Board of Aldermen 04-12-2022 Page 24
don't know how much longer we're gonna be here arguing about this. | would rather we just, you know, adopt with the
committee came up with and let the Mayor use the power that we've given him in the ordinance to make adjustments.
President Wilshire
Mayor did you want to chime in on that?
Mayor Donchess
Well just a clarification. | mean in the Task Force discussions, the viatic right issue came out and | guess it was first
raised by Alderman Cathey. The Legal Department looked at that and the landowner in the case of a non-viatic use does
have the authority to say no. The idea that we would put out barriers without any tables there, we're not going to do that.
| mean, we're going to ask for - the procedure I've talked with Director Cummings about is we're going to ask the
restaurant to gain the authority of the it's not the tenant. It's the owner of the property gain the permission or consent of
the property owner before we put the barriers up. | mean we cannot put up barriers and have no tables. We're not going
to do that and we have to kind of work all this out before any barriers go up because we can't put up some, and wait, and
put up others. | mean we're gonna have to have a complete plan and then go in and put barriers up where we have the
plan from the Aldermen and owner's consent. And where we have both, we'll go forward. If the owner says no, you know,
we're not going to risk litigation over this. So again, we're not going to put up there where there's not owner's consent.
Alderman Dowd
Yes and I'm gonna be brief so we’re not here til one in the morning. I'm going to support the amendment because one of
the things going into this whole plan that concerned me was trying to be as fair to all the individual business owners as
possible. | think we've done that in all the compromises we made adding parking, and taking care of Franklin Street, and
all these other things.
| think what we've done to San Francisco Kitchen is a detriment to a small business trying to get on their feet being new
owners. | think that that we need to support them and just like any other small business downtown. | feel that | represent
not just the people in my Ward - and many, many people in my Ward want the extended outdoor dining that haven't put it
on Facebook or e-mails. They just talked to me. | feel that | also represent the entire city. When | cast the vote, it's for all
taxpayers. It's not segregated into Ward 2. And by the way, Mr. Wingate is a constituent of mine and I'm going to vote for
the amendmert.
Alderman Klee
Thank you again once again, Madam President. | would have loved to have done that conversation over e-mail to all of
us at the same time but because of Right to Know, that just can't happen. So | had the conversation the way | had the
conversation with him. | even did a quick little e-mail out to him basically saying this is what I'm going to do and so on so
that he had it in writing exactly. | did cc Alderman Lopez because it is his Ward on it but | didn't put any other Aldermen
on simply because it would be wrong. Again, side conversations have to happen because of Right to Know. | can't have
that conversation with more than a majority on this committee. So that's why those happened. It wasn't trying to be
sneaky, trying to do something that would be underhanded, or anything of that nature. | did it the way | had to do it legally
and so on.
Like Alderman Dowd, | have heard from many constituents verbally. They are now getting paranoid to send e-mails.
They don't want to put things on Facebook because of having threatened. They feel that their e-mails are going to be
pulled and then it's going to become public knowledge. They don't want to put on Facebook because they're being bullied
and this is real and this is happening. So that's why they give you a call, or they stop you in a restaurant which is what
happened in one particular case. We have these conversations and don't get me wrong, | have received from my Ward
constituents such as Mr. Miller that they are not in favor of this. So I'm not just hearing those that are in favor. | think it's
pretty even as to who wants it and who doesn't want it. Then there are those who don't speak out. So there are those
who don't want it who don't speak out, they just aren't going to bother and there are those who do want it and won't speak
out for it.
| think this is a good and fair compromise. We had put this through just having that one little space is all it would do. As
the Mayor said once we approve this, if Mr. Hardy comes back and says | absolutely will not give them permission to put
the - then there would be no need to put the barriers up. But if he said if the barriers there and | will do it and so on. | just
believe that putting the handicapped spot, keeping the 15 minute parking space helps and it's exactly what he had asked
for. | think this is a compromise, compromise, compromise and no one gets hurt.
