Transcripts For SFGTV Treasure Island Mobility Management Agency 12616 20160202

Watching you at, like, 2 00 am on channel 26 and i heard your announcement, you guys are the first stop for business in San Francisco and this person was a Small Business owner and they appreciated that. Thats great. That was a good idea. Well, hopefully it reminds everyone else of the existence of the office of Small Business so when they, even though they are already in business and they have issues that they think to come to us first as well. I have one suggestion, mr. President. About these presentations that are great, i think we ought, however, to make it easy for Small Businesses to have access to these presentations. Uhhuh. Would it be possible to have a link on our site to these presentations to make it easy because they are updated and they are tied to, i dont know if it is possible, technically possible. Well, i appreciate that, commissioner. Now that we have a calendar section on our web site we will be inputting these regular calendar items such as when taxes are due, when wages are going up. We can provide a link in terms of that calendar section. This broadcast is then digitized and put online, right . We could go as far as as to put the minute marker so people dont be have to wade through all the other stuff if they are only interested in one particular presentation. I think the importance of, well, i think theres a couple things we can do. Under news and announcements on the home page is definitely remind with this filing and then connect to the business tax, sf business tax. Org site that has the video that greg was talking about so that it provides that connection so that people can take a look at that before they really start filing their taxes. So perhaps they are a little better, they are prepared with all the documents that they may need. So we can definitely look at ways in which to, ways in which we can incorporate those videos. Weve also, greg kato and mary ann have conducted two web sites and we sent out information about the two workshops they conducted at the library. We are getting caught up on a few items, were needing to update our book let and once that is done we will be going back to our regular monthly newsletter which also had these announcements in our newsletter, our monthly newsletter, so that link will be there as well. We could also, in each of those places where people are going to be seeing stuff that were making available to them we should have a little announcement that if anybody has a subject that they cant find, they would like us to consider either as an agenda item or just something that they want more information about, this they can make that recommendation. Can you provide propose new business by just send not guilty a request . You dont have to be here, do you . Can the public request new business . The public cannot request new business. How the public would make recommendations would be through general public comment. So they have to come in . They do not. They could snit a written letter which is submitted to you electronically from the office, from us, and then you are certainly welcome under new business to bring it up. I mean the fact that i just asked that question might suggest that having my Small Business owner hat on, i did not know that. So maybe having something on the web site that tells you how to go about proposing new business. That is a good idea and that is something we can add to the Commission Section of the web site. This tag line, the Small Business commission is open for new business. Then one other area we can also make sure is that on the biz portal, when you get to the home page if you do scroll down there are 3 boxes that are designed just for announcements, things like annual tax filing is coming up. So, again, well coordinate with jane to just make sure that the link to the business, sfbiztax with the video is available on that announcement. Great, as we come into the 21st century in government that people will start looking to the web for these Solutions Rather than just scratching their heads. Right. Or wondering where the written form is that they have to get. Awesome. All right, so if anyone, if theres no other comments on item no. 8 i think we can move on from this discussion. Item no. 9 is the directors report, update and report on the office of Small Business, Small Business assistance center, department programs, recent announcements from the mayor and introduce new policy updates, Legacy Business Programs. Commissioners, want to let you know that we did, i did send an announcement to you that today there was a tentative scheduling for the Affordable Housing Bonus Program so that has been continued and you will definitely hear it at the february 8 meeting. It is pretty dense in terms of the information and whats involved so ive sent you, planning has done an excellent job in compiling the information together in terms of what you need to know, the maps of the area, and so i just really, really want to encourage you to take the time to start slowly reading this because its not a onehour read, its probably going to be a several hour read so that you are digesting it over a period of time. It is, in a very quick summary, providing a density bonus for more infill development, smaller sites than maybe some of the larger ones, the high rise sites, so this does mean that it is development in our neighborhood commercial corridors. So the office of economic and Work Force Development and the Planning Department they have been convening some meetings to take a look at business support that may need to be developed around these new developments. But i think its very important for you to take the time to understand what the Affordable Housing Density Program is, its goals, objectives and taking a look at the map. So i want to encourage you to take the time, you know, while you have it to get, to be briefed. Also with the Legacy Business Program i met with the Historical Preservation Commission Last week with their commission to work on, get their, solicit their feedback to finalize with our staff and their staff the integration process and with the legacy business applications. We have just started to receive some so these will soon be angendized but they are routed through the Historical Preservation Commission First before they come to the Small Business commission. So we want to make sure that that process is as efficient as possible, the Historical Preservation commission has 30 days to weigh in and provide you with recommendations so. I have a quick question. I understand now placida inaudible is one of them. So Historical Preservation hears it first and then we get it. To ensure the xed yepbs si of the processing, when the application so what im working out with the Historical Preservation, what we wanted to hear from the Historical Preservation commission, both their staff and myself, is to understand their purview, what they are going to look for and provide recommendation on. So that when the applications come in that i am, our office is doing a review to make sure everything is there before its submitted so that there isnt any delays that get held up at the commission side. The application comes to us first . It comes to us first after they have been nominated by the mayor or board of supervisors. And we check the application for its completeness and then we refer it to the historical commission. I do want to note as well for businesses that, you know, Small Business owners, many of them go into businesses that really dont involve extensive amounts of writing, unlike nonprofits where you are used to writing grants and knowing how to put together a presentation for many Small Businesses, thats not their forte and especially if you are not used to writing in english, you know, writing extensive things in english, so the Small Business development center, angel cardoz has advisors and we are going to partner with him and there are no supplemental moneys to may to this. If the number grows to an extent that may be something that we have to budget in into the 1617 budget. But right now he has, we are able to refer businesses to him to have his consultants who are marketing people to help put together their narrative so that we can help get some of these businesses into the, on to the registry sooner. So thats for the registry as opposed to any kind of financing program. Right. The financing program, im still working on that and still need to meet with you, commissioner toursarkissian, to finalize some the property owner. Do we have a web site set up yet for the registry . We will soon have a web site up for the registry. Someone is working on that, on the creative . No, thats just me. But it will be basic instructions in terms of the information, whats involved. Again, in my one on one conversations while i am, if i talk to a business providing them with the application and information but im making it very clear that i will not be facilitating any processing of applications until they have been nominated by the mayor or the board of supervisors until we have a staff person. I have received some is comments on, i hadnt seen it before, this point system thats going to be used. And some people are a little distressed about, for example, it says if some other business in the district has already become a legacy business that therefore when you apply you get zero points, like a negative. So ive been getting comments and blowback about that. So thank you, commissioner dooley, for bringing that up. I think i had initially proposed to this Commission Body the point system and you resoundingly rejected that. So for our commission you are not using the point system. The Historical Preservation Commission Staff proposed the point system to the Historical Preservation commission and they did not support the point system. So the point system will not be used either at the Historical Preservation commission or and you have made it clear that, you know, that is not what you want used for your, when you review and evaluate. Yeah, its like so many some districts have a lot of legacy businesses so they should not be penalized for that. Just to confirm that neither the Historical Preservation commission or the Small Business commission are going to be using the point system. Okay. So i think that thats, ill just leave for the sake of time, leave my directors report at that. One quick question. How is the Commission Secretary position going . I will provide you with a written summary on that. Okay. Im just concerned about you, i just want to make sure that. Yes, yes, and i appreciate that. So shall i move on it item no. 10 . Yes, please. Item no. 10, president s report. I attended a couple meetings this month which are relative to Small Business. The chamber has a Small Business committee and they are trying to reorganize it a little bit to be more effective in its outreach towards Small Business and how the chamber can be effective on behalf of Small Business. And i have made it very clear that i think the most important thing there is for them to promote Business Activity between big b and little b, meaning business to business interaction from Big Companies to little companies. And we have sfbiz connect, which is designed to get Large Companies to take a pledge for purchasing a percentage of their goods and services from San Francisco bays businesses, which i think is fantastic and the chamber of course is a partner in that and very much behind that, so i just keepity reiterating that and i have been asking them to do more meet and greets because we have had some good ones so far. I attended my troy hill dog patch Merchant Association meeting. They have this fantastic thing they aredoing for beer week, along the same line of what we heard today for sb50. Sf beer week has grown from a little event to a world renoun event and we have a high concentration not just in San Francisco but the counties surrounding us of craft brewers and we all know craft brewing is a huge phenomenon right now, a huge renaissance. So the pdma put together a little map, organized some restaurant and brewer interactions and made a little map and published it, its really fantastic. Its just a great example of how the Merchant Association and the neighborhoods can engage in these bigger events. I think its awesome that people are trademarking super this and super that in ways that dont get, run afoul of the superbowl branding and, in fact, being able to then use that outside of the context of the superbowl. Its just very inspiring. So thats fantastic and i think what pdma has done around beer week is a great example on00 much smaller scale of what neighborhoods can do to align themselves with big events, whether its data breakers passing through your neighborhood or some event that you happen to have affinity to. I also attended the mayors traffic group, its in the early stages but kind of similar to what were talking about, how construction impacts Small Business, its about congestion in the city. So more on that later. Then we started our Small Business week Planning Session of which i am the cochair along with terin over at the chamber of commerce. So thats underway so weve got Small Business week coming up before we know it. High alert. Thats it for my report. Item no. 11, Vice President s report. The only thing i have to add is we had a castro merchants Board Meeting last wechblgt the big topic there was superbowl and getting people into the neighborhood and, you know, again whats starting to raise its ugly face is vacancies. We are seeing citizens just announce, which is a Clothing Store thats been in the neighborhood for 20 years, is closing, they are merging with another store but heres another vacant storefront. I know commissioner julie you talked about that. Maybe we can have a special meeting just to deal with this. Ours are all filling up, actually. Were doing the opposite. Ours are all filling up. We have one particular landlord who. Who wont rent. Just advising good, im happy that north beach is starting to fill up. Oh, yeah. So thats all i have. Thank you. Item no. 12 is commissioners reports. Commissioners . I attended the district 3 Affordable Housing presentation with the Planning Department. It was met with almost unanimous hysteria and negativity. The merchants went crazy over what could be happening to them so there will be more on that, and ive also been now meeting with the middle pope neighbors. They want to take a larger look at their commercial corridor and the zoning and planning options. So im happy to help meet with them and hear what their thoughts are and see where they want to go. So