policy. i agree that there are important changes on the piece of when to refer to the child protective service and one piece that we think is important is that the parents should understand in which circumstances there is going to be a referral to the child protective service sos that they can understand the consequences and so it is really important that the criteria that are laid out are very clear, both for the officers who are going to be following this policy and for the parents or the guardians who are affected and in the current version of the draft, there is still a criteria that refers to criminal threats defined by the california penal code and while the police officers know what that means, i don't think that the average parent will understand what is covered by that and so our suggestion is to spell that out a little bit more to explain, the threats of the great bodily injury. and other than that, we are

very grateful that a lot of the feedback that we gave was incorporated into the policy and, we think that it is a lot stronger now, in preventing unintended consequences of people being afraid to contact police for help,, if they knew that there would be an automatic referral to the child protective services >> thank you. >> one last thing, that you may want to know about it, and especially commissioner, melara, there is a referral card that we are going to put together with the packet that the officers have to hand for our victims when we go to a scene, explaining exactly what is happening as far as the cps referral, and i have given that card, that referral card that we are looking at to the occ, to marian and to the community advocates in this. and so it is self-explanatory, and a card that you will see. okay? and upon completing of the order. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> hearing no public, or

further public comment, call the next line item. >> line item 4, approval of the awards and committee recommendations, action. >> okay. >> commissioners in your packet, is a list of the recommended awards from the medal of valor meeting that we had at the hall of justice and i spoke about it in the last commission meeting and we met on july, 14th and i was the commissioner that was comment, and chief suhr presided over the day long event of making the selections and so what you have in the packet is the officers who have been nominated for in the silver medal of valor and the bronze and there are various awards, and the police commission commendations and life saving awards and i was present for the presentation of each and every one of these incidents. where in, there was discussion, and questions asked by the most senior members of the command staff and the police department, and it is an unusually large number of

awards, you will see a large number of gold medals of valor that we do not give often, i can say that the crash of the aircraft and these incredible officers that decided that it was their duty to run so to the burning aircraft while the firefighters were suiting up and we have the silver medal of valor for the officers that were involved in the life threating situation and so all of these have been provided to the occ to insure that they have been properly vetted and none of these officers have any charges that are pending or under investigation and all of this has been cleared and vetted and if you have any questions for me and the chief regarding these, feel free to ask. >> so you answered my question, thank you. >> very much. and i still think that and this looks great, a lot of people here and i assume that it is from the rescue, and the other. >> yeah, the lion's share, that

there were 19. 19 of those medals went to the folks that their actions in the asiana plane crash. >> thank you for that and i am sure that they are well deserved and i look forward to hearing and we should really start talking about a policy and you said that there is no one with the charges pending but we don't have a policy set in place and maybe we should talk about it as a commission or set the committee together whether we want a policy in place on that issue or not. but you did address my question and i think that this is great. and you got to talk about a policy going forward and you can talk about setting up a committee on that. >> commissioners any questions regarding the nominations? >> commissioner hwang? >> could you let me know how do the folks get nominated for these types of award. >> it is an incredible process. >> and so an event happens and the captain or a commanding

officer, prepares, a recommendation and it comes through the chain of command and it has to be approved to get to the chief and if i believe that it is deserving of consideration, we send it to a committee of three captains. that change each time that there are those and so there will be a new three that will do the next round and the three captains that all of the submissions and some of them are for, and some of them don't and they believe that are captain accommodation and in fact, in many of these there were more involved involved than the ones that are receiving medals. and they will be reduced, some of them to a captain's accommodation, which is still, a notation of somebody doing something well. i signed four or five of those a day for great work that are done around the department but it does not cross the threshold to be considered for a medal of valor there has to be personal jeopardy involved, unless it is

a life saving medal. there are other categories. we just had a submission of that nature for a cash of firearms that were ceased. these captains make recommendations and they put the people in and then it goes to the full medal of valor committee which are all civil service captain and above and then there is a voting and we do, quite a bit of sausage making ourself and separating people out like, some that we deserve were deserving of gold and some silver, and there is quite a heated conversation in after it is all settled there is a vote. and you have to get two-thirds of the assembled civil service captains above to carry the day for the medal. if you don't receive a two-thirds vote it keeps going down to the medal until there is a two-thirds majority and then that is the medal that you

get. so, it is very, very fair, in that not any one captain can sway anybody one way or the other. and gold medals are very rare this is as many and i have been on the committee since 1997 and i will tell you that is as many gold medals i have ever seen especially in one incident. >> and i think that it deserves and i voted the gold medal myself. >> i add that the department is the second oldest in the country. they have a great tradition and i think that it should be your turn to go to this as a commissioner and the tradition in how formal this is to be in that room that the chief demands that every member of the staff and the captain and above be there on time and be in the address uniform and it is very formal and when the presentation is made, regarding the incident, for example, the aircraft and the captain made the presentation, those officers have been nominated are brought forward in the

dress uniforms and the presentation is made by the captain. and there are requested by the captain and there are questions, by the captains in there for example, if it is an incident involving gunfire, how far were you aware from there and where were you, and did you fire back. and i mean that it was very, very thorough and first of all it is overwhelming to see the heroism of these officers and these men and women and then, the questions that are asked, the chief is right, it was, it is not an easy thing and i mean that they asked the very serious questions and in the officers responded to the questions, and then there is a vote and the part that left the chief left off was just amazing and it is a secret ballot and it is a wooden box and there is colored marbles for the gold medal and silver and bronze and commendations and the police commission and then that box is passed around by inspector monroe and the captains and they reach in and take one marble and put it in on the other side and then the

commissioner, and inspector monroe and i count the marbles i tell you when the officers do get a gold medal of valor it is one of the most impressive things that i have seen and those officers are called in, and they get a standing ovation from the command staff and the police department and there is a reception line and it is just, it is really awesome. and so, there is a lot of effort that goes into this. and there is a lot of debate. and again, it is amazing, some of these things that these officers did and i said this last time, they always ask, do you have anything like that, no we are just doing our job and they are all there because they did something above and beyond the call of duty, but none of them seem to recognize that and it was just pretty amazing. >> and i might add, commissioner hwang, when i first got on the commission, we did not televise the ceremony and they said that it needs to be seen. and we thought, you know, with all that they have done at this time, this should be televised and so when we do the ceremony

now, it is televised and oh, the commission, and it is great. >> it is great, and the chief apologized that it took a whole day, and i told him that this was so rewarding it was the best way to spend the day. >> so commissioners if there are any questions or comments, regarding the particular awards or we have to call for the public comment before i have a motion, any public comment regarding these awards? >> hearing none, do i have a motion? >> so moved. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> passed. thank you. >> police call the next line item. line item 5, public comment on all matters pertaining to item 7 below closed session, including public comment on vote whether to hold item 7 in closed session. >> any public comment for confidential litigation matters >> hearing none, closed. >> next item. >> 6, vote on whether to hold

item 7 in closed session, action >> is there a motion. >> so moved. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> thank you, we are going to move to the closed session. >> could we vote wherever to disclose. >> i move to not disclose. >> item nine. >> adjournment. >> could i have a motion. >> so moved. >> thank you very much. >> we are done. >> august 26, 2014.

city of san francisco >> public utilities commission >> let's call this meeting to order 1:30. tuesday august 26, 2014. jasmine, please read the roll. city clerk: commissioner courtney, veet or, moran, torres, caen

is expected shortly. >> next item, to prove the minutes of august 12th #shgs , 2014. >> so moved. >> second. >> is there any public comment? seeing none. i will call for a vote. all in favor say, "aye". >> aye. >> opposed ? the motion carries. next item is general comment. if you are interested in speaking on items not on today's agenda, please fill out a card. first card i have here is from francisco decost a. >> good afternoon commissioners, jasmine and ms. hood. i see you are going to have a

new secretary -- or back up. that's good. i want to bring today attention of the commissioners a number of things. first and foremost we all know that we had an earthquake. of course we had this earthquake in napa, but what is happening now is the united states geological is survey, the maybe federal agency that invest a lot in earthquakes is pointing a finger in the direction of the hayward fault. so if you say the hayward fault, we should feel a little bit embarrassed because we were supposed to finish a project in that area in 2009 and it's already 2014.

you know , attorney, you know me for a long time. we need to connect the dots. we have some commissioners here who understand this but this hoodwinking should stop. so now they are appropriating more and more money and god alone knows when we'll finish that project. 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. and then some of your employees who work for the public utilities commission have the audacity to speak and say don't speak to dr. spanola jackson or frances skoe decost a, if you want to speak to them,

run it by us. oh yeah, the way some of these things are tackled is you about -- buffoonery. you better produce. don't you ever say not to talk to the constituents of san francisco because we taxpayers pay our salary. just give us some respect. don't you ever think that we don't have constituents in san francisco bhor -- who are not engineers, who do a lot of reading, who have the best interest of the city and county of san francisco and also of our resources. don't you ever try to undermine them. commissioners, i will be speaking on other subjects, but this will do for now. thank you very much. >> thank you very much francisco for being here. the next card i have a mark

weese. did i get that right? close enough? thanks for being here today. >> good afternoon, commissioners, my name is mark weiss and i'm a writer and historian and blogger from palo alto california and i have a blog called plastic alto and i took an incredible tower of -- tour of this building. we had a very lively group and some ideas were generated. one thing that came up to plant the seed. 1769 marks the portola expedition of the spanish bho -- who started out in san diego and as a palo altoan.

they saw palo alto and realized they were lost and went back to san diego. i don't have the exact timeframe but it's consistent with the same thrust that found yerba buena and eventually mission dolores. with the 250 anniversary of this breakthrough of western civilization i think there should be a regional acknowledgment of these affairs. very specifically i look, i'm familiar with your agenda today in a drought and also closely following the regent -- recent earthquake, i think it would be interesting to write 2019 port los ola and uses of water and how it's changed from the 49ers era and spanish era and mission era and through modern times and our technological

advances. i think it would be an interesting checkbook publishes parks and libraries and streets and auchlt i think it might be interesting to have a resource or be fun maybe a little bit like the chinatown movie about the history of water use statewide, but i think it would be interesting for us, peninsula and san francisco centric people to have a history of water usage for 250 years. so i just thought i would mention that today in front of the commission. >> mark, thanks for being here and thanks for those comments. >> yes, commissioner torres? >>commissioner art torres: yes, it was juan and june ipero sister a

-- sera. thank you for pointing that out. >> thanks again. an clark. it's good to see you again. >> thank you. an clark. i'm here to tell you the good news that after wloot -- a lot of worry and concern and after a lot of work by all of you and everyone who pitched in we had a great summer. it wasn't without a few surprises. my week was the last week of the regular summer and it finished about week and a half ago. during that week we had thunder, we had lightning, we had power shortage, telephone shortages, we got very warm an we got very cold, and i was amazed at how much fun everyone

still had at camp of all ages. again, i want to thank you for that and let you know how much we appreciate all the hard work that went in to open the camp. finally we are going to have a gala on september 20th, to celebrate the 9th anniversariary of camp and to honor all the people who protected the camp during the yosemite rim fire. each week we had a whole program that was excellent for each of the weeks on the rim fire and what happened and what was the devastation and where we were now and it was something we never did before. we did this year and we hope to come back to a theme next year and have the same kind of presentation around the mountains that are there and that we love so much. so, again, thank you very much. we all had a good time, all my family

made it, even my three-year-old and he's already told me that he is going back. thank you. >> thanks so much for all the work that you do. it's a great effort from you and the volunteers. thank you very much. yolanda louis. >> thank you. we are not surprised that we are in a drought here this california and we need to protect our citizens and now we have a reminder with the earthquake that just happened. i wanted to remind everyone of the importance of looking at solutions for decentralised systems. we have the sewage from the surrounding cities. if that fail does not only impact the communities here but will

impact those living in the area that this devastating catastrophic event that may take place and i want to address this when i look at what i see the new improvement for a hundred-year-old system. i see the same things being done instead of taking advantage of technologies that are here. there is proprietary technology to remove the sludge. to revamp the sewage system it saved almost $500 million 500 000-0000 and also with the odor, they had to set aside additional money. in san francisco we don't want to see that happen, we want to use the latest technology to solve our problems. we can leverage a decentralized

system. we can talk about for instance if you have different locations for school, one school may have been hit by an earthquake and another school is not. if this school is up and running, the other schools can share that. if you keep going everything is going to be lumped which is too big to fail. if you have a system too big to fail, we are all going to suffer. we are asking you to take advantage of the technologies to show you that they have been up and running, the technology that these engineers that they have built for water and energy. we need to look at this in our community and i'm asking you to take a look at this because there are three major issue that can be resolved through technology that no one is addressing which is the sludge, odor and the additional smaller foot frint and the safety of the community. we want safety at the table an not

hearing after the fact. we want to be involved in the planning stages and we have people in the community. we have two phd's on my team alone that can provide you with information on these technologies and how they can be beneficial. not only to save the city money but protecting our citizens and the additional rate hikes that will be required because once you build the facility you are planning, it's going to cost a lot of money to keep it running. >> thank you again for being here. are there any other public comments on this item, item no. 4? seeing none, public comment is now closed. madam secretary, next item. >> cl eric clerk no. 5, communication. are there any public comments on the record? seeing none, public comment is closed.

earlier when i asked to represent a number of items with community work concerns related in part to green scapes, green jobs. i have asked for probably the past several months to have these items placed on the agenda and somehow and i don't know how, maybe it's me, it doesn't seem to be getting on the agenda. if i don't see those items getting on the agenda, i'm going to work with vice-president caen to see that it does. the committee is counting on us to vet these things out. donna, would you be kind enough to provide me a bullet point list of the items that i have requested under this line item, but also under the line

item that comes immediately following the closed session. >> i will. >> thank you very much. commissioners, anything else? are there any public comments on my comments? public comment is close. thank you francisco. >> commissioners, what if i share one thing in common and that is that we worked as union members and represented the community. what you have stated and what some of the employees do not seem to fathom is this: when we are talking about workforce development, we are talking about career jobs. you had a career job, i had a career job. the career jobs come benefits.