 Welcome everyone to today's webinar, Coronavirus COVID-19 Continued Guidance and Resources for Santa Cruz County Businesses. My name is Andy Constable and I am the Economic Development Manager for the County of Santa Cruz and I will be your host. Today's agenda covers a variety of topics that represent updates from our previous webinar presented last Friday and additional information in response to business communities requests. The information that we will be sharing with you today will be presented by the speakers listed in the order that you see on the slide. So with me today is Rebecca unit from the city of Santa Cruz who is the business liaison. Brandon Napoli, the director of the Small Business Development Center or SBDC, Andy Stone, director of the County Workforce Development Board. Candace Elliott, founder and principal of Fortress and Flourish and also downtown liaison for the city of Santa Cruz Economic Development Department. Robert Singleton, executive director of the Santa Cruz County Business Council and Casey Byer, chief executive officer of the Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce. At the end of the webinar, we will have a Q&A period to answer as many questions that you post to the chat during the webinar. And we'll also try to answer some questions as we go through the presentation. So we started, I would like to let everybody know that this is a live broadcast and it is going to be available on CTV's YouTube channel, the county's Facebook page, and the CTV Comcast Channel 25 and Charter Channel 71, both of which will be available for replay. Lastly, the slides to this presentation will also be posted to the county's Economic Development website, sccvitality.org. So just to recap from our last webinar, the county and the state both issued a shelter in place order on March 16 and March 19. Within those orders was some pretty strong language that allowed for certain businesses to remain open. Those businesses were referred to as essential businesses and are best defined in the county's order, the shelter in place order under item 10 definitions and exemptions. I highly recommend reading the county's order to verify if your business is included as essential. Unfortunately, some businesses are self identifying as essential and should follow the shelter in place order that the county is issued for everyone's safety. If you have further questions or need help figuring out if your business qualifies as essential, please call the county's call center at 831-454-42, between 8 and 6pm Monday through Friday. Outside of those hours call the United Way of Santa Cruz County at 211 or text COVID-19 to 211-211. So a lot of things have changed from our last webinar. First following action by Governor Newsom, which granted local governments the power to impose eviction restrictions. The county's board of supervisors on March 24th approved an eviction moratorium for local residents and businesses that takes place immediately and will run until May 31st. Although this action was in support of families and businesses, we recognize that it also impacts those that own rental properties. With that in mind, we suggest rental property owners follow best practices that are available through various organizations, which you see here listed on the screen. As you can see from the slide, regrettably, as of today there are no known economic relief programs specifically for commercial or residential landlords to help economic injury due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, there are several organizations that are aggressively pursuing potential programs at the state and federal level. We will work to bring you any changes or opportunities as they become available. Until then, we urge owners, managers, tenants to partner and find optimal solutions. So in addition to the board's action, the county's Office for Economic Development has taken several steps to update and improve access to the available information. For example, we've added several links to our webpage guidance and resources for businesses and organize the information in a more user friendly fashion. I'll show you examples of that as we move through this presentation. We're continually adding links and other information to our LinkedIn page and the county's Facebook page. And we have provided information on both today's webinar and the webinar that we presented last Friday. The screen grab of our website, the Economic Development's website, sccvitality.org, that button in green coronavirus guidance and resources for businesses is what you need to click on, which will take you to this screen. This is our links page, which shows a host of resources that are available for businesses. And this is actually for both business owners and actually employees as well. So if you want to screen grab the same page as you work down the page, I'm highlighting this because what we've done is spread out and categorize the information so that it's a little easier to find. For example, the funding opportunities and advice section has a small business administration link, which will take you to the application process, and also the Small Business Development Center, which Brandon will be speaking about, which is a great advisors to go to for information and also help with those applications. As you move down that page, you'll see industry specific resources. We've added several links here, which are specific to restaurants, hotels, and retail. As you move down the page, down there at the bottom, you're going to see webinars and other information. This is where we're going to be placing not only last week's as you see there, not only the slides but also the video presentation, but also the slides and the video presentation from today as well. And there's several links that are on this page that are for businesses to go to if they're able to stay open and provide curbside service or delivery service. These websites are out there and available to businesses to basically keep customers aware of the fact that you're still open and what your hours are as well as what services you can provide. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Rebecca unit from the city of Santa Cruz. Thank you. Thanks, Sandy. This is Rebecca with the city of Santa Cruz. I'm the business liaison. My role is to really survive the point of contact for businesses at City Hall. And today I want to give just a brief overview of some of the resources the city has been working on in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Thank you. So this past Tuesday, similar to the County Board of Supervisors, the city council approved an emergency ordinance to enact a residential and commercial eviction moratorium. The ordinance went into effect on March 24th and will continue until May 31st, but the council can extend this by a vote and their schedule to revisit this ordinance during their second meeting in May. This moratorium is designed to provide protection from eviction only and does not relieve tenants of their rental obligations. Renters should contribute the amount that they are able each month and will be still responsible for paying any back rent due to their landlords. Tenants and landlords are encouraged to negotiate a repayment plan that may extend six months beyond the end of the coronavirus crisis. We've prepared a frequently asked questions document that you can do online in both English and Spanish. And you can access that city of Santa Cruz dot com slash coronavirus for more details. Next slide please. We've also developed a business resource landing page on the economic development website to Santa Cruz dot com. We're updating this page daily to provide the latest information on local state and several programs. We're also posting links to recordings as well as previously held webinars to provide that information to business owners as their time allows. You can access this page directly by going to choose Santa Cruz dot com slash coronavirus and we'll be adding to that daily as we learn more information next slide please. And in addition to the resources on our landing page, the city of Santa Cruz is acutely aware of the challenges businesses and employees are experiencing during this time. And we're actively working to find points of relief for recurring fees charge to businesses from the city as well as providing new resources to support our businesses directly. The city is already committed to automatically renewing parking permits for businesses for the next month. We're not charging parking for any of our city parking lots and meters and Santa Cruz municipal utilities is accepting requests to reduce or suspend garbage service and has developed a hardship declaration form for businesses and residents unable to pay their utility bills due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Santa Cruz municipal utilities will not charge late fees and utilities or risk will not be discontinued. You can learn more and request assistance by visiting Sydney of Santa Cruz dot com slash. Next slide please. Finally, I want to let you know that we have a strong team committed to serving our local businesses during this COVID-19 response citywide. The economic development team is led by our director Bobby left him in addition to myself includes Candace Elliott and Amanda Othello. We are all working diligently to collect all the latest information to be able to send that out to you and we're responding to increase and working to develop the new tools to support our businesses. Please visit our online resources for information and contact us directly with your questions or concerns we can help you through this challenging time. That's all I have today and I will send it over to Brandon. Thanks Rebecca. This is Brandon aptly director of the small business development center here in Santa Cruz County. We've been here for 35 years, serving all types of federally legal businesses. We have a team of advisors all subject matter experts in different aspects of business. Many of which have had a business or still have a business here in the county. So anything from general strategy to HR to lease negotiation to finance and marketing. We have an advisor that can help you our services are absolutely free of charge and so there's really no reason not to contact us and let us help you out. This first slide has our website which we put on the newest information that we have Santa Cruz SBDC. We also have our phone number there 831-479-6136 that you can reach out and apply for services. So there's five things I want to quickly talk about versus your business model, then going into your numbers, your cash flow, working with banks and applying for the economic economic disaster loan that's out right now. So the first thing is your business model. My recommendation is to put this on paper at this point and talk be able to talk through every part of it. Write out what it is what needs to change or what is likely to change and be honest with what you know and what you don't know and ask for help. The second piece of advice I say is know your numbers and have them on paper. We expect accountants to be very busy at this point but play out different scenarios to know where you could be if different assumptions happen. The third bit of advice is to really try to extend your existing cash flow to two of the key areas to achieve financial stability or planning and communicating. It's important to have a solid plan in place for your cash expense reduction payment extensions partial whole rent abatement vendor extension from merchandise employees etc. And to constantly communicate to all stakeholders in your business. My experience is if you communicate. This will help you find solutions to make this period as tolerable as possible be proactive in getting through this don't sit back and hope or wait for someone to contact you. It's your business and your responsibility. Additionally working with lenders. It's extremely important to go talk to your lender. Two things here is to be patient but persistent. If you have existing loans to be lender asked for payments to be deferred waived of fees interest only period or extended payment dates. Additionally, we're going to have a list of local lenders. You can find this on the slides will be provided as well as on our website Santa Cruz SPDC.org. You can find out which lenders are also offering other SPA products. There is a lot of developments happening and probably by early next week we'll have a much better understanding of what those are going to look like with our banking partners. But it's important that you go talk to your bank, as well as find a local SPA lender that again is on this list we have several of them included. Let's get into briefly the SPA disaster relief loan. Right here is the eligibility. There is a size standards, almost every business I would expect here in Santa Cruz qualify up to 500 employees. Personal guarantees required for any owner 20% or more. This is actually looking to change if you request less than $200,000. Again, we've been told that the guarantee might go away for any request up to $200,000 on the personal side. Separate entities need to apply separately. The no credit elsewhere. Just to give more definition. This is not really a factor in determining this. The main thing they want to see is that you don't have the ability to be okay without this product. This product is really to get you through this period of time. You have $100,000 in the bank and you show that you would be okay without this. You're not the target audience, but for the most part this product is available for any type of business. If you are declined, you will be told why and you will be able to resubmit your application. In eligible applicants, we have a longer list, but just three that are at the top. Some franchises, this is on a case by case basis. Those that have also defaulted on federal debt and agricultural businesses will be served with other products. Term amounts, this one goes up to $2 million at 30 years. There is no prepayment penalty. You can pay it off early. There's no payment, there's no fees to actually apply. Again, I highly recommend that you utilize our services to make sure you get your application in correctly. There is no real reason that you should be paying anyone to do this for you. The interest rate is 3.75% for for profits, 2.75% for nonprofits, and an increase can be asked later. We recommend that you ask for six months of working capital needs. So figure out what that looks like for your business and make that your first request. There will be no payments for the first 11 months. On the 12th month will be your first payment. Interest does accrue during that deferment period. Credit is a factor where you don't have a score. It will be a blended rate between personal and business, but just know that credit will be pulled. Regarding the use of proceeds, it will be for working capital needs. Again, I'm going to go through these slides fairly quickly and there's more information on our website. Collateral nothing is requested for 25,000. This might be going to higher amounts as well. In disbursements of funds we've been told are not controlled to be a lump sum. However, if you're looking to request additional funding, I'm sure they will be asking questions to make sure that you spent the money for working capital. If you're looking to apply, there's several different ways you can look online. The SBA website has had some issues, so there is ability to use a Dropbox. Again, that link is on our website. You can also email the SBA, fax, or mail them in. You should wait several days if not a week to receive a response. There is quite a queue developing at this point, but you should be contacted with an email and a loan officer that allows you to know that your application was received. At a point of closing, you will get initial $25,000 of a disbursement. This is also changing. This might increase as well, but the funds will be deposited into your bank account. Regarding requirements, there are several different documentations that are needed. If you're a sole prop, the 5C form, or the SBA 5 form for all other types of entities, tax terms only required for loans above $500,000. The SBA form 1368 might be required at a point as well as the SBA form 159D. You will be told what forms are required when you go through the process, but it's good to have these available and filled out. Additional forms of 4506T will be required and SBA form 413D and 2202 will potentially be required. Absolutely, the 4506T will be required and the 413D. We have made a video both in English and Spanish. Here are the links. Again, these are on our website and the slides were provided for you to be able to fill out these forms. We also can help you fill out these forms. At this point, I'd like to transfer this over to Andy Stone, Director of Workforce Development here in San Cruz County. Thanks, Brandon. As he mentioned, I'm Andy Stone with the Workforce Development Board and today I want to talk about some resources that are available for your business and your employees. Excellent. The Workforce Development Board, just to give you a brief overview, we're a private public partnership, and we create programs and strategies that provide residents with a pathway to better wages and meaningful work. So, for COVID-19 resources for businesses, the first one I want to focus on is workplace health and safety. There are a couple good resources for you there. I would recommend that you refer to the Cal OSHA guidance on coronavirus. And as you'll see through my presentation, there are links that are there that will take you right to these web pages. And after this meeting, you'll be able to find the presentation on the sccvitality.org website. So then as we go down to reduced work hours, so if you're experiencing a slowdown in business from the coronavirus, I'd recommend that you look at the UI Worksharing Program, which is provided by EDD. This would allow you to retain your employees while they receive unemployment insurance. It could be a good deal for you both. Next slide. So if you're experiencing a potential closure or layoff, whether it's coronavirus related or not, please contact Belinda Barr. You'll see her number here, 831-763-8872 or her email address. You'll be able to work with your business to potentially avert the layoffs. But if not, we can provide onsite or virtual services to your workers, letting them know about what benefits are available for them. As far as tax assistance goes, employers experiencing a hardship may request a 60 day extension. I provided some phone numbers here from EDD for you to contact to learn more about those opportunities. Next slide. And for workers, there are a couple ways here that you can access some services available through EDD. Disability insurance benefits may be available if you have experienced wage loss due to COVID-19 exposure. If you have to care for an ill or quarantine family member, you can look at paid family leave. Again, there are links here that will take you to more information. And unemployment insurance is available if your child's school is closed and you have to miss work to be there for them, or if your hours have been reduced as a result of the coronavirus. I'm going to miss if I didn't point out that there are several businesses right now that are looking for help, and it ranges everywhere from the US census to grocery stores to gig jobs as well. Next slide. If you do need to file an unemployment insurance claim, I recommend that you do it online at the edd.ca.gov website. The Edd phone lines have been jammed the last couple weeks, and wait times have been up to two to three hours. So I definitely would recommend that you go to that online site first. If you have the option of mailing in your unemployment insurance application or faxing it, if you would like, they still use fax machines at EDD. And there are videos available on how to apply for unemployment insurance benefits. And I've provided them in the presentation here in five different languages. Next slide. If you're self-employed independent contractors, that doesn't mean that you're out of luck. You could still potentially receive unemployment insurance under a few different scenarios. And there is follows. You choose to contribute to the elective coverage and you paid your required contributions. That would be your past employer made contributions on your behalf over the past five to 18 months. And finally, you may have been misclassified as an independent contractor instead of an employee and should be entitled to unemployment insurance in that instance as well. Next slide. So now I'd like to introduce Candace Elliott from Fortress and Flourish. Thank you, Andy. And so, like Andy said, my name is Candace Elliott and I work with the city of Santa Cruz Economic Development Department and I'm also the founder and principal at Fortress and Flourish providing human resource management solutions mainly to small businesses and nonprofit organizations. And over the past couple of weeks, we've done a number of workforce reductions, but today I'm here to summarize some of the HR aspects of, oh, excuse me, slide. So different types of workforce reduction include reductions in hours, furloughs and layoffs. Next slide. In a reduction in hours, that means you're going to retain your employees but you reduce your hours. One way to do this is to convert salaried exempt employees to hourly non-exempt employees. I've recently talked about a work share program, which requires you to apply and be approved for that program until you're applied for that program, you can provide your employees with something called a notice of reduced earnings on a weekly basis. And so that can allow you to reduce those hours sooner and continue to allow them to qualify and for unemployment insurance. In furloughs, in a furlough situation, you anticipate that you will have work for your employee in the future. You convert your employee into an inactive employee, having them work zero hours. This allows you to retain their benefits and benefit contributions, and your employee does qualify for unemployment. Slide. In a layoff, you may or may not have work for your employee in the future. So if you're not sure if you will have work, then a layoff may be an appropriate option for you. In this instance, you cannot maintain their benefits and the employee qualifies for unemployment and COBRA if they have benefits with you. Slide. So as with all things in human resources, there are best practices in workforce reduction. And workforce reduction is an adverse employment decision. So adverse employment decision includes something like, you know, firing someone, reducing their hours, changing their type of employment. So when you do this, you want to use objective criteria, like all employees in a class or a length of employment or some other kind of objective criteria. So any time that you make a change in your employment agreement with your employee, you want to provide them with a notice of that change slide. A little review of unemployment insurance, Andy already covered this, but there's an online application. It typically takes two to three weeks for the first payment, but we are seeing longer wait times at this time. Slide. COBRA is a continuation of medical benefits that's administered by the company, and it becomes effective at the time of termination. Slide. So next I'm going to review some items related to the family's first coronavirus response act. Slide. This is federal legislation, which means that it applies to all 50 states, including California. It's also called HR 6201 if you want to go online and read the actual act. It was introduced on March 11th and became a law on March 18th and is effective April 1st. So next week through December 31st of 2020. Slide. The aspects of the act I'm going to discuss are the FMLA family and medical leave expansion and emergency paid sick leave and then tax credits for leave paid slide. So under family and medical leave expansion, we'll talk about coverage reasons for leave pay benefits and reinstatement and exceptions slide. So who's covered and employers with less than 500 employees and employees that have worked at least 30 calendar days slide. The reasons for the leave include. The person is sick or must be isolated because they have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus care for a family member who's sick or needs to be isolated and care for a child under 18 whose school is closed slide. So this leave is separated into two parts that all of the leave is 12 weeks long for the first 14 days. This this leave may be unpaid. The employee may use sick or vacation leave, but the employer cannot require the use of such leave. They can request or suggest or make it available, but you cannot require that your staff use this leave slide. The remaining 10 weeks work a little differently. So employees will receive two thirds their regular rate of pay, which is prorated for part time employees based on the average number of hours that that employee works. There is a cap of $200 a day and a total of $10,000. Medical coverage must be continued during this leave and the employee is guaranteed reinstatement at the end of the leave slide. There are some exceptions. Employers with less than 50 employees can be exempted if this law jeopardizes the validity of the business. And employers with less than 25 employees may qualify for the reinstatement exclusion. Next slide. So the next piece of this law is the emergency paid sick leave. We're going to talk about coverage reasons for leave entitlement and other provisions. Next slide. So this is for employers with less than 500 employees and it covers all employees. It doesn't require any length of employment slide. So reasons for leave include quarantine and isolation orders, including California's stay at home order slide. Other reasons for leave include being sick or needing to be isolated care for a family member who is sick or needs to be isolated care for a child under 18 whose school is closed and other quote substantially similar conditions. And as these laws and as we move forward and implementing these laws, some of the definitions for words like substantially similar will become more clear. Next slide. So the entitlement for full time employees is 80 hours. This is pro rated for part time employees based on the average number of hours that they work. This emergency sick pay does not carry over to 2021 and this pay must be issued before any previously accrued sick leave. So you have to give this first if they have a qualifying condition slide. The caps on the entitlement for full time employees are $511 a day and a total of 5,110 and then for two thirds pay it's that $200 a day and a total of $2,000 slide. Some other things to think about are that it is unlawful to discharge, discipline or discriminate against anyone who takes leave in accordance with this act or anyone who files a complaint related to this act slide. So I'd like to introduce Robert Singleton the executive director of the Santa Cruz County Business Council. I represent a consortium of the 85 or so largest employers in the matter of public policy. They'll be talking about the commercial commercial moratoriums and evictions and how you how you qualify and then we should do if you want to take advantage of these policies so slide please. So some of the impacts that you can claim for for being in consideration for these moratoriums for small businesses obviously loss of revenue loss of employees who you still are on the payroll delays in capital that you're getting commercial landlord standpoint loss of rent payments loss of tenants and then also the decline in the underlying asset value talk about how these move forward slide please. So essentially on Tuesday, the county as well as all the incorporated cities created a moratorium and commercial evictions. So essentially is not utilizing their police power to enforce evictions does not mean that rent is waived you're still going to be on the hook. And then counties and cities have very limited resources currently available for commercial tenants slide please. So, again, like I said, the county is not exercising its police power to enforce commercial and residential evictions. That's through the sheriff's office. So they declared a state of emergency in March 10. And then the county Superior Court is delaying all unlawful detainer trials until May 4. So people can still submit paperwork to go through with evictions but neither the trials or the enforcement will be in effect. In order to to qualify for the moratorium. You must have a document loss of income due to either medical expenses and or compliance with the government orders affecting businesses. And right now there are very limited resources available but the board of supervisors is set to revisit financial assistance during their April 14 meeting. And like I said, this is not absolve a tenant to pay rent and certain cities actually have specific payback periods. So Watsonville differ slightly, and that the tenant is ordered to pay back rent within six months of the end of the public emergency as defined upon by council. And so that that is going to be decided at a later date of when the emergency public emergency can be not declared by the city council. Santa Cruz is pretty much the same thing except it's after May 31. And it says up to six months. However, what is what is important to remember is that built into all these resolutions is the deference towards interpreting them to be as liberally as possible. So provide as much deference towards the actual tenant and landlord relationship. So next slide please. So what should you do if you can't pay rent or if your tenant cannot pay you. So the three things that are covered here. One is a signed statement of loss for both parties to is going to be a scenario evaluation process. And then going through and negotiating deferment a temporary reduction or some cases forgiveness slide please. So what is the joint state loss. This is a statement that clearly articulates how the coven 19 virus has affected your business organization so this could be loss of revenue inability to pay rent medical things childcare. If you are a restaurant or the non essential business. Please cite the emergency orders whether it's the the federal state of emergency, the state stay at home orders or the county public health orders. Please list the steps you are already taking to remedy the situation so if you're taking advantage of temporary furloughs intentions to plot and then define define your intention of what you will be seeking as a result of this joint statement of loss. It's really important to have this signed and have an agreed upon understanding from both the landlord and the tenant joint statement of loss essentially serves as a letter of intent, a formal notification of non payment or reduced rent. And can also in as legal documentation should aid you made available in the future. It's also symbolically important as a means of communication as a starting point of negotiation, or recognizing that it in itself is not a formal binding contract slide please. So, an evaluation period I think branding covered a lot of this, but really, you should define scenarios based upon the worst best case scenario in terms of the expected assistance that you can rely on the timeline normalcy so whether or not may happen in terms of the stay home orders, but also create scenarios that take into account worst case scenarios is your business seasonal hospitality business support. Has your market been permanently reduced again they're going to be a lot of businesses they're going to be shuttering the doors so if you're a business supporter admin services, can you can you reasonably assume to have the same market as after the after the emergency orders have taken place. Alright, so we'll just go ahead and skip to the next slide. So and then offer terms so in your terms, have a timeline for deferment and payback period is strongly encouraged that landlord should be waiving interest and penalties and then create and in terms of the specific timelines for cities. Again, City of Watsonville and Santa Cruz outlined six months, however they've also built into their ordinances to define these as liberally as possible and there isn't really an enforcement mechanism so they're going to be very differential towards agreements that you make between the individual landlord and the tenant. Other things you should consider in terms of terms are there trigger points reevaluation. What happens should shelter shelter in place or stay at home be extended. If there's a medical emergency, whether you or someone your core central person in your business become sick. If you need to break the lease how will the balance of the rent be paid. And for landlords what happens if you need to sell the property or make another decision that should should affect that how will, how will that be paid out, and then also taking account ownership and investor structure so if you have multiple partners. If you, you know, people on different percentages of ownership, how is the balance going to be paid should you not be able to collect the full amount of rent. So, in the interest of not having any more internet problems, I'll turn it over to Casey Byer, the CEO of the Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce. Robert thank you so much and before I get started I wanted to compliment Andy and your team and CTV for putting out this webinar is I think it's a very important way for us to be communicating on issues of concern to everyone in our county and I was really delighted to hear some of the programs and the policies that are being coordinated by our city and county and the ability for us to actually get the word out. Let me get started. Next slide please. When the COVID-19 started, I was being asked by members of my chamber and the community of what's happening in the community what are you hearing from your businesses. I didn't have any media calls and I didn't really have anything other than anecdotal information to give them so we created a short survey that we put out a week ago we're closing it this afternoon but for the benefit of this presentation. The survey has been out in the street since the 18th March and the information today is through the 25th. Next slide please. We've been collected as of that day on the 25th we've had 230 responses countywide and every industry sector nonprofits and public sector folks have participated in this. The list is long units I don't think there's any organization or business that have a category that has not participated. Next slide. What we really wanted to do is find out what what are businesses and organizations doing to get ready for any type of benefits or assistance from the federal or state governments. So we asked the general list of questions and the first one is are you collecting any financial data associated with your business projectivity during this time and as you can see on the screen. 76% of the respondents said yes they are so that's telling me that people are getting prepared to to be ready to apply for programs if they're eligible. Next slide please. So if you would suggest the question what was your estimate loss of revenue and again this is a period of time from the 18th to 25th and it's moving target as we all know the current providers is an evolving situation. But take a look at the the graph and we kind of broke it down in in segments of funds and what I'm really concerned about is the 22.5% of the respondents that have a loss of $50,000 or more. There are some people that are still assessing about a quarter of the businesses and organizations that participated are still assessing their financial losses. So what you're seeing is that there is people in business community that are losing resources and revenue. Next slide please. We asked is your business reduced hours of operation and as you can see on the on the screen, nearly 80% of the respondents said yes to that question. Next slide please. Okay, so if you've reduced employee hours and or number of employees working for you, and the answer is absolutely yes. Over close to 70% of the respondents said that they are they're reducing employee hours and or employees are being floral throw out or laid off. Next slide please. This question is kind of a challenge, but I think it's important to understand, you know, we're a few weeks into the crisis and we asked the question, yeah, what can your business can, can your business continue under the current crisis conditions. And largest number of responders are still assessing their situation, meaning that they're not sure whether they're going to close their businesses, or they're going to be reducing employees or not. But the main concern is that within 30 to 60 days 35% of the respondents said that they would lose. They would probably not be able to continue in business. Next slide please. The top four answers and questions that came in our survey were one tax relief from local and state government 65% of the respondents said that that's the number one criteria for them. Number two at 53 2.2% access to SBA loans and level with low interest rates. Number three unemployment insurance for employees and then number four ability to file state delay the state and federal taxes. There was a question that we asked there was an open ended question is do you have concerns that we should hear about. There are 135 different comments that were put out, some of them relating to lower rent strings time both to the commercial renter and to the residential renter post boning of to T and people tax payments. And the answer to that was no response. He's being impacted by air quality and they're finding him. If he doesn't pay the $700 by April 1, and the questions go on and on, but the point being is, it's real out there folks and the county government and the local government is important for them to have some database so that they can take a look out. We will finalize the remainder service and we'll put up more extensive data analysis out later. Next slide please. That's questions and I want to again thank Andy and his team for putting on this and hosting this webinar today. Thank you very much Casey so appreciate everybody Baron with this we had some internet connectivity there is issues with Robert but I think for the most part. I think he got through the presentation and and more importantly this information as I indicated in the beginning will be available hosted different platforms for your review after the fact. And at this point answer some questions that may be remaining. The group is done a pretty good job of responding to a large percentage of questions that came in. Looks like so can I start at the top here and see if we can pick off the ones that haven't been answered. This is applied recipe along for both the sole partner and LLC. Yes, both entities structures are eligible. You can only apply once for each entity so. But each sole prop and LLC can both apply paperwork on those are about will be about the same, but we will be determined and underwriting. Let's see I will share the slide on where the slides can be found after the questions. Will the 3.75 interest rate for SBA loans be lowered. Not that I know of the only thing that may happen is a portion of it could be forgiven but that is not has not been determined yet. Again, we'll post that on our website as soon as it's available. So providers have less forms to submit an LLC is not necessarily. And my banker told me today the SP loans generally go to businesses with more than six employees I have three you think that we're going to be waived. That's not a requirement. So I would say you should continue to talk to your banker or talk to another SBA banker. So the answer is not yes the answer is still up in the air there so we're seeking guidance from Edd on this going forward it's, it's new and Edd, nor US Department of Labor have published any guidance on work sharing and unemployment. So, Andy stone another one for you as a Airbnb host, are they potentially eligible for unemployment. So potentially yes there's the three, the three areas that the that Edd is provided as avenues towards unemployment. Also, I would encourage you to apply for unemployment, because any future grants that come out may ask you if you've applied for unemployment and then turned down. But definitely I can't make it an assessment of unemployment eligibility on the phone. The small service business who has always paid rent on time for four years I have no clients now and nowhere to come any of landlord is demanding the rent. Where can I go to fully know my options to not pay or voted being booted out. Robert singleton or. Yeah, could you repeat the question again, I'm trying to look it up in the chat service business who has always paid rent on time for four years. Now I know we're going to come here landlord is demanding the rent. Where can they go to fully know the options to not pay or avoid being kicked out. So, right now you have limited options I would say just very much document kind of the losses that you're having right now. And again draft up one of those those statement of losses, even if your landlord is not accepting it and still demanding a rent. They cannot evict you through May 31 if you're in the county and that's likely to be extended. And then there's an explicit payback period for the back rent for six months if you're in the city of Santa Cruz or Watsonville. And that it's going to be a tough conversation and and the landlord needs to understand that, you know, this is not unique situation a lot of businesses are going through this and you know they're, it's within their interest to enter into a negotiation for rent a ferment, or a reduction in certain instances. Can you tell us anything about loans that can be used for payroll if you keep your employees that will be forgiven at a later date. There is a loan that's coming through SPA lenders called the PPP loan that's supposed to be used for payroll and will be forgiven. I've spoken to a couple banks none of them have any marching orders yet, but what I would recommend is go talk to an SPA lender in the county and ask them for details again there's a delay between what is put into law and what the banks will practice. But it looks good regarding a loan that could be forgivable for payroll. Rebecca here's one for you the city of San Francisco is giving payroll grants to businesses one with one to five employees city of Santa Cruz have these kinds of non loan sources for small businesses in the community. We're currently exploring some different options either looking at your present loans or forgivable grants but we don't have anything in place currently. I can't guarantee that but it is definitely a program we're looking at. Brandon this one's to you is there any information regarding SPA loan to grant programs to maintain employment. Sorry, I lost the question. No, I got it. So, we should probably roll out some information early next week regarding that. Again, I was on the phone with a couple bankers and they will be offering any any loan that goes towards payroll that is forgivable. So, I would also recommend talking to your SPA banker. I also recommend at this point just exercising all aspects of obtaining capital 3.75% is a pretty competitive rate and if it seems honestly more than a forgivable loan there's there's no reason you can't back out of the process. If you do apply there's no penalties there's no fees. So, I recommend that you just apply and then see what happens in the next couple weeks. This one's for you as well understanding the hit to remedy at this time is nebulous. Does a small business get in the queue without a good understanding of if how the revenue will be affected over the next several months. So, SPA from my understanding is going to make a determination on what your your losses are. Based upon historic cost of running the business. So there might be a little bit of a negotiation that you're going to have to have with your SPA underwriter. But what I recommend is looking at the next six, six months of what would it take to operate your business and apply for that amount. Andy this one's to you as the county considering establishing a local fund to assist with bridge gap financing until federal and state assistance can be applied for received. The board has asked that we do an evaluation of the possibility of establishing such a fund. It's non conclusive at this point it's too soon to tell we will be reporting back to the board at the next board meeting on April I believe it's 14th. Please bear with us as we try to garner as much information as possible. Brandon to you, our campus based businesses eligible for an SPA loan. I do not believe so. Now, I don't want to put any false hope into this but the, the eligibility requirements continue to become more lenient but at this point if it's federally illegal from my understanding it's not eligible for SPA. As you can see our sole proprietor medical providers whose patients load is down 80% eligible for unemployment. So for, and this is Andy from the workforce development board for self employed individuals it. It is going to be rare whether you qualify for unemployment insurance but there are the three possible ways that Ed has directed people towards which is one which is an elective coverage which you would know if you were going into that. The second is you've worked for another employer who made contributions on your behalf over the past five to 18 months, or that you may have been misclassified. But other than that yeah the, there are not very many avenues for a self employed individual to collect unemployment insurance. Where should we advise our employees that are still working but with less hours go for financial assistance. Number one, since I'm on the line already I would recommend that they file for unemployment, because you can qualify for unemployment based upon working reduced hours. Let's see the forms on the SPA website are in separate folders homeowners sole proprietor only has two forms, and the other has several so providers have to submit all of them. You should only have to submit what the SPA is requiring if there's just those two forms that's what they're asking. However, if you want to be extra cautious, I would recommend completing all those forms. Happy to go over those forms with you to ensure that you find out correctly and the correct forms. So a couple of their 60s have been in business for 40 years. So no unemployment contributions, any employment funds, unemployment funds available. I see Judy responded below just answered. Okay, good. So the audience know that Joby aviation is making face shields and I'm already on Tuesday. Okay, contact up Eric's and it sectors works. Can self employed sole proprietor is qualified for federal pandemic employment assistance. If so, how does one apply. So I don't know about the federal pandemic unemployment assistance I believe that it would still be done the same way through EDD. So, so I would not be able to give you an answer on that now. For those employees paying 100% of their dependent coverage and now receiving less work hours. Is this qualifying a qualifying event for dependence to shop the California covered. Candice Elliott to answer that question. So, and this depends on whether or not you have decided to furlough or lay off or just reduce the hours of your employees. And so if, if you would like further assistance, please reach out to me at fortress and flourish.com I'd be happy to assist you. So there's a question about an extension to pay quarterly taxes. The question is how is that requested. Candice again so I'm with the FM LA and paid sick leave legislation, you have the ability to have a deferral, or to have a tax credit for any of that leave that is paid out. And there will be more guidance on how to go about doing that in the coming days, I would imagine. Any more questions. Okay, so what we'll do with any questions that we're not answered is trying to collect the information and if we are able to answer it in a fashion that we can post we will do so either. We did it earlier on our website or on Facebook or on LinkedIn pages. And again we've turned back to the broadcast options that are available for replay of this webinar and we encourage anybody to look to that for listening back and answering some questions that may have been answered within the context of the webinar itself. I want to thank all the panelists for participating it was a great assemblage of information and resources, and thank all the people listening so we really appreciate your patience with us as we move through this and apologize for the technology glitches. And again thank you be safe out there.