please? >> president torres? >> here. >> vice president courtney? >> here. >> commissioner moran? >> here. and commissioner [speaker not understood]? >> here. >> commissioner caen. >> right on time. >> and commissioner vietor is on her way. >> all right, we're ready to go. i think on item number 3 we have a comment from ms. hood.

>> yes, i have placed on your chairs an e-mail from someone with some proposed me minutes to the amendments for your consideration. >> all right. without objection those amendments will be accepted. and i think we can vote on it as amended, correct? >> yes. >> all right. i'll move it. >> moved by commissioner moran. seconded by commissioner courtney. call the roll. >> president torres? >> aye. >> vice president courtney? >> aye. >> commissioner caen? >> here. >> commissioner vietor? >> present. >> commissioner moran? >> yes. >> all right. motion carries. we'll interpret the present vote as an aye vote. the issue we talked about is just resolved by your vote. aerth great. i thought it was roll call. >> all right. i think we're ready for public comments.

>> mr. de costa gave you a card. >> yes, i have mr. de costa's card. but you wanted to talk on item 4, mr. de costa, or public comment at the beginning? public comment. i mentioned it on my card. >> oh, okay. i want to wish you all a happy new year. >> and to you as well. and i also wanted to wish you all peace of mind and good health in the year 2013. and the reason why i say that is there's a lot of work to do when it comes to our infrastructure because we have a lot to learn from what happened on the east coast with hurricane, hurricane sandy. and people are documenting a lot of the damage done to the, to the infrastructure. and as you know, the impact was

far inland, you know, affected new york, the subway and so on and so forth. why am i saying that? because even as we are satisfied with the rain in this region, the sea level rise is being closely monitored by the scientists and there are many reports out there. and i think that somehow in some way with noaa and other agencies that provides some empirical data, we have to closely monitor the impacts. now, i did visit the highway when some of the infrastructure was exposed. and in all our deliberations with the sewer system improvement project and our

infrastructure, i don't know if you commissioners are paying attention or want to shift some of the infrastructure inland while we are working on the infrastructure right now, making plans, rather than waiting for something really drastic to happen. because i was watching all the experts on the east coast say that they never, ever expected to tackle the problems that they are supposed to tackle now. they don't have the money. i mean, there's money there, but the money is not available quickly. i doubt we'll have all the money available quickly. so, i'm interested in infrastructure. and because i'm interested in infrastructure, i'm bringing this to your attention.

the other thing is there's a lot of talk about open space and greening, and some of the projects and some of the programs have come before you and you've given your blessing. and i want to encourage you to follow-up on those programs and projects and make them happen as quickly as possible. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. i know i speak on behalf of the commission and staff of the public utilities commission in congratulating supervisor david chiu on his reelection to an unprecedented third term as president of our board of supervisors. congratulations, david, and we look forward to working with you as well as with the rest of the board of supervisors. >> here, here. >> dr. espanola jackson. good afternoon, and happy new year. >> and to you as well.

is david chiu here? >> i congratulated him in the virtual world. oh, i congratulate him, too. one of the things that i want to talk about is southeast community college. we're having a lot of problems there. and one of those problems is that -- i don't know if i mentioned it to you or not, but i mention it had to others -- about turf in my community. and the turf means -- a lot of people say gangs. we don't have gangs in bayview hunters point. i want you to understand this very closely. we have turf. what turf means is that within a circle in the areas up in bayview hunters point, these young people cannot go beyond four blocks of where they live or they will be killed, shot, or beat upon. we've had programs that were taken upbringing our children

from up on the hill down to the college for them to be educated. they want to be educated. we worked out some of the plans for -- because i met with the college trustees and i will be meeting with them again on thursday. there are a lot of promises have been made to the trustees about what puc would do, but nothing has been done. and what i'm here is to talk about -- to see that things get started because school starts next monday. and i've asked one of the trustees to come and speak with you also on public comment. and the other concern that i have, great concern, is that the college itself. the college had 33,000 square feet of space when they opened up in 1986. now, because of some politicking and playing went

on, they are down to 17,000 feet, square feet. that college should be all 33,000 square feet for the classes that we had that was given to other colleges. and the programs are coming back. i've talked with of the trustees and they are willing and their sending some of our programs back, and they all are coming back and we want an addition of services in my community because they cannot go outside of the area. so, what bothered me was that when the black human rights leadership council held a meeting and it was stated that you all want to charge like, when they get started there, they were saying $3 a square foot and you're jumping from $3 to over $9 a square foot. one was $3 square foot and you

jump $11 a square foot. that is crazy. you have services that we need in the community and you want to charge these people all of this amount of money to help our children there in bayview hunters point. and if you read, we have 80% of our children are drop-outs. we need to get them educated and trained especially with the ged and the projects we have coming in. i just want you all to have a meeting on this. talk to me and tell me why you want to do to my community. thank you. >> thank you very much, dr. jackson. mr. richard kronig, sheet metal workers 104, and anthony rabino, also with sheet metal workers 104. welcome. thank you.

i'm anthony rabino, 104 local workers in san francisco. can you pass this out to the commissioners, please? a letter here, directed to [speaker not understood]. depending on a couple jobs here jlc 39-35 [speaker not understood]. protest the award of any contractor who utilizes american mechanical services of walnut creek. we here by request that the san francisco public utilities commission declare that american medical service of walnut creek is not a responsible bidder. our basis for this request is that -- is evidence that the american mechanical services of walnut creek has not paid correct prevailing wage to sheet metal workers on the following projects. new city office for the city of orinda, maxine health center for the city and county of san francisco, laboratory and office for alameda counties, [speaker not understood] ranch in [speaker not understood] for

unified school district. el cerito [speaker not understood]. enclosed are copies of the complaints against american mechanical services of walnut creek. this information is a matter of public record and is evidence of american mechanical services of walnut creek violation of public work laws. this information is for you guys. >> thank you very much. mr. dell kelly, what is the process we follow for prospects that don't follow the prevailing wage? >> i would probably want to have noreen to maybe jump? in on this. one issue is standing. * so, one issue is does the union actually have standing in complaining on an award. so, that's the first issue. the second is we have to have a due process making sure the allegations are true and i think that we are in the

process of looking through that. i would probably defer to is ivy here? maybe you can come up. >> there isn't a process whereby you check ahead of time to determine whether a contractor is eligible to bid because they haven't supported prevailing wage? >> , vy kline, manager of the contracts administration bureau. we go through a bid process to check to ensure that all licenses are up to date and valid. in this particular instance, i'm going to need to do some research to see whether or not the subcontractor is even on any of our job contracts. the two that the gentleman named, where are they in the process -- >> isn't it responsible for the general contractor to make sure that any subcontractors follow the law? >> it is,ing and we do our own

independent check to make sure that all licenses are valid and in place. >> okay. so, when can you get back to us on what's been done on this issue? >> i can get back to you by the next commission meeting. or would you like it sooner? >> i would like it sooner in writing if you could. that would be great. i mean, did you have a comment? >> i want to say i wasn't aware of this issue previously and i'll follow-up as well with respect to the request, which is that this commission declare this contractor as not a responsible bidder. there is in the packet some evidence that in the city, the office of labor standards enforces the prevailing wage laws. it would appear from their package that they found that this company did violate the prevailing wage requirement on a city job. and, so, ivy and i and harlan need to work together to investigate this further and we can advise you what your options are.

>> well, our options are, number one, the existing law, is it not? the prevailing wage? >> compliance with the law is existing, but in terms of what your options with respect to whether or not you can anticipate that this contractor would again breach that requirement, what your remedy is for their action. >> right now you have to research the law to see what the remedy is? >> right. what your options are in terms of precluding them from bidding on your contracts in the future. i mean, you'd essentially be excluding them or finding them to be less qualified because of this prior error. and i can't tell you without investigating the circumstances to know what limitation you can put on their ability to bid on city contracts. >> my comment is if you're violating the law, you shouldn't benefit? >> if you are found to have violated the law previously, it doesn't mean that you're necessarily automatically precluded from bidding on other

public works. >> [speaker not understood] of time, then? >> right. there is a process and an investigation that you would have to go through to declare them ineligible to bid on future work. and since i just saw this here, i wouldn't want to say anything, you know, conclusive about what the options are. but we will look at it and get back to you. >> is five working days too much to ask? >> i can start inquiring now. >> i think we can get back to you on the topic. so, you know, there have been a lot of situations where companies haven't paid prevailing wage and in different situations it was, you know, jurisdictional issues. like a laborer carries a hammer. at the wrong actual scale. so, it is a, you know, a violation of not paying the right prevailing wage. so, i think we want to work with office of labor standard and kind of determine the

severity of what was done and come back to you as soon as possible. we'll try to get back to you in five days. >> all right. [speaker not understood] to you as well. i know you sent the letter as well. [inaudible]. >> all right. >> would you like to reiterate the comments of my colleague? >> are you mr. konig? i am. i'm richard konig [speaker not understood]. as well as training generations of sheet metal workers throughout the san francisco bay area since 1903. as you know i'm standing before you today to protest the sfpuc's possible hvac award to american mechanical based on the compliance and violations against them. the reports that you have that we provided clearly show that american mechanical has neglected to pay workers the correct wages in over time and they also have neglected to use

state certified [speaker not understood]. we are requesting that the sfpuc dismiss american mechanical as a contractor on the grounds of being an irresponsible bidder. the nonunion will stand here all day long and they will promise to pay the prevailing rate. they will promise to honor over time rules, and they will promise to use apprentices, local apprentices on public works projects. but as you see, the evidence shows otherwise. local 104 is happy to provide the sfpu crushtion with a list of responsible prevailing sheet metal workers to provide the best trained and highly skilled and localized work force the industry has to offer. [speaker not understood] and consider our request in the name of labor harmony and rights for all construction workers. we look forward to working together with the sfpuc to achieve these objectives. thank you very much. >> thank you very much, mr. kronig. our best to mr. wood as well,

mr. ward rather. yes. >> mr. kronigi if you wouldn't mind, because i did have a chance to look at these documents and i do understand that it's ms. ambrose's expertise. [speaker not understood] as well as our own office of labor enforcement, the issue that you just raised that i think would resonate with our committee work force and our community partners is the apprenticeship issue. a contractor who fails routinely, whether intentionally or unintentionally to engage in appropriate apprenticeship program denies our community work force, specifically local residents, an opportunity to find a career path into the building trades, whether that be the laborers, carpenters, electricians or sheet metal workers. i know -- i know enough about

apprenticeship programs to speak about them. we have our own and we are actually quite successful at employing high numbers of local residents. i would want to ask you, can you develop just a little bit on this particular contractor and those failures and what efforts you've made to try to invigorate their enthusiasm for hiring folks that live in the city and county of san francisco? well, speaking on behalf of american mechanical, i think the documents speak for themselves. the violation are in black and white. failure to pay prevailing wage, over time, under payment of prevailing rate, not using registered apprentices on these projects. as far as local 104, we recruit our apprentices from the local community colleges, from the local high schools. we have applications for the apprenticeship program, the first and third tuesday of the month right here at 1939 market street. we've been training the

apprentices in san francisco since 1903. and i think our record stands for itself. our contractors are required to hire apprentices in the collective bargaining agreement. so, we comply -- our contractors comply with prevailing rate whether they're working on a public project or a private project. >> thank you. thank you. >> please let mr. ward know and your other leadership that we will follow through on this recommendation and to make sure due process allot today all the parties in this issue. we'll report back to you. thank you. mr. robert woods. welcome. good afternoon. i'm robert woods and i'm here to talk on behalf of the

southeast facility renaissance, one of the agencies that's building there that rent is being increased. we're talking about a service that mostly these nonprofits, they get very -- they get acknowledged on very few city contracts. and these are the same people that are providing service in the community. and if the rent goes up, we lose the service. the community can't lose a service right now. and if you look at what those agencies are providing out there, it is life-saving. they're not there because they are there making a lot of money. and when you're talking about providing service, if the city doesn't support these agencies, then they cannot expand.

we're talking about in the next 20 years. we're talking about as many as 20,000 youtubetionv its going to be built out there. and we're talking about services for 2013, the services, the building that were built out there were built for 1986. * units and the population is getting ready to grow out there. i think you need to be thinking about expanding the facility that serves the community out there. it's very much needed. and if you look at what they're pro aloud deucing out there and what they're doing, and if you look at what the community is getting, they're not getting the buck. * producing when i look at 3rd street, the buck stops at -- it doesn't even -- it flies over 3rd street.

so, i'm saying we need help out there. we need help out there. we can't afford to be paying competitive rent for the city of san francisco. we can't. you've got to give us -- you've got to put something out there and because they're serving the community quite well. but they only -- they are hamstrung because of the fact that they cannot expand their services because the only place that they can get expansive service from is from the city. and when the city walks past them, you walk past a whole community. thank you. >> thank you for your service, robert. [speaker not understood]. >> i have a question about what's going on down there at

the southeast facility. the southeast commission, we've had a couple of joint meetings with and we might be due to have another at some point. wondering if -- what their involvement is with these conversations around expansion and around rental rates and whatnot because it seems to me that they hopefully are, you know, the first stop and that we could receive a recommendation or something from them, a resolution that would say what they are recommending because my hope is that they would really be our partner in trying to make some of these decisions out there in the community. >> sure. come on up. i would just like to say that i didn't learn -- we're talking about a commission that i myself, espinola jackson would question roger boaz was the city administrator. to place a commission over that college because i wanted to

make sure -- because, see, the commission that's there now, they don't know the history of the college. they weren't there and they don't know why i wanted a college. i'm going to say three minutes. i grew up here in san francisco and i went to unified school district. i was in the fifth grade when i came to san francisco from texas in 1943. i was placed in a school and they sent me -- they skipped me one year to go to girls' high. i was in what they call special ed. well, i'm thinking, special ed, i'm somebody special. not knowing that i was put in that class not to learn. i was there until the 10th grade and i went to texas and i went to school there for one semester. but i was told when i went to texas, we've got to put you back to the ninth grade because you didn't have english or

algebra in order to go to college. being from a sharecropper family, none of my people were educated. they worked in the fields. and when i came back, i took algebra and english for one semester. i came back to san francisco to girls high. and i said to the principal, i want to continue taking my english and my algebra. she said, oh, you won't need that, you're going back to ms. kelly. i said, no, no. and i was taught to respect elders to say yes, ma'am, but i said no, no. they sent me to continuation. i counted the months. they said i had to go to school till i was 16. i counted five months, this was in september. on february the 9th, february the 9th, i was out of there. no education, nothing at all. then i learned when i had my own children when they talk about special ed, i said you're not going to put my children in

special ed because that means they're not going to be educated. and if you look at the history in san francisco for the last 60 years, most of the young people, latinos and blacks were put in special ed and that's the reason why that's such a big drop out and the problems we have because our children have not been educated. and i -- and i wish you would help me. i was watching roots two weeks ago and i got angry. because i saw where they are not -- they had a commercial where the president of the united states wants to have this program about no child left behind. and i'm hearing, here you have the unions and the teachers in san francisco saying, new york city they will not accept the program. it should be where every child -- child gets three, you know, in the third grade, if that child cannot read, that teacher should be out because, see, i learned later on from teachers in the school that when you go to college, you go for your

minor and your major. maybe you don't pass your major, but your minor is physical education and that's what they got in the schools. teaching classes that they don't know anything about. and it hurts me, it really hurts me to know that this is continually going on. why don't you send a letter to the president and make it a mandate that every child -- if that child don't read when they get in the third grade, the teacher has to get out. (applause) >> the problem is we need to educate the republican members of the house. [laughter] >> thank you very much. i just wanted to let you know that they don't know. i was there. i've been fighting all these -- over 50 years in my community for my community, not for espinola, but for the young people in my community. >> thank you very much, dr. jackson. we're mindful of the fact you have to leave early. thank you. >> mr. president, what is our rental rate policy for the

southeast center? is that a market rate policy or what is it? >> i have michael -- >> michael cronin, deputy manager. no, it's not market rate, it's below market rate. actually it's below a little bit of your policy rate. one of the things we're actually trying to recover is just some of the janitorial services and other things. but we are providing security as just a general amenity for the building. so, we can come back i think and present to you sort of what the analysis we went through of looking at the different tenants and looking at what the rates would be in showing you what -- we did a market rate analysis. we said what's your policy for nonprofits or nongovernmenting organizations. we lower red that. and i believe we lowered it even below that a little bit which we're going to present to you when we present the leases. >> i think th