Note: The agenda and transcript indicate the meeting was held on August 11, 2026, but the user-provided timestamp is August 12, 2026. This summary uses the latter date as instructed.
The Port Commission convened to hear an extensive executive director’s report, approve four consent calendar items, receive informational updates on the Pier 70 28‑acre site project and the Waterfront Resilience Program’s coastal flood study, and authorize an exemption from Administrative Code Chapter 29 for resilience projects. Commissioners welcomed new member Vanessa Tapia Hardigan, recognized Transgender History Month, and adjourned in memory of victims of a recent boating accident.
I don't think we have any colours. Thank you. All right. Okay. Public comment is closed. Next item, please. Item 9A is the executive director's report. For callers who wish to make public comment on this item, please dial star three to raise your hand to comment. Okay. Good afternoon, President Engblum, Vice President McNeely, Commissioners, members of the public and port staff. My name is Michael Martin. And this is my executive director's report for August 11th, 2026. Two notes before I begin the slide deck. First is I am very excited to acknowledge our newest member of the commission, Commissioner Vanessa Tapia Hardigan. We're, as port staff, super excited to have you here and have our full complement of commissioners together as we work forward in uh in looking to steward and really revitalize the waterfront. For everyone's benefit, Commissioner Hardigan is a San Francisco based executive and civic leader whose career sits at the intersection of institutional finance, technology, and governance. She brings more than three decades of experience spanning investment banking, capital markets, and venture scale operations. Her early career began at Goldman Sachs, where she covered global consumer and Latin American markets before advancing the Bank of America, Merrill Lynch as a director supporting top institutional clients and leading operational and compliance functions for the Western region. She later transitioned into the technology and startup ecosystem, serving as CFO of Blue X Trade, a freight tech company operating across the US and Taiwan. Today, Commissioner Hardigan is the co-founder and CEO of Muse, where she focuses on designing business and economic models that align financial return with community benefit, reinforcing her commitment to innovation rooted in the same shared prosperity that drives the most successful port projects. Commissioner Hardigan comes to her port role with a deep understanding of civic dedication and nonprofit governance. She serves as trustee, co-head of the Finance Committee, and Treasurer of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the nonprofit partner stewarding iconic sites such as Alcatraz, the Presidio, Muirwoods, and Chrissy Field. Her additional board roles include the National Society of High School Scholars Foundation and the Stanford Latino Alumni Association. She was the 2023 recipient of the Stanford Associates Governors Award for exemplary and longstanding volunteer service to the university. It is just a great moment for us to sort of look together and look ahead to the work we're about to do. There's a lot of good work in front of us to tackle together, and your expertise and experience is going to be hugely helpful to us. So welcome. Thank you for the warm welcome. I'd also like to note that August is transgender history month. In 2021, San Francisco became the first city in the country to recognize Transgender History Month, commemorating the Comptons cafeteria riots in San Francisco's tenderloin district, where in August 1966, black and brown transgender women and drag queens resisted police harassment. This riot, v dating the Stonewall riots by three years, is recognized as the first large-scale act of resistance against discrimination by transgender and queer individuals in the United States. Following San Francisco's leadership, California became the first state in history to recognize August as transgender history month. This year marks San Francisco's fifth transgender history month celebration. San Francisco has continued to play a central role in the LGBTQ movement, championing inclusion and equality through groundbreaking initiatives. At the port, we're proud to support these values by fostering a workplace and waterfront that are welcoming, respectful, and inclusive for everyone. Recognizing Transgender History Month as an opportunity to honor the resilience and contributions of transgender communities while reaffirming our commitment to equity, dignity, and belonging for all. The port last week hosted its first Blue Economy Initiative networking event, welcoming approximately 70 attendees to Pier One from across the maritime environmental technology investment and innovation sectors. Thank you to Commissioner Lee and director of the Department of the Environment, Tyrone Jew, for joining us and engaging with participants throughout the event. Our small but dedicated Blue Economy Initiative team has been actively meeting with prospective partners, entrepreneurs, researchers, and industry leaders exploring opportunities on the San Francisco waterfront. I think the most noteworthy part of this really exciting uh bit of feedback for me is that the prospective partners don't just want space. They're looking for uh ways to connect, to collaborate, to really create a supportive innovation ecosystem. Um, and that's something we really do really do well. I think we're all about connections. We're all about finding partnerships. And so that's been probably the most exciting thing for me is we have a muscle for this already. And we need we're starting to apply it in a way that hopefully will really show results. Um events like our open house foster those relationships, and we know we need to do more of them, and we need to get out into these communities and really talk about what the port can deliver. Um, and we really want to showcase the port's assets, our available facilities, and our water access and our familiarity with working with regulatory partners, which I think is really important in a lot of these areas. I want to again thank President Anglum for your leadership on this initiative. I think it's really sparked something that really uh means a lot to what the port's going to be in the future.