members of the public debt would wish to speak on item number two? seeing no one, public comment is closed. >> [inaudible] supervisor chu: we have the motion and it will be moved to the full board without objection. >> thank you, supervisors. supervisor chu: thank you. item #3. >> item #3. ordinance amending public works code section 184.78 to allow city neighborhood banners, as defined in section 184.78, to be posted on the path of gold lamp posts lining market street, and adopting environmental findings. supervisor chu: thank you. i know [unintelligible] that] is there and has -- i know that nick is here to provide comments. >> my understanding is that this item needs to be referred to the historic preservation commission. this item needs to be referred

to the historic preservation commission for a 30 day review. i would like to make that motion. supervisor chu: all right. let's open this item for public comment. and members of the public? >> good morning, supervisors. my name is douglas. i have lived here for my entire life. i would like to speak out on behalf of this idea. publicizing worthy causes along market street is going to make market street more interesting. if we are lucky, it will attract more tourists. one of the suggestions i would like to put on the banner is to advertise the city's controversial whistleblower program. i know the pros and cons of the program and i know that doctors [unintelligible]

are attempting to rectify the laguna honda hospital once and for all. supervisor chu: thank you. any other members of the public that would wish to speak on item number three? seeing no one, public comment is closed. there is a motion to refer this item to the historic preservation committee and continue to the call of the chair. without objection. all right, item number five. >> item #5, ordinance amending the san francisco public works code by amending sections 184.2, 184.6, 184.8, and 184.12 thereof, relating to newsracks, to provide for: (1) the use of electronic mail for notices of violations; (2) removal of abandoned newsracks or newsracks maintained in violation of the public works code within 7 calendar days of notice of violation sent by electronic mail; (3) imposition of administrative fines for violations resulting in newsrack seizures; (4) consolidation and/or reduction in size of fixed pedestal newsracks at

under-used locations; (5) allocation of space in newsrack boxes on a first-come-first- served basis under certain circumstances; and (6) reduction of the fixed pedestal permit fee from $60 to $50. supervisor chu: thank you. this item is brought to us by supervisor alieoto-pier. >> this is an example of real teamwork, there was a pedestal where smaller publishers wanted to know how they could get space when there were vacancies. the supervisor tried to figure out how to do an informal procedure rather than waiting for the entire year. we learned that the mayor's office and department of public works had other additions that they wanted to make to make the program run much better.

with that i wanted to introduce [unintelligible] the director of the program from the department of public works on the various features of this ordinance. supervisor chu: thank you. use the other microphone? if you are doing a presentation. >> any questions? supervisor chu: let's just go quickly through the changes being proposed for the members of the public that might need the information. >> thank you. primarily, as the supervisor's office has noticed, this came to us under our community as well

as some of the publishers. housekeeping issues, for example. the allowing of public works to use electronic mail as a primary source of communications. it brings everything up to the 20th-century -- 21st century, essentially. publishers can receive notification for citation violations against the code must faster -- much faster, enabling dpw to correct the action from seven business days to 10 calendar days. there is no need for that extra four days in the mail. it also imposes penalties that can be increased from $50 to $250 for fees regarding non-

compliance to the code. excuse me, i am sorry. the codes are meant to recover the cost of transport to the yard and storage temporarily. to address the needs of smaller publications and those that do not distribute the news in traditional wax, we have added an informal allocation process whereby anyone that wants to participate in the program can get an empty box space that is available through a very informal process. it is a first-come, first-served basis. fees are reserved from $60 to $50 per year, per box.

hopefully that is more affordable, not only for smaller publications, but those who have to pay a fee. supervisor chu: thank you. i know that you have passed out to was a slide presentation. is that something that you wanted to share? >> i was going to share it, but i do not have a [inaudible] supervisor chu: all right. >> if you have any questions for me? supervisor chu: just a question on the feet. i know that the proposal proposes to reduce the annual fee from $60 to $50. a $10 difference. is this adequate to cover the cost from the view of dpw? >> the cost has never been recovered by the use of the program. it is meant more to address the needs of the publisher in this case.

it becomes less and less affordable to participate in the programs. dpw does not recover the cost of running the program. supervisor chu: on a side note, i know that there were a number of news racks stalled in much of the downtown area and other neighborhoods across the city. there was also a plan to have clear channel continued to provide news racks in other parts of the city over time. every year a certain amount was to be added. how is that program going? >> they have been meeting their goals. basically, 100 units per year that we provide quotations for. hopefully, one of the changes is to downsize and consolidate existing units in the downtown area. union square, for example. there might be an abundance of

patteson amounts per intersection. by allowing this proposal, in the residential corridor areas we have 100 per year. supervisor chu: how many? >> 702. supervisor chu: this is headed into the third year of that program? >> no, supervisor. the clock started during the first five years. the sixth year started when there were 585 units in the downtown area. so that we were able to start in seoul -- installations into the neighborhoods. supervisor chu: we met 5852 years ago? >> december of 2007.

supervisor chu: great. any other questions from the committee? are there any members of the public that wish to speak on item number five? i do not have any speaker cards in front of me. go ahead and line up in the middle. >> good morning, supervisors. i wanted to say over the years that we have watched songs and poetry, these sorts of things, more on that spirit but a serious issue for city operations and neighborhood services. i am very concerned that this city is not prepared for a disaster. we had a fire where the smoke was that some sort of recycling place and the smoke engulfed hunters point. which should have required a shelter in your own home notification from knocking on

doors. i called the san francisco health department and was told to call bay area air quality management without receiving a response. i went over there this morning and spoke to the executive committee. now they are working on it. the inspector at bayview hunters point, there has been no follow- up to find out if anyone had any asthma attacks related to the toxic smoke. i understand that there is a report but no one got back to my e-mail. i was told that first responders are supposed to be responsible, but on that day the police and the fire department told people they did not know. this was a miniature disaster in terms of people possibly having had asthma attacks, as you already know, knocking on doors and in that area, there are too many doors that have oxygen

tanks on warnings. even a plume of toxicity vetting goals for 30 minutes or an hour can kill someone in that area. it is just shameful. i cannot imagine what would happen if there was some kind of toxic event in the city. i would really like to see some kind of hearing with all of the different agencies coming together. first responders, the health department, determining what to do in a real disaster. supervisor chu: thank you so much. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> good morning. my name is alexander [unintelligible] i am one of the san francisco bay distributors of free publications in san francisco. part of a company takes graffiti from news racks especially. i have also served on the advisory committee for over 11

years. basically, i am here representing myself and speaking for the publishing community at large with regards to this new amendment. the only concern that i want to bring with regards to the fines that are going to be imposed on the news rack being seized by non-compliance after a notification is given, it is because of the logistical situation in many areas and locations in the city. there are more racks then would legally fit in one area. many times, when a publisher distributes information out there to correct the violation, after that is done, subsequent

publisher distributors come to move the rack that was put in compliance out of compliance. i am proposing that whenever we go out there, we take photographs of the citation been taking care of so that we are not incurring the $250 fee. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> my name is francisco [unintelligible] the clarification given by the dpw was not clear. i would like to go over those issues. number one, if there are so many racks and we want to be in the 21st century, we need the ability to go on the internet and find out where these racks are. just like what was said earlier.

arbitrary things, people using computers and everyone has access to them. the first thing that we, constituents want to know, is where these racks are. if we have so many, why are they not maintained? right now if you go to powell street and open the iraq, you will find a sleeping bags and other types of things right where the tourists go. do those racks provide a certain surface? if they do not provide a certain surface, who is responsible for that? none of you asked these questions because you presuppose when clear channel is given some contract like that. they do a good job. you might think they do a good

job, but those of them at ground zero in observations, of we find that we need to have our news racks like they have in every city, but maintain them. so, we also need news racks in the other parts of our district. where there are more astute citizens and the old fashioned racks. with those racks we also need the garbage, whenever they call them, guards. dpw has been interchanging after putting good garbage in, taking them away. supervisor chu: thank you. >> our neighborhood should reflect region supervisor chu: -- reflect -- supervisor chu: thank you. are there any other members of

the public that wish to speak on item number five? seeing no one, public comment disclosed. could i ask a question of grace? one of the comments made was about the empty news racks and how they sometimes contributed to blight. i know that the legislation's attempts to deal with those issues, can you speak to that? >> this is something to the credit of the mayor around the reform allocation. the mayor saw that there were a number of bacon boxes. sometimes it is because the publications have been taken. they're very popular. in other cases, they are just empty boxes. they become an area where blight fills the city. allowing people on a first-come, first-served basis to fill those boxes. we think that many of those

smaller publishers that may not have distributed, like your neighborhood newspapers, there may not be able pedestal for rack in place. there may be fewer opportunities for misuse of the boxes. we all looking forward to those informal changes. [unintelligible] thank you. i have a follow-up question for grace. i think that one of the things i am interested in in terms of public comments that we heard about the current location of the news racks, that is something that would be beneficial. i know that legislation includes providing information online about where potential slots could be for people to be able to apply to them. from a constituent services point of view, knowing where they have been placed over time would be helpful. perhaps dpw can provide

information on the number installed and the information of the installed. i also know that the news racks, when they are done, is meant to cover a certain area. there should be no freestanding news racks in those areas. i am not sure where the existing ones are, including the covered stones. we still see from time to time the freestanding ones popping up and there is no way of knowing where they are. >> currently on our web site under the news rack program you will see a list of six pedestals loans. within each cell you can click on it and you will see a map, giving you the boundaries of the particular zone and locations. that is one thing. for the availability to be

posted in a way such that anyone who might know where the location is of the unit that is empty, and the exact location. for example, a 10 unit block might be the bottom left that is available. supervisor chu: perfect. as part of the contract, they indicated that every year after the box started, a provider would provide 100 news racks. what does that mean? one pedestal with four slots? how does that work? >> the units come in sizes. 6, 8, and 10. each year clear channel is obligated to give us 100 new units. supervisor chu: which could be a configuration of six, eight, or 10? >> correct. supervisor chu: thank you. any other questions for the

committee? seeing no one, is there a motion. without objection, motion is approved. madam clerk, are there any other items before us? >> no, madam share supervisor chu:. -- no, madam chair. supervisor chu: thank you, we are 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 wa