Good afternoon. Welcome to the land use and Transportation Committee of the San Francisco board of supervisors for today, monday, november 2nd, the day before the most important election in our lives. Our clerk is miss erica major, miss major, let me announce actually, call the roll, miss major. Call the roll, supervisor peskin. Present. Supervisor safai. Safai absent. Supervisor preston. Present. Thank you, sorry, safai is present. The only reason i asked for you to call the roll, the screen that i have doesnt show me everybody who is participating, so im not sure why this device is doing that. But all right. Ms. Madam clerk, do you have any announcements. Yes, mr. Chair. Due to the covid19 Health Emergency and to protect board members, employees and the public, board of supervisor legislative chamber and Committee Room are closed. However, members will participate in the meeting remotely. This precaution is taken pursuant to the statewide stayathome order and all local and state orders. Committee members will attend through Video Conference and participate in the same extent as if they were physically present. Public comment will be available on each item on this agenda. Streaming the number across the screen. Each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. Comments or opportunities to speak during the Public Comment period are available via phone by calling the number 4156550001, again, thats 4156550001. The meeting i. D. Is 1466007437. Again, thats 1466007437. Press pound and pound again. When connected you will hear the meeting discussion but will be muted and in listening mode only. When your item of interest comes up star and 3 to enter to the speaker line. Speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. Alternatively, submit comment in the following ways, myself, land use and transportation clerk at erica. Major at sfgov. Org. If you submit Public Comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and part of the file. And they can be sent also. Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda on november 10th unless otherwise stated. Thank you, miss major. Could you please read the first item. Item 1, temporarily restrict landlords of eviction of commercial tenants during the pandemic. Call the number 4156550001, meeting i. D. 1466007437, press pound and pound again. If you have not done so already, star 3 to line up to speak. The system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. Mr. Chair. And i want to start by thanking my colleague on this panel, supervisor preston as well as two of our colleagues on the board of supervisors, supervisors mar and walton for their cosponsorship. This may seem like an extraordinary measure but this is an extraordinary and unprecedented time in San Francisco and i wanted to start by thanking and acknowledging the mayor of San Francisco, mayor london breed, for the extraordinary steps she has already taken in a number of executive orders, and this legislation builds off of that. This is commercial eviction protection legislation, and lets be clear. Time is not on our side. Businesses are closing every day, not only in San Francisco, but around our country and i think we all know that its not just because of business losses, its also about inability to pay what we are establishing in rent that exists before the pandemic and no longer realistic in this new economy. And our imperative is to maintain the cultural fabric of different neighborhoods in San Francisco ranging from chinatown that i represent to japantown that supervisor preston represents, and other neighborhoods across the city, and we cannot afford to delay this because if we do we will wake up to communities like chinatown that are decimated with the unique Cultural Heritages that they represent, and i said earlier today that actually happened a half century ago in the case of the Western Addition and the fillmore district during the bad days of redevelopment and once those long standing Community Legacy businesses went away, they never returned. And we have to do everything in our power to do the same in this instance. We all have a shared interest in the stability of Small Businesses in San Francisco, and indeed Small Businesses are the vast preponderance of our employer base in San Francisco. As a matter of fact, some, over 80 of businesses in San Francisco employ ten people or less, and that shared interest extends obviously to lessors and Property Owners and landlords and Small Businesses and their employees as well as every resident and future visitor. And to that end, this legislation would extend the commercial Eviction Moratorium declared and extended by a number of mayoral executive orders and allowed by action by executive order by the governor of the state of california, my former colleague, gavin newsom, for all Small Businesses under 25 million in gross receipts for the full duration of the california Eviction Moratorium. It creates tiered repayment, for 25 or less employees, 24 months, and 11 and 25 employees, a year and a half. Businesses from 26 to 50 employees, 12 months to repay. And in the smallest tier, most Small Businesses operating in San Francisco, you would have the right to terminate your lease despite the contract. And as with the mayors declarations, we also acknowledge that small Property Owners are hurting as well. So if you are a landlord who owns less than 25,000 square feet totally in San Francisco, you can apply for hardship waiver from these requirements. And as with our covid19 response, San Francisco has incurred the earliest pains and have reached some of the earliest gains, albe it we have delayed the expansion of our reopening tomorrow. We are proceeding with our recovery but if we really want to fully recover, we are all going to have to share the pain between Small Businesses and landlords and come up with Creative Solutions to this problem. Thats the full thats really the only path forward to a full recovery. And this legislation gives options. It gives leverage to Small Businesses. It brings people to a table to negotiate and its really about encouraging that relationship between Property Owners and their tenants. Exactly in the same way that we have done on the residential side. And if you dont like the 24month repayment period, you can negotiate Something Else that may be shorter or longer and we really encourage folks to reach that alternative agreement and my hope is this legislation will provide the space for those discussions and negotiations and agreements to be realized, and if you are a landlord, i encourage you to do everything in your power to help your tenant survive. After all, given our retail controls in San Francisco you may not have another tenant in the future, and failure to do so will probably be less productive than working something out now. And i really want to, in addition to thanking my cosponsors, thank a number of attorneys who have been representing Small Businesses under extreme pressure, dean ito taylor, allen lowe, and in my office, my staff, lee hefner, and with that, supervisor preston, are there any comments that you might like to add or subtract . Nothing to subtract. Let me just add to thank you, chair peskin, for your leadership on this issue, and also for i think threading the needle in a way thats smart, thats going to force some Property Owners to the table. I do think that there is in a sense the way it is right now and i think we all came together and appreciate the mayors leadership around the moratorium, and those have been, the ones done by executive order have been shortterm, and by their nature that makes some sense and i think this is the right process where we are looking at something thats going to be around longer, provide longer term protection, that it goes through the body, allows folks to weigh in in a way that they cant necessarily do so with the same public process on executive orders. But i also think that to me this legislation is very much about fairness. We have a situation right now where there are there are commercial Property Owners right now around the city who are doing what they should do, who recognize Small Businesses are hurting, who are coming to the take, taking less than the full rent, who are working out payment plans, who are waiving some rent, being creative in those solution. And i applaud the folks doing that. And then we have some landlords who are not doing that with their business, who are insisting that despite the suffering that their business tenants are going through, that residents across the city are going through, they are adamant 100 of the rent throughout a global pandemic, where Small Businesses have had little to no revenue. And i think thats an unreasonable position. And i think that one of the real impacts of this legislation should it move through and be passed by the full board is to force those landlords who have i think unreasonably dug their heels in to just begin acting like some of the more reasonable commercial landlords in this city and theres no reason why the unreasonable folks should be drawing blood, so to speak, and getting every penny of rent from people who cant afford it while other landlords are acting more reasonably, are giving folks a bit of a break and working out as something that works for everyone. So, i think thats the biggest impact of this legislation. Yes, this will stop evictions. Yes, this will force some folks to work out payment plans. What it will really do, it will change the dynamic that exists right now, and chair peskin, you mentioned japantown in my district, the Japan Center Mall has so many businesses and a commercial Property Owner that has not been willing to negotiate with the tenants, and theres a lot of detail in this legislation but to me the biggest impact is landlords like that are going to have to come to the table. The only thing that will make sense for them to come to the table if this legislation gets through. I appreciate your leadership and your staff and lee hefner in particular for all the work getting this right and proud to be a cosponsor of it. Thank you, supervisor peskin. And supervisor safai, i am wait i think for some late breaking amendments, so after we go to supervisor safai we will go to Public Comment and if i have the amendments i will introduce them. In either event, whether i have them timely during this meeting or not, we will continue the meeting to november 9th. Supervisor vice chair safai. Thank you, mr. Chair. Just want to say this is an obvious statement but i think it needs to be reiterated. I think some people want to live in a different reality. These are extraordinary times. These are absolutely extraordinary times. And because of that you cant show me one business in this city that doesnt want to remain in business. You cant show me one person that gets up every day thinking to themselves i dont want to pay my rent, i dont want to conduct my business. Its the opposite. They live with the anxiety of debt. I have a barber in my district and he said im thinking about just closing up shop. The weight of the debt on my shoulders feels like too much. I have too much pride. Im not the kind of person that wants to be in debt for the rest of my life. And that story plays itself out over and over and over again. And all we are trying to do, and i would like to be added as a cosponsor to this legislation. I thought i had conveyed that to you sooner, apologize for not getting it sooner definitely want to be a cosponsor. We are trying to ensure that peoples livelihoods can remain, that people can continue to have a place to go to work, and that our communities are not completely devastated. And thats what we are facing. We are facing the future of so many of these businesses, people that have put their entire lifesavings on the line and they have this massive burden of debt hanging over them, and then not to mention the threat of eviction. Not quite sure what some of the landlords are thinking, i think if they were to evict and massive evictions in commercial spaces they wouldnt then be able to turn around and rent these spaces, so im not quite sure what thats about. Allow there to be more period of time, for people to pay off their debt, to put a pause on the idea of evicting people during this crisis and these extraordinary times and this legislation meets that standard of measure and allows us to really get a balance back and hopefully well be able to continue to protect some of these communities and businesses. That doesnt mean the landlords will not be without collecting their rent because i know people will still be obligated to do that, and as supervisor preston said and you said, supervisor peskin, they will work out payment plans and a way to pay off their debt. The reasonable thing to do here is sit down and negotiate, and thats what this legislation does. Proud to be a cosponsor. Thank you so much for your cosponsorship. Madam clerk, open this up for Public Comment. James is checking to see if there are any callers in queue. If you have not done so, star 3 to be added to the queue. James, first caller, please. Yes, my name is dean erickson, im an owner after small family owned business, fit neighborhood fit, also a member of the San Francisco independent Business Coalition and also a tenant and a landlord, so i understand both sides of the fence, if you will. Im calling today to voice my support for commercial lease legislation allowing alignment of the commercial eviction mother moratorium. Its absolutely that the rent and threat of landlord eviction is mitigated like many. Like many, i have, as a landlord refusing to discuss our lease situation and putting a plan in place. I have requested a number of meetings, offered proposed solutions, expressed interest in longterm commitment, only to be ignored and my business is held hostage by my landlord. San francisco leadership needs to step in to set guidelines and reestablish meant the vacancy tax to support the Small Business community. Crush Small Business, provide landlords all the leverage and negotiations and set the citys economy up to fail as Small Business owners have to walk away from their leases. This again is the no brainer decision on our shoulders. One that must be acted on for the wellbeing of the San Francisco economy. Speakers time has expired. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Looks like we have 16 listeners and nine in queue. Good afternoon. Stefy, a resident of San Francisco, grew up in the east bay, city is a special place for my family and me. Come here to eat and shop in the Small Businesses around japantown and the city. We dont have any family here but Small Businesses made us feel like home. My parents visit me and often times shop at Small Businesses. 44 of the activity, and one of the biggest employers. Small businesses have made the city what it is today. Drive people like my family to visit. Communities that i care about, japantown. And built on dreams and livelihoods across the city and nation. Asking for your full support in its entirety and full support from the board supervisors next tuesday. We need it to pass to give the Small Businesses a fighting chance and a chance to be the vibrant, beautiful, diverse and unique home to so many. Thank you to the supervisors on this call and to the future supervisors who support this. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. My name is evan, my wife and i own a small Fitness Studio on Market Street and im calling in support of this ordinance. I think its instrumental in keeping Small Businesses afloat. A few things i would say, i think its good to align with the state. So much uncertainty with Small Business and doing it with the state, Small Businesses and landlords, more certainty of things. The only other suggestion, especially for the smaller tenants less than ten people, longer than 24 months, should have a Square Footage component. Ten people in the 800 square foot face versus the ten people in the 8,000 square foot warehouse. Another component to look at different rents based off of Square Footage. And i think a lot of us will owe 200,000, and its 10,000 a month in addition to rebuilding the business. In full support and i hope you guys are too. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Notified when you