Meeting Information

MINUTES
Thursday, June 10, 2004
6:00 P.M.
1800 Oakdale Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94124

1.0               Call to Order
Commission President Millard Larkin called the Thursday, June 10, 2004 meeting to order at 6:09 p.m. in the Alex L. Pitcher Community Room at 1800 Oakdale Avenue.

Commissioner Larkin read the Sunshine Ordinance aloud and welcomed everyone.

                                1.2       Roll Call
Commissioner Millard Larkin; Commissioner Bobbrie Brown; Commissioner Juan Fuentes; Commissioner Louise Jones; Commissioner Willie Kennedy; Commissioner Ronald Person; Commissioner Kenneth Sampson

Staff Present:            Annette Price, SECF Commission Secretary.

                                1.3       Consent Calendar

RESOLUTION (SECFC-2004-9) Be it resolved that the minutes of the Southeast Community Facility Commission meeting of Wednesday, June 10, 2004 be approved as submitted (passed unanimously).

2.0               Public Comment
There was nopublic comment offered at this time.

3.0               Communications:
The Commission Secretary reported that the following correspondence has been sent/received: (a) Letter of invitation to Susan Leal, General Manager of SFPUC; and (b) Correspondence from Thomas J. Owen, Deputy City Attorney to SECFC re: General advice opinion on the authority of the Mayor and Board of Supervisors requested by the Public Utilities Commission (FYI).

Commissioner Larkin reminded the audience that public comment is limited to two (2) minutes in length and asked that Mr. Manfred Wong, Project Engineer for PUC Communications Division step forward and update the community with regard to odor improvement projects at the Southeast Plant.

4.0               Presentation

Ø             Mr. Manfred Wong reported that SFPUC is in the process of making project improvements at the Southeast Plant to address some concerns regarding odor issues. PUC is taking steps to reduce the emission of odors and all work will take place inside the plant.

Mr. Wong directed the audience to a slide presentation and listed the three (3) projects that he would be working on: (1) Gravity Belt Thickening Facility, which concentrates solids thereby reducing the disposal volume. This is a $5 million project which will take one year to complete.  (2) Dewatered Biosolid Loadout Improvements project, which will improve the loading operation of trucks by replacing the old hoppers with new hoppers enabling trucks to be loaded evenly. (3) Digester Gas Handling Improvements project, which is a treatment process where methane gas is burned to power the plant’s operation. This project will improve the combustion process to make it 99.9% efficient.

In conclusion, Mr. Wong stated PUC has identified positive steps to address some of the concerns from the community. Recognizing that there will be other odors, these three projects are going to make a difference.

Comm. Jones asked when would replacement of the hoppers take place? Mr. Wong responded that the first & second projects have already begun and should be completed by summer or fall of 2005. The third project will begin next year.

Comm. Brown commented that the containment of the odor problem in the Southeast sector has been long awaited news and asked whether the projects would be fully funded? Mr. Wong responded all three projects are fully funded.

Comm. Fuentes asked how often does the release of excess gas take place and what are the health hazards associated with that release? Mr. Wong responded he cannot fully answer that question because he does not know the frequency that it occurs since that project is currently in the design phase. Methane gas is basically released at a high elevation and with wind disbursement, the quantity that is seen in the surrounding community is more of an odor nuisance than a health issue which PUC wants to address.

Comm. Larkin asked if the methane gas was not released at such a high elevation and there was no distribution of wind, would there then be a health hazard. Mr. Wong explained he does not believe there would be a health hazard at that concentration level. Comm. Larkin followed up by asking whether the placement of new equipment in the building is to absorb additional sewage since larger sewer lines are being installed on 3^rd Street? Also, what type of community benefit would be related to these new projects? Mr. Wong responded the equipment is only to address the existing sewage capacity. Regarding the placement of new sewer lines, PUC is partnering with MUNI to address the storm flow concerns of the sewer system and to gain easy access during repairs. The community benefit will be reduction in odor emissions and the ability to better control plant operation.

Mr. Walker asked for clarification of Mr. Wong’s statement regarding storm flows being not as profound in the BVHP as in other parts of the city? Mr. Murray corrected Mr. Walker explaining that Mr. Wong was speaking in regard to the 50-year and 100-yr floods. Mr. Walker asked for clarification of Mr. Wong’s statement regarding labor unions. Mr. Wong explained his statement addressed the hiring practices of contractors employed by PUC, adding that contractors have stated they would hire BVHP residents but that they would need to work with the unions to ensure that construction workers are unionized. He further elaborated that the contractors have been informed of PUC’s desire for inclusion of BVHP residents and that Mr. Bryan Thomas, SFPUC would have the responsibility to place as many residents as possible with these contractors.

Mr. Wong stated he is not too familiar with the hiring practices by unions however, that concern will be brought back to management to be addressed. Mr. Murray added that PUC is really not the appropriate party to answer that question; however, he assured the Commission that he would bring the appropriate person to address that.

Comm. Larkin stated that the Commission would be meeting with the new general manager of PUC and these will be some of the issues that the Commission will be looking for a response to and the questions/concerns of the community will be put in writing.

Mr. Mathew Thomas, President of World Connect, stated his company is a BVHP based company hired by Home Depot to assist in building the new Home Depot store. Mr. Thomas introduced his staff and asked that Ms. Anna Shimko who also is working on the project step forward and update the Commission about the First Source Hiring Agreement signed by the City of San Francisco and Home Depot.

Ø             Anna Shimko, Esq., stated she is a land use attorney working with Home Depot. She explained that the City has completed a draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to study the traffic & air quality of the Home Depot project and that the Planning Commission is now in the process of accepting comments on that EIR. Once that process is complete, the final EIR will go back to the Planning Commission for final approval. The hearing should take place sometime in September.

Ms. Shimko stated Home Depot is very excited about having signed the first source agreement. She explained the City’s Administrative Code requires that any developer who constructs a project of Home Depot’s size requires a first source agreement to make good faith efforts to hire locally. The law does not specify what the percentage of local hires should be or how that process works. However, Home Depot has gone beyond that by having a first source agreement for both the construction & operation jobs. Construction jobs that Home Depot has made is 50% of person hours worked for constructing the store to be completed by San Francisco residents with half of that (25%) in total construction hours being filled by BVHP residents.

The long-term jobs at Home Depot are projected to be from 300 to 350 at the new store. Of that figure, 150 people will be brought from other stores to get the store up and running. Home Depot has committed to using good faith efforts. As such, BVHP residents will fill 100 of the 200 jobs permanently and surrounding area residents will fill another 50 of the 200 jobs.

Home Depot will contract directly or indirectly through another entity, Private Industry Counsel (PIC) to assist community-based organizations with training. Home Depot has also committed to having a pre-hiring period only opened to BVHP residents and those surrounding areas. Home Depot is obligated twice annually for the first couple of years and once annually thereafter for 10 years to report to the city the actual number of employees that work in the store who live in BVHP and the surrounding neighborhoods. If those goals are not met, Home Depot is required to sit down with the city and figure out what can be done differently to enhance neighborhood population.

Home Depot is working with PIC in setting up a formal agreement to design the training program with the community-based organizations and to put out a request for proposal (RFP) and choose the community-based organization that would do the training.

Ms. Shimko concluded by stating that Home Depot has a community commitment document that was developed with the PAC which include a number of commitments that Home Depot has made, i.e., job commitments and other community benefits that Home depot looks forward to providing.

Comm. Larkin commented that the program is outstanding; however, he voiced concern that he heard no reference of BVHP contractors being involved. He also questioned whether there was a monetary penalty involved if Home Depot failed to meet their hiring goal. Ms. Shimko responded there is a monetary penalty that the law provides, which is a few thousand dollars for each position that was not filled and should have been filled with a resident from the neighborhood.

In response to the hiring process of BVHP contractors, Ms. Shimko stated with regard to pre/post construction, a commitment has been made that 50% of person hours to construct the store would be done by San Francisco residents with half coming from BVHP. However, Home Depot has not yet selected a general contractor for the project but it is highly likely that the contractor could end up being Web Core.

Ms Shimko stated she is unaware of other services that Home Depot contracts for when it operates; however, one of the things that Home Depot does do is maintain a list of approved recommended contractors to come out and work on homes.

Comm. Larkin thanked Ms. Shimko adding it should be stated that there is more than one contractor and more than one community-based organization in the BVHP community that trains and prepares people. Ms. Shimko stated she doesn’t intend to favor one CBO over another, adding that the first source does not name any CBO because Home Depot wants to enter into arrangements with PIC so that PIC can conduct a fair/open selection on merit.

Comm. Kennedy stated she is pleased with the first source hiring agreement; however she is unhappy that Home Depot’s chose PIC explaining that PIC always selects the cream of the crop person rather than someone low on the totem pole. She suggested that Home Depot look to other organizations. She also advised that in negotiating with a general contractor, Home Depot could require that the contractor use subcontractors from the community. Ms. Simko stated Home Depot has not made a final selection on PIC. No agreements have been finalized and Home Depot will discuss the Commission’s concerns with PIC to ensure that potential employable trainees are identified. Whatever general contractor Home Depot chooses, they will have to choose subcontractors that are from the community in order to meet the goal of 50% construction hours, which includes trucking.

Comm. Person asked for clarification with regard to the 50% of construction hours. Ms. Shimko stated half of the person hours (50%) must be people within San Francisco. Comm. Person further questioned whether the managers who transfer over from other stores will be permanently placed in Bayview? Ms. Shimko stated there will be 200 entry-level jobs, which will be filled by BVHP and surrounding area residents. When the 100-150 people come from other stores, Home Depot does expect some of those to be BVHP residents. There is definitely room for people that come into the job initially to move into those 150 management positions because of the turnover. Ms. Shimko went on to explain the employee benefit opportunities for part-time and full-time employees, i.e., tuition reimbursement program, health/vacation benefits, and stock options.

Comm. Fuentes asked how does Home Depot break the composition down in terms of hiring? Ms. Shimko stated Home Depot has no commitment in terms of age, gender or racial backgrounds. Home Depot is under a consent decree and other legal constraints that preclude Home Depot from discriminating basically on that basis.

Comm. Sampson asked what kind of success stories does Home Depot have in terms of employment with regard to their employees who live in BVHP? Ms. Shimko stated she does not have that information. Comm. Sampson asked of those employees that have been hired from BVHP, how many are working at the Peninsula store? Ms. Shimko stated as of a year ago that number was 22, however it may have increased since that time.

Mr. Mathew Thomas stated that he has met with Al Norman and provided him with vendor application forms so that vendors in the Bayview that do carpentry, electrical, etc., can be included in the loop so their services can be utilized.

Comm. Larkin asked whether these are forms where vendors can sign up and homeowners would be referred to those vendors? Mr. Thomas responded these are the applications that would get the vendors qualified as Home Depot approved/recommended vendors.

Mr. Washington voiced concern about Home Depot’s choice of PIC. Mr. Walker voiced his support for the Home Depot store.

Comm. Larkin thanked both Attorney Shimko and Mr. Thomas for coming and commended the outreach efforts of staff stating he would be inviting them back in the future once the EIR has been approved.

5.0                Town Hall Meeting – (Stop the Violence)

Comm. Larkin reminded that Comm. Kennedy introduced this agenda item at the last Commission meeting under new business and discussion of scheduling a mass meeting for an upcoming Saturday took place. Comm. Sampson stated there are many programs that are going on regarding this subject, but it seems like they are all fragmented. Comm. Kennedy suggested before doing the town hall meeting, contact should be made with as many of those groups as possible to request they join the Commission in doing the town hall meeting. She requested that Comm. Sampson help define some of those groups.

Comm. Larkin directed staff to look into what is being done at the Board of Supervisors Office with regard to the violence happening and asked that Commissioners Kennedy and Sampson come together and formulate a list of organizations and possibly look at different strategies.

Comm. Fuentes commented that he does not see anything on the agenda that reflects young people or youth and stated those organizations need to be involved because the impact is really on the youth.

Comm. Larkin agreed with Comm. Fuentes’ statement and opened the floor to the community for their thoughts. Mr. Walker stated he would be happy to assist in any way he could.

Comm. Sampson stated he has attended various meetings concerning violence and stated many organizations are out there and perhaps we could all collaborate together.
 

7.0                 Introduction of New Business By Commissioners:
Comm. Larkin directed staff to do the following: (1) Follow-up call to Mr. Roy Willis requesting that he forward a more detailed description of the African Market Place; (2) Follow-up call to Supt. Ackerman regarding her presentation re: dream schools in BVHP (3) Follow-up with CAG for update; (4) Letter of Invite to Dir. Mitch Katz, Dept. of Public Health.
 

8.0                 Public Comment:
Mr. Washington announced that on July 19^th, 2004 the Black Chamber of Commerce will sponsor an all-day summit workshop from 9:00 to 4:00 at the Herbst Theater. Mr. Walker voiced concern of the mitigation issues that surround SECF.

9.0                 Announcements:
Commissioner Kennedy announced that the Juneteenth Celebration will take place in the Western Addition on the weekend of the 19^th. Comm. Person reminded that Father’s Day is on the 20^th.

10.0               Adjournment
Comm. Larkin adjourned the SECF Commission meeting in memory of music legend Ray Charles who passed away today.  Meeting adjourned at 7:55 p.m.

  Respectfully submitted,

         _____________________

    Commission Secretary