>> maybe it's a couple of percentage points improvement in that area. i think we're in an era where public transportation is facing a lot of competition from other modes of travel, and public

transportation needs do a much -- to do a much better job competing. it's up to the agency to analyze why do people feel safe and what have the analysis been in other cities to improve safety and where have we seen a marked increase in the safety comparison. >> supervisor yee: follow up on that question? >> supervisor safai: go ahead. >> supervisor yee: thank you. i think by pointing out that maybe we need to find out why people feel or have the feeling of being unsafe may imply that it could be safe, but it's really not safe. what i've seen it there's been

examples of good reasons why people shouldn't do -- wouldn't be safe because they've been attacked, been robbed, whatever, so can you -- i'd like to hear more about how you would try to address that. >> so to the station -- i think it was a 59 or so percent in the stations and 60 percent on the bus, so the station concerns is one area where we could address, populate issues of design, lighting. i think lighting is probably a big factor there. there's something also to be said about the locations of stations, whether those are near natural centers of activity or they're in more remote, desolate locations, so that's the station piece. in terms of the actual experience riding on the bus, i

think that has to do quite a bit with the driver and the driver sort of training. through some recent conversations, it's come to me that in a sense, the driver needs almost a sort of facilitation skills. that's the driver's atmosphere, is the bus, and the driver has to manage a lot of dynamics on the bus. i'm not familiar with what trainings the drivers currently go through, but with my conversations with the transit director of the sfmta, that's one of the driver's roles is creating a safe atmosphere on the bus itself. >> supervisor yee: supervisor stefani, are you done? let me ask a question, real general question, what you see as one of the biggest problems with the sfmta and why would that be and what would you do

about it. >> i think one of the major, major challenges we're facing right now is simply delivering a high quality service to the residents of san francisco. so we have all sort the of metr metrics in the strategic plan, but the one thing that stands out to me is performance, 57%. that's worse than a failing grade, if i can go back to grade school for a minute. the goal there i think is an 85% perthe city charter. there's a goal by fy 19 to bump that up 25 percentage points up to an 85% rating. so brass tacks, making buses run on time, giving people that confidence that they can rely on the bus as a way to get around. so one of the things i would do then is look at the data, look at the analytics. what are the causes of buses not showing up on time?

is it car -- is it t.n.c.'s parking in the bus lanes? is it a lack of trained driver's? is it a lack of trained buses? analyze what are those interventions and then design strategic interventions to address each one of those challenges, and i think we need to make a meaningful improvement in this in the next two years. >> supervisor yee: and then, as you know, san francisco is a vision zero city, and i'd like to hear some of your views around how we can actually strengthen our positions, especially for seniors and for bicyclists. >> yeah. so as i understand, we have been making progress on vision zero over the last several years. the numbers are going down, down, down. this year, i think we're actually on track to exceed

last year's numbers, which is tragic. the -- the one thing i will say about vision zero is that this is a problem that must be informed by data analysis, so we know we have mapped -- we're very, very clear where those high injury corridors are. i think you spoke about those earlier, the high injury network. we know which streets this is happening on. brian spoke about this earlier. we know the dangerous places, so i think we need to focus our resources on quickly and meaningfully addressing street improvements to tackle this problem. it's not a question of every single street in san francisco needs a retrofit. it is repeated as where the activity is, it is often where the roads are wider, where the vehicle speeds are faster, where people are simply trying to get across the street, and quite simply, in some cases, even as a person, you know,

without -- without any disabilities, even as an able-bodied person, it's challenging to across those streets. thinking then about people with different abilities, elderly, it becomes very intimidating to think about crossing those streets. so prioritizing the investments where we know those are happening. i do think this is a problem we can solve in a reasonably short amount. that's why it is at 2024, and it is just about focusing the resources in the right places. >> supervis >> supervisor yee: there was some issues in the news recently about the west portal tunnel, and then doing some work and one of the workers got killed. one of the workers got killed out there, and then, we found

out that the company that m.t.a. contracted with had a history of issues with safety. so what's your -- and i don't want to just, you know, pick on m.t.a. -- [inaudible] >> supervisor yee: -- this is really not a very good system of identifying and contracting companies that may have bad records. >> so it seems to me with this

issue and with many other issues that the agency has faced recently, such as the tunnel closure, such as the lack of available drivers to support the tunnel closure, there needs to be sort of an up and down assessment. and as we spoke about earlier this week, kind of a mapping. we call it -- we call it a delivery chain, where we examine all of the steps along the path from initiation to delivery of a project? and we need to sort of map out where we might go wrong on the path of that delivery chain and do a bit of a risk analysis of what we've not considered. it seems to me that if we had taken that kind of an approach to this challenge, we might have identified, we might have taken a look back and learned hmm, this contractor is a key i implementer, and that might have been a way to delete those

issues so that we did not proceed with this kind of contractor. >> supervisor yee: hopefully you'll look into this history with a little more detail because it's pretty serious to me that the only thing the city does is ask anybody that's bidding on a contract if they have any issues, and we don't check. so we don't even check, and what you're describing is we're assuming that they go through this, and we don't check the records. i think you need -- hopefully, as a commissioner, you will take this very seriously. we don't need another worker to die. >> yeah. yeah. it sounds like you identified a critical flaw in the system and part of what we need to focus are those systems and processes that underline the basics of

what the sfmta does. if we identify problems like that, then, it is a incumbent on the agency to fix them as quickly as possible. >> supervisor yee: thank you. >> thank you. >> supervisor safai: i honestly don't know where to begin. not with you. i think your credentials with stellar, but i think we have a fundamentally flawed system in san francisco. i think the citizens in san francisco bear the brunt of that flawed system. it's been flawed for a tremendous amount of time. i mean, just one simple measure of that, you stated on the record. 57% on-time performance. that, for what we believe, the city that knows how, the city that believes it's a world leader, that is -- that's beyond embarrassing. and then, when i -- problems are identified, there has been no -- i haven't seen any marked

difference, structural change. i think that in this city, i think we have attempted, and i think there's been some real thoughtful conversations about adjusting the structure within which we make policy in this city as it relates to transportation. but for some reason, that's not working. i think many people would say oh, when it comes to on time performance, they try to point fingers at the drivers, and then, they try to point fingers at organized labor, but later on our agenda, we have an agency that has the same workforce, organized labor, and i don't think there's anyone in this city or in the world, in fact, that would criticize our water department, our public utilities commission. in fact it's one of the world leaders and has many of the same makeup and factors.

so you are obviously very bright and accomplished. why do you want to be part of a system that is failing? do you believe you can make change there? because there's a lot of people that have come before this committee that have believed they can make change in this agency. do you believe you can make change? >> i do believe i can make change for a few reasons. once is i have the background as you referenced. i have a background in transportation, so i can hit the ground running and come up to speed quite quickly on the issues facing the agency. second, as i've referenced my personal and professional goals are just extremely well aligned of that mission with the sfmta that's to create the safe, sustainable and equitiable transportation system. and finally, i am a pragmatist,

so i think that responsiveness that supervisor yee spoke about, the responsiveness that supervisor stefani spoke about in terms of the last appointee is something we need to do a better job on. it's something that i would be honored -- it's something we spoke about yesterday. it's a challenge, and i'm eyes wide open, and i would like to take on that challenge. >> supervisor safai: let me ask you, do you believe the agency's managed well. >> we spoke about this yesterday. it's a large agency and a multifaceted agency. i view that as both a challenge and an opportunity. the fact that so many aspects of transportation are under one roof is unique in the country, and i think it ought to be the model to have transit have street design, have parking, have traffic, have taxis under one agency. that truly allows you to have that holistic and comprehensive

view. i think government often falls into the trap of silos and lack of communication across those different silos, and i think there are a couple of different examples arrest that siloization has challenged the agency, and that's some of those difficulties on systems and challenges in the agency. i think there's room for improvement. >> supervisor safai: so you think it's unique in the united states to have a structure setup. you've said that. do you think that system works well? do you think it's important to have so many disparate pieces under one roof? >> i think that provides an opportunity to be holistic and integrated in emergency room its of managing the system as a whole, in emergency room its of managing the transportation system as a whole. i do think that's the model. if you look at transport london, they have that same model, and it's allowed them to do so much because they have

that model, but it's a holistic transition, and we're not there yet. >> supervisor safai: supervisor yee referenced vision zero. vision zero is about safety and slowing things down. >> yes. >> supervisor safai: muni forward is about moving the buses as fast as possible through the city, and when these principles are implemented on the ground, things get lost. i told in our meeting, we had a major reform of a major intersection, one of the highest bus frequented bus stops, mission and generva. while i was sitting with

supervisors, an elderly person was crossing the street and was hit. i can tell you what i think about the system is if you want amou -- fundamentally flawed, we propose a policy, and we work with the planning commission, and there is a back and forth between those agencies. this policy for transportation is created in this universe, in this commission, in this department that is beyond clunky, that is gigantic. as you said, all these disparate pieces, and we have no say, we have no influence, we have no creative input in that policy. but yet, we are the ones that bear -- meaning us as elected officials bear that policy on a daily basis. that is a flawed system as a policy maker, as a planner, as

a legislator. that's what i'd like you to address. >> the relationship between the sfmta board and the board of supervisors -- >> supervisor safai: i'm glad you highlighted that. >> i'm so cognizant that you all hear from your constituents on a daily basis -- i don't have enough parking, i don't have enough -- whatever it is, and how is this communicated to the sfmta board, and how is the board responsive to you, and then, to your constituents. >> supervisor safai: i really want to highlight that for you because we've had other commissioners that we've reappointed say they were going to come to more community meetings, talk about being responsive, talk about being more active and involved, but they disappear. but i can see from your track record -- please don't take this as an attack personally. i'm not. i'm using it as an opportunity to layout a clear mandate because that is the mandate of

this board. i've spoken to all of my colleagues. i think we all share in that frustration universally. even when we have little issues that we try to put forward, they're even highlighted in advance. let me give you an example. you talked about the safety issue in the tunnel. they were shutting down the tunnel for a few months to do that construction and kind of bring it up and all of a sudden, i got 15 e-mails, one day. they had painted entire corners of entire blocks red and taken away parking over in the lakeview neighborhood in my district. no public outreach, no informing of the -- not even a flier, not even a contact, and i just -- i can't understand how that would even be possible in terms of a decision making, other than you have an agency that is not responsive or responsible to anyone or feels like it can do it with

impunity. because if the water department turns the water off, they're letting everyone know in advance that construction's happening on the street. th they have an army of people on the street, handing out fliers, contacting neighborhood associations. it is not happening in the sfmta. supervisor stefani, did you want to say something? >> supervisor stefani: yeah. i'd like to add that and second all of that. and you know, you said in your opening remarks that sometimes community input is devalued and ignored, and then we as elected officials bear the brunt of that. and then, if we push back on the m.t.a. in terms of asking for that community outreach or asking for that work to be done, we are then cast in a light that is not always true. and we ask that the sfmta work with us in terms of that community outreach and that community input because we --

like supervisor safai said, are the ones who hear from the constituents, as we should. so we definitely want to be working with the sfmta board of directors and those that are in the sfmta to bring forth things like bike share because we value that, and we also care about that. so it creates this -- basically this conflict that is not necessary, and we want to work with the m.t.a. to provide those things of which we also value. so it is a problem, and i think it's definitely one we need to be working on. >> thank you for raising. can i comment on engagement for a minute? >> supervisor safai: yes, i'm sorry. go ahead. >> so there's been i think the way we've always done outreach and community management. we can all imagine, 6:00 or so, refreshments, posters. i think that reaches some people, but i think we need to

be taking a hard look at whether that's the way to do community engagement or whether we can use other personal strategies. the traffic circle at lyon and mcallister at my house, nobody outreached to me half a block from where i am. i don't like it. they've taken out the two stop signs. my two daughters are just starting to walk to school. i find that incredibly intimidating. i had no notification that that was going to be happening, so -- so just thinking about a person like myself, what modes of outreach would have found me? is it an e-mail or something that i could go to, how could we get creative in looking at the difficulty and different types of energy impacted in those different types of outreach, and then, the impact of that, different types of outreach strategies people feel

heard and people feel like they know what's going on. it seems like that community meeting, that traditional meeting is labor intensive and not a lot of people feel it's not effective. so maybe we just want to look at other strategies. >> supervisor safai: i just want to put a fine point on it because i think going back to a fundamentally flawed design, the p.u.c. has water paying customers, right? the -- the air has customers and clients and tenants, they have commissions, but their policy is crafted in partnership with this body, and this body is ultimately responsible and elected by the voters. i have 70-plus thousand bosses. those are my constituents. we all share the same number, 77,000. there is no one. when i appoint you or when we appoint you as a body, you're

there for four years. unless you decide you want to step down, you are responsible to -- at the will of the mayor, who appointed you, and then, this body. but after that, you're really not accountable to anybody. that agency is not accountable to anybody. what motivates all these city agencies to do that outreach is they are accountable. there is no accountability to sfmta and that is a fundamentally flawed system and problem in this city. and i just want to let you know, we are going to continue to work on that as this body, we are going to continue to push that, and we are going to bring back policies and we are going to bring back a conversation about changing that structure. i know supervisor yee put forth a ballot measure two years ago that would share in the responsibility this body and the mayor. that was defeated by the voters. i'm not interested in having the payment power of the commission. i'm interested in having the

ability to set policy and work with you in tandem and in partnership. that's what i think is a problem. so you've identified community outreach, you've highlighted working with the board. what are areas that you want to personally tackle as a commissioner? >> i want to restore the public faith in the public transportation system. i mean, fundamentally. >> supervisor safai: so on time performance. >> when this issue was raised -- get a lot of growns. yeah, everyone loves to hate me, and i think we need to give people reasons to have a sense of pride in their system. >> supervisor safai: you've traveled around the world. you've looked at a lot of other transportation systems. why is our system not working? >> well, one issue -- there are probably many, but i'll raise one issue that i learned about in the course of my briefings. the head of the transit -- because of this multisiloed organization, head of the transit division may have a need, know that there's a need for a certain number of bus

drivers, but the folks training the bus drivers are not part of the same division, so the h.r. training division is going to move at the pace that they think is appropriate, and they're going to move at a different pace. it's one of those delivery chain challenges that if we know about, we have to make that. >> supervisor safai: i appreciate you saying that. we talked about that the other day. that impacted the entire citywide slow down when the tunnel went under construction. that seems to be something that should have been easily identified and planned for advance. if people are late to work or late to school, that is -- that's a fundamentally flawed not working system.

is that something as a commissioner that you could take on as a challenge. >> i think it's the job of the commission to hold the agency accountable to its own goals. we've got a goal on paper that we're going to go from 57% on time to a goal of 85% on time in a period of two years. >> supervisor safai: how about the executive director of the agency or general manager has a contract right there, so contracted employee. so if we fired that person tomorrow, they would get a hefty payout. how about tieing something into their contract that says if you don't improve on time performance, you don't get any payout? we have the ability to ask you to leave in any given -- you know, within a reasonable amount of time. how about making that part of the contract? you will have authority to write that contract. 57% is abysmal. it's a failing grade. how about writing that into the contract?

would you commit to that? >> i would tell you one of the things we're committing in our organization, we are mapping those down to the level of the individual work plan and the individual performance plan so that you commit to own a specific goal, whatever that goal may be, and then, it is part of your evaluation, your performance evaluation every year how well you're actually meeting that goal that the organization sets. that doesn't sound like rocket science but you'd be surprised how many places have strategic plans with lofty goals, and nobody believes it's in their plan to hit that strategic goal. >> supervisor safai: i request tell you right now, our general manager from the p.u.c. is here, 57% of the citizens of the city got water, and the remainder didn't, i don't think

he'd have a job the next day. i'm sorry. i think it would be immediately -- that is outrageous, i'm sorry. that's one thing. just a basic -- you talked about it a little bit, the boarding area, the waiting stations, there's no uniformity at all. lighting, the signal, the -- i don't know what you call them, the things that let people know when they're arriving. >> on time arrival. >> supervisor safai: something's not working with that, but uniformity, rust having a clean, well-lit, well informed -- just having a clean, well-lit, well informed station, bus stop, how about that being a goal, citywide goal that people can feel proud -- 'cause that is

something that's a visible improvement that you can see. >> the other -- the only mitigating factor on the on time performance, the only way people can make that work for them is using the on time information. i just look at the transit arrival app and see when it's coming. so in some sense, that on time performance, hitting that schedule, may be less important than when the real-time arrival says it's going to come. is it going to come or does it suddenly shift by ten minutes or back by ten minutes, and then suddenly, you're rushing. but i believe to its credit, this was the first full-time arrival agency in its country, but it was back in 1999, we installed that technology and that needs updating. >> we have these cars that press a button, and you can actually see where the driver is and what street. how about an app like that? how about an app that shows you

where the bus is? i'm not the person that's -- we're not going to solve this today. i'm just saying, that is a simple improvement that would let people -- oh, wow, so there's a whole bunch of red buses there. it's not coming in 22 minutes, oh, but now, it's open up. >> the transit app shows you that. the trouble is the real-time information on the bus themselves is not reliable, so it'll say there's no bus, and a bus will show up, like, a ghost bus we show them, or it says it's going to show up in 20 minutes and it shows up in two. we need to make sure if it says five minutes, it's actually going to show up in five minutes so people can plan around that. >> supervisor safai: supervisor yee. >> supervisor yee: so i guess you're feeling some of your frustrations. >> not just you, you and your colleagues, there's a whole lot

of frustration. >> supervisor yee: so i think chair safai said it correctly. don't take this personal. you just happen to be here. and i -- there's -- some of the questions i ask you i would like, in the future, maybe to have better answers, but i also feel like you -- the way you feel about things, the way you try to analyze things and look at mapping out stuff and finding out where the weak points are, i think those are assets that can be useful for the commission. if you can get the rest of the commissioners to actually think in those terms, so i'm ready to move you forward with a positive recommendation to the full board. >> supervisor safai: i'm just going to say one last thing. thank you, supervisor yee. i -- the reason i'm underscoring and putting a fine point on many of these issues is i hope we will continue to

see you. i want to continue to work with you, but in case we didn't, and you got tied up in the bureaucracy of the sfmta in doing your job as a commissioner, i wanted you to understand some of the things that are really, really important to this body. we've only touched on -- we could talk for the next couple hours about this, if not more, and i think it's really important. to me, i wanted to emphasize the structural problems that i think are wrong. and i told you yesterday, and say it again today, please make a short list of one or two things that you believe that you can tackle in your time as a commissioner. i think that will make it the most effective time for you going into a very challenging agency. supervisor stefani, did you want to add anything or did you just want to second the motion? okay. so we'll do a positive recommendation. good luck on your journey. hope you can accomplish some things, and we look forward to working with you [ gavel ]. >> thank you.

[applause] >> supervisor safai: please call the next item. >> clerk: mr. chair, would you like to call the next two items because there appear to be duplicate speakers for the -- >> supervisor safai: sure. >> clerk: item four is a motion approving and directing the mayor's reappointment of ike kwon to the public utilities commission for a term ending august 31, 2022, and a motion approving and directing the mayor's reappointment of anson moran to the public utilities commission for a term ending august 31, 2022. >> i want to thank my colleagues and supporters who are here. i also want to thank mayor

london breed -- bless you -- for her nomination for my second team in seat two. my name is ike kwon. i live in district four, outer sunset, about a stone's throw from golden gate park with my wife and two daughters and now mom. and i've been here about 11 years. i'm honored to be asked to serve again in seat two. i'll say that my first few years have been like p.u.c. 101. i have been very impressed with the work of the staff, the amount of discipline, the amount of consternation and planning that they do to provide water for all of their customers. as a matter of record, i am employed by the california academy of sciences where i serve as the head financial officer. we provide water and sewer for the 38,000 animals within our building and 1.3 million visitors who come through our

front doors, and our mission is about sustainability, so i wear a couple hats. a couple things in terms of accomplishments over the last few years, i've been proud to be part of staff's efforts to look at a number of things, and i'll just highlight a few in the interest of time. the first are rates. i sit in the rate fare advocacy seat. i've been extremely impressed with san franciscans and their ability to conserve water. the second is ssip, the sewer system improvement project. i think i shared once before to this body in a different context, my wife grew up about 200 yards from a biosolids plant in chicago, and when the

wind blew the wrong way, it would ruin your barbecue. my inlaws still live there. the amount that the agency has gone in to bake in environmental justice into the strategic plan, to look hard at communities that are directly impacted by the biosolids plant on the southeast side and on the west side has been truly impressive. it is not an effort, it is stitched into what they do. and i've had the privilege of working alongside staff, working alongside community members in scratching the itch, as i put it. what that means to me is not just saying you're heard. we put these neighborhood feedback forums out. it's actually walking the neighborhood, hearing what is important to the neighborhood, not just mitigating the smell. odor is one thing. how does it affect the day-to-day lives of people in those communities. i'll stay the san francisco public utilities commission has done an unbelievable job in making it a top priority in

what they do. the other thing is they embrace the technology aspect of that. i was able to broker a conversation with stanford university. they've pioneered a technology called safe nbr which would effectively reduce the footprint of a waste water plant by up to a third, if not one half. general manager kelly even pays attention to that, not only he's visited stanford to say why might this mean to san franciscans decades down the line so that he's thinking way ahead, so i'm proud to be part of those efforts. i think that we have concerns going forward from the way water is being used, conservation. when you fly into s.f.o., and you look at the city, you wonder how the city works, how everything moves, how we provide water, energy for all

the people there, but then, you see a natural ecosystem. also, our weather, is looks like it's becoming more extreme, we have flooding, we have areas that need to be more reinforced for seismic activity. these are also priorities that the p.u.c. has gone to great lengths to achieve, address, and i've been very attentive to those needs. i think the last thing i'll say to you, as a rate peer advocate, it's important to make it as easy for possible for people to tell you how they're affected, so my goal for the next four years is also to listen. many people that i've surrounded the issue outside of staff, the paid professionals doing this job were sort of like the five blind people touching the elephant, to use an old parable. i think my role as commissioner is to bring those conversations

into one place and to make a data driven, neighborhood informed decision. so with that, i want to thank you for your time and welcome any questions. >> supervisor safai: thank you. i think we'll -- you have any questions right now or you want to just let the other presenters speak and we'll just open it up to public comment. >> thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you, commissioner. >> good morning. supervisor, safai, members, i'm anson moran, and i am honored to be renominated to seat number four on the public utilities commission. that's the seat that requires a background in utilities management. my background comes primarily from the city. i worked for the city for 26 years. i served as general manager of hetch hetchy water and power from 1998 to -- sexcuse me, 198

to 1993, and then, chairman from 1993 to 2000. after that, i worked as senior policy advisor to senator feinstein, and then after that i had a small consulting practice in water policy. i was appointed by mayor newsom back in 2009, areappointed by mayor newsom and mayor lee, and now mayor breed. supervisor stefani, you asked why i would want to do this. in my case, it comes down to several things. i've done this for a very long time. it's baked into my d.n.a., it's

part of who i am. it also meets the four things that have guided my career for a long time, and the first is that the work is fundamentally important, and i can think of nothing more important than providing clean and reliable and safe water to the people of san francisco and the bay area communities that we serve, as well as providing healthy treatment of waste and environmentally friendly power to the people who sign up for clean power san francisco. so that's the first. second is that it's intellectually engaging and stimulating. the issues that we're dealing with are fascinating, difficult issues, and they demand your full attention and time. third is the people that i get to work with. i am amazed in my career and then as on the commission, some of the best people that i know are people who have been called to public service and work for

san francisco. and working with my fellow commissioners, working with the staff is just a tremendous honor and pleasure. and then, the final thing is whether or not i think i can make a difference, make a contribution, and this is an area where i think i can. i think my experience creates some opportunities to contribute in ways that may be unique, and i'm very pleased to be able to do that and to give back to the city which has meant so much to me. couple areas of particular interest, we have been entrusted by the people of san francisco to spend a great deal of their money, about $10 billion in capital programs. and one of the things that i am acutely aware of is that we need to earn that trust and reearn that trust every single day. one of the things that we did

was adopt a rate peer assurance policy, which establishes the groundwork for how management and staff make the discretionary decisions that they have that affect the bottom line and affect rates. example of that is that as we budget, we meet new needs to the extent possible by taking advantage of efficiencies that we have ae bebeen able to crea somewhere, so the effect is a pretty flat budget over time of increasing needs. as i look to my next term hopefully on the commission, i think that need continues. i think we are faced with a need to meet the twin needs of environmental stewardship as well as reliable water supply. there is some tension there and managing that tension and making sure that we do our job in a responsible way is very

important. i think we're also faced with retirements coming up, a significant number of retirements, and we need to make sure that we have staff that is sufficient and is well trained and has a career path forward throughout their lifetime. and also, that we have a reliable staffing pattern, that there are people who are trained to take over for responsibilities as people retire and move on. and then, the final thing i'll mention is if you're dealing with three major utilities and $10 billion worth of capital program, it's easy for some of the life quality issues to get lost. i'm very pleased -- excuse me -- that we are dealing, i think aggressively and constructively on several areas that have been with us for a long time, and commissioner

kwon mentioned them, that owners in the southeast section and our -- our presence in that neighborhood and whether we're a good neighborhood or bad neighbor, that has been an issue that has been quite literally festering for decades, and i think we are finally getting on top of that in dealing with it. the second one is flooding, and it's an area where most of the city is in pretty good shape as far as that goes. there are some problem areas. there are also a surprising number of areas that don't have the big inundations, but they have lesser inundations that are still annoying and affect the quality of life. the worst of those are cayuga, 17 and folsom, pomona and 14th. those are areas that have our very intent focus, but there are areas throughout the city that need our attention as well. so those are the areas that i

look forward to working in the next term. thank you. >> supervisor safai: so thank you very much. we'll call you back if we have questions, but first, we're going to take public comment. folks can lineup so i can get an idea of how many people are here. we'll do two minutes. go ahead. please proceed. >> good morning, supervisors, apprais supervisor safai, supervisor stefani, it's good to be back in front of you. today i stand before you in full support of ike kwon. i first got the opportunity to meet him on my way to a city hall meeting, and he was across the street having a hot dog, and a san francisco approached him and thought he was an elected official. but the way he handled himself and held that conversation together as i was walking in told me something about commissioner kwon at the time. so i come before you all today

as a resident of district ten, and as the deputy director of young community developers and just really want to highlight and touch on, i know commissioner moran, who i fully support, as well, spoke about the sewer system improvement program that's going on in the southeast, which is a 30-year project. billions of dollars going into the project. one of the things that they've been working on is creating the city sewer system called city works. we've worked with 70 young people over the last several summers, placing them in engineering opportunities, within accounting opportunities. we have placed them in the public utilities commission. those are the type of commissioners that we need to have and be in support of, folks who understand the systems, folks who understand

that as we continue to move forward, we need to make sure that we uplift and bring up our young people. i had the pleasure of serving alongside commissioner kwon and commissioner moran as commissioner of the southeast facility as we looked together at working together collaboratively, and that was one of the things that really attracted me to the two of them, so i fully support both of them. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning. eddie on of bright line defense, speaking strongly in support of ike kwon for his commission appointment. he has attended multiple policy summits, and bringing together bayview residents, and his ties to this community would be much appreciated bd on this commission. san francisco myself on the san francisco commission on the

environment and ccdc, i'm always mindful of connecting commissions to regular citizens as the former speaker just talked about, and one thing that ike kwon has done is talked to youth particularly from the richmond neighborhood center, and that's rare to see for someone who holds important position in terms of our local infrastructure. thanks. >> supervisor safai: next speaker. >> good morning. my name's donna hood and i'm the commission secretary to the san francisco p.u.c. i'm here on behalf of ann caen who sends her regrets that she could not be here, but she sent some statements to support both nominees. i've had the pleasure of serving with commissioner kwon since his initial appointment in 2015.

seat two requires a member with experience in rate pair or community advocacy. it is important to ike that he represent the diversity of san francisco in his role as a commissioner and he does so with great passion. he understands the challenges faced by san franciscans and incorporates those into his views. i thank you for your consideration of his reappointment to the commission and urge your support. the second letter is she's writing to express her support of anson moran to seat four. during the last 21, i've had the pleasure of working with andy in his capacity as general manager and his commissioner. i've seen how his vast national has led the sfpuc to be a recognized national leader in

the water, waste water and clean power sectors, and his extensive background and experience reflected the highest experience in these

areas. >> i think finally, the whole -- whole discussion of water works in california, the water issues will be with us forever. it's historical kinds of things that happen in water in california and having somebody on the commission who understands the policies, the politics, the people that are involved in all of that is really, really important, so again, i would encourage you to approve the reappointment of andy moran. thank you very much. >> supervisor safai: thank you. >> commissioners. good afternoon. my name is vince cornyn. i'm the vice president of the public utilities commission. i want to thank you supervisor yee for starting off this meeting with a real prolabor,

proworker message. those people at kaiser are being treating in an unbelievable way. supervisor stefani, my former boss, i want to thank you for your leadership you've given us at the rec and parks department. we're under attack, obviously, chairman safai being a director of our foundation, training workers and putting them into career pathways really started with you and i back in 2007, 8, 9, and 10. the reason i mention those things is because my silo really has a lot to do with workforce at the public utilities commission. i really enjoyed the conversation we had with that lady who just moved forward to the m.t.a. because the frustration is real. i honestly don't know how you guys sleep with 70 to 77,000

cop stit constituents. we have a saying in labor that we will not get up from the table until we have a deal worked out that benefits everyone. staff can be reluctant and they're not always seeing things our way. we need people in government who will fight government to make sure that government works. commissioner moran, my relationship is a little more complicated. he is a mentor of mine. i hope that he's proud to call me his protege. he is at the upper echelon of our commissioners. ike kwon is the chair of our commission. he's thoughtful and deliberate, he's a joy to work with, and i don't think we can get any better than those two. thank you very much. >> supervisor safai: thank you, commissioner. any other member of the public wishing to comment on this? seeing none, public comment is closed. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor safai: before we have -- i don't really have any

comments for the commissioners. i asked them all when we met. i want to make note that we have three former general managers in the room and one current general manager. i think it speaks to the work that these commissioners have done, so having a former general manager as a commissioner, i think it's a true asset to any commission or agency as commissioner courtney said. having the ability to have someone take you under their wing and show you the ropes and guide you when you're on a commission in partnership and work with people. that's how you become an effective agency and it's well led. i think there's tremendous support in general for the p . p.u.c., and i think they have tremendous satisfaction. one area of frustration, and i think commissioner moran pointed to it, and i know we've

been working with general manager kelly on it, myself and supervisor yee, is an area of flooding. we have an area of our districts that is just consistently hit by floods. we understand that global warming is happening, and it's happening in a very rapid way. the wildfires on the west coast that we've never seen before, hurricanes on the east coast that we've never seen before. temperature rising. and then, during the rainy season, essentially flash floods in a way, and it's almost impossible to design a sewer system that would be able to handle that. that being said, we have an area of the district on cayuga that is constantly barraged with flooding. i know it's not a new thing. former general manager addressing it. we have an idea of how we can release some of that in terms of building -- upgrading the system that will help release some of the pressure. i just want to highlight two

things for the commissioners. i've said this as general manager. we want to push caltrans and continue to work with caltrans to have a water catch basin or some type of capture improvement there. i know that the many is there, the will is there, we just have to expedite that. we've been fortunate in the sense that there hasn't been any flash flooding and a 100-year storm in the last two years. but when they do come, we all wake up at night and they've been on the front lines in the community when it's just not acceptable to have waste water in someone's garage in someone's home, flooding their homes. i know we're working with creative solutions. i just want to put that on the radar for the commissioners and on the record. it's very important for me and supervisor mandelman. we share that area.

and i know supervisor yee has been working on that. i just want to put that on the record. i don't have any specific questions for the commissioners, but i just wanted to get that -- supervisor stefani, any questions? >> supervisor stefani: i don't have any questions, either. i just wanted to thank everybody for coming out. i think the public comment was great. it was great to see ed harrington. i haven't seen you in a while. i think what ed harrington says, experience does count, and then vince said we need people in government to fight government to make sure government works. i think that's a great tag line. i might steal that. but i think that's true, and i think that some of the best people that are on commissions are people who care so greatly about public service and add such value to city government,

and i thank you for your service, and i'm just -- i'm very supportsiive of both of these candidates. i'm looking forward to talking to you about sterling park, and cleanpowersf, which i'm really looking forward to a big push in district two. thank you for taking the time to speak with me about your candidacy, and i'm very excited to support you today. >> supervisor safai: i'm also very excited two support these commissioners. i think they work in partnership with the agency. i think i would like to echo the comments that supervisor stefani made, having people that fundamentally understand the delivery system and the entire utility delivery system is extremely important, so i'm in full support of these two commissioners being reappointed. commissioner yee? >> supervisor yee: my