Transcripts For SFGTV 20240622 : vimarsana.com

SFGTV June 22, 2024

The population increases, no matter what we will not send more trucks on the road than that number so the two changes to the contract were the term and the trucks. Those were the two things that were changed so next steps. The department has the authority to sign such an agreement, and once it is signed that triggers an action that then allows another appeal of ceqa which may come before you. We expect when you come back in september, and then if youre comfortable with that analysis and then we will have this contract in place by january, and all of the benefits that are part of that contract will be felt by the people of San Francisco, so in closing i want to say again as i did in the opening that the contract process has been done with the utmost integrity with the weight of the law and the rules every step of the way front and center. It is protective of the environment. It is very much a strong contract to move us towards zero waste and the most Cost Effective one we can offer ratepayers at this time and again i have another colleagues here if you would like more detail so thank you very much again for forking us the opportunity to have this discussion yet again. Okay. Colleagues any further comments or questions . Okay. Could you just real quick i think we have been getting a lot of questions and from different people inquiry about 10 years versus 15 years versus nine years. Right. Could you talk about that more . The original contract had an amount and 5 million tons no how long it took and our calculation said it would take 15 years given the rate of disposal and a 15 year contract. Shortening the contract does two things. It allows the department to sign and get the contract moving so we can make the deadline of end of the year and ensure rate stability because were not hanging out there with not a full contract, and it allows the board to come back and weigh in sooner, so in a 15 year term its gone. The last one was since 1987 so this way we get before you again after eight years to take a look how are we doing . Are we meeting our goals . Are we protective of the environment . And any changes we want to make to the term of the contract so that was the thinking. Okay. Colleagues questions right now . Okay. Why dont we go to Public Comment and then we can go to follow up questions. I have a few speaker cards here if people are filling out other ones. [calling speaker names] mr. Lazarus was on 16. We have two speaker cards. Anyone else wishing to comment please line up against the side of the wall and everyone has two minutes and we can move from here. I am kevin carol and director of the [inaudible] Hotel San Francisco and work in an industry that welcomes people to San Francisco and employs 24,000 people the majority that live and work in San Francisco. I am in support of recology for the contract. They have been a longterm partner of our industry and hotels. We work with them daily and part of the Sustainability Committee and a committee of hotels that Work Together to share best practices in partnership with the department of the environment and recology and Many Organizations in the space. That committee is one of the most active committee and recology and their employees are active participants as well. They have hosted us to share best practices and educate our members and their employees on best practices for achieving their zero waste goals. Their employees as i mentioned continue to work with us and our teams as well. Recology is fully committed collaborative and they partner with the hotels virtually everyday to reach our goals and i just wanted to remind you that we fully support their fulfillment of this agreement that is before you today and i appreciate your time as well. Thank you. Thank you. Before the next speaker comes actually i want to recognize we have the president of the Environment Commission here. Youre welcome to come up and say a few words if you like. Thank you chair farrell. Is it morning still . I am speaking as president of the San Francisco commission on the environment and thank you for the opportunity to speak and i wanted to speak in support of the department of the environment, our staff. We had a hearing about this conversation at our last meeting and asked a series of questions and comfortable with the fare and bidding process that resulted in the bids that came in and one being double than the other. What we liked about the contract thats before you and that we support is the ability to lock in a longterm rate that is low, and free us up to do what we want to do which is get to zero waste because thats the solution. We hope this is the last landfill contract we have to sign because getting to zero means nothing, no more hauling waste,ing in except putting it back in the stream and going to the green and the blue and this contract will give us the ability to do that and we fully support the department. Thank you. Next speaker please come up. Good morning mr. Farrell and committee members. My name is John Lynn Smith and outside counsel to Waste Management. Honesty i dont know where to begin. There are a lot of statements made that are contrary to the rfp issued but a couple of points i want to make. One is i sent the committee and the full board of supervisors a letter this monday outlining the process that has been conducted since 2008 with the rfq leading up to the proposal to enter into a contract today with recology. I want to make sure that is part of your record. I hope you have it and if you dont i have a copy and can give it to you. I wanted to bring to your attention a couple of things about the deal. When the rfp was issued it was a 10 year deal or 5 million tons of disposal, whichever comes first. It wasnt a 5 millionton deal. It was going to be from 2015 to 2016 or 2025 or 2026 or 5 million tons and whichever came first. When the resolution was presented to the board of supervisors on june 1, 2015, this year, the resolution was seeking approval for a 10 year contract, not a nine year contract. The effort to make it nine years not for transparency or the ability to come back to talk about this again. Its basically so anybody can avoid a referendum, make it an administrative act and not a legislative act. The other point its not 40 miles difference. Its 2,000 miles difference. 50 trucks times 40. That is what triggers the need for an eir and why the sierra club is fully advocating a full eir is done and by not going to the board for the approval you pushed off the appeal for another couple of months and recology and the department that are engaged in the process can get the contract up and running. Sir, thank you. Your time is up sir. [inaudible] off mic . Okay. Thank you. Next speaker please. Supervisor tang, supervisor farrell and supervisor mar thank you for having me today. I work for the gate gate Golden Gate Association and paused because restaurants produce a large amounts of food waste we have a strong commitment to posting and having affordable ratings makes it possible for all restaurants to do it. We love the fact that farms and wineries use the waste and food comes full circle on the table of the member restaurants. Recology has been supportive of the Restaurant Industry and had a representative for troubleshooting and our needs. This is a strong one to allow restaurants to implement green practices without breaking the bank and different from members in oakland dealing with Waste Management and we support recology. Thank you very much. Next speaker please and if anyone else wishes to speak please line up and two minutes each. Good morning. I am paul pender gas and here to speak on the San Francisco Small Business network and 14 business organizations here in San Francisco and chair the golden gate policy for San Francisco and i am here to speak on recology and they have been active partners with Small Business and not just attending events and actually responsive to the needs and the phone calls and emails that Small Business interact with recology on a daily basis. They are a shining example how a business can be responsive to the Small Business community. We only need to look at oakland to see how Small Business cant work with Certain Companies and we are in support of recology and the contract moving forward. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker please. Good morning. David pillpel speaking as an individual and i have been involved with these issues in the city and area including the rate setting process through the department of public works and the residential refuse collection and rate board and i am familiar with the 1932 ordinance and all the things related to that. I have expressed some concerns about the proposed agreement and a little bit about the process to both department of the environment staff and recology. They have been both responsive and addressed a number of my concerns. However i think at this point and i am sorry i missed the presentation earlier i think the department of the environment should provide a copy of the agreement to the board if that hasnt been done and allow the public some time not a long period of time, but maybe a few days to comment on the latest version of the proposed agreement before signing and entering into it so if there are other concerns particularly about going to the nine and six scheme with the 50 truck limit et cetera that they can be reviewed before any decision to approve the agreement by the department of the environment. Any other concerns that i might have i am happy to put in writing again to department of the environment. Doe and copy the board. I understand there will be some kind of hearing on tuesday but then not considering the substance of the appeal at this time. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Any other members of the public wish to comment on this item . Okay. Seeing none. Public comment is now closed. [gavel] colleagues this is simply a hearing item at the moment. We can make a motion to file this item. However if there are questions or comments at this time we can entertain them. Okay. Supervisor mar. Just quickly i think i want to say the two elephants in the room are two powerful entities, recology definitely very influential clearly in this hearing today and the proposal that the panel as approved and this board unanimously over time and also a texas based Large Corporation that has at times bullied and intimidated Oakland City Council members and others and ballot measures and lawsuits, so i know this hearing is useful to hear the updates but my hope is we focus on the environmental benefits as joshua mentioned and ms. Raphael proposed and i am hoping that the two elephants in the room dont pull us away from the zero waste goals and the Greenhouse Gas issues and the truck 20 more miles per trip and we shouldnt gloss over that as well but i am appreciative of this and its been many years from supervisors before i got on this board and i think these are big issues but lets focus on the environmental impacts and our very aggressive Climate Action goals for our city. Thank you. Okay. Thank you supervisor mar. Okay. With that i know we will continue to be working on this item and throughout this and beyond so with that colleagues i would like to entertain a motion to file item 15. All right. I make a motion to file the hearing. Okay. Motion by supervisor tang. We can take that without objection. Madam clerk can you call item 16 please. Item 16 hearing on the control ors report and for office of economic and Workforce Development and office of Small Business, the controller, the planning department, office of building inspection and other city departments involved with the permitting process for. Businesses to report. Thank you. This is sponsored by supervisor tang. So supervisor take it away. Thank you very much colleagues for entertaining this hearing today in response to a report by the Controllers Office and took a deep look how the citys permitting process works especially as it rer tains to restaurants so the purpose is identify ways that we can make sure citys permitting process even more efficient for those looking to start or expand restaurants here in San Francisco and hopefully from the lessons that we learn from the collaborative efforts, through the reports and other efforts by city departments that we can apply these lessons to other industries and for us at least for me its about writing a better experience for our customers by the people looking to start or expand a business here in San Francisco, and i know there have been efforts in the past to tackle this issue and what is different this time around is that i feel that we have approached this in a more comprehensive manner. For one we have a new online Small Business portal in San Francisco and credit the team for bringing that up online and the Controllers Office report and is one of the most comprehensive to date and we made investments in the office of economic and Workforce Development and i have seen first hand how that customized and personalized support that office has been providing to people has changed over the years. Even several years ago when i was looking as a legislative aid and i was the main person trying to facilitate the relationship between the departments so now to have oewd to do that with the merchants is beneficial but of course there is more work to be done. I know there are some Small Businesses here today and many we encountered in our work that shared Horror Stories or impediments they experienced while trying to make the way through the permitting process so we want to identify where the kinks are and in the future we can make this a better process, but before we begin i want to highlight some of the positive things that i think have happened in the past so as i mentioned earlier the Small Business portal. We have completed phase one and the next step through this hearing were going to gather some information that we can hope to move into phase two to bring for example permits that you can fill out online and payments submit online as well. We have in the last budget process thanks to the committee and the Mayors Office and funding new Client Service manager hosted through the office of economic and Workforce Development and that person would be assigned to facilitate the permitting process across the departments for those looking to expand businesses in San Francisco so in the coming years really just looking forward to working with the city departments as we try to move towards a true one stop shop as we colocate various departments in the site inhabited by the goodwill on van ness and i wanted to layout the process today and i will call up todd from the office of economic and Workforce Development. Secondly i would like to bring up jane to talk about the business portal and ryan hunter from the Controllers Office to present their report and the office of Small Business and we have representatives available to answer questions and the planning department, dbi, department of Public Health and the tax and Treasurers Office and the Fire Department so with that said lets begin with you. Thank you so much supervisor tang. I appreciate the leadership on this issue and calling this hearing today. From day one the mayor has been this a priority and between the invested neighborhoods program, loans, targeted customized assistance for Small Businesses we have lead the effort with the city with great support from the committee and i want to thank you from that but we heard from Small Businesses from each of you and from the Small Business commission that the process needed to be improved and thats why in 2014 again through with Partnership Within oewd and office of technology and office of Small Business we launched a comprehensive business portal as you mentioned supervisor tang and brought that information into one place and most importantly shared that information from the perspective of a business. What its like for a business to interface with government opposed to how government is structured. As you mentioned jane will be up in a moment to share an update on that but sharing how a process works isnt the same as making a process better and thats where the second half of the initiative is focused and i want to acknowledge the office for the report on business streamlining and ryan hunter will be up here in a moment to do a briefing out of that report. But i think most importantly what comes next . What are those recommendations are going to be implemented to make a real impact for the Small Businesses and thanks to the mayor a budget as well as the

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