meeting of the san francisco public works commission. today is monday, february 26th, 2024. it is 9:00 am. secretary fuller, please call the roll. good morning. please respond with here or present lynn newhouse. siegel commissioner newhouse siegel is present. warren post here. chair. post is present. gerald turner, present. commissioner turner is present. paul wolford present. commissioner wolford is present. fat zabi present. vice chair zabi is present with five members present. we do have quorum for the public works commission. uh, public comment is taken for all informational and action items on today's agenda. and the comment and to comment in person, please line up against the wall near the screen on the audience's left.

when public comment is called for members of the public wishing to comment on an item from outside the hearing room, you will, uh. you may do so by joining via webinar through the link shown on page two of today's agenda. and to be recognized, select the raise your hand icon in the webinar. you may also comment from outside the chamber by. dialing 14156550001. use the meeting id. of 26613161316. pound, pound and then to raise your hand to speak, press star three. the telephone login information is also available on both pages one and two of today's agenda. commenters may speak for up to three minutes per item. you'll receive a 32nd notice when you're speaking. time is about to expire, and in the event we have many comment hours on an on an item, the chair may reduce public comment time to less than

three minutes per person unless you're speaking under general public comment, please note that you must limit your comments to the topic of the agenda item being discussed, and if commenters do not stay on topic, the chair may interrupt and ask you to limit your comments to the agenda item at hand. we ask that public comment be made in a civil and respectful manner, and that you refrain from the use of profanity, abusive and hate speech will not be tolerated. please address your remarks to the commission as a whole, not to individual commissioners or staff and the public is always welcome to submit comments in writing via our via to our email address. public works dot commission at sfdp .org or by mail at 49 south van ness, suite 1600, san francisco, california 94103. and on behalf of the commission, we extend our thanks to the sf gov tv building management and media services staff for helping make this

meeting possible. madam chair, thank you. before calling the next item, are there any requests from the commission to amend the order of today's agenda? hearing none. secretary fuller, please call the next item. item one is the announcements by the chair, commissioners and secretary. and this is an informational item. thank you. i think since this commission has been convening, you will be shocked to know i have no announcements today. audience members, please hold your applause to my colleagues on the commission. have any announcements this morning, secretary fuller, do you have any announcements? i just have a couple brief announcements. um, as a reminder that form 700 filing is due on april 2nd, 2024. um, and i will be once again sharing the email instructions and, uh, providing any support to commissioners to

ensure that they have access to that system to be able to complete on time. um, and then, uh, another announcement is that a new practice of the commission is to get two commissioners, the full, uh, packet of materials, five business days ahead of the regular meeting that was accomplished this past week. um, just about, um, uh, so essentially the monday before is what we're working to do so that folks have plenty of time for review. um, and then the last item is, i do have an update on the sanitation and streets commission. um, which they their february 16th meeting was scheduled due to was rescheduled due to lack of quorum. and they will be meeting on march eighth when they'll hear a performance measure report from the bureau of urban forestry and also the racial equity action plan update that this commission heard at our last meeting. and that's the end of my announcements. thank

you. and in our, um, scheduling effort that you just outlined, what the purpose is, is for the commission to get documents on the monday before five days, business days before, so that if we have questions and comments, we can get them back to the staff in a timely manner. and as we have seen for today's meeting, the staff actually takes those into consideration and may revise the presentations. so secretary fuller, if indeed that that occurs, if there are changes made to the initial presentations, the commission first reviewed earlier in the week, if you could just apprize us when new presentations have been posted so that we can check for any changes, should just so that we don't review everything on a monday or tuesday and then not do anything with it until today. and are surprised by changes. absolutely thank you. if there are no questions or comments, please open this to public comment. members of the public who wish to make three minutes of comment on item one announcements by the chair, commissioners and secretary may

line up against the wall furthest from the chamber door. if commenting from outside the chamber, please press the raise your hand button in the webinar or star three on your phone to be recognized and. and it appears we do not have any in-person commenters, and we do not have any callers. sf gov is telling me. so that concludes public comment on item one. thank you. please call the next item. item two is the director's report and communications and public works director carlos short is here to present. and this is an information item i just wanted to note that at our february uh, 12th meeting, uh, the commission had requested the presentation been given to the capital planning committee, and that was included, uh, on

today's agenda as a, as a an additional daca moment, um, that the staff provided for the commission to. thank you. bob. uh, good morning, commissioners carlos short. uh, hope you all had a good weekend and are ready to roll out a new week. um, i have a number of topics to touch on this morning. first up is budget. i'm very happy to report that we met last week's deadline to submit our budget plan to the mayor's office. i appreciate all your input and approval, and i want to give a special thanks to the public works budget team led by bruce robertson, jennifer marquez and victoria chan. they really did an amazing job crafting a proposal that minimizes impacts on core services and preserves jobs. as you know, the mayor will make a final decision on what to include in her citywide budget plan, which must be sent to the board of supervisors by june 1st. i do not envy the mayor with a projected deficit of 800

million, she must balance priorities through a citywide lens and that takes into account many competing demands. my staff and i will continue to work closely with her budget team and with the controller and board of supervisors throughout the budget process. next up, historically black colleges and universities at the beginning of the month, at the request of mayor breed, the city's human rights commission hosted dozens of leaders from historically black colleges and universities, commonly referred to as hbcus. the goal was to see if there was interest in establishing an hbcu satellite campus here in san francisco. i am bringing this to your attention because one action item that came out of this meeting was to create a pipeline into city government through internships for hbcu students. this past friday, we held another meeting with department representatives to further explore this. as you know, as we've discussed before, we have a strong internship program here at public works and in fact, this year, applications are already in on and we're eager to include hbcus in our

outreach to prospective applicants. in recent years, we have already stepped up our efforts to expand our outreach efforts to tap into a diverse pool of candidates. all right, lunar new year, as mentioned at your last meeting, public works crews have been out in force in chinatown throughout the month of february for our annual deep cleaning and beautification operation during the lunar new year holiday season. this time of year draws big crowds to the historic neighborhood for a panoply of shopping, eating, and cultural activities. this is the year of the dragon. work often began pre-dawn and continued deep into the night. steam cleaning alleyways, sidewalks and sweeping up litter and wiping out graffiti on a daily basis to ready the historic neighborhood for its busiest holiday season of the year. public works also runs more specialized operations, including power washing the iconic dragon gate at bush and grant avenue, scrubbing the broadway tunnel, and touching up paint on the three color decorative dragon lampposts

along grant avenue. our street repair team conducted proactive pothole sweep to ready the roads for the chinese new year parade, which followed a roughly 1.3 mile route that started at second and market streets snaked around union square and chinatown and wrapped up at kearny street and columbus avenue. the parade, which took place on saturday, february 24th, is one of our largest cleanup events operations of the year and calls for a highly choreographed effort. the crews, more than three dozen strong, used push brooms, grabbers, rakes, shovels, leaf blowers, mechanical sweepers and flusher trucks to complete the cleanup. by sunday morning, the streets looked great. i attended the parade and got to see our crews in action. the operation was well executed, so kudos to the team for a job well done. i wanted to get you an update on the mission street vending moratorium on friday, i officially signed 180 day extension on the mission corridor. sidewalk vending moratorium. the temporary

prohibition on vending extends along mission street from 14th street to cesar chavez. because of the initial 90 day moratorium , the city saw a positive benefit, including a drop in crime and a reduction in street cleaning requests in the area. the extension allows us to build on the momentum to improve public safety in the mission neighborhood and hopefully reset the conditions there. okay, the golden gate park golf course clubhouse on february 16th, i had the pleasure of attending the grand opening ceremony for the golden gate park golf course clubhouse. this fabulous project was built with the work of our architects, landscape architects, engineers, and construction management teams. it is really a design gem in a stunning setting on the west end of the park. if you have not been there, i strongly encourage you to go. it's so beautiful. the new rec and park clubhouse, which replaces the old clubhouse that was badly damaged in a fire and had to be torn down, boasts green building features, the

project includes a multifunctional lounge, enhanced public restrooms, a new golf pro shop, food and beverage concessions, additional storage space, and an outdoor patio with seating that overlooks a freshly refurbished course. additional improvements include two accessible parking spaces and an ada pathway that connects the outdoor patio to the putting greens and driving range. more on the ribbon cutting ceremony and the clubhouse design elements can be found in our upcoming work in the works digital journal, due out thursday. next up is arbor day, the best day of the year. i want to remind everyone that our annual arbor day tree planting workday and family fun fair is fast approaching. we'll be in the western addition tenderloin, haight, and other district five neighborhoods on saturday, march 9th, planting some 100 trees. whether it rains or shines, the day will be great because it celebrates trees and we have this event rain or shine. the

kickoff event and fair will be held at new traditions elementary school, which is located at 2050 hayes street. the festivities get underway at 9 a.m. and the fair runs until 1 p.m, so come on out and plant a tree and ride a bucket truck with us if you're able. and last up, i am thrilled to announce that alaric de graffenreid, who served as acting public works director from january 2020 to august 2021, is coming back to the department next month in the new position of deputy director of strategic initiatives. this is a kin to a chief of staff position and his portfolio will be wide ranging. managing special projects, working on organizational improvements and efficiencies, ensuring compliance with disadvantaged business, enterprise and small business enterprise requirements in federal contracting and much more. he will be part of the executive team and we are very, very excited to have him back on the public works team and he starts on march 5th, fourth. i

think, but fourth or fifth. and with that good news, i am happy to take any questions. thank you. thank you, director short. um very good report, very newsy report, lots of information and congratulations to the department for getting that budget in on time. and as we've discussed before, respecting the mayor's requests for budget cuts and budget balancing. um, it's important that public works is a team player with the mayor. and we're very grateful that that we always are. and congratulations to the entire staff for the lunar new year. um, festival assistance that that you outlined, as well as the golden gate park clubhouse. it both are demonstrations of the services and capital projects that the department provides for the city of san francisco and its citizens, and finally, big congratulations on hiring mr. degraffenried back into the fold . i know he was a very popular and well-liked member of the

staff when he was the interim director and having met him, i have full confidence in his ability to augment what you do and what all of the staff does. so i think that's very exciting news. and i will still be waiting for the san francisco chronicle article on you as director and as deputy director. but anyway, i won't i won't hold my breath because i really don't want to turn blue. so thank you. um, do any of my colleagues have any comments or questions for director short? thank you. chair pest. hearing none. please open this to public comment. secretary fuller. members of the public who wish to make three minutes of comment in person on item two, the director's report may line up against the wall for this from the door. if you're commenting from outside the chamber, please press the raise your hand button in the webinar or press star three on your phone to be recognized. i'd. and

no one has come forth to speak on this item in person and. sf gov tv is also indicating we do not have any callers wishing to speak on the director's report. so that concludes public comment . thank you. please call the next item. item three is general public comment, which is for topic topics under the commission's mandate, but not related to a specific item on today's agenda. members of the public who wish to make three minutes of comment, uh, of general public comment in person may line up against the wall for this from the door. and if commenting from outside the chamber once again press the raise your hand button in the webinar or star three. if you've called in on your phone. and as a reminder, general public comment is limited to a total of 15 minutes for all commenters and can be continued to the end of the agenda. if we exceed that limit and it is. now 9:17 a.m.

and we do not have any in person speakers for our general public comment and sf gov tv has also indicated no one has joined to make general public comment over the phone either. so that concludes general public comment . thank you. please call the next item today. item four is the consent calendar of routine matters. it includes the draft minutes from the february 12th, 2024 meeting of the public works commission, one contract modification, and three contract awards. please note that corrections for clarity have been made in the draft minutes, and these corrections are reflected in the documents posted in the on the commission's website and the consent calendar. items can be heard individually upon request by a commissioner, staff or the public. an adoption of the consent calendar and all

resolutions and resolutions contained in it is an action item, uh, before a motion is made. i'm happy to hear any corrections from commissioners to the minutes, or if there are any questions. commissioner newhouse segal. yes, i have a change on the minutes. i'm sorry. so getting them to us, uh, the monday before would be very helpful because i wouldn't have to do this at the meeting. so thank you. uh, so if i'm taking up anybody's time unnecessarily, i apologize. but next, next month, we'll get them on the monday before our meeting . so, um, the actually before that would be great. to the draft minutes could be available very soon after the after our regular meeting. and that would be extremely helpful because then any of us who have anything to, to do to follow up on an action items would be helpful. um, okay. so i do have a

correction under commissioner requests in the minutes of the february 12th meeting. um, so, so i it's very difficult to follow on the on the recordings if i want to make a change and check to see exactly what was said, if it matches my notes or my memory, i can do that. but it's not that easy to find in a long meeting. um but i don't believe that in commissioner requests that i asked for an orderly notice because i don't really know what an orderly notice means. so, um, i would suggest that it be changed to commissioner newhouser. segal requested a notice of which commissioners will be leaving a meeting early. actually i don't think the word notice is would request an announcement of which commissioners will be leaving early to minimum. um, to

minimize the impact on quorum and to allow the chair to make. to make, uh, changes to the agenda. accordingly. because that was the point. we did not have time to finish what was on the agenda for, because people were leaving and there was no announcement that they were going to be leaving ahead of time. so we lost the quorum. well we didn't, because i was stopped at the door. thank you. by our city attorney telling me that we would lose the quorum to the entire meeting. but uh, commissioner post was very, very, uh, very clear that we needed to stay for votes and there was a vote. and we did do that, but it was not clear that we couldn't leave after the votes were taken. and i'm not even sure if chair post was aware of that. so city attorney

did let us know that. and what is that? we ended up continuing anyway. so what's the issue if we lose a quorum? if we lose a quorum, we don't have any action items. so um, somebody can explain that to me. but, uh, anyway, that's the change in the minutes. thank you. and it's important for the public to understand this, too, that people will be getting up and leaving and who will be in case they have comments that they wanted to address to a particular commission. for. noted. thank you. thank you. are there any other comments or questions on the consent calendar today? if not, i will move to adopt the consent calendar with the suggested change to the minutes that commissioner newhouser segal uh, just made is there a second to adopt? second. thank you. all in favor of excuse me? i beg your pardon? please open this item to public comment. members of the public who wish to make three minutes of comment in person on

item for the adoption of the consent calendar and all resolutions contained in it may line up against the wall for this from the door. uh, if you are commenting from outside the chamber, please press the raise your hand button in the webinar or press star three on your phone to be recognized. and we do not have any in person commenters. and as tv has just indicated, we also do not have any callers. so that concludes public comment on the consent calendar. thank you. all in favor of adopting the consent calendar and its appropriate resolutions, please say i or yes i, i the vote is unanimous in the consent calendar is adopted. the resolutions will be posted to the commission's website. secretary fuller, please call the next item on the calendar. excuse me on the agenda. moving to the regular calendar item

five is the city hall mechanical replacement contract modification and construction manager dennis oats will present this contract modification and it is an action item. selma. sorry if you could. construction manager with. oh, well, um, public works. i've been in construction management here for 22 ish years. or about to be 22 years. um, i'm told if i press that button there, it will catch up with me. um, i'm here to request a time extension for city hall mechanical phase two. and if you feel how nice the air is in here, it is because of this project we put two heat pumps above, uh, in the attic space above here. um, the project act installed a total of

156 or 50 5 or 56 heat pumps in the building. it's not quite complete yet. um, stuffed in every possible corner attic space. um it's amazing how many were in here. um, it is. our contractor, um, was eco engineering. um, you may have seen them in the building. most of their work has. like i said, been in attic spaces and mechanical rooms. um, a couple saturday days. we were in here loading equipment up to the attic space. in fact, i just noticed this skylight we had to remove. um, still needs repair. so, um, i'm glad i came today. um, our contractors, aco engineering. i said that, and the contract amount was. for $7,523,178. it was a one year contract at 365 days. um, i am

requesting a time extension of 146 days. and that is because six of the most, just like it depends on who you ask. most important, uh, heat pump units in the building. the manufacturer went out of business after bid, and we had to re-engineer our. it's a design bid or design build contract. so the, um, cost contractor had to re-engineer. we had to negotiate, find units that would actually fit the way. this isn't the project that was handled. was there was an existing ductwork, and we had to find units that would fit back in that existing ductwork with minimal, um, changes to it did make minor changes, but, um, minimal, um, so that took some time to find new units. once the new units are actually upgrades from the original specified. um,

so there was a change order for the improved units, but but i'm have been told that these are a much better, more reliable system. um, the existing heat pumps in here hadn't been changed since the building remodel. um, the maintenance department was struggling to keep, keep, keep them alive, basically. um computer rooms are being affected. this this room was affected. um, so moving on. here's a map of lovely san francisco and this wonderful building we all know where it is . um, most of this, i think i've told you, um, the units are located throughout the building. the building will be occupied during construction. i don't think anyone was disrupted very much. uh, the way it was handled . this. this room has two units, so we only took one unit down

while the other one worked. so not miserable in here during construction. um and the contractor was responsible for design, permitting, installation , etc. um, so, so requesting this 100 and. oh, i have some pictures for you. this is actually the two units right above us. um, and they are working handsomely. i think, um, these are pictures of these are two mechanical rooms. actually, these have more room than most. i think that's why he took them, as he could actually see them there. and then this next one on the left, there is a picture of the attic space. um, they had to get these units. they weigh about 200 pounds apiece. um into the attic above the plaster ceiling. and hung on the supports. you see, there. um, without putting a foot through

the plaster ceiling and, and that pretty much wraps it up for me. um, we are requesting the time extension will make substantial completion may 1st of 24. um it is a compensable time extension to pay the contractor for the reengineering . um, some project management over these 146 ish days is, um, a little equipment rental, etc. that's all i have. any questions? thank you. and we agree we did feel the pain before you fixed the hvac system above us. so thank you very much. it is noticeably improved. um, and it's nice to see you. it's nice to meet you for the first time at the commission. i think we forget we look at city hall. it's so beautiful. from the outside. it's beautiful on the inside. but i bet it is. i should say, can be a nightmare to maintain the infrastructure in this very old, historic

building. so kudos to your team for the good, the good work here. and it sounds like the manufacture going out of business worked to our advantage because we got better product in the end, i think. so commissioner zogby. good morning and thank you for your presentation. uh, just a clarification. i noticed that in the summary, there's a there's a, um, proposed modification. of $279,000. i'm sorry. um, the compensable time extension should be about $109,000. oh oh. so. okay, so what's the amount of the 279,004? i'm sorry, the $279,000. i'm not sure. i can't see what you're talking about. and i don't know if it was. this was prepared by someone else. so potentially a typo. no, it looks

like, uh, director short is looking for it. well, while they're looking for this. so my question is, was, was that original manufacture, the part of the rfp, um, approval. um, no, it was not in in that. so it didn't the construction construction company did not, uh , get any discounts for using that manufacturer. no, i want to say no. okay great. and, uh, the 279. it's not in the resolution, uh, itself, but it's in the in the summary. i'm just trying to pull it up. i apologize, i don't have it in front of me. it's in the staff memo that. yeah i'm sorry. i'm just thinking it.

what did you say the total should be? dennis um, 149 one 108 400, something like that. yeah. that's strange. i think it could. there could be some contingency, but that seems like that is, um, an incorrect amount in the staff memo that we didn't catch. um that sounds like it's a mistake, because a contingency would take us to about. 126 or something like, would the amount also be added to the resolution when we vote on it, or we. yeah it's we could add add. whoops uh , we can definitely correct that amount for you. and then, uh, we could update the resolution with the correct amount normally does

does a resolution include that amount. it includes the full total of the project. should that number be adjusted or it will be adjusted correct. it says it was adjusted to 2.8. yes yeah. so we'll we will have to correct that. uh can we. so my understanding is that the any changes that are included in this, uh, are underneath the 10% contingency that the contract already has value for. so this is the inclusion of that. 279 i think is an error. it's not in the resolution because the commission not actually approving additional, uh, value to the contract, but that's already included in the 10% contingency from the original award. if that makes sense. okay. if you prefer to continue this item before you vote,

deputy director robertson can try to get that updated number or confirm what the number is. uh in 5 minutes or 5 minutes. okay thank you. thank you. dennis so, director shaw, you're suggesting we, uh, just wait a few minutes until, uh, it sounds like if the, uh, the amount was within in the our 10. really? what? you're we're seeking approval for is just the time. so you it's up to you if you if you feel more comfortable voting once you know what that number is. uh we can hold off, but what you're approving today, i guess, is just the time the additional time. so if it. i'm sorry if it helps total change orders to date are roughly $505,000. that includes 108 that i mentioned. so that 505 is below the 10. but i can look into this. 279 i'm

not sure where that came from. uh, commissioner newhouse siegel might suggest that this our vote on this particular item, since there's a resolution be just held off to the end of this section of our agenda. and then the parties that are working on this can come up with the exact amount, and our resolution can be changed accordingly. and we can make the accurate resolution vote on commissioner wolford. i agree we should do that. okay then what i'd like to do is make a motion to approve this resolution. asian. we can always i can withdraw my motion later if i choose. but i'd like to make it a motion to approve the resolution. then we will be opening this to public comment. of course, to approve the resolution? yes. as as is. i don't think it's going to change . we're as director short is

described to us. the resolution is we're it's just a time change that we're approving today, not a monetary amount. and the resolution does reflect the accurate monetary amount. i'm going to look at deputy director. deputy. i'll second. yeah okay. please open this to motion to public comment. members of the public who wish to make three minutes of comment on, uh, three minutes of comment in person on item five, the city hall mechanical replacement, contract modification may line up against the wall for this from the door. if com if you are commenting from outside the chamber, please press the raise your hand button in the webinar or star three on your touch on your phone to be recognized. and

no commenters have come forward in person to speak on this item. and sf govtv is indicating we do not have any callers on this item either. so that concludes public comment on this motion. thank you. commissioner siegel. yeah. so um, i'm, i would like a clarification by, uh, city attorney on, on whether we can make the change on the resolution, on the amount to be accurate or, or, uh, i, i'd just like to have an opinion about what is correct at this because we want to make sure that this all works. so that's all. good morning, commissioner. um, deputy city attorney christopher. tom, i think the question is really whether there

was any change and what was publicly noticed. so if we could get a clarification on that and if it turns out to be that only time is being requested to be added to the contract, then that doesn't change. uh there's no need to modify the noticing. uh, it seems like perhaps there was just an error in the staff report in which case there's no noticing problem, and you can proceed with the approval of this item as proposed. um, if i may. so from from my understanding, uh, public works has you can you can you can modify up to 10% without coming to the commission. so um, i, i agree that there was a mistake, but the resolution is to extend it, and i think we should we should come move, move forward with this. um, because that any changes in the amounts is, is actually, uh, out of our, um,

voting right. yeah. so if i may, uh, deputy director robertson is double checking. so if you want to take your vote, you know, a little bit later in the agenda, we should be able to just confirm that our understanding is correct, that it's just a time extension and there's no additional, um, appeal for resources being asked for at this time. i'm happy to do that. i hate to ask mr. oats to wait around, because i think the next agenda item will be lengthy. um, thank i guess i really would. i would like just to dispense with the vote. unless a majority really is not comfortable voting for the resolution. so, uh, why don't we call the roll, please on this vote? on the motion, uh,

to, uh, pardon me to approve the contract modification of the city hall mechanical replacement, please respond with yes or no. lynn newhouse. siegel yes. warren post. yes. gerald turner. yes paul wolford. yes patty zarb. yes with five votes in favor. uh, that it is unanimous. uh, result. thank you again, mr. oats, for your presentation today. thank you very much. secretary fuller, please call the next item, item six is the, uh, public works department of public works. um, collaboration with 311 presentation and assistant superintendent jonathan vang will present this report, and he is joined by it project manager brian wong from san francisco.

311. and this is an informational item. okay. over here. all right. good morning, commissioner. good morning everyone. my name is jonathan vang. i'm assistant superintendent for public works bureau street use. uh street cleaning. uh today we have a few slides to show. and and it's basically, hopefully to cover some of the post share requests. uh, i also have, uh, mr. brian wong with the it project manager

with 311. he's going to start off with some of the beginning of this slide. okay with that said, uh, brian, sure. good morning everyone. i'm brian wong, it project manager for 311. and today we're going to be going over the overview of 311. the general process flow for three and one service requests. and of course three and one versus public works categories and key factors to our successful collaboration. uh, here we go. so the first question really is what is sf 311. so in 2007 the city and county of san francisco established san francisco three and one to provide an easy to remember telephone number that connects the residents, businesses and visitors to the customer service representatives , or csrs ready to help with general government information and services. so a number of these three on one phone calls

often result in what we call a311 service request. and on the screen here you can see that 301 allows for various channels in order for our customers to be able to submit these service requests. and our channels include the phone, of course, 2311 our mobile app, our website and x which is formerly known as twitter. so in these channels, what we do is we intake the information from the customer, whether it be a street and sidewalk cleaning request or just a general request to like, let's say, a department of public health. we input all of this data into what we call a service request form. and in this service request form, depending on the request type, we do ask various questions depending on the on the request type and from that request type, we actually route it to the appropriate department automatically based off of the suggestion by by the request of the customer. so once these

service requests have been created, we submit these unique service request numbers over to these departments in which we call queues, which are buckets pretty much for all of our customer service reps. uh, service, uh, government agencies. and what we do now is we pretty much pass over that form over to these agencies, and we wait for a resolution from our department agencies in this service, request. they could add in notes certain events. that way, if a customer was to follow up to 301 and ask what is going on with their service request, we should be able to get that information and follow up with them based off of the responses of our department agencies. um, so in the life cycle of a service request, 301 then receives a resolution from our department agencies whether the service request was closed. sometimes they cannot be found. we often have these closures for these unique service requests, and we provide that feedback over to our customers upon request. so these follow ups could be either from a phone call into three one, one, or it

could even be an email automatically set up. so that way, once that service request is closed, they can see the response of the department agencies. and if you submit the case in our 301 mobile app, you'll even get a notification and say, hey, you received a closure from one of your service requests. would you like to take a look? and that way you can click on it on our mobile app and see the resolution provided by our customer. excuse me, mr. wong, for interrupting you. yes, i may interrupt you a couple of times during your presentation. i hope you'll indulge me. i have a keen interest in this topic. i first want to thank you for, um, incorporating answers to some of the questions i sent earlier in the week into the revised presentation. i appreciate that, and i have a basic question. what city department funds and managed? 311 i'm not even sure where it's housed. yeah. so 301 is actually a sub department under the city. the city of administration. so adm pretty much so the cows office. yes. great. thank you. yep so in the last fiscal year of 2023, 301

received a total. of 751,000 service requests that have been dispersed into various of our departments. as you can see in the infographic here, public works has received about 39% of these cases, following recology, which is 23. department of parking and traffic, which is 17, and so on. so you can see here for today, we are talking about public works, and we can see that a large number of three on one service requests have gone over to public works. can you please tell us what all of the acronyms are on this slide please? of course. so there's public works, recology department of parking and traffic. there is the san francisco municipal transportation agency for sfmta. we have the cbds, which is the community benefit districts. um soc. we did the healthy streets operation center, which handles a lot of the encampment related issues. book. the public utilities commission, um, the other piece is just like the miscellaneous departments. and the duplicate hold queue is

where we kind of just hold all of these duplicate cases that we matched up automatically through technology, through, um, one of course, our pd, which is rec and park and then of course the other non city agencies which we consider as foreign jurisdiction . i'm sorry, as what as foreign jurisdictions, foreign jurisdictions. correct could what would be an example of that . it could be for cases that have gone to other departments outside of the city and county of san francisco, i see, thank you. like caltrans or, uh, that something like that. thank you. yeah so i wanted to add in here that i did mention there is the service request going over to the community benefit districts. so here in the process, flow on the left hand side, we can see that through on one determines the routing of these service requests. if it were to fall under the jurisdiction of cbds. so how we do that is through technology. we pretty much look for any geospatial requests

looking at their latitude and longitude, hoping that they fall under the specific jurisdiction of the cbds. so instead of routing to the to the public works, we route to the cbds. um, initially for them to take a first stab at one of these service requests. this is what we call our shared response plan . and this was to this was to alleviate any overlapping and stepping of toes between public works and cbds, but only a number of these service requests go over to the cbds that we agreed upon, which is the public , the public graffiti, private graffiti and, um, specific request types relating to street and sidewalk cleaning. um, so in the last fiscal year, about 24,000 of these cases have been allocated to the cbds, which is only equates for about 3% total of three and one service requests. so just to make sure i understand you and this, the department and cbds have an agreed list of services that when it comes in from within a

cbds jurisdiction, you shoot it to that cbd rather than public works handling it. is that did i understand that is correct. thank you. and then i noticed that the lion's share of these are going to what i'd call cbds in the downtown core, kind of with the exception of japantown, fisherman's wharf. but everything else is along market, both sides. where's the union square bid in this? how do they fit in, or do they not fit in? so the union square cbd, um, i believe it's the union alliance or whatever. um, so they have not opted into this program. so we do is we do allocate all of the cases that normally would go in that area over to public works. great. and the castro or other areas with. okay. exactly. thank you. yep uh, commissioner zogby had a question on this slide. oh yes. yeah. um my question is so public works has a commitment of turning around when our, uh, what is it, 72

hours? and are the cbds also, do they sign up to this and they commit to that. and what happens if, uh, request is not completed in time? yes. that's a very good question. um, so in the shared response plan, we have an agreed upon agreement with the cbds that their service level agreements for these service requests are roughly around 24 hours. um, so within 24 hours, if they're unable to achieve that goal, the cases are automatically routed to public works directly. and of course, we also give the cbds the ability to reallocate these cases ahead of time. so let's say they were unable to actually handle a case because it is out of their scope. they can actually allocate these cases directly to the public works team for response. um, so here is just a infographic of pretty much the summary of three and one qs. now, because most of these service requests do go to public works, as you saw

earlier, from the 39, i wanted to just show the breakdown of where all of these cases are going. once they arrive to what we call these public works queues. so about 93% of these cases do go to the department of public works operations queue, which is pretty much handling most of these service requests here. and the highest category being street and sidewalk cleaning, graffiti and tree maintenance. and then the other 6% do go to public works. um, bureau of street use and mapping , which consists of mostly sidewalk, curb requests. and of course, these general requests that may come in that could fall under the bucket of like report issues and stuff like that. and then, um, yeah. so that's pretty much the breakdown of how all of these service requests go. and now i'm going to pretty much pass it over to my colleague, um, jonathan bing. thank you brian. um, so the slide here where it's, uh, again, the 311 requests excuse me, the 311

requests. why? it's transferred to our request. uh to 311 happened automatically. uh, approximately every ten minutes. it goes to an hour. queue but our radio room staff is actually, uh, triage it to the right. uh, staff on the field. they check the requests, make sure, uh, each staff are equipped so they know where to send it to. on on the by zone basis. for example, 311 sidewalk requests cleaning queue is divided into several categories. we, uh, public has shown us the right chart. about 76% majority of the requests are street cleaning. uh represent about 75% of the requests and steamer are represent 20% of the requests. steamer requests use different equipment depending on the calls and the time requests can be assigned due to night shift. uh, area. that's heavy foot traffic,

etc. so our our crew internally does triage to the right department. so this slide shows a sample of, uh, how the crew received this in the queue. you see the far left that a typical crew patrol or steamer sign on the left side where they had the whole queue of what the assignment today is assigned to their route? um, once they click on that queue, it opened up photos. i think most of the complaints or requests come in attached with the service request has photo to it. so we're going to have our crew. once they see the photos they look into it. they make a note clean it up and take the after photos and the queue shows on the right side. just uh, when they close it out on the request . can i just to give a little

bit more, um, context to this. so our street cleaning, um, staff have tablets in their vehicles. so what you're seeing is what they see on their tablet. so it comes automatically into their queue. and then they can select where they are and then choose the service request on the tablet in the field in real time. so that's what these screenshots are showing you what they look at when they're looking at that tablet that's located in their vehicle. thank you. caller forgot to mention that the vehicle does have the tablet. i'm sorry. uh the same thing with the graffiti crew. they also have a tablet. this is a sample of how the graffiti crew received their complaints. and again, the queue is on the left is highlighted as color coded, where, uh, the green one is fresh, new and the blue one and so on. and it's divided into the by section. again they click on the queue or the complaints open it up. and majority of the

complaint has photos to it. uh on the top right you'll see the photos of the before and the bottom after the abatement. they take the photos on abatement and that's automatically closed the request with 311. also. so this chart shows, uh, our stats and we utilize again 311 is a very good tool for us to use where we can use this tool to, uh, relocate staff and, uh, all, all the equipment that we can use. again, when we were talking about the sla, the 48 hours shows on the bottom right, uh, expensive runs and again, the chart shows how we're doing on the response time and what the complaint rate is on by each district. so we can relocate or allocate the, uh, the staff to appropriate area. mr. vang, i

have a number of questions on this slide, please. sure. in the future i would like to request that the that, uh, information like this, there's a lot of very useful and interesting information. it's too much for one slide. yes i would like in the future to request that when we have presentations on any matter, that when you have so much data for us that you break it up on, on 2 or 3 more digestible slides. so thank you. so i have some basic questions on this. first of all, um, what is a service level agreement. and who is this agreement between. it's between us. and i think we came up with the service agreement on the type of request itself or street cleaning is basically 48 hours to respond. who are we? who are we? who who is the agreement with? who are we? it's really with the public. with really what? the public. i mean, this is our, uh i mean 311 asks us and cbds anyone with whom they

have kind of a reporting and allocating relationship. what should we tell the public? they can expect to see this work completed within. so the agreement is established with 311. but it's really to provide the public with an idea of, you know, when we can i expect to see this work completed. and so we use that to then measure our, our response time. and that slide is busy, full of information. we really felt like we could do a separate presentation on all the statistics and all the data that we do collect. and measure. but since this presentation was really about the relationship with 311, we didn't want to dive too much into that. but i. i hear your point, chair post that there's a lot of information in that slide. okay. so just to understand, it's not an official agreement. it's not a document. it's not an uppercase sla. it's a handshake with the public. it's yeah. and we do provide 311 will tell the public the expectation is this should be

completed within 48 hours. so while it's, you know, there's no sla police that you could call if we fail to get it done, that's to give them a sense of how long they you know, when should they call back if they haven't seen action. thank you. commissioner newhouse. siegel, thank you for your questions. uh, chair post. there were. i feel like there's going to be a final exam on this. we should all know it. so so thank you. and this is how important we think what you do. and this is exactly what our concerns agents ask us about how this all happens. and we'd love to have the answers. and thank you. it sounds like you have a system for it. so, um, can i suggest that maybe even in your that this word agreements be taken out so that expectation maybe filled in, maybe want to change that? i don't want to nitpick this, but we were all confused about who were the parties to

this to this agreement. so, um, we're the whole reason that this commission exists is so that we can be transparent to the public and so they understand what's happening. so and we're all trying really hard to make this transition to a department that has a commission. so thank you. um i was going to ask this later , but since you asked, it has the sas commission seen this presentation? no, they haven't though i did receive questions from some of those commissioners that i will be asking during today's presentation. but no, they haven't yet. this this was at my request to have, um, you know, a presentation to us on how 311 partners with public works. thank you. but but it's a very good point. and perhaps i'll speak to chair hartwig shulman and perhaps you'll you will come back for the show for them. so good point. i will note, though, that sas commission has received presentations on our, uh, service level agreements, how we

do when we're tracking. so they got our performance measure for the street cleaning. so not the presentation specifically about our relationship with 311, but some of the questions you have about that one slide. yes, they have had a presentation on that. and you'll let us know when our exam is coming. right? yes commissioner zarb. and um, thank you for the i mean, i like the presentation. i have my question about, um, the, the slide with the 311 website. i like the fact that it actually shows the expected response time. so slide 11. that's not we pull that up. secretary fuller. slide 11 please excuse me, commissioner zombie. oh um, i'm a very loyal client of, uh, of 311 app. everywhere i walk, i use, i use the app. it's perfect. i get, i

get a lot of closed, uh, closed cases, but i never use it on my online. on on on my computer. and the app does not have those expected response time list. um, is there any way maybe you can add we can add that to the app itself or to the to the request itself? maybe towards the end when you click submit, it would tell you this is how long we're our commitment is. yeah no, we're always open to feedback when it comes to our through and mobile app. and we do have the ability on our mobile app for our customers to provide this feedback. so i'll definitely take this feedback into account. and we'll definitely look into ways to show the service level agreement and the expected response times in each of these service requests as well. thank you, thank you. yeah on that same topic, please. how are the expected response times determined? with this list come from in other words, this this is from our stats between 301

response times. so when we close out the request it does have a closing date. so you have a request where the call come in and when it's closed where it's completed. right yeah. these are expected response time. and what i'm getting at is as a citizen in i'm not happy with some of these response times. for instance, human animal waste 12 to 24 hours to me sounds too long. so maybe the bigger question is how can our the department improve its response times to 311 requests? um the 48 hour standard has not been met. most of the time, and again, on some of these items, medical waste. another good example 12 to 24 hours seems excessive to me. so again, a couple couple questions. where does this come? where did this come from? who set the expected response time? uh, parameters. and can we improve on any of them resetting them to be more rigorous? a and b can we up our rate of response

? maybe director, maybe that's our director. sure. i can try to take a crack at that. so the response times were established by the department. um, and we work with 311. so we can make modifications to the response times. i think we while we have, uh, service level agreement of, you know, 12 to 24 hours for waste, we do prioritize those requests and we do get to many of those requests. well, before that time expires. i think part of our balancing act is trying to ensure that we're giving realistic expectations. so while we always want to exceed our response time, we don't want to set a response time that's unreal artistic for us, because then we'll have frustrated customers. um, so i think one of the other things that we are balancing ing through one one is a very useful tool, but it is not a perfect tool because it

relies on someone notifying us, and we don't want to neglect parts of the city where people may not have the time to notify us or may not have the resources. you know, they may not have a smartphone that they can use. um, so we try to balance our responses to the 311 requests with some of the proactive work that we do. and when we do the proactive work, we may, uh, address a311 request, but we addressed it proactively and it takes us a little time to catch up with that data matching. so i think we do want to be mindful of, um, kind of balancing these different types of approaches to street cleaning and, and make sure that we're not setting ourselves up for an unrealistic service level agreement. um, this is what we look at regularly internally when we have our meetings to review to how we're doing, we look at this data, we look at where are we

seeing dips in our ability to respond to those service level agreements? should we reallocate resources there? are we seeing those dips in places where we have proactive work? so we're always trying to look at, um, those factors and determine what the best, uh, approach is. so we can certainly continue to look at that. but i would be very cautious about, um, making a more rigorous response time that we're just unable to meet because then people will say, you were supposed to be here. you know, within four hours. and it's six hours later, and now i'm mad versus 12 hours. and we got there in four, or we got there in six, and then they feel like we met their expectation. thank you. i do appreciate the importance of meeting expectations. um all right. in the future, as i said, this is all really good data. we won't belabor it right now, but can we keep that slide up, please? slide 11 is a very important

slide. thank you. i'd also in the future like to see data on how quickly we respond to 311 requests, how quickly we respond , um, how quickly they get routed from 311 to the right department or um, or the right, uh, non city agency that responds how quickly the situation is actually remedied once it's been responded to, how quickly the ticket is closed out . so i think there are more metrics. i know miss bardo is in the audience. one of our our rock star with metrics. so, um, i just think there's more to dig into here. i think what you're hearing is this is as commissioner neuhaus siegel said and commissioner darby, where the rubber hits the road even though we're not sanitation and streets commissioners, this is what we see as citizens and what we hear from constituents as needing remedying as as you know, far better than we do. and so we care deeply about this issue and deeply about having the department perform to its highest level and not get

trashed in the newspapers for not performing. so i think it's everyone's interest that we want to always, uh, put the department's best foot forward on this and why we care so much about this. thank you. chair post. i think we could certainly come back and give this commission a presentation on our , uh, performance metrics because. cause it's three on one is one very useful tool. it's not the only tool, and it's not the only thing we look at when we look at our performance metrics. so we viewed this presentation as really our relationship with 311. and we wanted to respond to your questions and give you a sample of what the data is and how we look at it. but uh, this um, we weren't interpreted this presentation as an actual diving into our performance metrics. so we're happy to come back with that. um, we were trying to put this just as contextual for the 311 partnership. thank you. uh, commissioner siegel, did you have this is just i think this

is fabulous and fascinating. and, um, i would like to see not our commission, but perhaps, uh, uh, director short, you could, uh, discuss this with the streets and sanitation. uh, commissioner an i think that for them to have a notice meeting that is, of course, all of our meetings are. and theirs are open to the public. but where they know that this is the subject and they could see this maybe broken down so that each slide is not so dense, but so that they could see what, what. and i think your comment about saying what the time, the response time is, for instance, it's important to keep it realistic. and so that people know what their expectations should be and what is realistic. but this is this is great. the public should know this. and i don't think that they realize the way that it's noticed. it's just the way that we operate on

our on our agenda that this is going to be this into to what how people really live and work and traverse san francisco. so, um, i'd like to see streets and sanitation delve into this more and make it available to the public in a very, uh, transparent way. and, uh, so that people expectations are important. they won't complain if they're expectations are realistic and they know what to expect. so hopefully they won't complain. okay. thank you, commissioner zombie. yeah. and um, another question about about the expected response time. i i can see on the list for business hours and for hours, like there's can you just clarify the difference between what the business hours and the regular hours are. um, i'm sorry, the

business hours. yeah. so i'll give you an example. um, overflowing public garbage can, two hours. uh transit shelter platform. oh, no. sorry. uh, electronic appliance for business hours. um, yeah. again, those are also based from the location and the priority, uh, the safety part of it to, uh, i think for four hours is a minimum or respond time for the city can, um, i think i know the answer. i just wanted the public to understand the difference between the business hours and regular hours. so um, if there's electronic appliance on the street and it's a saturday weekend, that's not going to be. yeah. so a number of these service requests and the expected response times they route to based off of the request type selected and some of these items like electronics and appliances, for example, they actually route over to recology and recology does have

a business agreement where they kind of respond to these service requests within these set amount of business hours. now, when it comes to business hours versus hours versus regular hours, is that there could be times where in the evening, like overnight shifts, where it's not necessarily a business hours anymore. it may take a few more, you know, hours to get a response to. but other than that, most of the time these all fall within the range of these respective hours. thank you. thank you. thank you. if there are no more questions on slide 11, please continue. all right. thank you. i guess, uh, like director short said, uh, the presentation here is more as a collaboration between us and public work. we'll be happy to show more details on on some of the stats presentation in the future. some of the key factor that we established here is with three one, one, uh, communication with the public pertaining to requests, expecting service complement

dispute, a project initiative and street. the technologies that we have are the data consent to our staff. like i said we're tablet and they would acknowledge, uh, our staff is always in the training mode as we update our program or database, we'll get the training going and ensure the appropriate triage from three on one to the right jurisdiction as far as the park and rec cal, train, etc. uh, prevent escalating through regular meetings and communication. we do have a regular meeting with 311 with some of these, uh, cases where it's hard is because of bouncing back and forth. so we have a regular meeting to see who can take care of what. and a direct contact with the supervisor. um, effective problem solving. and that's the goal. we want to respond as soon as we can, and sometime we share information with 311, um, directly will provide a direct contact with the supervisor on the field so

they know who to contact directly. the enhancement over time, um, impact the response case by location. uh, sometime, depending how the residents submit the request, it come the location might not be accurate or an intersection that can be a little bit confusing. of course. photo is very helpful for our our staff to look at and then close it out. uh, the duplication is always a challenge. um, we're working really well with 311 to close out or close some of these duplication. we keep coming in and sometimes it's not close. right and all that. any question on this slide. the challenge, uh, the challenge is again the technology challenge is always, uh, go ongoing. we always have a training, a bi weekly training

with the staff, uh, make sure they document everything that they do. so, um, we always find a way to find where do work a little easier than, uh, and more efficient. but we also explore a way to capture some of these items that's captured on 311, but not a pro active. what we do , for example, sometime you have a little road through the street and it's not respond to complaints, but proactively cleaning a bus stop, brush up or pick up bag that's not it's not recording on our stats. so we're working on trying to capture that stats itself. um, addition to three one database on a data resource. we review and perform. since we are interested in addressing need community on regular notice that. so we attend community meetings and get the input how we can respond to that. so sometime a resident don't like to use the 311 app or called in and we do this, uh, community meeting. so they can

give us some of these input. how we can improve. also the proactively done like i said, that's not capture. and we would like to capture that when we show the next presentation to see some most of the work that we do that's not shown on there. um commissioner, did you have a question on this bullet, the keeping up with technology? see my point? i do have a question to, uh, to mr. uh, wang. yes excuse me. uh what? i'd like to know. i'm looking through our our materials. what? your title is, and, uh, just you know who who you are, how you fit into this? myself? yes i'm a operation manager. i oversee field operation. um where we looked at the request. who? we sent it to. um are you referring to the slide? i'd like to know. are do you are you a dpw? yes

our operations department. yes, ma'am. okay. thank you. sorry yes. um, again, the proactive work where we're really working on that to get the information on there. um, the duplication of monsieur. do you? i'm sorry. i'm talking about the baseline. i have a question on the second bullet. okay i didn't know if you were going to go through them or not. should i proceed or. oh, okay. would you like to know? go ahead. okay. great this may be for director short. um so i just want to clarify that 311 is integrated into our street services program citywide, right ? yes, yes. okay. good and, um, i presume you feel it's high value. has this been an improved in the way san francisco receives public services, in your opinion? uh, yes. i do think it's it is a very useful

tool. um, and it helps us very efficiently measure our responses. um but as i mentioned earlier, it's one tool, and we want to look at making sure that we are not, um, exceed elusively relying on people calling us or using the app to notify us, um, because as i said, that that may result in, you know, disparities throughout the city based on who has the time and energy or the who's out and about out to notify us and so we're always working on trying to improve work with 311 and the cio's office to improve it and improve our integration with it. is that a fair statement? yes, that's fair statement. great statement. thank you. uh, i have a question. how do how do we prevent what i would call squeaky wheel neighborhoods? who might use 311 a lot from pulling off resources that, uh, should be going to other neighbors that may not use 311 very much. how do we how do we manage that? yeah. so i think that's that's

kind of one of our fundamental challenges. we look at trying to make sure that we are also so, um, identifying area throughout the city ourselves based on our crews experience and doing more proactive. work. so running certain routes in, in different communities, regardless of how many calls we're getting, um, if we know that there are hotspots for litter or illegal dumping, we may not get as many calls, but we see it out there every day. so we try to have that proactive work and then how we capture that. so that it's reflected in all of the work that we're doing in is, um, what we're working on making it much easier for our staff in the field to essentially create what's called a field initiated service order. so it's they sort of create their own service request because, wow, this whole block had litter, you know, i create a service request and then capture what was done, and then it'll be reflected in our

performance measures. so we're working, um, that that is through our own system, not directly through 311, but we're working to make that much more easy and efficient to do so that it doesn't take a lot of time for them to do that in the field, because we have to balance capturing the data with doing the work. and do you feel that that that the department has sufficient, um, input in helping to improve the 311 system itself with the cao's office, since we are the heaviest user of it amongst city departments. i mean, i think we've had a very productive working relationship with 311. we meet regularly with them as as assistant superintendent, vang said. and as brian noted, they're they're very responsive to making adjustments. if we have suggestions, uh, they're very good about also flagging. you know, this we noticed this is still open. why is this still open? and then we have to try to diagnose and oftentimes it's a

it's a duplicate for something else. so it could have been closed. but occasionally you know something drops through the cracks. did we get it. did we not get it. why is it still open. so i think it's been a very productive working relationship. good. thank you. that concludes my questions on this bullet. i will have some on the next one. commissioner turner. and i apologize if we, you know, are going out of order on the bullets. but i have a question on jurisdiction, and i see many of our cbd partners in the world in the audience today. so i think maybe this would be helpful. so often. um, i'm in my neighborhood. i think we all have these things that happen in our neighborhood. caltrans, a bridge or something jurisdiction that, um, our partners aren't sometimes as responsive to getting out there, but they become the most glaring areas of blight and trash, litter and so on and so forth and so the service level agreements, which is our commitment to the community. but these organizations also need to be

participants. why are they seemingly and i back on slide five, i think they're the other non city agencies. but for all intents and purposes they're the most impactful ones in terms of the perception of what we experienced. that is that's usually the jurisdiction. caltrans is the one that keeps coming to mind. um, where, you know, they will have a right of way. that's just littered with things. it takes forever for them to get out there and clean it up. so it almost skews all of this good work. it almost skews the work of cbds and others who are being extremely responsive. uh, but that that 50 square, you know, feet of space, they just cannot touch. and so i guess my question is, given that we're all focused on this, given that there is a real coalition around all these partners, why are we allowing seemingly 2% to have such an outsized impact on our collective work. well, i'm not sure for, um, in terms of how we're allowing it. i think this

this is one of the, um, challenges that we have in a city that other agencies, we don't necessarily control what, what they do. um, and, and, uh, the state in particular is, um, kind of we can't boss them around. there's kind of a hierarchy of, um, of hierarchy and the state is not beholden to the city to meet our service level agreements. for example, um, and we've dealt with this and deputy city attorney tom helped me with another case where this i was really trying to get the state to, to do something. and we didn't have the jurisdiction, um, in that area. they did. and so we escalated it through, um, through the process there because that we that one was a was a safety concern. um, so i think the best thing that we can do is we try to develop strong working relationships with our

partners in these agencies, and certainly, um, with caltrans public works will often do joint cleanup efforts. um, if there's an area that really needs support, um, we'll work with caltrans to try to get that cleaned up so that we can have that impact. but it is challenging when we don't have jurisdiction over things, um, to hold other folks accountable if, if, if they're not within our, um, our zone of influence. yeah. and i guess my, my, i guess my last point and it has to do, i guess with balancing, um, you know, i'd like to see, i guess, more, um, 311 public campaigns, getting more people to utilize the app and others. um but i do think you just fundamentally going to still have skewed data because there are these areas in the city where i think about up and down the embarcadero, uh, in particular, and there's one, two, three, four cbds who could touch, but can't touch anything. um including ourselves. and so i just think it's an interesting problem to have, um, and more importantly, i it's unfortunate

thing. it's always going to skew your data because you can't control that very big, um, public aspect of your work. commissioner xavi. director short so again, i use i use 311 app a lot is how how much access does public works have to all to the reports of, of uh, 311. and how often um, is it how often is it helpful to, to change our process of proactive rather than reactive, like, for example, has has was there a need, um, occasion where where we saw a report and you saw a trend and public works started a new, a new, uh, priority. yes. thank you. commissioners abby. uh, great question. that um, so we have access to the data, basically almost immediately

because most of the requests as they come in two, three, one, one, all electronically get transmitted directly to our tablets. uh, we use auto triage functions to do that. so if it's clearly identified, um, as, as street cleaning request has a photo, uh, litter, or it goes directly to the queue. and so it's almost instantaneous at the moment it gets entered into the app that it shows up on our, on our queue and that they, they refresh, i think, every ten minutes. so it's pretty consistently coming, coming in. um, and then we have access to all of that information because then it's also held within our own system. um, and that's actually what our performance team uses to look at when. so our when we close it in our system, it then routes it directly back to 311 as well. so they will see that. and we're working ideally seamlessly. now we technology comes with challenges. and so we have had

times where one system or the other, you know had a had an issue. and then we might have a bunch of cases kind of stack up that we weren't seeing in real time. but that's fairly rare. and we troubleshoot with the team, whether it's on our side or three on one side, to get that resolved very quickly. um and to your second question, yes, this is this is the value of using our our data to try to drive our operations and so our performance team looks at this, uh, data. we look at where we have a lot of requests or a lot of challenges, and then we look at what what can we do. so we've developed a number. i'll use our pit stop program, which is one of our flagship programs. i think that was a direct result of requests for steamer request costs for waste on sidewalks. and we thought, well, how can we try to address this? and we created the pit stop program, which is creating publicly accessible toilets that are safe , that we targeted based on

where we had the highest incidence of requests for waste, for steam cleaning. so that's one way that we use that data to come up with a proactive program to really try to address it. and we did see a decline in steamer requests in the areas where we've opened our pit stops. so, um, that's one example that i'll use. another example would be we greatly increased the amount of, um, basically, uh, block cleaners in the tenderloin as a result of that, community has a lot of need. and frankly, we could probably double the amount of people that we have out there. and we would still have challenges, but, um, you know, that was looking at the number of requests we were getting for just that one part of our zone. um, and so we increased the proactive work that we're doing. we have teams of people who are out there just with their rolling trash cans, just cleaning the same few blocks, all day long because there's a high need. so we are trying to use that data, um, to both.

reallocate resources that we have within our existing programs and then also come up with new approaches to try to address the concerns that we identify. thank you for teeing that up. for me. thank you. and my next question for mr. wong. um, brian ryan. thank you. sorry um, with, um, so i'm again i use i use it on my app. i don't use it online. now when someone is not it doesn't happen on on the app. but if someone submits a request online and it tells them, okay, now it's in the queue, it's an open case. does it actually tell the public, who is it going to be routed to? currently, it does not tell who is it currently being routed to because we like to call the city just the city as a whole. um, so the status would just stay as open until closed by the department agency. you can do a follow up call two 301 and

provide them with the service request numbers, since that is the unique number there. and you can ask where is it currently lying in, as well as what is any additional notes or status updates provided by the department agency? okay. thank you. you're welcome. i'm pleased . to hear you use the app a lot. commissioner zogby does this mean north beach is one of my squeaky wheel neighborhoods? i'm teasing. no, no it doesn't. but also, there's, uh, one feedback. uh, it won't let me submit unless it's anonymous. now currently. so i couldn't i couldn't put my. so you get you can't catch me. that's good. thank you. if we could go back please to slide 13. thank you. i have a question about baseline services. what are the city's baseline services that are required to be provided by, uh, public works? and are they the same for every neighborhood in the city? i guess, uh, we'll turn that over to mr. i'll take this one. it is a it's a

complicated question. um, and it is not it is not considered urgent. so when, uh, cbd is established, the city, um, provides our baseline level of service. what are we currently doing? um, consistently. in that area. and and, um, so we depending on where, you know, we would have to look at each individual cbd area to tell you exactly what the baselines are. but i can give you some examples, could i i'm sorry. sure. interrupt you. is there does the city of san francisco have a document, a law that says us? we will provide these services to the citizens of san francisco. is there sort of a baseline service document, if you will? so you're saying no. so it's sort of like the slas. it's just a kind of a promise. well so there is a document that for each cbd, but only if

there's a cbd, you're saying. so citywide there's no i live wherever i live, bernal heights just makes something up. i don't think there's a cbd there. there might be. i i can't when i move here, call the city and say, hey, i'm a new taxpayer. i'm a new resident. what? what can i what services can i expect in my neighborhood? there's no there's no document like that. we do have on our website. we publish all of our services on a citywide basis. so you can but they're general though, right? trash can cleaning. i mean yeah. that right. yes but they will say things like our mechanical street sweeping. so that's a perfect example of what the baseline of service is. but there are no figures attached. so i don't know if i'm in bernal heights how often my sidewalk will be steam cleaned. for example. well, that's a you picked one of the most challenging questions because as the sidewalks are, sidewalk maintenance and cleaning is actually, by state law, the responsibility of the adjacent property owner. so while we do do a lot of that work, it is not our baseline of service. and we

do that on a more reactive basis, although with some of our proactive work like the clean corridors program, um, we do a proactive courtesy cleaning of sidewalks along those clean corridors. so that's a bad example. but you know what i'm saying. it's well, it's a great example because i think it gets to what is challenging about baseline of service. so when we when a cbd is established, the city identifies what are the existing services that are consistently provided to that area. because by state law, again, we cannot reduce our level of service. the cbds are, uh, providing additional service . so the city is not allowed to say like, oh, thank goodness you're here. we're going to reduce our services and put them somewhere else. so we are obligated to maintain that baseline of service. but if you look at what those baselines were, they tended to be the

mechanical sweeping routes and then react response to 311, because we did not have have we do have some consistent steam cleaning of city assets like city trash cans. so in some parts of the city, those are on a monthly schedule and sometimes they're more frequent. again it depends on the neighborhood, but the baseline for things like three, one one was as we get them, we'll respond to them. we didn't have an established level of service for the quantity of three one, one. so that became this challenge that we have now that some of the cbds are are responding to 311. and there's a lot of logic to that. they're they're very neighborhood focus based. how do we ensure that we're not reducing our baseline of service? and i think the way that we do that, and we're looking at this right now with our teams is, uh, we make sure that we are consistently still.

in those communities. but daca commenting, that is kind of why we have this on the challenge list. so we've been talking with our performance team about looking at what those baselines were and really kind of identifying a frequency that we were going to those areas and making an equivalency in terms of staff hours, for example. so if i'll take our our east cut cbd because they're here with us today, you know, when they were established, how many. staff hours were we spending responding to 311 in that area. and then we have to ensure that we're continuing to provide that same level of staff hours, whether it's through proactive, clean ing. now we have corridor workers in that area. so i think i feel very confident we haven't reduced our baselines of service because we've added a lot of proactive work that we didn't use to do, but we need to make sure that we can defend and document that so that we are not in any concern that anyone may have of violating that state

law. so we're looking at how we document that now and then establishing what were those in terms of a different metric than just three one, one responses? the last. thing i'll just say on that is i do want to note the, um, one of the big, big responses that three that the cbds are able to do much more quickly is graffiti on private property because the city does not abate graffiti on private property unless and until we go through a very extensive process of notifying that property owner , giving them the opportunity to fix it and then only if they are unresponsive does the city abate, it, unless they've opted into our new proactive, uh, graffiti abatement program. 311 i'm sorry, cbds have a relationship with those property owners because they are paying their tax increment and they in many cases have that as part of their, um, established level of service so they can go out and actually clean the private graffiti very quickly. so that's an example where the 311 going

to them makes much more sense. if it came to us, we would start this much lengthier process that we have to follow. but going to them, it's really not a reduction of baseline of service. we don't provide that service. so i think we also need to keep in mind when we talk about the 311, there are some things that cbds do that are not our, our um, baseline of service. and sidewalk cleaning is one of those, except that we do do it on a courtesy basis. so it's, it's very nuanced or loosey goosey, depending on what adjective you want to use. i guess a couple of things, and one will be for another day. i won't belabor it here. i'm a little surprised and unhappy that there aren't. isn't aren't formal baseline city services in san francisco. what i can expect, no matter where i live from the city, because it sounds like you scored if you live in a cbd because you'll get public works as baseline services, whatever they are. plus you're going to get cbd services on top. but that's not that's not right. that's not right for neighborhoods that don't have

cbds at. and i guess second, it just i would think this would make it hard for not just the department, but the community benefit districts to measure their own metrics on how they're doing, because if they're really only supplementing what the city provides, how do they report to their assessed property owners that that they're upholding that obligation? how do they tell their assessed property owners they're not doing the city's jobs for them? so i understand, you know, this is still you're being improved and i'm really grateful that the dialog is robust between the department and cbds. but it's definitely not a perfect system. far from it. and, um, i guess are there are there any other non city agencies that supplement what we call baseline services besides community benefit districts in san francisco, or we just really talking about cbds or bids? no, i think, uh, there are, are uh, green there is a green benefit district. um, and so i do again

i do want to emphasize that there's not a standard document that says in this neighborhood, you get this benefit at this time, but we do have information on what the baselines of service are at the neighborhood level in terms of street sweeping and other things as well. on our website, tree pruning, that's one that's changed. so historic alley, we were only responsible for pruning, you know, roughly a third of this of the street trees. and when most of the cbds were created that that's that was the service. it depended on the tree and the location, whether or not it was the city's responsible or the or the property owner's responsibility. and in some cases, the cbds took that on. so i think what's new and i do want to make this point until recently, the cbds were not using they were not responding to 311 requests. so that still was the baseline of what the city provided. but now that the some, um, cbds have chosen to participate, and

because it's a very good tracking tool, as we've seen now, we have to really clarify what the baseline was, because historically, the city was the only one responding to those 311 requests. so we weren't reducing if we were continuing to respond to them. so i think now we are in a new it's a it's a relatively new system where they're taking some of those on how do we ensure that we're not reducing our baseline and then the last thing i'll say is some people would say, yes, you scored if you live in a cbd, others would say you're paying that tax increment. so they may not. they may say, i'd rather clean my own sidewalk and not pay the tax increment. so i think it's, you know, there there's a reason why it's above and beyond. it's because you're paying that tax increment. yes and i can attest that there are assessees that want to know why they are paying the cbd assessment when they're paying their taxes. that definitely is a sentiment among cbd owners. i will only conclude before, uh, recognizing commissioner newhouse siegel that, um, it seems to me this whole baseline services notion is, is very as i

said, loosey goosey. it's really predicated on experience. and that changes constantly. it's a moving target depending on staffing, whether a pandemic empty office, high rises, full office, high rises, empty residential buildings, full residential. i mean, it really i mean, you're you're you you have to respond to maintain a quality of life that's decent in san francisco. but that's going to change as conditions change. so again, this is for another day and a much bigger discussion than just public works. but public works is really the lead entity, i would argue, on providing basic city services and keeping the public realm and right of way, uh, decent for all of us. so i appreciate you engaging with me today in this conversation, commissioner newhouse. siegel i just want to thank you all and you especially chair post about bringing up the issue of, i don't know, cbd equal, uh, squeaky wheels. that's so for how this all

works. and. thank you all for bringing this forward. there's a lot more that has to be cleared up. not just to us and to sas and to the public, but this is these are the questions that we should be able to answer. and they're not easy to answer. but we know that there's all this work being done on this and, and, uh, wow, i want to opens up a whole bunch more questions. but we know that when we don't have the answers for people who say, oh, you're on public works commission, tell me, why isn't my street clean? why aren't why isn't my trash? why is my trash container overflowing? you know, all. these were trying. and this. these are the metrics for how it's measured, but only how it's measured. and i'd like to. i'm not sure. i still think that maybe sas should hold an open public hearing about this. about have the different departments

have three, one, one report to them and the public and the all the different entities that are responsible for keeping our city our right of way clear. so thanks. this is it's good. it's we have lots more questions to ask. thank you. commissioner wolford. uh, first of all, thank you, jonathan byron, for the brian for the presentation. it's very informative and really helpful. sparked a lot of conversation. i would ask, as a follow up for director short, i think it would be helpful for us. informationally to actually see the mapping of the city to understand where the benefit districts are across the city. uh, i don't exactly know where all of them are. jurisdictionally, and i think the public would like to know as well. thank you. we will follow up with that. uh, commissioner turner. i feel like we've opened a pandora's box. um, and i really do. for several reasons. and i do think. and i've spent a

lot of time with staff, and i. i think we need to, to potentially look at slide 11, sorry. slide 13. because i'm, um, this question of baseline of service just to be clear, we provide the same baseline of service everywhere. what 311 does is just it's just a batch system. it's logistics. it's getting to that place. but if anyone calls and they need anything from our department, we're going to show up. rain, sleet, snow 24 hours a day. so i think that this is almost a misnomer. the way it's coming off. and so i think that we need to clarify that. the second thing, and given the amount of work we've done on public works workforce development, which we're going to get for get to the thing that we cannot forget is public works is the backbone of the city. we are the collaborator. so many things are essential and necessary, but because of that, it makes it very difficult sometimes to track things, particularly matrix. and so in this particular instance where i'm, i guess, and i think there needs to be maybe a different conversation, it is not

necessarily about baseline, but what is our jurisdiction, what is the cbd's jurisdiction. and so when something goes into 311, all they're doing is trying aging. right? and they're saying, well, this person this and this person that well great. and let's just make sure that doesn't get commingled. or if it does, let's make sure that the credit is duly being applied where it needs to be applied. um, i just think and i've encountered this in many places with public works, i'm grateful that we're the glue. i'm grateful that we're the backbone. but it also makes it very challenging to track things, particularly the very simple things that our citizens ask of us. but because of our collaborative nature, with so many departments, i think it's just very hard to answer. and i think this is just one of those that maybe it does take some time for us to dissect some of these things. so that one, we're on public documents. so things are very clear and transparent, but also to the public when they ask these questions, we can have ready responses as. thank you, commissioner turner. are there any other questions or comments before we open public comment on this item? oh, i beg your

pardon. oh, you weren't finished. i beg your pardon? you weren't finished with your presentation. mr. vang, please continue. all right. thank you. um within, uh, ongoing coordination with, uh, collaborating with 311, we that regular meeting, we were addressed, uh, duplicate. i think i spoke a little bit about duplication. um, three one recently had a pilot where they start to check photos, uh, pictures of graffiti, for example, when, uh, when we issue a notice for 30 days to abate, etc, and we still constantly getting the call for same location and that would be closed out as a duplicate. so three one is currently doing a pilot where they can compare the photos from the previous. so we can close that out. so that's on the duplication. and as we talk a little bit about the jurisdiction part where collaborating and working with all other city agencies is where the right contact just in case where sometimes we have to plan and organize the cleanup within together with rec and park,

caltrans. um and the public expectation. i just want to mention on these expectations when we talk about the sla, uh, there are plan where we see for encampment related, uh, the expectation from the general public when they ask us to clean encampment, they expect us to move the unhoused, which is not a part of public work. we're actually going to clean out. so they might see the request as close as clean up. and do not happy with that because of the tent is set up. so that's one of the expectation is we'd like to put out there, uh, and again, the message is, uh, why why it's not clean and stuff like that. so yeah, that's all i have for this slide. any other question. all right. let's conclude my slide on this, uh, slide shows basically we also, uh, recommend

or advise the residents to contact 311 for this for, for this main purposes to, to document and help us to assign folks to the better area. we also have on our public work website where they can go to our website and click on the 301 app, and they can submit all that information on, on on that app. also. with that said, i'm leaving for any additional question. thank you. mr. commissioner siegel. did you have additional. yes. so thank you so much. you know, i think we're concentrating so much on this and you put so much time into this and, uh, that we do have to remember director short's comments that our department does this work proactively every day. and this is just this is just a backup so

that the community can tell us what what they think we should. we should be looking at. so thank you. i think that we have to keep this all in perspective. and, uh, i do want to comment on director, uh, director wolford's comment. uh, not excuse me, commissioner wolford's comment. can we please get a map of the cbds and where they are? because they do get different services. that would be great. and maybe if somebody from that particular department could report to us about how they how they interact with, with basic services that would that would be great. but this is helpful. and we spent a lot of time on it. and it is what people talk about. but you do this work every day and that's what you don't hear. these are these are the squeaky wheels. and this is where they i don't know what i don't want to mix my metaphors, but whatever. so thank you. thank you. any

other questions or comments for mr. vang or mr. wong before we open this to public comment? thank you. secretary fuller, please open this item to public comment. members of the public who wish to make three minutes of comment in person on item six, the public works collaboration with three one 1st may line up against the wall for this from the door over by the screen. and um, anyone commenting from outside the chamber if you're in the webinar, please press the raise your hand button. and if you have called in, press press star three on your phone to be recognized. and no one has approached to speak on this item in person and sf gov tv has also indicated we do not have any callers on this

item either. so that concludes public comment. thank you. i'd like to thank you both again. mr. wong, mr. vang, for this presentation. i certainly learned a lot today. thank you. director short also for responding to the commission's questions. i think we'll be seeing topics related to this coming up in the future, both with us and with sanitation and streets. so thank thank you to all it is. 1049 i would like to suggest a short break. how about ten minutes until 11:00? and for the next agenda item. so we will recess until 11:00 short break. secretary fuller, please call the next item on the agenda. item seven is the department of public works workforce development grant making update and apprenticeship supervisor althea o'brian is here to present. and this is an informal, optional item. good morning. chair. post

commissioners carla and our guest, i'm althea, once again on here it says lauren. i am not warren i'm althea. so this is the workforce development grant making update. our workforce development citywide ecosystem. um, so who defines the workforce development in san francisco and what role does public works play in this ecosystem? and on the left, you can see, um, where we fall into the ecosystem. um, at the top we have the office of economic and workforce development. on the left, the committee on citywide workforce development at um were here. when you come down on the right hand side of the branch, public works and under public works is our apprenticeship programs and workforce grant making. grant making. and our workforce development portfolio. so, so san francisco city policy

requires a workforce development component to any department grants, public works grants serve as a first step in our workforce development pipeline. grant programs serve a workforce pool that faces faces significant barriers to employment and builds foundational skills necessary to participate in traditional apprenticeship or entry level employment opportunities. as so you might be asking what types of services do our grantees provide? they provide tree watering and planting job readiness training. clean city can steam cleaning exposure to public works related job skills, and experience. pit stop our pit stop program, the public toilet monitoring, basic computer and financial literacy block

sweeping and cleaning landscape maintenance, tree nursery, um basic skills relating to maintaining employment attendance, time keeping, communication and professionalism. um so who do our grantees serve? and i just want to make note here that the statistical information and data that you are going to see throughout this presentation is for quarter one and quarter two for the fiscal year 2023, 2024. so thus far, the total count of participants for quarter one and quarter. two is 355. and you can see our program providers, hunter's point mission hiring call community um cic community youth center, um landfall family foundation, friends of the urban

forest, and san francisco clean city. once again, you can see the groups that the program providers monitor and the numbers that are broken down. so who do our grantees serve? serve. and throughout this presentation, you'll be able to see what i would say is an excellent, excellent representation of the participant age by, um, program. the participant race and gender identity and, and also the prior city populations that we serve and the area of residence where our program participants come from. so first is the friends of the urban forest, friends of the urban forest is a san francisco nonprofit with a mission to revitalize san francisco's urban forest, builds community and

help address environmental challenges. for operates three workforce develop programs under its grant with public works, you can see the breakdown of the program participants. 17 um, the program participants by program. um, you can on the right hand side, you can see on my right, at least the participants race and gender identity breakdown participant age also program outcomes. the number of employment offers during program, the number of interviews, doing so uh, during the program. and just to note here with the number of interviews during the program, um, that means the number of interviews the program participants have been invited to. and we also have the total number of completed training hours for all parties. serpents

so to further break down the information data that we have on udf, once again, it's a nonprofit within, uh, with a mission to revitalize san francisco. so this is our tree planning and nursery operations workforce development grant. there's 814 street trees planted to date, 1000 plus is expected by the end of the grant. approximately 1000 trees are watered per week. and 1500 young. tree and emergency tree care visits new roots trainees assisting in the establishment of new street tree nursery, six month training curriculum includes classroom and hands on lessons and urban ecology, arboriculture and career readiness training. financial literacy and resume prep. job

applications. participant applying for open city position for both job placement and familiarity with application procedures and three participants have transitioned thus far to full time employment to with fluff and one with sf unified school district. public works, and are developing a career pathway to guide and assist with further training and employment opportunities. it's a lot of information. any questions or good okay, i'll hold mine, believe it or not, for the end, but i will have questions on certain slides. thank you very much. okay. you're welcome. next is our psych which is community youth center. it's a san francisco nonprofit with a mission to provide the culturally diverse youth of the community with resources to help them thrive and prepare for the future. and you can see the breakdown here

on the left hand side is the total count of participants for quarter one and two, and then the participants by program participant age. i want to note here too, with the priority populations. um, let's see. there is mentioned that, um, there are some barriers with this service population language barriers. but psych is continuing continuing to enroll those. and hard to place individuals and esl classes. so the grant funds are used to support six power wash mobile team, a workforce development program that provides sidewalk and curb sweeping litter collection and city can cleaning . six power wash mobile team provides employment pathways for primarily monolink low income

and formerly incarcerated individuals who face a multiple barriers to employment through job readiness training and work experience. the power wash mobile team cleans each of the 3671 city cans at. least once a month, with 511 locations receiving twice monthly service. the power wash mobile team also performs sidewalk and curb cleaning. along 254 blocks around the chinatown area. 90% of the participants fully complete and graduate from the program, even even with program training modules, english language proficiency. is a continuing challenge for job placement. next, we have hunters point family and it's a san

francisco nonprofit whose workforce development program aims, leverage and uplift the unique skill set and wisdom within our community to create employment opportunities, duties, and public stewardship. and we can see here the total count of participants for quarter one and two, 193. we can see the breakdown of the age on your right hand side. participants. race and gender identity a program outcomes. it's the same for all of our programs, along with priority populations. um, hunters point family, improved public health, the provision of accessible restroom facilities and aim to enhance public health by reducing instances of public urination and defecation, which can contribute to the spread of diseases and unsanity

conditions. we have cleaner streets because of the pit stops, the ability of more restroom facilities should lead to a decrease in instances of human waste on sidewalk and streets, resulting in cleaner public spaces. enhance public perception a successful pit stop program can positively influence the overall perception of cleanliness and hygiene, and san francisco, among both residents and visitors, there's increased accessibility, ensuring restroom facilities are accessible to all members of our community, including individuals with disabilities, seniors, and those experiencing homelessness is a key goal of this program to reduce environmental impact by minimizing the presence of human

waste in public areas, the um program contributes to a healthier environment and reduce pollution. program participants maintain, gain, and manage public work, pit stops, public toilets at 21 locations around the city. program participants also provide additional block cleaning at all 21 locations and since the inception of the program, hunters point family has gradually added more than 70% of participants from the program promoted 40% of participants and to supervisor and management positions within the organization, and 20% of participants have obtained employment with the city. land family foundation a another

provider is a san francisco nonprofit whose mission is to amplify by the employment and educational opportunities of young adults and san francisco who have been impacted by poverty, incarceration, and underemployment, and the total program participant s they're 17. once again, you can see the breakdown by age. the area of residence in which the participants live in, the participant race and gender identity program outcomes, and priority populations, and just a parenthetical insert here. this, um, land vault began in august with us. of 2023. um, provide career development to priority populations, including long terme, um, unemployed residents, people with disabilities, and formerly justice system involved individuals who face many barriers to employment and

growth, enable workers to earn a living wage, provide provide professional development such as data collection, training and customer service skills to participants while they receive social service support and direct supervision. vision connect the unhoused with housing, shelter, assistance services and encourage people with substance abuse and mental health challenges to seek treatment programs. um participants perform sidewalk and curb cleaning for 14 blocks, four times a week. program graduation rate. for the recent fiscal quarter. is 27, and just to note that, um, previously we weren't monitoring placement rates, um, as the initial monitoring goal, we set a 35% placement rate. however we're going forward, um, in our new contracts and contract

extensions, we will have a placement goal of 70, which is on par with other workforce development programs in the city . mission hiring hall. um, a nonprofit whose mission is to provide job seekers with san francisco residency employment counseling, training and support service referrals, as well as job readiness training to succeed in their search. and there's a total of 95 participants, and you can see the breakdown here once again by , um, age, the area of residence , our priority populations. i want to make note here, our priority populations, which are long terme unemployment or active or formerly justice involved individuals, women, men and gender minorities, public housing residents, public benefit recipients, homeless or

formerly homeless, and individuals with disabilities. cities. um mission hiring hall uh once again improved public health. the vision of i'm sorry interrupt you if on this one since this is the same as hunters point family. maybe you can just summarize the paragraphs on the right hand side of the slide, since the ones on the left. yes they are the same. so on the on the on my right hand side, the program participants maintain and manage public works, pit stop public toilets at 11 locations around the city, and the program participants also provide additional block cleaning at four of the 11 locations and since the inception of this program in september of 2023, they have graduated five participants from the program. um and san francisco clean city coalition. um it's a nonprofit organization established in 1991

focused on greening and beautifying the city and the information here is broken down once again by, um, age priority populations, so on and so forth. this program, a tree watering workforce development, grants they weekly water 2800 trees, um weekly employment readiness workshops are covered weekly advanced training workshops and projects include tree pruning, street tree planting, soils and erosion control, and um. also, participants engage and 36 job interviews. since july 2023 to january 2024, seven out of 14 participant s were placed in employment, earning. 17 to $22 per hour. from july 23 to january 24. employment includes

vehicle driver, caterer, it tech custodian and other nonprofit jobs. and here is a breakdown of our grant program process. so if we begin on my left. on my left, it's we begin with the grand scope development. and under that is public service needs are identified and then the scope is coordinated with public works service manager. then we move on to the pre-proposal conference. and under that we have we review the scope with parties interest in submitting our rfps. we review city contracting rules and requirements and we then clarify any questions regarding granting prior access or scope of grant. and then we move on to the rfp submissions. under that, we have criteria development and scoring methods. and dependent

panel reviews and score submissions. then we award the grant review the expectations review grant requirements and reporting instructions. after we'll finalize the grant agreement and then initiate the grant. and under that there are quarterly meetings between the program managers and grantees. quarterly report submissions and reimbursement requests, and the goals of our workforce. um, develop is to provide opportunities for career and skill development, deliver services that improve san francisco, support our priority populations, and remove traditional barriers and provide technical support and guidance to grantee organizations to meet our goals. um, and here, um, are each program's goals, as you can see here for the pit stop summer

youth tree planting, watering, block cleaning, and trash can steam cleaning. and that concludes our presentation. any questions? thank you, miss o'brien, very much for representing mr. hill today. i do a few questions. um. slide 12. if we could pull that up, that was hunter's point family and you mentioned since the inception of the program, the graduation rates and promotions, how long have we been working with hunter's point family? do you or does someone here know how long we've been? i just want some context for those numbers. those are those big numbers or those little numbers. i was just curious. um, i can try to address that one chair post. um we hunter's point family is actually one of the grantees with whom we've had a longer standing relationship. it's been about six years, uh, nine years, nine years. apologies and i if i

also may just note, we do have a number of representatives from many of the, um, nonprofits here today. so i don't know if you, um, want them to introduce themselves. um, or if you had any specific questions we can ask some of the representatives to speak to those. that's fantastic. thank you very much. i'd like to invite them all to come to the podium. oh, good morning, commissioner. i'm sarah juan. i'm the executive director of psych community youth center. thank you for this opportunity. it's been a wonderful working relationship with the dpw team. thank you. good morning. my name is mr. landau. i will lamba family foundation. it's an honor to be here. this is my first time in this house. hello. my

name is albert lee. i'm with orlando family foundation and it's honored to meet everyone here. good morning, chair post and commissioners brian wiedinmyer, the executive director of friends of the urban forest. and it's great to be back. happy to answer any questions you have about our relationship and grants. hello, commissioners. um, my name is michelle leonardville, and i'm the executive director at mission hiring hall. so we're probably the latest service provider added. we joined in september. um, team here. johnny fort, operations director here. um, daniel brockovich, also a director on the program. and this is a long time board member, mark farrar of mission hiring hall. really good to meet you all. thank you all for being here. i'm delighted. stay up, stay up, stay here. because i do have some questions and maybe they're group questions. and you could draw straws for who answers or specific questions. um. the number of interviews during i make sure i understand

the statistics on some of the slides. when we show number of, uh, interviews during the program and then the number of employment offers during the program, any thoughts from any of you on how to boost those numbers, how to get your participants to get more job interviews in the pipeline, and then how to get get more offers. thank you, chair post for that question. the first thing i'd like to just, uh, clarify for context for everybody. so we have an annual grant from the urban forest. does you notice we're reporting on quarter one and quarter two numbers. but for us at friends of the urban forest, for instance, our grant started in september of 2023. so we are only reporting those figures that you see up there through september through december. so we're looking at just a slice of what i think for most of us, our annual grant numbers. so that's the first. and these are so they're not complete for the total grant. also the deliverables at least for our grant for those placement numbers, the 35% placement, that is for six

months post intervention. so we won't have complete numbers to report on these grants for both interviews and for job placement until 18 months from the start of the grant period. also, we have these six month cohorts, so at least at friends of the urban forest, we're running through two cohorts over the course of this grant period. so that's context. how to get those numbers up. we're working very closely. first with public works and our city partners to make sure that there is that pipeline and connection, at least at friends of the urban forest. all of our workforce development grant participants are doing submitting city job applications as a both as a practice on how to do it and as a way to make sure that folks are being interviewed and considered for these positions. so so those are some brief thoughts from me. great. thank you very much. and i apologize for my confusion. then on the figures. and thank you for explaining that to me. i'd love to hear from each of you. what what goes well with your relationship with department of public works and areas you could see for improvement. um, hello,

commission. we started in, um, so the numbers that are being reported are 15 days in the first quarter. and then the second quarter, three months. and we've already graduated five participants to unsubsidized employment. so our goal because mission hiring hall has been a long time workforce development organization. we started in 1971. we're kind of really good at when folks meet us. this is the last program that they'll be involved in. and so we've been crunching some numbers internally with these participants because we've not done this type of work before. so with the participants that are enrolled right now, over 60% of the folks that are working on pit stops, of the 11, they have tremendous barriers to employment. and so one thing that we hope to do, and we've been speaking with jada durden and her team, the they've helped us onboard successfully with this program. um, we've been

thinking how can we apply a really strong workforce development lens to these folks that want to elevate their careers and get on a career path and a career track? um, some of the folks you know, this is where they are, and that's okay. um, but we do see participants who want something more. and so what we would love to see is more funding put into the workforce development. part of it, because what we don't want to do is just have folks working at these pit stops, and it not be the, the, the outcome for their lives. um, so i'll pause there if there's any questions for me. thank you. commissioner, i think for six we mentioned we work with a lot of like language barrier populations. that has been extremely challenging because you don't learn a language in one month. so three months. and you really have to learn very practical, vocational, like specialty

vocabulary in order to succeed. so it has been quite challenging to actually to place a lot of these graduates into our city department, because there's a certain language requirements. so we've been working with like school district or airport, also like private cleaning companies, to see how we can actually seat more placement together, but that they have been working really diligently and they really earn the special skill set to be a power wash steamer. so it does really take them to a much better career pathway and earning a living wages for many of these low income household. and is this because most of these young youth are recent immigrants to actually many of them are actually parents of the issue that we're actually supporting. that's why the age group is not youth, but more like adults. so most of them are new immigrant parents. um are coming to us. thank you. any other comments on what goes well and what what could be improved and please, i just, uh, want to mention, um, for our clientele,

uh, sometimes the interview numbers are record lows. they still have. i won't say distrust, but a lot of times when people say, oh, i interviewed for another job, they're worried that, oh, i might lose this job. so i know a lot of interviews are unreported to us when they do seek it. uh, the other thing that i've also found out at is that because we are part time, we do four days a week at four hours a day. it's kind of minimal. so some of our participants, uh, might be on some other type of subsidy or income, and they're worried about losing benefits. so yeah, we can't hire someone and say, hey, you don't want to graduate from this program because you don't want to get better. yeah, we just can't, uh, terminate someone like that. so you just have to wait for attrition to where you get the hours to award someone else another, uh, you know, place in the program. so.

brian wiedenmayer, again with friends of the urban forests. i want to give what works. well, our relationship with the staff at public works from director short on down. i want this commission to know which you already do, that you have a wonderful team of dedicated professionals at every level of that department, whether it's working with the bureau of urban forestry grants and contracts management. i think our relationship is really collaborative and responsive and open. i will say one thing, and whether it can be improved or not, i'm not sure there has been a necessary level of scrutiny on the city's grant making to nonprofit organizations, particularly this department's grant making to nonprofit organizations. we welcome that scrutiny. we are going to account for every cent that the taxpayer was, um, give to us through this program to do this work, which i think is important. we're stewards of those dollars. i think that level of scrutiny sometimes leads to a level of back and forth on invoicing that can

delay the payments of our reimbursement. so we do this work for reimbursement, right? we don't. we complete a months of worth of work within 15 to 30 days. we reimburse that. we invoice the department. it can take upwards of six months to get paid for that work. and when you have to make sure you have enough cash flow, etc. we're not in that situation, but i don't want to get in that situation. so something that could work better and we're working towards it collaboratively with accounting and grants management is timely payment of invoices. thank you. and you feel that's on the department's end rather than on the nonprofit's end. we are partners in that. so it's our job to submit complete and timely invoices. and it's the department's job to review them and ask questions. i think there are many, many questions that get asked on every line item. so you can give kudos to your accounting team for being very thorough. sometimes that can cause a delay of several months. thank you. any other comments or

please? actually, i do want to mention that the accounting team has actually been very helpful. um you know, we're relatively new and i remember our first invoice, we had some problems that they took the time to work with us and get us through it. so i you know, i don't want to just you know, throw someone under the bus or hear someone else unit that, you know, the dpw account has worked really well for us. thank you know, we don't throw people under the bus at this commission, but we're always looking at ways to improve as we all are. um again, this is great that you're all here. um, commissioner newhouse segal questions for the group or for the staff? yeah. um wonderful. thank you. my mic is on. okay um, i always have questions about how to identify why, uh, and this goes beyond what? what your people are doing. how do i identify people who are working on the street,

who are about them wearing something that says says who they are, what department they're with? and in your case, that maybe even there i noticed that one of the one of the vests, that one of them had on, i can't remember which organization actually had the name of one of your organization on it. so that's great. but i'd like to know, are these are these, uh, the people from your programs? are they always accompanied and supervised by dpw staff? if. well, i have a couple of questions. let me tell you what one of them is. are they always accompanied by dpw staff? the other is, are they do they get to where they're going in dpw vehicles and another question is, well, how are they identified? and are they're assigned moments recorded? how

do we know where they have where they've been assigned? and are they tracked out? and i also would like to know, and i think your programs are wonderful, but do they work with union apprenticeship programs and with with school district vocational programs. so those are i'm sure i could think of more questions, but that's about it for now. thanks. so public works doesn't oversee. uh, well, we don't have managers or supervisors out there. for example, um, managing mission hiring call. they have their own super advisors and managers out there managing their employees. i'm sorry, i don't understand their own. who's from your departments? not from not from public works. no. now we oversee we. yes. the program and making sure things are running the way they need to run. but for each individual organization, they have their own supervisors overseeing their employees. so when they finish

an assignment, it gets checked off. there's some way of tracking. they've done it their time. they did it. who was doing it? yes. and they provide weekly data to our team. yes with pictures. thanks. there's my other questions about the vehicles. and yeah, we don't provide them vehicles either. they have of uh their own. if they're, if they transport their employees with their, uh, companies vehicles. yeah and how are the vehicles identified. uh, this lundberg from lundberg family foundation. um, my, my, uh, nonprofit has a van which is used to convey our work tools to the location that we work. the employees find themselves or find their way to the location they are responsible to transport themselves to workplace every day. uh, the

vans are marked by the name of the company or the logo of the company. so we do not use the public. uh, the dpw vans, we use our vehicles. any other question , ma'am? so we are the power wash steamer and so we have our own truck that carry the, uh, power wash steam machine on, on the truck. and then all the staff they are wearing, um, safety, safety wear and also the cic uniform and all the all the trucks are also marked with our logo. uh, every day they need to submit a log sheets to track which trash can they clean, as well as also which block they have cleaned. and we also submit the weekly data to our dpw program officer. so everything is tracked and we have our own supervisor. but we have to really thank dpw team. they really help us to set up all the safety protocol, all the like ppe training, all the proper

protocol ahead of time to make sure they are ready on the job. commissioner do you have any other questions? this this is yeah, it's very helpful. and actually my next my follow up was about trees. i mean just as an example. but with all of these there are a lot of people, especially during our recent storms on all the things that you're that people from your programs are working on. we and we want to know who these people are. it would be great for your programs for promoting, for the public, your nonprofits, and you look for donors. i'm sure, for people to thank you and know what what they're doing, communicating, who to who is doing this work is really good, and especially with trees. a lot of it is not is not authorized. and is are not people who've been trained about urban forestry and, uh, creating danger. and so all this they're

doing, they impact our safety and not just how things look, but our, our health and our safety. so it's a big responsibility that your, your, your, uh, people from your programs are taking on for us. i agree, commissioner newhouse seagull and just briefly, our employees all wear branded, uh, vests and apparel. so you know who they are. friends of forest. all of our fleet of vehicles are marked with our logo and our website. um, despite that, i think the issue you raise there is often confusion about, even with our logo on the vest, are we working for the city or are we working for ourselves as a nonprofit and being out in the public? i think i can speak for all of us. we're interacting with the public in the same way that public employees do, and for us, that can mean difficult, contentious interactions. at some points in time. so we do conflict escalation training, safety training for our folks who are out and for tree trimming. just as a reminder, the tree care that friends of the urban forest does is, for the first three years of the tree's life, through established

, and then it's passed on to the city. so the large limb we're not getting people up in cherry pickers or with harnesses on that is the fine folks at the bureau of urban forestry do that work? thank you. i'm not being nitpicky, but these are questions that i myself have and people especially now because nonprofit contracts are under such scrutiny. so um, as they should be. so thank you, commissioner selby. all right. thank you all for being here. actually, i think at a certain point i have volunteered for every one of you year. um, and i see the, the value that you add to, um, our, our work force development goals. now, my question is for public works for about process wise on um on slide 19, uh, the pre proposal conference and how often do we have a pre proposed a pre proposal conference with

interested parties. is that is it is it announced to the public. is it open. and um does it happen every year. sure i'll take that one. uh commissioner, uh carlos short director. yeah. whenever we have an rfp that gets announced, we hold a pre proposal, um, conference. so it's not in some cases, um, it is a requirement to attend that if you want to submit for the rfp. and in some cases, it's not a requirement. it's just an opportunity. but anyone who is interested will then get a summary of the questions that were asked at the pre proposal conference. so it's not necessarily on an annual basis. it's on a um an as needed basis depending on what rfps have gone out to the public. and um, the contracts are generally be a one year up to three year contracts. right. yeah okay. um, my other question is maybe anyone can

answer this. what do you feel? what is the impact? let's say my friends of urban forestry, for example, um, contra that comes up, another nonprofit comes in and they get the bid. what what impact? what kind of impact does that have on that? depends on the nonprofit organization. and how much of your funding is reliant on public contracts. so we certainly do get a significant portion of our budget, probably, i think, off the top of my head, 40% from the city and county of san francisco. we also get funding from the state of california. and then the rest of that is from traditional contributed sources. individuals, corporate sponsors, private foundations, and philanthropy. um, you know, if we were to go back for this contract, we have or the grant we have currently say the workforce development and tree planting and establishment grant, that's a $2.6 million annual grant out of a budget of 7.5 million. you know, we would have to assess our staffing. we'd have to assess the structure of the organization.

we're doing this work, as i said , on a reimbursement basis. and so we'd either have to find another funding source for that work. and we're always trying to do that. diversify by our revenue sources and or reduce our program scope. if somebody else got the grant, okay, i wasn't just going calling you out. no, no, no irradiance. just just to qualify. and we've heard this from we actually had a kind of contention about a tree watering service that came before our commission a while ago. so the process is completely open and transparent. a call is put out, qualified companies come and bid. the city has essentially an a, an agnostic approach to it. they can't play favorites just because someone already has a contract. so they have to judicious look at each one and they use a grading system that everyone who is applying for a grant is getting right. and so some history may be a factor, but it's not the determining factor because we've seen the contracts rotate. so every year public works in this transparent

and open process. awards to whomever they feel is the most appropriate recipient organization at the award of that contract. so while it may affect some of the organizations, it's not the city's business. it's the city's business is to let out a tender to the most qualified organization in. though i would like to qualify that. and i think it is why i still struggle and staff and i don't know if deputy director durden, mr. hills out. i really want to thank you guys for last week and spending some time, but it is still the inherent problem and that, you know, we are effectively being grant makers with limited amount of money. um, in a very big, big task that many of you are taking on. so that i really do appreciate. um, but one of the things as we go through our process and i've struggled with and i even heard it today, is really our nonprofits ability to do this work. and it's not the

interviews, it's not the supervisors. it's actually the very simple thing is, can you keep the contract reimbursement? do you have lines of credit? do you have capacity to do this? and the reason i bring it up is this is where a lot of nonprofits, particularly in the homeless service area, are failing dramatically. um, it's because do they have the capacity? do they have the wherewithal to manage multimillion dollar city contracts that often don't pay on time? not because we don't want to do it. it's because you sent that one invoice. that was weird. that month. and so i do want to understand, um, and i think we should all collectively understand that the work you're doing and the capacity and the opportunity you give to folks every single day is, uh, just bar bar none. um, but this contracting and how things are set up and even how we have to evaluate our partners to make sure on the other side of this, will they have the capacity as an organization to be able to do this work and fulfill it? and often ultimately, it's not often about participants. it really is about money and i'm hearing some

of y'all are already starting to slow invoices and those type of things, and they become compounding issues. and so what i would like to know is how can we help you solve that? what are the things that we can do? i want to thank director shaw. i know things such as very small capital grants to buy you know, equipment so that, you know, you can get out there to do the work. that's been an evolution. and i'm just wondering, is there another evolution to address this issue around reimbursements ? and really the fundamental problem they have, which may keep some people from coming to a pre-bid when they recognize what it actually takes to manage a city contract, not necessarily to deliver on their mission. excellent question. but would some of you like to address that? the again, the wherewithal, the financial wherewithal you have when there is a lag in getting your invoices reimbursed and how we could help, should the city provide more training to your accounting teams, for example, uh, should we just, you know, should we be hiring more people? i mean, any any thoughts on to

commissioner turner's point? right. michelle leonard bell from mission hiring hall here again? um, i think initially when we onboarded, we received an advance that we are now working against. um, however, with the time that the invoices take, it would be great if we could maybe see a quarterly advance and definitely be built on our performance and all of that too, because it has been a little stressful for the organization, and we are very well heeled financial organization. we just don't have tons of reserves in the bank. um, but we surpass every audit with shining stars. all of our ducks are in a row when it comes to our fiscal team. it's just we need the cash flow because the thing that i hope everyone realizes is these are subsidized workforce programs. and so every two weeks we're paying out wages and taxes for those wages. and it would be so great if we could get enough flow of invoice processing or either a flow of advance. um, so i can take any

questions if. deputy director robertson, you're up. good morning. commissioners. bruce robertson, cfo, public works. um, there's a couple things going on here. one is i want to emphasize the city has a prompt payment policy. so we do promptly pay all of our contractors, whether it's nonprofit providers, equipment providers for profit organizations that that said, some of these things do take time. and we do have trainings where we go back and forth and the amount of revisions we have varies by not just nonprofit provider, but by for profit provider, whomever. since my name is on all of this, i will make sure that we will only pay for what is eligible within the contract and what we can do. my job is to keep director short out of the press, to keep the

department out of the press, and to keep more importantly, me, myself personally, in compliance with everything we need to do. so there has been, as someone mentioned, i don't remember who there has been a lot of scrutiny on grants. um, we've seen a lot with some in particular nonprofit organizations over the past few weeks and months. it's really important that we make sure not just within public works, public works, accounting side, public works, finance side, public works, pms and i'll just i'm not picking on the nonprofits, but since they're all standing to my left and right, i'll point to them that the nonprofits we all have a clear understanding of what is in the contract, what is eligible and what is ineligible. and i think that is, as i'm listening to this, that's one of the areas where i think we could improve. and i think as part of the when the contract is signed, here's what you can do. here's what you can't do. i also think that goes for pms as well, who are overseeing some of these contracts. there are some things

that have to be reviewed by me. some of the expenditures and contracts i review and sign off on, because there may be a large we were talking about equipment. it may be a large equipment item. if that contract is coming to the end of its duration, we maybe shouldn't allow a large equipment purchase for a contract. i'm making this up in this example that has a week left in its duration, so there is a lot of those things. um that we need to make sure we're complying with and paying for. so i think one of the takeaways that i will do, and you all have my commitment, is that we will work the finance team will work and maybe hold some trainings that are a little more robust and a little more thorough in terms of what are the requirements, because it's really important that we don't pay for anything that is ineligible to the contract. we are acutely aware of the, um, the limited cash flow capacity that they have. so i was glad to hear the initiative, the discussion of advances. that was something that we worked proactively with the controller's office. that wasn't

something we were allowed to do, but we then proactively did it. so the quarterly idea, i don't think we can do that. but on the up front of a contract, we now almost always give an advance. and we put that policy into place. working with the controller's office that was not something we could do. so we are always trying to be aware. again, my role is to ensure financial compliance, but also provide the funding and the opportunities. so we can provide the services we do on an operational basis. thank you. and it did occur to me that where the controller's office might fit in in here with with training and documents and things like that. so maybe it's a partnership between public works and the controller's office. yes agreed. and we have been audited many times and we have not had any significant findings. so that's, you know, something that i really i'll take the credit, but it's really the staff behind me and budget and accounting that deserve all the credit for that. thank you, commissioner turner. do you. yeah, i, i, um, well, recognize our responsibility. uh particularly the accountability.

i don't know if it actually, though, addresses my concern and really, i should be the concern of everyone in this room. uh, which is at some point, uh, we're going to continue doing great things. um, these contracts you have with us are going to get bigger and bigger. and as they get bigger and bigger, what are our partners going to do to have the financial wherewithal, either lines of credit or others as these reimbursements, many of them are payroll, so they are required to get paid and they don't have any choice insurance is. so i guess it's not necessarily us. more so, i guess i want to hear from our partners. what's the plan? uh, because again, we know what the structure is. i'm grateful that carla and the team were able to work some magic and, um, two really critical areas advances and some capital purchases. but ultimately, and i don't think very long it's going to be enough because i'm hearing you guys already having a little growing pains. so my question is, what are we going to do? uh, i'll volunteer to try to answer

that as a nonprofit organization, we also have a board of directors, a finance and audit committee. we have financial policies in place. we endeavor to keep between 3 and 6 months of operating in cash reserves at all times. that becomes a struggle. commissioner turner, as you point out, as our budget grows and as the delays for reimbursement on some of our grants stretch to six months or beyond. and so, i think, you know, it's on all of us to try to fundraise outside of our contracts to build that up. and it's tough. this this work is not easy. and fundraising work and in the nonprofit sector in san francisco in particular can be a challenge. so i think for us it's a mix of fiscal policies and good governance internally as a nonprofit. and it would be continuing to work with the great folks at public works to shorten that window and then the final thing i'll say is the controller's office has done i want to give them credit training for nonprofit organizations that are grantees of the city around financial management, around reporting requirements. and they do really

robust compliance monitoring, too. so i don't have a silver bullet answer, but it's to try to build up those cash reserves so you don't find yourself in that situation where you're going to be struggling to make payroll, and you need to get a line of credit. yeah. um coming out of the homelessness and supportive housing world is in francisco. we all said that years ago, and now we're all on fire and in chaos. so i guess i'm still not satisfied. and i think maybe it's something shared between the department and others. we need to actually tackle this because it's inevitable. and also expenses and costs are going to keep going up for you. and at some point you're going to have this conversation in a much more difficult way because we're going to be talking about can you manage your contract. and so i just wonder preemptively, how do we engage and support you and not allow the chaos that we see in the other side of our industry, um, kind of bleed over

. what suggestions would you have, commissioner turner, to answer your own question, i really like the idea of quarterly advances. i thought that was actually pretty smart. um, i also think that we need to have a little more grace. we're meeting people where they are. you got to go uber. sometimes you want to get them a coffee. like there are things that. but those little things trick up. um, a review by our auditors and our accountants. and so are there areas that, you know, maybe just here's $1,000 a month of, you know, we know you're going to go do it type things, but there's these things that allow reimbursing this that should be streamlined, very easy . but it doesn't always pan out that way because they're meeting people where they are. and thank you for it. and so i think if we can think about quarterly advances as the to remind everyone these are grants, these aren't loans. i mean, there's all ways we can. it's all about the risks that we're sharing. and it's about the relationship and the accountability that we have. and so i think it's just time that we need to have those honest conversations with partners, because i don't want to sit on this side and making

things more difficult and onerous, and adding all these belt straps and suspenders, when in fact that's working counter, that's adding more costs on the back office that nobody is reimbursing. and so we've got to figure this out. and again, i just don't want you guys to be in a crisis that we're seeing with so many other amazing nonprofits who've been around 70, 80 years and now can't see their way out. thank you. so i guess what i would suggest then, um, what would i suggest is, um, i definitely echo your point that that these that are nonprofit partners are all doing wonderful work on behalf of the citizens of san francisco, and i thank you for it. um, but that it would be a drag for the public works department, ergo, san francisco taxpayers, to put money into a contract that, as you said, and work with one of you, only to have one of you then go belly up. right. so i think that that's your point is how can we not just, uh, give grants pursuant to what

commissioner wolford, as he explained the process? but also to the extent we can can ensure your ongoing success and growth. so that we didn't just, you know, waste our money with an organization that went bankrupt, a year later or whatever. and so , so i don't i don't know what the answer is. but again, i think it's what deputy director robertson is. step forward and saying we'll try to do a better job here. and, uh, and as i said, i'm forgot your name. i'm sorry, but the director of mission hiring hall had a good suggestion about advances, so maybe it is just continuing conversations and expressing these concerns. yeah. and i'm happy to join a working group, uh, or whatever we want to call it. and i it is very simple things i think that we should try to do. um, i don't we're not going to get anything radical. uh, but i think if we can start to make these small but incremental changes, i think it's going to behoove each one of you as an organization. i just also just, um, uh, you should be concerned, uh, and i really do think that this is just one of those areas where

we've got enough examples in the city, uh, that we should not be going down this pike at this point. and i'm sure not going to let it happen. as you know, the five of us are sitting here, and so i would like to figure out how we engage around this issue and really think about what are some of the strategies that maybe it's not just about us, but collectively this ecosystem really needs to kind of grapple with this. we cannot continue putting our nonprofit partners in this type of position. thank you, commissioner zombie. again thank you. thank go ahead. just sorry you know i'm mark for our longtime board member mission hiring hall and i share your concern. commissioner turner i've since we started looking at this contract, i've been on the board, and we're very concerned about the cash flow and making sure our reserves are adequate. and fortunately so far, they are. you know, one of the things i've observed that i spent a lot of time looking at the agreements and worked with your staff, kind of on getting the invoices paid is perhaps breaking the invoice out into, you know, i think with respect to your review process, you

know, eligibility, a lot of the expenses are payroll and, you know, those are pretty pro forma. it's probably, i don't know, 80% of our invoices, payroll, which should be pretty easy to process and maybe look at dividing the invoices in into two sections. one is the payroll that you can move forward on an expeditious basis, and the other expenses that require, you know, an eligibility review and, you know, a more detailed review. and then truing up, you know, maybe 60 days later after that review and that conversation has gone just to keep that payroll money flowing, because for us, that's the biggest i don't know, what do we have, you know, 2 or $300,000 a month in payroll? i think, right now. and, you know, has to go out every two weeks. and that might be one way to look at it. and i'm happy to join that working group, because i spend a lot of time thinking about cash flow right now. but thank you so much. thank you, commissioner zombie. um, yeah, i, i agree with, uh, with commissioner turner about this,

but i feel like i was like, as blind as a bat because i have a request right after this. but first, i want to really appreciate i really appreciate your your patience. uh, ever since i joined the commission, a lot of answers came. came to my very angry questions about the city and how things work. um, there, there's always a reason, and there's always some. there's always a process going. so what i wanted to request is i would like to have like a presentation version of the entire process of what we look at, what public works looks at and, and the scoring system. i think we, we talked about that before. i would, i would like to have um, that, that scoring system and that whole entire process presented to the commission so we can learn more about what we're looking for, what, how, how these nonprofits are, you know, how the nonprofits are

getting those bids and what did we what what kind of expectations we actually set up and, and what kind of disclosures we, we share. so if we can maybe share those if we can, if we can have that kind of conversation with, with our staff, i know i can't. i mean, i'm not here to talk about what nonprofits need to do. i'm a i'm a public works commissioner. so i work with staff. i wanted to see how how this process works. um again, thank you. bruce for um, for the clarification earlier. thank you. commissioner segal. uh, yes. so i'd like to know how, you know, the longer we talk about this, the more questions that we all have. um, are you do you compete on these on these, uh, rfp? do you? is this are you divided because in

your descriptions of each of your groups that were on these slides, there were there were very similar. what you do, uh, except for maybe friends of the urban forest has a specific area, but is this done geographically? are you all because you have specialties in different parts of the city, or what? how are you all? are we looking at you? you're all competitors. so when these rfps go out, you're you're applying for the same for the same pot of public money. um so i'd like to know, is it by by types of service that you do? is it geographical? um, there's a lot of duplicate of services among your organizations. i mean, even. sorry to say, even your administrative work is duplication of services. you all have finance people. you all have boards of directors. you all have directors. uh, director shaw, can you please explain again how we often give, uh,

grants to different organizations for the same, um, uh, services? yes thank you. chair post. carlos shaw director. so thanks for the question, commissioner newhouser. seagull. um, i think it depends on, um, it depends on the grant, basically. so some grants we issue to multiple providers. so we have, for example, two providers who currently are working on our pit stop program, two different nonprofits. we change, you know, the scope of what each of them provides is based on the rfp that we put out. um, in other cases, we put out, uh, geographically based work scope. so cic has successfully competed for a lot of the work in chinatown, although we also have now landfill family foundation is doing work in chinatown. um, we have a grant that will be issuing soon that was geographically focused in the tenderloin. so it depends on

kind of two things. one is the scope and the scale of the grant. and we will often say, you know, that we intend to award to one or more, two or more, depending on what we think the breakdown is. and in those cases they are literally performing the same service, but they're performing it at different locations in other cases, they may be performing slightly different or more specialized. i'll use cic again. they're really becoming a bit specialized in power washing and training people on power washing. and so they focus on trash cans, power washing and then some power washing. uh, sidewalk. so some of it is scope, some of it is geographic, but it's always identified in that request for proposal that goes out. did that answer your question? a lot of it. thank you. okay thanks. if there are no more questions or comments commission again we'll be opening up to public comment. but thank you all for coming

today. um for those of you who who were here about 9 or 10:00, i particularly appreciate your patience and sitting through the agenda. and i would just have one final request, which is, um, should any of your grants come up for renewal or should you be successful in winning another grant, we'd be delighted on the day that we are approving your grant to have you come again. and so that we could ask how did it go the past year, year and a half or two? what what were some successes? what were some challenges? what are you excited about with this new grant, that type of thing. so you'll see our agendas. we can make sure that the staff reaches out to you. but again, should you be successful in getting more grants, we'd love to see you on the on the days that we will be approving that that funding to see you again. so thank you very much for again your patience and waiting for this agenda item and for addressing us all today. it was terrific to have all of you here. thank you. so please open public comment on this item.

members members of the public who wish to make three minutes of comment in person on item seven, the department of public works workshop, force development grant making uh presentation may line up against the wall for this from the door. if you are commenting from outside the chamber, please press the raise your hand button on the webinar or star three on your phone to be recognized and. we have no in-person commenters. and we do not have any callers from outside the room. so that concludes public comment on this item. commissioner turner, i just want to really echo commissioner zombie's point, um, about having this workshop. you know, i keep getting stuck on you know, it's not about who it's about process and a part of

our process. we really do look at, you know, financial wherewithal. it's a very generic question. i think there. and i'm wondering if that's a place that we could actually help address some of this issue around capacity and what we're looking at on the front end. so i just wanted to i don't know what the process is. um, chair post to actually kind of officially ask that we follow up on this and that this is something that we actually do, uh, given that we will have more rfps and so on and so forth coming down, i think maybe that is the appropriate place to look at this criteria. the question of financial capacity. thank you. so noted. yeah, i recall we did have something, but it was just scores. and we asked we asked to for the presentation with those scores broken down on like detail. thank you. so again in closing, i would just like to thank all our staff people. miss o'brien, deputy director robertson, director short and others who spoke on this, as well as all the guests that attended today from the

nonprofit for which the citizens of the city are making grants. secretary fuller, please call the next item. i'm sorry, i forgot to thank you, commissioner turner, for meeting with the staff. uh, earlier this week. and work or last week to help strengthen today's presentation. thank you very much. item eight is new business initiated by commissioners. and this is an opportunity for commissioners to suggest business for a future agenda. and it is an informational item. um what we requested. yeah, yeah. or we can add that as an adjunct to the prior. um, i do have a new business item there was a press report yesterday on the problem with illegal dumping next to city trash cans and some confusing public works signage on the cans that were meant to discourage the practice. uh, the article included a poignant story from a small business owner who said the trash can placement in front of her

business actually led to a dirtier sidewalk. in her opinion, rather than providing the opposite result. so in my view, removing trash cans from city streets because of miscreants misusing them is not the right answer. since i think all citizens should be able to easily find trash cans in all neighborhoods in the city for their appropriate small trash items. so i'd like to do a request for new business is a report at our first meeting in april. that would be april 8th. if director short you feel that's enough time that the describes for the commission how trash cans are cited in the city city did not see how they're cited in the city. uh a report that, uh, outlines the problem of illegal dumping in the urban core. we know what the problem is. unfortunately, on the city's outskirts, but in the urban core and other misuses of the city's trash cans and what the department's plan is on how to address this public nuisance and this public health issue. so if

april 8th seems reasonable for a report on that to the commission, i'd be grateful for that. thank you. sure. happy to do that. thank you. ecology also the proper we'll start maybe let's start with the department i think. yeah. any other requests for new business or uh, please open this to public comment. secretary fuller, members of the public wish to make three minutes of comment in person on item eight. new business initiated by commissioners. uh, may line up against the wall for this from the door. if commenting from outside the chamber, press the raise your hand button in the webinar or star three on your phone. we'll hear from commenters in the chamber first, and it appears we do not have any. and we do not have any callers

on new business either. so that concludes public comment on this item. thank you. all right. we are, um, at the end of the agenda. our next meeting will be on monday march 11th at 9 a.m. in this room. and we are now adjourned.

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24. the meeting is being called to order at 4:37 p.m. this meeting is being held in person in city hall, room 400 and broadcast live on sf gov tv. the small business commission thanks media services and sf gov tv for televising the meeting, which can be viewed on sf, tv two or live streamed at sf tv.org. we welcome the public's participation in person during public comment periods. there will be an opportunity for general public comment at the end of the meeting, and there will be an opportunity to comment on each discussion or action item on the agenda. public comment during the meeting is limited to three minutes per speaker. an alarm will sound once time has finished and speakers are requested but not required to state their names. sf gov tv please show the office of small business slide. today