Skip to main content

tv   [untitled]    December 8, 2014 8:00am-8:31am PST

8:00 am
for now. >> and any more commissioner comments before we open it up. commissioner stephenson? >> some of the questions, could we have the different labels for the different fuel types? stead of trying to reduce the over all number to make it work for everything? >> you are saying like a different label for the diesel verses gasoline? >> yes. >> yeah, i suppose that would be up to the policy makers to decide what the best way to do it was and i think that eyer original thinking was simpler was easier and better to have just one label so that we can save on the printing cost and design costs and confusion, but, yeah, i think that is a decision for the policy makers to decide, if you want to have the specific customized labels
8:01 am
for each of the fuel types. >> we don't have that many, that would be a a little better. one thing that i just wanted to jot down this is something along these lines and each gallon of this fuel that you use, produces an average of whatever, we say that the thing is, 20 pounds of, and co2, the gap, and something as simple as that and with the food note of the epa and it is talking to me, right? and i am doing something. yes, go ahead. >> and so, wow, heather you are really inspiring me and those are great, great ideas and they bring up one of the point that i just want to talk about with funding, is that it is great to
8:02 am
think about the capacities but the big cost to the department is in designing this thing, and many of you have said, and rightly so that this needs to be part of a bigger campaign and there are dollars on that too. donny, can you talk about, how would we, and where would we fit this in do we have grants? how would we do this? >> what i think they ought to do. >> how could we do it? >> great, the department of the environment, and so we are looking at the opportunity to commissioner stephenson point that we really want to leverage and continue to make it a repetitive asset, right? and added to other campaigns
8:03 am
and so we have been looking at, and the bigger pictures, and the climate related and the communication through the ambassador trainings and through the grant program that we are running, and any time that we can tap into the climate change and the impacts that every action have and every action and every day, to because right now we don't have the funds that are directly associated does that make sense? >> it doesn't mean that we
8:04 am
would not get the funding, it is just that we were and if there was not funding associated we would have to write a grant to do it, because there is nothing in our funding right now, it is not that we are not willing to write a grant, i would love to write a grant but it is not guaranteed. the questions for jeremy and the picture that we all really liked of the tag and it looked like it had a hard, metal or a plastic sleeve, or something that the thought that at service station woulds pay for that, it is not in the ordinance. >> that is a point that we are open to the discussion on what is the best way to go about it and the plastic sleeve, i guess that it is called a hose talker and it is the standard size and you know, distributers and they carry them and i think that as the ordinance is written, the department of the environment role would just be to provide the guidelines on the label and
8:05 am
it would be up to the stations themself to provide them. and yeah, i think, yeah, happy to work with you all on what you think is the best way to implement that is, and yeah. if it would be to provide the labels or just give them minutes up to them to put them on themselves, so yeah. >> thank you. >> and just the point of information that the question of visualizing and the question for me, was, when one it was the size of the 20 points of carbon dioxide would fill a balloon 3 feet in diameter. >> and show it. >> yeah, nobody knows that. i mean. >> yeah. >> right. >> and so one gallon of gasoline equals a yoga ball, for each gallon is kind of shocking. >> it could be in the graphic, that would be great. >> commissioner wald? >> i just wanted to say, that i really did like the idea that was in some of of these materials, of changing the
8:06 am
desig i think that it will bring the people back to actually paying attention to them, rather than just getting used to the fact this they are there. okay, we have a speaker card from jack, fleck? >> yes, i am from the 350 bay area and i really enjoyed your conversation and you raised a lot of really good questions, and i think that the main thing that we are wanting you to do today, is to express your support for this project. and now there are a lot of details, you know, that it is seems to me that for example, this issue of who is going to provide the labels it seems like it is a lot to ask each
8:07 am
gas station to do that and why not have the city to provide them even if they charge for them. >> and then someone talked about the front and back, one on the front and another on the back and depending on what part of town you are in you could use spanish or chinese or etc., and we can't answer all of these questions right now tonight, and i don't think that is the possibility, but, but you could pass your minutes on to the board and you made a lot of good comments and i think that it would be nice to pass a motion telling the board that yeah, let's do this, and all of this discussion, about the we
8:08 am
have a nice design and let's keep it simple. and so any way, so my urging to you is let's take the action and urge the board to move ahead with this, it would be nice to see the cities moving in tan tum with each other. >> the next speaker is an maria gafor. >> it is a pleasure to be here and i am a san francisco resident and a professor and just to hear, and just more ideas, generated about and the global warming topic and it is a breath of fresh air and i want to echo, what jack said about transmitting that enthusiasm and creativity on to the board of supervisors.
8:09 am
and that, you know, we do have the resources and the design that came up, and working together, is a great idea, and i think in terms of the campaign, which is mentioned, you know, to really have more messaging around it, and i don't know if you noticed, when this idea first came out, and 350, many, news outlets picked it up and it was on cnn and fox news and i think that there is going to be amplifying and we will have the burst of the free advertising in that way. and i also think that in san francisco, you know, we will and i think that this will help to build, support for public transit, and we, at the 350 san francisco are very much putting that on our agenda, as something that we want to push for support for public transit and also, we do have people coming through and i think that we do have a lot of fruit traffic of the people on
8:10 am
vacation and this is something that they are not going to see this every day in their town but it will be something that they would take home with them from their travels and it is result in san francisco, right? and among a lot of other different things that they see her. so, just thank you very much, and you know, again, i work a lot on the trying to stop fossil fuel extraction, and there is always a push back and what about the consumer? what about the demand side and i think that this also gives us a talking point in our conversation there to say yes, we are in 350 in the city and the governments that are working on demand side as well as the supply. thank you. >> any more members of the public that wish to speak. if you want us to spell your name right, that is a good idea. >> thank you. >> my name is karin and i am
8:11 am
the share of san francisco group and i have a letter that i am going to stick to because i have been known to go way off topic and i will say that the sierra club supports the labels ordinance, introduce bid avalos and we urge your approval or support by this commission, and i agree with the previous speakers it will show the supervisors that the more that i hear about this, i can't believe that we don't have it. that is not on the letter. the club supports the ordinance for two reasons, consumers need to have the tools to make the informed decisions just basically and those labels will do exactly that, once we get the language as clear as possible. and then, the other part is that we would like the second briefing is that they don't have just a warning, they actually give you a resource, if you go to a website that gives you idea of how to get better and giving you all of
8:12 am
the options that they have. and also, we would like to think td label is part of a larger strategy that the city has to address the climate change and one piece of the puzzle but it is a good piece and lastly, and this is funny, the part of the discussion is that we thought that the labels should be as clear and easy to read as possible. and what that is code for, is can the font be big enough that everybody can read it, when we saw the words we wondered who is going to be able to read it without their glasses on and that is all. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> any more member of the public that wish to speak? >> i just want to say that if there is a possibility of having the information on the receipt that we get and that
8:13 am
will be a good way of communication, where we can give this information out. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> seeing... yes, please come on up. >> i am from berkeley and i came because i heard that you have a better environmental plan than we have and i am here to find out what, it is, and and the emissions, and it is much better, and that you have, and it is nice to have good climate to bring them. yeah. any way. so i am active in the city council in berkeley and so i thought that i would come and see what is going on here. thank you. >> thank you. >> great, we are happy that you made the trip across the bay. >> i see no more public comment
8:14 am
and so commissioners what is your wish? we do not have a resolution in front of us, we could do a simple one. >> one of the things that i think commissioner arce suggested and what was read into the minutes was that we something about potentially giving approval to write a letter in support and i am very comfortable saying that we subpoena power support the intent of this and maybe we can include the language in the letter and i would be very up for that. >> so, we could, ask staff
8:15 am
including that and many of the suggestions that were made this evening, and do i have a motion to ask staff to draft such a letter? >> i move. >> it has been moved and seconded that we ask the staff to draft a letter expressing our support for this measure. and including our comments and suggestions. i guess that we could ask for a row call. >> commissioner gravanis. >> yes. >> stephenson nyes. >> wald. >> yes. >> wan. >> yes. >> approved. >> i want to thank everybody who came and spoke and everybody who has worked so hard on this and the similar measures in other areas. >> and next item please? >> director's report, updates on the department of the
8:16 am
environment and administrative and program operations related to budget planning, and clean air transportation climate, energy, public out reach, education and environmental justice, habitat, restoration, >> is that all? >> and green building, and >> this is an information item. >> i promise that i will not go through all of that, you do in your packet a list of just the key items that have been going on. i want to call out just a few things of some that are in the report and some are, sort of my own thoughts. and the first thing that i want to note is that we had thought that today we would be doing my performance review. and we decided as a commission that because both the president and vice president of the commission were not here that it would be better to wait
8:17 am
until they come back so we will be doing that at the january meeting and that there will be a closed session and that we will do my performance appraisal and in an advertisetation we are going to be serving the senior so you can get the sense of my performance and not just my self-apraysal or your experience of me, it is a first for us, as a department to do that and so we are going to pilot it, and our intention is to do a much broader, what we called climate survey and i don't mean that like the climate change but the culture survey of the department to all staff and we are working on that now, and it is going to take some care to make sure that the questions make sense and that it is going to take the appropriate type of implementation and introduction and so the staff understand what it is they are seeing, because it is never been done for the department. so that, and you will see, just
8:18 am
the senior staff information and then next year's performance appraisal you will get a broader sense of how the department staff feel about the department as a whole as well as my performance in terms of exciting initiatives we have a couple that are finally that are starting to move, that are very exciting and one is the safe medicine, disposal ordinance that was introduced by supervisor, chiu, president chiu, as you know he is going to be stepping away from his job, as a board of supervisor member, and he has given the ordinance over to london breed, supervisor breed will be taking over the responsibility and mar will be the co-sponsor and so we will be meeting with breed's staff and her as well to bring them up to speed on this, so i am very excited about where it is going to go. and i think that it could get,
8:19 am
it will get interesting. we are certainly being looked at, very carefully, by the pharmaceutical industry and there is concerns, obviously, things happen here, and they don't stay here. and we, of course, are following the lead of alameda county and king county up in washington state. and so this is a very exciting time for us. and we have learned a lot from our pilot, and we feel that we are on very strong ground in terms of understanding how pharmaceutical selection occurs and what the costs are and the challenges are for the industry as they implement this and another exciting milestone, for us, is residential pace. and so pace, is the financing mechanism to allow, in this case, home owners and residents, to take advantage of their property tax assessment, as a way to pay for energy and in an earthquake, and water
8:20 am
upgrades. we have this in the commercial sector but we have not been able to implement it on the residential sector and we have worked on it now for several years and we have reached a very important point in time where the mayor is introduced a resolution, that would authorize the city to join with some existing providers, and we once we work through those, milestones, or those hurtles we expect that in december, it will be taken up by the board of supervisor budget committee once it is adopted by the board of supervisors we can go and start to have the contracts put together with the financing entities and offer this to the residents of san francisco. so it is a very important piece if we are going to promoting the responsibility that we all have to retrofit our homes, to whether it be for energy or water, or to retrofit in terms of earthquake safety and we
8:21 am
need to help the people finance the changes and this is one mechanism that the people can take advantage of as far as any reimbursements and incentives and i just want to note that commissioner wan and i were in a very wonderful meeting and i, myself had a pretty impactful tour yesterday, where i saw the sro's of china town and some of of them, and i had never been inside of an sro i didn't understand that you can put your arms out and touch each side of the room, and that is where not only one person may live, but an entire family may live, so that was very impactful to me and we got a grant, the department of the environment and the planning department, together, got a grant with ccdc, to work on greening china town, and doing that, in a very thoughtful way, that engage the community, and with a particular focus on the
8:22 am
pings, and that the housing, and the public housing, that was part of the housing authority, is going to be going over, and to ccdc for their management and so this is a pretty phenomenal opportunity for the department to work closely with those organizations in china town, and see how they can bring the best in place and sort of the best practices to public housing so that they can have the green and livable space and we just kicked it off and i was pleased that commissioner wan could be there and it was a phenomenal group of people around the table and i am excited to see how this progresses and i will be coming back to the commission and give you updates on that and i just wanted you to know what was going on and we have selected a contractor, to help with our reevaluation and reorganization of our energy and green building programs. and those are 40 percent of our
8:23 am
budget and they need special attention and we finished the scope of work and we selected the contract and her finished the scope of work and now it is going through the process of getting auf all of the signatures but we are excited about moving forward. and we are in some final negotiations with the energy efficiency work and the good news is that we are going to have the full funding for 2015, with a public goods charge as well as with these strategic energy resources, the ser funding which gives us more flexibility to be creative in our energy efficiency world. and so, i am going to be and i am very hopeful that 2015, is going to be aa very strong year in terms of energy efficiency. i also wanted to call your attention to a wonderful movie that features robert hailly and raising to zero and i would have a way for the commission,
8:24 am
screening, thank you. the word just... of that movie, it was wonderful to see, our programs, our mayor, our zero waste ethic put in a story mode and the story line followed robert from start to finish and so it was a great owed to robert himself and i highly suggest watching it if you can find it on you tube or we can find racing to zero and the last piece of news that i wanted to share with you and something that warmed my heart tremendously, where press matters and i think that is something that we know and the last commission meeting i talked about an event that we did where we celebrated five janitor companies that had decided to go green and that meant that not only were the products that they were using green, and benefiting the occupants of the buildings but also, tremendously benefiting the people who were using them eight hours a day, five or six
8:25 am
days a week. and well, after, that aired, on public radio, and on local tv. we got five different companies calling us and saying, well, why wasn't i mentioned i am a green company and we said, well you may be green but you are not certificated green by us so the amount of square footage that we will green tripled by these new entities coming in. and it is exciting and they have not finished yet and they are anxious to be certificated and it is just an example that when we do a better job of getting out there and so the people know what we do and it snow balls and we can get an acceleration of the up take of the programs that we offer and i thought that it was a great piece of news and so that is it tonight. >> thank you, any questions or comments? >> commissioner wald? >> i have three comments. the first i would want to say, i really like the new format of
8:26 am
this. and it is much easier for me to read, and understand, so i appreciate that. and second, i was excited to hear about the new work in china town and i wanted to suggest possibly that the next or a future meeting of the commission that we have in the field, and broaden the input that we are going to get at the time of her review, and i think
8:27 am
that starting that practice >> thank you for all of those. >> any other questions for the director? >> thank you for that report and i appreciate getting it in advance of the meeting because i am a slow reader and there is so much to die ject, and that was especially interested to notice in the staff changes, tina is leaving the environment now to pursue a career with the investigative conducting group and that sounds fabulous. it blows my mind, especially when i hear the stories of environment now, staff who come
8:28 am
to us never having a job, in the case of tina she has two young children and in a prison and in a halfway house, she was told that she either needed to volunteer or get a job, she wanted to get a job. less than two years with us, she was hired, and she will be making upwards of 50,000 a year and i hope that she does not mind me saying that on the record. it is about the colleague that she had in the department who were with her every step of the way and to see the pride in her
8:29 am
face, when she talked about her telling her children, what she was doing and the kind of mom she got to be now. it is something that does not happen that often. and i give tremendous credit to the staff of the environment now to kara and donny and the people that work underneath them that are so dedicated to making sure that everyone who comes in their door leaves that that kind of potential. >> are there any members of the public who wish to comment on the director's report? >> this is about raising to zero the movie, we have a screening on november third, at our department from 9:30 to 10:30, so you guys are all welcome. >> in the morning. >> please come. november third, wednesday. >> thank you so much, for that. i appreciate it. very much. >> december third, at 9:30,
8:30 am
great. seeing no further public comment, let's call the next item please. >> announcements information and discussion. >> any announcements? >> i would have just one. and i think that everybody knows that for quite some time now we have had a vacancy on the commission due to the leaving of nicholas who left the campaign for the bart board and successful in achieve thating seat, we are about to have another vacancy soon because i will be leaving as of the end of this month and i am urging everyone to search far and wide, for some environmentalists whose names we can submit to the mayor for consideration to fill those vacancies. it is really difficult to function as well as we would like when we don't have a full commission. so that was just my request that please, do get me