Transcripts For SFGTV MTA Board Of Directors 20240713

Alexandertut here. Clinch here. Jacobo here. Lee here. Moss here. Tam here. We have a quorum. And our next item is item 2, president s announcements. President mccarthy good morning and welcome to the bic meeting of january, 2020, first of the year. And welcome, everybody. Kudos to Technical Service division who successfully completed the code update. This was a huge undertaking involving coordination and tight deadlines. Thanks to all the dbi staff. And finally, id like to recognize a great employee of our city for many years and who is just retired from the department of dbi, like to recognize bill strong. Is bill here . I owe him a big lunch because i was away when he retired. During his time, he impressed us very much with his knowledge and professionalism and attention to detail. I know i speak for my colleagues as well when i say we will miss him. He was a great anchor for the department and his history goes back to senator feinstein and i was talking to john about it earlier, he took a little time off in the middle and then back to dbi for, i believe, 13 years was the time . I dont know how many times i tried to upset bill and i could not. [laughter] and i made genuine efforts to do it. He was always a professional and managed to make things clear, spoke with confidence and always did his research and knew the facts. Hes had to deal with crazy legislation over the years and keep us up to date. And he had that unique ability to make it very simple for us who have trouble with big words and things like that. Commissioner walker laughing out there. I miss bill and delighted hes retiring and hope to see him soon. Anybody else want to make comments . I will miss bill. I know when i was on the commission we created the Office Employee position for our public outreach. So that was the position that was lacking in the department. So bill was the first person who filled that position. So im very proud of it. And bill did a fantastic job on that. President mccarthy its that kind of a day, where were saying goodbyes, but that concludes my president s announcements. Secretary thank you. Any Public Comment on the president s announcement . Seeing none, item 3. Welcome and introduction of new commissioners. President mccarthy yes. And obviously, welcome. I dont think in all of the years ive been here, weve had so many new faces at the table. Welcome to everybody. Commissioner jacobo i practiced that three times before i came out and i still got it wrong. Fourth time a charm. President mccarthy appreciate it and welcome. Commissioner alexandertut, welcome as well and commissioner tam, welcome. Youre the residential landlord seat. And you are the very important tenant seat taking over for commissioner walker. I would like to take the opportunity, if you want to introduce yourselves and talk a bit. If you choose not to, thats fine. Good morning, everybody. Its a great honor to be here serving on the Building Inspection Commission. For me, its an honor as a san franciscan to be here doing this work and i hope to carry on some of the work that commissioner walker did for numerous years. And im excited to get my feet wet and meet with the department and get to work. I look forward to it. President mccarthy thank you. Commissioner tam . Jason tam here. San francisco native. Very excited to serve the city that raised me. And ive already met many wonderful people, just looking to do a good job with integrity and carry out the big tradition here. President mccarthy thank you, commissioner. Commissioner tam good morning, everybody. Elizabe Elizabeth Zan tut. Right out of college, i started with the Department Buildings and have continued that work throughout my life. And the code is so important in keeping our housing healthy and safe for the people of San Francisco. And i am looking forward to serving with all of you. Thank you for the legacy you have left for us, commissioner walker. President mccarthy okay. Welcome everybody. So Public Comment on that . Is there Public Comment on item 3 . Seeing none, item 4. Acknowledgment and appreciation of retired commissioners. President mccarthy good morning on this one as well. So id like, obviously to take the opportunity to recognize our three outgoing commissioners. First appointed to the commission, he couldnt be here this morning, but did send his hellos to everybody and he said you will be seeing him a lot down here in front of us. And raising hell, i think. That was the term he used. He occupied the general public seat. He was a valuable voice, particularly for the preservation of the San Francisco Historic Buildings and he was very strong on that. I dont know if anybody had the pleasure of going to jims home. Its the most incredible San Francisco historical home youll ever walk into, both interior and exterior. And he always impressed me personally with his thoughtful analysis. He did his homework, study, and everything was thought through. So, jim, youll be missed and hopefully, well see you on another commission. John, who was also appointed 2016 to the residential landlord seat as restauranteur and those who had the opportunity, he did entertain us from time to time. I dont know if i was supposed to publicly announce that. As a Small Business owner, he brought an important perspective to the commission and he didnt i think he was just second into the job, but im sure well see him on other commissions as well. Finally, but not least, we say goodbye to commissioner debra walker, who has been one of the longest serving members, 20 years on this commission. 20 years. She has brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the bic which was unique. Always appreciated her gift, for properly wording our motions and stuff. And while we may have disagreements, debra always handled them amicably and made a fair resolution for all. It has been a pleasure serving with all three, but its particularly sad goodbye to see commissioner walker go, because its really a testimony of how important it is for the Different Departments and the different people who come from different aspect of the industry Work Together. And, commissioner walker, you did not want her against you in the building issue. But she was fair and what she wanted was consistency and she wanted everything done correctly. And she was a tremendous gatekeeper. And she is responsible for a lot of buildings that are standing today and are in their present position. And shes mostly incredibly done amazing work protecting the tenants of this city over the years. And she has never let off. And she will be missed, but i know shes not gone. She will be around. She was telling me in the corridor, she wants to paint more. Because i cannot understand why she doesnt want to be on another commission, but she convinced me, she wants to take time off, and she wants to do what she loves, paint. It was an honor and pleasure to associated with you and sit with you on this commission. Anybody else who wants to say a few words . Yeah. If i could, commissioner walk, especially, she made me feel very welcome when began last year. We take these commissions and work that has to go into taking them seriously, for granted sometimes. And there is work that has to be put in. Like you said, the Building Code, especially is and has been used to negatively affect a lot of san franciscans and this commission we sit on is where we can hopefully make that stop. Im glad i had a mentor like commissioner walker. Do you get to keep your badge . President mccarthy no, i want that one. I want the new one. Just i offered a few thoughts at the last meeting, debra, and would say the same. But also just want to second everything. Angus said it eloquent and couldnt do better, youll be missed and i hope to see you around. Commissioner walker, when you returned when you came back onto the Building Inspection Commission, you helped solidify and keep the commission on the steady heel all the way through the last 15 years. You knew how tough was before them, so when you came onboard, you helped keep things steady. You kept the department moving along and i count you as a friend. So thank you very much. President mccarthy and we promise to keep the main items that you want to see true, well keep them going, okay . All right. I believe we have some we have a presentation to make to you, commissioner walker. I wanted to say thank you also for being very supportive throughout the you were very supportive of all of the commissioner secretary, myself, ann, shirley. You were great, treating us as partner instead of assistant. Thank you. Commissioner walker, on behalf of the commission, id like to present you with the certificate of appreciation. And most importantly, a badge [laughter] [applause] watch it [laughter] good morning, director of the Department Building inspection. I dont want my tear in my eyes. I miss her, commissioner walker, for so many years. She is my mentor and my guardian for, you know, things like appointments as director. A couple of challenges continue. First of all, how to move through the van ness. Another thing, i promised her i will keep on the most challenging work is the computer system. I try, try, try and then you know, for the last eight years still cannot put all the pieces together. But well be up and moving. Before we move to the building, i will welcome our former commissioner walker to join me and guide me through it. Its a tough job. Im not computer expert. You all know, right . We have all the help, but the consultant, i remember they come up here and say we dont charge you a penny more, im a san franciscan, but every time open the book, they want us to pay more money. I refuse to do it. They say its close, but still cannot make it. But i promise you, i will keep on pounding on that challenge and well Work Together with former commissioner walker together to give me more information. Because you can help me through for this charge. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Oh. Ill try to keep this brief. Truly has been the honor of my life to serve. The work you do is so important to peoples lives, you know their homes. And their livelihood in many cases. So the importance of coming together for solutions and Real Solutions is vital. So i want to welcome the new commissioners. The work you do, especially my friend aelizabeth, im so proud to have worked with you so many years. I have to say as much as i love the commission, i sort of wanted to retire for a while. Ive been threatenening it for a while. But its really important we have good people who understand what goes on in the building that tenants are in, in the city. Its really important. So as you came forward with the willingness to serve, i feel that the commission is in really good hands. And that she knows, because of personal experience, where the solutions can lie. So as i leave, i leave with the commission in really good hands and im here as you know. I want to thank sonya because you know, i joke that she runs the department, but she certainly runs you all [laughter]. And she has been stellar in giving you the information you need in a timely way to make the decisions you make. In addition, she also is the outreach for the commission to our department. And does Amazing Things to bring our divisions together and keep our workers happy and healthy. And you know, engaged to do the work they do. The staff of dbi, its a thankless task. I cant im amazed constantly, because i know some pretty highpower attorneys who arent afraid of anything, but once an inspector shows up at the door, they call me and theyre nervous. Just listen to them. Our job out there is to really help you solve problems. So the staff of dbi is amazing. I appreciate that the director put on record the Computer Program commitment. We all know that i sort have been focused like a laser on that for the past 14 years. Not just the last four. As you go into the new department, the new building, with the departments that you work with to do the work you do, its really important that our Business Systems work and arent dont become the problem. So i will be happy to help with that as you move forward. I want to thank each of the board president s that has appointed me and entrusted me to take care of our tenants in this process, starting with tom. Aaron peskin. David chiu. And current mayor london breed. Truly has been an honor. Thank you for the City Attorneys presence here. Youll carry on and give us a whip so that we can, you know, we really mean business here. Its our commitment as the department of building inspection to help the public solve problems, but when those problems arent solved, we need the enforcement efforts of our Code Enforcement team and the City Attorney team to make it real. Again, its been an honor to serve. I intend to be here. Im going to reserve the seat next to jerry nadler, so watch out [laughter]. You know, there is a lot of work to do. And i think you have a lot of people in the Public Sector who are very willing to help. So count on us. Call me. And good luck. And congratulations again to the new commissioners. Im leaving. Ive served with a lot of the existi existing commissioners for a while and i want to thank you for what you do. This isnt easy stuff, but really important. I thank you and im sure the city does, too. Thank you. [applause] president mccarthy okay. Next item. Thank you. Our next item is item 5. General Public Comment. The bic will take Public Comment on matters within the commissions jurisdiction that are not part of this agenda. I have handouts. This one is for you. My name is jerry, and im concerned about the number and frequency of Building Code violations in San Francisco. Dbi received 4881 Building Code complaints in year 201718. 429, or 9 of the complaints, resulted in the issuance of n. O. V. With a financial penalty and average penalty was 1373. I doubt assessing an average penalty of 1373 against the average home value of 1. 3 million deters contractors and developers from violating the San Francisco Building Code n. The last four years, there were only 1 issued with the penalty over 10,000 and that was a little over 17,000 average. I sent a sunshine request to dbi for all n. O. V. S issued with a financial penalty over the last four years. This is assessable from dbi permittracking system. There were 1517n. O. V. In the file i received. Consistent with the departments commitment to transparency and accountability, dbi charged eme 1934. 40 for the data. I would like a refund because i needed the data to prepare this report for you. The data is consistent over the four years. Over the four years dbi issued average of 379novs with average penalty, little under 1200. I excluded the fees that dbi assesses, the processes, because the fees are intended to reimburse dbi for their actual cost of monitoring. And are not a penalty. I stratfied the data into 7 ranges. I wouldnt focus on that. And then i merged them into two groups. So the first three ranges had are in group 1. Its 80 of the novs that are issued and the average, is 652. Which is pretty damn insignificant. The second group is really small. The third group is small. But the point really is, when you get to groups one and two, its 98 of the novs. Then i sorted 1,517 novs and reviewed the most outrageous Building Code violations. You might have seen these in the press. [bell ringing] 18th street, 13 Building Code violations, no nov, no penalty. Large house by richard neutra. Total demo, no nov, no penalty. 17th avenue, home designed by ee young, removal of three story bay, penalty 3323 [bell ringing]. Point is, the system needs an overhaul and this would be a great place to jump in. Thank you. Thank you. Any additional Public Comment . Good morning. On behalf of housing inspection services, id like to welcome jason, john, alysabeth as new commissioners here. Im the chief Housing Inspector. Senior Housing Inspector david herring retired after 17 years. He was a giant of integrity and not just because hes very tall, he was 64. Landlord named kip macy who had bought the building on clementine alley were involved in one of davids most notable cases. They were trying to drive the tenants out and had cut the floor joists. I dont know if you remember that case. David herring discovered that and said so on the witness stand. David enjoyed swimming, skiing, baseball, and peter frampton. Yesterday, we learned that he passed away from a. L. S. Heres a picture of him right here. Id just like a moment of silence in his honor and we dedicate ourselves Going Forward to do the best we can. Thank you. Secretary thank you. Any additional Public Comment . Seeing none, we will probably okay, the next item. 6, discussion and possible action to nominate candidates for bic president and Vice President , the vote to take place at the february meeting. President mccarthy thank you, commissioners. As you can see, the calendar is all housekeeping, this particular january, so come february, well calendar a more kind of more businesslike actions. One thing well do which is a little bit out of normal, we wanted to discuss and recommend, we have the presidency that comes up and the vice presidency that comes up at this time every year. So what we want to do today, if its okay with the commissioners is which one is up first . So the the Vice President and the bic president. Okay. So what we want to do today is take the nominations, agree on them and on the next calendar, we vote on them so they would become so. So first up is the presidency seat. Could i get a nominee . I would like to move that our current fearless president be renominated. Second. Secretary so we have a motion and a second. Commissioner clinch, thank you. President mccarthy i accept and thank you once again for that reappointment. In regards to the Vice President , which was commissioner walkers seat is now vacant. Could i get a nomination . Id like this nominate commissioner moss. Second. Secretary we have a motion and a second. Thank you. We would need to do a roll call vote on both nominations as for commissioner mccarthy as president and Vice President. President mccarthy are we allowed to vote . This is just to make the nomination. President mccarthy got you. The vote is next meeting. Deputy City Attorney robb kapla, you can vote today to have the nominations. If there is any other nominations, we will nominate people for the position we voted on for the next bic hearing per the bic rules. President mccarthy thank you. Secretary so then we dont need to do that today. Is there any Public Comment on this motion . Item . That was quick. Debra walker, civilian. I think its really important you have a commission that is appointed both by the mayor and the board and historically, we have really made an effort to try and include both of those sides in the leadership. So i would contemplate i would i know there is folks who are new that have been appointed by the board president , but certainly worth considering, if not for this body, for the abatement appeals, which i think maybe thats not up, but its one of the reasons we worked so well together, because we respected each others positions. And sometimes disagreements. So that would be my recommendation. President mccarthy thank you. Secretary thank you. Any additional Public Comment . Okay. Our next item is item 7. Discussion and possible action to appoint commissioners to serve on the Litigation Committee. President mccarthy on the Litigation Committee, for the new commissioners, its an important commission. Its where the abatements and the legal happens. I would like to sit on it again. I would recommend that commissioner alexandertut be a candidate. And then im kind of i havent really given there is a third seat needed on it. Im willing to commissioner walkers point, if we need the newer commissioners to sit on that, im okay with that as well. Because of your seat, i dont know if you felt you would like to sit on it. I would for sure. President mccarthy im open on that. So i would like to make a motion we do this . Do individual . Secretary you have to make a motion for the members and then if that motion passes, then those would be the members, if the motion fails, somebody else would have to do another vote . President mccarthy frank, did you have interest on the Litigation Committee . Okay. So we need somebody to make a motion. Secretary also in general, just to give a brief, our Litigation Committee is one of the subcommittees of the Building Inspection Committee and they meet once every other month to review cases that our City Attorney has presented there. Theyre closed session meetings that just happen at the department. Theyre not formal meetings that happen here. But its like every other month, 2 30 in the afternoon, the tuesday before the meeting. I would like to express interest in the committee. Im happy. Motion. Like this make a motion to reappoint president mccarthy to the litigation subcommittee and invite commissioner alexandertut and commissioner jacobo. Second. Secretary so we have a motion and a second to nominate the members of the Litigation Committee as Angus Mccarthy Jonathan Jacobo and alysabeth alexandertut. Supervisor kim thought this committee was so important she gave us a commendation for the work of the committee. This was for a landlord where we found 423 violations on his property. There are some good most landlords are good. We want to work with most. There are some who arent. This committee has had a key role in the case in the tenderloin. Virginia in the mission. Bayview property managers. The case where she had her sons come and throw the tenants down the stairs. The skyline realty, andrew hawkins. A lot of people dont know all of this stuff that this committee has done. Its extremely important. In the mid 90s, there was no way to hold these people accountable. Thats why this Commission Formed this committee. Back then, people were asking, are we utilizing section 204 of the housing code in the proper way . Section 204 is Civil Penalties that are a thousand Dollars Per Day per violation. You cannot get those penalties as a Housing Inspector. You have to go to a courtroom to ask for that kind of penalty. This is the committee that made it happen for all these years. So, im happy that we have some people who are interested and have an experienced background as well. And also, kudos to the president who has made it happen for so long and to commissioner walker who also made it happen for so long. Its very important work and we look forward to continuing it. Thank you very much. Secretary any additional Public Comment . Seeing none, well do the roll call vote. President yes. Alexandertut yes. Clinch yes. Jacobo yes. Lee yes. Moss yes. Tam yes. The motion carries unanimously. Our next item is item 8, discussion and possible action to appoint commissioners to serve on the nominations subcommittee. So in general, this subcommittee meets periodically, typically, well commissioner lee is currently one of the members. And they actually vote to accept members of the body that we oversee as appeals commission, the board of examiners and Code Advisory Committee. For the new commissioners, the information was in your packet. You had a whole lot to read, so i dont know if you got a chance to look at it. Commissioner lee ill elaborate a little bit. The Building Inspection Commission oversees three other commissions. We have the power to appoint people to those three commissions. Those three commissions are lets see the access appeal board, board of examiners, and the Code Advisory Committee. And i think the Code Advisory Committee is the biggest committee, biggest body. I think its 24 members . Sonya . 24 members, Something Like that. And each seat represents some part of the Construction Industry or a public member or business member. The board of examiners is about 12 members. And theyre made up of professionals as well, and public seats and businesses and stuff like that to represent people on that commission. And then finally, we have the access appeals commission. And that consists of five members. I think two of them are representative of the disabled access community, architects and public member, Something Like that. And the role of the Nomination Committee would be to do some outreach, review applications to fill those seats. We make recommendations to the full body here, the Building Inspection Commission, on whom to appoint to those seats. And thats essentially what the Nomination Committee does. Secretary and just to add, the meetings are not as regularly scheduled as Litigation Committee. Its basically services needed for you guys to meet when appointments are up, vacancies. They typically meet maybe, ill say, 25 times per year. Commissioner lee i think right now, none of the seats are expiring until fall . Secretary right. Commissioner lee so well probably have to meet sometime in the late summer or something. Secretary so is there a motion then to appoint members . President mccarthy i would nominate Commission Lee reappointment. Secretary and we need two other. I would like to nominate commissioner tam. Commissioner tam it would be an honor to serve. And im happy to keep serving. Secretary okay, commissioner moss. Thank you. So we have our members, our existing commissioner frank lee, commissioner sam moss, and commissioner jason tam. Is there any Public Comment on the motion to appoint these members . Seeing none, we will do a roll call vote on the motion. President yes. Alexandertut yes. Clinch yes. Jacobo yes. Lee yes. Moss yes. Tam yes. Secretary the motion carries unanimously. Our next item is item 9, commissioners questions and matters. Inquiries to staff. At this time commissioners may make inquiries to staff regarding various documents, policies, practices and procedures which are of interest to the commission . President mccarthy commissioners, any comments on this . Inquiry to staff . Secretary this is for like future items and discussion, so you can contact me at any time prior to the meeting. President mccarthy if something happens in your world that is relevant that you want brought up in the commission, calendar it with sonya and have a discussion. Thank you. Secretary our next item, 9b, future meetings and agendas. At this time the commission may discuss and take action to set the date of the special meeting. Our next regular meeting will be on february 19. And we also have a special meeting that is coming up, i believe its january 29th. But i sent all of you the meeting invite. Okay. So any Public Comment on items 9a and b . Seeing none, our next item. Item 10, discussion and possible action regarding changing the bic start time. That was an item that commissioner moss i believe brought up. Commissioner moss just thinking back, i guess i was thinking also about abatements, just that the two meetings sit together. I believe that we are going to be talking about more and more issues that san franciscans are going to Pay Attention to. Especially when it comes to Building Code. You know, if certain legislation is passed at state level, you know, that might encourage more demolition, more renovation, adding units. And i just wonder about comparing you know, Planning Commission and the board of supervisors meet in the afternoon. I have friends who have kids that actually are nerds enough to care about the Building Inspection Commission. They cant come to this. By the time they drop their kid off, they have to get to work for a few hours. Im wondering if there is a way to reschedule more meetings so its a little more equitable for a normal person to come and participate in our democracy . Yeah, thats why i made the motion. I see now that both meetings go together and i probably should have done it at abatement also, but just to paint the picture why i did it. Thats what i wanted to say. President mccarthy discussion. Basically the time we have here for me, when commissioner moss brought it up, i was thinking about it. I would be interesting in what are the effects. I do get the public input and ive had that pointed out to me before, that the timing of this commission can be a bit for people who are holding down jobs and so on. Then i hear people complain about the Planning Commission and that time is wrong as well. So im an open book on this. Because as selfemployed, i can be here. But the effects, obviously, i look at sonya here, what does it mean to her world . Its very important we keep her happy. And automatically, i think, it does affect scheduling and even getting the room and what does it mean to the Building Department . I know im not sure how they would feel about it. The staff, whether its morning or afternoon. And what that means and so on. And im id have to give it more thought. I welcome the fact of the discussion, so im all ears. And i dont know if the will is here for it. I would definitely open the book on it. Commissioner moss just to clarify. All i wanted to do was have the discussion. I completely understand there are consequences one way or the other. I do know that there are a lot of members of the public that do watch us on tv. I mean, they do watch us. So whether its live or on a rerun, people do watch this Commission Meeting. So one of the things to consider is, if we do move this Commission Meeting time to a different day or different time, we need to figure out if were being able to broadcast. So thats very important. Thats one. But given the consideration of what commissioner moss said about the public coming to the meeting, and speaking and on matters that is important to them. How about this . If there is no reason why we cant hold a special meeting when we have agenda items that are more interesting to the members of the public who want to come speak in front of us. So, for example, if we know it may be interesting for family members who have children to come to this meeting, maybe we can schedule that item for a special meeting in the evening or Something Like that. Im just throwing it out there. Commissioner moss i think that is i think, we kind of do that already. Yeah, i mean, i guess i just think that it is part of our job to encourage participation. Not in a special way, but because were all part of San Francisco. And i love thinking that someone is watching me on tv, thats cool, but we dont have a mechanism for them to participate. I say it all the time when i speak about building affordable housing. The typical san franciscan gets a notice of a building in the mail, reads it, then crumbles it up and goes to make dinner for the family. We have no mechanism to count that as support. You could get a letter and thats great, but then were leaving it up to the individual commissioner to take that as support or not. And i just worry about, you know, in the 10 years ive been in affordable housing, it seems like we have made the situation where the small group that can be the loudest publicly, obscure time on a weekday, gets the cake. And thats why i brought it up. To see about evening the playing field. For me, i think the idea of equitable accessibility is very important. Ive always felt that the way that we operate at City Government is very prohibitive for many working class people and families. So i think i commend commissioner moss for at least putting that out there. Im open to moving the meetings if this means that there are is an increase in access blibility working class families. I would also preface it by saying that we have an entire department that kind of revolves around sitting in standard meetings. So understanding what the implications and ramifications are would be very important. And i would like to say, it should be both abatement and bic combined. And maybe having special meetings would be a little difficult, because it becomes unpredictable where we are. Consistency is important. How do we judge what equitable accessibility is . And the second piece, what is the consequences to the department . And then third, making sure we join both and keep it consistent. Commissioner moss i would ask, what is the from staff, what is the mechanism for analyzing objectively to discuss impact . And then also is there even a room available . Deputy City Attorney robb kapla, i would suggestion the commission move forwards towards, if there is interesting, entertaining a motion to set up an Exploratory Committee or requesting research it sounds like there are two different potential issues here. One is staff and facility accessibility. Just procedurally, whether and when would be available. And the second would be actually some sort of survey or study as to what is the most optimal time for public participation. I dont think we would want to move it anecdotally until we have a better sense. So those two would be the efforts. Commissioner tut so im curious about the proposal myself. 1 to 3 is also pickup time for preschools and schools. In terms of more accessible or less accessible, a lot of people coming here contractor, they may charge premium to come in the evening. I dont know. There is a lot of questions i have, but i definitely am curious about the idea of a study to find out what are the optimal times, who is going to come before us, who do we need to be the most accessible to . And im hoping that the budget process will be an experiment for us, because were having one at 10 00 a. M. , one at 1 p. M. Are there more people that come to one or the other . Or nobody at all . Those might be opportunities to explore. And as well as the motion that the City Attorney suggested. Just responding to commissioner mosss question, once that Committee Discusses options, there is another mechanism i would have to contact the city hall staff to find out about the room availability. I guess once that Committee Proposes a couple of times, we can look into the room availability. Id like to make the motion that the City Attorney said so much better. Whatever he said. Roll it back. [laughter]. Secretary this is going to be Public Comment. My name is jerry. Im surprised with three young commissioners, were still addressing physical Presence Point of view. So why dont we think because it would be very hard you could accelerate the open Public Comment, but people cant publicly comment on each individual matter without sitting through the whole meeting. So why cant there be a mechanism where the materials are available earlier online. And secondly, people can submit written comments, but they have to have their name and they have to be legitimate, and those comments are presented to you as those matters come up. Because you know, both family members working and if you have children, its a major commitment. I mean, i can do it because im retired. And im interested. But i would ask you not to think about people physically being here. There is all sorts of ways of addressing it and not having them physically show up. And then parking is a pain. Commissioner moss i wish you would give that speech to our board of supervisors and planning as well. Yeah, thats a good point. I think that would be a whole other study to be frank, just trying to work within the system weve got right now. But i would like to go on the record saying that would be a gamechanger for inclusivity for all of our government to be frank. Its hard to participate. Secretary we have a motion by commissioner moss. Can you restate that . I believe the motion is whether to set up Exploratory Committee on availability of facilities and optimal meeting times for the general public. Secretary a second . And the impact on department, right. Secretary do we have a second . Ill second it. Secretary okay. So this is to establish a committee. Can we do both in one motion . Deputy City Attorney, i think we would vote for whether we want to set up the committee. And then have another item as to appointing, i would say, its a subcommittee. That would be my suggestion. Establishing a subcommittee and then nominating members. Secretary okay. Okay, so the first motion is to set up the Exploratory Committee. Now a roll call on that motion. President mccarthy yes. Alexandertut yes. Clinch yes. Jacobo yes. Lee yes. Moss yes. Tam yes. Okay, that motion carries unanimously. And then we have a part second part to the motion to set up a committee of members. Motion to nominate members to the subcommittee. President mccarthy how many people on the committee . Less than a quorum. President mccarthy so three it is. Could i have nominees . Nominate commissioner moss. Id love to [laughter]. I would like to nominate would you like to serve. Forgive me . Ill get it next time. Dont worry about it. Thats two. We need one more. I mean i nominate mr. Jacobo. Yes, thank you. Secretary okay. President mccarthy so you have the nominees, madame secretary. The members we have to be nominated are commissioner moss, commissioner alexandertut and commissioner jacobo. Is there Public Comment on that motion . Well do the roll call vote on it. President mccarthy yes. Commissioner alexandertut yes. Clinch yes. Jacobo yes. Lee yes. Moss yes. Tam yes. Thank you, motion carries unanimously. Our next item is item 11, update regarding the cannabis business permitting process. Welcome and thank you for waiting. What is the time on this . Secretary its not timed because its a presentation by staff. So keep it president mccarthy nope. Youre fine. However much time you need. Set up for a few minutes. We thought wed make this interactive and more exciting, so more of us are going to present, and this also gives you a chance to get to know more people from our office. Thank you. [please stand by] [please stand by] who has been instrumental in our ability to navigate d. B. I. , as well as working with other City Partners to make this happen. Thank you so much. And i want to thank this commission for being so supportive of our office and helping us as we really want to stand this office up, get this organization and this industry thriving in San Francisco. I thought i would share first a little bit about myself, who i am. Take this opportunity to share what our office is doing, where we have been and where we are going. Again, like i said, a little bit about who i am so you can get to know me better. I grew up in San Francisco. I spent a good majority of my career at the district attorneygenerals office, which is an interesting full circle for me. I was on one side of this conversation, where i was myself furthering the war on drugs. That was our directive, and that was the mandate. That is what kept the public safe. That was the understanding, and i think it is an incredible time in our history when we can step back and reevaluate some of our more draconian laws and say, hey, we got that wrong, specifically with respect to this particular substance. In fact, lets not only get it right, but lets ensure that those individuals who are most iimpacted have an opportunity to engage in the legal framework. This has been a very informative experience with me. But im not doing it alone. Im doing it with an incredible team, who most were here before i started, and who have a passion in this space, and come from a diverse array of backgrounds, who bring a lot of expertise to cannabis, as well as cannabis regulations. We want to also thank former commissioner debra walker. When you were sitting here, and we were before you, you asked that we come in and share a little bit about who we are and what were doing and what were trying to accomplish with your support, and that is happening today. Im very, very happy youre here. It is interesting how these things work out. I want to get started with our roadmap. This is what youre going to see and learn today. Were going to review a little bit about the historic perspective. Some of what i talked about for a few minutes there, were going to go through our overview and try to be quick about that so that youll have a chance ask questions and we can answer them. Well run through our Equity Program, which is really the foundation of the work were doing. Well talk about our permit process, and you a little bit of a snapshot of where we are. Im really, really excited to announce we reached our q42019 goal of having a first permit issued. And not only did we issue one, we issued two, and we hope to issue another one this week. And so we are rolling, and thats an exciting thing. It is not only setting this office up, building an application process from scratch, having the first online application available for any permit in San Francisco, bringing city agencies doin together and inward to figure out a way to assist individuals who havent really had access to this process in the past, and we know navigating a very bureaucratic process is not easy for the most skilled person. Working with individuals to get through that, getting through their planning hearing, getting their job card ready, and thats when d. B. I. Comes in, and getting sign off, meaning they built their businesses and hammered that last nail and got signoff and can go through our last phase and get their final permit. It actually does, and its exciting. Well go through more of that. But before that, i also wanted to just say im coming up on what will be a year april 1st, which was my first day, and so the joke is on me thats okay, i met my husband on april fools day, so it is a good day for me. In this time, it has been really exciting because weve been able to work with City Partners like yourselves to really help streamline this process. Weve worked with the Police Department to help streamline our background process, which was a small stopgap, and youll see that in the report if you decide to read the whole thing. And weve also had the opportunity to get 61 applications to the Planning Department, which is an incredible feat, as well as have 15 them in the buildout phase. And so were hoping that later this year well have all of those permitted. A good majority of our permits are for retail storefronts. That is the most interesting part of this work that i think a lot of people find interesting. However, you play a part in the cultivation side as well. We work closely with our d. B. H. Partners, making sure there is limited environmental impact, and other aspects. Consumption comes up, and were going to talk a little about that, because we work with d. B. I. In making sure those spaces are safe. My goal is to create a thriving cannabis industry in San Francisco. I want it to be safe. I want people to have access to labtested product, and i want people to have a place that does not create a negative impact on our community with respect to secondhand smoke. I think it is important that we Work Together to achieve those goals, and we are certainly reaching that point. And it is unique because it is an opportunity to encourage tourism to our community. Northern california, many will say, is the epicenter for cannabis historically. Lets not let idaho or some else get it we should get it. And were looking forward to answering all of your questions. Thank you. Thank you very much. Is jeremy schwartz, analyst with the San Francisco office of cannabis. In order to appreciate how we got here today, it is important to consider the historical context. Broadly speaking, the war on drugs was declared by the Nixon Administration in 1971, when the federal government promulgated the controlled substances act, creating various schedules for different drugs. Currently, cannabis is a schedule 1controlled substance, federally prohibited, despite the adult use legalization in San Francisco. San franciscans voted overwhelming, 74 , in favor of proposition 64, which passed in november 2016. That not only legalized the adultuse framework, but also consolidated the medical framework that was passed as part of the compassionate use act in 1996. So although cannabis is a schedule 1controlled substance in the last year, the f. D. A. Did approve at the deal, which derives cannabis compounds to treat seizures, among other medical issues. We can see here in this next slide, when the war on drugs was declared in 1971, it led to an increase of about 400 of incarcerated individuals. The city and county of San Francisco issued an equity report in conjunction with the human rights commission, as well as the office of the controller, which demonstrated that despite similar usage rates across race, black and brown people did disproportionately bear the negative consequences associated with cannabis enforcement. Proposition 64 passed november 2016, and the city and county of San Francisco established the office of cannabis via legislation in the summer of 2017. Our first director, nicole elliot, was appointed later that fall. She now serves as Governor Newsoms adviser on cannabis. The office initially started with three staff members. We have grown to six. And as director rodriguez mentioned, office of cannabis being the first office in the city and county to have an all online application process, which was launched in may 2018 to verify equity applicants. Well go into more detail later in the presentation, as well as opening up the application for cannabis business permits, of which we allow nonstorefront retail, but also the supply chain which contributes to distribution, and manufacturing cultivation, vales having one Laboratory Facility in the city and county. And im back, to keep it exciting. So youll see the Organization Chart here. This is what cannabis looks like in San Francisco, right . You have the office of cannabis, and you have the department of Public Health, overseeing different aspects of the permitting process. Why the department of Public Health . So preprop 64, article 33 was in play, and that was the framework for our medical dispensaries. At that time, if you wanted to have access to medical cannabis, you had to get a card, right, from your doctor, and access it from what from a dispensary that was her in San Francisco. There are about 37of them. Theyre still in existence. That is what were referring to when we say the existing industry. Those are our medical dispensaries that now postprop 64 are able to sell adultuse cannabis through a program with our office. Eventually, all of the dispensaries will fall under my purview. We are processing new applications through or Equity Program. The goal is that we reach parity. Now we have 30, for example, 37 medical dispensaries, and hopefully well have 37 equity dispensaries under the new framework. In addition, the department of Public Health oversees the cultivation component as far as the environmental aspects of cultivation, as well as, and thats why we have it separated in that way. Okay. So i want to run through actually, before i talk about our Core Functions, jeremy mentioned epidiliacs, and there was a point i wanted to stress which was that the feds have found a medical use for cannabis, and it is schedule 5, yet cannabis is still considered schedule 1, so a little bit of hypocrisy there. Moving on, the office of cannabis, our Core Functions. We are six people, and we have eight Core Functions. Some would argue that some of the Core Functions would probably require their own department alone. One of them is permitting. Our sole focus is permitting businesses and events. Last year was our first event, which was grasslands, and well talk a little bit about that at the end of this presentation. Equity verification is important. In order to be verified as an equity applicant, you have to run through a process. My colleague will share a little more what that looks like. Rulemaking, and we have come before this commission before in talking about how to better streamline our process. Youre going to hopefully see us more in the future as well, wherever it is relevant, because we really, really want to make this more streamlined and a simpler process, as well as we can, given, of course, that we want to maintain Public Safety and Public Health and all of those things. Enforcement. This is huge and this is something youll hear me talking about a lot this year. Right now we dont have capacity for very robust enforcement. We are tasked with enforcement. There are two prongs to enforcement. There is keeping the regulated market compliant, which is important. And pushing back on the illicit market. I call it the unregulated market or illicit. I choose not to say black market. I think that is steeped in racist undertones, and it is important when talking about that that we be more specific. And deliberate with our speech. With respect to the illicit market, it is important that we think about this in a very thoughtful way. We dont want to further the criminal Justice System in this space in order to normalize Something Like cannabis. We have had to step away with regard to policing, but we will have to revisit this conversation and figure out how we can abate the illicit market. Because right now what were finding is our regulated market cannot compete. And if they cannot compete, why go through all of these hoops. We end up with access to the wrong product, and we get things like vape gate. Which we dont want to see happen in San Francisco. The industry is actually very interested in this conversation, so im excited about that, and i do have the background. And moving on, our core function is Community Outreach. It is really important that we be out in the community and present. Again, we are only six people, so we split up the city as best as we can. We go to Public Meetings when asked. We try to go to Public Meetings when not asked. We want to be out there and accessible to the community. Not only with talking about our process, but also the opportunities through cannabis. We collaborate with City Partners, which is what today is all about. And our task was limiting youth exposure and access. And the department of Public Health is also tasked with this. Most recently, we have an oversight committee, which one of our members from our office, who is here today, matash, he oversees our entire oversight committee. It is comprised of industry members, union members, as well as Different Department heads who talk about the future of cannabis and how we can be more affective. Good morning. Eugene hillsman. One of the things im happy to talk to you about is the dual licensing structure in place for cannabis in california. You need both a state license and a local permit from our office or the department of Public Health. Here you see the organizations that are responsible for permitting those businesses, depending on activity type. So for retailers, distribution, laboratories, and microbusinesses, theyre currently regulated by the bureau of cannabis control. For cultivators, theyre regulated by cal cannabis and the California Department of agriculture. And for manufacturing, theyre regulated by the California Department of Public Health. Earlier this week, Governor Newsom made an announcement in which in order to increase efficiency and communication, to consolidate those agencies into one department, the department of cannabis control. We expect that that will happen some time in july of 2021. It is coming, but right now there are three agencies, and eventually they will consolidate into one agency. I would also like to talk a little bit about our Equity Program, primarily designed to support students for individuals who have been negatively impacted by the war on drugs. Right now theor they receive priority processing, and they receive waived fees, and cooperation that director rodriguez mentioned. The second process is equity incubators. Were currently only processing applications in that first category for equity ap captains. Sapplicants. So all of the applis youre hearing about are in that category 1. The second category is for equity incubators. If you were not directly impacted yourself by the war on drugs, you can also receive a cannabis permit by supporting the Business Development of someone that was. Either by providing Technical Assistance or rentfree space on our offsite. Thats second process, equity incubators. The third processing category is nonexisting industry. These are individuals who are able to demonstrate they were in operation, but for whatever reason were no longer able to operate, either individuals that were federally enforced, so they may have received a threatening letter from the federal government to their landlord and were forced to close. They received a ticket to apply for a cannabis permit once it was available. And our preexisting nonconforming operators. They still have the opportunity to come into that regulated structure. So thats the third category. The fourth category is our existing medical cannabis dispense arenas, andispensariess iisitransited from the unregulated framework to a regulated framework. The fifth category is for individuals making community commitments, and the last category is for all applicants. As director rodriguez noted, were still in that first category, and looking to process those applications currently. So this kind of describes a little bit in more detail kind of our current process with regard to equity applicants. Right now we verified over 300 applicants. A lot of this information and content is available on our website. The controllers report had a section dedicated to it. Right now individuals are processed by demonstrating they meet an asset test, and also, theyre required to meet three of six existing criteria. The first is having income below established limits, which is 80 of area median adjusted income. The second is around criminal justice involvement for cannabis, between the time in which president nixon declared a war on drugs in 1971, thew legalization in 2016. It has to be for a cannabisrelated offense. The third category is for a family member, parent, sibling, or child, to be convicted for a cannabisrelated crime. The fourth is to having experienced housing insecurity. The fifth is to have attended a San Francisco unified District School from 2001 to 2016 for five years. They dont have to be consecutive. And the last is to demonstrate eligibility in a census track below 7 70 poverty. And once you do so, you have the standing to apply for a cannabis business permit in that first processing category. The second category, as i mentioned is for equity modem disconnection . There are different requirements that are tiered. They are also required to support people who have been negatively impacted so they can support equity applicants. Some individuals dont necessarily want to operate a business, but theyre looking to gain employment in the cannabis industry. And in the third, it is to support the Business Development of equity applicants. There are a number of operators who support Technical Assistance, in which they describe their expertise in the cannabis industry, and tell people how to operate a business, and they can demonstrate theyre in compliance, and then we provide authorization to the department of Public Health to issue a permit amendment. The last category for existing industry is our temporary permits. We coordinated over 80 life safety inspections with the San Francisco fire department, the department of building inspection and the department of Public Health. My colleague, ray law, who is also here, was instrumental in helping doing those inspections, and if you have additional questions, he would be happy to answer them. And they are also renewed every 120 days to make sure theyre currently in compliance. As i mentioned, the primary goal of the Equity Program is to restore opportunities for people who have been negatively impacted. We do that through incubation, offering commercial space, through reduced application fees, so individuals dont pay for applications in their first year. They are required to pay upon renewal, but not in their first year. They receive and are beneficiaries of some of the inner Agency Advocacy that we described, and receive Technical Assistance in addition to priority processing. San francisco is one of the jurisdictions has an Equity Program. And you can see the list of others. We recently received a 1. 3 million grant from the state to continue to help support our equity applicants as they start to develop cannabis businesses. Thank you. Id like to bring your attention to the slide again. We had a lot of questions about this, and it is really interesting the top three criteria that are actually the most popular for getting verified, as an equity applicant, is the unified school district, that you attended a Public School in San Francisco census track, and your income. There is a misconception that everyone had some sort of criminal justice composure, and that is not the case all of the time. It is in some cases, but not all the time. So i like to point that out. So quickly, ill run through our permitting process. What it looks like youre an applicant, and youre interested in coming to the office of cannabis and applying for a business permit. There are two things that equity applicants can consider when exploring cannabis. The workforce, perhaps an opportunity to work in the space, which being a verified equity applicant affords you, or opening your own business. If youre interested in opening a business, you come to the office of cannabis. If youre interested in working in the spreas, you gspace, yougo to the office of Economic Development and start the process there. What we hope to continue to make more streamline, our process for permitting businesses. You come to our office and you submit an application. We want to ensure you actually have a viable location. We will do an informal review with the Planning Department to ensure that you are not encroaching on a school or youre not within 600 feet of another business. Thats the first point. If youre good to go, we start the process. There is a lot that is involved with respect to ownership disclosures, documents, we want to make sure our equity applicants are set up in appropriate relationships, so to speak, and that those contracts meet the spirit of our program. So thats a very organic process. Some individuals that come to our door come with a lot of savvy in the Business World and arena. Others come with very little, so it really depends. We can have a meeting where were talking what a contract is, versus how theyre planning to divvy up shares and is can be very different. It can take a lot of time. If someone is ready to go, they have access to other resources, even attorneys, they could get through our process in less than a month. For others, it could be a back and forth with their investors, perhaps even trying to find investors, and it could take a little longer. So the first phase sometimes tends to take a little longer depending. And we run through our conviction history review. There was a bit of a bottleneck, but now through great relations with the Police Department, we have been able to streamline that process. Once youre through the first phase of the office of cannabis, youre ready for your referral to the Planning Department to essentially establish your land use entitlement go through that process, rather and eventually secure your permit, right . So that is a different process. You end up with a different city agency, and you have to navigate that process as well. In some cases, there are long waits, and were working through that. And the agencies that touch cannabis have been incredible in leaning in and figuring out ways we can be more helpful. Once youre through with planning, youre ready to get your job card. And there is informal correspondent with d. B. I a flare goes up, something goes on behind the scenes im only kidding as is started. So it is very exciting. But we see everyone again at that job card moment. That is also what triggers the part two of the office of cannabis process, when we bring our applicants in to talk about what this is going to look like for the next few months. At this time with talk about other forms they have to fill out with us, the Good Neighbor policy, the Community Outreach, and the security plans. All things that the community really, really cares about. It is important to us they get that part right. We do bring them in. And this slide just basically talks a little more about what that looks like. For some people, it is going to be putting up signs that say no loitering in front of our business. I think folks are starting to realize more and more that dispensaries are not nightclubs or bars. They are pretty quiet and uneventful for the most part, but people still have misconceptions and they want to have some input on how they conduct business. That engagement with the community is really important. We ask that they at least hold one Community Outreach community to accomplish some of the things we need them to accomplish they really need about two. And the conversations happening with our neighbors as well. Our security plans are also very important. They engage with the Police Department at this stage as well. The Police Department will come in and talk to them about perhaps positioning cameras a certainly way, making sure that it is visible from the outside in. Police department this is district by district they get a sense of what the businesses look like from the inside out, so in case there is an event, they know how to navigate the business. So this slide describes the existing retail by district. Often this is the place in which we see the most community concern. Theyre the most visible parts of the supply chain. Here you see a breakdown by the District Supervisor where the existing retail is in the city and county of San Francisco, divided moiamongst the storefront category and the delivery category. This chart essentially describes all of the applications in our system. As director rodriguez mentioned, in that first line you see our equity verification process. So here we have seen 557 individuals summit an submit an application online. And of that group, about 320 have been actually verified. As director rodriguez mentioned, the first top three criteria are for San Francisco unified attendance, and below 17 poverty and income. Thats the top line. In the second category, you see an estimation of the applications we currently have in our system, divided by activity type and category. So here we see the number of equity applications that we have, by ac activity type. In the third category, you see land use. And this is a situation where we see the number of referral, 61, and the actually planning, which is 13. Not all of the ac activity types need a hearing. 15 have had their youth established, and we have two applicants who formally received a permit from our office. We have more temporary permitees, but chul actual permits under the police code, we have two of them. We have a number of storefront permits now, which we work in close communication with the department of Public Health, and a number of activities across the supply chain, distribution, cultivation, manufacturing, and our testing laboratory. On our website, one of the things that has been really useful for individuals who are interested in learning more about how our retail is distributed across the city, we have a map so you can go to our website and see, at any point in time, what is the current state of our applications. Not only does it list them, it includes both the 600foot buffer from existing retail, but also from existing schools, and you can see the existing medical cannabis expens dispensaries. You can see if theyve just been submitted, if the office of ca cannabis is currently processing those permits, or if theyre under construction and the buildout phase, or if theyve been formally approved. It is a resource we believe has been really helpful, and we encourage you to visit it. Were in the process of making some significant improvements to this planning map, in which individuals can gain greater access to detail, and also would be viewable on mobile phones. Jeremy schwartz. So establishing an industry raises the question of where folks are able to consume their products. Bearing in mind, there are certainly smokeable products that include flower vaporizers, but there are other delivery methods, sub linguals, topicals, and to date there are seven legacy lounges with the medical cannabis dispensaries, receiving their permit by the department of Public Health. Our colleague, ray law, conducts inspections of these premises, and typically collaborates with our d. P. H. Partners as well. We can see some of the requirements for these legacy lounges. And then relatedly, all retailers in the city and county must make this public Cannabis Consumption safety sheet available to the public. San francisco is certainly a tourist hub. There is concern that tourists may not be as familiar with this product. So us in collaboration with d. P. H. , making an effort if folks are going to consume, they consume responsibly. Look what i found. Im sure you are wondering where that went. So, yeah, tourism is an important component of this. We want to attract people here, and we want to make sure we create a safe space for those who live here. Our moto is access, education, safety, and repeat. And we want people to come back because they had a good experience. What ends up happening, people will come off airplanes, 17hour flights, suitcase in hand, run straight to mo greens, and have having what we call noodleing effect. Part of that is actually permitting events as well. Last year we permitted outside lands. It is a threeday enormous music festival, the first of its kind to have adult sales and consumption of cannabis. I ate many tums that weekend, very nervous about how this was going to go. Our team was actually offline, the entire team, six of us, taking rotations to ensure the safety and compliance throughout the process, as well as state, individuals from this california cannabis office, the bureau of cannabis patrol, who came down to ensure the same thing, from behind the scenes, as well as in front. And we are happy to report that last year we didnt have one single call for service for the Police Department, not one medical transport. Believe it or not, everyone was very relaxed and chill. Hmmm, thats funny. People were very respectful of our consumption spaces, so those working the event did not experience as much impact, which we appreciate. Those who didnt comply as much were actually our cigarette smokers. Well work on that next time. With respect to the Pilot Program for events, basically the idea is the event took place in the past, had been permitted by the city in the past, and it experienced a great deal of unregulated sales of cannabis in the past. Those are the criteria to be eligible for a Pilot Program this year. About seven events are approved as eligible, and hopefully will want to engage in the pilot so we can learn how best to roll out events in San Francisco. Weve already seen a largescale event with some pretty sophisticated and thoughtful event managers. So we were able to have a successful event. Well see how street fairs look. Well see how smaller events in the park might look. Were going to see how 420 looks like. It is important that we create a safe space for people. Hopefully, about this time, 2021, ill be able to share with you sort of how that worked and what it looks like for an office to take on a pretty significant and heavy list, but one that will bring a lot of joy to San Francisco. I want to say thank you so much for taking the time to listen to us and have us here today. I want to ask my staff to stand up, so you can see these were a great team. We work well together. Were excited to be in this space. If you see us walking in the hallways and you have questions, feel free to ask. We host open hours in the basement, 1 00 to 5 00 every day. And were talking to people all day. We want to be accessible to individuals who want to essentially engage government through this process. Thank you very much. I appreciate it so much. And thank you, president memccarthy, for allowing us to be here today. Thank you. And thank you for a most detailed and enjoyable presentation here. It is such an interesting journey, when i think back to this. I go back when nicky was the face of this, and now we have you, exprosecutor. Right. How the world has changed, and it is a really, really great presentation. Thank you. Have you presented this in other we are scheduled to present before the Planning Department as well. Yes. Because it is really ready for prime time. You have covered all of the details. Thank you. I love the stats. And as somebody who lived through the hysteria when this when you first applied for these applications how is that going . The Community Outreach thank you for asking. The Community Outreach, you go to my side, or the west side of town. I tried it once or twice, but i ended up i couldnt get there. My colleague thats why this presentation, i think, is really ready to go to the communities and see the facts. Take it on the road . Id be happy to, thank you. In fact, my colleague, eugene hillsman, just last night experienced a very Colorful Community meeting. And, yes, there is still a lot of concern about communities changing or this fear that somehow bringing cannabis to your community is going to make it into something you know i dont know, that movies are made of from the 50s, and thats not what were seeing. There is some change its taking a while. The same group that opened mo greens opened their first dispensary out in the sunset. There was a lot of concern about, if you can imagine. But what were seeing from the community is, theyre quite surprised. It is quiet, there is security, there is lighting, were activating spaces. When i think about cannabis 3. 0, i think a lot about the Equity Program and reserving it and perhaps figuring out a way to transition it not to just cannabis businesses but to all businesses. It would be nice to have some of our vacant storefronts open with other things as well that can be equity businesses that started from the cannabis space. There is a lot of opportunity here, and i think as people start to see it come to light, they realize this is not as scary as i thought it would be. It is more discrete than what i think people are concerned about. On some of your stats that you have, and how it is breaking out around the city, like youll see in some areas there are like 15 locations, versus other locationslocations is that we potential new cannabis Business Owners are saying we will not go there because it is too much . Or is can you yeah. So what were seeing when you see sort of 15in one area, that is sort of our older model. A lot of the dispensaries in the past didnt have the buffer requirement that youre seeing now, but those have been grandfathered in, so to speak. A lot of it has to do with parts of our town that allow for certain business, right . And others that dont. And maybe being allowed to expand those green zones a bit so that we can have more balance citywide. And conversations about parts of our town that were industrialized, and that makes it a natural place for our business to thrive. My final question before i go to commissioner jacobo, the manufacturing part, do you see San Francisco as being more of a manufacturer, or is that being done in different locations . The numbers are pretty low there, as far as who is manufacturing yeah. I think as far as the expense to the business at all, just in general in our city, it is a challenge. We do have the space, we do have the infrastructure, as manufacturing of the past has since left our city. There are spaces available, and there are very eager landlords that want to engage cannabis. I think we can have a very robust and thriving Manufacturing Community here in San Francisco. Some of the challenges are just how long it takes to get through our permitting process. If you can imagine how much it cost to rent out a space cannabis, im going to charge you a lot. So it is a challenge. If we can get in front of that, we can have a very robust and thriving Manufacturing Community, providing a lot of livablewage jobs, even unionwage jobs here in San Francisco. So i think being able to attract that is really important. With respect to cultivation, that is a little different because you need a huge footprint, but we do have it. But, again, we want to create a more friendly environment, and a process that is easier so these cultivators can be successful. Because, again, there are a lot of jobs in that space. Are you getting applications in trouble because of power . Yep. Were having some challenges with power. It is expensive. It is expensive to operate at that high level and needing to provide your own transformers, for example. Its kind of wild. Yeah. And its expensive. Commissioner, please forgive me for hugging the mic. No worries. I just wanted to say thank you to you and your department. I think that was a very thoughtful presentation. I think the statement of this being ready for prime time and to go on the road i think is true. It is a very complicated kind of issue. I think were unraveling it. For me in the mission district, i think we have always seen an oversaturation of liquor licenses and of these types of things in particular communities. And so it is always, for us, good to be just mindful of the kind of history that exists with it. I will say that is always coupled with these preconceived notions of what these dispensaries may look like or may not look like. Im very appreciative of the fact youre out latenight at these Community Meetings and we have these buffer zones because getting that input in and having it be part of this cohesive for the future is really important. Lastly, ill just say this has been such a journey for many people. You guys showed the chart from 1971 to today, the spike of all of these individuals who have been arrested because of something that should have never been what it was. So it is full circle. And for me, it is very amazing to see where this may go for San Francisco. So i just wanted to thank you guys and heigh highlight that. Thank you. And, actually, if you ever hear of meetings in your community that you would like to see us at, we go by invitation. We dont always like to bombard a meeting, and we know there are going to be challenges, but were excited to be out there. To that point and also really important that our office is a reflection of the community we serve. That was very important to me coming in. The Equity Program was something that excited me from the beginning, why i considered leaving the d. A. s office for this. Who knows where this is going to go in my life, but it is exciting. Im calling my excitement, excitement and not stress. But it is certainly an exciting time. And we have a team of individuals in the office of cannabis that really, really want to be thoughtful in how we roll this out. Every single day we talk about that and how we are having an impact on community. And to your point, whether its a conversation about redlining and what that means, and if it is a conversation about expanding green zones into areas that maybe need to be expanded, so we can expand all business, not just cannabis. And if the permitting process can be something that allows for the entire permitting process for San Francisco to get better, were excited to be at the forefront of that. I passed out the controllers report because it is an opportunity to finally have a third party validate a lot of what our industry has been saying, and saying they need to be successful. A lot of what ive been saying, and my team has been saying. But we have to be a little bit more politically sensitive when we ask for certain things. But we think that we can be a worldclass destination for cannabis, an industry that not only serves a few, right, but the many. And to your point, if you have businesses and i do like less of a cluster, but i do like the opportunity for Diverse Offerings within a cluster. I see dispensaries as bevmos. You dont need 30, but you need one bar and maybe one health bar with goats or whatever. If the businesses and tell you, i think the next study we want to probably look at is the giveback for the industry. It is enormous. The Community Gives back a lot to organizations within its own community and beyond. And i think that all of our businesses that are coming in through this Community Outreach and through their Good Neighbor policies are identifying issues in their own community, whether i it is homelessness, you name it. They talked about tennis programs and basketball programs, and figuring out ways to get groceries in communities where there are food deserts. It is really important that getting community to engage this industry, i dont want to miss this opportunity because i think if you do it right, the cannabis industry wants to give back in a meaningful way and has the ability to. So thank you for your question. Or your statements. I just want to say thank you for your team and your leadership. Thank you. And for this really innovative approach and program. And im really excited to see your report a year from now. Thank you. Call on us. You have a lot of support here. Call on us if there is a way we can be supportive as well in our positions. Thank you. I certainly didnt do this alone. Im on the shoulders of my predecessor and a team that is incredible. Thank you for taking the time to hear us today. Thank you, director, and thank you, team. Thank you. Is there any Public Comment item of item 11 . Okay, seeing known, item 12a, the directors report. Update on d. B. I. s finances. Thank you, Deputy Director, for waiting. Yes, of course. Good morning, commissioners, taris madison, Deputy Director for the department of building inspection. Before you listed the december 20 Monthly Financial report, it includes revenues and expenditures for the current fiscal year, the first six months, july through december 2019. And ill just take a couple of minutes and go over some of the highlights. So basically on the revenue section, and since we have three new commissioners, ill kind of go over each page. The first page gives just pretty much the actuals and then a projection. The projections actually very basic and very preliminary because we really dont even start making projections until six months, so this is the first six months. And then the following pages, helped the memo, actually are the details. So youll see four pages of revenue. So the department collects over 60 different types of revenues, and so you see them the first two pages are the month of for each of those types of revenues, and the final three pages has a summary and our projections. The final last page is basically a comparison of last fiscal year to this fiscal year. That is basically what is included every month. First all start with the revenue. So basically on the revenue side, weve collected about 41. 2 million in the first month of the fiscal year, compared to 40. 3 million. It is a slight increase total revenue based on an increase in plan checking and premium plan review. But it is offset by last year at this time the Controllers Office put almost 2million in interest in our account, and that isnt there yet. So when you take the interest out of consideration actually, this december has been a very good month. We collected about 4. 3million in december, and that normally does not happen. Most of it has to do with our planchecking revenues and then our premium planchecked revenues. Those are really up a lot in this current month. And right now we dont want to look too much into this because i think it may be an anomaly in some cases. We dont normally collect that much money. But december was really busy because as youre aware, the code changed in january of this year. So well keep looking at this, but for right now, basically, as i said before, december 2019 was actually a very good month for us. On the competen expenditure sid, we collected a total of 31. 3 million, compared to 30 million last year. Thats due to higher spending by the grants organizations. It is not necessarily that theyre spending more, it is that our c. B. O. S are submitting their invoices more timely. A lot of times they would wait, but now were getting to see them more regularly. Overall because our budget has increased so much, we would expect for our expenditures to are more. One place we expect to see a lot more act is at the services of other departments, money we paid to other city departments that are providing services to d. B. I. Normally for them, they dont bill us every month. They may bundle sex or six or seven months together, so expect that should shoot up a little, too. Right now were projecting an 8. 2million surplus in revenues. Well keep adjusting that. We make these projections, but we wait until the ninth month when we have a good pattern, and we see more billings from our vendors, to actually make some really more meaningful projections. And i am happy to answer any questions, if there are any. I have just one question. Im just curious about the projection for revenue at the fiscal year. Uhhuh. You mentioned that the yeartodate, which is six months, is 41 million or so. Why is the projected revenue for the next six months so much more . It is almost, like, twice. It is more than the first six months. I noticed that last year, december yeartodate was almost the same as yeartodate as this year, only about a million difference. But the projected, or the actual, for fiscal year 1918 why is it projected so high . The 77. 7 million is the total projection the total projections 99, isnt that what it is . Can you tell me where youre looking . The last page. The 99,808 number. On the year to Year Comparison . Which form are you looking at the summary on the memo . Yes. Is it because of the return to the fund balance, is that what it is . Oh, yes. Can you explain that is little bit. Basically if you look at the first section of revenues, these are actually the revenues were bringing in now. For instance, charges for services, as i said before, that fourpage attachment that has all of the revenues that we collect, everywhere from a Building Permit to an electrical permit. We have department and license fees, which are licenses that have certain certain owners have to submit. And then we have interest and expenditure recoveries, and they are basically just like city departments do work for us, we actually do some things for city departments and they have to pay us for it. But when you look at the 99 million, the reason that is so high is because basically were using fund balance for some other items, too. So most of the time, i focus on the first section because thats really what were bringing in. The other sections are what were using from prior year to actually help us balance. So when we make our projections, the assumption is that were going to use this amount to help us balance, but it may not necessarily be the case. The first section is on the operating side. Thats the side of what we really try to track because that is our bread and butter and it tells what is happening Going Forward. So or projected revenue is actually less than last year exactly. If you look at our budget now, were at 96 million. Thats a huge budget for us. It used to be maybe 40 million. In order to meet that, we had to use some fund balance to meet those things, too. Thats why it is there. But the actual operating revenues are really the revenues that we focus on because thats what were really collecting. So were actually tapping into the fund balance . Exactly. Are there any other questions . Seeing none, thank you. Thank you. The next item is 12b. Good morning, commissioners. John murray. D. B. I. Legislative affairs. As president mccarthy mentioned earlier, the 2019 Building Code went into effect on january 1st. We do this every three years. The San Francisco amendments were largely not substantive, but it is still quite a bit of work getting them all through. Thanks to t. S. D. For their efforts for helping to push all six ordinances through. We have a plumbing code crossconnection controls. It is an ordinance sponsored by d. B. H. And the sfpuc, just helping remove a discrepancy between our plumbing code and their regulations regarding affluent regarding soda machines, carbon carbon carbonated copper pipes. That is being heard by land use next week. It was continued from this week. Should have a little more to tell you next meeting on that. Supervisor mandelmans ordinance proposing New Buildings be required to meet stricter energyefficiency standards if theyre using natural gas as opposed to all electric power, was passed by the board earlier this year, january 7th, and it is still on the mayors desk. So it should be signed soon. I bring that up just because during those hearings, there is a lot of discussion from the Board Members about retrofitting existing buildings to go all electric, and pushing that forward. That is going to be a big issue Going Forward. I just wanted to make sure that is on your radar. And then we have proposition d, the initiative proposed by supervisor peskin, keeping commercial properties vacant. That is going to be on the march 2020 ballot. D. B. I. s role, largely just providing information to the city. We have a data base under our vacancy storefront, vacancy controls. Just providing information. We know where some of them are. It will only apply to properties in neighborhood commercial districts, so not citywide. Well be helpful where we can, but it is not really our show. With that, do you have any questions . Thank you. Thank you. Director . 12b is the update on major projects. Im from the Department Building inspection. As you can see, the major portion, as we discussed before, that was a code change. Iit is effective january. Last december, everyone rushed in. Thats why when you see the filing permit increase substantially, that is why. We had 97 in crease in the whole permit for the major portion. Any question . Seeing none, thank you. Item 12d, update on Code Enforcement. Good afternoon, commissioners. Ed sweeney. Deputy director inspection services, with december 2019s numbers. Building inspectors performed 4828 complaints. 408 complaint responses within 24 hours. The first notice of violations was 48. Complaints received, 220. Compliance with notice house inspection services, House Inspections perform, 827. Complaints received, 384. Complaint response, within 72hours, 350. Complaints with notice of vocallations issued, 141. Number of cases sent to the directors hearing, 32. Routine inspections, 110. Number of cases sent to directors hearing, 101. Number of order abatements issued, 14. Number of cases under advisement, 10. Code enforcement inspections performed, 233. There was no Litigation Committee last month. And number of cases referred to the City Attorney was two. Code enforcement outreach programs, they report quarterly, so youll have new numbers next month. But the current numbers are total people reached out to, 16,636. Counselling cases, 1,050. Community program participants, 2,502. Cases resolved, 313. Any questions . Thank you, Deputy Director. Thank you. Is there any Public Comment on the directors report . Seeing known, item 13, review and approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of december 18, 2019the. Move to approve. Is there a second . Second. Are all commissioners in favor . The minutes are approve approved. Item 14a, Public Comment on all matters pertaining to the closed section. Is there any Public Comment . Seeing none. Is there a motion to convene a closed session . Move to go into closed session. A second . Second. Are all commissioners in favor . Yes. We are now enclosed session