signed, and for those of us 6 1 i think we're really looking to this really to help us solve the issue of the day, which is we want to create more opportunities. we want more of union work on all city projects is what we're after. we're looking to support a project labor agreement on the southeast wastewater treatment plant, the digesters, on the sewer system work. we want this to be in a way that helps create opportunities for folks that are out of work in the hiring halls and folks that are out of work in the community. i think there's been a set of discussions between community stake holders, building trades, contractors, government. we've got 20 hours of discussions to try to solve these issues. and we've gotten painfully close. and we need things like this process to help push us over the edge and keep us together, because the 20 hours of conversations ended last week, and then we all go and do our

different things to try to move this policy, hopefully in a way that keeps us on the same path, which is where we all want to get, which is a community labor partnership. so i'd really like this to be a central theme going forward, because the p.u.c. has so much important work going forward, both for our trades men and women that are currently out of work and our folks that we want to see empowered through all the opportunities that will be created. so i think that's the kind of lesson as we come on the one-year anniversary of a hearing that i think kicked off this discussion, which is last december. so it's just really exciting. thanks again, everybody. >> hello, commissioners. i am a resident of the bay view point community, but i'm a member of the i.b.w. local six electrician's unit. i'm really happy to hear that this sustainable approach for community benefits will be

taking place, or i hope that you guys adopt this approach, because as an apprentice going through the i.b.w., i can't count how many times i struggled with my children having asthma attacks and not understanding why they were constantly getting sick. it affected me both, you know, my economics, as far as -- you know, me being able to go to work and my children's health, my health, and just my whole way of living. and had i known at that point that there were environmental issues in my community that were impacting, you know, my lifestyle or my ability to live, i just think -- i guess i'm standing up here really to support this approach in looking at the workability of the area, the environmental factors, the health issues, and the education of the community as well.

because i believe had i had that opportunity, i probably could have, you know, just been able to manage my lifestyle a little bit better. so as a resident, i hope that you guys can adopt this approach, because i can see a lot of people's lives changing for the better, just for looking at a situation from a holistic perspective as opposed to making decisions based on just the economics, looking at how it will affect a person's life, the life of a individual, i think will be the best. josh said to give a shoutout. [laughter] president crowley: thank you. next speaker, please.

>> bart johnson. with a longer-term perspective, i would say that many of the people in this room worked very hard for a number of years just to get enough focus on job one. which one removing waste from people's homes and running the power system. back when there were times when the commission or the powers to be in this city were unable to come anywhere close, it took a lot of work from our side to get you there. now you're at the point where you can entertain programs like this for make your communities better and it's hard for an old dog like me to sit and listen to all of this sometimes. i do preasht what you're doing for your community. don't lose the focus on job one. thank you. president crowley: thank you. any other public comment on number eight?

>> we will schedule this back in december then. president crowley: correct. >> item nine, discussion on possible action to authorize the general manager of the san francisco public utilities commission to support for adoption and urge the board of supervisors and the city and county of san francisco to pass and mayor gavin newsom to sign the proposed fats oils and grease controlled ordinance. >> good afternoon, commissioners. from -- i'm from the collection division program, the sewer group. i know you've had a long meeting and you have many items, so i'm going to quickly go through this. you have the whole presentation. if it's ok with you, i can get to the highlights, or i can through the whole presentation. >> highlights, please.

[laughter] president crowley: we have this in our packet. >> i will hit the highlight. president crowley: all right, thank you. >> i'm here to talk about grease in the sewers. we will talk with one of the key slides. this is one of our store laterals. as you can see, it looks like water that is flowing, but it's really grease stuck in the sewer lateral. there's a trickle of water coming out. and this is what happened when that grease hits our sewers. in this case, we had to jackhammer the grease out. so i'm here today because we have a fog control ordinance that we would like to move forward and take to the board of supervisors. and it will give us the ability at p.u.c. to better control the grease that is coming out of our restaurants and our sewage service establishments, catering kitchens, etc. we are already out there at restaurants educating them about keeping grease out of the sewers, best management practices.

we have the s.f. grease recycling program, but we're still finding that we have a big problem with grease in the sewers. we have a plumbing code that has requirements for restaurants to put grease traps in and has standards, and we have our public works code that has a limit on the amount of grease that wastewater coming from a restaurant can have in it. so we have existing codes. but we still have over 40% of our sewer service work orders when the crews get called have to do with grease, over 40%, and that translates to over three million dollars a year in crew time, equipment, trucks, video equipment, time that could be used inspecting critical pipes that might be failing, other things that would increase our levels of service. and the bottom line is that what we're finding is even though we have our laws, our inspectors are finding that restaurants either don't have any grease capturing equipment, even though they should have traps or interceptors, or they have them

but they're not servicing them, so it's basically a chunk of grease with water flowing over it. so that doesn't help anybody. so our fog ordinance in a nutshell would have our inspectors go out and look at that equipment and make sure that the equipment is there, that it's properly serviced and operational, and also we're looking to move restaurants to a more modern type of equipment. that's really all this ordinance does. it reinforces the existing code, has our inspectors' eyes on the grourninged well as right now, d.b. i will approve a grease trap when a restaurant goes in, but they don't look back to see if it's work. that's a big gap in our oversight. this slide just goes over a lot of outreach we've done. we've worked for over two years with the golden gate restaurant association. we have their board president here, who was wanting to make some statements basically that we've worked with them. we've also worked with the other departments involved. d.b.i. port.

d.p.h. the ordinance has been out for several months and we've done various community meetings. the ordinance has several general requirements about how to maintain grease traps. the main new requirements are making sure it's properly serviced and maintained and fully operational. that's basically the new element of this ordinance. there's three types of equipment. your basic grease trap. your large interceptor, and there's probably about 20 in san francisco, because there's a size limit. they're large and underground. and then the automatic device is the one that we're looking to have more restaurants put in, because it's more efficient. it skims the grease off the top. it pulls out food parols up front. has many benefits. and this is what it looks like in that little box to right. it keeps the food parols out. we can compost those. i won't go to slide, but what this says basically is the

ordinance identifies the restaurants in terms of being a type of grease discharge or depending on how much grease they discharge because of how much they cook and how many meals they service, we rank them one to four. the four we don't care about. that's like a 7-eleven. they heat up food, they don't cook. the one is the worst, they cook a lot and have no equipment. the number one is the ones we're going after. we want to make sure they put equipment in. this case, they're basically violating our code and d.b.i. code. we're going to have them put that automatic grease removal device. any place that has the equipment in, we want to make sure they maintain and service. that's pretty much the crux of the ordinance. last two slides have to do with costs. the one thing we do want to consider, because restaurants are very important to this city, to every city, is that the g.r.d.'s, the automatic devices, are more expensive. your average grease trap might be 500 to a thousand. the g.r.d. is in the several

thousands. we did a survey. we had some manufacturers come in and go to several restaurants and give this to put them in. what we've done that is unique is we figured out that because a restaurant in san francisco pays for the oil and grease loadings put into the sewer, we've found a way to offset the cost. the way we'll do that is as follows right now, you pay a sewer service charge. part of that is the grease loading. if you put the automatic g.r.d. in because it's more effective, you're putting less oil in grease. if you adjust the sewer service charges related to those grease loadings, it would actually reduce your sewer service charge bill by about 14%. we worked with finance and then we looked at these restaurants where we got the quotes. we told their sewer bills and figured out how long it would take to pay off the equipment and we're looking at a one- to five-year return. that would continue. they have lots of other benefits lots of restaurants play to get

their laterals cleared for grease. hopefully with good equipment they don't need to do that. so we've tried to make it less of a financial impact. final comment, cost to the p.u.c., because we already have inspectors out there. they're just going to shift their responsibilities, start looking at the equipment. in term of sewer service charge revenue, it would be a reduction in those revenues, about half of a percent of the current sewer service charge revenues, about one million a year. we hope to offset that by the fact that we won't be spending $3 million a year responding to the grease clogs. that's the end of my comments. i'll end with this. as i mentioned, lorre thomas -- lori thomas is here. she's been here several hours in support of this. she's willing to wave and give her support unless you'd like to hear her speak directly on the item. president crowley: ok. you want to say anything?

please take the mic, because we're not going to have any public comment on this. >> i'm here representing the golden gate restaurant association, and i'm here because kevin wesley who is our executive director is out of the country, and has been really involved working with karen and the team on this, and i just wanted to say that we're -- you know, it's been my experience that we're not always as involved from the start at being able to weigh in and work on things that come up in the city that affect our industry, and we really appreciate all the work that they've done and everything they've taken into effect from kevin's recommendation. i can just give you guys a second that -- we want to do what we can for grease. i would say my largest restaurant spends $3,000 a year on grease cleaning. we do it twice a month there just based on the lunch-dinner volume.

we don't pay for the cooking oil itself, just the service feel. we enforce that for restaurants that don't do that. and secondly, that it's super clear if you're doing a remodel to your kitchen or if you're going into, we hope, continuing to make restaurant investments in the city, that we as business owners just know what's expected and know how to comply and prioritize. so we're 100% supportive of this. kevin is really sorry he missed this and i know he'll be supportive if it goes forward. so thanks, you guys. president crowley: thank you. colleagues? >> i have a question. how are you going to require that restaurants put these in? >> well, currently we'd be piggy backing on the existing system. if someone opens a restaurant, they are supposed to put a grease removal -- a grease trap, any type they want at this point. that either seems to be falling through the crax, or they do put it in and then it changes hands and people don't know it's there

anymore. all we'd be ding is making sure when d.b.i. gets those restaurant applications in that we know that new restaurants would be putting this automated device in. we would be plugging into the existing system rather than creating a whole new process. >> and what are you going to do about existing restaurants? >> well, existing restaurants, because d.b.i. currently, the plumbing department, they just inspect a new restaurant. once something is in, they don't go out. our inspectors have been going out, doing these best management practice inspection, making sure people don't pour grease. they'll start looking at the equipment. so they're already out there. they have the relationship with the restaurant. now they're going to go, look, your equipment hasn't been serviced. or you don't have equipment. and normally, if they're violating and they have backups, then we refer them to d.b.i. but we're going to start changing that and tell them where they fall and enforcing that they have equipment and that it be operational. so it's just a shift in their role.

>> [inaudible] president crowley: the reason being is the folks at home can't hear that well. >> karen and i talked briefly today. the obvious thing is that look at a restaurant and look at the service. i mean, we pay bills every month. and you look at the frequency of that and physically inspect it, right? there was a picture early about what it looks like when it's clean and when it's not. it should be pretty early once it's maintained. people that do this and it's part of our business and we care about the environment, we want people that don't know about it to definitely at least maintain the traps that are existing and put it back on the department of building inspection like we do when we open a new restaurant, right? make it part of the final approval to open the restaurant and maintain it going forward. president crowley: colleagues? commissioner moran: just like a comment, it looks like a lot of

intelligent thought went into putting this together. president crowley:, yeah, i comment you folks for that. >> it's taken us a while to get here. president crowley: i know tommy's team is happy not to get into this too much further. so in our folders, colleagues, and behind tab nine is our resolution. now we can -- if you're ok with this, we can move this action on to the board, if that's where it would go. if you're comfortable with that, i'll entertain a motion. >> second. president crowley: it's been moved and seconded. any further public comment on the question? hearing and seeing none, adopting resolution on number nine, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. >> aye. president crowley: opposed? you guys have it.

>> thank you very much. next item, michael? >> item 10, discussion of possible action to authorize the general manager of the san francisco public utilities commission to request approval from the board of supervisors to accept and expand grant funds totalingedly 9 0,000 from the united states environmental protection agency for the civic center sustainable district project to manage water, wastewater, stormwater, and other elements sustainably and to execute all required agreements. >> i do have an overhead. maroney will you be offended if i move this item? without a presentation? president crowley: nice job. >> we have no speaker cards on this item. president crowley: do we have a speaker? on the question. it's been moved and seconded. go ahead, sir.

>> it would be a good idea if you all had some idea what this is about more than what your staff report says. i'm the coordinator of the mayor civic center steak holders group. i want to give you a little background of what this is about. the current planning documents in the civic center area are 40 or more years old. there's been efforts to update them but there's never been any money. since the 1989 earthquake, some $3 billion has been spent on new facilities and repair facilities in the area, including your new building. in 1998, mayor brown spent $200,000 on a report on redoing the civic center plaza, which is antiquated, not welcome and certainly needs work.

he then got into his re-election campaign. it was put in the deep freeze and nothing has been done with that since. i have talked to mayor newsom since he became mayor about the need to update the planning in the area and to particularly redo the plaza. he's attempted to find various ways to do that. the rec and park commission and department showed no interest in it, despite the fact that it's their plaza. but then a couple of years ago, he came up with this idea of the sustainable district, and the purpose is much broader than what the heading of your legislation said, because as you know, the planning department is going to take a great deal of the work in this, and we're going to -- they're going to replan the whole area. some 20 square blocks. and we're going to improve the

use and hopefully in private buildings, there will be a plan, for which there is money to do not only the plan, but the i.r., which has always been in the past. it will make the plaza con form to its regional historic nature, but also have a lot of facilities relating to better environmental and sustainable purposes. this is a significant development. you can see that i view it as a major benchmark that you will pass this out. i hope you will look at it in the broader context, and it should not only produce a plan that can be approved, but supposedly, there will be some money to do some small projects. but it will give us for the first time a platform in which we can address this issue as making the garage work better. reduce the traffic congestion in the area.

a whole long variety of things. thank you. president crowley: thank you. any other public comment? or colleagues, any questions? the motion has been made. it's been properly seconded. i'll take a vote. all those in favor, please signify by stating aye. >> aye. president crowley: the ayes have it. >> item 11. item 11 was taken off the calendar. item 12, discussion and possible action to approve the plans and specifications and award water enterprise water system and a ward harding park recycled water project in the amount of $5,251,100 to the lowest, qualified, responsible and responsive builder to construct recycled water delivery storage and pumping facilities.

president crowley: ok. commissioner morlan, anything on this? commissioner moran: no. president crowley: it's been moved. >> second. president crowley: any questions? >> we have no speaker cards. president crowley: no speaker cards. ok. all those in favor of adopting number 12, please signify by saying aye. >> aye. president crowley: opposed? >> the eyes have it. >> the next item is closed session. would you like to entertain a motion to invoke privilege? president crowley: ok. i'll entertain a motion at this time. during closed session while the gallery is convened. the motion will assert attorney-client privilege. anybody in the public that wants to make comments on anything in closed session? >> yes. i forget the item numbers, i think it's 17 and 18, the cob tract's renewal, two exceptional

individuals, two amazing people are going to be discussed, and that's general manager harrington and assistant general manager harlan kelly. i just felt with the experience in working with these two fine gentlemen, i just want to put a word in for how valuable they are to this city and their work and their leadership and their expertise, their ability to bring us all together, working with general manager harrington, i value very much the conversation we have on the church not that long ago, a very enlightening conversation. i really enjoyed that very much. and looked forward to it. another strong continued period of time. and mr. kelly played the role of great uniter not that long ago. a bunch of us came together saying how can we all come together around so many of these important issues, which are vexing and challenging. and i really saw tremendous

spirit of leadership that i think just came into an apex in terms of working with mr. kelly. my -- i just wanted to say that i saw that on the agenda. i don't know if it's appropriate at all to even say this stuff, but i felt compelled to do it after feeling so good about the situation today and the past several months. we're moving forward in such a united way on all these issues that we're going to solve together. it's going to be the largest part because of the leadership of these gentlemen. president crowley: thank you. you heard the motion. it's been properly seconded. all those in favor. >> aye. president crowley: those opposed. ok. >> mr. president, if you will allow me to read the items, we will then move into the closed session. item 15, threat to public services or facilities, consultation with agency chief and security. 16, personal matter, general,

edward harrington. 17, personnel matter, public employee, terms of employment, new contract, assistant general manager for. item 18, conference with legal council, existing litigation, mitchell engineering, various cases as listed. 19, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation as defendant. item 20, conference with legal council, existing litigation, allison ayer. filed january 8, 2010, city attorney file 101163. conference with legal counsel, unlitigated claim, motorist insurance group, ellis brooks chevrolet, city attorney file 10-03078 filed may 4, 2010. we are now in closed session.