City and County of SAN Francisco*

Published: June 21, 2023 78 pages Consolidated Report

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⚠️ Aviso de traducción: Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.

⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.

Findings 9 findings

First Year Free has been generally well-received by small businesses and City agencies, but due to its limited scope when first adopted and its status as a temporary pilot program, its financial benefits to small businesses have been more modest than initially expected.

The lack of a current published list of fees subject to waiver under the FYF program makes it difficult for eligible businesses to decide whether to participate in the program and hinders the City's ability to implement and promote its benefits.

Businesses enrolled in First Year Free have been charged fees that should have been waived, which imposes burdens on the City personnel who must manually correct such errors and on the small businesses whose waivers have been delayed.

There is no mechanism (outside the Online Portal) that accurately tracks eligibility for, or compliance with, the 30-day permit processing provision of Proposition H (as defined in this report), so it is not possible to credibly assess whether Proposition H is achieving its intended goals.

The statutory protection for the provisions of Proposition H (as defined in this report) regarding 30-day permit processing and the elimination of neighborhood notification will expire in December 2023, but reliable data to assess the effectiveness of these provisions is not expected to be available by that time.

The lack of regular cross-departmental meetings focused on small business issues between the Office of Small Business and City departments involved in business registration, planning and permitting hinders the development and implementation of coordinated approaches and solutions. Taking Care of Business: San Francisco's Plan to Save its Small Businesses

The computer systems of City departments involved in business registration, planning and permitting are not adequately integrated, and there is a growing need for these departments to conduct their operations on a federated computer system that will improve efficiency and cross-departmental collaboration.

Substantial outreach efforts by the City departments responsible for promoting First Year Free and Proposition H have not yet fully informed small businesses and merchants' associations, because those efforts have not been sufficiently comprehensive and coordinated.

Despite recent reforms, there remains a prevalent perception that San Francisco is inhospitable to small businesses, and City agencies have not deployed the resources required to effectively counter that perception.

Recommendations 9

R1

By November 30, 2023, the Mayor and Board of Supervisors should take the legislative and budgetary steps necessary to make First Year Free a permanent program.
R2

By January 1, 2024, the Office of Treasurer and Tax Collector should prepare a "master list" of all fees subject to waiver under the First Year Free program, which should be regularly updated and disseminated to the public, to the Office of Small Business and to all City agencies and departments that impose fees covered by the program. Taking Care of Business: San Francisco's Plan to Save its Small Businesses
R3

Public Health San Francisco Department of
R4

By November 30, 2023, the Mayor, in consultation with the Office of the City Administrator, should convene a working group of all departments and agencies Taking Care of Business: San Francisco's Plan to Save its Small Businesses involved in assisting small businesses whose commercial projects are eligible for 30-day permit processing under Proposition H (as defined in this report), which will be tasked with promptly developing and implementing mechanisms and procedures to (a) accurately determine eligibility under Proposition H for 30-day permit processing; and (b) accurately and regularly track and publicly report the City's compliance with the 30-day timeline.
R5

By November 30, 2023, the Board of Supervisors should resolve to allow an additional period of three years (from December 2023 through December 2026) before initiating or considering proposals to delete or amend the provisions of Proposition H (as defined in this report) requiring 30-day permit processing and elimination of neighborhood notification for eligible commercial projects.
R6

By November 30, 2023, the Mayor should establish an inter-departmental working group, chaired by the Office of Small Business, with membership from City departments involved in small business registration, planning, and permitting, which shall hold regular cross-departmental meetings to collaborate on implementation and troubleshooting of programs to assist small businesses, including but not limited to First Year Free and Proposition H.
R7

By March 1, 2024, the Mayor and Board of Supervisors should take the legislative and budgetary steps necessary for the City to implement a cross-departmental technology integration strategy for the deployment of a federated computer system that will increase data visibility across all departments involved in business registration, planning, and permitting, for improved collaboration and to enable compilation of disparate system data into transparent and usable output for small business customers. Taking Care of Business: San Francisco's Plan to Save its Small Businesses
R8

3, R8.4, R9 San Francisco Board of
R9

Office of the Treasurer and Tax

Agency Responses 1

Government agencies' official responses to this report's findings and recommendations. Click on a response to see the structured breakdown.

Consolidated ResponseResponses from Office of the Mayor, Office of the City Administrator, Office of

November 30, 2023 • 27 pages • 3 responses • Score: +1 (+1, 2, 0) View Details ▾

PDF

3 responses to findings and recommendations

Response: Disagree Partially Score: 0

Agree/ Disagree) Date] Taking Care of F1 First Year Free has been generally Office of the Disagree partially The First Year Free (FYF) program has resulted in helping over 3,000 Business: San well-received by small businesses and Mayor small businesses open their doors in San Francisco.

Response: Disagree Partially Score: 0

Agree/ Disagree) Date] Taking Care of F3 Businesses enrolled in First Year Free Department of Disagree partially Refunds are the exception and not the norm for this program; Business: San have been charged fees that should Building however there is room for improvement.

Response: Agree Score: +1

Agree/ Disagree) Date] Taking Care of F4 There is no mechanism (outside the Planning Agree There is no single mechanism for tracking eligibility for or compliance with Proposition H's 30-day timeline.

No Responses Found 4

Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.

San Francisco City

San Francisco County County

San Francisco County Board of Supervisors Elected County Office

San Francisco County Treasurer-Tax Collector Elected County Office

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.