Committee presses administration for concrete steps after civil grand jury finds gaps in fuel resilience planning

The Government Audits & Oversight Committee on Sept. 30 examined the civil grand jury’s fuel-resilience report and the city’s joint response from the City Administrator’s Office, DEM, SFPUC and other agencies. The report warned that fuel shortages after disasters could impair lifeline services and urged steps to ensure regional fuel access and reduce dependency on fossil fuels.

Civil grand jury members Alan Cohen and Nicholas Weininger said the jury issued 20 recommendations covering equipment, supply-chain contingencies and planning for a decarbonized emergency-response future. They expressed concern that many department responses were categorized "requires further analysis" rather than committing to concrete implementation measures.

Deputy City Administrator Jennifer Johnston presented a joint response: the city agrees with many findings and has an existing fuel working group (meeting since early 2018). She said about half the recommendations are being implemented or will be addressed by winter 2023 and that three recommendations (contractor participation in drills, a public granular fuel plan, and an expedited timeline) will not be implemented as proposed for reasons of cost, procurement fairness or confidentiality; the administration offered alternative, practical steps and pledged deliverables and a workplan for the fuel working group.

Vice Chair Connie Chan proposed amended Board responses, asking that alternate-site studies for any new fuel storage take cumulative environmental impacts into account (particularly for Southeast neighborhoods). The committee voted to continue the hearing to the call of the chair to allow follow-up on implementation timetables and to forward the amended resolution to the Board of Supervisors.