>> the meeting will come to order. welcome march 15, 2024 regular meeting of the local agency formation commission. i'm chair chan joined by vice chair fielder and commissioners preston, williams and singh. our clerk is alyssa somera i like to thank the staff at sfgovtv for broadcasting the meeting. do you have any announcements? >> yes, lafco is convening hybrid meetings. public comment will be taken on each item on the agenda. those attending in person will be allowed to speak first and then take those waiting on the telephone line. if you wish to provide comment

remotely the call in information is scrolling across the screen. you will hear meeting discussion and muted in listening mode only. when your item comes up and public comment is called, those in person should line up to speak and on the phone dial * 3. if you are on the telephone please turn down your tv and listening devices. you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways:e-mail to myself, alisa.somera @sfgov dot gov.if you submit writern public comment it will be forwarded to the commissioners and included as part of the official file. >> thank you. please call the roll.

>> chan, present. fielder, present. preston, present. singh, present. williams, present. madam chair, you have a quorum. >> thank you. with that, madam clerk, please call item 2. >> item 2 is approval of the lafco minutes from january 19, 2024 regular meeting. >> i don't see any name on the roster at this moment, so it is great if we can go to public comment on this item. >> if we have individuals in person who would like to comment please line up to speak. seeing no one in person, we'll go to the public comment line. do we have anyone in the queue to speak? we have jaime who is staffing and checking and no no callers. >> public comment is closed. is there a motion to approve the minutes? >> so moved.

>> second. let's call roll on the motion. >> item 2, fielder, aye. preston, aye. williams, aye. chan, aye. four ayes. >> thank you the motion passes. please call item 3. >> item 3 is clean powersf update including clean powersf activities and lafco update on battery storage and green finance studies. >> thank you, we'll hear from deputy assistant general matter director michael hyams. the floor is yours. >> good morning laugh commissioners. mike hyams. responsible for clean power sf and power resources. happy to see you today. happy friday. i have some slize if slides if you can bring those up.

thank you. for my report today, i'll provide our usual update on clean powersf customer enrollment and service statistics. i'll also provide additional information on electify my ride, the emobile program i introduced to you in january. i wanted to interdue the all electric multi-family program. a program offered now by hetch hetchy power. our local publicly owned power utility that along with clean powersf is operated by the sfpuc power enterprise and lastly share information about our current direct pay activities. clean pow, sf continues to successfully serve our

customers, par tis paig in the program remains stable and energy sales from super green are 100 percent renewable portfolio standard eligible product represents 13 percent of retail sales. at your january meeting i shared the power enterprise would be launching a new e-bike incentive program. this program is called, electify my ride and accepted application february 5. as i shared in jrn, this program offered a $1 thousand off the purchase of a new e-bike as a point of sale discount at participating local bike shops. the development of the program we coordinated with mta

improving biking infrastructure around the city. we gathered information around the coubtry, including programs offered by denver and peninsula clean agency, south san mateo and neighboring communities. we did to learn about their successes and potential pit-falls. one important distinction from these other e-bike programs for electify my ride is we chose to focus the incentive for those most in need. for our program, eligible customers must be enrolled in a energy assistance program and must live in a equity priority community. these are areas within san francisco defined by the metropolitan transportation commission being historically under-served and include consideration of transportation access. a side benefit is it helps draw

customers into the electric bill assistance program and we have seen this hap in in the one month the program has been operating. with the restrictions we have seen a lot of interest in the program. as of today, out of our 100-0000 incentive budget, close to 50 percent of available coupons have been reserved and about 80 coupons already redeemed, again in just a little over a month of operations. we also expanded list of eligible retail locations from two as reported back in january to 8 and growing today. to communicate the program to eligible customers we used a variety of approaches. we sent direct postcards and e-mails alerting customers to the program and provided helpful information on how to apply and redeem their caw coupon. we set up a web page at

sfpuc.org/electifymyride. all our materials are translated into spanish, chinese and filipino to help more customers take advantage of the opportunity. we are excited about this program and we look forward learning from the first round of incentive offerings which closes at the end of april and making refinements before we launch a second round. over the next several weeks we will launch social media advertisements, sharing in language tool kit with community based organizations, members of the board of supervisors, members of lafco if you are interested and other stakeholders and providing helmets and stickers to participating bike retailers to distribute to customers that redeem their coupons. we are really excited about

that program. we are also excited about another program that i like to share and that is hetch hetchy power's new all electric multifamily program. hetch hetchy power reerntly started accepting application for this program which we hope will serve as a model that eventually we can scale. the new multifamily program is currently available to multifamily affordable housing buildings served by hetch hetchy power and helps affordable housing sites start the transition away from natural gas to all electric. through the program we conduct a building site assessment, develop strategy specific to each building system and constraints and help identify other programs such as incentives and or financing opportunities the building may be able to leverage.

we understand the task of electrifying the buildsings can be a long complicated and overwhelming journey and our program affordal housing owners make meaningful first steps towards meeting their electrification goals. one of the objectives of the program is understand if this particular approach is helpful to customers before extending to other multifamily buildings, including power sf customers. we also want to be sure on the clean powersf side we are not duplicating offerings in development or already offered to our customers. let's now switch to direct pay. i think this will warm things up for the rest of your agenda today. direct pay is a new provision established by inflation reduction act that makes federal tax credit s for

qualifying energy projects available to tax exempt entities through a cash payment. clean powersf is working with other cca's to explore direct pay opportunities for utility scale renewable resources. we are discusing our respective goals and the requirements for leveraging direct pay as a new opportunity and hope to issue a solicitation that allows us to see the actual value proposition of direct pay against our standard power purchase agreement model of electricity procurement. in addition, puc engaged financial and legal advisors pursuing direct pay opportunities across our water, wastewater and power enterprises and one of the first set of projects we are pursuing for direct pay are eligible hetch hetchy power owned roof top solar instillations completed in 2023. our sfpuc finance team is working with advisory team to

submit the solar projects eligible for the direct pay money and in the mean-time the same team is helping to proactively identify future projingect opportunities. we have been waiting fwr the final regulation issued by the u.s. treasury for several months now, and that just came out last week. internal and external teams will be reviewing the process and requirements for submitting applications. they are doing so now and working with peer financial advocacy groups to address remaining issues in the regulations. that concludes my prepared remarks and happy to take any questions you might have. >> thank you. vice chair fielder. >> thank you so much all hyams. so, i'm super excited to hear about the new hetch hetchy

program and multifamily housing, and then as far as the direct pay program, is there any way that lafco can be support or board of supervisors? is clean powersf submitting public comment in response if there is a pub luck comment period from treasury? >> i will need to get back to you on the comment period, but our team is looking at that very issue, so happy to follow up with the executive officer on that question. i understand time is probably of the essence, so we can follow upright away. >> amazing, thank you. that's it. >> thank you. i don't see other name on the roster. let's go to item b, which is with our executive aufsher jeremy pollock and policy analyst and [indiscernible] >> good morning chair,

commissioners. jeremy pollock, lafco executive officer. give me a moment to share my presentation. we is a couple brief updates on the first two studies undertaking as part of the mou. i'm speak on the battery study and mr. samurai will speak on the green banking study. our first study is on battery energy storage systems and the policies and permitting around them, and we are contracting with a consultant leading the study and we have been meeting weekly, now transitions to biweekly with core project team including myself and staff and they've circulated a draft of

these initial sections of the research portion of the study that we are providing feedback on and getting ready for the next step is engaging with the two key departments involved in permitting for battery systems. the fire department and it department of building inspection had a great initial meeting with the fire department earlier this week with fire marshal ken coughlin. they have been engaged in president peskin's recent ordinance around mobile batteries and mobile electric devices and so, fairly deep in the weeds on a lot of these issues, and now we are revisiting the roof top storage systems and i think encouraged by the initial results of the safety comparison between these kind of--the kind of home batteries that go along with a roof top solar system, compared

to either electric vehicles or e -mobility devices. the battery chemistry are stable and fire risk seems very low. there is all these manufacturers are tied to large corporation and there is a like public accountability for these batteries, opposed to a lot of the e-scooters that will be-you can get off amazon from fly by night manufacturers that is where we see a lot of fires caused by electric batteries that have lead to places like new york city having a crack down on them and president peskin revisiting the regulation on it. the initial results we are encouraged by the general safety of these batteries and looking forward engaging with these departments to understand what policies we can recommend for expanding instillations of

batteries to help with our climate goals. i think we are on track to complete the study by the end of april and looking forward to having present hopefully at the may lafco meeting. with that, i'll turn it over to mr. samurai to talk about the green bank study. >> thank you. good morning commissioners. just as a reminder, lafco's green bank finance study is part of the mou with puc how the green bank can provide cost savings to. the study build on investment working group for financial corporation that can serve as city green bank, and the purpose of the study is provide outline how potential green bank can leverage diverse spending mechanisms, funding mechanism. outline a pilot program to advance decarbonization goals

and highlight importance of partnerships with community development financial institutions. we recently submitted to our state agencies on climate funding. one to the i bank and california treasurer on climate financing strategies and one to the california energy commission on ira, inflation reduction act home program. the next steps with the green bank finance study are to finalize the scope of work with the green finance working group, which includes puc, treasurer, mohcd and department of homeless services and department of environment. we delayed the timing on developing this final scope because we wanted to wait for the epa to select the first set of coalitions that will be receiving the green house gas reduction funds, and in addition, our other next step is to explore outside funding for green bank financing studies that expand on the

limited scope. >> thank you. >> that complights our presentation. happy to take questions or comments from commissioners. >> vice chair fielder. >> thank you so much executive officer pollock and mr. samurai. my question about battery storage, it has been a while since i have been clued into battery discussions, but what is the-do we know the-what the going rate is for purchasing residential battery storage? >> yeah, good question. i don't have an exact figure in front of me. i believe the ball park figure for a tesla wall is around $15 thousand or so for basic

residential size,b and i think i heard quotes of something like for like installing roof top solar system on a single family with a battery is maybe around $40 thousand in the city. a lot of the manufactures, the preferred model is leasing structure where the manufacturer owns the battery and roof top solar and leases it to the home owner and basically you are paying a lease that will be less then your electric rate and they are responsible for it and a lot of times there is a option to purchase after 5 or 10 years. looking forward to having this report refine those numbers but i think that is the ball park figure what we are looking at. >> got it. thank you. question about duration. what is there invasion is just so fast over the years, so not sure what the going number of

hours is for what standard? >> the number of hours of storage? >> uh-huh. >> i'm not sure. largely depends on the size of the battery. i think. i hesitate to offer a estimate and i think that is one of the key policy things we are looking at is, sort of balancing the desire for people to have larger batteries to have longer storage for emergency resilience with the fire concerns about the larger battery, the larger fire hazard in the house. yeah, so i think that is something we will be spelling out more in the study. >> okay. thank you. those are all my questions. thank you. >> thank you and i saw commissioner williams name on the roster. thank you.

that is great. that means you answered thoroughly. i appreciate it. with that, let's go to public comment on this item. >> there is any individual in the room who would like to speak on item 3, please come forward. no one coming forward, we'll go to public comment line. jaime, do we have anyone in the queue? madam chair, we have no callers. >> public comment is now closed and with that, thank you so much for your presentation today. we really appreciate it and i believe that this is the information item and so we will go to the next item, which is number 4. >> item 4 is presentation on the elective pay provision of the inflation reduction act that allow government entities to claim tax credit for clean energy investments. >> hi. >> is this public comment? >> i believe there is a remote

presenter. >> understood. i was like wait, who is this? >> hi. i'm sorry about the confusion. thank you so much. good morning commissioners. hello everyone. hopefully everyone can see and hear me. i'm not able to share my screen, so if someone can share the attachment provided for the presentation today. >> could i have pause for one second. i think it is best for the record that we introduce the presenter and so i'm going to have executive officer pollock help us to do that. >> great. thank you. jeremy pollock, lafco executive officer and we invited the folks from center for public enterprise to present on the direct pay provisions of inflation reduction act mr. hyams was just speaking about, and also particularly asked

them to look at it in the frame of the green banking study and thinking about how this new opportunity for local governments would fit in with the plans for a green bank and, sounds like-looks like we got--sfgovtv are you able to share now? great. you want to introduce yourself and take it away? >> thank you so much jeremy. appreciate the introduction. good morning commissioners. nice to be here today. my name is advait the energy policy associate at the center for public enterprise a non profit think tank figuring innovative financing solutions. we work pretty closely with department of energy, a few other states designing their green bank programs and been talk toog jeremy

[indiscernible] discuss what using electric pay through the public bank could look like. next slide, please. so, we talked about green banks this morning and i know san francisco is already committed to putting together a public bank. i'll talk about what the capability of the bank could look like in incentivizeing and promoting catalyzing investment into green energy across the city through clean powersf and public utility commission. then go into further description of elective pay or direct pay, a program from inflation reduction act that allows a non profit or tax exempt including the city government [indiscernible] finally, discuss different options for operationalizing electric pay through different program designs around the city and give a summary with new possibilities for project development. i want to leave you with a framework to best address your public clean energy development

needs, particularly through staffing different provisions. let's get started. next slide, please. so, i'll speak to the green bank slides fairly quickly. i think it is important san francisco public bank as a investment institution is able to issue bonds, raise financing and directly lend to project developers. construction finance is one of the biggest needs of the [indiscernible] sf public bank should be prepared to contribute. construction finance is the highest risk part of any private or public property. [indiscernible] working closely with public bank to build construction finance in particular is a major task and collaboration opportunity between them. other capabilities are just as important. the public bank can be taking equity stakes if

[indiscernible] a policy failure in our eyes and important the bank is capable enough to be able to make sure the project is complete. next slide. ultimately, it is important that all project developers in san francisco city developers, prime developers and non profit are able to access the different financial products they need and another thing green banks can look at. not just construction financing, but able to take on different risks to the project developers and supplying contracting, construction and [indiscernible] ultimately the public bank if it has capacity to do public development then the city [difficulty hearing speaker] this is diagram of stylized diagram of what a sf public bank could look like and how becomes a node for coordinating

project development not just in the city but also non profit and public developers. no matter what it does, it needs to build up [indiscernible] financial expertise to know how to put the projects together and structure financing and legal finances to deal with there irs, work with [indiscernible] monetize a lot of money that is flowing into the city from various federal and state [indiscernible] some of the stuff we have been talking about with other cities, states and the [indiscernible] department of energy are how to design a green public lender that works well for the developers. it deserves wide range of authority and a public bank even though it should be self-sustainable could receive recapitalization from the government and show political support for priorities.

more then just being a pass-through institution for lending, sf public bank needs to build partnerships with local government, labor, community stakeholders and optimize capital across-all these other [indiscernible] a important function that green bank design proposals folks should not ignore. next slide. we are on the fun stuff. we discussed in the previous item, but the great thing about elective pay or direct pay allows local government and non profit and any tax exempt oreshz in the city to receive the full value of federal tax credit as direct cash payments from the federal government. it is pretty incredible way to level the playing field in public and private developer s and there is no cap on the amount of elective pay you can receive, it is between 30 to 50 percent of the basis of the project and there is no size

limit on the project you can build to earn elective pay. what the center [indiscernible] used to [indiscernible] critical energy resources to facilitate [indiscernible] using it well requires to identify projects suitable for elective pay, enterprise technical assistance and experience to understand the partners you need, contractors you want to hire and adequate capital operation budget especially you only receive after your project is [indiscernible] until a project is build and generating energy, only then you receive elective pay, so until then the source of construction finance, something to tide the project over is necessary. next slide, please. the next few slides include diagrams of the project capital. i'll speak fairly quickly. in so far as project developers need to have equity ownership

stake, [indiscernible] maybe access federal funding for incentives, elective pay plays with this pretty well. with elective pay, projects become cheaper to develop because elective pay does not count against the basis of the project. when putting the project together the cost of capital is a term used to describe the return the project needs to pay back a lot of the lenders, especially debt investors. by off-setting the cost decrease the cost of capital needs to finance the project and combined with financing public bank you can lower the cost of capital to make sure the project is bankable to develop for coinvestors and participants in the development. next slide, please. this is similar version of the previous slide where ultimately a public project with san francisco public bank support and maybe with the support of other public solutions like the california infrastructure bank

[indiscernible] could create projects and develop projeths with extremely low cost of capital. [indiscernible] might require a higher cost, but all the projects not bankable become a lot more bankable at the low cost. this is what a public bank can do for development in the city. build the marginal project a private lender may not be willing or able to fund. next slide, please. i highlight issue with the rule making. the previous speaker mentioned the rule making had come out last week in the previous item. the rule making works out well for san francisco. [indiscernible] eligible. there are issues with partnerships that the irs is still asking for comment on, but ultimately if sf government want to partner among themselves through a joint operating agreement these

partners are generally allowed. in so far as any city government might receive any other kind of federal funding, particularly from the green hos gas reduction fund you can get elective payment which can stack on any other financing source from the federal and state government. there is no eligibility criteria that prevents this, however, if a project is financed by tax exempt bond issued by the city municipality, there is a 15 percent cutd in the amount of cash your project will receive. there are ways to side-step this we are researching and we can talk in more detail at a later point. the other rule is all projects [indiscernible] have to meet federal [indiscernible] these are requirements the federal level that requires legal and technical expertise to understand how to best meet them, but meet the requirements and elective pay comes through. last but not least, one [indiscernible] is looking into

is whether or nots a public bank could purchase private developer tax credit and [indiscernible] there is a comment period in december for modification of this particular rule we are also looking into, but expanding with the public bank can do to catalyze public and private investment is something on our mind. next slide. i went through this earlier in the presentation, but the public bank facilitate project providing construction financing, equity stakes and develop resolving funds [indiscernible] as far as possible as needed to make sure projects develop quickly and public bank recycle into more projects. the public bank has a direct role facilitating direct ownership of renewable energy sources and make sure they earn elective pay.

centralizing capacity to do impact assessment, project labor agreement, legal requirements and elective pay advisory work at the level of public bank is good for all developers who don't need to put the capacity in-house. the public bank becomes a [indiscernible] to create project pipeline strategic decarbonization factors across the city. next slide, please. what i want to make clear is the public bank [indiscernible] any part of city government can do it. without a public bank, rec and park, the puc, clean powersf, all can develop elective pay eligibility products but it is easier to centralize in one place. no matter who structures and owns the project, city agencies should connect a lot [indiscernible] parking space do rec and park, puc, the unified school district, what space do they have to offer for

potential project develop? if san francisco is interested in maximizing build out this is important. to my knowledge only the public bank is able to directly access the market to my knowledge. maybe i'm wrong and something i need to study if we continue to work with san francisco further. all these different agencies have different budgetary capacities to use to help seed projects and collaboration is essential. can we go two slides? thank you. we can go into this in more details if we have deeper collaboration opportunities but there are different development stratanies strategies. [indiscernible] or clean power sf can run roof top lease of lease power purchase agreement with city [indiscernible] perhaps finance by the public bank but not owned by it.

through roof top lease, instrumentalty would receive regular lease payments and [indiscernible] but clean powersf is [indiscernible] there is a way to integrate all the roof top instillations into a power plant. [indiscernible] buy all the solar from owners or instrumentalities or buy the right to operate them to [indiscernible] where we receive land payment for their lease savings. what i should make clear, the ownership models can earn elective pay, but the receptiant shifts between the public bank and power plant or clean powersf. you still get elective pay. where it ends up changes. that means everyone can work together. a green bank can finance owned by rec and park where the public utility commission or

[indiscernible] previous slide, please. to conclude the section on elective pay and how it works for your city, there is no cap on elective payment. there is no quantity limit of the dollars you can earn. it can be any size. there are credit rules [indiscernible] always remain if you are eligible for it. what city instrumentalities [indiscernible] and irs tax form filings expertise. know the counter parties, financing partners [indiscernible] maybe it requires outside consultant because it isn't likely a non energy agency can figure it out quickly on its own, but this is a great opportunity where the sf public bank can help. elective pay allowalize the instrumentalities and non profits to work together and that is what is most transformative about it. two slides forward, please. ultimately what i should make

clear, the [indiscernible] is that if the city gets its ducks in a row with respect to preparing projects there is more money available to green house reduction fund [indiscernible] solar for all and through working with the state infrastructure bank or strategic growth council to earn more funds. [indiscernible] if you can secure state level support you can get federal finances at competitive rates from department of energy. the city needs capacity to identify and integrate opportunities, to augment to meet the decarbonization goals and complement state wide and nation wide development efforts. next slide, please. so, i am at the conclusion the center for public enterprise created a financial model to identify the difference between a power purchase agreement style financial model versus publicly owned elect project design where the only entity we

know that created a financial model and happy to work with puc and clean powersf developing the models and how they can be used. we worked on financial program design [indiscernible] want to share a lot of best practices so happy to keep sf in the loop or share insight with the rest of the countsry. a lot of what we do is facilitating the city, state and federal cooperation, especially with department of energy, loan program office and green banks around the country. final slide is is our contract information. happy to stay in touch, take questions and provide support. i'm is from the bay area, grew up south of sf so happy to present today. happy you are considering creative clean energy deployment mechanisms and with that, i'll conclude. thank you so much. >> thank you. i appreciate the presentation and just want to express thoughts and comments on this. i like to direct our executive

officer to refine the presentation consulting with the controller office, office of public finance and go into the potential public financing tools that the city already has and would like for you to reach out to the city's capital planning committee, the 10 year capital planning committee, which city administrator carmen chui is the chair of and are board president peskin is a member of and that is to talk about public financing tools and that is including consideration for green bank and i think that's really a critical piece to do two thingz. i think one is understand the existing public financing tools the city and countsy of san francisco already use. these are things we do. we use bonds, we are now just having a special tax district that one of the tools we have been using and another tool is

we have been using and most recently coming on-board is really with the patrol power station where we are using the enhancement infrastructure financial district and eifd and those are uniquely san francisco tools that we have been utilizing as a coordinated efforts. they are not just one-we don't just use bond. we use many many tools in the tool box and come up with quite a bit of them t including certificate of participation, so many tools we have, so how do we make sure in the event we take that step to green banking and what is it that you-is it one of the tools we use to start off and how can we continue to progress? i think we need to have more a comprehensive picture that is about san francisco that how

are we using the existing public financing tools? with that is make the presentation and making green banking to be a incentive and potential tools for the city department to consider and say, this is what we probably could do aside from our traditional methods and tools. here's another way to do this and i think that is really important and i think with that, we also can get feedback from city departments and say, what are your inclination? i think the patrol power station project is with the tax increments we are going to use, we are limiting it by 50 percent. meaning, 50 percent goes to the city general fund and another 50 percent is used to build development on site and that's how we financing those project right now, so what would a green bank structure look like for project like that?

if we start saying, hey, we like to consider rec and park not to use bond, not to use other tools in our current tool box and to consider green bank and how this green bank actually stands out and that is a question i have ultimately that i don't see answered today in the presentation, but i know we actually need to dig further and ask the question at the controller office, so that is feedback i have for today. i don't see other name on the roster. does that conclude your presentation for this item? >> yeah, i believe so. i might ask for advait is still on the line if he has response to chair chan's comments and direction there? >> i don't have any further comments on chair chan's intervention. i think it is incredibly correct. we are happy to look what capital planning looks like in so far there are more

mechanisms then just bonds. we are happy to look into special tax increment districts and financing mechanisms the city instrumentality deployed. we are happy to dive into the capital planning structure to see what the sf public bank can draw. happy to look further into this. >> thank you. >> thank you. let's go to public comment. >> thank you madam chair. if there individuals in person who would like to speak please come forward. seeing no one here, we will move to the public comment line. jaime is checking to see if we have callers. madam chair, there are no speakers. >> are thank you. public comment is closed and this is information item and no action is required and so let's go to item 5. >> item 5 is lafco proposed budget is work plan for 2024-2025 pursuant to california code 56381.

>> great. >> thank you very much. jeremy pollock, lafco executive officer. the item before you is a proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, 24-25. state law requires us to adopt first proposed budget by may 1 and final budget by june 15. the proposed budget total 783 thousand, 357 dollar, 22 thousand increase from last year and we work to keep the general fund statutory amount the amount of funding unchanged from last year at $386 thousand. we are able to achieve that basically through the economy of spending on the budget this year and largely from coming under budget on our legal service was the largest savings for the year.

the expenditures of the budget are essentially unchanged from last year with cost of living increases for our staff expenses and cal lafco membership. sfgovtv decreased slightly meeting bimonthly and continuing to budge td 1/3 of my time and 20 percent of the policy analyst time funded by the mou and sfpuc for the work on the studies on clean powersf initiatives. and briefly going over the pwork plan for the year. we continue with the three main priority areas from the previous year of clean powersf and electricity service. municipal housing and public banking and municipal financial service. the public banking portion is focused on green bank financing

study part of the clean powersf mou. and so, our work plan for clean powersf activities continues to have two prongs with continuing our oversight work with regular updates from mr. hyams on clean powersf initiatives. continuing to maintain the dashboard on the website of the various questions and oversight engaged in, and working on a memo for a annual update on that to be delivered to the board of supervisors and sfpuc. the biggest activity we anticipate for the calendar year is the integrating resource plan, the biannual requirement from the cpuc for clean powersf to give a update on their plans for sourcing electricity and that was a major portion of our work two year s ago and looking forward digging into that again and then the other portion of our clean powersf work plan is on

the studies we gave the updates on earlier. battery energy storage system study, looking forward having that completed this fiscal year and green bank study will be hoping to complete in the upcoming fiscal year. the slide lists the three other studies prescribed in the mou that were in the memo attached to the agenda here. has a few more details on initial thoughts on developing the scope that and welcome any feedback on that of particular areas or of interest for you all on these topics. particularly looking at the first two, decommissioning natural gas infrastructure and electric vehicle charges we have ideas how to move forward on those. and with that, i'll turn it over to mr. samarrae to give a update on the municipal housing portion of the work plan. >> thank you.

the portion of the work plan municipal housing service focus on midtown apartment studies initiated earlier this year. the consultant team are in the middle of engagement process and conducted two of four plan site surveys and two of six planned resident engagement. the final deliverable is report documenting the process and recommendation for future management and aim to complete the study by early next year. our other study around municipal housing is housing agency study that will produce a report on the recommended structure for municipal housing agency and we've issued the request for proposal for consultant which ended two days ago and hope to bring a contract to the commission for approval at the may meeting.

>> thank you. i have quick questions about the-before that, vice chair fielder. >> thank you. just a couple recommendations. i can't believe it is 2024 already and irp time is up. i would just encourage my fellow commissioners and executive officer pollock to make sure that there is robust community engagement on the integrating resource plan, and i also just saw in my in-box this morning a grant opportunity that may be helpful for the green financing study. it is a grant from the california energy commission of $4 million, not much and time is probable of the essence as it looks first come first serve, but it is for eligible

project activities such as community building decarbonization planning, municipal building decarbonization planning, developing local codes, ordinances and volunteer decarbonization matters, building workforce development activities, so recommend and i can forward this to lafco. and then, i think it would be interesting to see in the decommissioning natural gas study any lessens that can be learned from the hetch hetchy electrification program, and maybe helpful for pointing us in a direction for challenges in decommission ing natural gas. and, that is all. thank you. >> thank you. do you want to respond? >> yeah.

always appreciate any leads on kbrants happy to take a look at that. on a wide range of california energy commission e-mails and so i have a folder in the e-mail overwhelmed we are trying to keep track of which might be good opportunities and yeah, i think i believe the staff report it highlights another cec grant we are considering for natural gas decommissioning study so want to look on finding outside funding to support our activities here. >> i have specific question about the board supervisors and sfpuc update you will provide. when will that be for this upcoming year? >> i was aiming to have a draft for the next meeting for the may meeting. >> so, you will be-where you will be doing the presentation for board supervisors? >> i hadn't planned a presentation with the board, just planning have a memo to

transmit to the board and sfpuc, but would be happy to come to present if you are interested. >> i think i just want to director hyams and to just really let our partner at sfpuc know and let the commission know and general manager herrera know that we understand that it is a mutual partnership with the mou, and we are more then happy to really make sure that we have our executive officer to make a formal presentation before the commission so they understand and think it is critical for the commission to understand our work so that when this mou in the event it needs to be renewed that it isn't something brand new to them. i understand sometimes when we just transmit a written report, more often then not they have so much documents they have to go through that they may glance over. i think we can make a impression in the event that we have the opportunity to do a

in-person presentation before the commission and of course i'm sure one of our commissioners will be happy to accompany or submit comment in a letter accompany that presentation to just address the commission. >> thank you chair chan. mike hyams, i appreciate the suggestion and been in touch with the executive oser about the report. under the mou, the written report goes to sfpuc power enterprise agm, but i think the idea of a presentation sounds good to me and i'll coordinate with mr. pollock and of course on my side too to figure out the logistics on something like that. >> thank you. we appreciate it. we understand the priority has been with the initial mou was green bank and we are committed to carry that out with the direction and the suggestions of sfpuc commission and we honor that and want to continue to build that relationship and

to make sure that they understand that we are transparent with the work we do, not just that we have a mou and funding and walk away and just want to continue to build that and make sure they know-having update of the work we are doing, so we really appreciate you director hyams to continue to help us coordinate that. thank you. i think that the last but not least is i really look forward seeing the report of the municipal housing. i'm fascinated by it. you may have mentioned already, but when we are anticipating that study that report that will come out for municipal housing strategy? >> we hope to bring you a contract for consultant who will be developing at the may meeting and look for the study to come out early next year. >> 2025? early 2025? >> yeah. >> okay. i look forward seeing that and i think it is really a critical

piece given the fact that the possibility of a regional bond that will bring a billion dollars to san francisco alone. i really look forward seeing-having the study done in a timely fashion that allow us to have those conversation about in the event we are getting a state regional bond dollars over a billion dollars, so what can the role of municipal housing play into that funding, because at the end of the day, we can have all the study we want, but without the money to build those housing, i just don't want that to be a missed opportunity so thank you so much. all the work you are doing, i really am excited about that and thank you so much to commissioner preston for continuing to push this forward. i really-i think everyone here is excited and i think all most you actually have a entire body of commissioners that really work on housing issue and really know the issue well, so thank you and if i may suggest once you have the consultant

and actually provide commissioners individual briefing as well to make sure we get feedback from the commissioners. all of them are very well versed on the housing issue and just making sure that we are on the same page. >> absolutely. my pleasure, commissioners. >> thank you. vice chair fielder. >> really quickly, just on that note of municipal housing, i'm such a fan and personally excited to see what comes of it on the outside. encourage people to also continue to look at how we can mesh our goals whether decarbonization, green bank, municipal housing how we might be able to stack on the regional bond, other incentives like from the ira that could support not just municipal housing, but green municipal

housing. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner preston. >> thank you chair chan and want to thank our lafco staff for the work plan and budget. i will say this, i think i say every time we review a budget, find me another agency or entity of government that on less then a million dollar annual budget does anything approaching a small fraction of the work accomplished by our san francisco lafco and i will be-i'm still waiting for someone to take up that challenge and show me that agency or department or entity doing so much on so little. that is a testament to the work of the amazing team lead by executive officer pollock and mr. samarrae. thank you for that work. i won't repeat but will just echo particularly around the housing work, which is frankly

newer work for lafco historically. there are areas like clean power and others where lafco has for some time been a leader in working closely with puc and department of environment and others to move the initiatives forward, where the housing work has becoming increasing part of the studies and i think it is really crucial in this time and i just want to note the-i share your excitement for the municipal housing study and looking at municipal housing as a landscape for housing which currently isn't in san francisco. other then midtown which the city owns and lafco is facilitating the studies in a planning process described.

other then that, the city is very much in the business of working to try to get funds from other entities and create housing and bonds, but in terms of actually being the owner and operator of housing or at least owner of it directly, city hasn't gone that route in contrast to other models like viena and or the places social housing. that is a policy choice that we as a country have been through over half a century of privatizing housing and viewing as a commodity primary for investors to buy and sell for profit instead of focus on housing as a home for people and we have many ways to approach that through land

trust, coop, but one that has been missing has been what role can the city play and unfortunately when we have a federal government and state that is often [indiscernible] what low income and working class people need, we see again and again with the cities rise up and try to provide those things locally. i want to emphasize on this point on the municipal housing feasibility study as we lean into that, that the voters have overwhelmingly mandated this. we have a horrible racist state law that prohibits a city from creating municipal housing without voter approval. that's the key thing. so they erect at the state level, thank you california association of realtors and other truly exclusionary and

discriminatory organizations and interest of big real estate capital, that into our state law and constitution a ban on cities creating municipal housing and they thought by saying you can't do without voter approval that would block the creation of new forms or new public housing units and new forms of public housing. in many places that works and your voters will not by majority approve the creation of truly public housing. we took it to the voters in 2020. that was proposition k and that measure i'm really proud of our city for approving by over 70 percent of people say, giving a mandate to the city of yes,

despite article 34 and state law, we are authorizing 10 thousand units of municipal housing. so we have that mandate. that is not a barrier for us here in san francisco, and i think it is always important to remind everyone that while there are many things that divide us in san francisco, the desire to explore and create municipal housing is not one of them and that is about 3 quarters of our residents who are fully behind that. it is very exciting to see lafco taking the lead on making that authorization from voters and taking that and trying to work with advocates to turn that into a realty, so i am looking forward to that study

as you are chair chan, thank you. >> thank you. commissioner singh. >> i just wanted to echo supervisor-commissioner preston's comments and say that you know, there's a lot of interest in what lafco is doing coming from really unexpected corners now, because people really want to see transformative change and there are folks i never thought i would talk to and won't get into it further, but beyond that rkts, , there is a lot of energy going-there are folks really watching what we are doing and really stoked about it, so i want to thank all of you for all the work we have done and really excited for the new year. >> thank you. there you have it. i think that as mentioned, this is definitely a body interested in it and with the expertise i look forward to seeing this study done and with that, let's

go to public comment on this item. >> anyone in person who would like to comment on item 5, please come forward now. jaime is checking if we have callers in the queue, seeing no one in person. madam chair, we have no speakers. >> thank you, public comment is now closed. with that, again this is information item and we are moving on to item- >> madam chair, you need to approve the budget. >> understood. i will move to approve the work plan- >> madam chair, if i read inthe motion. approved the budget and work plan in amount of 783 thousand, 357 dollar and request the statutory amount of 386, 113 dollars from the city county of san francisco general fund. >> so move.

>> seconded. >> second by vice chair fielder and roll call. >> fielder aye. preston, aye. williams, aye. chan, aye. there are 4 ayes. >> thank you, the motion passes. with that, let's go to the next item. >> item 6 is the executive officer's report including midtown park apartment studies and forward calendar. >> thank you very much. jeremy pollock, lafco executive officer. a very brief report today. pull up the forward calendar. we imagine-with the bimonthly meeting schedule we have 4 meetings on the calendar and may will be approving the final work plan and you can see the other items on there. look forward to presenting the

battery energy storage system study in may and then moving forward on the rest of the work plan throughout the rest of the calendar year, and turn it over to mr. samarrae to give a brief update on the midtown project. >> thank you. most likely day for next resident engagement meeting midtown park apartments is march 30 and hoping to have the meeting outdoor in the midtown courtyard. one thing that was uplifted from the last resident engagement meeting was because of san francisco's small site acquisition program, all city property owned by the city of san francisco has to have its maintenance done by department of public works without a special waver and that is a

very complicated bureaucratic way to have things fixed in your apartment for a resident of midtown and we are hoping and we uplifted the issue and thanks to the consulant team for bringing to our attention and hoping to work on that before the next meeting. >> thank you chair chan. i want to also thank consultants for bringing that to our attention and lafco staff and so our office is aware that and going to be talking with mohcd and see if we can secure that waver. >> thank you. >> thank you. that's why you have commissioner wear two hats. >> i think the first two meetings of the midtown resident engagement group highlighted the complementary nature of the two studies, the

midtown study looking at the one public ly owned housing and preparing a larger scale municipal housing program would look like. it highlights the anomaly of midtown as the only city owned property and it is a challenge for the city departments to have this one unique case and how we support the tenants and that study is going to lend itself informing the larger study of a larger scale municipal housing program and just want to give one more thanks to [indiscernible] housing and community development who has been helpful and attended both of the resident engagement week sessions, one of which during the time on leave. came out on a saturday and spent all day with the tenants there and has been very helpful and really looking forward to that study results. >> thank you so much. i also look forward to seeing that just kind of seeing the for better or worse, a federal

public housing site in chinatown for the longest time. it was really difficult for chinatown as a community to deal with hud as a federal agency to try to get and maintained and even just repair lights in the stairway and so, that's few years back. in 2016 through a voters approval that we are able to transition hud into part of the city. now we have what we call the [indiscernible] and non profit houseer like chine atown community development. you can see a significant improvement from a federal level to local level. i'm curious of all models, open to it and i look forward to seeing some lessens learn s learn said from the previous model and how to incorporate that into municipal housing

study that help us learn from the previous lessen and worked and didn't and bureaucracy we end up as city and county of san francisco having issue to deal with because of the federal regulation that what applicable to the nation doesn't necessary applicable to san francisco so look forward seeing that. commissioner preston. >> thank you chair chan. i just wanted to express some optimism here and i have to do this because there's so many years of conflict and distrust at midtown. as much or more so then many other places and no need to rehash that history, but i will say and just want to commend lafco staff for going through the rfp process, picking fernando [indiscernible] and steve suzuki with the

residents who have done i think what has often been missing in the midtown planning which is having tenants really be in the leadership and driving the decisions around midtown as a city owned property, it is wide open what can be done there, but obviously there are financial realties in terms how to finance whatever the ultimate plan is, but i think what is ground-breaking in midtown is how this approached now and i want to say i personally attended the first of those meetings. i got reports on the second of them and just the tone of the whole thing is so different then what's really been in some ways the last-probably going on a decade now of meetings where the city tried to push plans on midtown residents. this is coming from such a different perspective and i

want to echo the recognition and thanks that executive officer pollock noted around cindy who is at mohcd who has been participating and i think has been really in a difficult position to be very frank about it. i think that the trust level from residents of midtown to mayor office of housing and community development is not high and difficult for any staff in that department to try to change that and build that trust and very much appreciate her work and hopeful that we continue moving in that direction. it is a bit of a process, but it is good. we are midway in the process now and i think there is lots of reasons to be optimistics a long as we continue to center the amazing residents of midtown and their leadership

and their tenants association, others who have amazing ideas of what they want at midtown and i think very reasonable demands, especially given history, but what's been missing is taking the desires and goals of the midtown residents and combining those with the expertise of housing and finance experts in a way that is not driven toward one outcome. in a way that is actually open to saying, here's the range of options, let's explore how we can achieve those goals. very encouraged by how that is going so far and looking forward to the rest that process. thank you. >> thank you. commissioner singh. >> i made the point before so won't belabor it too much, but i think to also continue the optimism from commissioner

preston. right now, in terms of alternative housing models, limited equity housing cooperative, whether community land trust or whether it is like-all different kinds of models, there are policy experts being made every day in this country because like these models are being executed, they are attempted and executed across america now. there is a lot of momentum for public housing for cooperative housing, for tenant owned cooperatives, labor owned cooperatives. sthr there is is a range of policy programs implemented in seattle or at lantsa, new york and washington dc, the neighbors in los angeles are implementing these models now, so as far as midtown and lot of

other-this doesn't just apply to midtown, there are a lot of models we can look at that are actually put into practice. so, i want to emphasize to commissioner preston's point, this is doable. people are doing this. i personally believe it is shame san francisco is not doing this more. i think we are falling behind the leadership of other cities in the country, but we can absolutely get this done, so i want to thank you all for moving forward. >> i just say, in closing look forward engaging all the commissioners expertise as we finalize the scope and contract for that study. >> thank you. seeing no name on the roster, let's go to public comment on this item >> if we have individuals who would like to speak on item 6, come forward now. jaime is checking for callers on the line. no one in person, we are going to public comment line and madam chair, there are no speakers. >> public comment is now closed. colleagues, i believe this item

is information only and no action required. with that, let's call on the next item. >> item saevl, approval of the resolution commending vice chair jackie fielder. >> thank you. i feel it is too soon to think that vice chair fielder is not going to join us, but i really appreciate all the work that vice chair jackie fielder have done. not just with this body, but i think even before she joined us and really in the community and around environmental issue, and bringing her expertise about green energy and really i believe so much work put into help us forging that partnership with sfpuc, thank vice chair fielder, all her hard work and conversations and with so many stakeholders

including sfpuc commissioners, so thank you so much for all the work. i know i'm not going to be the only one who speak on this and so, i see commissioner williams is on the roster, so i'll look to her to say a few words. >> i'll try to keep it light jackie. your contributions have profoundly impacted san francisco's wellbeing. as we bid fair well to you as vice chair, please know your legacy will ender. on behalf of the san francisco local agency formation commission, we express our deepest gratitude for your unwavering dedication and we wish you all the best to your future endeavors and may you continue to champion causes close to your heart, whether advancing public banking, fighting for climate justice or any other endeavor enhancing our beloved city. thank you so much vice chair fielder for everything you have

done and continue to do. we'll miss you. >> thank you. commissioner preston. >> thank you, i hoped this moment would not arrive, but we are losing vice chair fielder from lafco commission. that are just extremely time consuming and that require a

level of both strategy, as well as really mastery of the subject matter before you, and just doing hours of work that is never going to be in press releases, never going to be splashed on the news, but it is absolutely critical to how this body moves forward important investments and clean power, public banking, all these things that are transforming and have the potential to truly transform the city, so i want to thank you for that. i also want to thank you for just your focus during your time particularly around clean power powersf and green energy, green infrastructure, climate justice issues. as you can tell, public can tell from a lot of comments from us, we have a number of us

who first and foremost are housing affordable housing experts and we know you always fight for affordable housing as we also are always fighting for climate justice. it made a big difference during your services year to have someone who with the experience fighting that pipeline and someone who just for years has been in leadership in fighting when it is not always so easy for climate justice. not just here in san francisco, but across the country. i can't turn over the mic without acknowledging and recognizing your leadership on public banking, which i think one of the most impactful things will be lafco's role in

the steps to create a public bank and mr. samarrae in particular, his involvement in helping to facilitate that and your work as a key leader, as a cofounder of the public bank coalition, when i view our public bank work, i view this as a-lafco period as a middle step. there was the first step, which is all the folks organizing through the san francisco public bank coalition that you cofounded to actually create the state law that allows san francisco to move forward with the public bank. you did the hard work to set all that up long before lafco commissioner, then as lafco commissioner you're here as and playing a key role both again as a member of had public bank

coalition, and also lafco commissioner in working again, doing the hard work behind the scenes so that our reinvestment working group could end up with this amazing plan governance and business plan for a public bank and i know that whatever you do in any capacity whether in government or outside government that you are going to be continuing to tirelessly push to make sure a public bank in san francisco becomes a realty and allows us to scale up in ways that a lot of people don't think are possible, but you know are possible and have been fighting for for years to scale up investment in truly affordable housing, green infrastructure and small businesses here in san francisco. thank you for your service on lafco since 2021 and for all you did before that and all that you will do after that.

like i said, privilege and honor to sever with you. sorry to see you leave. >> thank you and commissioner singh. >> once again, as usual, it is so hard to top commissioner preston, but i will try. no, i really really appreciate your service vice chair fielder. i think you really exlempify what is great about lafco, what i love about lafco and been on lafco all most 6 years. but that is to stay that like, this is a particularly like we are in a time right now particularly in the city where there is not a lot of trust or desire to have like long-term investment in transformative governance, right? it is we are in a time where it is fashioninable to be against the idea of government and i really think that you embody the best of lafco as a body

where we sit and we think really seriously about transformative solutions where we are trying to be a little seed that will grow into something much much bigger over time. and your service and dedication and your research and like, your nerdyness, i will say out loud is really inspiring, because we are exploring all these different programs because we think that they are going to in the long-term really help people, but also that we are actually trying to get people to trust in their government again and the idea that their government can actually deliver transformative change in their lives, and i really think you exlempify the best that and wish you the best in whatever is next for you. >> thank you. vice chair fielder,b the floor is yours. >> thank you so much to everyone for the kind words,

and i can't believe it is 2024 and already been two years and some months i have been on lafco and able to nerd out with you all. thank you for putting up with my questions and thank you executive officer pollock. really just proud of the way that lafco has transformed just before i got on to have you at the helm and then we brought mr. samarrae on, who has been such a force and just well of knowledge and on a steep learning curve with all of us, and you know, at this point i think you're the sole expert on green banking, municipal banking, public banking and i'm really honored to have been a part that. thank you so much for all of

your council and really happy to see the budget has saved some money since last year and with your services. i am just really again, appreciative of all my colleagues who have put in their time into this little commission that is often overlooked, but i personally think is at the leading edge of some of the most visionary projects and ideas for this city, whether that is municipal housing, some of the things i'm proud of having worked on and accomplished in this body is working with the puc to secure $700 thousand for our mou on multiyear mou to finance the green bank study. battery storage. obstacles to decommissioning natural gas, ev charging.

we passed resolution supporting environmental justice communities and the importance of renewable power being built by skilled and trained labor. we oversaw a study on ebikes for delivery workers and super happy to see that program continue to offer incentives. excited to see the result of the municipal housing study and once again, just want to thank chair chan, supervisor preston, commissioner preston, commissioner williams and singh and thank you to director hyams and all of you and thank you to madam secretary somera for making sure we have all we need to have smooth meetings as well as sfgovtv. thank you all. >> thank you. so, with that, i would like to make the motion to approve this resolution. >> we need to take public comment. >> that's true. let's go to public comment for this item. >> anyone who would like to

speak please come forward now. jaime is checking for callers thin queue. there are no speakers. >> public comment is closed. i like to make a motion to approve this resolution commending vice chair jackie fielder and may i have a second? >> second. >> second by commissioner williams and let's have a roll call, please. >> item 7, singh, aye. preston, aye. williams, aye. chan, aye. four ayes. >> thank you. the motion passes. with that, thank you vice chair fielder and i look forward seeing you elsewhere. with that, let's go to item number 8. >> item 8 is general public comment. members of the public who wish to address the local agency formation commission on matters within their jurisdiction and

not on the agenda come forward now or press star 3. no one coming forward we are checking the caller queue and there are no speakers. >> public comment is now closed. with that, let's call our next item. >> item 9 is future agenda items. >> i don't see name on the roster for future agenda items, so let's go to public comment on this item as well. >> any individuals who like to speak on item 9, please come forward now or press star 3 to enter the queue. there are no speakers. >> no public comment, public comment also closed for this one. madam clerk, do we have any other business before us today? >> that concludes our business for today. >> thank you colleagues, the meeting is adjourned. [meeting adjourned] television

>> a lot of housing advocates to speak out again poison pills that president peskin my name is jay the san francisco oregon director for mba action and from the action coalition owe a lot of housing advocates as well as some of our elected leaders joining us to push back against this i want to briefly just mention this is not unfortunately, the first thing by the had to get to the with president peskin this is not his first anti