really went forward with this ballot initiative, there are three things. the principal majority vote. i do believe that that is important. the notion of voter confusion is real. and it's funny. a lot of people come up and say gosh, who doesn't understand one, two, three? anecdotally, people are absolutely confused about how this works. i have people e-mailing me saying i didn't vote because i didn't like the system. i didn't know how it was going to be effective. there are obviously a lot of people that like ranked-choice voting, but the fact of the matter is a lot of people are confused. supervisor campos, i haven't seen two polls that say that people understand ranked-choice voting, and i have seen one that was 50/50, that said do you understand ranked-choice voting is the question, and most people

said yes. but i think most people say yes when they ask if they're able to understand something generically. the one poll i did see at the end of last year was all right, if your first, second, and third ballots -- choices are not on the ballots, what happens to your ballot? it's actually a question about ranked-choice voting. doesn't say do you understand it and kind of ask you to stand up for yourself. it says what happens in a scenario -- a pretty simple scenario. 30% got it dead wrong. 30%. 19% got it right. and 51% said i don't know. to me, that's a huge problem. a huge problem. on election day -- and i appreciate mr. hill's personal comments, as all, during these debates. on election day when we introduced this, we had a reporter out on the steps of city hall interviewing people who voted that day in city hall and said can you explain to me ranked-choice voting? all four people got it wrong.

all four people came up with different answers. but the most pressing thing for me, and everyone has their own reasons why they do things, but for me, the thing that bugs me the most is the notion of disenfranchisement. the last speaker talked about this a little bit. precincts from san francisco that are lower sose yo economic precincts, there is a much higher propensity to have their votes cast what are called overvotes. this is when you mark more than one person in the column. your votes are not counted three times. they're actually taken and basically thrown in the trash because they're marked wrong. it is the one definitive way to save voter confusion, when you mark your ballot wrong. your votes, your ballots are tossed in the garbage. and if district 10 was mentioned, in my supervisor race in 2010, almost 10 times more

ballots in district 10 than in district two were cast as overvotes. almost 3% of the ballots, 2.% of the ballots in district 10, in 2010 were overvotes. their votes were thrown away. and people talk about -- and i unction -- understand the argument, people talk about it's better to vote one time than it is twice and it's tougher to come out to vote. i understand that argument. but the argument that it's ok for certain people's ballots to get tossed in the garbage can because of ranked-choice voting to me doesn't hold water. there are groups and civil rights advocates that have fought for decades and so hard in this country for the right to vote and we are telling a number of those minority communities here in san francisco that it's ok that their ballots get tossed in the garbage can. for me, proponents of ranked-choice voting do not have a monopoly on the word democracy. to me, ranked-choice voting is the epitome of a system that is

anti-democratic because it's ok that a lot of people have their votes tossed away. to me, that is unacceptable. so i know the debate will continue, but i wanted to make sure i articulated by comments and the real reason behind what i am doing. i am putting forth amendments today, and to let the public know the three things they encompass. first of all, it is to move to a september 1 ballot and a november runoff. i agree, we've talked with a lot of people, a lot of stake holders who don't like voting in september, and quite frankly, i don't either. and to ruin holidays, to think that people will vote after thanksgiving, i don't want that. absolutely. this is for people who don't know this is exactly what the city of new york does, and so they modeled it after speaking with a number of people in new york and on their system. the second point is that in order for someone -- it is a traditional two-person runoff system.

in order for someone to get elected in the september race, it's not just 50%. they have to get 65% of the vote. we likely acknowledge that a september election is going to have less people. we want to have the runoff where there are going to be more people at the ballot. that that is the election where we have the runoff. and we want to make sure that unless there's a clear, clear frontrunner in september, there is a two-person runoff. and lastly, we made the amendment that it's not going to take place and be effective until the year 2013, so it won't affect this year's supervisor races in november. so colleagues, you have those amendments in front of you, and i'd ask for your support to make these amendments today. supervisor kim: thank you, supervisor farrell. so supervisor farrell has made amendments to his legislation. we have a motion to accept these amendments, and we can do that without opposition. because these amendments are substantive, we will continue it to next thursday's rules

committee as well, and as supervisor campos has mentioned, i think it's appropriate to continue both of these items so they can be heard and voted on at the same time. can we have a motion to continue items four and five? supervisor campos? supervisor campos: excuse me, i have a motion, but i do want to make a comment. and i think it's really important as we go forward with this discussion to keep it in mind. i think that it's important for all of us to recognize that reasonable people can disagree on something like this. and i don't think it's really a good thing for either side to question the motives that are involved. and i think that everyone here has a good public policy reason that they're proposing as to why they're doing what they're doing. and i don't think that we should

personalize what someone is doing and why they're doing it. and like wise, in terms of voter participation, i take everyone here in this room at their word when they say they want the maximum extent of voter participation possible. as a person of color, i support ranked-choice, but i will be the last person to in any way condone anyone's ballots or votes motte being counted. to the contrary. the reason that we are focusing on voter education is because we want to maximize that. so i think it's important for us to recognize that we can agree to disagree, but at the end of the day, the objective, i think, is the same. so i think it's really important to keep that in mind as we move forward with this discussion. supervisor kim: i know that we will be continuing this to next

week, so i'll reserve most of my questions and comments then. but i do want to appreciate the point that was made here. i think it's important to address the actual issue. clearly the issue is are we maximizing voter turnout. do voters understand the voting and election process. how do we make sure that as many people as possible are able to vote, feel educated and comfortable with the voting system and that the candidates that are elected really reflect the top choice of the district or the city. and so i really appreciate all the authors who have put forward amendments here today. furthering how they think we may achieve this outcome. also we'll be looking at the fiscal impacts. do we have a motion to continue items four and five? we do, and we can do that

without opposition. colleagues, are there any other comments on items four and five? seeing none, madam clerk, is there anything else on the agenda? >> no, madam chair. supervisor kim: thank you. meeting is adjourned. >> the next time you take a muni bus or train, there could

be new technology that could make it easier to get to your destination. many are taking a position of next bus technology now in use around the city. updated at regular intervals from the comfort of their home or workplace. next bus uses satellite technology and advanced computer modeling to track buses and trains, estimating are bought stocks with a high degree of accuracy. the bus and train our arrival information can be accessed from your computer and even on your cellular phone or personal digital assistant. knowing their arrival time of the bus allows riders the choice of waiting for it or perhaps doing some shopping locally or getting a cup of coffee. it also gives a greater sense that they can count on you to get to their destination on time. the next bus our arrival information is also transmitted to bus shelters around the city equipped with the next bus sign. riders are updated strictly

about arrival times. to make this information available, muni has tested push to talk buttons at trial shelters. rider when pushes the button, the text is displayed -- when a rider pushes the button. >> the success of these tests led to the expansion of the program to all stations on the light rail and is part of the new shelter contract, push to talk will be installed. check out the new technology making your right easier every making your right easier every day

oh, my! haa ha ha! ha hha ha! [snortg] >> good afternoon. now like to call the january 24 meeting of the public utilities commission to order. secretary, would you call the roll? [calling roll] i expect vice-president torres to be joining us shortly. >> we will go into closed session at the beginning of the meeting.

any public comment on the items listed in closed session? he none, can have a motion? >> so move. a-- seeing none, can i have a motion? >> conference of legal counsel anticipated litigation is council of bill legal counselor. conference with legal counsel existing litigation as defend iant fontana v city and county f san francisco. government code se >> we are now live. [inaudible]

president moran: we are back in open session. the commission met in closed session and took no action on items 5, 6, and nine. the commission did approve settlements on items 7 and 8. can i have a motion as to whether disclose discussion during closed session? >> motion not to disclose. >> second. >> motion carries. -- president moran: motion carries. mr. secretary, if you would call item 12. >> item 12, approval of the minutes. approval of the minutes of the january 10, 2012, regular meeting. president moran: any revisions or corrections to the minutes? could i have a motion?

to go so move. >> second. -- >> so moved. president moran: all those in favor? motion carries. >> item 13, public comment. this opportunity is members of the public may address the commission on matters that are within the commission's jurisdiction that are not on today's agenda. i have no speaker cards so far. president moran: mr. acodecosta , welcome. >> happy new year. i think 2012 is going to be a very challenging year and a good way. i am here to talk about the san francisco redevelopment agency,

and at some of the changes that are being fostered. not because the city needs it, but because the state demands that somebody take charge of the assets and a one ever has been grandfathered in. so they have to do it rather quickly. after the martin luther king holidays we did not get sufficient time when the meeting was held for some sort of resolution being presented. today that same resolution will be before the board of supervisors, and if they vote on it, then all of the details will be taken care of. and whether you like it or not, and i am talking about the san

francisco public utilities commission, with all that's happening with the america's cup, this, that, and the other, the larger properties of mission bay, hunters point, candlestick point, comes under your jurisdiction or one way or another. whether it is you wersewer, clen water, and also, energy. even transportation effects you in one way or another because of the infrastructure. so because every development has gone away, other large parties are primed to come in, if they have the money some of which they do in some cases.

in so i am here to say that with a sewer system improvement project, which is in our backyard, and with whatever else is happening, sfpuc is poised to have san franciscans, because we know the training was done and a lot of money came from the redevelopment and other enterprise agencies are going to have changes there. and so i am here to request that the southeast sector is taken care of so that we have people with skills to do the right thing when the right time comes. thank you very much. president moran: and you. any additional public comment? -- thank you. seeing none, communications. we have a fairly rich set of

communications that have been provided to the commission with this agenda. faugh foon item three, a quartey report on the waste water improvement projects, i know it does combine the interim cip and anticipated ssip. that is something we requested, and i appreciate you doing that. that is something we were asked to develop under recent. that is something very positive. i appreciate that. >> on the same topic, page 10 of that report, ongoing construction. i wanted to ask about the cost variants, which is almost 11 percent signed.

-- 11%. that would be the figures on page 11. >> page 11 is blank. >> let's see. capital improvement programs. that is quite a bit. why is it so much?

>> do you have this report? item 14, 3c and under tab 2, page 10 and 11. i think i can answer it. and there are two big things. the single biggest thing is $7 million. originally we were going to do this in two different phases. we record to do an underground portion, and then we were going to do a trench on another portion of it, and this came to the commission two or three meetings ago where we said this micro tunneling went so well that by continuing to continue to do micra tunneling and bringing in a new contract would

save us time and money, so we amended the old contract, which is the reason for $7 million. but we figured it would probably cost us 8 million or $9 million to have an outside contractor do that, and we would have to stop the entire process. that is the major portion. >> see, we do look at these things. [laughter] president moran: it is a format that point out things like that. where things are happening, and makes it clear they are happening. >> for that one change, the real variants stake here is more along the lines of 2%, right? -- the real variant figure at stake here is more along the lines of 2%, right?

president moran: any other comment on the communications? >> thank you for catching that item. this is a really comprehensive projects under way. it is very helpful. i assume it is on the website. perhaps people >> any other public comment? commissioners, is there any other commission business? >> without any, the report of the general manager. >> good afternoon. we have two items today.

first is a short update of where we are. >> as part of today's agenda, we're going to seek your approval for the clothes out of two regional project. i would like to give you a progress update on the challenges that have been encountered in the last two weeks, starting with that eastern segment of the pipeline currently on my radar screen. there are two issues that could lead to potential schedule delays. one is the potential delay of fabrications -- fabrication of the pipes and the other is the need to secure a missing environmental permit from fish and game.

we have a project tracking these issues and i am confident we will be able to mitigate these issues and the overall project schedule will not be delayed, but i wanted you to be aware. i want to keep you apprised of two of the most challenging progress issues. it continues to average 40 feet a day, which is projected in our schedule. we are not falling back schedule-wise, but we are not able to make up with those rates, leaving us what about six months behind schedule. the good news is that in the last two weeks, we have had to use less ground water and this is a good sign we may be able to start making up time. at the dam site, the deep soil mixing work that was needed to

stabilize one of the areas where we will be disposing some of our soil, that work is going well and will be done the first week of february. the actual excavation of the dam will begin in earnest the second week of february, and this is what we will start blasting. for your information, we could be blasting several times a week for a couple of years. bade division pipeline no. 5 -- they were continuing to make good progress on all remaining change east bay segments so that we can declare a final completion in march. on the peninsula segment contract, we are 85% complete. welding repair work is progressing as planned. on monday, we will issue an

order for the tunnel under a large archeologist -- archaeological site. this will proceed in the next few months and it is projected to be completed at the end of april. we had a record day last week and we were able to make 160 feet advanced and one day. we had to go through a curve and we have the entire trailing year, we are very optimistic in our ability to achieve great production rates. yesterday was the first major day of the shutdown. while it is not operational, we wanted to use the opportunity to show you the photos that show the extent of work taking place. it's hard to see -- we want to

actually go the other way. that doesn't count for my five minutes, does it? maybe we will forget about this. it's better for us. this whole area is where the wall is built and where we will be building the treated water reservoir. in this area here is where we are going to be building new filters. this does not do it justice, but these are like little bulldozers and they look like ants on these photographs. this is another photo of the basins which are now totally

demolished and getting ready to add new filters installed. watts of work taking place. i wanted to close by giving you an update on the project -- we're going to finish the design of the connection that failed in november by the end of this week. we have yet to schedule the work in the field but a new connection should be installed by the end of june. all lot of efforts have been spent trying to clean up the area in south san francisco. that work will be completed by the end of this week. that's all i have. >> commissioners, any questions? >> the second