Good evening everyone. I would like to call this meeting to order. Anthony . Good evening. This is the meeting of the San Francisco commission on the environment. The date is tuesday january 23rd, 2018, and the time is 5 05 p. M. The ringing and use of cell phones and pagers are prohibited at the meeting. Be advised that the chair may order the removal from the meeting room any persons responsible for sound producing electronic devices. Note to the public, there will be general Public Comment for every item on the agenda and an opportunity for general Public Comment for items not on the agenda and that would be during item four. We ask that you complete a speakers card and hand it to me and ill hand it to the president and shell call folks in the order we receive them. Call to order item one, roll call. President elmy bermejo. Commissioner wan is excused. Theres a quorum. Item for discussion. Welcome to the commission on the environment. This is our first meeting since the untimely passing of ed lee. I want to send sincere condolences to his wife and daughters. His last appearance was at the recycling press conference with the department of environment and he spoke about the work so eloquently like he always did. We are really, really saddened by the loss of our environmental champion and today well discuss ways to support and maintain his legacy. Reflecting back on a year ago this month was an overwhelming turnout at the womens march and march for science. This weekend many of us marched peacefully once again to ensure our voices are heard. I had the honor of speaking this weekend to what they consider they didnt think a lot of people would show up, there were 2600 people who came to voice concerns. Men, women, children, and it was a Beautiful Day and a lot of people were energized to get out there and continue the work of not only the kind of work mayor lee did but all our leaders who believe in science are doing. And a motivated public. What we have seen, local governments can and must lead the Global Climate fight. In september, San Francisco will be hosting governor browns call to action summit here. We look forward to showcasing to the world that the city and county of San Francisco stands for science, facts and action when it comes to the urgent threat facing our communities and our planet. Today we have with us two members of the California Energy commission. Another example of the departments partnership with State Government to support science, fact and action. Commissioner david hokeshield was appointed by governor brown. Commissioner Andrew Mcallister was appointed by governor brown. We welcome you both to the meeting. They will be presenting on the remarkable work at the state level. This will be followed by presentations from the Departments Energy team about our incredible progress toward San Franciscos being powered by Renewable Energy by the year 2030. Later in the meeting well talk about diversement from fossil fuels. Thank you commissioners for your leadership in bringing this conversation to the commission and congratulations on your outstanding article. There will be elected officials appointing us today and there might be a slight change to pause an item to hear another item out of order. We thank you in advance for your patience. We have a very long agenda. Theres a lot of work to be done. Well get right to it. Is there any Public Comment . This is my first time here. I really enjoyed my time at sf college and being motivated to protect the planet and admire and thank the work you guys do. What im here to talk about, ill make comment later for sferes to divest, but this is only the first step. Im part of the public bank of sf coalition. Were working to urge the city treasurer and the bay of San Francisco to divest the 10 billion cash flow it has with bank of america and more importantly wall street banks. Wall street banks, they are not good big banks, they fund pretty much evil thing you can imagine. Theres only one public bank in the country, the public bank of north dakota, ironically, thats where Standing Rock happened, so i just want to put on notice, i know this is not the arena for that, but i think what the Trump Administration has shown not shown, but given an opportunity, i think im not speaking on this commission but in a general sense, theres too many title driven people, we need purpose driven people. Whatever you guys can do in your power to help this movement move along. A public option a public bank as radical as it sounds is fiscally conservative. I could make that argument. Finance not politics could be the soft underbelly of the environment. These corporations, they dont care about anything but money. You can make all the arguments you want, we can, we can scream top of the lungs, divestment is the language theyre going to listen to. I speak more in general. The Public Bank Coalition is here. We had the meeting over the past six months and National Nurses united, dsa and more. Im leaving out some. Follow us on twitter at public bank sf and like us on facebook. Theres a budget and finance committee and were going to urge this is the answer. Were a charter city and county and we can accelerate it. We have 10 billion, imagine what wall street would think if we took 10 billion because of fossil fuels. Thank you. Any other Public Comment . Hearing none, next item. The next item is item three, approval of minutes from november. November 29th draft minutes for discussion and action. Do we have a motion for the approval of the minutes . I move it through. Second. Moved by commissioner wan and seconded by commissioner stephenson. All in favor . Aye. Public comment . Hearing none, motion passes. Thank you. The next item is item for general comment. Members of the public may address the commission with matters not on todays agenda. Im josh and i volunteer with friends of the urban forest for more than eight years. In addition to planting hundreds of trees around San Francisco, i have become interested in preserving the existing forestry policies and practices. Ive attended the meetings with urban council, this is the first time other than accidently giving my Public Comment at an Operations Meeting last week. San francisco prides on being green, but in the name alone, our urban canopy is the worst of any major city in the u. S. , we lose 4 of the canopy every year. In 2014, a phased plan noted that there were approximately 100,000 empty tree bases. 208 new trees every month for the next 20 years. Friends of the urban forest works with San Franciscos forestry for primary entity for planting trees but cannot keep pace with the city plan. The funding seems to get worse every year. Only four years into the season and its way behind. Including the 2016 annual report, the commission has a strong track record for making recommendations that become law and your 2016 annual report notes that all ordinances were signed into law. The focus is removing toxic materials from the environment. As a 21 year resident for the city, i thank you. I understand the commissions mission is to help with urban forestry. Trees are the only pollution reducing tool on the planet. If we stopped every other polluting process in the world, trees are the only tools to make sure future generations have clean air to breathe. I have three questions for the commission. First, what can you do to support funding for Tree Planting to make sure its consistent with the citys 20 year plan and second, what can we do to make sure San Francisco is a National Leader in urban forest practices and what can you do to make sure San Francisco greens the environment to the International Community who will be here for the action summit. Thank you. Curtis woo. Are there any yes, would you like to step forward . Okay. Next item anthony . The next item is item five, presentation on Environmental Service awards, great alternatives, sponsored by eddie ahn the commissioner. Commissioner ahn is the sponsor of the item and this is the Environmental Service award. The way well do this, well have commissioner ahn say a few words and present the award and well take a photo and then give them an opportunity to speak if they like. And well see if fellow commissioners would like to add anything to this item. Commissioner ahn . Thank you. If the staff for [indiscernible] if the staff from good alternatives could stand at the podium. Welcome. laughter im pleased to present this award to the nonprofit that im familiar with. It seems fitting to honor an organization there since the beginning at the epicenter for green alternative. You are established during the 2001 California Energy crisis and their mission was to make Renewable Energy technology and job training accessible to all communities, disadvantaged communities but i prefer under served and under employed local residents which is a cause near and dear to me. Great alternatives was established with the focus on bayview hunters point. Theres always been a special relationship with the department of environment through the Environmental JusticeGrant Program that continues until this day. Just last year great alternatives partnered with the Mayors Office and department to address the fact that some homeowners need upgrades to wiring and roofs. Thats a partnership that continues with the Mayors Office and department to help fund those home upgrades in coordination with great alternatives. It has proven to be a model that has installed close to 10,000 nationwide. I think with the unfortunate news yesterday of the Trump Administration making attack against the solar panels themselves, your work is more important than ever. Please keep up the good work and look forward to continuing our partnership in the future. Ill present the award to you and i invite my fellow colleagues to come down and take the picture with you as well. laughter applause thank you so much. All of the commissioners, debbie, who i have known for many years. And commissioner ahn, you said most of what i was going to say. But i just want to say that it feels very special to be honored by this city and county with such a strong commitment to environment and equity as you said and particularly on this day as the Trump Administration is really attacking things on both ends. It really means so much to us. I want to thank the department of environment and Jessie Denver and all the great staff there who have been amazing partners. Want to honor late mayor lee who was such an inspiration for so many of us. And such an inspiration for many of us and grateful for the support of solar and housing in the city. I also want to thank some of our really amazing partners here today. We have dr. Smith from the young communi Community Developers here today and some homeowners who have been recipients of our systems who couldnt make it because of the time. But i want to thank all of them. And really honor all of the amazing participants and job trainees who have come through our program and professor smiths program and have learned how to install solar at the same time giving back to the community. Grid has installed 268 systems in San Francisco alone and if you add up the impacts, 15,000 tons of Greenhouse Gas emissions that will be prevented from the installations and 5 million worth of savings for all of those families. Thank you to the grid staff from our headquarters and regional team. Thank you for your support. applause commissioners any comments . Commissioner ahn. I believe at this point invite Public Comment perhaps on this item . We can do discussion now and then Public Comment. Okay. No, ive had my say at this point. Director raphael . When mayor lee first interviewed me to be director of the environment, his first words to me were debbie, how can you make sure it reaches all San Franciscoians. That was the number one thing he was thinking of when selecting the person for the job. The work of grid embodies our late mayors ethic to wanting to bring benefit to everyone and so solar is not just for those who can afford it, who have the fancy homes. Its pretty easy in a way to make requirements for new construction. We can say all new houses have to have solar. The challenge is how do you put it on existing buildings, especially when the people who occupy them cant put the solar on. There is there are very few examples in my experience of organizations as effective as grid alternative. The thing that warms my heart so deeply and im so glad theres regional staff here as well, your focus is way beyond the bubble of the bay area. Youre looking how do we bring solar to places not only like San Francisco with tremendous political will in the Mayors Office but how do we bring it out to cities without the political will and goes way beyond the converted. I was so excited when commissioner ahn suggested you as a recipient. I couldnt agree more. I think you embody the exact thing were looking for in public, private, ngo partnerships. You figure out a way to bring the private sector, public sector, Community Organizations together for the good of the planet and i salute you and thank you. Commissioner hoyos . Yeah, thank you. I also wanted to say how inspiring your work is. And i think i want to appreciate the way you also tell stories, i mean storytelling is so important to moving hearts and minds in the public. I remember when good alternatives was in fresno and i was very moved. I spoke with Jackie Patterson putting solar on a shelter for women dealing with violence in their lives. I think we need to really support organizations like yours and i just want to say how moving and powerful your work is. I appreciate your legislative engagement and the fact that youre in 10 regions and a lot of states and international as well. Thank you for being here. Thank you for all the great work and we have Public Comment. Everybody is speechless with the work. Thank you. Next item. The next item is applause item six, supporting edwin Lee Community fund, the speaker is Deborah Raphael, its open for discussion. Thank you. As the president said when we started the meeting, this is the first meeting since the passing of the mayor and i think its important to give us all space to reflect on that and what it means for each of us as individuals, what it means for us as a department and city. At the mayors memorial service, his daughters got up and spoke and i was so impressed with their poise and their eloquence with what they decided to share. One of the things they shared with everyone that day was the creation of a special fund at the San Francisco foundation, the mayor edwin lee memorial fund. And i wasnt surprised that the mayor or the mayors family would want to do that. What warmed my heart was when they listed the subject matters that this fund would focus on. And they said these were the things that were nearest and dearest to their fathers heart and one of those areas that they talked about was the environment. And that this would be a way to honor his legacy on the environment as well as other issues but that was one that of course spoke to me individually. And so i wanted to invite the commission and anyone else listening in on this, that it would be i think very wonderful for us as a department and commission to support this endeavor and so, i have my check for the foundation. And i would just like to invite all of you to think about as you reflect on the mayor, making a contribution and if you would like to, to give your check to either me or anthony and i would invite anyone else in the audience who would like to do that as well, join the department and the commission and ill take all the checks together and put them in a nice card and deliver them to the San Francisco foundation, the family of mayor lee know were doing it in his honor. I just wanted to let you know of that opportunity and hear your thoughts. Thank you director. I brought my checkbook and im ready to write a check as well. Its really moving to be there in the audience with the mayors family, his daughters and how eloquently they spoke about their dad. And what a champion he became for our commission, for our department and he was so proud when he went to the u. S. Conference of mayors, to travelling to paris for the accords he just became our champion. And he is missed and we hope through the fund we can continue his work and never forget what a champion we had in somebody like mayor ed lee. Commissioner stephenson. Hes going to be so missed. Am i on . I am now. Hes going to be so missed and he was very new to his position when he appointed me to commission way back in the day and i didnt