unique acoustic concerns, there's a very narrow window for performing construction and we would probably have to wait until the next october, not this coming, but the following october to do the construction work at that site at the earliest. commissioner courtney: with respect to davies and what was the other location? >> city hall. commissioner courtney: when the design phase is completed and workers are arriving at the job site, do you have any estimation about not what classification, but how many workers, how many jobs for each site? >> i can give you a general sense of what we thought after we talked with the most

attractive better out of the process that resulted in no award. when we sat down and looked at the tasks, look-alike -- that's the question you are asking? commissioner courtney: the total number of people. >> yes. it looks like it would be around 30. commissioner courtney: and any time from a few weeks to a month and a half? >> the total number was -- commissioner courtney: if there are 60 of them on the two sides, that's less than 40 hours per person.

vice president moran: i just wanted general understanding of what you consider -- let's say the work goes out to bid a immediately. what different process these would you be going through in your this time verses the last time or would it be the exact same process? >> we issued the bid. we take questions from the bid community. we usually do a job site visit. we go to all the same steps we typically do when we issue a contract. we produce written questions and answers from the pre-bid conference from the job site visit and we receive the bid from a pool of qualified bidders. those are evaluated based on the performance criteria and the contract. then we come to the commission with a recommendation on who

should be awarded the contract. >> in that process, we would work with the office of economic workforce development tool put together with hiring plan would be and they would help and assist us in that generation of local jobs since we have a local hire ordinance, but also, who would be working in those different jobs and in which classifications. we would be using their good graces and their office to try to put together with the plan would be for the workers. president vietor: so do we have a decision to make? >> let's just say we would start the process again because there is nothing on the horizon that seems to be worth waiting for because nothing would clarify this in a near future. we would either leave this on hold or start down the path

again and try to work through those issues again in terms of who does what kind of work. this is somewhat different from the sun set solar discussion because it's smaller and it's also on rooftops, so there are other unions involved like rivers that were not involved last time. president vietor: and it would not be a power purchase set up? >> it would not, but there would be issues between different unions that believe they have jurisdiction over the work and that we have to work out differently and better before. president vietor: when would we hear more about those issues? up points a week to be ready to respond? >> as soon as we are hearing if there are concerns being expressed, we will share them. when we typically hear those sorts of things is with a pre- bid conference when contractors ask questions and union reps have expressed some views as well.

it is a good opportunity because it is a cost-free opportunity for us. we did not award this contract. it has expired and we can reissue this contract -- sort of a no harm, no foul situation. we have the design phase complete for the chinatown public health center and the muni would coach facility. we will come back to you with information on the project -- and the progress with those projects because they will be under construction soon. president vietor: have there been issues in relation to those projects? >> the same sorts of labor concerns have been expressed. we have the awarded contractor, they have expressed in writing and interest to comply with our local hire ordinance on their

own with no enforcement ability on our part to step up and make every effort. they are working with the two units -- the two unions their signatories with and -- the electrical and labor unions. >> is there any advantage at all to delaying? >> on the city hall and davies? we are delaying a so far and could continue to do that. we are delaying hoping there would be some answer forthcoming on jurisdictional issues. since they have not been forthcoming, there have been a variety of folks -- should be trying to get those jobs out there and organize the discussion, don't just stop everything waiting for a decision. that's why we were suggesting going forward. if we are going to delay, the

only other thing would be is to take the money out of the budget for that and use it for something else. we could use of for something to create jobs now because she don't just want it sitting there. there is no specific date of this month or next month that makes a difference. even if we started now, the work on davy's probably would not happen for a year-and-a-half. so there's no harm in making a decision now, but there's also nothing we are waiting for that will make it clearer. president vietor: it's like if there is no objection, we should proceed, but if you could make sure to communicate with us on a regular basis as to any community concerns that arise, particularly as it relates to the labor issues, we would very much appreciate that. >> at a minimum, it will come back to you before we award it. nothing will come back to you until then.

commissioner caen: 2 what union do the solar labor folks along? >> and received applications from numerous unions. that particular occupation could be affiliated with electrical, roofing, different crafts. the graduation prospect for those apprentices would be to then mature into the journey level positions within the program they affiliate themselves with. if you aspire to be an electrical worker and began this apprenticeship program under the installer occupation, you would be setting yourself up to become an electrician within that union. if you chose to affiliate with the roofers version of this

apprenticeship program, you would be graduating in to a union referred job. >> the symbolic importance of that is it does not seem any one union owns photovoltaic work. >> certainly for the smaller projects, that is what the state staff told us. president vietor: it seems like there's an opportunity to emerging, and i don't know lot about this, but there might be a new union formed around pv in dollars because of the rapid growth in this field. is that right? >> what state staff told us today is that for larger projects, they don't see the apprentice maturing into a solar-specific trade or craft. it -- you sort of mature into

getting more specific on a ground-mounted solar project in the desert. they expect all the different trades to be represented on those job sites, all performing their traditional scopes of work. just because the projects are so large. they said that they see this pv installing occupation to be more on a rooftop, 250 kilowatts or smaller. it would not of its own become a full separate trade. president vietor: anything else? >> we will issue it, come back to the commission and if we hear anything, we will come back before we award it. the next item -- we had a legislative update scheduled for today. originally, because of what is

happening in washington d.c., we are rearranging that, but i want to give you a brief update. >> i'm the assistant general manager for assistant affairs. since i will be coming back to you next month, i will be broad strokes about what we are hearing about what's happening in washington d.c. because there are questions about how much we're tracking and what is happening. the bad news is there are no earmarks and it looks like significantly reduced programmatic spending. i have been having conversations with our federal lobbyist and he has been able to frame things in a positive light, saying thepuc does not go after a lot of earmarked or programmatic support at the federal levels. so the overall implications are minimal because we don't accept that type of money. the fiscal year for 2011 began

some timber first, 2010. since that time, none of the 12 annual appropriations bills have been able to be passed through congress. instead, the government has been operating on a series of continuing resolutions. there have been four to date. typically, the continuing resolutions continue spending at the prior year levels. this year has been different in that two of the for continuing resolutions included significant budget cuts. 14 $6 billion and another for $4 billion. what we are hearing is that the senate will shortly pass the continuing resolution to keep the government funded through april. at some point, the house and senate will be able to pass a resolution on a spending bill that would run through september 30th. conversations are already happening at the house level with regard to advancing the proposed budget for 2012.

our lobbyist expects further cuts in spending and that could include cuts to defense spending and changes to the tax code as well as changes to entitlement programs. but again, as far as implications they're seeing for the puc, they think we should be watching -- some of them will be going to that d.c. area to meet with our bay area folks as well as the department's we interface with most like epa and others. when we come back at the end of april, we will have a better sense of what we're hearing directly from the departments in d.c. and our legislative allies and be able to report back what we're seeing at the state level because that will be progressing quicker at that point as well as with some of our -- as well as what some of our priorities are at the local level as well as policies to partner with the board of supervisors to move to.

president vietor: i have one request for next month's update and that would be on the redevelopment agency situation, specifically as it relates to the puc's projects and what that might mean. >> in line with that, we are scheduling a discussion of treasure island of this commission meeting and we are asked to postpone that because of the uncertainty with redevelopment. >> we could have available frank blackwell who heads of the redevelopment agency because he is tracking what the implications would be. >> are you referencing the redevelopment legislation? >> yes.

>> specifically for san francisco and puc plans. >> i don't think we're going to see a compromise soon. i anticipate as having a special election in june. governor has been working so hard to get more republicans on board and has been unsuccessful. this weekend's republican convention was like a salem witch trial for anyone who seeks to even have the people vote on a tax, a potential tax increase. the governor is not even proposing a tax increase, he is committing to his promise to put the issue before the people and let the people decide. the republicans will even let him do that. we're going to be a tremendous impasse and i don't know if the city's are going to be a to compromise on this issue soon.

>> from a strictly puc perspective, we're not affected directly but we have customers at the shipyard and customers that treasure island who are greatly impacted by it. how we grow or don't grow in those areas and items that would have to come to this commission that lead to those things are of great interest to us. >> have we provided a series of memorandums on the completed abolition and what our responsibilities are? >> we have not. we can look at that. >> we have been in consistent contact with the redevelopment agency's about tracking them irregularly. commissioner torres: if none of this occurs and the legislature moves forward with the governor -- >> there are a few scenarios we would love to brief you on.

we don't know of the mayor's office is ready to announce. president vietor: it we biggest -- it would be good to calendar this. i do think it's very important to figure out what the implications are going to be with the abolition. if there is and abolishment and what we do want to produce a series of memos and what that look-alike. not only other relates to treasure island and hunters point, but with other land parcels. that might have implications as well call what's going to happen to the land that the development of an -- is there a possibility that puc or other departments might be asked to step up? there might be other implications we don't know about. thank you. >> the next item, commissioners,

if you recall, when we were talking about management, we were putting a variety of things in place if there were problems on the construction sites. commissioner moran asked if we could make a case study and how we respond if you could get a sense for how the process works. >> good afternoon, commissioners. before i get into the presentation, i wanted to give you an advanced notice that i will be seeking your approval in april for changes that will exceed 10% on four of our contracts. we are required to do so whenever cumulative changes on a construction contract exceed 10% of the original contract value or duration. three of those contracts are in the san joaquin valley and those

make it challenging to make it -- to make it stay within those 10% limits. the total changes on all four contracts will be in the range of 3 million dollars to $3.5 million, so in the scheme of things, not incredibly large. there'll be schedule delays i will be seeking your approval for. the one good news is three of these four contracts are more than 95% complete. that should be the end of it. the fourth contract is to the% complete. to be followed up in april. with that, mr. secretary, if you would not mind turning on the computer. as the general manager indicated, this is in response to a request where we were to share with you an example of a situation where various elements of our program are to be used to resolve a challenging issue in

the field. this is a case study associated with the alameda site and number four project. here with us today is eric, the construction manager on this project, and he has been doing a remarkable job controlling our construction activities. he is one of the young city staff had a project in the field and has a very bright future for the organization. a recap here on the project -- this is a $61 million project that spans the valley, one of our most critical seismic reliability projects involving the construction of the seismically reliable conduit's across calaveras fault and tunneling under the sensitive

alameda creek. elements for the construction of 3,000 feet of 66 inch diameter pipe across the calaveras fault, including an engineering crossing over the fault. a new structure before it is delivered to our customers. new chemical interdiction facilities on the siphon floor. new isolation and valves to allow us to move water between the various siphons following a seismic event. to minimize the environmental impact on alameda creek, our construction contract specified the 550 foot segment of the new siphon to be located under the creek had to be built using a trench less technology. the contract specified the creek crossing is to be completed

prior to october 15th to make sure we met the requirements outlined in a permit issued by the california department of fish and game. the subcontractor performing the tunneling work mobilized on site on august 24th and actual micro tunnelling operations started on some timber eight. then on september 22, the first days following the operation with the micro boring machine, and the advanced further beneath the creek. what is shown here is a simplified diagram of the sequence that took place to resolve the issue. there were a number of meetings involving the contractor and the team that took place to deal with the issue.

we considered leaving the crossing as an open cut. we considered abandoning tunnelling operations. we also looked at an auction where we would take a smaller -- we looked at an option where we would did a smaller shaft. a decision was made within two days to pursue the last option. within a week, we were starting to dig their recovery shaft. in the meantime, we had contacted the california department of fish and game to ask for an extension of the october 15 deadline. that was granted. we had until november 30 to dig

in alameda creek. we also had an expert opinion to determine why the machine did break down. finally -- it was found that the gear box of the machine was defective and it was replaced. and the tunneling operation resume nine days later on october 15 and was completed on november 14, will before the new deadline by the permit agency. whenever a machine get stopped in at tunneling project, that is your worst case scenario. the fact that we were able to troubleshoot the situation within 24 days was pretty remarkable in my view. that shows that the measures put in place under our cm program were pretty effective.

i am pleased with the overall organized response, with all the parties involved and in the project together. we pulled onion power engineering team. we brought in project management. environmental compliance very early on. the contractor tried to work with us proactively on identifying the best course of action. i think that's finally this third party for tunneling consultant -- that was also a good decision. that person made the recommendation, despite the methodology that was going to be used in the tunneling operation. the cm program includes well

over 50 procedures. whenever staff or at consultant is added to the program, they are fully trained. they are expected to be familiar with all of them. the key function of some of these procedures involve business processes, some of which are automated, to our construction management information systems. there are some key figures that did come into play with the resolution of the tunneling issue. still, there are a number of reasons why this creaky enhances our ability to efficiently deal with issues like this one issues

like all our team's work in coordination with preestablished procedures. we have high visibility to all team members on important issues. we are able to follow these issues, the progress made on resolving them, from anywhere. it can be done. we can facilitate e functions such as court administration and -- key functions such as core administration. we promote a lot of pro active -- pro-active activity. i think, in yen, timely decision making and great cooperation were the key reasons we were able to resolve this so efficiently.

we recognize that we had a time line here. the fact that an established business processes also allow this to results as quickly. -- to resolve this quickly. vice president moran: first of all, congratulations on an excellent process, which i think is remarkable. he currently think the project is 82% complete. >> for essential completion, i guess. vice president moran: who covers the cost on the days that were lost? work started 24 days after the machine broke down. >> yes. do you want me to cover that

now? vice president moran: no. i want you to answer my question. the covers that cost? >> part of the answer is on this slide here. he immediately entered into an agreement -- be immediately entered into an agreement with the contractor. we did not spend a lot of resources trying to establish responsibility. we agreed we would share ongoing costs until we could determine responsibility. interestingly, we never did exercise the agreement because we quickly found out the reason for the breakdown. i was going to cover that later. basically, the breakdown was due to defective --