OUR MISSION: To provide our customers with high-quality, efficient and reliable water, power and sewer services in a manner that values environmental and community interests and sustains the resources entrusted to our care.
525 Golden Gate Avenue, 13th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
T 415.554.3155
F 415.554.3161
TTY 415.554.3488
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Correspondence Log
September 21, 2022 through September 29, 2022
Date Received From Subject
September 21, 2022 Laura Malchow-Hay SFPUC commission and environmental justice
September 22, 2022 EEO Complaint file no.4061
September 27, 2022 Tom Battle Drop the Bay Delta Plan lawsuit! September 28, 2022 Kristina Pappas Public comment intended for today's SFPUC meeting
Jo Coffey Comment for SFPUC Meeting,
Sep 27, 2022, Item 5
September 29, 2022 Chris Gilbert Tell San Francisco to do its part to save salmon and heal the
environment
From: Lauramalch
To: Commission
Subject: SFPUC commission and environmental justice
Date: Wednesday, September 21, 2022 11:58:36 AM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Dear SFPUC Commissioners,
I care deeply about the environment and those who rely upon it, and encourage you to do everything in your power to protect and restore the San Francisco Bay-Delta and the rivers that feed it.
One area of concern is the lack of environmental justice expertise in the SFPUC commission.
Many Indigenous tribes, underserved communities, and communities of color are impacted by decisions made by the commission. It is important that the commission take environmental justice seriously, by having a commissioner who has a background in and deep understand of this critical topic.
Many rely on a healthy ecosystem throughout the Tuolumne River watershed and the Delta into which it flows. Many California Indigenous peoples have and continue to rely on salmon for food and ceremony. In addition, Toxic Algal Blooms in the Bay-Delta disproportionately impact disadvantaged communities. The increase of algal blooms decreases the amount of access to waterways as a form of recreation in these communities but also as a means to cool off in hot summer months.
Mayor Breed, please appoint candidates with the strongest possible environmental justice credentials. The SFPUC needs to prioritize environmental justice and to improve the City’s environmental stewardship of the Tuolumne River and the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary.
Sincerely,
Laura Malchow-Hay
From:
To: Burke, Jennifer (HRD); Martinez, Amalia (HRD); Kwan, Alison (HRD); Lavina, Eric (HRD); Commission; Norby, Greg; [email protected]; [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: EEO Complaint file no.4061
Date: Thursday, September 22, 2022 8:31:00 AM
Attachments: image001.png
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
To whom it may concern,
As you can see below, on Sept. 16, 2022 I sent an email asking for the status of my EEO complaint #4061. I sent the email to several people who have been involved in discriminating against me due to my religious beliefs, including HR representatives. What is the status of my Compaint? -----Original Message-----
From
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]>; dhr- [email protected] <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected] <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, Sep 16, 2022 8:48 am
Subject: Re: EEO Complaint file no.4061
To whom it may concern,
This has been one of the most eye opening experience I have been through in my life.
Justice, even in
New York, can be experienced. I filed an EEO complaint with HR nearly a year ago. I have attempted several times over several months to discover the status of my complaint. I am not sure if it is the strategy of the City and it 's representatives to run out the time allowed to file a lawsuit for religious discrimination, but as you can see by the link of the article from the New York Post, when challenged in court, the employee discriminated against wins.
Throughout this travesty not once has any
representative of the City explained how my religious believes were disqualified from exemption. It seems as though the EEO process used by the City and all of its staff are not there to protect the employees that have been discriminated against in reference to their religious beliefs.
My experience is
that I have been continuously discriminated against by all those City representatives that have touched my case.
I am sure that none of you have any information regarding the complaint I filed last October.
If you do, I
would love to hear it.
NYPD cop can't be fired for refusing COVID vaccine: judge (nypost.com) Thank you,
-----Original Message-----
From: Burke, Jennifer (HRD) <[email protected]>
To: >Sent: Wed, Jul 13, 2022 11:34 am
Subject: RE: EEO Complaint file no.4061
the
Hi
Thank you for the email. I am the manager for your matter and am the contact person. The update for your matter is that it is still under review by my management and they are carefully reviewing each matter. I, again, apologize for the delay.
Thanks,
Jennifer L. Burke, EEO Programs Manager
Department of Human Resources
One South Van Ness Ave., 4th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: (415) 557-4851
Website: www.sfdhr.org
From:
Sent: Friday, July 8, 2022 6:33 PM
To: Burke, Jennifer (HRD) <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: EEO Complaint file no.4061
Jennifer Burke,
I accept your apology; I can imagine how difficult the jobs of those in your department are when the City creates and executes an immoral policy that casts aside long term employees for following their belief that we are created with natural rights to choose what medical interventions occur within our own bodies, I believe the law calls it informed consent.
I am sorry for the position the city has put us both in.
Hopefully those making the decision have some sense of faith or at least the natural rights of those who have faith and the laws that all government organizations claim to uphold.
At this point I am fully aware of
employees still at that have chosen to take the mandated vaccine that are still being infected and stricken ill with Covid-19.
Thank you for your response...who in this organization should I be contacting to get an update on my complaint?
From: Burke, Jennifer (HRD) <[email protected]>
To:
Sent: Thu, Jul 7, 2022 6:42
Subject: RE: EEO Complaint file no.4061
Hi
Thank you for the email. I apologize for the delay.
Your case file is still being reviewed by DHR management for a determination. I sincerely apologize for giving an estimated time to completion that was not reached. At this time, I do not have a more concrete estimated time to completion. DHR EEO is carefully reviewing each matter and we have a large caseload to review, so our process takes time. I, again, apologize for the delay.
Thanks,
Jennifer L. Burke, EEO Programs Manager
Department of Human Resources
One South Van Ness Ave., 4th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: (415) 557-4851
Website: www.sfdhr.org
From:
Sent: Wednesday, July 6, 2022 5:11 PM
To: Burke, Jennifer (HRD) <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: EEO Complaint file no.4061
Jennifer Burke,
As you can see on the email below sent to me on May 23, 2022 by you, you stated, "I believe you should have your determination within a week or two, which will be emailed to you at the email we have on file."
Though I seem to get many emails including the one you sent on May 26, 2022 as shown below, I have not yet received any indication of the results of the investigation for my complaint, (file no. 4061). I am
not sure if this is because your beliefs were misguided or somehow the email just never reached me.
Can you give me the status of my complaint?
Thank you for your time in this matter,
-----Original Message-----
From: Burke, Jennifer (HRD) <[email protected]
>
To:
Sent: Thu, May 26, 2022 1:47 pm
Subject: RE: EEO Complaint file no.4061
Hi
The City takes all allegations of harassment, retaliation, and discrimination seriously. The investigation of your religious discrimination complaint is comprehensive of the information you provided to your Department and any subsequent information you provided to DHR EEO for your complaint.
The process
by which DHR was soliciting your reasons and explanations for your religious accommodation request was codified in that process, including the Intake Questionnaire. DHR EEO received your intake
questionnaire response on December 3, 2021.
Thanks,
Jennifer L. Burke, EEO Programs Manager
Department of Human Resources
One South Van Ness Ave., 4th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: (415) 557-4851
Website: www.sfdhr.org
From:
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2022 5:55 PM
To: Burke, Jennifer (HRD) <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: EEO Complaint file no.4061
Jennifer Burke,
Thank you so much for responding to my email. I am a little confused.
Does the City and your department not take as serious religious discrimination charges as they do charges of harassment?
You see, I was involved in an alleged harassment investigation against for allegedly calling a coworker out of name. There were at least people in our crew that were called in for an intensive questioning on the allegations against
I have not spoken to anyone about my charges of medical and religious discrimination against me. How is it possible that an investigation has taken place when I have not been questioned?
I apologize in advance if I offend anyone for doubting the seriousness of this investigation that has supposedly taken place.
But the City and your department have yet to demonstrate a sincere interest in doing what is right. The city claimed I was an essential worker, with over eleven years of service, a "hero" as all my coworkers were for working throughout this so-called pandemic. Then we were told that our religious beliefs would be considered in offering exemptions from an emergency use authorized vaccine that the manufacturers are protected from lawsuits if their experimental products that cause harm.
And yet nobody who applied for a religious exemption at had their exemptions approved. I have little faith that the City's and your department's objectives are to protect my or anybody else's religious beliefs and objections to taking such a product. Again I apologize in advance if I am mistaken.
Thanks,
-----Original Message-----
From: Burke, Jennifer (HRD) <[email protected]>
To:
Sent: Mon, May 23, 2022 7:07 am
Subject: RE: EEO Complaint file no.4061
Hi
Thank you for the email. I apologize for the delay.
Your case file has been reviewed by a DHR EEO investigator and is now being reviewed by DHR management for a determination. I believe you should have your determination within a week or two, which will be emailed to you at the email we have on file.
Thanks,
Jennifer L. Burke, EEO Programs Manager
Department of Human Resources
One South Van Ness Ave., 4th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: (415) 557-4851
Website: www.sfdhr.org
From:
Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2022 12:36 PM
To: Burke, Jennifer (HRD) <[email protected]>
Subject: EEO Complaint file no.4061
Jennifer Burke,
As I hope you are aware, I have filled a Religious and Medical Discrimination complaint against the city and the DHR back in October 14, 2021.
It would appear as though my complaint was
not being considered important by the City and it's representatives as I had requested the status of my complaint several times over several months with out any information provided back to me by those representatives.
Can you tell me what is the status of my complaint? If not can you provide me with the individual that I should be contacting?
Thank you,
-----Original Message-----
From: Martinez, Amalia (HRD) <[email protected] >
To: DHR-EEO <[email protected]>; Kwan, Alison (HRD)
<[email protected]>; Lavina, Eric (HRD) <[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]>; Norby, Gregory (PUC) <[email protected]>; Soluk, Andy (HRD) <[email protected]>
Cc: Burke, Jennifer (HRD) <[email protected]>
Sent: Mon, May 2, 2022 2:21 pm
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
Subject: RE: EEO Complaint file no.4061
Dear
Hope you and your family are doing well.
Please be advised that your complaint has been assigned to Investigator Heather Kittel for review. I have cc Investigator Kittel’s manager on the thread.
EEO will reach out to you with an update as soon as the review has been concluded.
Thank you for your continued patience and understanding in this matter,
Amalia
Amalia Martinez
Equal Employment Opportunity Director
Department of Human Resources
One South Van Ness Avenue, 4th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: (415) 557-4932
Website: www.sfdhr.orgConnecting People with Purpose
From:
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2022 9:16 AM
To: DHR-EEO <[email protected]>; Kwan, Alison (HRD) <[email protected]>; Lavina, Eric (HRD) <[email protected]>; Martinez, Amalia (HRD) <[email protected]>; [email protected]; Norby, Gregory (PUC) <[email protected]>; Soluk, Andy (HRD) <[email protected]>
Subject: Fwd: EEO Complaint file no.4061
Is it now policy that you ghost those that have filed a complaint of religious and medical discrimination instead of investigating those charges? Perhaps you are still understaffed. I sent the email below a week ago and have not had a response to the status of my complaint.
-----Original Message-----
From:
To: [email protected]
<[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]>; [email protected]
<[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]>; [email protected] <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, Apr 17, 2022 10:12 am
Subject: EEO Complaint file no.4061
To whom it may concern,
I am not checking in. I am asking what is the status of my discrimination complaint that I filed on October 14, 2021?
If I did not have my faith, the lack of the City and it’s representatives following the policies, standards and laws would have been devastating to the quality of my life.
The City and it’s representatives claim the importance of inclusion, tolerance and the principles on non- discrimination on the basis of race, religion and other factors.
Yet the City and it’s representatives have
not adhered to those claimed principles, policies and laws.
I am simply wondering why the City and its representatives are not acting on my discrimination complaint I filed 185 days ago.
The City has designed a process to protect and enforce the City and it’s representatives from discriminating, intolerance and non-inclusion targeted at it’s employees, yet none in this organization seem to follow these processes, policies or standards.
I can’t help sense an abundance of hypocrisy.
You either defend these principles, policies and laws or you don’t. Where is my due process?
I think this is an excellent example of why I have no faith in worldly institutions and hold my faith in my creator.
Thank you,
From: Tom Battle
To: Commission
Subject: Please drop the Bay Delta Plan lawsuit!
Date: Tuesday, September 27, 2022 7:30:06 AM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Dear Commissioners,
Please drop the Bay Delta Plan lawsuit.
It is extraordinarily important that we work together to increase flows to the Tuolumne River, and this lawsuit works counter to that aim.
We’d also like to see the SFPUC held accountable for the decisions they make affecting quality of water in the San Francisco Bay. There’s an urgent need to control release of bio-nutrients to the Bay, as well as to increase our use of recycled water for conservation.
Regards,
Thomas Battle
email
Sent from my iPhone
From: Kristina Pappas
To: Commission
Subject: Public comment intended for today"s SFPUC meeting Date: Tuesday, September 27, 2022 5:07:20 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
I tried to make public comment today on agenda item 5, but I made an error using the phone system and I was not able to get through. Here is what I intended to say:
I’m Kristina Pappas, president of the San Francisco League of Conservation Voters. We urge the SFPUC to invest in municipal water recycling, which is a solution for the two biggest water challenges facing the SFPUC: it would reduce our dependence on rivers like the Tuolumne, protecting the entire ecosystem, including salmon and steelhead trout, the fishing and recreation industries, and the people who depend on those industries. It would also reduce the nutrient runoff that is polluting the bay and leading to dangerous algae blooms like the one we recently experienced. The SFPUC’s award- winning water recycling program is limited, not city-wide, and it’s a fraction of what we need.
In the meantime, please follow the peer-reviewed science regarding how much water should remain in the rivers. We’ve been asking for years that you shave only one year off your very conservative design drought, to 7 ½ years, to allow equitable use for everyone.
Thank you,
Kristina Pappas, President
San Francisco League of Conservation Voters
From: Jo Coffey
To: Commission
Subject: Comment for SFPUC Meeting, Sep 27, 2022, Item 5 Date: Tuesday, September 27, 2022 2:01:18 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
To the SFPUC Secretary,
I had intended to make this statement at today’s SFPUC meeting (Sep 27, 2022), agenda item
5. I thought I had followed the instructions at https://www.sfpuc.org/sites/default/files/about- us/commission/September%2027%20Agenda%20WEB.pdf , but I was never called, so I must have made a mistake.
Here is what I would have said. If it is possible to add it to the record of public comments, I would appreciate it.
Honorable SFPUC Commissioners,
My name is Jo Coffey. I am a resident of San Francisco, and am very concerned about SFPUC’s current water policy, particularly its reliance on the “Design Drought”.
I am a frugal person, so I can understand the instinct behind the Design Drought, the instinct to preserve as much water as possible - just in case things get really bad. But we’re not the only species dependent on that water, and the other species can’t come to meetings like this and make their case.
The Tuolumne River used to have salmon runs of thousands of fish each year. Those days are gone; numbers are down to much less than a thousand.
Salmon have the most interesting life. They begin life in an inland stream. At some point, following some instinct, they travel downstream to the ocean where they live for some years. Then, following another instinct, they come back inland, returning to the stream where they were born. These journeys can take hundreds of miles. They feed the land, bringing nutrients from the ocean into the land, and are themselves food for many mammals, including us.
You would think we would be falling all over ourselves making sure the rivers had enough water for them.
But we’re not. We close our eyes, our minds and hearts, to the possibility that they might go extinct.
I live alone. I am conscious of conserving water, but I don’t think I’m doing anything extraordinary. I follow the mellow yellow rule, and mostly use grey water to water the plants. I normally use less than 15 gallons a day. I understand the San Francisco average is around 40 gallons a day, but in other areas served by the Tuolumne, the average is around 60 gallons a day. What are they doing with all that water? Watering lawns, I suppose.
Something is badly askew with our values when we would let salmon go extinct so we can water our lawns. You have the power, and the responsibility to do something about this, and I urge you to do it.
Thank you
Jo Coffey
From: Chris Gilbert
To: Commission
Subject: Tell San Francisco to do its part to save salmon and heal the environment Date: Thursday, September 29, 2022 4:31:58 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Dear San Francisco Water,
Dear Mayor London Breed,
I am writing to urge you to appoint a strong environmentalist to the open seat on the SFPUC.
The SFPUC must change its position and embrace science-based environmental protections for the Tuolumne River, the San Francisco Bay-Delta, and our declining salmon runs. This is urgent because SFPUC staff is fighting efforts to heal the river and the Bay and Delta it flows into. Because of water diversions by the SFPUC and other diverters, salmon have fared more poorly on the Tuolumne than on any other salmon river in the Central Valley. Those same diversions are causing great damage to the Bay-Delta ecosystem and San Francisco’s salmon fishing industry.
I addition, the SFPUC is far behind communities like Orange County when it comes to reducing reliance on water diversions by investing in modern water management tools like water recycling.
The SFPUC’s position needs to change to reflect the strong commitment San Franciscans have to protecting the environment. That must start by ensuring that the Commission itself reflects those values.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Chris Gilbert
Berkeley, CA 94707
OUR MISSION: To provide our customers with high-quality, efficient and reliable water, power and sewer services in a manner that values environmental and community interests and sustains the resources entrusted to our care.
525 Golden Gate Avenue, 13th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
T 415.554.3155
F 415.554.3161
TTY 415.554.3488
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Form Email Correspondence Log
Please Invest in Solutions to Prevent Harmful Algae Blooms & Fish Kills September 21, 2022 through September 30, 2022
Date Received From City
September 21, 2022 Glenda Mahoney Half Moon Bay
September 22, 2022 Karen Kirschling San Francisco
September 23, 2022 Phillip Davis San Francisco
September 24, 2022 Allyson Kovas San Francisco
Virginia Smith-Russack San Francisco
Carol Fields Berkeley
Lesley Hunt Walnut Creek
September 28, 2022 Spreck Rosekrans Oakland
Nicolette Beck San Francisco
Marla Marcianelli San Francisco
September 29, 2022 Tim Eichenberg San Francisco
September 30, 2022 Brian Schachter Tucson, AZ
Liz Ruhland Berkeley
Maura Shannon Oakland
From: [email protected] on behalf of Glenda via San Francisco Baykeeper To: Commission
Subject: Please Invest in Solutions to Prevent Harmful Algae Blooms & Fish Kills Date: Wednesday, September 21, 2022 9:54:31 AM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
To: Mayor London Breed
CC: SFPUC General Manager Dennis Herrera, SFPUC Commission, and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Dear Mayor Breed,
I urge you to direct San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) to aggressively increase the city’s investment in water recycling today.
Over the past month, a large harmful algal bloom has spread across the Bay, leaving unimaginable numbers of dead fish in its wake. We’re still learning about this particular bloom, but what we do know is that San Francisco’s sewage effluent contributes to excessive levels of nutrients in San Francisco Bay that make the Bay fertile territory for the spread of harmful algae blooms.
Water recycling and other wastewater management technologies can help by reducing the volume of polluted discharges into the Bay. In addition, by producing potable supplies, water recycling will reduce San Francisco’s reliance on water diverted from the Tuolumne River, increasing the city’s resilience to climate change effects on water supply.
Other cities have learned the lessons of California’s unpredictable climate and are quickly adopting water recycling to reduce their burden on the ecosystem, while increasing the reliability of their supply. Orange County gets more than 75 percent of its water through its water reuse program. Las Vegas recycles nearly all of its water used indoors. And Los Angeles is on the path to reusing 100 percent of its wastewater by 2035.
But, as San Francisco’s draft Urban Water Management Plan recently revealed, the city currently has no plans to make recycled water widely available in the next 25 years. Instead, the city is pursuing multiple expensive and misguided lawsuits so that it can continue to rely, almost exclusively, on the Tuolumne River—one of the state’s most overtapped rivers—for the next several decades. San Francisco and large agribusiness water districts divert four out of every five gallons of water that flow in the Tuolumne River during a typical year.
This overuse has caused the river’s once mighty Chinook Salmon populations to crash. Meanwhile, low freshwater flows contribute to deteriorating water quality—including harmful algae blooms—in the Delta and San Francisco Bay.
I agree with Supervisor Aaron Peskin that “it is time for San Francisco and our sister cities in the nine Bay Area counties to start looking at what kinds of infrastructure investments will need to be made as this becomes, sadly, the new normal.” It’s unacceptable for the city with the nation’s greenest reputation to shirk its responsibilities to conserve California’s precious and unpredictable water supply.
I support increasing river flows to protect San Francisco Bay’s fisheries, water quality, and recreation. The city should do its part to protect the Bay and its rivers—water recycling is a common-sense way to limit the city’s water use, increase the reliability of its supply, and protect the Bay from harmful wastewater treatment plant effluent.
Thank you,
Glenda Mahoney
Half Moon Bay, CA