1.      Call to Order and Roll Call.  The Peak Oil Preparedness Task Force meeting convened at 3:15 p.m. (Present:  Chair Rosenmeier, Vice-Chair Meyerson, Members Gerber, Lowe (3:25), Mark and Simone.

 

2.      Approval of the December 2, 2008 Peak Oil Preparedness Task Force Regular Meeting Draft Minutes.  (Discussion and Action) Upon Motion by Chair Rosenmeier and second by Member Mark, the December 2, 2008 Meeting Minutes were approved without objection (AYES:  Chair Rosenmeier, Vice-Chair Meyerson, Members Gerber, Mark and Simone; Absent:  Member Lowe) (Explanatory Document:  December 2, 2008 Approved Minutes).

 

3.      Presentation of Peak Oil Preparedness Task Force Report Sections for Review and Comment. (Informational Presentations and Discussion) 

 

·        Introduction (Explanatory Document:  Introduction Section Draft).  Presented by Chair Rosenmeier.

 

·        Architecture (Explanatory Document: (1) Architecture Section Draft) (2) Amended Architecture Section Draft).  Authored by Member Gerber.  To be discussed at the January 6^th meeting.

 

·        Economy (Explanatory Document:  Economy Section Draft).  Authored by Chair Rosenmeier.

 

·        Energy (Explanatory Document:  Energy Section Draft). Authored by Mr. Woody Hastings with assistance from Chair Rosenmeier.

 

·        Food (Explanatory Document:  Food Section Draft).   Authored and presented by Member Mark.

 

·        Infrastructure (to be discussed at the January 6^th meeting—Vice-Chair Meyerson).

 

·        Societal Functioning (Explanatory Document:  Societal Functioning Section Draft).  Authored and presented by Member Simone.

 

·        Transportation (Explanatory Document: Transportation Draft).  Authored and presented by Member Lowe.

 

·        Vulnerable Populations.  To be discussed at the January 6^th meeting.

 

Task Force members, Mr. Cal Broomhead, Department of the Environment Energy Manager, and the public in attendance provided recommendations on the Introduction, Energy, Societal Functioning, and Transportation sections in relation to content, strategies and goals, amount of detail to provide, sentence structure, term usage, citing sources, typographical errors, tone, length, specificity, and amount of elaboration to include on topics.  Chair Rosenmeier reported that Mr. Woody Hastings, a member of the public, authored the Energy Section with her assistance.  It was recommended that the Introduction section provide more of a basic definition of peak oil for novices on the topic.  Chair Rosenmeier reported that she would work on revisions to the Introduction Section for members’ review and asked other members to do the same on their sections.  Chair Rosenmeier requested input on how to format recommendations, e.g. either one global section of recommendations or at the end of each section.  Member Lowe suggested a topic decimal system with cross references when recommendations encompass more than one topic.  Members discussed whether to include the societal functioning topic as its own section or to incorporate the section throughout other sections.  

 

Public Comment: 

 

Introduction Section: Mr. Woody Hastings (1) provided recommendations on how to approach bad scenarios, e.g. to create awareness of the situation, acknowledge that it exists, and then move on with a constructive report; (2) stated that the introduction should focus more on introducing the report itself and not on peak oil, e.g. genesis of the task force, what the report is about, what it is responding to; (3) recommended restructuring the goals section; (4) stated that the report should stay cognizant that the audience is the Board of Supervisors but should also include a history of peak oil for other people that may read the report; e.g., to include (a) that the U.S. peaked in 1970; and the (b) global discovery peaked in 1964; and (6) provided recommendations on content, language and specificity throughout the report.   

 

Food:  Mr. Hastings reported that he had provided written comments to Member Mark.  Mr. Hastings expressed his support for involvement of a regional agency to incorporate recommendations and suggested that the section title be revised.

 

Societal Functioning:  Mr. Hastings (1) discussed including the public’s spontaneous responses to gas price hikes as it relates to measurable increases in public transit, carpooling, and bicycling; (2) recommended avoiding references to other City Task Force reports; (3) stated that he did not get a negative feeling about the worst-case scenarios as was mentioned by another member(s) because the heading prepared him that would be forthcoming; however, did recommend that references should be kept in one place, not throughout the section; and (4) stated that the Transition Commission is a excellent idea and could go beyond framing for this report and link to the identity of the city of San Francisco in response to climate change and other activities that people are being asking to do that they have never done before.

 

Societal Functioning: Mr. David Pilpel (1) stated that he felt the societal functioning topic is beyond the work that this body and City agencies are doing and additional efforts would be needed; (2) recommended reversing the order of the neighborhoods and communities and identity of cities section so that it starts with cities, then communities, to either build up or top-down; (3) stated that the third paragraph on the identity of the city was the most important and should be strengthened and elaborated on; (4) felt that this section was an interesting approach about how things would or would not fold together and could possibly be better expressed through the combination of the Transition Commission and the education section; (5) recommended fewer specifics about the education piece; e.g., to state that there needs to be a plan, it needs to be communicated, but what is in it and how it happens should be pulled.

 

Overall Report:  Mr. Pilpel stated that it is important that the report be completed in the next few months to present to the Board of Supervisors, and that there should be buy-in from the Mayor’s Office and various City departments so that the report is not a one-time event and can be acted upon.  Mr. Pilpel stated that it is important for recommendations to discuss what specific departments could be part of implementing, and suggested that the Department of the Environment could play a coordinating role.  It was explained that San Francisco is a leader in this effort and the report should bring a sense of urgency to this issue so that it can be a collective undertaking that we are trying to fix before the problem fully hits.  It was suggested that the recommendations should be a sentence or two that are fairly specific, but without all of the implementing details, e.g., we should figure out how to do this, there are some departments that should be involved, now go figure it out. Mr. Pilpel stated that the content is good throughout the sections but recommended that the next version flow better with more consistency across sections.

 

4.      Recruitment of a Graphic Designer for the Final Report. (Continued from the December 2, 2008 Meeting) (Discussion)  Speaker:  Chair Rosenmeier

 

Chair Rosenmeier reported that she has not received a response to recruitment efforts.  Mr. Cal Broomhead stated that there is a Graphic Designers Association in San Francisco, and Member Gerber stated that there is a California School of Arts that has a book design class that could possibly assist in the graphic design.   

 

5.      New Business/Future Agenda Items. (Information and Discussion)

 

Chair Rosenmeier reported that Ms. Erica Edelson of the Berkeley Peak Oil Task Force stated that she would delete the reference on their website about working with the San Francisco Peak Oil Task Force as requested.  Chair Rosenmeier reported that Ms. Sue Vaughn has volunteered to edit the report.  Vice-Chair Meyerson and Member Mark reported that they would not be available for the next meeting on January 6, 2009 meeting.  A quorum was verified with four members confirming their attendance. Vice Chair Meyerson reported that he would submit his report before the next meeting for members’ review and discussion. Chair Rosenmeier announced that the January 6^th meeting would include a review of every section that was not reviewed at today’s meeting along with revised drafts. A request was made to extend the hours of the January 6^th meeting to be determined based on conference room availability from either 3:00 – 6:30 p.m. or 2:00 – 5:30 p.m.

 

6.      Public Comments:  Members of the public may address the Task Force on matters that are within the Task Force’s jurisdiction and are not on today’s agenda.  There was no public comment at this time.

 

7.      Adjournment.  The Peak Oil Preparedness Task Force adjourned at 6:27 p.m.

** Copies of explanatory documents are available at (1) the Task Force office, 11 Grove Street, San Francisco, California between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., (2) upon request to the Task Force Secretary, at telephone number 415-355-3709 or via e-mail at [email protected], or (3) at the Peak Oil Preparedness Task Force meeting website as attachments with each agenda or meeting minutes.

 

*Approved: February 3, 2009