Commissioner caen is on her way the approval of the minutes pr the approval of the minutes of the november 10, 2015. So motion to approve the minutes. Second any questions any Public Comment on the minutes all in favor, say i. I. Opposed . That motion carries next item. Is general Public Comment under any Public Comments on matters that are currently not on the agenda today. Hearing none next item, please. Item 5 communications. You have before you all the communications that have been forwarded which youve had a chance to review any questions or comments on the Communications Commission . Any Public Comment on communications . Hearing next item, please item 6 other Commission Business 6 a authorize the general manager for a new recognize program for excellent 0 performances for the Public Utilities commission we the puc and contractor and consultant and or other audit partners and ms. Ellis. Im julia i was the resolution before you authorizes. A new recognize program to recognize the outstanding work by the Public Utilities commission and consultant and other outside partners we had the warned at the puc a recognition excellence innovations and officers milestone awards for years of service currently, the milestones are still awarded the Collections Program has been on hold tennis 20132014 the staff extended the program in order to make the changes you knew program were proposing the item before you is still to be named a Recognition Program is it differs from the Prior Program in a few ways to begin with we know the work is complicate and no environment is the environment were working in we need other entities it recognizes not only internal staff but other key helpers with the public agencies and other private companies and nonprofits a new program is our efforts to promote and insure the sfpuc is around services and stewardship and lastly our winners with commission hopefully event yaesh as you may know the creation of a new puc is a priority for commissioner courtney want to thank his leadership in this development of this program and look forward to working with the commission and commissioner courtney in developing the details of the program in the fall. Great, thank you it sounds like a wonderful new program i too want to thank county on his leadership would you like to say anything. If thats okay to the chair i too represent the workers and staff and carmen because going beyond puc staff is absolutely appropriate given the great work for the utilities by nonprofits and contractors and developers, etc. Especially with the sources of the improvement coming up im enthusiastic about alu all of is participating in those events we do it in so many vrpts an antidote theyre big boys and nothing phases them until you talk to them they like that insurance thing when it comes down we kind of miss that im really, really happy to have the conversation my 0 40e7 wed like to embarrass it together and keep to going through the general manager. Sounds great are there any questions or comments. Just is comment it is a great thing and add my voice for commissioner courtney providing the leadership one thing ill mention to the general manager it is important that we put the details together how elections are made especially in the area of sloekt contractors for onward not indicating favorism or compromise the future for the contractors im not sure how we do that task but a sensitivity in the process. Are there any is there any additional Public Comment on this item. And if no objection move forward with the general manager to institute this new program. Ill 0 come back with more detailed how the Selection Process and flush it out more. Theres a resolution that needs to be voted on. Ill move. All in favor, say i. I. Opposed . That motion carries thank you very much. Bless you. Next speaker, please. Item 7 is report of the general manager. So the first item is an update on the drought steve richie. Gadget steve richie assistant general manager for the water slides please with the drought updates pretty standard here again, our reservoir levels show you hetch hetchy is still about 72 percent holding steadily and drawing down the water supply before you in flows and water bank has down and maintain that up in the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir the precipitation front again, were still ahead of the medium curve for precipitation for this water year that given on october 1st that red line the black line is the medium we actually for the last year left off 1993 that is the blue line weve added it in for a target to shoot for the snow pack has leveled off over the last few weeks but we have seen a fair amount of precipitation in october and november above average a 40 in percent and more expected on thursday locally well have a half of inch in december not nearly as much of the upper country level on this front the precipitation forecast rookies good an anticipation one or two feet of snow in above 7 feet in the sierra and pro tem on the snow front whether it is up country or in the bay area as well both for thursday turning to consumption those are the october results again in the 15 lowest per capital a 13 are them and customers for San Francisco again about 41 gallons per person per day a low use and is wholesale and the city customers are doing a great job at conjecturally that was october the total chart shows for thanksgiving week demand was down region wide people didnt washer their dishes from thanksgiving dinner but matches colonel in the christmas week that last blue front so we may go lower than last year before the late season when you get do winter the irrigation is gone that is indoor use and eventually cutting back on the total system water savings continues to be high one of the things to know about this that the state water board held a workshop talking about the extension of the drought regulations into 9 next year the govern made a declaration a few weeks ago the drought continues to extend them to october theres been a lot of discussion about folks in the inn land a climate jauflt factor for them and weve indicated in our comments well, if they maintain the goal of 25 percent and reduce there shouldnt be pressure on those folks for low capital to explicit conserve lower weve been working with groups to have redirected impacts of giving someone a break somewhere for that someone doing a good job in early february we go forward thats where we are at ill be happy to answer any questions. Commissioners. No. All right. Next item. So the next is the Hetch Hetchy Cip and at that point wastewater data at the same time. Good afternoon, commissioners i just wanted to highlight where the delays or the Cost Increases were and so for the water and joint projects one project a scheduled detail the lower cherry aqueduct for the permitting approval that took are longer we originally anticipated and we have two projects showing Cost Increases one is other power house projects additional equipment is being ordered and installed and the other is cherry dam outcomes this was approved without Construction Funding so the increase is to include Construction Funding the Power Projects we have 3 projects that are showing scheduled details one is civic center and the Sustainable Program under the Efficiency Program it is really depending on the other departments main dpw doing their improvements and getting money to do the title 24 and Energy Efficiency projects with the larger programs and the other two are the meter monitoring both of them are do not selecting a consultant for strategy those are the hetch hetchy Capital Projects for the wastewater capitalized one project that is detailed by approximately, six most that is oceanside plant handling and coding and the delay is in construction and there is more corotation repair than anticipated so that work is being completed right now so why is sustainable civic center theyre waiting on funding you know barb can help me if im not mistaken the departments do the work and come to puc for title 24 and have Energy Efficiency in the building were not the lead on the projects you. So is there a way to giving them encouragement or a letter of something. Barbara hale assistant general manager our need to collect data about the operations of the building and that in and of itself is an important task for the efficiency measures and that takes time some of the projects taking more time to get the Staff Support you know the building operators are altitudes very busy and were coming and knocking on their door to ask them to take on a new task that part of challenge but we have the contracting capacity and have the ability to provide the support we just need to move it apace that works for our customer. So can you please come back with a timeline to get this done with a sense of urgency those have lost budget money but seem to be put on the back burn theyre important. We can definitely reach out to the other departments that have the facilities but again, it is really challenging when hair operating the building and asking them to get data i mean by just in the nature it is like on the back burner and theyre under staffed were doing everything we can to encourage them. Come back with a timeline that would be great as well. Next item. Lowest the process report good afternoon, commissioners eric sandler assistant general manager of Business Services today, this stem is the next installment in what has been a series of presentations reviewing the Commission Policies before the adoption of the new budget a memo and a policy in youre packet and this presentation summarizes some of the highlights were talking about the rates policy which was established in february 2012 but essentially was a codification in policy form of a number of rates and charges with respect to state law and the city chapter and best practices since then adopted a 4year of sewer and water rates with wholesale water rates and a number of action on power rates so the policy the itself is composed of 4 principles the first be affordability relates to the level the stability of roeven harasses with the long term trend compliance with the late regarding state law contractual sufficiency relates to if you Cost Recovery you recover all the costs of enterprise and transparency relates to how the Commission Goes about developing vetting and proposing and adopting the rates heres some the progress related we regularly show you where the typical bell for water and sewer sophomore puc services compares with other local utilities and we regularly present the 10 year rate projection with the 10 year capital plan and made adjustments in the last study taking form some the rates more the clerk will take the roll to cost of Service Principle and be compliant with them and the great making has involved the transparent process with the oversight by the revenue by the Oversight Committee and siding and the rate fairness board and commission you know as we look at the policy as i reviewed it i think one of the things that struck me which is a theme weve talked about for that the last several months is the review availability weve been seeing the impact on all thE Enterprises as we entered this extended drought well recommend the commission rises the policy for this to perhaps enhance the sufficiency principle to identify the need to balance competing policy objectives when looking at rated skyline so the trade off between a conservatism on one hand and revenue 125ib8g9 on the other so to refresh our memory on our retail water revenue is approximately 15 fixed and metric the sewer rates are 100 percent bio metric so you know as were dealing with the drought and embarking on a very last year Capital Improvement plan for the sewer system is it mines to i think we consider our rate structure issues so we recommend that you direct you go us to come back with a policy revision for the consideration and in january were planning to come and speak but a little bit on the activities with respect to innovation and our wet weather charges ill be happy to answer any questions about the rate policy or take any direction from the commission. First of all, thank you very much i appreciate youre putting this together and as weve been looking for ways to accomplish that i think youre very close to the mark you appreciate the work you do that i guess one question and then a couple of comments the question one of the things the written policy calls out specifically we follow best practices as far as funding our costs i dont know if you have a quick answer or on opinion about that when i talk about traffics thats one of the areas frequently one of the lows that can shortchange r and r as a question when is youre sense as to how were doing on this where were funding appropriate level something we should look at on the budget coming down. So i think some of the challenges you know when the budget that is coming forward has responses to investing in r and r over a 10 year period one of the challenges not only how you invest but how you fund it, it is easy to become addicted to depth and instruction of assets to be reasonably assumed to be rate funding that investment is it so hard to make those transitioned when our facing impacts with respect to increased volumes but ill suggest it make sense for the commission to consider in its debt policy a consideration of how much it wants to fund its Capital Improvement plan with rate funded revenue or debt funded revenue a nice compliment to an r and r program. We video a separate policy as you recall that were going to do be reviewing or is that thats been reviewed early in the year january or february. If there is Something Like that that is a clarification that would make life and direction easier i would encourage you to come forward and propose a change to deal with that and similar kind of thinking a and you talked about maybe amending this policy to include moving towards rates that more fully capture the rates cost im encourage you to come forward as an amendment to consider one thing i noticed that is missing from here was a statement i know what the commission intent direction has been but not made it into the policy over time we wanted to move hetch hetchy general fund power rates towards market and thats something for some reason we didnt put in the last time i part of the reason for doing this not only hocking to see how the department is doing with complying with the policy the other thing the test of the policy itself is if there is areas the policy is deficient more guidance or you think that the commission on record is helpful that is part why we review this coming forward with the amendments that will be helpful. Want to clarify i stated you wanted us to show the general Fund Departments cost of power comes to the cost of market are you talking about the cost of delivery or youre referring to power or i want to be clear. It would be probable be better if i were clear over time the specific obviously how fast that happens it has ripple effects over time we migrate to the Energy Efficient resolution. I think the goal was 0 the cost of actual delivery verse the cost of market so for example, from the cost us 0. 10 per kilowatt for 13 we need to show some benefit providing a power. I wanted to i was getting greedy again. Perhaps youre right that reflects what the commission. As well just to let you know were in the process of working on a cost of Service Study for the power enterprise so we will have a really good 10 east sense of cost of services and other rates and how much will our full costs of service might be. And it maybe appropriate to have some statement to the effect ill hate to get into a position to charge the rates just to cover the cost we may want to a parallel statement that says the objective to manage the enterprise such the costs are less than. You want something the efficiency principle raedz addresses that would you want a specific element in the policy with respect to the power rates or i mean, i think my sense is yes and certainly when you come forward well have a discussion of greater depth but my sense that is something that effects so 34 people and because of the departure from past practice weve moved in that disconnection it is important to have its own medication you can point to and talk about to people. Okay terrific. This question around the cost of service is relevant to all 3 enterprises E Enterprises it is hard to separate from the debt policy when you come forward with our recommendation on a fixed rate it should reference or refresher our minds on the debt policy piece it the r and r question which could fall under the what the could have of services does it fall under it seems to me that would so nuance in there i think we want to try and capture the highlevel of policy in order to set the policies needs a better understanding. We have a great opportunity to revisit in a comprehensive way you know our Debt Service Ratio and Capital Improvement plan and r and r policy. Our hetch hetchy and rates and charges. So figure out when we can undertake that but a helpful education process. I think that is a good idea as we enter into budget time needs to make decisions so somewhere in there to do an education i dont want to lose site of the stormwater. That will be part of it were bringing that in january for an update. Yeah. I think we ar