San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Citizens' Advisory Committee

Minutes

March 26, 2007
5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
1155 Market Street
4th Floor Conference Room

Members

Alex Lantsberg– Chair	Richard T. Hansen	Steve Lawrence
Nick Carlin	Winchell Hayward	Kimia Mizany
Jennifer Clary	David Hochschild	David Pascal
Ken Cleaveland	Art Jensen	Robert Varni
David Dawdy		Judy West

Staff: Betsy Lauppe Rhodes

ORDER OF BUSINESS

1. Chair Lantsberg called the meeting to order at 5:47 p.m.
   
2. Roll Call:

   a. Members present: Lantsberg, Carlin, Clary, Cleaveland, Hansen, Hayward, Jensen, West, Mizany, Varni

   b. Members absent: Dawdy, Lawrence, Pascal, Hochschild
   
   

3. A motion to approve the minutes of the February 26, 2007 Regular Meeting by Cleaveland, seconded by Carlin. Motion carried, minutes approved.
   
   
4. Public Comment – no public comment at this time.
   
   
5. Report from the Chair

   a. Response from letter to Supervisor Peskin’s office regarding Committee vacancies (see minutes from February 26, 2007 meeting), who instructed the Chair to work with SFPUC Assistant General Manager for External Affairs Laura Spanjian. The Chair will contact Ms. Spanjian, and will report back to the CAC at the next meeting.

   b. Chair Lantsberg noted that, effective Friday, March 23, 2007, David Hochschild resigned from the CAC. He is a mayoral appointment for an environmental organization. Chair Lantsberg suggested the CAC offer suggestions for the Mayor for another appointment.
   
   

6. Staff Reports and Presentations:

   a. Baseline Indicators for the SFPUC’s Sustainability Plan, Susan Wade, Water Enterprise; Andrea Fernandez, Arup.

   i. Copies of the Draft Sustainability Plan Baseline Assessment executive summary and appendices are available at sfwater.org. The purpose of the Sustainability Plan is to help the organization better manage its effects across the triple bottom line (financial, social, and environmental). The presentation discussed the selection of baseline indicators, the scoring methodology, the sources of the information in the indicators. Comments on the plan can be submitted to sustainabilityplan@sfwater.org.

   ii. Committee members comments:
   * Executive Summary’s pinwheel diagram is difficult to understand.
   * Sustainability planning is extremely important.
   * Requested coordination between Sustainability Planning and other planning processes ongoing at SFPUC, since it appears that there are a lot of other processes in the SFPUC that are ‘hanging their ornaments’ on the Sustainability Plan.
   * This seems like a combination of a performance plan with things related to “sustainability.”
   * Some members would like to see the sustainability plan applied city-wide to planning processes.
   * Suggested that the Sustainability Plan encompasses too much and is too broad to be effective in assisting with decision-making processes.

   iii. Public Comment: Emeric Kalman expressed concern that this process was reinventing the wheel, when the organization should focus on supplying water. This seems like a business plan. This should start with a survey of employees who have institutional knowledge.

   b. Transbay Cable negotiations between City and County of San Francisco and Babcock and Brown, Barbara Hale, Assistant General Manager, Power Enterprise.

   i. Ms. Hale described the Transbay Cable project as a privately-financed project proposed to build a 400 megawatt power cable between Pittsburg under the Bay to Port of San Francisco Property. The proposed cost would be $350 million. California Independent System Operators chose this option out of several others stating that this is needed for San Francisco energy reliability in 2010. The SFPUC has not taken an official position on the project.

   ii. Committee members expressed the following comments:
   * Emphasized that this is a project for energy reliability in San Francisco, and reliability is important for the City
   * Concerns about the reliance on fossil fuels for power generation for this project
   * Concern about whether or not this cable would decrease the likelihood of energy efficiency and renewable energy efforts in the future in San Francisco
   * Opinion that the project’s Environmental Impact Report is inadequate
   * Concern about the conflict of interest between the project proponents and local power interests
   * Environmental justice issues in the areas around the cable iii. Public Comment: Emeric Kalman asked if this was presented to LAFCO. Ms. Hale responded that it was.

   c. Strategic Planning and reporting by SFPUC in compliance with Proposition E. The Chair stated that a memorandum responding to this has been drafted by staff and is being reviewed by the City Attorney. The Chair expects the answer next month.
   
   

7. Subcommittee Reports:

   a. Water – Jennifer Clary – Nothing to report

   b. Power – David Hochschild is resigning. Nothing to report

   c. Environmental Justice – Response from Susan Leal in a letter (attached). Will hold a meeting soon.

   d. Wastewater – Alex Lantsberg. Possible action to support SFPUC Fats, Oils, and Grease Bio- This was presented to the Wastewater Subcommittee. The plan will collect grease from the wastewater stream and convert it to biodiesel to serve a portion of the City’s diesel needs. Motion to support program, Clary. Seconded Cleaveland. Varni voting no. Motion failed. CAC will discuss this at next meeting and will invite Lewis Harrison from BERM to speak.
   
   

8. Discussion of Future Agenda Items

   a. April – Contacting. Harlan Kelly, Assistant General Manager of Infrastructure.

   b. April – Fats, Oils, and Grease biodiesel program, Lewis Harrison, BERM.
   
   

9. Announcements/ Comments

   a. Members expressed concern that the CAC rarely has been able to take action. It was stated that the Subcommittees should be empowered to bring action back to full CAC. It was suggested to have full recommendations on deliberations on actions at subcommittee level in writing before full CAC takes action.

   b. Suzanne Gautier will no longer staff the CAC. Betsy Lauppe Rhodes will take over as staff liaison. Ms. Gautier will focus on other SFPUC projects.
   
   

10. Meeting adjourned at 7:33 pm.