Added to the cue. When youre called, mute the device youre listening to the meeting on. Please show the business slide. Sharky, youre muted. Can you hear me now . Perfect. Today we will start with the reminder that the Small Business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinion and concerns about policies that affect the Economic Vitality of Small Businesses in San Francisco. Also, that the office of Small Business is the best place to get answers about doing business in San Francisco during the local emergency. If you need assistance with Small Business matters, particularly at this time, you can find us online or via telephone and as always, our services are free of charge. Before we go to item one, i would like to start by thanking sf gov tv for livestreaming this and please call item number one. Item one is role call. role call . Commissioners adams is absent and commissioner duly is not yet on. Mr. President , you have a core rum. Please call item number two. Small business recommendation for recovery and rebuilding, discussion and possible action items. We will provide on the economic response to the local emergency and i think one thing thats important to emphasize to the community, a lot of times locally we talk about a recovery and i think from the perspective that the community that we should think more in terms of building. We want to make Something Better than it was before because what we had before wasnt great. So simply recovering to where we were was not good enough and we need to do better. So along those lines, we ask for comment to pass on to the Economic Recovery Task force and weve received a number of Public Comment submissions on the matter. We convened the meter toda meeto reflect back on that and from many of you in the Small Business community. Our goal is to submit a robust set of recommendations to the Economic Recovery Task force and that is informed by both last meetings discussion, Public Comment and input from everyone in the Small Business community. So we want to thank everyone who has provided your feedback and your advice and your comments and has helped to inform this document. This is an ongoing process, the first of many suggestions that we anticipate making to the Economic Recovery Task force as that task force does its work. Staff has started us off with a draft that youve all received and hopefully youve had the time to review and our director is also available for questions. With that, commissioners, are there any questions regarding the draft set of recommendations . Commissioner, i have a question. I just saw that. Please. I dont think that we should be limiting these recommendations just to the work of the Economic Recovery Task force. With respect to the task force which was an Amazing Group of city and Small Business leaders, it is meeting monthly and its first set of recommendations are not due to be drafted until august. And hundreds of businesses are facing imminent closure. And i know weve all talked about this, but i want to be careful because i think weve done a great job coming up with proposals and you and i both know, some of these things need to worked on yesterday and i dont want the work of the Recovery Task force to slow us down in any way. I completely agree and support your position here. Of course, the framing for our suggestions is the initial set of recommendations to the Economic Recovery Task force and the task force has said during their meetings that particularly comments by rodney fong, the cochair, this is a living document and wer the city is nt going to wait until the final recommendations are made in august before acting. And so i do believe the recommendations that we make today can be taken into account and acted upon today and the sooner we get the recommendations in front of the folks from the task force and the city at a large, i think the sooner the city can act and i would hope the city not wait until august to act. So let me ask you a question. Are you suggesting that this document should be tested on other recommendations for this task force . Yes. I think it should be entitled proposal to save Small Businesses in San Francisco. The title is less important to me than how we present it. In your opening that you just did so eloquently, you made it clear that this is about the task force and i just feel like that should be a part of what were doing here, but i just dont want it to be too tied to the task force if the task force has a timeline that we might differ with. Im open to that, actually. And i think i guess a question would be, do you want to talk about the proposals first and then save a conversation about how we should title it at the end . Or do we want tuke about how we title it now . Let me just say broadly, the goal that youre orienting towards, im in complete alignment with. Lets talk about it afterwards, then. Ok, great. And any other comment, commissioner ukudio . Not at this time. Commissioner azunis . Hi, everybody. Thanks for being here and the recommendations look great. I agree these are definitely guidance that we can keep on file both for our internal communications with the city and the state. I had a question about the reopening support. So i know that some categories of businesses have been deemed by the state to be allowed to reopen for curbside and whatnot. And my question is, how is that process being decided . Who are the determining parties of deciding that . And what warran are the means ft appeal process or contesting that preference in our document . And do we have any say around that . Because this i there are some categories of businesses not included and wondering what the recourse is for that . Thank you. So obviously, i agree with that question and thats why were putting it on there. I think from the perspective of Small Business community, what everybody is hundred gerring f a clear idea of how businesses are being opened so we can track our progress in realtime. I think we would all like an idea of who is making the decision. As far as i know, its with the department of Public Health, but some guidance on who to talk to is helpful. And i also think that there needs to be an appeal process. I think im ok to explain that the task force sent out an email this morning for our next morning and they have heard that concern expressed repeatedly throughout the Business Community and theyre now expediting the gathering of information on what it takes to open, how businesses should open and what sort of criteria and factors should the city be looking at. And, perhaps, it would be appropriate for the commission to dive into that into more detail, specifically how do we open and how is that accomplished safely and quickly. Im a little concern on the timeline because the task force is having that meeting on thursday. Im worried that the commission wont be able to meet again soon enough to really have input into that. We could amend more public details and submissioner azunis, youre dead on the money and correct, that the community is not getting enough communication and thats making it very difficult to plan and making it very difficult to predict the future and understand how were moving forward. Yes, the department of Public Health states on any city level, theres not an objective body and that will be done in a way that may not make sense. I feel like theres definitely a question around who theyre deeming essential and who theyre not. Who theyre deeming can be open in the next phase. Right. And so, you know, we can potentially as i said, we can amend to and flush out the details more if you have immediate input. Or we can leave it as a broadlevel concern thats expressed now, which i think the task force has already heard. Are there other business categories that you guys have been reached out to who are not included in this next wave who we can contract who the constituents are that are concerned by this . This is regina, the director of the office of Small Business. The office of Small Business as the hotline for Small Businesses, and we are definitely getting calls and tracking the various business senters. Sectors that are not either considered or clearly articulated and so were working to get clarification as to whether certain businesses fall within some of the categories in the phase two opening. Great. I think there are a lot of businesses and sectors with a lot of questions. Im sorry . Commissioner, did i interrupt you . Thats great, director. If we could, as a commission, get some of the categories that are not included and raising concern, that would be great. , well providyes, well proh that update. And i think looking at the different sectors, including manufacturing, retail and i just think clarity needs to be provided overall so that folks can understand and we need to emphasize that however we can. Ok, was there any other commissioner comment on the draft document . By the way, for the members of the public, if you go to the Small Business commission website, click on meetings and then for may 11th, youll sigh supporting documents and click on that and then youll see a link for draft, initial set of recommendations to the Economic Recovery Task force and if you can click on that, youll see the documents that were all referencing. Im wondering, should we be i mean, it would take awhile to read these allowed. Are we going to skip reading these allowed and just rely on the document being online . Until we have a lot more in the agenda, i dont see why we wouldnt read them aloud. Im reading it aloud from my phone. You also have such a wonderful voice. [ laughter ] flattery will get you everywhere. [ laughter ] i just want to point out that im trying to keep up with you on a sartorial level. I was hoping to get some comments about that today. [ laughter ] maybe later. [ laughter ] this is the initial draft and it will take me a little while to read through this. In th the category of general support, we would like microbusinesses are included in relief packages and prioritized. Put anwe would like all regulaty agencies to respect the rollingback recommendations that are out of date and onerous or otherwise Business Development without compromising software. Under the category of communications, we would like to ensure that all guidance and resources are available in languages other than english at the time they are released so that all groups are able to accept the information at the same time and folks that do not speak english are not disadvantaged. Sf gov accessed via mobile devices and pushed to medium. A streamline communication strategy needs to be put in place. Each business registered with the city should be opted into a Communications Line that provides the critical information that it is published. Businesses can opt out. Whoever is having background conversations, if you could please mute your microphone, it would be very much appreciated. Under communications, i believe we should have Clear Communications regarding the criteria for opening and should is making those decisions regarding what businesses shall open and what sectors theyre in. Noted. Reopening support, under the category of reopening support, expedite applications received by regulatory agencies that are associated with Small Businesses and commercial corridors, mcds and ncts and so that is neighborhood commercial districts and neighborhood commercial what is t again . Transit districts. Thats what i thought. All reopening allowances by determined by the state and San Francisco department of Public Health should be subject to an appeals process where businesses may make an appeal to reopen. This is an important point. Not all businesses are the same or identical and many of the policies that have come out is one size fits all and not everything is the same. All reopening guidance shall be made available in a timely matter, at least a week in advance and safety protocols and signage shall be made available to businesses via tool kits which can be accessible online. The city should purchase ppe at both costs that Small Businesses would purchase from the city at a lower cost and lower volume than if they had to purchase it on their own. We should ensure equitable and Affordable Access to Broadband Internet to Small Businesses. And under the category of dbi, department of building inspection sorry to interrupt, but for the signage piece, perhaps we should add that the reopening guidance, perhaps we should add there would be a physical place for people to pick up signage for people who dont have access to a computer. I know some Small Businesses do not. Agreed. Dominica, did you get that . Yes. Great. Under the category of dbi by the way, all commissioners, if while im talking about this, if you hear of snag you would like to add, just raise your voice. Its ok to interrupt me. Its going to be too awkward and difficult for me to recognise everyone. Youre good, manny, and i want to encourage everyone else to use the same process. Dbi soft story, the existing compliance deadline of septembee are 463 properties that still need to complete the work and we would like the deadline to be extended by two years for properties that have not started the construction and commercial spaces activated b occupied by e tenant. Should bars and restaurants be closed for another month or longer . We would like to incentivize Property Owners to prioritize requirements and for businesses that need to temporarily shut. It might be possible via text credits and this is particularly essentially for restaurants, bars and places of entertainment. And if im mingling the words a little bit here, theyre written better than they sound reading aloud and im trying to turn this into understandable english. Under fee mitigation, waive all fees by regulatory agencies, dbi, San FranciscoFire Department and sfpd for a calendar year and we would like to waive all penalties that are not related for a calendar year. And a waiver of application and referral fees collected by all regulatory agencies for one calendar year, waive Business Registration fees for Small Business for one year. Refund or apply a credit for permits that businesses paid for but did not use, examples would be a contractor parking permit and dpw temporary permits and entertainment related permits such as limited Live Performance and events. These folks bought and paid for permits and they should be able to use those credits at a future date. Waive the unsecured property tax for Small Businesses. Under the category of land use, we would like to allow for more flexibility for businesses who are seeking to move in order to reduce monthly commercial rent costs or for other economic reasons. For example, waive the conditional use authorization requirement if one exists and supplement with the neighborhood notification requirement. All temporary use authorizations to be granted for additional flex use purposes which would support a business need to pivot and no application should be necessary. Businesses will be given implicit authorization to add additional and reasonable uses. If complaints are made by the community, businesses should be required to fill out an online authorization form. This is an important concept that were promoting which is implicit authorization and lets reduce the hassles businesses have to do to get going again and to pivot to a working business model. Lets give them implicit authorization and it can be withdrawn by it community if its not working. Create a onestop shop specifically for Small Business support where representatives from all regulatory agencies, planning dph, sfmta, fire and oewd may process all permits, fees and applications. This exists to some extent now but big business is in the same room as Small Business and it is time consuming for Small Business which can move much faster through this process and were asking for a specific lane for Small Business. Temporarily extend hours that businesses are allowed to operate by neighbor corridor, provide Technical Assistance to businesses interested in pivoting and how they can successfully do so, expend the flex use legislation that is currently available and, i think, two districteds to be applicable citywide and liberalize use alone corridors o stimulate new development. Amend and expand the definition of formula retail to relax current restrictions and relax restrictions on exterior signs to allow for multiple projecting and nonpropertying signs, all temporary exterior signage should be implicitly permitted. Temporarily suspend discretionary revenue for one year and temporarily suspend the need for conditional use authorizations for one year. Encourage the city to create plazas and open spaces wherever possible, including potentially streets, a