>> i call this meeting to order. anthony, will you let us begin. >> good evening, this is a meeting of the san francisco commission on the environment, the date is wednesday, march -- special meeting, the date is wednesday, march 14, 2018, and the time is 5:04 p.m. reminder that the use of cell phones and electronic devices are prohibited. the chair may order the removal from the meeting room of any persons responsible for the ringing of use of cell phone, or electronic devices. there will be opportunity for public comment on every item on the agenda as well as opportunity for general public comments on items that are not

on the agenda, that is item number 4. moving to item number 1. roll call. president is cued. suspect wald? here. there is a quorum. the next item. item 2 is for discussion. >> good evening, and thanks to all of you attending our meeting today, be you staff, partners or members of the public. as those of you who -- no, i want to acknowledge that this is the first time in my career as an environment commissioner that i have sat in this seat and it's a great honor, and i want to thank my colleagues for making that possible. as i was saying, those of you who have attended past

environment commission meetings know, we like to have themes meetings to show the interconnectedness between our departments initiatives, especially as they relate to our work with our community partners and other city agencies. i am pleased that today we are discussing the department racial equity initiative and another initiative, the led giveaway with equity in mind. my fellow commissioners and i have been inspired by the work of the environment justice team in the department and it is great to hear that the team is organizing to address individual institutional and structural equity. we are also very excited to hear about the results of the much discussed led giveaway. at this point, i would like to table the rest of my welcome,

remarks to the call of the chair. do any of you have any objection? hearing none, will you call the next item? >> the nexttime is item 3, approval of minutes for the february 21, 2018 commission on the environment special meeting, the ex-plan tory documents is the draft minutes, this is for discussion and action. >> commissioner wald: thank you, may have a motion to approve the draft minutes? thank you. a second? we have a motion by commissioner hoyos and second by smish stephenson. is there any public comment. wait, i'm actually supposed to

ask if my commissioners have any comments or changes to recommend? public comment? >> david, good evening, and yes i think this is historic that commission wald whom i've known for many years is finally chairing a commission meeting. after all your good work. just one minor item on the draft minutes. i did not look at them in great detail, but did notice item one, the commission on the environment meeting should insert word at 2:03 p.m., but that leapt out at me. >> commissioner wald: all those in favor of i proving the minutes -- approving the minutes, please say aye. any opposed? the motion passes. the next item, please.

>> the next item 4, general public comment, members of the public may address the commission on matters that are within the commission's jurisdiction and are not on the agenda. >> commissioner wald: would anyone like to make a comment about a topic that is not on the agenda? >> david again, not staying for the whole meeting, market street workshop at hastings i was planning to attend, but i did want to note at least one major staff transition actually, one, but it's really two, and i'm sure director raphael will discuss this later in her report. i understand the effected primary person was not able to be here, donnie oliveira has accepted a position and has now left the department and left big

shoes to fill and i understand it will be janelle fitzpatrick also leaving. so they have both been great assets to the department, first with the environment now program and then in the larger outreach team leadership, but i certainly wish him well in future endeavors. we expect many great things from him and from janelle and wish them the best, but really wanted to appreciate for both of them, their good work and significant contributions to the department on, again both environment now and outreach, annual reports, strategy, communications, public engagement, overseeing the various programs within outreach, et cetera. donnie has done a lot and will be significantly missed.

so there are other staff things that i think director raphael will note later, but i wanted to highlight that because it's significant i think for the department, for the commission, for me, for the public. >> commissioner wald: thank you very much. there is still a possibility that donnie will make it here this evening at which point we will all have an opportunity to thank him in person. i have one more member of the public who wishes to spea purview of forestry and asked

what the commission is doing. i would like to highlight gaps and short falls and make suggestions on those might be addressed. a quick overview of the city's plans, we know about the 0, 80, 100 roots plan and this plan is growing the urban forest, but doesn't have specifics and encouraging people to volunteer with friends of the urban forest. and then there is the san francisco forestry plan released in fall of 2014, it has three phases. phase one, prop e, 2 is trees and public spaces and 3 is private land. the plan acknowledge that friends of the forest is a nonprofit that relies on volunteers like me to plant the

trees. they secure their own funding. it currently has no guarantee of funding beyond what it scares up every year and has no certainty of meeting the goal of 2500 trees a year. the current goal is 2000 and we're way behind 2500 a year since the plan was released in 2014. they are not empowered to plant other than along the public right-of-way. so what i ascertain are the challenges, there is no integrated comprehensive tree data management system. agencies with responsibility for trees all have their own or none at all, which means the city cannot gauge whether it's meeting the objectives. there is no single full-time dedicated personnel to oversee. there is inadequate funding to support the funding. and there is not a goal for percentage of urban canopy we hope to obtain.

change the way we calculate fee for developers. they require street trees to be planted as part of projects, essentially one free for every 20 feet of frontage. but it makes it irrelevant on the impact the development has on the ecosystem of the city. i suggest that fees be calculated based on carbon footprint. specifically speaking, ratio equity is removing 22 trees in the bayview and this is not through the bureau. approve improvement ratios and create a dedicated role in the department of environment to be conveyor of the city plan. [bell ringing] >> commissioner wald: thank you. >> come back next month. >> commissioner wald: [laughter] is there any further public comment?

seeing none, anthony? call the next item. >> the next is presentation of the commission on the environment, environmental service award to the tenderloin neighborhood development corporation. the sponsor is johanna wald, this item is for discussion. >> commissioner wald: the way we will do this, i'll say a few words now, present the award. we will all have our picture taken together. and then we will invite the awardee to say a few words and then anyone you like can say a few words and then public comment. i'm pleased today we will be presenting the commission on the environment, environmental service award, to the tenderloin neighborhood development corporation, or tndc. the tndc was founded in 1981 to provide services to the

residents of the tenderloin neighborhood in its over 35 year history, the organization has grown to provide affordable housing and many, many other services to over 4100 low-income residents in six neighborhoods across the city. the tndc does more than just provide housing and services. they work actively and attentively to build community. they are active with neighbors and community groups and have been a partner with the city to serve low-income residents. most recently, they worked with the department of the environment to implement energy efficiency upgrades and install led light bulbs as we will hear more about in the meeting. they serve as a model for community engagement and

development. thank you for all you do to serve the residents of san francisco and for your efforts to incorporate sustainability into your developments. this evening, with us, is sustainability manager with the tndc. colleagues?

thank you, commissioners and the department for recognizing our efforts. as you all know, i'm sustainability manager at tndc, i'm thrilled you're recognizing our efforts and our mission is to keep housing affordable. as you know, affordability doesn't happen by itself. sustainability is a key business strategy for us. we're doing this not only because we have good hearts, but we want to make impact on our residents improve their lives. i really appreciate how prince william antly this -- brilliantly this program was designed, it was administratively simple, simple to understand. our residents really appreciated it, because the bulbs are not only making direct impact on

their utility bills, but light is much cleaner, crisper and feel happy in their units. this is important to us. thank you again, i appreciate it. [applause] >> commissioner wald: thank you, president wald, that sounds good. so richie and lori and everyone from -- richie can you come back up? i want you to tell a story. so i was lucky enough to go to the -- one of the sites that they administer and meet the staff who were implementing this program, meet some of the residents and listen to the

genuine heart of the organization and one of the stories that richie told me was really compelling about the idea of affordability. mayor lee always said to us, it's important to make sure that environmental benefits get to