Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the City Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
SFPUC Q3 financial report: overall positive results; water/wastewater volumes below budget, billing backlog mostly cleared
Summary
SFPUC staff reported positive third-quarter operating results across enterprises, with lower-than-budgeted retail volumes offset by interest earnings and one-time payments; staff said the earlier delayed-billing backlog has largely been resolved and Stormwater parcel account work remains.
Anna Dunning, SFPUC budget director, told the commission on June 10 that third-quarter financial results are projecting positive operating results in the water, wastewater and power enterprises as well as CleanPowerSF.
Dunning said retail water and power revenues are below budget because of lower volumes, but those shortfalls are partially offset by higher wholesale revenues, increased interest earnings and lower personnel costs from vacancies. She reported continued savings in power purchases and said CleanPowerSF is exceeding its fund-balance reserve goal for the first time.
On customer-billing issues, staff reported progress resolving a delayed-billing backlog. Dunning and customer-service staff said the original backlog amounted to about 8,000 estimated or delayed bills from September; most have been cleared and fewer than 1,000 accounts remain on estimated billing while field work and meter/transmission-unit replacements finish. Staff said an accrual for September billing (~$6 million) was recorded in FY24–25 financial statements and that most of those amounts have been collected; customers requiring assistance are being placed on payment plans and are not being penalized for late payments while accounts are reconciled.
Dunning also briefed commissioners on stormwater-surcharge implementation. Customer-service staff estimated about 8,600 stormwater parcels must be matched to accounts; about 2,600 had been matched and roughly 6,000 remained to be processed. Staff said some account setups are complex (for example, homeowners associations that represent multiple parcels) and that outreach and appeals processes have lengthened timeline. A commissioner asked whether stormwater charges would be billed retroactively; staff requested time to confirm the exact billing-start rule and said they would follow up with the commission.
Dunning noted the PUC sought and obtained Board of Supervisors approval for a net-neutral budget transfer to shift regular salary dollars into overtime. Overall, she said enterprises are meeting or exceeding financial-policy targets.
Ending: Commissioners asked follow-up questions about billing collection and stormwater-account timelines; staff committed to providing clarifications and follow-up answers on retroactive billing and remaining parcel processing.
