Minutes - December 2022 Regular Meeting of the Japan Center Garage Board of Directors

Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors

City of San Francisco Japan Center Garage Corporation

(A California Non-profit Public Benefit Corporation)

Thursday, December 15, 2022

Union Bank Community Room

22 Peace Plaza, San Francisco, CA  94115

(In person meeting.  No virtual option offered for this meeting)

Minutes

Present: Vas Kiniris, John Noguchi, Robert Hsu, Kimberly Kolbe, Hagen Choi, Rodney Chin

Absent: Jan Masaoka, Edward Ong, Suzanne Medina, Jerry Ono

Also Present: District 5, Supervisor Dean Preston; Kyle Smeallie, Chief of Staff for Supervisor Preston; Robert Malone, SFMTA Parking and Curb Management; David Dunham, SFMTA; Fred Bekele, IMCO Parking; Tom Hayashi, Brandon Quan, Junichiro Ikeda, Guests; Claudine Cheng, Corporate Counsel and Rich Hashimoto, Corporate Manager.

1.  Call to Order –
   In the absence of President Masaoka, Vice President Kiniris called the meeting to order at 11:10 AM

2. Approval of Minutes –
   A motion to approve the minutes of October 20, 2022, was made by Director Noguchi and seconded by Director Chin.  The motion was adopted unanimously.

3. Board President’s Report –
   There was no update from President Masaoka or Vice President Kiniris.

4. Corporate Manager Report –

   1. COVID Recovery update
      Revenue.  November showed an increase of 3% in revenue from the previous year, 2021.Transient parking.  Transient parking increased by 893 which is an increase of 2% from the previous year, 2021.

   2. Garage performance comparison

      Compared to all SFMTA garages, Japan Center Garages was at 7th in transient revenue and 3rd in vehicle counts.

   3. Holiday security staffing
      SFMTA has approved additional staffing during holiday hours up to 40 hours/week started on December 8th.  Unfortunately, labor shortage has been an issue, alternatively we hired a security guard service to mitigate the break ins.  One break in involved a firearm being stolen and 2 catalytic converters stolen.  The Japan Center garage is the second most garage break-ins out of 21 SFMTA garages. 

   4. District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston – Corporate Manager Hashimoto introduced Supervisor Preston and his Chief of Staff, Kyle Smeallie.  Supervisor Preston serves Japantown and commented on the importance of people visiting Japantown via car, bus and other means of transportation. He is advocating the restoration of bus lines impacting Japantown that were suspended during the pandemic.  He advocated for the extension on the Garage lease and was pleased to hear the extension had been approved.  Lastly, Supervisor Preston presented Certificates of Honor signed by all the Board of Supervisors to the JCGC Board of Directors in appreciation for their dedication and service on the JCGC board and their commitment to the community.

5. Corporate Counsel’s Report – Claudine Cheng
   The JCGC lease with SFMTA has been successfully extended for another 5 years.  The extension is the first of two 5-year extension terms.
   
   Under the recent RFP conducted by the SFMTA for garage operators, IMCO will remain the garage operator.  The roles and responsibilities of IMCO, JCGC and SFMTA are outlined in the contract documents.
   
   Since a few new directors have joined or about the join the Board of Directors, Counsel recommends that a Brown Act training be conducted perhaps during the April and June board of directors meeting.  

6. SFMTA Report – Rob Malone and David Dunham
   Effective February 1, 2023, IMCO will start a new contract as the parking operator of the Japan Center Garages.  The only change from the past is that IMCO’s contract will be directly with SFMTA.  There will be continuous oversight provided by SFMTA and JCGC with the accounting procedures remaining the same.  Currently, IMCO has the contracts with 12 city garages.
   
   Moving forward, the SFMTA will figure out what needs to change and what the budget should be.  The City has an employee retention policy and 95% of the employees have decided to stay.  The only change may be with the non-union staff.

7. Treasurer’s Report –
   In absence of Director Ong, Corporate Manager Hashimoto reported on the financials for July and August 2022. After a summarizing the July financial statement, a motion to accept was made by Director Noguchi and seconded by Director Chin.  The motion was unanimously adopted.Upon reviewing the August financials, a motion to accept was made by Director Noguchi and seconded by Director Choi.  The motion was unanimously adopted.

8. Committee Reports
   Community Participation and Marketing Funds Committee

   1. Chair Noguchi reported:
      Community fund - There is a balance left of $15,000 from a beginning of $35,000Marketing Fund – There is a balance of $8,000 from a beginning of $25,000.

   2. Director Hsu reported the following for discussion:
      The committee is working on a 4-month timeline to update the funding guidelines to clarify the purpose of the two funds.  The committee is considering changes to the application process, whether the two funds should be separate or combined.  The committee is also considering whether there will be two application period in a year such as April 30 and December 31 - which may help streamline the decision-making process or continue with the current process.  Funding cycle should take into consideration equity/fairness so as not to exclude smaller organizations.

      The committee will share a summary of this by the Feb. meeting.Corporate counsel proposed that a memo outlining the options and reasons be sent to all directors to receive input.

   3. Nomination CommitteeIn the absence of Chair Ong, Director Noguchi reported on his behalf.The committee recommended 3 candidates for approval to the board.  After a brief introduction from each candidate, they were asked to leave the meeting during the vote and rejoined the meeting after the voting took place.  The following motions were made:
      Tom Hayashi – Director Chin made motion to approve and seconded by Director Hsu
      Brandon Quan – Director Kolbe motioned to approve, seconded by Director Kiniris
      Junichiro Ikeda – Director Choi motioned to approve, seconded by Director Kirinis
      All three motions were adopted unanimously by the board approving the three candidates to join the JCGC board of directors. 

9. Quarterly Update on Website Report – Included in the board packet was the Q3 2022 Statistic Overview. 

   1. Q3 was a good quarter for the garage and Japantown because of the summer season.  Top 5 pages were Daily, Monthly, validation program, Getting Here and About Japantown.  The business profile traffic accounts for 77% of traffic and 23% comes from searches.  There was a discussion about the accuracy of the 3-stars rating on Yelp and that the rating may not be accurate.  The rating was also a function of number of people posting comments and complaints.   A director looked up the “Yelp” postings and saw the notation “process unclaimed.”

   2. The final 2022 web report will be presented at the February 2023 meeting and hopefully web master Greg Viloria can provide more information.

10. Community Updates

    1. Japantown Task Force – Emily Murase could not attend but a report was submitted in the board packet.

    2. Japantown CBD

       Covid testing - ED Grace Horikiri passed out Covid testing kitsVirus Geeks continues to provide testing at the Japantown Plaza.  In October, there were 219 tested and Nov. there were 291 tested.

       There will also be Monkey Pox testing soon in the plaza.

       Street cleaning – the ambassadors are effectively helping with street cleaning; it has been challenging as there are lots more unhoused folks searching through the trash bins and leaving their belongings behind.

       Safety – the security camera program has been an effective tool and there were 5 requests for footage in October and November.  The neighborhood is also seeing a lot more patrols from Northern Station, with appreciation to Commanders Lazar and Ng.

       Marketing - There was a CBD/Japantown artist pop-up shop on 11/4 – 11/6.  The CBD will also be pairing artists with restaurants, installing additional pop ups.  A mural was also installed in Hotel Kabuki.

       Garage Operations and Security Report –  A summary of the report for October and November was reported including:  there was an increase of vehicle break-ins (34 VBI’s and 6 car thefts) from prior period.  Homeless trespassers and suspicious person reported increased to 28.  The Command Center continues to monitor the garage remotely at all times.

11. Recess to closed session –
    Corporate Counsel confirmed that there is no need for closed session. 

12. General Public comment on items not on the agenda – There was no public comment.

13. Old/New Business, Announcements etc. 

    1. From Director Kirinis – A new store will be opening at Geary and Fillmore focusing on African American artisan products.

    2. From Corporate Manager - The Kimochi Silver Bells holiday event benefiting senior services is coming up.

14. Adjournment – A motion to adjourn was made by Director Noguchi and seconded by Director Choi at 12:40 pm.  The board voted unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Rodney Chin

Rodney Chin

Secretary