Skip to main content

tv   Public Utilities Commission  SFGTV  December 31, 2021 9:00am-12:06pm PST

9:00 am
okay. >> president moran: please call the roll. [ roll call ] you have a quorum. >> president moran: thank you. before calling the first item, i like to announce that the san francisco public utilities commission acknowledges that storage of unseated lands located in the territory.
9:01 am
sfpuc recognizes every citizen residing within the greater bay area continues to benefit from the use and occupation of the waccamaw land. it's important that we we not only recognize the history of the tribal lands but also we acknowledge and honor the fact that the people of the established working partnership with the sfpuc and members within the many greater san francisco bay area communities today. please read the first item. >> clerk: before i read the first item, i like to announce due to ongoing covid-19 health emergency and given public health recommendation any emergency order that the governor and mayor restrictions
9:02 am
on teleconference. this meeting is televised via conference for those watching, there's a brief time lapse between live meeting and when it's viewed on sfgov tv. i like to extend our thanks to sfgov tv staff and sfpuc i.t. staff for their assistance during this meeting. if you wish to make public comment, dial (415)655-0001. meeting i.d. 146 290 6991 please note that you must limit your comments to topic of agenda item being discussed. we ask that the public comment be made in civil and public manner. please address to your remarks
9:03 am
to the commission as a whole. first item, adopt renewed findings under state urgency legislation to continue allow remote meetings for the next 30 >> president moran: commissioner s any comments or discussion? seeing none, please open up for public comment. >> clerk: members of the public who wish to make two minutes on public comment on item 3, dial (415)655-0001. meeting i.d. 146 290 6991 to raise your hand to speak, press star 3. >> we have one caller in the
9:04 am
queue. first caller, go ahead. hello caller? the caller has lowered their hand. >> clerk: public comment on item 3 is closed. >> president moran: any additional comments from commissioners? may i have a motion and a second? moved and seconded. roll call please. [roll call vote]
9:05 am
you have five ayes. >> president moran: the item passes. thank you. next item please. >> clerk: next item 4, approval of the minutes of november 23, 2021. >> president moran: any additional corrections on the minutes? seeing none, please open up for public comment. >> clerk: members of the public who wish to make two minutes on public comment on item 3, dial (415)655-0001. meeting i.d. 146 290 6991 to raise your hand to speak, press star 3. do we have any callers. >> there are no callers for the
9:06 am
minutes. >> clerk: public comment is closed. >> president moran: any further discussion? seeing none, motion and a second? motioned and seconded. roll call please. [roll call vote] you have five ayes. >> president moran: motion adopted. next item please. >> clerk: item 5, general public comment. members of the public who may address the commission on matters within the commission's jurisdiction and not on today's agenda by dialing (415)655-0001. meeting i.d. 146 290 6991 to raise your hand to speak, press star 3.
9:07 am
do we have any callers? >> there are four callers in the queue. caller number one. >> caller: i'm speaking on my own behalf. when voters passed the municipal bond in 2002, where they have voted for it if they knew at the end of the the program that the water quality will be worse. there are those who believe that voters would have rejected bond. in 1930s the all was used for
9:08 am
drinking water. despite this, as part of the p.u.c.'s water diversification program, hetch hetchy water has not been pretreated. blended water remains controversial. even without factorying in the possibility of salt water intrusion into the west side base aquifer. there was staff who stated that the p.u.c. is an ecochamber. i strongly urge the commission to revisit the blended water issue. thank you. >> next caller? >> caller: good afternoon president moran and
9:09 am
commissioners, this is peter drekmeier for the tuolumne river trust. it's been three years since the state water board adopted the bay-delta water control plan. it's been more than a year since you launched a series of fixed workshops focused on the tuolumne river. we have learned a lot of issues. some materials have been posted. you need a log-in. i'm hoping we can get a report
9:10 am
on that. we haven't seen any action and couple of years ago, we pointed out that the sfpuc can contribute its share of flow. i think there was interest from some of you on that. staff said, we could feed to -- need to get an agreement with the irrigation district. looks like we're going to lose another year. thank you. the tuolumne has nearly 500 salmons. stanislaus smaller river, historically fewer salmon has 11 times that many. why? 40% impaired flow in average year from the stanislaus, 21 on the tuolumne. please have the conversation about the design drought, your first meeting in january. thank you.
9:11 am
>> thank you, caller. next caller. >> caller: this is david pilpel. on item 5 general public comment, i wanted to take a moment as i mentioned couple of previous meetings to recognize those departing or retiring employees at the end of the year for their public service over many years. although we talk a lot about planning policy, infrastructure and operations, i can't emphasize enough the employees who do the work, day in and day out 24-7, delivering the water power and sewer services for the public. i wanted to take a moment to recognize them. thanks for listening.
9:12 am
>> thank you. last caller, i have unmuted your line. >> caller: commissioners, i have a number of things to bring to your attention. first thing is i appreciate very much when you open up the meeting and pay your respects to the muwakma maloney, it's important that you pronounce the name correctly. i did bring to the attention of the higher-ups about the death of a security officer 80 years
9:13 am
old. i was an immigrant. i thank the management to pay attention to safety issues. 80-year-oldman patrolling, car hit him and he died. let's make amends. finally, i was reading this report from the san francisco environment on climate change, i would like to the san francisco public utilities commission to give us real data on the leaking pipes. if you address the leaking pipes
9:14 am
and millions of gallons leaking, we can conserve lot of water. thank you very much. >> thank you. the queue is clear. >> clerk: item 5 general public comment is closed. >> president moran: thank you. commissioner harrington? >> commissioner harrington: can somebody information about someone dying on our property? what that is about? >> commissioner harrington, this was a contractor who did not die on our property. security contractor who was off property immediately adjacent to our property that was hit by a
9:15 am
car and passed away. >> commissioner harrington: than k you. >> that happened about ten days ago. >> president moran: couple of items that came up -- the vulnerability study have been posted. if that's the case, other commissioners and i would like to have that link and made to the available. i believe we have scheduled a discussion of the design drought for early next year. i don't believe it's the first meeting. dennis, can you tell us what the
9:16 am
schedule is for that? >> we'll get that to you, yes. >> president moran: thank you. commissioners, any other comments? public comments is closed. next item please. >> clerk: item 6, >> president moran: commissioner s any questions or discussion on communications? commissioner harrington? >> commissioner harrington: on item 6d, lot of work gose into alternative water supply. we spent lot of time doing the report it tend to be 58 pages. at least half or more seem to be duplicate. it will be great if we can figure out some way to give
9:17 am
executive summary or front page like we've been doing with other reports that can point out what the highlights are and what the new things are so we can concentrate on those. that will be very helpful. >> okay, it will be done, commissioner. >> president moran: vice president ajami. >> vice president ajami: i think it's valuable. i want to thank the staff for your hard work to make this happen. >> president moran: thank you. any other comments?
9:18 am
i have comment on the alternative water supply program. there's a lot of material in there. i know there was some attempt to highlight literally to put in bold things that have changed. we need a better version of that. i would like, no later than the next quarter to schedule as a regular agenda item so we can have extended discussion on it, i think there's a lot of issues we need to discuss. couple of things that are on my mind. one is, i'm not sure that the program is ambitious enough by its own terms. it sets an objective of meeting that include the delta plan.
9:19 am
there was all of the identified projects in the plan we don't meet that level. by its own terms, it fails to meet objectives. it results in the circumstance where every identified program is something that we would assume we would do because we have no other options. i think we need to have more options so we can have a discussion about what are the characteristics of these supplies that we value? do we need to lesson our dependents the tuolumne? do we need to have a water supply that has a different wet year, dry year characteristic. it's kind of like balancing your investment portfolio between stocks and bonds. right now we don't have enough choices that we can make that decision. going in the other direction, the balancing of it seems to be
9:20 am
driven by demand projections. we had some discussion that we may need to reorient our thinking away from demand projections and to more active approach instead and setting demand targets. it's a more active approach. we seek to drive demands to some different level. those are examples of kinds of things i have in mind. i think there's more material there. it's a very -- it's a long and rich report. i think the staff has developed that over time. each one gets better. i think it's high time that we have a discussion at the commission level about the contents and the assumptions behind that. >> vice president ajami: i want to go back to your comment on demand projection versus demand target. may be we don't want to have a
9:21 am
demand target. we have to have a better and more accurate projections which is more grounded into the drivers of demand. for example, one thing that is quick to impact demand is all sort of water cycle programs that are going online in various scales. eventually, that will change water demand portfolio. it is important to account for that, for example. in addition to the conservation efficiency programs that we have putting in place. i would say may be not having a target but having a better projections would be a more sort of strategic path forward.
9:22 am
>> president moran: commissioner paulson? >> commissioner paulson: again, i do want to say that i'm very proud that i sit on a commission that has the amount of talent on it when it comes to actual policy issues that we're talking about. i want to make sure that i know that i'm sitting on a commission, not a think tank. i'm going to reiterate the pieces of intelligence that come from the tremendous staff that we have. in terms of the alternate water supplies athe resources. we are getting better and better reports and it's really
9:23 am
important. i'm sitting here as a commissioner who's making decisions on policy and advice is always important. i want to make sure that i'm clear about the distinction between sitting on a commission versus the ivory tower. thank you. >> commissioner harrington: i'm hearing lot of good suggestions. may be some time in january come back with a plan for three months out or six months out, the design drought, the river, flooding and resilience in the city. there's so many meaty topics. it will give us an idea when to be there. that might be helpful. >> i've already given direction as we've gotten in this first month about scheduling out,
9:24 am
getting in advance thing. i can give you heads up on from big policy discussions. we're going to be scheduling that in a forward-thinking way come 2022. >> president moran: also helpful to identify the decisions in flow from that. there are some. so we can -- discussion with a purpose. that should be part of our thinking as we look to the first part of the coming year. anything else on communications? seeing none, please open this for public comment. >> clerk: members of the public who wish to make two minute on public comment on item 6, communications, dial (415)655-0001, meeting i.d.
9:25 am
146 290 6991 to raise your hand to speak, press star 3. >> there are three callers in the queue. >> caller: hello given this is peter drekmeier tuolumne river trust. i notice it has demands for fiscal year 2020 and 2021 which is lower than last year. very positive. water supply development water report coming up has it 193.
9:26 am
they are pretty close, not quite matched. i wanted to note in the alternative water supply program report, there's talk about ground water banking. it says, feasibility study is an option including in the tuolumne river voluntary agreement. the progress on the potential water supply option will depend on the negotiations of voluntary agreement. which makes it sound conditional. if the voluntary agreement is adopted, then there will be a look at ground water banking. it seems to me the real priority has a lot of potential and regardless, sfpuc should look into that. the comment deadline on the ground water sustainability for the modesto turlock subbasin is tomorrow the 15th. i don't know if san francisco p.u.c. has commented.
9:27 am
that would be a great opportunity to express interest and collaboration. thank you, i appreciate the 30 second warning. that's helpful. we pay 100 times more for water than farmers in stanislaus county. thank you. >> next caller. you have two minutes. >> caller: this is david pilpel again. are we still on item 6? >> clerk: yes. >> caller: okay. the phone bridge connection dropped for a few minutes. i missed some of the commissioner discussion. i'm not sure who to alert when that happens. i had a brief comment in relation to item 6b, the
9:28 am
contract advertisement report. that jogged my interest in a narrative report or presentation on p.u.c.'s real estate issues in the southeast corner of the city including 1550 evans, future use of the newcombe property. i think there's a lot happening there. i'm sorry, bayview plaza. there's lots over there. it will be useful to have narrative report and presentation on where all of those property issues are going and what the current thinking is on that. i would encourage you to ask for
9:29 am
that or schedule that as some point. >> thank you. there are in other callers in the queue. >> clerk: in response to mr. pilpel, the phone bridge briefly dropped. we brought that back up quickly. we were aware of that. thank you for bringing that to our attention. >> president moran: next item please. >> clerk: item 7 the water supply development report. >> good afternoon, this is steve ritchie assistant general management for water. this is the water supply development report. this is a report we produce annually. the primary issue of this report status of making san jose santa clara permanent customers.
9:30 am
first is a bit of background. san jose and santa clara requested to become temporary customers around 1970. the rest of the customers were well established already. there was litigation in the mid-'70s that resulted in settlement in the mid-'80s. san jose and santa clara were not included within the supply assurance at that time as they were temporary customers. that was an opportunity where they would have been made permanent but they were not. fast forward, the 2009 water supply agreement provided for san francisco to make a decision regarding permanent status for san jose and santa clara by 2018 or to issue a conditional
9:31 am
10-year notice of interruption or reduction in supply of water to the cities. we've been introducing the annual water supply development report since then. as noted, we continue to recommend that no such notice be given to them because demands are low enough. it's not an issue. the 2018 amendments to the water supply agreement extended this date to 2028 because of the decision was not ripe in 2018. for the last year or so, we have been meeting with staff with two cities. with that i'll be happy to answer any additional questions. >> president moran: thank you, any questions for steve before
9:32 am
we go on to the presentations? seeing none. steve, you can introduce each of the presenters. >> the first gary welling, relating city of santa clara. take it away. >> thank you. please bring up my presentation. i want to talk a bit about city of santa clara. little bit of background. our city is 130,000 population daytime population is about 250,000.
9:33 am
we've been sfpuc customer since 1974. we appreciate the collaboration and coordination with sfpuc and bawsca. we have three important connections two from sfpuc and one from valley water.
9:34 am
recycled water is an important component. we're proud of our system that we have and number of users that we put together on this. we offset about 90%. we have city code that requires the use of recycled water for new development. we are in the process of updating that new development to define uses and also retrofitting opportunities. we have industrial cooling, number of data centers, 15 in number in the pipeline.
9:35 am
we also have our own power utility in santa clara. 50% of our city parks are irrigated in recycled water. city conservation outreach, we're one of the cities to declare drought in july 12, 2021. we implemented water shortage plan. our residential is 58.9 for november it was 52.4. october numbers, we had 15.9% compared to 2009 as of november, we're 20.3 reduction. about 27% reduction for november compared with 2013. we issued water smart reports to residential customers. we have save our water drought
9:36 am
conservation tool landscape ordinance implemented in 2016. we're in the process of updating that.
9:37 am
we continues collaboration that's been really nice to see with sfpuc staff and with commitment to make santa clara a customer. that's all i have. i appreciate the time. i'm available for any questions. thank you. >> president moran: thank you very much. commissioners, any questions for gary? >> next speaker is from the city of san jose. he was charge in water resourcers if the city of san
9:38 am
jose. please proceed. >> thank you. my video has been stopped. good afternoon president moran and commissioners. i'm deputy director water resource division with the city of san jose. i'm responsible for both south bay water recycling and san jose municipal water system. this map portrays where all the water retailers serving san jose and few of the surrounding cities. in blue municipal water systems including north san jose. that really cool animation there, the purpose of that and this supplied is -- this slide is to demonstrate that it's
9:39 am
relatively small compared to the whole. when we're talking about collaborating with sfpuc, we're talking about this small and very parent of our san jose community. to provide water to north san jose, constructed by san francisco, with continuous water service delivery sense. as water agencies we have many shared interest that you can see a few listed here. providing a space and reliable water supply but also there's others such as affordability,
9:40 am
supporting the environment, adapting to change in climate and its impact on water for people and social equity. we have several other programs that you may find interesting. we have few of them here listed. one society -- one is south bay water recycle. our annual water delivery on recycled side is 13,000-acre feet a year. in north san jose the area where we purchased water and serve our customers from san francisco about 1100 acres a year. or about 20% of our water usage in that area. recycled quarter in north san jose will continue to be an important water supply component
9:41 am
for us. due to small scale, they are often deemed cost prohibitive. our intent here is to look at harnessing some of the alternate water supplies. one of the prohibiting factors has been what you do do with this water once you collect it. we have the advantage of a regional, distribution system south bay water recycling to take advantage of these
9:42 am
non-portable supplies. another one we're doing is welo update. the goal is to decrease water usage, support the transition nightive landscape, reduce urban heat island effect, increase energy and support carbon sequestering. we're expecting to bring forward recommendation to our council in the march time frame. next year. last, water conservation, water conservation and will continue to be an extremely important components for us going forward. currently we have two day a week watering limit in variety of outreach, to support continued flux -- production portable
9:43 am
water. as a water retailer, a total of all our service area, our total retailer gcpd is in in the 70s. north san jose area is very low. some of the reasons for that are both the outreach and the community involvement on conserving water but also the majority of the residential units there are multifamily and mobile home parks. we're kind of short on time. san jose has a climate change resiliency program called climate smart san jose. one of the identifiable ways reducing greenhouse gas emission and to conserve water. our goal to reduce residential gcpd by the year 2030. that will be a city wide objective. we are encouraged by your progress made over the past year
9:44 am
in evaluating water supply projects. we'll continue to collaborate with your staff on permanent water supplies and when you're reviewing the water supply development report, we ask that the commission consider expediting affordable, equitable water supply and include us as you go in our. thank you for the opportunity to speak today. we are their to answer any questions. >> president moran: thank you both for your presentations. commissioner, any questions? i have a couple. the amount of water that is
9:45 am
currently being provided to the customers, that is how much? >> the current demands is something less than 4.5 m.g.d. that was the original request. we've been working around the demands of 9 total. the combined is closer to 5. >> president moran: that's amount of water that's been growing overtime but providing almost 50 years? >> yes. >> president moran: what actually changes if they were to be granted permanent status? >> well, the one issue is the
9:46 am
supply assurance which i think they like the regional water system, they are not part of the supply assurance that would have to be agreed to by the rest of the customers. than will be a challenge. we're looking at are there alternative supplies that can be provided that san jose and santa clara would pay for, in particular in dry years. we talked about different possibilities with the two entities and some version of recycled water. >> president moran: in termingss -- in terms of the water budget, i think nothing would change to that water budget if they were
9:47 am
to be made permanent? >> currently it would not. i have to throw in this minor anecdote, when we first started to meet with the cities, was two days after the state water board released its october 2016 draft as a bay-delta plan. it put a big question mark on the first meeting. gary may have attended that meeting with santa clara. we thought we were playing in one forum, now we have to shift gears little bit. that's been bit of uncertainty hanging out there. >> president moran: as i read the memo that was distributed, stated that the goal is meeting the 184 interim supply
9:48 am
limitation and developing additional water sprays that will allow the interruptible customers to become permanent. i guess in the alternate water supply report, it talked about how the planning phase was intended to conclude by it was end of june next year. which was in time for any work to be done around making the interoperable's permanent. in order for us to consider making the interoperables permanent, do we have in mind the amount of water that needs to be identified in order to make that feasible? >> from the get go, we have been working towards the 9 million
9:49 am
gals per day. both santa clara and san jose based on future projections were looking at larger numbers than that. that does raise the question what we started to raise in the last version in the alternative water supply report. we should plan for actual demands while -- excuse me, we should build for actual demands while we're planning for our obligations and 184, at this point, falls in the obligation category. there we face the question of how real is that in light of the various other issues we have to deal with out there and supply
9:50 am
for santa clara and san jose will be independent of the regional water system supply. >> president moran: that gets to my question. the memo talks about the supply assurance of 184 plus 9 additional supply for the interoperables that comes up to 193 m.g.d. it seems there's a disconnect there. if we have an objective of reaching a supply of 193m.g.d. before we can make them permanent, demand is so much less than that, there seems there's a disconnect.
9:51 am
i'm wondering, did i get that wrong or what is your thinking about that? >> that is something that we've started to come to grips with. harking back to why the 2018 date was originally chosen here was the projections at that time were that the total system demand would be 265 m.g.d. which did not play out. when we extended the date for 10 years, it was knowing that there was not immediate pressure to meet all those demands and it gave us time to think through those kind of questions about where are we here. frankly, i think that's a conundrum to deal with if we have the supply assurance of
9:52 am
184 million gallons a day and demands is not there and how we deal with that issue. >> president moran: the idea building facilities when we have unused capacity and the existing system will seem to present the ceqa problem. i would hope that doesn't -- that's not the subjective or the thresholds we're trying to clear >> i think it's the building for real demands and planning for obligations. i think all of the customers, not just the commission and san francisco customers but all the customers don't want us to over build if the demands aren't really there. that kind of puts a new light on what does the supply assurance
9:53 am
means relative to all the supplies. there's also balance the with the rhna numbers. >> vice president ajami: thank you for all your questions. a follow-up to that, i want to thank gary and jeff for their presentations. follow-up to that, steve, would be are there any other opportunities that they can create some form of trading or formal trading with some of the existing customers that have not been using their whole entire obligation or the amount of water being obligated to provide them. is there a way that they can collaborative other supplies together? are there other alternatives in
9:54 am
this process? >> developing additional water supplies is something has been contemplated. i think the issue of the supply assurance that individual supply guarantees can be traded among people. that can be traded among people who have the 184. outside the 184 would require all the customers to agree they will be added to the supply
9:55 am
assurance. >> vice president ajami: if it's two different utilities, that should work? >> if it's talking about a different supply, if it's talking about within the 184, it has to be something else. some of the projects we're looking at involves other wholesale customers. those are for additional supplies. those could fit in the possibility of making something work. you get into the question who's paying for it. >> vice president ajami: obvious ly, you are facing multiple challenges when it's our obligation based on the issues you're having at the state board, statewide discussions you're having. the second is obligation towards
9:56 am
different, the wholesale customer and then also our alternative water supply portfolio that you're looking into. i wonder if this is something that can be done in a more creative way that can provide resources for some of the utilities that don't have the resources to invest in some solution locally and potentially they can transfer some of those additional supplies. >> once you get into reducing i.s.g.s and individual supply
9:57 am
guarantees, i think that's where you get into the issues of everybody needing to agree with it. if it's something outside of that, i think there's some creative opportunity there that we would consider. >> vice president ajami: even though it might be more complicated from the policy perspective and little bit messier, it might be smoother path forward. >> it might ultimately be. none of these decisions will be easy. i think that's the supply
9:58 am
assurances kind of core thing that we have to deal with or not deal with. think that's a big question. getting all customers to agree on something does prove challenging from time to time. >> vice president ajami: thank you. >> commissioner harrington: stev e, i don't envy you. [ laughter ] we kick the can down the road. it really was all those different issues about current customers. i'm glad that we're trying to deal with this now. i'm a little confused on the amount we trying to solve for. we originally said we worked with nine million gallons forever. then you said 5m.g.d.
9:59 am
the 9 m.g.d. was the beginning of the discussion. both san jose and santa clara requested additional supply assurance of their own for future planning purposes. santa clara was relatively small. san jose is relatively large. combined it's potentially up to 15 million gallons per day if all of their future needs could be met. we signed up for 9 that we hadn't signed up more beyond
10:00 am
that. >> i think we need to do more work on what do we do when there's this large gap between current demand and the 184. i think there needs to be a clear statement as to how we view that. that's not going to be easy to come up with that, there are
10:01 am
lots of different ways to look at that. in terms of what i would consider some very promising opportunities, would have to do with potentially directing and reuse projects which have their own set of issues that make them a bit challenging particularly on the direct front. there are no recollection -- regulations now. those will be attractive options. it's breaking new ground. valley water is pushing in that direction. we are pushing in that direction various ways. those projects should not be viewed as a slam dunk. certainly, i think in california, we have to be serious about that. i think that's something that's important to consider. we need to -- i'll be doing this with projects that san jose and
10:02 am
santa clara would find it affordable. those are some of the issues that are there. >> president moran: let me ask them both, if they have any
10:03 am
additional comments? >> i appreciate the discussion. great discussion, very good comments. we would like to have the ability to transfer within the 184. i appreciate the discussion, time and attention being paid to this. much appreciate it. thank you. >> thank you for the time and discussion. everything that mr. ritchie mentioned that we're aware of and the challenges that you face. we look forward to working with you as you go through this. we though there's not an issue conversation. there's lot of different aspects together as we go through it.
10:04 am
looking forward to further collaboration. >> president moran: thank you. without any further discussion by the commission, why don't we open up for public comment. i would expect bawsca will have some comments as well. they are the other party to this has a great deal of interest as well. >> clerk: members of the public who wish to make two minutes public comment on item 7, water supply development report, dial (415)655-0001. meeting i.d. 146 290 6991 to raise your hand to speak press star 3.
10:05 am
do we have any callers? >> there's one caller in the queue. >> caller: i've been with the coalition san francisco neighborhoods. give the water to the salmon, not the silicon valley growth machine. i strongly oppose making san jose and santa clara water customers. humans need to share water with nature. >> thank you for your comments. there are no other callers with their hands raised. >> clerk: thank you. public comment on item 7 is closed. >> president moran: commissioner harrington? >> commissioner harrington: it's interesting that we don't go away. the first contract was
10:06 am
negotiated by andy and the current contract -- we just keep coming back to the same topics. >> president moran: it would be good to bring this to a conclusion. while we're both still alive. it does strike me one of these problems where i think if we were talking about water supply, there are answers that you can get to pretty quickly.
10:07 am
i would like to see that move more quickly. with that, madam, please call the next item. >> clerk: next order of business is item 8, report of the general manager. mr. herrera. >> thank you madam secretary. first item is presentation california community power long duration storage procurement. presented by assistant general manager. >> thank you and general manager herrera. i have provided all with a briefing packet and powerpoint presentation. i will not go through every
10:08 am
slide. i intend to meet the time requirement. this is just an informational item. we are expecting to come back to you with an action item. this is a complex transaction. it's the first time we've done this. we thought it was tim to warm up --time to warm you up to the topic. the california p.u.c. has mandated that all low serving entities procure certain levels of resources and certain types of resources. under cleanpowersf program we are required to bring resources on to the grid. we participated with the j.p.a. california community power to request a bid from that type of resource. which we are happy to say cp
10:09 am
power is poised to receive. that the tumbleweed project. once the j.p.a. approves the project, we'll return to your approval. that's likely in january or february. we sinned cp -- we joined cp back in april. we have a requirement by california p.u.c. they've directed us to procure 15.5 megawatts of long duration storage. if we failed to comply with that
10:10 am
procurement order, we will face significant costs. the tumbleweed project will need more than half of our long duration storage for procurement observation. we intend to pursue dimensional procurement both with the j.p.a.cp power and issuing our own request for offer. next slide, it describes the objectives for this request for offer. i want to highlight for you that this long duration storage is the technology that allows us to integrate our renewables and support for reliability on the bridge. it will help us to share the risk and meet our regulatory
10:11 am
requirements. long duration storage is eight-hour storage location. drawer j.p.a. collaboration, we also placed conditions on the project to address workforce. lot of stuff we can do when we procure. similarly, making sure that the project meets environmental
10:12 am
permitting requirement of the local authority.
10:13 am
we'll be bringing those three documents to you to sign them and then we proceed on to the board for approval. we're anticipating that in the january, february time frame. slide 14 please. this helps put that transaction into context. we have nine contracts today.
10:14 am
long-term contracts that is, ten years or more, 658 meg megawatts clean energy capacity. to support that commitment, we have an annual power supply budgets of $235 million a year. tumbleweed project, would be $3 million to $4 million of that. total cost over the 15-year pier, 45 to $65 million. with that, i'm happy to take any questions you may have. i have my time here to assist if there's anything that we need to help with.
10:15 am
>> president moran: commissioner max quell? >> commissioner maxwell: thank you for your work. i have a question and a concern. it says workforce, encourages local labor and apprenticeship program. i think that's problematic. then you have environmental injustice requires developers to test requires. then environmental project must. when it comes to labor, encourage. i think we can do better than that. >> i appreciate the guidance. and the feedback. i do want to say that we have to recognize that not every local community has the particular skills and trades that are needed for a project like this.
10:16 am
just like the sfpuc brought in skilled trade for projects we do. i imagine that this new technology being brought to bear on the market may require some workforce that's not necessarily local. >> commissioner maxwell: they never will, if we don't make them. that will always be the excuse. it's been the excuse forever. there's words that we can say, requires when available that is a requirement when they can be met or something to that. just encourage, then we're never saying that this is that's important to us. we have to be leaders. yes, you're right, it may be difficult but if we don't ever make it an important -- they will never make that happen. we've seen that.
10:17 am
that's historic. have to do little bit more to encourage you to do the right thing. >> i hear your sentiments. this will be the storage contract we sign. >> commissioner maxwell: that's why it's important we do it right the first time. >> thank you for your comment. >> commissioner maxwell: thank you for your comments. however, i like to see some working on the language that does more than encourage. we've had this battle. it's been really pulling teeth all along with the power industry. i'm not going to take it okay. i appreciate your comment. i want to see something else, something different before i sign on it it. >> ultimately you will, but not
10:18 am
today. thank you. >> commissioner maxwell, i hear the sentiment. we'll be working with staff to see what the art of the possible is on the language without compromising the substance of the program. >> commissioner maxwell: thank >> commissioner harrington: also , thank you for all the work on this. i view this as an insurance policy when something goes wrong. we will not be taking advantage of this unless something else goes out. >> it's more akin to additional source. many of our renewable resources are very dependent on when the wind blows, sun shine. we need to have resources that can help address those periods of the day where when the wind
10:19 am
and solar resources are available. it helps us meet the requirements on the grid for the shoulder hours. >> part of the reason why the state is mandated like cleanpowersf is to support the grid. we'll be using it, our share of the project to help with balance the resources that barbara was referring to. one other point about the benefits of this effort is by participating as a group, we have the opportunity to participate in larger projects that are more cost effective.
10:20 am
>> vice president ajami: i was wondering, may be either -- thank you for the presentation. really great. i was wondering may be this goes back to what michael was saying. if this is a collective, what happens -- you all have the same problem of sun doesn't shine at the same time and all the places. is there a priority in the system who gets the electrons when this happens? how do we make sure we get what we need when we need it? >> i can address that.
10:21 am
very good question. we will be working through -- one of the agreements that barbara had on that slide that showed the structure of this partnership is an operating agreement. that operating agreement will form a committee of the participants that will in ongoing basis provide updated direction to operate the plant. the plant will be operated based on market signals. wholesale market prices. you'll use the market to really determine when that electricity that's stored is most valuable. that all applies not to just our operate payers, the idea is to
10:22 am
maximize the value of the resource to all participant rate payers and sort of secondarily we'll be looking into how do we use this resource to shape our own portfolios? as you're getting to here, it's complex when you have multiple participants with different power supplies. >> vice president ajami: do we have a power agreement with them? >> the agreement will be between cc power, the joint powers agency and battery storage operator and owner.
10:23 am
then the participants will enter into an agreement with cc power and j.p.a. the power purchase agreement will be between the j.p.a. and the developer. >> vice president ajami: it's listed on that slide. not as a power purchase agreement but storage agreement. >> vice president ajami: i remember, michael, is this related to what you presented to us may be a month ago or two months ago on the storage procurement as well? is this a totally different project? we did have another item that was a battery-driven item.
10:24 am
>> this is a different project. it was amending an existing agreement add batteries to a solar project that we were purchasing the energy from. in this case, we're really joining forces to purchase the services and products of a standalone battery system that is what we would call utility scale connected to the transmission system. it's supporting the grid. it's helping grid balance, all of the additional renewable energy that we're seeing come online within california. that's why the california p.u.c. is mandating entities like cleanpowersf do this.
10:25 am
>> vice president ajami: i thought this was the follow on what the discussion we had couple of months ago. thank you for the clarification. >> president moran: other questions or comments? seeing none, please open this for public comment. >> clerk: members of the public who wishes to make two minutes on public comment on 8a, dial (415)655-0001. meeting i.d. 146 290 6991 this is item 8a.
10:26 am
>> there is one caller in the queue. >> caller: this is david pilpel again. i have no objection to this proposal. i appreciate barbara, michael and others who may have worked on this. i did want to raise a concern when i saw number 10 on the various technology types. all of which , well, have various environmental impact from greater than others. they are all different. this has the effect of, we get the power or access to the power. but the environmental impact of the operation of this thing would be in the county and
10:27 am
presumably the battery storage thing would use resources and create waste ultimately. i heard recently about the issues with lithium and nickel mining and all kinds of thing. the question really is are we moving the problem elsewhere so we can continue to have power for our current and future residents. ultimately, i'm asking who has the ceqa responsibility for this facility? is it us? is it consortium? is it curran county? i'm wondering about what that means for the environment. again, keep pleading. thanks. >> the call queue is clear. >> clerk: thank you public
10:28 am
comment on item 8a is closed. >> 8b a drought conditions update from water. steve ritchie. >> i did get a text from nicole from bawsca, who is out on medical leave. she wanted to make sure that was not due to lack of interest of topic discussed today. i want to give a brief drought update. this is dated december 6th. every monday i get an up date on where we are relative our water supply and other conditions. this is the one in the packet i will verbally update.
10:29 am
level of historics has not changed because this particular out country area has been seeing more snow than actual rainfall. the brown area keeps getting smaller but the red area is not really changing. i guess it's coal comfort that we're in extreme drought rather than exceptional drought. this shows hetchy participation.
10:30 am
it doesn't show update on this. if we go to the next slide, the snow pack, you i can see the red line is below the historic median with the snow that we've gotten so far from the storm. definitely it is above the median line as we get there to the middle of the month. we do still expect some more to come this week and the next. water available to the city. we have not seen any immediately. we are already above where we were last year. it's not a big number yet. if we can retain some of this snow pack, we could get fair amount of water available to the
10:31 am
city this year. you'll see on the right-hand side, the year to date total was seven quarter inches. these last couple of days moved us up to 30% of the annual total. more to come. we've got about 11 total so far this year. we see more storms coming. next slide please. we have not updated the bay area precipitation. anyone was paying close attention, highway 92 on the coast was closed yesterday. one of the creeks in the watershed basically decided to
10:32 am
use highway 92 as path to take all the water. this shows the natural precipitation forecast and brighter colors means precipitation. you can see that upper box this week, you can see there's lots of orange and red colors there in california. then you see next week, starting today and moving into next wednesday, lot of bright colors over the period of time. we expect to see more precipitation over the next couple of days. clear on friday and then into the week but then more precipitation probably will be getting closer around the 22nd towards christmas. it's not over yet. here total deliveries. we had that big drop on the
10:33 am
green line there. that first atmospheric river. then, demand and rebounded little bit recently. it's now up to about 159 millio. it's definitely back above 2015 levels and close to 2019 levels. definitely below 2015 levels. curtailment have ongoing basis been suspended going forward. they continue to be suspended as of yesterday. i fully expect they will be suspended probably through end of the month. the big question curtailments if
10:34 am
we keep a snow pack, how this le be viewed during the snow melt. i'm happy to answer any questions on the current conditions. >> vice president ajami: that was great. i want to note that right after the previous drought, the demand bounced back. this is how people react to different precipitation events. >> president moran: thank you. seeing no other comments. please open up for public
10:35 am
comment. >> clerk: members of the public who wish to public comment on 8b, dial (415)655-0001, meeting i.d., 146 -- 146 290 6991 do we have any callers in the queue? >> we have a caller in queue. go ahead. >> caller: hi, i'm from palo alto. i'm the one who provided the tuolumne update. this last weekend, i was lucky enough to be in the valley. walking across one of the bridges of the merced river.
10:36 am
i look down and didn't see any fish. if i was at a place in tuolumne, how long would i have to wait to see one. i did a calculation, there are 21 days between the prior fish passing chart and yesterday's update. during that time, according to fish bio, 215 salmon passed by. if i assume salmon only moved during the day, that means one salmon would pass by on average, every 70 minutes. of course the point of fish passage chart and any story is to try to make the situation to help tuolumne feel more real.
10:37 am
thanks commissioner harrington that fish passage be reported if water supply updates. thanks so much. >> there was another caller. the call queue is clear. >> clerk: public comment on item 8b is closed. >> 8c is an emergency fire fighting water system update. >> good afternoon commissioners.
10:38 am
i'm here to provide quick update on the emergency fire fighting water system. the board of supervisors with file number 191029 request that the p.u.c. develop a citywide plan that relates to two items. both expanding the pipeline and making sure that these pipelines are build with the appropriate water to meet the high pressure fire fighting demands of the fire department. p.u.c. took the lead on that. as a note, the resolution also requested city administrator's office, mayor's budget office, the board and budget legislative analyze geobonds to fund this work.
10:39 am
in this map, let me walk everybody through it. the gray pipeline in northeastern side of the with pipelines in the east and southeast. are the existing emergency fire fighting water system pipeline. i like to draw your attention to the pipeline in red. those pipelines are funded. they are currently under construction and they are funded by the 2020 bond and passed by the voters of san francisco. the black pipelines also on the
10:40 am
west side that connect to the red ones. complete what we call the westside project. those are unfunded. additionally, what the citywide plan really looks at are the green and blue pipelines which have been drawn in here. it what would bring high pressure water systems to the areas in the sea where it's lacking. you can see districts 7, 10 and 11, if those a are familiar, really in the south-southeast parts of the city, you'll see the large majority of where we are proposing to install additional higher pipelines. those are unfunded. to ensure that both existing pipeline, the pipeline funding
10:41 am
currently under construction, we need to make sure that the pipeline have enough water for fire fighting at a high pressure. on this slide, you'll see the blue water sources are primary water sources that feed in the system. comes from twin peaks and summit. those are the primary sources that feeds in the existing pipeline. we have two backup sea water pump stations also in blue. lake merced is funded to be connected. those blue ones are funded or existing. they are already on the books.
10:42 am
in order to fill the remaining pipelines, we have proposing connect additional water sources both from sunset reservoir, college reservoir. we proposed increasing the capacity of the existing sea water pump stations, ps1 and ps2 as well as adding conventional sea water pump station in the southeast area. this is just to ensure there are adequate water supply to meet the fire fighting high pressure need. when we look at the estimated cost of this expansion in $2021, it comes up to approximately $1.6 billion. this excludes the previously funned phase one west side project that i discussed. includes the red pipeline and
10:43 am
connecting lake merced. in terms of a realistic timeline, in terms of when it can be implemented, the system couldn't be built all today. the board ask us to look at a 15-year planning horizon. we looked at a 15-year horizon for completing this project with escalation, the dollar amount is estimating to be closer to $2.6 billion. if we looked at 25-year construction period closer to $3.3 billion. this is assuming 4% annual escalation. what the b.l.a. will be looking at if this program was to move forward, how will they face off the general obligation blond i'm
10:44 am
happy to take any questions that >> president moran: commissioner s any questions? >> commissioner harrington: than k you, john. as you know, i'm not a fan of this whole project. once again, i'll ask the question, do you know if i any other place or country in the that has something like this? >> great question. vancouver has a significantly smaller system. that is a separate high pressure system. the system that is most like ours actually, we model the west side system off of it is in japan. japan has a similar seismic challenges that san francisco
10:45 am
faces. they have strengthened their backbone of portable water line to serve two purposes. you have to strengthen that red line and black line. those are actually going to be table to carry portable water, 99.99% of the time. if there is a large seismic event, there happens to be a fire on west side that needs to be fought, we can isolate that line and pump the pressure up to provide high pressure fire fighting until the fire is out. we can drop the line, do any cleaning of the pipeline that's needed and flush the line to ensure it's safe and turn it back over to regular drinking water use. that's what tokyo and japan uses. those the most similar. >> commissioner harrington: i realize there's religious
10:46 am
fervour, we all seem to go along with it. i kind of lost faith in this when i was told it will would never happen for a variety of reasons. one reason was if, you don't use the system, the water degrades within the pipes and there could be problems with that. the firefighters wouldn't put up with it. they basically threaten that if we put water into the system, they would tell people that we're spraying feces on side of people building when they are putting out fires. that seem to have killed all the
10:47 am
the discussion that we had about using this in san francisco. we end up not being able to do it as non-portable. it will keep rolling down the street as if this is the requirement. but i don't think it is. every time we have this conversation, it doesn't go very
10:48 am
far. i do think, may be the p.u.c. should say, this doesn't make sense. if the p.u.c. believes that. that's my belief. not sure what the p.u.c. believes. >> president moran: vice president ajami? >> vice president ajami: thank you for your presentation. may be follow on what ed was saying, we have had this conversation. i always wondered, is there any information or data available on the failures of our fire fighting system. that would have been solved if we would have had such a sophisticated system set up? it's valuable to look at this
10:49 am
and say, we have 50% failure in the system. we are trying to turn that into 20%. that extra 30% is worth all the money we are spending. are we doing this because we want to do this? i don't think i have an answer to that. the second thing i want to say is, i think to commissioner harrington's comments about alternative water supply as a source, i see that a lot more valuable part. because we are developing alternative water supply. the money we are spending is going -- i understand the pipeline is not going to be connected to alternative water supply. there's a little bit of multi-benefit efforts may be
10:50 am
rather than this single lar system. those are my two comments. >> president moran: i will underline something that commissioner harrington talked about the decision basically not to use non-portable water there's the issue raised about where are we building a separate system that would put portable water in there and the complications is waste. i think it's the fact is, that's what we're doing now all over the city.
10:51 am
anything else? please open this up for public comment. >> clerk: members of the public who wish to make two minute of public ecomment on 8c, dial phone. meeting i.d. 146 290 6991 to raise your hand to speak press star 3. >> we have one caller.
10:52 am
>> caller: at the november 18th neating of the board of supervisors, government audit oversight committee, the committee conducted a follow-up hearing on the civil grand jury report. supervisor mar stated that he would not support granting lake merced for fire fighting. in other words he would oppose it. each page is marked, document is preliminary/incomplete. figures 2-2 and 2-3 indicates error. the same is true of the tables in section 2-1 in section 3 planning methodology. section 7, improvement cost and
10:53 am
section 8, conclusions and recommendations are missing. section c, feasibility section has used current system and distributed the stations. it doesn't study ocean pump station south of the facility. in conclusion, it's a similar study where presented to another commission or to the board of supervisors, would it be well received or seen just as embarrassing. thank you. >> another caller has joined. caller, go ahead. >> caller: this is david pilpel again. i think eileen has been waiting long time to make those
10:54 am
comments. on this, if and when expansion of the system is chosen, i think manning and construction should be coordinated with other projects, p.u.c. water, power and sewer projects, department of technology, telecom cable and other city and non-city projects along the corridors. while public interest here may be somewhat low, the audience -- [ indiscernible ] i would suggest a small public workshop on this where perhaps, we could discuss which other staff what are the pros and cons of doing this at whatever cost. i take commissioner harrington's comments very seriously.
10:55 am
i suggest the discussion in that workshop or before the commission at some point or board of supervisors somewhere about the risk to the city during an earthquake, fire or other emergency.
10:56 am
>> caller: i'm katie miller. i will provide a very brief update on the status of the water system improvement program for the first quarter of fiscal year '21, '22. i like to share the quarterly updates for two reasons. staff has been working long hours in great detail to provide the c.i.p. budget submittal you will review in january. as we shared with you during the september 28th meeting the quarterly reports will be provided. the quarterly reports with these
10:57 am
revisions for the hetch hetchy water enterprise and sewer system improvement program will be presented to you in van. -- january, we decided to make these revisions for the water supply improvement program report for several reasons. this report has stayed in the same format for the past 15 years. second, the wsip report provides better performance than the other program previous report. third the wsip is almost complete. i will give you a quick update. these pie charts shows programs are 99% complete. this cost summary table shows the status of the seven active
10:58 am
projects that are remaining that are reported in such -- this has low activity during the quarter. this low spending is because for the remaining active projects are very close to being closed out. one is just starting. two have yet to be issued. construction mobilization was initiated for the alameda recapture project. for phase one of the regional ground water storage recovery project, the water operations and project team successfully completed seven week operational testing for four wells. thesis are the wells that will
10:59 am
be focused on for steady operations in the near future for the drought. the phase 2a project is under various improvements with advertised on september 27th. progress was made to obtain permit prior to advertising the phase 2b contractor if the san francisco main well and pipelines that will connect to cal water systems. the next three projects are in some state of closeout. >> president moran: any questions? i see no questions. thank you very much.
11:00 am
general manager, herrera, is that end of your report? >> clerk: would like to for me to open for public comment? >> president moran: yes. >> clerk: members of the public who likes to make two minutes on 8d, dial (415)655-0001. meeting i.d. you 146 290 6991 >> the call queue is clear. >> clerk: public comment on 8d is closed. >> president moran: mr. herrera? >> one item as commission is
11:01 am
aware, the controllers office on december 9th issued its performance audit of sfpuc's social impact partnership program. while that item is up for discussion today, i wanted to alert the commission that we will be prepared to discuss the report at our january 11, 2022 meeting and steps going forward. that concludes my report. >> president moran: do we need public comment on that? >> clerk: yes. members of the public who wish to take two minutes of public comment on item 8e, dial (415)655-0001. meeting i.d. 146 290 6991
11:02 am
to raise your hand to speak, press star 3. do we have any callers? >> there are no calls in the queue at this moment. >> clerk: public comment on item 8e is closed. >> president moran: next item is a new commission business. do any commissioners have new business? seeing none, next item please.
11:03 am
>> clerk: item 10, the consent >> president moran: commissioner s any requests or items on the consent calendar? seeing none. please open the consent calendar for public comment. members of the public who wish to take two minutes of publi comment dial (415)655-0001, meeting i.d. 146 290 6991 to raise your hand to speak press star 3. do we have any callers?
11:04 am
>> we have two callers in the queue. >> caller: i'm calling for coalition san francisco neighborhood speaking on my own behalf. urging that the commissioners sever item 10e. this report is similar to other staff reports and it has no photo. in the description of the scope of the section, bullet point number 6 states providing above ground pipe segment between the codable and non-codable pipes to be installed during major fire events. why would the p.u.c. wait until a major fire event to do this installation? modification number one, unlike charges group together, the 20,361 charge includes the survey and the modification to control the panel.
11:05 am
there's no explanation why the p.u.c. distribution division doesn't include this modification request in the original contract. the reason for the increase 240 calendar days is for public hearing. since there were number of rescheduling, could the project have been designed to obtain the tree. in the result of inaction section, it states a delay or denial of proving the request will result this project being further delayed posing continue risk of the city's ability to provide events, fire suppression capabilities. the westside has been waiting to honor its commitment to bringing it out to the west side.
11:06 am
>> thank you, next caller. you have two minutes. >> caller: this is david pilpel. last time today. i have no issues with the consent calendar. i support all of the item. i support the balance of the calendar. i want to thank you for listening and enjoy the rest of the year. hope to talk you again next year. thank you for all your continuing good work. thanks. >> the call queue is clear. >> clerk: thank you, public comment on item 10, the consent calendar is closed. >> president moran: may be we can address her concerns with item c. it -- can we respond to those at
11:07 am
this time >> clerk: i will defer to the city attorney. ms. bregman? >> the consent calendar to take a vote on the whole consent calendar? is that the question? >> president moran: the question is, we received comments about the item requested to be severed. can staff now respond to those comments without actually severing the item? >> yes, the staff -- it's entirely up to the chair whether you pull the item off consent and have separate vote. the matter can be included as part of the consent calendar as
11:08 am
long as public comment is recognized for the consent calendar and the vote taken. >> president moran: let me ask staff to respond. >> good afternoon, howard fong, manager of the product management burl. the question was asked regarding why was this structure not connected full-time. what we are trying to do is connect a potable water system from our summit reservoir system to connect to a non-potable efws, awss system existing by delbrook. to be able to have a direct connection, we can only do it through a section of pipe that
11:09 am
we have to insert. we can only insert that during an emergency. it is a domestic drinking water source that we're connecting it from. that is the reason why there's structure needed to be installed. it had to be above ground. we're located corner of clarendon avenue. we have to do public process of processing. the notices takes several months. we're asking for additional time address those delays due to that >> president moran: commissioner
11:10 am
s any questions for mr. fong? any desire to sever item c. can i have a motion and second for the consent calendar as a whole? >> so moved. >> second. moran thank you, roll call please. [roll call vote] you have five ayes. >> president moran: the consent calendar is adopted. next item please. >> clerk: next item 11, authorize the general manager to execute memorandum of understanding for amount not to
11:11 am
exceed $9695 with the duration of 58 months. presented by ritchie. >> good afternoon. this is a routine item that we do several of these agreements in different places throughout the water system to engage in monitoring. it is 58-month agreement to continue maintaining that stream gauge on pilarcitos street. >> president moran: please open
11:12 am
public comment. >> clerk: members of the public who wish to make two minutes of public comment on item 11 dial (415)655-0001. meeting i.d. 146 290 6991 to raise your hand to speak press star. do we have any callers? >> there are no callers in the queue. >> clerk: thank you public comment on item 11 is closed.
11:13 am
>> president moran: thank you. >> so moved. >> second. >> president moran: roll call please. [roll call vote] you have five ayes. >> president moran: item passes. item 12 please. >> clerk: item 12. authorize the general manager to execute amendment number two on memorandum of agreement to extend the terms of the agreement by 15 months until march 31, 2023 with no change in the contract amount to include marin municipal water district to participate collaboratively
11:14 am
to develop the bay area shared water access program. >> this is an extension of the memorandum of agreement for the bay area regional reliability partnership which includes alameda county water district, bawsca, contra costa water district. this is a cooperative effort among these the bay area water agencies, looking for opportunities where we can share facilities and supplies to increase overall regional reliability. some of the things we've been looking at are transfers. delta supplies between agencies in different ways around the system. in particular, we're also adding in marin municipal. marin municipal has been talking to us originally but decided not. with their situation on in the
11:15 am
the drought where they have been affected. they will be looking at the possibility of establishing a pipeline about different ways water can move to assist them under emergency conditions. we recommend that we continue this partnership for a bit longer. it has proved useful in terms of discussions. i'll be happy to answer any questions. >> president moran: questions for mr. ritchie? the intent is to provide a facility that can be used in time of drought. it makes me wonder whether there are opportunities here to
11:16 am
actually speed up the real world -- the ability to do may be emergency approvals. >> the work is about making normal conditions. you end up with a lot more complex system when you find that both the state and federal water projects are delivering less to their customers and very frankly in the emergency conditions once you step outside of the project structure. when i say the project structure, central valley project, they can be creative within each of those structures. it's harder to get it across those structures. that's where some of the difficulties lie. in this case, marin municipal
11:17 am
coming in this way, is looking to see if there's a way that newell their situation, water can be moved basically to east bay mud where east bay mud can move water to them that is not project water. we actually have been involved in several discussions about other ways to use the plumbing that can make that work. working within the relative constraints of project and state water project rules.
11:18 am
11:19 am
11:20 am
>> caller: you heard one constituent citizen say, in the best part of our city, there's missing water. this is also happening in other areas. three weeks ago, when i opened
11:21 am
the faucet, the water was stinking. i made some calls. i was told that ground water was added. why don't you inform us before you do this? we need to do needs assessment the quality of water that is being transferred. we are ready for some liability issues. you heard the concern that part of the water was not even treated. i don't know, when i open the faucet that that water was treated or not. let us fine tune things in our
11:22 am
own category first before we pick up transfers like this. thank you very much. >> thank you, caller. there are no other callers. >> clerk: thank you, public comment on item 12 is closed. >> president moran: i have a motion and a second? >> so moved. >> i'll second. >> president moran: roll call please. [roll call vote] >> clerk: you have five ayes. >> president moran: next item please. >> clerk: item 13. approve the terms and conditions and authorize the general manager to execute and enter into three spratt purchase and sales agreement with oakridge ranch estates smolinski, arroyo
11:23 am
hondo ranch smolinski and mount day ranch estates -- associated with the acquisition in the amount not to exceed $200,000. must be presented by dent general manager -- carlin. >> i will say this, three sides, this sfpuc land on the east bay
11:24 am
park district. there's no development that occurred on these sites. i will be glad to answer any questions. >> commissioner maxwell: how much do we own in that watershed? alameda? >> in the alameda watershed we own about 38,000 acres. this is adding 653 acres to that 38,000 that we already own. >> commissioner maxwell: what's the approximate value? >> i'm going to give you very approximate value. if you were to take the value that we're paying for land right now in the alameda watershed, take the existing purchase, taking a low end of our pay is $12,000 per acre. if you take the 38,000 acres the
11:25 am
land value that we have now is $456 million. if you wanted to take the high end, $16,000 per acre. >> commissioner maxwell: are we up in the market, down in the market, middle of the market? >> this is an interesting approach that has been in private holdings for a long period of time. we pretty much -- they approached us. this is very mutually agreeable situation we're in where these properties, there's not a lot of value to them in the long run. the market is good right now. >> commissioner maxwell: thank you. >> commissioner harrington: i'm glad we're buying this. i love that map it shows the
11:26 am
hodgepodge of historic squares in there. the idea of what's on our side, do we let park users come on some of these properties? >> we do have an agreement with east bay regional park district that they will manage some of the park district. they will take care some other things. we have that existing in this watershed. we can show you a map of what properties they do lease and which ones they don't. >> commissioner harrington: do you think this will open up additional hiking trails? >> that's to be determined. yes, we can be in discussion. >> president moran: commissioner paulson would like to see that map. any other comments or questions?
11:27 am
please open this for public comment. >> clerk: members of the public who wish to make two minutes on item 13, dial (415)655-0001, meeting i.d. 146 290 6991 to raise your hand to speak press star 3. do we have any callers? >> there are no callers in the queue. >> clerk: public comment on item 13 is closed. >> president moran: any other questions? roll call please. [roll call vote]
11:28 am
you have five ayes. >> president moran: that passes. next item please. >> clerk: next item is closed session. i will read the closed session calling public comment on those item. next item is public comment on closed session. following items will be heard during closed session. item 16, conference with legal counsel, regarding the existing litigation in the matter of initial orders and imposing water rights in sacramento, on water rights numbers f002635, s
11:29 am
s01379 and s018735. san joaquin trib stories versus state water resources control board versus the california state resources control board. members of the public who wish to make public comment dial (415)655-0001, meeting i.d. 146 290 6991 to raise your hand to speak press star 3.
11:30 am
>> there are no callers in the queue. >> clerk: thank you. public comment for items to be heard during close session is closed. >> president moran: may i have a motion to assert attorney-client privilege? >> so moved. to not disclose. >> president moran: move to assert. >> i did that last time. >> president moran: do i have a second? roll call please. [roll call vote]. >> clerk: you have five ayes. >> president moran: the motion
11:31 am
passes. i will go into closed session. . >> can i have a motion on whether to disclose motions that are in closed session? >> move not to disclose. >> i'll second. >> moved and seconded not to disclose. roll call vote, please. [roll call] >> clerk: you have five ayes. >> the item passes. is there any other business before the commission? >> clerk: no other business, but i would like to announce that the sfpuc regular meeting for december 28 has been cancelled, so i wish everybody
11:32 am
a happy holiday. >> thank you, and yes, happy holiday. >> happy holidays. >> happy holidays to everyone. >> yeah. >> stay safe and healthy. >> we'll be meeting again in january. it promises to be a big and exciting year. get your new year's resolutions ready. >> enjoy your holidays, everybody. enjoy your holidays and be safe. >> yes. 2022, here we come. >> okay. >> bye, everyone.
11:33 am
11:34 am
>> third thursdays at the commons is a monthly event series to really activate krisk krisk -- civic center, fulton mall, and other locations through social operation. >> in 2016, an initiative called the civic center progress initiative was launched, it was launched by a bunch of city agencies and community partners, so they really had to figure out how to program these places on a more frequent basis. i'm with the civic center community benefit district, and i'm program manager for the civic center commons. also, third thursdays will have music. that was really
11:35 am
important in the planning of these events. >> we wanted to have an artist that appeals to a wide range of tastes. >> i'm the venue manager. good music, good music systems, and real bands with guitar players and drummers. >> we turned uc center and fulton street into a place where people want to be to meet, to laugh, and it's just an amazing place to be. there's a number of different exhibits. there's food, wine, cocktails, and the idea, again, is to give people an opportunity to enjoy what really is, you know, one of the great civic faces in america. when you look from the polk
11:36 am
street steps, and you look all the way down the plaza, down market street, daniel burns' design, this was meant to be this way. it's really special. >> the city approached us off the grid to provide food and beverages at the event as kind of the core anchor to encourage people who leave a reason to stay. >> it's really vibrant. it's really great, just people walking around having a good time. >> this formula is great food, interesting music, and then, we wanted to have something a little more, so we partnered with noise pop, and they brought in some really fun games. we have skeeball, we also have roller skating lessons, and we've got a roller
11:37 am
skating rink. >> if you're a passion jail skeeball player like me, and you're deciding whether you're just going to roll the ball up the middle or take a bank shot. >> our goal is to come out and have fun with their neighbors, but our goal is to really see in the comments that it's a place where people want to hold their own public event. >> i think this is a perfect example of all these people working together. everybody's kind of come together to provide this support and services that they can to activate this area. >> there's no one agency or organization that really can make this space come alive on its own, and it's really through the collective will, not just of the public sector, but both the public and our business partnerships, our
11:38 am
nonprofits partnerships, you know, neighborhood activists. >> i really like it. it's, like, a great way to get people to find out about local things, cuisine, like, it's really great. >> it's a really good environment, really welcoming. like, we're having a great time. >> we want to inspire other people to do this, just using a part of the plaza, and it's also a good way to introduce people if they're having a large scale event or small scale event, we'll direct you to the right people at the commons so you can get your event planned. >> being a san francisco based company, it was really important to connect and engage with san franciscans. >> how great is it to come out from city hall and enjoy great
11:39 am
music, and be able to enjoy a comtail, maybe throw a bocci ball or skee ball. i find third thursdays to be really reinriggating for me. >> whether you're in the city hall or financial district or anywhere, just come on down on third thursdays and enjoy the music, enjoy an adult beverage, enjoy the skee ball; enjoy an adult playground, if you
11:40 am
>> restaurants will be open for take out only, but nonessential stores, like bars and gyms, will close effective midnight tonight. [♪♪♪] >> my name is sharky laguana. i am a small business owner. i own a company called vandigo van rentals. it rents vans to the music industry. i am also a member of the small business commission as appointed by mayor breed in 2019. i am a musician and have worked as a professional musician and
11:41 am
recording artist in the 90s. [♪♪♪] >> we came up in san francisco, so i've played at most of the live venues as a performer, and, of course, i've seen hundreds of shows over the years, and i care very, very deeply about live entertainment. in fact, when i joined the commission, i said that i was going to make a particular effort to pay attention to the arts and entertainment and make sure that those small businesses receive the level of attention that i think they deserve. >> this is a constantly and rapidly changing situation, and we are working hard to be aggressive to flatten the curve to disrupt the spread of covid-19. >> when the pandemic hit, it was crystal clear to me that
11:42 am
this was devastating to the music industry because live venues had to completely shutdown. there was no way for them to open for even a single day or in limited capacity. that hit me emotionally as an artist and hit me professionally, as well as a small business that caters to artists, so i was very deeply concerned about what the city could do to help the entertainment committee. we knew we needed somebody to introduce some kind of legislation to get the ball rolling, and so we just started texting supervisor haney, just harassing him, saying we need to do something, we need to do something. he said i know we need to do something, but what do we do? we eventually settled on this idea that there would be an independent venue recovery fund. >> clerk: there are 11 ayes.
11:43 am
>> president walton: thank you. without objection, this resolution is passed unanimously. >> and we were concerned for these small mom-and-pop businesses that contribute so much to our arts community. >> we are an extremely small venue that has the capacity to do extremely small shows. most of our staff has been working for us for over ten years. there's very little turnover in the staff, so it felt like family. sharky with the small business commission was crucial in pestering supervisor haney and others to really keep our industry top of mind. we closed down on march 13 of 2020 when we heard that there was an order to do so by the
11:44 am
mayor, and we had to call that show in the middle of the night. they were in the middle of their sound check, and i had to call the venue and say, we need to cancel the show tonight. >> the fund is for our live music and entertainment venues, and in its first round, it will offer grants of at least $10,000 to qualifying venues. these are venues that offer a signature amount of live entertainment programming before the pandemic and are committed to reopening and offering live entertainment spaces after the pandemic. >> it's going to, you know, just stave off the bleeding for a moment. it's the city contributing to helping make sure these venues
11:45 am
are around, to continue to be part of the economic recovery for our city. >> when you think about the venues for events in the city, we're talking about all of them. some have been able to come back adaptively over the last year and have been able to be shape shifters in this pandemic, and that's exciting to see, but i'm really looking forward to the day when events and venues can reopen and help drive the recovery here in san francisco. >> they have done a study that says for every dollar of ticket sales done in this city, $12 goes to neighboring businesses. from all of our vendors to the restaurants that are next to our ven sues and just so many other things that you can think of, all of which have been so negatively affected by covid. for this industry to fail is unthinkable on so many levels.
11:46 am
it's unheard of, like, san francisco without its music scene would be a terribly dismal place. >> i don't know that this needs to be arrest -- that there needs to be art welfare for artists. we just need to live and pay for our food, and things will take care of themselves. i think that that's not the given situation. what san francisco could do that they don't seem to do very much is really do something to support these clubs and venues that have all of these different artists performing in them. actually, i think precovid, it was, you know, don't have a warehouse party and don't do a gig. don't go outside, and don't do this. there was a lot of don't, don't, don't, and after the pandemic, they realized we're a big industry, and we bring a
11:47 am
lot of money into this city, so they need to encourage and hope these venues. and then, you know, as far as people like me, it would be nice if you didn't only get encouraged for only singing opera or playing violin. [♪♪♪] >> entertainment is a huge part of what is going to make this city bounce back, and we're going to need to have live music coming back, and comedy, and drag shows and everything under the sun that is fun and creative in order to get smiles back on our faces and in order to get the city moving again. [♪♪♪] >> venues serve a really vital function in society. there aren't many places where people from any walk of life,
11:48 am
race, religion, sexuality can come together in the same room and experience joy, right? experience love, experience anything that what makes us human, community, our connective tissues between different souls. if we were to lose this, lose this situation, you're going to lose this very vital piece of society, and just coming out of the pandemic, you know, it's going to help us recover socially? well, yeah, because we need to be in the same room with a bunch of people, and then help people across the country recover financially. >> san francisco art recovery fund, amazing. it opened yesterday on april 21. applications are open through may 5. we're encouraging everyone in the coalition to apply. there's very clear information on what's eligible, but that's
11:49 am
basically been what our coalition has been advocating for from the beginning. you know, everyone's been supportive, and they've all been hugely integral to this program getting off the ground. you know, we found our champion with supervisor matt haney from district six who introduced this legislation and pushed this into law. mayor breed dedicated $1.5 million this fund, and then supervisor haney matched that, so there's $3 million in this fund. this is a huge moment for our coalition. it's what we've been fighting for all along. >> one of the challenges of our business is staying on top of all the opportunities as they come back. at the office of oewd, office of economic and workforce development, if you need to speak to somebody, you can find people who can help you navigate any of the available programs and resources.
11:50 am
>> a lot of blind optimism has kept us afloat, you know, and there's been a lot of reason for despair, but this is what keeps me in the business, and this is what keeps me fighting, you know, and continuing to advocate, is that we need this and this is part of our life's blood as much as oxygen and food is. don't lose heart. look at there for all the various grants that are available to you. some of them might be very slow to unrao, and it might seem like too -- unroll, and it might seem like it's too late, but people are going to fight to keep their beloved venues open, and as a band, you're going to be okay. [♪♪♪]
11:51 am
11:52 am
>> what we're trying to approach is bringing more diversity to our food. it's not just the old european style food. we are seeing a lot of influences, and all of this is because of our students. all we ask is make it flavorful. [♪♪♪] >> we are the first two-year culinary hospitality school in the united states. the first year was 1936, and it was started by two graduates from cornell. i'm a graduate of this program, and very proud of that.
11:53 am
so students can expect to learn under the three degrees. culinary arts management degree, food service management degree, and hotel management degree. we're not a cooking school. even though we're not teaching you how to cook, we're teaching you how to manage, how to supervise employees, how to manage a hotel, and plus you're getting an associate of science degree. >> my name is vince, and i'm a faculty member of the hospitality arts and culinary school here in san francisco. this is my 11th year. the program is very, very rich in what this industry demands. cooking, health, safety, and sanitation issues are included in it. it's quite a complete program to prepare them for what's happening out in the real
11:54 am
world. >> the first time i heard about this program, i was working in a restaurant, and the sous chef had graduated from this program. he was very young to be a sous chef, and i want to be like him, basically, in the future. this program, it's awesome. >> it's another world when you're here. it's another world. you get to be who you are, a person get to be who they are. you get to explore different things, and then, you get to explore and they encourage you to bring your background to the kitchen, too. >> i've been in the program for about a year. two-year program, and i'm about halfway through. before, i was studying behavioral genetics and dance.
11:55 am
i had few injuries, and i couldn't pursue the things that i needed to to dance, so i pursued my other passion, cooking. when i stopped dance, i was deprived of my creative outlet, and cooking has been that for me, specifically pastry. >> the good thing is we have students everywhere from places like the ritz to -- >> we have kids from every area. >> facebook and google. >> kids from everywhere. >> they are all over the bay area, and they're thriving. >> my name is jeff, and i'm a coowner of nopa restaurant, nopalito restaurant in san francisco. i attended city college of san francisco, the culinary arts program, where it was called hotel and restaurant back then in the early 90's.
11:56 am
nopalito on broderick street, it's based on no specific region in mexico. all our masa is hand made. we cook our own corn in house. everything is pretty much hand made on a daily basis, so day and night, we're making hand made tortillas, carnitas, salsas. a lot of love put into this. [♪♪♪] >> used to be very easy to define casual dining, fine dining, quick service. now, it's shades of gray, and we're trying to define that experience through that spectrum of service. fine dining calls into white
11:57 am
table cloths. the cafeteria is large production kitchen, understanding vast production kitchens, the googles and the facebooks of the world that have those types of kitchens. and the ideas that change every year, again, it's the notion and the venue. >> one of the things i love about vince is one of our outlets is a concept restaurant, and he changes the concept every year to show students how to do a startup restaurant. it's been a pizzeria, a taco bar. it's been a mediterranean bar, it's been a noodle bar. people choose ccsf over other hospitality programs because the industry recognizes that we instill the work ethic.
11:58 am
we, again, serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. other culinary hospitality programs may open two days a week for breakfast service. we're open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner five days a week. >> the menu's always interesting. they change it every semester, maybe more. there's always a good variety of foods. the preparation is always beautiful. the students are really sincere, and they work so hard here, and they're so proud of their work. >> i've had people coming in to town, and i, like, bring them here for a special treat, so it's more, like, not so much every day, but as often as i can for a special treat. >> when i have my interns in their final semester of the program go out in the industry, 80 to 90% of the students get
11:59 am
hired in the industry, well above the industry average in the culinary program. >> we do have internals continually coming into our restaurants from city college of san francisco, and most of the time that people doing internships with us realize this is what they want to do for a living. we hired many interns into employees from our restaurants. my partner is also a graduate of city college. >> so my goal is actually to travel and try to do some pastry in maybe italy or france, along those lines. i actually have developed a few connections through this program in italy, which i am excited to support. >> i'm thinking about going to go work on a cruise ship for
12:00 pm
about two, three year so i can save some money and then hopefully venture out on my own. >> yeah, i want to go back to china. i want to bring something that i learned here, the french cooking, the western system, back to china. >> so we want them to have a full toolkit. we're trying to make them ready >> i went through a lot of struggles in my life, and i am blessed to be part of this. i am familiar with what people are going through to relate and empathy and compassion to their struggle so they can see i came out of the struggle, it gives them hope to come up and do something positive.
12:01 pm
♪ ♪ i am a community ambassador. we work a lot with homeless, visitors, a lot of people in the area. >> what i like doing is posting up at hotspots to let people see
12:02 pm
visibility. they ask you questions, ask you directions, they might have a question about what services are available. checking in, you guys. >> wellness check. we walk by to see any individual, you know may be sitting on the sidewalk, we make sure they are okay, alive. you never know. somebody might walk by and they are laying there for hours. you never know if they are alive. we let them know we are in the area and we are here to promote safety, and if they have somebody that is, you know, hanging around that they don't want to call the police on, they don't have to call the police. they can call us. we can direct them to the services they might need. >> we do the three one one to keep the city neighborhoods clean. there are people dumping, waste
12:03 pm
on the ground and needles on the ground. it is unsafe for children and adults to commute through the streets. when we see them we take a picture dispatch to 311. they give us a tracking number and they come later on to pick it up. we take pride. when we come back later in the day and we see the loose trash or debris is picked up it makes you feel good about what you are doing. >> it makes you feel did about escorting kids and having them feel safe walking to the play area and back. the stuff we do as ambassadors makes us feel proud to help keep the city clean, helping the residents. >> you can see the community ambassadors. i used to be on the streets. i didn't think i could become a
12:04 pm
community ambassador. it was too far out there for me to grab, you know. doing this job makes me feel good. because i came from where a lot of them are, homeless and on the street, i feel like i can give them hope because i was once there. i am not afraid to tell them i used to be here. i used to be like this, you know. i have compassion for people that are on the streets like the homeless and people that are caught up with their addiction because now, i feel like i can give them hope. it reminds you every day of where i used to be and where i where i used to be and where i
12:05 pm
>> chair borden: please call the roll. [ roll call ] you have a quorum. >> chair borden: next item. >> clerk: announcement of prohibition of sound producing devices during the meeting. we have no announcements. item 4, approval of minutes forever the december 7, regular meeting. >> chair borden: is there any additions at this time? seeing none, we'll open up