Transcripts For SFGTV SF Public Utilities Commission 20240713

December 10 meeting of 2019. Any additions or corrections . Ill move approval. President caen any Public Comment on the minutes of december 10 . All those in favor . Opposed . Motion carries. Next item, please. Item 4, general Public Comment, members of the public may address the commission on matters that are within the commissions jurisdiction and are not on todays agenda. President caen i have three speaker cards here. The first is dave warner. I dont think i can present this, but can i hand it out. You can put it on the overhead. Im dave warner. Im a palo alto resident. Im also a participant in the mayors water supply stakeholder group. Some of you know ive been speaking at your meetings for three years now, which is a terrific honor. The sfpuc is not sharing draws. Its more important than after as you face major decisions. Should we invest an additional 2 billion or more to develop Water Supplies and raise the rates accordingly to cover the costs . Should we implement rationing as has been suggested . How do we assess Climate Change . What is the right balance for water in ecosystem in drought risk. Addressing these topics is more difficult. Heres a chart that is the image here. Its often a way to determine probablities. My point is, that you should ask staff to invent their own analysis and share it with you. If you knew the probabilities, youd know better how to spend the 2 billion. The chart is a frequency of the low storage point of every 8year sequence in the last 1100 years. The horizontal is the amount of storage remaining at this low point during this 8year period. The vertical is the occurrences and that low point of storage. For each period, below each year, the low period was identified in the chart. Given we have 1. 5 million storage capacity, you can see that we use very little of it. Thats this black vertical line over to the right. Thats where most of the time we end up with the storage, which is just what we want. You can see the chart has that in the chart, the 8year period is requiring more storage, becoming rarer as the storage increases. And thats you can see moving off to the left how the instances go down. Many exciting parts, but you can see the period using the first six years of the design drought is small, but not nonexistent. For storage using the first seven years of drought, that is the second one from the left. There has never been a drought that used that much storage. Storage is exciting, also ask in the case of Climate Change, what if my [bell ringing] president caen yes, we would appreciate that. Thank you so much. The next speaker. Peter . I also have a few images to share. Peter, policy director for the Tuolumne River trust. As you know, demand has been way down. The first trigger was the plant that raised the price of water, sending a price signal and then the drought response. Since the drought, demand has rebounded a little bit, but its interesting, this fiscal year, ending last june, demand was down from 2018. It was 192mgd. This offers us a real opportunity. So i looked at what would happen if the sfpuc contributed share of 40 unimpaired flow for the first two years of any sequence. If we hit a third year, you say were not going to volunteer, well go back to base flows. In that scenario, you end up with 105,000 acre feet in storage. Following up on commissioner vietor and the need do something immediately, that is an easy thing to do. Give your share of 40 for two years and if the drought continues, you can cease doing so. Level goals exceeds them because you get through the eight and a half years with no rationing at all. Here you see what the benefit would be. You see the original slide, often we point to the 20122016, when the average unimpaired flow was 12 for those five years. And then the water had to be dumped in 2017. This looks at the first two dry years in the sequence. It actually assumes also that the irrigation districts are contributing their share of 40 , which wouldnt been easy thing to do. You imagine those yellow bars half as big for the sfpuc share. But thats a big improvement for six years, if the last 25 years of hydrology were to repeat. And thats something again that fits into your level of service goals, so i hope youll consider doing this. Thank you. President caen thank you. Next speaker, mr. Da costa. Commissioners, i want to discuss a number of issues. The first thing that has come to my attention reading some of the documents is in the bayview we have an address and its named the south Community Facility commission building. Now somebody has chosen to remove the word community. Let me tell you, for those i know there are some people going with the removal of the word community, but any way you look at it, that building was built by the community. The community who understood then many years ago that they needed a building more for educational purposes. And they needed some space, or they call it that time, horticultural uses. They had that vision. And we see over the years that has been eroded. And eroded in recent years by some people thinking they can build a better building which is prone to flooding. I dont get it. But maybe you all need to know what is going to happen in the future. Im not going to predict, but i do know that if anybody tears down the building at 1800 oakdale to build housing, thats wrong. And i do know that if you choose to build a building for Recreational Purposes at 1550, that is wrong, too. Having said that, i attended your budget meeting. Boring. Boring. Boring. And i try to dont try to hood wink us by moving the targets by saying were going to do this after three years, seven years, 15 years, and whatever. We started with a 6 billion for our sewer system improvement project. I bet you its going to go up to 20 billion. Think about that. Thank you very much. President caen thank you. Anyone else like to speak . Okay, moving on. Communications. Any comments, statements, commissioners . Any Public Comments . Moving then to the report of the general manager. All right. So the first item is the 2018 hetchy Energy Benchmarking. Good morning. Im going to use the overhead to go through our 2018 Energy Benchmarking report. The Energy Benchmarking report is a requirement of annual requirement of city regulations. We prepare it for the city. This is our 8th reporting year. And its really provides data to aid and educate our customers. It only looks at a subset of our customers. It looks at municipal customers, so its excludy hetchy, it excludes our direct business and residential customers. It excludes our clean power sf, but its inclusive of buildings like this, San Francisco International Airport, schools, community college, a lot of the rec and park facilities, our own puc facilities. A lot of the bread and butter city Service Functions are benchmarked under this report. So let me talk about the approach that we take to do this. And what the results are. So we utilize a nationally used approach. Its a tool called the Energy Star Portfolio manager that is was developed and is managed by the u. S. Cpa. And what we do, we rate buildings performance by the type of facility. Not all facilities that the city operates have been included by epa, so the report isnt able to benchmark all buildings, but we do benchmark all buildings that the uscpa has a facility type identified for. And it sets performance benchmarks. The idea is that no matter where you are, you can look at a building and understand the Energy Performance and compare that to similar buildings within the community, similar buildings across the nation. And try to get a sense of what your overall performance is from a Energy Use Intensity perspective. It looks at the Carbon Footprint of facilities and for San Francisco, what we do, we look the our electricity consumption at these facilities. Natural gas consumption, steam use. And calculate an Energy Use Intensity based on the buildings square footage. It measures more than 49. 5 million square feet of city facilities. So thats the approach. Now lets take a look at what weve learned about city Facility Energy use applying that approach. So what you see depicted here is the fact that on average, when we take out San Francisco International Airport theyre a really big energy user and we want to tell the city story, not just the airport story, so telling the city story excluding the airport, our Energy Use Intensity fell 1 , our Carbon Footprint fell half a percent from 2017 with reductions since 2009 of 15. 2 and 24. 8 respectively. Heres another look at some of the same information but by facility type. So here you see the categories that the uscpa uses. Airport is a category, a facility type. Education a facility type. Transit stations, a facility type. You can see the slices. The puc performance would be in the im not going to call it a color purple, lavender, that shows Service Repair and storage. And this green color here which is offices. Thats where most of our facilities would appear. This reporting function weve been performing now for eight years has been used by other city departments to help them identify where they need to focus some of their Capital Improvement efforts with respect to energy. So we use this to help educate them about how they should be improving their facility. You can compare, for example, a Police Station to another Police Station in the city. Firehouse to another firehouse. School to a school. But as the Department Head or operator of facilities, you can get a sense of where youre performing well, where youre not. Are there operating differences that can be addressed to improve the Energy Performance . So again, were seeing more efficiency compared to 2009 because our hetch hetchy is zero carbon. What this report is telling us, we need to focus our help with our customer departments on converting natural gas to electricity. We have 93. 3 of the citys carbon from facilities, Carbon Emissions from facilities, are from natural gas use. So more fuel switching, more of a focus in the programming on fuelswitching is part of the message that were learning from this benchmarking effort. As we present our budget on the 30th of this month, youll see that some of our Customer Program work is taking that seriously, focusing dollars toward electrification. With that, im happy to take questions. Id like to acknowledge the work of Dan Heffernan and charlotte on my team who compiled a lot of information that came from a lot of different forces throughout the city to put this report together for you. And we have it posted online. Its also available if folks would like to get copies. Thank you. President caen i have a question. Or two. So 93 of our city facilities are currently powered by natural gas . 93 of the city Carbon Emissions are from natural gas. So most of the facilities use both electricity and natural gas. Because our electricity is carbonfree from our hetch hetchy system, when were looking at Carbon Footprint, we know its not coming from electricity consumption. Its coming from their other uses. Steam and natural gas. President caen so the strategy i know well hear more about this in the budget hearings to decrease that portion of their use, of their emissions, will you have specifics . It sounds like the goal is to convert that 93 remaining to electricity if possible. Yes. President caen how long would it take . How much would it cost . And you can answer that during the budget. Great. President caen but id be curious about that. Sounds good. President caen and how much we can do in the next budget cycle for example. I want to put a quantity toward it. If you have a building and you have a little gas and the rest is hetchy and hetchy zero. You see 93 is from a little source. I think we want to quantify how much each building, because sometimes we get diminishing returns for small amounts. My sense was it wasnt the emissions tracking as much as the use tracking, so to differentiate between what the supply is and the emissions are. Right, wed be happy to talk about what weve done historically. And the general managers, right . We want to focus on intense successes. So well talk about that during budget when we talk about how were spending some of our Customer Program dollars in the capital plan. Great. Then my second question is around the private sector. Well i guess the two pieces that would, i hope come next, which is the cleanpowersf and then the private sector and what opportunities might be, first to like apply this model approach to them, to be able to measure. Because i bet that might be an appetite, especially with the clean power customers, but are there strategies to apply and roll out with cleanpowersf in private or some combination thereof . Wed be happy to talk about that. The ordinance that requires us to prepare a benchmarking report for the municipal facilities, also requires certain commercial buildings to similarly report their Energy Use Intensity. So i can talk about that and how we might be able to use that information on the cleanpowersf to inform our Customer Program approach. That would be great. Do we know how our airport compares to other airports in size . In size, i dont know. I can come back with that. President caen okay. Thank you. And this report includes this is a question, although it sounds like a statement general Fund Departments that get power below cost and departments that pay a higher rate . Correct. Are we prioritizing for people who pay the higher rate . In terms of Customer Program dollars or . Yes. No. We have taken historically, taken the approach that the general fund customers typically dont have the resources to apply to help solve these problems. So we have prioritized our support for the general Fund Departments. The enterprise departments, we have supported by helping them access some of the same professional Service Consultants that we use. But we dont fund the actual tax that those consultants perform for them. Okay. From the Business Planning standpoint, the more general Fund Departments that we spend money on, the more electricity they buy, the more money we lose . Yeah, so historically our focus has been on reducing their consumption of electricity. So thats why we have historically taken that prioritization approach. As we shift, then were going to need to think about where our priorities lie. As we shift towards increase fuelswitching to electrification. And just to am plyfy that, when we talk about how can we reduce their consumption, when we look at the cost of changing out heater system, or some system like that, they look at the cost and then the payback on the reduction of utility bill just doesnt pan out. So its kind of in our best interests to reduce their usage, so it reduces our loss. And then the general Fund Departments i mean the enterprise departments have resources, so they would be more mindful and have funds to help address some of the the point i was going at was the last one that barbara made. As we shift to an Energy Source shifting program where were increasing electric demand, the logic flips. Another aspect of that to bear in mind is the funds that were spending, oftentime the funds were spending, for example on the general fund department, converting their boiler to an electric boiler would often not be our hetchy revenues that were spending, but rather dollars through capandtrade and fuel programs where were restricted to spending those dollars on carbon reduction. And in communities that are regarded by the state as disadvantaged. Thank you. Have we seen this report in the past . You have. This is i havent done a presentation of it in a number of years, but its always distributed to you and your communications. With a cover memo on it. Since were going to since we have a stronger focus on Customer Programs, it seemed appropriate to highlight it. And clearly, there is an interest, so im glad i did. And well talk more about it in the budget and Subsequent Commission meetings as we develop programs. President caen thank you. Any Public Comment on this report . The next item is the bay delta Water Quality control report, mr. Ritchie. Good afternoon. Steve ritchie. Ill make that brief, working with the state and other entities on voluntary agreements that could be enfolded into the bay delta Water Quality control plan. There has been very little activity since the middle of october. Not a lot has happened. The state, i think, is in a lot of internal communication about where they would like to see this go. They have released raw modelling results which weve had a chance to vie and provided review and provided comments back to them where we think they misunderstood some of the parts of our voluntary agreement, but those are just little comments. So very little has happened in terms of any larger group meetings. There have been small meetings, but nothing significant. The one thing the state has done in the last few months is put together their water resilience portfolio. This is in response to have governors executive order last year to make sure were taking a broad view of things water. Its about a 200page report, 150page report. Its got about 125 recommendations some of which are, i would characterize, as go and do what were supposed to be doing. So there is not a lot of new stuff in here relative to the bay dealtal plan, the one action they have is complete the update to the bay delta Water Quality control plan for the San Francisco bay and delta as required by law and implement the plan through voluntary agreements. So thats what was said. So there is they put a lot of energy it looks like into this. This just came out about a week ago. Were looking at it. Theyre looking for comments. We may provide some. But its frankly, its plain vanilla kind of stuff without any real direction given. So hopefully there is a meeting scheduled for today to take place in sacramento. They put it off yesterday for another two weeks. Again, theyre trying to, i think, work their way through the difficult issues within the State Government on this and hopefully, well see progress soon. Who is the main driver of this whole process . I mean, is it cal p. A. , department of Water Resources . Who is the one that puts off the meetings or calls the meetings . This wasnt part of that process. This is separate from a separate governor executive order. The governor when he came into office back in early 2019 said, you know, i think we should really pursue these voluntary agreements and tasked wade crow foot, the secretary of Natural Resources and the secretary of kali p. A. To make it happen. Within those organizations, there is California Department of Water Resources, department of wildlife, there is the state water control board. So there, you have five entities and i do count the secretaries as separate entities, because you find that the State Government agencies do not walk in lock step. They might try to present a unified front, but they have different viewpoints on things. This is a very difficult topic. So the secretaries have been at various conferences saying, yeah, we need to make this work, but its a fulltime job to Pay Attention to all the details to get through it. Who is driving it really . I think the governor said i want to do this. I think his patience may be running short. But i think people are finding its difficult to get people close to or on the same page. So i wish there was one place we could go and really make a difference. And that doesnt seem to exist. Commissioner vietor arent there time lines that we need to comply with . I mean, that have passed . As far as coming up with a plan and beginning implementation . In december 2018, when they adopted it, there was march 1 deadline to provide more detail. Something happened there. They said lets have a new july deadline. There, that happened. The next deadline was okay, lets get to october 15 and hopefully well have voluntary agreements ready for Environmental Review by the state water board. That date passed unremarked. And there has not been, really, a new deadline of something. There is only one deadline that actually exists. Its in adopted document, the Water Quality control plan by the state Water Resources control board that is sa the standards says that the standards need to be implemented by the end of, i believe, 2022, as the result of water rights process, or Water Quality actions. So knowing the pace of which those kinds of processes take, the state, i think, is very unlikely to even if they started right now, it would be unlikely to make those deadlines. So i think there is going to be and people are going to miss not just, you know, administratively volunteered to date, but an adopted date by the state that theyre going to run up against. I dont know how people will deal with that. We continue to want to participate. Were making ourselves available to talk to any and everybody we can about what we proposed and what we think will work. And see if we can improve lines of communication. Michael cart has been doing a good job on that. But the state as a whole doesnt seem to be ready to move forward on this. Commissioner vietor short of the voluntary agreement, isnt there a date because of the state order that passed over a year ago that needs to be in compliance, some date where they can start releasing the 40 . That is the 2022 date, but that requires them to take implementation step to make those things go into effect. The line for actually processing those, you know, people have talked about, they could use their authority to provide Water Quality certification for federal licenses or permits, such as the ferk license. There needs to be a ferk license for them to take that action on and that doesnt seem to be happening anytime soon. So it was what appeared to be a not ambitious date, but as time goes by, that is overly ambitious based on where people are right now. The state got itself into a box on that end of things. President caen any other comments . Thank you. Any Public Comment . On the bay delta update. Mr. Kelly. Next item is update on pg e bankruptcy and acquisition offer. Barbara hill. So the last time we briefed you on the bankruptcy and city acquisition offer was december 10, so there is a bit to report. I reported at that time that pg e had reached 13. 5 billion settlement with wildfire victims. That covered the 201718 claims, including the camp and tub fire. And also the ghost ship fire and some others. It sets a company on the fund that cap on the funds that would be available for fire claims, except for the kincade fire. The settlement did not include local and federal government claims associated with fire. You may have seen recent articles on that, that occurred with fema communicating their dissatisfaction. On december 13, Governor Newsom provided his views on that draft amended plan that incorporated the 13. 5 billion settlement and whether it complies with the ab1054 requirements. Those requirements were to ensure fair treatment of victims and employees with prepetitioned wildfire claims being satisfied. Ab1054 also spoke to continuing Climate Change progress in a restructured pg e being neutral on average to ratepayers, and that any restructuring of pg e coming out of bankruptcy would need to position the company for safe, affordable and reliable service. So Governor Newsom in his december 13th letter concluded that pg es draft amended plan im quoting, falls woefully short of the requirements of ab1054. Governor said that the resolution of bankruptcy must radically sorry yield a radically structure and transformed utility that is accountable. That the amended plan leaves the company with limited ability, with limited tools to make billions of dollars in safety investments and relies on expensive and shortterm bridge financing. All that contributes to a reorganized company that will not be positioned to provide safe, reliable and Affordable Service. That was the governors response to pg es settlement. And whether it, combined with the whole plan pg e had, would be in compliance with ab1054 in his view. Pg e has not responded publicly to the governors letter. In mid december, the bankruptcy judge accepted that settlement those settlement terms as part of pg es draft plan. Today, pg e asked that a status conference before the bankruptcy judge that was scheduled for today on its plan, be postponed. They said that constructive discussions thats another quote from pg e are taking place among the various parties. So pg es efforts to get a financeable plan that will comply with the states requirements, so that it may emerge from bankruptcy by june 30th continues to evolve. Theyre still trying. Havent gotten there it sounds like. Because of the settlement, the claim cases that were active and getting ready to gear up, are not going forward. Theyve been mooted by the settlement. And another area i wanted to report on was the california puc and other regulatory things that are going on. At the last session, i reported that there was a proposed decision from the California Public Utilities Commission that would address pg es request for changes in their cost of capital to increase the cost of capital putting in an at or given wildfire risks. The proposed decision by the alg denied that request and since december 10, the california puc did adopt that decision. So pg es request for a higher return on equity, because of wildfire risks, was rejected. The california puc has also continued to invest its investigation on the bankruptcy plan. That is really where this question of pg es bankrupt plan compliance with ab1054 will happen. So were evaluating how we can participate in that proceeding constructively. Mostly to address ratepayer impacts and safe and Affordable Service going forward. Of course, we see our acquisition of pg es assets as a solution for that for San Francisco. I want to make sure that our perspectives are reflected in that proceeding as they deliberate. And then two last items on the legislative front, our securitization bill was introduced by senator wiener. Its been given Senate Bill Number 804. Youll hear us reporting on that going forward. This allows local public power agencies to qualify bonds for more favorable Credit Rating and to reduce the Debt Service Coverage required by investors for bonds used for electric infrastructure. We would be to accomplish that, we would be placing a surcharge on the bill to recover the borrowed funds ahead of other costs. Water, wastewater, public agencies, have this authority already. Power public agencies dont. The utilities have this authority. So were asking its sort of a metoo, wed like the same authority these other local agencies have to invest cost efficiently in infrastructure. In terms of how we would use it, we would be able to make our Power Systems more resilient, safer, cleaner, by financing infrastructure like, rerenewable, storage, combination of those two. Or improvements to distribution systems. So we have all four of the california delegation sponsoring this piece of legislation that senator wiener introduced. And then on the internal front commissioner vietor can i ask a question about the 804 . Correct. Sb804. Commissioner vietor and so that would put that would add that would be added onto the cleanpowersf bill, correct . Or the hetch hetchy customer bill. To the extent we were using this financing mechanism, if the law passes and we use this mechanism, we would have a separate surcharge on the bill that repays those bonds. So to the customer, would that be increased price to what they would be paying to they were with pg e . So the bottom line perspective would be, we wouldnt intend to make investments if we thought it was going to increase the overall cost of the electric bill, right . So we would be using borrowing instead of expensing to fund these efforts. And we would, of course, come back to the commission and the board of supervisors to do any revenue bond financing using this mechanism. So the specifics of the case could be evaluated and we could demonstrate how its good for consumers. Commissioner vietor but the bill, the price would not go up on the customer side, because we would adjust internally, readjust . Correct. And how we do our Financial Planning. Yes. On the internal front, were continuing to work on a refresh of our 2015 business plan. Were responding to commissioner morans questions about the governance structure. Those were asked at the last meeting. And working on indicative Credit Rating still. With that, im happy to take any further questions you may have. Thank you. President caen thank you very much. Any Public Comment on this report . That concludes my report. President caen next item. Item 7, update regarding wildfire Risk Reduction in the sfpucs bay air watersheds. Thank you, commissioners. Steve ritchie, assistant general manager or water. This item came up as we were discussing the wildfire mitigation plan back in december which talked about the risk of our electric facilities causing a fire. But the question about the broader issue of what about wildfire that could occur in our bay area watersheds . So asking tim ramirez, the Division Manager for the Natural Resources and Lands Management division to make a presentation about how we deal with that. Thank you, steve. Division manager of Natural Resources and Land Management system. Slides, please. Im going to quickly provide an overview of what we do regularly every day as part of our work to minimize wildfire risk on the watersheds and property we own. Then ill be happy to answer questions when we get to the end. Let me start by providing context about all of the things we do in the watershed as i think the commission well knows, we have Commission Adopted and documents to manage both of the areas that we own and feed, both the peninsula watershed and the alameda watershed. Were a giant landowner. We own a lot of property. We own about 23,000 acres on the peninsula in san matteo county and 30,000 acres in the east bay. Those two areas combined are twice as big as the city and county of San Francisco. So were out there every day responsible for management of the property, including minimizing wildfire risk. The plans have a primary goal of maintaining Water Quality. This is a cartoon that came out. We use this to remind people about our goal for the watershed. I think folks who were there, if you werent, we were worried about Water Quality during the fire. The grand scheme of things, that wasnt our biggest problem, but this cartoon illustrated the risk that we have. One of the secondary goals on the watershed is to preserve and enhance resources. This is another cartoon. You may recall the first time the city and county applied for Disaster Relief to the state and the state applied to the federal government. The state didnt have enough damage to qualify for assistance under federal rules. Thats because the only thing that burned was a forest. A lot of things burned as well, but there werent homes that they could quantify economically. So we did work with groups then and the state to try a better estimate the real risk. We couldnt use those in a federal context, but we demonstrated there were about 700 million of other losses associated with the fire, just within the perimeter that dealt with the ecological loss of the forest. Eventually, the city and the state qualified for federal assistance. Very quickly on the watersheds. Im going to cover general programs and give you a quick tour on the peninsula and the aimmediata side. There is state responsibility areas. We dont fight fires. We dont have fire crews on the watershed that run out there when there is a fire. People come and help us. Its the states job to do that. We have cal fire on our property. Each of the counties we work with have Fire Safe Councils set up and Community Wildfire protection plans. These are things that all of the counties in the state have that provide context for people to Work Together to address risk on the front end. What we do annually, we have liaison meetings with the First Responders, including cal fire. Last year we basically cohosted the workshops with cal fire. The one workshop was on the property. We came back to the yard. On the peninsula, we have it, thats the water temple. We invite all the folks to come for the day to meet before fire season starts to make sure we know who we are, introduce the new faces, make sure we have communications set up. So when we go out in an event we dont meet for the first time. We have fires every year on both watersheds. We want to make sure were ready when things happen. We practiced the whole group, what happens during a fire. Fire happens here, what do you do . Who do you call . Can you call them . Do your radios communicate . Do you have the similar frequency . What about dispatch . Also on the watershed, we have fuel breaks and fire breaks. You heard a lot about our power lines. The commissioners adopted the fire mitigation plan. I wont talk about the annual power line maintenance, but that happens. We have a tree crew in the puc that are responsible for doing the bulk of that work. Youll see examples of that in a minute. Red flag days, we have our own threshold for humidity, temperature and wind. Based on those thresholds, we tell people whether or not its safe to be on the watershed to work. Whether we have restrictions on the work or whether we close the watersheds. We closed the watersheds last year, i think we had four days in a row that were red flag days. Weve never had four total at my time in the puc. We had four in a row last year. The best thing we can do is tell people not to work to minimize risk. We do that on rare occasions. We have our plans that we work through with the puc and annually make sure that all the folks in the puc have the information as well. We reach out to the other groups, water enterprise and folks working on the property to make sure they have the same information. This is just a map of that from the document that was presented earlier that the Commission Adopted. This is part of our portfolio. You can see the watersheds there. The peninsula is in the darker color. The tier one colorer with the higher risk and alameda is tier two. Peninsula watershed. About 22,000 acres. It is such a fire hazard that the state decided to list it that way in designations. Just to elevate the concern that the state has about this area. We have 112 miles of road. 25 are paved. I mention the roads because one of the main things we do for people is access. Can they get to there from here and how do we do that . We make sure we have keys and maps of the watershed, so they can be where they need to be and protect people around us. We have 90 miles of the fuel breaks as well. Every year, were mowing and disking and vegetation work to buffer the communities around us. Were active members of the san matteo fire council and san cruz and. This is one of the signs we have on all of the gates to remind people as they go in about the risk. Hazardous fire area. This is an example of some hazardous tree work being done by the tree crew. This is taken from the bucket truck, so theyre looking down on the road, where theyre taking some of the trees that are either dying from disease or from drought or age. And we dont want them to fall on people while on the road so we take them down in advance. And there is the bucket truck. Roadside mowing is also very important. A lot of ways that the fires start are the public roads through the watersheds, the state highways or the county roads. We have our own risk with our own vehicles, and we mow the sides of the roads to minimize that risk. We dont want to start a fire by having our vehicles off on the grass. This is a quick example of cal fire working with our crews in the field. I think also folks know we do controlled burns when we can on the peninsula watershed on the dam faces. We get two winds here. We have to produce the destandard to inspect the dam. Were going to mow it or burn it. We can burn in the spring. Its an exercise with cal fire and us. This year we were able to do it again. This is san andreas and the smoke after. This is really exercise for us, and for cal fire. One more shot of an andreas. I wanted to show the map. I wanted to let folks know, one of the things we do for watersheds, we make sure that everyone has these maps. These are maps that show the roads, the gates, the water sources, the helispots, if we need to land a helicopter. We want to make sure all information is at their finger tips. Our staff have it as well, so we can refer to the same location to make sure were working from the same script. Another thing were doing for lots of reasons is historical ecology work object the on the watershed. I wanted to demonstrate some of the change here and why the peninsula is the high hazard fire risk area. Its the vegetation change. On the left side, you can see a picture from 1900, same location looking across. On the left in black and white, you see looking east, no trees. And were obviously littered with trees now for various reasons. Thinks one of the problems that happened when Spring Valley bought the property and we bought it from them. It was managed to avoid fire all together. We did. As a consequence things grew and people planted things. People planted things when Spring Valley purchased the property. All of those things evolved and we continue to have greater risk because of that. This is looking on the peninsula watershed, looking down stream. Just example of the change in vegetation. Then one more looking north over crystal springs. Youll hear about the work later when we get it done. The report is almost ready to be released to the public. We havent seen it yet. They do a great job up and down california. Its a really useful document for things we do on a regular basis. I also wanted to mention quickly, how we balance this risk with access. One of the things that well talk about when our ceqa document comes out is the risk associated with having people on the property and fire. The regulations we set up about management and public abscess access on the trails is driven by the fire risk and we minimize that and other risks on the property. Just a few quick slides. A bigger area. State responsibility area. Equal number of roads. Less paved. The Fire Safe Council over there has a Community Protection plan. Recently was amended to incorporate some issues for the town to make sure we were providing resources to them in the event of a large fire. This is really great example of why we do disking on the watershed. This is a highway fire that started and moved its way to our fence. And then on the left side of the fence, the area was just recently disked. You can see the fire at the far end and the fire stopped. It stopped because there is no fuel. This is exactly why we disk. What the term . Disk . Disk. Its a tractor. Its carrying the disk behind is rotating and breaking the grass up and leaving mostly dirt. We mow in the peninsula, disk on the east bay. Why . Vegetation types are different. There is lot more mowing. Up against the edges of the community, especially on the east side of the watershed, we disk up there. Its harder, if you have dry conditions. We generate dust as well. We want to be mind. Ful mindful of the risk were creating and not create another risk. Great question. This is the last slide i think. This is the meeting we had at our new shop space when we opened in the spring. This is the cal fire local chief on the right. The watershed manager in the middle and the sheriff who is there. And theyre walking through the tabletop exercise in the spring. We did a great job this year with cal fire. I asked our folks to step it up because of the attention and the risk we have that youre all aware of in california. And our folks delivered this year. We did a much better job and well do it again this year. Thats it. Id be happy to answer questions. Thank you for your time. Commissioner vietor what are we think being with the south bay . And knowing that its because of the vegetation . Are we considering an Education Plan . Considering taking out vegetation . What are the ultimate goals . I know its difficult to remove a tree, but what are we thinking in everything we can all the time. We do the work we can with the First Responders because we know were going to have fires. We want to be ready. But we like to avoid fires as much as possible by minimizing the fuelloading. So we have started to do more work like that in the watershed where we can. A couple of different ways. The mitigation projects that weve been doing because of the Improvement Program on the watershed, really fit well with the standing to reduce fuelloading because weve been able to clear the areas that are mostly trees and restore ecological species, flowers mostly. When we do that, were reducing the fuelload along the edges of the watershed. Probably about 1200 acres of the 2000 acres have been things like that. A lot of tree removal. Thats combined our interest and to get the work done. Were also working with cal fire right now. There are areas in the state last year the governor directed to get vegetation out to protect communities. We didnt get that direction here on our watersheds, but cal fire did get money. They got money to do Environmental Review. So just like the pacific burns on the dam, were working with cal fire to lead the ceqa document to do prescribed burns on the watershed. Very small. But its a place to start. It would allow us to take some of the load away. It would give cal fire a chance to practice. And really a great way to do more work like that on both of the watersheds. Were hope doing one or two this year on the peninsula. Do we have an ultimate goal of how much load we think is acceptable or not acceptable . No. I think well always have risk because the watershed by design and by every possible way are mandated to be open spaces and protected to provide source Water Quality and protect ecological resources. We need vegetation. We dont need all the trees, but we need some. We havent done the math about where we are now to look at the gap where we want to be and where we are. Probably because i dont sleep very well in the fire season. And i wouldnt sleep at all if i knew the gap. Its a large number. We havent done that work yet. Were not talking about getting rid of all of the trees, but what would be the amount that we could handle . Since at one point there werent any trees . There were some trees. And we havent this is part of the work comes in handy. There were things happening to affect the landscape, but its a much better sense of what was there than what we have now. We like to ask questions. Where do we want to be . And how can we combine interests . The grassland habitats are limited in san matteo county and thats a great way to get the work done and declare some of these areas. Trees for no particular reason, but planted by a homesteader before they purchased the property. As a consequence, they had further disrupted the processes. So part of the strategy was take the trees away. Hopefully, more of that work will happen. Thank you. Very informative. Thank you. Any Public Comment . Next item. Item 8 is new commission business. President caen commissioners . New business . Seeing none, the next item. Item 9 is consent calendar, all matters listed constitute consent calendar are considered to be are you teen by the San Francisco Public Utilities commission and acted upon by a single vote. There will be no separate discussion of the items unless the member of the commission or the public requests. In which event will be removed and considered as a separate item. Commissioners, any item on the calendar you would like to remove . To the general public, any item you would like to remove . May have a motion . So moved. Second. President caen all those in favor . The motion carries. Next item. Adopt a resolution authorizing the general manager to execute a Second Amendment to the Employment Contract with kathryn how to extend the term of the contract by two years to january 2022 to provide a 2 base wage increase and update contract terms. So this is something that i have been working with kathy how as you may or may not know. Her contract has expired. And she is eligible for retirement real soon. I convinced her to stay, trying to get her to retire when i retire, but im still working on that. But this contract [laughter] extends the time. And then also, it ties with the 2 increase that local 21 received when they were in negotiations. So we put that in because most of her people who work under her are local 21. So that we put that in there as well. And so with that, i would love for you to approve this contract so kathy can remain agm and help me address all the Capital Projects that we have. I have a question. Good work if you can keep her and good luck to all of us and good benefits to all of us. My question, you said 2 . Yes. It was 2 on top of what because currently shes represented by mea. And the local 21 got a 2 on the engineering. They have an additional 2 . So that was a side letter to the master agreement. Well, it was part of the master agreement. Other disciplines didnt like it, but the engineers received 2 on top of that. Because of the parity issue. Thanks for the clarification. President caen any other comments . Id like to move the item, but with bit of a caveat to say, you know, we really appreciate your work and hopefully youll continue on for two years, but not tie yourself to the retirement of our general manager, but potentially consider carrying on after that time if it serves you and the puc. So id like to move the item. Second. Can we put that in writing . [laughter]. President caen i forgot to ask for public dment. Comment. Seeing none, i call for the question. All those in favor . Opposed . The motion carries. I agree with you. Felt like we were being undermined here on the commission. Everybody is leaving. So, next item. Item 11, approve the selection of hdr engineering and Aecom Technical Services or agreements and authorize the general manager to negotiate and execute two professional service agreements, each in amount not to exceed 11 million with the duration of 11 years, subject to board of supervisors approval. Good afternoon, commissioners. Kathy how, assistant general manager for infrastructure. Thank you for approving the previous item. Thank you for your comments. This item is to we went through an r. F. P. Process to hire three consultants to help us with dam assessments and proposed improvements that may be needed. And in that process, we did receive one protest. And that protest was against gei, so were not asking to award a contract to gei at this time, but the other two firms that were ranked in the top, hdr and aecom, those did not receive any protests, so were asking to award contracts to each of those firms so that we can begin work with them. What was the protest . Actually, it involved our previous Water Capital Program director, dan wade. Dan wade joined gei and so stantec protested that gei had an unfair advantage. Hmm. So what is happening . We will probably come back to the commission at a later meeting and ask for award to either gei or Gerald Stanley stantec. How many dams and reservoirs would this entail . We probably have listed most of our dams and reservoirs. Steve ritchie, agm, will speak to the dams and reservoirs 15year program hes got laid out. And so these contracts would be in support of water enterprise trying to meet dsod requirements which they may be changing. I see. I would assume that involves the inspection of it definitely involves inspection. And its a pretty broad scope. And it does cover quite a few of our dams and reservoirs. Even in city. Other questions, discussion. Ill move the item . Second. All those in favor . Darn it. I was going for a perfect record today. Any Public Comment on this item . All those in favor . Opposed . The motion carries. Thank you. Next item. Item 12, approve the plans and specifications and award contract wd2739 in the amount of 14,919,291 with a duration of 730 contech calendar days to be responsible bidder submitting the lowest responsive bid, cratus. This item is pretty straightforward. Were requesting award to the lowest bidder for the joint project were doing with public works. Id like to move the item. Second. President caen any Public Comment on this item . All those in favor . Opposed . Motion carried. Next item. Item 13, approve the plans and specifications and award contract number ww687 in the amount of 5,986,22 with the duration of 630 consecutive calendar days with the lowest bidder, anvil builders and approve the conditions and permit hudson one ferry operating, allowing sfpuc to enter and use sea wall 351. Good afternoon. Director of wasteWater Capital Programs. I was introduced to the commission. I would like to introduce bessie toms, the project senior manager looking after this project to cover this item. Good afternoon. Im bessie tam, project manager. This is a straightforward agenda items. Were seeking approval to authorize their general manager to enter a permit to enter into this parking lot so that we can construct the project. The area is absolutely in order for the project to proceed. Ill take any questions. Ill move the item. President caen Public Comment on the item . All those in favor . Im sorry. Didnt see you. It would be nice when we have a project like this linked to the force main to not only state this project is very important, we know its very important, but we like to know what exactly is going to happen to all the flooding that took place, say, with the institution on embarcadero and so on and so forth. Our force main, and there are other force mains that i know have been compromised before by not taking the necessary precaution. One of them being near marine street. Bandaid operation. Where three conduits were dug and its all connected. Or what goes into the treatment plant. But this is how we got to do it. The people at home have to understand, were spending millions of dollars on a force main, what are really the benefits . Because we do know that our facilities and institutions that are compromised because we need a force main. But we also need to know exactly what locations, what facilities are being helped so we get a clear picture. We have to remember that we have the sfpuc and all those who work for the sfpuc are paid by the taxpayers. And i see like when i went for the budget thing, trying to create some sort of a thing where you have a people, you have to study what is chief of people. Were no longer leaving in the feudal ages where the king and such people control the people. Taxpayers pay their taxes so they get the required services. And some of them understand that. The older generation. The Younger Generation believe in consultants. Consultants come and go and that may be appropriate for certain things, but we shouldnt make that the norm. Thank you very much. President caen thank you. Any other Public Comments . Ill call for the question. All those in favor . That motion carries. Next item. Item 14, conditionally approve the issuance of up to 3 billion, inclusive of the proposed 2. 5 billion acquisition cost and other acquisitionrelated costs and bond financing costs of power enterprise Revenue Bonds to acquire certain pacific gas and electric assets subject to future satisfaction of six specified conditions. Commissioners, eric sandler, c. F. O. As you know, were pursuing the acquisition of pg e assets within the city. In september, the mayor and the City Attorney submitted an indication of interest to pg e. The purpose of this resolution and a similar one before the board of supervisors today, later today, is to demonstrate the willingness of the city to finance this potential acquisition through the issuance of power Revenue Bonds. This resolution approves the is a conditional approval of the issuance of Revenue Bonds specific to the preconditions being met. Including the successful negotiation of any acquisition, findings that its beneficial to the city and ratepayers. That there is a complete ceqa process. That there is authorization required in the city charter for the issuance bonds such as the delivery of the pro forma that shows that it meets objectives as well as ceqa requirements. Id like to move the item. Second. I have everybody working on my side now. Public comment . So, when i worked for the presidio every year we had to negotiate with pg e. We didnt have meters. Every year we had to negotiate with pg e. So early on i asked a question to our engineers, why is that so . And they call the wrecker act. The act gave subsidized prizes to the military. It was a presidio. Through the municipalities and to public housing. They got subsidized rates for the electricity. But once the meters were put, then the consultants that were hired by pg e got a lot of money. And pg e got a lot of money. Thats for you all to analyze and realize what happened. We have had this discussion before. How when the transmission lines are brought from hetch hetchy, they stopped about 30 miles away from San Francisco. For pg e some years ago to bring that electricity to the city and county of San Francisco. And take control of it. Now, we know that when it comes to clean water and the wastewater and even now hydroelectricity, that sfpuc has been lacking in some of those departments. And we should have taken a lead in having solar 25 years ago because theyve got a lot of land. Millions of acres of land. Somebody was asking, how many what is the price they put on our land. Weve got millions of acres of land which we havent utilized. And which we could have utilized. So now with pg e after the fires and all the bankruptcy, the governor is saying one thing, somebody else is saying another thing. The people are not getting paid who were the victims of the fire. And here we have our mayor, today i just came from the other meeting, she said [bell ringing] were heading toward 500 million deficit and here we have sfpuc saying, okay, well have a bond for 3. 5 billion. Who is fooling whom . Again, its the taxpayers money. We need to have a hearing. A nice hearing. With everything laid out clearly, demarcated so that we can understand where what is happening. Thank you very much. President caen thank you. So we have a motion and second. I have a comment if i could, through the chair. I was under the impression, one, that this was a supervisor and mayordriven piece when it comes to the finances. And moving things forward. Im going to vote yes because i know this is the board of supervisors, this is a preliminary vote, and the details arent all in. This isnt fully cooked, fully baked or even accepted. So im going to conditionally vote yes, but because of issues ive brought up previously, about how this is going to play out in terms of the city, in terms of actual ways this work and how it gets done and how workers are taken care of, and assuming pg e actually acquiesces to accepting the offer, there is still many questions i have. But there is a certain political unity that i want to be part of, but im going to be reluctant yes on this. I wanted to telegraph that for the record. President caen okay. Any other comments . Ill call for the question. All those in favor . Opposed . The motion carries. Next item. Item 15. Retroactively authorize the assistant general manager to apply for california Climate Investments Fire Protection grant from the department of forestry and Fire Protection in the amount of 366,881 and general rise the general manager to accept and expend the grant if awarded. Id to move the item. President caen Public Comment on the item . All those in favor . Opposed . Motion carries. Next item. Item 16, approve the water supply assessment for the proposed one vassar project. Steve ritchie, assistant general manager for water. You out waited me. This is another water supply assessment as weve been through a number of these over the years. We went through a large number in the middle of last year. We have this one and another one, but i dont see too many more on the horizon. Where, again, this is a report that is required to be done to give to the planning department, so that they can use in their ceqa process for examination of the project. And as in the other cases, weve identified that the bay delta Water Quality control program is a potential issue, so there are three scenarios that could play out. And looking at all of those, we believe that this project can be served, water, if that is the choice of the Planning Commission in terms of the ceqa process. This is not an approval of the project, but legally required report we need to make for this and other projects. President caen correct. Weve discussed this before. Any additional discussion . Public comment on this item . May have a motion . Ill move approval. Second. President caen all those in favor . Opposed . The motion carries. Next item, please. Item 17, approve the termed on conditions of authorize the general manage tory execute a nofee, fiveyear license to replace an existing license with Tuolumne County for operating and maintenance of radio towers and four existing repeaters throughout tuolumne and cal vary as counties. Good afternoon. Im here in case you have questions. President caen any questions . Ill move the item. Second. President caen is there Public Comment on the item . All those in favor . Opposed . The motion carries. Thank you. President caen madame secretary, please read the items for closed session. Item 20 is existing litigation, pacific gas and electric corporation. Item 21, existing litigation, it city and county of San Francisco versus electric gas. Item 22, city and count San Francisco versus pacific gas. President caen may i have a motion to assert . Did we call for Public Comment on matters to be discussed in closed session . I was going to next. Move to assert. Second. President caen Public Comment on this . All those in favor . Opposed . The motion carries. We will now were back. The commission has reconvened in open session. May i have a motion regarding whether to disclose discussions . Moved. President caen any Public Comment . Very good. All those in favor . Opposed . The motion carries. This meeting is adjourned at 3 32 p. M. A principal analyst recently appointed as acting administrator responsible for developing all of the rates and charges for the water, Power Services we provide. The main things i work on are rates. It is really trying to figure out how much money we need to fund our operations and maintenance and thinking how to collect the money in a way that is fair to customers and sincentives for Water Conservation or installing Stormwater Management on their property. I nominated erin for the many accomplishments she has provided especially for the financial sustain ability. The reality required a lot of work retooling policies, Financial Planning as well as many rating and charges. Er ron served in the projects including update to water and sewer rates, update to 10 year Financial Plan as well as setting the budget for fiscal 2019 higher 2020. I am pleased with working here. I feel like we have tons of work to do. It is important work. It has a direct impact on peoples lives. She has a unique ability to get to the root cause of the issue and help develop consensus around a solution. Not only is it troubleshooting what the questions are, but also coming up with what are the alternatives. I think a lot of the satisfaction from the job is looking back over the past few years and seeing cereal concrete change we have been real concrete change and that gives me pride. The team very much appreciates her hair color and the world of finance and accounting tends to foster conformity and boring guys like myself. I very much admire the fact that she walks her own walk and creates her own path, and i think we all can learn a little bit from her. I and a principal revenue and rates analyst in the Financial Planni is our United States constitution requires every ten years that america counts every human being in the United States, which is incredibly important for many reasons. Its important for preliminary representation because if Political Representation because if we under count california, we get less representatives in congress. Its important for San Francisco because if we dont have all of the people in our city, if we dont have all of the folks in california, california and San Francisco stand to lose billions of dollars in funding. Its really important to the city of San Francisco that the federal government gets the count right, so weve created count sf to motivate all sf count to motivate all citizens to participate in the census. For the immigrant community, a lot of people arent sure whether they should take part, whether this is something for u. S. Citizens or whether its something for anybody whos in the yUnited States, and it is something for everybody. Census counts the entire population. Weve given out 2 million to over 30 communitybased organizations to help people do the census in the communities where they live and work. Weve also partnered with the Public Libraries here in the city and also the Public Schools to make sure there are informational materials to make sure the folks do the census at those sites, as well, and weve initiated a campaign to motivate the citizens and make sure they participate in census 2020. Because of the language issues that many Chinese Community and families experience, there is a lot of mistrust in the federal government and whether their private information will be kept private and confidential. So its really important that communities like bayviewhunters point participate because in the past, theyve been under counted, so what that means is that funding that should have gone to these communities, it wasnt enough. Were going to help educate people in the tenderloin, the multicultural residents of the tenderloin. You know, any one of our given blocks, theres 35 different languages spoken, so we are the original u. N. Of San Francisco. So its our job is to educate people and be able to familiarize themselves on doing this census. You go online and do the census. Its available in 13 languages, and you dont need anything. Its based on household. You put in your address and answer nine simple questions. How many people are in your household, do you rent, and your information. Your name, your age, your race, your gender. Everybody is 2,000 in funding for our child care, housing, food stamps, and medical care. All of the residents in the city and county of San Francisco need to be counted in census 2020. If youre not counted, then your community is underrepresented and will be underserved. My name is alan schumer. I am a fourth generation san franciscan. In december, this building will be 103 years of age. It is an incredibly rich, rich history. [ ] my core responsibility as city hall historian is to keep the history of this building alive. I am also the tour program manager, and i chair the city advisory commission. I have two ways of looking at my life. I want it to be i wanted to be a Fashion Designer for the movies, and the other one, a political figure because i had some force from family members, so it was a constant battle between both. I ended up, for many years, doing the fashion, not for the movies, but for for san franciscan his and then in turn, big changes, and now i am here. The work that i do at city hall makes my life a broader, a richer, more fulfilling than if i was doing something in the Garment Industry. I had the opportunity to develop relationships with my docents. It is almost like an extended family. I have formed incredible relationships with them, and also some of the people that come to take a tour. She was a dressmaker of the first order. I would go visit her, and it was a special treat. I was a tiny little girl. I would go with my wool coat on and my special little dress because at that period in time, girls did not wear pants. The Garment Industry had the at the time that i was in it and i was a retailer, as well as the designer, was not particularly favourable to women. You will see the predominant designers, owners of huge complexes are huge stores were all male. Women were sort of relegated to a lesser position, so that, you reached a point where it was a difficult to survive and survive financially. There was a woman by the name of diana. She was editor of the bazaar, and evoke, and went on and she was a miraculous individual, but she had something that was a very unique. She classified it as a third i. Will lewis brown junior, who was mayor of San Francisco, and was the champion of reopening this building on january 5th of 1999. I believe he has not a third eye , but some kind of antenna attached to his head because he had the ability to go through this building almost on a daily basis during the restoration and corrects everything so that it would appear as it was when it opened in december of 1915. The board of supervisors approved that, i signed it into law. Jeffrey heller, the city and county of San Francisco oh, and and your band of architects a great thing, just a great thing. To impart to the history of this building is remarkable. To see a person who comes in with a gloomy look on their face , and all of a sudden you Start Talking about this building, the gloomy look disappears and a smile registers across their face. With children, and i do mainly all of the childrens tours, that is a totally different feeling because you are imparting knowledge that they have no idea where it came from, how it was developed, and you can Start Talking about how things were before we had computer screens, cell phones, lake in 1915, the mayor of San Francisco used to answer the telephone and he would say, good morning, this is the mayor. At times, my clothes make me feel powerful. Powerful in a different sense. I am not the biggest person in the world, so therefore, i have to have something that would draw your eye to me. Usually i do that through color, or just the simplicity of the look, or sometimes the complication of the look. I have had people say, do those shoes really match that outfit . Retirement to me is a very strange words. I dont really ever want to retire because i would like to be able to impart the knowledge that i have, the knowledge that i have learned and the ongoing honor of working in the peoples palace. You want a longterm career, and you truly want to give something to do whatever you do, so long as you know that you are giving to someone or something youre then yourself. Follow your passion and learn how to enrich the feelings along the way. Good morning everyone. Can you hear me . Lets get this party started. Before the sun goes away. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for being here with us on this exciting, groundbreaking. Of course, you know, 20 years in the making. Finally we are here, joined by community, our local representatives and leadership. As you know, for over 60 years, we have been at the forefront of providing community services, quality programs to our community from cradle to rocking chair. This building here really is a testament to the history and the commitment that we have two this multigenerational community, starting as a Head Start Program , them the house of mission girls, and now, transforming into housing for formerly homeless displaced seniors. [applause] thank you. Yes. Of course, this vision, this dream, this accomplishment, would not have been possible without the fearless leader, santiago. Please let me welcome him. [cheers and applause] good morning. Welcome and thank you all for joining us this morning. I would like to impose on you just for a few minutes, briefly. Just to give some context to the comments that you will hear from distinguished guests this morning that we will take to the podium, starting with the honorable mayor, who had a most beautiful inauguration yesterday very classy, maam. I am not saying it because i was there, im saying it because it was absolutely beautiful. That blue carpet, i have never seen it before. It has always been red. Anyway, thank you very much, everyone. This site used to house one of our head start classrooms and we are providing we were providing services to 60 children, if i remember correctly. The site, over two decades ago, was put up for sale, and it basically, Mission Neighborhood programs were under threat for displacement. We were being evicted. We learned that it was being sold by the owner to none other than pepsi co. Corporation. Pepsico was acquiring both lots, specifically for a taco bell franchise. When we learned of this fact. , we were somewhat alarmed, not just because we are being displaced, but the Economic Impact, the negative and adverse Economic Impact it would have for the 24th street corridor considering the food establishments that are mostly familyowned in the area. So we opted to be bold about this issue and canvassed the 24 th street corridor and interviewed or polled residents, homeowners, tenants, business owners, and the consensus was unanimous feedback that we received that we need to remain onsite. So we rallied old friends, friends of the community, neighborhood residents, and nancy pelosi, are tagged no and jim gonzalez, who, in a 90 day period, were able to generate a lot of help from the 24th Street Revitalization Committee. I wont forget. They were able to identify 500,000 that we utilized as a down payment for the acquisition of these buildings. The idea was to make this a Community Asset, and it remained a Community Asset and it will remain it will continue to be a Community Asset as 45 seniors will be able to call this their new home. These are formerly displaced Senior Citizens. Hopefully they will be Senior Citizens who are displaced from the mission and we will say [speaking spanish] [cheers and applause] with this piece of history being shared with you, i want to acknowledge a couple of individuals before the mayor takes to the podium. And romero is with us today. And, thank you. The meres office of housing and community development. Kevin is also with us this morning. Where is kevin at . Did he leave . There you are if i am missing him, my apologies, but these are individuals that throughout the last 20 years were always by our side no matter what. One in particular that started a relationship with Mission Neighborhood centers is none other than barbara. I know she is here. Where is she . [applause] she held onto this project like there was no tomorrow and so we are creating and we are extending or bestowing her with what we call the endurance award thank you, barbara. You are always by our side no matter what. With that being said, i would like to introduce our illustrious mayor london breed. Thank you. [applause]. Thank you. I am really excited to be here today. This is the sixth round breaking in the mission since ive been mayor and i am so excited. It amounts to over 600 new units in this community. And the reason why this is happening at this pace has everything to do with the advocacy of the people who are part of this community, starting way back in 2014 when roberto and others were marching the halls of city hall as we prepared for the 2015 housing bond. In that housing bond, when the late mayor was our mayor, he committed to making sure not only that 50 million in that housing bond was set aside because of the gentrification and displacement of what was happening in the mission, he committed to making sure that we did a better job to pay close attention to this community and to not only build more Affordable Housing, but we worked sidebyside when i was on the board of supervisors to pass neighborhood preference legislation, so that when we build in this community, the people from this community have access to the affordable units in their community. I am so grateful that the work that weve done, not too long ago, is actually, finally being realized. This incredible project of 44 units for seniors and the manager unit is just the tip of the iceberg. Next month, we will be opening 94 units at shotwell, and those are all 100 Affordable Housing units. It is because, again, of this community and the work that continues to get done to make sure that we are getting those applications in, that you are at the forefront of these groundbreaking his and the Community Activities that happen around Affordable Housing. This is how we support and protect this neighborhood for generations to come. [applause] so im looking forward to even more because of this community and because of the voters of San Francisco. Together we passed a 600,000,000. 40 will housing bond last year, the largest in our citys history, and we are hopeful [applause] that with the support of what the 2015 housing bond has yielded and the 2019 housing bond with purchasing properties, we are breaking ground, we are building more housing, we are doing small sight acquisition to protect people in their housing, because when its all said and done, we know that what has happened in our city over the last 20 years has everything to do with the fact that we have not built enough housing in the city for the people who live here and are struggling to live here. That is our commitment. We will work harder, and hopefully with new policies, we will work faster and get more units open sooner rather than later. I want to thank sam and Mission Neighborhood centers for their dedication to this community, not just was housing, but with programs, childcare centers, with everything that you do to look at the entire family and bring people together and provide the wraparound Supportive Services needed. I want to thank mercy housing and Doug Schoemaker shoemaker for being here today and the work we are doing to make this possible. We are so looking forward to seeing the seniors move into this property and become part of the fabric of this Amazing Community. Thank you all so much. [applause] thank you. I would like to introduce hilary ronen from district nine. She has been a long Time Community advocate for the Mission District, formally an attorney fighting for immigrants and workers rights and serving six years as the chief of staff for david campos. Supervisor ronen has demonstrated a strong commitment to the community she now represents and is wholeheartedly dedicated to addressing street homelessness in our district and ensuring Public Safety and all district nine neighborhoods, building more Affordable Housing , and protecting the culture and character of our neighborhood. Please help me welcome district nine supervisor. [applause]. Good morning everyone. What an amazing way to start 2020. [cheers and applause] yesterday we got to go, and i agree with you and sam, to the beautiful, elegant inauguration of mayor breed and we got to celebrate the inauguration and now we get to break ground on 45 units of truly Affordable Housing for formerly homeless seniors. What a way to start the year. What i wanted to say is i wanted to thank santiago and think mayor breed for the History Lesson because we have to understand our history to both learn from our mistakes and to know what we have to do in the future. And what is another little piece of history about this exciting project is that it is the first 100 Affordable Housing complex built on [speaking spanish] that is what happens when i try to makes languages. Since the 1980s. Since the early 1980s. That is not acceptable. Thank you to all the communities for making this happen again. The way that we protect this community is by having housing that the city subsidizes, that the government subsidizes, because we know that nobody but the ultra rich can afford to live in San Francisco nowadays if we dont have affordable units. So it took 20 years to get this going. That is way too long to state the obvious, but what all of these six projects that we have Broken Ground at at the mission, they all happens, they all started a long time ago, which means we need, right now, to be fighting for the projects that we will break ground on in this decades to come. So i am 100 dedicated. I know the mayor is 100 dedicated to it. I know this Mission Community is 100 dedicated to it. We will get it done, just like we did last time. Thank you so much. This is very exciting and its a pleasure to be here today. [applause] thank you, supervisor ronen. We have been working handinhand to ensure that our Affordable Housing vision for this corner, with an unwavering commitment to the cultural character of the neighborhood, becomes reality. Mercy housing has been a great partner. With us today is doug shoemaker, president of mercy housing california, a leading provider of permanent homes and Transformational Services for vulnerable people. Previously doug directed the Mayors Office of housing in San Francisco, the citys engine for financing and developing Affordable Housing. Doug has 25 years of experience generating Affordable Homes and leading initiatives to expand housing access. Please help me welcome mr. Doug shoemaker. [applause] i dont think i wrote that bio. It sounds better than the bio usually use. I will go with that. I also want to add our thanks. It really is an honor to have been asked by sam and Mission Neighborhood centers to partner with them. Having started my career in the mission, i know the legacy that sam and maria and the rest of the organization have in this neighborhood. It really is an honor to be able to participate with you. We see ourselves as working in the service for the Mission District. I really appreciate that, as to all of us. You are right, barbara has held onto this project. She has projects that she loves, some more than others, and this has been a labor of love for her for many years. You deserve a perseverance award as well because this project has not been the easiest one to move forward. There are lots of people who could have contributed to making sure we are here today and we are finally able to get going on creating some new housing. I would not be able to mention everyone who has been helpful. I do want to acknowledge a few people. I saw miguel earlier. He has met big supporter of this project. Our neighbors and amy and a Supervisors Office who has been very important. Our colleagues at the Mayors Office of housing. I want to acknowledge our general contractor. These are not easy times, but this is a good time to be working on this project. [applause] the designs are beautiful. For that we have to think our great architects who are standing behind us. They are doing great work. [applause] we have a number of Financial Partners on this project. It costs money to build buildings, so the National Equity fund are here, from Silicon Valley bank, as well. The Mayors Office of housing provides critical financing. The city provides really important financing to make sure we can serve seniors that are formerly homeless. For that we want to thank the department of homelessness, as well as the department of public health. This project is unusual, and maybe some people dont realize that along the way, as we are trying to scrape together enough money for this project, we had something that almost never happens to us is something called us up and said they wanted to give us some money for Affordable Housing. George and evan are here in the front. [applause] this project is the beneficiary of five milliondollar requests from the Betty Ferguson foundation. We were very lucky through steve , who is a longterm attorney that some of you know, he referred them to us and said they wanted to do something to help create more for the housing for seniors in the bay area. We knew exactly where to put the first bit of money for this project and we want to thank them and the Betty Ferguson foundation for that. Thank you so much. [applause] i am almost done. There is a long list of other folks. Im sure i will not mention everybody who has helped move this project forward. I want to say that it really is an honor. I hope that this building, as beautiful as it looks on paper, when were done, i hope we are around to celebrate. As roberto said to me earlier, we will do our best to make sure the folks moving in here are folks who have been moved out of this neighborhood, not there any choice of their own, but because of the incredible pressures that this city is under. It will be an amazing day when we reopen this building. We welcome back folks who have been living in the neighborhood who have been forced out. That will be one of the greatest pleasures that we will all have. I share your wish and i thank you. [applause] thank you so much. Last but not least, i would like to welcome eric. He is a founder and president of [speaking spanish] originally from nicaragua, he has called the Mission District home since 1963. He has been a Proactive Community advocates since 1996 and an Amazing Community leader fighting for the preservation of latino culture district, and against the erasure of the latino community. Please welcome eric. [applause] [speaking spanish] how is everyone . Welcome to the cultural district this is our centrepiece, right in the center of the latino cultural district. We are very proud. I want to thank, of course, mayor london breed and supervisor ronen. Thank you for being here. Sam, it has been a long time coming. It has been 20 years. We have seen several designs, several ideas. Money was there than it wasnt there than it was back. You did it. You had a vision, you followed it, you have the Community Together Community Together to support it. We are very proud for that. We have been fighting for Affordable Housing for a lot of years in the neighborhood. We have reached out to about four or 5,000 people in the area , finding out what their needs their needs are, and all we ever heard from the community was affordability, affordability, affordability, whether it is services in the area, and especially for housing here we are. We are providing that and we are very proud. Thank you everyone. Congratulations to the entire community because it will benefit us all. Thank you. [applause] thank you all. I wanted to acknowledge two things. One, i wanted to acknowledge the board of directors that are here present with us today. Without the support of our board of directors, this would be a lot more difficult and they have been with Mission Neighborhood centers, with sam and part of this vision throughout the decade. If you could stand and be acknowledged, our board of directors. There we go. [applause] thank you so much for your support and your leadership. I also want to acknowledge someone who is here representing Assembly Member david chiu who surprised us with three certificates of recognition, one for Mission Neighborhood centers , one for mercy housing of california, and one for [speaking spanish] acknowledging todays great event. Thank you so much. [applause] finally, i would like to welcome back up to the podium sam who will be giving us our closing remarks. Thank you. [applause] thank you, everyone. I will try to be as brief as i can. I just need to be honest with you. This is a very very emotional moment for me. Bear with me, please. Honestly, mayor breed, thank you for joining us this morning, as well as hillary. This project is basically none other than a team effort. I am glad that layla asked our Board Members to stand and be recognized. I am a blessed man. I consider myself a change agent , a community builder, and when you engage in that level of practice, it is very contagious. I tend to attract people who think the same and to behave the same and to do it out of love with passion. Not because of the money, but because what it represents to our community and to the future of our community. So it has been my board, year after year we questioned, one will this get built . Its not easy. Sometimes i had to sweat it before a Board Meeting because i knew what the questions would be all i could say is bear with me, trust me, it will happen. Its happening now. It wasnt just the board who asked those questions and supported my efforts, it was also community. There wasnt a single moment when i did not receive any support when i called community for help. Whether it was our illustrious neighbor, whether it was the mayor of the mission [applause] or eric, and then, of course, you have individual professionals in this community who believe in what you do because it is for the betterment of your community. So i want to say thank you and i want to ask a special friend whose name i just mentioned, to say a few words. A few closing words. I also want to acknowledge anthony. The number of times that i sought your support in designing this, you were there for us pro bono. Thank you. That is appreciated. But now i would like to ask my good friend, and i have to let you know that he is also my friend. The mayor of the mission. Excuse me, madame mayor, to say [laughter] to please come up and say a few words. [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] its days like this that i feel like [speaking spanish] sam, come here, my brother. Come here. You know what . To your board of directors, and defence of sam, what you did not know is that sam had a 2020 vision. He had a vision this would get built in 2020. So next time you go to a Board Meeting, dont question him, just let it roll. Sam is the man and sam will get it done. [applause] thank you, brother. [applause] i was reflecting this morning and i just want to give a little history and a lesson. This place has been a center of change. At one point, and i saw George Simpson, where is George Simpson at . This was the home for [speaking spanish] which was a drug rehab program. Maria, please stand up. You were part of that. Thank you very much. [speaking spanish] worked with people who at that time were on heroin. Its very hard to work with people who were on heroin. Then you had horizons limited, which went through some changes, and thanks to sam again, he provided a home for transitional for transitions and horizons unlimited, another organization from our community. And then you had the 24th street merchants association. Where is eric . Sam, once again, he gave a home to that space. And then he gave space when carnaval San Francisco was going through transition. And mecca, and then mission grove. And. [speaking spanish] , anyone here from [speaking spanish] where are you at . Thank you. Sam, once again, he gave home to it. So this has been a transitional space for our community, which has a lot of history. Its kind of a bitter but sweet moment today. As i walked over here, because i only live two blocks down, i didnt have to drive or catch a cab or ride my bike or my low rider, you know, but it is, as i reflect back, you know, i honor you, brother. Thank you so much. I know that he did call me a couple of times because some people werent paying their rent i wont mention which organizations, and sam was having a budget problem. I need you to make a phone call, and of course, i would call people up and say go pay sam. And they did. Everybody paid their rent, right that is why the buildings are being built because everybody paid their rent. And the last thing i wanted to share is when he talked about the eviction they are going through, and he did call me, and at that time, we had 24th Street Revitalization Committee which i was part of creating with others. And at that time, supervisor jim gonzalez was the chair of the committee. We did that on purpose because we wanted to hold him accountable to make sure he did some work as our supervisor. It was insane how we were not only able to get 500 thousand 500,000 for Mission Neighborhood centers, but it was a package that we got of 1 million for 24th street. We were able to abide not only this property, but we were able to buy brava, theatre, and Mission Housing was also able to buy a property across the street that was three properties we bought because we got creative with city funding within a short period of time. Can it be done . Yes, it can. We are the creators and we are the intellect. We are the thinkers of change. It takes everybody to work with us, and im glad we have our mayor here today who got sworn in yesterday, and that was sweet to hear santana. I look forward to working with you, to continue the work that we have been doing to build Affordable Housing so that we can have justice for our community who has been displaced and evicted violently. Gentrification in this neighborhood, more than any other neighborhood in San Francisco. Once again, congratulations Mission Neighborhood center and thank you, my brother. [cheers and applause] [indiscernible] thank you. For the record, i was able to spend some time with mayor brown on new years eve and i acknowledge and thank him. He appreciated the reminder. Thank you. Thank you. With that being said, thank you, everyone, for joining us for this historic moment for our community. We all appreciate it and we hope that when we start accessing those units for our Senior Community that you will come back and that you will see this dream become a reality. Thank you very much everyone. Have a good afternoon. Thank you, mayor breed, and thank you, hillary. Please join us for Light Refreshments and coffee right in here. Are we ready . Five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause] and our general contractor is going to clean it all up. This is critical work. [laughter]. Yeah. You know what im talking about. I came to San Francisco inut. 1969. I fell in love with this city and and this is where i raised my family at. My name is bobbie cochran. Ive been a holly Court Resident for 32 years. I wouldnt give up this neighborhood for nothing. I moved into this apartment one year ago. My favorite thing is my kitchen. I love these clean walls. Before the remodeling came along, the condition of these apartments had gotten pretty bad, you know, with all the mildew, the repairs. I mean you havent seen the apartment for the program come along. You wouldnt have believed it. So i appreciate everything they did. I was here at one point. I was. Because i didnt know what the outcome of holly court was going to be. You know, it really got was it going to get to the point where we have to be displaced because they would have to demolish this place . If they had, we wouldnt have been brought back. We wouldnt have been able to live in burn. By the program coming along, i welcome it. They had to hire a company and they came in and cleaned up all the walls. They didnt paint the whole apartment, they just cleaned up the mildew part, cleaned up and straighted it and primed it. That is impressive. I was a house painter. I used to go and paint other peoples apartments and then come back home to mine and i would say why couldnt i live in a place like that. And now i do. clapping. the airport it where i know to mind visions of traffic romance and excitement and gourmet can you limousine were at San Francisco inspirational airport to discover the awardwinning concession that conspiracies us around the world. Sfo serves are more 40 million travelers a year and a lot of the them are hungry theres many restaurant and nearly all are restaurant and cafe thats right even the airport is a diane designation. So tell me a little bit the food program at sfo and what makes this so special well, we have a we have food and Beverage Program at sfo we trivia important the sustainable organic produce and our objective to be a nonterminal and bring in the best food of San Francisco for our passengers. I like this its is inaudible i thank my parents for bringing me here. This the definitely better than the la airport one thousand times better than. I have a double knees burger with bacon. I realize im on a diet but im hoping this will be good. It total is San Francisco experience because theres so many people and nationalities in this town to come to the airport especially everyone what have what they wanted. Are repioneering or is this a model. Were definitely pioneers and in airport commemoration at least nationally if not intvrl we have many folks asking our our process and how we select our great operators. The food option in San Francisco airport are phenomenal thats if it a lot of the airports yeah. You dont have the choice. Some airports are all about food this is not many and this particular airport are amazing especially at the tirnl indicating and corey is my favorite i come one or two hours before my flight this is the life. We definitely try to use as many local grirnts as we can we use the goat cheese and we also use local vendors we use greenly produce they summarize the local soured products and the last one had 97 percent open that. Wow. Have you taken up anything unique or odd here. Ive picked up a few things in napa valley i love checking chocolates theres a lot of types of chocolate and caramel corn. Now this is a given right there. Im curious about the customer externals and how people are richmond to this collection of cities youve put together not only of San Francisco food in San Francisco but food across the bay area. This type of market with the local savors the highend products is great. I know people cant believe theyre in an airport i really joy people picking up things for their friends and family and wait i dont have to be shopping now we want people take the opportunity at our location. How long has this been operating in San Francisco and the late 18 hours it is one of the best places to get it coffee. We have intrrnl consumers that know of this original outlet here and come here for the coffee. So lets talk sandwiches. Uhhuh. Can you tell me how you came about naming our sandwiches from the katrero hills or 27 years i thought okay neighborhood and how do you keep it fresh you can answer that mia anyway you want. Our broadened is were going not irving preserves or packaged goods we take the time to incubate our jogger art if scratch people appreciate our work here. So you feel like out of captured the airport atmosphere. This is its own the city the Airline Crews and the bag handlers and the frequent travels travelers and weve established relationships it feels good. When i get lunch or come to eat the food i feel like im not city. I was kind of under the assumption you want to be done with our gifts you are down one time not true we have a lot of regulars we didnt think wed find that here at the airport. People come in at least one a week for that the food and service and the atmosphere. The food is great in San Francisco its a coffee and i took an e calorie home every couple of weeks. Im impressed i might come here on my own without a trip, you know, we have kids we could get a babysitter and have diner at the airport. This is a little bit of things for everybody theres plenty of restaurant to grab something and go otherwise in you want to sit you can enjoy the experience of local food. Tell me about the future food. Were hoping to bring newer concepts out in San Francisco and what our passengers want. I look forward to see what your cooking up laughter today weve shown you the only restaurant in San Francisco from the comfortableing old stand but you dont have to be hungry sfo has changed what it is like to eat another an airport check out our oblige at tumbler dating. Com