Budget and Finance Committee forwards grants, leases and bond actions to full Board; Caltrain bridge application and solar grant highlighted

The San Francisco County Budget and Finance Committee on the morning meeting advanced a slate of ordinances, resolutions and grant acceptances to the full Board of Supervisors for consideration, including a Department of the Environment solar deployment grant, SFPUC wastewater bond authorization with analyst adjustments, and a $5 million state grant application for the Gerald Avenue Caltrain bridge.

The companion measures included an ordinance to raise the recordation fee, a retroactive acceptance of a $166,981.50 Meta Fund Foundation grant for the Office of the Public Defender, and several lease amendments covering emergency communications equipment at 1 Market Plaza and cargo space at San Francisco International Airport.

Committee chair Supervisor John Avalos opened the session and handled procedural business before moving through the agenda. On the solar item, David Ostman, acting director of the Department of the Environment, said the city would use $750,635 from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar America initiative ‘‘to increase solar installations of small commercial buildings, schools, and affordable housing,’’ with about $400,000 ‘‘to buy down the cost of solar equipment’’ and the balance for technical assistance and staffing, including 1.5 FTE energy specialists. The committee asked the department to provide follow-up detail about which neighborhoods and populations would benefit when additional recovery-fund applications move forward.

On leases, Amy Brown, the city’s director of property, described a short-term month-to-month arrangement at 1 Market Plaza that added antennas and equipment for emergency communications and said the proposed amendment would fold those short-term terms into the city’s long-term lease through April 2013, increasing…