supervisor avalos: the prop k funds, that was approved about seven years ago or so. is that a specific amount that can be only used for treatment? is there flexibility on that allegation? >> as with most of the prop k funds, there are a lot of little buckets that the money flows through. i believe the treatments money that we have is solely for tree maintenance. supervisor avalos: how much is that? five under thousand dollars? >> yes, around five and a thousand dollars, $600,000 -- $500,000, $600,000. supervisor avalos: is there any way to use sewer fees because there is an impact on run off? perhaps if the board had the ability to reprogram puc money

-- i am not sure if there is anything available for that, but could that be a source of funding for purposes of restoring our sewer system, maintaining runoff, that can go into our ground water, tree maintenance, preventing the sewer system from being overburdened by rain. >> it is a great question. in order to use those funds -- many to be a direct nexus established. you could establish that nexus and the stormwater benefit. we would probably have to undertake some analysis to establish that texas. then it is a matter of lying for the funds in the sewer system. as you know, the sewer system has a backlog, just as our

streets do. they do not have the funds are now to adequately be ride the restoration and repair its -- provide the restoration and repair they need. diverting some of that money to treatments, while it may be a legitimate use of repair funds, would we in the sewer system. certainly a conversation that we could have with the puc. supervisor avalos: maybe we can bring our offices together. maybe that is something that supervisor weener wants to weigh in on as well. he has expressed an interest in that as well. >> i will follow up with the puc today. supervisor avalos: ok, well, i want to thank everyone for their comments and for dissipation in today's hearing. clearly, the comments were

overwhelmingly, completely from people concerned about our forest, a canopy, concerned about the direction that the city is going in right now with relinquishment of street tree maintenance. that is something alarming. i know this plan has been coming forward for a while. i have been concerned about it. i think it makes some sense to figure out how we can prevent that from happening and look at, in the short term, proposals -- perhaps to have 11 fte's. to have those maintain would be a short-term goal. to have a longer-term goal, how we can find a revenue source that could be available to maintain.

the benefits are clearly a great and numerous to the city oand county of san francisco. i appreciate the friends of the urban forest also talking about the community benefit, not just the individual benefit, having a tree in front of their property. i'm looking for to what we can do with the current budget to the least alleviate the immediate need to of aggression our responsibility for the street tree program. >> if i may, we share the love and passion for the urban forest. that is a core part of our mission. it is a clear responsibility laid out in the public works code. it is our responsibility. so in terms of the importance of the larger community benefits of, environmental benefits,

economic benefits and, we see it as an important part of the city's infrastructure, something we want to maintain in the best way that we can. i just want to affirm that we are coming from the same place. i do want to mention what we are proposing here, which might be unfortunate but necessary, given the state of our resources, given the state of inequity that currently presides -- resides, we do think it is the responsible thing to do. we are not proposing a radical shift for the urban forest. two-thirds of the street trees in san francisco today are the responsibility of private property owners. so in most cases, that is already where the

responsibility lies. so we are now proposing a massive shift of responsibility. we are kind of enjoying more in a direction that we have already established -- supervisor avalos: i agree with that, but i do not think there is a real consciousness about property orders are informed about their responsibility, or when they do not have the ability to physically do the care, have ways to get it done and the city still able to step in when they cannot do it. an aide to be a system for that to work. it does not seem like we are quite there. i would like to see, before we go through any relinquishing, if that can be explored. i know this is something you are probably concerned about. i appreciate your dedication as a public servant. i understand dpw is stretched

thin, but we would appreciate an conversation about how we might do that. >> we have striven through our community court or programs, sidewalk improvement programs, recently come out of reach with trees, helping people to understand their responsibility. everybody is responsible for the sidewalks already. it is just that one-third of the trees are taken care of by the city. you are right, people do not understand their responsibility. we have been working hard to make sure that they do. supervisor avalos: and in a way, when the city cannot step in to support, either with advice, training, or actual services itself of street tree maintenance, it would be important to have some sort of hybrid approach instead of pulling back completely. i think we need to maintain a level of staffing to make that happen. >> we have been working to

provide good information and not just on the trees that are your responsibility, but here is how to care for it, here are some resources. we will also still do emergency repair, inspections. those things will not go away. i just want to clarify the point, most street trees are ready and they are generally being maintained by private property owners. that is not to say we do not believe, which we do -- some members of the public indicated, to make sure that all the trees are uniformly cared for, for dpw to provide that service through a dedicated source of revenue. that would be what is best for the urban forest. we concur with that as well. just, absent the funding sources, it is not something we can do. even with the 11 arborists we

have today, we are not nearly adequately maintain just those. we probably need three times as many arborists to be near that 5% of average cycle to prune. we would need triple of what we have today just to maintain the one third we have. supervisor avalos: when was the last time we had -- i remember in 2005, i was working on legislation about trees. >> i think we've provided data going back a few years. we have been cutting for the past three years because we have run out of other places to cut. i guess i just wanted to caution, even if we were to find funds from the puc or wherever, to get back to 11, we feel it would be appropriate to pursue

rather than the course of relinquishing. it will take a long time to happen. we can only do it as the trees are prepared to do so. the sooner we can get real funding in place to fully maintain our forest, the sooner we can stop -- supervisor avalos: we are going to end hearing very soon, but i think if we could look at some hybrid approach, a joint response. as a person mentioned folsom street, there are some trees that are very difficult for property owner to maintain because of their size. those protected by the city. the city maintaining that it is probably what makes sense. i have a small tree in front of my house and i can easily maintain it. that is something that is

completely viewable. but there are probably hundreds of others who have a tree in front of their house that cannot do that. they need an option. i can see the property owner had been added responsibility, and also for the city. that is where i wanted to go. thank you. if there are no other comments from colleagues, we can adjourn this hearing. maybe we can set up a meeting with friends of the urban forest to talk about this in the future. appreciate it. this is the last item. we will continue this item to the call of the chair. we are returned, thank you. -- adjourned. thank you.

>> from our new headquarters building. the sfpuc is used to doing things. we build and maintain dams,

treatment plants, transmission lines, water and sewer mains. at the same time, our staff has always been in rented headquarters. we thought it was time to own that, too. this is the time and place, 525 golden gate. this is a milestone in the project for building. in about 30 years, we will have paid off the building, and then it will be free to our ratepayers. it makes sense for them and also makes sense for green purposes. this will be one of the most sustainable buildings anywhere around. it is going to generate power and also used 55% less power than and regular building. ed will send off more non- potable water for more uses in the area. it will be a wonderful thing to

live around and be involved in. we are celebrating this topping off. we have done some research. topping off ceremonies started back in roman times. people would have a ceremony when they finished building the roof of a house. as they finished, it was traditional to put an evergreen tree on the final game, signaling the finish of the infrastructure and construction. that is what we're doing today. you will notice of a lot of signatures on a banner that was attached to them being, because we have a lot of excited employees who could not be here today. hopefully, all of you have a chance to sign that beam and see that evergreen tree that symbolizes the sustainability of our building and the good fortune of having completed the building. the first person i want to

introduce is a person who has been involved in this building probably longer than any of us. at one time, this was not even going to be a pc building. dpw was going to do a lot of things for the city. back then, as director of dpw, mr. lee was responsible for doing that. now as mayor, he gets to sign the top off. [applause] >> thank you and good morning to this topping off. when ever you get three eds and an andy to gather you are going to have fun. i want to thank the pc for its leadership. they are leading the way in this building and in so many other things. -- the puc for its leadership. they have a tremendous amount of jobs on the street right now keeping the city alive, moving

forward with labor unions. i want to thank webcor, dpw, department of the environment, working together under the puc commission to make this building come together. i just signed my name on that last iron been going up. i wanted to make sure that i was recognized at this moment because it was one of the few times that a former public works director can actually have permission to do graffiti. but it is for a good cause. i know it represents so much of a great energy that has been poured in. it is lede platinum. that is a standard for the future. it is one of the few buildings we will see in our immediate lifetime -- but to get it started on this -- and to have it contribute to a sustainable area called the civic center, to

have this corner of our civic center be an example and model, i want to congratulate everyone who has been associated with making this happen. i know public works people have been working closely with staff at the puc, department of environment making sure that everything from energy use to the water is at a high standard. it is my pleasure to be here. we are so enthusiastic about this being the new standard and also a great building that our employees will be proud to work in. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, mayor lee. our puc commissioners are the ones that actually make the decision about this building. all of them are here with us.

the president of the department. [applause] >> thank you. it is an honor to be here for this topping ceremony. i want to thank my fellow commissioners who are here and also it knowledge a former commissioner, f.x. crowley, who was formally on the commission, who has helped. this will be one of the greatest municipal buildings in the country, if not the greatest. i have to refer to my notes because some of these stats are pretty incredible. this building will design 55% less energy than most office buildings anywhere. that is one-third less energy than most buildings consume. over the next seven to five years, it will save an estimated $180 million in energy costs.

that is a lot of money that will be saved by our ratepayers. we also talked about the reclaimed water. all of the sewage will be treated on site, as well as the gray water. that means all of the demand for the low flow toilets and your girls -- urinals will be met, and over 700,000 gallons of water will be saved annually. it will also save an additional 900,000 gallons that we are using at the sustainability district. it is a significant water savings that we need to pursue throughout the city. i also want to thank the mayor for his leadership on this. beginning in his early dpw days. dpw, p u c, department of environment staff, everyone who has worked so hard on this -- i remember, it must have been 12 years now when we were first identifying different pilot

projects through the city that could be brain model the. this was one of the building that they identified. -- green modeled. it is so rewarding to see this be realized as one of the greatest buildings in the country. thank you for coming and we look forward to moving in next year. -- greenest buildings in the country. >> other members of the commission, andy moran, art kane is here, various members of the puc, the general manager for water, power, waste water, business services, and juliet ellis, external affairs. one of our stars is shelly campbell, our product manager. thank you. [applause]

we're also joined by the department of the environment had. -- hea. d. we are going to wait for the fire trucks to go by. this started with the dpw project and we are a client now representing the dpw is ed riskin. >> thank you. as the general manager and commission president referred to, dpw has been with this project for over a decade it has really become a labor of love for the department. it is an extraordinarily complex building project, unlike our typical library or fire station that we work on. and it is not because of the exceedingly high environmental performance, but exceedingly

high seismic performance, business continuity performance. this will be one of the most advanced office buildings in the country. it is really a great partnership that we have working with the puc to make this happen, but also with our private sector partners, kmd stevens, webcor and their construction team. it has been a collaborative effort. we are proud of the fact that we are not only getting this great building built that will serve the city for generations to come, but in doing it, we are putting a lot of local businesses and residents to work in the process. it is really a win win. i want to commend the general manager and commission for their bitter ship and foresight in seeing after this project had been stalled for many years, seeing this was a great investment for the repairs and people of san francisco.

it was the smart thing to do. we are righproud to be part of . i want to thank the work of the rest of the pc team to get this done. starting with a man who is living and breathing this, has been for years, our project manager brooke. [applause] he is working closely with edgar lopez, who manages all of our major projects, but was here pretty much from day one. they are being supported by our city engineers and the rest of the department coming together to deliver a great project to the ratepayers of san francisco. we're so happy to be a part of this. congratulations to the puc on

getting to this point, the topping off ceremony. [applause] >> as the owners, we are certainly willing to move in, but we are not building the building. representing the builders is andy of webcor. [applause] >> it is great to be here. most people do not realize this building almost did not happen. i was at a green building conference and i ran into mayor gavin newsom. he said, we are not going to build that building. we cannot afford to. i said, mayor, you cannot afford not to. this building will be an example of what all cities should build. with the energy savings that were mentioned, this building will be like no others. when the city starts to operate, they will say, why did we not do this before? it is a wonderful thing for the environment, the city, a wonderful thing for us being

chosen as a builder. i am wearing a hard hat because i am a contractor, that is what we do. i want to thank my team. they are doing a wonderful job. [applause] recognize that this is not an easy building. it is a innovative and complex structure. the first time it has been done here. there is a very sophisticated mechanical system. we have some great consultants here. it is always a pleasure to work with a team at the department of public works. you are wonderful to be with. edgar, we have done this before. brooke, you as well. ed harrington, when he came into

this position, he said this building would be too much. we brought it down to $140 million, kept it as lede platinum. everyone on this team is absolutely first class. it is a pleasure partner with the city. we are in good hands with mayor lee. he recognizes the importance of this kind of structure and it is always great to work with the city of san francisco and the mayor's office. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. just in time, the son has come out. mayor lee will lead us in having the crane operator bring a the beam up. >> everybody, on three, we are going to have frankie bring it up. we are going to say frankie,

bring it up! >> frankie, bring it up! [applause]