later? how do we think of that. >> you can think of it in many ways the way we've been using it as a long-term planning tool, is that we're making sure that as we bring forward the the 10-year plans to you or rate considerations for your consideration that by the time we -- if we're talking about those specific years we're adjusting the rate that those years in question meet these fund balance reserving policies and in many cases all of the fund balances in all 3 enterprises exceed these thresholds that i've described to you. they are all well above 15 percent and in some cases near 30 percent and in and in many cases we've already exceeded 30 percent thresholds which is a good thing and why we're suggesting adding the current ratio is that even though we show it on our budget

variance report to you, it's not a requirement. it doesn't say that we absolutely have to keep a certain level of can reserves given how much revenue we're generating within the year versus taking fund balance out of the equation so the money is actually held in reserve and invested with the the city's treasurer's pool and not idol or lost in that regard but showing that the credit markets that we're able to with stand now and the water enterprise. >> some of the reserves, once you have built them, you don't have to keep build them. >> that's right. >> you can fill it up and stop filling it up at some point when you think you have enough

so that when we talk about the amount of money that needs to be added it's a target to achieve over time. >> that's right. >> are you suggesting that you would be coming back to us at some future meeting with proposed changes to the reserve policy? >> i think based on this conversation, if there is -- if it sounds like that is something that would be acceptable i would at a minimum request adding the current ratio to our policy i think that would be a prudent thing r if us thing for us to do at a minimum. >> at what level? >> at least 1.0 and that will show the credit markets that we're not only watching our fund balance levels but that we're actually looking at our

operating revenues within the year and we do show that as part of our budget variance reporting but it's not part of our formal policy. >> just speaking for one of us i'd be open to that i would want to make sure that i understood really what the implication of that long-term financial plan was. >> right and i wouldn't i wouldn't recommend changing our coverage ratios until we're past the revenue variance that we're seeing with the drought and perhaps the next the next 2-year budget cycle we could bring back suggestions at that time. >> we're going to be talking about rate structures in the months ahead and one of the things i'd hope to be able to do is reduce some of that rate variability so that we so that the reserves are less of an issue so it's kind of working the same problem from the other

end so if we let that discussion take place and then get through this current revenue debt, that would be probably a good time to reconsider that. >> sounds good. >> thank you. >> i agree this is not the time to do it so any other comments, questions? thank you very much. >> thank you. >> that concludes my report. >> good. so let's move back on the agenda to item number 4. no, we've already done 4. item number 5. communications. any comments, commissioners on that? >> no. >> okay. item 7. >> item 7 is the urban pilot program update. agricultureal

pilot program update. >> hello. we may have a technical difficulty but if so, we'll do it without the slides. so i'm going to start. miss ellis. last month you heard a presentation where we gave an overview of the various ways the sfpuc has invested in over the years. today we're here to give you an update on urban agriculture and in creating the pilot program the commission recognized that by the virtue of

all of the infrastructure it takes to operate our core services of providing water power and sewer systems, that the sfpuc is a large landowner and as a large landowner we have a responsibility both to the rate payers to manage the land for the benefit of the rate payers so urban agriculture is one way to maximize the benefit and to be a good neighbor so as you probably recall back in 2011, the commission authorized an urban agriculture pilot program where you asked the staff to identify 3 sites in san francisco and as part of the pilot identified one site located at the college hill adjacent to the reservoir in

in in in be rna l heights and adjacent to the playing fields and the site that we identified for the third pilot is not managed by recreation and parks and is the responsibility of sfpuc so primarily the focus around the pilot program back in 2011 when you all directed the staff to initiate this effort was focussed on puc property for secondary use and since that time there's been quite a bit of work to get those sites activated and construction done etc.. and we're working with

other departments right now around creating a garden training academy and seeing some of the possibilities there and i say that to put some context around the presentation today. there is another component that we're working on on as we think of pipelines and career pathways as well and with that i'm going to turn it

over to yolanda and see how well she does knowing that she was planning on using slides today. >> you know i'm going to have to go but i want to thank you in advance i do support this and i very much like the idea of public lands unused being activated for and by the community especially as a utility and i'm excited to learn more about the job angle as well so thank you. >> thank you. apologies for the technical difficulties i think we're going to try to work through it so if i could get the projector up -- the slides please. i apologize. it's very small, but we'll go from here. thank you commissioners. i'm delighted to be here today to give you an update on this very exciting and engaging pilot program and i'd also like to thank you for your vision in adopting this

program back in 2011 because it really is a tangible example of our good neighbor policy in action and i'd like to start quickly by explaining the implementation approach and you initially identified 3 sites for us to explore urban agriculture or growing food on land and work closely with the local communities as well as with our sister agency at rec and park that now houses this broader citywide agriculture program to ensure that our work not only helps bring benefits to the local areas but also these broader citywide goal and see in so doing what is the landscape of existing food growing in the city and what's missing and we asked the communities of the local sites

what can the puc as the water power sewer help contribute to those broader goals and efforts and the first phase is the learning garden in be r.n.na l heights and what you are looking at is a rendering from the landscape architect and it's very much focussed on k through 5 education in in partnership with the local school district and we heard from the community that they wanted a physical space where their children can learn all ranges of cutting technology from green infrastructure to renewable energy and somewhere where the kids could really roll up their sleeves and play and understand these big engineering concepts on a micro scale so we approached this in a unique manner and partnered with the curriculum developer

so each feature in in the garden has a specific curriculum attached to it so that we know we're doing our part to educate and groom the next the next generation of environmental stewards and rate payers who will maintain our system and there's rain gardens and green roofs and we're proposing to have the first composting toilet on city land and each one has a specific critic let curriculum for children to learn more about the work that the puc does. >> the second site which you identified in 2011 is adjacent to our southeast treatment plant and this site was a very different challenge and after engaging with the community for about 2 years we heard loud and clear that the community had a lot of concerns about activating this space for the

purposes of growing food and one because it was in front of our sewage treatment plant and 2 it's a very heavily truck trafficked road next to a gas station and concerns around the appropriateness of growing food there arose significantly and we determined at this time it's not feasible to move forward with the site activation for the purposes of growing food so we heard from the community that there's a the that there's a lot of community gardening happening in bayview hunter's point and there was a need to support more of those existing operations and at the same time through that broader citywide agriculture program i mentioned housed at rec and park there was a city goal of establishing resource centers across the city for someone who wants to grow their own food

could learn about propagating plants and soil health and at the same time the community members in bayview hunters point wanted to put forward a community driven model what would that look like? so we partnered with 2 community organizations as well as with rec and park to develop a series of resource centers that were pop up in nature and mobile . there's a lot of transportation access issues in bay views hunters point so we deviced this and the other feature of this pilot was to work with local youth and provide them leadership and workforce development opportunities so 10 youth from hunter's point families and we

have our next one coming up march 14th adjacent to the site here so while the site was not appropriate to grow food we did hear in terms of a place where community members can pickup compost that would make sense. we're trying that out march 14th and these are just some more photos from the one we had in january. the girl was working from a hunter's point family and the the final site supervisor avalos mentioned earlier. this model was unique from the beginning in large part of supervisor avalos's deep engagement from the outset and he worked to identify both the key stakeholders that would

really work with the puc and community engagement and understanding what that local community wanted out of the site and being steadfast with us throughout the process and you can see a little bit on the screen there that larger tract represents all of the puc jurisdiction, the land under the puc jurisdiction and originally looked at a couple of different sites for this farm but for competing uses we quickly settled on developing the southeast portion currently undeveloped land and what's interesting about this, it shows actually the way that the pilot program like the urban agriculture pilot program can actually serve to benefit broader puc work and through this process working closely with the real estate division and came to understand that

there was actually a jurisdictional boundary dispute rec and park build it was under their jurisdiction when indeed it's under puc jurisdiction so we spent a good deal of time clarifying legally and making sure it was clear it was puc land and clear going forward. but so that's just one of the benefits that comes along with these kinds of pilots. we got some really great data and over 93 percent of the residents said they would like to have a space to grow food and more importantly come together to grow food and exchange their

cultural traditions and heritage and have a place of pride for this community and at the same time this is a very bio diverse area of the city so this idea of merging both bio diversity as well as human cultural diversity sharing those values through growing food has has emerged as a scene for this site. >> at college hill we're at a hundred percent design and hope to be coming back to you in a short time for the award of the construction contract. the goal is to have it built by the next school year. with with regards to the initial site identified in bayview, we have determined at this point it's not feasible to activate for food growing purposes and with the crocker amazon site we're

moving forward with the analysis this spring doing a new biological survey and then after that we intend to partner with podare to continue that site design and refinement and ultimately have them be the operator of that site on behalf of of the puc and with that that i'd be happy to answer any questions. >> well, it sounds very exciting. >> thank you. >> and i just have one question on the bayview site. i thought i heard you say that you were considering using that as a way of distributing mulch and other soil did i get that right? >> on a temporary basis. we developed a series of pop ups 1 day where the community can

pickup those resources and yes, along the fell side where there's a trellised area a beautiful space not often used in march one of these days where folks can pickup soil and mulch. >> no long-term? >> no not at this time correct. >> thank you very much. i do have some speakers on this item. keith tanner? >> >> thank you. i'm keith tanner from the san francisco urban agriculture alliance and it's an all volunteer community group consisting of several hundred

individuals and organizations that advocates for the growing of food within san francisco and i'm here on behalf of the sfuaa to voice our support for the work being done by the sfpuc and encourage the commission to continue with the exciting projects that you see here today and especially excited that the city is pursuing urban agriculture on public land so we'd like for you to keep up the good work. thanks. >> thank you. next speaker -- hannah schulman. >> hello commissioners. like yolanda said a year ago the recs and park department

started the program. they have been an amazing partner thus far. we've been working together on a number of projects and they have continued to pursue this idea to make sure there's accessible resources for folks to access access this and dedicated towards the the new sites and our informal working group that i helped staff that gets us talking about urban agriculture issues citywide so we've seen a lot from the puc so far and love to see them continue. thank you for the work and especially the staff report. >> thank you. our next speaker

is -- is it theresa? >> hi my name is theresa i'm a youth program coordinator and i want to thank you for this opportunity to be in to be in this partnership. yolanda shared some of the survey results we had about 40 youths go out and survey and collect 300 surveys just door knocking around the park and it was beautiful to be able to hear, you know, different neighbors talk about their experiences from like growing olive trees and tomatoes don't really grow that well in that area and we really want to be with our neighbors who we don't speak

the language but share gardening so it was nice to see the people so excited and we also surveyed some some of the schools and it was beautiful to see like you know fifth graders wanting to grow flowers for mother's day or potatoes to celebrate saint patrick's day so really excited we can collaborate with the puc and other agencies and create opportunities for us to be able to like connect to the food we're eating and create healthier habits and create food sources in in neighbors where there are not a the a lot of supermarkets so thank you so much it's been an amazing experience. >> thank you so much for coming to speak to us. any other speakers? come forward, please. >> greetings commissioners.

i'm the diversity coordinator from the department of the environment and this is a really amazing project and i want to make a couple of points to support the spirit of what they are pursuing here and we've been working for a while now throughout the city to preserve the natural areas in the city and increasingly building a narrative intersection between urban agriculture and bio diversity. so we're really exciting about this site and personally i'm very expressed with the community organization who just spoke for their holistic vision including integrating not only the vast diversity of

outreach they have done throughout the community but also the native american folks as well that's the community we can really look in terms of inspiration in terms of of our environment. the placement of the site is adjacent to the parking lot and i think that that the project itself will really serve to enhance the environment of that part of the park in terms of the mutual feedback involving the community and taking care of the land and growing food and supporting bio diversity and for example having a native plant nursery among one of the things propagated at the site and we're looking forward to working with all of of the

partners and appreciate yolanda's leadership on this thanks a lot. >> thank you. any other speakers? seeing none, next item, please. >> item 8 is the consent calendar all matters listed here constitute a consent calendar are considered to be routine by the sfpuc and will be acted upon by a single vote of the commission. no discussion unless a member of the public so requests in which the matter will be removed from the calendar and considered as a separate item. 8 a award agreement cs cs 297 and authorize the general manager to negotiate and execute 4 professional service agreements not to exceed 4 $4 million with the duration of 5 years. >> b approve amendment number 2. cs cs 894 and authorize

the general manager to execute this agreement with no change to the agreement amount. >> c authorize the general manager for agreement d b-126 with a duration of 15 years. >> d for contract in the amount of 80, 760 and future modifications to the contract. >> e -- not to exceed 5 $5 million to the lowest qualified and bidder. >> f -- >> g increase in the construction cost contingent

in the amount of 680 $680,000. >> h award contract number ww 510 r to the lowest qualified and responsible responsive bidder. >> i--approved modification number increasing the contract and with a time extension of 1 30 consecutive calendar days. >> j. >> any requests to remove any of these items? >> i'd like to separate c. >> you would like to remove c? >> for separate discussion. >> to the public, any item to

be removed? okay. may have a motion please? >> move. >> second. >> okay all those in favor aye. >> the the motion carries. >> we're now going to address item 8 c. >> thank you. item 8 c what first got my attention it was a fifty a $50 million item on the consent calendar and it made me read it carefully and i've had a chance to ask staff questions to talk about that and we met briefly this morning to talk about that and the work here is clearly needed and i think we are fortunate in that staff has been able to do to do a business case supporting the project which i think we have some write up that could be made available to the commission. we also have been able -- the sense of the