I filed my payroll taxes. And the restaurant wage theft was one of two areas of focus. The other being construction. I felt like i was doing what i could to represent an industry that was trying to respond well to an issue which is really ironic. And bums me out. At the very same time, businesses that sell food to our customers through Online Platforms were setting up business in San Francisco those very same years. And they were setting up their businesses on a framework that was beyond wage theft that was fundamentally exploitive of the labor pool by classifying workers. So the commission that the businesses take in our Free Market Society are well beyond the range of margin that a restaurant has, which is anywhere from 0 to 6 , so a 20 commission is well beyond that. Im post to ask you what your priorities are and who your customers are . In the way that we regulate [bell ringing]. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Next speaker, please. [applause] good afternoon. My name is brian, owner of kitchen out of the mission, im also a board member of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. I want to reiterate. First of all, the Service Industry is the life blood of the city. Were the reason why San Francisco has held up as a gem historically as a city to visit across the world and we provide unique cultural experiences. We also provide Employment Opportunities or blue collar, immigrants, students. And so i encourage you and im thankful that your inviting us to speak here today, to be courageous about the type of change and not just think about having change around the margin. Think about the Business Models that we need to operate within in order to succeed and try to prioritize the actions that can be taken by everyone in this room that can have the biggest impact possible. Not just new restaurants, but existing restaurants, businesses, many of which have been in business for decades and are now closing at rapid rate because its difficult to operate within the confines of the current environment, given the real constraints of our Business Models. Lets also realize were all on the same team. We want vibrant i want to remind the audience, youre not allowed to eat or drink in the chamber. So please refrain or youll be removed from the chamber. Come visit our restaurants. [laughter] were all on the same team. We want to get back and Work Together. Lets take the south line as mentioned. Were all willing have the conversations. Next speaker, please. One of the current operators at cafe floor. A 46yearold restaurant in the castro. Thank you, supervisor fewer, for holding the hearing. I would like to speak directly about the question on the sidewalk permit. In 2013, cafe floor paid 2365 for its sidewalk permit. In 2018, it paid 4338 for its sidewalk permit. During those years, there have been no visits. There has been one person, i think stopped by, and i dont know what services or time and material were generated in my going online and paying those bills, but thats a lot of money to increase almost over 2,000 in those handful of years. Thats one example. Cafe floor needed to split its operation and receive a permit for the kitchen across the from its restaurants because the restaurant is too small. When scott wiener passed the legislation and enabled the restaurant to continue to be open and now were paying for not one restaurant not one restaurant fee, not one registration, not one health, we pay for two. So our 40seat sidewalk cafe pays for not one, but two restaurants. It pays almost [bell ringing] twice the amount in sidewalk fees in half a dozen years. These are concrete real things happening in the community that as the last speaker said, we need to do something about and do something about them right now. Or we will be gone like everyone else. Supervisor fewer thank you. Next n. Next n. Next speaker, please. Hello. Im luke. I really have fallen in love with the industry and i may request an additional minute, what hasnt been touched on is the issue of the tech platform, which is very much in the news. We call them grub hub or tablets. Theyre gaining 5 billion a year in market share. Theyre up to 25 . They charge user rates 2530 fees. Its been in all sorts of news in the districts because im sure all of us read the articles about restaurants all the time. About how many places are closing because of that. Or they dont realize theyre losing money for several months, several landmark restaurants in San Francisco have closed and they lose money while they do that. Theyre subsidizing, running ads. Dont ruin your night by going out. Thats 100 million advertising against the heart of the city. And these are small momandpop businesses, with local artists that meet and try to make ends meet. Theyre virtually integrating. Theyre opening kitchens. 16 kitchens that are owned. Its like cropsharing, but for a kitchen, and you have to use their platform. Its really what it is. Its userrisk to people. And the virtual restaurants dont exist. Theyre taking the tips away from people. And then there is new technology, starbucks in the castro permit was to sell 2000 sandwiches. Now theyre selling 2000 sandwiches from a turbo chef, so why get bacon and eggs. So the permitting system hasnt kept up with the technology. The big digitals, theyre buying restaurants as part of it. [bell ringing] supervisor fewer thank you, sir. Any other public speakers. Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Supervisor haney thank you, chair fewer, for calling this hearing and thank you to everybody who came out. You know, i think we all agree that our Restaurant Industry is the life blood of the city, one of the Public Commenters said that. And that it is having a very difficult time right now. I think that was reflected in all of the comments i heard today. There is a couple of things i wanted to say. One, it sounded like everybody wants to be a part of the solution and has a lot to share. And that we need to figure out what the right ongoing venues are for that. We heard presentations that show were trying and there has been changes around process, that are intended to address the issues, but it also sounds like that wasnt reflective of the experiences that a lot of people are having. And that actually we can do more and better. So one of the things i would hope would come out of this. Showing the commitment based on what theyre telling us. I think thats something that is clearly needed when we have this commitment to doing better, but thats not experience, at least at the level its needed. I also think there is a lot of different departments that folks need to deal with. And so i was interested in the beginning from oewds perspective, where is that single entry point to make sure that you have the full support of this building and the city government, as you have to navigate these multiple departments. And really making sure that were having the efficiencies. So what does that look like . Also seems to me like, there is opportunities for really more specific and substantial changes to be made to support this industry. Whether that is in process, whether that is in zoning. But i think the level of crisis that we heard about from the industry, there is a clear feeling that we arent responding with a level of urgency and the breadth that really is being experienced on the ground. You know, i just heard yesterday, was mentioned around pedros and petes. For me, that street, king street, you would think that would be an area that would be doing very well. And yet those businesses are struggling and closing. So imagine how hard it is for the businesses not in that position, that dont even have the benefit of those tens of thousands of people coming. I had on my list and glad the last speaker brought this up, really looking at the impact of the Delivery Services. I think thats totally transforming the landscape of restaurants in a way that the city is maybe behind the ball in how we can be supporting restaurants. And Small Businesses. We also have a situation where many of those businesses are here. So our opportunity in terms of the Tech Companies and platforms, how to regulate them, how to actually, if possible make them part of the solution, or at least make sure that were working and protecting the store fronts in this context, affordable space and housing came up. Transportation. I mean so many things that if were going to have a wholistic solution, we need to be working together. I dont know what your thought was in terms of what would come out of this, but im interested in how this can be an ongoing conversation and how we can benefit from these ideas to come up with responses that really meet thes crisis that were facing. Clearly have a need to turn this into action. Supervisor fewer absolutely. Commissioner safai. Supervisor safai thank you, supervisor fewer. Thank you, supervisor haney for the comments. I think its right on. One of the things that i have heard over the years in office now is that there is a lot of good intentions going on between the planning department, oewd, building, but there doesnt seem to be as much as weve strived to do that, there still needs to be more work to coordinate and streamline. We hear great stories, but then we also hear horror stories. There needs to be a general understanding. I like the presentation to have a point person. But not everyone knows to go there first. If im a restaurant owner, im going to figure out the type of lease im going to get. I might not even know if the space is permitted for that when im signing my lease. Sometimes that happens. I go over to building and planning and im working through that and then all of a sudden, i find out that Public Health wants a whole different set of materials that building was not aware of, because they dont know the certain types of tiles or other things that might prohibit a business from opening. Im not making that story up. That was from a Small Business owner in my district that spent 100,000 to open up a new business downtown and literally, just walked way after spending months and months to open up that business. So this hearing is exceedingly important, but there needs to be a way to figure out how were not just operating in silos. When i go to building and talk about the permitting and the layout, there should be a way to relate back to the agencies. Planning is not worried about the type of tiles. Thats not their job. But it is a crucial step in getting your final signoff to open up your business. If you dont have that, your entire business wont be able to operate. So i just think that i think one of the outcomes of this is to have a report back at some point to get an understanding how were getting some of these different city agencies that begin to cooperate and work Better Together and function better on behalf of. I would think that the Golden Gate Restaurant Association and those industries that are entities that set up to work with restaurants, also can be a point of contact and say, this is step one. This is where you start. So i want to thank supervisor fewer and all the different city agencies that came out. I know everyone is well intentioned and wants to help open these businesses. As you saw from planning, we did everything we could. We removed the notification process. Changed our zoning table and are ready and open for business. Anyone that wants to open a restaurant in mission, were ready to go. Were here to help. Supervisor peskin my apologies, we were having a conversation with the mayor relative to the impacts of the central subway on Small Businesses in chinatown, which as we all heard, unfortunately, last week, is going to be delayed by some time. Supervisor mandelman i want to one more time thank you, supervisor fewer, for your commitment and diligence on this issue. And for holding this hearing. I want to thank all of the folks in the Restaurant Industry who came out to tell your stories and it was saddening and frustrating, not inconsistent with things ive heard from folks trying to operate restaurants in my district. It is i know particularly galling to be nickelanddimed and delayed and fined by a government that seems unable to deliver the very basic Public Services that residents and Small Businesses might expect as the preconof their ability to precondition of their ability to operate successfully. I share that frustration. I think my colleagues do as well. And we need to continue to work on the larger issues. I think weve heard some more specific areas where we might be able to make progress. Im happy that supervisor peskin and supervisor fewer have both expressed interest in looking at where there may be fees. I think there is a conversation about the tax reform and that may be an opportunity. We provided enough tax incentives for large operators in the city to grow and thrive and maybe this time around, we can provide some Additional Support for the smaller businesses. [applause] but, also looking at these particular fees, one that didnt come up that ive heard about, is this fire alarm fee. Every time there is a false alarm that goes off, particularly for a new business trying to figure out how to operate, its very easy to quickly run up a bunch of false alarms and you end up in the first year owing a ton of money. Maybe thats something we could look at, but i think there is a long list of fees that make sense. One of the city agencies not here is the fire marshal. Each business, each time, as the owners pointed out, its never the same story. There is a different problem each time that slows you down. But certainly the fire marshal has contributed their share. Know everybody is trying, but again, i think there is how to make it so when six different agencies, or six different departments are looking at these projects that this potential for endless delay doesnt continue and everyone keeps in mind that the goal is to get the business open as quickly as possible, except we can do that consistent with safety and our other needs. So anyway, i think this is just the start of the conversation. Im looking forward to participating, Going Forward with all of you. With that, thank you, again, supervisor fewer. Supervisor peskin thank you, supervisor mandelman. Before i recognize and thank supervisor fewer for holding this hearing, i want to apologize for my absence. As i said earlier on to ms. Thomas not to ms. Thomas, but really everybody. I want to focus on things we can do. Which is the area of fees. Secondary units, inlaws as people used to call them in San Francisco and to that end we passed legislation eliminate those fees and most, if not all circumstances. So i think we should start looking at that in the realm of restaurants where i actually had my staff look at it. There are 22 different fees that apply to restaurants that are starting out. Not all of those apply when youre in an established restaurant. I also think that as a matter of policy, we should start with hanging onto the restaurants that weve got. I think that is where we should put our immediate attention. I know the barriers to interest, you have to get conditional use, insofar as were at the Tipping Point and that number of, yeah, i remember 30 years ago, the stat, or at least in the Popular Culture was every day, there is a restaurant that goes in and out of business in San Francisco. But when you say that there is now a 9 Tipping Point, lets do everything we can for the restaurants weve got. The 22 different fees, many of which apply to the restaurants that want to come, i want to get to. But there is a bunch of those that we touched on today as it relates to public works and sidewalk and table permits. So lets start having that conversation. Lets have it quickly. And lets rationalize those different permit fees. That is probable the lowhanging fruit. I want to say as a supervisor with historical perspective, in the old days every increase and every fee came to the board of supervisors. And we would wrestle with it. Later on, after the down turn in the economy in 2001, we actually gave the controller and the departments the ability to actually raise those fees automatically based on various formula having to do with the cost to the city and Consumer Price index and what have you. Im sure Ben Rosenfeld is saying it wasnt cpi, it was cost recover, but it may be time to bring all of those things back to the board one by one, so we have to evaluate them one by one. Those are my perspectives and with that, i sincerely want to thank supervisor fewer for holding the hearing. Supervisor fewer well thank you very much. I really sincerely want to thank everyone for coming out and educating us on the challenges of our Restaurant Industry. I dont think anyone here disputes the fact that, the restaurant in San Francisco, kind of put us on the map. Were a culinary destination. When you come to San Francisco, you expect to be eating very, very well. Whether its high end or on the lower end spectrum. And we are slowly losing, i think, that legacy that we had. A lot of restaurants, which actually are memorialized in movies and books and literature, have all shut down because of this crisis, which is happening. It is heartbreaking when i see one of my favorite restaurants going under. Just thinking about, going to miss those meals so much. So i think everyone in my neighborhood feels that way. I think everyone in my colleagues neighborhoods feel that way, that our restaurants are not only gathering places, but theyre places not only feed us and our families but add to the vibrancy of our neighborhood. Having said that, i think that we are the city the city could be doing more and i want to say that, you know, we have been doing today we heard about the streamlining. We heard