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Board approves waiver, staff says Environmental Science Associates will review America's Cup CEQA scope
Summary
The Board approved an ordinance waiving competitive bidding to allow Environmental Science Associates to add America's Cup analysis to an existing CEQA contract; supervisors pressed port staff on local-hiring and environmental commitments and received assurances of LBE participation levels.
The Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance waiving competitive-bidding rules to allow the Port of San Francisco to expand an existing contract with Environmental Science Associates (ESA) to cover California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review of the 34th America's Cup event.
Supervisor David Campos asked port staff about the local-hiring and local-business participation components of the proposed contract. Brad Benson, Special Projects Manager for the Port of San Francisco, told the board that during the prior professional services procurement for the Pier 27 cruise-terminal environmental review ESA had proposed Local Business Enterprise (LBE) participation at just over 30 percent. The port and Department of Public Works intended to exceed the Human Rights Commission's 15 percent LBE goal for professional services, Benson said, and the contractor had agreed to meet their prior LBE bid amount for the enlarged scope.
Supervisor McNamee (board transcript label) urged the administration to ensure full CEQA compliance and said the city should press for more than symbolic sustainability measures, citing the scale of the America's Cup event and the high expectations for carbon, waste and other environmental performance.
After questions and public comment, the board took a roll call vote. The ordinance passed on first reading by roll call with 11 ayes. The measure waives the administrative-code competitive-bidding requirement for the professional services agreement to allow port staff to proceed with the expanded contract scope.
The staff memorandum indicated the approach would add America's Cup analysis to an underlying EIR rather than create an entirely new environmental review. The waiver is limited to contracting procedure and does not change substantive CEQA obligations; supervisors emphasized that CEQA compliance and higher environmental standards remain necessary as the procurement and review proceed.
