City administrator details $412 million earthquake safety bond to shore up water system and justice facilities

City Administrator Ed Lee presented a proposed $412,000,000 Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response (EASER) bond to the San Francisco Disaster Council on Feb. 19, outlining plans to fund replacement of the seismically vulnerable Hall of Justice and upgrades to the city’s auxiliary water supply system (AWSS).

“Those are the two main features for this $412,000,000 bond,” Ed Lee said, noting the Board of Supervisors was still deliberating on timing. The bond program would also fund a Public Safety Building — a police command center that includes a relocated Southern Station and a Mission Bay fire station — and seismic and health-and-safety upgrades to neighborhood fire stations.

Brian Strong, director of the capital planning program, said the bond is intended to increase resiliency while limiting taxpayer burden by issuing bonds as older debt is retired. He estimated the program would create about 2,900 local jobs and comply with local hiring requirements. “We are only gonna be issuing bonds as we retire old ones,” Strong said, adding the plan is fiscally constrained so the tax rate is not expected to rise as a result of this measure.

Project manager Charles Segaris gave technical details for the AWSS component. He said $104,000,000 would support renovation and seismic strengthening of above-ground pump stations and reservoirs (including Ashbury and Jones Street tanks and Twin Peaks Reservoir), replacement of aging pipes and construction of approximately 28–32 cisterns to extend firefighting coverage to areas not served by the AWSS.

Segaris also described the Public Safety Building as a large project of about 320,000 square feet that would include parking for essential police and fire vehicles and renovate Fire Station 30 as a historic-preservation-style project.

Officials said CEQA clearance is in hand for several projects while others remain pending. The presenters said construction cost estimates have been developed to a level they can stand behind after passage, and the team launched a project website to improve transparency. Periodic oversight by the capital planning committee, auditing set-asides, and coordination with fire and police commissions were described as accountability measures.

Chief Joanne Hayes White emphasized the AWSS’s value to a peninsular city and the need to maintain and extend the system to underserved neighborhoods, while Commander Jim Dudley, speaking for Police Chief George Gascon, supported urgent upgrades to the Hall of Justice and Southern Station.

The city administration said the Board of Supervisors and the mayor continued to discuss the bond’s timing; a June ballot measure was noted as a possibility with the option to defer to November if necessary. The council did not take a formal vote during the meeting; deliberations at the Board of Supervisors were ongoing.

Next steps include continued supervisor deliberations, further environmental clearances where required, and posting project materials and schedule updates to the announced website.