Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Budget And Finance Sub Regular Co

SFGTV BOS Budget And Finance Sub Regular Committee 3216 March 10, 2016

Onondaga, there have been homeless encampments there on the build, theres been people squatting inside the building as of last year, the corner building and its also a part of the commercial corridor in district 11 that were trying desperate toy to bring up to viability and economic viability, weve made some really good improvements close by on that corner, but you know, being able to activate vacant buildings is going to be a major part of our effort to bring Economic Vitality to this part of San Francisco. And, clearly, we look at ways that San Francisco outside of district 11, outside of the southern neighborhoods have faired during our economic boom, weve seen a complete transformation of partser of the city, that hasnt happened in district 11 and thats really why i brought it forward, this supplemental, to help level the Playing Field for district 11 to see that we can get, while were having this boom, some of the wealth the citys been able to generate to come into our neighborhood and help jump start the Economic Vitality that so far has not really blossomed in district 11 as it has in other places. The geneva car barn, part aof the supplemental is 2. 5 Million Dollars for phase 1 of the Building Construction that weve been working on for the past 15 years or so, and phase 1 would be on the power house side, its a big vacant billing where there were power generators, its incredible, beautiful site but its not been easy to activate it and to raise the funds to do it. Over the years, the city has made appropriations with the support of the Budget Committee for the Geneva Office building, i believe there was about 800 thousand dollars in 2008 that was donated or appropriated and then weve made appropriations during our add back process to keep programming going and to keep fundraising going for the car barn, thats pretty much kept this Program Alive and then a couple of years ago, rec and park was able to find, they called it looking at the couch cushions to find money that was left over from bond financing that hasnt been expended to be able to use for the car bafrn as well and that has been made available to help to do some of the design work and predevelopment work that has been so necessary to keep this project going. Phase 1, we were able to identify three Million Dollars from the last park bond that was approved in 2012, theres funds that could be going for the car barn and they were pretty much designed for the car barn project, theres also about 1. 6 Million Dollars in historic tax credits that can be applied as well and then this 2. 5 Million Dollars is to cover the gap to be able to do the entire phase 1 of the project when you combine with the tax credits and the previous appropriation, so i want to thank the Mayors Office for their openness to discussing how this project can go forward, so far t Mayors Office has not indicated that they are believe that the supplemental is the appropriate way to go and would like to consider putting this in their budget, no matter what, i want to see and district 11 residents want to see that this is a project that can move forward this year, that we could have fund tog do this phase 1 of the car barn this year. The onondaga sites are going to be more challenging, w ve a budget Analyst Report that has not been favorable for that site compared to the car barn which gives us the bajt analyst has given us a favorable recommendation to approve the car barn side, we dont have that for the onondaga site and thats about more how were trying to collect information for the onondaga site that would allow us to bring the economics to something that would be much more easy to do with our city funds, so im expecting that were going to continue that part of the supplemental before us today, the part related to the two buildings on onondaga and see if we can find some other pathway for those. I know the community is really interested in those buildings moving forward quickly, we ao f had as i mentioned before, theyve been languishing for 7 years, source of blight in the neighborhood and theres a real interest from district 11 residents to move on these project, overall for the supplemental, we received a lot of email and is public input, about 20 emails from people in district 11 to move forward on these project, but finding the funds and the pathway to find the funds is not totally clear, so with that, i would like to perhaps hear from maybe the mayors Budget Office on what work so far theyve been able to do on helping us to move forward with these projects, im very grateful for their work and helping to find funding, and want to continue a conversation on these projects as we move forward for the next week. Ing its not to interrupt, ms. Howard, i want to say i am going to because were dealing with issues of too many people here in the chambers at one time, im going to excuse myself out of the chambers bhiel this discussions until the actual vote, so i will be here for the vote in a little bit and supervisor avalos at the time with we do have the vote, if you can excuse yourself and ill come back in, so we can have six people at a time that create as quorum. Ive been on the Budget Committee, this is my sixth year, every single year, ive haed a request that every single five person budget agenda thats issued have the special language on it if a sixth member comes in, it becomes a special meeting of the board of supervisors, and that language almost never comes on, it seems like every yaoe, we have this problem where if a sponsor god forbid comes in to talk ability their item or someone on a particular budget matter, all of a sudden a member of this committee then has to leave, and i just im going to request again to the Clerks Office that every single agenda for the big Budget Committee include that disclaimer, theres no reason not to put it on and it just it will address a lot of these problems. Thank you, supervisor wiener, and i just had that same conversation, thats going to be the case through the rest of our big budget season in the board, with that, i will go out of the room and come back after the discussion. Thank you for your flexibility. Mayors budget direct torx i see youve stood up. Good afternoon, supervisors, supervisor avalos, members of the committee, kate howard, the mayors budget director, thank you for your opening comments, supervisor avalos, as you know, weve been working closely with your office with the rec and Park Department and the office of economic and Workforce Development over the past several years to figure out a plan to move the car barn project forward. Last year, work done by your office, rec and park and oewd resulted in a modified phased plan for activating the car barn and the power house, and the planning work for that modified plan was funded through the mayors budget at about 475 thousand dollars. The Mayors Office is happy to continue to work with you and your office to figure out an appropriate strategy for fully funding the project, as i think ive shared with you, at this time, its very difficult for our office to support general fund supplementals given the citys financial outlook, weve put out budget instructions that demonstrate that we have budgetary gaps growing from 100 million to 240 Million Dollars over the next two years so wed like the work with you through the budget process through the Capital Planning committee to make sure that were able to address the needs of the project but to do it in the context of the budget. Happy to continue to work with you over the next weeks and months to figure this out, but thats kind of where we are to date. Okay, and are you part of the kettle Planning Committee . I am, supervisor, there are five permanent members of which i am one, the board president is the boards representative on the Capital Planning committee. And how much has the actual car barn brojt been a discussion item on the Capital Planning committee, if ever . I dont know the answer to that off the top of my head. It may have come up, if it has come up, it would have come up as part of the rec and park discussion around rec and park facility needs. Im happy to look at that and certainly happy to work with them to bring it to the committees attention. I would like to see if we can have it as a topic item for the Capital Planning committee. I have not participate painted on the Capital Planning committee in the past tha,s been a place where the president of the board represents us, but i think in this case, given that weve worked for many years on the j e Geneva Office car barn project, we should elevate it to a real discussion because weve made the commitments here in Budget Committee and the Mayors Office has made some commitments but we havent had a thorough look at how we can make sure this project goes forward, and we make plans outside of the Capital Planning committee for this project that i dont think makes a lot of sense that the Capital Planning committee isnt part of that discussion, so to be very honest, i have very mixed feelings about whether to move forward with a supplemental. I feel like thats the only way i can guarantee that we can move forward on this project and i think we might have enough votes to pass, but i dont know if the mayor would vito that, really having the mayors support no matter what is going to be what makes or breaks this project, and so i want to keep the lines of communication open. What i expect to do with this item is to probably just continue it a week, ms. Howard, you talked about wanting to talk directly to the mayor about this project, if i could be part of that discussion again before hearing it again next week, thats something i would like to do. There are people who are from district 11 who would like to talk about this project and how meaningful it is, i think its important na the committee hear their response, we also have the budget analyst review his report and if we can thank you, maybe ill go the supervisor yee first and then to the budget analyst. Thank you, supervisor avalos, for bringing the car barn issue into our attention. Even though its not in district 7, it borders district 7, and ive had the opportunity on i and i suppose other supervisors have had the opportunity to visit the car barn, and when i went to visit it, i was just using my imagination, whatever the people that were giving me the tour wasnt telling me, and i looked at it as such a humongous asset, not only for district 11 or 7 but i think throughout the city, its a great building to make something happen there, some of the plans, some of the discussions that was taking place when i was on the tour made so much sense in terms of what it could be. I really saw the potential there, and im glad youre taking a lead to try to push this because its been in discussion for years and i would like to strongly support supervisor avalos in trying to realize this project in the near future, so i will be supporting a continuance and i would like to hear what the Mayors Office will be doing with this. Thank you. So, if there are no other questions or comments, maybe well go to mr. Rose first. Yes, madam chair and members of the committee, on page 5 of our report, we state that its shown in table 2, the projected Funding Sources total 7 million 501 thousand 278 which is 618066 more than the 6 million 88312 phase 1 powerest maltese cost shown in table 1, again, thats on page 5, however shown in table 2, only 601 thousand 278 has previously been appropriated by the board of supervisors for this project, so this leaves a current 6 million 281, 934 funding gap for the phase 1 project related to the power house hof the car barn project. On page 6 of our report, we note that funding for phase 2 of the geneva car barn project has not been identified which is currently estimated to cost 22 million 116 thousand 788, regarding the 3545 onondaga avenue project, table 3 and thats on page 6 of our report summarizes the estimated cost for short and long term improvements for that project and its shown in table 3, the estimated costs range from 3 million 35 thousand for short term improvements to 4 million 903 thousand for long term improvements. On page 8 of our report, we notice that the citys general Fund Reserve Balance is currently 73 million 931, 443, if the board of supervisor approves the proposed 5 million supplemental appropriation ordinance t general fund reserve would be reduced to 68 f 68 million 941443, our recommendations on page 8 based on the prior appropriations previously approved by the board of supervisor, we have recommended you sever the proposed ordinance to separate the 5 million request into two, 2 million 500 thousand dollar requests, one for the geneva car barn and one for the Onondaga Properties waeshltion recommend you approve the requested 2. 5 million supplemental appropriation for rpd for the geneva car barn and place the entire 2. 5 million on budget and finance committee reserve, pend thing determination of the remaining Funding Sources and the actual amounts of funding received for the project. We also recommend that you continue the proposed 2 million 500 thousand supplemental for dph pending the identification of additional Funding Sources, actual amounts of funding received and the organizational structures determined to close the gap to renovate and close the 4545 onondaga property debra newman and i would be happy to respond to any questions. Thank you, mr. Rose, any other comment . S seeing none, well go over to Public Comment on item 1. I have one Public Comment card, but feel free to come on up and line up. Anyone wishing to speak to item 1, line up by the window over there and line up, come on up. Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to comment regarding your vote today to approve supplemental funding for the reuse and revitalization of the geneva car barn and onondaga property i ao e been a City Resident for 37 years, a homeowner one block from the je geneva car barn for 16 years, like my neighborhood david hooper and carl notty, i have a long perspective on city planning model, i can see how long it takes to make improvements in an area designated for planning. We unfortunately still have conditions of neglect in district 11 today. My business has been helping provide needed housing and commercial opportunities in areas that are ready for improvement and are in need. The key to success for me is a Central Point in which to orient good planing and a neighborhood identity. What seems to be the necessary key to redevelop an existing neighborhood is an anchor, a safe that identifies a special location through its history or its importance. The specific location at geneva and san jose avenues is a busy transit nexus for thousands, and it can become the center of new Community Cohesion and productivity while honoring its past and serving its future of the city and the community there. Think of your aye vote as your voice of confidence that district 11 will not be forgotten again during more belt tightening times, that the taxes we have sent you will be used for the very improvements we need to revitalize this busy intersection. Please cast your aye vote today to support supervisor avalos supplemental budget request for this prongt and help fund part of the vitalization of district 11. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, my name is robert mule bar, im here to speak in favor of the 5 Million Dollar supplemental appropriation for geneva car barn and the alamana hospital, im a 35 year resident of this community, im former chair and i also serve as the balboa citizens advisory committee, the balboa station area where both these committees are working which was adopted by the board i believe in 2009 really says that this transit node where this geneva car barn is located really has a sense of identity, it does not have a sense of identity at all right now, it is an undesirable place to go but theres all kinds of good signs on horizon that somethings going to happen here, theres 85100 proposed house tog go up, we have sfmta thats going to be doing street improvement, theres an ntip grant thats going to be looking at the intersection of geneva and san jose and across the street, heres our geneva car barn, our historic landmark building that could be the catalyst for coming together all these improvements, barts putting in about 1215 Million Dollars of improvements so i think our time is now and i would like to see through this supplemental budget appropriation or part of the budget process that we move this project forward and create a neighborhood asset that really it should be, its a diamond nr the rough and it could be something much better and actually if were going to put 85 units of housing at this location, it just cant be done in isolation, it has to be done in the context of all the other improvement that is are taking place, so once again, i urge you either through the budget process or both through the supplemental appropriation that we move ahead with this. Thank you very much, and i appreciate your time. Thank you very much, next speaker, please. Overhead

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