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Rules Committee backs three PUC reappointments amid CCA and infrastructure questions
Summary
The Rules Committee recommended reappointment of three Public Utilities Commission commissioners — including Anne Waller Kane and Vince Courtney — and heard extended discussion about wastewater infrastructure, water recycling, and implementing Clean Power SF (CCA).
The Rules Committee voted Sept. 20 to forward with a positive recommendation three mayoral reappointments to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (PUC), and used the hearings to press nominees on water recycling, community-choice aggregation (Clean Power SF), outreach to low-income and monolingual ratepayers, and the PUC’s relationship with PG&E.
Supervisor David Campos moved the committee recommendation to approve the reappointments; the committee amended seat language for one post and voted to forward the items to the full Board without objection. The reappointments on the committee agenda included the mayor’s reappointment of Anne Waller Kane to seat 3 (unexpired portion of a four-year term ending 08/01/2016), a reappointment listed as Francesca (name variants appear in the record) to seat 1, and Vince Courtney to seat 5.
Anne Waller Kane, who noted 15 years of PUC service, highlighted recent milestones such as the Sutro Reservoir groundbreaking and the larger Water System Improvement Program; she said the PUC must accelerate a long-overdue wastewater program at the Bayview plant, which she described as a roughly $2.7 billion multi-year project. Kane also praised the commission’s recent bonding and finance work that she said reduced costs for ratepayers.
Supervisors questioned nominees about implementing Clean Power SF (community choice aggregation), ensuring outreach and opt-out information reach low-income and monolingual ratepayers, and whether the PUC will reexamine the interconnection agreement with PG&E when the contract comes up for renewal. Francesca (name variant in transcript) emphasized renewable and efficiency programming and urged that community outreach be a high priority for CCA. Vince Courtney, representing a labor perspective, highlighted local-hire opportunities from build-out and said he would seek staff proposals for outreach in multiple languages.
A broad set of stakeholders — labor councils, environmental organizations, water agencies, Rec & Park officials and business groups — spoke in support of reappointment, stressing continuity for large infrastructure programs and the importance of labor representation for local-hire and construction projects tied to PUC initiatives. The Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency and others said the commissioners offered institutional knowledge helpful to rebuild regional water systems.
The committee’s recommendation will go to the full Board for confirmation. Committee members said they will continue to press the PUC and staff to produce detailed outreach plans and to study interconnection-agreement options with PG&E as the city implements Clean Power SF.
