Transcripts For SFGTV Public Utilities Commission 20240713

Eileen, coalition for San Francisco neighborhoods on my own behalf. I live two blocks from sunset reservoir. I attended the Community Meetings before the retro fit of north basin. When asked why south basin was not being receipt retrofitt d retrofitted, it made no reference to north basin. In the puc report from 2018, the report states that both basins have been retrofitted. In the current 10year capital plan, the plan does refer to south basin. Currently there is an 8 million allocation in fiscal years 2830. The line item is line 109 in the water enterprise spreadsheet. The item description is to update the 1996 Risk Assessment report, the project justification states, i quote, sun set south basin is critical to the water supply distribution and will be need to be repaired. If not made, the longterm repairs will be significantly more costly and the collapse of the roof could result in a major interruption of water service. The project plan fails to mention the loss of life or property in the surrounding neighborhood. Yesterday i was at the Capital Planning Committee Asking that the puc item be continued and the puc plan amended. Im circling back to the chronicle article. Its on the side of the hill, naturally, and as such is classified as a dam. The main concern for the reservoir in the case of a large quake is the roof. Without seismic improvements, the roof could sway laterally with the movement of the earth. It could collapse and possibly damage the pipe that brings clean water from hetch hetchy. In that case, the supply of Drinking Water to much of the city could be cut off. Even if the roof stays intact [bell ringing] enough damage could be done so contaminants on top of the roof, mostly bird droppings could get into the water supply and cause health concerns. Thank you. Did you say there was information . Okay, good, thank you. Francis is next. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. So, commissioners, when the advocates for our citizens come here and talk to you all about something, its because theyre concerned about what is happening in the community. And i think we got to take make note of it and give some feedback. What is happening is the corruption in the city has reached saturation point. So much so that in the marina times you can read all of it. Not only that, this information goes all over the world and many of them send me an email asking me whether its right, wrong or whatever. And this is a shame that has been brought to our city. I mention to you, commissioners, that you allow brought to the fore, either by the mayor or the board of supervisors, and its a very difficult job to represent the taxpayers and the citizens. But it is not right for us, the taxpayers, those who are doing due diligence, to read that thousands and millions of dollars are wasted. I mean its shocking. And some of the commissioners i wont say everybody but some of them think its okay. Its not okay to waste taxpayers money. Now, we are trying if you look at the sfpuc and all the projects, there is a lot of improvement to be made. Why are we trying to buy things from pg e . Why . Why . On one hand, people are saying i dont have money, on the other hand theyre ready to spend billions of dollars to play [bell ringing] to dance the tango with pg e. There are san franciscans who are monitoring all this thing. There are many san franciscans who are interested in ethics, in morals, standards. So im just bringing to your attention that this city needs a lot to do and move in the right direction. Thank you very much. Thank you. Im going to hand the chair back to the chair. Thank you. Ann clark. My name is ann clark, i wanted to let you know we had a wonderful womens meeting at the club and the two people we were honoring is ann and francesca. It was a tremendously interesting program. This is our third and now were beginning to have younger women, middleaged women, older women all together talking about what we see and think is important. But ann and francesca really came forward and talked to us and let us know we also had gloria duffy, the president of the Commonwealth Club. You can see there were a lot of women there. There were men. I want the men to come to. We will invite you, tell you come in. But once again, we want to thank you from the Commonwealth Club for ann and francesca and for the lunch and the fact that we all got together and had talking at our tables, and talking to each other. And bringing forward a lot of wonderful cooperative information. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And i will give these to donna. They have their names on them. And well plan again for next year. There certainly will be a next year. Ann, thank you very much. I hope you like the cup. I found it by accident. President caen well, first of all, i have to tell you about the cup. The cup is a herb king cup that i use every morning with my tea. My morning tea. And i think about you. And im certain that francesca would like to speak, too, but the two of us were so honored to be recognized by the Commonwealth Club. And we had a great time. In fact, i think were a great horse and pony show [laughter]. In terms of talking about the Public Utilities commission. And also, you know, our life and what has happened. So again, thank you so much. Well always remember this honor that youve bestowed upon us. You all were wonderful and it was wonderful to have that kind of conversation going back and forth. And, ann, the interesting thing is, i found that cup by accident and i decided that we had three people who were talking and i couldnt give it to just one person, so francesca got the cup. I did and ive been using mine for Morning Coffee as well. Thank you so much. It really was a lovely luncheon. What a great setting with the bridge as the backdrop and the ferry building. I think everybody enjoyed themselves and learned a lot. I want to thank you. Well do something again and oh, you had your silver dollars. Absolutely. Waiting for the gold rush. Waiting for my daughters tooth to fall out for that. Your daughter doesnt have a tooth that has fallen out yet . Theyve all fallen out. You never know. Silver dollar, im going to shine it up and its going to my granddaughters christmas stocking this year. Shell be thrilled. So, back to business here. Communications. I should ask, any more Public Comment . All right, moving on. Communications. Commissioners . Any comments . Seeing none mr. Kelly. Report of the general manager. So the first item is a bay delta water control plan, Steve Ritchie with update. Assistant general manager for water. There is very little to update on this. The main activity has been continues to be the state of california suing the department of interior about the biological opinion that was released on february 19 in the state suit on february 20. Weve been at least tracking who is suing whom and who is joining in the suits. The most recent information was that several environmental groups sued the department of interior and the state water contractors have joined that suit on the side of the bureau of reclamation. So there are reportedly conversations going on between the state and federal government that were not a party to at this point, so we dont know where this will end up. If it will end up in a potential settlement or just be pursued in litigation. Were all all the parties of the voluntary agreements are watching with interest at this point, because that effort is on hold until there is resolution or direction given on behalf of the state and federal water projects. Thats it. President caen we talked about a couple of resolutions in support of the lawsuit, so that is still in progress, right . Yeah, and i believe also we looked to scheduling this matter for consideration potentially in closed session at the next meeting involving our litigation. President caen thank you. Any other comments . Any Public Comment . Seeing none, kelly. The next item is update on pg e bankruptcy and city acquisition offer. Barbara hill. Good afternoon. Assistant general manager for power. Im here to provide a brief update on the pg e bankruptcy and the city acquisition offer. Ill provide an update on three topics today. The bankruptcy case in federal court, the california puc bankruptcy activities and our education efforts. First off, the case in the federal Bankruptcy Court. Yesterday, pg e filed additional revisions to its plan of reorganization and the disclosure statement. The hearings in the federal case on the disclosure statement are under way and projected to conclude march 16. Its unclear how the filing of revisions will affect the plan and the overall schedule. We call that pg e settled with many parties and capped the wildfirerelated claims, however, the state and federal governments were not a party to the settlement and they have outstanding claims. The federal Emergency Management agency and california state agencies participating together have filed objections to the treatment of their claims. The Bankruptcy Court has ordered mediation to address these state and federal government claims. One of the parties that is a key participant in the settlement of claims is the tort claimants committee. They represent many wildfire victims. They have filed a motion expressing concerns that the pg es plan is too leveraged to support pg e stock prices. Under the plan, wildfire Victims Compensation will be funded in part from the sale of pg e stock managed by the fire victims trust. Those sales would occur over time after pg e emerges from bankruptcy. So they will have a vested interest in the Financial Health of pg e. The city also expressed concern about how leveraged pg e will be under its plan. And that kind of brings us to the second item i wanted to talk about, the california puc bankruptcy plan. Our testimony at the california pub puc made it clear that pg es plan increases by 65 the utilities borrowing. That it creates an unwieldy level of indebtedness that will hamper pg es ability to operate as a viable entity and that will substantive substanti s increase the costs. It will raise the likelihood of default. The likelihood of failure to fund capital needs. It will force pg e to raise rates. Rates that are already among the highest in the nation. The evidencery hearing is being conducted by the california puc on the bankruptcy plan have concluded. The briefs in the case are due friday, also due friday are responses to ruling from the commission president. That ruling asked parties to address a number of issues that pg e did not adequately address in its direct testimony. Things like safety and organizational structure. So there is a lot going on at the california puc and the federal case and well continue to brief you on that as we appear every two weeks. Finally, our education efforts, weve enhanced our education efforts through the website ive been telling you about, public power s. F. Org. Its where residents and stakeholders can go to help themselves to information about the acquisition efforts. We can report as of march 10th, weve had 2665 unique visitors to the website. Thats about a thousand more than i reported two weeks ago. About 175,000 people have been reached by our pushing that content out on social media. 77 unique individuals have signed up to receive emails and updates from us. We issued our first email this week that summarized the five things you should know about the bankruptcy case. And a majority of the traffic to the website has come from social media. And from people who are stopping and directly typing in the url to their computer. So we have active listeners and learners out there. Were working with neighborhood newspapers on print advertising. That was a question, you had asked, commissioner maxwell, so were working with the local neighborhood newspapers to increase the education. So the website will continue to educate people about our efforts and the benefits of our power work. Again, that is public power sf. Org. Encourage you to check it out. Happy to take questions. President caen commissioners . What is the nature of the response that youre getting . So to the Education Campaign . So were not getting information back in at this point. We havent really gotten many notes, but what were doing is pushing out the information and we can see that people are actively engaged with it. And so that is thats what im reporting today. We have not asked questions and solicited responses. That may be part of the future. Ill find out from the communication folks. President caen thats interesting to know. Thank you. President caen any Public Comment . All right, next item is the Sewer System Improvement Program Quarterly Report. Stephen robinson. Afternoon. Director of wastewater programs, to respect time, i have a slimmed down version of the quarterly update and then ill go over the wastewater Quarterly Report as well you have in your packet. Just a few slides to talk about ssip first. Used to seeing this chart. It looks different than last time. For the Program Status of the 70 projects in phase one of ssip representing 2. 9 billion, currently 37. 1 complete with 950 million expended at the close of december. Last quarter for reference we closed at 34. 7, so making progress. Specifically in this quarter, we were able to get the poje to a bid project to a bid and award phase. This chart looks very green. Representing construction compared to what it was in the last report. So we have 18 projects in preconstruction in the blue color. 16 projects in green. And 36 projects now in the gray colors. So just a few highlights of the projects. The baker beach green street was referred to as the richmond Green Infrastructure project. There are three specific locations in the project. During this quarter, the contractor opened the road to traffic during the nonworking hours in the work site. On slope stabilization on the south side commenced with the planning. The paving of the parking strip was installed, so the project is moving well ahead. Issues and challenges reflected in the Quarterly Report mention the shallow pg e lines. New delay to the substantial completion is forecasted. We can absorb that in the schedule. Specific one youve heard of, the new head works facility. Some of you had the ability to see this live. The construction photos you may not have seen demonstrating how complex and big an operation this is. We did cover the biosolid project in some detail two weeks ago. On head works, its facing similar challenges, same delivery method, working in the same constrained site. And there are currently five scopes of work in construction. That separates the two projects because head works is very much in construction. Clearing the completion on usage of the rerouted pipes on evans avenue, and scope 2, bruceman pump station upgrades and construction continues, is nearing completion, though. And completed installation of sump number one, knife gate on order control with new pumps and bar screens going in as well. Scope 2b is the influent sewer. Bid and award started with the contract of advertising. This work into three work packages. Scope 2c is the lift station, 100 design of that. And then scope 3 is the main head works. Around the 3rd, bidding for construction packages. 12 packages advertised this quarter. So heavily into construction, now moving forward with the project. Similar challenges with biosolid and the concern of the scope. And respect to the budget as well. Similar to the last, i highlighted a few other projects. Im noting with the red line reflecting the end of the quarter e down 2019 is delineating what is moving through planning and heavily into construction now. I wanted to point out that some projects are under way on the seismic improvement projects. We finished up the pump station. Were planning to issue the r. F. P. For the sewer project. 8 diameter tunnel to alleviate flooding. And the pump station project just began construction to rebuild the station to serve the mission bay area, including the new golden gate warriors arena. Construction for that will last a few years. Photo one in the left features the oceanside fixture replacement project. This is before and after. Its an enterprise arrangement to offset the purchase of l. E. D. Lighting. It shows the lighting before the replacements, remembering that the majority of this facility is underground. And the bottom is the improvement to the lighting. So simple project, but high impact in terms of creating that soft working environment for the team. The second photo in the middle is mariposa. The third photo is the bruce flynn upgrades. Just to draw attention to this photo and who highlight it, the photographer received an award from the engineering news record capturing a union welder in the access barricades welding a frame in the bruce flynn pump station. Celebrating that moment with an awardwinning photo. Next slide, program updates, nonproject related. But in november, we participated in the 6th annual expo. November 1, were being more engaged there. In december, we participated in the Winter Wonderland event in the bayview district. Concludes my ssip report. Any questions . President caen i have a question. Could we go back to slide 5 . So, what is this telling us about our timing . Are we on schedule . Yes, but of course, within the program there are a number of projects that have slipped and have concerns, similar to what we presented last meeting. On case by case basis, they identify the projects that have slipped from the baseline, either on cost or schedule. The majority of those projects on that slide are positive. President caen youre saying theyre positive, meaning what . I cant remember off the top of my head which ones there are variances on. Im going to highlight that now as i move into the next item to look at the Quarterly Report update. President caen okay. So well have the answer soon. Yes. President caen okay. Any Public Comment . Seeing none, could you please continue. Thank you. Just briefly, no slides, but to highlight some projects to help answer the question. Were going to review projects since last quarter are now forecasting schedules that extend beyond their approved schedule by 6 months or more. Or cost variances of more than 10 . Our standard process is reflected in the report you have. Ssip, the new head works project i mentioned is forecasting a cost variance. And that is reflected and already included in the 10year cip we projected back in january. This is presented and for the quarter ending december. Similar to the biosolid update. The project forecast costs reflects latest construction efforts and real understanding of what is happening at the facility. Scope 2a for the bruce flynn and scope 3 for the main head works facility itself. At the time of reporting, scopes were being considered to help mitigate. The present team is evaluating construction costs. And what is happening in reality now that the project is live and in construction and well explore the approaches to mitigate the impact. Finally, cost variance, compared to the original baseline, claim tracking and negotiates related to schedule delays and differing conditions continue between sfmta who is the project lead and Contracting Authority and the contractor. Final resolution of those claims will impact project budget and milestones and the cost variance is due to the anticipated contractor selfcosts for at the resolving claims. Similarly, Market Street improvements phase one is forecasting a schedule and cost variance. Theyre progressing toward the 99 milestone in a few months. The advertisement is still targeted for the summer of 2020, however, the full corridor has been deferred to pending design negotiations between public works and sfmta. Public works is the lead for the project and they need to resolve costsharing with partner departments. The cost variance is due to cost sharing amounts for construction litigation, Traffic Control rerouting, bus stations, et cetera. Bus substitutions, excuse me. And it was made to add a block in 5th street and 6th street and threeyear construction duration. Those are larger scope adjustments to the project. We just had a meeting with the supervisor haneys office and peskin and theyre very concerned about the impact to the merchants. So we may work with mta and public works to reevaluate the projects and work more with the merchants to see how we can minimize impact. That could mean that we phase it out of those maybe longer. The impact that we would have on the merchants wont be so severe where we just drive folks out of business. So were going to make, you know, based on what we experienced at van ness and central subway, were going to bring those experiences in and see how we can deliver the project in a way that we can minimize impact. Next project is the fifth north and Sixth Division streets. Forecasting delay. The completion delayed for structure al repair in the dry season. Just a couple more. Wastewater storm is in a planning only project and forecasting a variance of cost in this quarter. That is just about adding more work. The project Team Provided support for the 100year map, data sharing. Activities include working groups, development of flood elevations, and implementation options for partials with 100year storm flood risk map. Development of residential disconnect Grant Programs and the cost reflects higher than anticipated costs in the 10 year cip. The 10year cip already captures this. Large sewer Condition Assessment reports a cost variance and schedule variance. Initiated with a kickoff meeting in december of 2019. Projects entered into the design phase and the variance in the project and schedule is due to additions of scope of work as reflected also in the 10year capital plan already included presented in january. To help improve the longterm plan for how we tackle those. That includes the ssip part. But there is around the infrastructure, the ocean beach project is forecasting a cost variance. Some of the work is shortterm improvements, replacing sand, working with the army corpse of engineers and then longterm improvements. Like in the previous quarter, puc continues discussion with the San Francisco zoo regarding impacts to the parking lot, develop of the engineering phase resulted in increased forecast budget. Additionally refined site has resulted in higher cost and longer construction duration to stabilize site soil conditions. You can see a theme. The budget team will continue to evaluate during Design Development to mitigate those potential impacts to overall project costs and completion date. That concludes a summary of what you have in the quartly report. Could you give an update on the two alemany project which is a project that weve been working with the supervisor ronen because it impacts the farmers market, but also it helps with cayugaa. That is a project with a variance. Do you have an update where that is at . The alternative analysis for the project looking at alleviating the flooding conditions in that neighborhood, that area, has been completed, enough to release an r. F. P. Which helped to get a design team on board, to develop the conceptual engineering report. There are still a number of options on the table, like a tunnel and that avoids conflict with the community. Or open cut type construction that interfaces with cal tran in the future for the farmers market. So were still looking at a couple of options, but the project is advancing. I have a question about that project and would like to get a little more information. I understand there was an alternative that has more green it and this is gray. And the modelling that was done around the green option showed some additional benefits. So id like i dont know if its more appropriate offline but im curious why we couldnt or wouldnt issue an r. F. P. In addition to the gray that had more green because of the promising alternatives analysis . Well, first of all, we have folks public works that helps with the Green Infrastructure, but i think the volume of water that we have to move, you need a gray solution. And you actually this project, you have to bring it all the way out to where . Connecting to the large sewer for the down stream. We have to, there is so much water during flood. So we talked about the advantages of green, but when youre trying to move this much water from alemany, from cayuga all the way from the larger pipes and as you remember, alemany just floods. You have to move the water. I understand. So all the water comes from the watershed, so that is the challenge that we have with just moving that amount of water. I understand. I just want i dont think there is very many green components left at all as far as i can tell in the r. S. P. , right . Is there a design requested to help limit . I feel like, maybe i just need an offline update and id love to better understand what the alternatives were that were reviewed, what the benefits were, and if there is any opportunity before we move forward. So remember, we talked about we shift Green Infrastructure and had a strategy for Green Infrastructure which was different on dealing with projects as we relate to like central bayside. These projects where you have to move a large volume of water, we had Green Infrastructure on performancebased and we place it whenever we can where it works. Were trying to remove a billion gallons from the system, that is the goal. Were trying to reduce the amount of water going to the Treatment Plants in general, but when you talk about flooding, when you have intense rain events, that exceeds our level of service, those are the water that you need to move immediately. Typically Green Infrastructure, you know, wont really help because the ground is oversaturated quickly. It helps when you have a light rain for a long period of time. Thats when Green Infrastructure works well. I want to see the alternatives analysis on this one in particular, because my understanding is there is components that could help with the end goals. I understand the metrics of flooding, but i think there are additional metrics we can talk about. I looked up the hydraulic and the impact of what happens in the events. Its two different problems. But there may be overlap. I know we looked at local Green Infrastructure at that area, that local community, impacted and what happens when you apply Green Infrastructure across the whole watershed . How does that impact the flow . That is something we can talk about. That is great, id like to set up a separate meeting offline if we could and we can have it here if need be. Thank you. President caen comments, questions . To the public . Any questions, comments . Mr. Kelly, i would like to suggest that report such as these should be not only verbal, but written. There is a lot of information my mind was ticking away and trying to record what you were saying, which is very informational and very concise and i appreciate that, but i would like to be able to mull over the information youre giving us. So that im clear, we have the information in the report and the explanations are in the report, so he when he comes up, he sort of summarizing what is in the report. Are you suggesting we should do a sumization of what youre going to give . Right. If i go back and maybe its just me and my colleagues, i cant come back with all the facts in front of me. Its a good thing to think about. Things that may be of interest that may surface on the language around what the issues and challenges we face is effectively verbatim from what is in the report, but perhaps we can reformat. Right. I think the other factor weve got to keep in mind, that you live this day in and day out, so when you give your presentation, you kind of go through it at a cadence and its hard for the people to remember the projects because they may know it by another name, abbreviate it, or the official name, we call it biosolids. We need to think about how we present it, so once a quarter, they can remember, oh, thats what youre talking about. So well work on that. Constructive criticism. Welcome feedback, absolutely. Good. Lets move on. Can i ask a quick question about that . Are we saying its not hard for us to have the report despite the fact that you summarize it because its right there in your hands . Is that a Fair Assessment . I think so the whole premise if somebody wants it. All of it is Public Information so anyone can get it. Its part of the agenda item that is in there. But as part of Quarterly Report we give more of an insight of what is in there, opportunity to ask more questions about it. So i think ann wants to make sure that our presentation, we should make it available so that they can follow what were saying now versus just i would say the south the Sewer System Improvement Program with more slides talked about the project. You can follow the project. With this one, you just kind of went through a whole bunch of them quickly and it was probably hard to follow. Thats my take. President caen yes. And i personally would like the background. The information of the report. I like numbers. Yeah. Yep. If you will keep that and she will keep that document [laughter]. President caen okay. Thank you. Any Public Comment . So that is the sewer Enterprise Capital that was the wastewater. Im sorry, wastewater Quarterly Report. So Public Comment i guess. President caen i think i already called for Public Comment. The next item is an update on the mayors february 25 Emergency Declaration for covid19. I have justine to come up, our chief officer to give an update on sort of what the city is doing, which is changing rapidly, but what is the puc, what were working on as an agency to kind of roll out to our employees and give our folks advice on . Good afternoon. San francisco Public Utilities commission. And as general manager kelly mentioned, this is quickly evolving situation. We are the the puc is specifically in heavy coordination with the department of Human Resources, the City Department of Human Resources as well as the department of Emergency Management and the department of Public Health. All is coming together with a lot of guidance and cord nation that is changing coordination that is changing rapidly. The puc launched a Cross Functional Team in the end of february within our department comprised of Emergency Planning and security, health and safety, h. R. , specifically employee and labor relations, Information Technology and finance. So we started meeting regularly to basically tackle preparations, answer questions as the situation evolves. Some of the things im going to highlight today that weve been tackling, im not going over everything but these are the highlights. We launched a renewed analysis for continuity of operations plan. This is analysis that comes out of the Emergency Planning and its basically designed to analyze agencywide what our critical functions are and what our remote capabilities to perform those functions are and what are the capabilities to perform the functions if we have scenarios with lifting staffing, 25 , 50 staffing, so that way we can be better prepared after doing the analysis if we have an impact to staff or operations. So that is under way right now. Weve also drew guidance from the department of Public Health and in general the city. We have been implementing social distancing programs, which is essentially designed to limit situations where people are in tight quarters, where there is lots of people gathering, so for example, we are looking to limit inperson meetings within our own department. A lot can be done over the phone, video conferencing, alternate ways to conduct work. Weve cancelled nonessential trainings and looking to reschedule those. Similarly, were looking to if there is any nonessential travel or conferences, things like that, although a lot of the conferences themselves are kind of cancelling on their own throughout the country. So were analyzing those to see if its necessary right now or if it can be postponed and revisited later. Weve also launched a temporary emergency program, this is designed again to kind of limit the amount of people that need to be together in one confined space at one time. Not technically confined space, but a tight space. And so were specifically right now looking to have people who are in quote unquote vulnerable populations be kind of the first ones to be able to if their job permits and their job is allowing for this, to telecommute from the location. Vulnerable populations as defined by the city and specifically the department of Public Health are people over 60 and people with specific Underlying Health conditions. Weve also been coordinating through our i. T. And finance to obtain Additional Resources to increase these capacities. So things like do we have enough laptops . Do we need more laptops . Do we have enough band width to support the people at the same time accessing our servers from a remote location . These are all things that have to go into this analysis. Weve increased cleaning. Our cleaning is focused on hightouch points where people come in and go out. Were also looking to identify how and that is specifically to the 525 building where we have a lot of people, around a thousand people come to that building daily. Were also looking to identify additional cases or Additional Resources that we can employ at our other facilities. Were also doing scenario planning, although at this point its extremely in its infancy, of what if we have a positive case pop up in one of the facilities and what are the protocols going to be there . So were waiting for guidance from d. P. H. As well as the department of Human Resources. I. T. Is also engaging in increased cleaning of shared electronic equipment. Weve also increased tremendously our communication about these efforts. I will emphasize with you all the importance of personal hygiene, watching the hands washing the hands, making sure were vigilant. Even after im touching this podium, thank you, i was going to say pulpit, but thats not the right word the podium, i have my Hand Sanitizer im going to use after this, so its being vigilant about these things. We have all sorts of signage up in the rest rooms, in the work break rooms, throughout the facilities. We have launched a share point page which is within the puc internet that is going to have uptodate information that people can access. We have a news letter that is primary geared to target the field staff so theyre also getting uptodate information. Lastly, we just had a tremendous amount of coordination with the department of Human Resources and the department of Emergency Management for Disaster Service worker response. Weve had such great assistance from all corners of our organization to go in and assist with Public Outreach campaigns, with truck driving, with planning and scenario planning and analysis and tracking phone calls. I mean, there is just a tremendous amount of work that goes on with dealing with a declared emergency specific to this nature. So a big shoutout to the entire puc staff because people have really been coming together and its been a tremendous unifying experience. Any questions . Actually, two things i would add before questions. One is that the Southeast Community facility, that is one that the community uses, so weve been working with the commission to talk about maybe, you know, reducing the usage for large gatherings, so were working with that. And then the other thing which is good and bad is that since we are battletested as far as emergencies weve been having with the rim fire and other things, that mary ellen carole who used to be our Emergency Point person is now head of d. E. M. And now shes identifying folks who she feels can come right in and sit in. And a lot of those folks are our people. So were like, wait a minute, time out, we need these folks as well. So its sort of a good thing, but were opening up the doc and were going to Work Together on how we can better balance doing our services and making sure that we protect our workers as well. To that end, ill add were sending folks to training specific to refresh that Emergency Response as g. M. Kelly mentioned. The last time we went through Something Like this, it was the rim fire, so its been a little bit. We want to capture people who havent gone through that experience. That is going to be happening this week in preparation for activating our own doc. How about weve heard a lot about sick leave, how are we dealing with that . Sure. So were essentially expanding the use of sick leave as necessary and also relaxing certain procedural requirements that we normally have for this kind of situation. So if someone is experiencing flulike symptoms or triggers for the coronavirus, were not asking for them to fill out the form and do all that stuff, but we were asking for, theyre in communication with their own personal Health Care Provider and following the guidance according to that medical provider and were in constant communication with them so we can understand the situation as it evolves for them. How about School Closures . That is something were analyzing more in the continuity of operations because as those as schools close, that likely will impact a significant population of our staff. And we were informed yesterday that its possible for people to use sick leave in addition to all sorts of other accrued leave if schools start closing down. So there is basically a relaxation, if you will, to encourage these kind of social distancing things. How about for new employees that may not have may have limited sick leave and . They may have other kind of accrued leave. But the option is for them to always they cant always come into work obviously. If theyre able to telecommute that is something theyre able to do, but those situations we have to analyze on a case by case basis which were doing. Okay. I mean, case by case, we have a huge we have many employees, so casebycase doesnt sound workable. There is already a relaxing, if you will for the telecommute program that i mentioned earlier. So that will likely be something that can be used by brand new employees, but keep in mind, there are lots of jobs within our organization that may not lend itself to actually working from home. They may have to come in to perform duties. And maybe, because as we get more women in the workforce and in different kinds of jobs, and you live somewhere else and all of a sudden your Elementary School is closed, that could youre hampered. You may not be able to come in. So im wondering what are we doing about those issues because these are not the same kind of issues weve had . If we looked at country where we have more women . I think the first thing is that we are looking at alternative Work Schedules where you can come in later, or come in earlier, or you can work certain hours a day and take a day off. Then were looking at telecommuting. I understand that, but those are good for white collar jobs, but when youre in different kinds of jobs, that doesnt work and thats why im trying to find out, we need to put something in place for that. Im walking through, because we have a lot of folks and were grouping them in categories. As i go through the categories, then you will have a population who dont have a lot of accumulated leave. Therefore, that means that the city has to give something to those folks. And that is something we cant do as the puc, so were working with the Mayors Office and everyone and the mayor to, how do we treat these situations to get to your point . And that is something were definitely looking at as well. Well i appreciate that, because we have two tiered system, one for white collar and one for the other. As we get more and more women, again, into the workplace, doing nontraditional jobs, we have to think of things differently. It cannot be necessarily on a casebycase basis. They have to feel, oh, my god, ill be covered if something happens, not casebycase. And what about Something Like in our building as Hand Sanitizer. Do we have a lot more stations available to people . Do we have the packages . That is something that we have regularly weve been providing that regularly throughout our facilities. Part of Emergency Response is to understand to have people who can do purchasing quickly and understand that process. That is also being coordinated at the city level for these kinds of bulk purchases for example on sanitizer and cleaning solutions. Are we also since this coronavirus, i mean, ive never seen anything like that, even the way it spreads throughout the world, this is really something, but what are we doing for families that work for the puc . Because if they go they worked here and go somewhere else, there is no alcohol, there is no toilet paper, Hand Sanitizer, what are we doing for families that work for us . Is that something we can consider as far as since we order bulk with Hand Sanitizer, it only helps us if everybody is covered . Yeah, at this point, we havent looked at that. Were still focusing mainly on our employees as well as taking guidance from d. P. H. And d. H. R. And d. E. M. From a public perspective. But president caen thats something we can consider. I can look into that. What well do is bring it back, because its probably not only the puc, but as a city type of thing. And just received an email from the city administrator through purchasing about a list of stuff that theyre ordering and they didnt want the departments to order it as an emergency. They had a list of stuff because did you see that . I havent. This came today. But anyway, this changes. I do understand your suggestion that we should really look at how can we help folks because youre right, because i went to costco and everything was gone. Its gone. If you go home, you need to have the same things so you can get back the next day. Toilet paper. What is the thing about the toilet paper . I saw this guy with all this stuff, he said, i dont know, but i needed some. Got to be something about the toilet paper. Do you believe the toilet paper . I welcome your remarks, commissioner. We have to take a very active role in this. Im not going to get political here, but you have to be proactive. You must be you must stay on top of it. You must be we should do that. And by the way, madame secretary, if we could have Hand Sanitizer right up here at the next meeting, keep it in the locker. That would be great. I looked for some in the room and there is none in the room. We have to supply our own, perhaps. A loud voice gets results. And we have to do that. And all the trucks that our guys should have Hand Sanitizer, because we have to make it convenient for them to do the things we know are important for everybodys health. Yes, there are other things. For example, we have wastewater folks who receive the flows from sanitary flows after people who could be sick and so were very concerned about that. So were looking into a lot of touch points where it could definitely have a high risk to our staff population. President caen didnt even think about that. Its a dynamic situation. To say the least. Any other questions . Okay. Thank you. President caen thank you for the report. Any Public Comment . That concludes my report. Thank you. Next item, please. Item 7 is new commission business. President caen commissioners . New business. Okay. No, you want to go first . I dont have any. Im good. Commissioners maxwell . Commissioner maxwell im good. Ill turn to the male side of the commission. Next item, please. 8 is the consent calendar, all matters here under consent calendar are considered to be routine by the San Francisco Public Utilities commission, acted upon by a single vote of the commission. The matter will be removed from the calendar and considered as a separate item . I move that the Consent Agenda. President caen id like to remove something, okay . An item. A. Item a. Okay. So would you like to restate your motion. I thought that was the routine. But i will restate it and say, hopefully i only do it once now, but i will move the entire Consent Agenda minus discussion on measure number a. President caen good. Second. President caen any Public Comment, that anybody would like to remove items . Seeing none, im going to call for the issue with removal of item a. All those in favor . Opposed . Motion carries. So may we have a presentation on i dont need a whole presentation on item a. I just had a question about the Critical Path method scheduling. If someone could clarify what Critical Path method scheduling is. And maybe the cost control step augmentation services. President caen could you august us through this walk us through this . This item is for our program controls staff and its usually for staff augmentation. And so all the Quarterly Reports that you get and the red dots on the reports on whether projects are on schedule, off schedule, what the earned value is, that is what the Critical Path method scheduling is. So its especially important to usually we have so many different activities we need to figure out which activities we need six of them. Which activities will get us to the finish line or to complete the project in the most efficient manner. We do have inhouse staff, but its a small team. Its usually hard to find the Specialized Skill and so we generally have two contracts where we draw from consultants and they support us and they sit in our offices and do the work as well. And they work with the project managers. President caen on the cost control Staff Augmentation Services and the Critical Path method scheduling . Yes, they actually sit in the office yes, they do, they sit with our staff. Maybe another way to explain Critical Path, it is the list of activities that you have that you need to perform to get from the beginning of the project to the end of the project. And then what they do, they identify which ones you have to do before you do the other, so that you have that. And then they, through putting it in through these programs, they identify what is the most Critical Path, that if you delay that activity, it will delay the entire projects. There are some activities you can delay but wont impact the project delivery, so but the up withes that you impact but the ones that you impact, if youre a day late, it will delay the whole project. Thats the Critical Path. Thats great. We can use that in a lot of things. On how to make the blue collar and white collar equal, thats the Critical Path. I like that. Thank you. And on the augmentation services. All of our schedules are costloaded, meaning they have Staff Resources and consultant resources associated with the schedules. So we also check to make sure that staff are not charging more and were still behind schedule, so were trying to line it up so that we have the resources matching up with the schedule. Another great thing about a costloaded schedule, once you identify the schedule which has a Critical Path, each activity is cost loaded, so therefore you know how much you need to spend every month. You have a spenddown curve and it helps us because we can identify how much money we need to ask from the controller every year because we have an idea how much money were going to spend and when were going to spend it. So that really helps us i was going to say, so they know when to use commercial paper, when to sell bonds and when to use our loan dollars. President caen thank you. Great. Thank you. Okay, so now i move item a. Second. Any Public Comment on item a . All those in favor . Opposed . The motion carries. Next item, please. Item 9, approve the plans and specifications and award contract db129. 2 in the amount of 29 million and with the duration of 396 consecutive calendar days, bidder committing the lowest responsive bid, anvil builders. This item is the fourth of our design build contract to provide duct bank and associated facility to provide for transmission and distribution of electrical system for the power enterprise plan to build out and provide power. Commissioners . Questions . Comments . President caen to the general public, any questions, comments . Move to approve . Second. President caen all those in favor . Opposed . The motion carries. Next item. Item 10 i prove the selection of hdr engineering award Agreement Number pro0021, for amount not to exceed 9 million and with duration of eight years. Ill move the item. Second. President caen any comments, questions . Commissioners . To the general public, any questions, comments . All those in favor . Opposed . The motion carries. Thank you, i did just forward to the general manager a link to an article on why toilet paper does get a run during pandemics. President caen thank you. Would you forward that. [laughter] all my friends want to know. I mean, really, in my wildest dreams, thats the last thing i would think of. There are actually good reasons. Call my doctor, is there any kind of medicine i should stockpile in case there is a run on medicine, but toilet paper would not be my next item, too. Okay. President caen next item. Item 11, authorize the general manager forever the potrero station and monitoring and reporting program. Second. President caen any discussion, questions . To the general public . Any questions, discussions . I would like to say that this has been a long time coming, this project. So i think i was around in the days when we were trying to get that power plant shut down, right . And the committees we were putting together and the Community Engagement process, so i think its worth recognizing how far weve come. And now that the site is going to be developed for mixed use, its very exciting. President caen excellent point. I might add, mayor willie brown was very instrumental in that project so long ago. So long ago. Really proud of the work that the developers has done over the many years to reach out to the community and to make sure that the input came in as deep as it ended up being, as we get at this point. President caen good point. So, we have a motion . And a second. All those in favor . Did we call for Public Comment . I forgot to call for Public Comment. Seeing none, i would like to call the question, all those in favor . Opposed . The motion carries. Next item. Item 12 approve amendment number 5 to agreement cs911r, increasing the duration by nine months not to exceed 10 years and five months with no change to the agreement amount. President caen lets see. Ill move approval. President caen okay. Second . Second. President caen any questions, comments, commissioners . To the general public, any questions or comments on this item . Seeing none, all those in favor . Opposed . The motion carries. Next item. Item 13, adopt resolution affirming the San Francisco Public Utilities commissions support for acquiring pacific gas and Electric Company electric assets in San Francisco. President caen ms. Hale . Assistant general manager for power. Under this item, you would be identifying priorities for key priorities that need to be satisfied for the city to move forward on the proposed acquisition of pg es transmission and distribution of assets serving San Francisco. Those key priorities address financial stability, support for utility workforces, community and worker safety, Climate Change prevention and mitigation, affordability and equity, Operational Excellence and improved service to City Departments. Happy to take any questions you may have regarding the item. Its responsive to an interest i believe on behalf of the commissioners to express some Additional Guidance to staff and its also quite consistent with a public resolution heard at Land Use Committee yesterday of the board of supervisors, which addresses some of the same key priorities from the boards perspective. Happy to take any questions. President caen at that meeting, were there any comments or suggestions about changing it . Or no. The committee took up the item, discussed it among themselves primarily. The committee chair, supervisor peskin, introduced the item. And my recollection is comment was called for, but none was made. The item was referred out of committee with support. President caen okay. I have a question, also. You said in the same sentence, some of the and then you went to all of the yes, i corrected myself. Is that the content is the same. With respect to the key priorities. Id like to move the item. Second it. President caen further discussion . Any comment from our huge audience here . Seeing none, missi hale, my mem to you yesterday, so i should feel comfortable about that . Yes. If i recall correctly, you inquired how inspections were addressed . I took that to mean, be more of a general concern about president caen we condition assets. Yes, Condition Assessment is the term i was searching for. Yes. And given the emphasis on safety reliability, excellence and service, all of those key priorities go to the condition of the assets, both as we acquire them and as we plan for improving them over time. Assuming we have ownership responsibility, we care about that. The day of purchase and going forward, right . And making sure that we have considered asset condition and the investments well be required to provide safe and Reliable Service in our projections of the cost of operating the system. Which we have in the modelling weve done to date. And i think its very consistent with the concern you expressed in your note about inspections to see the key priorities listed as they are. President caen okay, so im comfortable with that. One other question. So, this is our resolution from the commission. What is is there going to be another resolution from the board of supervisors . Yes. So they considered a resolution in the Land Use Committee yesterday. And they made since ive been here, i dont know if theyve taken action on it at their Board Meeting today, they may have. President caen is it skirnt with ours . Consistent with ours . With respect to the key priorities. The preamble leading up to them is a little different there. Just because of the history that has gone into in the board item. A little more. President caen could you share that . Id be happy to provide you with a copy. President caen okay. Is it anything we should be concerned about . No just accurate recitation of the activities on this project. President caen well, they have the right to do whatever they want to do. Sure. Yes. And its just for the public, it is a publicly available document on the board of supervisors website. Sorry, did you say theyre considering the resolution . Its my understanding that the Public Meeting of the board of supervisors today had that they could act on that item yes, right now. And if not, they might act on it with us. Its available for them to act on today or any day after. President caen and its been noticed and everything. Yes, thats my understanding. Just to clarify they cant do it while were there because were in joint session, but right, joint closed session. Its not on the agenda. So there are two agendas. There is regular meeting agenda, its on that. Whether they will vote on that before our joint closed session, hard to say. It is not part of the joint closed session agenda. Thank you. I apologize if my presentment made that confused. At our joint closed session, we can talk about whatever we want. You can talk about the pending litigation that is listed on the agenda for that closed session. President caen we have counsel right here. I looked at her but then i had to defer to you, of course, madame chair. President caen okay, thank you. So, i will call for the question. All those in favor . Opposed . The motion carries. Well, my agenda tells me its time to adjourn this meeting. Is there any further business . I have a question. You know, i know the board of supervisors flops their schedule around quite often. Is there any flexibility i dont know if its through the secretary or to possibly since were done early to whip at all . No, because its been noticed for 4 00 p. M. , they cannot call the closed session before 4 00 p. M. And i recommend we adjourn, since we do not have any other agenda items. President caen this meeting it adjourned at 2 58. 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