The Memorial Day weekend makes this week at City Hall a short one, and while many meetings, including the full board, have been canceled, things are still going on, including the scuttling of a controversial nonprofit contract, the future of Free City College, the city’s newest affordable housing initiative, and a summit for small businesses.
On Wednesday morning, the supervisors’ Budget and Finance Committee considers a number of nonprofit service and grant agreements, but one item on the agenda has already been decided, or, shall we say, clawed back. That would be the sole-source $1-per-year lease agreement with the Booker T. Washington Community Service Center to operate the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center in the Western Addition.
The lease was originally proffered by Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office as an emergency measure to replace the previous operator, Collective Impact, which had shut down in the wake of corruption allegations involving the relationship between its director, James Spingola, and former Human Rights Commission director Sheryl Davis, and the Agency’s Dream Keeper Initiative.
The Small Business Summit will feature discussions with city and business leaders, including a talk by Lauren Crabbe, owner of Andytown Coffee Roasters.
But then, per reporting in the San Francisco Chronicle this week, Lurie changed course upon hearing criticisms of the agreement from community leaders, who criticized Booker T. Washington’s director, Shakira Simley, and her connections to Davis. So the agreement is being withdrawn, and the center will now be staffed by Recreation and Parks Department personnel. Presumably, these developments will be confirmed at the meeting, along with any possible new developments, as the lease is tabled.
Also on Wednesday’s agenda are further extensions of grant agreements for the management of permanent supportive housing with several providers, including the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and DISH SF. If you’ve read our story about the city’s top 99 sites for drug overdose deaths, you’ll note that those names appear multiple times on the list.
On Thursday, the Planning Commission will hear an informational presentation on the new affordable housing initiative recently hatched by Mayor Lurie and the Board of Supervisors. This includes a proposed charter amendment to extend and expand the city’s Housing Trust Fund, and also the loosening of some rules and fees for developers. The Planning Department memorandum on the plan, which is fairly comprehensive, can be seen here.
Thursday evening sees a regular meeting of the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees, whose agenda includes a budget update as well as a report on the Free City College program. The latter will likely include discussion of some bad news for the program as it faces further subsidy cuts from the city. According to the Standard, residents can still enjoy free tuition, but cash stipend grants for low-income students are being eliminated, likely affecting up to a third of students in the program.
Finally, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and Office of Small Business are holding a Small Business Summit all day Friday, at 49 South Van Ness Avenue. The event will feature discussions with city and business leaders, including a talk by Lauren Crabbe, owner of Andytown Coffee Roasters; breakout sessions on business-building strategies and organizing merchant advocacy groups, contact tables for city agencies, networking opportunities, and a tour of the city’s Permit Center. Admission is free, but registration is recommended.
