we need a repeat next year. >> yes. >> and mr. superintendent, you want it make a comment? >> yes, i wanted to thank all the staff for their tremendous work. and i appreciate mr. grazoly in recognizing. as you remember there were significant issues with timing and paperwork. and everyone doubled down and did a great job. and not only this is the first time i have never seen an audit without a finding. and that's significant. and i never recall an auditor getting an applause. that's significant. >> we are not supposed to get applause by the way. that's not our job. >> does that mean you are not doing your job? come on, take the credit. roll call please. >> ly. >> yes. >> wong. >> yes. >> fewer. >> yes. >> haney. >> yes.

>> maufas. >> yes. >> murase. >> yes. >> wynns. >> yes. >> seven ayes. >> norton. >> while yewe're on the good jo and there were no retro actives. i want that thank the staff for that, i appreciate it. >> and i want to mention we have two more audits in the near fut -- future. one is on partial tax, and the elustrous bond program. >> great. and thank you, commissioner mendoza pointing that out. okay. item q. superintendent's proposals for first reading. we have item 131-8 sp 1,

approval of a public education enrichment fund expenditure plan for the school year, 2013-14, that will be moved to the meeting on the whole. >> you need a motion? i am sorry, yes i do. >> so moved. >> second. >> now it's referred to the committee as a whole on january 15. item r, board members' proposals for first reading none. item s, board members' reports, standing committees. i am sorry, do i do committees first or read it off. standing committees. we have a report from the buildings and ground committee. >> yes, the buildings and ground committee met on december 17th on two informational items. the first was an update on the current technology initiatives in sfsud.

and i want to thank matt kensey and his team, we just have been able to advance by leaps and bounds. all of our schools are wired for the internet. there is still some last mile connectivity issues. but i want to acknowledge our previous superintendent, carlos garcia that made sure that was money in the qta dedicated to infrastructure. and some of you know in a previous life i worked in high-tech. and when i came to san francisco and saw some of the antiquated systems we use in the city and the school system, it was appalling. but in a short time they have brought our schools up to the 21st century, and it was good to hear a reporting on that. and we secondly took up a pathway to community contracting

and hiring a resolution on local hire. and we discussed the proposed resolution, suggested some language changes. there will be further discussions in january and february. we were talking about having stakeholder meetings during this time to really flush out that resolution. staff is hoping to put together a first draft in february for folks to review before the building and grounds meeting in march. there will be a meeting this month of building and grounds, the third monday is a holiday. so it would fall on january 28. and i have been asked to take up the issue of project labor agreement. that's one of the agenda items. so that's going to be held later this month. thank you.

>> commissioner mendoza. >> thank you. i will making a new appointment to the prop-h committee. because my appointee is now on the board. i will replace commissioner haney, thank you for that. right -- right. budget and business is not going to have a january meeting. so we are moving it to february. did we secure the sixth? >> the commissioner, the standing date of the committee through 2012 was the first wednesday of the month. that would be february 6. and that's what we will plan on. unless the committee assignments turn-over between now and then and the dates change. we understand that is a possibility because of the timing of the committee. but in the meantime plan on february 6. >> and then i want to make one brief announcement. i wanted to congratulate the

mission promise neighborhoods. we are the proud recipients of a $6 million grant that we anticipate getting every year for the next five years. there was a tremendous amount of work put in guadalupe and kevin and the team out in mission. and we couldn't have done it without you. and the schools that will benefit from mission promise neighborhood is chavez and bryant and oc, so connor will be part of that. we will focus on those four schools with the expectation to expand what we want to start in those four schools. it will focus on academic achievement and family stability and early childhood education and technology. we are looking to build strong, sustainable, healthy families in the mission. and it will piggyback on the sig

work we are doing, and it's a nice consideration since sig is going away. i want to congratulate everyone for that tremendous work done. and we were one of seven cities in the entire nation that received the implementation grant. and we are one of a handful of cities that actually received a planning grant the first year and applied the following year and six months later -- really, and received the implementation grant. i think it speaks to the strength of the work happening in the mission. congratulations. >> if i could add to what commissioner mendoza said, of the grantees nationally we are one of two cities in the nation that received the highest award. the full amount. thank you for mentioning that. >> do we have any other reports

from board members? none this evening. okay, we will move ahead then -- just one last on committees. vice president fewer and i will be go over the committee assignments. please get us your preferences so we know what they are. and the goal will be to get that all done well before the beginning of february. so we don't disrupt the work of the board. i believe like curriculum is going to meet this month as well; right? >> i have not pulled the members yet. but i will. >> okay, moving along. >> commissioner norton, we haven't planned about whether or not we will have a rules committee meeting in january either. so we should discuss that, which i think is mainly dependent upon the legislative, so maybe we will just talk to our

legislative advocate and make a decision about whether or not we will have a rules committee meeting. >> keep us posted. item t, report of closed section actions of january 8, 2012, the board approved the appointment of one supervisor. and also the expulsion of one middle school student. and in the matter of the il and unified school district, no case number, by vote of 6 ayes and one absent. the attempt to negotiate settlement on specified terms. for this evenings closed session, i had something, we have it again -- here it is, the

board of education by a vote of 5 ayes and two absent approved the expulsion of one middle school student. item u, other informational items posted in the agenda, the staff report on the notice of classified personnel transactions. and that being concluded. item v is adjournment. thank you very much everyone, meeting adjourned.

because we have a great waste water system here in san francisco, we do about 80 million gallons of waste water here in san francisco, which means we basically fill up 120 olympic sized swimming pools each and every day here in the city. we protect public health and safety and environment because we are discharging into the bay

and into the ocean. this is essentially the first treatment here at our waste water treatment facility. what we do is slow down the water so that things either settle to the bottom or float to the top. you see we have a nice selection of things floating around there, things from bubble gum wrappers, toilet paper, whatever you dump down the toilet, whatever gets into our storm drains, that's what gets into our waste water treatment and we have to clean. >> see these chains here, this keeps scum from building up. >> on this end in the liquid end basically we're just trying to produce a good water product that doesn't negatively impact the receiving water so that we have recreation and no bad impact on fish and aquatic life.

solids is what's happening. . >> by sludge, what exactly do you mean? is that the actual technical term? . >> it's a technical term and it's used in a lot of different ways, but this is organic sewage sludge. basically what it is is, oh, maybe things that come out of your garbage disposal, things that are fecal in nature. it's sludge left in the water after the primary treatment, then we blend those two over and send them over to digestion. this building is built to replace tanks here that were so odoriferous they would curl your hair. we built this as an interim process. >> is there a coagulant introduced somewhere in the

middle of this? . >> this coagulant brings solids together and lets the water run through. that gives us more time in the digestion process, more time to reduce the amount of solids. these are the biggest ones in the world, like we always like to do in san francisco. they are 4 meter, there's none like it in the world. >> really? wow. >> three meters, usually. we got the biggest, if not the best. so here we are. look at that baby hum. river of sludge. >> one of the things is we use bacteria that's common in our own guts to create this reduction. it's like an extra digestion. one of the things we have to do to facilitate that is heat that sludge up and keep it at the temperature our body likes, 98.6 degrees. >> so what we have here is the

heat exchanger for digester no. 6. these clog up with debris and we're coming in to -- next wet weather season so we always come through here, clean them out, make sure that we get maximum heat exchange during the colder wet weather. sludge season. >> rubber glove. >> right here. >> rubber glove, excellent. all right, guys. >> thank you. >> good luck. >> this is the full on hazmat. . >> residual liquid. we're taking it time to let it drain. we don't want to get sludge on it necessarily. take your time. stand on the side of it. . >> should we let it release for

a while? . >> let it release. >> is that the technical term? . >> this is the most important bolt on the whole thing. this is the locking bolt. it locks this thing right in place. so now. >> take your hammer and what we want to do, we get rag build up right in here. the hot water recirculates right in here, the sludge recirculates in here. the sludge sometimes has rags in it. all we want to do is go around the clean the rags. let me show you how. take the slide hammer, go all the way through the back, go around. >> got you. >> during the real rainy season, how does that change the way dealing with this job? is it a lot more stuff in there? .

>> what we do, charles, we do this quarterly. every four months we go around and clean all the heat exchangers so we don't have a large build up. . >> go around? . >> yeah. (sound of hammering). >> what i'm trying to do, charles, is always pull it out on the low stroke. >> right. so you are not, like, flying out. now talk about clean up.

. >> then where does this stuff get deposited? . >> we're going to dump it in a debris box and it will go back to the plant. >> if you think back, the romans came up with a system of plumbing that allowed us it use water to transport waste away from the hub of civilization, which enabled cities to grow. . >> you have a large bowl, a drive motor and another motor with a planetary gearbox with differential pressure inside there. the large mass up there spinning separating the solids from the liquid. we have to prevent about once a month, we go in there grease those, change the oil, check the vibration levels. the operators can tell just by the hum of that machine that

it's a harmonic noise emitted that it's out of balance and the machine needs to be cleaned. it will start vibrating and we have vibration analysis machines that will come over here and check the levels. so it's kind of an on-going thing that you have to stay on top of on a daily basis. >> handled properly, you take organic residuals, as we call them, that are leftovers of our society and turn them back into some energy. and we have another ability to take that sludge and get a nutrient value for crops there. we actually are running a kind of composting energy recovery system. >> well, this is a dirty job. we try to do it safely and we try to do it without imposing too much on the public. people want to flush their toilets and have things go away

and not be bothersome again. we do a lot to try to accomplish that. i'd like to invite you to come back any time you want. once you got this in your blood, you are not going to be able to stay away. the raging waters are fun and when we do digester cleaning i really hope you can come back. that's quite a sight. >> yeah, that sounds interesting. >> i really appreciate you coming by and it was a >> i have 2 job titles.

i'm manager of the tour program as well as i am the historyian of city hall. this building is multifaceted to say the very least it's a municipal building that operates the city and county of san francisco. this building was a dream that became a reality of a man by the name of james junior elected mayor of san francisco in 1912. he didn't have a city hall because it was destroyed in the earth wake of 1906. construction began in april of 1913. in december 1915, the building was complete. it opened it's doors in january 1916. >> it's a wonderful experience

to come to a building built like this. the building is built as a palace. not for a king or queen. it's built for all people. this building is beautiful art. those are architecture at the time when city hall was built, san francisco had an enormous french population. therefore building a palace in the art tradition is not unusual. >> jimmie was an incredible individual he knew that san francisco had to regain it's place in the world. he decided to have the tallest dome built in the united states. it's now stands 307 feet 6

inches from the ground 40 feet taller than the united states capital. >> you could spend days going around the building and finding something new. the embellishment, the carvings, it represents commerce, navigation, all of the things that san francisco is famous for. >> the wood you see in the board of supervisor's chambers is oak and all hand carved on site. interesting thing about the oak is there isn't anymore in the entire world. the floors in china was cleard and never replanted. if you look up at the seceiling

you would believe that's hand kof carved out of wood and it is a cast plaster sealing and the only spanish design in an arts building. there are no records about how many people worked on this building. the workman who worked on this building did not all speak the same language. and what happened was the person working next to the other person respected a skill a skill that was so wonderful that we have this masterpiece to show the world today.

>> we came to seven straight about 10 years ago. -- 7th street about 10 years ago. the environment is huge. it is stronger than willpower. surrounding yourself with artists, being in a culture where artists are driving, and where a huge amount of them is a

healthy environment. >> you are making it safer. push, push. that is better. when i start thinking, i see it actually -- sometimes, i do not see it, but when i do, it is usually from the inside out. it is like watching something being spawned. you go in, and you begin to work, excavate, play with the dancers, and then things began to emerge. you may have a plan that this is what i want to create. here are the ideas i want to play with, but then, you go into the room, and there maybe some fertile ideas that are becoming manifest that are more interesting than the idea you had initially set out to plan. so there has to be this openness for spontaneity. also, a sense that regardless of

the deadline, that you have tons of time so the you can keep your creativity alive and not cut it off and just go into old habits. it is a lot like listening. really listening to watch what is going to emerge. i like this thing where you put your foot on his back. let's keep it. were your mind is is how you build your life. if you put it in steel or in failure, it works. that works. it is a commitment. for most artists, it is a vacation and a life that they have committed themselves to. there is this notion that artists continue to do their work because of some kind of the external financial support. if that was taken away, artists

would still do their art. it is not like there is a prerequisite for these things to happen or i will not do it. how could that be? it is the relationship that you have committed to. it is the vocation. no matter how difficult it gets, you are going to need to produce your art. whether it is a large scale or very small scale. the need to create is going to happen, and you are going to have to fulfill it because that is your life. good morning, everybody. lots of people know each othe