front companies and fraud involving hundreds of millions of dollars in capital improvement projects under the local minority and business utilization program, formerly known as chapter 12d of the san francisco administrative code. on october 8th, 2013, we also made a written request for a hearing. without going into the details of our complaint, we allege that the selection process used is unlawful, politically motivated, and patently corrupt. on its face, the decision-making that resulted in 10 purported bayview organizations given $100,000 without an oral interview, without public comment, and without any public disclosure after award constitutes an

outlandish, unethical and criminal misuse of taxpayer funds. we further contend that any failure to immediately investigate and report findings there as to the misuse of these public funds signals a safe haven for such malfeasance and mocks the mission of this commission, where open government is recycled in the dark. at this commission's november meeting we intend to show the selection and award failed to comply with the grant agreement between the city and county of san francisco and the arts commission. we intend to show the selection and award failed to comply with the sunshine ordinance, with respect to disclosure. we intend to show that the selection award failed to comply with the city charter, as to the requisite requirements for composition of

the selection panelists relative to its purpose. we intend to show that the selection and award violates clear prohibitions contained in the grant agreement, precluding the use of stereotypes and discrimination against women and minorities, who enthusiastically submitted proposals and response to the rfp solicitation. we come to you first to seek an administrative remedy. however, we have retained counsel. we must rather be here than in a court of competent jurisdiction. in any event if the right thing is not done, we'll find a way to get a judge to do it. we appreciate your time and attention and look forward to this matter being heard at its earliest opportunity, not four weeks into november. it signals to us that at least the arts commission is not taking us very seriously.

i can assure you as sure as i can tell you there is a city street named after my father and an historic landmark named after my mother that i will not rest until justice is done. thank you. >> will you be going before the arts commission november 12th then as well? >> no. >> why not? >> because the first stop here. we need guidance from the funding source. you always follow the money. >> okay. >> so you are concerned about the process, which the arts commission was in charge of the process? >> that is correct. >> and so i agree that your first stop should be with them, but since you are here, we're going to bring them here and so when we contacted them, the earliest time that we were able to get a commitment was the second meeting in november. so that is how that happened, the

date. but we will go back to the arts commission and see if we can move it up earlier. but i would encourage you to reach out to the arts commission and we have forwarded this letter to them. >> well, i thank you, general manager harlan kelly. i appreciate that, but i have reached out. i have asked for public disclosure. i have asked for the emails of those staff and other people that were tied with the selection. they refused to even give me the notices that they received via emails. >> they are supposed to if you filed a freedom of information act requirement. >> it's due immediately after award. award was september 9th. they failed to submit the public disclosure as to the notification of those organizations purportedly from the bayview that received $10,000. i find that troubling and so should you. >> thank you >> thank you.

>> did you have a comment? >> no, only that we need to agendize it. >> yes. that is why i moved on. >> i know. >> so good to have you with us. angela armstrong. bob would have been very proud of you, kevin. >> thank you. >> commissioners, mr. torres, mr. harlan kelly, i am angela armstrong with the hunters point cultural center and i want to take everybody back to 1968, the city built space at 100 circle for bayview-hunters point for the cultural center. city planning is having a survey done on historical sites and people in san francisco african-americans and we have problems with the city planning department how they were asking

us about our story. so we attended a meeting and we have attended meetings with mr. kelly's staff at our churches and we have met with the commissioners at the water department. no one ever mentioned the funding was going through the art commission. and we could have alleviated a lot of the headache and pain and the disappointment that dr. jackson is feeling is just unbearable that she was not given a little head's up on where the money was going from 1968 until the present, the hunters point art gallery and cultural center has been active in bayview-hunters point. we have never received any funding and we are self-sustaining, but in the course of that, we support the salvation army and supported

the ywca and the salvation army got a grant. we went into their business and said this is who we are and this is what we can do for you and we introduced them to our community. and they can come up with a pilot art program and get funded from the puc and haven't been in bayview-hunters point less than two years? and we're talking about a big agency. the salvation army don't need no money from a pilot program. we have concerns about the puc and what do you define as a "pilot art program?" we have some successful young people who have come out of the bayview hunter art gallery and choreographers with stevie wonder and you met the young man who was in the x factor, mr. george david stern and

david stern took him to las vegas and the young man is doing good. we don't get any support. the last person called somebody to sit me down -- the last person that should have got some funding to allocate some funding was the art commission. they have never funded any art groups in hunters point. never. what is the problem? thank you very much . >> more communications item no. 5 any comments? mr. decosta, you requested to be on item 5. >> i received a letter linked to the comments last time -- maybe during public comment. i don't recall. so i have

stated many times that both dr. espinola jackson and myself represent the first people. so right by sunol, pleasanton, that belongs to the ohlone and when there is an occasion to say something meaningful, i do so. now i am not god. however, i know for a fact that where the dam is on calaveras --

geologists have a term called "maximum credible earthquake." each one of you all commissioners have this report, my report. i am not a geologist, but i have studied earthquakes for 35 years and i have been in earthquake-prone areas and in 1989, when we had an earthquake over here in san francisco, i took it upon myself to go to the tenderloin and do operations there. three weeks later for the red cross to come. so i don't want to come here and fault the commissioners. i don't want to come here and fault the general manager, but what i want to bring to your attention, if there any

projects for the puc, we have to hold them accountable and ask for the empirical data so from the inception to-date we know that they did the right thing. because guess what? nobody is saying it the way i'm saying because tomorrow if something happens at calaveras, guess what? they will be blaming you commissioners and the only person who has spoken to you and looked at you straight in the eye about the calaveras dam and i have a document here that i can back up the facts with a 400-page document that is if you have time to read it. thank you very much. >> thank you for your letter, mr. decosta and we have read it. any other public comment on "communications?" and now we move to "other commission business." the election our new

officers. i will call upon mr. moran to make the first. >> thank you, mr. president, it would be my pleasure to place into nomination anne caen. >> is there a second? >> second. >> >> any discussion? did you want to make a candidate discussion? >> i thank you for the second. >> all those in favor, signify by saying aye? aye. >> any nays? there being none, congratulations madame vice president. >> thank you. >> the chair will entertain motions for president of the commission. mr. moran. >> it would be my pleasure to nominate the current vice president courtney to be our president for the next year.

>> second? >> second. >> any discussion? all those in favor, signify by saying aye? >> aye. >> opposed? there being none, congratulations, mr. president, you can take over now. [ laughter ] [ applause ] >> mr. president, commissioner caen. >> i would like to make some comments about your outgoing president. you know, it's really been quite a thrill to work under art torres. he has a certain style about him, a wonderful management style, laced with humor, and it's been an honor and i thank you for your service, art. >> thank you very much, ann, it's been a pleasure serving in this capacity with you as well.

any other comments from the commissioners? seeing none, call for public comment? dr. jackson. >> good afternoon again. i want to say congratulations to the vice president and the president. you know i have been working with the vice president for many years, and she has compassion for the community. >> here here. >> she listens and a lot of things that the staff was trying to push through a number of years ago did not happen. i want to thank you, sweetheart, for all the help you have given my community and president courtney, i want to say congratulations to you, because i know you that you have helped, as much as you could. you have stated between you and i and my community and i'm looking to do greater work for you and doing the thing that your knowledge can give you and

all of you need to know about my community. i call bayview-hunters point espinola jackson's community. that sewage plant is in my backyard and been there for 50 years and some of you are babies up there and don't know what has been going on in this community. i don't forget anything. i know everything that has been said and i have witnesses in the back of me that they start talking i say that was a wednesday at 3:00. i have my grand baby with me and i don't forget anything. being 80 years of age, i don't know how much longer i will be here and you will lose all of this information. won't be able to get it. get on it, baby, right away, because we need help, really need help in the southeast, especially zip code 94124. i don't talk about the

southeast, zip code 94124. >> thank you doctor for your thoughtful comments. any other public comment? francisco? >> commissioners i want to thank you mr. art torres for your leadership. as the vice president stated we are privileged and it's a blessing that you bring the experience from the assembly to city hall and you have paid your dues not only in san francisco, but throughout the state. so i personally appreciate that experience that you have brought to san francisco. i want to congratulate the new

president and union man and whatever is happening with bart, this, that and the other, we need sound representation from anyone in authority who can change the policies in the union and you are poised now during the time of the sewer system improvement project and all of the projects to do the right thing, getting our young people both men and woman good jobs so there is some sort of upward mobility that we talk about, but do little about it. commissioner anson moran, you have a lot of experience having been a general manager and having seen it all, and it's always a pleasure to see you

ask the right questions and throw the curveball. my strengths are infrastructure. i did that for a long time and when i came to the bayview, my monitoring of the 3rd street light rail, the power plants, have allowed me to share my experience with thousands of people. i take my job seriously and from time to time, i send my blogs to y'all, so you y'all know how i feel about it.

i look forward to working with this commission, so that you do it the right thing and with the general manager, too. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. decosta. if there is no objection, a moment of personal privilege. i often times talk about the community workforce that we represent. we talk about jobs and the workers who benefit from what happens here at the public utilities commission >> i want to echo the comments made. i think san francisco was lucky to have president art torres to serve on this commission and when i learned that i would serve on this commission by then mayor newsom, i was floored by the caliber of these public servants and it was a pleasure to serve alongside you, president torres. i am a union man, not a company

man, but it's impressive in terms of the caliber who work here from general manager harlan kelly, on down and i have enjoyed getting to know each one of you. i think we have a most talented group of upper managers and talented workforce. it's an honor for me to work here. i will call the next item, the general manager's report. >> thank you. so the next item -- i'm sorry. yes, okay, i thought you wanted me to say something else. okay, congratulations. i just wanted to say a few words about art, if i may? art, it's just been a pleasure working with you. this was my first year. i had some big shoes to fill. and it was just an honor for you to help bring me along and support me through this first year.

we have gone through a lot of things together from the hetch hetchy ballot initiative, where we were concerned about getting the true facts out there. to recent decision about the rim fire and how to look at ways that we can deal with that major problem that happened on our watershed. so it has just been a great pleasure working with you and i wanted to say thank you for everything. it's been an honor. >> same here. >> also looking forward to continuing to work with you, president and whatever we can do to really help you in your presidency, just we'll be there for you. so as part of my general manager report, i wanted to have julie labonte come up and talk about the wsip update. >> good afternoon commissioners. first i would like to begin by

telling you about two important milestones that were reached earlier this month. on the new irvington tunnel we holed through on our second and last segment of the tunnel. so this was definitely a majority achievement. i think over the past few years you have heard about how challenging the ground conditions were and the safety risks associated with that work. so we were obviously extremely pleased when the crews from the two sides of the tunnel met finally, i think it was two weeks ago specifically. so obviously the risks of that project will be going down quite significantly. also earlier this month on the bay tunnel, we completed the installation of the pipeline lining that goes inside the tunnel. that is a 108" welded steel pipe that has all been installed and welded. so again,

so we're filling the space with a foam concrete. i'm not sure if some of you heard or saw some of the good, positive press we got on the story for the bay tunnel last week. harlan and i were fortunate enough to bring a number of reporters down there and i think pretty much all tv stations covered that. so those were the positive milestones. now i would like to shift gear to calaveras. again, our most challenging project and we do have some news there that would i like to share with you and with that i would like the computer connected, if i may? this is probably a graph that you remember, that we showed you starting in mid-2012, which is when we exposed -- started exposing some of the face on what we refer to as "observation hill." the left

side of the valley when looking downstream from the existing dam. at the time that -- the colors are terrible, but anyway, at the time we showed you two major features that were discovered. what is in green, what we call "area a geologic feature." and there was one that was lower and maybe you cannot see it when i move the mouse. the colors are really bad, but the lower feature we refer to "area d" feature. in 2012, the upper a feature we were able to characterize it better and quickly identify it as an ancient landslide. at the time we told you area b feature would have to be exposed further before we could determine its significance.

well, now at this point, we're about down with 50% of the excavation at the calaveras project. the project as a whole based on expenditures 58% done because there is a lot of very significant expenditure early on in the project like this. but anyhow, we are now down -- the hill has been brought down significantly. we're down at the foundation of the spillway right now. this here. this is the line -- this is the finished grade now with the slope being laid back to a flatter grade. and this is where the new spillway is going to be. we have basically brought it down to the spillway, which has allowed us to expose a lot of that lower feature.

so now that the feature has been exposed further down, we have a better feel for what we're dealing with and this lower feature now has been confirmed as a landslide as well. it's an ancient landslide as well. so what that means is in order to have this new spillway on competent ground, we will need to overexcavate underneath to remove that ancient landslide feature. up to about 25'. and only about a third of the spillway area will need to be removed. and that part will need to be replaced with some low-density concrete. this representations additional etch excavations in the order

of 135 cubic yards and to put things in perspective, when we lowered the grade of the finished grade of the slope there, we removed 300 million cubic yards of material, so talking about 135 cubic yards is a much lower quantity, but nonetheless, something that is significant enough. so we're going to need to overexcavate under and need to place about 7,000 cubic yard of concrete underneath to provide stable condition on there. there is also going to be the replacement of a new concrete-encased conduit. that is going to be realigned under the dam foundation and it's going to need to be realigned so it's on competent ground. the feature b is also much wider than first anticipated.

so there is an area upstream getting closer to the existing dam that will require additional excavation in the order of 300,000 cubic yard of material will need to be removed. now our team is evaluating all of these impacts right now. and it's not only direct costs. you need to look at the time impacts. so we need to do a time-impact analysis, because the contractor will be entitled to be compensated for any time impacts. our cmt is conducting that work right now and the contractor in parallel is doing their own analysis. we should be able to get back to you with more precise value about the magnitude of the cost and time impacts by january of 2014. you will recall that in your budget that you approved in march of this year, we had included significant contingency for issues like

this. these impacts are quite significant, and it is likely that these contingencis will not be sufficient. we may need to go for -- when i say "go for additional." to go for additional budget and the way we deal with that is look at capital improvement program and see if things could be moved or delayed so we could incorporation the cost of this additional work. now our next quarterly report will show a trend for this. it will not be based on formal estimates just yet, because we won't have that until the end of the year. there are also additional other features that have been detected in other parts of the project, that are now already being trended.

they are included in our budget forecast. they are less significant and we are already doing work to reinforce these features using rock bolts and shock crete, as we continue excavating if they became more significant, we wanted to account for those in the risk register. so we also added risks for those features. so all that to say as we continue excavation, we gain a better understanding of the ground conditions there. highly complex geology in that area. and as mr. decosta said, it's not an ideal location for a dam, but that is the only location available. obviously, the original dam was built in the ideal best location. downstream of where we're building this new dam, there is a known, very significant landslide. there was no es