FIVE WORK SHOPS AND SFPUC NO NEARER TO MAKING ANY SENSE

Mayor Gavin Newsom chose to anoint Susan Leal as Director of San Francisco Public Utilities Commission when there were and are many other experts who could have done the position real justice. This decision by Mayor Newsom will come to bite the Mayor in the butt. The SFPUC conducted 5 workshops and as each workshop concluded the experts and those in the know have fully realized that SFPUC is in deep - deep trouble. The trouble lies with poor judgment and having no clue how to discern. Most of the folks who surround Susan Leal are ignorant and when confronted - go on the defensive. It is this mentality which is so saturated in Upper Management that will bring the downfall of the present Susan Leal Upper Management and Organization. The Budget Analyst has worked hard and produced two documents Phase I and Phase II linked with SFPUC operations. Both these documents spell out the underlining problems that beset the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and its operations. Anyone who has followed the doings of the SFPUC over a period of time will clearly understand that this organization has in the past failed the constituents of San Francisco. Past Mayors are guilty of dipping into the SF City General Fund coffers when money from that pot should have gone to maintain, repair, and replace the aging Hetch Hetchy system for other stuff. Over the year the electricity produced by Hetch Hetchy has been mismanaged. Mostly rednecks work at the Hetch Hetchy operations by Yosemite Park. There has been no evaluation of work ethics and waste of money all round. Hetch Hetchy management have wasted million of dollars and even defied logic by purchasing electric power when it was in a good position to generate power from its own sources. Over the years the Hetch Hetchy has failed most people but it has played havoc with the First People of the Region - especially the Miwoks. For the last 25 years I have been following the Hetch Hetchy operations and today it is at the all time - worse operation. Here is San Francisco the constituents have got no respite from Susan Leal. Every single time we have a heavy shower we have raw sewage flowing on our streets. In some areas there is no much flooding that homes have flooded. Again and again SFPUC will come out with some wacky reasons as to why SFPUC should not be blamed. SFPUC has never once addressed why the Proposition to build the Cross Town Tunnel was never ever executed. It is amazing when from the early 1970s to 2005 the whole area around the Phelps Raw Sewage Treatment Plant stinks to high heaven. The plant is build in a residential area and it is not uncommon for the plant to release flares through the high stack every day - containing a host of dangerous toxins - foremost PM-10. The residents suffer from all kinds of respiratory diseases. Cancer victims are found in the hundreds in the residential area and SFPUC does not give a hoot about the constituents of San Francisco. These vermin should be sent to jail. The plant closed down and the plant by Pier 39 can take its share of the excreta that comes all the way to Bayview. Aaron Peskin should be able to smell the stench that has been the prerogative of the Bayview residents. Sophie Maxwell the Supervisor on the take sides with Peskin and Peskin with her - because Peskin owes Maxwell a lot and more for all the shit that comes all the way - miles from China Town right to Bayview. The SFPUC is fully cognizant that over 70% of the over 900 miles of pipelines are old and broken. The SFPUC wants to conserve water while for years millions of gallons of sewage and clean drinking water seeps and pollutes the watershed and pollutes the ground all over San Francisco. The Calaveres Dam is waiting to burst and drown thousands and this will happen within 3 years. Even a 7-magnitude earthquake will do the trick. The same with the Irvington tunnel. There are 8 other projects that SFPUC keeps talking about. There is only so much one can talk. Now the time has come for quick action with or without a Problematic Environmental Impact Report (PEIR). Engineers should be mandated to assess the situation and put in place a remedy. Failing that the Calaveres Tsunami and the Irvington Fiasco will adversely impact millions. There will also be deaths and the liability facing SFPUC will be in the billions. Be warned it does not take a rocket scientist to understand this situation. SFPUC fails to understand fully the Raker Act and the adverse impacts it has caused to millions because of lack of leadership. Good leaders know the way, show the way and go the way. Susan Leal is no leader she opens her mouth and shoves her foot every single time. Experts from the other Bayarea Counties understand this and have been bold to spell out the situation at hand. Patricia Martel with the help of Willie L. Brown Jr. implemented many adverse changes linked to the sewage treatment plants and the sewer pipes, the electricity that SFPUC controls, memoranda with many counties that adversely impact the Hetch Hetchy operations. We have no worthy recycling and conservation of clean drinking water in place in San Francisco. Some one has let the crooks adversely impact millions. San Francisco has no plan in place to preserve, protect, and nurture our watershed. San Francisco has killed all of its main rivers, creeks, rivulets, springs and no one really thinks much of the damage. No one has assessed our Riparian Bluff and at a recent Bayarea survey San Francisco with all its pompousness chose NOT to participate in the survey. Shame on San Francisco. Today in the year 2005 more toxins leech into our ground water all over San Franciso. Dangerous chemicals spills take place and there are no mandatory checks and what is worse no agency with clout to take the culprits to task. I know for a fact when I single handily took the San Francisco Port Authority to task and forced them to clean a toxic pile at the expense of over $1 million dollars at Pier 92. There are toxic spills, piles, and hot spots all over San Francisco but we do not have one single authority to fine and remedy the adverse impacts. Lot of folks who talk the talk but very few that can walk the walk. The worse culprit our SF Health Department. Every day over 180 million gallons of second effluents mostly half-treated sewage goes into the Bay by Islais Creek and closer to Pier 80. Billions of gallons of toxins every year. No one thinks much about the Force Main that has been damaged for years on SF Port Authority Property - millions of filthy water seeping into the watershed. Some one should be penalized and some one should go to jail for a long, long time. Especially since over $30 million dollars has been wasted by SFPUC, MUNI, the SF Port Authority, San Francisco County Transportation Authority - some other vested agencies at Islais Creek by Pier 80. The Force Main if it completely compromised will compromise the health and safety of the constituents of San Francisco. One may shout and try to bring this fact to the attention of the crooks including the Board of Supervisors - Aaron Peskin, the corrupt one Sophie Maxwell - but no one gives a hoot. SFPUC with Susan Leal who earns a good $300,000 plus perks better perform. If she cannot she should step down together with the lackeys who follow her all over the place and have no idea what so ever about infrastructure, electricity and power plants, sewage treatment plants, dams, filtering plants, huge pumping station, anything engineering what it is all about. There has been talk that too many folks who live in the Castro and share with the activities that the Castro is all about surround Susan Leal. I know for a fact that I have not met one single educated and experienced person from the inner, inner sanctum that surrounds the General Manager Susan Leal. We are about to get notices raising our sewer rates - how about 22%? We will soon hear that the Hetch Hetchy operations and the Capital Improvement Project needs a couple of billions more - the present $3.8 billion will not suffice. In the mean time be prepared to hear a lot of whining and no real action. Back and forth and going in circles - but no real quality performance and action.

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