yeah, i think that given the fact that we do have a draft and there will be input and changes made in order to get us where we need to go, that we shouldn't have to wait until the next lafco meeting in order to move this rfp forward. i do think that as much as we want involvement from puc at this point, we as lafco should take the leadership on putting out there to the public exactly what we are looking for because ultimately we want a comprehensive plan. i think we should maybe allow the chair to give the final say that this is good and we can put it out there once we get our feedback and make the appropriate changes to get it where we need it to go. >>supervisor john avalos: great. thank you. okay. item b within this

item. is that miss miller? >> this item will be dropped from the agenda. our mou goes to the end of fiscal year 14-15. we have another year 1/2 on the mou. that was my fault. we don't need to hear that item. >>supervisor john avalos: great. if there are no other comments from the panel. we'll go to public comment. >> good afternoon commissioners, eric brooks local green party for the city. first once again thank you for the lafco for taking out the bold steps. we have had a couple moments like this in history where things got caught up and glad to see it moving forward. some quick technical notes. i think one thing that will really and we

discussed it a little bit, i completely concur with exploring all possible actions with shell and without shell and other contractors like shell or do it in house which i think the advocates are most supportive of that. one thing that i have noticed is that we have not heard from the sfpuc or from any other source that i know of exactly what is going on right now with the shell contract. that was put on holdback in august and we have not heard. i think we should ask sfpuc to clarify what's going on with that. as far as the whole thing, i think the key here is that even if the sfpuc gets considerably more involved and starts doing it own work on build out ancleanpowersf and gets back in the game. i think

back where we let them take the ball back. this is the moment where we need to lafco stay the drive of this. this is politics. the key with the sfpuc is that as an enterprise agency that is in charge of rate payers and keeping the system secure, they are mandated to be secure about this. lafco can really push the envelope in developing an rfp that will face the compliment crisis and we need to you keep this in-house. >>supervisor john avalos: thank you. >> hello commissioners. chad hose skin. we didn't hear too much about the cleanpowersf

program. i was at the january 14th puc hearing and i strongly urge you to checkout the power enterprise budget information presented. a memo was available which i believe was the 14-15 two year planning cycle and indicated i think in one sentence that no work would be done on cleanpowersf by power enterprise. the focus seems to be on new high revenue customers and not on engagement. definitely a lot of information in those documents in terms of what the puc is thinking going forward and i don't think it do have dove tails what the lafco board is expecting. in-house scheduling is a comment that someone made earlier is something we heard the puc staff say they can do. and as

mr. freed indicated that could actually not only not add to, but maybe even alleviate some of the funding issues that the puc is having. going to the rfp, we did as a group of advocates send a letter to the lafco staff and urged you to check that out and looking forward working on the lafco rfp going forward and assuming the shell contract is going forward seems questionable, but also maybe might not even matter that much. 20-30 mega watts for four 1/2 years while substantial may not purely maintain a plan this scope in scale. thank you very much. >>supervisor john avalos: is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. there was a question that was raised in public comment. i want to ask

puc about that and that is the status of the shell contract. i can speculate probably accurately but i want to hear from you. >> barbara hale from power. we have not engaged with shell. our department let us believe that we are not going forward with the cca program as was conceived since we did not get authority though go forward. we have not been engaging with shell. >>supervisor john avalos: thank you. seems like a land with a big thud. okay, i thought the puc, the commissioners just did not approve not to exceed rates. but have they made an occasion

that cleanpowersf is dead and gone? that wasn't my understanding. they just didn't approve not to exceed rates. >> i think it's accurate to say there has been no formal vote on the status of the program. the general manager and the commission have engaged in public dialogue about the program. we've been given direction at the staff level to focus our efforts on the need to get our financial house back in order. so that's where our focus has been. >>supervisor john avalos: okay. we'll have a presentation on that at our joint meeting. hopefully it won't be difficult to schedule. okay. commissioner campos. >>supervisor david campos: thank you, mr. chair, i think it's the fact that rates were not approved doesn't necessarily mean that the puc

still doesn't have an obligation to continue to do work on the program because as much as that issue on rates remains open, you still have a board of supervisors decision to proceed. and i think it's interesting that the proposed budget does not include any money for clean power because i think it's an interesting thing to see an agency introduce a proposed budget that has to be approved by the body that approved a program that they are leaving out of the budget. so, i think the board of supervisors certainly will have an opportunity at the budget committee when the budget of the puc is reviewed to make sure that the budget

of that agency reflects the priorities that have been set out by the legislative body of the city, the board of supervisors. and i think that there will be a number of supervises who will expect that there will be an allocation of funding to continue with community choice aggregation. >> if i can clarify, you may recall in the past two or three budgets we have not included additional funds for cleanpowersf. we have funds available in the programmatic account that is set aside to fund cleanpowersf. as i mentioned earlier, that's on the operating side. we have the $19.5 million on reserve that remains on reserve. on the budget as it's proposed, though funds stay where they are. i would characterize

that more as in stand still. i think last time we brought a budget to you it did not include additional funds just like this budget won't include additional funds because there was no perceived needs for additional funds. that doesn't mean there are funds that are a part waiting for cca and further direction. hopefully through the joint meeting process we'll get some additional direction. >> i guess my question had to do more for instance with the work on the rfp. >> i understand what miss hale is saying but i think there are funds that are available, remaining available for cca. she indicated which is sort of contrary to the direction that's been given, i think internally to staff to not work on any longer. >>supervisor john avalos: if

that's the issue, then it's a version of the question that i posed earlier because if the puc expects it's budget to be approved, i would imagine that it would allow it's staff to do work that the legislative body in this case anticipates or expects that will be done on this program. >> i think that's true. the item that we drop, the mou which talks about working cooperatively with one another on developing the program and particularly dealing with issues that are a contention. which i recall when there was a no vote on the rate, there were a number of issues that were expressed as the reasons why. part of the rfp is to explore answers to many of those questions. >> >>supervisor david campos: i would hope the general

manager reconsider working with staff on this. >> i do too. >>supervisor john avalos: i was hoping that they would work with them through sfpuc and we have funding as well and next year is what should be in line. is there currently staff that can be helpful and that are budgeted in our budget to do this work? >> the cleanpowersf program is funded as a program. staff can charge to it as they work on it in that program index code. so those funds are sitting there, staff is not working on it. they will continue to sit there. so to the extent we are given direction to do particular community choice aggregation, clean four sf work, we have the financial resources to perform that

work. that's the point i was trying to make. >>supervisor john avalos: okay, the system of the rfp could do that work? >> where we are direct to do that work yes. >> by your staff, by your commission? >> yes. and through the joint meeting process, perhaps that's the venue to discuss these items and to come to some sort of agreement as to what the going forward efforts should be. thank you. >> thank you. i appreciate that. seems like a road we've been on before. experiencing a yogi bear moment. okay. we can go to our next item. >> item no. 5. executive officers report. i have no report. oh, i'm sorry, there is an announcement for our public seats are vacant.

there will be applications available online, they are available right now on the lafco website for the sitting member and the alternate. we'll be posting a notice on our website. we have it up, right? the information is available. thank you. >>supervisor john avalos: thank you, colleagues can probably do some help with the outreach to fill those vacancies and get the applications in for the seats. let's go to public comment on the executive director's report. we have no one coming forward for public comment. close public comment. next item. >> item no. 6, public comment. >> our next item is general public comment. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> next item?

>> item no. 7. questions or comments. >> colleagues, any questions or proposals? seeing none. public comment. >> for sf green. especially for agenda items if you are going to have a meeting with the puc. the budget issues were raised earlier today . i know a big problem that was part of the budget. it's now $20 million more per year. it's good to find out how we got stuck with a new inter connected agreement that is going to be that much more money. i don't -- i think it due to be approved in 15. especially that brings up another item besides cleanpowersf for their 10-year

projected budget, the sfpuc has agreed to remove $30 million when we have been trying to get it up to $5 million a year. we need to find out what's going on with the pg & e interconnected agreement and find out why, when we've seen evidence that minnesota solar is beating fossil fuel or price, in usa -- austria -- this is benefit for these departments and not liabilities. it doesn't make sense when we are in a budget crunch to be cutting things. we need to find out from the sfpuc what the heck is going on. that is the key number, that $20 million a year that's digging in. they have a big

water project that they say is a surprise and we have to look at that because it's half a billion dollars. those energy things are something we should really dig into. >>supervisor john avalos: perhaps, sfpuc staff are not here but they can comment. we have a joint meeting in the inter connect agreement. i think there is a discussion that they are -- appealing that 20-minute price tag. >> jason freed. lafco staff. what i remember and what they are planning is now is they don't have the agreement. when they are projecting farther out. i will double check on it and i think they are projecting all the stuff may not be there so they have a higher price down the road. it's better to do it that way because the current one will be continued and to find out

it's not right. i think budgeting towards the worst case scenario in that case. i will double check that for you. >> thank you. okay. we just had public comment. we can close public comment. our next item. >> item no. 8. adjournment. >>supervisor john avalos: colleagues, we are adjourned. have a lovely weekend. [ meeting is adjourned ] >> >>

>> welcome to "culturewire." today we are at recology. they are celebrate 20 years of one of the most incredibly unique artist residency programs. we are here to learn more from one of the resident artists. welcome to the show, deborah. tell us how this program began 20 years ago. >> the program began 20 years ago. our founder was an environmentalist and an activist

and an artist in the 1970's. she started these street sweeping campaigns in the city. she started with kids. they had an exhibition at city hall. city officials heard about her efforts and they invited her to this facility. we thought it would coincide with our efforts to get folks to recycle, it is a great educational tool. since then, we have had 95 professional artists come through. >> how has the program changed over the years? how has the program -- what can the public has an artist engage with? >> for the most part, we worked with metal and wood, what you would expect from a program like ours. over the years, we tried to include artists and all types of mediums. conceptual artists, at installation, photographers, videographers.

>> that has really expanded the program out. it is becoming so dynamic right now with your vision of interesting artists in gauging here. why would an artist when to come here? >> mainly, access to the materials. we also give them a lot of support. when they start, it is an empty studio. they go out to the public area and -- we call it the big store. they go out shopping, take the materials that, and get to work. it is kind of like a reprieve, so they can really focus on their body of work. >> when you are talking about recology, do you have the only sculpture garden at the top? >> it is based on work that was done many years ago in new york. it is the only kind of structured, artist program. weit is beautiful.

a lot of the plants you see were pulled out of the garbage, and we use our compost to transplant them. the pathway is lined with rubble from the earthquake from the freeways we tour about 5000 people a year to our facility, adults and children. we talk about recycling and conservation. they can meet the artists. >> fantastic. let's go meet some of your current artists. here we are with lauren. can you tell us how long have been here so far and what you're working on? >> we started our residency on june 1, so we came into the studio then and spent most of the first couple weeks just digging around in the trash. i am continuing my body of work, kind of making these hand- embroidered objects from our

day-to-day life. >> can you describe some of the things you have been making here? this is amazing. >> i think i started a lot of my work about the qualities of light is in the weight. i have been thinking a lot about things floating through the air. it is also very windy down here. there is a piece of sheet music up there that i have embroidered third. there is a pamphlet about hearing dea -- nearing death. this is a dead rabbit. this is what i am working on now. this is a greeting card that i found, making it embroidered. it is for a very special friend. >> while we were looking at this, i glanced down and this is amazing, and it is on top of a book, it is ridiculous and amazing. >> i am interested in the

serendipity of these still life compositions. when he got to the garbage and to see the arrangement of objects that is completely spontaneous. it is probably one of the least thought of compositions. people are getting rid of this stuff. it holds no real value to them, because they're disposing of it. >> we're here in another recology studio with abel. what attracted you to apply for this special program? >> who would not want to come to the dump? but is the first question. for me, being in a situation that you're not comfortable in has always been the best. >> what materials were you immediately attracted to when you started and so what was available here? >> there are a lot of books. that is one of the thing that hits me the most. books are good for understanding, language, and art in general. also being a graphic designer, going straight to the magazines and seeing all this printed

material being discarded has also been part of my work. of course, always wood or any kind of plastic form or anything like that. >> job mr. some of the pieces you have made while you have been here. -- taught me through some of the pieces you have made while you have been here. >> the first thing that attracted me to this was the printed surface. it was actually a poster. it was a silk screen watercolor, about 8 feet long. in terms of the flatwork, i work with a lot of cloddish. so being able to cut into it come at into it, removed parts, it is part of the process of negotiating the final form. >> how do you jump from the two dimensional work that you create to the three-dimensional? maybe going back from the 3f to 2d. >> everything is in the process of becoming.

things are never said or settled. the sculptures are being made while i am doing the collages, and vice versa. it becomes a part of something else. there's always this figuring out of where things belong or where they could parapets something else. at the end goal is to possibly see one of these collage plans be built out and create a structure that reflects back into the flat work. >> thank you so much for allowing "culturewire" to visit this amazing facility and to learn more about the artists in residence program. is there anything you like our viewers to know? >> we have art exhibitions every four months, and a win by the public to come out. everybody is welcome to come out. we have food. sometimes we have gains and bands. it is great time. from june to september, we accept applications from bay area artists. we encouraged artists from all mediums to apply.

we want as many artists from the bay area out here so they can have the same experience. >> how many artists to do your host here? >> 6 artist a year, and we receive about 108 applications. very competitive. >> but everyone should be encouraged to apply. thank you again for hosting us. >> thank you for including us in "culturewire." ♪

>> good afternoon and welcome to the san francisco local agency formation commission. today is january 24, 2014, >> i would like to acknowledge our clerk of the committee, lisa miller. i don't have our sfgtv names here, but i would like to thank them for their assistance today. call the roll. >> avalos, present, commissioner breed, campos, present, mar,