>> good evening. this is a meeting of the san francisco commission of the environment. it is 5:01 p.m. the ringing of pagers and cell phones, please turnoff. due to the covid-19 the commission on the environment meeting room is closed. however, commissioners and department staff will participate in the meeting remotely. this is taken pursuant to the statewide stay at home order and local, state and federal orders. commissioners will attend through video or through telephone and participate as if they were physically present. public comment will be available on each item on the agenda. sfgovtv are streaming at the top

of the screen. each pierker is allowed three minutes to speak. comments are available by calling 415-655-0001 enter access code (146)595-1557. when connected dial star 3 to be added to the queue. best practices call from quiet location, speak clearly and turndown devices. alternatively submit public comment to the department's commission of affairs officer at environment sfgov. org. per e-mail it will be in the file. i will call roll. >> president stephenson. >> here. >> vice president ahn.

>> here. >> commissioner bermejo. >> here. >> commissioner chu. >> here. >> commissioner sullivan. >> here. >> commissioner wald. >> here. >> commissioner wan. >> here. >> we have a quorum. >> next item, please. item 2. president's welcome for discussion. >> hello everybody. thanks to everyone who made it to the meeting in the new year. let me start by sharing best practices. as we have in the last meeting, please mute yourself to minimize background noise. remember to unmute yourself to comment. there are staff members in the background managing the techno lodgual functions to switch from

presentations to whoever is speaking. please be patient as we made those adjustments. all right. a lot has changed since we last met. president biden put us back in the paris climate agreement. through technology and programming i think our transition team we got to participate in our inauguration festivities. friends and family members are vaccinated in the last few weeks. the longest january in the history of my life came to a close. i am looking forward to the new year, new ad mincetration and hope for a better future for the people and our planet. on january 20th amanda gorman inspired all of us with her poem. a few lines stood out with me.

bear with me. there was a specific passage that i wanted to share tonight. we will not be interrupted by intimidation. we know our inaction will be the inheritance of the next generation. one thing is certain. if we merge mercy with might and might with right, love is the legacy and change the children's birth right. let us leave behind a country better than the one we left. >> i spent a very long time searching around the internet for the full transcript of her poem. i had to wait until the next day to find the whole thing. it was strong. it strikes me that it articulates our obligation as commission, department and city. it is the inheritance of next

generation. blunders are their burdens. i don't want this time of covid to be something of an ex screws nor inertia to keep us from doing what needs done. i want this to be when we leave behind a country and world better than we were left. the exciting thing for me and for all of us here is that we know so much what needs done, we have a brilliant staff and great commission and live in a city that has the political will and citizen support to go it. let's get to work. tonight i am excited to kickoff this year. to say we are bringing back the awards after a year off. i am looking forward to the presentation and discussion for the land acknowledgment. it is a meaningful way to spend the first meeting and remind us where we are and connection. we have a great agenda and a lot to do. let's get to it. is there public comment on the

presidents welcome. >> public comment. i will put instructions on the screen for anyone who is joaning -- joining us. you have three minutes for the president's welcome. we have one caller in the queue. i will pull up my timer and unmute the first caller now. >> commissioners, i am francisco de costa. director of environmental justice advocacy involved with environmental issues for over 40 years.

i am the tribal liaison for the tribe. the tribe that exercised its right of first refusal in 1991. i am glad that this commission and the chairperson has some good intentions to address environmental issues. as we all know, we have some very astute and very educated people in the bay area who embrace environmental issues. i would like the commission to have a blueprint that is viable and sustainable. thank you very much.

>> thank you for your comments. we have one more caller in the queue. i will unmute our next caller now. >> yeah, i am glad this commission is meeting. this welcome i am glad that biden won like most everyone else in san francisco, but i don't be see the point in having a welcome gushing about biden and the inauguration. what does that have to do with what is happening in san francisco? i understand that biden's policies will affect san francisco. how does this directly relate to environmental policies in san francisco? i feel like -- i know that, you know, the welcome is not

supposed to get into the nitty-gritty of things and stuff, but it feels like partisan comments that are unnecessary and potentially alienating to the small percentage of people who are not necessarily fans of biden and wanted other parties to win but do care about environmentalism and improving the environment here in san francisco and climate change and that good stuff. yeah, this welcome seems kind of irrelevant to the purpose of this commission. if there is a way this tied back into what is happening in san

francisco more clearly other than the yeah, biden won and he is going to save us. that is mys, but it felt very partisan, and not relevant. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. we have another caller in the queue. i will unmute the next caller. >> david pill plow. i am concerned about this proposed acknowledgment. i had a discussion about the director about this. i understand what has been explained to me about why i

think it's on the one hand totally appropriate and useful and on the other hand slippery slope. i get that we are presently in san francisco, which was originally the home of others, and there are reasons for that involving history, good, bad, otherwise. the slippery slope that i see is there there are a lot of grievances that people have, many of which or all of which are legitimate whether it is taking of land or internment of people in the war or genocides or famines or slavery. all kinds of history that can be acknowledged and repaired or attempted to restore, and when you start to acknowledge some,

it suggests that you should acknowledge all. since it is not possible to acknowledge all, then you are necessarily excluding some. that is my concern. i would much rather we find ways to repair and restore the land to how it was and going forward reduce and remove toxics and pollution on the land and honor the past struggles involving the land by using it in a better way as good stewards of the land. i am not sure a simple or complicated introduction at a meeting goes to that. those are my thoughts on this. i am sure controversial topic.

>> thank you for your comment. i am not seeing additional callers. next item, please. >> next item is 3. approval of minutes of the december 8, 2020 commission on the environment meeting. explanatory documents, discussion and possible action. >> commissioners any discussion on the draft minutes? >> i wants to move that we approve. >> do we have a second? >> second. >> commissioner ahn seconded.

any public comment on this? any discussions or changes anyone wants to add to this? no changes. minutes from the last meeting. open up public comment. i will put the instructions back up on the screen. comments should be related to this agenda item, approval of minutes. you will have three minutes to comment. i see we have one caller in the queue. i will start the timer now. >> i apologize i thought you were on item 6. as to the minutes from december 8, i think where public comment is listed the public

comment should be prior to the vote because in fact, you take public comment prior to the vote. it is confusing to see the vote and then public comment. the minutes seem a bit inconsistent with staff in some cases referred to buy at that times but then on page 2 introduced jack. he presented on the challenges and answered questions and president stephenson. it goes back and forthwith first name and last name. i don't particularly care which convention you use. it perhaps should be consistent if you don't want to change it this time, that is fine. perhaps in the future be consistent. at the end of the minutes, page

next meeting tuesday, january 26th. that was the old schedule with the change in the bylaws that was item 7 that made the next meeting of the commission tonight. february 1st. perhaps the minutes should be changed to reflect that. thanks very much. >> thank you for your comments. i am not seeing any additional caller in the queue. let's call the roll call vote, please. >> president stephenson. >> aye. >> vice president ahn. >> aye. >> commissioner bermejo. >> aye. >> commissioner chu. >> aye. >> commissioner sullivan. >> aye. >> commissioner wan.

>> aye. >> commissionerwald. >> aye. >> motion passes. >> next item. general public comment. members may address the commission on matters that are within the commission's jurisdiction and not on today's agenda. i will put the instructions back up on the screen. if you are calling in, press star 3 to be added to the queue. you have three minutes to make your comments. i am seeing that we have a caller in the queue. i will unmute the first caller now. >> hi, i am daniel resident of district 8. thank you for having me today. i have three items i would like to comment on that are not on the agenda. one, looking at the climate action plan and re-reading

chapter nine goals, i am displayed to see that they are targeting reductions by 2050, which is long after all of us will be done with this commission and department and even our jobs. in particular, chapter 9 dictates reducing 40% by 2030 emissions. that is not nearly enough to do it. the world needs to go 50% by 2030 allowing growth of developing nations. as we look for chapter 9 updates, i urge the commission to ask for more aggressive targets in line with the moment in time. second item is the department of environment did a really great study on the inventory.

they brought this up in december. i would love to see discussion on that in this body. lastly, as we look ahead to a biden administration it would be good for the department to identify ways to use potential stimulus money, shovel ready projects to improve environment and for what is important to me, climate. whether that is doing upgrades, electrification, we should have a plan to use money if it comes. i think that would be a great thing for the department to do. thank you. >> thank you for your comment. i will unmute our next caller.

>> david pill plow. i am not speaking now specifically on item 7 but just in general about posting of materials and attachments. i happen to be talking to joe salem this afternoon and discovered that the attachment for 7 was wrong. it was the same document that was presented at the operations committee on january 11th. the correct document following my concern was posted about an hour ago. that gives the public less than an hour to review that document and perhaps compare it to others and form comments where there is an attachment, particularly if it is ready prior to the meeting, i think it is important in general and especially now

during covid times to post that document, check that it is correct, be sure it is posted, and have somebody review that if necessary. not having the right information available for the public is, you know, not great. i could use other words, let's go with not great. i hope in the future those things will be caught and flagged and attachments will be properly labeled and checked. that is important to me. thanks very much. >> thank you for your comments. i will unmute the next caller now. >> this is chris, resident of san francisco. i want to talk about some of the things i think this commission and the department of environment should prioritize for the upcoming year.

first of all, chapter 9 updates are critical. i looked through the budget documents, the department has good ideas for refocusing chapter 9 on the various sectors. i am afraid this will not be effective unless the dates are moved upwards. right now chapter 9 says reduce ght by 50%. mayor breed has 88% a little earlier. i think we need to be net zero or close to net zero by 2030 or earlier. this is in line with the itc2018 report and some of the very frightening science that came out over the holidays. it looks like we locked in 2° celsius. do we want this warming in the

next decade or century? that is up to us. wealthy countries have to step up to reduce emissions by 2030. the climate action plan update goals are inadequate. in addition, i would like to see a hearing of this body as well as the land use committee of the board of supervisors on the new consumption report recently released. finally, i would like to see the construction and demolition ordinance resubmitted to the land use committee as soon as possible. i understand the committee and department of environment are working on various amendments. i think it is time of the essence. we have to get this back and add a carbon fee to landfills, construction and demolition debris to fund equitable climate mitigation for communities most impacted by air police and

climate change. -- air pollution and climate change. thank you so much. >> thank you for your comments. i see one more comment in the te queue. >> i would like to make a general comment about san francisco's attitude towards environmental policy. a lot of it tends to be shouldered by lower income individuals whether that means that they have to work for example if they have to rely on public transit that is unreliable or if they have to

work for ecology or we see a lot of the lovely people who go around collecting bottles and stuff for us. a lot of the policies that have been created to reduce carbon foot present and all of that stuff. a lot of that stuff ends up being shouldered by the lower income individuals. whereas for the higher income individual in the city they continue going on their way catching ubers and, you know, sitting in their work at home jobs. quite honestly they don't recycle. i was talking to somebody the other day who was living on the

street. talked to anybody who is on the street, and there are people who hawk stuff they find out of the trash. yeah, there are people here who really don't recycle at all. i think that there needs to be something done about economic justice and how that can be integrated into environmental justice. that is basically the brunt of my comments, i guess. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. i am not seeing any additional callers in the queue. >> next item, please. >> item 5. presentation of the commission

on the environment, environmental service award to julian potter. this is an item for discussion. >> commissioner chu. >> hi, everyone. i am excited to present the first environmental service award of 2021 to julian potter, who has retired as chief administration policy officer of the san francisco international airport after more than 15 years of service at the city and county of san francisco. her work has truly had a positive impact at the local, regional and global level. she was the driving force behind the first zero airport targets to achieve net energy, waste annette carbon emissions. 41% reduction in greenhouse gas reductions and operational energies reduced 5%.

she launched successful green certification program, installed 3-megawatts solar power and banned on site plastic bottles and food wear. she formed over 150 airlines and nonprofits to grow into one of the highest volumes served by sustainable aviation faux el. she also led the net zero energy certified building and first lead gold terminal. wow. with that i am pleased to express gratitude for her commitment to tackling climate issues and presenting her with this award. i would like to invite the airport director to share a few thoughts. >> thank you. thanks to the commission on environment for acknowledging the incredible work of julian.

we are going to miss her. she is such a wonderful advocate for our environmental initiatives and instrumental in so many of those that were just mentioned. sfo has a history of firsts in the environment be. first lead gold terminal in the world, first net zero energy building at an airport certified, first airport to ban plastic bottles. we are expanding the ban to all sweet beverages in april. julian is a coalition builder. she is strumental in developing industry leadership for the environment. she supported our previous director john martin in the formation of the gateway airport council and california airports council.

part of that initiative was about advancing the sfo leadership in the environment. that is where the legacy that julian leaves for the city and airport resides is in that alignment of industry that is in such desperate need of leadership and julian provided that. we haven't realized it yet. i think the incredible work she has done and as we achieve goals most recently we had our fixed base operator providing fueling for private aircraft 100% sustainable aviation fuel in every aircraft that is moving the industry in the right direction. i appreciate julian and her fine work. she has azest for life.

this is anincredible legacy. thanks to the commission on the environment and thanks for this opportunity to recognize julian. >> debbie, did you want to say a few words? >> i would love to. thank you, that was beautiful. thank you, commissioner chu for those well deserved words. when i think about julian, i think of three words that summarize her to me. curious, enthusiastic, open. curious, enthusiastic and open. that is the spirit. she was born with that spirit. when she was 24 she decided to drive across the country by

herself all the way to alaska and camp along the way. when i was 24 i wasn't thinking about having the courage to do that. that kind of curiosity she has and that openness to whatever is in front of her and that belief in other own capacity and also the outcomes that she knows that the world is capable of, i think it served her well and served us well in the city and county of san francisco. julian says to me i am not an expert in anything but i am happy to listen and be inspired. i am not an expert but i am happy to listen. it is that humility that underscores here openness and enthusiasm that has led to some pretty phenomenal things i have listed. that commissioner chu listed. the way she thinks about the airport as a city with all of the opportunities and the

challenges and her willingness to be curious and find out about things she doesn't know. at the end of the day to bring everyone together in one room so the system is represented so the system can change. julian you are leaving an amazing legacy of getting hard things done. you earned the fun times ahead of you. you are going to be missed a whole lot. thank you, thank you for leaving us in such better hands and better place than we were before you started. >> thank you. i was kind of anxious coming to the call. you are so sweet. this was pretty easy. my wife and i drove all day from sonoma to palm springs starting with six weeks here as kickoff into phase two or three or four

of our lives. thank you, president stephenson, i appreciated your opening remarks and commissioner chu for getting through the resolution. i will edit it is not she. it is hundreds of us. as debra well said i am an expert in nothing. debra is a ian test. i -- scientist. i am an organizer. it is full pulling together the experts. i was asked to come down here 15 years ago. i remember saying i don't know anything about airplanes or airports. i don't know the name of the plane on my vacation. john martin was like it doesn't matter. what i need is somebody who cares how to connect this great airport and make it sustainable. i don't think i understood what he meant when he said

sustainable. sfo can be doing good. sustainable to the planet. making sure how sfo as a footprint as an organization that the footprint leaves behind the impact with people with enough money to raise families here with a career. that its impact on the bay area and the governments that it serves, the nine counties the economic largest helps the region. as a public agency it is our responsibility to figure that out. the charge was to try to come down to sfo and we did. we first set out and did this, we called in experts from all over. probably from doe to say how is

it that we can reduce energy, reduce emissions, save water. what can we do as an airport? is it possible? we sat around for hours with these martie pants people, scientists and presentations. by the end everybody in that room was convinced, yes, we can get to zero energy, we can get to zero emissions and can have all reclaimed water. none of us knew how. we didn't have any baseline. i hear you talking about targets and goals. unfortunately we set the big goal to get to zero. what we found was the real work turning the page there and figuring out, okay, how do we harness the energy of 2,000 people working for the city and

county, engineers, architects, custodians, analysts, financial people they have to understand sustainability to help us get there. that is the hard work. then we realized it is not just us the 2000 city workers. we have hundreds of businesses at sfo global airline partners, 150,000 workers a day come on the property when we are in operation, and 70 million passengers each year. how do we get them behind sustainability? that is the hard work. it is getting everybody to agree so that when we and i with the $7 billion capital plan. how do we make sure the hundreds of engineers that as they think about building a new terminal are going to make it sustainable? they have to do that on their

own volition and they did. the big challenge where we have been successful and that is why she, she, she doesn't make sense. it is we, we, we have gotten to the place where we have reduced the energy. we are going to put up not only wastewater treatment but a recycling plant, watery cycling plant. debbie's team a big shout out. she has brought her staff to sfo. we have an m.o.u. with you guys for several years. they can help us get to these goals. i want to make it clear it has taken a lot of folks. really, it is our skeptics that are the best. ivar hammered the plastic water ban through. businesses made so much money.

a little restaurant at the airport was making $2 million each year selling water bottles. selling millions of them. we were like a little anxious. we had contracts with them and in the contract that was the revenue line. he just jammed it through. the fun any they was they wanted to do it? why? they are small businesses here. one of the guys who oversees seven restaurants whispered i was with my daughter at the beach last week. i saw the plastic. i saw the plastic. they get it. they are us. these are our small businesses, right? we are doing it, and then one last story because the biggest partnership is sustainable aviation fuel from a partnership in geneva world wide. 150 people from across the world everybody producing new

sustainable aviation fuel made out of garbage, seaweed, sustainable. we had shell call up and say i want to join. it is wait a minute you are making the jet a. then i thought, wait if shell doesn't pivot and start doing sustainable fuel nothing changes. i said come over. they come to the meeting a little suspect. can we meet with you afterwards. i get into the conference room with the executives on one side of the table. they say you know why we are here? i was like, no, i don't really. we don't want to be kodak. we know the future is coming. we are not going to it is around and act like it is about petroleum. all of this to say the people that i thought would be the

hardest to convince to get on board and participate in this are not. they have got to be brought to the table. you have to have everybody there. we are going to keep our goals are zero. we do, i var pushed. he is better to push at the plan. we are there. we have hundreds pushing in that direction. i feel confident and i have to thank the leadership of you guys on this commission and the people who call in and say, hey, i want more out of san francisco. mayor newsome and london breeds. i have to say biden because one thing is for me, i mean, he wrote an executive directive he told every agency go through and see how to change policies to

reduce climate -- the problems we are having with climate and energy. it takes that kind of commitment to make every agency. that is what the airport did. everything we touched we figured how to make this work. my regret i will not be there when there is supportive leadership in washington. it will be a lot more fun for all of you and that is that. thank you, thank you. very honored that you called me up here after this long drive and i appreciate all that you do. >> thank you for your excellent work. it is one of the great joys of san francisco is we get to show the rest of the world how things can be done in so many ways. i love the fact that for so many

people that starts when they step foot into our airport. before they get on the land, they have seen what we can do and how we focus on sustainability. i appreciate your work toward that. any comments, commissioners? >> what president stephenson said. great work. >> nice to see you, mike sullivan. >> all right. let's open up public comment on this item please. members of the public can call in. >> the instructions are on the screen. you will have three minutes to comment. they should be related to this related item the environmental

service award to julian potter. we have one caller in the queue. >> david pill plow. i think i first met julian in the mayor's office a long time ago now. sfo, the airport, is not just about operations and security. in addition to planning and engineering, finance and add ministration the idea of policy at airports is still new and julian made it a thing for all of us using public agencies, infrastructure and operations in a way to challenge people to do better to air, land, water is as aness and positive agenda. we need to be good stewards of the land and resources. none of us are here for very long. we should try to leave things

better than we found them. i think julian has done that at sfo and for the city generally. i appreciate her work and wish her well. thanks. >> thank you for your comments. i am not seeing any additional callers in the queue. >> thank you so much for joining us. enjoy your time in palm springs. next item, please. >> item 6. review and vote on whether to approve resolution file 2021-01-coe on the land acknowledgment. the speaker and director and co-founder of american indian cultural district. this is file 2021-01-coe. this is for discussion and possible action.

>> thank you. >> let me make sure. thank you, katie. as you all know the office of racial equity developed an action plan for city departments. it has a section specifically for boards and commissions. action to that section of the template to pass resolution to include an acknowledgment on the ramaytush ohlone land at the beginning of every meeting. this is really important next step for racial equity work. i am excited to introduce the executive director and cofounder of the american indian cultural district. she is here to tell us more about the importance of this acknowledgment. why we need to elevate the

traditional knowledge and partner with her and the association moving forward. i would like to take this opportunity to reads the resolution in the entirety with the acknowledgment. an ad dapted version will be developed for policy and operations committee meetings. it goes like this. whereas the san francisco commission on the environment acknowledging that the ramaytush ohlone are the original peoples of the peninsula and the area comprising the city and county of san francisco was originally inhabited by an independent tribe of the people and whereas the commission on the environment acwillings the association of the ohlone actively worked to research,

expands public awareness of and preserve the ohlone history and culture. the commission on the environment acknowledges the ohlone peoples survived brutalities of genocide, discrimination, racism, gender based violence, theft, and other atrocities driven by local, federal and global governments. the commission acknowledges the environmental degradation is called by colonization and have maintained balance with nature. whereas the commission on the environment acknowledges that early environmentalists and conservationists were part of efforts to force the people and deny the indigenous wisdom,

traditional knowledge and indigenous practices and rights to the land. whereas the commission on the environment acknowledges the ohlone people are not of the past but an integral and active community in the present san francisco bay area and beyond. with ongoing exclusion denied the greater american community inclusion and respect in san francisco. the commission acknowledges that the city and county of san francisco was founded on unseated territory. that the existing city and county on this land continues to contribute to the exclusion of the ohlone people. whereas to acknowledge the truth of the land in people's history is a human right and demonstration of honor and

respect for the contributions and sacrifices of the ohlone ancestors that care for this land before us. now therefore be it resolved from this date forward the san francisco commission on the environment will state the following land acknowledgment at the beginning of each commission meeting. the land acknowledgment is as follows the commission on the environment acknowledges that we objecting you pie the unseated homeland of the canaytush ohlone people. we recognize that they understand the interconnection of all things and have maintained harmony with nature. we honor the ohlone people foreign during commitment to mother earth and the indigenous

protectors of this land in accordance with the tradition the ohlone have never lost or forgotten the responsibilities as care takers of the place as well as for all people who reside in their traditional territory. we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. uninvited guests we affirm the sovereign rights as first people and wish to pay our respects to the ancestors, elders and relatives of the ohlome communities. we must embrace the indigenous knowledge how we care for san francisco. be it further resolved an ad dapted version will be read at the beginning of the committee meetings on the commission on

the environment. they instruct the department to develop a protocol for when or how this might be implemented at department meetings and events. further resolved that the commission on the environment's landing acknowledgment is just the first step needed in acknowledging and honoring the land, culture, wisdom and contributions of the ohlone people throughout san francisco bay and further resolved that the commission on the environment will establish a relationship with the ohlone by engaging in consultation process to understand that when it needs, concerns and knowledge of the original care takers. further resolved that the commission on the environment will engage with san francisco's american indian cultural district and other american indian stakeholders to elevate

american indian traditional ecological knowledge, concerns and expertise. we urge all boards and commissions in the city and county of san francisco to begin each meeting with the above land acknowledgement approved by the association of the ohlone. please welcome. >> thank you all for taking that time to put that toeing. hello i am sharaya saw zoo executive director to the american indian cultural district. it an honor to be here today for my relatives for doing this important resolution to honor the relatives. my relative also wants people to

know no matter where the ohlone people reside they are proud to be connected and they carry responsibility to continue the traditional ways of caring for the land. we see this as the first step to building meaningful relationship where the ohlone, and we would like to thank the commission on the environment for establishing the relationship to engage in consultation, a point of contact to meet with the american indian cultural keepers, to include the knowledge moving forward afternoon policymaking and climate change. by implementing these you are ensuring this they are in your planning process. i want to take this opportunity to talk to you about traditional eke logical knowledge. it is not only my responsibility

but a passion. as we go out and see the water in san francisco we see this bay. this bay isn't just this bay. it is one large body of water covers 70% of the earth. that is best way to explain traditional ecological knowledge. one of the travel chair men ron good who is a leader says if you want to know the future, elders say start with the past. they will tell you how we got here. people want to go back 30 years to create models for the next 150 years. today we all face the same threats. that is climate change. traditional ecological knowledge is stewardship existing for thousands of years. built in the same way as modern science. traditional ecological knowledge was built around generations of knowledge and understanding with

mother earth. our connection to this land. it is important and significant as traditional people and passed down for generations, gathered to adapt to changes for people to become resilient and passed through oral knowledge. this includes climate conditions as well. one of the really great examples that the chairman gave at the 2018 water summit the fires that happened in sonoma county was a very large fire and he said that predictions for travel knowledge was there had been a fire there every 50 years. when they went into the planning and development they ignored these things and so hundreds of lives were lost and homes were lost in the fire. same with the yosemite. if we would have used the knowledge and thousands of years of burning we would have saved the important forest areas. this is a unique opportunity today not just to pay respects

for the ohlone but to embed the knowledge into policymaking decisions. like ron good said if you want to know about the future you need to start with the past. thank you all today for taking the time to make this really meaningful resolution and make this commitment to move forward to engaging with the community. the work you do on the climate is important and imperative. a lot of people don't understand that everything that we do impacts this land. we have such a small amount of area undeveloped. we need to behind full in those areas as well as incorporating the traditional knowledge and the different things that the relatives can bring in that they have knowledge for thousands of years. i want to thank you all for taking that commitment. this is a great step forward for

san francisco. i am excited to work with you all and excited to see how this plays out in the future. thank you. >> thank you so much for that. commissioners, any questions or discussion about the resolution? [please stand by]

>> we really need to radically reshape how we live and our relationships around us. i have to say, thanks again. >> thank you for your comment. next caller. >> thank you very much. good evening commissioners. sharaya and our previous caller, my name is mary travis. i'm the president of the advisory board for the american indian cultural district. as we have seen in the past years and even past presidency has denied over and over again, the importance of recognizing climate change.

if people had listen to our traditional leaders and listened to how the original people respect the land and respect each other, we'd be in a better place. we don't live in the old ways. we exist in the modern world. with all of this complexities and challenges, diseases and everything that has been brought on us and imposed on us. it's very important that we get your support on this resolution so that we can help the people here on this ohlone land.

i think that san francisco can be that example in so many ways. yallamu has been here. thank you for your time and i hope and encourage you to vote in the affirmative of this resolution. thank you. >> thank you for your comment. i will unmute our next caller now. >> david pilpel again. in addition to my earlier comment, if someone could connect this land acknowledgement to toxic reduction and zero waste goals for rate payers who fund about half of the department through the impounding account to their garbage bill, then maybe i can get on board. otherwise, i stand by those earlier comments. very briefly to mary travis, the woman who spoke before me.

i think her recent efforts around several issues are causing much division in the city at a very tense time for everyone. i hope she'll take an opportunity to think about that. thanks. >> thank you for your comment. i'm seeing it that we have two more callers in the queue. i will unmute our next caller and restart the timer now. >> i'm sympathetic to mr. pilpel's concerns about this being a slippery slope. since this is the original land of the ohlone people. it's different from everything for every marginalized community in ever lived in san francisco.

although, i don't know if it's a useful thing. san francisco has a problem with making acknowledgements and not actually doing anything. it's a place of lots of nice speeches and fine words but often times it tends to translate into the rich getting richer and the poor getting poor. all while saying we're helping the marginalized. that's not what happens. i would agree, mr. pilpel said, this could be connected in some ways to actually action. i like the part in about how in addition to this verbal

acknowledgement ohlone land. there needs to be outreach to tribes. i think that's more important. it's less important that we have this verbal acknowledgement that we live on ohlone land and it's more important that we engage with the original tribes and seek their input for land and environmental issues. i think that's really the important part. that should be the focus rather than saying, we acknowledge that this is originally tribal land. then not actually doing anything afterwards. acknowledging some action will be greatly appreciated. thank you. >> thank you for your comments.

last commenter now? >> this is chris again. i want to thank you so much for bringing this important resolution. i really think we need see thing change. we ned to listen to indigenous wisdom. we risk our bioregion and the climate. i'm not speaking for indigenous group i wanted to express some of the connections i've been making in the recent months with indigenous wisdom. our current economic model and the current economic system in the city and the city's climate plan are not set out to achieve emissions reductions. the economic system is based on extraction, exploitation and accumulation of wealth and unequal distribution, is at the

heart of the present climate and ecological crises. we reduce growth every year otherwise, we're going to extrap too much from the other. we can't just relay on grown growth. i think it's possible, however, to learn from indigenous wisdom, build a new economic system that operates on the idea of reciprocity with nature. these are all the other beings on earth is the system. economic growth and activity will be fairly distributed to low carbon sectors. we can lower emissions, reduce

inequality and recenter ourselves as part of a larger earth, thank you. >> we have one additional caller. >> commissioners, i want to make a statement. i already said -- i -- if you go into our general management plan, you can read the details why they are mentioned in the san francisco general management plan. we, meaning all those who

respect our ancestors, must first see that we do not allow the desecration of the shall mounds that are all over san francisco. we must acknowledge certain facts that up until 1927, you could kill a native-american and fetch $5 for the native-american's scalp. there's such atrocities that we have to bring to the attention of those who not know about it. but at the same time, meet with

the mayors, meet with the human rights commission, which the we have done. we have two commendation. they are mentioned in the general management plan. it would be good not to reinvent the wheel but to see what has been done the foundation that has been established so that with a clean heart we can take everybody to a better place. you thank you very much. >> we have one additional caller in the queue. >> this is casey. i'm a member of the public. i work with the demonstration

gardens. my recommendation is that the resolution be approved and as we understand, our relationships aren't perfect. the resolution will be perfected and made perfect over time. by developing the relationships that led to the position that we're in now. i think we have to look to

ancestorial knowledge about the land. >> i think we have one additional caller in the queue. >> my name is debbie santiago. we are the original keepers of the land. having this resolution go forward will be saying that the ramaytush ohlone to respect the land of the original land keeps of -- keepers in san francisco. we are in a tribal interconnect to each other. we havely always cared for the land and the animals. to not have this resolution, a resolution here in san francisco, for the future of the climate change, will be a travesty will be to all living

being here in san francisco. we have to learn from the past to move forward to keep this changing all around us so we will have a better place and to live upon this area. to acknowledge that is to remember the past and to know our youngest are moving it forward into this climate change. having this will be a better change for all of us. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. i'm seeing no more callers in the queue. >> president stephenson: okay, can we move to a roll call vote unless there's comments by commissioners? [roll call vote]

>> president stephenson: motion passes. thank you all for your comments. let's move to the next item please >> clerk: move on to item 7. review and vote on whether to approve the department of environment fiscal year 2021-22 and 2022-23 budget. the sponsors are deborah rafael the director and speaker is joseph salem program manager. this item is for discussion and possible action. good thank you president stephenson. >> we come to you with our budget. as you know, the board of supervisors enacted legislation

aimed at increasing transparency of the budget process. what they said was that commissions needed to have two public meetings talking about the budget. after checking with the city attorney, we realized, they informed us and we realized that our operations committee and full committee would serve those two public meetings. they were separated by at least 15 days. that was the change we had to make. that is why this full commission meeting is in early february as -- as opposed back in january. this is that second public meeting concerning the budget. incidented to set that context. we'll be hearing a high level presentation from joe salem and we'll have time to answer questions or hear from the public. i'll turn it over to joe.

>> thank you. i'm going to have you forward one slide. good evening commissioners. i'm joe salem i'm the fiscal manager for the department of environment. i will be give a brief presentation for the fiscal 2021-22 draft budget. couple of things before we get started. this is a draft budget. as such, we expect there will be changes between now and time we submit it to the mayor's office on february 22nd. we're not going to be reviewing the fiscal 2022-2023 budget in this presentation. it's impossible for us to know this far out what grant fundings will look like in that outline year. we don't feel that we can give an accurate assessment of that fiscal year at this time.

the city is currently projecting $653 million deficit over the next two fiscal years. as a result, this deficit, the mayor's office is requiring all general fund department to reduce expenditures in 2022 and fiscal 2023 with an additional 2.5% reductions identified as a contingency each year if the economic outlook worsens. this means that the departments must reduce their general fund support by 15% over the next two fiscal years and identify an additional 5% potential reductions. while the department of environment does not receive any general fund support, we do face some potential impact as non-general fund departments are expected to absorb any increases in our operating costs.

in past years, we focused exclusively on department's operating budget. the board of supervisors modified the budget adoption process to require that all departments hold at least two public hearings on their proposed budget to ensure that the public has access to and input into the department's budget development process. i get the word proposed meaning our annual appropriations board meeting, a.a.b. budget. this shows the a.a.o. budget to give the complete transparent view possible of the budgeting process. what is the difference between our a.a.o. budget and our

operating budget? our operating budget takes into consideration the department's entire current projection for sources and uses any given year. the operating budget includes funds being requested through the a.a.o. process, which is referred to the budget process, and funds that have been previously approved that will be utilized in the next fiscal year. these are typically grants awarded mid-year and appropriated through a board resolution process called the expended process, mid--year interdepartmental work orders. you can think the a.a.o. budget as a sub seth of -- subset of our operating budget. our operately budgets contains our entire a.a.o. budget request. i will discuss our operating budget this evening with the understanding that our a.a.o.

request is entirely embedded in our operating budget. i feel this is the best way to provide the most comprehensive and thorough review of the budget process. we currently expect to request about $464,000 in our a.a.o. submission to the mayor's office. we expect to recognize almost $6 million in operating revenue from grant sources in fiscal 2022. these comparisons are show the

magnitude that the variances why we feel it's important to review our total operating budget. turning to the operating budget, you'll see that we currently have a significant deficit for 2022 as it stands it today. the majority of $623,000 deficit is related to an increase in labor costs to the cost and various grants and work order considerations. i should note that while this figure looks significant, and it is, it representsless than 2% of our operating budget for context, we have deficits of about $865,000 last year at this time. this slide shows how budget is broken out by funding source and by programming expenditure. i've added the a.a.o. figures

for illustrative purposes to what we submit the a.a.o. budget process. while our a.a.o. budget request shows solid waste impound funding comprising 65% of our budget, it's currently anticipated to be about 49% of our operating budget. you can see a difference between a.a.o. request and operating budget request. the most glaring example of this is energy program where the expenditures it 2% of our budget at the a.a.o. level and 21% of our operations budget level. these last two slides highlight why i'm presenting our operating budget a.a.o. submission ignores

$6 million in operational funding for the next fiscal year. this slide shows the year over yore changes from the current fiscal year to thefection -- next fiscal year. from approximately $39 million to $26.7 million. this is due to productions in three areas, grants, fees and fund balance. we had several multiyear grants funded through the a.a.o. process in fiscal year 2021. the entire budget is reflected in this current fiscal year, even though we'll be budgeting operationally against these grants for a few years.

the energy program bay grant. this grant is $12.7 million that is operationally funded over three-year period. because we received whole grant up front, that $12.7 million was entirely recorded in fiscal 2021. the result of this is that our budget for fiscal 2021 showed the entire grant amount that our fiscal 2022 shows planned operational spending in that year, a.a.o. budget shows zero as from an a.a.o. standpoint the entire $12.7 million was recorded in fiscal 2021. another area we see big reduction is in the fees category. this is due to reduction of fees. as you aware, the department of environment passes through 100% of this funding to the department of public works.

finally we see a reduction, closing out, really of fund balance category. these are funds that are related to our move from 1445 market street to 1155 market street that were one time in nature. expenditure side, we see decreases in every category. these reductions are almost entirely related to the grant fee and move cost reductions we saw in the revenue slide. i should point out the $1 million reduction in personnel costs is due how the costs were recorded in the a.a.o. for fiscal 2021 and do not represent an actual reduction in funding for personnel. here we see a list of our work orders with other city departments in our programming partnerships. you can see, we work closely

with many significant partners. these work orders are vital to our department's funding. we great value the interdepartmental relationships. during this time of economic difficulty, they also represent our greatest funding vulnerability. departments under tremendous pressure to find reductions in their budgets. providing important services to our department consist about 14% of our operating revenue. our staff work hard to maintain positive relationships by demonstrating through providing exceptional deliverables, the value of a services that we provide to the city family. i like to take a moment to acknowledge our staff's role in making these work orders happen. their dedication to maintaining and growing these important new relationships are incredibly helpful and have made my job

much easier in terms of how we incorporate these work orders into our budget. these are the key dates for the budget process for 2021-2022. you can see here in the next big deadline here is our submission on the balance budget to the mayor's office february 22nd. may will mark the beginning of the board of supervisors budget hearings. the hearing will be held in may and june with the department of environment historically being heard. fiscal 2021-22 budget will be adopt on the july 21st and we'll submit a letter to the mayor's office certifying that the budget was adopted and is adequate and we do not require

any supplemental general funding. we'll be working hard over the next month to balance the shortfall that we have. examining all expenditures and pursuing additional revenue to close the gap. as we do not anticipate any cuts to service levels, we will be taking a look at our budget department wide, identifying required expenditures and potential areas where we can produce costs. we'll be seeking out new forms, new sources of revenue, applying for grants and seeking partnerships wherever the potential exists. i'm confident that we can deliver balanced budget to the mayor on february 22nd. this certainly is work to be done and some strategic decisions to be made over the next three weeks. this concludes my presentation. i'm happy to take any questions

you may have. >> president stephenson: thank you, joe, that was great. i appreciated the discussions up front about the a.a.o. versus the operating budget. commissioners, do you have any questions or comments about the budget? does anyone want to make a motion to approve the recommendation by the operations committee? >> commissioner wald: i move. >> i will second. >> president stephenson: commiss ioner sullivan second. can we open up to public comment

please? >> clerk: i will share the instructions for making public comment on this item. this is the department budget just a reminder that comments should be -- you will have three minutes to make your comments. i'm seeing we have two callers in the queue. i will pull up the timer and unmute the first caller now. >> david pilpel again. i'll read parts of administrative code section 3.3 sub c is requires public meeting concern each agency proposed budget the budget that the agency presents shall provide the following information if applicable to the agency all agency divisions budget totals

and major changes including new or reduced initiatives and staffing changes, changes in service levels, projected salary savings and hue the agency is meeting budget instruction target. the purpose of this meeting shall be allow for public input into the agency budget for the upcoming fiscal year prior to the submission of a proposed budget to the controller. i don't see all of those required elements here tonight to comment on. i'm concerned with classifications, f.t.e. counts and organization charts. i asked for those details. i'm also concerned with use of impound account funds and tieing those funds to programs and outcomes for the rate payers. as joe indicated, this presentation does not discuss fiscal year 2022-2023 as all. further, i can't tell from the presentation the risk as to work

orders from other departments that are general fund or none-general fund supported. even if the commission is in concern about the details that i'm concerned about, the code requires certain content in order to have informed public participation on the budget. i will continue to follow up but i am disappointed that some of these elements don't prepare to be here. thanks. >> thank you for your comment. next caller. your three minutes will begin now. >> hi. i live in d9. can you hear me? >> yes. >> i live in d9 on ramaytush ohlone land. i agree that we have to remember the past to move forward. it is pertinent of the budget process to consider the affects

of their action on seven generations to come. the department of environment is responsible for plans and actions especially relate the to climate and environmental justice which drastically -- the department of environment cannot meet this challenge without more challenges. especially in the time of covid where we know that air pollution is increasing hospitalization and admissions and death. we cannot afford to not fund the department charged with meeting the climate emergency. s unconscionable that the department of environment has to rely on grant to do life saving

work. the current budget asks for less than 1% of 1% of our city budget for the climate program when california has been burning in january. it's been the tiny portion of that on environmental justice. just as we need to be doing more to address the racial equities in our society. we cannot reduce the department of environment budget now. we must increase its funding and full its work. i appreciate the work the department of environment does, it is extraordinarily important work. we need to do more, better and faster in order to have a liveable future. please, make sure this budget is increased not decreased as it currently stands. the supervisors and mayor know that we can't afford not to fund

our sponges to the climate and health emergency. thank you very much. >> thank you for your comment. i am now seeing that we have about four additional commenters in the queue. >> good evening commissioners. my name is paul warner. i like to second what the previous speaker said about the need to adequately fund the department, especially with respect to climate change. this is a rapidly evolving area in terms of our understanding. the models have always predicted a high and low range. we're always coming in when we look at the data on the high range of how quickly things are

getting bad. there's been two recently released reports, studies, showing for example, that the 1.5-degree goal, which the city signed up for, rares dramatic, at least 50% reductions by 2030. we're nowhere near on target on that. i'm extremely concerned that this funding is woefully inadequate to support the very complex problems that is arguably a focus of the city because of the climate emergency declaration.

thank you. >> thank you for your comment. next caller. >> this is chris again. district 3 resident in san francisco. i want to speak generally here. i understand that we're in a fiscal crises right now, fiscal emergency, money is tight. we know generally the work that we have ahead of us. it has to be on the 2030 time line. we need to update chapter 9. i think all all know where we need to go. in order to do that, we have to fund it. we might not have the money now. it's imperative that we submit to the board of supervisors and mayor a list how much it will cost to accomplish our goals. if you speak to many of the supervisorrings, they're not aware what is necessary terms of

investment. on top of that, again, the. money might not be there now. we need to think about bonds, taxes, fees at an emergency pace. if we don't have this on paper laid out, i'm not sure how we'll accomplish our goals. we speak about the biden administration and how great it is that he's in power now. if we're going to leverage that, we have to lay down on paper how much money we need so that biden and congress can actually procure that money. same goes for the state of california. we need to be showing our representatives in the state of california, through the city government, how much money we need to get this crises under control. i really hope that you can hold this over, little bit longer to get these words through some kind of letter and statement to be sent in conjunction with the budget report. if we can't do that, i'm at a

lost for words here. this is not acceptable to keep funding a climate emergency on grants and impound money. we need to expand the pot. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. i will unmute our next caller. >> hi, i'm sarah greenwald. i'm a constituent in the d2. as san franciscan i value the dream department. it can keep the city from making decisions that will cause suffering. i'm concerned the proposed budget won't get us there.

it can be discussed further with the board and mayor. this proposed budget, this asking for 1% of 1% of the city budget for the climate program. the city declared climate emergency. s.f.e. having difficulty conducting the outreach.

please, make sure that the mayor and the board can discuss the magnitude of the challenge and how much more is needed to prepare s.f.e. to take it on including other levels of government. thank you. >> thank you for your comment. i will unmute our next caller. >> this is daniel again. i'm resident of district 8. thank you for having me today. i want to echo lot of the comments of the previous

callers. if the budget is an expression of our values, this budget does climate and environmental justice -- that's not meant as a knock on department, individuals who put this budget together and those who do great work everyday. it is a demand that we do better. i woken up last three months with increasing threat and terror. i struggle to explain to my parents that the world will grow old. and will look nothing like the world which they grew up. i'm terrified. i never felt that before. the budget put forward today, 1% of 1% towards the department of environment program. how we supposed to reduce carbon emissions on a shoe string budget? how can we ask s.f.e. staff to

take on a challenge to spend time chasing down grant money to do the work they need. we need to do better. don't approved proposed budget until the discussion can be about the need to increase funding. now is the time. the moment requires it. thank you. >> thank you for your comment. we have one additional caller. >> good evening this is casey from district 6 at administration gardens. i'm speaking in favor of holding off on approved the budget until we can apply more pressure and influence to increase it. i am not critical of the department's construction of the budget.

i'm critical of our public imagination from making sure that this department has what it needs to meet all of the increased challenges that we have to deal with. i recognize that in this time, where crises proceeds almost every -- budgetary request. city departments may be reluctant to press for a larger share of a decreased set of revenue. however, as a member of the public, i will work with you, i will advocate for you with our board of supervisors to make sure you get what you need and

so i will respectfully ask that you hold off and let us support you to get more resources. thanks. >> thank you your comment. i'm not seeing any additional callers in the queue. >> president stephenson: thank you callers. i love public comment. i love hearing the passion and the excitement from everyone that's calling in. commissioners, are there any conversations or questions or anything that we want to discuss after listening to all the comments? >> commissioner wald: i like prompt staff to respond to the public comment. we've had similar public comment in the past. i'm struck by the volume this year, probably because of the climate crises we face in particular with the california modifiers from last year.

if there's a response from staff, maybe the question is more global. how to increase the budget by the san francisco department of environment and how the public can engage this that process. that will be helpful. >> i don't know that i have -- i want to also react if i may. that was a pretty amazing set of public comment. i was typing notes because some of the language that people used was so hear felt and inspiring. i feel really lucky that we have such fortunate -- i don't know what the word is. such an engaged public that is showing up tonight. i'm super honored and humbled by it. i want to acknowledge that one thing that casey said at the

end. one of her last comment, she as an individual, said she would be there as a member of the public. i guess the feeling that she's not alone. they need to know how. that's what i hear from you, commissioner. okay, we get it. how do we go about changing the way the department is funded. we have very specific budget instructions. we are following our budget instructions. the real discussion happens, it happens with supervisors in their offices, ideally, if you wait until the budget hearings, that's almost too late. it happens when the public weighs in their elected officials, whether it's your mayor or your supervisor. letting them know how you feel.

the commission also has the ability to weigh in as appointees of the mayor and representing your city. i have the ability to have those conversations as well. i would say that some conversations are better had outside of the public in terms of one-on-one in meetings. some of them are better had in court of public opinion. i want to acknowledge what our speakers acknowledged that this is a particularly tough time for the general fund. general fund departments were asked this year to make significant cuts. so much that we are worried about our work orders. we don't have any indication that any one of them is very much in play or we would have brought that to you.

we can't guarantee that until we see all the names. all of the numbers. i'm also intrigued by the service one of the speakers to say, what would it cost? what would it cost? if you were going to really fund the department of environment to lead on this what does that number look like? what does that number look like for a city who wants to meet a 2030 goal? that is not -- that's not something i'll get done by the next commission meeting. it is, however, a really fair question. one we don't own the answer to it, we will never plan for it in future. i do think that kind of intellectual honesty is something that i can commit to trying to pull together, that some of those numbers -- there's what does it take for the

department of environment? i would love to not be spending all our time writing grants and begging other city agencies for money. not a new state of affairs. if i can get some -- if we collective can find ways of getting this prioritized, that's how democracy works. i don't know commissioner ahn, that's best as i can give you tonight. >> president stephenson: commiss ioner sullivan? >> commissioner sullivan: thank you. i want to say i salute the callers who called in tonight and especially the one who expressed alarm and dread because i share the alarm and the dread. we're all reading the same reports from scientists about how it's worse than we thought. we don't have until 2050.

we're going to hit 22 degrees. it is alarming. we can't as a non-general fund department, we can't create revv revenue out of thin air. i do think we should get general fund support. i think maybe that's a solution in the medium or long-term if we want to do more, we need to find the funding. until then, we got to do what we can with the resources we have. i salute the callers. i hope 2 keep calling in and express comments and do it before board of supervisorses and other places around the city

>> commissioner chu: there's a small part of me that's so proud of this department being able to be self-sustaining. i think the comments of tonight have forced us to basically take a step back and really elevate to a higher altitude where i really love the question, what could we do if we had more. i'm sure that's not a question that is welcomed all the time at budget meetings when it comes to different departments asking for different things and needing to be working within the constraints of everybody as a whole. i hear that at the same time, going back to commissioner stephenson's comment about the biden administration. i do think that this t if any

time it will be now to think bigger and i do think san francisco as a city supports these causes much more than many other cities in this country. i think we have a responsibility to lead the way. i know there's a lot of local government experienced folks within the biden administration who will empathize with the need of cities and mayors. if any time, it will be now. >> commissioner wald: thank you. i too want to thank members of the public who came tonight and

who spoke so eloquently and movingly about the crises that we all face. i want to thank debbie, our director for her response to those comments in particularly for her acknowledgement that question how much it will cost to do what the board and the mayor has instructed us to do. has put san francisco on the record saying that we will do is really critical. i thanked a specific person who raised that point. i hope that, debbie, will you do the best you can and quickly as you can to give some concrete --

[indiscernible] maybe talk to other departments as well because as we've said so many times in the past, this is not something that we can do ourselves. we need the partnership and the help and assistance of many other departments. but if we are going to get to where we say we want to do, where i know every person on this commission and every person in the department want this to be, i think, it is way past time that we started being honest and frank about what it will take. maybe it's a range, maybe there are options, maybe they relate to the deadline. let's do this for the board and

or the residents of san francisco. thank you. >> i want to add one thing that i didn't make. as well as others, the general fund is one source of funding. maybe there are others. one of the speakers talked about a price on carbon. one of the things i have been working on is trying to understand what the different options are for a city like san francisco to raise funds separate from the general fund to help on our climate work i have been reaching out to networks and to legal foundations to try to get some

assistance. this is sort of that catch 22. i don't have money to pay somebody to do that study for me. i'm looking for donations from carbon alliance or university of california, who will do the assessment to him city of san francisco that does have political will to raise revenue to pay for these things. if we keep going back to the general fund, we're going to be competing with every other important thing that the general fund funds. years like this year, where we got an incredible pressure on the general fund to respond to our pandemic needs, we're going to be fighting all the time. we need to find a way to have revenue that is related to and helps us solve our climate problems that doesn't put us in

arm wrestle with everyone else. i don't know what those are. i want to learn about them so i can bring something that is well thought out to the mayor's office before i just spout off with ideas. i wanted to let you know. in terms of shovel ready projects and being ready for stimulus money, we've put together documents, we've shared with the mayor's office and state of california to make sure we're all on the same page with the federal government. we're ready to move if the money is there. >> president stephenson: i still see ocommissioners with their hand raised. do you want to speak again? few things, first is joe, thank you so much. i know this is a huge lift every year. i really appreciate the work

that everyone in the department has done towards this budget and towards taking the instructions that we have moving forward. i'm compelled by the idea of putting together a plan for what would we do if. this is our moon shot that has to happen. i think that putting the department and this commission type of on notice that this is an important thing that we want to work toward and sooner rather than later, that makes a lot of sense. i'd be interested in learning what that study would cost, debbie. maybe this is a thing where public speakers as you are out there talking to your supervisors and asking for allocations, that's important. i think for the purposes, my read on the purposes of approving this budget, we have to keep the wheels on the bus moving it forward and keep the

budget process going forward now. trying to go get general fund money. i've been hearing the budget for 11 years now. that whole process is a whole different ball of wax. i think that we should approve this budget and move it forward with a sense of urgency around the concerns raised by the public and the apps they put forward. they were very thoughtful and important. that's my take on it. >> what does that mean? does it mean we need to -- in addition to approving, does that mean we need to ask that the budget submission be accompanied by a letter?

i think it doesn't mean that. [laughter] >> president stephenson: what i'm hearing, we can't pull this off before the next commission meeting. we can't have a whole plan in place. may be -- >> maybe urgency. how do we say we've done what you told us but, on the other hand, you must understand that we cannot do neither of the department nor the city can do what you have otherwise asked us to do.

you got to come to grips with that probably sooner rather than later. it would be a very short letter. is that something that we should think tonight about doing? >> president stephenson: i'm open to that. debbie i'm interested in europe approach and what your thoughts are on that >> yeah, i think the commission -- i think you said it very well. the commission agrees that it's a thoughtful budget. it's a budget that meets the instructions that was given to the department. as the people who are fiscally responsible to make sure that the department goes forward, it meets with your criteria and you have concerns that this is a time of great urgency and you wanted to signal this concern

and understand the context with which you're delivering it and yet, you will be remised if you did not as commission on the environment puts this concern forward and hope to elevate it to discussions. i think that will be absolutely appropriate and frankly i don't know it would surprise anyone. i think it would be perfect. you're not going to -- the tone will be respectful. >> commissioner sullivan: i think that's an excellent idea. commissioner wald suggestion. i think we should tie it to the climate emergency. we are in a climate emergency. it's the most important emergency that we have at any level. i think if we tie it to that, it

will even be more useful. >> president stephenson: in terms of a process question, do we vote to approve the budget with some sort of an amendment to the motion that says that we want to send it along with a letter? do we do this letter as a separate? we have to tie it to an action time. somebody needs to move to send a letter along with our approval? is that correct? >> that is correct. what will be appropriate is like you suggested, tie this to the action item and the part about writing a letter to the authority, summarizing the comments that were made today and that will be submitted or transmitted to the mayor's

budget office which is where we're sending our budget. >> president stephenson: commiss ioner wald do you want to make a motion to draft me the power to write a letter? >> commissioner wald: i so moved. >> i second that. >> president stephenson: moved by commissioner wald, seconded by commissioner bermejo, do we vote on the amendment first and then the full? i think we vote on this motion and then we vote on the full.

>> yeah, i think that would make sense. we need a vote to move the budget forward and as part of that, a vote to send a letter. we just take them separately. that should be fine. >> president stephenson: great. let's do roll call vote on the letter amendment and we should vote on the commission approving the budget. >> clerk: i'll call the roll call vote on the amendment with the letter. [roll call vote]

>> president stephenson: all right. the motion passes. let's move on to roll call vote for the approval of the budget. [roll call vote] >> president stephenson: all right. the motion passes. thank you. thank you again to the public for your thoughtful comments. thanks joe, as always. >> clerk: we will move on to our next item. which is item 8, refer and vote on whether to approve commission on the environment 2020 annual report. the speaker is charles sheahan and chief policy and public affairs officer.

this item is before discussion and possible action. >> thank you commissioners. as you know, we do this every year. as i was reminded by commissioner wald, first time we did it in 2019, my first annual report. we have to do this because it's a requirement. there's an ordinance saying that commissions has to produce standard reports. that's first and foremost the main reason why we do it. i think it's a good look back at the year that has passed and in december, when we're putting together the year that succumb. it's nice to sow where we've been which helps us guide where we should go next.

as you know -- 2020 was a challenging year. the process put together the annual report to share with was a little more rigorous than usually is. i want to call out our prime author who's with us today. our graphic designer, mark nicholas, commissioner wald who always offers to do proof rate oh reading for us. thank you. our artist and resident and commissioner for the department of environment, commissioner ahn who provided artwork for this year as well. thank you for your contributions. i will quickly stroll through the annual report very quickly. you see the first page --

standard from year-to-year, you will see our mission statement on this page. the letter from the commission president again, a standard item that we include in the report. again, here is the appointment or reappointment section. last year we had a wave of appointments and reappointments. in year we only have one, commissioner bermejo. this is where we get to our commission highlight section and there are multiple sections within the section.

it's kind of nice to see what we hope to get back to by looking back at the past. continuing on with commission highlights. i want to point out what's important to note, this commission along with other commissions, went virtual. you'll see that in the picture on the left hand side of the page. going virtual. many commissions did it differently. we used webex, some used teams. we found our path to make sure that we once again can bring in the public. talk about our ongoing racial equity work.

we mentioned the legislation that the commission weighed in on with the board of supervisors. here we spotlighted commission ahn, commissioner wan for installing the system. that was our first i believe last environmental service award for the year. i'm excited in 2021 that we're going to be reach our debt program. i believe this page and potentially the next page if you want to go to that, katie with the legislative summary. all the items that the commissions asked and the final

pages, the end of the document looks like. again, thank you to all those that put this together. i'll take any questions or comments now if you have them. >> president stephenson: that looks great, charles. the artwork is good. commissioners, any comments or questions? >> commissioner bermejo: i want to say, it certainly captures what 2020 and three quarters that year was all about. the resiliency of the commission and how we continue the work despite all the challenges and everything happening. thank you for all the artwork that went into that. >> president stephenson: can i get a motion to approve the

annual report? >> so moved about. >> president stephenson: second? >> second. >> president stephenson: moved and seconded. we can open up to public comment please. >> clerk: instructions for making public comment on it item. this was the commission annual report for 2020. you will have three minutes to make your comments. please remember to press star 3 to be added. i'm not seeing any callers in our queue. we'll pause for a few seconds.

i'm not seeing any callers in the queue. >> president stephenson: let's move to roll call vote please. [roll call vote] >> president stephenson: all right the motion passes. thank you so much to all the staff for all the time that went into that next item please. >> clerk: item 9 director's report, speaker is deborah raphael, explanthe document report. >> director's report is my time to highlight a few things that are of note even in the past or

what's coming up. since our last commission meeting, lot of has happened that i think president stephenson outlined lot of that in her opening remarks. because of the change in administration, it's time to put up on 90 of -- notice to kick off the new year. we have have been putting together lists for our state delegation for our federal delegation and own internal with partners. figuring out what would we like to see from the biden-harris administration to move us forward. as we've been thinking what we would use and how we'll be ready for stimulus money, it's the perfect time to launch our climate action plan. you heard a lot about that in the public comment tonight about not only the climate action plan

which is adopted by the mayor. chapter 9 of the environment code which is adapted about the board of supervisors and the mayor that codifies the goals at requirement of individual city departments. as we embark on both of those efforts, we are embarking on an extensive public engagement process. two weeks ago we launched that. mayor london breed was our kickoff speaker. she was phenomenal. especially when she speaks about what is near and dear to her heart. you can tell that for her, it's about housing that we cannot separate the need for climate action from the need of housing. that's land use, transportation, land use, housing, these are all part of a truly equitable and impactful climate action approach.

the focus on equity on public health and job and these are looking to our community for help figuring out how we do those things we need to do. we're going to be putting together nine virtual workshops. we've already done couple of them. i know that some of you will be leading those workshops. thank you very much for lending your support and your expertise to those conversations. we hope that you'll also reach out to your networks to get people to the workshops. if katie will be happy to send out a reminder of when the workshops are, so you can help us spread the word, that will be really wonderful. since we last had a commission meeting, the biggest thing -- one of the major things we've done, we had a regulation process for the environmental preferrable purchasing program.

but the last time we did this was 2013. what it does, it signals to the marketplace where we're going to be looking at the next product categories for environmentally preferrable purchasing options. therefore, vendors industry get ready because we're going to put out speck and we'll see who's able to meet our specifications. those categories were furniture, paints and primers, adhesives. they are huge in terms of their national impact. what happens is, our specification in san francisco often get used and picked up by programs all across the country and even the world in some cases. when we define what an environmental preferrable carpet was, you better believe all the manufactures paid attention.

they knew at greenville or wherever else people talked about sustainable materialings, -- material, they'd to be talking about this.

last thing that happened, thank you, thank them. it was amazing teamwork. last thing that happened was, of course, that we submitted our racial equity action plan for our internally focused phase one. we are right now meeting to go over the commitments for 2021. doing our budget analysis of what kind of resources we're going to need to implement. i look forward to bringing that back to operations committee until we have specifications on- specifics what we need to do.

that is my director's report. >> president stephenson: thank you so much. commissioners any comments or questions for debbie? >> commissioner bermejo: i want to say, thank you, debbie for all the work. it's just a testament to everything that happens when most people think everybody is standing in place and the work of the commission continues. thank you to you and the team and the amazing people that make it happen. >> president stephenson: there's no more commissioner comment. let's open up to the public please. >> clerk: you will have three minutes to make your comment and i do see that we have one caller in the queue.

>> david pilpel again. i want to say thank you for including personnel or staff changes in the director's report. as i asked for last time. hope top continue to see that in the future so we can see all the comings and goings. people aren't going anywhere, but to the extent that they do, it's good to see that reflected in the director's report. thank you very much. >> clerk: thank you for your comment. i'm not seeing any other callers in the queue. >> president stephenson: next item please. >> clerk: we'll move on to item 10, nomination and election of the commission on environment of president and vice president. this is discussion and possible action.

are >> president stephenson: are there any nominations of president to the commission? >> yes, it is my honor to mom nature commissioner heather 17son as president of the commission. any time we have a national leader who believes in science, that's a wonderful thing. with that, it is my honor to heather stephenson to be president of the commission of the environment. >> president stephenson: ty accept your nomination. i would love another crack at

it. i feel like, little hijacked. i very much be honored to serve as president again. is there a second to the nomination? >> second. >> [indiscernible] >> president stephenson: any other nominations? i believe do we open up public comment? >> clerk: open for public comment before we take the vote for the nomination for president. i will share the instructions. we have one caller in the queue.

i will start the timer and unmute our caller now. >> this is chris. thank you all for your service over the past year and going forward. i want to recognize the contributions particularly of commissioners ahn and commissioner wald. i think they've been absolutely stellar with regards to this gas band. it was commissioner wald idea to send a letter to the board of supervisors. commissioner ahn has been really interested in getting the tax on the budget. one more thing, i want to thank commissioner wald for pushing this consumption event report forward. i'm looking forward to this being discussed at your subcommittee at this committee as well as the land use

committee. thank you so much. >> thank you for your comment. >> president stephenson: i'm seeing no additional callers in the queue. let's move to roll call vote. [roll call vote] >> president stephenson: thank you. i very much appreciate your support. i really do. next item please. >> clerk: we will need a nomination and vote for vice president as well. >> president stephenson: it's

still the same item. all right. nominations for vice president. commissioner wan. >> commissioner wan: it's by great pleasure to nominate commissioner ahn to continue to be the vice president for another term. he's one of the committee advocates i can work with that's dedicated and committed to climate change and also all the policies. i learn a lot from him. i think he's been great asset to the policy committee and to the general commission. >> president stephenson: is there a second? >> commissioner wald: i second everything that commissioner wan said. every word that she said about eddie is true. i learned a lot from him. i'm in awe of his wide-ranging talent and everything he brings to the policy committee and the

commission as well as the wider world. i hope he'll say yes. >> vice president ahn: thank you for the nomination. i hope 2021 will be a better year. [laughter] >> commissioner wan: i don't know how commissioner ahn can be a great artist. [laughter] >> president stephenson: is there any public comment? >> clerk: i'm not seeing any commenters in the queue. we'll take a brief pause.

i'm not seeing any callers in the queue. >> president stephenson: let's take a vote then please. [roll call vote]. >> president stephenson: it passes. congratulations commissioner. all right, next item please.

>> clerk: item 11, committee reports. this item is for discussion. >> president stephenson: commiss ioner ahn. >> vice president ahn: last policy committee there was a presentation that examined chemicals and women firefighters and office workers. we heard personal stories from variety of staff members ranging from captain and previous director of d.h.r., nickey callahan this was a presentation from embodied carbon and buildings. that concludes my committee report. >> president stephenson: thank you. we had an operations committee meeting on january 11th. on january 11st was operations committee meeting virtually. we had presentations from department staff on the fiscal

2021 budget that we just saw as well as a more in-depth discussion about the move to the new office, 1155 market street. we had a presentation on -- reasonable distribution project that the department did with covid command center. they were able to provide the bags and provide materials for distributing covid materials through the command center by getting the grocery bags in the hand of the public at the same time. that's the end of my discussion. any public comment on this item? >> clerk: i will share the instructions up on the screen. comments should be relate to this agenda item, committee reports. you will have three minutes to

make your comments. i'm not seeing any callers in the queue. i'm not seeing any callers in the queue. >> president stephenson: next item please. >> clerk: item 12, announcements. this item is for discussion. >> president stephenson: are there any announcements? >> this is not an announcement. i know we don't vote on commission secretaries. i want to if charles is okay with this, thank katie

chancellor for her excellent work, guiding us through zoom calls and reminding us when we're on mute. she's done a great job since she joined us. >> president stephenson: i second that as well. thank you. >> me too. >> president stephenson: any other announcements? let's open up for public comment please. >> clerk: i'll share the instructions for making public comment on this item. i'm not seeing any callers in it queue. okay, i will unmute our first caller and start the timer now. >> i like to add some comment regarding the secretary's work. i really like to commend you on

-- that's something lot of secretaries don't do in other meetings. which is very frustrating. thank you very much for doing that. it's very helpful. however, when you put the announcements on the screen, you might take into consideration that some people might be visually impaired or some people might not be viewing it on sfgov tv. it might be helpful to also verbally say the instructions it for calling. verbally say it. otherwise, thank you very much for pausing and overall, i'm very impressed with how you run the meeting so far. that's pretty much all i have to

say. thank you. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. i'm not seeing any other additional callers in the queue. >> president stephenson: next item then. >> clerk: move on to item 13, new business, future agenda items. speaker is charles sheehan t chief policy public affairs officer. this item is for discussion. >> thank you commissioners. i will be brief. the next policy committee meeting is february 8th. next commission on the environment meeting is march 23rd. the next operations committee meeting is april 12, 2021. coming up for you, we've got couple of hot topics. one of them is the consumption inventory report which referenced numerous times tonight.

that will be appearing on february 8th. at full commission, we'll have a presentation from members of the brightline team. that was as referenced tonight. we'll have energy group and updates at that commission meeting as well. >> president stephenson: commiss ioners, any questions or requests for agenda items? is there any public comment on this? >> clerk: i will put the instructions back up on the screen. for anyone who like to comment on this item. which is new business. i'm not seeing any callers in the queue.

i don't see any callers in the queue. >> president stephenson: next item please. >> clerk: next item is 14, adjournment. with that the time is 7:40 p.m. thank you for joining us. >> president stephenson: thank you. >> thanks everyone. >> good night.

>> i'm san francisco mayor london breed. i'm so excite the to be here today to swear in the next assessor-recorder for the city and county of san francisco. joaquin torres. i want to say a few things about joaquin. i known him for so many years. we started off many years ago in city government in the mayor's office in neighborhood services, doing work to help support communities. he has really an incredible personality. he always focused on getting the job done for people who need it the most. it is not a surprise in he's been able to work his way up

into numerous positions that has helped steer the city in the right direction. let me just give you an example. when the san francisco housing authority was in trouble, we were having numerous challenges. the federal government threatened to intervene. joaquin torres was appointmented to serve on the commission. at that time, he became the president of the commission and he helped move us in a direction that has allowed for us to get investments to rehab 3400 units to get us off the red with the federal government and to get us back on track to support the families of the san francisco housing authority. it was very personal for me as someone who lived over 20 years of my life in public housing that we did something that didn't display the resident and that recognized that they needed to make sure that the.

conditions of public housing didn't continue down the wrong path. we appreciate his work. which was a volunteer job. not to mention his day job, when i became mayor, i appointed joaquin to be the director of the office of economic workforce development. i did it because my experience as a district supervisor and someone who worked in the community, he would always about the community. he could have sent staff members and his staff members were present and available. he was always on the ground facilitating conversation and making connections between what the community needed and what city hall needed to do to support them. his leadership style is really

what helped to not only look at some of the disparities and issues around equity that we were dealing in covid, he worked tirelessly to make sure that grant moneys were going to small businesses. he helped create the african-american resolving loan fund. he helped address lot of the disparities with the latino community when we saw surges of cases in that community and a need to provide financial support to a number of agencies including those small businesses. his understanding of finance, his understanding of how economic development works, his work with small businesses, big

businesses and all things san francisco, makes him just really the perfect candidate to be the next assessor-recorder for the city and county of san francisco. with that, i like to bring joaquin torres forward so i can swear him in and make it official. are you ready? >> okay. >> i, joaquin torres, do swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies foreign and domestic that i bear true faith and

allegiance to the same. that i take this obligation freely. without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties which i'm about to enter and during such time, as i serve as the assessor-recorder for it city and county of san francisco. congratulations. [applause] >> congratulations.

ladies and gentlemen, your assessor-recorder, joaquin torres, [applause]

>> thank you mayor breed. thank you very much. thank you to my family who was here with me today. to my mom, who's listening in from downtown south, to my two dads who i marry in this building to my sister, to my wife. to my aunt and uncle up north, to my friends aall of you who joining us online. the collection of billions of dollars, property tax dollars is essential to constantly and solvency of this city of san francisco. i'm honored, mayor breed, for the confidence you placed in me as i assume these responsibilities as the assessor-recorder for the city and county of san francisco.

all of these depend on the financial foundation built through the hard work of this office and that is a responsibility i take very seriously. in the western edition. you treated me with grace, with the respect and with bearing that told me you better do right.

from my grandfather, who has a butcher rose before work before dawn each day so he can buy a home for his family and help his three children become an artist, bilingual teacher and education leader and an amazing public servant. to my nana, who taught me the love of caring, that came in a file wrapped package that she packed for my flights back and forth between separated parents. to my grandmother, who has a

seamstress steadily towards the purchase of a beautiful home. to my father, who broke barriers for latino politicians at a time when being a mexican-american was a significant hurdle for leadership. to my mom, who after career writer and journalist taught me true courage meaning and strength. i'm very proud of my family my mexican-american family. a family of teachers, artist, writers, journalist, butchers, caretakers, cooks, seamstresses and soon to be lawyers for what they strive so achieve and what they continue to give back to

family and to society. i'm grateful for them raising me defined by resiliency and public service. i'm a very proud husband to an extraordinary artist. my wife, rebo who guide me through stresses of public service who shown what it means to be loved, to love to be wrong, to be compassionate and vulnerable. thank you for seeing me. thank you for seeing supporting my love for this work. i'm so fortunate to have these people in my life. who shaped my approach to public service, not all of us can be so lucky. not all of us can rest at night knowing that the love and care we hope for is part of successful life will be for us when we need it most.

it's that awareness and those values principles and ethics that my family has instilled in me, carried with me the toughest times through the hardest of life challenges. when i called out for help, not knowing if it existed for me, it was my family that heard my call. it's that care and our ethics that i work to infuse in my 11 years of public service to the city. they've given me the confidence and strength to know that every shred of my being that my community need to be listened to and heard. it's those values i will bring to this new role as assessor-recorder. these are the values we need always. but especially today, when people are hurting so badly, so deeply when they need to know there's a government caring for them with caring and doors open and not shut, a government that's accessible and be

accountable to you the people that we are proud to serve. i want to thank city administrator chu for her commitment to the professionals at the assessor-recorder's awesome. thank you for haig this -- makingthis transition a succl one. i joined a team of hard working and professionals that made carmen's vision for fair and efficient government, not only a reality but an envy of offices up and down the state. that's a legacy i'll strive to continue and excited to learn and work with all of you at the office to continue down that path. one of excellence, one of continuous improvement for the betterment of san francisco. to the team i part with today, the office of economic and workforce development, you have prepared me for this moment.

it's been long hard year for so many businesses and workers throughout this pandemic for the barbers, gyms, bars, the fears, the actors, the concessionaries, the tattoo artist and restaurants, hotel workers, janitors and office workers. nonprofits rising up and you all every single one of you rising up to meet these moments. to meet so many entrepreneurs determined to make it through this. for their workers, for themselves and for it city that they love. what you shown me, what all of you have taught me, those were the moral authority, those with the formal authority. the mayors, the assembly members, senators and controllers and supervisors, which you taught me once again is that there's always hope on the horizon. every storm eventually breaks

for the clear sky above. to the diverse communities that i serve with respect to gratitude during these 11 years of service, for the neighborhood leaders, coalitions of parity and equity for the public housing, merchant leaders, thank you for the confidence you placed in me. to serve you for many years more. to find new paths to build a better and more prosperous san francisco for all of us. i thank you mayor breed. all of you for your leadership and your trust. now i'm ready to go to work. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you all so much for joining us today. this concludes our program. stay safe and healthy. let's get our city open. [applause]

no obligation to engage in dialogue with the caller. state your name clearly. when your three minutes is up i will place you back on mute and unmute the next caller. channel 16 and sfgovtv are streaming the dial in number. opportunities to speak during the public comment are available via phone by dialing