Good morning.

The meeting will come to order.

Welcome to the October 29, 2025 meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee.

I'm Supervisor Connie Chang, Chair of the Committee, and I'm joined by Vice Chair Supervisor Matt Dorsey and Supervisor Cheyenne Chin.

Our clerk is Brent Halipa.

I would like to thank Jamie Evercherry from SFGov TV for broadcasting this meeting.

Mr.

Clerk, do you have any announcement?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Just a friendly reminder to those in attendance to please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices to prevent interruptions to our proceedings.

Should you have any documents to be included as part of the file, these should be submitted to myself, the clerk.

Public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda.

When your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please line up to speak on the west side of the chamber to your right, my left along those curtains.

And while not required to provide public comment, we do invite you to fill out a comment card and leave them on the trade by the television to your left by the doors.

If you wish to be accurately recorded for the minutes, alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways.

Email them to myself, the budget and finance committee clerk at B R E N T.

A L I P A S F G O V dot O R G.

If you submit public comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and also included as part of the official file.

You may also send your written comments via U.S.

Postal Service to our office in City Hall at one, Dr.

Carlton Big Place Room 244, San Francisco, California, 94102.

And finally, Madam Chair, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors' agenda of November 4th, unless otherwise stated.

Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk.

And for uh general reminder for the public is that for any item that have budget and legislative analysts report, uh, what we would do usually is department presentation, then go to the budget and legislative analyst, and then we will take questions and comment from this body.

Then we'll go to public comment.

And so with that, Mr.

Clerk, please call item number one.

Yes, item number one is an ordinance amending the administrative code to create the small business rezoning construction relief program to provide financial support, including grants and loans to businesses impacted by construction relating to the city residential rezoning program adopted in 2025-2026, establishing the small business rezoning construction relief fund to receive monies for the program, designated the Office of Small Business and Office of Economic and Workforce Development to administer the fund and the program to promulgate rules and regulations and furtherance of the program and amending the business and tax regulations code to allow taxpayers to designate a portion of their gross receipt taxes for deposit in the fund.

Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk, and we want to acknowledge and welcome Supervisor Malgar uh to the chamber, who is the sponsor of this legislation, and we thank you, Supervisor, for your leadership.

Uh, would you like to provide opening remarks?

Sure.

Thank you so much, Chair Chan, and thank you for scheduling this item.

This legislation establishes a small business rezoning construction relief fund and program as a proactive way to address any potential relocation or construction impacts when rezoning projects come to fruition.

Um from our uh rezoning efforts on the west side and north of San Francisco.

While we do not know the full impact or extent of how many small businesses may be impacted by potential construction projects related to the rezoning, we wanted to be proactive and responsive.

Um, this is an issue I've been thinking about for some time.

I requested that the budget and legislative analysts produce an analysis report last year.

Thank you so much, BLA, uh, for looking for ways to mitigate any potential impacts from residential construction along commercial corridors.

The study recommended that the city look into developing this program to support small businesses.

And we do have examples of similar efforts at responsive to infrastructure projects like the Van S BRT and the central subway, but not one necessarily for housing construction.

Small businesses do not have the protections that residential tenants do, uh, like rent control.

Unfortunately, as a local jurisdiction, we are more limited in what we can mandate from commercial property owners.

Small business owners provide all the capital improvements to their commercial spaces, which can be very costly, but do not to get to cash out on those investments if their lease ends.

If anything, these amended amenities benefit the property owner who could easily lease to another similar business for potentially higher rent.

So, with all of those considerations, we want to provide some type of meaningful assistance.

This fund will be administered by the Office of Small Business and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

It is meant to support any small business that may be displaced or affected due to the residential construction project within a rezoned area with a cost of relocation and/or potentially returning to the space they once occupied.

The fund and program can also support small businesses along the corridor that may not have to relocate but are impacted by a large construction project that may have other disruptions, for example, reduction of foot traffic.

We also included a two-year look back period so that the small businesses who may not have known they were being displaced by a residential development project could still reach out for support under this fund and program.

The Office of Small Businesses has successfully has a successful record of supporting displaced businesses impacted by disasters such as fires.

So I believe they know how to administer this program in the future.

We drafted the legislation to provide their team parameters, but it is also very flexible so they can design a program that ensures swift implementation and meets the needs as they know them.

The program needs to be easy, it needs to be accessible.

It is my intent that most of the direct support for small businesses would be through direct grants and technical assistance, but the Office of Small Business can also offer loans, though we know from experience that they're not as desirable.

Depending on the funding, the Office of Small Business will do their best to ensure that the grants are of a substantial enough amount and take into account higher cost of investment for businesses like restaurants that need extensive upfront capital for equipment and to meet code to build out a commercial kitchen.

In the legislation, we refer to the existing definition of small business as an entity that has a hundred or less full-time employees, and also annual gross receipts revenue of five million or less.