barbara hale. we very much share your concerns that the marketplace's response to our second request for proposal was not as complete as we have asked. all the issues you delineated in your comments, mr. chair, that we came back to the bettors and asked again was just that, our second request for that information. so the initial rfp cover that information and requested it from the bidders. we did not receive complete bids. rather than coming to you and saying, no complete bids, we are done with that round of rfp, we decided to sit down with each respondent and have a one-on-one with them where we could demonstrate our strong interest in having a perfected bid submitted to us. we were also cognizant of the fact that with the holidays, we might not have all bidders respond if we did not extend the period. so we extended it from december 6 to december 10. we had it staged so that we would be able to bring you the results of the process in a more wholesome way today, but could not because of that need

barbara hale and her leadership was instrumental in working and putting together the power purchasing agreement and putting -- getting the support of the board of supervisors and eventually getting 75 people to work, 21 of them from disadvantaged backgrounds. i do not know if you have had this opportunity -- of course, maybe i'm just looking out for it. i always get window seats, but honestly, nothing is more thrilling than coming around and looking down at this project. i'm not saying you can see it from space, but you can certainly see it from a few thousand feet up, and it gives you a great sense of pride and expectation and hope that similar projects like this can be done not only throughout san francisco but all across this state and country. it is limitless, the capacity we have to do these kinds of private spirit with creative financing strategies and with these power purchasing agreements, these are easy things to do ultimately in terms of addressing the up-front capital needs. they can easily be financed and advance in a way that addresses our general budget fund shortfalls.