Transcripts For SFGTV 20110407

year, focusing on sweeping, cleaning, graffiti, weeding, painting, fire hydrants, etc., model train public traffic -- public trash receptacles in the neighborhood. we also have community guides on the street 365 days per year from 6:00 a.m. until midnight, helping individuals find their way. as you know, we are the home of many major museums and city centers and these guys provide a lot of help in navigating the neighborhood. they connect people that need services to those services in providing extra eyes on the street for security issues. we partner with the police department to have a police officer on the street 365 days per year. what they focus on our quality of life issues that sometimes gets overlooked because of the volume of calls that police have to address. continuing on, i believe that we are the only community benefit fund that has what we call a community benefit fund, a small amount of money granted to nonprofits in the neighborhood working to improve the neighborhood. we are focused on things like public art, green state, and police engagement. we have given out two so far. we focus on street and public space improvements to improve the neighborhood and make it safer for people to be in the neighborhood, driving, walking, or biking. we market the neighborhood. we truly tried to create a sense of place and support neighborhood businesses by marketing the area. this is a snapshot of our budget. this is in line of -- with at the management plan approved in july of 2008. this is probably the most dry slide, it is about administrative accomplishments. these were important elements as we were a brand new organization. we have developed and implemented financial policies, implemented a financial management system. we continue to work with that the city on the collection of assessments. we have completed review for the first year in a full audit that you have in front of you. we regularly conduct board orientations, community chair orientations, and board officer orientations on the board and brown act. we have reports that we have mailed to the property owners. in addition, mundane things like securing office space and hiring staff. for neighborhood cleanliness, again, we are on the streets 365 days per year. we contacted the property owners if they had special issues of a sidewalk treatments or what have you that would be affected by the cleaning, to make sure that we did not damage property. we've recently developed and improved performance for neighborhood cleanliness that we were about to measure. we continue to reach out and meet with residents, homeowners association, and businesses. we regularly attend homeowners' association meetings. neighborhood security -- supervisor chu: a quick question on neighborhood cleanliness. is this a voluntary team or a paid team? >> it is a paid team. for neighborhood security we are working, again, in partnership with the police department. we also have our community guides, who are the extra lies in the years on the streets. we are in the process of developing a public safety plan. we serve on the task force of the visitors bureau to focus on tourism safety. we have done a variety of things. we have an inventory of lighting in the neighborhood. we are the first neighborhood that started a coalition of neighborhood nightclubs, where we get together on a basis -- weekly basis to discuss how much clubs can be saved, good neighbors for the neighborhoods. 4 streets and public space, we have a very active committee that shoat -- focuses on short- term planning and long-term planning. we are in the final stages of developing a 5-10 year space. the next meeting is tomorrow night, where we will present 30 projects for consideration by the neighborhood on ways to improve streets and public spaces. yeah planted 17 trees so far and have another planting planned for later this year. we are also serving on the better market street committee advisory -- advisory committee. we are focusing on two areas here. events and the benefit fund. we stay in touch through quarterly newsletters that are mailed out. we send an electronic newsletter once per month. and we have the web site, where people can go to get meeting notices and agendas. we have produced the annual reports that i mentioned. i believe the to have these, documents that we hand out to people in the neighborhood so that they know how to access services and have a clear understanding of what is provided. for the community benefit fund, public art, streetscape, green space, public priorities, we have given out one cycle. the next is set to be approved next tuesday. in supporting neighborhood businesses, in the process of branding campaign, we measured a large chunk of the neighborhood in this particular effort. more than 650 folks. we developed a logo and a branded campaign that will be rolling out in time for international powwow in the neighborhood in may. in addition to that, other ways that we connect neighbors to masers -- neighbors to neighbors is we have posted six block parties. we have conducted three rounds of sponsorships. these are nonprofits having events in the neighborhood that focus on improving the neighborhood. we had a fair last october where we brought the neighborhood together and promoted the neighborhood. we were one of a few folks that could support the candidate for a less summer. looking ahead, if you will, what is coming down the pike this year, we will be finalizing the master plan for public space in the neighborhood in doing an expedition in late july and august. again, we will implement the cleanliness program that i talked about one moment ago, finalizing the public safety plan. as far as district identity, we will rollout the branding campaign. the first three elements include street banners, neighborhood maps, and neighborhood web site, all of which will rollout in may through june. the second round of community benefit fund grants, we will continue to develop this sense of neighborhood. that is the presentation. i will turn it back over to trina. >> can i use this one? ok. so, all business improvement districts are governed by state law, local law, a contract with the city and a management plan. the contract and management plan are approved by the board of supervisors. our office, the office of economic workforce development is charged with ensuring that all cbd's are meeting their requirements. we are also charged with performance review and financial review. as mentioned, you have a resolution improve -- approving their annual reports for 2009- 2010 and the two dozen 8-2009. -- 2008-2009. established in july of 2008, they are a seven year community benefit district that receives annual assessment funds from 1700 properties with five benefit zones. bounded by market street, harrison, second, and fifth streets. a map of the district is included in your packet. it is probably the most divers cbd among the 12 in san francisco. museums, hotels, convention space, non-profit organizations, and thousands of residents that live in market rate and affordable rate units. an annual budget of $2.5 million. i will not go over their programs again, but you heard that they focus on cleaning, graffiti removal, working with police officers, and in terms of district identity they focus on the informing of the community through their web site and newsletters. they have a small grant fund called the community benefit fund. our role is to review what they have done. we have worked with at the comptroller's office and the service auditor division, looking primarily at the financial portion. together we reviewed their annual budget, sources of income, variants between budget amounts and actual expenses, and plans for carry over from year to year. as you can see, in terms of their annual budget, yerba bueana cbd stayed pretty close to their annual -- original budget. 60% goes to the sidewalk operations and beautification. about 15% for district identity and streetscape improvements. in terms of other sources of funding, they do not meet the requirements of raising five% of their budgets from other sources. they raise between 1% and 4% for the first two years. only in operation for three months of 2008-2009, they were definitely below what they budgeted. for 2009-2010, they were still ramping up programs, so they were under budget there. as of the end of fiscal year 29 -- 2009-2010, but they had done in -- what they had done in coordination with us was figure out how to spend that $2.3 million over the life of the cbd. a copy of how they allocated those funds is a part of your packet. this is their current fiscal year budget. they plan to spend $6.3 million. as you can see, they are carrying over $722,000 in net assets from this year. they are planning to definitely raise five% from other sources. -- 5% from other sources. the final note is to improve fundraising efforts. we just reviewed the mid-year report, they are definitely on track to meet all of their budget goals, as well as their fund raising for this year. if you have any questions, please let us know. supervisor chu: just taking a look at the budget projections for the current year, you have shown roughly expenditures and revenues at $3.3 million. in the upcoming budget year it looks like it will go down to a relatively steady state. the major changes that i see are simply on marketing, branding, and the pvc line? >> with regards to the fund- raising requirements, do you get -- supervisor chu: with regards to the fund-raising requirements, do you get the sense that we will meet pfeifer sense in this year? >> caffey, could you describe more of the fund-raising efforts? >> this is obviously something that we are aware of. we have a grant application that we are submitting today. obviously, we think that we will. we also have reconstituted our fund-raising committee and are working on the plan for next year, so we are 100% confident for next year. yes, we think we will come very close. supervisor chu: you are anticipating being on track in the coming year? >> very close, if not exceeding it. correct. supervisor chu: what are some of the areas where you are expanding fundraising? >> a great question. we are applying for a community challenge grant today to focus on street space improvements. we are really looking at different marketing efforts for how we can raise additional funds. we have been speaking with a major corporation this year, though i hate to say, for a grant -- i do not want to jinx it. we are looking at marketing opportunities. we are launching a neighborhood web site, as i said earlier. there will be small advertising space on their for neighborhood businesses. we are looking at ways to generate revenue through those, as well as marketing activity. those things are all under way. supervisor chu: thank you. for organizations like cba cbd to be able to tap into a community challenge grant, in my mind that is not a good connection as they are meant to address and deal with smaller organization neighborhood type projects. if you are already getting an assessment of $2.7 million, it doesn't seem it should be the intent of aid community challenge grant to augment the budget. i hope that is not a red line on your fund raising component. >> we do not want that to be. we have a project that fits neatly into that criteria at this point. which is why we made the decision to apply. supervisor chu: thank you. let's open this up for public comment. i have two cards year. [reads names] >> hello, my name is richard smith. i am speaking in favor a yerba buena community benefit district. by barbara and i are rental residents in the neighborhood. we are pretty active in the neighborhood and volunteer our time in the district. currently, i am serving as a rental representative on the board of the community benefit district. we choose to volunteer our time because we have seen the district -- difference that makes in terms of making the neighborhood safer, cleaner, and the identity work going forward. so that people will know where this place is. and we see the work we are doing, volunteering, as making a difference. so, we love our neighborhood, there for seven cisco. thank you for your support. supervisor chu: next speaker, please. >> my name is lawrence lee. i work for one of the nonprofits in the neighborhood. i am extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish in the last two years. in the treasurer, and i can tell you that we have some very hard- working committee members. the balance of the time users and evening users, cultural institutions, of visitor services -- to be able to take in the needs of all of those constituents, serving those needs and having a hard-working crew that is pretty much in line, that is a great accomplishment. so, with at that i ask that you approve the annual report. supervisor chu: are there any other member -- members of the public that would wish to speak? seeing no one, public comment disclosed. supervisor kisupervisor mirkarie someone who can answer this question on the challenge grant process? some one from oewd? thank you. >> lisa paggan. supervisor mirkarimi: i think the chair person said something that was very important and i wanted to explore this. is there a policy that actually distinguishes in hell cbd's were able to buy ford community challenge grants, as opposed to neighborhoods that to c havedb 's? -- that do not have cbd's? >> many of these cbd's do not have budgets for capital improvements. many of them have maintenance budgets so that they can maintain over the life of the capital improvement that improvement. others might have more money, such as yerba buena. i understand the competition for grants. they do not all have the same type of budget. the challenge grant program sets its own criteria for how they select. so, we would have to ask them what their criteria is and how they disperse their grant funds. supervisor mirkarimi: in very basic terms from where we sit, you could see that potentially with varying degrees of strength, they may have more of the wherewithal and the ability to secure transplants. whereas communities that do not have cbd's do not. i am probing to determine if this might merit some kind of protocol, potentially, or a ground rule, so that the process is made to seem that much more fair. i can think of a number of neighborhoods that are not ready for these and may not what one. yet, they would love to compete for community challenge grants, capital or non-capital oriented. i am wondering if this is something -- it has been referenced that it is something we should explore in terms of setting up particular guidelines. we do not want the unintentional of fact of the big fish dominating the playing field where the little fish are not getting any bites. >> without any statistics on who the challenge grants are going to, we could not say if they were going disproportionately to one neighborhood or another. our office would be happy to talk with the challenge grant program to make sure that there is a balance in fair competition, which i am sure that there is. they applied. they did not necessarily get the grant yet. i want to be cleared supervisor mirkarimi:. this has not -- i want to be clear. supervisor mirkarimi: this is more of a general issue. >> i would be happy to provide more information. supervisor mirkarimi: all right, thank you. supervisor chu: just a quick follow-up question, lisa. you had mentioned that many of the supervisor mirkarimi: pot -- many of the cbd's do not have a capital budget. is that a legal restriction? >> each one has its own management plan. . some districts do not have enough funding for certain projects in their original plans, so they apply for a grant in those cases to supplement their assessment budget. many districts spent all of their money on maintenance. so, they have to fundraiser for streetscape improvements. but that is not every district. each one is different. supervisor chu: so, there is possibility for improving and larger -- approving a larger capital budget? they would have to change their management plans? >> correct. many of them have to -- many of them require all of the votes to do so. supervisor chu: so, it is onerous? >> if they wanted to substantively change the plan. they are currently allowed 10% changes per year, per budget category, providing some flexibility to meet needs overtime. a drastic case would require voting by those who are assessed and by the board of supervisors. supervisor mirkarimisupervisor a concern surrounding the equity of how it gets spread amongst organizations. if you do have that conversation, it would be interesting to see who the beneficiaries are. supervisor kim: my apologies for being late. i was actually with another cbd. i know that district 6 has the fortune of having many of the cbd costs that are formed in the city. there are seven total? eight community benefit districts? >> 12. supervisor kim: i think that roughly seven or eight are in district 6. and i do hear from residents. it is mixed. we hear from residents but these are services that cities should be able to provide other realm. on the other hand, a sense of grant -- break from this for the enhanced services in the area, led by folks that live and work in that neighborhood. one of the things that i appreciate is the higher level of engagement that stakeholders have in shaping the future of their district. two things. one, how does the city work -- one complaint i have heard is that the city may reduce its services from level of services it has given before. how do we work to make sure that the city continues its service? >> in terms of dtw? supervisor kim: i get it. i do. i just want to make sure that we do not lower services in the area. >> we work closely with the department of public works on baseline services to make sure that they are still doing what they are supposed to be doing. if there are complaints, cbd should be informed. they can work with us so that we can have a meeting with dtw. supervisor kim: i imagine that it is hard to gauge baseline services. >> we have a lead of what they are supposed to do in every district. so that they pretty much do what they are supposed to do. supervisor kim: the second thing, i would like to echo my colleagues concerns over the community challenge grant. i was not aware that part of the 5% was city dollars. i would consider that additional fund-raising dollars. on the other end, about what to make sure -- i would want to make sure that there is not geographical and equity. -- the iniquity. needs that are not even at the table, as the organizations need to apply for these grants. i concur with my colleagues. >> each management plan says that they have to raise five% about said services. it does not say that you cannot go the city. of course, 95% comes from property owners. they definitely need to be creative in terms of going for those services. -- sources. i want to remain at -- remind the supervisors that most of cbd's do not have the size in terms of a budget thatyerba buena has. they are definitely looking at all of the sources they have. because so many want to do streetscape improvement, community challenge grant is just a viable source for that kind of work. supervisor kim: and i do appreciate the work of cbd's. i have worked a lot with north market and central market. i appreciate their ability to organize small businesses, partners, what it means to improve the neighborhood and partnering with community-based organizations as well. sfgov.o