>> the panel is paid for their time. they get paid $200. all of our grants panel receive $200 a day which they receive for their time. there is a policy that artist should be paid. >> i believe commissioners should be paid too. [ laughter ] >> we need a raise. >> just to clarify, we have 5 panelist who if they so choose can accept $200. >> it was correct that it was $1,000 for all the panel.

>> nice work, mr. williams. >> it's still $1,000. >> thank you, doctor. >> you should hire mr. williams as council next time. >> the next card i have is mr. watson. >> good afternoon. my name is watson, executive director of public glass. i got one of the grants, my organization got one of the grants in question. i just want to come and say that we from the bayview found out about it we had somebody from all organizations, i met people at the library and we sent a

representative to the process. we are a very, we are a small organization, but we do a lot of work. there are about three or four of us on staff that have done -- i have done this kind of work in rhode island. i have received grants before. when we sat at the meeting, we all do great work and i don't think my organization deserves it anymore or less than anyone else. i left that meeting saying we need to get our grant together and do it in a way that it's written and get everything in order and get it in. that's grant writing. it's not creative writing. it's getting it done. this has been pretty consistent with the project. i just wanted to come

and give my two $0.02 about it. what does your organization do? >> we provide access to the community to glass working. we are an arts organization. anybody that knows anything about glass is it takes a lot of equipment, a lot of resources. it can sometimes be exclusive. >> they are glass blowers? >> essentially, the casting, the whole realm around it. >> how long have you been in san francisco ? >> 10 years. the place i'm with has been around since 1997. we just want to make it available to everyone. that's what this grant is for to make this available to the community.

>> you provide this to the community? >> yes. >> i'm getting confused. it seems to me there were 23 people who applied to this grant and it was awarded to 10 people. there is winners and losers. is there something beyond that? it seems to me that a lot of this discussion is about people who weren't awarded the grant that some people feel they should have been. is that not it? i would like clarification because i'm missing something. it's a process. so you feel that these grants were not awarded fairly? is that what the premise is? there is no recourse because they have already been awarded? is that the issue?

>> [inaudible] >> i didn't come down here to cry about what some people got and others didn't. i'm talking about what this law requires. and on the issue of grant writing proposals, we have grant writing people that have written proposals to the city for 50 years. and the percentages are less than 1/2 percent for bayview hunters point. but you need to understand is that we have raised a new level of sophistication from the 60s to 2013. so it isn't that we don't know how to write a grant, it is following the law. what we are talking about is what the

rfp said. it had sunshine ordinance in it and a provision that you can't stereotype in the selection process. i brought with me exhibit a, vivianeles. i read every comment the selection made including hers. they said in effect because she was from public housing she lacked the sophistication to put on an event. i read e-mails where it said some of the commissioners would not drive their vehicles in the bayview. i read the research and that's a violation of chapter 12 of san francisco administrative code that i have followed for 20 years. >> mr. williams, how does this reflect on puc as opposed to the arts commission? >> because the money, this is

the source of the funding as the grantor, they are the grantee. there is a contract that i have asked for that is supposed to be signed by city attorney dave herrera and they have refused to give it to me. i have asked for it for 30 days. they are not following the law. we are talking about simply doing that which the grant agreement requires. since they have not done so and followed the sunshine ordinance process, the funding has to be revoked. the grant agreement says it must be terminated if they fail to comply with city ordinances. they have not complied. >> let me interject with all do respect. i do want to because i think we've made a lot of progress today. we have addressed a lot of issues and i

think everyone is on the same page. what i would not want to do is hang our hat entirely on the situation that a law has been violated even though that maybe the case. we'll get to that, right? in the event that we are all on the same page in terms of making changes even though they are abiding by the law, we may want to have better practices or proposal that makes people feel comfortable about the process. i'm going ask that we keep because we are not going to resolve it today. we are not getting it done today. i'm going to ask that we move forward with continued public comment so we get whatever facts out there. thank you. >> the next card i have is from vivian alice.

>> good afternoon, everybody. my name is vivian ellis, a resident for 59 years and in the arts for over a decade. my castle productions, i portray 40 years of native san franciscans in the arts from age 2-82. it's a musical production and i got no support from it. it was grass roots and the costume designer designs the costumes in the 60s and designs the children's costumes in 2008. so everybody was connected. the point i'm trying to make is i'm well qualified

to do musical productions. i'm a teacher and choreographer. my granddaughter performed and i introduced her as baby beyonce. i had an acapela group. i'm kind of confused as to i'm supposed to be a grant writer and artist at the same time. i put in work. we have a saying that we say in our community that you have to put worken and i have constantly put in work all my years and when we had mendell plaza presents, i always contribute to my community. i work with seniors and the youth and i get nothing. i'm tired of people taking from me and using me as a network for people that come in the community. it's unfair.

i have to get materials and costumes for the children and it's just very unfair and they know what i do. i'm well-known in the community because i'm also an activist and i have taught over 5,000 and i'm getting a little tired. it's time for me to mentor teenagers. it's not just a performance, it's a livelihood for us. what kind of unnerved me is one of the comments that was made that i lacked sophistication. are you serious? then they made reference to my son. my son was taken from me from hospitalized. it will be 38 years in november 7th. these people, i don't know who these people are, but it's not right to attack people all around. we

use performing arts as a means to balance our emotions and community and working with parents and teachers and i wish we would have more integrity and consideration for human beings. >> vivian, thank you for being here. the next card i have is from jacqueline flint. >> good afternoon, sister. >> good afternoon commissioners. i'm going to speak for both me and kirk rhymes, we both submitted a speaker card in case i wasn't able to stay the duration. my name is jackie flen. we have been located in the bayview for over 10 years. we are excited to embark on a new adventure

with the sf arts commission and through our youth employment program as well as the summer youth program. earlier this summer some of you had the pleasure of meeting some of our young adults that referred to the project pool this year and corey was interested in commissioner torres stem cell program. that was all through the summer program that she was exposed to. i would also like to say that the summer is an a little bit bitter sweet for us because it does end. after this summer we had over 38 actual positions filled with some of those kids and what we did was we proposed for an expansion of that program through the arts commission and part of our goal is to keep youth in the bayview

active, do something constructive with their time, but in addition to that, we wanted to in a way mentor them and equipment them with employment skills which is the other realm of what we do at the organization. by adding a creative and performing arts component, it really complimented the work that we have already done. we are preparing to begin our arts program. we just got in all of our material and the kids are era ed -- ready to go. they want to do it on weekends to create 6-8 portraits of how they see the bayview. it's intended to inspire them not just what they have been exposed to and what they see and know of the bayview but also what they see in the future from now. it was truly a program intended to inspire but in addition we wanted to teach

art, incorporate employment skills and give guidance to their long-term success. we want to thank the arts commission for the opportunity as well as the puc for extending us the opportunity. thank you. >> we have nothing from kirk today? >> nothing from me. thank you. >> the next card is from jessica miley and arm ani. >> hi, i'm jessica and performing arts workshop and armani is the artist. the workshop is -- we have been working in the bayview since the late 80s and we work with

residents before and after school. we were a recipient of this grant program. we are very excited to be able to deepen our work through the elementary school. we actually hired armani who had been volunteering at drew where her children were students and she's quickly become a core piece of our staff. we are happy to give this opportunity to deepen her work at the elementary. >> thank you, as she said i volunteered for a few years. i'm a resident of the bayview. i live there and currently working with performer arts workshop and these types of grants allow me to come into these schools and teach children and give them an opportunity where they may have not had it before. they get a chance to explore different art forms. i teach ballet, jazz,

hip hop, dance. i give -- get an opportunity to spend a lot of time with the children and they get a chance to perform with me. a grant like this helps them perform in the neighborhood. i just want to say that i have also seen children grow a lot from this extensive who, that i do with them. i'm there year-round. i have seen children become better in the classroom and i have had a student that wouldn't speak at all and she's now volunteered to do that. getting an opportunity to work with these students gives them something they may not had going to school on a regular day. i appreciate being a part of this. >> i should also say armani students are performing on third street on march 20th on

stage. we are really excited about it. it's going to be a super professional presentation opportunity for them. >> nice plug. >> i hope you all come. that's directly as a result of this grant opportunity. thank you. >> thank you both for being here. >> the last speaker card i have is from ace on the case. >> good evening, commissioners, this is my first time appearing before you commissioners in recent memory. i ran out of tape. i guess i will get a copy from the government channel. before there was a government channel, there was an ace on the case that recorded the supervisors. some of our black community people where they took our ideas they made it city government. here i am

channel 29. i hadn't seen. what i see evaluating. this is not really everybody's fault, but as some of the people mentioned that it's' new era here in san francisco. we have no time for eras. i'm glad i'm speaking about the role, the puc, it's taking on a roll now. the out migration. you have mr., i forget his name, that's working with him. theo, he's doing a great job. let me get back to the arts. the young lady that comesen here. the same process happened in the west edition with the arts commission. we

got shambled and you can find it through the redevelopment agency with an audit and they put people in contract that weren't in our community. even on sunshine commission they came in with there, how can you put it, unsufficient evidence and they used the title and city and county. let me just centeres this here. i think there is a new day in the community which i'm presenting as a community reform. you got reforming everything else except community reform. now, my concept is that i'm not going present it now because somebody will steal it but it's about changing and dropping and flopping it. this means bring forth what we call community driven programs that come from the community. basically we don't need to you bring your

consultants from your department and do something in our community wechl don't need white individuals speaking for black individuals saying what we need to do. we are all well capable. we know all about the city and county. ladies and gentlemen, this is ace on the case and i will speak on public comment on something else. >> thank you for your last words. that is the last item for public comment for item 7a. i will try to summarize and my colleagues will correct me if i miss anything. we did hear from the arts commission. it was scheduled originally for november 26th, that meeting may not take place so we bumped it

earlier to have this conversation sooner rather than later. i would like to consider that we have two issues before us. one is potentially a legal issue and we leave that up to council. that's our responsibility and obligation. i expect that we'll get something back from noern and ambrose. the other issue is the willingness of the arts commission and staff to accommodate our needs moving forward, right? because that's also something we want to do. commissioner moran hit it on the head. right now we really want to tighten it up. i think it was excellent that we had folks attend public comment that were recipients of the grant money and not recipient of the grand money and that gave us an opportunity to hear from both sides. my hope, if there is no objection, i'm going to ask that through general manager we have staff

review the tape and transcript and provide to us given all the issues raised some proposals that we would ask that the arts commission adopt moving forward for this next funding that i believe in january with respect to the appeals process potent ially the face-to-face interview and maybe having someone on the panel and maybe getting francesca vietor involved and someone from our staff get involved and present that to the arts commission for their response. if there is no other comments from my colleagues, we'll move on to the second half of kelly's general manager's report. >> that was the first of six items by the way, and that is the easy one. the next update is the rim fire update.

michael? >> michael, while you are up. commissioners, i had a question about the trees. >> the question about the value of the trees. as you know the rim fire burned extensive parts of the water shed and we hired contractors and removed all the hazardous trees. the trees don't belong to us. they belong to the forest service. we stacked them and the forest service contracts with the haulers. we got an estimate of the potential value of the trees. we don't have a value for all the trees taken out at this point. the estimate they

gave us was about 1.5 and $2 million. a portion of that pays for the contractors that have pulled out in the mills and a portion goes out to the u.s. forest service. i don't know if that answered your question. >> who gets the money? >> us. >> do we get the money for the removal? >> the contracts for the removal? we are trying to recover that through fema process and today will be able to talk about that as well. we might also be able, i don't know if we can get that on our insurance. today can address that and that's about 2 contracts with $75,000 each. it was quite a significant effort to make sure the right of way stays clear at this point in time. and the sequestered because the trees were stacking up. >> i just want to go on record

as far as salvage logging goes and questions in the community about whether logs should be savage because of the water shed and the decomposition of the erosion issues as we talked about water quality. i think it's important to be tracking that as well. i know there is legislation put forward to pass bye pass some of the feral laws about the water act and the salvage logging. i would urge the puc to tracking those efforts and ensure the water is not compromised moving forward. >> very good comment. we are doing assessment and our folks -- focus was on imminent danger

to allow others to get through safely. >> r you saying it should be left there? >> there is a lot of issues associated. there has been a request that it be sped ietd in some of the federal laws and bypass but also because of the economic issues before they start to rot and deteriorate. a lot of the environmental groups are saying that at a minimum we should not be bypassing our laws and to make sure we are not compromising the forest lands and water in anyway.

>> i'm going to give you a quick summary. the fire is fully contained afc now which is good news. hopefully with rain it will douse out anything from this point in time. we have our powerhouse back to green lodge in case anybody wants to go there and stay. part of the area was actually burned. really the good news is that our service was really up affected to our wholesale customers and resell customers and our water stays within normal bounds. just to give you a quick update. the presidential declaration was denied on november 4th. we did not meet the $51 million threshold. and after the fire management assistance only $42

million was approved. there is an appeal under way now and we are attending a briefing what stated the applicant tomorrow and we are finishing the claims as quickly as we can. >> todd, general manager and cfo. the numbers reflect about $3 million lower cost of damage estimates we are finalizing those and meeting with the california office of emergency services tomorrow in sonora as well as going through our updated figures then. the funding updates, we are as discussed priestley -- previously with the commission using an appropriation and we

will file for every potential dollar whether it be insurance or federal funding. the funding now is the assistance grant funding and in addition to the governor's declaration for california disaster act funding as well. the application tomorrow is for the state money. and then we will also be file an insurance claim over the next few weeks. so with that, happy to answer any questions and, we are working on the presidential declaration appeal as well with the governor's office as well as the state. >> that was answering my question. thank you. >> next item i would like to reverse the order, the quarterly budget status report.