you're unmuted. good morning. the meeting will come to order. welcome to the may 17th, 2024 regular meeting of the local agency formation commission. i'm chair connie chan, and i'm joined by commissioner dean preston and hope williams. and i'd like to welcome the newly appointed commissioner, hilary ronen. our clerk is alisa zamora, and i'd like to thank the staff at sfgovtv for broadcasting this meeting. madam clerk, do you have any announcements? yes, madam chair. lafco is convening hybrid meetings that allow in-person attendance and public comment while still providing remote access and public comment via telephone. apologies. chair chan. we okay? we're good now. public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda. those attending in person will be

allowed to speak first, and then we will take those who are waiting on the telephone line. if you wish to provide public comment remotely, the call in information is scrolling across the screen. when connected, you will hear the meeting discussion you're muted, but you will be muted in in listening mode only when your item of interest comes up and public comment is called. those joining us in person should line up to speak, and those on the telephone should dial star three. alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways. email them to myself. the clerk at alisa, alisa samarra s o m e r a at sfgovtv. org or you may submit your written comments via us postal service to our office at city hall one. doctor carlton b goodlett place, room 244, san francisco, california 94102. if you submit written public comment, it will be forwarded to the commissioners and included as part of the official file. madam chair, that concludes my communications. thank you, madam clerk. please roll call. chair.

chan, president chan. present. commissioner. preston. preston. present. commissioner ronen. present. ronen. present. commissioner. williams williams. present. madam chair, you have a quorum. thank you. and with that, madam clerk, please call item number two. item. you're unmuted, madam chair. if you if i could just check real quick. absolutely please. thank you. it looks like we're okay. all right. item number two is election of the chairperson and vice chairperson. thank you, colleagues with recent changes to the commission and the with the most recent resignation of commissioner fielder and the appointment of commissioner ronen. so we have scheduled this opportunity to elect new leadership for lafco, and i

first just want to say, i been the chair since i took office in 2021. i'm very grateful for the opportunity to be part of this body. and, you know, i wanted to just thank thank our council under, khalsa khalsa, and just for your work. and i'm just really. it was a pleasure. it's been a pleasure working with you and your support. we're able to able to hire jeremy pawlak and to be our executive officer, who really just took the baton and started running and really made lafco, the i would say some of the most productive period, it's been an and to just say that with your, with your work to negotiate it almost $800,000. of mou, between us and sfpuc was just a great milestone. and

that's so that we can actually continue to do a lot of work that lafco is really tasked to do for the city and county of san francisco. oftentimes people forget that this is really independent body. apart from the board of supervisors, even though they're members of the board that sit on this body. but i just i know that commissioner shanti singh is not here today, but i still want to give her a shout out, for the work that she has done, because she kept this body going. and make sure we have a quorum and be consistent about it, and then, of course, thank you to commissioner dean preston. coming on board when commissioner, gordon, ma, finished his term. and so, again , then the work that we're doing here around housing, just amazing. and of course, i cannot think about this body without not doing, you know, being able to finish all the work and complete all the research. if not for mr. samurai and just

really thank you so much for being part of the team. and and really doing all the work that you're doing. and so with that, i am, stepping down as the chair of lafco and would like to open the floor for nomination, for both, chairperson and vice chairperson, and, and with that too, though, i just want to say commissioner hope williams, just what a wonderful addition to this body. always very thoughtful about your comments. and part of our contribution to really making sure the mou, we dot all the i's and cross all the t's to make sure that we get to that finishing line. and so i wanted to really take this opportunity to nominate, commissioner hillary ronen, who i know one of the really the most senior member on the board of supervisors, but really someone who i would say a veteran in city hall knows everything about how it works. i

cannot think of anyone else. of course, commissioner preston is awesome to. but just commissioner roland and just, just someone that really has been always been so thoughtful and knows all the issues. i really, really like to nominate her as our chair, and if i may, i was going to hand this to, you know, to commissioner preston now and to make a should i also make the nomination for vice chairperson, or do you want to go ahead? go right ahead. thank you. i then i was if i may, i would like to nominate a commissioner williams to be our vice chair. just wonderful person who again knows the issue really well. and and really coming from a community perspective and coming outside of the city hall and making sure that equity is part of the conversation time and time again for all the conversations that we have, are especially around clean power and all the other issues. so i'm really grateful

for your willingness, to be part of this body and would like to also nominate her to be our vice chair. and so, commissioner preston, thank you, chair chan. and i believe both of those probably need seconds. so i would like to second the nomination of commissioner ronen as chair and commissioner williams as, as vice chair. i also just wanted to take a moment here to thank you for your leadership, on lafco and especially me, leading lafco while juggling we all juggle a lot of things, you know, obviously nobody's a full time lafco commissioner. everyone's doing, you know, obviously supervisors doing their their daily work and all the community leaders who are on here as well, but i would say for you in particular to be navigating some of the complex issues of our budget and, and our mou and others while simultaneously

doing all your work for district one and serving as budget chair and serving as the member of government audit and oversight committee with me and so forth. and a long list of things. so just really want to commend you for, for, for making the time to be a real visionary leader on this body. and you've talked about some of the important work that's done here. and i think, you know, just just as an observation, it's like lafco is a is a hard body, i think, for city government in this city. and the relationship between the different arms of government and our, our lafco is a little different than, than in other jurisdictions. and so, i think that, it's, really important that people on the board of supervisors and community leaders continue to, to prioritize lafco. and, and i have said this whenever our

budget comes up here, but i would challenge anyone to find a department entity, agency, anything within the entire sphere of government in the city and county of san francisco that accomplishes as much on as little as lafco like, it just continues to stun me that that under $1 million annual budget and that that with a with a tiny staff, and i appreciate you thanking and recognizing our council, our staff, the amazing addition of, of mister samurai, and just very proud of the work that's moving forward. and and very excited to have, commissioner ronen take over as, as chair and just want to say that, that i think that all of the issues that lafco deals with are things that commissioner ronen has championed on the board and during her tenure,

everything from labor and gig economy work, being a strong supporter of public banking, of always on the right side and championing on environmental issues and, you know, given the cleanpowersf work and all the work piloting the bike delivery and so forth, that that is, that is coming, being led by this body, i think it's a it's a great fit as well as being one of the stronger voices on the board for, supporting social housing and municipal housing, and, and being always independent of wherever the political winds are blowing at any given moment. so i think that is a great fit. i'm excited by that nomination and this next, era. and i think i have already many times sung the praises of fellow commissioner williams. so i will hold myself back from going through the many reasons why it commissioner

williams is so important to this body and to, to, the, the issues in particularly around housing and environment and public banking in san francisco. but appreciate your service and i think it is great to have you, taking the role, i hope as, as the vice chair. so i will leave it at that. and just but thank you for your for your service and, and, looking forward to, to our new chair and vice chair and then moving forward with work plans and everything for this coming year. thanks. thank you. so seeing no further nominations, i will open this item for public comment. is there any members of the public who wish to speak here in the room? please line up now. seeing no one here, we will go to our remote line. susan's checking to see if we have any callers and

there are no callers. madam chair, thank you, madam clerk. and so seeing no public comments, public comment is now closed. and, madam clerk, i would like to now call the roll on the nomination for both chair and vice chair on the nominations for commissioner ronen as chair and commissioner williams as vice chair. commissioner preston i. preston, i commissioner ronen i ronen i commissioner williams. williams i commissioner chan i chan i therefore ayes. thank you. and the motion passes and congratulations. so now i will pass the gavel to chair ronen. thank you so much. it's a pleasure to be back on lafco. and, i have to say, my desire to come back and work on this committee has a lot to do with my fellow members of the committee and the executive

director, who i have had the pleasure of working with, for a very long time. in fact, director pollack and i were legislative aides together, and i can attest that he is whip smart, totally reliable, and very, very focused on getting real material benefits or material changes done. he's it's not he's not into talking. he's into action. so director pollack, you are a lot of the reason why i'm willing to do this. in my last seven months in office. so thank you so much for all your work, and with that, i will ask madam clerk to please call item number three. item number three is approval of the lafco minutes from the march 15th, 2024 regular meeting. do any commissioners have any changes to the minutes from the march 15th meeting? no, i will open this item up for public

comment. if there are any members of the public who wish to speak here in the room, please line up now. susan is checking to see if we have any callers in the queue. and, madam chair, we have no remote commenters. public comment is now closed. can i have a motion to approve the minutes and i don't need a second. is that correct? we do need a second. okay, second. thank you, motion by commissioner preston. second by, commissioner hope williams. sorry. right yes. i call you hope. now you are commissioner williams to me, can we have a roll call? vote oh, yes. and, before i do that, can i make a motion to excuse commissioner chan? second. on the motion to excuse commissioner chan, vice chair williams. hi. williams. i

chair chan is excused. commissioner preston preston i chair. ronen i ronen i there three eyes. motion passes and now can i get a roll call on the minutes. on the minutes as moved by commissioner preston, seconded by commissioner williams. vice chair williams. i williams i commissioner preston i preston i chair ronen i ronen i there three eyes that motion passes unanimously. madam clerk can you please call item number four. yes item number four is the cleanpowersf updates, including activities in lafco. updates on cleanpowersf studies. wonderful. good morning. hello. good morning. lafco staff, and madam clerk, my name is cheryl taylor, operations manager for cleanpowersf. i'm here today on behalf of michael himes. cleanpowersf director, and i'm here to present your

cleanpowersf update. and may i have the slides, please? great okay. today i will cover. oh, pardon me. let me just get to the next slide. today i will cover current enrollment and service statistics. a recent award from the california community choice association, a newly adopted cleanpowersf rates for fiscal 2425. and finally, i will share a high level schedule for the upcoming integrated resource plan. all right. let's do okay. cleanpowersf continues to successfully serve our customers participation in the program remains stable, and energy sales from supergreen are 100% renewable. portfolio standard eligible product offering now represent more than 15% of cleanpowersf annual retail sales. last month,

cleanpowersf staff attended the california community choice association annual conference in san jose. each year at the conference, chalca announces their community impact awards. the awards honor the innovative initiatives of community choice aggregators across california that are driving decarbonization, promoting equity, furthering outreach and enhancing energy reliability. this year, california energy commission chair david hochschild and kelsey ca ceo beth vaughn presented the awards during the conference's general session, and good news cleanpowersf was the winner in the equity category for the past 15 years. the sfpuc has implemented the go solar sf program, which has distributed nearly $30 million and incentivized and incentivize the construction of approximately 6000 solar installations. these installations have helped reduce

the energy equity divide, helping many customers with low incomes throughout san francisco save on their electricity bills. however, one of the hidden costs of solar is the investment required to maintain the system over time. pardon me? inverters need to be replaced over time, yet the high cost presents barriers for many rooftop solar owners with low incomes to address this cost barrier, the sfpuc designed and launched the solar inverter replacement program to help qualified cleanpowersf customers maintain their go solar sf solar installation by providing direct financial assistance for system inspections, inverter replacements and repairs. so we have a link to the video, but i'm going to just point you to the link below to watch later, it's very inspiring. video okay, now on to cleanpowersf 2425 rates. this past tuesday, the

san francisco public public utilities commission approved new cleanpowersf rates for the upcoming fiscal year beginning july 1st. our key goals for setting rates were both to maintain competitive rates with pg and e, as well as provide equitable rates for our customers. another goal is to build fund balance reserves so that there is an adequate cushion in support of long term financial stability and health, and incomplete science. with san francisco pwcs reserves policy c to keep customers and the public informed of our annual public rate setting process, our power communications team developed and implemented a plan for proactively communicating to both cleanpowersf and hetch hetchy power customers through various strategies. in early march, a dedicated power rates landing page was developed and launched on sfpuc. org to serve as a one stop shop for

information about the rates process and proposed rate changes. in april, both cleanpowersf and hetch hetchy power customers received notification of the upcoming rate change through on bill messaging, direct mail, postcards and customer emails. informational webinars were also held for residential customers. to learn more about the rate changes and to get questions answered, rate notifications and information was made available in multiple languages, including english, chinese, spanish, and filipino. power communications is continuing its customer communications activities between now and july 1st to make sure that customers are aware of the upcoming rate changes so now to discuss the rate structure, our rate structure for cleanpowersf follows pg e's structure for distribution rates. so i want to point you to the stacked bar charts on the right side of the page. these are the current average monthly

bill for residential customers on time of use rates for both pg and e and cleanpowersf customers, the pg and e delivery charges indicated by the gray sections are the same. the lighter blue slivers in the middle represent the $2 franchise fee surcharge paid by both cleanpowersf and pg and e customers, and the additional approximately $1 more for the power charge indifference adjustment paid by cleanpowersf customers. the cleanpowersf green bar up top versus the pg and e darker blue bar represents the respective generation cost customers pay. as you see, cleanpowersf customer residential customers save an average of about $6 per month on their total bill over pg and e customers on the same rate. so what can customers expect come

july 1st? i'll try to quickly walk through this so overall, as of july 1st, cleanpowersf rates for all customer classes will remain at or lower than pg gas generation rates, and keeping the focus on changes to residential rates. what you're seeing here on this slide is a chart showing a comparison of the average monthly bills for a residential customer. on the left hand side represents the bar graph from the previous slide. again, it shows the average customer bills as of today. on the right hand side, the bars show what we expect the average bill to be for residential customers. as of july 1st. now, talking about cost differences, as seen again, the cluster of bars on the right show the average cost of bills with projected new rates for cleanpowersf and pg and e, which would start on july 1st. you'll see that cleanpowersf rates will increase slightly. a cleanpowersf customer's

generation charge will increase on average about $4 a month, moving from $35 to $39. it's also important to note here that cleanpowersf generation rates will stay the same for fiscal year 2025. again, that's the green box that indicates an average charge of $39. that will not change for a year. on the other hand, we expect that pg and e will will continue to change their rates for both generation and delivery service over the next year. indeed, since the start of this year, pg and e has already implemented two rate changes before this upcoming july rate change. so we do recognize that bill changes, impact our customers differently, and we're here to help for any of our customers who may need assistance managing their bills. there are a variety of programs available. there are state programs like karen farrah that provide a monthly discount for on income eligible customers, electricity bills.

there's also the medical baseline, which is a program that allows customers with qualifying medical conditions to use more energy at a lower rate. there is budget billing and payment plans that can help customers manage their bills and get back on track if they've fallen behind. and two federal programs administered by the state of california for the low income home energy assistance program, or liheap, and relief for energy assistance through community help or reach. these programs offer one time credits to help with energy bills and prevent power disconnections or shutoffs. for more information, i invite you to check out the link below, and by visiting our page. and finally, i want to sort of shift gears to the final topic. wanted to provide you an update on the integrated resource plan. so to refresh an integrated resource plan is an energy planning tool or process used to support achieving policy

goals and meeting regulatory requirements. california law requires retail sellers of electricity to develop a plan that evaluates electricity supply and demand, and identifies energy resource options that can deliver reliable and cost effective energy to customers. the california public utilities commission, or cpuc, which reviews the integrated resource plans, sets the parameters and schedule for retail sellers under its jurisdiction. and recently, the cpuc has announced that the next irp will be due on november 1st, 2025. the cpuc will present required inputs and assumptions by january first of next year, and will issue final filing requirements by may 2025. so as we approach these dates, we expect the cpuc to provide more detail that will inform our plan development process. okay, so that concludes my update and i'm happy to answer any questions. thank you so much,

commissioner williams. thank you for that presentation. it's always one of the highlights of these meetings. i was wondering a couple of things if that's okay. asking two questions. okay, why the increase s in the in the rates. so a good question, the increase the increase in the rates is driven by, largely our sfpuc financial policy, which states a minimum level of financial reserves. and this is really to sort of cushion the program as well as customers, against sort of like rate shocks where, if i may say, on the pg and e side, there have been multiple rates rate increases in these past, gosh, four and a half months alone, this is something that we, sort of don't want for our customers. we, you know, sort of want to provide our customers with a

sure, solid rate that they know that they can count on for, for at least a fiscal year, so, one, it's to ensure the financial stability over, sort of over time for the program, and, you know, sort of prevent, sort of shocks in case, you know, some prices go up unexpectedly. you know, in the energy markets. thank you. and one more question, the resources on how to lower your bill. was that a part of the distribution of the notifications, i believe so, but let me defer to my colleague peter galata, the power communications manager. thank thanks, cheryl. good morning. commissioners as peter, galata communications manager for power at the sfpuc, thank you for that question, commissioner. so on the materials that we put together, we developed that landing page on sfpuc. org, where there's information that includes, information about our

assistance program. so customers and going to that page would be able to access information about those programs. also in our notifications, customers can also contact our call center. and our customer service agents are able to walk through and point customers to these programs, help them get enrolled, and we also made sure that customers have that option as well. yeah. thank you. thank you so much. any other questions? nope. thank you so much for your presentation, we will now go to director pollock for any additional presentations . great. thank you very much. jeremy pollock, lafco executive officer and let me pull up my slides here. sfgovtv i'm sharing through the teams meeting. and going to give a couple of brief updates on the studies that we're working on as part of the

mou with the sf puc. i'm going to give a brief update on the battery energy storage system study, and mr. samurai will give us an update about the green banking study, so the first study that we've undertaken as part of the mou is around battery energy storage systems. these are the batteries attached to rooftop solar to help store energy for resiliency. and meeting peak demand, this study is divided into two phase scope of work, with the first phase being focused on our three occupancy buildings. that's one and two unit buildings. and, pretty much the simplest and most prevalent, application where we have rooftop solar with batteries in the cities and looking at policies and permitting, around that, phase two of the, of the study is looking at our two occupancy, which is larger multi-unit buildings and other issues related to batteries, issues like the workforce issues and job opportunities and training

and additional abilities for managing these these batteries as a virtual power plant, to help meeting peak demand for the city, and so lafco is contracting with arup is our consultant on this, who has a team of fire safety engineers and analysts who have been working with a core team, including lafco staff, sfpuc and the department of the environment. and they're nearing completion on phase one of the study, we've just received feedback from the fire department and department of building inspection, the two permitting and inspecting departments, and we're trying to solicit feedback from industry and, and other stakeholders on this, there continuing work on phase two. and we've extended the, the, the schedule on this, this study, as we alluded to in our last, previous meeting to allow more time for feedback on this. i think the original schedule set was was very aggressive and very fast moving. and i think with the busy

schedules of the departments that we've been getting feedback from, we wanted to make sure we gave them time to fully digest this and get feedback and so, just received several comments from the department of building inspection after meeting with them, and also from fire marshal ken coughlin and, yeah, arup is reviewing those and will be completing a final draft of the phase one study soon and aiming to complete both of those phases by the end of june. and looking forward to presenting those to the commission in july, and with that, i'll turn it over to mr. samurai to talk about the green bank finance study. hello, commissioners, as a reminder, the green bank finance study is part of our mou with sfpuc and is focused on how the city can access the greenhouse gas reduction fund to help it start a san francisco green bank, as a

reminder, the grf is part of the inflation reduction act being administered by the epa. additionally, the study will focus on how that funding and resulting programs could benefit cleanpowersf ratepayers. this study will build on the san francisco reinvestment working group's plans for a municipal financial corporation that can serve as the city's green bank, we're currently in coordination with sfpuc on refining the scope of work for the study, and once that rfp is completed with sfpuc , we will also share it with the green finance working group, which is made up of, the treasurer department of environment, mohd. and department of homeless services, we're also exploring additional funding to complement this, green bank financing study to do additional, studies outside of just how a green bank could benefit cleanpowersf ratepayers on the greenhouse gas reduction fund. so, as i said, the, it's

being administered by the epa. the epa recently announced the initial awardees for the grf, for two of its largest, programs, the national clean investment fund and the clean communities investment accelerator. the epa is currently in negotiations with those top award, top level awardees. and once those negotiations are complete, those awardees will then distribute funding, to the, other entities, including potentially the city of san francisco and the san francisco green bank, this lafco study that i'm, i discussed just a second ago is, aims to support the city in applying for funds for these awards to support lending programs, several of the coalitions who have been, granted, top level awards were part of, we have been in contact with. sorry, in november of last year, in coordination with the

department of environment, the office of the mayor provided two letters of general support from san francisco, one for the ncf and one for the csia. supervisor preston. commissioner preston also introduced a resolution in support of the letters, with approval of all departments involved, as the department of environment and lafco staff sent those letters to several of the coalitions. we sent the letter to five coalitions directly and worked with the treasurer's office to send it to a sixth coalition. all six of those coalitions have been awarded grants, they're right here, so the end. cif all three of the top level applicants that we sent letters to have been awarded these are the only three applicant, awardees of the ncf. and for the clean communities investor, investment accelerator, these are three of the five awardees we that we sent out, letters of support to the other two not included on this powerpoint slide are the appalachian community capital,

which is a nonprofit cdfi of, communities in the rural america , and the native cdfi network, which is a nonprofit that serves, over 60 treasury us treasury certified native cdfis. the next step for this will be for san francisco to develop an application to, as many of these awardees as we would like. there's an additional component of the grf called solar for all that is not part of lafcos, outreach. however, there are three awardees for solar for all who serve california, the main one being the california infrastructure economic development bank or i bank. and there's two others that are multi state awardees that will also be serving california, and that's it for the green bank finance study update. thank you

so much. any questions. no thank you for that. oh sorry. commissioner williams. i have been wrong for battery energy storage systems. i was wondering if you kind of foresee any study for, introducing that system to commercial and mixed use properties, the question about, applying making batteries available for commercial and mixed use buildings. yeah, definitely. i think that will be something to look at in the phase two of the study that's looking at the larger multi-unit buildings, and yeah, i think, you know, i haven't seen the, you know, the draft, related to that from, from eric. but i'm imagining that it'll have like a slightly those type of buildings will have a different kind of usage profile from residential buildings on when there's the peak demand for electricity and

yeah, it'll be interesting to see how the batteries are able to assist those buildings in in meeting their demands and lowering their electricity usage and, and costs, yeah. i think, you know, a theme that's sort of emerging out of the study is, is really just the challenging economics of, of the batteries. you know, these are expensive upfront costs for these batteries, and i think with, the changes in the net energy metering program at the state level, that is giving customers less money when they they generate excess rooftop solar energy, that makes it harder to pencil out that, putting rooftop solar on on these larger buildings, and so, yeah, i think that's going to be a challenge for, for policymakers to look, look at of how do we make this pencil out to encourage people to do this with, like, the certainty that it's going to pay off for them? and i think that's

a great tie in to the green bank study and looking at at financing mechanisms that a potential green bank could offer to commercial and, and mixed use buildings to, to finance those costs to, avoid that that large upfront payment and have the savings to pay off the loan over years. so yeah i'm not sure if that speaks to your question, but if you have any other questions, happy to weigh in. no. thank you so much. wonderful. thank you. we can now open this item up for public comment. oh, sorry. right after, commissioner preston, thank you. know, my apologies for not, getting on the roster earlier. i was just curious on the timeline. and thank you, mr. samurai, for your all your work and presentation, but, just, wondering when the epa announcements came out, but then also the process of, of, i mean, those, those funds, my understanding is those funds

potentially start kicking in around in july, if i'm not mistaken. but then there's if you could just walk us through the process of in terms of san francisco, actually seeking those funds, what the what the process and timeline would be for that, certainly, commissioner, the epa issued its awards in april, to these initial grantees, the, these grantees have applications. they send in applications to the epa, which are public now, where they essentially outline what it is they're planning on doing, for example, climate united fund wants to spend of its $6 billion award, at least 60% of that on low income and disadvantaged communities, 20% in rural communities and 10% in tribal communities. so depending on those, the details of those programs that will determine how san francisco applies and to which ones, there are

departments in san francisco currently that could probably qualify. however the impact of, the grf and the funding that san francisco could receive going through a san francisco green bank would have a much higher, impact in san francisco and its ability to issue funding as well as attract private funding, to these green initiatives that the green bank would be focused on. and as a reminder for us, the reinvestment working group outlined three priority areas for san francisco. after doing several focus groups, which are affordable housing, small business support, and ecological sustainability. these are specific and we in that work they outlined specific loan products that a potential green bank could offer san francisco that would support those priority areas. so once the epa

and these national coalitions finalized their, application process, then either san francisco can apply, depending on on the department or as we are form, we form the san francisco green bank, the san francisco green bank itself could apply to these funds and receive capitalization and funding to do its work. so this wouldn't leave the entire capitalization funding stack burden on the city, the federal government is, trying to help, start green banks all across the nation. that's the essential purpose of these programs. thank you for laying that out. and i just really i want to emphasize that, you know, we've talked a lot about reinvestment working group and the recommendations coming out of that and the plan that was then accepted by the board of supervisors unanimously. they, as you say,

there there are kind of two paths, right? one is these departments applying directly for funds, the other is doing so through a green bank, which will which will likely make us, more competitive and able to secure more funds and i just, you know, we have our office has been trying to move forward around the creation of the precursor public bank, entities, the mfc, the green bank, and, have been been challenged by, at the city attorney's office, a limited, capacity in-house and a need to contract out with, with experts in that area. and, and i just i bring this up, especially as, in these chambers as the board of supervisors heading into or in the middle of budget conversations, and also seeking, to the greatest extent possible

to, to access philanthropic dollars to try to support these efforts. but i but i just, you know, in in seeing and you laid out so clearly the amounts of money that we could be getting in, and be more competitive for if we, seize the moment pretty quickly, t to move forward with a more formal structure, for green bank, i just, i just wanted to kind of put on the record what what i see is the urgency on that front and the need, you know, as a, as a city. and this is beyond lafco, although obviously in partnership with lafco, to, to create that, that structure because this kind of funding doesn't come along every day, nor does the interest of the federal government in essentially supporting local public banking for the purposes of green infrastructure and environmental sustainability. so just want to do everything possible to seize that opportunity. and i know that,

that our executive officer and, and, and mr. zamora have been working overtime to make sure that, when, when the political will and the funding for the infrastructure side of it is, is there that we're that we're ready to go. so we will we will keep pushing on that. thank you. thank you. now we can open this item up for public comment. if any members of the public are here in the chamber and wish to speak, please line up now. susie nose is checking to see if we have any callers in the queue. and we do. if you could please put the first caller forward. you have madam chair at two minutes. hello. three minutes, two minutes. yes. caller. you have two minutes. please proceed. okay. this will be quick, my name is sarah greenwald. i was struck by the slide that says, the sfpuc slide

that says super green now accounts for more than 15% of retail sales, which is good, you know, but it's far from 100. so i wondered if, how the, how you plan to increase that, how sfpuc plans to increase that. and also looking at the same slide, really, our climate goals and actions will require a lot more clean electric power as the city moves away from methane and gasoline use. so i also wondered what the plan is to accomplish that. thank you. thank you for your comments. thank do we have any other callers? thank you. that concludes the queue. madam chair. public comment is now closed. i wanted to see if anyone from puc wanted to respond to the comment of the caller, hello again, cheryl taylor, operations manager for cleanpowersf, so my

understanding is the caller was asking about, when the clean power power supply will be 100% great. what i understood was how are you going to increase the super green applicants in the program? is that what others heard, yeah. okay. yes. so we do have, i believe we'd be working in concert with the san francisco environment department on implementing the renewable energy ordinance. i believe there's a requirement, for buildings. i believe it's. is it the 250,000ft!s and above to receive all of their energy from , clean, renewable sources? so we're working with the department for the environment, sort of kind of making sure that super green is a viable option for these building owners. but as well, i do want to, sort of maybe remind the community that

as a goal, san francisco, targets being having 100, clean slash ghg free, energy source for its cleanpowersf products, which we believe we'll achieve by next year, 2025, so, we're on that road. we are, both renewable portfolio standard eligible products like solar, wind, geothermal, small hydro. but also we've got a ghg free portfolio, greenhouse gas free portfolio of large hydro. and i think we're approaching i believe we're about high 80s, low 90s, percentage over overall for our products. so i hope that is that's a sort of acceptable answer. that is really great to hear, because i've been worried with the price of energy going

up so high and so many people struggling financially right now , that it's going to be harder and harder to get people to opt in to super green when they can barely afford you know, their electricity bills as it is or so , that's good to hear. thank you. thank you. wonderful, so i don't think we need to take any action on this item because it was just a presentation. so i will ask the clerk to read item number five, item number five is the final budget and work plan for fiscal year 2024 through 2025. thank you. and i. i believe i'm going to make a motion to continue this item to the next meeting, mr. pollack, actually, we, the intention would be to vote on just the budget portion of this item and to continue the work plan. okay. great so i'm sorry, i'd like to announce i intend to continue the work plan to the july meeting, but we will hear from

from director pollack about the budget. that's right. thank you, jeremy pollack, lafco, executive officer, and so lafco is statutorily required to approve a proposed budget by may 1st and the final budget by june 15th, last month, we approved the proposed budget or the last meeting in march. and before you is the final budget that has to be approved before june 15th? we've adopted this custom of also approving a work plan that narrative description of the work we plan to accomplish with the budget, we want to make some, some final adjustments to that, that that won't impact the budget and that, whatever we bring back to you in the july meeting will, conform with the budget before you, and so this budget is unchanged from the proposed budget that was approved in march, the total is $783,000, three 783 $357, $22,000 increase from the

previous year, and we managed to keep the general fund, statutory amount the same at $386,000, and so the budget source includes, $250,000 from the mou with the sfpuc, and the remainder coming from the carry forward from the previous years unspent balance. we were able to stay under budget for the year, the, the proposed expenditures are essentially unchanged from, from last year, the main increase is just the cost of living increases from, staff expenses and the cal lafco membership dues, with switching from monthly meetings to bi monthly meetings, we had some savings in sfgovtv that saved us about $4,000, and, yeah, i think that's the quick summary, the packet includes the, the spreadsheet breaking down the budget, and we'll return at our next meeting with, the final work plan. and happy to answer any questions you all have.

sounds great. any questions? colleagues? no. okay we. so we'll make, open this item up for public comment. if there is any member of the public who wishes to speak on item number five, the final budget for fiscal year 2024 2025, please line up now. susie. nose is checking to see if we have any callers in the queue. and madam chair, we have no public commenters. public comment is now closed, would any of my colleagues like to make a motion? on the, budget separate from the line? yes. i moved to adopt the budget second. so on the motion to accept the budget. yes, madam chair, and to clarify , the motion is to approve the final budget in the amount of $783,357 and requesting the statutory amount of $386,113 from the city and county of san

francisco general fund. on that motion, vice chair williams i, williams i commissioner preston i preston i chair. ronen i ronen i there three eyes that motion passes unanimously and can i make a motion to continue the work plan discussion for the july meeting. second on the motion to continue the work plan, vice chair williams i. williams i commissioner preston preston i chair. ronen i ronen i there three eyes and that motion passes unanimously. thank you madam clerk. can you please read item number six? item number six is a resolution supporting california senate bill 1209, local agency formation commission indemnification director or executive officer. pollack i've been calling you director, but you're actually an executive officer. i should read

my script. thank you. it's a unique title that i don't know where it came from, but that's what's written into the, the codes of the state government code, so item number six, this is a resolution in support of sb 1209, a state bill, that's primarily dealing with other local agency formation commissions. this is a bill sponsored by cal lafco, and let's see, an sfgovtv. if you can bring up the slide, i'm sharing through teams, please, and so, this is, a bill that basically is to allow lafco to require applicants for, for changes of government boundaries or special districts to indemnify lafco, for, for their decision, so, you know, as you all know, san francisco lafco is unique in as a consolidated city and county with no special districts. we don't deal with the boundary changes. that is the main work of most lafcos, so

this measure is basically in support of, of other lafcos, there is, you know, the potential that in the future we could see, you know, a special use district, this lafco was originally formed back in the year 2000 when there was a proposed municipal utility district between brisbane and san francisco. so or that sort of action or the creation of a special district could bring this kind of issue to san francisco, where we would see a proposal, and so, historically, a lot of lafcos have required applicants for, for those kinds of changes to indemnify lafco, but in 2022, there was a court decision against the san luis obispo, obispo, lafco that said there was no statutory authority to require that indemnification clause, and so this has basically been described by some lafcos as sort of an existential threat to lafcos, with kind of the worst case being that, basically an applicant threatening, a large lawsuit

against the lafco if they don't rule the way they want to, and that, that cost of, of defending itself in court would have to be borne by the funding agencies of the lafco, here in san francisco. that is the entirely from the city and county of san francisco, and so, lafcos have had historically operated assuming that this was, was, was allowed. there are some ambiguity in the codes about whether it's allowed. and so it was a surprise with this court decision, also because counties and cities have this right to require indemnification on these kind of, discretionary applications, and so this senate bill 1209 would explicitly authorize lafcos to require this indemnification, and so, so, yeah, asking you to support this in solid parity with the other lafcos in the state. and, you know, for that, strange future case where this could come to a come to our city and county. so happy to answer any questions.

if thank you. that was a really clear explanation. i appreciate that, any questions? colleagues? no no. okay. we can open this item up for public comment. yes. if there is any member of the public wish to speak to on item number six, please line up now. susan enos is checking to see if we have any callers in the queue . and, madam chair, we have no, public commenters. okay. public comment is now closed. i'd like to make a motion to approve this resolution. second, on the motion for item number six, vice chair williams, i, williams i commissioner preston i preston i chair. ronen i ronen i there three eyes motion passes unanimously madam clerk can you please read item number seven. yes. item number seven is the executive officer's report, including a recap of lafco climate week event on green banking and municipal. municipal

housing. the midtown park apartment study updates, municipal housing agency study, rfp and the forward calendar. pass it back to executive officer pollack. great. thank you very much. sfgovtv, if you can pull up the presentation i'm sharing through teams, it's just a few quick housekeeping updates, one other update is about the vacant public seat with the resignation of commissioner fielder, we're looking for applicants for the remainder of her term that runs through, february of 2026, and hoping to schedule that for an appointment at our next meeting in july, would appreciate any help from the commission. and spreading the word had some interest, but always eager to see who else is out there in san francisco and interested in serving and helping us with these issues, the two main eligibility requirements is that, the public members must live in the city and county of san francisco. there's no ability for a residency waiver, and you cannot be an officer or

employee of the city and county of san francisco. executive officer pollack, you're not sharing on teams. they can't pull them up, let me try again. i, i thought it showed i was sharing. okay. trying. there we go. there we go, and, we'll move on to just a quick recap of the climate week event that we held on on april 26th, this was, an initiative from, then chair connie chan to, organize an event to highlight lafcos work around the climate crisis as part of the san francisco climate week. and so we organized two panel discussions on on green banking and on the nexus of municipal housing and climate issues, wanted to give thanks to the san francisco port for making their conference room available, and for sfgovtv for coming out and recording that,

the video that is posted on sfgovtv and youtube and, yeah, i think we had, about 50 or so attendees and a lot of lot of great interest and a good happy hour discussion afterwards with a lot of people new to lafcos, work with and, interested in green banking and housing issues and yeah, big thanks to all of our commissioners who participated, commissioner williams, who, facilitated the discussion on housing, along with commissioner singh and, former commissioner jackie fielder, who was part of the green banking, panel and all the other great outside experts we had on those discussions, and with that, i'll turn it over to mr. samurai for an update on the midtown and municipal housing. thank you. hello again, commissioners, for the midtown park apartments municipal housing management study, we are continuing on track. we just had our fourth resident engagement meeting, a few weeks ago. our

lafco consultants are conducting a resident a resident engagement process and property conditions assessment. we have the initial numbers for the property conditions assessment, but the consultants are workshopping those with hcd and chalco, the property management company for midtown apartments, our next resident engagement meeting will occur sometime in either june or july, depending on resident availability and as a reminder, the final deliverable for this study will be a report documenting this process making and making recommendations for the future management of midtown park apartments and include a property conditions assessment as well as the cost. the consultants aim to complete the study in early 2025, and lafco has also, put together a web page of all all of this,

information as well as documents from the resident engagement meetings. the initial property condition assessment and all the historical documents we've received from midtown. thanks to especially cindy at mohd. that's it for midtown. oh, and, we are also next study, the municipal housing agency study, as a reminder, lafcos work, work plan includes a feasibility study for cross subsidy, mixed income, city owned housing in san francisco. we issued an rfp in february to conduct this study to determine the viability, and recommended structure of this agency. after reviewing the proposals, lafco decided not to award a contract for this rfp and to reissue the rfp, the main difference between the reissued rfp and the initial is, three things a not to exceed of $200,000 has been added to the rfp. proposers are required to

provide a budget which they will be, will be factored into the scoring. there was a symposium requirement for the first, rfp that has been removed, this was, to complement the study on, the housing agency by presenting it to the public. we've removed that and we'll do a separate, symposium rfp after the study is complete. and we've included additional language, in the rfp to provide clarity on the public disclosure limitations of confidential information that applicants provide to us. and, again, all this information is also, as well as the rfp, which is open right now and due on may 22nd, is available on the lafco website. thank you. i would just add the last item we have is the forward calendar that has, anticipated items that is posted

on the, the agenda that, happy to take any questions on, on that or any of the other items. and that concludes our presentation. wonderful. thank you, commissioner williams. yes thank you so much for those updates. really appreciate your due diligence. i was wondering, for the midtown apartments if there is a particular housing model that they're leaning towards, that you know, of the like going through a clt, we actually had the, the, the consultant staff, brought someone from the san francisco land trust to present to residents, actually former, a-2 supervisor preston kyle was the one who came to do the presentation, he did a really great presentation. they were really engaged. the residents, like that model, but have a very healthy distrust of any government or the city of san francisco and so want to base there seems to be some interest in basing their model on the san

francisco land trust limited equity, co-op, but have it be something specific to midtown that serves the midtown residents. great. thank you so much. commissioner preston. thank you. chair ronen, and thank you for the ongoing work and for the reports. and, my understanding is they're they're really trying not to start with the conclusion, right. and really trying to explore the different models. so it's great to see that. and so that the residents through this process, are gaining the expertise and understanding around what the pros and cons of different models are. before before they wrap up. so it's good to see it sometimes can be, require a little more patience to do that as opposed to the more typical kind of announcement of a certain model. and then the workshops to kind of get everyone on board. but it's good to see that proceeding, and i do want to say and, and, and

recognize and thank, mayor's office of housing and community development and, and, and with the new leadership there as well, the, the involvement and engagement in this process, there's obviously a long history, as you referenced, of distrust of midtown residents of, of the city and the mayor's office of housing in particular, and obviously there's a long way to go to see where this study leads and then see how to resource the plan that the that the residents come up with, but i appreciate the collaboration and really the openness of the city staff that's been involved. cindy evans and, and as i said, the new director there. so, a long way to go, but definitely really, really encouraging to see that, that it moving forward. so thank you for all the work on that. wonderful.

thank you so much. can we please open this item up for public comment? yes. we've seen no individuals here in the room. we're going to go to our remote line. susie nose is checking to see if we have any callers. and, madam chair, there are no public commenters. public comment is now closed. madam clerk, can you please call item number eight? and just to clarify, for the record, there was no action taken on item seven, item number eight is general public comment. members of the public may address the local agency formation commission on matters that are within their jurisdiction and not on today's agenda. seeing no public here in the chamber with us, we are going to our remote line, pausing to give a chance for them to raise their hand. and madam chair, there are no public commenters. public comment is now closed. madam clerk, can you please read item number nine? item number nine is future agenda items. colleagues, any

future agenda items? seeing none , let's open this item up for public comment. seeing no one here in the chamber will go straight to our remote line. we are checking for the last time to see if we have anyone who would love to, who would like to provide public comment and see no one in line. madam chair, public comment is now closed. madam clerk, do we have any other items before us today? that concludes our business for today. the meeting is adjourned

>> (music). >> hi, i'm emmy the owner of emmy's spaghetti i offers working that with some kind of fine dining and apron and

feeling stuffy and in the 90s in san francisco it was pretty pretense in a restaurant in the restaurant scene i want to it have a place to have a place for my friends to guess i started the restaurant a no better place the outer mission spaces were available that's when i opt in two 10 he start with all people and work with them and the events they create one of the events we do every year and backpack give away and give piaget away and a christmas part with a santa and bring 5 hundred meatballs and pa get and we're like in the mission not about

them knowing where the food comes from but a part of the community. and my restaurant emmy's spaghetti and fun banquet and san francisco not the thing that everybody knows about we stay under the radar we show the showcase i take it food and we started to eat we wanted to have comfort food and that a claims friend from i take it and helped me create meatballs and dealing evolved over the years in the beginning one plate of spaghetti and a meatball we tried to make the portions as big as they could be. and now we have quite

a few types pasta dishes with a la begin and meat sauce or have a partition to a lot of food we are at a point with all the favorites i don't change the menu often 0 i eat here so much but everything is fresh your cocktail menu is the best it's ever been one thing on the menu our magazine ghetto we change the flavor one of the fun things it is served in the historically we're known emmy's spaghetti as a friendly place and when i opened i wanted my friend to be welcome and other parents to be welcomed and it is very for this is a place for families especially in san francisco and

this is where though hold their celebration important i mean you're coming to a family restaurant and you're coming for o to a fun place i love being the owner and pretty sure my life i enjoy running the psta spaghetti place i hope to be here a while we'll see how it goes we everyone is a friend we're hoping you'll be a >> making to may grandkids a program all about pop ups,

artists, non profits small business in into vacant downtown throughout the area for a three to 6 months engagement. >> i think san francisco is really bright and i wanted to be a part of it revitalization. >> i'm hillary, the owner of [indiscernible] pizza. vacant and vibrant got into safe downtown we never could have gotten into pre-pandemic. we thought about opening downtown but couldn't afford it and a landlord [indiscernible] this was a awesome opportunity for us to get our foot in here. >> the agency is the marriage between a conventional art gallery and fine art agency.

i'm victor gonzalez the founder of gcs agency. thes program is especially important for small business because it extended huge life line of resources, but also expertise from the people that have gathered around the vacant to vibrant program. it is allowed small businesses to pop up in spaces that have previously been fully unaccessible or just out of budget. vacant to vibrant was funded by a grant from the office of economic workforce development that was part of the mayor's economic recovery budget last year so we funded our non profit partners new deal who managed the process getting folks into these spaces. >> [indiscernible] have been tireless for all of us down here and it has been incredible. certainly never seen the kind

of assistance from the city that vacant to vibrant has given us, for sure. >> vacant to ibvooerant is a important program because it just has the opportunity to build excitement what downtown could be. it is change the narrative talking about ground floor vacancy and office vacancy to talking about the amazing network of small scale entrepreneur, [indiscernible] >> this is a huge opportunity that is really happy about because it has given me space to showcase all the work i have been doing over the past few years, to have a space i can call my own for a extended period of time has been, i mean, it is incredible. >> big reason why i do this is specific to empower artist. there are a lot of people in san francisco that have really great ideas that have the work

ethics, they just don't have those opportunities presented, so this has been huge lifeline i think for entrepreneurs and small businesses. >> this was a great program for us. it has [indiscernible] opening the site. we benefited from it and i think because there is diverse and different [indiscernible] able to be down here that everybody kind of benefits from it.

>> [applause]. [music] [music] >> about 20 years ago the port was look to develop a network of open space and parks and to bring the art network and access to the bay to the entire 7 and a half miles of waterfront property. this location, 7 acres, identified a very important place to make a park for the community. the park was used very much for ship building. it was a very important location in the city's history. iot best part of the water front was heavy industrial and did in

the have opportunity for the public to get in and enjoy will bay and connected to the bay. >> they incorporated the historical value of the area people can learn what was here before, what is here now and then really be able to understand the community that they live in. this was a vibrant ship building area here for years and years. and you know here we got a slip away and for us to have an opportunity to teach our children the old way specials incorporate them in the new ways, it is endless. >> this will be an upon upon wonder uponful addition to the southeast sector of san francisco it is green and clean and beautiful and access to the bay from a park is just going to be incredible. jot things planned is going to make this a destination for the

folkless in the upon community. ability to come out and have a picnic on the grass. and to come out and use the picnic area with the tables and bbq pit and movie night and food trucks has an open space is exciting. we don't are much of it in dog patch. i think this will be a family and community based type park. >> the port is good about talking with the local people about things they might like. >> the whole place is a play ground they will not see anything like this before. >> i feel blessed have been part of the commission and the process of bringing this park to the community. this has been a long community lead process. >> open space is something we have been doing in san francisco for a long time.

connectivity we have to the waterfront and san francisco is important. i can't wait to experience it as a residents and district supervisor. [music].

>> (music). >> my name is package scott i'm a general manager and vice president of the yerba buena ice skating and bowling center. >> we opened in 98, we are celebrating our 25 anniversary. the last ice relation at 48 avenue with the redevelopment agency started to reconstruct a yerba buena the city had suggested how about around ice

skating we have a podium we run from the tiny to the we have a whiff adult community of beginners and entering meats and so many people that only to san francisco and california for the east coast who grew up circulating and when they finding a pair they fall in love with that. >> my favorite ring it is a beautiful skyline and yeah. it is really nice (background noise.) our bowling center is adorable perfect for conference party and birthday party or have a good time and children's activity and wonderful playground and a great area to relax and enjoy the view it is 35 part of the city and a

lot of great places to go around and have lunch. skating is fun for the whole family we have an amazing program a huge adult population sea sorry about that in his skating and is or have a ton of programs it is walkable in their yerba buena community. we have everything you need. if i forgot our socks we have those and we charge a.d. mythics, inc., if you have no skates the general public typically e traditionally have public skating and open on the weekends and multiple sessions for everyone to

2024.) (gavel) good morning. i'd like to call the meeting to order. county of san francisco government audit and oversight committee meeting this morning at 10:00 am., thursday, may 16, 2024. i'm combhergd joined by supervisor stefani and commissioner chan and we want to thank sfgovtv for staffing this meeting. >> madam clerk, any announcements. >> public comment will be taken when the item 6 interest comes up and please line up to speak on the right and submit comments in the writing e-mail to the government audit & oversight committee to the