>> meeting this afternoon at 1:30 pm., tuesday, november 14, 2023.) (gavel) okay. so we'll call the roll. public utilities commission commission at the order i want to note that the clock is 15 minutes off and at 2 o'clock it is automatically changed to the correct time i'm told in case you are wondering what went on or fell asleep roll call, please. >> president paulson here. >> commissioner campbell here. >> commissioner ajami. >> commissioner maxwell. >> commissioner stacy we have quorum. >> okay.

>> okay. i'd like >> okay. i'd like are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush (rah-my-toosh) ohlone (o-lon-ee) who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. elders, and relatives of the ramaytush ohlone community and

by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. >> first item please. >> 3. approval of the minutes of october 24, 2023. >> any corrections to those minutes any public comment seeing none, public comment is closed. >> can i entertain a motion to approve the minutes of october 24th. >> moved and seconded roll call, please. >> president paulson, aye. >> commissioner campbell, aye. >> commissioner ajami, aye. >> commissioner stacy, 5 i's okay. next item is general public members of the public may address the commission on matters that are within the commission's jurisdiction and

are not on today's agenda. seeing none, no members of the public item 4 is closed a he can have the report of the general manager. >> discussion. >> thank you, mr. president. item 5 a. >> 5a. report of the general manager (discussion only): annual policy and government affairs update. emily lamp will be presenting. >> i'm the general manager for general affairs providing you the annual affairs update the team worked with the staff across the agency to advance the elective agenda i want to recognize my team who are here

jenny, rebecca and scott and others. they thank you for your dedication and hard work. tried to be responsible to the folks and proud of them and happy to be here today and also the elective alliances from each enterprise and power and making we are grateful appreciate the partnership and finally thank you are state lobbyists in sacramento and federal folks. um, commissioners in our meeting materials have a written memo summarizing did you activists i want to highlight a few things at the local level secured 27 hours and handled offer several requests one of the top priorities for the financing

with the water and wasting package. dj helped that with the left lane leaders and we can address their questions and proud of the work to help get the rates approved and continue to have the revenue to function and stat level dj led and coalition and for an extension of the state for the payment program that released an additional $600 million for low income customers in the program. we believe this money about directly help tens of thousands of customers to avoid shut off i'm proud of that because it is concrete and god time is a right

and work together the conferring to make sure the rate payers get the maximum amount puc is expecting to receive $22 million in addition to about $16 million very impactful money overall we - we skriend for thousands of bills for their impact to the agency and with the enterprise narrowed down and dpaemd with the highest impact agencies self would have sitly water rights in particular were 4 water right bills worked on. trying to work towards the goals of bill and mitigating negative consequences on our operations and two of the bills were removed by the office and the other two passed after

we worked with the amendments. given the continued interest in the water rights dvrj will working closely with the water enterprise in good faith to educate and advise on the water rights. at the federal level we focus on the opportunities for infrastructure mandates the stay resolving funds relies on the historic funding from the bipartisan on the clean waterside not seen the water dollars and the increased decreased if we are vigorously opposing those cuts to improve the program. as we look forward towards next year the parties

will be funding the programs like s r f for the bipartisan infrastructure law and infrastructure act we have worked with the office in expanding the low income water assistance program. and helped to start the program and with low income consumers we are looking forward to working with with them to establish and permanent program and thank you and i'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. >> thank you for all that one big request for i hear people talk about this a lot a member of a lot of applications have an standing on different issues

happens often that dr is never nor - line up with the values in san francisco. and i know as a commissioner, i would love to be - our team to feel comfortable to say no we don't want to fellow in opposition liken the program you just mentioned the low income program i mean, was a lot of opposition from the associations on that and you and i had this conversation and i don't think are interested in oh, my god it by in group opposition anyway we're going in the same - i totally think should be comfortable enough to not put our names in the opposition letter or other organizations;

right? they are very different. and i definitely understand and agree with you think we truly try to invest as may 25th - june 15, 2018, many times to have our voices heard we are one of many but not shy being active and continue to do so i hear you. >> thank you. >> if you ever need our help to, you know. i know need of that but need our help putting force into the opposition. i think i would speak unon my on behalf of happy to help- >> (multiple voices). >> you thank you for that. >> (laughter.) >> or blame me i prefer that thank you for the offer. >> any other comments on the

good work you are doing and the application to be able to get behind so many different pieces of legislation and policy positions are needed. and i will say, you know. with the infrastructure law and with the inflation and reduction act are pretty clear san francisco value types of obviously legislation we're so happy that passed. that is something we move on my other questions or comments on this presentation? >> so, thank you. >> thank you for that summary open up for public comment please. for item 5 a. >> to invite comments on 5 a this is a members of the public? >> public comment is closed. >> okay. >> next item b.

>> b) results of the 2023 power revenue bond sale. >> thank you. >> thank you. will present it. >> good afternoon commissioners. pleasure to see you again. you may recall at the september 20th meeting i approved power revenue bonds we're here to provide you the results of this and. next slide, please. hopefully each of you have seen the e-mails have been sent citywide providing updates on what we've mroshtd with the bond sales a much abbreviated presentation of the bond sale

but, of course, for members of the commission and public full information about the bonds is available on the website shown on the slide. so after your approval of the bonds on september 20th we immediately issued the offering document and our underwriters market bonds to investors on september 27th and placed the bonds and closed those bones then in october 12th. we had a simple indicate approved and, of course, the strong and stable rating we obtained prior to the approval. showing you versions of this chart a number of tons come back with each bond sale i think what maybe notable here is the changes from what you saw for the water bonds. specifically again, just to

remind you when we issue a thirty year bond especially we're issuing up to thirty different utilities with their own interest rate and in a normal environment one year bond has a lower rate than a 2 and three year bonds and so forth if you look at the yellow dash line that's the average over the last 10 years. >> that dark um, line in the middle of page is where rain water were in just prior to the bond sale in september. and those blue bars is showing the view for the rates has been is range of rates over the past year as you can see the rates have been going up and reached the top of that 10 year period.

historic you'll see the rates are well below over the thirty year period that range is pardon by the red and green bonds as you can see that the bonds have been higher this fall than in during the summer we took advantage of issuing the water bonds. still we had very strong participation with those bonds you know what the power enterprise first issued bonds in 2015 and again in 2021 this is the third issuance of power revenue bones so this was a scareist factor with the prescription was 3 times the number of bonds available and that's - level of subscription

houses us to have lower rights it during the pricing process the final results were that blend of rates on the curve provides the interest costs of 4.56 percent for the bond. and by comparison they're many factors go into the pricing of bonds we don't expect power and water bonds to be comparison the water bonds which were even more favorable market were 4, and 10 percent the bonds are marketing in the current market for 5 percent coupons but someday within the yield of the marketplace. for example, in a one year bond has a one percent

yield but the coupon a 5 percent the investors are paying a premium so that is bond we're able to produce one hundred and $31 million in other words, able to issue more bonds as a result of that premium and those bonds were used to pay commercial paper that had been used to fund power projects that you previously approved in um, in the capital plan. as with all of our negotiated sales and gave me a pricing consultant in addition to the municipal bonds and the advisors but the pricing

consultant was and they issued the independent report to indicate that the price we obtained was fair and reasonable given the may not be. >> so this chart simply gives us you what we accomplished with one hundred and 17.7 of commercial paper and as you can see the revenue bond program or powers are relatively small compared to the million we're used to see power and water considerable increase in conceivable bonds? the depth structure where the rubber meets the road with the impact on rates what we do is we structure the bonds in the front end to create and gradual increase and

layer those in over the thirty years because it's been two years since our last power bond in the final years a capacity to wrap the depth service that has the effect of allowing the evil debt service it has the effect in terms of measuring true interest costs for those the true interest cost is on the bonds in terms of we deferred the repayment by wrapping around the debt service. finally and i think you've seen this chart before the final debt issuance of this calendar year are for but marks the end of largest issuance not puc- and 80

important to emphasize the reason bond take a number of refinancing as we discussed with the wasting and the water bonds and the darker colors are the green bonds and also see this has been is laboratory issuance of bond in the history and scheduled to at your request the general managers request to come back on november 28th for a presentation on green bonds looking forward to returning for that and with that, i'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. >> >> great. thank you for that summon commissioner ajami. >> a couple of questions on the

last slide we need the issue some of the bonds i'm assuming some of those bars that you see on this area has been brought back into this the last column we see or the last bar; is that correct? >> that's correct. >> in in other words, previously issued bones and in terms of how much we issue in the marketplace it is accumulative but the net impact (unintelligible). >> but the figure you have in those years, however, some of that has been reissued. >> those are the bonds we had to find investors for in that year. >> i got it was wondering on the power bar on the last bar the 2023 the power, you know.

objective the powering section has a lot of opposition it is easier to fit it into green i'm wondering why those bonds are non-green. >> yes. commissioner at the last meeting no september we recommended to the commission that nothing about those bonds any less green than in prior years. um, the history of the pucs clean bond program i don't want to give the full 28 november presentation but quickly, the history is that power enterprise was first issued in 2015 and at that time that was typical for ourers were self certified we determined they're green bonds we look forward to the water and water

water we look forward to the certification is it fair to say the public utilities commission has been using the policeman standard for the green bars with the climate bars certification and verification by the works. the collapse has changed objective and notable yes. the office of securities has been talking about the green bonds he as you see generally talking about green issued and their recommendation was this self certification represents more potential risks so to us and we are going forward with an rfp process to engage marketplace not because we're dissatisfied with the people but have one enterprise that is self

certified today but many new players and rapidly involving in the marketplace and an opportunity to refresh and make sure we're at forefront of the best practices and any other questions. >> thank you for that open up for public comment thank you for the presentation and looking forward to seeing you in two weeks. >> thanks >> any members of the public present to provide comment on item 5 b? >> public comment is closed. >> thank you madam secretary that concludes my report. >> . okay. >> are there so to no items for

item c >> general engineering construction work on san francisco public utilities commission systems and operations around hetch hetchy. any items the commissioners want to remove from consent calendar. >> yes. a question. yeah. >> okay. item consideration pull for questions and item d, please and um, item d? >> and c. >> right. >> not pulling just clarifying questions. >> can i have that two for c, d, and e just questions on so i think we can um, do we need to open public comment? >> continue to make a motion than to. >> i'm sorry, go ahead and have

your conversation and- >> (multiple voices). >> let's have the conversation. >> let's talk about item c commissioner. >> are we going to hear. >> it is the consent calendar. >> i'm sorry can you speak into the microphone. >> my question is why now are we having this extension that's my question. >> um, (rustling of papers.) >> i why are we um, doing this now. >> good afternoon, commissioners realtime services expending the contract to support existing work and we're doing it in, you know. in the increment we think will take to accomplish the existing work. >> okay.

>> um, so we are extending it because we have more work than we thought because - >> this contract has speciality work to support the real estate and have economic consultants and we have surveyors from time to time an ongoing project the surveyors prayers oversees calculate rent eat surveyors support the work that the dispute over a boundary we send this out and all sort of economic analysis right now in the middle of preparing a reappreciate of model internal

for parcels first of all, the properties. >> any other questions on item c? >> okay. earning item d. >> you had questions on d? >> so, thank you. >> question for you so, you know. this is quite known i'm trying to figuring out how this works can be done. >> contracting it out. >> uh-huh. and this sounds like skill sets can be variable and why not train people rather than paying something else to come in and do it? i'm wondering what is the job qualification and yeah.

>> yeah. >> we realize this is we can do it in house we have been doing the training for project managers and the project is something like planning and (unintelligible) and also return back to normal so our resources optimize. the usage about how we have resources so don't want to plan for - wellness that is peaked over that's not good so what we're been doing with the core team with the project management and have the skills by doing some peak time we have the resources to finish the work so we can use is consultant as a - to after he's done we return

to normal with the project manager to and it would be good to also create.

>> error or mistake with those

conducted in the contract we correct that and renegotiate and consider the puc ability to maintain like we need the well and make sure we can have the long term. >> thank you. >> i just - maybe a little bit off script i just came back from denmark and part of the policy delegation with a bunch of projects and i keep asking about contracting projects and pricing and all that. and i'm, you know. one of the things that came up in this conversation was that this we have a very specific performance base. contracting which, you know, not that uncommon thing but if a project finishes on time, you know. a by that for both party

if it goes over we share the cost half and half i realize the project has a little bit problem here and there but thinking about how we can contractors work with and an important part of this project. i think not just about this project but generally keeping this in mind to create and system for that that will be very useful for us. and game share arrangements not just in san francisco but just now being creative and one example with the emergency work after the winter storms and had contracting to be successful so it maybe different and curious how we do that but, yes worth

considering. >> without getting into any of the ideas and incentives or non-incentives ask the question has been a complarthd project he adding to it i saw with my fellow commissioner hopefully to get an update on some of the details what is happening with that that is important with that sometimes difficult project thank you for that any other kissing from the commissioners? >> okay. that being said, i think are there any other questions at all and if not open up for public comment on the consent agenda. >> any members of the public to provide comments on the consent agenda? >> public comment is closed. >> okay. motion and second for the consent calendar motion and

second came in an oxen to that passed roll call, please. >> president paulson eyes. >> vice president rivera, aye. >> commissioner maxwell, aye. >> commissioner ajami, aye. >> commissioner stacy, aye. >> 5 i's everything on the consent we has the next item, please. >> >> 8a. advance calendar. >> you skipped item electric to provide the sfpuc secondary voltage service under pg&e's wholesale distribution tariff for some 30 megawatts of city load. >> thank you barbara hale assistant general manager for power i'm here to enter into the settle b&b by the commissioner

secretary summarized first context i'll provide will address the services we purchased from pg&e with a number of disputes that arise and the litigation underway as well as the settlement we operate for electrical services for the housing development and get into the particulars 0 first of all, the services we purposed from pg&e hefty averages about one million megawatt hours to serve you're about 6 house customer accounts most of our customers have connected to the pg&e owned distribution grid we pay pg&e $45 million a year for that service. the cost for that service are part of our hefty power costs recovered from hefty

electricity and the rates you set and they're billed monthly but our puc customer service bureau the $35 million a year question paid pg&e is based on a transfer proposed by pg&e and approved by the federal regulatory commission the services form our rights to access the service. they are for pg&e the rules that other utilities like us have to our consumers the pg&e terms of service that creates this dispute between pg&e and ourselves and frankly the customers we service from hefty hetch hetchy program and working with the city attorney we filed a complaint in early 2019 with the regulatory commission

challenging pg&e in practice they refused to provide secondary voltage service to the customers with electricity load studying 75 kilowatts a small thresholds pg&e asked for primary service will be appropriate for customer like san francisco general hospital. they xhoetdz large electrical equipment costs and cause delays and make hetch hetchy infeasible the complaint deemed no technical justification or any safety or liability need for primary voltage service that pg&e didn't apply those same requirements to on the customers and it alleged against the city.

you, you know. we respect report to you and the board of supervisors on our static to context pg&e customers to the grid on a quarterly because the last report in august of 2023 and showed 42 active projects facing delays and increased costs because of pg&e for more than thirty projects other projects that we found was infeasible to meet the unreasonable requirement they competed wouldn't be hetch hetchy customers the total impact for the 72 projects from the august report was approximately $13 million a those costs will continue this is because they will pay the

higher pg&e charges as long as they're connected. on average our customers pay thirty percent lower than pg&e rates there is also the financial harm to the city from the fact that um, the higher costs that they're paying is eating into the operating costs for the department and taking away from their core services and our loss in revenue for the pg&e customers instead of the hetch hetchy customers i'm talking about the impacts talking about affordable housing and campuses like the projects and i'm talking about individuals building libraries like the one hundred and 38 units under construction and talking about stormwater prejudicially stations and irrigation system line on sunset

boulevards and the chinatown public health center and elementary schools like i believe heart and golden gate park and the neighborhood centers like friends and litigating issued related to the pg&e tariffs those are multiple service levels the form la requirements that are passed on to us for updates to the pg&e and treatment of unmetered likely the street lights and traffic signals and non-possible services charges and holdings pg&e accountable to reasonable engineering and timelines that is important for projects getting connected and city services back underway we have an affordable housing agreement. so we have been successful in

negotiating for reasonable connection terms with both pg&e for certain types of affordable housing and pg&e has agreed to context the housing with handicapped affordable to no mix the projects on city land and the puc condominiums to charge the hetch hetchy customer a low income rate. that agreement expires in 2011 so few the new agreement before you this settlement will allow us to connect 20 megawatts of metered customers at secondary voltage when they're existing hetch hetchy customers that change their electrical services and city departments and rolled

combaebts /* equity the private colleges and private entities but this will be 5 megawatts and the settlement that is before you will last for 5 years in exchange the city will permanently dismiss and wave any claims for monetary damages. we recommend this settlement because will resolve this complaint and provided certainty for us and some of our customers on the rules for advisory committee to the pg&e grid for 5 years. and avoids continued pg&e disputes delays and costs for that set of customers. with that, i ask for your support of this settlement and the authorization to take to the board for approval and i'm available for questions. but if you require legal counsel we

have noticed a closed session and can take that up at that time. >> thank you for summarizing those i know will be commissioners lining up to ask questions or comments before i do that i'd like to say contacts i think we have read and the presentation, you know. puts things in a pretty outrage position i think that pg&e putting us in this position really just disrespectful to what is happening in san francisco with mixed feelings we have this on the agenda to deliberate as commissioners in that context first commissioner stacy please. thank you. i really have a procedural question because in closed session on item 14 if we approve this matter now we won't

have questions for legal counsel on the calendar is in the procedure by have questions any on about will be addressed in closed session and vote on that after the closed session. >> yeah. >> how does that work? >> i'm happy to take in the questions that is a matter of interest to the public so any questions? i can he answer in the public i recognize somehow maybe. >> a commissioner stacy is that clear. >> thank you. i want to make sure i understood the process and i did read all of the agenda items and have some questions answered by um, staff ahead so i don't think i have any further questions but. thank you. >> okay. commissioner ajami. >> thank you so thanks for that clarification. can i have a

little bit of a - i was precipitated by those bonds as a layperson that is not xhashlth and straightforward but i mean is that something you should be historically why refer it to a federal body that is supposed to provide a fair assessment of situation? take a side should not be taking providing um, you know. fair statement. >> uh-huh. >> of the situation. >> certainly an ongoing situation with staff together with city attorney. you know.

the only way to avoid those issues is to be the owners of grid we avoid having to do the mother may i when we have disagreements with pg&e. i'll point out one of the decisions we took on appeal and burke was remand back by the court we were told his got it wrong. >> that is a lengthy process; right? and in the meantime, we have city departments and other customers who need to make improvements of facilities and we need to do our business not an ideal scenario to do the trip to washington and request for intervention. >> on that note is there a way

- i mean i know we want to settle and move forward. >> given. >> sure. >> but only have 5 years; right? >> correct. >> my question it is this for strategic to think about the 5 years or should we think about putting it, you know. i don't know an amendment that says, you know. we will recoup the costs the legal costs and the distribution? i mean a lot not beyond just they spent a lot of time and lots of legal costs associated even if come for free am wondering if we need and guarantee. >> well, i think the concern

you're expressing about um, you know. how this can happen again and that for me that is part of the reason why we go with the shorter term. and it allows us to be more comfortable with the cap that pg&e is wanting to impose own us; right? so this dynamic we have a longer-term need and higher cap. >> sure. >> i can't imagine that is part of what pg&e and the city have unarguing about as we come to a settlement like this the longer - helping us to mitigate that concern is the fact we have the affordable housing agreement so that's that category of load we can serve outside the cap we

have until three 1 and over the 5 years to 10 years whether make progress on the acquisition another mitigating factor and helps us helping um, get a more responsive pg&e when issues come up. and you feel that the settlement that is in front of us is the best i could have gotten on the process or, you know. we could have asked for more a game; right? >> (multiple voices). >> ask for more and yes, i'm standing before you you recommending it i think that the best we can get. >> uh-huh. >> thank you. >> vice president rivera. >> thank you president i wanted to make a comment and underscore something you said when i managed the capital improvement

of sf fire we had massive delays with um, this process was - hopefully with the settlement will no longer be absolutely frustrating and impactful on knack budgets affordable housing replace of employment is frustrating reading we're having a settlement i'm so happy for the city departments that don't have to go through that it was terrible. >> yeah. you're speaking to - the settlement provide and really does not only does unbutcher us with the associated cost you were mentioning but you're highlighting for the city and the budget and all that so,

yeah. >> commissioner maxwell. >> thank you and congratulations i know that is rough but at least we got there to somehow degree can you give me an example and today with our customers where we are live have a right to secondary service. >> (multiple voices.) >> and i'm going to do this for the audience. >> secondary services yeah secondary services the ability to connect to the pg&e grid for services referred to as a facility. so if you're um, for example, the beginning friend rec center and make these visit your property today without the settlement pg&e was requiring that gwen friends set aside a base for primaries voltage equipment

that's about the size of parking space. and a little bit bigger but to give you you a frame that is carving out space this is is core function and assessable to the street have redesign what they thought they'll do with their facility and buy the equipment and have that reviewed by pg&e and um, there the cost of their construction. >> and the conditional use permit is what that is tens of thousand dollars. >> 5 hundred thousand is standard for the equipment mind what we see now with the settlement is approved by ourselves and our board is connections at secondary service voltage. avoiding all of that equipment being able to connect like other customers on pg&e grids. you avoid that $500,000

and does not have to take away space for the core services and equipment the process is xoementd to go much more quickly save an time. >> you're welcome. >> thank you for that and illustration any more comments from the commissioners, if not i have a question that goes to what commissioner stacy brought if i is confused prior to this meeting if we're going to go closed session i no problem personally and, yes talking about this is a transparent as we can this an outrage commission to make difficult decisions but if the general counsel is there a need to go to closed session any more missing

anything in terms of the questions we have not asked for right now? >> the answer is no. okay. that being said. thank you. >> and thank you, commissioners for asking those very constructive questions for a difficult situations with that vendor. so is there entertainment to make a motion for to accept the settlement? >> after public comment. >> yes. i'm sorry public comment, of course. >> members of the public present to provide comment on item no. 7? >> seeing none, public comment is closed. >> okay. >> opinions i will repeat we're sort questions or comments that being said, a motion it a second to approve this settlement. >> i'll move. >> hear a motion and second

roll call. >> president paulson, aye. >> vice president rivera, aye. >> commissioner maxwell, aye. >> commissioner ajami, aye. >> commissioner stacy, aye. >> 5 i's. >> okay. >> this difficult settlements passes and do some actually do some business here in san francisco so, thank you. >> okay. so. could you um, talk about the next item, please. >> >> 8a. advance calendar. information only on the communications any communication items any commissioners want to discuss? >> okay. >> next item, please. >> tim 9. >> 9. items initiated by commissioners (discussion only) >> commissioners is there anything i wanted to put on the

agenda or discuss? >> seeing none, um, commissioner maxwell. >> yeah. i don't really know how to say that. so hopefully, we'll figure it out but i'm wondering a way to look at our contracting out and how many people we or down and what departments? like down over 6 hundred people and some departments have quite a few people how does that relate to having to contract out our work? >> do we know. >> i understand your question putting together a correlation of - so maybe somebody in the department can ask that you're comparing the fact trying to hire many people as departments

are and also contracting out is that what you're referring. >> yeah. 6 hundred and 60 i think some departments over 50 and 60 people down how three residential hotels to contracting out and if it does at all? something i wonder about everything we look at our budget and say cost savings and salary saving are we really saving thousand? but we're spending money in other ways that is kind of my question. >> i don't know if there is someone- >> (multiple voices). >> not now but i don't expect an answer now i don't want an answer now but a question does that relate than let me know and absolutely. we had a number of conversations as commissioner

ajami knows in briefing on contract issues we've happy to stand by that and you'll find not as much of a correlation but make sure we have all the information. >> that's good. >> yep, absolutely we can we'll put them together for you. >> thank you. >> thank you. above you anything else? >> i'll just add. >> commissioner ajami. >> so you heard me saying that yesterday i'm happy if trip i was in denmark and i was the able to see who they have masked all their infrastructure and excite how to move things, however, and i was like blown away like they basic decided to

do this and did that and assuming they're not a brand new country and the city of copenhagen was not created yesterday they're older than us and able to do this. i asked them how do i do it the cost is difficult we use a lot of technologies but trying to figure out how to piecemeal but at the end. i don't know how to ask this who to ask how to figure that out but we need to do this in the city. and it is kind of like we live and in the middle of all sort of technology; right? we're a land of technology everybody comes to here to learn i couldn't tell them we have a map of san francisco. i, you know. somehow

we need to do this i'm happy to help if you want to bring people in to have that that conversation and mayor's office to have a conversation it is beneficial to us as a utility but we should do this it is important for us and can be very useful to us. thank you. >> any other ideas or initiations of discusses by any more commissioners? >> okay. if not, i guess we will what the next item. >> public comment on this item and so i guess we need public comment on the two items have been brought up by do commissioner. >> members of the public to provide comments on item number 9? >> seeing none, public school

public comment is closed. >> read the next item please madam secretary the motivators for heard prior to closed session public comment on item 12 conference for legal counselor proposed settlement on the damages for property from a rip it is your duty water main in the city and county of san francisco to $36,000 plus in exchange for final review and approval by the board of supervisors and item 13 determined complainants by the city and county of san francisco in to delegate to the commissions and the city attorney the authority to set on the 9/11 water main break and

commissioner discussion 14 will not be heard in the closed session so- >> members of the public present to provide comment on item 12. >> seeing none, closed session and 13 is closed. >> so we'll go into closed session make a motion to assert the attorney-client privilege regarding those matters just read. >> so moved. >> roll call. >> motion sent. >> president paulson, aye. >> vice president rivera, aye. >> commissioner maxwell, aye. >> commissioner ajami, aye. >> commissioner stacy, aye. >> 5 i's. >> okay.

(in closed session). >> . okay. um, we're back in session. commission is not - recommending this is the board recommend the settle in items 12 and 13 and 14 as the motion was not discussed so motion. >> just to clarify item 14 was pulled from the calendar. >> was not discussed okay. thank you for the clarification is motion regarding whether or not to disclose the discussion. >> roll call, please. >> president paulson, aye. >> vice president rivera, aye. >> commissioner ajami, aye. >> commissioner maxwell. >> commissioner stacy, 5 i's.

>> we have no other scheduled business so the meeting is adjourned. >> thank you.

>> it had been rain for several days. at 12:30 there was a notice of large amount of input into the reservoir. we opened up the incident command and started working the incident to make sure employees and the public were kept were safe there is what we call

diversion dam upstream of moccasin. the water floods the drinking water reservoir. we couldn't leave work. if the dam fails what is going to happen. >> we had three objectives. evacuate and keep the community and employees safe. second was to monitor the dam. third objective was to activate emergency action plan and call the agencies that needed contacted. >> the time was implement failure of the dam. we needed to set up for an extended incident. we got people evacuated downstream. they came back to say it is clear downstream, start issuing problems and create work orders

as problems come in. >> powerhouse was flooded. water was so high it came through the basement floor plate, mud and debris were there. it was a survey where are we? >> what are we going to do to get the drinking water back in. >> we have had several emergencies. with each incident we all ways operate withins dent command open. process works without headache. when we do it right it makes it easier for the next one. >> we may experience working as a team in the different format. always the team comes together. they work together. >> our staff i feel does take a lot of pride of ownership of the projects that they work on for the city. we are a small organization that

helps to service the water for 2.7 million people. >> the diversity of the group makes us successful. the best description we are a big family. it is an honor to have my team recognized. i consider my team as a small part of what we do here, but it makes you proud to see people come together in a disaster. >> safety is number one through the whole city of san francisco. we want people to go home at the end of the day to see their loved ones. we don't want them hurt. we want them back the next day to do their work. >> there is a lot of responsibility the team members take on. they word very -- they work hard. they are proud of what they do. i am proud they are recognized.

>> you are watching san francisco rising with chris manner. today's special guest is carla short. >> hi, i'm chris manner and you are watching san francisco rising the show about restarting rebuilding and reimagining the city. our guest is carla short the intric director of public works and here to talk about the storms we had and much more. welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me. >> great to have you. let's start by talking about the storms that started beginning of the year. there fsh a lot of clean up recovery and remediation. can you talk about what your team did? >> sure. the 17 inches of rain we got starting on new year's eve through the first 2 and a half weeks of january made it one of the wettest periods in recorded history for san francisco, so as you imagine we

had a lot of work to do. we gave out more then 31 thousand sand bags, we were operating all most non stop from new year's eve to san francisco residents and businesses out of our operation yard and frequently working thin rain so it was a beautiful dance to watch. we had a corio graphed where people drive in the stop and load with san dags and get on it way so thats was the most visible thij weez had to do. responded to all most a thousand calls for localized flooding for the corner of the street with catch basin. our team trying to address that. we clear and pick up anything to block and it hopefully get the flooding to go down. if we are able to respond we call in the san francisco pub utility system and are responsible for the sewer system under so they

bring ing vack trucks that vacuum out debris inside the catch basin. we also dealt with lots and lots of calls about trees and tree limbs down. i think we actually faired better then some other places in terms of loss of full trees. we did have whole tree failures and that is not that uncumin with super satch waited soil conditions. we had over 950 calls about trees or tree limbs down. a lot of calls were about loss of a limb and we could save the tree. we are still assessing the data to figure how many were full tree failures versus limb failure. >> also had land movement too. the great highway comes to mind. what is your approach to managing rock mud and land slides? >> that is a great question. we had 28 different slides over the course of that period. it is kind of a interesting process, so the first step is we have our geotechnical or

structural engineers take a look to see is the hillside safe, do we need to stabilize it in some way or just need to do some cleanup? once they made their assessment they will recommend the next steps. often times to protect public safety we will place k rails the giant concrete rails at the base omthe slide area to make sure that any debris doesn't get on the edroway and bring ing the heavy equipment to scoop up on the ground and move off the roadway and try to open the roadway. some cases, we will actually inject some rocks or other stabilizing forces either into the slide area or sometimes below the roadway. right now there is nothing that's unstable out there but be are keeping a close eye on the areas including the gray highway area. >> right, right. well, so talking about the storms in the city response, brings us to

southeast community scepter when there is rain remediation projects going on. can you talk about the inconstruction project kblrks that is a favorite project. a beautiful new community facility. we were involved in pretty much every aspect of developing that project for the public utility commission. they were a client. we design project management and construction management and the landscape design for that project. and one thing that we included was storm water management throughout the entire project site. so, that project encapturealize the rain water that lands on the roof and flows into the landscape where we have rain gardens so intent is slow the water down to and give areas to collect to percolate into the ground rather then the sewer system. when we have sewers that are

overloaded, because our rain water mixes with the sewer treatment storm sewer system, we actually can end up dist charging into the bay which we dont want to do. anything we can do to just prevent those combined sewers from overpm loaded is a good thing and in this case allows the water to collect onsite and percolate to the ground which is the best way to manage the storm water and it is beautiful and provides habitat. i encourage everybody to see it. it is special place. >> that's great. there was recently news about how city (indiscernible) powered by steam, which is super unusual i think. i understand public works ablgtually does the maintenance on the system. can you just talk about that a bit? >> sure. that is a unusual situation. that steam loop was actually built when the city was recovering from the 1906

earthquake. it only provides to steam about 4 buildings in civic center but that is how we keep buildings like city hall warm. the steam goes into the radiators and provides the heat. it is a old system and if you see steam billowing out of the man holes or other spaces, that is indication of a leak actually. we spend a lot of time trying to fix the leaks because it's a old system. it is managed by the real estate department and at one point they were looking trying to replace the whole thing but think that is a massive undertaking so now they focus on making as needed repair said. we did a big repair on growth street where we spent a month and a half working on the known leaks s in the area. it is a very tight spot and have to use blow torches to seal up the leak so a intense

operation and seeing more leaks on polk street so we will be out there once it warms up to fix the leaks. >> excellent. let's discuss what is the reunifiquation of public works. there fsh a proposal or plan to split off the division, called the street and sanitation. now that has been shelved and public works is going to just retain being a single entity. can you talk through the process? >> sure. yeah. the original proposal was a ballot measure voted on to split the department into 2. it basically create the department of sanitation and streets that was really going to incompass all our operation divisions so it was a street cleaning department but encompass everything we refer to as operations. when we worked preparing for that split with the city administrator office, we found there were actually 91 what we call touch points

between the operations work and our engineering and architecture side, so we really felt like it could be very difficult to split into two departments. we have so many areas of overlap. there was a new ballot measure last november to reunit the department. technically we split october one and did split in some ways. we did put on hold some of the behind the scenes things like rebranding all the vehicle jz giving everyone a new e-mail address in the sanitation and streets department, but on january 1 of 2023 we came back together so we are reunited i want sing the peaches and purb song and think it is a good thing for the 91 areas of overlap. we making #2c3w50d use of the research. preparing for the split. looking at all the touch points and trying to

strengthen the department so we are more streamlined and efficient. one of the most important component from the original ballot measure is commission oversight. we retained two commissions, the public works commission which oversee the over-all department and approve the budget and contracts. and sanitation and street commission and their mandate focus on policy and deliverable for street cleaning and basically the operation division. reporting to them regularly how we are doing, we think will help make sure we are as efficient and effective as we can be as a department. >> that sounds great. thank you so much for coming and talking to me today and appreciate the time you have given. >> thank you so much for having me. it was a pleasure. >> that is it for this episode. you are watching san francisco rising.

>> [music] art withelders exhibiting senior art work across the bay for 30 years as part of our traveling exhibit's program. for this exhibits we partnered with the san francisco art's commission galleries and excited show case the array of artist in historic san francisco city hall. >> [inaudible].

call me temperature is unique when we get to do we, meaning myself and the 20 other professional instructors we are working with elders we create long-term reps i can't think of another situation academically where we learn about each other. and the art part i believe is a launching pad for the relationship building:see myself well. and if i don't try when my mom again. she may beat the hell out of mow if i don't try >> seniors, the population encounters the problem of loneliness and isolation even in

a residential community there hen a loss of a spouse. leaving their original home. may be not driving anymore and so for us to be ail to bring the classes and art to those people where hay are and we work with people in all walks of life and circumstances but want to finds the people that are isolated and you know bring the warmth there as much as art skill its personal connection. men their family can't be well for them. i can be their fell and feel it. >> i don't have nobody. people say, hi, hi. hello but i don't know who they are. but i come here like on a wednesday, thursday and friday. and i enjoy. >> we do annual surveys asking students what our program does for them. 90 plus % say they feel less

alone, they feel more engaged. they feel more socially connected the things you hope for in general as we age. right? >> and see when i do this. i am very quiet. i don't have anybody here talking to me or telling me something because i'm concentrating on had i'm doing and i'm not talking to them. >> not just one, many students were saying the program had absolutely transformational for them. in said it had saved their lives. >> i think it is person to support the program. because i think ida elder communities don't get a lot of

space in disability. we want to support this program that is doing incredible work and giving disability and making this program what supports the art and health in different way bunkham art as a way of expression. a way of like socializing and giving artists the opportunity also to make art for the first time, sometimes and we are excited that we can support this stories and honor their stories through art. we hope the people will feel inspired by the variety and the quality of the creative expressions here and that viewers come, way with a greater appreciation of the richness what elders have to share with us. [music] please

stand by for the san francisco government audit and oversight committee meeting of november 16, 2023. >> good morning. meeting will come to order. welcome to november 16, 2023 of the government audit oversight committee of the san francisco board of supervisors. i'm supervisor preston, chair joined by vice chair stefani and supervisor chan. committee clerk today is stephanie cabrera and our thanks to matthew from sfgovtv for staffing this meeting. madam clerk, any announcements? >> yes, public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda. when your item comes up public comment is called. line up along the curtain wall to your right. you may submit public comment in writing. e-mail to the government audit committee clerk at