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San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Correspondence Log
January 9, 2025 through January 13, 2025
Date Received From Subject
January 9, 2025 Barklee Sanders Public Comment For January 14th 2025 Meeting January 13, 2025 Dave Warner Item 9: 10-year capital plan stays at $11.8 billion? (email & attachment)
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From: Barklee Sanders
To: Commission
Cc: Beck, Bob (ADM); DorseyStaff (BOS); Haney, Matt (BOS) Subject: Public Comment For January 14th 2025 Meeting
Date: Thursday, January 9, 2025 1:55:08 PM
https://www.sfpuc.gov/sites/default/files/about-us/agendas-minutes/2024%20Resolutions.pdf Ladies and Gentlemen of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the Treasure Island Development Authority,
https://www.sfpuc.gov/about-us/who-we-are/executive-management https://www.sf.gov/information/treasure-island-development-authority-staff Let’s not waste time with pleasantries. We are here because of failure—your failure. And it’s high time we call it exactly what it is. Treasure Island is drowning in darkness—figuratively and literally—and you are holding the matches.
Over 18 power outages a year on average . That’s the shameful average this community has endured for decades. Eighteen outages a year—a rate four times worse than the rest of San Francisco itself.
Do you understand the weight of that statistic? That is not infrastructure; that is neglect.
That is not oversight; that is abandonment. And abandonment is exactly what you’ve done to the people of Treasure Island.
Let me paint the picture for you—because clearly, you haven’t taken the time to see it yourself. A single mom sitting in a pitch-black apartment, praying her child’s insulin doesn’t spoil in the powerless fridge.
A family scraping together every penny to survive, only to lose it all when they have to replace spoiled groceries.
Elderly residents sitting in cold, dark rooms, their lifelines—medical devices—rendered useless.
Children trying to learn in homes without light, without heat. Is that the San Francisco you’re proud of? Is that the progress you stand for?
You’ve promised. Oh, how you’ve promised. Back in 2019, TIDA said an upgrade was coming that would solve it all. “We’d be shocked,” you said, “if there were more than five outages the next year.”
Since the upgrade in July 2021, there have been a staggering 63 outages as of 01-09-2025.
This repeated failure highlights the ongoing issues despite promises of improvement.
The work, initially scheduled for completion in 2020, faced repeated delays before finally concluding in mid-2021, yet the problems persist:
2021: 20 outages
2023: 19 outages
2024: 23 outages
2025 (so far): 1 outage
The consistent pattern of outages demonstrates how little the upgrade has delivered on its promises.
Let me ask you this: do you ever lie awake at night thinking about the people you’ve failed? Because they lie awake at night—literally—when their homes are plunged into darkness.
They can’t ignore it, so why should you? Every flicker, every blackout, every outage is a slap in the face to the residents who trusted you to care, trusted you to do better. You failed them.
You have hidden behind bureaucracy for too long. You’ve deflected, delayed, dodged responsibility. But let me remind you of something: your inaction is not neutral. It is an active harm.
Every time you failed to fix the grid, every time you delayed critical upgrades, you made a choice. A choice to let people suffer. A choice to let families shiver in the dark. A choice to uphold inequity. And every single one of those choices is on you.
You want the truth? What’s happening on Treasure Island isn’t just an infrastructure problem —it’s a moral failure. A community of 3,000 people has been treated like an afterthought, like collateral damage in your web of incompetence. And for what? Convenience? Complacency? Cost savings? How do you justify that? How do you live with yourselves? You are the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. You are the Treasure Island Development Authority. Those names carry responsibility, accountability, and power.
But what good is your power if it doesn’t keep the lights on? What good are your titles if you let an entire community rot under your watch?
I demand action, not excuses. Declare a state of emergency for Treasure Island. Bring in experts who will actually fix the system, and appoint people to your boards who will not rest until this community has the reliable power it has been denied for far too long. The time for apologies is over. The time for promises is over. This is your chance to prove you care about more than your titles and your budgets.
Treasure Island deserves better, and you know it. So, no more delays. No more negligence. Fix this, or step aside and let someone with the will and the conscience to do the job take over.
Because right now, your legacy is darkness for 25 years for treasure island and that, my friends, is an unforgivable disgrace.
Barklee Sanders
Technology Consultant
More about me: barkleesanders.com
Schedule a meeting: https://cal.com/barkleesanders
January 13, 2025
Re: 10 Year Capital Plan Stays at $11.8 billion?
Dear Commissioners,
Wishing you a Happy New Year and thank you for your service! Per the material provided with agenda item 9 for Tuesday’s meejg4-fing regarding budget priorijg4-fies, it appears that the 10 year capital plan that was an excepjg4-fional $11.8 billion last year
1 is projected to stay at $11.8 billion starjg4-fing in FY 2025-26. If this is the case, this means that the $1.554 billion of capital from the first year’s spending of last year’s plan drops off and is replaced with addijg4-fional capital spending ~$1.554 billion.
By holding 10 year capital plan spending at $11.8 billion, it appears that the SFPUC has no understanding of the financial risk it is undertaking:
1. There is a strong chance that demand will not increase to 207 mgd by 2045 as the finance department projects. As you know, both water bills and sewer bills are based on water used. Assuming housing growth is corelated to water demand,
2 combined water and sewer bills would increase beyond
2045 affordability thresholds. 3
2. The SFPUC has a terrible track record of keeping capital projects on budget. 4 Spending exceeding capital plans will also push up rates.
3. Wastewater Enterprise already has one debt rajg4-fing agency issuing a negajg4-five outlook. Should the cost of debt increase beyond projecjg4-fions, that will also cause rates to increase.
4. Rates are already projected to increase significantly which, due to price elasjg4-ficity, will drive down demand.
There needs to be a bejg46fier balance between spending and revenue.
1 The FY 2024-25 capital plan was $11.8 billion, the largest in the SFPUC’s history and up 34% in just one year, from the FY 2023-24 10 capital of $8.8 billion.
2 The Finance Department average water and sewer bill calculajg4-fion is based on number of accounts/housing projecjg4-fions. Should the housing projecjg4-fions not be achieved, bills will be higher than projected. 3 The 2024-25 budget projected combined water and sewer bills to be within 1% of 2045 affordability thresholds. 4 The Q4 2023-24 WECIP report showed capital projects averaging 20% over budget, RWS projects 30% over.
Please direct staff to come in with a lower 10 year capital plan. You could ask for a specific dollar reducjg4-fion ($2-3 billion?) but as you haven’t been given informajg4-fion on how a parjg4-ficular amount of capital spending affects rates, perhaps a bejg46fier request would be to reduce capital spending such that there’s at least a 20% cushion between projected 2045 rates and affordability limits. Through last year the affordability cushion was 30% but currently is projected to drop to 1% by 2045 primarily due to the jump in capital spending and use of debt.
From a water enterprise perspecjg4-five, the classic counter argument is that we need to invest to maintain the RWS. Yes, good maintenance is crijg4-fical. But can a modest porjg4-fion be deferred for a small number of years? In the 2023-24 10 year capital plan RWS projected $2 billion of capital projects. The next year, in the 2024-25 capital plan, RWS jumped 50% or $1 billion to $3 billion. Did it absolutely have to jump that much in just one year?
Taking acjg4-fion now reduces the SFPUC’s chances of falling into the San Diego County Water Authority’s situajg4-fion.
5 Please advise staff to reduce/delay some capital spending, or at least provide an alternajg4-five plan where there is a 20% or more cushion against 2045 affordability targets.
Kind regards,
Dave Warner
cc: Dennis Herrera, SFPUC General Manager
Steven Ritchie, SFPUC Assistant General Manager, Water Enterprise Nancy Hom, SFPUC Chief Financial Officer
Laura Busch, SFPUC Deputy Chief Financial Officer
Erin Corvinova, SFPUC Financial Planning Director
5 In short, the SDCWA invested in the Carlsbad desal plant, projecjg4-fing increased demand, but the demand didn’t materialize because the high price of water drove down demand. The Board stalled, hoping demand would recover while eajg4-fing into reserves, then tried to raise rates 18% to mijg4-figate the financial shorjg4-4all; the San Diego mayor objected and they compromised on a lower rate, further eajg4-fing into limited reserves. And one of the bond rajg4-fing agencies issued a negajg4-five outlook, potenjg4-fially increasing the cost of borrowing.