Good morning.

The meeting will come to order.

Welcome to the February 15th 2024 regular meeting of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

I am Supervisor Dean Preston, Chair of the Committee.

I'm joined by Vice Chair Catherine Stephanie.

Our committee clerk is Monique Creighton.

And our thanks to SFGov TV for staffing this meeting.

Madam Clerk, do you have any announcements?

Yes.

Public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda when your item of interest comes up in public comment is called.

Please line up to speak on your right.

Alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways.

Email them to the government audit and oversight committee clerk at M O N I Q U E dot C R A Y T O N at SFgov.org.

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 B.

Goodlick Place, Room 244, San Francisco, California 94102.

If you have documents you would like to be included as part of the file, please submit them to me before the end of the meeting.

Please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices to prevent any interruptions to today today's proceedings.

Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors Agenda of February 27, 2024, unless otherwise stated.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And at the outset, I'd like to make a motion to excuse Supervisor Chan from today's GAO meeting.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

On that motion to excuse Supervisor Chan.

Vice Chair Stephanie.

Vice Chair Stephanie, I, Chair Preston.

I Chair Preston, I have two ayes with uh member Chan excused.

Thank you.

That motion passes.

Uh, Madam Clerk, please call item one.

Item number one is an ordinance amending the public works code to waive the banner and inspection fees for nonprofit organizations in certain neighborhood commercial districts in neighborhood commercial transit districts through December 31st, 2026, and infirming the planning department's determination under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Thank you, Madam Clerk and uh colleagues.

Um this item uh we uh introduce it's in response to requests uh from uh some small merchant and neighborhood groups um in neighborhood commercial corridors uh in our district um and it it's very limited but it um waives certain banner fees for uh nonprofit uh organizations that support our merchant corridors um these fees uh can be although in in in total we're we're looking at uh uh nothing with a significant budgetary impact uh they these fees which can be hundreds of dollars for small uh grassroots neighborhood uh organizations uh can be cost prohibitive um so too often what we see in our neighborhood commercial quarters is um it is uh that the banners and signs are are dominated by uh uh advertisements placed by larger corporations um but that the smaller neighborhood groups can uh can be priced out so the uh banner ordinance fee waivers before us would allow organizations uh in my district that are supporting uh neighborhood and local businesses uh to uh be able to move forward uh through the existing banner program so I want to thank the uh Divisadero Merchants Association uh and Small Business Forward in particular for working with our office on this um as well as the Fillmore uh merchants association and North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association uh for their support and I'd like to thank uh Peter uh Milyanich of the uh city attorney's office uh for uh his help in in drafting the ordinance um and DPW for their collaboration on this particular particularly uh Ein Schneider um so I'd like to um and and also um my legislative aide Preston Kilgore for all his work uh making sure we got this right uh we also do have some uh technical amendments that were circulated uh to the committee um by email um and uh I will move those after we hear from DPW and uh hear any public comment on this item so uh for starters I believe we have Nicholas Huff uh Bureau manager for uh Public Works Bureau of Street Use and Mapping uh welcome the floor is yours okay good morning committee members my name is Nicholas Huff the Bureau Manager for Bureau of Street Use and Mapping at Public Works our bureau issues permits for use in occupancy and the public right of way a banner permit grants permission to temporarily occupy any city owned utility polls for the purpose of providing notice as aforementioned and for events and permit applications often include dimension plans design review um the attachment the physical attachment method to the poll and other uh and demonstration of of compliance with other city regulations currently a banner permit costs three

A banner permit grants permission to temporarily occupy any city-owned utility polls for the purpose of providing notice as a four-mentioned and for events and permit applications often include dimension plans, design review, um, the attachment, the physical attachment method to the poll, and other uh and demonstration of compliance with other city regulations.

Currently, a banner permit costs $329 for 20 per uh for about 20 banners and is prorated if fewer banners are put up.

Between 2021 and 2023, we issued 185 permit uh permits, that's about 60 a year.

Uh in 2019 and 2023, the board passed legislation providing fee exemptions for banner applicants associated with defined cultural districts districts, specifically Suama Pilipinos and the Leather and LGBTQ or districts.

The legislation before you today seeks to expand this uh exemption of a fee and to include nonprofit organizations with smaller budgets located within district eight, named neighborhood commercial and neighborhood commercial transit districts located.

Oh, sorry, within eight named neighborhood commercial and neighborhood commercial transit districts located within district five.

Public works analyzed the banner permit applications between 2021 and 2023 and determined that of the 185 permits issued during that time period, 33 were issued to nonprofit organizations, which consisted of 21 unique nonprofits.

Although we cannot determine eligibility without documentation, our team did an estimate and that of the 33 permits issued to nonprofits in the last two years.

Approximately seven would potentially meet the legislation's criteria and be eligible for fee waiver.

If you exclude uh the meant the permits issued to Soma Filipinos and the Leather District in the analysis, the impact is about $9,000 to the budget.

That's it.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Uh appreciate your work on this and the presentation.

Um and seeing no uh questions or comments from colleagues, let's go ahead and open up public comment on this item.

Members of the public who wish to speak on this item should line up along the side by the windows.

All speakers will have two minutes to speak.

Can the first speaker come forward to the podium and begin your comments Mr.

Chair appears?

We have no public comment.

Thank you.

Public comment on this item is closed.

And um I'd like to uh move this item to the full board with recommendation.

Oh, I'm sorry, I need to make the uh we haven't adopted the amendment.

So first I'd like to uh adopt move to adopt the uh amendment circulated uh by my office.

On the motion to amend Vice Chair Stephanie Vice Chair Stephanie, aye.