they authorize them to serve as an independent citizens audit review board. however it is dependent on the very department it oversees, the controlers office. goboc has no funds and no staff. they have no independent analysts or consultants. their secretary is paid by and reports to the controller. their emails are screened by the controlers secretary. public comments are edited to the point of censorship in the minutes. there's no way to contact the members without going through the controlers staff. and all reports go through one source, the controller. they need two things to oversee and even to advise the controlers whistleblower program. the first is more independence. and the second is a

whistleblower retaliation survey. thank you. supervisor farrell: thank you, next speaker. >> good morning supervisor. my name is patrick, i'm here as a private citizen. it's a shame that the 2010 annual report forwarded to this committee on january 13, 2010 took an entire year before this subcommittee is holding this hearing today. by contrast the 2009 annual report was scheduled at this subcommittee on april 8, 2010, just three months after it had been issued. a number of problems with goboc's report before you today. page two, programs indicates laguna honda's $183 million were mostly due to change overs.

referring to a footnote on page seven, that footnote is a place holder indicating it would include a summary of information from goboc march 2, 2010 minutes. but there is no. if you look at those minutes, they're a joke. my testimony was reduced to a single sentence that provided no data whatsoever. that $183 million cost over represent a 76.7% increase over the initial $401 million budget. and those change orders should have been reviewed closely by both this subcommittee and goboc. in fact, chair simmons had agreed with my testimony in 2010 that goboc should be charged with reviewing both the financial data of bonds, and change orders that could easily be sent from d.p.w. over to

goboc so that they could keep a close eye on those change orders as they're occurring. that is not mentioned in this report and i believe this subcommittee needs to take a more -- a closer look at change orders on every one of these projects. and they need to get these reports scheduled before you in a timely manner. supervisor farrell: thank you. any other speakers and public comment? >> good morning supervisors. i apologize for being late. i was held hostage on the meeting for the last hour. i worked laguna honda for 22 years before i became a whistleblower. i was pressured out of laguna honda and city employment by the administration at laguna honda. nothing in the employee hand book and the controlers website prepares us to become whistleblowers. and in our experience

unfortunately goboc, who oversees the program, knew even less about the unique and life changing experience of becoming a whistleblower than we did. over the past two years we've been a lot of research on this subject and would like to offer some suggestions. all new members should get some information beyond what the controller gives them. whistleblower advocacy groups should be giving information to all employees and also to perspective whistleblowers. the national whistleblower center has a guide book. a step by step guide to doing what's right and protecting yourself. the government accountability project guide book. corporate whistleblowers, survival guide, a hand book for committing the truth is another valuable resource. the government accountability project also puts out a free newsletter called whistleblower

news and finally the government accountability project has an introductional video on legal and ethical videos that includes a two hour educational film, and it's an excellent film. you can download it on the internet and it features whistleblowers, including daniel elseberg, the famous gentleman who leaked the pentagon papers, and who blew the whistle on bush's illegal wiretappings. this should be a must see. thank you very much. supervisor farrell: thank you, next speaker. >> good morning supervisors. i have lived here for 59 years. i would like to thank the committee under the leadership of supervisor campos for its aggressive work. i'm surprised he's not here, but

i guess that's the way things operate in city hall these days. you don't know who you can trust these days. anyway, i think that one of the benefits of today's hearing is that we're finally able to discuss laguna honda hospital. according to my research, it wasn't discussed very often in the past. and i have my own suspicions why it wasn't. also, my opinion general hospital is on schedule is because even they know they are being closely scrutinized. in fact, i'm kind of glad that they will meet its restraints because i will actually lose a financial bet and some of my friends back east will laugh at my face. they always constantly remind me

that since you're chinese should we trust in anything you say from san francisco. thank you. supervisor farrell: all righty. any other members of the public that wishes to speak? i'm sorry, we're allowed two minutes per person. look forward to it. any other members of the public that wish to speak on this matter? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues any comments? questions. thank you for coming and speaking with us and to members of the public that spoke as well. i have a feeling we'll be seeing you again before the end of the year. and look forward doing so in an ongoing dialogue. with that colleagues, could i have a motion to table this item, table this hearing? motion, take this without objection. motion is passed. can you please call item number two? >> ordinance amending the administrative call to reflect changes in job classification. supervisor farrell: thank you, and i believe we have mary howe

from our human resources department to speak with us. >> good morning supervisors. what you have before you today is just an update to the document that we filed in 2010 requesting classifications that have either been abolished because they haven't been used and also the increase of new classes. supervisor farrell: ok, thank you very much. colleagues, any questions? comments? all right, thanks for being here. let's open it up to public comment. anyone who wish to speak on this item? come on down. >> good morning supervisors. i'm actually surprised that we're going along at such a fast paced. i'm not prepared to say anything but i will say something. in regards to the job classifications and bargaining units, i feel that the union, even though it's done a lot of good has not adequately represented some classes of workers. according to what i've heard at

the sole service commission it seems like the union needs to do a better job and in a certain sense, i think that's something that maybe we could have a hearing on in the future as to whether workers are adequately being represented during the whole process of their employment history with the city. and then, also as part of that hearing we should make it clear there will be no such retaliation against anyone who speaks out. thank you. supervisor farrell: thank you. any other members of the public that wish to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues any comments? could i have a motion to move this forward to recommendation to the full board? motion by take that without objection. do we have any other items? >> no. supervisor farrell: thank you, this meeting is adjourned.

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>> public utilities commission, come to order. please call the roll. >> [calls roll] >> we have a quorum. >> we have the minutes of the december 13 meeting. are there any minutes or corrections? >> moved and seconded. those in favor? >> aye. >> the motion carries. >> we have no speaker cards for this. >> just two items to called your attention. we have in your communications at get something from september 13 and the urban agriculture project.

i wanted to encourage you to look at the letter as we look at valuation of those projects. the other item that was an opportunity to bid for a consultant worked. $1.5 million of a project that is going to civil service. in any of it -- any event, there may be an opportunity to partner with the department of the environment folks. i do not know that what happened or if it is the best solution, but it is an opportunity for the departments to work something out and i hope that that might happen. i wanted to call that your

attention. in terms of good news, there is some likelihood that i will be appointed to the full pucac and i will be able to serve you in that capacity as well. state to done that. >> more work. >> ok. >> you get more pay? >> it will double my salary from zero. more in a bit. [laughter] >> public comment. >> there are no speaker cards. >> moving on to communications, does the commission have any comments or questions on the items distributed as part of the package? is there any public comment on communications? seeing none, the next item is other commission business. do we have other commission business?

i see none. mr. harrington, the report of the general manager. >> we have two items on the counter -- on the calendar. before that, the first update, as you recall in december we adopted a new power rates for the departments of city -- departments of the city and county of san francisco. no one at the board has asked for a hearing or any other action on those items. if nothing else surprising happens in the next couple of days, those will be accepted. second, you may have heard a variety of things about candlestick park in terms of power. to be clear, the outside of candlestick park is handled by pg&e. the inside is handled by the recreation and park department. since we had some problems with the last football game out there, barbara and her folks

have been helpful in trying to work with everyone in the commission. the mayor asked the fire chief and me to put together a plan. we did that. pg&e has done a lot of reworking of the lines. we did a test between christmas and new year's. we did another test yesterday. everything is working well in up to speed. there should be no problems for this saturday game. again, our involvement is helping to see that it works for everyone. >> bill a commissioner be allowed to go? -- will the commissioner be allowed to go? [laughter] >> we may have some people at the boxes outside of the park. to see if they do anything. but that is possibly the worst place to see the game. third issue, we have included a

shutdown of the system. for the last couple of years we have been shutting it down in january for 30 to 45 days when usage is lower. the shutdown was supposed to be finished over the last couple of days, but when it came back up we had a gate problem. so, we have postponed the return until this saturday. it has taken a few days to get the gate up and running on a temporary basis. it is a gate valve that opens and closes. water is now flowing in should get here by saturday and should be fine. other than that, the next item is the water system program update. >> good afternoon, commissioners. happy new year. i would like to start today's

conversation with an update on the november 25 pipeline failure. this is the event was reported on at the last meeting. as you recall, we had independent commission review of the incident. it was performed by a reputable failure analysis firm. they've provided us with their findings on december 19. they concluded that the pipeline failure was due to insufficient restraint in a bolted coupling that misused in a service connection to the city of south san francisco. it was essentially a design error that was performed by the puc engineers. the report also identified two other contributing factors that may have contributed to a lesser extent. we have been diligently following up in taking the

necessary steps to ensure the quality of our internal designs. from this point on, all calculations will need to be reviewed by senior engineering staff. we met with moscow last week to discuss the findings of the report and the steps being taken. we are going to give the city council of the city of south san francisco an update tomorrow evening. on the overall progress and trends for the program with construction activities picking up in the next few months, will soon reach the peak of

construction. in general, i am really pleased with our progress. there are two projects in the region with cost trends indicating potential needs for additional funding. those will be the water treatment plant projects. unforeseen side conditions at of project sites, as well as scope changes at the treatment plants are the main reasons for these additional costs. i will keep you updated on the costs of these projects in upcoming reports. we have some very good news to report. since i last presented to you in september, we have reached substantial completion on the construction of two projects. we are also on track to reach final completion on the eastern bay division pipeline in

february. the reason why this is important to note is that this is the last local project to transition into risk -- construction. in my last update i mention significant challenges with the new irvington tunnel. there is no question that these challenges remain, but things are looking up at the moment. we are currently achieving constant production rates using three, not for headings. we are also being -- we are also keeping up with intrusion. as i mentioned before, we are seeing is some of the most challenging round condition experts that the industry has

seen. -- ground conditions that experts have seen in this industry. the bay tunnel boring machine is achieving production rates that are equal or exceed what was planned. we are working on a proposal with a contractor to reduce the size of the construction shack on the east side of the tunnel, -- shaft on the east side of the tunnel, which would result in potentially lower costs and less of an impact on the environment. that concludes my presentation. >> commissioners, any questions? >> we apparently have three more weeks to go. it will be an important milestone.

once we are under water, the risks will go up. >> i was trying to think of how to approach an issue and i appreciate your thinking on it now or later. this commission and staff spent a lot of time putting in place project management systems. this was in preparation for the program. we are now at the stage when those systems are being exercised. when stuff goes bump in the night. for those that have not been involved in that process, and perhaps some commissioners with certain members of the public have as well, but now is the time when something happens when you scratch your head and say -- could that have been prevented? is the response of vigorous

enough and thorough enough? i think that it might be worth a brief update, at some point, as to how staff deals with that kind of issue. perhaps using a case example of what happened, how does that react back to the original bid documents. just to talk us through that so that we and the public can understand what the process is and the intention being paid to that. >> a case study. >> if you find a rich case, that could be a good way to do it. you may have to invent one. >> i can think of a few already. >> that certainly has the truth

element to it. >> we will put it on the events calendar. thank you. >> mr. harrington? >> the second item, commissioner, you may want to introduce as part of the discussion about policy review to the budget. >> i will let todd make the presentation first. i will jump in and make comments after that. >> good afternoon, todd. -- afternoon. my name is todd. as we get ready to move into the next budget season, and i know you have received your package, u.s. to meet to review and summarize the key policies that you already have in place and hold staff accountable for implementing. you also wanted to look at a couple of additional ones this year, including a race policy.

the package before you is relatively thick, but there are only four slides that will be new materials to you. i will point those out quickly. the key policy areas that you already have as part of the puc budget are the environmental laws, community, and justice policies. we will point out some of the key areas that we put those policies in to practice. you also look at further land use policies, raise policies, and ratepayer accountability policies, says the be wisely used the ratepayer accountability moneys. i documented some of the key things that i've heard from you in staff. it is to help to guide in particular the budget priorities in the findings, providing context for budget hearings -- so that we can come to meet with you in prison

changes in the budget and you can see how they fit in reconciled to your policy, and then help the rate payers, as well as letting the public know that we are attempting to ensure stewardship. this helps us to align thinking, as well as budget deliberations, as well as helping to display when we meet with the bond oversight committee and the citizens advisory committee and others. the next several slides summarize those key budget policies, of which there are a number. i will just highlight a couple money to slide. the key ordinances', charter section, as well as in some cases the california constitution and government code. debt law is present as well. a policy that we adhere to it with requirements under the charter section, as well as the debt management policy did you have elevated as one of the

commission adopted policies. the other keep out -- a key policy -- the other key policy is the environmental justice and community benefit policy. adjusted in 2009 and 2011. but we discussed in december, as well as previously, is the race policy. we are currently responsible to adhering to the san francisco charter, the rates provision under the voter adopted mandate in 2002. we are as well subject to the california government code, another proposition in the public works code. however, that may not go far enough. you may want to consider further action. as we discussed in december, behind page 11, you may want to consider further adoption.

the commissioner comments regarding stakeholder input, we have met with the bond oversight committee in we are meeting with the rate fairness board this friday for their review. we are scheduling with the citizens advisory committee as well to have that input. we are also reaching out and will continue to do so with our customers for an important customer and put, which we would like. -- for important customer input, which we would like. this is a topic that has come up in how well we communicate what we do and how well we do it. earlier it was our comprehensive manual finance report. you have seen the popular annual finance report. we took many of the good works of other