alj's are not busy writing utility pastor decisions. that is why our timeliness in terms of scheduling hearings and getting decisions out has income -- increased tremendously, even though they are all doing the same number of decisions. supervisor chu: given your increase in caseload, it drops for a period of time, but it appears to be coming back up. we do not want to be in the situation again were you do not create a large backlog -- where you create a large backlog. i know you talk about the potential alj position being filled. are there any strategies or ideas to bring in retired alj's to help with caseload? >> the excellent question. in october, if you look at this trend -- it is difficult to forecast -- but we can evaluate that. we do not believe we will have the backlog situation created again because we are not doing the upt's, which was a burden on our staff. we can maintain this caseload with the current staff we have. if these numbers keep going in this direction, i believe we'll will have to fill the vacant position. i agree

utility pass through petitions. at the rent board in 2004, our commission required that landlords had to file petitions if they wanted to impose a pg&e pass through. we have heard several landlords were not doing it correctly. these petitions usually did that go to hearing unless the staff found something that were in them, but they did need to have decisions issued by the administrative law judge staff. our alj staff was spending a tremendous amount of time and resources figure out these utility pass-throughs for basically de minimus announced. in 2009, people felt that people brought to the board's attention that people have been trained. this was a successful effort and landlords were really mostly doing this calculation correctly. there was an amendment to our rules and regulations in 2009 that said landlords to not have to file petitions except for every five years. that is why when you looked at this chart, you see the great out part for utility pass through petitions, which have been going down tremendously b

briefly, the california public utilities commission requires pg&e and other investor-owned utilitiesllars to fund energy efficiency programs to benefit their customers. since 2003, the department of the environment has entered into a series of contracts to implement an energy efficiency program in the city. quickly, through these programs, over 10,000 residential, commercial properties have received over $35 million in energy upgrades and have saved over $3,000 in utility bills each year. in 2011, the department submitted a proposal as part of an innovative pilot effort. the proposal was to look at retirement plans for commercial food service refrigeration, and it was selected and awarded $403,000. during the work that the commission has been doing, visiting watts of neighborhood stores, looking at restaurants, and trying to help them become more energy-efficient, we figured out quickly that we can change out lightbulbs. we can change our thermostats. and we can teach them a lot about energy efficiency. as you have experience, there are usually refrigeration units that go in, open th

utilities like back -- you guys are brave. utilities have had the same business model and the same basic delivery for a very long time. to recognize and appreciate that your customers could become real partners is a really brave thing to do in an industry that has been understandably risk averse before. we are thrilled to be your partner in that change and to be providing better services and tools to your customers, to give them more control and in doing so, to build a stronger relationship and help them save. the one thing i wanted to thank were our partners. the second group to thank is government. diane is here. she was commissioner on the puc. have beenn 0 fromrdc -- we have people from nrdc. thanks of great regulation -- regulation gets a bad name these days, but when implemented correctly, it can be a phenomenal force for good, and the state of california has led the way. local governments -- this is a phenomenal city to do business in a, a city which has attracted and under the mayor's leadership accelerated the attract

>> because it is a utility pole attachment. when you attach to a utility pole, you use a certain type of configuration to meet the coverage objective. they are very low powered as well, but a different frequency. it covers in a different way. when you attach to street lights, which is the allowance and francisco, you have to fabricate the antenna in a different way. when we see transformers -- >> she showed us this equipment attached to label. >> of the picture was a street light that was fabricated securely with an antenna to be part of one unit as a new pole into the public right-of-way rather than attaching to an existing pool. -- pole. it's not allowed in san francisco. anything else? president garcia: thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. in our brief, we stated that there were some sort of argument stating as it relates to the notification of these facilities, it was applied prior to the adoption. it would require me to process the spermine. there was a notification requirements required in that case. this location d

ed harrington of the san francisco public utilities commission. the items before you today are 1310 of the items on your calendar relating to the -- are items one through 10 of the items on your calendar relating to the sfpuc. the big story at the puc is that we have put forward a five-year rate package three years ago. we have two years left. we have not had as much water falling from the sky and as much water sales in the last year or two, so our revenues are down, but we wanted to stay true to our great package, so we have left those rates in place. in general, you will see a total budget that is lower the first year and somewhat higher the second year, but its capital and operating. the real story is infrastructure. the other story is that we will be spending a lot of money, even if it is somewhat less than the current year. you can do it right or you can do it wrong. we have been trying to do it right with things like global jobs, benefits, language access and those kinds of things. i also wanted to start off by saying that we are in agreemen

what is going on at the california public utilities commission. and i really do not have anything to add today on state legislation. with respect, first of all, to our activities, we are anticipating consideration of our proposed contract and supplemental appropriations request that the board some time in may. that is our expectation. meanwhile, we have been busy determining, with the help of our market research -- our polling firm, the phasing and notification process approach we would like to take. you know, we have had many questions from policy makers and advocates about what sort of additional research we are performing to determine the level of opt-out we anticipate throughout the city. our data is still very new, but it will help us as far as the program during our initial rollout phase, and it helps to minimize the opt-outs we experienced in our early introduction. the work we have been performed has been performed by a member of fm3. his polling and research team assisted us with data collection and analysis. you may remember dave. he pre

i understand that the money was leftover money that was not utilized.t as we are going forward, we do have a choice about how we spend that money. if it was not going towards this program, it could be used for other things, maintence

the utilities will go to help those customers. this is not new development in the traditional sense, but is new infrastructure that needs to be constructed because of demands on the network. we were sending text messages and talking on the phone, now we are streaming hd video from netflix. and the maount -- amount of usage and capacity is much greater, which is why we see the small antennas go into the residential areas and a lack of rooftops. my company does not build rooftops sites, necessarily. there are to those locations where you can put up nine and has -- antennas. >> do you anticipate the technology addressing the issues of the aesthetics? i personally find them pretty ugly. i don't know where your company is going with that. >> i was in front of the state council in davis and we had a completely different design. we worked with the city on the design, but it had deconstruction -- the construction where we will buy a new pole, it has everything in sight of it, and it is metal. -- inside of it, it is metal. the city of san

as was stated, they are a utility company.it is subject to all regulations pertaining to undergrounding, then they must remove it and have the undergrounded. president garcia: could it be said that this is a great disadvantage, and even if the neighborhood is willing to raise the money, but we cannot let you because there is a necessity for this equipment, and we would have nowhere else to put it? >> there would be no bearing in determination by the city on what districts should be undergrounded. that is correct. president garcia: thank you. ? president garcia: just two people? three people? speak now or forever hold your peace. tw minutes. >> hi, my name is -- i live on 27th avenue between late and el camino del mar. this is a photograph of our street. you have heard a lot about the boxes and the antennas and them you, but nobody has spoken about the wires that go across the street that are involved in these installations. this is an idea of the view and of the snarl of wires. i take great exception with them with the idea th

i understand that the money was leftover money that was not utilized

if it is a privately owned utility like pg&e, then you can file a complaint with the public utilities commission. we have posted a link to the back the long rule at cbssf.com/consumer watch. >> it turned out to be a pretty nice day today but the images could get hot for the next couple of days. we will show you where coming up. >> a local professional football player found dead,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, [ alarm beeping, motor revving ] [ motors revving ] ♪ [ motor turns over ] [ liquid pouring ] [ chain saw buzzing ] [ male announcer ] what if everything ran on gas? then again, what if everything didn't? the 100% electric, zero-gas nissan leaf. innovation for the planet. innovation for all. >> >> earlier we highlighted the oakland police department effort to get guns off the street but we had a chance to sit down with the new oak lawn police chief recently. tonight we have a closer look at why howard jordan took the job and what he plans to do differently than his predecessors? >> it is not like he has not been here before. >> i was patient and rewarded by becoming chief. >> after he was twice a

commission without coming back to you. -- san francisco public utilities commission without coming back to you. that would be no. i know you recently revisited this topic. -- that would be new to you. the goal is to be able to do this as timely as possible refunding to capture as much savings as possible. the debt savings reserve, we still have the absence of bond programs in the marketplace. we have solved that problem because of being blessed with a great deal of bond premiums, and they are when investors pay more than expected because of our coupons structure and credit quality. we have allowed ourselves to have enough sources to fund those with the reserve. that is a great rate for dues payers. because 15% of our water is used by two private entities, we continue to have a sliver of exposure to taxable debt and have been borrowing with the lowest cost short-term commercial paper about 1 percent signed. we have also gone to the state and asked for permission for volume capacity award, and it does look like we will have a favorable award. we are currently being recommended to issue wh

if we did that nationally, because it works in minnesota, and when you do that in minnesota, the utility companies go like you know what, i think i'll invest in this retrofit of my customer. i'll lend them the money up front and it will pay for itself. the energy savings pays for itself. if we did a national renewable energy standard -- not renewable energy standard, but a efficiency standard for these utilities, do you think that would have a good effect on our use of energy? >> i do believe that energy efficiency is an important part of the solution to this problem. i think there's not one thing that's going to solve it, nor did you suggest that. but if we can encourage the public either through the use of controllers and their power, or the time of day they use energy or just using less energy, that has to be a clear positive. and to encourage the public to do that i think is an important thing to do. my bottom line, senator, is that i spent ten years in the government, i've traveled to 111 countries and having seen all that, i'm a great believer in the private sector doing whatever i

let me suggest this as a weekend fully utilize the break for all the editing we need to do. there is another question that memberpilpel is raising. we will need to visit that. we have two sets of information. we have what is in the draft, and we have what is on the one- page that the consultants provided. member pilel is suggesting -- pilpel is suggesting we go district by district. mr. pilpel: in general, i like the language that was proposed. outer richmond, in a richmond -- inener richmond. >> to preserve? mr. mcdonnell: in addition to or replacing -- mr. pilpel: i am generally not with the language they provided. i think it is less hopeful. i think this language is better. mr. mcdonnell: we will go district by district. the proposal is to utilize -- the district is described on the bottom of page 8. mr. alonso: yes. mr. leigh: yes. ms. melara: yes. ms. mondejar: yes. mr. schreiber: yes. ms. tidwell: yes. ms. lam: yes. mr. mcdonnell: thank you. all right. district 2. oh, -- mr. pilpel: oh, can we also have them not avoided -- voided -- mr. mcdonnell: please keep going. >>

shut off utilities if it's safe to do it. you report it. we can cordon off the area just to make sure nobody else goes in the area. definitely tell the fire chief or whoever and we can go in there and try to do it safely. when we talk about search and rescue, i really want to make a distinction between searching and rescuing. searching is really basically looking for people; right? once we find a person we switch modes and go into this rescue mode. when we talk about search and rescue, try not to get it too mixed up because you think dfrpbtly based on what you are doing. if you are searching, you think about certain things and if you are rescuing somebody, you think about other things. the first rule, of course, would be do not become a victim yourself. whenever you do a search, you have to preplan. you have to understand who is doing what. we suggest that you work in two teams of at least two people, so that's at least four people doing a search at the very, very, very least. you want a team on the outside and a team on the inside. proper

>> i like to call the may 22 meeting of the public utilities commission to order. [roll call] >> a couple housekeeping items. we will take that off calendar so there will be no closed session. we will see how that came out. the other item for housekeeping, and he did disclose there were as a longstanding relationship that those people -- it does not affect the ability to act impartially on that item. the approval of minutes for the may 8 meeting, commissioners, you have questions or comments? >> i have a slight amendment. i am catching up there. just a minute. i am still getting my ipad bearings. come back to me in a minute. >> are there any public comments on the minutes? are there any public comment on anything that is not on the agenda today? commissioners, we have the communications events calendar and a letter summary. are there any comments on that material? item six, is there any other commission business? >> i have something. it is really a question, are we going to have a plaque on the new building? >> excellent question, i will find out for you. living on

this is a good way tim utilize. -- a good way to utilize. before i leave, i would like to say thanks to su, who came and checked on one of our members. thank you. >> good afternoon. thank you for allowing me to speak today. i feel this is an important situation going on. i would like to ask madame clerk to please put the overhead light on so i can put something that i would like to show about my landlord. i am a senior. i have lived in my building for 20 years before -- for 20 years. before i say that i would like to see and part of the action network. i am also part of the health organization. i'm very much a part of the community in san francisco. i have been at my place for 20 years and i pay my rent on time. i'm being threatened with an eviction from his landlord that i have on the overhead. he is being sued by the city and county of san francisco for numerous situations, along with this one. i have another one overhead. he is swallowing gains in his buildings. there are drive-by shootings on leavenworth street, which is in the overhead

i understand that the money was leftover money that was not utilized. just as we are going forward, we do have a choice about how we spend that money. if it was not going towards this program, it could be used for other things, maintenance, other things. it is a choice we are making. i just want to make that point. most people are aware of that and know that. colleagues, we do have the items before us. can we entertain a motion to continue these items? we have a motion and we will do that without objection. thank you. do we have any other items before us? >> there are no other items on the agenda. supervisor chu: thank you. we are adjourned. supervisor campos: welcome to the may 24, 2012 meeting of the joint city and school districts elect committee. we are joined today by supervisor olague, commissioner maufas, commissioner mendoza, president chiu is en route. he is actually at a different meeting today. he will be joining us as soon as the committee meeting ends. commissioner fewer is en route. the clerks are gail johnson and -- we want to thank the a

obviously, with the tunnel underneath vanessa to, there will be further coordination with the utility work. it is accounted for in the construction plan. as be become more solidified, we can sequence it more appropriately to do the necessary utility improvements in coordination with the van ness construction. >> are you presuming you'll be able to sequence a portion in conjunction with cpmc? in other words, you're going to do a one to four-block section at a time, i would presume, which is a normal way of doing it. there is the tunnel going in as well. what would you presume there is as to any additional thoughts in handling this type of sequencing and coordination? >> you are correct. we have three blocks segments but that is how van ness is being sequence. we will be coordinating closely with cpmc. we do not anticipate additional costs within our cost estimate. the goal would be to coordinate inappropriately so all work and occurred during a similar time period, so hopefully we can leverage production to have to be as quick and low impact as possible for that portion of the van ness

>> utility considers these revolutionary. >> when most customers look at the utility in relationship, they want us to be more efficient and to save them money and to restore power as quickly as we can. this will change the entire relationship with our customers. >> they say that these devices, which will replace analog meters, pose no additional risks. he says of the things like cordless and cell phones put out more than these meters. one commissioner says he believes consumers should have a right to opt out, but according to the nativity, those who take the option, it granted, will have to pay. >> there are costs to maintain the old analog meters if there is an opt out version. there is a cost to have meter readers and to have trucks to start service and stop service. >> the commission chairman wanted to know if other alternatives were available. >> so you put a smart leader in the house but hardwiring it to a transmitter that is located somewhere else. >> the possibility and the cost of doing it have not been considered. >> now, they just listened to public comment today. there will