>> thanks for being here. madam secretary, could you please call the roll? [roll call] you have a quorum. members who make up to 2 minutes of remote public comment by dialing 415-655-0001, 25931742517 pound fallowed by pound again. to raise your hand to speak press star 3. please note you must limit comment to the topic of the agenda item discussed unless speaking under general public comment and if you do not stay on topic the chair interrupt and ask to limit

comment to the item. we ask public comment be made in civil respectful manner. address your comment tuesday the commission as a whole, not individual commissioners and staff. on behalf of the commission i like to thank sfgovtv staff and sfpu crurks for assist bs during the meeting. please silence electronic devices if not already done so. thank you. >> before calling the first item, i like to announce the san francisco public utility commission we acknowledge that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors and relatives of the ramaytush community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. madam

president, please read the next-first item. >> approval of the minutes of march 23, 2023. >> colleagues any comments on the minutes? any corrections? if not, madam secretary, could you please call the public comment? [providing instructions for public comment] any members of the public present to provide

comment on this item? seeing none, mr. moderators, any callers with hands raised? >> madam secretary, there are no callers wishing to be recognized at this time. >> thank you, public comment on the minutes is closed. >> if no comments or questions can i have a motion and second to approve the minutes? >> move to approve. >> second. >> excellent. can i have roll call on this item? [roll call] >> four ayes. >> thank you. item passes. please call the next item? >> next item is 4, report of the general manager. >> thank you madam secretary. item 4a is water supply conditions update from steve ritchie. >> good afternoon commissioners. steve ritchie, assistant jenroom manager for water. i'll provide

the water supply update but this is really a prelude on the agenda dealing with the drought decisions the commission made. as you see, reservoir storage hasn't changed a lot. we are leaving room in cherry and hetch hetchy to make room for the snow melt that is still yet to come, because there is a lot of snow in the sierra. reservoirs around the state, particularly the state project reservoirs are looking much better now. when you see shasta in oroville in the north part of the state they are the anchor reservoirs and those conditions lead to changes the governor made in his emergency orders. california drought monitor, you see the vast majority of the state is out of drought or in only what they would call "abnormally dry", so overall in the state it is much better conditions then it has

been. hetch hetchy pretipitation is not quite keeping with 1983 but since 1983 was the wettest year in the record there st. no problem there. it is well above the median conditions for this time of year. on the up-count precipitation index, every month since november has been above normal and when you look at the comparison of year to date total and annual average the year to date is about 160 percent of the average annual precipitation at hetch hetchy. for a similar comparison here in the bay area, 185 percent year to date of normal for the entire year, so again, we have experienced tremendous recover y from the drought conditions we were in. the snow pack, get into the technical

details we had to extend the size of the chart, the legend so you can see where the line was showing that we are above 250 percent of normal snow pack for the sierra. water available to the city, which is important to us is starting to come up. it will be coming a lot more as we get into the snow melt period, but already more then a million acre feet of water available to the city, more then enough to actually fill our reservoirs at this point in time in our storage and water bank. on the precipitation forecast, it showed coming into this week, i was looking this morning at the latest information and it looks fairly dry through the rest of april. total deliveries, again demand has stayed down. it is actually down a little where it shows on this slide. slightly less, because again,

frankly nobody has been irrigating outdoors because there is no need to what so ever. just this piece of information, also driving through the san joaquin valley yesterday, it was clear that the local irrigation districts are not delivering water to their farmers because there is no need to. they have gotten enough precipitation so far so they are already in good shape. more recently now, the governor has issued a couple of executive orders. one particularly on march 24, 2023 and that was issued that basically continued the emergency declaration state wide basis but actually removed a variety of conditions from his prior orders. there are 33 provisions remaining because there are still issues that need to be dealt with ground

water river basin in challenged conditions, but particularly relevant to us eliminated the governor directive for people that show to stage 2 of water shortage contingency plans which is direct input what we will be considering later today. also on a very important note, april 4, the state water board rescinded all orders imposing water right cur tainment and reporting requirements so the regulations they adopted stay in effect, but all the orders they issued cur taining diversions have been rescinded by it state water board. as you know, we filed suit over the regulations and that continues because of concerns about that, but the curtailment orders have been lifted and the state board statement there at the bottom is that basically because water conditions in the bay delta system are what they

are, there is no need to continue that. i would be happy to answer any questions. >> commissioner (indiscernible) >> thank you and thank you for the article you sent me about trinity. i really appreciated that. you might be sorry about that, but i really appreciate it. >> it is what it is. >> my question is, since we are in a different and maybe a critical time with the snow pack that is ahead of us and we are talking about flooding and a lot of other things, what are we doing differently as far as the dams are concerned-sometimes we have holding behind the dams. are we doing anything differently that doesn't require-maybe just requires us thinking differently about it rather then having to build something? >> we are actually doing things we have been doing many years. one thing that people have been talking about a lot is forecast and reservoir operations which is a fancy way of saying paying attention to what is

going to happen opposed to by going by a rule curve invented 40 years ago. we actually are not governed by that but governed by i guess what i would call being a good neighbor and common sense. in our dams and reservoirs we don't have flood control responsibility. for example, up country the flood control responsibility lies with the district operating don pedro. we communicate with them on a daily basis of conditions on the river and what we are doing at o'shaughnessy and at times they ask us to release less if we can accommodate because we accommodate the requests because it helps them operate better because down stream they are the primary flood control entity so what comes out of don pet pedro is of great interest on the flood control front. similarly, in the

alameda watershed and san mateo watershed we have communicated with the down stream parties to make sure that wherever possible if we can make releases that are more timed better to assist them in taking care of their flood control responsibilities we try to do that, so we have been doing that throughout this wet season and will continue to do it for the rest of this year and frankly, every year. that's something we do by course because it is the right thing to do. >> what about-we were flooded a area for the birds and flooding it to just see what was-this is some months ago. >> oh, yeah. there are certain areas we do flood for environmental habitat imuvprooment conditions. one of the great success stories talked about this year is the confluence of the tuolumne and san joaquin river

there is dos rios ranch this commission contributed $2 million to i believe it was 8 or 9 years ago now, and was to aquie that ranch and manage it in a way it provides flood plain areas for control of flood and also habitat and dos rios ranch, it has a different ranch now but dont recall, it worked very well during the early part of this year, where it flooded out in that area, the birds loved it, everybody loved it and there was no flooding in the nearby town of grayson as a result of that. those kinds of multiple benefit options when they are out there i think we and others are interested in executing those. >> when we are flooding those and the water is percolateing down, are we looking at where our water tables are low and we

can flood those areas and maybe recharge the water system below? >> in that area i where don't believe there is much going on in the tuolumne river watershed, there is in the san joaquin watershed. that is long-term things we are looking at. we are little outsider looking in, because there is a sustainable ground water management group there for each of these basins to do exactly that. figure how to make the ground water in the basin sustainable which may mean we can operate somewhat differently to actually produce that kind of condition where flood waters can be used to recharge the ground water basin. for all of us, there is the big question about that is, okay, when party a puts water in the basin, who gets the water that comes out of the basin and of course party a is

very interested in making sure they get to take advantage of that recharge as opposed to it going into somebody else's pocket. it needs to be a cooperative thing when it is developed and we started to talk to the irrigation districts about that. they expressed and have expressed through the voluntary agreement process a willingness to look at that which is more then they've done before so i have hopes we will be able to get there. >> with the hydrogen, we have all this water and hydro power seems we are in a position that could really be helpful depending on how we are doing with our dams and since we have so much water, can that make a difference because of the water access we have? >> on the hydro power front, we

are actually generating as much as we can now, because prices are high. one thing that--a big wet winter is a double edge sword. generally earlier in the year, prices are high and it is beneficial, later in the year, prices are really depressed and so it doesn't pay nearly as well to actually generate hydro power. in fact, sometimes we go negative there. you all most have to give it away. it is a thing we keep a close eye on with the power enterprise on making sure we are optimizing the amount of power generation we can do and optimizing the power income that that brings in. >> thank you. >> excellent. i have a question actually regarding the water demand from the or purchases from the wholesalers, retailers from the peninsula.

my question is, if we would have mapped the 2017 on that slide, what would we see? >> actually if you asked me a hour ago i could have found out. >> sorry, i should have asked. >> we have comparisons for all years. we have so many lines on a graph so i keep at a very simple version, but the key thing here is this was definitely below 2015. the driest year we had; and - >> 2017 (indiscernible) trying to figure out the-obviously it isn't a actual-what are we going to see in the coming months as the summer rolls in? these numbers are very promising, very low and also driven by the fact- >> as part of the next update i can provide a little more insight into how

different wet years have behaved, because they are all different. this one is very striking. i don't recall seeing it stay this way so long. >> okay. and then, i-on the follow up to the conversation we just had with the questions commissioner maxwell, just wondering for the water bank, how does that potentially can sort of be leveraged to release some of the water for -to the river basically? >> well, the water bank in dan pedro basically is water that belongs to the irrigation district. basically we give the water to the irrigation district, they put it in the water bank and take it out of the water bank. >> so we don't have a lot of control over it >> we frankly don't have any

control there. >> okay. it would be good at some point to have conversations around what the different levers we can use to sort of meet our dual goal of water reliability and eco system health and different times. >> i think there are opportunities. we are look forward talking to the districts about power issues as well as water issues and seeing if there are any future agreements that we can come together on that will change maybe both our operations but hopefully beneficial for all. >> okay, that sounds great. colleagues, any other questions for mr. ritchie? go ahead, please. >> about power, the governor just said by a certain-3030, 2030, we will be all electric. wouldn't that be a opportunity for the irrigation districts and all of us for all of us to rethink how we deal

with the power issue, since we all will need it? >> well, i would say my answer to that is one word-batteries. i think battery technology and ability to store power you can generate when you have a lot of water-if you with put that power someplace in a reservoir like we put water in a reservoir, that would be the ideal opportunity there. there may be other things, but i think battery technology is something people have been moving forward on. i know the power enterprise through clean powersf has been investing in battery storage, and i think it is just looking more and more that is the way to go in the future. >> with the irrigation district? >> same with them too. they generate power and they got the same issues we do. >> i am assuming we do optimize on the hours we release power to make sure we capture-sort of

use our water storage as a battery itself. i'msuming we are doing that. >> yeah, we do a lot of that. we also as we get into the summer and you heard testimony on this lately, we have another set of customers who are the rafters on the tuolumne river so how we balance among all those things is one of the challenges we have. >> multiple objectives. one infrastructure, multiple purposes, so that is the word it. thank you mr. ritchie. can we have public comment on this item? [providing instructions for public comment] >> do we have members of the public present to provide comment? seeing none, mr. moderators, any callers with their hands raised? >> madam secretary, there is one caller in the queue. hello

caller, you have two minutes. >> thank you. good afternoon. peter (indiscernible) tuolumne river trust. i saw in the presentation so far this year the sfpu c is entitled to over a million acre feet of water just on the tuolumne and that doesn't include the snow pack. there are 2.7 million acre feet of water equivalent in the snow pack. not all going to turn into run off. some will evaporate and (indiscernible) there will be enough run off to fill an empty don pedro reservoir and empty hetch hetchy reservoir together. lot of water. 17sfpuc was entitled to 3.3 million acre feet. enough water the last more then 14 years. great water rights. even last year which was a dry year you were entitled

to enough water for the watershed to last for the year. the only argument for being so thrifty with the water is the return to the (indiscernible) 8 and a half years, but your long-term vulnerability access ment suggest the odds of that are incredibly small and staff never presented any information or proof from that 3 quarters of a million dollar study that the design drought makes sense. we asked you for many years to discuss the issue, and the timing is right now, because you were to take a year off the design drought which makes tremendous sense, that reduces the amount of alternative water supplies you need to develop and we can have a more accurate alternative water supply plan come july. thank you very

much. >> thank you for your comment. madam secretary, no more callers in the queue. >> thank you, public comment on item 4a is closed. >> madam secretary, just item 4b briefly, commissioners, we had good fortune this morning hosting mayor breed at 525 golden gate for conversation with me in front of employees. it was video streamed to all employees and also in person where i think she was very very appreciative of the great work being done by this commission and our employees and it was i think something that employees appreciated and it was fun, so it was a very nice conversation and we are happy to insure that the puc is doing everything possible to have the mayor reach her policy objectives. that is all i have to report. >> excellent. if no comments

on that, can we have public comment? thank you. [providing instructions for public comment] any members of the public present to provide comment on 4b? seeing none, do we have callers with hands raised? >> there are no callers in the queue. >> thank you public comment on 4b is closed. >> i wanted to ask you mr. herrera, was there any specific policy priorities that the mayor mentioned that we- [multiple speakers] thank you so much. >> how many employees were there? >> that room can hold about 120, so we had about 120 in person and we live-streamed it to everybody that wanted to watch and lasted close to a hour. >> was there a q & a? >> yep. uh-huh. it

was a conversation where i interviewed her and then i took some questions from staff before hand and included in my comments and opened it up to the floor so it was good. >> any questions that you were excited about and wanted to ask and got a exciting response? >> no- >> since (indiscernible) >> it was a very good--i didn't really understand the answer. because i asked okay, if you were going to name one fictional character you could have deputy mayor who would you want and why? she named somebody-who was it? >> (indiscernible) >> john snow. a very important person. come on! game of thrones. >> i said why? she said protect her.

>> that is a good character. has to fight between good and evil and internally and externally. >> we can have you do the next interview and have it be for- (indiscernible) i don't know what [laughter] >> that's very rare. she could have said something i dont know. i'm not a big super hero fan, so i could have totally be oblivious to the topic she would mention. it is a personal situation but thanks for sharing. that is interesting. can we have the next item, please? >> next item is 5. consent calendar. >> colleagues, any items that you would like to pull from the consent calendar or comments you might have? >> commissioners i request that item 5g be severed

from the consent calendar. >> excellent. we'll move the-actually, thank you. we'll take that off consent calendar for now and then colleagues, any other comments on the items between-from 5a, b, c, d, e and f? >> yes. >> you have comment? >> couple questions and couple comments. i have a question on 5b, the security consulting design services contract amendment. i think all of these services that they will be providing are designed and consulting services. they are not actually installing any of the items listed on the scope of services are they?

>> (indiscernible) yes is the answer to design services. >> thank you. and then i have-actually on 5b i wanted to give a thumbs up to both of the consultants for exceeding the lbe goals we have, especially hra hit a pretty significant increase up to 24 percent of lbe. good news so thank you. i have a question also on 5d, the caltrans--for the folsom area storm water improvement project. as i understand the staff item, there was-the reason that there were some unexpected changes needed was because maybe we didn't have

complete details on how their piers are designed and were wider at the bottom then we thought, and i recall from my work in the city attorney's office that sometimes caltrans information was not always clear on city maps or information that was accessible to the city. i had the impression that was also the case here, is that right? >> yeah. derrick adams, the project manager folsom project. that is the case that we initially had dug through caltrans records and did not find the full scope of their piles until we went back later with much more robust search and then discovered it was much larger underground then we had previously suspected. >> thank you. and then i just wanted to comment on 5f, it was really good news to see that there will be a cafe

again in the puc headquarters, it has been empty a long time so that was good news and that was it on consent calendar for me. thank you. >> sure. perfect. i actually also have a question on 5e. i was a little surprised the stone grove-stern grove contract. i was surprised to see some of the work that was done was impacted by the atmospheric river. it was just done and then-i was wondering, was there something we should have considered in the process and we didn't? this is a little disappointing to be honest. i know that storm was a strong one, but i still would have hoped that it would not-hold a little better then what it did.

>> katie miller, manager of water capital programs. we had just hydro seeded, but the hydro seeding hadn't fully taken affect yet. we did have a large amount of top soil on the slope at the request of recreation and parks. in going back and looking at the impact of the storm and the damage that was done, we decided it would be better to put additional structural support for the surface of the bank, and so we have added a layer of 6 inch deep poly ethylene waffle shaped cone system that will cover the bank and provide surface slope stability until the plants can all take place and take root, and so that should give us additional support. yes, going back we do think we probably could have

had more slope support in time for the rains, but this time we'll be ready and the plan is to have all this done before next season's rains s begin. >> okay, just wondering mrs. miller, there are other projects we have around the city, different scopes and situations, but i wonder if we should be more diligent considering how strong the storms are and how we are experiencing these extreme events and the scale we hadn't before. if there are other things we have to do for other projects and maybe in anticipation of next year, maybe hope it will be a wet year again in the moderate way. is there something we have to do? i think it is really good if we can put some time and looking into the projects. i would really-it will be great to not have such items

in our agenda that is you know, that demonstrates the fact that sometimes our designs are not meeting the need of the day anymore. if we are not anticipating these kind of storms, so they are coming. thank you. >> noted and we are looking at this for other, especially where we are doing irrosion repairs as a result of the storm so incorporating the lessens learned from this. >> thank you. i'm also excited about the cafe. that was one of my favorite places when i came to the building, so it is good to see we are going back to somewhat normal life and things are coming back. the only other item i wanted to touch on is the caltrans-the folsom project. just since you brought it up commissioner stacey, i wanted to

reiterate the need and discussion we had last time this item was in front of us, which was, is there a way we can do a little better when it comes to infrastructure maps and where they are and how they are and digitalization of some of those to make sure everybody has access to them and there is a easy way to overlay different designs and different infrastructure and to make sure we are capture these things in the design phase, rather then implementation process. i'm hoping some of the discussions are moving forward and we can avoid these kind of situations in the future. with that, i think-if there are no more questions on these items can i is a motion and second? >> we need public comment. >> sorry! public comment, yes. absolutely. [providing instructions for

public comment] do we have members of the public present comment on 5a-5f? seeing none, any callers with hands raised? >> madam secretary, there is one caller in the queue. >> donna- >> please hold off, we do have one member present to provide comment on consent calendar. >> good afternoon. james mayberry-construction site services. i am addressing 5c for the treasure island wastewater treatment project. my concern is, i know we are addressing the lbe

community, san francisco small businesses, but myself and my colleagues are micro lbe businesses, and we have been waiting for 14b legislation goals to be implemented on a contract. this one being right in our back yard was wondering if those micro lbe goals will be implemented on this opportunity? for san francisco micro-small lbe's. thank you. >> i think staff needs to respond to that. >> i understand-thank you for the public comment. there are other folks with us today on a broader conversation around micro lbe not just lb

ex goals setting so assume there might be other folks who might want to make comment in general public comment but appreciate this about treasure island and the contract is design build, it includes the lbe goals and welcome to take the comment and think what we do from a micro perspective but i understand it is in the contract so larger work around the city and how we do our work in contracting. >> thank you. >> we have other members of the public present to provide comment? >> so, what did that mean as far as the concern? we are meeting the goals, but the micro goals is that something separate from the other? >> thank you. to stay on item 5c professional service contract is owner agent in support of treasure island which helped us as a city get

to the poirnt we are able to let design build contract, which then i understand from the construction perspective has the lbe goals included and that contract (indiscernible) today's item is amendment to the professional service contract for professional services only. >> okay. >> we are not looking at the actual contract. >> i know this is public comment, so i mean, this is public comment on a particular item, but since there has been a little interjection i just want to say that i'm proud of the fact the lbe contingents are always coming up here in compliance and wear the micro lbe issue has risen to the surface because of policy that has been-that has come later since then and assume and hope this commission is going to continue to add that to the layer of contracts that come up

in the future, so i just want to pontificate on that since we opened up this particular item in a particular for the folks that are here talking about this item and in particular and i assume now will also in public comment. i just are wanted to interject even in this little case. thank you. >> thank you. >> if no other commenters in the room, mr. moderator, do we have callers with hands raised? >> madam secretary, there is one caller wishing to be recognized. >> thank you. >> hello caller- >> (indiscernible) speaking on my on behalf. commenting on item 5e stern grove. the stern grove damage was recorded in the media, there was only one media report on merced manner reservoir. for many months, i have past by

murced manner reservoir and seen construction crews. the report stated despite a seismic retrofit in 2004, which included the roof and foundation, there has been falling at various locations on the roof. falling of concrete described as broken off into fragments. the media report alleges this falling in various locations of the roof is due to flaws in the 2004 seismic retrofit. since the hearing (indiscernible) is connected to merced manner reservoir (indiscernible) is connected directly to sunset reservoir, the sunset reservoir being the city largest reservoir, this would appear to be significant. the media report gave note timeframe of estimate to repair the

reservoir. the puc management and commission have both been silent on the issue. (indiscernible) lack of transparency and accountability along with lack of credibility. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. madam secretary, no more callers in the queue. >> thank you public comment on consent calendar 5a-5f is closed. >> colleagues if no more comments or questions can i is a motion and second? >> i move to approve consent calendar items 5a-5f. >> second. >> excellent. can we have roll call, please? [roll call] >> four ayes. >> excellent. madam secretary, please read the next item? >> the next item is

concalendar 5g. excude amendous replacement memorandum of understanding with the san francisco recreation and park department to modify the use in terms of the original mou approved by the commission, amended m orfx u allow the sfpuc to allow electrical facility to serve the sunnydale hope sf project until energyization of new facilities to provide permanent power or until determined no longer needed for this project. >> madam president, i like to request to be excused on 5g. my husband's firm works with mercy housing the affordable housing developer on the hope sf site here and they are also working on a building that is currently under construction at the site. >> they thank you for letting us know. >> thank you.

colleagues, any comments? any questions on this item? if not, can we have public comment on this item, please? [providing instructions for public comment] do we have members of the public present to provide comment on 5g? seeing none, mr. moderator, any callers with hands raised? >> madam secretary, there are no callers in the queue. >> thank you. public comment on 5g is closed. >> colleagues, if there are no questions can i is a motion and second on this item? >> so move.

>> second. >> thank you. can we have roll call, please? [roll call] >> 3 ayes. >> excellent. item passes. going to wait a minute. there we go. madam secretary, we have--sorry for the confusion. there we go. excellent. it is well oiled machine. everything works. [laughter] can we have-please read the next item. >> next item is item

6, public hearing to consider possible action to rescind declaration of local water shortage emergency adopted by the san francisco public utility commission on november 23, 2021 by resolution 21-0177. also impose mandatory temporary drought surcharge for sfpuc retail customers and continue the voluntary system wide water use reduction of 11 percent compared to baseline water use between 2019-2020 consistent with the state water resources control board emergency drought regulation still in effect. >> good afternoon again commissioners. steve ritchie assistant general manager for water. no slides for this. the earlier presentation on the water supply update gave the picture of definitely we are out of the drought with our system and so it is appropriate for the commission to take action to deal with

that. we are recommending this item the commission rescind the declaration of local water shortage emergency adopted back in november 23, 2021. that also imposed a mandatory temporary drought surcharge for retail customers so this action would also in effect eliminate that drought surcharge and i believe it would be effective may 1 to do that. secondly, as i said in the earlier presentation, the governor rescinded his emergency declaration stating that there needed to be people moving to level 2 of the shortage contingency plans. the governor is a powerful person, however the state water board actually adopted the emergency regulations to implement that, so his removal of that requirement does not rescind the state water board action, so we are still

operating under the state water board action, so we can't back away from that necessarily until that action is rescinded or expires, i believe june 10. the state board has said verbally in a public meeting they are not going to enforce that but that isn't as good as eliminating the requirement so the way the item is worded, that action taken by the commission would be rescinded effective when the state water board rescinds their regulations or they expire. answer any questions. >> thank you mr. ritchie. any comments colleagues or questions for mr. ritchie? commissioner stacey. >> thank you. this is not a unexpected move, we have been getting correspondence about eliminating the surcharge, so it is good that is part of this

action. i also hope both san francisco and bosca customers will stay in the habit attempting to conserve water. this has been a bonus year for water, it is good to be in the habit of using less so hope that continues. >> absolutely. we continue with our messaging that water is too valuable to waste. >> perfect. commissioner paulson. >> there is a history of disasters or emergencies making people want to be more diligent coming up with either temporary or long-term policies and this seems to fit one of the coggs in the general policy making that comes around natural disaster s and so this is a good example i guess i can say of something where you don't say that-don't quit crying wolf so to speak or talking how bad things are, but at the same time, you are totally managing it as things happen both

politically and with the general state of weather and natural events. i just think this is the way to be parsing things just not throwing the baby out with the bath water. this is good policy and reactive at the same time. thank you. >> thank you mr. ritchie. colleagues, any other comments, questions? if not, can we have public comment please? [providing instructions for public comment] any members of the public present to comment on item 6? seeing none, mr. moderator, do we have callers with their hand raised? >> madam secretary, there is one caller wishing to be recognized. hello caller, you have two minutes. >> good afternoon commissioners. i'm

tom francis, water resource manager for bosca who supports today's proposed action to rescinds the declaration of water supply emergency. also aware the proposed (indiscernible) 11 percent voluntary reduction of water use and moreover the proposed action would remove that call when and if the state board removes the requirement or those rules expire in june. bosca (indiscernible) today's proposed action allows for the elimination of voluntary less then (indiscernible) without a subsuquent action by the commission [difficulty hearing speaker due to audio quality] on their engagement efforts, with our member agencies as well as bosca during the drought emergency. note our member agencies will continue to call for the wide use of

water even though the rules passed by the sfpuc commission will no longer be in place. (indiscernible) prepare a comprehensive drought report later this year, which will take a close look at the actions and measures taken by our member agencies, as wem as the actions by the sfpu c and the state to record not only what happened during the drought but how effective there conservation measures have been. >> thank you publux comment on item 6 is closed. >> excellent. if there are no more comments or questions can i have a motion and second on this item? >> move to approve. >> second. >> can we have roll call, please? [roll call]

three ayes. >> item passes. thank you. could you- >> sorry. >> four ayes. >> yes. >> thank you. >> can we have the next item, please? >> item 7, authorize the general manager to implement program changes to the san francisco public utility commission water and wastewater customer assistance program, two suspend late payment charge policy for single family residential customers and three, implement updated policy for liens with delegated authority to the general manager to determine the eligibility and engagement criteria for this policy. >> slides, please. may i have the slides, please? thanks. good afternoon commissioners. michael pearl steen,

project manager here to plent resolution to update the pu crurks customer assistance program and policy for water and wastewater customers. p in 2012, california became the first state to declare water to be a human right and three years ago this commission fallowed suit. affirming water is human right as part of the racial justice resolution. at that time we were taking steps to insure san franciscans kept their water on and over inlast 3 years extended the programs multiple times as families continue to struggle to recover from covid impacts. #50e67 time the programs were extended it was reminder people need water and didn't want to withhold from people struggling to pay. the last of the covid programs the moratorium on shut off and liens for residential customers is going to end july 1 and when it does households still struggling to keep up with bills are going to be at risk of losing their water service or having a

lien placed on the home. the policy we present today are meant at protection for those customers so people still struggling don't center to make the hard choice between keeping their water on or putting food on the table or roof over their head. these propozals are result of a lot of research and are analysis over the last couple years in which time we have conducted a demographic analysis supported by consultant, collected customer feedback through rate survey, (indiscernible) ran our own small pilot program to test discount program structures and heard directly from cusmers what their needs are. a few x.s of what we learned is potentially a quarter or more customers struggle to pay bills in full every month or have to make trade-offs in other costs to do so. we also learn san francisco households earning up to 80 percent of ami or sometimes more can still struggle to cover essential cost after taxes and

housing and healthcare even with that income. importantly we also saw that providing increasedsistence to customers can lead to more engagement and are revenue collection for the pu c so people are trying to make it work in difficult times but may need a hand. lastly, also seen customers assistance for low income customers tracks with racial equity goals. a couple ecwoo ago put out a report oto show the medium house hold income for black and latinx is less then 80 percent. we know there is need for more assistance for low income customers and think these proposals will not only be impactful for them, but actually put the pu c at the forefront of what it means for water to be a human right. these policies are first to increase the maximum eligible income and increasing the assistance provided to lowest

income customers. second, to eliminate late charges for single family residential customers. to exempt low income customers from shut-off and liens for at least one year and general manager approved $8 million annually in support of discount programs. i'll touch on late fees here. there is a growing body of research which suggest late fees are not only in effective for on-time payment and likely supress participation. for that reason eliminating them is grower trend and there are a number of institutions increased engagement and are revenue collection as a result of that. i want to talk about who these programs are designed for. it is no secret that it is hard to make ends meet in san francisco. to reflect that we used ami rather then poverty level to reach houses who need help in our local

context. the income designation you see on the slide as tiers of medium income are from the federal department of housing and urban development and used by the local housing programs because they reflect our local economic realities. that end, as mentioned, we know from research i common sense in san francisco even houses earning up to 80 percent sometimes more have trouble paying for essential cost. we heard from a single parent of 3, 2/3 of income goes towards paying for rent and have to stretch the rest to cost and that earns 80 percent ami. so, these are the households we are trying to reach. our most vulnerable community members try toog make it work in san francisco but may need a hand because we dont want the inability to pay for water to be the reason somebody can't cook dinner or bathe their children or wash their hands. this policy would change the maximum income from 200 percent of federal poverty

level to 50 percent ami. the policy would also establish two tiers of discounts with more assistance for lower income households. very low income customers the group on the right of the slide will continue to receive 25 percent discounts which is what we offer in our existing program. while the extremely low income 0-30 percent ami is eligible for 40 percent discount. in addition to these program changes, the policy exempt lowest income customers being subject to shut-off or lien. we have a process engaging with customers behind on bills where we send several notices over a month prior to shut off and over the last several months the customer service team is doing outreach to try to if gauge with them. this policy build on the existing practices by providing protection for customers who are still struggling to keep up after all the eremindsers and

this is a attempt to embodyy and implement water is a human right by keeping the water on. who would be eligible for this program? first, would be customers with income less then 50 percent ami. those very low income groups who are already enrolled in the discount program and that is because-they are eligible as of july 1 because we know what their incomes are. the second group are customers within that same income bracket not yet enrolled in the discount program. they are eligible once we finished building out the process to collect and protect the sensitive information we need in order to determine their eligibility and to be able to engage with them as they become at risk. finally, cust omers 50-80 percent ami will be eligible for exemption if they meet certain criteria. we know it can hard to pay your

bills at this income level so customers in this range will be eligible if they are experiencing a circumstance which makes it hard to afford their bills or put a vulnerable resident at risk if water were to be disconnected from the home. if the resolution is approved the policy would be in place at least a year and analyze the impact and come back with a data driven recommendation whether to continue or amend the policy. we summarized the three policy changes in this table broken out by how they impact each income categories across the top. you see in the first row there are 2 tiers of discounts available to very and extremely low house holds and second row all single family customers are exempt from late payment charges and the bottom row, once all the processes are in place, very and extremely low income house holds and are those experiencing those circumstances would be

exempt from shut off or lien. if you approve the policy july 1 the 2 tier discount program goes into effect. late charges will not be turned on for single family customers and customers in the discount program will be eligible for the exempt shut off or lien if behind on bills. we are working to implement the policy not already enrolled in discounts and after the processes are finalized and policy is in place for at least a year we will come back with the data driven recommendation whether to continue or amend the policy. thank you very much for your time and happy to take any questions. >> colleagues, any questions? i have a question. go ahead commissioner. >> thank you for that. good work. i'm just concerned that we look at that amount of money, 48 thousand, that is not a lot of money and we are looking at a lot of

people who are seniors and really are struggling. i got a call from a neighbor about that we are going up on our bills and i said yes. she said how are other people like dora, she doesn't-her husband died and i was able to talk about this program and what we are doing, so i think it is very important. again, my concern is once you do the study, do you think $8 million is really going to be enough? >> thank you for the question. it is a good one. the first thing i'll say, we know this isn't a perfect program. we are making a change from the paradigm we have been in the for last many years for the discount program into the new landscape of customer assistance and know off the bat there are people who we are not reaching and who are and may need more help. we designed the program

based on it studies in a way we have maximum ability to bring people in who are eligible and start to reach them and get them into the fold. our hope them is once this is implemented and we can do that study that we can grow the program and start to see ways it could be effective and the way it impacts the custer ams and find opportunities to continue to help people so the $8 million is based on program design and best forecast and estimate this is this design we felt a responsible first step from the old paradigm to the new one. >> i have--i would also like to see, if we should apply this to people above 80 percent, because above 80 percent is not a lot of money and our studies when you come back, i like to see how we can do that. we will be going a big rate increase and so for me

that's my concern is that we don't lose people that are struggling. and so that i would like to see if we could what would happen if we did increase that. and also, if we increase the levels of discount. 25 percent on a huge bill is not a lot, and if you have a week that you dont know about, that can be really huge, so i think it is important that we try to look at what we can do even-because this is not what we are talking about is really really really low low income. >> yeah. agreed. thank you. >> commissioner stacey. >> thank you. i just wanted to endorse the concept of the customer assistance program. i are think it is a really important role and responsibility for the city to undertake and i also

really appreciate that you will continue-we will all continue to look at how to make the program work better and some of commissioner maxwell's ideas would be useful to at least hear information about and to think about how to evolve the program. i do have to admit the elimination of late payments even for the higher income single family household sticks in my craw a little bit, but i accept you looked at the studies and you think this is the most effective way of implementing that, so thank you for working on the customer assistance program. >> thank you. >> so, first of all, i want to say this is a very important program and we are one of the cities in the state who have figured how to do this, because it is not a very common thing in the water sector, just because of various limitations

that we have, regulatory regulations we have so i'm a big fan of this effort. second thing i want to say is, the fact we are moving away from the poverty line, 2 and a half poverty line that epa has, it is a great thing, because it just doesn't fully capture the diversity that we have across the country. doesn't really capture the financial situation people are in, depending where you are. i think your graphical differences are quite real and i think san francisco is a great example of that. so, i'm really appreciative how much effort you put into creating this program that is a little bit more flexible, looks at this a little bit more in a

distribution way weather then a one single tresh hold. all great. one thing i want to say on the comment that commissioner maxwell brought up, not fully related but a got a call from a dear friend who had a leak and got a call from sfpuc day into the leak asking them to shut off their water because there is a leak. big shout out to the ami program advance metering program we have that is creating these alerts and hopefully helping people to not deal with payment or late payment because of leaks. those are all great things. the only thing-couple things i want to say though. one is, you mentioned

something on single parent with three children and i think that is an little issue when you deal with families-you can have two income households, but there are multiple children, multiple people involved in the house hold and that kind makes this-these numbers are little bit more problematic. i imagine people might come to you and say, i'm right off the 80 percent, but we are bigger household, we have more needs. i are assume there is some flexibility there as case by case depending what happens. the second thing i want to say is, i can't remember and maybe mrs. hill can remind me or maybe you know this, do we-on the electric side, are we the ones who operate our

low income assistant program or is it pg&e that manages that program? >> barbara mail, assistant general man. hetch hetchy power side where we operate the publicly owned utility we have full autonomy and operate the customer assistance programs for those customers. for clean powersf, because those custer customers are also pg&e customers the programs are tied so we have less autonomy. >> the only reason i ask, are there savings or opportunities for us to combine some of these programs? maybe minimize the requirements on customers because they potentially have to submit something for power and are then have to submit something for water, so is there a way to bring them together and they can submit one application and can go to

both? >> eel i'll start and surrending to mr. pearlsteen to finish. not for the clean power sf program, but yes for the hetch hetchy power program. when you look on our website and you see the customer assistance program, the frequently ask question for the wastewater, water and hetch hetchy power customers assistance program, those answers are all the same today. they won't be with the changes that we are hearing about today, but we have done a lot to try to make it easier on the customer from the information hurdle standpoint. some of the challenges though that are the more difficult challenges for customers are the income eligibility criteria, and we have not applied the same income eligibility paperwork piece, the criteria were the same

historically, but now the paperwork piece wasn't combined largely because the account holders don't always match. right? in the single family-sorry, in a multi-family building, the electric customers are metered and water customers aren't so we have a mismatch we are not able to overcome because the account holders are not the same. >> right. i do appreciate that. i think one of the things on the multi-family is also on a larger buildings, sometimes water is included as part of the hoa or the rent people pay, so that is a difficulty there. in the smaller multi-units it is different issue. on the single family homes i think-i would like for us to think about how we can streamline this and people need to do less

paperwork and be able to receive services. obviously people have multiple jobs, work long hours, have a lot of demand on their time so if we can minimize that would be a great service to them and great service to ourselves because we minimize the processing and administrative time and effort. >> we completely appreciate that. certainly on the power side with our hetch hetchy power customers assistance program where we serve for example public housing. those units we rely extensively together with the customer service bureau on the property manager representations. if that resident qualifies to live there, that resident qualifies for the program. so that is the kind of steps we have taken on the hetchy power side, and

i'll surrender to address the rest. the other thing i say too commissioner, dont forget for hetchy power we dont serve that many single family residential. that's where most of our clean powersf customers are and where we are tied at the hip with pg&e program and have less autonomy. >> sure. >> not much to add, other then coordinating our programs with pg&e programs is complicated so we do as much as we can to hand people back and forth to the different applications for the programs run by different entities. >> right. there might be opportunities to see what they are requiring for that and then maybe people can use the same application. i know the requirements are different, but at least the application and the requirements on the items they have to submit or something might be- >> make sure people don't have to dig up a different pile of documents? >> exactly. that might be helpful. being creative is

great. we do appreciate it. thank you so much for all your hard work. commissioner maxwell. >> i just wanted to (indiscernible) business services and (indiscernible) as part of this program, we have a partnership with the controller's office to bring on a post enrollment consultant that also look at the eligibility program and how we are determining eligibility and so i appreciate your comments here and it gives me ideas what we might want to bring up later in the program and leverage what we have learned and gotten across the program and also the power enterprise as well. >> that's great. fantastic. i want to also say, this whole thing, the fact we are going to gather data and revisit is also quite wonderful because we want to make sure we are adaptive and can adjust as we learn and make this program even

better. commissioner maxwell. >> just wanted to say, with that when we review it next year, you will have all of that work done and maybe let us know about what the consultant came up? >> yes, that is there intent. >> great. >> i have a question qu for you. you mentioned you will be looking at criteria, when is that going to happen? >> as soon as possible. we are working on it now and (indiscernible) >> so, this program takes place when? >> on july 1 that is when the program will be in place for customers already in the discount program and then as soon as we roll out the rest of the criteria it takes effect. >> okay. the sooner you get it, the earlier people can enroll and have take advantage? >> because the programs (indiscernible) as those are developed as people become at risk of shut off or lien because behind on bills we can encourage them to apply to the program

which would get them- >> i think what i also appreciate about the program is that people have to be involved. they have to have a dialogue ongoing dialogue with us and i think that is extremely important and keeps people feeling that they have a partner. i also think it is a great idea the fees and the liens, because once you get them it starts the ball rolling and look around and you couldn't-the fees are more then the bill so that makes a lot of sense to do that. thank you. >> excellent. thank you so much. obviously we are very excited about this program and we are fully supporting you and the team as you are rolling out this effort. can we have public comment on this item please? [providing instructions for

public comment] do we have members of the public present to provide comment on item 7? seeing none, mr. moderator, any callers with hands raised? >> madam secretary, there are nocallerss in the queue. >> thank you. >> thank you once again commission. great program. i am a been benefactor of the program. i grew up in bayview hunter point, able to study and acquire my own contractor license which i'm now certified micro lbe in the city. me and my colleagues here, all micros. direct trickle down of low income and under-served communities. we are grassroots. we kind of are

connected to some of the individuals on the program, the same as we all were once upon a time. with the implementation of the 14b micro lbe goals on the puc projects it allows us to go in the communities and grab young and men and women and hire them so they too can maybe prosper, become nurses or something else. scientist and move on and grow from the benefactor of that program, and benefactor of the cmd's, lbe micro program. just in teamwork makes the dream work. we are requesting that the commission on the new roll out packages that are coming out, if you could kind of raise some of the micro goals so we would be sought after by the general contractors. thank

you. >> we have other members of the public present to provide comment, please come to the microphone. mr. moderator, any callers with their hand raised? >> madam secretary, there are no callers in the queue. >> thank you, public comment on item 7 is closed. >> thank you. can i have a motion and second if there are no more questions on this item? >> move to approve. >> second. >> can we have roll call, please? [roll call] >> four ayes. >> excellent. item passes. thank you. can we have the next item, please? >> item 8, public hearing to consider and possible action to adopt rules and regulations for the implementation of the social impact partnership program in conformance with requirements of

charter section 4.104 effectsive april 22, 2023. >> may i have the slides? great. good afternoon commissioners. my name is valerie (indiscernible) the manager for the social impact partnership program. first i like to thank you for honor the ancestor of the land. here with my colleague julia deputy director of community benefit. planning to copresent today, however she is recovering from a cold but will be available to assist if there are questions after the presentation. i ask for your grace as i will need to lean on our notes. today we are very pleased to be here to present the social impact partnership rules and regulations for adoption. first, we like to provide you with recap of the key approvals the

program achieved. as you recall last october, this commission authorize the program and requested the general manager seek formal authorization from the board of supervisors as well as develop rules and regulations for the program. last december all 11 members of the board of supervisors cosponsored and passed ordinance authorizing sfpuc program approved by the mayor of san francisco. the social impact ordinance will go into effect on april 22, 2023. consistent with your direction and requirements of the ordinance, we will present to you the proposed sip program rules and reg ulations for approval so the program can be immediately implemented on the operative date. next we would like to offer a quick reminder and summary of our agency guiding policies. we were the first utility then country to adopt a environmental

justice policy back in 2009 nearly 14 years ago. this policy was intended to prevent, mitigate and lessen disproportionate environmental impacts on communities. this also directs the puc to work with stakeholder to partner in neighborhoods and communities. 2011 the commission adopted community benefit policy to proactively serve and promote partnership with neighborhoods and communities and to insure that benefits are shared across all communities. then all most three years ago in july 2020 this commission adopted a racial justice policy to address the racial and social inequities and promote equity and inclusion through among other things sfpuc contracting practices. informed by the environmental justice policy and implement the directives of the community benefits and

racial justice policies, the social impact partnership program invites firms to voluntarily make commitments to the contracting process which they deliver during the term of their contract. these voluntary commitments can and do make meaningful and positive impacts in local communities where our contracts are. next, we like to share a braef update on progress. at the very foundation every sip action leads to transparency and accountability. we have made tremendous strides in the past year and a half. it is a collaborative team effort to create, develop and improve many systems that impact sip such as data, governance, programmatic upgrades and program controls. i would like to highlight just a few on the slide. we have standardized firm commune caishz. we have improved review and verification of sip reporting to insure accuracy

transparency and accountability. we are streamlining and improving data systems both internal and external use. we have improved internal coordination with puc staff and project managers and most of all, we launched a public interactive dashboard on the sfpuc website which captures all sip commitments, current status, every contract and every beneficiary. with the purpose of maximizing transparency and accountability. this leads to the main purpose of today which is present to you proposed rules and regulations for your consideration and adoption. these rules and regulations start with definition section that defines key terms of the program such as definition of beneficiary and covered contract. rule 2 provides general information on the program. for example, it states the contractors

must identify beneficiaries on their own without any direction from city employees officers or commissioners. it describes the public dashboard and purpose and function. it explains prime contractors are responsible for the delivery of sip commitments and this responsibility cannot be passed to the subcontractors. rule 3 covers the competitive selection process for all solicitations containing sip requirements. it describes the contractors that wish to voluntarily propose sip commitments must outline their commitment in detail. for example, they need to identify the total amount of financial contributions and/or voluntary hours they wish to make under which program areas. they also need to identify key program personnel who oversee the delivery of their commitments. lastly, it describes the scoring process which concludes a evaluation panel to

score proposals as well as describes the application of bonus points. rule 4 of the rules and regulations addresses sip program requirements. it describes how the program will implement modifications to contracts, it reviews the requirements for submitting work plans, which must outline contractors beneficiaries and how they deliver commitments over the course of their contract. it dus cuss benchmarks at 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent benchmarks insuring delivering commitments on pace with completion of their contract. it describes contractors reporting requirements which entail biannual reports with official documentation which is monitored and verified by sip staff. rule 5 describes enforcement, outlining the determination of non compliance at each performance benchmark. each benchmark entails

greater remedies at the discretion of the sfpuc starting with the requirement to submit corrective action plan then withholding payments and ultimately towards the end of the contract the assessment of actual and are liquidated damages and the denial of bonus points in future contracts. it also describes the appeal process for determinations of non compliance. the last rule 6 is exemptions and wavers to sip program requirements. rule 6 outlines categories of contracts exempt from sip such as as needed public work construction contracts and certain types of electricity purchase contracts. in addition, the commission may or approve exemption or waver of specific contracts per determination by our general manager. ultimately our goal for the sip program rules and regulations is to insure interested parties such as contractors participating in sip beneficiaries and puc staff

are provided a clear, consistent and comprehensive set of rules to enforce the program with upmost efficiency, transparency and accountabilities. through this we aim to maximize the potential of the sip program to create positive community impact and part nership with the private sect. this concludes the presentation for today, thank you for your time and would be happy to answer any questions you may have. thank you. >> thank you so much. colleagues, any questions, comments on this program? commissioner stacey. >> thank you. i think i may have raised this question before and i didn't see anything on the dashboard. is there any public feedback on the programs themselves, the beneficiaries who receive money or assistance from the contractors? is there

any public feedback on how that particular program worked or how the beneficiaries implemented the program for which they received money? >> i will say there is no formal process for public feedback, however we do receive feedback in different ways. we meet sometimes the beneficiaries contact us and let us know how appreciative they are of the program. as you noticed at the last commission meeting there were lots of public comments supporting the program directly from beneficiaries and contractors. we do have a contractor convening annually where we do get feedback from the contractors but that is something that i as the new manager for the social impact partnership is very important to have that communication with beneficiaries. >> i'll add a comment, which is that firms are also required to submit annual news

letter where they highlight the benefits of beneficiaries work and are what they have done and show pictures so show the story what took places and dollars and volunteer time went to. >> can i ask a follow-up question about that? do the news letter appear on the puc website? did i miss that? >> yes. we do have a updated social impact website and links to news letter and news articles. yes. >> great. thank you. >> thank you. >> commissioner maxwell. >> thank you. along with that, it seems it would be a good idea for beneficiaries to also have a opportunity to talk about the benefits. and it seems that is just as important as those who are doing-who the contractors. i think- >> i agree with you supervisor maxwell. >> we need to figure a

way to do that. also on the exemptions, is there a formal way you go about under these circumstances you are exempt? do we have any process in which a person goes through-somebody would go through to get exemption? say like barbara hale talks about purchase agreement, power. that makes sense. it is a purchase. maybe under those circumstances, but it seems to me there should be a way to look and say that falls into where we got it and that does and that does so that there is some basic criteria for exemption. >> i think we have outlined that as needed public construction contract professional service contract and couple electricity contracts we identified those 4 and we are as soon as this is adopted it becomes the

rules and regulations and we have to seek further improvement and also further processes. >> okay. i guess my-- >> if i might commissioner, if you notice in the categories there are categories exempted and then there is a separate exemption where the general manager would have to come before this commission and make a finding that there was a-operational or financial need that there-i have to make that case to you that there is a operational or financial need in order for exemption outside the specified contracts. >> i guess what i'm thinking is that, there is a basic reason why you have exemptions, right? under those circumstances if purchase agreement orening some, i am looking for more detail and there is some things-some places where they all may have one thing

in common. i just feel like your document is solid as your exemptions. the holes in it. i just want to make sure this is tight and people understand this isn't something you just go and do. if you come to us with a exemption you have to have something tight and follows certain rules and regulations. i guess that is what i'm looking for. >> yes. >> in case we are not here. somebody else is here, they need to be able to follow. >> correct. i think i can speak to two specifically of the exemptions and that's the as needed and when the commission awards a contract and that particular contract doesn't meet that award amount, they may request exemption to have proration of their sip commitments, so that might be one example of exemption and i'll turn it over to

barbara hale with a potential power exemption. >> people seem to find loop holes. i just want to make sure our loop holes are- >> barbara hale assistant general manager for power. i think there may be a important point to make here, which is, the people who would be coming before you asking for exemption are not the county party to the contract. they are us . >> right. i'm aware of that . >> the limited specified exemptions and wavers in rule 6 is the universe at this point, any expansion of that would have to go through the general manager i believe as he just described and come to the commission. i think it is a pretty lock down exemption process. >> good. i appreciate that. >> if i might commissioner maxwell, that is why it specified in there. i wanted standards and talked about a financial or

operational impact that would be the standard by which-i couldn't come before you or anybody else couldn't come before you for any other reason other then documenting a significant financial operational need for it. >> there we go, significant. what is that? how do we grade what is significant to you and what is maybe significant to us as far as financially? >> you have the opportunity to reject the exemption. who ever the general manager is would obviously in order for them to come before you have to determine in their opinion that it was had a negative financial impact or operational importance. you are always free to disagree with that and the general manager would not have the opportunity to implement without the commission approval. ultimately that decision is yours. >> thank you

commissioner. i'll continue to work on that. >> thank you. >> couple things at my end. maybe it goes back to what you mentioned, but i'm hoping because this is a dashboard that will gather data and we have a opportunity to go back and revisit and see what works and didn't work we have a chance to adjust our program as needed or potentially revisit the rules. obviously there are opportunities to go back and see if things need some tightening or broadening as we see how they work out. i really actually the items list said under the exemption they made a lot of sense to me personally because we are also want to make sure we focus on-we have these rules but should not impact some of the core operational processes that we have to go through

as you are dealing with power purchase or other things that are very much core to our function, the day to day function. that's one thing. another thing i want to say, going back to earlier comment you made and the comment that came up by my colleagues, the feedback loop we talk about. i wonder, there is one thing that we talk about social benefits, there is another thing to identify those and are be able to have a running list of what counts as a social benefit and what do people really want, versus what we are willing to give to them and count as a social benefit? that feedback loop can always help us figure out we have done x, y, z but people want a, b, c. i wonder if there is a way for us to potentially

create through the listening sessions or when contractors work with communities to have a way of gathering that information. obviously they highlight their projects they have done or work they have done in their news letter that we have, but they are also potentially data or information gathered that can inform next project, next contract. i wonder if there is a way for us to be able to create a running list of that and be able to adjust our programs regarding-related to those that kind of information. >> thank you commissioner. definitely going to take back with the team to figquer figure how to get more feedback. i wanted to share two things. we are collecting key performance indicators which help us measure our social impact and so we are becoming much more tighter in

that particular area, and then also just for your knowledge, we are looking to within the next months to a year have a public registry where 501c3s can actually register and they can tell us the programs that they are seeing in the community needs and so we are hoping to have that registry where we also get information from the community. >> that's excellent. thank you. commissioner paulson. >> thank you very much for both of you for the road map you just presented today. it seemed very clear and bulleted out so i really appreciate that and i also noticed in your presentation that sort of a rare thing, not completely rare, but rare enough from my experience looking you had 11, not 9, 10, 2 or 5, but 11 cosponsors of the board of supervisors to move these issues forward, so again, thank you for very clear

outline of something i think we can be proud of and obviously organic as the questions go and move nothing to the future to promote this program, so thank you very much. >> thank you commissioner. >> excellent. if no more questions or comments, we appreciate all your hard work. can we have public comment on this item, please? [providing instructions for public comment] >> do we have members of the public to comment? seeing none, mr. moderator, any callers with their hand raised? >> there are no callers wishing to be recognized at this time. >> thank you. public comment on item 8 is closed. >> excellent. if there are no more comments or questions, can i have a motion and second on this item, please?

>> move to approve. >> second. >> excellent cht can we have roll call, please? [roll call] four ayes. >> wonderful. item passes. this is exciting. two items back to back all focused on community and access and affordability and everything that is good and mighty so thank you so much. could you please read the next item please? >> next item is 9, approve new water infrastructure finance invasion act master loan agreement with united states environmental protection agency in amount up to 791 million, 337 thousand, 456 and subloan agreement fwr draw down of 369 million, 335 thousand 21 under the master agreement to provide partial funding for

projects in the wastewater enterprise capital plan. >> slides, please. thank you. loans and grants director and going to be presenting with (indiscernible) the capital finance director both under nancy (indiscernible) business services. the item before you today is is approve a master loan agreement with the epa for a loan of $791 million. and also a subagreement, the project loan agreement for $369 million under the master agreement to provide partial funding for projects in the wastewater capital plan. i'm going to talk briefly about the two loans and explain the

financial terms and how that fits into the wastewater financing plan. the water infrastructure finance invasion act. it is a loan program under the epa that funds water and wastewater projects. sfpuc has two. a biosolid project being funded through it and also the headworks project. and both of those have a 1.45 interest rate. we originally executed the biosolid loan in 2018 at 3.09 and then adjusted that interest rate down to 1.45 because we hadn't drawn on the loan yet. we may adjust the interest rate for headworks in the future since we haven't had a draw down on that either. so we started talking to epa back in 2020 when we were closing the headworks loan about a third loan and this

loan is different then the other two because it is programmatic. it has multiple projects versus just one. we went through the competitive process over the past couple years, we were selected, we negotiated and we are here now april 2023 asking you to approve the master agreement and the first subagreement. we anticipate that we'll come back in 2024 and maybe 2025 for 1 to 2 more subagreements under this master. as mentioned this is new for epa. it is a programmatic approach that funds multiple projects under a master agreement that commits funding under this umbrella agreement with the general terms and conditions. this will be $791 million and then when the projects are ready for construction, we then obligate funds under these

bundled sub-agreements. the terms and conditions of the umbrella agreement or master agreement are essentially the same as the biosolds and headworks loans you already have. and as i said, this first subagreement is for a bundle of projects. there are 6 projects and they are $369 million worth of loanfunding that would go to this. that is 49 percent of eligible cost of these projects and then might combine with them state revolving funds in the future, we have applications in for some of these. once you all approve the master and the first subagreement we'll insure compliance with the ongoing administration loan requirements that come with these wifia funds similar to headworks and biosolid loans we already have. it includes site visit, reporting and we have done this before and prepared to do those again with epa. there is also

financial noticing, which is similar to our bond noticing and will tell you more about the financial requirements. >> are thank you. good afternoon commissioners. pleasure to be back in front of you. two weeks ago we were before you with about a billion dollars of new money and refinancing bonds, and what is interesting about this transaction that is before you is this is a subset of the overall program specifically 6 climate resilience projects that are going to take advantage of our same revenue bond structure but with a friendly buyer, namely the epa and under particularly favorable terms. when we were before you two weeks ago that was the 15

supplemental, this is the 16 supplemental indenture securing these bonds. they are key elements to these transactions. a key element is that, the rate isn't determined based on going out into the market place and finding buyers, we have our buyer and it is a define d rate based on what are known as u.s. treshly slugs, state and local government obligations and one basis point about that based on the askerage life of the borrowing so at the time we provided you these slides that was about a 4.046 percent rate. you recall when we spoke two weeks ago we talked how volatile the markets are. fortunately as of today that rate would be 3.61 percent, so considerably lower. of course that rate won't be

determined until we close the financing following your approval. another key element of the wifia program is the long-term that they allow, 35 years, and they are very generous as well with the capitalized interest that they permit, because these are not tax exempt obligations, they are benefiting from the low interest rate from the treasury rather then our ability to issue a tax exempt bond. this transaction was part of the capital plan presented to you in september. there we go. and it is part of our overall strategy mitigating the impact of the $4.1 billion of borrowing that is in our 10 year plan by taking advantage of state and local low

interest cost loans and throughout this we are maintaining our high double aa ratings. what is particularly interesting about the wifia program is not simply that it is a favorable rate. in fact, all the borrowing we do is favorable rate whether tax exempt revenue bonds, state loans or federal loans. what is particularly interesting about this is that they allow us to lock in that rate when we enter the loan, and are there is how we drive our maximum benefit, and i'll show you that in a moment. they allow us to differ the principle and as alex ria alluded to we have taken advaptage of the one time adjustment we make on our past loans and on these loans we will have that same ability to make a one time adjustment

prior to actually drawing on the loan. so, very quickly, last time we were together, i mentioned normally we would expect interest rates to be higher, the longer we go out. currently we are in what is known as inverted yield curve situation because the federal government is trying to raise interest rates, they do that at the short end, so short rates are much higher then longer rates and we have this unusual circumstance. so, this graph quickly shows you the comparison between how wifia and bonds price in the market as we describe two weeks ago, when we issue bonds we are essentially issuing bonds at different rates for each maturity of bonds as we amortize 1 year, 2, 3 years each have the

individual rate. the wifia loan is a single rate. let's take a example how that plays out in the real world. alexandria mentioned in 2018, we locked in that borrowing, dark green at 3.08 percent interest rate. it was subsequentially renegotiated to a 1.45 percent rate, but we hadn't drawn on that until this past month, so this past month while rates have been high, we were able to borrow long-term at a 1.45 percent rate, and therein is part of the value derived. the second part, because the wifia is amortized long, we were able to structure the new bond, the dark blue very short and when

come with a good faith estimate, 3.35 percent, the actual all in rate was 3.09 percent, the bond priced last week, close next week and after the closing we will provide you a full report on the bond financing as well as the wifia loan when that closes mpt. finally, there is a good faith estimates as required under state law but as indicated the rate is lower and happy to answer any questions. >> thank you. commissioner paulson. >> i have two. one is, has to do the second to last thing you said, we have a crack at one more adjustment. could you flush that out more? is that if there is ability to be lower we can take it and that's the one time adjustment we would have the opportunity to have or is it more complicated then that? >> that is essentially how it works. under that first loan,

we now borrowed under that-we already taken adjustment, so we don't have the ability to make further adjustments there. the second loan that we haven't drawn on, we still have that opportunity to make an adjustment if rates go down. now,currently the rate is 1.45 and you see that current rates are much higher, but should they go below 1.45 we have that opportunity as long as we haven't drawn on it. >> you make that adjustment when you think you need to draw on it, or-okay. >> or when it is strategically advantageous to make the adjustment. >> my second piece, when this is connect to epa there are other requirements just like the city has requirements for contracting and i did see the piece about steel. is the buy american when there is a infrastructure project the only steel we can purchase is

american made steel? is that a detail involved in that? >> it is. >> any other similar type requirement that might be constricting on construction basis? >> it is. the american steel is the current requirement that is on the biosolds and the headworks loan. what rolled out recently is the build america buy america, which covers more then just steel. a larger variety of products. wifia has adjustment period waver that was approved. that allows for projects in design planning as of may 14 of last year, to have a waver on the build america buy america. american iron and steel will still apply. the majority of the projects we have under our master agraument and under the first project agreement all fall under the waver

that will require them to be american iron and steel compliant but not build america buy america compliant. >> i understand that. i was reminded something pre-pandemic when the transbay-joint power, the transit center what is not new but the new transit center 5, 6 years ago had a crack in the steel that slowed it down quite a while and everybody went crazy because it was built wrong, designed wrong, none of that was true when it was all came out it was like a pre-pandemic supply chain issue and they had to buy steel from multiple different companies for the same type of spot and the amount of testing and coordination thats had to be done by having to have that requirement made the construction a little more

difficult. slowed things down a little bit, but wasn't the horrible story so reminded of the restrictions that impact the infrastruck. we can't do this and why it will take a extra year before the stuff gets in or whatever the requirement is. thank you for reminding me of that. >> sure. i'll just say the same rules apply to the state revolving fund loans we have over a dozen of those and (indiscernible) does incredible job of coordinating and making sure that they know ahead of time what those requirements are and working with their contractors and supply chains to insure compliance that doesn't impact schedule or budget. >> thank you. on the-i have a question about the whole readjusting one more time. on the new one, the wifia 3, a and b, so right now the

rate we have is 4.046 percent so that also if by the time we start drawing the rates go down we'll have another chance to readjust that as well, right? >> let me be sure to clarify that. we have not yet set the rate for the third loan. >> we have not. >> that will occur when we close the loan. >> you mentioned. >> the 406 when we needed to submit the package for this meeting, but actual rates currently are lower and if they stay lower we will have very favorable rates. >> do we have another chance to adjust as well? >> yes. that is the initial rate and then we have a opportunities if rates in the future go down and that's while we can do refinancings of bonds this is a much more flexible

way of adjusting the rate. >> and then are there like costs involved in refinancing or readjusting these rates or is it like a ev process? >> not fees for the actual transaction, but for our advisors there are of course legal and advisory- >> of course. i'm still waiting for the presentation you gave last week. somehow popped up on linked in, but i didn't get the chance to look at so please do send that to us. >> happy to share the slides. unfortunately it isn't a recorded presentation. >> that is okay, we can walk through the slides. thank you so much. thank you. colleagues, any other questions? if not-commissioner stacey. >> i really wanted to acknowledge and appreciate what a important tool all

of these financing are in the effort to keep rates low and really appreciate all the work and thought that goes into the financing pieces. thank you. >> thank you so much. can we have public comment on this item please? [providing instructions for public comment] any members of the public to provide comment? seeing none, mr. moderator, any callers are hands raised? >> there is one caller in the queue. caller, you have 2 minutes. >> (indiscernible) coalition for san francisco neighborhoods speaking on by own behalf. when the issue of $1.447 billion additional revenue bond authority came

before the capital planning committee, there is no mention of the uspa loan or the 6 revolving loans from the state. if the additional debt was only $1.447 billion, would that increase the puc debt 24 percent from $6 billion to $7.447 billion? the the epa loan of $791 million 237 thousand 456 was added to the debt, would that increase the 37 percent not 24 percent for total of 2 billion 238 million, 337 thousand, 456? this would be passed to the rate payers. (indiscernible) even more unaffordable. thank you. >> thank you for your comment. there are no more callers in

the queue. >> i want to acknowledge that comment. that is-it is a important thing to keep an eye on the amount of debt they are occurring as we deal with change in demand and also the fact that our system is aging, so it is a dual challenge that we have to constantly deal with, but i want to acknowledge that. any other comments? if not, >> mr. moderator is the queue clear? >> yes , no more callers in the queue. >> public comment on item 9 is closed. >> thank you so much. colleagues if there are no more questions or comments, can i have a motion and second to pass the item? >> so moved. >> second. >> madam secretary, please call the roll. [roll call]

>> you have 4 ayes. >> item passes. could you please read the next item? >> item 10, award contract number pro0179 amount not to exceed $90 million and duration 10 years subject to approval by the board of supervisors pursuant to charter section 9.118. >> dpood afternoon commissioners. steven robinson. this item is to award contract for wastewater capital plan delivery program management consultant to aecom technical service. provides consulting service and replace existing cs165 program management contract that is nearing capacity. reminder for this since it is a large contract and why we are here, our combined system has thousand miles of pipe, 3 treatment plants, treasure

island and we have seen it capital plan go through the commission this year and recognize the amount of work we need to do. you may recall seeing this slide that i presented previously as we move from a more less affordable one time large investment approach to sustainable long-term investment around capital planning and asset management. the (indiscernible) clean water act in 70. since then we have been a valley of investments and trying to keep pace with more sustainable reinest havement and learning from industry and trying to smooth the curve. the chart on the left shows the system improvement program as a significant peak and smaller program which overlaps and rehab (indiscernible) steady state but the right of the direction where we are heading and like it go is raising the bar and merging with facility infrastructure together to one

capital plan. p we want to right size the capital plan for investment. (indiscernible) current contract was focused on ssip only. this new pro contract supports the entire wastewater capital plan. how did we get here today? following the master planning effort a series of commission workshops in 2010 that set in motion a process to define goals and level of service at the time and in order to help with that the contract was awarded in 2011 for period of 15 years. that was to help start up the program and in that timeframe then launched and then baselined in 2016. again 2018 and 2020 and now look forward to the rolling 10 year cip we rebudget every 2

years. the current contract is near capacity but exhausted before the 15 year original contract duration. it was a significant ramp up early in years and for the program to get off the ground. we invested in major projects like phase 1 you heard about such as biosolid and headwork projects. since then other projects frud resiliency work (indiscernible) up and running the pro0179 contract allows us to sustain that effort going forward. we want to regroup and reimagine how we deliver the capital plan. we want to think about today's market. think about things that changed like covid, supply chain market conditions racial reckoning (indiscernible) and simply the cost of doing business in san francisco has changed a lot. last year we were ranked as number one most expensive city for construction in the world. it is a

data point we take into consideration as we think how we do our work. under this agreement seek to retain service of there qualified proposer to provide the service for implementation of the program. for our scope we did not want a second iteration of the contract, we want to think differently and support delivery of the entire cip nolt just ssip. we had a opportunity to adjust the scope within it. we separated the planning element and administration bay adding what i call a new task called strategic capital planning to think how we do the capital planning. also removed program controls and pre-construction management work we stop using during this contract as the program ramped up. from budget perspective to set the budget we looked bottom up based on resources needed from a full time equivalent perspective based on people doing work and top down based on the projects in the 10 year cip and

benchmark the effort taken for existing contract to get this far. we had a audit last year of the contract and we ultimately concured with all the recommendations so insure our program contract management process and procedures are robust before we enter into the next contract. so we opened at market (indiscernible) to present program manage ment experience and lessen learned to puc in 2021 so been thinking about this some time. professional service best used for two main reasons, expertise we don't have in-house or help manage volume. peak periods where we try to get over the hump. we went through the civil service process and had discussion with local 21. we signed letter of understanding agreeing to closely coordinate of the contract gets set up and executed over time insuring we use city resources where and when we can and to lean on the

consultant if we need to transition experience to us the city staff through a process of knowledge transfer. we advertised the contract june last year and conclude the evaluation in january. a contract of this size will be subject to board of supervisor approval. few notes how we set up the evaluation process and table to show how the maximum points are broken down. we have 3 proposals which went through to interview. we included the diversity equity inclusion element and social impact partnership. you heard about today. and there was a protest on this contract which is primarily asserting the aecom technical service headquarters is violation of the san francisco admin code chapter 12x. that process was denied. we fallowed our normal process with the puc and city attorney office, reviewed and engaged in and that made assessment and raised by the two proposers. this item is to award to aecom

technical service. (indiscernible) we know there is a lot of work to do. we heard carefully considered what we can do in house and need external help for, how that is worked in the lessens learned from the last contract where we are today with this contract and we did set a goal of 15 percent and the proposer committed to 20.25 percent lbe subcontractor and participation and there are representatives from aecom here today and happy to take questions. >> commissioner maxwell. >> i had a small one. all most afraid to ask. what was the one objection that was resolvesed? >> protest from the primary both was around chapter 12x and

aecom we are awarding the contract to. the headquarters is in los angeles and compliant with our city 12x at the moment. the parent company of the organization is one of the 12x states so we have kbaun through gone through the process and deemed reasonable. there was a- (indiscernible) aecom participated in the process and (indiscernible) there was no concern for their involvement and the protest denied. >> commissioner maxwell. >> thank you. so, who did we contract with before? >> a joint vercher of aecom anderse parsons. >> when you say we are ink theing new and different, are they thinking new and different? they did the past one and they were with us all the way the old way so what makes us think they will be new and different and innovative and all the things that we need them to be?

>> thank you. i understand and appreciate the question because things will not be different unless we allow to believe they need to be and make it different. the selective contractors had a chance to prove that but thin proposal and in the interview and questions we had during the normal procurement process understood things are different and all three proposers did because we were very clear and messaging how i showed the scope changed but it is just not a reiteration of exactly the same contract we have and for the reasons i mentioned earlier around covid racial reckoning things are different now and the capital plan looks differently. when we start and sit and have the kick off together and put the contract in place, this is a large contract over a long time but with most of inprofessional service work we authorize task order basis so each task orders will be scrutinized and we think public works how to help execute this and how

to lean on thcontractors to help so we have a opportunity on every of the task orders to make sure 80 think differently and being efficient with our time and energy and where we are going. >> yes. so, they will be bringing in new and different ways for us to think about things as well? >> yes. >> okay. are you saying racial reckoning? is that what you are saying? >> a term i used. when i think how the world changed and since 2010, 2011 when i think how things have changed in the last few year s during the pandemic things are different now and it is important we think about our people and how we work as a city and respond to the work needed and how we bring our consult nlts and contractors with us and doing the work together. i think that is a extralens we apply so for this contract in particular, we wrote in the need for a person like a named pern person on the team to help with racial equity and how the program is delivered. we do good

capital works, thinking how we do it from that perspective and it also includes the dei element as do-diversity equity inclusion as well social impact partnership work. >> when we look listen to what we heard so far today from public comment, so, the issue of micro lbe will be taken into consideration? >> i would say yes from a program management consultant perspective and it is professional service contract and they over committed in the sense they exceeded the original goal and that is a consultant professional service basis and the micro lbe concern we heard about today and talk more about on the general public comment ran construction contracts is different. think how we do capital project delivery, we want to think how we do our work in the city so there are elements in the scope

that will help do that. >> thank you. i'm thinking 10 years, are we sure things wont get stale and they won't gel get stale and we won't get stale some is that the best and why is this-is that what we are tha they are doing having long-term contracts you can get very comfortable with? >> es, the last contract is 15 years and exhausted sooner then we thought. industry has a way of doing. handing over their entire program to a team to manage on their behalf. we have a lot of resources within the city as we work together so it is a mixed approach doing it. having the duration helps consistency and longevity and continuity, but it is acknowledging we work on a task order basis so every year we rethink how we approach the work and we adjust.

we want to make sure we have the right talent and expertise we don't have in-house or for peak demand or volume when we approach the capital planning cycle. the current contractor is very helpful. >> they also have ideas of who is out there in the industry and what is new and trending and access to people that help and you feel these-they really do a good job of that. the right people to do the right thing? >> access to industry, arguably more then us we are focused (indiscernible) we lean on the external vendors to help bring that perspective not just in only the staff they bring to work for us, but their access to others as well and how to create relationships and learn lessens and better understand and stay efficient

and real with what is happening in industry. >> okay. thank you. >> i think this is great. the only thing is, i'm still a little skeptical on this will provide us a fesh look at how we do engineering. it is easy to say we do all these things but the realty what you see is-it isn't just about aecom, all the engineering companies that are out there have a certain business model they implement certain projects and do things certain way and that is how businesses make money to repeat-establish, repeat, establish, repeat and that is how it works. we are facing many challenges in the years to come and we have a chance to build different projectss and actually have a chance

to build next generation of things that needs to last 1500 years and i feel this would be a lost opportunity if we keep relying-not saying this (indiscernible) wondering what can we put in place to make sure we get what we want out of this? rather then it is easy to write proposal and say all the glorious things, but making sure we have a-when we do strategic plan you are looking at alternative solutions. when we do capital planning we are thinking about other kind of projects. what are the performance measures we have to put in place? i assume they will be a partner to think differently and not hundred percent sure we have enough things in here to tell me that they will do that. i

are want to give you another chance to convince me that is going to happen and think the social lens is a important one, but it is also climate change, right? the fact that what we did in the 20 century doesn't work anymore. and the fact that financial model, the economy of scale, all those things we all relied on for many many years or many decades doesn't work anymore. >> thank you. my first reaction i think president ajami is about people and i'm presenting because as we look for replacement for my former rule it will be a new person leading and managing the contract for sfpuc. we have a new team on the partnership side as mentioned with consultant and choosing to different elements of scope it

helps us both be reminded and act on the things amentioned like climate change and racial equity work and how we deliver the capital work we do. as i connected with ag (indiscernible) before this, the charts i showed the curvature, we acknowledged that directionwy are heading is not the shape thof cip we approved. because of the financial affordability the shape is drifting back the way we dont want it to be so that was the reminder wake up call to say we need to stay focused on the direction we want to go in and vision we have and each decision we make whether a task order under this contract or decision which projects makes the cut for cip or and how we deliver each project around utility mapping we have the lens thinking through each and every step of the process. it is easy to fall back to the old way of

thinking. i tried to make the contract different. >> i think one thing i would say is as we go into this contract, i am putting this on you and the leadership to think-to remember we-i want us to have the power to direct things and i want us to be-to center the owner shf of what happens and are be able to make decisions that are important to us. i want every project that ends up being in the capital plan to be able to qualify for climate bond. as simple as that. or be able to meet every environmental and social qualities or benchmarks that are out there or surpass them. i want us to have the right standards in place and i do understand we have to bring people in as we go

through the capital planning project because it is-you don't want to go hire hundred people when you can't keep them after-the process is over, but we can use this time to revisit our goals and objectives and how we work with people and where we put our money and how we measure performance, what we want out of this, how do we do the contracting. you have done a lot of work because of a lot of the requests i had on the contracting process, but all these things we have a chance to do that and like for us to be able to use this and this is obviously one of many other things that will come in front of us, but this is a long-term contract, pretty big. again, it is a opportunity for us and i want to make sure we take advantage of it and i don't want it to be a mised opportunity and don't want somebody else to be sitting here in my stead like 10 years from now and say, what

were these people thinking. approving something this major, but not putting the right elements in place, because 10 years ago also it did matter but we didn't have the right set of rules in place. with that, i really am happy to move forward with this, but putting this upon you and mr. herrera and the rest of the team to make sure we have all the right stop gaps in place to meet our goals in this process and not lean on the old models. >> i could also-i mentioned during the presentation we did go through a audit last year and if i summarize the fiendings it is strengthen our processes and procedures around executing a contract like this. a programmatic contract. we have lots of great procedures for delivery of projects and lots of good procedures for managing other

contracts we have, but we don't have many of these larger contracts by default. we are embarking and committed to looking hard to processes and procedures around how we do that and we can bake in ways to make sure we circle back, we have check points, manage performance and making sure we do what we need to do for this. >> thank you. commissioner stacey. >> i certainly want to emphasize what commissioners maxwell and ajami have said. i think that it is in inevable we are already-you are already working hard on an environment that's in a state of change all the time and i have been impressed with all of the staff that i met over the years in my prior work, but also in the learning curve as i have gone through becoming a

commissioner. i don't think we could establish a standard that says aecom come us to with 17 new ideas a week, but i do really-i want and i have faith that you and your staff and all the staff at the puc and general manager really will insist on creative and new ideas. you already know and you already indicated that things are changing, things have to change in the way you look at capital projects. i do have faith that you will be aggressive and insisting your consultant s collaborate with you in the same way. we are not obligated to spend $90 million if it is not a value. i have-there are ways

that we don't have to spend money or lean on the consultant as much. $90 million 10 years is a big number and a long time. i think there is some value to longevity because of the expertise how the puc works and what we need is developed over time. they learn from you as well as you learn from them and i have faith in that very impressive staff too continue to insist on creativity and improvement and thinking hard about this very rap idly changing world in which we fiend ourselves and i appreciate you are cognisant of that and your staff as well so thank you. >> thank you. i say thank you for the strong theme and how good it is that our team gets to hear directly today. thank you. >> great. commissioner paulson. >> would be remiss if i didn't weigh in as the only speaker

not. i know that the process for not construction project, and not for-this consulting contract is basically building another part of the team and i can even tell by one anecdote that when it comes to the city team versus a contracted out team the discussions between the folks at local 21 for example and the folks from los angeles and i will tell you, other then what i read on paper i don't know the organization from many other-any other engineering firm in terms of my background of needing to know something like that, but i trust the fact what i have seen in my few years as a commissioner, the bumps that come in the road and the ways that the team interacts at least in front of me as a commissioner has been transparent in the sense this is screwed up and we'll tell you about it and put a contract on hold for example,

or whatever else. when you build a team you don't always know what the team is up to and i think what people are trying to forecast, maybe a couple years from now the knuckle heads don't know what they are doing anymore because they have grown old but i dont see that. besides the competitive bidding process and transparency in there, you are building a team for the future to do what is one of the model infrastructure organizations in the country with water and power and wastewater and what have you that we are doing with right now. i have faith in you guys as a team as we move forward. we are all going to be having our own scrutiny as time goes by as we do with any project but this is about building a team and that is it the part i trust or approving this contract so thank you. >> thank you commissioner paulson. as wewent through the civil service commission it was request and agreed to

come back to them mid-way point 5 years. that is not enough for this commission and managing the pace of what we do so i think we report on a quarterly basis to commission and that is a great venue at appropriate time. if there are things we need to redirect or adjust that is a a great way to do it it. >> commissioner maxwell. >> i don't trust. trust is something that this is not about me trusting. this is about you doing it. you are professionals and this is what we should have. it isn't about me feeling good. you show me. that is what you would do. show me what you are daing and think the quarterly reports are great and especially the quarterly but not only just regular ones, but what is going on differently? how are we changing things? our bay was poisoned by blooms. what are we doing? how is that going on and i just want to know that we are getting to a point

where people understand that things are different as our president mentioned and i like to see that in the quarterly, something different but not for me, it isn't about trust, it is about actually delivering and doing. and then i might-may trust. >> trust about verify. comes to mind. >> yeah, that's the sentiment here. i want to say i think the idea is not for you to write quarterly reports but keep us posted and make sure that i think what we would like and i will say this and if anybody disagree, please do mention, but i think we want to make sure we are trusting you, keep a eye how this evolves and we like to be able to say, in 2 years if things are not going as we hope them to, we have a chance to go and revisit as mentioned. another thing i want to say is, i

mentioned this many times since i joined the commission, which is i like for us to have a workforce with sfpuc knowledgeable, capable, constantly developing with the growth mindset going out learning from others and i know we are trying to do that more and more and i think i want to make sure throughout these processes you all are out there. not just they go out there and learn and bring it to us, but i want you and a few other people on your team attend these conferences, go visit places. i think we should definitely have resources for development for staff development to make sure they are out there learning, educating themselves and bringing the knowledge back and demanding that for us. i know some of that is happening and i would like to reemphasize that and give you guys the

opportunity to do more when it comes to things like that. the other thing is, 10 years is a long time and i'm hoping that you will be here and thriving and running all the different projects, but things change, people move around and i want to make sure we have all the things in place, who ever ends up coming up with the ladder or responsible for these contracts have all the right tools in place to help them move forward. with that, if there are no more comments or questions, we can have public comment. [providing instructions for public comment] >> any members of the public present to comment on item 10? >> james mayberry,

construction site services. commission, what i want to say is, i hear a lot about-i like you guys passion to the construction management team here, aecom we dont know them but hoping they do the right thing. (indiscernible) we are a micro lbe so tremendous difference between a small lbe does 10 million 3 years in a row and graduate and go sba. micro lbe we can do say 1.5, $2 million but once we had hit $10 million you graduate and go small. the opportunities that are here allows us to grow and allow those lbe small to grow out of the program to make room for the others that coming up under

us. it is a unison kind of thing and everything works together. i hear a lot of lbe just small business comments, but the micro lbe community has been waiting two years to be implemented. the sfpuc they have nwh web corp has done a good job trying to work with us, but not all of us have opportunities. they are starting to go vertical and we are hoping on a new packages roll out, the commission will allow the sfpuc to implement higher micro lbe goals. thank you. >> any other members of the public present who wish to comment? mr. moderator, any callers with their hand raised? >> madam secretary,

there is one caller in the queue. >> commissioners, what i want to say is aecom has been given substantial privileges. mr. robinson was brought in my (indiscernible) we do have a black (indiscernible) well-versed with every aspect of the treatment plan and he was not treated well. he went on to work at two other water treatment plants and now in charge of the water plant at san mateo. we have here a

bunch of commissioners who haven't read the report of the (indiscernible) created. we started with $6 billion. we are now turning towards $12 billion and with this new agreement, we have reached $20 billion and we are talking about climate change and talking about this that and the other but we have a general mangen manager who isn't a engineer. we dont have anybody on the commission who really understands about vertical and horizontal construction. stop pulling wool over our eyes. the community is suffering and 15 years into the sewer system improvement project,

most minority businesses are getting bread crumbs while the general manager is making 500 thousand dpl a year. think about it. >> thank you for your comments. madam secretary, no more callers in the queue. >> are thank you public comment on item 10 is closed. >> i want to remind everyone y have a ph.d in engineering and do do horizontal and vertical building so wanted to clarify. so, with that, if there are nor comments or questions we can-can i is a motion and second? >> move to approve. >> second. >> thank you. roll call, please. [roll call]

>> motion passes. >> approve the general manager determination that it is city best interest to terminate for convenience contract nowd-2825r. alameda creek recapture project. >> good afternoon commissioners. katie miller, director of water capital programs. today i'm here to request your approval of the general manager determination that is city best interest to terminate for convenience contract wd-2825r alameda creek recapture project with anville and negotiate close out terms and final payment to the contract in accordance with terms of the contract. may i center the slides, please? the alameda creek recapture project initiated in 2003 coordination with the dam replacement project and has

primary objective to recapture future instream flow releases from cal varus reservoir and alameda creek diversion dam required under the dam replacement project permit. the objective for the recapture of water is 7 thousand acre feet annually. the project has other objective to minimize impact to water supply during droughts, maximize use of local watershed supply in accordance with the raker act, maximize use of existing facility infrastructure and provide water supply for the water treatment plant. the project is located in the east bay near sunol california. the quaury ponds are hydraulicly connected to the alameda creek basin which flows subsurface to this location. thus, water releases from the dam system that flow into alameda creek may

be recaptured pumping water from the pond back to the water system. the project is designed to pump the water to san antonio reservoir or sunol water treatment plant following operational protocol approve in the project environmental permits. the use of the quaury for water supply purposes is a sunol valley resource watershed management plan approved by this commission in 2000. this photo on the right side shows diagram of the envisioned floating pump station with 4 vertical pumps, the flexible pipeline connecting the pump station to man fold on the shore and electrical control building on the shore. the construction contract includes construction of 4 floating barges with vertical pumps, 4

pipelines, welded steel pipe line that connect to the water system, electrical control building and site restoration. in 2017, bank erosion at pond f2 near the project observed. geotechnical consultants hired to review the erosion. remediation was recommended, the project was recommended to move forward for construction. the communicated with the quaury operator mission valley rock responsible to perform erosion repairs however due to the timing of covid and the sale of the mining lease to a new owner, erosion repairs were not completed prior to the start of the construction project. the current and new operator is now expressing strong interest to perform repairs and full bank stabilization in

compliance with their reclamation plans. when construction was initiated in 2021, it was observed erosion has increased in the locations of the pipeline manifold and other areas. adding more flexibility to the pipelines. however, the increase cost will result in greater then 50 percent of the original construction cost. in addition, the increased complexity from the project changes triggered new concerns from our operations and maintenance staff that the facility with the changes may be very difficult to maintain and repair. the original contract value was $19.5 million. we have approved 2.6 million too to date in change orders, however another $8.7

million in change orders are pending for total anticipated construction cost of 30.8 $30.8 million if we continue with current design. we have spent $7.3 million invoiced or paid to date. we anticipate the total cost to terminate the contract and coordinate the ongoing procurements may be another 6 to $10 million. thus we anticipate the total contract cost with termination will be about $13-16 million. this is in contrast to $31 million and growing that would have resulted if we continued the construction. it it is important to note we are committed to continuing the project to achieve its water supply goals. however, we seek time to perform bank stabilization and relook at the project design for operation and maintenance sustainability.

thus we request your aprurfbl of the general manager determination that it is city best interest to terminate the contract and authorization to negotiate the close out terms for final payment. this will provide us time to perform long-term slope stabilization and coordinate with the lease holder and we are looking at not just what their requirements are, but what we need to do to really make this last 30-50 years as a really long-term sustainable water supply, especially in light of climate change and what we can expect from future storms. we will revisit the design to better assure operation and maintenance are sustainable and manageability and then come back and perform project construction with stabilized conditions and improved and more robust design. >> commissioner maxwell.

>> [microphone not on] what's the cost-the $6 million? what is involve in that cost for us to terminate? between 6 and $10 million to terminate the contract? $7.3 million in nothing is built? nothing is -answer my first question, what is involved in the cost of the $6-10 million? >> so, quite a bit of work was done to build roads and also we performed a condition assessment on the existing water supply pipeline we will be connecting to and i think you remember we had-that was part of the $2.2 million change order already approved. so, we do get value out of

that. we no more about the pipeline we are connecting to. we located areas of corrosion and much smarter now about those existing conditions, so we can go into it. some roads were constructed not permanent roads because that wasn't thin in the contract but enough to get us access and we did quite a bit of procurement unfortunately because we will-some of those things we will be able to reuse and we are in the very painful process right now of going through every single item and trying to make the best decisions possible of where we can reuse items and other parts of the system is it worth to store items for a future contract or if the items did not get very far in procurement can we restock and get money back. this is a outside

envelope estimate. it is just unfortunate it took a long time for our change order to take place to figure out the flexible pipelines and during that time the contractor was still mobilized. they were still working on roads and still doing initial site work, so there were costs incurred and unfortunately we will need to pay those, but we-i would say that we probably have somewhere between 3 to $6 million in value received from the items we will keep and reuse in the system, plus the condition assessment work we had on the pipeline. there is some value gained, not a total loss. >> glad to hear about the roads. give me example of what we procured? >> the electrical

storage building. the controls building. it was pretty far along on manufacturing that was a portable building, but several million dollars and are that was i think maybe even been shipped to us already. the barges were pretty far along on manufacturing, so we will have to pay pretty significantly for the barges. the pumps i don't think they started and i-pumps were built? pumps were started but not too far along. we did the hdpe pipelines were already manufactured and believe delivered, so we don't normally use hdpe pipeline so we will be looking how to use that someplace else. these were used because they are very flexible but normally we use steel or iron pipelines, so we are trying to be creative in how to reuse that but

also to not further burden our operation and maintenance staff with storing items they may never use. >> what about earthquakes? we are talking about flooding and talking about other things, but the earthquake situations still exist so with the erosion and things happening, what is going on with that? is that a consideration? >> i think it will be a consideration going forward. i are think that our geotechnical work was really looking at the existing facility. i have not researched exactly how specific the design criteria was, but it was really just to build the facility. now i think we'll say this needs to last 30-50 years. the inflow, subsurface flow, the surface erosion from storms and earthquakes. we

build things to seismic reliability so believe the facility was designed for earthquakes, but not sure if we thought about the geotechnical. >> are we still considering the same place that this is the right place to put this whatever it will be? assume this is a road going down to the water? >> there is a pond. nothing there now. no idea is too crazy at this point. it ask in the watershed management plan these ponds will be used as long-term water supply and the water rights are old, they are older then hetch hetchy water rights and we want to preserve them, so we will be looking at this as a long-term water supply source and figure out the best way to use these

going forward. i imagine the future project will probably look something like what we already designed. this was 15 years in the making and had a lot of analysis, a lot of feedback, a lot of input from our o & m staff but it is also a large facility and something we have never done before. we never had a floating pump station, so it may look something very similar, but we are open to having a brand new start and seeing if there is anything else out there. >> commissioner paulson. >> i had the same type of question as supervisor maxwell. when i read this, i realized this is i guess maybe to be quick about it i should give you what i think the narrative is and tell me where i'm wrong and try to do in a sentence or two. you decided to take a pause because there was a enough things going

goofy and the new operator was there, the previous 1 didn't do what you maybe thought they were doing. there were design things that came in because of the storm or whatever else, and therefore have to pay off the contractor. you bought stuff you dont need now that doesn't fit into what isn't the new plan, whatever it is. your goal is still to use these water rights and find a place to eventually store the water but now you are maybe a third to not half way into this thing and say cut our losses right now. don't kno knoe what the losses are, anywhere from 3 to 4. some you can use again, some stuff you don't know if you can use again. there is uncertainty in there and a little of unfortunate loss driving you and us commissioners crazy but transparency is good and so that is my narrative and my question that i add to that is, what is the timeline

for the next finishing this thing from design to end result? just even if back of the envelope now. narrative and the question about what are the next plans? i assume anvil isn't go ing to sue us. you find the end game? >> we have a good relationship with anvil and they are being cooperative working through with us. they were looking forward to today's decision so they know for sure we are moving forward with this, but they have been very cooperative working with the vendors to try to restock things so that's good. in terms of the timeline going forward, we currently are in discussions with the new operator. martin mare yeta is the new owner and very serious about doing reclamation work and getting out of

this pond. we want to take advantage of while they are here and going to do the reclamation work. we hired our own geotechnical consultant to review what they're planning of course, which is in conjunction with our lease and real estate side of things. also to consider are there additional improvements we should be doing to make this last longer then just what a reclamation plan requires. >> there was a timeline on the third part of the question and what part of my summary narrative is correct? >> your summary narrative is pretty much spot on. things were not going-going well with the contractor, but with all the changes and how long the changes have taken to implement we see there is combination of growing costs as well as now this opportunity to get this erosion work done if we build the facility we have to remove-the quaury

operator cost, remove everything and have them do the work and put it all back so that is another sunk cost that can be contentious in the future. we also think with the roads not being permanently improved that will be another cost so we could look at another $10 million over the $30 million before we have a operable facility and then our operation staff is really just not ready to take this type facility on so we need to determine the resources available, what resources they need and how we can build a facility they are comfortable operating annually on a regular basis. >> thank you. >> madam president, i'll let steve jump in. one thing i want to make sure you aware of what was alluded to and what pushed me over the edge to recommend this be terminated

was not just the site conditions that have changed since this project started over so much time ago, it is there are operational issues and maintenance issues from the operations side that for whatever reason don't appear they were fully taken into account when this was designed. that's something that mr. ritchie and i talked about and mr. robinson and i talked about is, in addition to cutting our losses to make sure we design a project that we take the-everybody is talking and we are having a system that isn't just designed from a infrastructure perspective but operated and maintained and deliver what it is supposed to deliver in a cost effective way. so, this was not just a cost about infrastructure build, it is about what it cost to operate it, and

that's something i think everybody came to the conclusion about. this wasn't ready for prime time. whatever we design going forward will be not just designed from infrastructure perspective but able to be operated and maintained. i just want to make sure i raise that. hope that makes sense. >> makes sense. thank you so much. go ahead. >> (indiscernible) i was about to echo and complement what director miller said but general manager said it. this is an action what we were talking about in the previous conversation checks and balances a long project and lots of thinking and coming to conclusion we need to pause and think differently about the project and this project it means (indiscernible) think about the project and level of service and are needs of what we are trying to achieve and do it differently. >> makes sense, thank you.

commissioner stacey. >> i have a small question and then a comment. are the in stream flow requirements contingent in any way on this recapture facility being online, or are we already complying with the in stream flow requirements? >> steve ritchie, assistant general manager, water, we are complying with in stream flow requirements from release from calaveras and the dam. particularly for this project, we had to do a lot of work. i think you are familiar with where alameda county water district challenged the eir and we had to do a lot of work on how water from the pond to back to alameda creek would be managed and we successfully concluded that and don't do anything how we rethink this project that would

change that. that is something we will look closely at because we don't want to repeat that effort. i think those things are-we are in good shape there. i will make a comment on the operational front. in response to your questions earlier commissioner ajami. one thing we have done very well as a organization is bring in expert technical advisory panels for big technical work, constructing dams, constructing tunnels, things like that. one thing that i are think as a organization and i say as water and infrastructure as well we have not been good bringing in outside expertise on operation and maintenance issue and that is one thing i think talking about doing things differently in the future, this is a good example

do this to make sure we do something different because talking to operators, can you operate this? the answer is usually yeah. can you operate it successfully and sustainably for 50 years, different question. we need to start asking those questions of particularly more challenging projects. pipelines will be the same, but doing something different is really important, so just close my comments by saying this was very detailed discussions among the managers both in water and infrastructure and think we all agree this is the right decision and all agreed on one other thing, it is actually takes a lot of courage to make a decision like this and suggest it so that is what we are doing today. it isn't pleasant, but we do all believe it is the right thing to do. >> thank you mr. ritchie. >> i think both mr. robinson

and mr. ritchie have anticipated some of my comments. i acknowledge this is a incredibly difficult even painful decision and it will be really important to continue your already ongoing work to figure how to get value of what we already spent and just this is such a hard decision, but i also-the small ray of sunshine for me is what mr. robinson and mr. ritchie already acknowledged and that is that it does take a lot of fortitude to realize that we have come pretty far down the road on this contract, it is time to call a pause, a time out so we can rethink and be more financially and

technically astute in how we implement this project in the future, and you heard from this commission a number of times to be nimble, be flexible and to adapt and respond to changes and i think that as hard as this decision is and hard to acknowledge there will be a loss of some magnitude for this project, i respect and value that you are willing to come to us with this recommendation that it is time to rethink this project and this project has been complicated since the eir work began in 2006, both environmentally, politically and physically and i acknowledge that back then it was a continually evolving process and rethinking of how to implement it and that you continued to do that

and thank you for coming forward with this termination recommendation in the face of your recognition that it is going to be better in the long run to do that, but it is a difficult and painful decision for sure. >> thank you so much for those comments. they are very helpful. they will be helpful for our team to hear that. i would like to take optimistic viewpoint this is a bump in the road and the project probably deserved to be more expensive then we budgeted for to build a long-term sustainable water supply facility. we are seeing this with a lot of alternative water supply projects, they are complicated, they are expensive and i know wastewater has been seeing the same as well as power and this is part of the new world we live in and we have to learn how to adapt and bring on new

facilities, new types of ways of doing things and i think through this we are seeing this as just a bump in the road, a challenge that we will get past but learn to adapt and use things like the program management contract to bring on the support we need to transform and be able to do better to meet these future challenges. >> if i may commissioner stacey, thanks and gratitude to the brauject team for getting this far. not just city staff and designer and operation folks that got us to today but partner with the contractor as well. all is not lost, we learned a lot through the process and ready to turn and pivot what we need to do. for the folks that feel this is a the end and hard emotional decision, we say thank you because there is mow work to be done and need your help if not this project but the next one because there is lots of work to do.

>> just i appreciate that. thank you. couple things i wanted to mention here. a lot of good questions have been raised, but one thing is, you both brought this up which is alternative water supplies or projects you are considering they all expensive. i was doing a back of envelope calculation peracre foot of water how much this cost or will potentially cost in the future and it is not cheap obviously. it is something to remember, so another thing is, there are lessen learned in this process, which i would like to make sure it is not lost and also, i am assuming it has taken a while-we have seen some signs along the way. i wonder what (indiscernible) maybe some of those are ways that we can say, these are the poibts we could have

interfered but thought maybe we can make it work so some of those can be looped back or provide feedback loop to the processes we have as we work with all the different contracts we put in place. i think mr. ritchie brought up something very important, we are an organization with three enterprises and then we have the infrastructure team that is goes across and there are a lot of overlaps but a lot of also disconnects and i think those are opportunity areas for us to work around and make sure we have all the right communications in place. we have all the right questions asked as we go to different projects. we think about how we coordinate across silos and work a little closer.

i like the idea of having some oversight or advising around operations. i think that you are correct. you put something in front of people, they are like we can-sure. but it is between sure and doing it is a long process. i don't think that is why we stopped-there were other things going on in the process. i think i really want to ask you, all of you as you go through this process to think what are the lessen learned and what is it we can take from this and use for other contracts we have. we have been talking about contracts, this time and for many times over the years, trying to figure how to become better at this. how we make sure we have successful contract and

successful delivery mechanisms in place. how to minimize the cost to our rate payers and could say to our organization and there are ways to learn. again t requires a lot of courage to come and ask for something like this. we do recognize that. but we also want to make sure lessens are not lost in the process. i think please do make sure that maybe codify some of the learnings to make sure we don't end up this place again, and this will come back. probably cost even more. i would not be surprised. it is like, what we have done better or not do next? forward looking i want to be forward looking and be a little bit more strategic in a way we

approach these problems. i'm glad we stopped bleeding. that's important. public comment, please. thank you. [providing instructions for public comment] >> any members present to provide comment? any callers with hands raised? >> madam secretary, there are three callers in the queue. >> good afternoon again. this is tom francis with bosca. wanted to make-we support this action, but it is disappointing that we had to reach

this important. the project was (indiscernible) it is a key part of-there are two big projects- [difficulty hearing speaker] i have a lot of confidence in the sfpuc staff, particularly katie miller, she is very transparnt thin discussion with bosca over the last year as these challenges have unfold ed. a lot of relative to the query and slopes and granted,er there is also this need and i do sense mr. ritchie and the rest of staff are well aware of the need to engage the operators and maintenance folks. not

necessarily sure whether that (indiscernible) more prominent piece of how the sfpuc is managing this effort. with the (indiscernible) this will take many years (indiscernible) alternative water supply plan project as well. those are complicated and take years to plan design and construct and we want to have a seat at the table and (indiscernible) bringing engineer operators everybody to the table to plan these projects. again-- >> thank you for your comment. >> what i want to say

is that, public comment is - (indiscernible) that they know something about what is horizontal and what is vertical. what do you know about the force main (indiscernible) that collects way back in 2002 and hasn't been fixed and what the hell you know about what is happening on embarcadero when we have heavy rains? so, it isn't that the commissioners know everything, but how-do they know how to do a assessment? you need a orientation from the engineers to give you feedback. you have serious problems at

folsom street. very serious problems at embarcadero. (indiscernible) one commissioners knows about it. there is a lot that you all have to learn. please listen to public comment because i feel people are giving you public comment. by the way today, the cable was cut, so people cant watch it on channel 26 and 78, and dont know if you know this. thank you very much. >> thank you for your comment. >> hello, peter (indiscernible) tuolumne river trustism i want to commend staff and commissioners for a honest and transparent discussion about the isue. i realize it is complicated. lot of things out of your control. but

it was just a good job of communicating, and i love to see more of that. infiltration gallery is a good insurance policy, like many others, but my prediction is that 20 years after it is completed if it is completed, we'll realize we didn't need that water, and this happened many times in 1995, sfpuc agreed to pay irrigation districts $3 million a year to meet instream base load. good insurance policy. wouldn't say it it is wrong, i will not second guess a decision made in the rearview mirror, but we never needed that water. in 2012, there was a really bad idea to enter into a water transfer can

modesto irrigation district. it was a take or pay contract. $700 acre foot whether it was used or not, and we opposed that. the farmers opposed. thank goodness for rate payers it died, but over and over again we see this paranoia about running out of water leading bad decisions, and as you invest in these alternative water supplies raetss go up, that triggers people to use less water, you face a death spiral. so, again it was a really good conversation, hope to see more of those. thank you. >> that you can for your comment. madam secretary, no more callers in the queue. >> thank you, public comment on item 11 is closed. >> thank you. i just want-before we move this forward, i wanted to

ask mrs. miller and mr. robinson if you can do your audit in more detail like audit and figure out what there is different points of breakdown you could have anticipated this. maybe a little more deep dive in what you could have done maybe earlier or what should be considered as different stop gaps or measures we can put in place for future things or when this comes back in the future so that would be a useful-it st. great if you can provide it as part of the communication or just present it to us or something like that, that would be great. >> yes, i already started doing some of that and all of us revisited many many assumptions along the way so we are happy to put together a

report for you. also just to document the lessens learned so we have that going forward. >> sounds good. thank you. with that, can i is a motion and second on this item please? >> move to approve termination of the contract. >> second. >> thank you. can we have roll call, please? [roll call] >> four ayes. >> item passes, contract terminated, thank you. next item, please. >> next item is communications. information only. >> if there are no comments or questions, we can-commissioner stacey, please go aheadism >> i have just a few comments. i was elated to see the bio gas utilization project is already going out being advertised for bid on the contract

adver tisement report and wanted to acknowledge and thank mr. warner for his letter in the core spondence. it is critical we hear from the public ways to improve and what we are doing wrong and also nice to hear every now and then when somebody thinks the puc is doing a good job so i wanted to say thank you for that. >> excellent. thank you for acknowledging that. that was wonderful. if there are no more comments can we have public comment on this item, please? >> no public comment on this item. >> you don't need to? okay. perfect. can we have the next item please? >> next is item 13, general public comment. [providing instructions for public comment] any members of the public present to provide general

public comment? >> come to the microphone and then line up. >> my name is (indiscernible) mansfield a member-let me put my glasses on-i'm a member of the sflbda association, san francisco latino black and brown association. i'm a nurse by trade 25 years starting at san francisco general hospital. i was a new nurse. i worked 4d which is trauma department. turned business owner since 2018. mansfield and mansfield is the name of the company and we provide construction cleanup. i was born and raised in san francisco. my parents migrated here from california from the south. i'm here with a specific ask. the

sfpuc is a huge agency with multiple projects in and out of san francisco. i'm a micro lbe out of bayview hunter point district 10 neighborhood and there is multiple changes to our-changes that our beloved mayor breed put in place to help the smallest of the lbe and one is neighborhood preference. my ask, there are about 15 maybe 20, 25 hyper-locals out of the bayview and with the neighborhood preference program, we are requesting looking for the sfpuc to put in place or to assist us to get on the projects as hyper-local to have a carveout set aside for the hunter point neighborhood. we need your assistance

to do that. without your assistance many of our businesses will close. we do-we are small-that is my queue, hu? sorry, but we do add to the economics. thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening commission. trisha gregory also a member of the san francisco latino black builder association. also owner of heavy weight trucking and micro lbe trucking firm out of bayview. here to talk about the biosolid projects. we sit in tons of meetings we are told we have met the goals but does want include the micro lbe goals. i personally was a big part of the horizontal which i know a lot of that money did go to the horizontal

work, and i just want to let you know what that did for trucking. when the support of the sfpuc and mwh web corp and lbe liaison with their support trucking the lbe truckers a lot of them got to buy new equipment, that was a requirement on the biosolid project, a lot of them got to buy a second piece of truck, and imagine if that happened with all the micro lbe in district 10? there isn't a lot of us as my colleague said, but if there was more focus on making sure every scope at the biosolds had a micro lbe on there, it would do wonders for our community. it would put these companies in the next level to compete or grow so i'm here to ask you to put

the pressure on web corp, make sure that there are carve outs for all of the micro lbe, put the liaison back at the table that they were in the horizontal part, and that's it. thank you. >> before you go, horizontal, what do you mean? >> horizontal is the first part where we do the clear it out, make it flat. we are just a trucking company. the vertical part is when they start building the buildings and a lot of my colleagues have that part in it. a lot of the money i personally know that because i was on the first scope of it, went to trucking and so just asking the same for the colleagues that it really helped the trucking community, it really helped them buy new equipment and buy other equipment. >> commissioner stacey.

>> i have a question for one of the two speakers. i would have guessed that a micro lbe is a subset of lbe, but i am wondering why are there financial requirements or size requirements? >> there are size requirements. >> okay, thank you. >> commissioner paulson. >> you were asking that rhetorically but a general horizontal you grade and put the roads in and make sure everything is set up on the horizontal level to get set up. once you start building the house the high-rise that is just a very generic way of talking about the difference. this is getting ready and now building up and up is the vertical. >> thank you. now we move to the vertical and now getting to the real project. >> thank you.

>> hello. my name is clay with integrity first plumbing. i'm going to be blunt, sfpuc they hire these larger contractors and when these contractors come out here they tend to gravitate towards well established firms. mostly relationship based and with those firms they are able to bond for million of dollars and show high lines of credit. do to repeated opportunities. all we are looking for is a start, but we are already at the back of the 8 ball in the beginning, so just going to make it short. all i ask is it is more intentionality at biosolds as it relates to diversifying the workplace and then hold them accountable and measure progress over time, because we down here now and just need help because they are in our back yard and then by

them being in our back yard it is telling us that they are blunt and (indiscernible) saying that to say and not saying bigotry, but it is sort of racist and definition of racism is when you selfishingly garj your resources and privileges and opportunities while going against the other group. that's how that works. i'm not here to pacify anything, just to here to speak my mind and be blunt and tell what is going on and we just need assistance rectifying the problem. thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is

(indiscernible) born and raised in bayview hunter point here to discuss what is going on in bayview headwork project. when we first started in 2018 we was at the southeast community college on oak dale. that was considered the headworks, and (indiscernible) guaranteed the community opportunities to help build their community back. they didn't promise the contractors because they didn't give the contractors from the community the opportunity to work so going forward the sfpuc stepped in because mwa haven't been present and been around to try to facilitate where we can get a part of the contract. they were giving us the bid but we wasn't getting the contracts because of course if you bring a company in from arizona of course they are going to liaison with the

companies that they know, so they never do know contracting with the contractors from the community. we stood up and said we need to form a coalition of contractors from the bayview to go forward. the headworks started from (indiscernible) and stopped on gerald and (indiscernible) sure you are familiar with gerald. then going from gerald to oak dale gerald and oak dale was supposed to be biosolds. biosolds is given the community hope. they are saying they are going to help us and work with the contracts, that is all we asking for. we asking for opportunity to build our own community back. we are not asking for no resources, we are asking for you to force the sfpuc to participate with the community contractors to let us build our own community and at the end-i will end

this real quick-it is a unique opportunity here that the community build biosolid headwork project, we can also continue to make sure that something goes wrong we going to be the first ones there to fix the problem. it is like problem being solved and a problem being helping the community grow. thank you once again. >> any other speakers in the room? >> james mayberry, construction site services. the issue is none of the small businesses are here to address the matter, because they are busy working. the micros are here in unison as a collective to

speak with the commission about our request to be included on the 2018 awarded contract to mwh web corp they will roll out a vertical package. those vertical packages have no micro lbe goals included while mwh promises to work with the community, those promises have thus been made before and we are still at one here to be include in our own community. we are requesting that the commission allows i guess a change order or bid memo for mwh web corp to include the micro lbe goals on those new roll out vertical packages. what we have been told is that the project was awarded in 2018

and that the new 14b legislation isn't included in that package. but this is a 8 year project, probably another year duration and extension which is great opportunity for our community to hire from the lower income neighborhoods which we come from and build infrastruck in our communities at and we just need help with that to get it done. a change order or bid memo for more micro lbe inclusion, thank you. >> any other speakers? >> my name is (indiscernible) sterling of sterling framers, been in the trade 15 years as a local carpenter and local 22.

hard worker, i just opened-started by business 3 year s ago as a c5 contractor that is framing. jump through all the hoops necessary, became a lbe and it is real unsettling seeing my seasoned vets here struggling to get work you know what i mean, along with me knowing there is a opportunities out here that we are-that we can-that we have that we are not able to get. knowing we can take care, knowing we are qualified for the job for the contracts is like it is still a fight, so again, with my colleagues just asking that you take into consideration that us being micro lbe that we have that opportunity in our own community to provide

for our community and get jobs and get contracts. that's it. thank you. >> anybody else wish to provide comment? mr. moderator, do we have callers on the line? >> there are two callers in the queue. >> again commissioners, you need to read the document that the task force created that was appointed initially linked to the community benefit. the community benefits haven't been addressed because the sfpuc

under general manager kelly decided to choose duane jones as the (indiscernible) for aecom. (indiscernible) working for the sfpuc it do the outreach. when these small businesses come for anybody who is (indiscernible) we cannot approach to any of the commissions. they are left to fend for themselves, just like the bayview community. left to fend for itself and the outsiders come and (indiscernible) you commissioners know nothing about this. why should the

people from the bayview beg for jobs? why should they? you should welcome them. but you all will never get it because what you are doing is- (indiscernible) your heart is not in the right place. your hearts are not in the right place. i have served the community-- >> thank you for your comment. sorry, your time expired. >> good afternoon. peter dreckmyer, tuolumne river trust. i want to commend the 6 people who spoke in public

comment just now who showed up and waited through the entire meeting, and spoke really eloquently. i was impressed. i know you will consider thir comments and request because i know you have the right values. i hear that a lot. you care about people, you care about representing under served communities in san francisco, so i'm confident you will do the right thing, and again to the folks who showed up, congratulations, great job. it would have been nice if they had been able to come speak at the beginning of the meeting like we used to in the old days and not center have to spend their hole afternoon at the meeting. i think they have a lot of other things to do, they sound like very busy people, but it was nice to have the company because general public comment is very lonely. people don't want to wait through the whole meeting and also, you haven't heard from

other environmental fishing groups because they have given up on the sfpu c. thought put so much time in and presented at workshops and present information and we just don't get any movement, but i haven't given up on you because i know you all have good hearts and know you are smart people, and i know you are trying to navigate a system that has always been staff driven, and staff feels like there are policies in place 20, 30 years ago and we are just not evolving, we will that-i have a request, tuolumne river agreement there will be a scoping session, i just got the notice a hour ago on may 18. and i would like you to have conversation about a peer review-- >> thank you for your comments. your time expired.

there are no more callers in the queue. >> thank you. general public comment is closed. >> thank you so much. commissioner maxwell. >> thank you. i would like to thank you all for coming and i really appreciated that you stayed and i really appreciated that you heard about our bonding and our money. i appreciate that you know that this is your puc and also appreciate that you know and heard how they need people. one reason we cant get things done is because lack of people. resources. people are resources and you i think mr. robinson said many timeatize is about people. so i want to thank you for coming and for letting us hear this and know that we are going to make a difference. mr. robinson is biting at it bits to be able to say something about what he's going to do and how we will intergreat and how you guys are go toog have meetings

constantly to talk where you are going where you are and what we can do to help you. am i right mr. robinson? please come up. >> commissioner paulson. >> i want to pile on since commissioner maxwell weighed in on this. i spnt in my career a lot of time down at the executive park and at 1800 oak dale and what have you in implementing contracts not just the puc but in my role as the head of the labor council and building trades council in town and it has been always incredibly invigorating to make sure part of what was represented and see it represented at the puc is that the ability to make sure that local hire and neighborhood hire and prevailing

wages and apprenticeship real apprenticeship and standards are all taken care of and a lot of stuff happening now with web corp and other contractors in areas down particularly in the bayview puc does, there is meetings every day in which people are talking and taking not just the contractors but the subcontractors in. who is doing that and how many do you have and are you pay ing the right wages and getting apprenticeship and that is a value i took as a commissioner and are something i think we like to continue to have and all of you to come in and glad you sat through the whole meeting, that is what it is about we have a meeting every damn two weeks and you heard a lot of things-i didn't see anybody nodding off. you are all probably wondering what we are doing from tuolumne to free mont to livermore. this is infrastructure san francisco is in charge of and we

really care and we have a policy making sure folks from san francisco are going to be doing the work san franciscans pay the rates on and benefit from so i do hope that-i'm not totally familiar with the upgrade in micro lbe-minority business associations and contractors are with the other lbe. i know we have been meeting goals oen the other stuff with local hire and minority contractor jz something we are proud of and sure commissioner maxwell and i and the rest of us will make sure that is a metric we continue to monitor and look at and if we will be any help moving forward. usually don't talk during public comment, but i believe so many coming in to represent not just your individual company, but the associations and what have you it is something at least i as a commissioner heard

loud and clear and actually a treat to have thish type of public comment we hear from not the same old people all the time saying the same thing but hearing fresh real stories from workers and contractors, so thanks for coming in. >> i also want to thank you. that was wonderful to have all you here and for your very thoughtful comments. i actually would like to have mr. robinson come up and first educate us about micro lbe and tell us more about the process if that's okay. can we do that? >> (indiscernible) >> we can ask? mr. robinson, can i ask you to-for the next meeting if possible or if like in the coming meetings we have agenda item mr. herrera if you

don't mind to have an agenda itedm that educate about this and also what is the process and how we are going through this process and what are the different things we can put in place to make sure community can be more involved and engaged in the process and can access some of the efforts and be able to be part of them. that would be fantastic if you don't mind. can we do that? okay. excellent. >> of course. thank you. i too echo and say thank you for the comments and feedback and time it has taken to get to this point. i mentioned for general public comment it is likely to be after 4 if not later and here we are after 5 so the words (indiscernible) we will take this away. there are more meetings scheduled with some folks we have been talking to today. we will talk and come back to the commission as well. >> thank you so much. we do

very much appreciate public engagement, because we learn as you guys come and tell different learn from you, we take that into account as we do different things so we appreciate you taking the time but your time was not wasted, very well spent so thank you for doing that. so, and then potentially next meeting or the meeting after that will be great. thank you. >> i think next meeting with the rate thing if you don't mind. can you-sure you will work with mr. herrera and put this on the agenda. thank you so much. thank you everyone. can we have the next- >> i just wanted to say ditto all that and looking forward to learning about it as well and i also appreciated mr. mayberry commented on a few other items and i appreciated his comments on those other items and connecting the dots on those items for us as well.

>> thank you. thank you so much. wonderful to have people present for public comment. it is exciting. especially because sometimes audio isn't very good when people comment, it is sort of hard to hear and people's comments sometimes. can we have the next item, please? >> item 14, item initiated by commissioners. >> colleagues, any items that commissioner stacey is this a new call or old one? you want to make a comment? new call, go ahead, please. >> i am not actually initiating any new items i want today say thank you to the staff we talked to yesterday on the site visit to the mountain tunnel flow control, the moccasin power house, it adds so much to my

understanding of the projects and hearing about sort of the complicated levels of collaboration and responding to on site conditions that goes on all the time with projects large and small, and really impressed upon us how important it was to manage well at the site because if one part of the project fails, it has a domino effect on everything else and it was really an enlightening and illuminating tour and appreciate you took time out from your regular work load to educate us so thank you. >> excellent. looking forward for that next week. that was a preview for what is coming. thank you so much. next item, please. >> we need public comment. >> sorry, public comment. [providing instructions for public comment]

>> do we have members of the public present to comment on this item? seeing none, mr. moderator, any callers with hands raised? >> madam secretary, there are no callers in the queue. >> thank you, public comment on item 14 is closed. >> thank you. can we have the next item, please? >> next item is public comment on the matter to be heard during closed session. following item will be heard during closed session, 17 conference with legal counsel pursuant to california government code section 54956.9d1 and san francisco administrative code section 67.10d1. unlitigated claim, yosemite slough contamination site. funding further implement aishz of

u.s. epa interim setmment as approved under ordinance. members who wish to comment on closed session item 17 please press star 3 to raise your hand to speak. do we have members of the public present to provide comment on closed session? seeing none, callers with hanz raised? >> there are no callers wishing to be recognized. >> thank you, public comment on closed session is closed. >> excellent. colleagues- >> make a motion- (indiscernible) >> can you say louder? >> make a motion that we invoke attorney client privilege. >> second. >> can we have roll call, please? >> sorry,- [roll call]

>> you have 4 ayes. >> excellent. i think now we move to closed session. [meeting reconvened] >> okay. we are back. thank you so much. the commission is recommending that the board of supervisors approve the additional funding to address further implementation of the settlement referenced in the agenda. motion not to disclose the discussion during close session or whether to disclose? >> move not to disclose. >> second. >> thank you. can i have a roll call, please? [roll call] >> you have 4 ayes. >> thank you. i think

that's was our last item, correct? okay. we are adjourned. thank you so much everyone. [meeting adjourned] my

african-americans migrated to the san francisco bay area, but bayview hunter's point to work as part of the ship yarding culture and tradition. that is how the black community got its root in this incredible city. a lot migrated to work at the hunter's point shipyard and on the water front >> my family came to san francisco lead my by my great grand mother in 1941. she came like most of the african americans out of the south to the bay area to work in the shipyards during the second world war. overnight years, we people prospered, homeowners it was thriving for the

african-american community. where bayview became the center points for african-american homeownership. >> with the shipyard closing, a lot of jobs left and with the maritime shipping leaving throughout the state. african-americans moved out of san francisco, which was the population is 4% or less of african-americans where 20 years ago it may have been 20%. here the port of san francisco we tried to create many opportunities for are african-americans to participate in contracting in development and jobs. i'm kay book the founder of coffee company. recently opened the flagship coffee shop. this is a full circle for mow to have opened a new cafe here at the port. also like being welcomed back

home again. >> port is the first place they was able to bid and win an opinion contract as a small business owner. when we think about the business of the port, and the maritime, right, that history is really continuing to extend itself in the way they engage with black businesses, black people and other diverse communities that are situated along the waterfront and as we move inward. >> we are looking now at the port of rejuvenating the community. bringing back a kind of economic sip lutz so that the people can go back to the lives they were so well adopted to and building homes and creating families and having churches that were filled. >> i toured crane cove park it is absolutely amazing. this will be a wonderful addition to san francisco. >> i think it is amazing after having conversations with folk

who is live in the community and have been excited and waiting for this p to be realized for years, walking around, seeings the connections to history. the opportunity for folks to utilize the water here is going to be an amazing opportunity for all the families and community and i can't wait for the diversity of opportunity we will see here. >> i'm in the crowd and i'm the owner and founder of spin out fit knows. port reached out to me recently and said they would love to spin out fitness a per of this plan going to 2025. that will be the beginning of you know, this redevelopment of this southern part of san francisco. which is going to be a fantastic. i'm excited about that. >> mission rock is 13 years of city planning and community input to transform a surface parking lot south of the park to a new neighborhood. it will transfurthermore this area into 1200 homes 40% will be

affordable and this is something this we are all excited and proud of. >> having been in the industry for 17 years and seeing a lack of diversity when i joined the port, that was the first thing that i saw that there is a lot of diversity and leadership from the commission. and down through the executive team and then throughout our port. director forbes, commission they have done a good job of making sure the port team reflects not only the city but the people of san francisco and those who visit our water front >> the community. city and private cities working together we with bring the port back to the economic stimulus for people who live here. >> it is important that -- everyone have a role at the port of san francisco and everybody

feels welcome i

didn't - >> sound familiar do you keep on getting up there's an easier way. >> of course there's easier way get rid of of mosquito they breed whatever this is water no water no mosquito mosquito feed on good blood the eggs hatch and stay near the waters san francisco to breathe and the adult underlying mosquito waits on the as many until it's sexuality hardens water pools in any areas and creates places you'll not normally think of budget and any container that holds water and hidden in bushes or else were dump the water and do it over soil not into a drain the larva

can continue growing in the pooled water is sewage disthe first of its kind the area if the sewage is two extreme have a licensed plumber assist water pools in rain gutters and snaking and cleaning out the water when keep the water from pooling and keep in mind that mosquito breed in other waters like catch balgsz and construction barriers interest crawl spaces with clmg is an issue you may have is week to cause the water to collect this is an sour of mosquito so for buildings just fix the clean air act drains and catch basins can be mosquito ground it will eliminate it as a possible location keep shrubbery and growths estimated any water to can be

seen and eliminated birdbath and fountains and uncovered hot tubs mosquito breed but it is difficult to dump the water out of a hot top can't dump the water adding mosquito finish rids the source of mosquito there are also traditionally methods to protect you installing screens on windows and doors and using a mosquito net and politically aau planet take the time to do the things we've mentioned to eliminate standing water and make sure that mosquito are not a problem on your property remember no water no mosquito

>> the meeting of tuesday april 4, 2023. i like to thank secretary morewitz for his work to refine the processings of the meeting as we go back to in-person meetings with opportunity for public comment. with that, secretary morewitz, would you call the roll. >> sure. [roll call] >> and a hearty welcome back to susan christian. we're happy to see you and happy to have you back with your valuable experience and perspective.

>> thank you. it's great to be back. >> next, we'll have commissioner chow offer the ramaytush oholone land acknowledgement. >> it's my privilege to give the land acknowledgement. -- the san francisco health commission acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush ohlone who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land, and in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the ramaytush ohlone community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples.

thank you. >> thank you, commissioner chow. our next item is approval of the minutes of the health commission meeting of march 21, 2023. commissioners, you have before you the minutes. if there are no amendments, do we have a motion to approve? >> motion to approve. >> second. >> all right. secretary morewitz, do we have public comment on this item >> yes, forks on the line, if you would like to make comment on item 2, press star three. moderator, please unmute the first caller. i'm sorry, i saw a hand up. i do see a hand. here, i'm going to unmute the person. caller, are you there some >> yeah. it took a while, mark.

my code for today is yy. >> please begin. >> i'm grateful, mr. morewitz, included in these minutes, i my written testimony congratulated commissioner bernal on his reelection as commission president. i testified that commissioner bernal and the full commission should take action on laguna honda's governing body to direct roll and pickens and have a written waiver request to cms slash cdph for an exemption for cms's two (indiscernible) asking with city attorney's office to make sure a written waiver request is submitted quickly to

cms and cdph. i have provided you with information on 42 psr section 483.90 and e and parenthetically roman numeral three, dated march 3, 2023, which provides the survey agencies, meaning cdph (indiscernible) and grant and variation on vacations per room -- when facilities were questioning writing an exemption request with the variation to section 483.90e1 roman numeral one will not affect residents health and safety. during san

francisco's career shortage, killed nursing facility beds, excuse me, i urge you, again, to do quote, everything you can, end quote, to see the written waiver to save laguna honda's 120 beds. please do so rapidly. thank you. >> thank you, caller. that is the only public comment for this item. >> all right. commissioners, any comments or questions? seeing none. secretary morewitz, all those in favor in approving the minutes, say aye. >> aye. [multiple voices] >> opposed? all right. the minutes are approved. our next item is general public comment. secretary morewitz. >> i have a statement to read. sorry. >> for each item, members of the public will have an opportunity to make comments up to three

minutes. it's to provide input and feedback from those in the community. the process doesn't allow questions to be answered in the meeting or members of the public to engage in back and forth conversation with commissioners. the commissioners do consider comments from members of the public when discussing items and making request to the dph. please note each individuals allowed one opportunity to speak per agenda item. individuals may not return more than once to read statements from other individuals unable to attend the meeting and written public comment may be send to the health commission, health dot commissioner dot dph at sfdph dot org. if you wish to spell your name for the minutes, you may do so without taking your allotted time. city policies along with federal, state and local law prohibit harassing conduct against city employees and others during public meeting and not tolerated. we'll take public comment from those attending in person and take remote public comment from individuals who have received an accommodation for a disability. i have given each individuals a code to speak when they begin

their comments to prevent others from speaking and then we'll hear public comment from other individuals. there's a time limit of 20 minutes that can be heard on each item from those who haven't received accommodation for a disability. because of remote comment procedures recommended by the office of city administrator and city attorney's office, please to not raise your hand to make remote public comment on an item until your category is called. all right. so, there are two folks who have put in a request for in person before we go to remote. >> thank you. i forgot how much i love holding these public comment forms so thank you for those who filled it out. first we have, billy gene wall i have a timer. when i say time suppose, finish your statement. >> welcome. >> good afternoon, members of the commissioner. my name is billy jean. i have been a part

of the exercise program at dave hey lost for ten years -- davie hospital for ten years and everyone had to complete an attachment form to the primary care physician and return it to the hospital and wait until an opening and class became available for us to go ahead and start attending the classes. we were very, very lucky because the classes were so very structured. they were taught by incredible instructors who were very skilled and well-learned and who have our best interest at heart and really wanted to improve our quality-of-life. and i just want to say how much i actually miss that program. i've noticed how much i personally have deteriorated since that program has come to a halt.

since the program was discontinuing, i'm noticing my mind and bodies are deteriorating in many different ways. my muscle tone is weaker. my skin quality has changed. my flexibility is rigged. arthritis in my hands and fingers are very painful. i'm starting to have fingers that look like my mother's which is really not something that i want. i have developed trigger finger in both of my hands. my (indiscernible) has changed and i'm falling a lot. i have dislocated my shoulder. i dislocated my hip. i've had four epidurals. i've had many bouts of botox

injections and if i continued doing that program, i probably wouldn't have had to have those procedures done. and in addition, my fibromyalgia flairs are frequent. they are worse and my brain fog is worse. i can't concentrate. everything is more prevalent. if i don't write things down, i forget them and i write down the wrong information sometimes. i just see myself losing all the ground i have grained from that program. it's very disturbing. i have felt more isolated. i'm more depressed. i've been taking more medication, which is not something i like doing. the warm water -- >> your time is up. >> the program was the best medicine i could ever have i and i wish to thank you for your

careful consideration in making a prop q hearing for this. thank you very much. >> thank you for your comment. next, we have collett hughes. >> good afternoon, secretary morewitz, commissioners and fellow san franciscans. my name

is collett hughes. i participated in the cpmc outreach community program for 20 years. about this program, the neuro path i can pain, i have become less mobile and trimmers and spasms increased. like disabled people, i can't tolerate my physical therapy or strength exercises. only in the pool. that's the only place i can do it. to participate in the program, i had to be cleared by my physician and health care information cpmc. i (indiscernible). it doesn't matter if you (indiscernible). i agreed to follow all rules and checking in at the assigned time and respecting the privacy of all and the clinical space and entering the therapy pool unless a therapist was present and forming the therapist of any change in my condition and following exercised therapy instructions during the group

sessions and whatever we had to do. we followed those instructions. individual assessment of pain and function occurred at each session. no medical -- such as free swimming happened as represented by cpmc during this process where all and special medical pool and receiving instruction from cpmc clinical staff. when cmpc did not reopen the pool for a few months in '22, (indiscernible) the local program was not reopened. instead the same type of warm pool, small group exercise classes were offered but only to people needing them on a short-term basis. who had the right interest and could afford the co-payments. they were called therapeutic procedures for which they billed and the small group sessions were therapeutic and medical to the non-pool patients and it was

therapy for us as well. it was therapy for us as well. medical slight (indiscernible) is dangerous. a test to this from my own experience in both sets of classes. the health commission needs to schedule a prop q hearing on the closing of san francisco's only hospital aquatic program that served elders and people with disabilities like me for decades. i think now of the people who were at the pack pool who were thrown out of there because they were told they had to move to davies and they were transferred and they went. and some of them were very comfortable because it was new and they were fragile. many very old at that time. they went to davies and what happened? they were told, goodbye, goodbye, and goodbye without a reason. there's no justification for this. this has to be really carefully vetted. we need a public hearing. please have a prop q hearing without delay. thank you so very much.

>> thank you for your comment. secretary morewitz, do we have anyone on the line who is requesting accommodations? >> we do. so, folks, i gave accommodations to two people and i see many more hands than that, so i'm going to reiterate, if you received, if you haven't received accommodation from me personally by e-mailing or calling, put your hands down. only folks at this point who received accommodation can speak. jeanette, try and unmute those folks and those with accommodation have a two-letter code. as they begin their statement, they will start with that code and that's how we know they have gotten accommodation. this is a procedure passed down to us by the city administrator's office. i know it's arduous. jeanette, please see if the caller has a code. >> dr. palmer, code ww. >> thank you. dr. palmer, begin. you have three minutes. >> as a community true

significance and family physician, i'm calling to advocate for proposition q hearing for the davies warm pool group program. it is -- the sutter told city attorney some kind of crap that led city attorney to conclude that these were not, that the program does not constitute the elimination or clinical services and doesn't prompt proposition q notice requirements. this is not true. these are clinical services and there's one pool. sutter shutdown their other pool in 2017. the low cost group (indiscernible). the same type of medical information that people that are short-term

participants who pay with major medical insurance supply. furthermore, cpmc davies provide the identical service on a short-term group basis when approved and paid for by medical insurance and billed towards as a therapeutic procedure, therefore, cpmc sutter is trying to get out of giving these services because they don't generate the revenue, not because they are not clinical. and this is detrimental to the community. these are low cost services that are needed by the community cmpc is a nonprofit organization. look at the facts and schedule a prop 2 hearing. thank you. >> thank you, caller. jeanette, please unmute the next person. >> yeah. it is wwata patrick.

the director's report doesn't mention laguna honda. this prevents historical information about -- >> sorry for the interruption. if you have a comment on the director's report, that's during public comment. these are for items that do not appear on the agenda. >> this isn't about the director's report, which does not mention laguna honda. so this is testimony. start my three minutes over, mr. morewitz, please. >> how would you like to proceed. >> go ahead. >> (indiscernible) since laguna honda sexual abuse scandal in 2019. they received 138

citations for violation of 78 (indiscernible) related upticks. plus, an additional 20 (indiscernible) violations for physical plant deficiencies, all across the (indiscernible) three years and four months and the root cause report identified 66 root causes requiring 454 collective (indiscernible). add in 123 substandard care violations uncovered during laguna honda's first (indiscernible) in june 2020. that totals 261 violations of federal regulations, suggesting severe problems with regulatory compliance to provide all health safely to laguna honda

vulnerable residents and march 17th, there were 23 more deficiencies. laguna honda typically was in substantial compliance with cmc (indiscernible) and routinely passed state inspections who would view any regulatory violations. what is known is the recent massive mismanagement of llh. i want to add my voice to the previous callers calling for prop 2 hearing on the closure of the warm pool. my mother, for years, went to aqua therapy in wisconsin and i know how important it is for patients with severe arthritis to receive that therapeutic intervention.

you must hold a prop q hearing on this and not fix your responsibility to make cpmc continue to provide these vital service to san franciscans who solely, no pun intended, need it. thank you. >> next caller. >> all right. so, there are only two folks who had accommodations. anyone else who would like to make remote public comment, you may do so now by pressing star three to raise your hand and we'll move into a 20-minute time limit for the overall of the comments. janet, i'm hoping you have kept track of those who have commented, so we'll go to those who have raised their hand and let's go to the first person. caller, are you there? >> yes. can you hear me? >> yes. please begin. have you three minutes. >> okay. thank you very much. hello commissioners. my name is

(indiscernible) and i'm a resident in san francisco. and a member of the great (indiscernible). and i want to urge you to stop (indiscernible) san franciscans (indiscernible) and also [hard to understand caller] thank you very much. >> all right. please unmute the next caller. >> is there any more -- no more callers, great. that was the only other hand, commissioners, for general public comment. >> thank you to the members who called in and came to the meeting. next item is the director's report. for this, we have dr. grant coal next. director of health. director colfax. >> good afternoon, commissioners, grant colfax. i have an extensive director sheet

that i'll go through. the first item is non-written item. it's a laguna honda update. just wanted to again, emphasize that the department of public health remains fully committed to cms recertification and the long-term civility of laguna honda and their families. as shared during the last commission meeting, the cms 90-day survey may talk about the changes happening and we're on the path to recertification. as an example during the first 90 day monitoring survey, we received a total of 124 deficiencys and the second survey saw a decrease in findings with an anticipated total of 23 preliminary deficiencies. in addition, laguna honda staff and leadership submitted all 77

march deliverables for the action plan. this comes after completing all 126 general milestones in the 133 january milestones successfully. as we celebrate improvement, we recognize there's much work to complete before we are ready to apply for recertification and in that regard, over the coming weeks and months, we'll continue to complete all action plan milestones, prepare the facility for the next monitoring survey and complete the (indiscernible) to apply for recertification. i would like to thank the hard-working staff and partners at the local, state and federal levels. our partnership with the unions as well as laguna honda residents and their families. next item and this is moving on to the written of part of the report. this is an update on san francisco's five-year financial projection and additional budget instructions. on friday,

march 31st, the mayor's office controller's office and the office of of the budget and legislative analyst issued an update to the five-year financial projection. unfortunately, reporting in worse of the two year deficit. the factors around the increased deficit compared to the december 2022 report includes revenue inspections compared to the prior forecast. in addition as the city is in negotiations with the police and firefighters unions, and with the in home support services and provider union and the outcome of the negotiation will impact the projections. the policy decisions with fiscal impact including addressing the structural staffing short arranges in the police department and analyzing the public works street cleaning supplemental and approval and pending by the supervisors and continuing the community ambassadors and (indiscernible) the loss of one time state funds

to maintain shelter operations and several other appropriations for new program initiatives pending at the board. with this news, mayor breed issued an instruction on march 30th, requesting that departments have additional options to reduce general fund support. equivalent to at least five percent by april 7th. for the health department, a five percent reduction represents approximately 50 million of savings in its annual budget. given the request, the mayor's office agreed to allow dph submit its proposal after the april 18th health commission and department staff will work on developing the instructions -- for its review and approval. just an update on a very challenging, even more challenging budget environment that again we'll update you and

the public on here in this room on april 18th. next item is watching the epic welcome at dph. next week, dph will welcome solution. welcome will help our patients prepare if their visits with us. patients will receive text messages reminding them to prepare and check in for their appointments via my chart and patients and their designated family members can receive charts and message their care team. if documentations is required, patients will use ipads to review signed documents as needed. welcome land -- and over the next several months, will launch our hospital -- will launch in our special settings and welcome will be available in six languages. next item is an update with regard to black health wellness and empowerment form. march 29th, the dph office

of health equity hosted a community forum to present findings from the office of health, equity and findings as a part of a process for black community. we sought to see what san francisco's black african american population believes contributes to a vice plant and success way of loss. this is based on strength rather than deficits. the study deferring, which shared aspects of these lifestyles contributed to their joy and contentment and explore how black african americans have been able to maintain their joy dispute race and poverty. after the presentation, attendees had the opportunity to discuss the findings and recommend initiatives and activities to promote black joy to improve health outcomes for black san franciscans. next item is zsgf,

impacts of pro (indiscernible) commercial power outage. like much of the bay area last week, actually it wasn't last week. it was march 21st and 22, the hospital was significantly impacted by extreme weather on those dates. as the city's largest primary care facility and the only one level trauma center serving san francisco in southern san mateo, it's critical that the hospital is providing care during power outages and a series of power outages that began on late afternoon of tuesday, march 21st caused problems throughout the entire campus and more significantly building -- the main hospital where emergency services operating rooms, icu, nicu and family care departments are located began running out of generator power that evening, after the power went out and building five where pediatric

and cardiology and outpatient levels are located. the patients were -- until power was restored which shouldn't occur until the following late afternoon. so, i want to thank all the hard-working staff who helped us respond to this emergency. and of course, the staff worked very hard around the clock until full power was restored. next item is the six annual detailing institute. the capacity building assistant program of gph for learning innovation hosted the annual public health detailing institute on march 29th through 31st. public health is a based (indiscernible) to encourage clinical practice change through brief education on one-on-one provider incident. the institute this year was on the