>> sf gov. tc to order, can we have a roll call. >> president paulson. >> here >>. vice president rivera. >> here. >> commissioner maxwell is excused today. commissioner stacy. >> here, >> and we have a quorum. thank you. >> so i would like to announce that the san francisco public utilities acknowledges that it owns and stewards of the unseeded lands located within theth no ohlone tribe.

also recognizes that every sit en residing within the greater bay area has and continues to benefit from the ohlone aboriginal lands, founding in 1932. it's vitally important that we not only recognize the history of the tribal lands on which we reside but acknowledge and know the fact that they have established a working partnership with sfpuc can you call the first item, please do not a. >> item number 3, approval of minutes of february 27, 2024. >> okay, are tli corrections to the meeting? to these minutes? let us open the minutes to public document, please.

>> remote callers raise your hands if you wish to provide comments on item number 3. do we have anybody present want to go provide comment on item number 3. >> seeing none, can we have a motion and a second to approve the minutes. >> do we have any callers with their hands raised. >> madam secretary, there are no callers who wish to be recognized. >> i didn't hear that, there are no callers, thank you. seeing no more in cue for public comment, can i have a motion and a second to accept the minutes. >> so moved. >> second. >> can i have a roll call. >> president paulson. >> aye. >> vice president rivera. >> aye. >> commissioner stacy. >> aye. >> we are on item 4. >> i'm sorry, item 4 is general

public comment. can we open up to general public comment. do we have any members of the public wishing to provide public comment. if so, step forward. >> please come to the microphone, welcome. >> speaker: commissioners i'm francisco decosta and i want to bring to your attention, the community benefits and and our contracting center, which is under utilized since the pandemic. and what happens is, the contracting center, in the early early years, we would get

a report on the digesters and the biosolids. sol they're kept out. and, the bay view hunters point, had a task force that the task force mandated the community benefits. 5 percent of a billion. so in the first 6 billion it was 300 billion and we wanted have a real audit on it to see how that money is being spent on the community. right now we're headed towards 12 billion. so we shouldn't be hood winked. we need to utilize the contracting center because we really need it.

and it's under utilized. it's open from tuesday to thursday. it should be open from monday to friday. again, and want you all to look at it as something that the community wants. and needs. thank you. >> thank you. are there anymore folks in line for public comment? if you could can you please come to the microphone. seeing none, let's open this up to remotel. >> trace for item number 4. >> madam secretary, there are three callers with their hands raised. >> thank you. >> caller your line has been unmuted. you have two minutes. >> speaker: thank you, director for river tribe. first i want to thank you for

reinstating remote public participation, really great move, we really appreciate it. second thing i want to mention is under communications does the alternative water supply plan. this is a really big deal so i want to encourage to you schedule a workshop. it's, it's full build out would cost between 16 billion and 25 million dollars it would double the budget and we know there is very little room for moving things around. we feel like the expensive comments, we submitted on the draft were not adequate lea dressed and we would like to do that in a no fo' rum. and the plan only looks at our outside projection. so these are the numbers in the urban water management plan

that's how they described it. everything possible gets built that's how much the demand would increase and need to be filled through the plan. also, we need to discuss the design route that would have a huge impact on the water mriez that might be need to be developed. so the urban water management plan will get start getting updated next year, 2025. in 2020, the projection for demand next year was 216mgd but last year it was about 178, we've got to get the pro sections rights. again, i hope you schedule a workshop. thank you. >> thank you, next remote caller. >> caller your line has been unmuted, you have two minutes. >> speaker: thank you, i'm calling on behalf of my parents who applied for the sf pc

customer assistance program. this program is suppose to help low income people like my parents but it's been months since they applied and they're still not getting a discount. i mean their income clearly falls within the guidelines and they still had to sent a letter that they had to submit a bunch of information in order for them to verify the income. they're older immigrants and justifiably, uncomfortable with giving out this kind of personal information. and to top it off the letter sent to them was not even in spanish which was the language that they applied. so they could not read the letter yet alone understand what they were being asked to give. i mean, they went through whatever the online credit check thing was, which was frankly made them really uncomfortable. but apparently that was not enough.

i mean, you say you're helping low income people. are you? i mean, my parents are immigrants, they work hard their whole life and paid their taxes and they still don't make enough to meet their basic needs, the least you can do is not make it harder for them to get a little help. i hope you do something about this, i know there are a lot of families like mine that don't feel like they can call and tell you about the programs that are accessing this program. i mean, please we're the city of san francisco, we can do better. thank you. >> thank you for your comments and information. next remote carol, please. >> caller your line has been unmuted, you have two minutes. >> speaker: i'm under the power

committee for the last two years. i've also been a resident for five years and four months. and as you may know that tlir island xaoernsz a power outage for the last 4 to 5 years which means basically for the time that i've been on the san francisco public utilities, in this advisory board there is been over 1100 power outages. which means there is been more power outages that and back in 2017, the board of supervisor sxz board of general, dispatched an emergency resolution overriding, dictate if they updated them. to purchase two generators and what we're calling for in resolution that we passed in the subcommittee last month is for an emergency authorization for the complete island to upgrade the grid for the

current residents. the resolution is named regarding emergency authorization and power outages on treasure island. and the reason we're calling for an emergency authorization that allows to us bypass on a contract initiates and delays that have caused experience over 487 outages in the last 24 years. and just like the mayor has stated when, public entity that it is on the private market. on may third when we have one power outage over 4-day, london mayor breed said that the well being of our residents are fundamental principal of government, it's our duty to deliver services in san francisco--. >> thank you, caller your points are noted.

are there anymore callers, please. >> secretary, there are no more callers in the queue. >> okay, seeing no more callers for public comment, can i get a motion i guess i can call the next item which is the report of the general manager. >> thank you mr, president. two items, i know you're aware because i advised you you of a water main break that we had on friday in the vicinity of 30th and winona. first of all, i want to compliment our staff for incredible work in terms of getting that water main break under control within about an hour and a half time. there was a number of staff onsite within minutes from

trying to alleviate the program and they did a fantastic job. is since that time, we've been coordinating with rec and park and others to do side assessment and anticipate what damages are there. we're thankful that it did, it does not appear to have impacted the work that we did in stern grove a couple of years ago. sol that's a positive but we're in the process of evaluating and we may have to make some declarations of some kind of contracting compared to what sort of repairs. that is the first thing, so i will keep you apprised as to how things develop. as you know, joe has been the existing general manager over the course of last year and he has done a fantastic job in

lead thating enterprise. and i'm happy to announce that he's now the permanent assistant manager for waste water and joel has a long and proud history of working his way to the ranks, first at dpw and now here puc in really has the support of rank and file in that enterprise, he's a problem solver and always looks at solutions so we're lucky to have him in that position. thank you. >> thank you, and congratulations. and we look forward to working with you. >> thank you so much. and if i can make one comment, thank you for that report on what happened down in winona, this stuff got fixed and slowed down very very fast. so thanks for all of that. i know that we've been walking for a while because we have a

lot to do in honoring the workers making sure that this infrastructure work that we're doing not only to fix but when something happens that it gets fixed so much because we have such great staff to take care of it. so hopefully we can honor some of those workers, because it's the people that are around to get this stuff maintained or fixed. sol thank you for that report. okay, and again, congratulations and looking forward to continuing to work with you. okay. >> that concludes. >> that's it for the report of general manager. >> i'm sorry, wait, i'm wrong about that. i took things out of order, i apologize. i basically gave the end at the beginning. >> it's all downhill. >> yeah, i had my mind went the wrong way. so you're going to have to take

public comment on what i just said which i had just said at the end. i was just asking to say joe is doing a great job. >> so we'll be opening public comment on your report anyway. ?a. was 5d, correct. so let's open up public comment on that and get it going. thank you. >> all right, thank you. so do we have any remote callers, please raise your hand if you wish to provide comments on item 5d which was taken out of order. please raise your hand. do we have any members of the public prebt to provide comment on item 5d. seeing none. do we have any callers with their hands raised? >> madam secretary, there are no callers who wish to be recognized. >> thank you. >> my apologies, 5-a is the

fiscal year 2022-2023 financial statement sxz nancy hamm will be presenting. >> good afternoon, commissioners, i'm nancy manager. i'm here to mrent fiscal year 2022 and-2023 for water, waste water and hetachi water and i'm also joined here by annie louie assurance partner for llp. she will later present details on the results. i'm pleased to the report that the puc issued for prior year 2023 on december 26, 2023. we are the only city department that issues three separate reports one for each of our enterprises. ngollp and their work was

completed last calendar year. these three reports are now available on our website under financial reports. i want to highlight that n g.o. noted that for our three financial statements, they issued an unmodified opinion, they presented fairly and in accordance with applicable guidelines. there were no materials miss at the same times and there were no internal control did i efficiencies noted. additionally, each fiscal year, after we issue our financial statement, the puc issues two a advertising al reports, the financial reports which consolidates the three financial statements into one in compliance with the requirement established by the government and county of county board also known as gaspe and also audited and that report was issued one month later on january 26, 2024. we also issued the popular

financial report developed with financial extract to produce high quality reporting that is meant to be readily accessible and understandable to the general public and interested parties. we're honored to receive the prestigious awards for excellence and financial report anding outstanding achievement and popular financial reporting annually since 2009, and 2010, these two reports are included in the communication today. and i want to express my communication for working closely with finance and most especially to the finance team for producing reports each year without any material misstatement sxz without any control did i efficiencies. and with that, this concludes my portion of the presentation and i'll hand it over to annie louie, partner ngo who will present the audit results.

>> good afternoon, i'm annie louie i'm the partner of ngo that is in charge of the financial statement audit. i want to go over the scope of the audits. we did audit each of the financial reports as well as the annual comprehensive financial report. the auditor responsibilities section covers what we are engaged to do under professional standards. we're engaged to provide an audit opinion about they're in accordance with county standards. we audit as well as government auditing centers that are applicable to your financial statements. as part of our audit, we do cover as relate today financial reporting and i'm happy to report that we don't have any

deficiencies to report. we would include that in your report but in this particular year, we don't have any specific man tore report to you. i know this is a lot of words on one slide, i will not read through everything but this highlights management responsibility for compelling the financial statement. and as we related to the audit committees responsibility as well as establishment, we look to you to set the tone in terms of upholding ethical standards and understanding the systems that are in place to ensure the financial statement right side properly stated. in terms of the results that i had mentioned this as well as in nancy's report, we issued opinions on each of the statements under any financial audit. we did not identify any did i

efficiencies whether it's the weakness or significant weaknesses. in terms of the signature standards they are more detailed described in financial statements. i did want to highlight that there were a series of new accounting centers that were implemented in fiscal year 2023. financial statement, on even more significant ones and the slide describes the high level how the estimates are put together by management. we did perform details and procedures as well as in engage to look at some of these estimates and consider, consider the key factors and assumptions that are used in those preparations and we did determine that the estimates

were reasonable as a whole. other required communications on vendor items that we're required to report to you, they are professional auditing standards. in the most cases we don't have any significant matters to report so no news is good news in this case, we did have uncorrected statements that relate today claims liability and the main reason for that is because of the timing of evaluation that became available to us during the course of audit. so the information that was not able to be captured any financial report itself. but it's material difference and that is why we were able to provide a modified opinion on the financial statements. okay. lastly, i would like to call with some accounting updates. there are a few announcement that's will impact the financial statements in the upcoming years and we will work

closely with management to impact. and this concludes my presentation and i'm happy to take any questions you may have. financial report in the popular annual financial report. and it was helpful, i'm somebody like me, i'm not super well versed in the financial

aspects to the someplacing as long with the same financial information was really helpful, so thank you. >> thank you. >> commissioners? so thank you for your report, let us open let us open 5 a to public comment, please. donna? >> members of the public sorry, remote callers raise your hand if you wish to provide comment on 5-a? do we have any members of the public who would like to provide comment on 5-a? >> commissioners the last time i was here, and the lengthy reports were given. i made some comments and i want to assure the commissioners

that ms. home, i have always admired her tenacity and fortitude. she is a hard worker, and before i left, i thanked her for her work. having said that, we know, some of us who refer to the various figures, linked to the various projects that the over costs on some of our projects are evident. and the layman can be bluffed mean thating you know, accountant can cover things up. so so on and so forth. but we, have to be very cautious when we spend taxpayers money and overall

costs because of whatever are the factors like the pandemic or maybe whatever is happening in today's world. we need to know that. so when we look at the other projects that are in the pipeline, we see a huge amount 470 million and so on and so forth. we the people need to be taken into consideration at least twice a year by having presentations so that we can give our input then. thank you very much. >> comment on 5 a. seeing none are there any in the queue. >> do we have any callers with their hands raised. >> secretary, there are no callers who wish to be recognized. >> thank you. >> okay, thank you. item d please. >> is san francisco water front

flood study report. sarah and some staff from the port will be presenting. >> good afternoon, commissioners adam from the port of san francisco. i'm going to speak today to the water front resilient programs along with sarah from the pu as well as brad director of the water front resilience program from the port of san francisco. what i'm speaking about today is the port of avenue avenue and u.s. army corporate of

engineers that annan liesing the sea level rise in the coast front. over the next 100 years. we've just reached a significant mild stone in the development of the study which is the release of the draft plan to the public at the end of january and we entered into a variety of public out reach and engagement events and hearings. the draft plan includes a proposed plan to adopt the shoreline to current future flood risk as well as sea level rise with an estimated cost of 13 and a half billion dollars which is a high cost estimate. if this plan is approved by congress, then congress will pay toup 52 percent of the state and local sources. this map is showing the boundaries of the flood study,

the yellow from fisherman's wharf in the north all the way down to herrington park including the creeks as well along the shoreline and the two creek areas and protection to inland areas as well. city has other efforts on going and other parts of the city outside of the domain of this study. i just want to highlight the public out reach at this point, we have been doing a number of public workshops and walking tours and that's what these comments today are about. but you can also provide a written comments through these means up here. easiest thing is to go to our website, we'll also be taking comment from these commissioners hearings and developing a city comment letter which will be presenting to the army corps as formal public comment. i'm going to go to some of the risk that the water front faces.

as which know san francisco is very water front facing city, vulnerable to coastal flooding today and will only be exacerbating, and can he with see economic damages in the 3 billion dollars in study area from flooding. we also have seismic risks, liquid faction and lateral spread throughout the water front and this flood study will be building resilient flood structures which will help with some of the issues. so to go a little bit into the background itself. we're looking at sea level rise driven by climate change. there is a range of projections

of how high and over what time period sea levels will rise as you can see here. we're walking across, we don't know how fast or how quickly or when and what heights sea levels will be at. so we need to plan proactively so we're not over investing and also not under investing. we start bid looking at a range of different types of measures including structural measures which including birms and levee, retreat from the shoreline and then nature base measures such as sea walls and eco levees. and building here on over six years of public outcome on the water front resilience program these are the themes that we've heard across the six years and we're continue to go hear through this process centering

equity and environmental justice expanding the connection of water front and focus on life safety and prioritizing kind of nature base features. in terms of equity, we're make thising a sort of core, you know, part of the port's mission through our equity action plan and in viewing the water front resilience work with the same equity lens this is a place where we've kind of pulled together both community focus groups as well as city practitioners to develop evaluation tools that is helping us to understand how our different strategies are benefiting and burdening communities of color. and on that note, the historically the army corps has looked at kind of cost and benefit approach from a very binary about economic costs

verse the cost of projects. and more recently they have incorporated guidance that a comprehensive approach that looks at environmental and social analysis. this incorporates disproportionate impacts has been a key component of identifying the draft plan before you today. what i'm presenting today is a set of first action that will adapt the shoreline between one and a half and three and a half feet of seawater rise in a phase sort of process that will be built in phases over many years. we'll also develop a de tailed monitoring program so as the sea levels rise and we know more about the projected sea levels we'll be able to trigger future adaption sxz built in and design before we start seeing maiming or flood damages.

le so in terms of what is in the plan today, we're seeing this is a high level plan, it's not a de tailed design. we're looking at where to build defenses, shoreline, inland and bay ward, we're looking at how to build the defenses and how much space does that require in terms of underground and surface treatment in order to grade back to city grade and all the infrastructure work that we need to do. what we're not doing is detailing engineering design for the flood defense sxz street open spaces and kind of what goes back on top. we see this as an opportunity to have start having that discussion as a city and thinking about what is our future water front look like, we're just not at that stage in the process. we're at defining the work project. i'm going to dive into the

draft plan, what you're looking at here is seven and a half mile of the flood study area, the yellowish is elevated adopted shoreline, the wharfs and buildings, the blue is places and then the green is nature base measures and where we see we can incorporate those. and for all of these, as sarah can speak to more, we need to look at the inland drainage and implications as well so. i'm going to take this area by area. the study was divided into four different areas or called reaches as the army corps calls it. the first one is fisherman's wharf from aquatic to herrington park. in this case, we saw that the area gained elevation relatively quickly and we don't see the extensive level of damage that we see in other planned areas so. in this area, we went with a non structural

solution which is flood proofing as well as adding flood walls around the piers. moving south along the water front into the embarcadero we're looking at the area a the about pier 27 wault way to the bay bridge this is an area to the heart of historic district building. we see flood damages and economic damages overtime. as well as sort of a dense concentration of land aout and utility infrastructure. in this area, we're propose to go raise the shoreline to elevate up to three and a half sea level rise with a slopping kind of graded elevated shoreline that retains visual and access. we would also raise the wharf that's are parallel to the shore and historic buildings on top of those and on short flood walls around the piers.

and moving further south into the mission and bay area. this this area we would propose to defendant up to one and a half. in this area, we see more space to do adaption of multiple stages overtime. so as we get higher, we would be building to that higher level of sea rise. in the embarcadero, it's so dense that it's not to have construction periods and further south, we think that there is enough space to have less disruptive construction over the next 100 years. we would have also he will vaitd shoreline and sea wall in the south beach area and by the ballpark and we would have vegetated birms along the bay and an opportunity for public access and recreation and habitat. we would also have a closure

structure along the bridges which would close during periods of high tides or flooding and that would mean closing off those roadways which are important roadways we think that is highly infrequent occurrence over the next several years but those would be rebuilt and elevated. and finally in our southern most roif, we propose to elevate the shoreline, we would be adding flood walls to the port's cargo facility and birm to the inner portion of the creek area and other natural areas as well as the closure closure in the illinois street bridge. would be elevated to adopt at sea level. so to close my section we see

this as an big opportunity. defend from sea level flooding and really bring a number of community benefits along with this project. so i will talk to sarah about the commune communications. >> thank you. thanks adam, sarah waste water enterprise. good afternoon, commissioners as adam said we've been working together as a team across all the city agencies to understand how these coastal defenses can integrate with the city at large. as the project kicked off one of the first things we did was to map the sfp assets and look at where they are in the coastal flood zone to determine risk. the waste water system with its connectivity through the street and then connectivity to the bay is clearly the most

impacted by this type of scenario. so with that in mind, we did model system performance under feet scenarios to begin to understand the impacts of coastal defenses on our infrastructure. and this effort helped to perform benefit accounting for the project. we've also been analyzing the storm water management proposal which acknowledges that storm water will be trapped up stream and will need to be managed so. we've been looking at that jointly both configuration and costs. we've also been integrating with systems that can protect against flooding and has been joining in the public out reach efforts lead by the port. so obviously, there is still a lot of work to do in the timeline that adam laid out with the army corps and the

immediate next steps include creating a comment letter with city agencies which would highlight the changes to the draft plan to the army corps. and we will also be analyzing scopes and costs that have been developed to date, our job internally will be to refine those specific infrastructure so that we're informing the final plan from our perspective as well. and then we'll also be engaging in planning activities such as creating a multi enterprise infrastructure planning and facing strategy well in advance so we have that framework available to guide our actions. and lastly all acknowledge that this is a really complex interagency efforts that is going to require new governorance and finance strategies to move forward so

we'll be working together on that piece of it as well. that concludes our slides, we can take questions. >> okay, so thank you. excuse me. so thank you very much for that report and mr. general manager, thank you for putting this on the agenda, i think it's everybody in town has been hearing about these plans that are being unveiled right now. and i know, historically, so many different departments within the city have been looking at that and there is a lot of people at work department by department as well as obviously in coordination with the corps and everybody else that looks at flood control that we're looking at. and it's going to be clear that once is tuned out and the biggest infrastructure project in the history of san francisco from what we're looking at. so it's important to get you here and to listen to you. so thank you so much for putting the footprints down on

this. so i think that's my mean comment and i hopefully, we're going to be, you know, having very periodic updates as we go forward. because, you know, the engagement especially in a town light see to make this work is crazy. you mentioned 65% of it, i don't know if this is draft phase or the original money, 65% is 65% it's more than half of whatever x is going to be. but at least that part is nailed down for now. we'll see how that weighs in. thank you for laying this out to all of us and to in san franciscans through this, through in particular commission i know through your work and others, we're going to be part of the team. we're going to be part of the team. okay, that's my pontification.

and anger that there is no more focus on this national or globely, that we have been slow to respond to climate change. this is expensive work that is ahead of us and it's a worldwide problem. and i appreciate how consciously all of the city departments are working together, the port and the puc and certainly rec park, but it's really going to take all kinds of expertise and all kinds of creativity in how to address this. and i'm really glad that the puc is involved early on, not only to protect our assets but

also to lend examine expertise the department has for this kind of effort. i, i had a question when mr. everet was talking and this may be too way into the weeds but, phase 1, of the work you talked about, building walls to address sea level rise of maybe one and a half to three and a half feet but your graph really shows that there is going to be probably substantially more sea level rise.

the idea is to adaptive and that's reason to go directly to three and a half level along the embarcadero where it's denser and you're building primarily sea wall, because that's a more structural solution with less space in other areas where you have birmz and levees, those are easier to adapt in multiple phases. the three and a half feet of seawater rise will take us on a higher projection, higher projected curve will take us to the end of the century. i think the idea is to match it to the life span of the infrastructure and in that case, or it can be adapted more easily.

because this is a worldwide problem. i know you know this, it also goes without saying. you will be collaborating with people around the world and experts to really think about what works and how to make it work and that it it's not regional effort that has to be undertaken but we can really work from everybody that is working on this problem.

i look to the expert testimony that the experts will bring to it, i hope there is a lot of collaboration on this front. >> if i can mention, we're working regionally and other counties but also looking nationally and talk to go a lot of our counterparts which is also working with army corps of engineers to get best practices. so we talked to folks in new york and miami and coastal texas and many other places. >> thank you. >> rivera. >> thank you, president. paulson. thank you for a great presentation, we informative and i just wanted say and this is obviously going to be premature, because we're just in the draft stage, but i look

a lot of times through a public safety lens and i just see that opportunity for replacing upgrading the current manifold that's we have along the water front and potentially adding suction hydrants to facilitate access to uc water in case of a large fire in the area. so i wanted to make that known that that is something that we, that we kind of need to keep talking about and there is especially in the, in the southeast portion of the city, there is very little emergency fire fighting water system outlets and hydrants. that would be a great opportunity to incorporate that into this plan. i appreciate it and thank you very much for a great presentation. >> thank you for that presentation. and i know that, how difficult it can be even as it was

mentioned in this late state of getting all the different departments at the same table and not having different sigh lows. we know that vanness avenue, that was a multi multi agent piece it took time before everything got done. and that is vaness on steroids, hopefully that the parties that are in charge of actually doing the work are going to have a good table. so we're looking forward to continuing to have updates as to where this plan is and not just read about it in the chronicle when the big conference does. hopefully we'll be a major player as we move forward. gep, thank you. any other comments commissioners? okay, let's open item 5b to the public comment please. >> we remote callers want to

provide any comment on 5b? do we have any members present want to go provide comment on 5b? >> in-person, please go to the microphone. >> speaker: commissioners we need to incorporate our universities in this program. as the gentleman said, he's trying to present something to congress. congress has been very conducive in the last three years attending to the needs of the citizens of united states. so you need to invest upon congress that our best minds especially from universities can help us on this project. i have worked with the corps of engineers so i know what they

can bring to the forum. we need also to have a better type of out reach with their inter account i have map that can be incorporated especially with artificial intelligence today. so that san franciscans can participate and understand what is really happening. also, we should incorporate how are we going to address the marsh lands? and how are we going to address the toxicity that have affected the fish. is know when the day comes from fisherman's wharf all the way to montgomery there will be a

flooding. that's what you're preparing for, thank you very much. >> thank you. is there any more public comment? in-house, if not let's go to the remote lines. >> do we have any callers with your hands raised? >> madam secretary there are no callers what wish to be recognized. >> okay, that ends public comment on item b. item 5c is update on power enterprise customer programs daniel young will be presenting. >> can i have the slides please. thank you. good afternoon, commissioners my name is daniel young the manager of customer programs with the puc power enterprise. and today i'm here to present a brief update on what we've been

working on specifically our two customers program offerings. so first, just to a bit of context here in our power enterprise levels of service we define customer comes which is to incentivize energy efficiencies decarbonization which is the transition is away from carbon sources to eating and over heat to go all electric alternatives and other measures that support local clean energy development and job creation. so our programs do this in providing rebates and incentive, technical assistance to our customers to encourage the new technologies that reduce greenhouse emissions as well as to encourage behavior changes that represent individuals to help combat climate change. so i'll also mention that when

we're willing our programs, we focus on equity it's a major priority and you'll see that in our two programs today. it's critical important that we make sure that our customers are not left behind when we transition to a cleaner energy future. so the two programs i'm talking about today, specifically address two key goals within san francisco climate action plan. one is to reduce emissions and building operation sxz two, transportation electrification. for some context here, which includes hetchy power provides 75% of the electricity consumed in san francisco and we invite in clean renewable generation as well as efficiency and electrification projects. these investments have brought

and will continue to bring sf emissions way down and our programs help us sustain that success and help us reduce the emissions in transportation factors. in the next two slides, i'll be introducing our two customer program. so first up is the all electric multi family. so this first started to take application in november of 2023. the program is currently available to multi family affordable housing served by hutch' power and it helps away from appliance sxz to all electric alternatives. so impotus behind this program was a needs assessment that we conducted this is a strong desire of by multi family affordability, so through this program. we conduct a building site

assessment, we developed electrification strategies specific to each buildings and unique systems and constraints. and we help identify through other programs so that the building may be able to leverage. so we understand the task of these buildings can be incredibly challenge, it's a long overwhelming journey and our program helps them helpsed meaningful first steps towards achieving these goals. so today we completed two side assessment and we look many more in the queue. and also to share what we more broadly as our regional goals start to come into focus. and the second program is called electrify my rights, so this is our newest program. it just became available to our customers last month at the beginning of february, it covers 1,000 off a new e-bike

at participating local bike shops. so in the development, we coordinate with smta is improving biking structure in the city. gathered information and conducted research on many similar offerings around the country, the city of denver to learn about their successes and also some of the potential pitfalls. and so one, actually important distinction from these other e-bikes programs that our program does is, we really chose to limit the incentive to those most in need as best we can. so that means our program is relatively reinstructive to be eligible you must be enrolled in a energy assistance program and must live in a equity priority community. so these are areas defined by the transportation commission has being historically under

served it includes conservation of transportation access. and even with these restrixz, we've seen a lot of interest in the program already. sol as of today, we have one million dollars incentive budget and close to 50% of that has been reserved. and, as of today, 70 plus coupon have been redeemed already. in just one month of the program's operation. so we're excited by the fast start and look forward to learning more of this first round of offerings and this first round does expire at the end of april. and that concludes my slides but before wrapping up, i want to acknowledge our lead on the electric multi lead and jeremy who is our lead on electrify my ride program. so these programs take a tremendous amount of work to get off the ground.

thank you. >> thank you for your report i know that i know this is really important stuff. in big picture, people may think this is a kind of niche where they're working on traens portation, we're saying we're going to help you out with our resources. so this is important to me and very good stuff, so thanks for the update on that on our behalf. commissioner stacy questions and answers and comments. >> really just a comment that this is a great program to hear about. it's a important way that we can at least locally address as pekts of climate change and try to preduce the impact of climate change. you've mentioned right at the end that the program is it just the electrify my ride that ends at the end of april?

>> that's right, the first round expires at the end of april. and we want to be strategic on how we make these incentive availables. we understood that these incentive can go really quickly. sol that's why we want to be restrictive at first see how the program went and look to expand it in future rounds. >> i see, so at the end of prishltion you sort of pull back and evaluate and think of ways to improve and expand? >> yep. >> that's great, thank you. >> i had a quick question also, when you talk about this incentive money to get people into the programs, assuming the stuff expands, what is the source of that? do we just itemize the money does that come from our internal budget? sorry is there a grant program that gets back filled? >> most of our programs are funded by revenues.

we are, there are programs where we're looking to get funded through grants as well. but these two programs that i'm talking about today are regular funded. >> but you're looking at other opportunities of green power. >> absolutely. >> any other questions or comment frz commissioners? seeing none. okay, thank you. let's donna let's open this up. >> thank you. >> let's open this up to public comment, please. >> >> if we have any callers that wish to provide comment on 5c? >> and anybody in the building first? okay. >> seeing none, do we have any callers with our hands raised. >> madam secretary, there are no callers wishing to be recognized. >> okay, public comment is closed. thank you for that update. >> that concludes my report. >> thank you for very interesting updates, thank you. okay. so now let's go to item 6 the

consent calendar. >> item 6 is your consent calendar. >> okay, so anywhere from items 6 a to f, commissioners is there anything that would you like to have comments on? questions? >> commissioner stacy? >> i have a couple of quick questions on 6 a and 6b. on 6 a in the description of the item, you mentioned contractor delay instruction activities. i have not often seen that specific sense of responsibility for the contractor, could you explain that a little bit? what kinds of delays were caused by the contractor and what the ramification of that are?

>> happy to, thank you. a sifpt antigen manager. --assistant manager. we wanted to be specific because this is a significant time extension. the real reason is this administrator allows to process some of the work in our city's financial system. without having significant delays it's a design built contract and we've been working closely with contractor for what has been a number of years. >> are there, can you give some specific examples of what sorts of problems there were or delays there were? and what that means? for either what the puc has to pick up or what increase costs we may be facing? and maybe it's too early to give that kind of prediction, so. >> good afternoon, commissioners.

aid a project manager. so we, yeah it is a significant delayed and as, our agm mentioned, at the end of the project we'll do an evaluatation if the contract cer liable for any damages, we're going to look at that at the end of the project. but example multiple malfunctions of the equipment they're new but there is corrosion issues we have water intrusion. and those are long lead items, so it's not something that we can pickup and replace it. often times, there is a problem that we find out during the testing and commissioning and also problem with protection delay recommend. it's like a try and error, you have to test it and make sure

that the equipmentds are protected. so we have found some did i efficiencies. so we hire a third party to help us review the testing and we have concluded some of the testing needs to be redone. yeah, so that's why, it it's very complex and it involved with their subcontracter. so we're going to look at that at the end of the project. right now we want to look at the end of the contractor to bring this to a close out to a good place that we can have something workable and reliable and we can turn it over to our power enterprise staff to maintain our prayed. >> thank you for that information. that's really helpful. >> anytime. >> learning process for me as well. >> thank you. >> thanks, and then on 6b, one of the companies for tree services they're shutting down

and it looks like we approved four different companies at the same time. so i assume that the other three companies will be able to pickup the work that the fourth company will no longer be around to i will mriment? is that what you think? >> yeah, steve richie assistant city manager for water. that is our expectations this one successful performed one task order and then they elected the shut down. we have three others, we did consider shall we go out to add a fourth and we said no it's not worth the effort to do it for a single contract. we'll go forward to three and make a lot of progress on the work that we do. >> great, thank you. >> any other questions on the consent calendar from a to f? seeing none, from the commissioners let's open this up to public comment. >> do we have any remote callers who wish to speak to

the consent calendar, raise your hand? do we have anybody present to provide comment on consent calendar. seeing none, do we have any callers with their hands raised. >> madam secretary there are no callers who wish to be recognized. >> okay. okay accountser so public comment is now closed. can i get a motion to accept consent calendar. >> move to approve the consent calendar. >> second. >> do we have a roll call. >> president paulson. >> aye. >> commissioner rivera. >> aye. >> commissioner stacy. >> aye. >> can we read item number 7.

>> this is the sixth amendment this contract for our brand new facility. the delivery methods allows us to bid out the packages overtime and the last two have been significant. they result in significant dollar increases and this one is similar. the time has evolved and over that time period especially over the last five years, we have gotten to poipt where all packages have been bid out so we're confident. and it's a huge mild stone for to us get to the project at this stage this complexity. i would like to introduce project manager. >> good afternoon, president paulson, commissioners. i'm carolyn chu and i'm the project manager for the biosolid project. so before you, is to have a

amendment on biosolids, we're look to go add 407 million to bring up the value to 2.2 billion dollars and to add 60 days to the contract duration along with additional 51 days for contract contingency to brit whole contract duration limit to about 11 and a half years. i also want to note that this contract amount reflects reflects the current cost and construction schedule that we have before us. and that this amount is also within the sted that you recently approved in the financial plan. so as receive noted we're happy to report that as december of 2023, we have bid out all the construction work. so in total over the course of construction which we started in august of 2019, we bid out over 105 packages of various

sizes over four years. and i want to remind you the majority of this was during and after covid and all the economic uncertainty that came with that pandemic, hence the increase in budget, the 300 million in our cip is a reflex of the buy out and the market provision that's we experienced during the procurement. so in the next couple of slides, i will walk through a break down of the project and construction costs. as noted in the previous slide, the project cip includes a $300 increase in the budget. however today, we are seeking to amend the cmc contract by 470 million. and that's because we previously reserved budget for other construction items that are no longer needed. they were savinging specifically 07 million that we're able to relocate or

redirect to this construction contract. and these are items such as, you know, we had a property lease for stating the area that we no longer need so we broke the lease. and we also had a con tinge ept see in the event that the private approach did not become proficient and on a note that is going well. once again it allowed me to redirect funds i had reserved for that to now this construction ahead of us. and here's a break down of the 407 million that we are seeking today. as you can see in the table, the amendment 6 that middle column that increases all due to the cost of construction work which is located through the procurement. and all the requirement and fees that are proportionate to that construction costs. i want to also note that we are

not seeking any changes to contingency that's we have. so i wanted to note that. and similarly, here's a break down of the contract time we're requesting. so we are asking for 60 days to be added to the construction duration and that is to address some additional foundation work we had to do early on for the, for the foundation underneath the solid treatment building which is the largest facility that we have on the outside, outside of the digesters and also given the complexity and the, and the complexity and duration of this project we also thought it was prudent at this time to add additional 51 days to just the contingency to address potential project close out at the time when that happens.

i do want to note that given with these contract, time addition the overall completion date what we call close out is unchanged. so here is a package that we put out in the last four years. i feel that we applied almost every tool in the procurement toolbox during these courses of packages. everything from early robust contractor engagement, early assessment of contracts who would and could. trade package, we also looked into you know, sizing and scoping you know, the packages not just obviously to meet schedule and efficiency but also when opportunity rises, we made them smaller if it would maximize. but we also took some packages

and made them bigger to appeal to a wider set of contractors. especially when there is potential single bidder outcomes. and when the bids did come in high, they resulted whether a rebid would be would result in a lower costs. project team also determined whether better pricing would add to work verse going out to a rfp. this is also a approach that we use to ensure equipment consistency across the facilities as well. and here is just a snap shot of the example of the prices received.

brid cost for medical metal packages. for example on going sly change issues lead to some contractors increasing their bid prices to account for what they perceive an exposure or risk they were getting from their own vendors and material suppliers. we still at times had petition bids and there were a number of contractors that were able to bond of the bid packages that we were put ing forth. there was a lost competition with other work sometimes it was just other project at southeast plant. and in some scenarios we were competing with ourselves.

so are we today, i noted that we're r0% through construction. a number of you came to our site last september but i'm sure if you went out there today, you would see a different site. we're start to go plumbing and basement as some of the pictures show here. we an advertise peek construction to begin in the paul of 2024. so you will increase, you see peek construction with a number of workers coming in to install a lot of the inside of the buildings so. from a contract perspective, there is a 16 million dollars social impact partnership commitment and also there are local hire with the contractor is exceeding. and here is just a snap shot of

the local hire and lbe participation through december of 2023. currently they have a higher precipitation which will exceed the 30% goal. similarly, for local hire, apprenticeship participation, they are reaching 100 percent. and the last one which i'm, i'm most excited to report out is with respect to the lb participation, they are currently at 17 percent. which translates to about right now 94 firms get ago warded work. and 13 million is from lbe firms. so with that being said this is just a repeat of a request in

front of you today, once again, i just want to say that this amendment is you know, a in alignment with our current cost and construction schedule. so with that being said, i'm happy to answer any questions. >> thank you ms. chew for that presentation. i think, as we know there was a paws in this contract for quite a while ago and we've been looking forward to this presentation. this is been on going. i've taken a secure of the place both before the so-called pause and after and i'm really excite beside the work that is being done. i'm glad you put the numbers

because we have been looking at the report from digesters and the effort that you guys as well as web corps and everybody else has done to meet the city wide requirements and i'll have to say, every time i've been out to tour the place it really looks like san francisco. as a matter of fact it looks like d10 with the folks that i see out there laying the pipe. thank you for the work that's been done to make sure that that type of contracting out and what have you has been attentive. we should not take more pauses.

>> thank you for the presentation. i just want to reiterate that even though there is an impact overall budget that we're still on the timeline. this is something near and dear to my heart especially staying within the bay view hunters district 10 area. the financial state of the world with inflation and interest rates that need to have down but have not come down recently. related equipment, i think it was mechanic cal electrical and metals rin creasing in price. i think one of them waz almost double the price.

overall the benefit of having this facility for the citizens of san francisco is going to surpass all of these challenges that we've been dealing with. i realize there is a mitigation that were done. >> thank you for all the information and detail, these numbers are daunting. it's a very large and very complex, project, you know better than anything how large and complex it is.

focused enough to make changes to save money. i'm also really impressed with the creativity and flexibility and how you tried to send out bid packages to really broaden the ability to bring in more companies and more bids, small companies, large companies. it's always good to exceed the goal and you're focused on that. one aspect that concerns me, and i don't know how involved puc staff gets in these decisions, but with the social impact partnership, i went online with the dashboard which

is easy to use. and i wonder why there is information from puc to really encourage and push venture to keep pace on the social impact partnership commitment that they made at the onset. >> comments? >> i would say yes, acknowledge that they're not keeping pace with the rest of the delivery with the project. and acknowledging a previous comment the contract was formerly on pause for a significant period of time,

four to five months during this period. and challenged the team for how it contracts that amount of money, that amount of investment and community at the time. and obviously, we as pucs are work to go catch up and make sure that that contract is honored. >> so a lot of is attributable to the pause? >> yes. >> thank you for the creativity that you brought to the process. a long and involved one. >> okay. anymore comments? let's open this up. please raise your hand if you

want to provide comment on this item? do you have any comment on item number 7? >> and we do, particular. >> hi any name is attorney jeffery, i came to the meeting because i was called by community members about the social impact report of this. you guys, they're asking for 407 million dollars. and in the bay view community is always on pause. we're getting our pause. why not increase another 4 million. every time we come here, my grandfather charlie walker was fighting, my mom was fighting. we constantly come here all the time asking people to do right for our commission. super former supervisor sophie is who sits on this board is not here today. i would ask you all to hold

this over to the next week so make a decision. you got to have our community in the room when you're deciding about this. we have to make web corporate greater partners to the bay view community. if you go to 4900 block of third street in the 5,000 of third street, it is pure distress. the banks have exited. this community impact should be shown on our commercial corders and web core is slow walking the community. when this contract was first signed, we had like 40% black people in district 10. now it's 18 percent. you are, don't even make a vote, make them wait even if it's two weeks. and let sophie maxwell here. the community benefits needs to be increased. how are you going to ask for another $400 money and don't

give more to the community. they are working and other people but they're not giving their fair due of community impact and we need more transparency from their executive not their small parents. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. are there anymore public comment in the building? so commissioners. >> speaker: so commissioners, again and again, we don't have to come here and beg you all for community benefits, you know. this concept of the contracting incentive was mine. this was destroyed by dyane jones and julia telus. the community is suffering s

our women, our elders are living in trailers, san foring all over the place. babco, nw, mmwh, they need to have a talk with me. we have not received one single dollar and we put so much effort. this is a shame. i'm working with the elders to they're all on the same page. so that, asset if you seek and

do due diligence keep getting big salaries, $500,000, how about the community benefits? and ashamed that the contract center is open on tuesday wednesday and thursday. it should be open from monday to friday. commissioners, wake up. thank you very much. seeing none, can we go to remotel public comment, please? >> madam secretary no callers that wish to be recognized. >> thank you. >> seeing none in the queue, public comment is closed. so any other comments commissioners? if not i'll take a motion and a second to approve the amendment. >> so moved. >> second. >> so there is a motion and a

second, can we get a roll call please. >> president paulson. >> aye. >> vice president rivera. >> aye. >> commissioner stacy. >> aye. >> you have three eyes. >> okay, thank you. can you read item number 8, please. >> item 8 is for award contract number www-750. >> good afternoon, i'm shelby project manager for the paint ens and engineering buildings at the southeast plant. i'll be managing the project along with my colleague generalet plumber. i'm here today to request your approval to award a construction general contractor construction contract better known. this will be my fourth contract with puc to have been completed.

one will be in construction this fall and this is the forth one. so this is the plan to provide durable efficient buildings with projected life span of a minimum of 50 years. so provide direct connection to buy o project in south campus. to create sinnerjistick to understand the responsibility and sensitivity of the neighborhood and to provide appropriate scale transparency and presence at neighborhood edges while maintaining a secure campus edge. we can completed the programming process last may and we finished ska mat i can design in february. we advertised the cm cin august

of 2023 to ensure that we would have the contractor on board before we proceed with design development next month. so here is the location where we're placing the buildings, it's at felts and general, where we placing the building sep850, to trailers and an adjacent parking lot. the building will be put at the property line to create an edge that is integrated with the neighborhood in instead of placing the building behind fences. inside the plant, we're providing separate pedestrian and vehicular circulation to ensure safety and as well providing outdoor space for the staff. so this is an interior look at the layout at the two buildings. the smaller will be a

mechanical. a two-storey volume, one nroer shop. in the two-storey will be paint shops, and carpenter shop. second floor will be lockers and showers for all the plant staff and third floor where we place the en ji kneesinger offices that will be removed when we demol issue s mp3 50 so. in august we advertised r if 3, we responded responses. after an evaluation clark received the highest score and we're requesting to award the contract to clarks construction. the contract award amount is 97 million in the contract duration is just under five years. and the rendering in this slide is a view from the inside of the campus looking at the

3-story and one story building in the corner. and with that, we intend to finish the project and occupy the building by the end of 2028 in line with the biosolids completion. if you have any questions, i'm happy to answer them. >> thank you. commissioner stacy. >> thank you, as i understand it, the commission will have a two-step approval, we're approving this contract but really it's just for the design, preconstruction and then once the design and all of those preconstruction issues move forward and environmental review is completed, you'll come back to the commission for. >> right. we nyed a certified environmental review to proceed with construction. so we'll be back to request your approval to proceed with construction. >> great, thank you.

>> uh-huh. approximately a year from now. >> thanks. >> thank you, i have no questions commissioner. >> i had one quick question on the one diagram, the aerial shot of the new facility, there is an addition a new street way or walkway, i was not sure is that for traffic or is that for delivery of equipment? >> internal roadway? >> correct. >> so these are shops so they will have roll up rolls. so this is access to have complete to access the buildings as well as fire line. --lane. because they are new buildings they do require the fire access. >> thank you for the clarification. >> uh-huh. >> okay. so let's open this up to general comment please. thank you.

>> do we have any remote callers who are interested in item please raise your hand. do we have any members of the public present to provide comment on item 8. >> seeing none in the room, why don't we go to the queue. >> do we have any callers with their hands raised? >> secretary there are no callers who wish to be recognized. >> all right, that closes public comment. any other questions if not, can we have a motion and second to move this project forward. >> move to award the contract. >> second. >> there is a motion and second. can we have a roll call please. >> president paulson. >> aye. >> vice president rivera. >> aye. >> commissioner stacy. >> aye. >> commissioner paulson--i'm sorry, >> aye again. >> sorry. >> thank you, so that >> you have three ayes. >> the contract is awarded. thank you.

item 9 is communications is there anything that needs to be any comments on the communications? >> yes, commissioner stacy. >> i just wanted to appreciate the pacific institute report that you provided with the overview of the pucs water conservation measures. what was interesting to me was the recommendation that the puc expand the innovation program to invite more innovative crazy creative ideas for conservation measures and other ways of saving water. i really appreciate that the department undertook that review and analysis and it was very interesting read, so thank you. >> thank you and it's so good

to make sure that we're so transparent and there is so much information out there that is it's all good stuff. next item, are there any items that the commissioners would like to initial or discuss? seeing none, let's go to i guess now, we'll go to, item 11, so if there is any public comment about what we'll be address ining closed session. >> remote callers wish to speak to items 13 and 14 in close session, please raise your hand to speak. if we have any members from the public to provide comment on close session, please step forward. item number 14 conference with legal counsel. to pay natali in exchange for

full and final release subject to final approval by the board of supervisors. number 14, conference of legal counsel regarding anticipated litigation. proposed settlement of unlit gated claims for property damage. >> okay, before we get to the queue, i would like to give the floor for a second to commissioner stacy. >> thank you, on item number 14 i needed to to make an announcement on one of the claimant, it's claim number 24-00855, i have worked with this law firm c firm on some family matters. in the past and we occasionally

check in with the law firm currently. i don't have a financial conflict but i did want to disclose this legal relationship with the law firm. i think i can act in the interest of the city and i can review this settlement matter objectively and able to participate as a commissioner. >> thank you for that information. okay, let's go to public comment on item during close session number 11. >> do we have any callers with their hands raised? >> madam secretary, there are no callers who wish to be recognized. >> okay, do we have any callers present in the room. >> seeing none, can i get a motion whether or not to assert attorney-client privileges. >> so moved. move to assert the attorney-client privilege. >> second. >> can we have a roll call.

>> president paulson. >> aye. vice president rivera. >> aye. >> commissioner stacy. >> aye. >> you have three ayes. >> thank you, we will go into close session. >> through the settlements that are referenced in item 13 and 14. okay, our next item motion regarding whether or not to discuss discussions during closed session. can i get a motion. >> second. >> motion not to disclose, motion and a second, can i get a roll call. >> aye. >> vice president rivera. >> aye. >> commissioner stacy. >> aye. >> you have three ayes. >> okay, we have nothing else on the agenda so we are now adjourned. thank you.

>> come shop dine and play. taraval street is open for business. >> my name is mark recollect the owner of lou's cafe on taraval street. since 2010, my brother and tj and vince and mom [indiscernible] we used to sandwiches all the time. we said why not us. geary boulevard in 2010. i figured i might to start in

another location and when i opened the location in 2015. we treat each customer as family and we make our food with love and make sure everyone is happy. i recommend everyone come out to the sunset. >> take time for teraival bingo, supporting small business, anyone can participate. it is easy, collect stickers on a bingo style game board and enter for a chance to win awesome prizes. for you are watching san francisco rising with chris manor. today's special guest is sarah phillips. >> hi, i'm chris manors and you are watching san francisco rising the show about restarting rebuilding and eare imagineing the city. the guest today is sarah phillips the executive director

of economic workforce development. welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me. let's talk about the city economic plan and specifically the city's road map to san francisco future. can you give a brief overview and update on progress? >> absolute e. in february 2023 mayor breed released the roadmap comprised to 9 strategies to move the city forward understanding there was structural and lang lasting changing by the covid impact. 134 were shorter term impacts how people using transit downtown and coming out and are using small businesses, some of them remember long-term structural impacts. the way we work. how often we are in an office and how much office space companies who had headquartered in san francisco need. some of those were structural

impacts how we stop. there has been a long-term change as online shopping takes up a greater share how we performs and covid-19 took a shift that would probably take 10 to 15 years happen and collapse what happened ofern the timeframe to 2 years so saw structural impacts how people shop. we have seen a lot of progress rchlt we are 9 months in and significant things we have seen is efforts creating permitinant services and homes for people experiencing homelessness is dramatic. we increased the number of shelter beds dramatically and take-up of the beds dramatically, and there is more work to do. on the safety side there are exciting things that happened. we increased our police pay among the highest in the bay area which is a important thing

for recruitment. police recruitment across the country is down so recruiting the best we can means we need to give a high pay set. august the highsh return in graduates. we see 75 decrease in retail theft and 50 percent reduction in car break ins which is quality of life crime san francisco experienced so there is real progresses we are seeing on clean and safe sides. one thing important in the mayor roadmap we are not trying to get back to 2020 vision. i think covid showed having a downtown with people sitting at offices isn't the best downtown it can be. i think it is a opportunity to bring 24 hour life use downtown. >> music and concerts is a

great way to bring people to a specific location. golden gate park we had lots of events in plazas throughout the city. can you talk about those and if there is upcoming events too? >> i think you touched on something key to the mayor road map. for san francisco and particularly san francisco downtown to move forward and be successful as a great american city, it is about bringing people together because they want to be together not because they center to be together and music is a strong part that. the planet concert sear ries coming up and happening throughout the city not just golden gate park but downtown locations are a great example. there are smaller examples as well. the landing at--is a new plaza we constructed in the mayor roadmap where two streets come together akwraisant to a couple restaurants closed to cars in daytime, chairs and seating and

throughout the week they have lunch time and evening music to bring people together after work. they participate in that. something we are working on setting up for next year which is really exciting is our sf live program and that will bring a full 2024 concert series where we match local venues bringing their work and partnership to useian square, music center plaza and embark cadero. we will be able to announce concert series through the sf- >> you mentioned vacant to vibrant, that program has a lot of attention lately. can you talk generally what exactly that program is? >> yeah. so, we opened a program where we put out a call for landlords

willing to offer groundfloor space for free for 3 to 6 month jz small business or storefront operators who had a proposal what they would do for 3 to 6 months. it is pilot. we had a incredible amount of interest. we had--i'm forgetting the number of landlords, but more then we expected because we are in a place where commercial real estate understands they need to come to the table to help make our groundfloor lively and resulting in a transition where the groundfloor is seen less as a money making operation, but more as a leader to lease upper floors. if you have a active ground floor yields better on the other 80 percent of the building you are trying to lease. that was great, a lot of cooperation scr over 700 small business or operators responded to that call. it is pop up. there is no intention this

would result in forever small businesses, but there is certainly a hope and i think what we are hearing, i don't have the final data, but there are 17 activators in 9 different spaces, some are colocated, which is why the difference, and out of those 9 spaces that are being leased for free, now 7 of them are in discussions for long-term leases so the spaces continue. it is the program. we are hopeful to have a second and third traunch and hoping to pilot in other neighborhoods with other partners. it is not an inexpensive program because there is a lot of capital that goes into popping up for short amount of time but what we are seen is they visit the businesses, the businesses are successful and san francisco want to support this activation so hopeful to expand it. >> that's great. can you talk a bit about why piloting programs and testing things is so important? >> absolutely. you know, i would say not only

the important generally but important in san francisco specifically. the benefit of pilot programs in the reasons they are really important here is, it allows us to try something and say, there may be consequence but let's understand those in real time rather then waiting to start a strategy while we think about them on paper and if they are too great we can modify the program as we go. mta has absorbed the strategy whether a bike lane or other to figure how best to use the street? is this working? is it working for bikes and cars and buses? maybe not, let's switch it around and pilots have been important to oewd to our office particularly because we tend to have the ability and the mayor's support through the budget process to pilot things through request for proposals or rfp process where we can put

out a small amount of funding, try activation and small public plaza, see if it works and i think the benefit there is, if it doesn't work we tried it and had the benefit of seeing real time and when it does work, we are able to uplift that and move into a permanent strategy and that is where our agency turns over something we piloted to another agency because it is part of the city operating procedure. pilots also give people hope. when we have the short-term whether it is physical public plaza or activation that shows change is possible and allows them to vote for what they like. >> lastly, in lith light of the current ai boom, do you think there is a way to leverage those new changes to take a bunch of san francisco's

status as a tech hub? >> i do, i think they work together. san francisco right now has a strong vacancy problem in our office space. and there is a back-story to that. our zoning downtown has not prevented other uses, in terms of permitting uses of the multi-story building has been open including allowing residential but we put other barriers, cost and code barriers et cetera and what happened also during the height of our preevious boom is that, the amount that tech companies were willing to pay for office space bid everything out so we-without intentionally zoning a single use downtown, we de facto became a single use downtown and thereat is the opportunity you are pointing out. now because downtown was so convertible from work from home, particularly as tech

based downtown was and how much companies put at the market in the office spaces we are seeing high vacancy now, all most 30 percent so there is lot of square feet but that presents a lot of opportunity. we have the ability to absorb expansion of the tech industry we are so strong at. we have seen over 800 thousand square feet of ai space leased just in 2023 alone and there is still more demand out in the market, more ai companies looking for space so that is a growth spot absorbing some of the vac ancy. the opportunity too is prices for downtown lease s have also dropped and that opens up a breath of opportunity to a breath of companies that were priced out in 2018, 2019, 2020. san francisco has always been great at starting companies and allowing them to grow here. when our prices are too high it prevents that growth so now we

are a super fertile ground for more start ups and invasion on the smaller end of the sector because they can come and enter our market and we have the space to offer. to talk about san francisco's assets and the leveraging that, we sit at the epicenter of really great university and educational institutions. we are between uc berkeley and stanford. the graduates produced just from those institutions alone stay in the bay area and want to rise up and work here, provide a real opportunity for the start ups to build their companies and companies to grow here so we confident we will absorb a certain amount of office space with ai tech. with that, we are interested in increasing our human capital growing graduates. downtown university is something the mayor is open to pursuing and we are in conversations with uc berkeley we love to have as a partner in our downtown and then residential conversions are a great partner to that.

as we build back the office space, people will want to live downtown again and we have a number buildings that can be converted to residential. the costs are high. mayor breed and her partners on the board made significant changes to reduce the costs. we waived fees for change of uses in the downtown area. there are code changes that will make the conversions easier. there is a ballot measure on the march ballot that will attempt to reduce costs for those as well. it is ongoing process and none of those changes we talked about absent ai growth downtown, but institutional growth downtown, arts growth downtown and residential conversions downtown are long-term changes so one thing i want to say recollect i do think there is a opportunity per your question, but we also need to be patient because what we are talking about is is a real shift to the make-up of the downtown since from the growth it has been starting at

since the turn of the century so that isn't a 2 year change, that is a 10 year change and we center to watch as it goes. >> thank you so much. i really appreciate you spending the time here today and your creative vision and positivity, so thank you so much. >> thanks so much for having me and hope you all downtown and shop. >> that is it for this episode. for sfgovtv i'm chris manors, thanks pen. >> well to edge own little square we are a new culture "accelerating sf government performance - taking accountability and transparency to the next level." the artist and culture of chinatown. as an immigrant giveaway we tell the stories of chinatown the people that are here and the culture and history our presence and future through arts and culture. it is a 35 community. there is so many to see come come in and

buy certify increases and ongoing exhibitions here t t t t >> good morning everybody! [applause] good morning. [applause] and welcome. [applause] there's my grandma.