Good afternoon.

The meeting will come to order.

Welcome to the March 20th, 2024 meeting of the budget and appropriation committee.

I'm Supervisor Connie Chan, Chair of the Committee.

I'm joined by Supervisors Mirna Malgar and Shaman Walton, hopefully shortly by Vice Chair Rafael Mendelman and uh President Aaron Peskin.

Our clerk is Brent Halipa.

I would like to thank um Jeanette uh Enoff Lof.

Uh sorry, my my apologies for portraying that last name from SFGov TV for broadcasting this meeting.

Mr.

Clark, do you have any announcement?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Just a friendly reminder uh to those in attendance to please make sure it sounds all cell phones and electronic devices assessed not to enter prior proceedings.

How should you have any documents to be included as part of the file that should be submitted to myself, the clerk?

Public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda.

Uh, when your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please line up to speak on the west side of the chamber to your right, my left along those curtains.

And while not necessary to provide public comment, we do invite you to fill out a comment card and leave them on the trade by the television tray left by the doors if you wish to be accurately recorded for the minutes.

Alternatively, you may submit public comment and writing in either of the following ways.

Email them to myself, the budget and appropriations committee clerk at B-R-E-N-T dot J A L I P A hat S F G O V dot O R G.

If you submit public comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisors and also included as part of the official file.

You may also send your written comments via U.S.

Postal Service to our office and city hall at one Dr.

Carlton B.

Goodlick place, room 244, San Francisco, California, 94102.

And finally, Madam Chair, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the Board of Supervisors agenda of March 26th, unless otherwise stated.

Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk, and uh just want to remind colleagues and the public that um for items that have uh budget and legislative analyst report, we will have the department's presentation first, followed by the budget and legislative analyst, then we will take questions and public comment.

And um today um all items on the agenda have budget and legislative analysts report.

And with that, Mr.

Clerk, please call item number one.

That's item number one has an ordinance appropriating 500,000 from uh of general fund general reserves to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission for independent analysis and research on sea level rise in groundwater impacts in the Hunters Point Shipyard uh in fiscal year 2022 to 2023.

Madam Chair.

Thank you, and I will hand this over to um the um legislation's um author, um sponsor, Supervisor Walton, and lead us uh through this um item.

Thank you so much, Chair Chan and colleagues.

In response to the civil grand jury's buried problems in a buried process, the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard in a time of climate change report from June 14, 2022.

The Board of Supervisors conducted a hearing on a report and decided in its response that commissioning an independent third party study of the Hunter's Point Shipyard to predict the future shallow groundwater surface, groundwater flows, and potential interactions of groundwater with hazardous materials and plan modifications to the site under multiple sea level rise scenarios is necessary and that we will work to secure the resources for the independent commission third party study.

Recommendation number one asks that by September 1st, 2022, the mayor and or city administrators should direct the Office of Resilience and Capital Planning in collaboration with the Department of Public Health to commission and manage an independent third party study of Hunters Point Shipyard to predict the future shallow groundwater surface, groundwater flows, and potential interactions of hazardous materials.

Recommendation R2 stated that the mayor and board of supervisors should collaborate to provide funding for the study recommended in recommendation one.

After solidifying responses to grand jury report via the resolution, I met with the director of the Office of Community Investment Infrastructure and Investment, Thor Kazlowski, as OCI is the main department that works closely with the Navy, EPA, Hunters Point Shipyard CAC, the developer, and residents to gauge the cost of the independent study.

It was determined that $500,000 would secure the appropriate entity and would allow for us to conduct the study in line with the resolution approved by this board of supervisors.

Today we have before us an ordinance appropriating $500,000 of the General Fund Reserve to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission for independent analysis and research on sea level rise and groundwater impacts in the Hunters Point Shipyard for actually fiscal year 2324.

I do want to note that this pot of funding was identified in working with the controller's office, as we are always concerned about the city's fiscal health, but the toxic environment on and around the shipyard makes this a major priority as we continue to push towards complete cleanup.

OCII will be cooperating with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission on procuring the appropriate entity for the independent research and will work on coordination with the Navy, who has all of the data, EPA, and all environmental regulators moving forward.

In light of the civil grand jury findings and the Navy's five-year review findings that demonstrated that radiological objects, ROs were identified during excavation and remediation of soil in areas that were not considered radiologically impacted.

There is a potential for radiological objects to be present in materials below two feet below ground surface, where shoreline expansion has occurred since 1946.

And the Navy also stated that it recognizes climate change is occurring, and based on a screening level climate resilience assessment, sea level rise is the major variable of climate change that could affect the remedies at the Hunters Point Shipyard.

We need this independent study in order to prepare a path forward in ensuring safety around sea level rise and groundwater.

I know the question has come up why the PUC.

Budget supplementals and adjustments for OCI also require state approval.

The SFPUC coordinating with OCI is more efficient for the city to be able to satisfy the board's resolution in response to the civil grand jury's report and address the concerns around toxins, sea level rise, and groundwater as it pertains to the shipyard.

In conversations, there's also been the question of why would we not just take this out of the PUC budget and why would we take it out of the general fund reserves?

As I previously stated, OCII is the department that works closely with the developer Navy, EPA, and community on the shipyard.

The SFPUC is being gracious and leading on this work in the name of safety for residents and community, and also as stated, we did have conversations with the controller's office to identify this pot of funding to conduct the study.

And lastly, I'll just state that I do have uh small amendments on page one line 13, change 2022, 2023, to 2023-2024, and on page two line seven, same change from 2022 to 2023 to 2023 to 2024.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, Supervisor Nick Menard from the Budget Legislative Analysts Office.

Item one is an ordinance that would appropriate $500,000 from the General Reserve to the PUC to undertake a study to assess sea level rise and contamination at Hunters Point Shipyard.

Any money removed from the General Reserve now have to be repaid in an equal amount in the next budget year.

We consider approval to be a policy matter.