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New Environment Director Deborah Raphael outlines priorities: zero waste, staffing and neighborhood outreach
Summary
Deborah Raphael, the newly appointed director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment, used her first director's report to highlight program milestones (Environment Now, ROSE adoption), a postal recycling audit that may yield cost savings, and internal priorities including hiring 12 staff and filling a deputy director post.
Deborah Raphael, director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment, gave her first director's report to the San Francisco Commission on the Environment on Tuesday, July 22, outlining program highlights and internal priorities.
Raphael said the department's Environment Now workforce program has produced graduates who go on to jobs or second interviews and that the program's public outreach work recently was profiled on local television. "It's pretty amazing when other people tell your story for you," she said, noting the profile demonstrated the program's community reach.
She flagged a postal-service audit broadcast on local television showing district dumpsters containing large amounts of recyclable material. Raphael said department staff had followed up with the U.S. Postal Service's sustainability office and expected to collaborate on employee training; the audit estimated up to $500,000 in potential disposal-cost savings. "We have followed up with giving them information and offering our free services," Raphael said.
On regulatory milestones, Raphael noted that the Board of Supervisors adopted the Recreation and Open Space Element (ROSE), a step she described as important for biodiversity work and a product of partnership with Planning and Recreation & Park.
Raphael also identified staffing and systems as immediate internal priorities. She said the department has 12 vacancies in a 120-person agency, 50 positions that need conversion from temporary to permanent civil service, and plans to prioritize hiring. She said interviews for a deputy director were being scheduled for August. "We need help, as you can imagine, to do a lot of that internally focused work," she said.
Commissioners praised the report and recommended follow-up. After Raphael described contact from the U.S. Postal Service's head of sustainability in Washington, commissioners suggested drafting a letter to request an update and to invite the Postal Service to brief the commission at a future meeting.
Raphael closed by describing continued work on toxics reduction, pesticide use reduction in public housing (for which the mayor's office provided additional funding), solar ordinance work and clean-transportation partnerships. She said the department is "very much in sync" with the mayor's office and working to strengthen relationships across city departments and community partners.
The commission thanked Raphael for the report and asked staff to return with updates on the postal-service outreach and on the department's hiring progress.
