for the swimming pools. we need to caution them that this is a real drought, even though we had some rain today in july. so, i have also been watching conferences on water, put on by the state. and gathered a lot of information. some of you are not watch those, but i request you all to ask the state government or the state of california to provide that with the videos and so that you can watch those videos, and see what the experts are saying. water is becoming a very, very, very precious commodity, and it not only involves california, it involves the neighboring states. we used to be the fifth largest economy in the world. we are now the 8th largest economy in the world. one of the things that makes us what we are is the production

of food. and we play this role. and san francisco plays a role. just because we have hetch, hetchy water does not mean that we can waste it, we are wasting it. but we can put into gear some checklists, so that the people who work with the infrastructure are very cautious and pay respect to it. >> thank you very much. >> and so we will go ahead as discussed we will suspend public comment on item 8 until we return to it and madam secretary, next item please? >> communication? s >> five communications. >> commissioners? >> is there any public comment on communications? seeing none, public comment is close $. next item. >> item 6, other commission business? >> commissioners? >> seeing no other business commission, i will go ahead and call for public comment, if there is none i will close it.

madam secretary, next item. >> 7, a staff presentation and discussion on sewer system improvement program, communications 2013 annual report. >> hello. ellis assistant general manager for the external affairs and we are really excited to have the opportunity today to discuss the puc's efforts around the out reach and engagement tied to the sewer system improvement program and specifically spend a little bit on a deeper into where we are headed into the future, karen is the project program manager for the sewer program and that in her quarterly updates, she talks quickly around what has been happening around the community out reach and engagement tied to the program, based on your interest and commitment around kind of ongoing effective out reach and engagement to all of the different stake holders that are paying attention to this programming wither going to benefit from the program. and we are asked to do a deeper dive with you all today about

the specifically how many folks that we are reaching and what are the methods that we are using for that out reach and engagement. >> so this update will serve as a snapshot for our team to really describe the accomplishments since the program was validated in august of 2013, up to december of 2013 and share with you the projects tied on you are biggest ssip projects that are coming under way, and out reach and engagement efforts that will be happening with that. and so we will quickly highlight the main out reach focus for 2013, and the principles that we have been using for out reach and engagement that you have all seen in a couple of meetings before and the types of engagement methods that we are using and somehow about the learn about me campaign, which might be new to some you. and then we will look at the next steps for involving the community and stake holders,

types of ssp projects that are coming on-line, with that, i will turn it over to marie who you have met who is doing a lot of the out reach communications for the sewer system improvement program and we have asked ty who is the communication's director to wrap up talking about the next steps. >> so thank you. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> thank you for having us. what i am going to do today is basically go through what in the packet are regarding the communications around our first year. and where we are going this year. really where we started was a road show last spring, what we

called a road show and we reached out to the community groups throughout the community. and in the west side, and in the bay side. and we are able to reach more than 70 in that period of time, and final, we are doing a lot of innovaive out reach with the projects and the urban water shed assessment and those were more programs that enabled us to really bring the people in, to just start a new approach to out reach, and to have it more interactive and so you could actually work with us, and give us input, if you are out on it or if you were joining us at home, or following up afterwards and so this was a good pairing, and where we ended last year, was with our learn about me campaign, which you probably saw on our bus sides, where we are in the newspapers or on-line, and it was really received very well and helped us to cut through the clutter and really lay the groundwork for this following

year. and the principles of engagement as juliet mentioned i know that you have seen these before and offer refers to them, and what they have really done is let us connect with the people wherever they live work or rec create here in san francisco. and also this community based participation, has been a more collaborativive effort, and has let us, really, i think, get more input and in the end it will help us to build better projects. innovative communication tools and you hear a lot about that and you know that some people are living on-line these days and other people like to go to meetings and if that is where you are, you people have a lot of other things to do, what we have done is media, social media platforms, or the website, intercept surveys in the like have allowed the people to get involved, wherever they are and also, many times what we find is that people go to a meeting and they are excited by it and so they say, that look at this link on-line and you can also contribute and this was

particularly true with our green infrastructure projects and it was a real opportunity for the people to share in what we saw from the second and the third meetings have even more people at them because of this. and educational programs, and our community out reach, it is a very strong audience, we believe for us. as you think about the ten or 12-year-old today, and we are finished with the projects they will be the young adult who are the future and the stewards of the system and so we feel like the investment that we are raising today, working with them in the schools through the community organization ss going to be hefful and it has proved to be so. and as we said, what we have done is a combination of traditional, and innovative, traditional, of course, community, workshops and we have, we have done with the usual meetings is had a little spin on them so that we have stations as you approach, and or after a presentation to go around again and talk to the project manager and seeing, you

know, what we or what were the problems and how we are trying to solve them and this has been very helpful and the bike tours and plant tours as you know are also very popular and i think that to a person, people who come out of those plants tours say wow, if everyone in my neighbors or my friends could do this, everyone will be behind what we are trying to do in improving the sewer system. >> and innovative again, whether it is our urban planning, water shed gain, which you know, i know that some of you have been present there or you have helped to kick these off, this is a really interesting, opportunity for the people to really sit down, with our staff, and to look at what it would take with green or gray infrastructure to solve the problem with the budget or the time frame and people find this enlightning and in the end it felt like three and a half hours is really worth their time and we are actually going to show case this game and we have been asked to at the rough tech national meeting in october in

new orleans and the staff will be going there and showing other people how this has worked and i think that one of the most successful of all of our last year's out reach, was, at the south east community facility when we held this planning game, and we had over 100 people there, from all aspects of the channel and this is just the water sheds and each, actually had the people on the sides and because, some people didn't realize that it was three and a half hours and they had to go and pick up their kids or whatever, and other people came in and played, at these table to help us to solve these problems and then the people reported out, you know, what they thought about it and so it was an interesting experiment. on-line surveys, again, enewsletters and i hope that you get yours every two weeks and you are probably now getting one called dten, this

just highlights, really where our out reach was and i think that it is pretty obvious that we were able to cover a good portion of the city and we keep doing that and we will be growing on that, as we go forward. again building a following, and i think that one of the platforms and priorities is what we can do on-line. the history and the project statuses. but more importantly, i think that it mirrors what we are doing in the community and that is what we want it to show. on-line, again, we are lucky that we have young people who are living on-line, and ar keeping us current in that report, and so we have, and you may see, things on facebook or twitter, and reminded also, in a really good interactive thing

where the people now remind us about things and they see the water running or the like and so it has been helped us create that relationship and finally, the coverage and that has always been an important thing for us. has a very strong communications aspect about that, and we have been very fortunate with the media and we have continued that here and since of today, we are out, with assistant general manager mary cruise at the south east plant talking about the plans there and so look for that on channel seven and if you don't, we will send you a link and you will miss it and i am sure that you can find it later on. >> and finally the learn about me, campaign. and again, what i think we did here is really to cut through

the clutter, and the people took notice on something that is really out of sight and out of mind and it helped us to educate the public and that is our whole purpose, and it did not take very long for people to start taking pictures of themselves, in front of these ads, that led to contests, where we gave out our t-shirts, and increased our following as you can see. over a quarter or 23 percent increase, and double the new followers, and we have taken that another step this year, and i think that you might have seen these, and it is just, a little hand outs that we have used to plant tourism and otherwise, it says help me out this year and don't use your sink or toilet as dumpsters and gives the people the tips what, not to put down the drains, giving it legs and using it in other aspects and you will that throughout the year too. >> and finally a partnerships, and i can't say enough about this. it is really more, than for us. more than just breaking up concrete, but it has also been an opportunity, for the agency to meet people that they would not have met, orderly, and may not have come to our meetings and because of these activities, they have gotten

involved. and again, the education portion of this is particularly important. and one of the things that we are doing this year as well as continuing the sidewalk gardens and the other programs, with the supervisors, is working with these teachers in our schools, with our arts and education and staff person where they are seeing a video and we are going to encourage more teachers to take their kids, the classrooms to the plants. and then in the, i think that is february, we will have the second video that will show the teachers, how other teachers are using the plant, and the sewer system as a learning tool in their curriculum and so we hope that that really can build the attendance and increase awareness. >> the mission at green way because what we did there, it is building that and it is just a whole compilation of all of the aspects that it takes when you take on a project from setting up the meetings to even before that, meeting with your

sister agencies and figuring out what they are doing in that area, is there any collaration, could we save the time or money and also they need to go out with the out reach and how can we do that together. then the media as well as, working with our surveys on-line, or on the street to get the people's ideas about what they think and just a whole coverage on our website. and social media, links so that we can continue educating people, about these projects. this is the formula that we will use as we go forward with all of our projects. i might mention that next month we have two, really introductory manning meetings in dog patch for the central base hike system just talking to people what the issues are there and the purpose and need and what is happening with it and why it needs to be addressed so we hope that you can make that. this again is just sort of an overview of the numbers and i

could go through them but i think that the most important thing that we want to say is about building that relationship and whatever we can do, to communicate to the people, and in the way that they would like to receive the information, that is what we are trying to do and also, building that support as we go from planning, to design, and ultimately environmental review and your approval projects and so that where we are going with this. >> as we go on this year, the south east it is a good focus and also we are launching the urban water shed, assessment in the west side, on september 13th. and we are looking forward to that. and we have had some initial meet ands they have been well received. we are continuing our work with use, and also, with the various community organizations, i should say one, example that we had the opportunity, because of a community learning grant, to work with the mission

neighborhood centers, one of the things that we want to do is to reach out to some of the emerging audiences and whether that is latino or the asian and they were very interested in working on grease down the drain and they thought that was an issue that they would like to pring home to parents. and we will work with them and teaching them about the sewer system and why we are making these repairs and that is one of the ways that we can collaborative and talk to people in the way that we not. >> and now i am going to turn it over to him and he will make the closing remarks. i want to thank you for your time and if you have questions, we can answer them. >> let me stop you, just for a minute. questions based on that? >> first of all just to kind of piggy back on supervisor weiner's comments, one of the things that i personally enjoy

most about working with you people is the commitment and just the professionalism and i see the incredible work that is done by the staff and kelley's management team, and it goes a long, long way and i think that it is really good for the folks that are watching to see the unique way that you try to reach out and communicate with the rate payers and the public and everything else. if you are aible to go to the slide dealing with partnerships i did have a quick question about that. >> sure. >> so, can you, and if you are unable and someone else can, that is okay, and if no one is able to do it today, that is also okay with me. >> and with respect to these partnerships, in my mind, there is a big difference between a partnership with the san francisco unified school district, partnership with the department of the environment, and a partnership with the friends of the urban forest, are you able to distinguish the difference between partnership with those public entities, and

a partnership with those private entities as we enjay gage them? >> well, i will try to answer that. >> yes? >> i will let you take that one. >> okay. >> as someone... >> and julia, assistant general manager and so i think that you are right on the point that we have a lot of partnerships that are the sister agencies and the office of workforce development and the department of environment and what those departments, it is really, clear that they have kind of their value ad is the school district is if they give us access to the school kids and teachers and allows us to reach and has the mechanism and the infrastructure to do that. and what is interesting about the groups is that they have a base of constituents and that they often times have ability to reach folks that we would

never on our own be able to reach and get to scale in a different type of way and so over the last several ways, we have been trying to look for opportunities to increase those opportunities to really partner with the folks that the community members actually know whether it is friends of the urban forest that have been really clear, game plan as to how they could do the organizing in the neighborhoods to, you know, the place and kind of pair up and you know, pair up the sidewalks and put in it is a technical word, and to capture the storm water. >> it is a technical word and i think that what is exciting about those partnerships is that they do the organizing and the door knocking and what has been great is that a bunch of communities organizations including us, has really partnered with our technical staff so that as they do the door knocking and organizing the neighbors they are doing it tied to educational things that we at the puc have prioritized and so with the departments it is transactional in how level,

sfe, the school district have common goals and they have mechanism to hit the teachers in the schools in a very formal way, the community-based organizations have a con stit ent base for people like neighbor joe that help us to get in an authentic way in ways that we would not be able to otherwise, you will see that we are looking for those types of long term partnerships because the projects are multiple years, and it is going to take a long duration for those project to happen and so building those relationships i think is going to be extremely helpful for us and we have a bunch of mechanisms. >> does that answer? >> it gets us moving in the ball. i think that my intention of bringing it up, is because i don't think that those two belong on the same slide. >> okay >> when you are in a partnership with the school district it grants us access

and you get something in exchange for that. when you are in a partnership with these other entity theres is a different kind of access, access to the base i think is what you said. the concern that i have sometimes, >> and it is not all that, when you are talking about a non-profit and it has the people that work for it that do the tree stuff. >> and there is the wages and there is benches and there is healthcare. >> i used it and now i understand it. >> so i just wanted to maybe

highlight the fact that their role in the last several years has been planting trees, and so, they are going to continue to plant the trees, but we are trying to work with them to coordinate where to plant the trees. in a way that will be more meaningful, for our program. and so, that is the type of partnership that we are talking about. and so, i mean there may be issues, about should they be doing it or not? but since they are doing it, we are just trying to coordinate where they should do it. we should have the thoughtful and deliberate conversations to this partnership and to what extent the oblt is to that the folks that work for these

organizations are actually having it for the wage applied to that work. that they are not under cutting other department whens it comes to those, and i mean, that it is. >> and it is not so hungry for the jobs, like we were three or four years ago. so now, we get to be a little more selective about who is doing that work. so hopefully we will be able to have it. >> definitely. >> so one more thing that i would just throw out there is that the department of public works was or is responsible for some trees or some property owners and i know that the department is tried to relinguish a lot of these trees and i don't think that we the puc is not responsible for the trees it is just that if they are going to place a tree it will be nice for us to tell us where the best location so that

it will impact our, you know, our water. programs. >> and so, but i do understand where your concern lies. >> our concern? >> yes. >> it is just a conversation, because... >> yeah. >> and thank you. >> the conversations with the tree people in san francisco? >> the urban forest people? >> yes. >> yes. >> the home owner decides to get a tree, they pay for the tree. >> it is not really a tree. >> and care for the tree. >> it is the trees that are planted on the sidewalks in san francisco. the residents ultimately are responsible, the home owners are responsible for the tree. >> which is partly why the home owners need to indicate the strong interest because they are responsible for the ongoing maintenance overseeing that and sometimes they are not aware of that. >> true. >> let me ask you a follow up question. does friends of the urban forest provide that service? >> which service?

>> the maintaining the trees for the public? >> no. >> they don't? >> they don't and, they have young people that they employ over the summer to do little bits of maintenance, but it is not a summer employment program, it is truly the approach is that the neighbors have to indicate interest and there needs to be a critical mass of the neighbors for them to do the blocks and the neighbors are responsible for the ongoing maintenance and so that approach that sent to the urban forest. >> so there is no deliverable. >> so if we called them and said that you planted this tree and will you come out and prune it. >> i am not sure. >> but... >> the urban forest program, issue long standing in san francisco. and under supervisor lesscy kats, i believe, years ago, there was an urban forest

council established, to be able to deal with a lot of these issues and it included representatives from the puc and the department of environment from the urban forest and being a better coordination and especially around maintenance needed to happen and that council, has never really done this set of recommendations or planning for the city that still i believe needs to happen so it has been tossed around who should pay for maintenance and which department, and which are you in and everyone between dpw and puc in particular and the department of environment and how the staff person who is dedicated to the urban forestry and issues and so i think that it is a complicated issue. >> and i just want to be clear that the program that we are referring to in this presentation is clear to the property owner that once it is planted it is their responsibility. >> right.

>> yeah. >> and also, isn't it, it is clear too, what the deliverables for the friends of the urban forest are. there is a contract between the puc and south right. >> very clear. >> and so that is about bringing the storm water capture and it is about educating the public and tied to the need to do that and in a larger sewer system program. and they get from the tax, and educate the public, about the need to do that and educate them about ssip. >> great, i think that i appreciate the dialogue and i appreciate when commissioner vietor can shed the light on it because i am inclined to know. but i do and i want to understand as our partners because, we could be engaging in partner, and in such a way that it, and it gives them an opportunity to engage all of these other partners and men, without really intending to do it and we set something up. and that is not really beneficial to our rate pairs

and not beneficial to the urban forest and the community workforce and that the point that i am trying to make, it requires more thoughtful and deliberation about these partnerships. >> thank you. >> back to the communication and out reach, just for a second. i think even to take the conversation and you see that we think about communication and out reach, it is an ever advising thing and we always say that we want the perfect out reach strategy and the perfect out reach out come, but in reality, it is often times the question of how you are driving to get there and to make sure that you are constantly moving in that direction. everything that you heard is no different, we talk about the ipad and the urban water shed, for example, we started that with a local water project several years prior but yet we

are implementing it into this massive sewer system out reach and i think that is kind of our message is there are a lot of different ways and we will continue to work and enhance our relationships and broadening our partnerships with a lot of audiences and in addition to the historic ones that have the constitutional knowledge, and all of those new ones that are coming on-line, that are out there, and you know we had to consistently change our game, and to insure that we are reaching them, whether it is via social media and whether it is via doing the out reach on the web sites, and so, that is the idea and i just wanted to thank all of the staff, this is a brief presentation, we could spend, you know a half hour going through each one of these public out efforts because each one of them required a comprehensive plan from the project and we have a 30-page document of how we reached out to of stake holders groups and how we got that input and what those manageable inputs were and how they influenced the project. and i want to thank, you know,

maurine and a host of other people that are involved in this, and i want to thank the commission, and because we take our kind of tone from what you guys set and the consistent tone of we expect you to do the public engagement and out reach and we expect you to engage with the people before coming to us with whatever your projector program is. we take that to heart and we want to be sure that whatever we propose or presented to you by the project teams has that incourted. to the best of our ability. and we are sometimes our own worst critic. i would say, when it comes to things. every time that i am able to go out and talk about the work that we do, at the puc, i was just in denver the other week talking about all of our out reach over the past ten years when you add up everything from the water improvement program and everything in the sewer system improvement program and where we are with the rates now to where we were ten years ago. and there is a trend during this and it is a positive trend