Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20180209

Balthazaar and ms. Linda wong is our clerk helping us with todays meeting. Madame clerk, any announcements . Yes. Please silence all cell phones and electronic devices, completed speaker cards to be included as part of the file to be submitted to the clerk. Items acted upon today will appear on the february 20th board of supervise source agenda. Could you call item one, please . Resolution retro actively authorizing the department of the environment to accept and expend grant funds from the association of bay area governments in the amount of approximately 500,000 to perform energy efz Si Programme Implementation from the term january 1, 2018 to december 31, 2018. Great. Supervisor yee is a sponsor. Ill let him have a chance to speak. Well hear from peter galota from the department of the environment afterwards. Supervisor yee . All right. Thank you, chair cohen. Ahem. So as an executive board member, im happy to sponsor this accept and expend resolution that will help our department of the environment and bay area regional and Energy Network with bayron. To implement Effective Energy saving programmes here in San Francisco. Bay ren has been doing this work since 2013 and this is the latest installment of a series of ongoing grants. There is going to be a small technical amendment that needs to be made on page two, line 18. States that the board previously approve a grant by resolution numbers 161248. This enactment number is incorrect. It should be changed to resolution number 2517. And right now, id like to ask peter galato from the department of environment to make a presentation to answer questions and well come after your celebration from last night, celebrating the San Francisco Green Business project. Thank you, supervisor yee. Good morning, supervisors. Thank you, chair cohen. Peter galato, departments of environment. And thank you, supervisor yee, for sponsoring this item today. So before you is an accept and expend from the association of bay area governments in the amount of 511,017 and as supervisor yee mentioned, the grant funds for this programme will provide Energy Efficiency upgrades for multifamily apartment buildings in San Francisco as part of the Bay Area Regional Energy Network or the bay ren programme and the department has been participating in this programme since 2013 and the real benefit of this Grant Funding is its helped us deliver Energy Efficiency retrofits to a diverse array of multifamily dwellings in the city from Affordable Housing as well as s. R. O. S. Since 2013, we have assessed 22500 units and over 300 multifamily buildings. Weve completed can retrofits in over 7,000 units and currently have 1200 units that are in construction for retrofits currently. And the programme really leaves a real impact in the lives of san franciscans by approving essential Services Like hot water, lighting and building safety while reducing the energy costs. So, the grant before you today will help the department to continue to deliver the free energy consulting, financing and the rebates for these multifamily building upgrades as well as provide the Technical Assistance to Property Owners to help them prioritize their needs and qualify for these rebates. The department will conduct this work through existing staff position over the oneyear life of the grant and were here today to ask for your support and happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you. So, this is a pretty straightforward resolution to accept and expend a grant for the Energy Efficiency programme implementation. Pretty straightforward. Ok. Supervisor yee, do you have any other questions . If not, we can go to Public Comment. Ok. Great. Thank you. If you aides like to speak on item number one, please come on up. Youll have two minutes at the podium. Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Colleagues, is there a motion for this . Supervisor fewer . Yes. Thank you, chair. Id like to make a motion to recommend this to the full board with a positive recommendation. We have to make an amendment. Absolutely. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Ill make a motion to accept the amendment and well move it to the full board with a positive recommendation as amended. Thank you. And well take that without objection. Thank you. Item two, please. Item number two, resolution authorizing the potential threeyear renewal and amendment of a lease at 1390 Market Street for use by the department of Public Health at the initial cost of approximately 1. 8 million and 3 annual increases thereafter for a threeyear term from december 1, 2018 through november 30, 2021. Ok. So the department of real estate has requested a oneweek continuance to hear this item so its paired on the hearing with the entire civic centre portfolio. So, what i would like to do is to make a motion to continue this item. For one week. To be heard february 15. May i take that without objection . Can we please have Public Comment . Of course. Is there Public Comment on item two . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. All right. Ill make a motion to send to continue this item one week to february 15 and ill take that without objection. Thank you. Item three, please. Item number three, resolution authorizing the lease of approximately sorry, at 901 fairfax avenue, hunters view phase 2b block 10 at the Monthly Base Rent of 0 with reimbursement up to 100,000 for land lord for tenant improvements, furniture, fixtures and equipment and additional 2k4rr800 charge for utilities and services per months for a 15year term with options to extent for one year. All right. Thank you. So i am the sponsor of this and weve got rhea bailey from the department of Public Health that will be speaking and Claudia Gorham from the department of real estate. Claudia, are you here there you are. Ok. Got it. So, please, rhea, the floor is yours. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you, supervisors. And thank you for your support, chair cohen. We are here today ask for your approval on our lease for our Community Wellness Programme Space at the hunters view hope s. F. Site. I will speak a little bit about our actual programme, our health and Wellness Programme that which will reside inside of this Community Wellness Programme Space. We are at the core of our works, we are part of the hope s. F. S fourprong strategy to improve the Living Conditions as well as the quality of life of the residents who are residing in the hope s. F. Public Housing Communities and our approach in terms of the department of Public Health and d. P. H. Is to really focus on the health and wellbeing of those individuals, the mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual wellbeing. And so we do that in a way that is sort of a threepronged approach. The first is with primary care provided by nursing staff that focuses on chronic disease management, preventive care, and health education. We values a Behavioral Health component that is focused on the, you know, longterm emotional healing of generational trauma that we see every day as well as ongoing crises that are having to endure, again, for generations over time. So, our Behavioral Health specialists are really helping to support both individual and families and also on a societal level and collaborating with residence denlszes for social cohesion activities. And then incorporation incorporate into all of that are also healing what we call Healing Services that are complimentary type of supports that really support the overall wellness and are really culturally responsive to what the needs are of the community so that is drumming, that is movement classes, those are healing circles, nutrition and fellowship and coming together to really improve the overall wellness and feeling of the residents in their own communities. So ill stop there and answer any questions you may have about the programme. All right. Thank you. Again, colleagues, just to be clear, this is a resolution to authorize the lease at hunters view phase 2b which is specifically block 10. The department of health will use this space for the Wellness Centre as you heard and this is a part of the larger hope s. F. Programme, which is about rebuilding and reconnecting with folks that are living in public housing. Specifically were looking to create a meeting room, a gym, a Community Room as well as a common kitchen. I want to see if the department of real estate would like to come up and talk about the technical amendment. Claudia goerham, director of real estate. On page three, lines nine and 10, we have a deletion and an insertion beginning at line 10 through line 13. Quote, part of a larger project developed by h. V. Partners, block 10, l. P. For which an Environmental Impact report 2007. 0168e was prepared pursuant to California Environmental quality act and certified by the San Francisco Planning Commission on june 12, 2008. Also a deletion on line 15, same page, page three, of our exempt from environmental review. And i apologize. That is a technical error on my part. And we corrected it. That is ok. Thats why we aer here to catch these little things. Not a profnlt not a problem. Colleagues, do you have any questions . This is in my district and im hoping to have your support. Seeing there are no names on the roster, ill open up to public xhefnlt any member of the public that would like to come and comments on this particular item, item number three, please come up to the podium. Ok. Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Thank you. Supervisor stefani . Id like to move forward to amended to the full board with positive recommendations. All right. Great. Well take that without objection. Thank you. All right. Moving along. Id like to call item six, out of order. Could you call item six . Yes. Hearing to provide an update on the Business Tax Reform plan, its affect on revenue levels and their impact on business and job growth. All right, ladies and gentlemen. This is the season of the tax. Im excited. Im the sponsor of this. Today well be hearing from ted egan from the office of the controller. This is the first part of a hearing to understand our business tax framework in San Francisco. In 2012, the Business Tax Reform was designed to broaden the tax base and bring more businesses into the tax system. While transitioning from a payroll to a gross receipts tax over a fiveyear period, the city was expected to maintain revenue levels. Well, in october, the office of controller annual Business Tax Reform report indicated that the gross receipts are nots on track to cover all of the payroll revenue. As you can imagine, this is a particular problem so i called this hearing so we can begin to better understand about why our revenues are failing falling short. How the burden is being fell by different sectors and particularly paying attention to the Small Business sector. Given the number of business tax measures that were introducing over the next several months, im particularly interest ined how this will impact the commercial real estate. Im hoping this hearing provides some context for some of the tax measures that were examining both here in this committee, the budget committee, as well as in the rules committee. We will continue this hearing to a later date in the year so that we can hear from the Small Business commission and go further in exploring options for streamlining streamlining and stabilizing the growth receipts mixed. But for now, id like to invite up ted egan from the Controllers Office to give us an overview and probably a refresh earp for many of us in this chamber and watching at home. But this is going to be an overview on the business tax framework and where our revenues are derived. Thank you for being here. The floor is yours. Thank you, chair cohen. Ted egan from the Controllers Office and good morning, supervisors. Ill share with you briefly highlights from our most recent report that chair cohen alluded to and start with a little bit of background about what is the general topic of tax reform. It was something starting in 2012 and was in implementation mode. Since then, a little bit of a reminder might be helpful. This tax reform is something that really emerged out of a legal controversy that affected the city in the late 1990s. Until the late is the 90s, the city had a hybrid business tax in which some businesses paid a payroll expense tax and others paid a gross receipts tax. In 1995, the city of los angeles, which has a similar tax, lost a lawsuit and was forced to abandon its hybrid system. As a result of the the city of los angeles losing that lawsuit, San Francisco elected to abandon its gross receipts tax. Again in the late 1990s or 2000. The effect of that changed the business tax across industris so that businesss that had been paying gross receipts tax basically received a tax break. That was not a consequence of a legislative decision. It was the consequence of a judicial decision. It reduced the citys revenues because of that tax break and retained only a business tax that was derided and with some justification as probably the worst local tax you could pick from a job creation and Job Retention point of view. During the last decade from 2001 to 2010, various attempts were made to replace the payroll tax. Our office was involved in some of them in the later part of the decade. None of those moved forward. 2012, however, we did develop a Business Tax Reform measure with the support of mayor lee, the unanimous support of the board and it was approved by 70 of the voters on the november 2012 ballot. The highlight of this reform measure from 2012 as chair cohen indicated is that it brings back the gross receipts tax. Creates a new gross receipts tax which was designed to be a revenueneutral replacement for the payroll tax. It creates a fiveyear transition period. Were now in the last year of the transition period now. During this period, the gross receipts tax was gradually phased in. The payroll expense tax gradually phased out. The most important part of Business Tax Reform is that the tax which is intended to be and is turning out to be a revenueneutral switch to the city and the way we ensure that was that we only phase out the payroll expense tax to the extent that the gross receipts can revenues are coming in as expected. So, essentially we look at the gross receipts revenue in one year and then once we see how much that is, we reduce the payroll tax the next year by an offsetting amount. What that means we couldnt guarantee to anyone that we could have said in 2012 gross receipts rates that would fully retire the payroll tax, but did create a system that would protect both business taxpayers and the citys finances from a shift. Essentially if we had not done that and said in 2013 well switch to a gross receipts tax with the rates we have now we could have cost the city several hundred million. It is good that we did it this way. One consequence of that, though, is it looks like until further legislative action is taken, well have both a payroll tax and gross receipts tax. Ielt also mention that the way it is structured now, there is none of the legal issues surrounding the old tax. It is not a legal issue that we have two tax. It may be an administrative burden. It may not be a desirable economic policy. Another thing that the measure did was raise the business license fee so it generated another 28 million a year. The tax which was revenueneutral, but the overall package involved raising revenues and also accomplished the goal of broadening the tax base and more areas of the city including, for example, federal enclaves which had not been paying the payroll tax. Broadening the tax base. So, ill share with you some of what weve learned about the implementation of the tax and how its affected businesss that pay it. This is a chart that basically shows the business tax burden and business fee burden in red. With the old system on the left and the new system on the right for different classes of payer. So, Small Businesss are shown on the left two bars. The biggest businesses are shown on the right two bars and it is showing what percentage of the tax do they pay and what percentage of the tax would they pay had we not switched and the Small Businesses i believe that is businesses less than 1 million and businesses less than 2. 5 million in gross receipts pay less. As we had intended, the larger businesses pay a larger share of business tax and business