 years and the longest ongoing metal Arts Production studio with a gallery. And now spans three generations. My daughter is a partner in the business, and has gone from father to son to daughter. Which is a very cool development. We started a school there in the last couple of years and we have had students come in from private high schools. And we are looking forward to expanding that to public high schools. Because we believe that the public high schools should have arts for development too. January 7, i submitted my application by the Mayors Office of Small Business, and thank you supervisor peskin for nominating me and my business for support. I would like to thank supervisor campos, for initiating this process and the idea of this legacy business. However my check was not cashed and contacted by the San Francisco examiner a couple of years ago, and how do you feel about in. I said this is troubling to me. I thought it was in process and that we were going to be looked at. And we were going to be nominated. And i found out from the examiner, not even from the office of Small Business, that the office of Small Business thought none of us had filled out the form correctly. Well, if you havent filled out the form correctly, why werent we notified . If there was a problem with processing our checks, and our applications, we should have been notified. We followed their form to the letter, back over their application, i want you guys to know this. And we filled out that form absolutely correctly. And its hard for me to believe that all of these people didnt fill out that form absolutely correctly. So if there is a problem here, we need to know about it. If there isnt a problem here, after eight months we need this done. Now. Okay. I am also a member of the north business association, a board member and our president will speak on behalf of the legacy business proposal here. Thank you, mr. Mackrani, and thank you for your patient and perseverance. Next speaker, please. Good morning, committee members, i am an owner representing cafe trias on north beach. My grandfather opened the cafe and serving the community. We celebrated our 60th anniversary on april 1. And for years we hosted the San Francisco firefighters toy drive and we have raised 7,000 and collected 10 barrels of toys. Our businesses like other businesses on north beach would benefit greatly with inclusion on the legacy business. Our business is strong but struggling. Many businesses have defined our citys unique character. We are artists and poets and Coffee Makers and above all good neighbors. We can use all the help to be a part of San Franciscos future and not just the past. I am happy to hear that the city has renewed the commitment to this program but remain cautiously optimistic, thank you for the adding of registry. Thank you, and thank you for the 60 years of most incredible coffee and Community Anyone could ask for. Next speaker, please. Good morning, i am president of the north Beach Business Association and encompasses many legacy businesses, all of these businesses that actually open their arms to everyone that came in the past 30 years to San Francisco. And caused them to fall in and love and stay and be a part of the community. The good old days. Everybody talks about the good old days. When prop j passed we were so happy, this was the closest to rent control for businesses that we ever reached. Not only businesses get longer leases. And the landlords, which we all appreciate, get an incentive from that, its a great proposition. Democratically passed in november, and we promote what we permit and i would appreciate it if we dont permit that to stop the program, thank you. Thank you. And thanks for your work on behalf of the north Beach Business Association. Next speaker, please. Good morning, supervisors, my name is brenda story, i am the director of Mission Neighborhood help center. I think we all can see the character of our neighborhoods is really changing. Every day as i drive to work i see the changes and it really saddens me. I think that the San Francisco legacy business is part of the solution that many of us are looking for. As i hear about a lot of private Business Owners, i am thinking about the Health Centers and nonprofit; right. And the owners of the nonprofits here represented are really the community. And i think thats the legacy we bring. The Health Center has been a part of the mission for the last 50 years, and we started with movements and a right to access of health and healthcare. And many ways we are the intersection of many things in the community. We have two beautiful murals in our Health Center, one of those built by a group of women that had a movement about women muralists. And we have had programs for youth. Its really an intersection of many different things. I look forward to this being implemented and thank you supervisor campos, for your support. Thank you, next speaker. Thank you, and for hillary as well for hosting this opportunity. I am darlene white, the executive director of Community Boards. We are grateful that you all recognize the assets that organizations with deep roots in San Francisco play not only because they are historical, but because they are providing value right now to San Francisco residents. And we are looking forward to seeing prop j implemented particularly for the certainty and the stability that the funds bring to nonprofits Like Community boards. Just a quick brief overview, Community Boards are celebrating 40th anniversary. What started as an experiment is now the longest running public Resolution Center in the United States. And Community Boards continues to revolutionize the way that the conflict is handled in San Francisco, by Training Community members to serve as compassionate, constructive peace makers. Our Community Services are offered city wide, in spanish and cantonese at no cost in San Francisco. We have offered everyone okay, we have provided more than 19,000 folks trained at Community Boards. I want to sum up by saying that Community Boards provides an important service, takes the burden off of more expensive ways that conflict is dealt with in San Francisco. We have experienced three displacements since founded in 1976, the most current displaced from our office in the corridor when our rent was increased over 200 . What will happen to an organization Like Community boards in 2016 when our lease is up for renewal. And of course its not possible for operations to serve outside of the city serving San Francisco residents. While we have not received update by the status of our application made in january. We are hopeful with your consistent oversight that prop j will take off and Community Boards that makes San Francisco a healthy and safe and cultural unique neighborhood will prosper. Thank you for your testimony, next speaker please. Good morning, chair peskin, and supervisor yee and campos. I represent community lee, we are a nonprofit, we have served the community and i think its important to say community. Because thats what we do, we serve people with addiction problems. For 33 years we have been in the castro, we have had two owners. And two fiscal sponsors. Currently sponsored by the San Francisco aids foundation, we have a lease but that future is not present. We serve countless thousands over the 33 years we have been there. I am living proof of the work we do. I had a 10 year addiction and i that i am standing here and get to address you in such a way is amazing. The work we do is uncomparable to anything i have ever seen. We were the first coffee house in the castro back in 1983, now there are 11. So the competition is fierce. But we continue to do the work. So i want to give a special thank you to supervisor weiner for nominating us and for supervisor campos for letting me speak today. Good morning, supervisor, i am justin lowenthal, i am here on behalf of kitchen and baths. We provide a personal touch on the interior design industry, we sale retail kitchen and bath products. And as part of the community we offer an option that is a part of bigger box stores for having these needs serviced. One of the reasons we would think that the Legacy Program should go forth as soon as possible, that Residential Housing programs have received similar benefits in the past. The economic revolution is changing quickly in the city. Things are changing rapidly. For us our building was sold last year and now facing struggles and in renegotiating our lease. Even with the token of this particular program, we are still facing challenges and renegotiating for a 10year lease. And even with a fiveyear option is looking not to work for our landlord. We are excited for this program and hope that the city will continue to recognize the need of Small Businesses like ours and thank you for your time. Thank you, next speaker please. Good morning committee members, yee, campos and peskin. I am christian [inaudible], i am here to represent the legacy businesses that couldnt be here. Because of advanced age or disability. And those include gypsy rosy lee, wigs, and [inaudible] hardware, as you know time is of the essence for these legacy businesses. Thank you for holding the citys feet to the fire. And i would like to offer our support for the program. And offer the cbd as a resource to get the word out and fill out forms and help implement the program as soon as possible. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Martin. I want to say there a great article in todays barrier reporter, that speaks to many businesses in lower polk, many of them part of the fabric of the early Lgbt Community in San Francisco. And you talked about gypsy rosa lees businesses that may disappear by the end of this month of may. That came in and asked for relief six months ago and yet to have any response from the city. Which is precisely why supervisor campos and i am hold are the hearing today. Good morning, we have been merchants on the streets since 1983. I was invited here today, i was shocked to be invited. But everyone talked about the businesses staying here. I would like to add losing these core businesses in our streets and our neighborhoods will also cause urban blight. Not all businesses that have their rent increased can accommodate what some landlords are expecting. They may want to have Something Like a hot restaurant or something. But you still need your shoe store repairs and cabinets dry cleaners and not all work on the same rent structure that some expect that others can get for higher prices. And want to say not only do we need a place to have for our businesses to work well, but we have to have a Good Environment to prosper. And one of the things that i want to bring attention to. Rolling out this program and seems lopsided to speed and its vital to parking in the city. I hope that the wise council and legislative effects of your body will help in endeavor as well. Thank you your comments. Supervisor campos. I want to thank mr. Buler and sf heritage, because we would not be here and prop j would not have happened or the legacy Business Register would not have happened without mr. Buler and sf heritage. Mr. Mike buler. Thank you, supervisor campos for your leadership on this issue and supervisor peskin for this hearing and promoting legislation and prop j. Heritage is proud to work with supervisor campos and staff to craft the legislation to craft the legacy, and subsequent to that crafting prop j and ensure its passage. And we have worked on other Small Businesses. We share everyones frustration being here 14 months after the legislation passed unanimously by the board of supervisors. However it is wonderful to see so many businesses here today and nonprofits here today and diverse range of businesses that service San Francisco and no doubt integral to the citys identity. And really reaffirms why this measure is necessary. As i mentioned previously, this program which was intend to support legacy businesses throughout our city with modest assistance. Has instead only frustrated them and left them alienated. And we have had frustration of how to apply and get the attention of the application of Small Business so that their application is processed. At every turn nearly no responsiveness from the office of Small Business. And this hearing today is an important first step to ensure accountability in implementing prop j. And i note that we hear from other cities throughout the country that are speaking to adopt similar programs including seattle, austin, oakland, clearly the nation is watching our city. Thank you. Hi, i am justine, i represent sf party in San Francisco, we have been in business for over 75 years we are a retail Party Company and i want to agree with what everyone said before me. Its imperative to get this passed and get the help we need. There are a lot of challenges to Small Businesses and we need the help. And also we offer 20 off to businesses and schools and nonprofits. Thank you. Good morning, supervisors, i am kelly pendergrass, and i am president of the board and we are in a space that is running 32 years. We have all been volunteered for the extent of our existence, and we run 120 screenings each year, and open to the public. And we have seen our ticket sales increase 20 this year. Our lease was up at the end of 2015, and we benefited greatly from the Nonprofit Displacement Mitigation Program and helping us with a lease and tenant improvement, that is fantastic to be a part of that program. We want to urge the Legacy Business Program as well. The proposed Square Footage grant would help us greatly. We have a landlord that understands our value in the mission but hes a big corporate landlord looking to get market rate and for the ability to get grant of improvements was a piece of leverage in negotiating our last lease. And to participate in the legacy fund and to have opportunity for him to get value and some additional grants for supporting us in our lease and would be pivotal to support us in this space. Before we saw other businesses and we urge the city to implement this program with haste. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, i am the executive director at the business located on 24th street. We are the oldest organization on the corridor. And an organization that not only represents San Francisco but a National Review on latino art. And we started this organization when it was spoke how to invest on this corridor. And this is the number one issue, and no secret our business has operated 43 years without a longterm lease, on monthtomonth. That is not sustainable. Through the work, through the Mayors Office and the Mitigation Fund we have been able to think of strategy to push forward and try to secure our space. But we cannot do this if we dont have the Financial Resources and the support from everybody at city hall. So we really urge you to implement this quickly, i am ready to send my proposal and i feel i cant do that if i dont have the resources and push. I implore that this is taken fast. I dont have time, i literally am going to my next meeting on how we raise 300,000 to stay in the place we are now. I thank you for your leadership and hope this is set in the next month. Because i am trying to find a lease in three months. If there is anything we can do, i am happy to support. And this also, i want to close, this is not just about legacy, its about place keeping. Its an issue, not only here in San Francisco but for Many Organizations across the state. That are in urban dense areas. And we need to think about, as said earlier, as San Francisco goes, they will follow. We have such a great opportunity to make a change and secure organizations that were founded in Civil Rights Movement to create equity for all. Good morning, i am george rush, a board member of the rock c theater. Its the oldest continuously operating Movie Theater in the country. Its the second longest operating theater in the world. Started in 1909. Its a sitespecific business in the mission. And i have been involved with the roxy for about 10 years, and we always struggled with the crazy nature of the commercial rental market. And the legacy fund is one of the few things at our disposal that might be able to help us. Our lease is up in 2018. We have had a we have struggled with negotiating our lease. And in 2018 this is one of the things in our disposal that might be able to help us leverage, and keep the roxy going, its part of the cultural fabric of the mission of San Francisco. And one of the few things film culture wise that sort of institution in San Francisco. So we commend all of your efforts in this regard. And urge you to implement this as soon as possible. Thank you. Thank you, and hopefully that relief will get there long before you need it, though it appears to be too late for others. Go ahead. Carrie owner of docks clock. I have owned it for over 11 years now. We are currently going through lease negotiations. Our new owner of the building does not want to keep us, does not want to extend the lease. We are looking throughout the neighborhood to find a new spot. Any assistance will help us in this. The market rate lease we are facing everywhere is going to be tough. We were one of the second bars in the city to be a certified San Francisco green business. We do a lot of fundraising. We want to keep that up, and we want to keep saving the dogs and cats in San Francisco. And we help the neighborhood people. We work with all of the want to keep jobs for our employees, please help us, thank you. I want to say the writeup in the chronicle that speaks to how you are hanging on and how much you need this program was moving to me. Thanks. Yeah. Good morning. My name is nancy, my husband and i are owners and operators of twin peaks auto car in San Francisco. We are only one of the handful auto care in the city, and provide an essential service for neighborho neighbors. And if we didnt exist neighbors would have to go over two miles for service. And this legacy ordinance would give us the identification that we are important. And as well as provide down the line that we need that Financial Assistance to remain. That we can do. We have children, we would love our children to follow in our footsteps and pass down the business. And what others are saying, each of our neighborhoods are fullyfunctioning environments. And you lose little components that you didnt realize were there. And you realize how much that hurts the neighborhood and how it operates. And so, in having grownup in San Francisco. I can speak that it is difficult to see many businesses go out. And i have had actually gone to many businesses who have spoken. I cant imagine them not being there, thank you so much for continuing to push this through. Thank you for being one of the only independent gas stations in the city. Good morning, i am owner of henrys house of coffee, on eighth street. I am a Third Generation coffee brewster. My father purchased the business in 1965. I am in a unique situation that we own the building and lucky not to face the problems that many others are facing. I am here to support them and i hope you consider one of us as a legacy business in outer sunset. Thank you. Good morning, thank you supervisors and thank you to all the groups that came here to speak today. I am kelly, i am with the Northern California Community Loan fund, and here to speak in support of implementation and the legacy Business Fund. For the last two years providing for nonprofits to expand, and negotiate with landlords and funding sources. What we know from our work that dmeshl real estate and commercial real estates and nonprofits dont have the support. Unlike housing there are no protections available to businesses or nonprofits. To provide landlords to continue leasing or to do business with a particular organization, in more recent years this has led to displacement of nonprofits. Thats why the legacy funds are so important to help leverage negotiations and incentivize landlords. However, many have yet to be successful and obtain successful leases with the landlords. If we want to maintain our nonprofits and i urge you to extend this funding to acquisitions. For example, the Mission Childcare Consortium has been operating for over 40 years. Serving over 220 children. In addition to the groups you heard from here today i cant think of a greater example of a business that continues to contribute to the neighborhood. The good news that the consortium is not looking to maintain a lease but to buy the building. The owner wants to sale. And he wants to sale to the consortium, and more good news they have more than 2 million in grants and equity. Bad news, at a price of 6 million they are looking at a gap of 2 million. The current maximum available under the legacy Business Fund. Would be a tremendous support for the consortium and community. Thank you for your support and look forward to work with the business and the mayor and all involved. Thank you. Next speaker please. Good morning, i want to thank david campos for this legislation. And we see that its going to help a lot of legacy businesses all over the city. We are an organization that has been around 40 years next year. For 35 years we had our Historic Place on prosidda park, and its a studio that houses our children and arts program. And out of that we have created more than 500 murals in the business, and for businesses and schools and recreation and parks and many other businesses all over the city and bay area. Recognizes one of the only mural art centers in the country. And we are recognized as some of the finest mural in the country as well. This is a safe place for our youth. We want to keep it. We had a recently threatened with displacement. And we had a great opportunity when we finally had our Community Partner that was able to purchase the building and save our home and units. And this is amazing. We had a Community Uprising to help pay for the down payment. And we are keeping it affordable, but to do that we need to implement the legacy Business Fund immediately, thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please. Mr. And mrs. Grim. Hello. Good morning, i am rose ann grim, owner the restaurant and bar, on castro street. We have been there for almost 40 years. Celebrating next year. This nomination from supervisor wiener comes at a perfect time for us, we find ourselves after 40 years of being on a monthtomonth lease excuse me, monthtomonth rent. Pardon me, i am nervous. You are doing fine. This comes at a great time and hopefully persuade our landlord to get on board with this great registry. Thank you, mrs. Grim. Hi, i want to thank david campos and aaron peskin for being so compassionate about this. I do think its an important legislation. And with all the businesses that have come through here earlier today that we all recognize. I think the oyster bar could be in their company. To give a few accolades, rose ann has ran this business since we started it. And she was named the best seafood in San Francisco by sf magazine last year. Maintains a 4. 5 rating and does a great job there. So not only legacy but good businesses we are seeing. Thank you. Thank you for all you do, really appreciate it. See you in the neighborhood. Good morning, supervisors, my name is gabriel madina, and we have been evicted from the mission twice, and a nonprofit for 40 years. And first time by dotcomcompany, and a second time. And we were able to buy our location and create a new space where nonprofits can flourish and provide services. And including services for other businesses and nonprofits. And we are happy to sustain on 24th street. In 2013 mrs. Gonzalez was evicted from her location. We marched in the streets and protested and we created a set of 10 demands. One of those 10 demands was exactly this Legacy Business Program. And we are very happy that supervisor campos listened to the people and as he has done with other initiatives. For the businesses Going Forward. These things are still happy today, later this afternoon we will have the beast on bryant, which is about how a developer is displaced, a legacy business at that location and wants to build a luxury condo project. We want to be sure that we have not only protections for protecting our current legacy businesses. But to have businesses that can grow and sustain and become legacy businesses. We have seen too many that left and too many that are going to go. And with supervisors and in conjunction with funding the city and looking funding through nonprofits too. Thank you, next speaker. Good morning, my name is betina cohen, my husband works for a Small Business that has been operating 24 7, 365 days a year since 1928, that is 88 years. He has a legacy business application that has been sitting on his desk for months. Management has been hesitant to file the application because of uncertainty about possible restrictions on future changes to the business, if it is designated as a legacy business. So i support the implementation of legacy business registry, and i would like to see it include outreach and education for potential applicants, thank you. Thank you, next speaker please. Samantha higgens, and i want to voice my support for the Legacy Business Program. And thank you supervisor campos for your work and for supervisor peskin to bring attention to this. And no question that running a legacy in San Francisco is extremely difficult and we appreciate this herecognition a we thank you for all these efforts and for the Legacy Restaurants and bars. Thank you, any other members of the public that want to comment on item 4, legacy business matter. Seeing none go ahead, from the historic commission, diana mesatir. I want to thank this commissioner you have been amazing to move this forward. Good morning, i am here to represent the whole body of the Historic Preservation commission. And we wanted to express our thanks to all of you for this great piece of legislation, and to express our concern and our interest in making sure that we find a way to expedite this implementation. Our president wolf, sent a letter to mayor lee on may 12 to talk about our concern and this implementation and how we wanted to offer and any all assistance to make sure that we get it started. As supervisor peskin clearly knows, when we were created, one of the things that we wanted do is figure out ways to preserve and recognize and appreciate things that are beyond the built environment and look at intangible things that support and make our community unique. And one thing that we thought of was legacy businesses, and we were extremely happy with supervisor campos legislation and we like many have waited and waited for us to review and be involved. I hope that all of you know that we as Historic Preservation commission stand to help in any and all ways to make sure that we find ways to register these legacy businesses and help with the outreach. Thank you. Thank you commissioner metsuda. Seeing no other members of the public on this item. We will close Public Comment. And mrs. Whitehouse thank you for your patience. But i think it was instructive to all of us, including mrs. Whitehouse who is head of the mayors Budget Office and staff of the economic workforce and development, where the office of Small Business is housed. And i will have comments for the office of Small Business after we hear from mrs. Whitehouse and the representative of the office of Economic Workforce Development. Mrs. Whitehouse, i want to say on behalf of myself and supervisor campos, we appreciate that yesterday in conjunction with the mayor that you were able to find funding to launch this program to meet the most immediate needs we have and look forward to work with you in the years ahead to expand as appropriate. Hi, thank you, supervisor, sorry, chair peskin and supervisors, i am meggan whitehouse, thank you for inviting me to the hearing today and great to hear about the businesses here and made me feel great about the commitment that the mayor made before strong advocacy from the supervisors and aides and from the office of Economic Workforce Development. We had a budget deficit going into the upcoming two years and i wanted to be sure that the budget was balanceed and that we could afford funding. And the mayor told me that he is sympathetic to this, and the affordability concern. And the mayor is focused on this and nonprofits in general how we can help. And this one way and look forward to work with you over the next years as we implement the funding. I want to say, i have met with people on every needs. On Homeless Needs and food and security and disabilities. And i want to be sure with the mayor and take those into account and what can we afford on this. And i feel that i was pushed hard by you and the office of Economic Workforce Development to fund this and make an impact to these businesses. And i think this does do that. And all along it was me that was holding back, i am sorry. I wanted to be sure that the budget was balanced. The mayor is supportive of this and is happy that we can now move forward with this funding. I want to turnover to tod about the civspecifics and what we ar funding. And i live here with my husband and baby and ocean is the favorite corridor of we live and supportive of the businesses here. Todd ruford, office of the Economic Workforce Development. I want to begin by thanking the Business Owners here today. I appreciate the fact when you are not at your business, and here at city hall, you are not at your business operating and appreciate that impact. I want to talk about the details of the program that mrs. Whitehouse outlined and talk about the questions you have supervisors about the registry. And i want to outline the concrete next steps to get through the backlog and get businesses registered as quickly as possible. The funding that mrs. Whitehouse outlined as part of the mayors proposal is a significant investment. You fund staff to operate the program and key elements. In terms of staffing, there will be two fulltime staffers. The first will be in charge of registration and focused on the marketing promise of legacy businesses at large, and i will come back to that a bit more in the moment. And second piece is a staffer to provide assistance to legacy businesses and connecting them to other programs. Technical assistance. Loan programs. And other assistance that legacy businesses may need. We too want to be sure that legacy businesses are successful. The second piece is around the program elements. And that is included in the number that mrs. Whitehouse provided. And this includes marketing and promotion and todays hearing is a great example of legacy businesses in San Francisco. We want to celebrate that and market it and encourage people within the city or region or outside of the city or internationally, to shop our legacy businesses. And build a program around that. And it will obviously fund the Business Assistance and grants and business assessments to determine what other needs that the legacy businesses may have. And with the number mr locked i and next step is to work with offices of supervisors to work the program as we work forward. And i want to work quickly to get that done. If i may ask a quick question. Of course. Because the board of supervisors provided a supplemental, 300,000, and for a lot of people, i have asked this, we have had a conversation with my office and supervisor peskin and your office and Mayors Office over the last few months. And yet still in this predicament. What is different between those conversations and where we are today . Because we also got assurances in the past that this would move forward. That you would hire people and you would assign people. So what has changed . And what do you want to tell those legacy businesses that, as mrs. Whitehouse was sort of holding it up. What do you say to the businesses that are being held up, some of which may not actually survive . The hiring of the staffer posted yesterday to bring on the employee that would be focused on the legacy business registration. I want to begin by saying that the office of Economic Workforce Development and osb is fully committed to implement this program. We clearly hear the frustration of the businesses here today and hear the frustrations and concerns from you supervisors as well. And due to staff vacancies we were not able to implement this program as we wanted to. While we did hire temporary staff as part of osb it clearly wasnt enough. And that said, i want to talk through a couple of key next steps to get through the backlog, and get these businesses registered. And ensure they dont have to worry about the registration process. I want to outline that briefly and take questions about it. As of this week the office of Small Business is at full strength. As i mentioned there were vacancies but at full strength today. And allow the director to dedicate a significant portion of her time to this program and next steps and the Housing Preservation and Historic Preservation. By way of background, a full complement is five . Five ftds. How long not fully staffed below the complement of five . There was turnover in the secretary position for eight months and we pushed hard to fill that position. And it took that long to get it done. Okay. And and so the second key piece is understanding the needs of getting this registration backlog cleared. I have directed other members of the staff to assist the Small Business to do direct outreach to all businesses nominated. To reach out to those businesses directly. That outreach will occur over the next week. We anticipate many, if still here as a business. I have staff here that we want to talk to you, and if you are able to stay afterwards, we want to get your information and be sure that we have your Contact Information and provide updates after the hearing as well. We are redeploying existing staff to get through the registration process. There was a key point about outreach, we will be contacting all the businesses as i mentioned over the next seven days and come back to you supervisors a full list of legacy businesses nominated and where they are at in the application process. What are the key next steps. If there are steps missed in the application, and complete file, and communicate that with you and work with the Small Businesses on what was needed to complete their file. There was a question raised about the cashing of checks, doesnt necessarily mean something is wrong, we wont cash the check until the application is complete. We will work through that process and communicate, and want to resolve and communicate those expectations to the businesses about how the process works. We know that we need to do more on that. And again we will provide a list to you supervisors in the next seven days about the status of the businesses. And i appreciate Hillary Roden, and supervisor campos and everyone is accounted for. And we realize there needs to be more coordination with spc and heads up on what businesses are coming down the pike, and what is in their file. And when they go to the commission everything is in place to move forward as quickly as possible. And as i mentioned we have a new hire for the registry position and posted yesterday and looking to hire that person before the end of the fiscal year, may be a little in july but push as hard as a can on that. Thank you, mr. Ruffo. And i dont know if there are questions but supervisor kim has joined this panel. Mr. Ruffo, we met for the first time yesterday, and you came on with the city after i left 7. 5 years. And i am not casting dispersions on any individuals, and maybe we are aware of and maybe not as acutely as we should. But our affordability crisis is not just impacting residential tenants and residential owners for that matter. But is also impacting commercial tenants. And this whole conversation and all of this frustration really i think raises a larger set of policy concerns. That should be emanating, yes from the board of supervisors but emanating from the office of underlying, economic and Workforce Development and specifically from the office of Small Business. I was on the board of supervisors that actually put forward the Charter Amendment that created the office of Small Business. Its interesting, when we look at this and when frustration grows. And when policy makers find out that executive Branch Members who are responsible for implementing policy that we create are failing to do so in a timely and aggressive fashion. And quite frankly a half year and a long time for businesses and life and politics. And six months is a long time, it looks like rome is burning, and it has a policy maker like me start to look on the internet. I find the following things, well, gee, what is the Small Business of commission doing, and the office of Small Business doing with their five staff. So i go as yes, i happen to be a supervisor, but as a member of the public, to try to figure out what they are meeting about, and i look at the Meeting Minutes and what i find, in 2016 to date, the Small Business commission has had nine minu meetings. The minutes of one is posted. And understand now that the secretary position is vacant and still not okay. And i look in 2015, and in 2015 the Small Business commission had 18 meetings and four minutes are posted. I go back to 2014, there is not a single set of minutes posted after june of 2014. As i mentioned yesterday, not only is this not good behavior. Not only is it a violation of our sunshine ordinance. But to me its a flashing red light on the dashboard that something is wrong in this office. To me without casting expurgzs on any investigation there is malfeasance or incompetence in this office and i know when people set their mind, and mind you that supervisor campos established the registry 14 months ago, and last week at the board of supervisors under our Unlimited Power of inquiry. Its one of the few powers that the board of supervisors has. And i sent a set of questions and i thank you for responding to them. And when i ask questions that any member of the public should ask, and get an answer. How many nominations have the small Office Business received for those of inclusion on the rej registry. One answer, we dont know, or we will compile in a week. Of the nominated businesses, how many has the office of Small Business reached out for assistance. And the answer, we dont know. But anecdotely we do know, Hillary Roden went down the hall to talk to the supervisors how many we nominated. They were nominated by every supervisor and 55 of them are nominated. So we have better data than the office of Small Business has. And it calls into question, what does the office of Small Business do . Is it being run in an efficient manner . Is it serving Small Businesses . So this entire discussion i think has now kind of implicated a larger discussion about whether and i realize they are located in your shop and not exactly of your shop and not exactly over them. I guess they technically work for the Small Business commission. But it calls out this entire function in government during the largest affordability crisis. And the voters got it because they are tired of seeing all of these legacy businesses get squeezed out. You really respectfully submit that the administration by and through from the mayor to you to the director of the office of Small Business need to retool, rethink. Quite frankly these are ideas that should be emitting from that commission and office. Yes, we have a role to play. And i am now committed as ever to expand the tool box of tools to address the needs of the struggling legacy businesses. In the same way that this board is trying to expand the offices that we have on the residential side or ownership or tenant side. To be sure that we are addressing the affordability crisis, and in particularly the eviction crisis. And we have to figure out how to address the eviction crisis not only for residentials but for businesses. I want to get that off of my chest. And its unprecedents that the Historic Preservation business comes out to their frustration. And i will suggest to my colleagues, because of the urgency of this matter, and because of the unconsciousable delay, that we continue this hearing to the next meeting of government audit and Oversight Committee, i dont want to file the item but keep everybodys feet to the fire. We would be happy to do that, and come back and update you. I want to respond to that question, supervisor. You know there is no question that we can do better. And we will. And thats why i laid out a very clear plan with very specific steps and timeline of how we get that done. Clear the backlog and serve our businesses in a way that is respective of their time and get through the process as quickly as possible with colleagues elsewhere in government. But i want to point out that the office of Small Business is one element of the Economic Workforce Development. And one element that the administration does to serve Small Businesses. Last year as part of the mayors budget, and approved by the board of supervisors 6. 1 million in funding to support small neighborhood businesses and programming. And this was part of the mayors approval that created a loan program and created a Small Business portal. And working with your office of bringing additional investments into our neighborhoods. Many of those programs like Technical Assistance and real estate programs for the legacy businesses here today, those are available programs you can take advantage of today, and part of the outreach we will do over the next seven days is to see if those existing programs that we can deploy today could be acyst assistance to those businesses. And we will look forward to sending that information in seven days. And back to the hearing. Let me share two highlevel thoughts. One is something that the woman from the independent gas station said, part of this goes beyond a financial subvention or grant. Part of this is actually psychological. It is those businesses wanting to know that the city cares. And when they come in and they its not just they want a check at the end of the day. They want the honor and the respect that we acknowledge they have been at it for 30 or 40 or 60 or in one way 88 years. And when they come in and fill out the form that took four months to put on the internet, because it didnt get put up until february. And they give a check and no one got back to them, its fundamental disspiriting, that we dont care that they are struggling. The Second Thought i have, that something is broken. Because when these 55, we believe, businesses have a c contact of office of Small Business. You are absolutely right, its not just the Legacy Program that they be availing themselves. They should be availing themselves to this array of other services that apparently exist that the mayor funded and the board supported. And to me its back to the issue, when there is a contact, that is a cry for help. That is someone saying, holy molly, if i had that 22,000 grant, i might be able to enter into a lease. Gypsy rosa lee, that will be gone on may 31, that is failure by the office of Small Business to actually refer them. They are coming in, we have a problem, thats why we want a hand up. And the fact that we are ignoring them is a fact that we could be connecting them with other services. And to me thats a sign that the office of Small Business is absolutely broken. Supervisor, that is why my commitment to you and to all the Small Businesses that is here, over the next seven days we will reach out directly to these Small Businesses to do that assessment. And if there is any services that can help them today and red flags that is time sensitive and urgent. And we want to be aware of that and to deploy the services. We are focused on proactive outreach. Members of our squad and your district is working hard to reach out to businesses where they are and live and at their point of business and asking them and telling them about Government Services that are available to them. So we are passionate about making sure that we are making the right outreach. Again, supervisor we appreciate the fact that we can do better on this one. And my commitment to you is that we will. And in seven days we will be back in touch with you on the status on where these Business Applications are and what the next steps. Supervisor campos. A quick question, and i would like to hear from mr. Ruffo and mrs. Whitehouse. Given the problems that supervisor peskin identified with the Small Business commission, just not the last eight months when they didnt have a secretary but years, how do we know we are not spending this money into a black hole. 2. 5 million, how do we know this is money that will be used wisely, if you can respond to that on the Small Business commission and i will ask mrs. Whitehouse on the same thing obwd. Supervisors whether through the standard forms of accountability and oversight, or through the powers that the board has or briefings that you would like us to do with you and your staff. We are happy to provide you whatever level of engagement and information that you are aware of. So that you feel comfortable with the implementation of this program. Our mission at the office of Economic Workforce Development and the office of the Small Business is to help San Franciscos Small Businesses succeed. We are not in the business of starting programs and having them not be successful. Our focus, and i think we have a pretty good record at it to develop programs that meet the needs of our Small Businesses. And certainly this is one that we appreciate more needs to be done. Thats why i welcome any level of engagement you are interested in supervisor to meet more regularly. Mrs. Whitehouse, do you have confidence in the mayor office and Workforce Development and where we are and that this money will be wisely spent Going Forward . Yes, i was remiss not saying the dollar amount, but in the mayors budget have 1 million each year, and i heard from your staff in particular. Having people to implement the program and do the outreach and interact with the businesses and as chair peskin said to be sure that the city cares about them. And we do, and there is more focus on this now. And with the resources there and the staff to help implement it well, that it will be implemented well, and i have confidence in that. Thank you, and i think one point i will make, and related but not related. To me this is a perfect illustration of why we need more oversight and transparency when it comes to these city agencies. So thank you. Supervisor yee, any comments . Just briefly. I think many of your comments i concur with. But i also have to say that some of my experience with the Small Business folks have been positive. In helping to do some outreach in my community, especially on ocean avenue. In fact today we are having a Small Business summit out there, and there is help. In regards to the legacy business. I think the criticism is well deserved, in this case. It was hard for my office to get information on it. And in fact i wanted to nominate more businesses but i wasnt sure what the procedures were and so forth. Hopefully we move forward and improve this program to the point of helping our Small Businesses. Thank you, supervisor kim. Thank you, i want to thank supervisor campos, and peskin for bringing forward this issue. Our office, Barbara Lopez from my office has been working with legacy businesses that applied through our office. And we have been incredibly frustrated with the lack of response from the commission. And i want to concur with many statements made, if we set up a program and funding a program, its upon us to implement the policies. And respond to the Small Businesses and give a ray of hope and feeling that the city is here to support their businesses and appreciate the legacy that they have provided for our communities and our neighborhoods. I know that we heard from some of our district businesses today. But this is actually urgent, its not something that we can wait on. We have businesses that we know already that are in threat of being evicted and have new Property Owners to notiate leases. And they need to know as soon as possible if we are able to work with them through this program. With helping to negotiate with the landlords, with rent suppleme supplementals, etc. I would like to see this move forward and its the businesses that create jobs in the city. Not just up years but in down years they are stabilizing force in San Francisco. And we need to be sure that our Small Businesses are here to support the community. And thank you supervisor peskin and campos for your comments and for bringing it forward. Thank you, and we look forward for the days and with that to continue this meeting. So moved. Without objection. That is the order. Madam clerk, could you please read the next item. Item 5, hearing on below market rate in the city of San Francisco and requesting the Housing Development to report. Thank you, supervisor kim brought this matter to committee. The floor is yours. Thank you, in november of 2014, i called for a hearing on below market rate housing when it comes to important source of our housing, inclusionary rental units. During that hearing i was very surprised to discover that we did not translate our leases into languages that over 10 of our population uses. And was advised that the applications would streamline inclusionary unit listings and application and provide a simplified application process. And including the translation into several languages. And assured through the office of housing that people would not be surprised of what is allowed. Now its been nearly a year and a half since that first hearing. And this is a followup hearing to confirm what is done and what the process looks like. For many applicants that are in this hearing, we have talked about for years for a Clearing House and application that could be apply for. Its incredibly hard to apply for below rate market housing and its very difficult and more difficult if not translated into the language that you speak in. And finally in an office, we discovered that some developers enforce these levels of income leverability and debt allowance, and some were more flexibility. And there is a more famous story that had a family that had a below rate market in enma and not allowed because of a debt on their record. It took duffy to sign and the Mayors Office was helpful but we want to set up a simpler system for applicants and the Mayors Office of housing as well. For the largest construction boom that this city has since the last earthquake, that is coupled with hundreds of below market rates. And we need to be sure that the process is fair and accessible to every member of the community that is eligible. That is why i called for this hearing in november, 2014, i would like to continue to push for common application. We know there may be additional forms for Senior Housing or Homeless Housing but a simpler registration would help. And i want to thank our communitybased organizations and residents that worked hard to elevate this issue and here today. And i want to thank Mission Collaborative and chinatown commission center, and human rights commission, and meta, and veteran equity center. They were the ones that had alerted to us of inconsistencies in the process and the fact that these application forms are not translated. And finally the reason we brought this hearing forward today, not of anything that the city had done, but we learned that a new house unit that had come on line blocks away from city hall were turning down applicants that did not speak english as first language, and we sent members and saw resid t residents that could not speak english were sent to the back of the line. And we want to give the Mayors Office a consistent standard, so that our developer and property communities administer these programs consistently. I want to first bring up the Mayors Office of housing. I see Maria Benjamin here, that does a tremendous job working with our office. One of my concerns as this program grows and we have more and more units online, and its a program for a single individual that is tenacious and helps our residents to go through obstacles and we want to troubleshoot so that we dont have issues. And where we are today and how far we have come over the last year and a half and what more we need to do. Thank you, supervisor kim and good afternoon supervisors. I am going to give a little bit of background and get into the meat of the introduction given us to. And my technology is often challenged. Okay, how do i do this . San franciscos Affordable Housing comes from many different buckets and places. A and the Mayors Office has Community Development and my staff oversees the marketing and lottery procedures for the multiple family units that come on line. But primarily im going to speak today about the inclusionary, the bmr units, that we have online. The inclusionary units, our portfolio what we are managing now comes from many different buckets. We have the inclusionary bmr ownership units and rental unit. And the units we inherited since 2012. And the bmr Program Gives us another hunk of units. Currently a little over 3,000 units we are monitoring in our portfolio. And what any 3,300 some odd. Altogether. I am sorry to interrupt, does that include the old bmr units that were the subject of litigation from the 80s and 90s . Or did those all get wiped away . Im not familiar. Im not sure, i can find out. And i will find out. The inclusionary units come to us from project verification. What were doing is verifying they are meeting all the requirements of the nsr that is recorded for them. They are meeting all the other documents that the Planning Department has determined they need to provide the affordable units. We take them through pricing and lottery and residence selection and do the monitoring that the households still qualify for the programs. We do asset retention that the units stay affordable and not losing units. And throughout compliance to ensure that the units are used for the purposes they were intended to be used. I will focus on the updates from the last hearing, about 18 months ago. And which in those topics really were focused as supervisor kim around language, accessibility and tenant selection, and marketing and lottery and our application process. So we really have expanded the access to housing programs that we fund. Nonprofit agencies like the ones that you mentioned, supervisor kim in your opening. To be able to assist households or people, our people figure out this big old process. It is a bear of a process, and to help explain where the different buckets of Affordable Housing come from and how we get units and how to apply. So far they have served over 3700 people in the year since 2014. Through that process. And the dellia of online applications tool that we have been developing, its the database of Affordable Housing listings, information application, that the bmr page is active on there. And the application and lottery pages are coming soon. The recent changes to the lottery, and application process that the neighborhood resident has in Preference Program requires are currently being worked into that effort. And it is, its being developed by our contractors who are creating the process. We have been its been a long process and we really realized from the beginning that we needed our stakeholders to weigh in on some of the decisions of how it should be built. So we have been meeting with those stakeholders for a year now. To help create the uniform application process. That will be built into the data system. Those folks, those agencies have been instrumental in their input in how it should be built. And we have come to an agreement on the application, the single application, short form application. It is up and live right now. The next units that come online will be using this paper application. It is also what the dahlia application is being built on. And we got it down, its still four pages. But its four very succinct pages and what we came in agreement, what do we have to ask and know before the lottery. And what can wait until after the lottery to be found out. We really made great, great progress with the help of our stakeholders to get dahlia up and running, it took a long time and we are as frustrated how long it took, but because it took that time and meeting the needs of the people we are trying to serve. Mrs. Benjamin, is this consistent with the marketers and you have too much data and another developer saying we are okay with that. Absolutely. This will provide that level. And these applications are translated as well . Oh, yes, we would have released them earlier but being translated right now. And along those marketing and tenant selection guidelines you are referring to, another effort helped move us along. Thats the whole red program. The nonprofit agencies that are putting together, that are involved in rad, have met for over nine months, almost a year. To come up with standardized marketing and tenant selection, primarily tenant selection criteria. That i think is very good. And that tenant selection criteria will inform our inclusionary manual update, which is prolonged a bit to accommodate the changes in dahlia, the charnges in the lottery preference and density program. All of those things will be needed to be updated in the manual. We got a consultant on board that is working on the manual updates and include those pieces later. So that we can release the updates in the First Quarter of next year. So were we understand that we put it off. But we put it off to include all of these very important updates. And now the language capacity. I cant tell you how dismayed i was to hear the stories of the issues that our folks found at a recent lease up. And you can rest assured that particular subagent is being addressed. But it opens the door, its more its not just that lease subagent, its a problem that comes in, its a systemic problem; right. From the last hearing we heard you, and we implemented a training process with the developers prior to the marketing beginning. So that we bring them in, and we sit down with them and talk about Customer Service and the different populations they are serving. But clearly it needs to be a little more robust. And it needs to include some cultural sensitive training. And so we are implementing that, were coordinating that right now to start implementing that with the next developers that come into our before marketing. And clearly the inclusionary manual needs to be more explicit as to what we expect with regard to language capacity of our developers. Right now they sign something that says, were going to be able to serve all the people that come in every language that comes. They sign something that says that and what we take. It clearly needs to be more robust. It needs to say, how are you going to do that. And how are you going to ensure that the staff that you have accepting applications are able to speak to the people that come. And if they cant speak to the people that come, what is your alternative. We need to get detailed information from them on how they address these issues. And if i may for this body, we can bake into the laws if they fail from one project. And getting away from the issue of fines and punitive actions. We can take that into account if we consider another project by that same developer. I think that could be very effective. We are since these issues have come up. We have had a sign translated that we are going to require that they post in the leasing offices. Much like the requirement for a fair chance signage that is in languages, that says, if you are having problems submitting your application, please contact ocd. And we set up in the last nine months we set up hot lines in language, each of our citys languages has its own telephone number. That people can call and leave a message in their language, and then we are checking that, people that speak that language are checking that hot line on a regular basis. And then refer those people to appropriate counseling agencies that can help them, or address their needs ourselves. And then i mean, we have to keep up this secret shopping business. Even when we put all of these things in place, if we dont currently we send staff to every last application day. And im the last