commission >> please stand by... [ gavel ] >> >> good morning ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to call this meeting of the san francisco public utilities commission of tuesday october 14, 2014, to order at 130 :30

p.m.. madam clerk, please read the roll. courtney, caen, vietor. we have a quorum. 2 first item is to approve the minutes. >> second. >> any comment on approval of the minutes? seeing none, i will call for a vote. all in favor say, "aye". >> aye. >> any opposed? >> the ayes have it. the next item. city clerk: item 4, public comment. >> if you are interested in speaking, please fill out a card. if you do i will call you in this order. mr. decosta, yolanda louis.

>> good afternoon. >> good morning. the community is at a stage where we are paying very careful attention to the water system improvement project but to the sewer system improvement project. as you know commissioners those are still and fouling -- following what's really happening. we do have the experts in place to address what is happening. some of it in good faith was addressed, and i'm talking about calaveras and then we had to deal with

removal of over 2 million tons of dirt. that's not a joke, but it's being done. if you read yesterday's, today's news, the united states geological is survey is talking about the hayward fault. if anybody knows where that fault is it's very near calaveras. i'm not saying that we are not ready for the big one, but what i am saying is that this particular project should have been done some years ago. we can't cry over spilled milk, but we have to make note of it. having said that, some of those in the community are interested in

the sewer system improvement project and in that project where $2.6 million have been set aside to address the digesters. now, we know that that project is not a very easy project because of many elements. the constraints of being in a general area. the standards that have to be addressed i'm asking this commission to inform the community give us some information as to what is happening. you have some members, some,

and i don't want to write about them. they think we should be kept in the dark. i will not be kept in the dark, not in 2014. we will shed light. thank you very much. >> thank you francisco. yolanda thank you for being here. >> my grandmother said don't give me my flowers when i'm dead. give them when i'm alive. i want to give you flowers today when i start speaking because one thing i noticed that you always put the public 1st. you have handicap and disabled people and i have been going to the council meetings for the last couple years and they make you wait last. i told them that i had two blood clots this year and i can't sit that long and i was the last person in the audience.

we appreciate the fact that you are putting the public first. this is incredibly important. last year i spoke with the puc and the president and others took it upon themselves change it the way you did. i just wanted to give you those flowers and say thank you for putting the public first and for listening. when we come here we are coming here to bring concerns to the community and we know that you are going to hear us and take action. the reason is the outcomes. they are outcomes and the question we have is was it in intentional and unintentional. when it is intentional, you listen and you act. i want to thank you for taking action for what we brought and we are coming to the table to make ethics better. i have had the great experience of working not only as a small business but being born in the bayview and seeing what's happening and having my

family here and having the ability to work next to costa. i have learned a lot. i want to say san francisco hetch hetchy is the purest water and i live in the soutd bay now and we no longer have access to hetch hetchy water and we have some of the highest chromium six ground water and now we are forced to have this water and we have the highest concentration of nitrate which is causes blue blood in babies and we have haa 5, the acids that are dangerous. so what i'm saying to you is the people of san francisco have the hetch hetchy water and ask that you look at ways to preserve it and make people more aware of it because now that i'm on ground water anytime i see someone

litering, i want to remind them that it's going into my stomach. >> thank you, yolanda. next speaker, dr. jackson. >> good afternoon, it's a pleasure to be back. spanola jackson leader of human rights in san francisco. one thing we hear a lot about at most of our meetings is the community benefits. there is nothing on the agenda today but in the past you have had community benefit programs and updates to community benefit plans. now i understand that you have been spending money, millions of dollars with millions more to come on these community benefits. well, i have asked around where this money is going and who is actually benefitting, and no one seems to know. we all know that some of this money was the money that was the subject of

the records ethics fine against your assistant general manager was supposed to pay for conflict of interest this year. we also know that her and her staff are in charge of this benefit community money. the black leadership riepts council respectfully request an audit of the all the san francisco puc programs from january 2010 until present. this will help us understand how your so-called community benefit money is actually being spent and who is actually benefitting. i had requested this of you two 2 years ago and never an answer, but i want you all to take note today that this is year 2014 be and i should not have to wait until 2018 to

get the information i request from you all. thank you so much and have a blessed day. >> thank you, doctor. >> general manager kelly in >> what we can do is talk about all the programs of the community benefits. the construction center is a community benefit, talk about project pool. we will definitely provide you the way we define community benefit. the way we define community benefit is by being a good neighbor. we can definitely update you on community assistance center, project pool and the money we normally give to

the art community instead of giving money for the city hall, give it to subgroups in the community. so we can talk about how we are rediverting funds that we would normally give to try to debit -- give to the community and the other thing that we are asking is how can you help communities and we actually they come up with the ideas of how to give to the community. we can view that as well. that is something we never ask for. that's how we define community benefit and how we can be a good neighbor. that's how we can define what that is. most people think it's a community benefit fund that we get. we don't have a community benefit fund. it's how we are utilizing our existing money. currently we are using it in a different way and we are asking partners outside how they can help us help the community that we serve. we'll put it in those

categories so you can see all the efforts that other people are doing and working with us because we are trying to leverage as much opportunities to achieve at. one other example i will give for example, the program manager for the sewer system improvement programs parsons, we ask what type of community benefits you will give and they decided they will hire people from the 94124 as an annual program going through engineering. that is something they commit and they had a class of 50 folks this year. those are the things that are really no cost to us but this is what they are doing to step it up. we will define what it is, this community benefit because a lot of people when they hear community benefits, they think of a way how we do a community benefits with developers. and this is a little slightly different. so anyway, we'll define how

we define community benefit and all the programs underneath it. not a problem. >> thank you, general manager, kel ly. shotted the -- >>commissioner francesca vietor: i would like to nouns that there is information on the website. >> thank you. any other comment? is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed.. item no. 5. any public comment on item 5? is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed.. item 6. city clerk: other commission business

discussion and possible action in correspondence with the rule 6 of the rules of order to nominate and elect officers. >> >>president vince courtney: i have been honored and selected to fulfill this position. i was excited about it and naive about it and i enjoyed the entire opportunity. i want to quickly go through some of the highlights over the course of the past year and hopefully people understand how quickly these things start to happen. when i first got into this chair it was right after senator torres vacated and we were right in the middle of the assessing the cass catastrophic damage of the rim fire and i saw how staff worked hard under this situation and it was absolutely

impressive and the point with the locking fault lines and the ways that could be jeopardized by that. i have full confidence in the world in the way i viewed throughout the year to address these concerns. i also had an opportunity to see some people come and some people go. the addition of emilio cruz. there wasn't a lot said about that, but i will tell you emilio hit the ground coming and a great addition to kelly's core of managers and i have had a lot of opportunity to work with him. we are really lucky to have emilio and i have seen nicole in the room right now and she came in when i got into this chair and i got a lot listening to her and paying close attention to the job she does and oftentimes we

don't really understand it because in san francisco we are focused on the whole san francisco thing but i love watching nicole do her thing and we had senator torres on the board for free. that's volunteering his time as a representative and i see today -- todd in the room too. todd i don't know what you are doing here. todd has been an n -- unsung hero and he has done in credible work. for me to sit here, it's a pinch me moment. i got to see the roadhouse and got to go down there with mayor lee and francisco you were there and joeld -- yolanda and all the community activist were there and it's fun for

me to see it get done because people talk about getting things done and oftentimes it's just people talking about getting things done. i'm actually witnessing things getting done. i saw solar getting done on city hall and i'm an advocate of solar power and saw those things taking place and michael is here, he did a great job with nicole and we celebrated the 100 year -year anniversary of the laker act. we have a brand new park on the way in district 2. mark farrell's office did incredible work and this commission did incredible work with the real estate department and that was exciting to see how many people from all communities in san francisco were advocating for that land

swap, that transfer. i was here at the very end with it. i went there with harlin and i enjoyed that, the very last project of the water system improvement and now with emilio cruz at the reigns. i know for a fact that we are going to do a lot of great work especially in the community on that sewer system improvement because there is a lot of improvement through juliette's office like frieking 24/7. our department that is teaed up for a particular reason because those who know me my area of concern is always in community workforce development. career pathways, good jobs with health and welfare, pension and real opportunity to advance. that's how you feed your

family, that's how you can still live in san francisco. that's what makes san francisco affordable and what makes san francisco affordable as far as this administration is concerned is real jobs. not any job, preferably a union job, but a job with pension and health care. i don't see tierm in the office but he was the quarterback position when we launched the sleek sexy conservation campaign. that was something that got nationwide news. that came out of our little public utilities commission and came out of our commission how we decided to challenge all the work that was coming out of our community to conserve water and get with the program. when i go through this whole thing, i think about what other people have done. what i have seen and what i have witnessed.

nobody talks much about har listen kelly. harlin kelly is at the deposited. -- department. harlin kelly worked to get out of that situation. that wasn't easy. it was a heavy heavy lift. we owe a lot to harlin and even after all that lifting, the board of supervisors still set our budget aside, right juliette? but through a little bit of negotiation give and take, we managed to get through that. so, when i started, you know, we were talking about the rim fire and the devastation and i'm ready to leave this chair now and it was a pleasure for me to see everything. now i'm leafing and -- leaving and we are in the worst drought in

anyone's memory, right? so we need somebody in a position who has institutional knowledge and is strong and sharp and witty and color coordinated, [ laughter ] . so you guys know what i'm getting at. donna, dorene. i nominate caen to be the -- commissioners. >> second. >> is there any public comment on the motion nomination that i just made. francisco, would you like to make a public comment? thank you, sir.

>> i was good friends with miss caen's husband. but i was also present when she was at the house commission not land use. she does her homework and she wants to see how it's really done. what i like about her is that

she will focus on the important things and remember it. there are certain things this commission had done because of mrilt -- political pressure. but she'll remind you that when certain things have to be done, we miss the boat. sometimes we miss the plane. and we miss the train. san francisco was blessed to have hetch hetchy. we have not discussing the best of the record act gave and power

municipalities but also the poor and also the military. you have to read it. today with our population growth we have a population of about 805,000 and we have these conferences and the giants game. we have to address certain things where we have to provide the resources. so with ms. caen in that chair with here institutional memory and experience, she is going to take this commission to a period of time place. we always have to go to a better place. we don't have to lower our standards. if anybody lowers their standards, their ethics and morals suffer. so, congratulations, ms. caen.

and she's on my -- lincoln. we shall community. >>president vince courtney: thank you. it's my last personal privilege as the chair, i did want to say one thing. an -- for me to sit up here with francesca and ann, if there is no further public comment. is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. all in favor say, "aye". >> aye. >> any opposed? >> congratulations, president

caen. [ applause ] . >>vice- president ann moller caen:. >> president ann moller caen: thank you very much for offering me this position. for your memory of this commission, the commission has gotten something i know you are going to really love. it's a [ gavel ].

so with this i would like to present you with this gavel, president courtney sf puc. the back story of this is that vince loves the gavel as i'm sure all of you have seen i jump every time he hits it and certainly andrew laughs at me. so moving along with the election of officers, i too would like to nominate vice-president francesca vietor. >> second. >> certainly she has served in this

capacity before as well as chair of the commission and i look forward to your saying yes to the nomination and i would like to proceed on that. do you accept the nomination? >>commissioner francesca vietor: i do. >> is there any additional public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. all in favor say, "aye". >> aye. >> any opposed? the motion carries. you can stay there. okay. >> can i just say a few words. it's a great opportunity to serve all of you. i must say vince, this year has been a very interesting year because we had a lot of challenges together and i think the one thing that we are both realizing that in city government nothing happens fast and i think that all of your issues and concerns are concerns of mine and will continue foraging ahead on all of your

concerns and my commitment and things that we are talking about that we are going to make sure that we continue the effort and try to move them fast and quickly. plus, some of the folks out there know that we have been trying to move forward in the habitat restoration program and we are going to get some attraction on that because you want to step to the plate and we have acknowledged that and we are going to move quickly on that. the construction center, that took a while to start. but we are going to do it. it may take some time, but we are going to make it happen. my commitment to you is that we are still going to move on a lot of the initiatives that you planted the seeds and make sure they become a reality.

>> president ann moller caen: any other comments? any other commission business? seeing none. i wanted to stop for a moment and say that ms. hood is going to keep us apprised of the score. >> bottom of the third. 4-0 giants. >> okay. item 7. city clerk: item 7, sea level rise.