athink his poiut a more robust, well funded cpuc is a good one. w i think th did see a lot of ethical issues come out with their connections to pg&e through that san bruno case. some of them do seem to have been addressed. you know, i thk that when you talk to people who have worked at pg&e they feel like a lot the problem has been in the leadership, not in the sort of rank and file. i th wnk most people agreeh that. but it is a really hard question, and i t mean structure of them, i think, is something that is worth looking atbecause there is this perverse incentive when you are trying to answer to wall street on one handnd serve customers on the other. the water department -- yeah. it absolutely is. but it works and the other utilities have been aane to do thabalance that, but pg&e for some reason after the bankruptcy in 2001 they chnged their focus. their ceos are cfos, they come from the financialindustry. they're looking to please wall street, not main street. >> senator hill, what are the broader issues here too? let's take pg&e out of this,

but the cpuc is not able to tell me if all of this positions are filled. odds are, says the state senate office, they are not. >>> it is hard to imagine how 19 inspectors could protect the millions of consumerrelatively number of cpuc inspectors, we basically have a trust and verify system. trust that the utilities are doing their jobs and hope that we can verify i state and for specters that they are actually doing it. the question remains, in this new season of wild fighters beyond control, is that closely enough inspectors? >> with a look at the number of positions they have and those sessions should be filled and operational. they should be in the field making sure that our utilities are safe and that they are operating safely. >> senator hill is quick to say that southern california edison and san diego gas and electric are consistently better corporate systems, they say pg&e often breaks the rules. >> unfortunately they have consistently felt that getting caught is a lot cheaper and of less consequence and that is what they have historically done. >>

do you have confidence that the cpuc will bable to provide adequate oversight of this restructuring as it happens in bankruptcy? f we're talking about wildfire safety and making sure that the trs don't come into contact with lines, which is what's causing the fires, we have to give the cpuc the resources that it nds to put inspectors on the ground to make sure that pg&e is doing what they need to do. but other thing is, i feel very strongly that we need new leadership at pg&e and that if judge allsop appoints a receiver he will have somebody thatill be accountable to him to make sure that his orders are carried out. right now simply telling pg&e over and over againo comply with the law doesn't seem to bew king. they have a record and history of not colying, not trimming the trees. and recently, of falsifyin tens of thousands of pipeline inspection records. the call before you dig 811. there's no excuse for that. >> would y suppo having pg&e become a public company? >> i thinkhehat's one of options that we should look at. would i want to be careful about is that we don't end up in a sit

and the cpuc could take a role in valuing it. so that's a very brief overview of that area. if you have have any questions, let me know. >> any questions for miss culsa? >> are there any municipal utilities or districts that took a significant part of the grid or other aspects that allowed them to form through eminent domain? is that something that has happened before? do we have examples to look to toward that? >> the municipal districts have the power of eminent domain. i don't know of any specific instances and, perhaps, barbara has antidotes but i know that power has been used in california to acquire infrastructure, as these new utilities were just being formed. >> anything of the scale we would be talking about, maybe? >> so this has happened over time in california. more recent times city of moreno valley municipalized and the irrigation district is about the middle of a process now, ongoing for a number of years. i would have to look at history to see if there's any in the more distant past that are of the size comparable

so the m.t.a., and the city of san francisco, for not having the political will to challenge the cpuc and up the number of uber drivers operating on our streets without the very same medallions they sold to balance their budget. they should buy those medallions back. the only way for the taxi industry to prosper and coexist with the unfair competition we've been faced with for almost ten years, is to achieve a level playing field in the transportation for higher market i urge this board to stop this madness, to work with the mayor 's office, and our legislators in sacramento to challenge the cpuc, and achieve a level playing field in the markets. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. next speaker, please. i will just remind the public to address their comments to the board as a whole, not to individual members of the board. >> hello. my name is bob. i live in the richmond district, and i'm a member of grow the richmond neighborhood groups. we should invest in public transportation and we support local businesses. i'm here to talk to you about the proposals. the media has made a l

. -- bankruptcy, and with cpuc weighing options for a bailout, we need to accelerate our split from this country -- this company. a profit driven utility is not working for us. i am sick of us putting pg and e.'s bill for negligent behavior , especially when they are giving fatcat executive salaries every single year, and outrageous bonuses, and more concerned about the profits that the shareholders then the safety of their customers. last year, san francisco voters overwhelmingly supported proposition 80, authorize a zine -- authorizing the s.f. p.u.c. to build its own infrastructure bonds. over the next several years, you will be able to use a secretion energy system for san francisco that is green, renewable, and publicly owned. having the green new deal fund in place will allow us to commit funds to jumpstart the process, and continue board oversight to see it through with the san francisco public utilities commission. i hope that my colleagues will allocate the windfall to this fund to support immediate assessment and planning, and to work through the budget process that spring to b

and i'm sure that i that cpuc fy be able to speak up if you have any questions about the facilities. so i want to run over some important terms that we hear frequently in this area and one is what is a municipal utility? a municipal electric utility is operated by the municipality and operated by the municipality. another term is municipal utility district and the reason the san francisco lafco was originally performed was because of a proposal to create a district. a municipal utility district is a separate governmental agency that provides fe utilities beyod the boundaries of one municipality or county and the proposed municipality district that lead to the formation of san francisco lafco would include the county of san francisco and the city of brisbane and operate out of city boundaries. another term we use is community choice aggregator or cca program. that is a statutory program that is authorized to procure power which would then be distributed through the investor-owned utility infrastructure. so a cca under the statute doesn't exist in the absence of an investor-owned utili

as we told you last night, the cpuc has 34 people to oversee the state a post electric infrastructure which includes wildfire mitigation specialist . we learn eight of the 34 jobs are vacant. we are told four vacancies are due to employees being position the hiring process, and what is being filled this week. the cpuc is also facing criticism in the past for being too cozy with pg&e. >>> president trump today said he's not thrilled with agreement to fund the government through september. republican leaders today urged him to get on board to avoid the government shutdown. foxes laura blanchard tells us so far the president has not said what he plans to sign it. >> reporter: president trump said he's not happy with what democrats have proposed in a deal to keep the government open, but he thinks there is still room for negotiation. >> it is not doing the trick, but i am adding things to her. >> reporter: the tentative agreement from the conference committee would have almost $1.4 billion for a physical barrier. far less than the president's original $5.7 billion asked for a border wall.

. >>> we are learning more about a staff shortage at the e cpuc nia public utilities has 34 people to oversee the state's electric infrastructure, including wildfire mitigation specialists. we learned that eight of those 34 jobs are vacant. we are told that four vacancies are due to employees being promoted, at least two positions are in the hiring process now, and one will be field this week. the cpuc is also facing criticism in the past for being too cozy with pg&e. >>> coming up at 4:30, congress has a budget deal that includes border security, but will the president sign it? what he said today about the chance of another government shutdown. >>> a contentious battle over his school district name is coming to a close. more on the controversy surrounding the dixie school district. >>> just over an hour, meeting will take place in marin county to decide whether to change the name of the dixie school district. sara zendehnam reports on the content of the paid ahead of tonight's meeting. reveler we talked to people on both sides of the debate. everyone is very passionate. what they rea

reporter: among the agencies, the ntsb met with others providing facts in this investigation are the cpuc, the san francisco fire department and the national pipeline safety organization. part of the department of transportation. live here at geary and parker. eric thomas, abc 7 news. >> thank you very much. >>> after falling concrete shut down the rich mand san rafael bridge for hours yesterday. tonight caltrans insists the bridge is safe. an expansion joint failed causing several chunks of concrete to fall from the upper to the lower deck. they allow structures to move under changing weather conditions and earthquakes. and caltrans shut down the bridge for several hours yesterday to inspect it making a mess of the evening commute. work begins next week to replace the joints that passed inspection last august. >> the work is being designed right now. that is why we anticipate starting work on monday. we're working our -- our enginecora tom . >> a w freedman met the driver whose car was struck by the concrete. he'll bring you more on that story at -- on abc 7 news at 6:00. >>> big changes

. >> you mentioned the remote shutoff that had been recommended by the cpuc. it would be interesting to hear what are their thoughts on that and their progress on that may change as a result of what's happening here, but you can see the trenching that we have bn referring . its labor intensive. twoints.th have to squ i right whe burn where the gas is right now. >> right. >> this could go on for some time. pg&e does not want to give an eta but dan, we are going to an area of so many areas, starting to feel like the san bruno pipeline explosion of 2010 when that gas was going for four or five hours unabated. >> it was going on and on and on, and they couldn't find the valve and when the workers finally found the valve it was jammed up and they couldn't get it closed. >> there was a water situation there, too. >> right. >> remember that? >> absolutely, that's right. >> fortunately, we're not encountering that here and it looks like they're putting quite a ton of water on those buildings to protect those buildings. they're not putting it on the fire directly becau