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S.F. officials outline ARRA broadband outreach; SFMTA advertises $67M in transit contracts
Summary
City staff described plans to seek NTIA input and hold a May 28 Chinatown public meeting on broadband grant opportunities and detailed SFMTA's $67 million in ARRA transit formula projects with multiple solicitations due in June.
Carrie McClellan of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development briefed the Budget & Finance Subcommittee on city preparations to apply for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act broadband funds and other formula awards on May 13.
Chris (Department of Technology) told supervisors that two federal broadband programs exist under ARRA (one USDA rural program and an NTIA/Department of Commerce program) and that NTIA is still finalizing rules. He said NTIA will require "shovel-ready" projects and a 20% local match; the city will host at least two community meetings to inform and solicit input, beginning with a May 28 session at the Chinatown Public Library to explain NTIA requirements and gather community priorities.
McClellan said the city's RecoverySF.org site will post opportunities and supporting documents; staff added formula awards and project descriptions to the site, including a $6,700,000 workforce formula award. She clarified that the Doyle Drive amount included in prior tallies was Caltrans formula money and not managed by the city budget process.
Kate Breen, SFMTA government-affairs representative, summarized the agency's ARRA transit formula planning. She said SFMTA submitted lists of ready-to-go projects to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission anticipating ARRA and that the regional programming process assigned approximately $67,000,000 in formula funds to SFMTA projects. Breen noted MTC advanced grant and contracting deadlines, moving the ARRA grant award deadline to May 31 and setting a Nov. 30 contract award target.
Virginia Harmon, SFMTA's equal-opportunity manager, outlined three ARRA-funded solicitations the agency had advertised: a motor-coach component life-cycle rehabilitation (rehabilitating about 60 buses; proposals due June 29), an LRV doors and steps reconditioning and systems rehabilitation (about 147 LRVs; proposals due June 29), and a Bus Yard Workstation procurement (about 70 computer workstations; bids due June 5). Harmon warned that projects likely to exceed $10,000,000 will also require Board of Supervisors approval under Charter section 9.118 and said the agency has conducted extensive outreach and certification workshops to prepare small businesses to bid.
McClellan asked departments with program proposals to return to the subcommittee for updates and urged broad community outreach for the broadband and energy-efficiency opportunities. She said the city will post meeting materials on RecoverySF.org and do press outreach to raise awareness of public meetings and procurement opportunities.
The subcommittee did not take further action on these informational items; staff will proceed with public outreach and return with details as NTIA rules and regional programming timelines become clearer.
