Supervisor Carmen Chu: Helping Local Businesses

As we face one of the most difficult economic times since the Great Depression, the question that continues to be asked is: How can we create jobs for San Franciscans? In tackling this question, one strategy was to find ways to support San Francisco's many small and local businesses.

Experience shows that supporting small and local businesses not only helps to create vibrant communities but that these businesses also tend to hire local residents who, in turn, spend and reinvest money in the local economy.

We also know that San Francisco spends millions of dollars in contracts every year in the day-to-day operations of the City. For example, the city budget contains an annual budget for important work like maintaining the city's core public facilities, including our parks, libraries and community clinics.

That is why I sponsored legislation, which was passed by the SF Board of Supervisors Feb. 2, which will help direct some of those public dollars towards our local businesses. The legislation does this by creating a local preference for small, local businesses and by eliminating some of the hurdles that our businesses face when working with the City.

Some of the common sense changes addressed in the legislation include:

Paying small local businesses promptly: Small, local businesses often partner with larger businesses when working on complex multi-year construction projects. Even if the work to be done by the small, local business is completed, the City currently withholds a portion of the payment until the entire project is done. This often creates a problem for small businesses that depend on timely payments to cover the expenses they've already paid out. The change in the law would give the City the flexibility to fully pay those small businesses when their portion of the work is satisfactorily completed, rather than wait until the entire project is completed. Sometimes completion of a project can be years after the smaller businesses have completed their share of the work.

Removing administrative burdens for small contracts: Small businesses often struggle to find the resources to formally prepare and submit all the paperwork needed to competitively bid on city projects. The law will allow city departments to remove the administrative burden of formal bids only on small projects. City departments are still held accountable through strict quarterly reporting requirements.

Creating an additional preference for slightly larger San Francisco-based businesses: Currently, small, local firms, certified by the City, receive a 10 percent bid preference for construction and professional service contracts under $10 million. However, once a San Francisco firm grows such that they no longer fit the definition of a small, local business, they lose all bid preferences and must compete directly with large regional, national and multi-national firms. Under the new law, a local two percent bid preference would apply for those slightly larger local businesses in order to help keep the full range of small San Francisco businesses competitive.

These changes were the direct result of months of collaboration between city departments, stakeholders and other elected representatives at City Hall, including supervisors David Chiu, Sophie Maxwell, Bevan Dufty and the mayor's office. The legislation was supported by the Small Business Commission.

Please contact our office for additional details about these changes or for more information on how to become a certified small, local business. Our telephone number is (415) 554-7460 and our e-mail address is chustaff@sfgov.org.

Community Events

á On Sunday, Feb. 14, there will be a tree planting information party at the Overland One Salon, located at 3811 Noriega St., from 10 - 11:30 a.m., with the Friends of the Urban Forest.

Sign up for a tree planting in front of your property for a largely subsidized price thanks to generous public and private donors.

á On Tuesday, Feb. 16, there will be a captain's public safety meeting with new Taraval Police Station Capt. Denise Schmitt.

It will be held at the station, 2345 24th Ave., at 7 p.m.

á On Thursday, Feb. 18, there will be a Sunset District meeting with SF Police Chief George Gascon at the Sunset Recreation Center, located at 2201 Lawton St., from 6:30 - 8 p.m.

Come meet our new chief and voice your concerns about safety in the district.

For a more complete and updated listing of community events, go to the Web site at www.sfbos.org/chu. You can also e-mail us at chustaff@sfgov.org to subscribe to our electronic newsletter.

San Francisco Supervisor Carmen Chu represents District 4.