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you're unmuted. good morning. the meeting will come to order. welcome to the may 17th, 2024 regular meeting of the local agency formation commission. i'm chair connie chan, and i'm joined by commissioner dean preston and hope williams. and i'd like to welcome the newly appointed commissioner, hilary ronen. our clerk is alisa zamora, and i'd like to thank the staff at sfgovtv for broadcasting this meeting. madam clerk, do you have any announcements? yes, madam chair. lafco is convening hybrid meetings that allow in-person attendance and public comment while still providing remote access and public comment via telephone. apologies. chair chan. we okay? we're good now. public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda. those attending in person will be allowed to speak first, and then we will take those who are

waiting on the telephone line. if you wish to provide public comment remotely, the call in information is scrolling across the screen. when connected, you will hear the meeting discussion you're muted, but you will be muted in in listening mode only when your item of interest comes up and public comment is called. those joining us in person should line up to speak, and those on the telephone should dial star three. alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways. email them to myself. the clerk at alisa, alisa samarra s o m e r a at sfgovtv. org or you may submit your written comments via us postal service to our office at city hall one. doctor carlton b goodlett place, room 244, san francisco, california 94102. if you submit written public comment, it will be forwarded to the commissioners and included as part of the official file. madam chair, that concludes my communications. thank you, madam clerk. please roll call. chair. chan, president chan. present.

commissioner. preston. preston. present. commissioner ronen. present. ronen. present. commissioner. williams williams. present. madam chair, you have a quorum. thank you. and with that, madam clerk, please call item number two. item. you're unmuted, madam chair. if you if i could just check real quick. absolutely please. thank you. it looks like we're okay. all right. item number two is election of the chairperson and vice chairperson. thank you, colleagues with recent changes to the commission and the with the most recent resignation of commissioner fielder and the appointment of commissioner ronen. so we have scheduled this opportunity to elect new leadership for lafco, and i

first just want to say, i been the chair since i took office in 2021. i'm very grateful for the opportunity to be part of this body. and, you know, i wanted to just thank thank our council under, khalsa khalsa, and just for your work. and i'm just really. it was a pleasure. it's been a pleasure working with you and your support. we're able to able to hire jeremy pawlak and to be our executive officer, who really just took the baton and started running and really made lafco, the i would say some of the most productive period, it's been an and to just say that with your, with your work to negotiate it almost $800,000. of mou, between us and sfpuc was just a great milestone. and that's so that we can actually

continue to do a lot of work that lafco is really tasked to do for the city and county of san francisco. oftentimes people forget that this is really independent body. apart from the board of supervisors, even though they're members of the board that sit on this body. but i just i know that commissioner shanti singh is not here today, but i still want to give her a shout out, for the work that she has done, because she kept this body going. and make sure we have a quorum and be consistent about it, and then, of course, thank you to commissioner dean preston. coming on board when commissioner, gordon, ma, finished his term. and so, again , then the work that we're doing here around housing, just amazing. and of course, i cannot think about this body without not doing, you know, being able to finish all the work and complete all the research. if not for mr. samurai and just really thank you so much for

being part of the team. and and really doing all the work that you're doing. and so with that, i am, stepping down as the chair of lafco and would like to open the floor for nomination, for both, chairperson and vice chairperson, and, and with that too, though, i just want to say commissioner hope williams, just what a wonderful addition to this body. always very thoughtful about your comments. and part of our contribution to really making sure the mou, we dot all the i's and cross all the t's to make sure that we get to that finishing line. and so i wanted to really take this opportunity to nominate, commissioner hillary ronen, who i know one of the really the most senior member on the board of supervisors, but really someone who i would say a veteran in city hall knows everything about how it works. i cannot think of anyone else. of course, commissioner preston is awesome to. but just

commissioner roland and just, just someone that really has been always been so thoughtful and knows all the issues. i really, really like to nominate her as our chair, and if i may, i was going to hand this to, you know, to commissioner preston now and to make a should i also make the nomination for vice chairperson, or do you want to go ahead? go right ahead. thank you. i then i was if i may, i would like to nominate a commissioner williams to be our vice chair. just wonderful person who again knows the issue really well. and and really coming from a community perspective and coming outside of the city hall and making sure that equity is part of the conversation time and time again for all the conversations that we have, are especially around clean power and all the other issues. so i'm really grateful for your willingness, to be part of this body and would like to also nominate her to be our vice

chair. and so, commissioner preston, thank you, chair chan. and i believe both of those probably need seconds. so i would like to second the nomination of commissioner ronen as chair and commissioner williams as, as vice chair. i also just wanted to take a moment here to thank you for your leadership, on lafco and especially me, leading lafco while juggling we all juggle a lot of things, you know, obviously nobody's a full time lafco commissioner. everyone's doing, you know, obviously supervisors doing their their daily work and all the community leaders who are on here as well, but i would say for you in particular to be navigating some of the complex issues of our budget and, and our mou and others while simultaneously doing all your work for district one and serving as budget chair

and serving as the member of government audit and oversight committee with me and so forth. and a long list of things. so just really want to commend you for, for, for making the time to be a real visionary leader on this body. and you've talked about some of the important work that's done here. and i think, you know, just just as an observation, it's like lafco is a is a hard body, i think, for city government in this city. and the relationship between the different arms of government and our, our lafco is a little different than, than in other jurisdictions. and so, i think that, it's, really important that people on the board of supervisors and community leaders continue to, to prioritize lafco. and, and i have said this whenever our budget comes up here, but i would challenge anyone to find a

department entity, agency, anything within the entire sphere of government in the city and county of san francisco that accomplishes as much on as little as lafco like, it just continues to stun me that that under $1 million annual budget and that that with a with a tiny staff, and i appreciate you thanking and recognizing our council, our staff, the amazing addition of, of mister samurai, and just very proud of the work that's moving forward. and and very excited to have, commissioner ronen take over as, as chair and just want to say that, that i think that all of the issues that lafco deals with are things that commissioner ronen has championed on the board and during her tenure, everything from labor and gig economy work, being a strong

supporter of public banking, of always on the right side and championing on environmental issues and, you know, given the cleanpowersf work and all the work piloting the bike delivery and so forth, that that is, that is coming, being led by this body, i think it's a it's a great fit as well as being one of the stronger voices on the board for, supporting social housing and municipal housing, and, and being always independent of wherever the political winds are blowing at any given moment. so i think that is a great fit. i'm excited by that nomination and this next, era. and i think i have already many times sung the praises of fellow commissioner williams. so i will hold myself back from going through the many reasons why it commissioner williams is so important to this body and to, to, the, the issues

in particularly around housing and environment and public banking in san francisco. but appreciate your service and i think it is great to have you, taking the role, i hope as, as the vice chair. so i will leave it at that. and just but thank you for your for your service and, and, looking forward to, to our new chair and vice chair and then moving forward with work plans and everything for this coming year. thanks. thank you. so seeing no further nominations, i will open this item for public comment. is there any members of the public who wish to speak here in the room? please line up now. seeing no one here, we will go to our remote line. susan's checking to see if we have any callers and there are no callers. madam chair, thank you, madam clerk. and so seeing no public

comments, public comment is now closed. and, madam clerk, i would like to now call the roll on the nomination for both chair and vice chair on the nominations for commissioner ronen as chair and commissioner williams as vice chair. commissioner preston i. preston, i commissioner ronen i ronen i commissioner williams. williams i commissioner chan i chan i therefore ayes. thank you. and the motion passes and congratulations. so now i will pass the gavel to chair ronen. thank you so much. it's a pleasure to be back on lafco. and, i have to say, my desire to come back and work on this committee has a lot to do with my fellow members of the committee and the executive director, who i have had the pleasure of working with, for a

very long time. in fact, director pollack and i were legislative aides together, and i can attest that he is whip smart, totally reliable, and very, very focused on getting real material benefits or material changes done. he's it's not he's not into talking. he's into action. so director pollack, you are a lot of the reason why i'm willing to do this. in my last seven months in office. so thank you so much for all your work, and with that, i will ask madam clerk to please call item number three. item number three is approval of the lafco minutes from the march 15th, 2024 regular meeting. do any commissioners have any changes to the minutes from the march 15th meeting? no, i will open this item up for public comment. if there are any members of the public who wish

to speak here in the room, please line up now. susan is checking to see if we have any callers in the queue. and, madam chair, we have no remote commenters. public comment is now closed. can i have a motion to approve the minutes and i don't need a second. is that correct? we do need a second. okay, second. thank you, motion by commissioner preston. second by, commissioner hope williams. sorry. right yes. i call you hope. now you are commissioner williams to me, can we have a roll call? vote oh, yes. and, before i do that, can i make a motion to excuse commissioner chan? second. on the motion to excuse commissioner chan, vice chair williams. hi. williams. i chair chan is excused. commissioner preston preston i

chair. ronen i ronen i there three eyes. motion passes and now can i get a roll call on the minutes. on the minutes as moved by commissioner preston, seconded by commissioner williams. vice chair williams. i williams i commissioner preston i preston i chair ronen i ronen i there three eyes that motion passes unanimously. madam clerk can you please call item number four. yes item number four is the cleanpowersf updates, including activities in lafco. updates on cleanpowersf studies. wonderful. good morning. hello. good morning. lafco staff, and madam clerk, my name is cheryl taylor, operations manager for cleanpowersf. i'm here today on behalf of michael himes. cleanpowersf director, and i'm here to present your cleanpowersf update. and may i have the slides, please? great

okay. today i will cover. oh, pardon me. let me just get to the next slide. today i will cover current enrollment and service statistics. a recent award from the california community choice association, a newly adopted cleanpowersf rates for fiscal 2425. and finally, i will share a high level schedule for the upcoming integrated resource plan. all right. let's do okay. cleanpowersf continues to successfully serve our customers participation in the program remains stable, and energy sales from supergreen are 100% renewable. portfolio standard eligible product offering now represent more than 15% of cleanpowersf annual retail sales. last month, cleanpowersf staff attended the california community choice association annual conference in

san jose. each year at the conference, chalca announces their community impact awards. the awards honor the innovative initiatives of community choice aggregators across california that are driving decarbonization, promoting equity, furthering outreach and enhancing energy reliability. this year, california energy commission chair david hochschild and kelsey ca ceo beth vaughn presented the awards during the conference's general session, and good news cleanpowersf was the winner in the equity category for the past 15 years. the sfpuc has implemented the go solar sf program, which has distributed nearly $30 million and incentivized and incentivize the construction of approximately 6000 solar installations. these installations have helped reduce the energy equity divide, helping many customers with low incomes throughout san francisco

save on their electricity bills. however, one of the hidden costs of solar is the investment required to maintain the system over time. pardon me? inverters need to be replaced over time, yet the high cost presents barriers for many rooftop solar owners with low incomes to address this cost barrier, the sfpuc designed and launched the solar inverter replacement program to help qualified cleanpowersf customers maintain their go solar sf solar installation by providing direct financial assistance for system inspections, inverter replacements and repairs. so we have a link to the video, but i'm going to just point you to the link below to watch later, it's very inspiring. video okay, now on to cleanpowersf 2425 rates. this past tuesday, the san francisco public public utilities commission approved

new cleanpowersf rates for the upcoming fiscal year beginning july 1st. our key goals for setting rates were both to maintain competitive rates with pg and e, as well as provide equitable rates for our customers. another goal is to build fund balance reserves so that there is an adequate cushion in support of long term financial stability and health, and incomplete science. with san francisco pwcs reserves policy c to keep customers and the public informed of our annual public rate setting process, our power communications team developed and implemented a plan for proactively communicating to both cleanpowersf and hetch hetchy power customers through various strategies. in early march, a dedicated power rates landing page was developed and launched on sfpuc. org to serve as a one stop shop for information about the rates process and proposed rate changes. in april, both

cleanpowersf and hetch hetchy power customers received notification of the upcoming rate change through on bill messaging, direct mail, postcards and customer emails. informational webinars were also held for residential customers. to learn more about the rate changes and to get questions answered, rate notifications and information was made available in multiple languages, including english, chinese, spanish, and filipino. power communications is continuing its customer communications activities between now and july 1st to make sure that customers are aware of the upcoming rate changes so now to discuss the rate structure, our rate structure for cleanpowersf follows pg e's structure for distribution rates. so i want to point you to the stacked bar charts on the right side of the page. these are the current average monthly bill for residential customers on time of use rates for both pg

and e and cleanpowersf customers, the pg and e delivery charges indicated by the gray sections are the same. the lighter blue slivers in the middle represent the $2 franchise fee surcharge paid by both cleanpowersf and pg and e customers, and the additional approximately $1 more for the power charge indifference adjustment paid by cleanpowersf customers. the cleanpowersf green bar up top versus the pg and e darker blue bar represents the respective generation cost customers pay. as you see, cleanpowersf customer residential customers save an average of about $6 per month on their total bill over pg and e customers on the same rate. so what can customers expect come july 1st? i'll try to quickly walk through this so overall, as of july 1st, cleanpowersf rates

for all customer classes will remain at or lower than pg gas generation rates, and keeping the focus on changes to residential rates. what you're seeing here on this slide is a chart showing a comparison of the average monthly bills for a residential customer. on the left hand side represents the bar graph from the previous slide. again, it shows the average customer bills as of today. on the right hand side, the bars show what we expect the average bill to be for residential customers. as of july 1st. now, talking about cost differences, as seen again, the cluster of bars on the right show the average cost of bills with projected new rates for cleanpowersf and pg and e, which would start on july 1st. you'll see that cleanpowersf rates will increase slightly. a cleanpowersf customer's generation charge will increase on average about $4 a month, moving from $35 to $39. it's

also important to note here that cleanpowersf generation rates will stay the same for fiscal year 2025. again, that's the green box that indicates an average charge of $39. that will not change for a year. on the other hand, we expect that pg and e will will continue to change their rates for both generation and delivery service over the next year. indeed, since the start of this year, pg and e has already implemented two rate changes before this upcoming july rate change. so we do recognize that bill changes, impact our customers differently, and we're here to help for any of our customers who may need assistance managing their bills. there are a variety of programs available. there are state programs like karen farrah that provide a monthly discount for on income eligible customers, electricity bills. there's also the medical baseline, which is a program that allows customers with

qualifying medical conditions to use more energy at a lower rate. there is budget billing and payment plans that can help customers manage their bills and get back on track if they've fallen behind. and two federal programs administered by the state of california for the low income home energy assistance program, or liheap, and relief for energy assistance through community help or reach. these programs offer one time credits to help with energy bills and prevent power disconnections or shutoffs. for more information, i invite you to check out the link below, and by visiting our page. and finally, i want to sort of shift gears to the final topic. wanted to provide you an update on the integrated resource plan. so to refresh an integrated resource plan is an energy planning tool or process used to support achieving policy goals and meeting regulatory requirements. california law requires retail sellers of

electricity to develop a plan that evaluates electricity supply and demand, and identifies energy resource options that can deliver reliable and cost effective energy to customers. the california public utilities commission, or cpuc, which reviews the integrated resource plans, sets the parameters and schedule for retail sellers under its jurisdiction. and recently, the cpuc has announced that the next irp will be due on november 1st, 2025. the cpuc will present required inputs and assumptions by january first of next year, and will issue final filing requirements by may 2025. so as we approach these dates, we expect the cpuc to provide more detail that will inform our plan development process. okay, so that concludes my update and i'm happy to answer any questions. thank you so much, commissioner williams. thank you for that presentation. it's

always one of the highlights of these meetings. i was wondering a couple of things if that's okay. asking two questions. okay, why the increase s in the in the rates. so a good question, the increase the increase in the rates is driven by, largely our sfpuc financial policy, which states a minimum level of financial reserves. and this is really to sort of cushion the program as well as customers, against sort of like rate shocks where, if i may say, on the pg and e side, there have been multiple rates rate increases in these past, gosh, four and a half months alone, this is something that we, sort of don't want for our customers. we, you know, sort of want to provide our customers with a sure, solid rate that they know that they can count on for, for

at least a fiscal year, so, one, it's to ensure the financial stability over, sort of over time for the program, and, you know, sort of prevent, sort of shocks in case, you know, some prices go up unexpectedly. you know, in the energy markets. thank you. and one more question, the resources on how to lower your bill. was that a part of the distribution of the notifications, i believe so, but let me defer to my colleague peter galata, the power communications manager. thank thanks, cheryl. good morning. commissioners as peter, galata communications manager for power at the sfpuc, thank you for that question, commissioner. so on the materials that we put together, we developed that landing page on sfpuc. org, where there's information that includes, information about our assistance program. so customers and going to that page would be

able to access information about those programs. also in our notifications, customers can also contact our call center. and our customer service agents are able to walk through and point customers to these programs, help them get enrolled, and we also made sure that customers have that option as well. yeah. thank you. thank you so much. any other questions? nope. thank you so much for your presentation, we will now go to director pollock for any additional presentations . great. thank you very much. jeremy pollock, lafco executive officer and let me pull up my slides here. sfgovtv i'm sharing through the teams meeting. and going to give a couple of brief updates on the studies that we're working on as part of the mou with the sf puc. i'm going to give a brief update on the

battery energy storage system study, and mr. samurai will give us an update about the green banking study, so the first study that we've undertaken as part of the mou is around battery energy storage systems. these are the batteries attached to rooftop solar to help store energy for resiliency. and meeting peak demand, this study is divided into two phase scope of work, with the first phase being focused on our three occupancy buildings. that's one and two unit buildings. and, pretty much the simplest and most prevalent, application where we have rooftop solar with batteries in the cities and looking at policies and permitting, around that, phase two of the, of the study is looking at our two occupancy, which is larger multi-unit buildings and other issues related to batteries, issues like the workforce issues and job opportunities and training and additional abilities for

managing these these batteries as a virtual power plant, to help meeting peak demand for the city, and so lafco is contracting with arup is our consultant on this, who has a team of fire safety engineers and analysts who have been working with a core team, including lafco staff, sfpuc and the department of the environment. and they're nearing completion on phase one of the study, we've just received feedback from the fire department and department of building inspection, the two permitting and inspecting departments, and we're trying to solicit feedback from industry and, and other stakeholders on this, there continuing work on phase two. and we've extended the, the, the schedule on this, this study, as we alluded to in our last, previous meeting to allow more time for feedback on this. i think the original schedule set was was very aggressive and very fast moving. and i think with the busy schedules of the departments that we've been getting feedback from, we wanted to make sure we

gave them time to fully digest this and get feedback and so, just received several comments from the department of building inspection after meeting with them, and also from fire marshal ken coughlin and, yeah, arup is reviewing those and will be completing a final draft of the phase one study soon and aiming to complete both of those phases by the end of june. and looking forward to presenting those to the commission in july, and with that, i'll turn it over to mr. samurai to talk about the green bank finance study. hello, commissioners, as a reminder, the green bank finance study is part of our mou with sfpuc and is focused on how the city can access the greenhouse gas reduction fund to help it start a san francisco green bank, as a reminder, the grf is part of the

inflation reduction act being administered by the epa. additionally, the study will focus on how that funding and resulting programs could benefit cleanpowersf ratepayers. this study will build on the san francisco reinvestment working group's plans for a municipal financial corporation that can serve as the city's green bank, we're currently in coordination with sfpuc on refining the scope of work for the study, and once that rfp is completed with sfpuc , we will also share it with the green finance working group, which is made up of, the treasurer department of environment, mohd. and department of homeless services, we're also exploring additional funding to complement this, green bank financing study to do additional, studies outside of just how a green bank could benefit cleanpowersf ratepayers on the greenhouse gas reduction fund. so, as i said, the, it's being administered by the epa. the epa recently announced the

initial awardees for the grf, for two of its largest, programs, the national clean investment fund and the clean communities investment accelerator. the epa is currently in negotiations with those top award, top level awardees. and once those negotiations are complete, those awardees will then distribute funding, to the, other entities, including potentially the city of san francisco and the san francisco green bank, this lafco study that i'm, i discussed just a second ago is, aims to support the city in applying for funds for these awards to support lending programs, several of the coalitions who have been, granted, top level awards were part of, we have been in contact with. sorry, in november of last year, in coordination with the department of environment, the office of the mayor provided two letters of general support from san francisco, one for the ncf

and one for the csia. supervisor preston. commissioner preston also introduced a resolution in support of the letters, with approval of all departments involved, as the department of environment and lafco staff sent those letters to several of the coalitions. we sent the letter to five coalitions directly and worked with the treasurer's office to send it to a sixth coalition. all six of those coalitions have been awarded grants, they're right here, so the end. cif all three of the top level applicants that we sent letters to have been awarded these are the only three applicant, awardees of the ncf. and for the clean communities investor, investment accelerator, these are three of the five awardees we that we sent out, letters of support to the other two not included on this powerpoint slide are the appalachian community capital, which is a nonprofit cdfi of, communities in the rural america

, and the native cdfi network, which is a nonprofit that serves, over 60 treasury us treasury certified native cdfis. the next step for this will be for san francisco to develop an application to, as many of these awardees as we would like. there's an additional component of the grf called solar for all that is not part of lafcos, outreach. however, there are three awardees for solar for all who serve california, the main one being the california infrastructure economic development bank or i bank. and there's two others that are multi state awardees that will also be serving california, and that's it for the green bank finance study update. thank you so much. any questions. no thank

you for that. oh sorry. commissioner williams. i have been wrong for battery energy storage systems. i was wondering if you kind of foresee any study for, introducing that system to commercial and mixed use properties, the question about, applying making batteries available for commercial and mixed use buildings. yeah, definitely. i think that will be something to look at in the phase two of the study that's looking at the larger multi-unit buildings, and yeah, i think, you know, i haven't seen the, you know, the draft, related to that from, from eric. but i'm imagining that it'll have like a slightly those type of buildings will have a different kind of usage profile from residential buildings on when there's the peak demand for electricity and yeah, it'll be interesting to see how the batteries are able

to assist those buildings in in meeting their demands and lowering their electricity usage and, and costs, yeah. i think, you know, a theme that's sort of emerging out of the study is, is really just the challenging economics of, of the batteries. you know, these are expensive upfront costs for these batteries, and i think with, the changes in the net energy metering program at the state level, that is giving customers less money when they they generate excess rooftop solar energy, that makes it harder to pencil out that, putting rooftop solar on on these larger buildings, and so, yeah, i think that's going to be a challenge for, for policymakers to look, look at of how do we make this pencil out to encourage people to do this with, like, the certainty that it's going to pay off for them? and i think that's a great tie in to the green bank study and looking at at financing mechanisms that a

potential green bank could offer to commercial and, and mixed use buildings to, to finance those costs to, avoid that that large upfront payment and have the savings to pay off the loan over years. so yeah i'm not sure if that speaks to your question, but if you have any other questions, happy to weigh in. no. thank you so much. wonderful. thank you. we can now open this item up for public comment. oh, sorry. right after, commissioner preston, thank you. know, my apologies for not, getting on the roster earlier. i was just curious on the timeline. and thank you, mr. samurai, for your all your work and presentation, but, just, wondering when the epa announcements came out, but then also the process of, of, i mean, those, those funds, my understanding is those funds potentially start kicking in around in july, if i'm not mistaken. but then there's if

you could just walk us through the process of in terms of san francisco, actually seeking those funds, what the what the process and timeline would be for that, certainly, commissioner, the epa issued its awards in april, to these initial grantees, the, these grantees have applications. they send in applications to the epa, which are public now, where they essentially outline what it is they're planning on doing, for example, climate united fund wants to spend of its $6 billion award, at least 60% of that on low income and disadvantaged communities, 20% in rural communities and 10% in tribal communities. so depending on those, the details of those programs that will determine how san francisco applies and to which ones, there are departments in san francisco

currently that could probably qualify. however the impact of, the grf and the funding that san francisco could receive going through a san francisco green bank would have a much higher, impact in san francisco and its ability to issue funding as well as attract private funding, to these green initiatives that the green bank would be focused on. and as a reminder for us, the reinvestment working group outlined three priority areas for san francisco. after doing several focus groups, which are affordable housing, small business support, and ecological sustainability. these are specific and we in that work they outlined specific loan products that a potential green bank could offer san francisco that would support those priority areas. so once the epa and these national coalitions finalized their, application

process, then either san francisco can apply, depending on on the department or as we are form, we form the san francisco green bank, the san francisco green bank itself could apply to these funds and receive capitalization and funding to do its work. so this wouldn't leave the entire capitalization funding stack burden on the city, the federal government is, trying to help, start green banks all across the nation. that's the essential purpose of these programs. thank you for laying that out. and i just really i want to emphasize that, you know, we've talked a lot about reinvestment working group and the recommendations coming out of that and the plan that was then accepted by the board of supervisors unanimously. they, as you say, there there are kind of two paths, right? one is these

departments applying directly for funds, the other is doing so through a green bank, which will which will likely make us, more competitive and able to secure more funds and i just, you know, we have our office has been trying to move forward around the creation of the precursor public bank, entities, the mfc, the green bank, and, have been been challenged by, at the city attorney's office, a limited, capacity in-house and a need to contract out with, with experts in that area. and, and i just i bring this up, especially as, in these chambers as the board of supervisors heading into or in the middle of budget conversations, and also seeking, to the greatest extent possible to, to access philanthropic dollars to try to support these

efforts. but i but i just, you know, in in seeing and you laid out so clearly the amounts of money that we could be getting in, and be more competitive for if we, seize the moment pretty quickly, t to move forward with a more formal structure, for green bank, i just, i just wanted to kind of put on the record what what i see is the urgency on that front and the need, you know, as a, as a city. and this is beyond lafco, although obviously in partnership with lafco, to, to create that, that structure because this kind of funding doesn't come along every day, nor does the interest of the federal government in essentially supporting local public banking for the purposes of green infrastructure and environmental sustainability. so just want to do everything possible to seize that opportunity. and i know that, that our executive officer and, and, and mr. zamora have been

working overtime to make sure that, when, when the political will and the funding for the infrastructure side of it is, is there that we're that we're ready to go. so we will we will keep pushing on that. thank you. thank you. now we can open this item up for public comment. if any members of the public are here in the chamber and wish to speak, please line up now. susie nose is checking to see if we have any callers in the queue. and we do. if you could please put the first caller forward. you have madam chair at two minutes. hello. three minutes, two minutes. yes. caller. you have two minutes. please proceed. okay. this will be quick, my name is sarah greenwald. i was struck by the slide that says, the sfpuc slide that says super green now

accounts for more than 15% of retail sales, which is good, you know, but it's far from 100. so i wondered if, how the, how you plan to increase that, how sfpuc plans to increase that. and also looking at the same slide, really, our climate goals and actions will require a lot more clean electric power as the city moves away from methane and gasoline use. so i also wondered what the plan is to accomplish that. thank you. thank you for your comments. thank do we have any other callers? thank you. that concludes the queue. madam chair. public comment is now closed. i wanted to see if anyone from puc wanted to respond to the comment of the caller, hello again, cheryl taylor, operations manager for cleanpowersf, so my understanding is the caller was asking about, when the clean

power power supply will be 100% great. what i understood was how are you going to increase the super green applicants in the program? is that what others heard, yeah. okay. yes. so we do have, i believe we'd be working in concert with the san francisco environment department on implementing the renewable energy ordinance. i believe there's a requirement, for buildings. i believe it's. is it the 250,000ft!s and above to receive all of their energy from , clean, renewable sources? so we're working with the department for the environment, sort of kind of making sure that super green is a viable option for these building owners. but as well, i do want to, sort of maybe remind the community that as a goal, san francisco, targets being having 100, clean

slash ghg free, energy source for its cleanpowersf products, which we believe we'll achieve by next year, 2025, so, we're on that road. we are, both renewable portfolio standard eligible products like solar, wind, geothermal, small hydro. but also we've got a ghg free portfolio, greenhouse gas free portfolio of large hydro. and i think we're approaching i believe we're about high 80s, low 90s, percentage over overall for our products. so i hope that is that's a sort of acceptable answer. that is really great to hear, because i've been worried with the price of energy going up so high and so many people struggling financially right now

, that it's going to be harder and harder to get people to opt in to super green when they can barely afford you know, their electricity bills as it is or so , that's good to hear. thank you. thank you. wonderful, so i don't think we need to take any action on this item because it was just a presentation. so i will ask the clerk to read item number five, item number five is the final budget and work plan for fiscal year 2024 through 2025. thank you. and i. i believe i'm going to make a motion to continue this item to the next meeting, mr. pollack, actually, we, the intention would be to vote on just the budget portion of this item and to continue the work plan. okay. great so i'm sorry, i'd like to announce i intend to continue the work plan to the july meeting, but we will hear from from director pollack about the budget. that's right. thank you,

jeremy pollack, lafco, executive officer, and so lafco is statutorily required to approve a proposed budget by may 1st and the final budget by june 15th, last month, we approved the proposed budget or the last meeting in march. and before you is the final budget that has to be approved before june 15th? we've adopted this custom of also approving a work plan that narrative description of the work we plan to accomplish with the budget, we want to make some, some final adjustments to that, that that won't impact the budget and that, whatever we bring back to you in the july meeting will, conform with the budget before you, and so this budget is unchanged from the proposed budget that was approved in march, the total is $783,000, three 783 $357, $22,000 increase from the previous year, and we managed to

keep the general fund, statutory amount the same at $386,000, and so the budget source includes, $250,000 from the mou with the sfpuc, and the remainder coming from the carry forward from the previous years unspent balance. we were able to stay under budget for the year, the, the proposed expenditures are essentially unchanged from, from last year, the main increase is just the cost of living increases from, staff expenses and the cal lafco membership dues, with switching from monthly meetings to bi monthly meetings, we had some savings in sfgovtv that saved us about $4,000, and, yeah, i think that's the quick summary, the packet includes the, the spreadsheet breaking down the budget, and we'll return at our next meeting with, the final work plan. and happy to answer any questions you all have. sounds great. any questions? colleagues? no. okay we. so

we'll make, open this item up for public comment. if there is any member of the public who wishes to speak on item number five, the final budget for fiscal year 2024 2025, please line up now. susie. nose is checking to see if we have any callers in the queue. and madam chair, we have no public commenters. public comment is now closed, would any of my colleagues like to make a motion? on the, budget separate from the line? yes. i moved to adopt the budget second. so on the motion to accept the budget. yes, madam chair, and to clarify , the motion is to approve the final budget in the amount of $783,357 and requesting the statutory amount of $386,113 from the city and county of san francisco general fund. on that motion, vice chair williams i,

williams i commissioner preston i preston i chair. ronen i ronen i there three eyes that motion passes unanimously and can i make a motion to continue the work plan discussion for the july meeting. second on the motion to continue the work plan, vice chair williams i. williams i commissioner preston preston i chair. ronen i ronen i there three eyes and that motion passes unanimously. thank you madam clerk. can you please read item number six? item number six is a resolution supporting california senate bill 1209, local agency formation commission indemnification director or executive officer. pollack i've been calling you director, but you're actually an executive officer. i should read my script. thank you. it's a unique title that i don't know

where it came from, but that's what's written into the, the codes of the state government code, so item number six, this is a resolution in support of sb 1209, a state bill, that's primarily dealing with other local agency formation commissions. this is a bill sponsored by cal lafco, and let's see, an sfgovtv. if you can bring up the slide, i'm sharing through teams, please, and so, this is, a bill that basically is to allow lafco to require applicants for, for changes of government boundaries or special districts to indemnify lafco, for, for their decision, so, you know, as you all know, san francisco lafco is unique in as a consolidated city and county with no special districts. we don't deal with the boundary changes. that is the main work of most lafcos, so this measure is basically in support of, of other lafcos, there is, you know, the

potential that in the future we could see, you know, a special use district, this lafco was originally formed back in the year 2000 when there was a proposed municipal utility district between brisbane and san francisco. so or that sort of action or the creation of a special district could bring this kind of issue to san francisco, where we would see a proposal, and so, historically, a lot of lafcos have required applicants for, for those kinds of changes to indemnify lafco, but in 2022, there was a court decision against the san luis obispo, obispo, lafco that said there was no statutory authority to require that indemnification clause, and so this has basically been described by some lafcos as sort of an existential threat to lafcos, with kind of the worst case being that, basically an applicant threatening, a large lawsuit against the lafco if they don't rule the way they want to, and

that, that cost of, of defending itself in court would have to be borne by the funding agencies of the lafco, here in san francisco. that is the entirely from the city and county of san francisco, and so, lafcos have had historically operated assuming that this was, was, was allowed. there are some ambiguity in the codes about whether it's allowed. and so it was a surprise with this court decision, also because counties and cities have this right to require indemnification on these kind of, discretionary applications, and so this senate bill 1209 would explicitly authorize lafcos to require this indemnification, and so, so, yeah, asking you to support this in solid parity with the other lafcos in the state. and, you know, for that, strange future case where this could come to a come to our city and county. so happy to answer any questions. if thank you. that was a really clear explanation. i appreciate

that, any questions? colleagues? no no. okay. we can open this item up for public comment. yes. if there is any member of the public wish to speak to on item number six, please line up now. susan enos is checking to see if we have any callers in the queue . and, madam chair, we have no, public commenters. okay. public comment is now closed. i'd like to make a motion to approve this resolution. second, on the motion for item number six, vice chair williams, i, williams i commissioner preston i preston i chair. ronen i ronen i there three eyes motion passes unanimously madam clerk can you please read item number seven. yes. item number seven is the executive officer's report, including a recap of lafco climate week event on green banking and municipal. municipal housing. the midtown park apartment study updates, municipal housing agency study,

rfp and the forward calendar. pass it back to executive officer pollack. great. thank you very much. sfgovtv, if you can pull up the presentation i'm sharing through teams, it's just a few quick housekeeping updates, one other update is about the vacant public seat with the resignation of commissioner fielder, we're looking for applicants for the remainder of her term that runs through, february of 2026, and hoping to schedule that for an appointment at our next meeting in july, would appreciate any help from the commission. and spreading the word had some interest, but always eager to see who else is out there in san francisco and interested in serving and helping us with these issues, the two main eligibility requirements is that, the public members must live in the city and county of san francisco. there's no ability for a residency waiver, and you cannot be an officer or employee of the city and county of san francisco. executive officer pollack, you're not

sharing on teams. they can't pull them up, let me try again. i, i thought it showed i was sharing. okay. trying. there we go. there we go, and, we'll move on to just a quick recap of the climate week event that we held on on april 26th, this was, an initiative from, then chair connie chan to, organize an event to highlight lafcos work around the climate crisis as part of the san francisco climate week. and so we organized two panel discussions on on green banking and on the nexus of municipal housing and climate issues, wanted to give thanks to the san francisco port for making their conference room available, and for sfgovtv for coming out and recording that, the video that is posted on sfgovtv and youtube and, yeah, i

think we had, about 50 or so attendees and a lot of lot of great interest and a good happy hour discussion afterwards with a lot of people new to lafcos, work with and, interested in green banking and housing issues and yeah, big thanks to all of our commissioners who participated, commissioner williams, who, facilitated the discussion on housing, along with commissioner singh and, former commissioner jackie fielder, who was part of the green banking, panel and all the other great outside experts we had on those discussions, and with that, i'll turn it over to mr. samurai for an update on the midtown and municipal housing. thank you. hello again, commissioners, for the midtown park apartments municipal housing management study, we are continuing on track. we just had our fourth resident engagement meeting, a few weeks ago. our

lafco consultants are conducting a resident a resident engagement process and property conditions assessment. we have the initial numbers for the property conditions assessment, but the consultants are workshopping those with hcd and chalco, the property management company for midtown apartments, our next resident engagement meeting will occur sometime in either june or july, depending on resident availability and as a reminder, the final deliverable for this study will be a report documenting this process making and making recommendations for the future management of midtown park apartments and include a property conditions assessment as well as the cost. the consultants aim to complete the study in early 2025, and lafco has also, put together a web page of all all of this, information as well as documents from the resident engagement

meetings. the initial property condition assessment and all the historical documents we've received from midtown. thanks to especially cindy at mohd. that's it for midtown. oh, and, we are also next study, the municipal housing agency study, as a reminder, lafcos work, work plan includes a feasibility study for cross subsidy, mixed income, city owned housing in san francisco. we issued an rfp in february to conduct this study to determine the viability, and recommended structure of this agency. after reviewing the proposals, lafco decided not to award a contract for this rfp and to reissue the rfp, the main difference between the reissued rfp and the initial is, three things a not to exceed of $200,000 has been added to the rfp. proposers are required to provide a budget which they will be, will be factored into the

scoring. there was a symposium requirement for the first, rfp that has been removed, this was, to complement the study on, the housing agency by presenting it to the public. we've removed that and we'll do a separate, symposium rfp after the study is complete. and we've included additional language, in the rfp to provide clarity on the public disclosure limitations of confidential information that applicants provide to us. and, again, all this information is also, as well as the rfp, which is open right now and due on may 22nd, is available on the lafco website. thank you. i would just add the last item we have is the forward calendar that has, anticipated items that is posted on the, the agenda that, happy to take any questions on, on

that or any of the other items. and that concludes our presentation. wonderful. thank you, commissioner williams. yes thank you so much for those updates. really appreciate your due diligence. i was wondering, for the midtown apartments if there is a particular housing model that they're leaning towards, that you know, of the like going through a clt, we actually had the, the, the consultant staff, brought someone from the san francisco land trust to present to residents, actually former, a-2 supervisor preston kyle was the one who came to do the presentation, he did a really great presentation. they were really engaged. the residents, like that model, but have a very healthy distrust of any government or the city of san francisco and so want to base there seems to be some interest in basing their model on the san francisco land trust limited equity, co-op, but have it be something specific to midtown

that serves the midtown residents. great. thank you so much. commissioner preston. thank you. chair ronen, and thank you for the ongoing work and for the reports. and, my understanding is they're they're really trying not to start with the conclusion, right. and really trying to explore the different models. so it's great to see that. and so that the residents through this process, are gaining the expertise and understanding around what the pros and cons of different models are. before before they wrap up. so it's good to see it sometimes can be, require a little more patience to do that as opposed to the more typical kind of announcement of a certain model. and then the workshops to kind of get everyone on board. but it's good to see that proceeding, and i do want to say and, and, and recognize and thank, mayor's office of housing and community

development and, and, and with the new leadership there as well, the, the involvement and engagement in this process, there's obviously a long history, as you referenced, of distrust of midtown residents of, of the city and the mayor's office of housing in particular, and obviously there's a long way to go to see where this study leads and then see how to resource the plan that the that the residents come up with, but i appreciate the collaboration and really the openness of the city staff that's been involved. cindy evans and, and as i said, the new director there. so, a long way to go, but definitely really, really encouraging to see that, that it moving forward. so thank you for all the work on that. wonderful. thank you so much. can we please

open this item up for public comment? yes. we've seen no individuals here in the room. we're going to go to our remote line. susie nose is checking to see if we have any callers. and, madam chair, there are no public commenters. public comment is now closed. madam clerk, can you please call item number eight? and just to clarify, for the record, there was no action taken on item seven, item number eight is general public comment. members of the public may address the local agency formation commission on matters that are within their jurisdiction and not on today's agenda. seeing no public here in the chamber with us, we are going to our remote line, pausing to give a chance for them to raise their hand. and madam chair, there are no public commenters. public comment is now closed. madam clerk, can you please read item number nine? item number nine is future agenda items. colleagues, any future agenda items? seeing none

, let's open this item up for public comment. seeing no one here in the chamber will go straight to our remote line. we are checking for the last time to see if we have anyone who would love to, who would like to provide public comment and see no one in line. madam chair, public comment is now closed. madam clerk, do we have any other items before us today? that concludes our business for today. the meeting is adjourned

government television. >> my name is kevin roger tang one live owners and at a 2 owe 50 that's it avenue in the

sunset so the bayview original hip hop store we have music so every purchase counts for either the charts and the tri work chart that is acquired by 3 best friends we love k pop and why not share that and would the community here in the bay. and originally supposed to open up an eco but unfortunately, the covid hit by the we got creative with the social media and engaged and bring in people within the being sure like pop and the instagram live or hip hope to bring that connection with the bayview k pop community and we grow. and hello we're a collective store so the cc

around us within us has the cards people like to collect and try to collect limited edition mr. sincroy manufacturers like a state university or memorial and we have which is a venue for people to kind of make new friends and open up they're a goods and invite people to stay and oftentimes see the context we're very, very fortunate and everyone is super sweet and loveable to sum up i guess two words is a second home (background noise) and a lot of people visit. >> and connect this place even if it is really cool. >> san francisco is a city known for music and art and we

at the pop store we to go show the k love and added to the diversity of music and the way of the community. >> it is safe place it is a great way to dmrofr new things and any friends and it is saying hello 2050 carville from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and followup on the (laughter). >> hi, i'm pilipinas chi chai mateo and am the artist here.

i'm current working on a title meaning together and the reason why i choose that theme because celebrating the legacy of some of the latin tennis especially with the power that put us together as formed when he come together and before us putting for our recognition and housing. but through our art culture and we see that today which we're together and it is always a hope for the generations after us. >> here in this district where we revising the languages and culture but in yes or no answer why we do this i get to see kids come out of this kind mr. ryu

rattle where they came from and we are here. such an honor to be part of this legacy of togetherness and those opportunities have painting a mural such as this but teaching different skwashgs and learning more about my culture i thought i already knew but so much more to this is beautiful we have so much to give each other and we're also willing to work >> (music). >> hi, i'm emmy the owner of

emmy's spaghetti i offers working that with some kind of fine dining and apron and feeling stuffy and in the 90s in san francisco it was pretty pretense in a restaurant in the restaurant scene i want to it have a place to have a place for my friends to guess i started the restaurant a no better place the outer mission spaces were available that's when i opt in two 10 he start with all people and work with them and the events they create one of the events we do every year and backpack give away and give piaget away and a christmas part

with a santa and bring 5 hundred meatballs and pa get and we're like in the mission not about them knowing where the food comes from but a part of the community. and my restaurant emmy's spaghetti and fun banquet and san francisco not the thing that everybody knows about we stay under the radar we show the showcase i take it food and we started to eat we wanted to have comfort food and that a claims friend from i take it and helped me create meatballs and dealing evolved over the years in the

beginning one plate of spaghetti and a meatball we tried to make the portions as big as they could be. and now we have quite a few types pasta dishes with a la begin and meat sauce or have a partition to a lot of food we are at a point with all the favorites i don't change the menu often 0 i eat here so much but everything is fresh your cocktail menu is the best it's ever been one thing on the menu our magazine ghetto we change the flavor one of the fun things it is served in the historically we're known emmy's spaghetti as a friendly place and when i

opened i wanted my friend to be welcome and other parents to be welcomed and it is very for this is a place for families especially in san francisco and this is where though hold their celebration important i mean you're coming to a family restaurant and you're coming for o to a fun place i love being the owner and pretty sure my life i enjoy running the psta spaghetti place i hope to be here a while we'll see how it goes we everyone is a friend we're hoping you'll be a >> >> (indiscernible) faces

transformed san francisco street and sidewalks. local business communities are more resilient and our neighborhood centers on more vibrant ask lively. sidewalks and parking lanes can be used for outdoor seating, dining, merchandising and other community activities. we're counting on operators of shared spaces to ensure their sites are accessible for all and safe. hello, san francisco. i love it when i can cross the street in our beauty city and not worry whether car can see me and i want me and my grandma to be safe when we do. we all want to be safe. that's why our city is making sure curb areas near street corners are clear of parked cars and any other structures, so that people driving vehicles, people walking, and people biking can all see each other at the intersection. if cars are parked which are too close to the

crosswalk, drivers can't see who is about to cross the street. it's a proven way to prevent traffic crashes. which have way too much crashes and fatalities in our city. these updates to the shared spaces program will help to ensure safety and accessibility for everyone so we can all enjoy these public spaces. more information is available at sf dot gov slash shared [♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] >> so i grew up in cambridge, massachusetts and i was very fortunate to meet my future wife, now my wife while we were both attending graduate school

at m.i.t., studying urban planning. so this is her hometown. so, we fell in love and moved to her city. [♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] >> i was introduced to this part of town while working on a campaign for gavin, who is running for mayor. i was one of the organizers out here and i met the people and i fell in love with them in the neighborhood. so it also was a place in the city that at the time that i could afford to buy a home and i wanted to own my own home. this is where we laid down our roots like many people in this neighborhood and we started our family and this is where we are going to be. i mean we are the part of san francisco. it's the two neighborhoods with the most children under the age of 18. everybody likes to talk about

how san francisco is not family-friendly, there are not a lot of children and families. we have predominately single family homes. as i said, people move here to buy their first home, maybe with multiple family members or multiple families in the same home and they laid down their roots. [♪♪♪] >> it's different because again, we have little small storefronts. we don't have light industrial space or space where you can build high-rises or large office buildings. so the tech boom will never hit our neighborhood in that way when it comes to jobs. >> turkey, cheddar, avocado, lettuce and mayo, and little bit of mustard. that's my usual.

>> mike is the owner, born and bred in the neighborhood. he worked in the drugstore forever. he saved his money and opened up his own spot. we're always going to support home grown businesses and he spent generations living in this part of town, focusing on the family, and the vibe is great and people feel at home. it's like a little community gathering spot. >> this is the part of the city with a small town feel. a lot of mom and pop businesses, a lot of family run businesses. there is a conversation on whether starbucks would come in. i think there are some people that would embrace that. i think there are others that would prefer that not to be. i think we moved beyond that conversation. i think where we are now, we

really want to enhance and embrace and encourage the businesses and small businesses that we have here. in fact, it's more of a mom and pop style business. i think at the end of the day, what we're really trying to do is encourage and embrace the diversity and enhance that diversity of businesses we already have. we're the only supervisor in the city that has a permanent district office. a lot of folks use cafes or use offices or different places, but i want out and was able to raise money and open up a spot that we could pay for. i'm very fortunate to have that. >> hi, good to see you. just wanted to say hi, hi to the owner, see how he's doing. everything okay? >> yeah. >> good. >> we spend the entire day in

the district so we can talk to constituents and talk to small businesses. we put money in the budget so you guys could be out here. this is like a commercial corridor, so they focus on cleaning the streets and it made a significant impact as you can see. what an improvement it has made to have you guys out here. >> for sure. >> we have a significantly diverse neighborhood and population. so i think that's the richness of the mission and it always has been. it's what made me fall in love with this neighborhood and why i love it so much.

>> thank you all for being here with us today. and obviously a special thank you for wells fargo for hosting us here at 33 market street. good to be in downtown san francisco. i'm simon, the exective director of san francisco new deal a non profit launched at the start of the pandemic and our work strengthens neighborhoods city wide making it easier for small business owners under resourced small business owner ered to succeed and glad tb out in small business week and celebrating all the small businesses in san francisco. today we'll share many celebratory moments but proud to share one

for sf new deal. last week, sf new deal reached a major milestone. we supported 1200 small businesses in san francisco while deploying $45 million in direct financial support and revenue for businesses. [applause] in all 11 districts, city wide. and this is our team has been able to accomplish this in just four short years so we also celebrated our four year anniversary. we launched vacant vibrant a year ago and we have been inspired by the new energy and momentum it brought downtown. the economic health of downtown and san francisco as a quhole and all our neighborhoods are deeply interconnected and vacant to vibrant we are building a down of diverse and inclusive neighborhood and that will mean housing, that means a university, that will mean entertainment zones, that means arts and culture and

everything else laid out in the mayor's road map to downtown for san francisco future. but the key ingredient to building the new downtown is going to be small business. just like they are the key ingredient to the unique identity to all neighborhoods. ypt to acknowledge the small business, the cultural organizations, the artists and creatives opening the pop ups downtown, bringing the spirit to life. it is incredibly challenging to operate a small business in san francisco and these entrepreneurs are leading the way to create a new vision for downtown and our entire city. the first vacant to vibrant cohort launched last fall. we activated pop ups in 9 store fronts in the financial district and thrilled to share today that seven of signed long-term leases and are staying downtown. but there is more. today we are celebrating the expansion

of the program this summer. this morning we publicly announced the second cohort of vacant to vibrant who pop ups launch in june and we are bringing the program to south of market area. vacant to vibrant has been a collective effort. sf new deal partnered with mayor london breed, her office, the office of economic workforce development to get the idea, simple idea, bring small downtown to fill vacant storefronts. we had to work to actually work through the complexity that and all the challenges of real life and we worked in partnership together with the city to make that a success. but right from the jump, wells fargo was there with us. they stepped in to invest alongside the city and were the presenting sponsor of vacant to vibrant and we welcome additional support for vacant to vibrant from visa, jp morgan

chase, wamo, square and others. this is a real public private partnership and demonstrating what is possible when we all work together. in addition to the mayor and oewd i extend thanks to so many city agencies. they had to all say yes to make vacant to viberupt about. office of small business [indiscernible] department of public health and fire department working together it is showing the possibility of what city can do when we say yes to new ideas. very exciting and so finally, big thank you to anna for putting together the community market together. he is one of our vacant to vibrant graduates from the first cohort and working with us now to bring this wonderful market and also ordered this incredible weather. thank you to the new deal team who works across all programs to support small business in san francisco in every day and of course a giant

shout out to kate, she is the program manager for vacant to vibrant and deserves special recognition because her work has been tireless and non stop. now i introduce the-all the other speakers. we'll hear from darlene [applause] come up when you. wells fargo and also the president of wells fargo foundation and then hear from the honorable mayor london breed. [applause] the mayor of our city. and then mike griso, senior vice president at kill roy realty. two vacant to vibrant activators. recently signed a long-term lease downtown after opening her pop up last

fall and also--who is from creamly. you might have samp led the ice cream who we announced is going to bring her ice cream to downtown pop up later this summer. so, now, please join me in welcoming darlene from wells fargo. [applause] >> hello san francisco! isn't this a beautiful day to be out here celebrating our small business community? thank you so much simon for the warm welcome and introduction. i'm thrilled to be here and wells fargo is honored to continue being the presenting sponsor of vacant to vibrant. we are all here today because we love san francisco. in fact, i came out to the san francisco bay area, hard to believe, 36 years ago for college and i loved it so much i decided to make it my home. san francisco is a vibrant,

innovative, resilient city and it is really essential to our local economy that we support the small business community. that's why wells fargo is committed to this project, helping our diverse small business community thrive, recover and flourish. we especially like to thank mayor breed, sf new deal and the office of economic and workforce development for making this project possible and for having a vision for a better future for downtown san francisco. we hope that what is happening today is really a showcase of the transformation that is possible when the non profit, the public and the private sector come together collectively to help revitalize neighborhoods and support small businesses. it really takes a true partnership to fuel growth and it takes all of us here to help keep that going, to

keep it alive and thriving. vacant to vibrant is a prime example of the invasion and can-do spirit of san franciscans working towards a common goal. by filling vacant store fronts with diverse small businesses, our downtown is being revitalized one small business at a time and that's going to have a ripple effect in our economy. as your partner, i'm thrilled to announce the wells fargo foundation is donating $1 million to expand the successful vacant to vibrant program. [applause] wells fargo funding is go to provide small businesses with access to technical assistance and guidance, access to an ecosystem of resources, as well as capital to help these pop ups become permanent locations.

so, thank you for coming today and for celebrating with us and congratulations to the second cohort of small businesses. [applause] >> okay. here we go. now, thank you for those remarks darlene and for the investment and are commitment and partnership from you and the team. it is privilege to work with wells fargo. i have the privilege introducing the mayor of our city, mayor london breed! [applause] >> thank you simon and thank you to new deal for all the amazing work that they have done and will continue to do to make sure that the downtown community of san francisco is vibrant like all other communities in our city. we are so happy to be here today,x and let me just say to darlene and the wells fargo family, which includes so many of the employees located

here today, thank you so much for being a real partner with san francisco and all that you do. and by the way darlene, one of my first jobs in the real world was at wells fargo bank. i was a teller at the branch on california and fillmore. [applause] so, why are we here? downtown isn't going to be what it was before the pandemic, but you know what? it is going to be something better! not only are we going to bring more people to live down here as resident, but we are really lighting up our night life community. in fact, how many of you were at first thursdays? [applause] well, the rest of you, you missed out, because you probably didn't come to work thursday. p let me tell you, that is what happens when you come to work 5 days a week, you see all the excitement, the activity, the food, the music,

the fun, the entertainment making downtown vibrant is so important to the future of this community of san francisco, because before the pandemic, downtown was 9 to 5 financial district. no offense wells fargo. and now, it needs to and has become a community where people live, work and play, and our vacant to vibrant program is just another opportunity to allow for so many small businesses that would never have the opportunity, nor the investors to open up a pop up to determine whether or not they can be successful in a community like downtown. well you know what? there were 9 in the first cohort and as simon said, 7 of those 9 have signed leases to continue! [applause] that is huge and it also gives me hope for the next cohort to be here

and to be a part of the fabric of what makes san francisco so special. our neighborhoods are thriving. in fact, the city provides the first year free where we wave all city fees for those who are starting new businesses. we are seeing thousands of new businesses pop up in communities. we were not having the same success downtown. vacant to vibrant has changed the game and not only has wells fargo made this investment, but in my upcoming budget, not prepared to announce it today, but there will be even more investments in vacant to vibrant because we want to provide opportunity for those incredible creatives, for those folks who have a new idea and want an opportunity to thrive in san francisco and in downtown. we want to make it possible so we will be investing more. but we also cant do this unless we have property owners who are willing to be real partners and provide space.

provide space at another no cost or reduced cost and there is a lot of technicalities of insurance and everything else in between, so we have wells fargo as a partner and investment, but we also have killroy and mike griso from killroy is here to say a few words about the work that we are doing together to insure that not only is killroy a partner in providing space, but we want all other property owners who have buildings down here with empty vacant store fronts to work with the city to make sure that they are vibrant. we want to continue to do not only pop ups, but long-term businesses. there is ice crime, there is bakeries and coffee and vintage clothes and a radio station, kalw! depending what happens today, they might do a interview with you and make you famous.

we are hoping for all that and the above and so, let's welcome mike griso from killroy realty. [applause] >> thank you. i don't know how i will follow that. that is not fair. thank you mayor breed. thank you sf new deal. thank you wells fargo. what a gorgeous day. thank you everyone for being here. thank you to the media for being here and by the way, media, i want you all to report this is what san francisco downtown is like every day. [applause] perfect weather, huge crowd, live music. it isn't like that every day, but it could be like that every day and vacant to vibrant is helping to make it that like that every day. we are so happy to be participating in vacant to vibrant and like the mayor said, i want to encourage every single property owner downtown to participate. it is a lot of work, but at the end of the day it is worth it.

you are activating vacant retail space. i want to acknowledge our team, brooke and megan who are here who worked really hard on this. i thank all our partners, the mayor, sf new deal, office of economic workforce development, the east cust cbd, the chamber of commerce both here. this is how we are going to bring downtown san francisco back. one retail space at a time. we will get people in. we will get people into their offices and make san francisco great and we are going to continue to build on the progress we made so far, so again, thank you everyone for coming. thank you wells fargo for that great gift and let's keep this going. thanks everybody. [applause] >> and now we will hear from-- [applause] >> thank you so much everyone for coming. thank you very much for mayor

london breed and for everybody else that came before me. i dont know how i will be able to up this, but i will try. i am going to really try. you guys really did create a really nice beautiful path for me to be able to come in and speak about my experience. this was a great experience being part of the vacant to vibrant program. san francisco is a really beautiful city. we have been through a lot during the pandemic, but this isn't the endxer , so we should be able to work together as a community and work together to bring back our downtown. downtown san francisco is a place as i remember when i first move to the country, a place that allowed me to be able to think about the american dream in a different way. so, thank you everybody for being here. thank you everybody for allowing us to keep our businesses open. not shutting it down after long

period of having a pandemic. i am at the embarcadero. i was a business that was able to extend their lease and looking forward to creating beautiful nice environment for people to come and enjoy delicious food and healthy food and keep the downtown vibrant, healthy and beautiful. thank you so much everyone. [applause] >> has a beautiful-4 embarcadero center facing embarcadero plaza. [applause] >> hello everyone. hope you are having a wonderful afternoon. what a great day to be outside. my name is--my wife and i opened a ice creamery which makes indian inspired ice cream in san leandro.

when i came to this country, i fell in love with two men, ben and jerry. as i was hitting books hard and the pints i enjoyed the experience but i missed my home, family friends and the long walks we take in summer to go have street food, particularly my favorite, the indian ice cream. fast forward working downtown here as a engineer, project manager for bike lane on second street and projects, the highlight of the day is the lunch meal i go out with colleagues and friends in the evening to go try food from around the world, gush about it, build relationships and all that, and i'm very excitesed i'm going to be at the other side of the table and be able to provide a similar kind of space and joy for people in san francisco. started in 2018 as a small pop up, a small cart and fast forward

post pandemic, 2022 we started a store front in san leandro. 5 minutes from the oakland zoo and encourage everyone to come there at our new space. we are even though we are famous for layering deserts from my family respies into american classic flavors or tamarin -we make indian street food and we love to do desert takes on street food. --we make it a desert version. the only one in the world i've heard. so, you can find us on our website and our social media tags.

i really excited for this opportunity and i want to thank mayor london breed, sf new deal, office of workforce economic development and wells fargo who are not just talking the talk but backing up with a action plan to make us thrive, not just me but so many entrepreneur small business part of the cohort and the previous one. it is very important to have i think marketing, logistics and financial backup to be able to be successful and i feel we have all that with this opportunity we have with new deal. so, very excited and very grateful. thank you for this opportunity and this opportunity to talk right here. have a great day. [applause] >> thank you so much. so, we reached the end of our program, but before i tell you what is coming next, i do want to spend-send a special shout out to urban alchemy and see louie. louie and i go way back. urban alchemy their ambassadors

keep tenderloin, midmarket area safe and transforming public spaces into spaces that people all people can enjoy. thank you urban alchemy. stay tuned as we gear up to announce the grand opening plans and as well as all the actual locations for the eight activators we announced today. coming in june. in the mean time, follow along for more news and announcement vacant to vibrant. enjoy the market and support the vendors. we will do a giant photo ceremony. as you are snacking on the food, take a glance up to the million check wells fargo will give us. please come up. anyone who wants to come up. please, mayor, join us.

>> (music). >> (multiple voices.) >> landing at leidesdorff is as the new public school in

downtown san francisco for people to come together for 0 lunch and weekends a new place to enjoy the architect and our culture. >> landing at leidesdorff one of several initiatives to the road map for the initiatives all about using your public space and network for now environments to 0 invite people adopted not just to the office but any time of the day. >> it shows there is excitement and energy and people wore looking forward to enjoying the space that people may want to end up in downtown. >> we've been operating in the financial district since 2016 with the treasury and coming up we had a small surge in business in the leidesdorff and in about the financial district and a good time to grow here.

>> as a small business the leidesdorff is making us being part of it as being part of in project. for me makes we want to be part of san francisco. >> so landing at leidesdorff for me represents hope for san francisco and the sense that this is become such a safe welcoming area. >> we local artists coming in and exercise boxes and live music but the hub of culture. >> the downtown partnerships has a studio in san francisco. they identified 6 locations throughout the downtown area we come together with new activity and spaces. >> is between us a place to tell our own story and history. >> it was named after a captain one the black leaders of san francisco before that was

called san francisco he was the first treasurer of the city and commercial street a cross street the hifblg original shoreline of san francisco was just a few feet behind where we're 12357b8z around opportunity to bring people to locations we have an opportunity to tell stories and for local businesses. >> community. >> hello, i'm iowa join the series for the city and county of san francisco for thirty years ago all san franciscans can watch their government in action to reliable service and program tuesday's sfgovtv for

all you do and . >> i love that i was in four plus years a a rent control tenant, and it might be normal because the tenant will -- for the longest, i was applying for b.m.r. rental, but i would be in the lottery and never be like 307 or 310. i pretty much had kind of given up on that, and had to leave san francisco. i found out about the san francisco mayor's office of housing about two or three years ago, and i originally did home counseling with someone, but then, my certificate expired, and one of my friends jamie, she was actually interested in purchasing a

unit. i told her about the housing program, the mayor's office, and i told her hey, you've got to do the six hour counseling and the 12 hour training. she said no, i want you to go with me. and then, the very next day that i went to the session, i notice this unit at 616 harrison became available, b.m.i. i was like wow, this could potentially work. housing purchases through the b.m.r. program with the sf mayor's office of housing, they are all lotteries, and for this one, i did win the lottery. there were three people that applied, and they pulled my number first. i won, despite the luck i'd had with the program in the last couple years. things are finally breaking my way. when i first saw the unit, even though i knew it was less than ideal conditions, and it was very junky, i could see what this place could be.

it's slowly beginning to feel like home. i can definitely -- you know, once i got it painted and slowly getting my custom furniture to fit this unit because it's a specialized unit, and all the units are microinterms of being very small. this unit in terms of adaptive, in terms of having a murphy bed, using the walls and ceiling, getting as much space as i can. it's slowly becoming home for me. it is great that san francisco has this program to address, let's say, the housing crisis that exists here in the bay area. it will slowly become home, and i am appreciative that it is a bright spot in an otherwise

>> alright. good morning. my name is ann, ceo for nor cal affordable at related and i'm joined here at the podium by doug, the president of mercy housing california and it is our honor to welcome you all here to the topping out ceremony for sunnydale 3a and 3b. thank you all for coming. [applause] we are so happy to have everyone here to celebrate. it is a big crowd, very exciting and we are also honored to have such distinguished speakers with us today. we will soon be joined by mayor breed, we have senator scott wiener, supervisor walton,