Welcome back to Think Tech. This is movies you can learn from. Today we're going to talk about Bridge of Spies, which is really a very good movie with Tom Hanks, one of my old-time favorites, and Steven Spielberg, one of the great collaborations in recent movies, especially movies about the greatest generation. We've talked about some of those before. And for this discussion, we have two naval retired officers, Shackley Rufeno, formerly chief judge of the Second Circuit, and Michael Lilly, also a Navy officer retired, and formerly the Attorney General of the State of Hawaii. Welcome to the show, you guys. Glad to be here. Good to be here. So, Shackley, you go first. This Bridge of Spies is a really compelling movie, but it is also very educational, very informative, because it is essentially a true story. Yes, and that's one of the reasons I like it, actually, is it's a true story. It's basically about the arrest and later exchange of a Soviet spy who is operating in the United States in the late 50s, and the exchange took place in the early 60s.  It was released in October of 2015, and as you mentioned, Tom Hanks is the star of the movie, although the acting throughout the movie is just excellent. Steven Spielberg was the director, the Cohen brothers, interesting way and wrote it while we went on to do their own movies later on. It takes place during the Cold War, and it's interesting to remember that during this period of time, the Soviets had fired off their first aid bomb in 1949, and the movie brings us out. When we all grew up, we were worried and told that there might be a nuclear war, and I remember being taught at school to get under the desk and to listen for the air raid sirens and things like that, which people probably laugh about today. That was very real in those days, and that was the kind of context in which all these saints nestled. So basically what happened was this Soviet spy named Rudolf Abel, which was his spy name, his real name was Fisher actually. He was operating an atomic secrets spy organization in the United States in the late fifties, and he was taking secrets that were being obtained from the Salimons and other areas of our atomic project, and ferrying those to the Soviet Union. He did that for about 10 years, he was based in New York City. He was arrested in, let's see, in 1957 and brought into federal courts, and then this man, James Donovan, who's a bank space, was a New York lawyer, and he was appointed to represent Mr. Abel during his federal court trial for, I guess, for his spying activity. Donovan is a very interesting person. He was a former commander in the U.S. Navy, Darryl Willmurtschew. He was part of the prosecution team at the Nuremberg trials in Germany after World War II that prosecuted the high brass Nazis, and he had become an insurance defense lawyer out of Wall Street, but during the war he'd also been general counsel of the Office of Strategic Services, which was the forerunner of the CIA, and so these people knew him, and we knew he was a good lawyer, and he knew he was drafted to put up the defense for Rudolf Abel, and the first half of the movie is always out there. Now the second half is about the exchange. Abel was convicted, he was given 30 years in prison, and so he was available and risen for possible exchange, and then apparently he was brought out of the movies, Donovan thought about this, and it had been better not to execute him. The death penalty from his solidly medical was a possibility in this case. At the same time, Francis Gary Powers was a lieutenant on the United States Air Force drafted by the CIA by the new chief, Dmitry Chonis' spy plane over Russia, and a group of people were drafted by the CIA, and at that time we didn't have very much photo reconnaissance of what was going on in the Soviet Union. We had some old Luftwaffe World War II photographs of the area by the west of the year-old, but we really didn't know what else went on, and because of the fight for the concern about nuclear war and nuclear weapons, we wanted to know how many bombers did they have, how many rockets, what was the state of their readiness to go to nuclear war, so one of the ways to find that, we didn't have, in those days there was no satellites, right, so the only way to find out was to fly airplanes. Initially they flew around the periphery of the Soviet Union and tried to look pin, which you couldn't see very far, so the CIA eventually contracted with Mcdowell Douglas, and that's through the famous scunt, or scunt works, uh, uh, Kelly Johnson, the famous engineer there, created the U-2 spy plane. Up to that time, the highest an airplane could go would be about 15,000 feet, but the U-2 was decide and actually flew effectively at over 70,000 feet. It was like a big glider with a jet engine, but quite an interesting airplane. There's, they still use it. There's still about 30 of them in the Air Force inventory that fly these flagship missions, and so he was, he was tasked to fly from, uh, Peshawar, Pakistan to Norway, who was the first mission that would cross the entire Soviet Union, and as, well, they, they thought at that time that the Soviet Union didn't have such an, uh, service to air missiles to shoot down an airplane that was flying that high. Turns out they were wrong, of course, and he was shot down. Uh, he, uh, he had a, uh, I guess a, a quarter was the, was the, some sort of needle in it that he could have committed suicide, and I guess some say he was expected to do that. I'm not sure about that, but anyway, he was captured, he was put on trial, and he was convicted, and he was sentenced to prison. I think it was when he was in prison. And so, uh, and that was, uh, let's see, the exchange, he was shot down on May 1st, 1960, so he had, uh, Abel in prison since about 57, so he was sitting in prison, and he had, uh, ours shot down in 1960, and so the CIA asked Donovan to come in and he bowed to Berlin and to try to negotiate exchange, uh, uh, branched Gary Powers for a Rudolph Abel, uh, which he did, and he went there, and, uh, that's the second half of the movie, basically. He goes to Berlin, it's a great, great, uh, visuals of Berlin, and at that time they were building the Berlin Wall, and tensions were really high, and things were pretty grim on the East, and East Berlin, and, uh, so he goes there and, and he begins negotiation. Turns out, at the same time that he's arriving there, a young man named Frederick Breyer was, who was an economic student from Yale, I guess, who happened to be going to school in East Berlin, and he was picked up by the East Germans, and, uh, and, uh, Don had learned about this, so when he begins his negotiations, he says, well, I want Rudolph, I'll exchange Rudolph Abel for, uh, for Francis Gary Powers, but I also want Frederick Breyer, and, and part of the drama of the movie is about how, how that worked out, about how he was able to, and they go back, and, and get something out, and eventually. So that's kind of a basic introduction, you know, there's a lot more to talk about, uh, uh, so I'll just, why don't I just leave it there, and we can go from there. Mike, I have so many questions I, I want to ask you, uh, but let me, let me start with some of the things that occurred to me after Shackley's description. Um, what does this, um, teach us about the Cold War? Maybe, you know, we have a kind of Cold War going on now. It's not the same. That was the, the original Cold War. Just how cold was it? And was it as dangerous as this one? Was it more dangerous? Less dangerous? Uh, it's hard to remember all of it. Shackley's reference to Duck and Cover, it was, it was a nuclear Cold War. Um, could we learn anything from this move about what Cold War is like? Uh, when I was growing up, I remember that turtle about hiding Duck, and we were told to go underneath our chairs as well, and not to look outside, because you're, you'd be blinded by the flash of the bomb. And when I was in Russia about 10 years ago, one of my tour guides at Mouskow was telling me about how he as a kid was taught to hide underneath the school. We had an interesting discussion there. We had a real connection. But I see some real parallels in the Cold War then as Cold War now. But I, I think we were a lot more terrified then, and maybe we ought to be a little more terrified today. But Steven Steeleberg, that was the director of this film, and I are both baby boomers. I was born in 46, so I'm one of the earliest baby boomers. And all of us that grew up in the late 50s and early 60s, we all know about powers being shot down as the U-2 over Soviet Union, and somehow he got exchanged or got returned a couple of the couple of three years later. But we didn't know anything about this spy, Rudolf Abel. And he was the master Soviet spy in the United States at the time, and he'd been there since the 40s. And, and so he was deeply embedded in the United States. He was one of these guys that if you ran into him, he'd be like a ghost. You wouldn't even see him. He sort of just fit into the background. And that's exactly the character that Mark Rylons. He's one of the greatest, I'd say he's one of the greatest actors in the world today. He's certainly the greatest British actor, and he's well known in Britain because he does theater work mostly and BBC, but he became more famous with this. And he also played Thomas Cromwell in the Wolf Hall series. He's an absolutely incredible actor. Tom Hanks had never worked with him. And when they did the first scene between them was when Tom Hanks meets him in prison. And Hanks goes to Steven Spielberg and says, my God, Mark Rylons, fantastic. He was, he plays such a subdued character.  His character is just explosive. And Tom Hanks told Spielberg, bake him, please don't let him drag me down. Because Dolovan, and he plays as this Ruddy Irishman, and he's a bulldog, and he's got to be tough. And he was afraid that this subdued character would just shrink him down. And I looked at pictures of the actual Rudolph Abel and they're almost close. The Mark Rylons is almost a clone of, of this guy Rudolph. So it's a, it's there are may just an amazing thing. And the Russians did have moles in the United States. He was the greatest. If you've seen the TV series Americans with King, it's about a couple that were embedded in the United States and spying on the United States for the Russia. It's similar to that. And, and he was actually transmitting intelligence data as Shackly was pointing out to the Soviet Union. He was very effective. And then Dolovan is a quintessential American, you know, he, he, he tells one guy, you know, the one thing that is different between us and the rest of the world is we have the Constitution. And this guy is really, really a constitutionalism and American. He actually took the Abel case up to the United States Supreme Court and wound up challenging the search and seizure. And he lost the case five, four. But that was after only after, after the argued the case, Supreme Court brought it back and asked it to be argued again. So he almost won that case. It was very close. It's a seminal case and search and seizure. And, but this guy is, you know, he's, Dolovan is, is just a nostalgic and, and Hanks is brilliant in it. Rylan's got the Academy Award for best supporting actor. I think he, and in my estimation, he and Hanks were both best actors. I mean, they were, he wasn't just a supporting actor. So, you know, I was mentioning how us baby boomers knew about powers we didn't know about Abel. And so that's why when Spielberg found out about this Abel side of the story, he decided he looked into it. He thought this would be a great movie. And so this movie is mostly about the characters. It's mostly about Donovan played by Hanks and Abel played by Mark Rylan's. And, and powers is almost like a sub story of the whole thing, including prior Shackley was talking about. But there are sub stories. The real story is about these two characters. And as strongly American as Donovan is, he and, and Abel become this, these great friends. They, and, and the friendship is not born out of values. It's born out of respect. They like one another. They like one another as a person. People called Abel a traitor. But Donovan said, wait, he's not a traitor. If he was traded, if he was American trading American secrets, he'd be a traitor to America. But he was a Soviet that was going after American speaker. That's not a traitor. He's being faithful to the Soviet Union. We have spies in Russia, and we're doing the same thing. They're not traders. They're doing their, their, their spy craft. So he, he respected the fact that he was doing something that, that we do in the Soviet Union and the other side of the coin. So what happened to Abel? I liked Abel. I liked the actor. Of course, it was, it was great. But I liked him for what he did. I respected him for what he did. I respected him for the way he handled Donovan, Tom Hanks, that I wondered at the end, he made these very cryptic, but very wise comments to Tom Hanks. It really was well written this movie. Right, you know, right, every statement of the dialogue. So at the end there, he says, Tom Hanks asks him, are you going to be okay when you go back to Russia? And he says, I don't know if they, they just put me in the back of the car. That will be, you know, a bad thing. I may not live through that. But if they hug, hug me and shake my hand, then maybe I'll live through it. They don't know what I told the Americans. And so you see it, the last moment that I, maybe I didn't watch this carefully enough, they didn't shake his hand. They just put him in the back of the car. Do you think he survived? Yeah, he did. He was reunited, apparently you're reunited with his wife and daughter, who we talked about, and lived until 1971 and in Russia. And apparently, Donovan had tried to go back later on on a trip to Russia and to, and to look him up. But for some reason, it was never, never made possible by the, by the Soviet authorities, unfortunately. Yeah, well, you know, one thing is the lawyer thing, I wanted to ask you about that shackley. So here's a guide. And he has a certain amount of military experience, like a lot of people. But who was it? Alan Walden was the senior partner at his firm, and approaches him and says, you need to do this for your country. He says, why? You know, I'm in the insurance industry. I don't do that work. I never did that work. I don't want to do that work. And somehow, Alan Walden appealed to him on a patriotic level. And indeed, Donovan was a patriot beyond patriot. He took that case and ran with it all the way, including, you know, to, to, to envelop the trade with this fellow prior. That was a remarkable thing. And he stuck with it. Maybe he had his thing about Yale and her house. But he was, he was determined to do it two for one. And the government was the American government said, don't do that. We didn't bargain for that. We won one on one, not two for one.  It's part of that greatest generation, isn't it? One interesting event yet in the movie that I like was early on, when your Tom Hanks character is being introduced, he's, he's negotiating a civil lawsuit with another lawyer in a club or bar someplace. And he represents the insurance company. And he, and the other guy represents five motorcyclists who are apparently hit by a, by a car that Hanks insurance company insured. And Hanks is saying, well, that's one, that's one incident. That's one accident. And the other guy say, well, no, it's five, because there are five people who are injured, right? You've heard that before, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Later on, when, when he's in Germany and in Berlin, and he's negotiating the release of not one, but two people in exchange for, for one Russian spy, that comes up again. And he says, he says, oh, no, it's just one transaction. Well, you know, these lawyers, well, I, you know, but, but to, to that point, though, I thought probably the most remarkable part of the movie, I really would be interested in your thoughts about it. This when he was negotiating with the Russians. And he didn't know who he was dealing with. He didn't know who was who. And you figure out, he was a moving target. And he had to, you know, examine the authority of the individual he was with, and somehow penetrate, you know, that that level of, you know, vagueness that they threw on. He really didn't know who had authority to make a deal. And to me, that was, you know, it was just like he was learning on the job, how to be a real negotiator, a real spy, in an international sense, in a very difficult, dangerous environment, and remarkable that he would do that. What? What's but? And, you know, he was at risk, he was at risk. Even that altercation on the street, where those young fellows in East Berlin attacked him, took his overcoat, remember that? They set that up. That was not an accident. They were softening him up. And so, you know, he was in a time of great risk, great threat. But he managed, I guess it really takes an insurance defense lawyer to be able to handle that kind of thing. It's too credit to the profession, you know, Michael. When he was doing those negotiations, there were two countries that he was dealing with. He was dealing with an East German lawyer and a Russian KGB chief. So, the KGB chief could negotiate for powers. But we didn't recognize East Germany. East Germany wanted recognition in the world. But they were under the thumb of the Soviet Union. But they weren't recognized as a sovereign state by the United States. And they had Pire, the kid. And so, they were trying to just engineer powers for Pire. But Pire was a low-level thing, just a kid power. I mean, Abel was the top chief. So, you want to get a top person in response. And so, that's why powers was so important. But the Soviet, so he had to deal with so many different levels. He had to deal with the Soviet Union and the East Germany, and then his own government that sometimes would try to undermine him. But he insisted that there be a two-for-one. And he actually got that two-for-one. And, you know, getting back to lawyers, there were two books that are the major books about this exchange. One is James Donovan's book called Strangers on a Bridge. And the other was Bridge of Spies by Giles Whittle. And when we first talked about this, I went and found and read Bridge of Spies by Giles Whittle. And then I realized that's not what the movie was based on. It was based on Donovan's book. And Giles Whittle wound up suing Spielberg for taking his name and putting his book name on this movie. And I never could find out what happened. And I just assumed what happened was that they settled the thing. And I'm sure Giles got a good settlement out of that because he just took his name. I mean, Bridge of Spies was his book. The difference in the book is, like this movie, it's primarily, the Donovan's book is primarily about his representation of Abel and engineering the exchange. Whereas the Bridge of Spies is much deeper about the whole story at all levels. I mean, he goes back into the history of the Soviet spying on our nuclear things, going back to the Rosenbergs, and then much more detail on towers and the stories. So it's great to read both books. They're complementary of one another. Another thing, Jacqueline and I were talking earlier about the judge that handled the case of Abel. Wasn't he the pits, wasn't he? Well, the actual judge was, he'd been on the bench for several decades, and he was a highly respected judge. And he would never have done or allowed what happened in this movie, which didn't happen, by the way, where Donovan goes to his residence and has an ex-party communication. Oh, yeah. And tried to convince him not to give the death penalty because he wants, he thinks in the future that Abel could be exchanged for some other person in the future that we could get back. And that never happened. It never happened. In fact, what had happened in the courtroom and during his argument on sentencing, he made a plea that there might be a time in the future when we'll want to get somebody back that they got that's high level, and we've got powers and we can exchange them. So that never happened. And I mean, the ex-party didn't happen and never would have happened. It would have been entirely inappropriate. Yeah, I am wondering about, you know, the public reaction. This was in the time of McCarthy. And Donovan was being criticized. His home was attacked. His kids were attacked in school for representing a spy. And that was kind of McCarthy-esque, wasn't it? And not that that wouldn't happen again today. I think it might. But I think that was a sign of the times. That's what we had in the Cold War. That's what we had about these filthy, pinko, communist people. That was, you know, the American reaction to the Cold War, although we were also involved in the Cold War. You'll see what's exactly. Oh, well, a couple of things I'll mention that I thought of as I was watching. First off, there are a number of interviews of Steven Spielberg and others and Tom Hanks and so on on YouTube for anybody who's interested. And they talk about a lot about how they click this movie together, which is very interesting. A couple of things is I was in Moscow once, and I went to the Military Museum there. And they have, I saw over in the corner was this big pilot junk, and I walked over there. And it turns out that was what was left of Gary Power's YouTube. They kept it. So I've actually seen the YouTube. What else is it like today? Your question was about the times. Yeah, you know, like we've covered with you guys, we've covered the greatest generation in World War II. A couple of expressions of that. And Spielberg and Tom Hanks, you know, they collaborate on that kind of thing. Saving Private Ryan would be another one. But this was not World War II. This was not the common definition of the greatest generation. And somehow yet, it's connected. Don't you agree? It's, well, yeah, I mean, the immediate aftermath of World War II was the beginning of the Cold War, right? So this was the worst part of the Cold War, the coldest part, if you will. And then, you know, in those days, I remember when the Berlin Wall fell on the end of the Soviet Union, I didn't believe it was happening.  I said, no, no, that's impossible. But I got what happened. And then we went, you know, we thought everything was going to be rosy and Russia was going to be a democracy and all this stuff. Turns out that was dead wrong. And we're still living with the consequences of that. And we've got, we're almost back where we were in the times of the Cold War. Although nobody seems to be particularly worried about nuclear attack these days. We're here to talk about it. But there isn't the same sort of concerns that we had during the Cold War period about being at risk for a nuclear war. Yeah. I can remember early in the 60s when it was really the height of the fears. You know, I had, my dad was in the Pentagon, which everyone always calls as round zero. That's where the Russian bomb will come down. And so we lived right across the river in Arlington.  And if he called us and said go, we were, I just grabbed my go-to bag and we got in the car and we would go to this place in West Virginia. So he knew where we were. But he was in ground zero at the Pentagon. It was that serious. People were building underground bomb shelters all over the United States. We were all fearful of a nuclear war. But I think there's so much parallels to the day because we're back into another Cold War. Well, is this, how is this one different than that one? You know, I mean, for example, when I read last couple of days about how somehow the pilot that took the Russian jet into Spain mysteriously died.  And Putin is not the only one who does that. And so, you know, I would say that the Cold War now is more high tech, although certainly the YouTube, as Shackley said, was very high tech. But then, you know, the Russians were more high tech. They could reach him at 70,000 feet. And nobody in the US intelligence knew that. They found out the hard way. But I feel that the technology now is more. For example, those microwaves on 60 minutes. You know, that's really high tech. We don't understand that yet. I mean, we don't understand how to defend against it. And there's so many things happening now that, yes, you can make the parallel, but how does it compare in terms of risk? And as Shackley pointed out, also, we could have a nuclear confrontation now. Remember, this was only a year away from Bay of Biggs. And of course, the showdown with Kennedy about nuclear weapons at Cuba. So it's not impossible. It could happen. And maybe we have to tell our kids about duck and cover. There's a couple of factoids. The second YouTube shootdown was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. There was another one shot down and the pilot killed. Donovan was actually, during the Kennedy administration, he was asked by President Kennedy to go to Cuba to negotiate the repatriation of the people who were picked up and imprisoned as a result of the Bay of Pigs and some others. And he did that. And he was able to obtain the release of about 19,000 people, men and women and children from Cuba. So he was quite a guy. You know, he had this amazing career where he really made a tremendous contribution to our country. Great patriot. Back then, Jay, this is late 50s, 1960. John Kennedy, one of the reasons he was elected because there was a belief that there was what they call a missile gap, that the Russians had way more missiles than we did. And so we were at great risk. Turned out it was all bogus. It wasn't true. I'm not blaming Kennedy because the CIA put that out, intentionally put it out because they wanted that. But there was no missile gap. They were way behind us. But today, Putin's not only threatening to use nuclear weapons in the Ukrainian conflict and also if NATO gets involved, but he's even threatened to put nuclear weapons on satellites. And we've had agreement from day one that we're going to denuclearize space. We weren't going to take weapons into space. But some of that may be off the table. If he puts nuclear weapons in space and talk about danger, we're all at really a risk. You know, when Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg collaborated on World War II movies, they were trying to send a message, I think. The message gets clearer now because this is 2015, they made the movie. And that was after Maiden Square in Kiev. That was after, you know, Eastern Europe was becoming unstable. That was after Putin was becoming very aggressive. And I believe that they were making this movie not just for an historic, you know, review adventure, not just to make a documentary, documentary drama kind of movie. I think just as in the other movies around World War II, they were trying to tell us something. They're trying to give us a takeaway. They're trying to educate the public about something they thought was important. Both Tom Hanks, if you've ever, while you've seen interviews with him and Spielberg, you don't have to see a lot of interviews to know where those guys are coming from. They're super patriots and they want to celebrate this kind of patriotism. But what do you think they intended to convey in this movie? I'm asking for either of you to respond to that. Boy, beyond what the story itself was about, I mean, it's a worrisome story for the reasons you just mentioned that, you know, we're still at nuclear loggerheads and we have China now involved, which we didn't have during the Cold War. And so I guess in a way it's a kind of warning. Though times are so different, you know, people don't seem to take it as seriously. Perhaps we should and maybe that's how the movie can help. Well, and also, Spielberg said, I made the movie because it was a bloody good story. Well, not, you know, yes, of course, but it's within his ambit. What he loved doing it and he did it with great realism. The U2 in there was a real U2 at Beale Air Force Base. The only thing digital in the whole movie was when they shot down the U2 and it blew up. Everything else was real. They built the wall. Edge would go by on a train and he'd look down and see people trying to reach the wall. Well, they built a styrofoam wall, looked like a concrete wall that went for three quarters of a mile. And it was so real. The street scene with those thugs, it actually happened. That actually happened except they didn't steal his coat. He threw that in. People did shoot into his house there were bullets that came through the window of his house. There were so many levels of this movie were completely realistic. And so I think that's what brings the authenticity so well home in this movie. It's a thing to really learn from. Exactly, exactly. Those parts were filmed in East Berlin, apparently, which was still pretty rundown at the time. The bridge where the exchange took place, the Glenicky Bridge. That's the bridge over the Hobble River between Potsdam and Berlin. And I've actually been there. You can go there now. And it's interesting. It's about two kilometers from where the WANC conference was held in the estate on the WANC area of Berlin, where the final solution was determined by the leaders of the Nazi party. It was so realistic to actually be on the bridge during that exchange. It was the tensest part of the whole movie because it came so close to falling apart because it prior was being released to checkpoint two or Charlie. And so he had to get word that prior was being released. And the government agent was telling Donovan, and this actually happened. He says, we got powers. Let's just switch. He says, no, I'm waiting for prior. And he says, no, just do it. And he's no, I'm waiting.  And by the way, the dramatic nighttime scene didn't happen. It happened about 8.45 in the morning. So it wouldn't have been quite as dramatic having it there in a Casablanca foggy airport type scene, you know, that being on that bridge in the dark and it's kind of cold and foggy that gave it even more realism even though that's not exactly how it came down. I don't know. February in northern Europe, it'd have been pretty grim looking. I'm reminded that Spielberg made Schindler's List. It's a towering film, a towering education for people, a towering education for those who might deny or question the Holocaust. He was doing that for a reason that was so powerful, that movie. And I suspect that at this point, it is a filmmaking career. He always wants to send a message. You know, he can afford to do that, essentially. One thing that came up in the movie that I'd be interested in, you guys' opinion is, I got the impression that the action between the Soviet representative and the East German Vogel, the so-called lawyer for the family, that that was orchestrated, that they deliberately picked up prior just because the way it looks in the movie anyway, they picked him up about the time that Hanks arrived in Berlin. And so they were orchestrating kind of a mutton routine between powers and prior in negotiating with Hanks. I don't know if you guys got that. No question about it, because remember, he was also negotiating with Abel's wife and cousin, this guy named Drew's. And they were neither. They were complete phonies. They were put up by the Soviets. And so the Soviets were using everybody. So they set up these, the so-called wife and the cousin, and Vogel was the attorney representing. I mean, there wasn't any aspect of that from the Soviet side that wasn't orchestrated. So wheels within wheels? Who do you trust? If I had to pick one word, you know, to try to get through the, I call the fog of espionage, I would pick the word trust. Who exactly do you trust? Because the stakes are so high, especially the bridge. It also shows what a great negotiator Donovan was, you know, to be able to manage all that and pull it off successfully, even though the CIA guys were focused on the exchange of Abel for powers and didn't care so much about prior accordion, moving any leg. They don't come off that well in the movie and probably in the book. They were pushing him around and he was standing fast. He comes off stronger than they were. So what are you left with on this and what rating would you give this on the scale of 1 to 10 and maybe beyond? Michael, you first. I'm going to give it a 10 plus on character, characterization. I mean, as I mentioned, I think it was a character thriller, psychological thriller, the cinematography and the realism of everything, the U2, the wall, the bridge, when he had to cross over into East Germany and he stood in a long line and was freezing cold, the tension, and there was sort of a darkness when they went into the second half of the movie and he's working in East Germany and in East Germany. You get this dark pallor to the thing and it's no longer colorful. You can feel like you're in East Germany and after the war when everything was so subdued and the Soviets are in charge and it's fraught with danger. So the writing, the music, the cinematography and mostly the characters and I'm saying Tom Hanks and Rylance, these are one of the greatest acting you'll ever see on set. Yeah, Rylance, so understated, so powerful. I actually liked him. I actually liked him. Yeah. Yeah. And why put that, he was likable. Although, I like that phrase, the praise he worked in, there's Stoichy Magique about stand-up man, how they worked that into the film and compliments Tom Hanks at the end with that comment. Very appropriate. It was just beautifully written, beautifully done and I mean, it's true. It's a true story, very important history. I think everybody should see this movie. We were just, Mike and I were talking before we started about how people don't know enough of our history to be able to manage the present effectively and history simply repeats itself over and over and over again. How does this help, Shatly? How does this movie help us manage the present? Well, it provides information so that you can see what things actually were really like. I mean, it's not made up. This is the truth. This actually happened and things like that are happening now. I mean, then there was a big exchange in the Ukraine situation. Remember, one of Putin's pals was exchanged for someone and you know, there's that exchange for that young woman basketball player and they're trying to and they're trying to do an exchange. Who is it? Tucker Carlson was trying to ask Putin to release the Wall Street Journal reporter. You know, this stuff goes on all the time. This is real life and we shouldn't forget that. And my main is an old man now. I really fear that yet younger people, especially in America, we just don't, we don't have enough appreciation for how bad things can really get in a real, in a real hurry. And I just hope that we don't have anything bad happen. Well, and we have to appreciate the nuance.  You don't hate these Germans. They're bad, but you don't hate them. They're people. And I think that Spielberg did achieve that. He showed you the reality of the human condition on both sides of the wall. I'm sorry, Michael, go ahead. Well, you just pointed out something that just occurred to me when I was in Russia about 12, 10 years ago on a river cruise. I found all the Russian people just like us. I mean, they were just people. They were people, somebody you'd meet in Alabama or California or New Jersey. And one of them, one of the tour guides, Russian said, after about a week and a half of our tour, he said, you know, have, have you realized that we are more alike than not? And that maybe it's our politicians that should be fighting. That's a remarkable statement. That's the life. And I just, I can't wait. They're just ordinary people. All the Russians I met were ordinary people. I want to make one other comment that I meant to add was there's a subtle level of comedy in this film that the Cohn brothers were largely responsible for. And I'll give you one example. And it's just, it's, but it's very subtle. They're in the court and Hanks comes back after a court conference and he's gotten some bad news back there. And he sort of tells him, it's not going so well. And then he, then he looks at Rylance and says, don't you ever worry? And just without what very subdued without spinning without a break, Rylance looked up and says, would it help? Right. He does, he does that more than once during the movies. Would it help? So Shackly, we, we missed your rating. We got a close now, but what is your rating on this movie? Oh, that's the excellent movie 10 plus everyone should see it. I agree with you guys. 10 plus. Thank you very much. Mike, Lily, Shackly, with federal great discussion, important that we appreciate this a lot. We want to announce that think tech Hawaii is moving into a new phase and will not be producing regular talk shows after April 30th. We will retain our website and YouTube channel and will accept new content on an ad hoc basis. We are also developing a legacy archive program to provide continuing public access to our content. If you can help us cover the costs of the transition and the development of our legacy archive program, please make a donation on think tech away.com. Thanks so much. Aloha.


I welcome you all to this lecture in the course Introduction to Paninian Grammar. We are studying the process of speech production and the concept of compositionality related to it. In today's lecture, we continue to study the compositionality, but in this lecture we shall study the compositionality related to Shabda. In the previous lecture, we studied the compositionality related to the Artha, which corresponds to the very initial stage of the process of speech production as described by the Paninian Grammar, namely by the verse Atma, Vudhya, Sametya, Arthaan. We also introduced the concepts of Artha Kasha as well as Shabda Kasha and said that this collection of meanings involves both these Artha Kashas and Shabda Kashas. We have already studied some other concepts called Yogyata and Akanksha, which are also part of Artha Kasha as well as Shabda Kasha. Now such an Artha, which is collected in the intellect, which is linked to the Shabda still in the intellect, then gives rise to or gets expressed through the speech, which is audible, externally expressed speech form. And just as this meaning as well as the Shabda in the Shabda Kasha both are indivisible, so is this speech indivisible. We experience this in the process of communication. For a Grammarian though, by using the principle of Anvaya and Vethirika, which we studied together with the in the light of the source called the Vyakaranamahabhashya, this one indivisible unit of sentence meaning can be further divided into its components called word meanings. Correspondingly the sentences can be divided into its units called Padas. Then once again applying the same principle of Anvaya and Vethirika, the word meanings can be further said to be composed of the components called as Prakrityartha and Praktyayartha, the meaning of the root and the meaning of the suffix. Correspondingly we can say that the Pada is composed of the Prakriti and the Praktyayya. We also studied what exclusively can be called Vakyartha as well as Padaartha. Now we shall study in this lecture the compositionality related to Shabda. We have also studied that the meanings, the artha which is compositional can be said to be of two kinds. One is relational and the other one which is available to us from the verbal elements. It is this relational meaning which primarily acts as the meaning of the whole and the meanings of the components are the meanings of the constituents or the components themselves. Let us now study the compositionality in this light, the compositionality of the Shabda. The basic principle remains the same that a sentence is made up of word A plus word B plus word C and so on. This is a very generic kind of template, further little less generic would be S1 is composed of W1.1 plus W1.2 plus W1.3, S2 is composed of W2.1 plus W2.2 plus W2.3 and this continues Sn is composed of Wn.1 plus Wn.2 plus Wn.3. This happens primarily because we do not know how many sentences we have spoken in our entire life. Now this S is equal to WA plus WB plus WC is a very generic template of sentence. The specific is shown below, Gramam Gatsati Ramaha, this is the sentence which is made up of Gramam shown in separate square brackets plus Gatsati shown in separate square brackets and Ramaha shown in separate square brackets. These are the components of the sentence Gramam Gatsati Ramaha. We can study the same even in the Vedic sentences. For your benefit this is a verse from Rig Veda, Vishwani Deva Savitar Duritani Parasuva This is made up of several units. So the sentence that is written on the left hand side is called in fact Samhita or a sentence in which as you see there are only two vertical bars at the end of each sentence. Vishwani Deva Savitar Duritani Parasuva, this is that vertical bar. Yad Bhadran Tanna Asuva, this is the other vertical bar. This indicates that this is one unit, this is another unit. So there are two sentences available to us. Now these sentences are made up of certain components which are shown in the Padapatha independently separate by showing a vertical bar after each and every such component. So for example here you have Vishwani Dhanda, this vertical bar is called Dhanda in Samskrita, Vishwani Dhanda, Deva Dhanda, Savitar Dhanda, Duritani Dhanda, Para Dhanda and Suva Dhanda. Each and every word, each and every component can be shown separately in this particular fashion. If you look at the second line, Yad Bhadram Tanna Asuva, this is peculiar and this is what we will explain the concept of the combinatorial effects and nature of the sentence. So Yad Bhadram Tanna Asuva is written in a peculiar style. Dr has a dot on top of it, which is called Anasvara in Samskrita. Then there is Tanna, a conjunct consonant with two Nakaras being the constituents and then A. So this is a sentence in which the word boundaries are ambiguous. Yad Bhadram Tanna Asuva, there are some combinations that is why this is a sentence. If you separate these components and write them as independent, separate padas, constituents of this sentence, you will find them written in this fashion. This Yad is written as Yad as it is with a Dhanda after it. Now see the Bhadram, the word Bhadram is written in this peculiar fashion, Ma at the end as a consonant, then Dhanda. Now this Tanna is broken into two, Tatt and Naha. This Naha is broken into once again Naha and A. So these are the independent individual constituents and they are extracted from this Samhita or this sentence. So the letters in the red on this slide, they indicate the changes that they undergo when they are in Pada and when they are in Samhita. So even though this R, which is marked here in red, it is shown as R as a consonant in the Pada Path, in the Samhita Path, it is actually written with a mark on top of this Dhu. For our convenience sake, I have given it separately and placed it as R, this should not actually be done, it should be shown in this fashion. Now the point that I wanted to draw your attention to is that a Samhita or a sentence is of this kind, which contains some combinatorial effects. That is the nature of the sentence. This is over and above these constituents, Tatt, Naha and A, these are the constituents, Bhadram is a constituent. But when they are brought together as part of the sentence, then this combination makes some changes, like this Ma becomes an Anaswara, this Ta becomes Na, this Visarga is deleted, these are all the effects which are generated because of the combinations, because of the words coming together and that is why this is a sentence. So if you ask exclusively what is a sentence, it can be pointed out to these effects, otherwise Yad is available to you by Pada, it is a Pada, Bhadra is also a Pada, but this Ma becoming this Anaswara, this is nothing but the sentential effect. So we can say that Samhita Pada and Pada Pada, which are available as far as the Vedic literature is concerned, show us an evidence about the indivisibility as well as the divisibility both. Now, when we accept the components of the Veda, we also need to study a concept called Vikriti, which was developed by the Vedic reciters in order to transmit the Vedic lore committed to memory as it is to the next generation. So Samhita is a text where word boundaries are feigned, but Pada is such that word boundaries become prominent. Words are separated from sentential contexts and these are dissolved. And once you know the Padas, then you also employ these devices, namely Krama, Jata, Shikha, Rekha, Dhwaja, Ratha, Danda and Ghana, these eight devices are used, technical devices and then the same words, the Padas which are extracted as constituents of the sentence, they are then uttered in different contextual situations. This helps a Vedic reciter remember the context and also reduce the probability of unpredictability. So if these Padas are to be rearranged and also numbered, they will be done in this fashion. From the sentence Vishvani Deva Savitar Duritani Para Suva, we would have the following words Vishvani numbered as 1, Deva, 2, Savitar, 3, Duritani, 4, Para, 5 and Suva, 6. The same words are also numbered in a different style altogether. These numbers are shown below the words, they are and we start with the last word in the sentence Suva. This is called N, Para is called N minus 1, Duritani is called N minus 2, Savitar is called N minus 3, Deva is called N minus 4 and Vishvani is called N minus 5. So now these two numbers do help in generating all these eight Vikratis. Now this numbering of the words and peculiar rearrangement of the words show us a strong evidence about the divisibility of the sentence into its components. So sentence or Vakya is indivisible. So when you say Vishvani Deva Savitar Duritani Para Suva, this as a sentence is indivisible. Just as the sentence meaning or Vakyaartha is collected in the initial stage of the process of speech production, so also is collected at the same time the linked sentence or Vakya in the same stage. They both are one indivisible units, Vakyaartha as well as Vakya in communication as part of communication process. The speaker collects one sentence meaning and collects one sentence corresponding to it which gets expressed by one indivisible unit of audible speech and then this one unit of audible speech is heard by the hearer and this audible speech generates one indivisible unit of the sentence in the intellect of the hearer which then conveys one indivisible unit of the sentence meaning to that hearer. Given these facts, that means if these facts, if this process successfully is complete then it is safe that the communication has happened, not otherwise. So the one unit, indivisible unit is part of the communication. Not for a grammarian, the Vakyaartha sentence is also divisible. Applying the same principles of Anvaya and Vethirika, Avapa and Uddhvaapa stated in the Mahabhashya where each and every independent Pada or word gives rise to a cognition which is a very generic cognition, a template. So if Devadatta is uttered, then it tells us that Devadatta is the meaning which is acting as karta but when it is karta, we do not know what specific action it is the karta of but some general action and this general action is supposed to have a karma which is generic in nature and this karma can have a quality which is also generically understood over here. So this template is understood and this happens with each and every Pada but now when a speaker utters a sentence together with all the Padas, there appears to be the case of elimination. Each and every uttered Pada eliminates the rest from this generic slot which can be potentially filled by any, by n number of meanings. So there is elimination that happens as described by Patanjali, Samanyi, Vartamananam, Visheshe Avasthanam, Vakyarthaha. This is how Patanjali described the sentence meaning which we studied earlier. Now a grammarian figures out similarities and dissimilarities also in the sentences just as he finds it out in the sentence meaning correspondingly he also finds out similarities and dissimilarities in the sentences and then the grammarian curves out the words, Panini carved out the words demarcating them by word boundaries just as the Pada but demarcates each and every word independently and separately as was shown before. Then what is a sentence? A sentence is made up of words, it is rather a combination of words plus sign is what can be said as a sentence exclusively, Vakya. Its constituents are called Padas but the plus sign is what is actually the sentence just as the plus sign was the sentence meaning as far as meaning level is concerned. So also the plus sign is what can be said to be a sentence exclusively. In a sentence at least one of the words has to correspond to the action meaning. This word is considered as the head amongst the components of the sentence. This Pada is considered as the head, the rest of the Padas can be such that they correspond to the non-action meaning parts, non-action Padaartha. Generally it is important to note here that the words in a sentence are not ordered in any particular manner in Sanskrit. This is very important and crucial and we shall see why and how later. So now given these six meanings, Ram goes to a village etc. The six sentences are produced, Gramam, Gatsati, Ramaha etc. We have studied twelve such sentences before and six of them are the ones which are presented on this slide. So we call this as speech dataset one where there are six meanings which are to be expressed by six Shabdas, six sentences and they are shown in square brackets, the meanings as well as the Shabdas indicating that they are one unit and it is these two which get expressed by the audible speech of the kind of Shabda, Gramam, Gatsati, Ramaha and so on and so forth. Now what is this dataset composed of? So by applying the principle stated in the Vyakranamahabhashya we can see that following are the components Ramaha, Gramam, Gatsati, Shalaam, Mohanaha and Parshati. And these are the components which are carved out of these sentences and we have noticed them and noted them down as they were found in the sentence. So we have not yet reduced the sentential context. So we are retaining Gramam together with an Anusvara and Shalaam together with an Anusvara. So this dataset can be said to be composed of these six units, further we can ask the question what are these Padas composed of and here is another answer and we apply the same principle of Anvaya and Vethireka, Ramaha, Mohanaha, Shala, Gatsha and Parshya on the left hand side on one hand and Aha or Visarga are called as Su Vaipanini, M or Am Vaipanini and T Vaipanini, these are the constituents of these sentences, quite simple. So these six sentences are composed of these five elements on the left hand side and the three elements on the right hand side. So these are the constituents of these six sentences through the words or the Padas. We also looked at another dataset, sentences 7 to 12, let us call them as speech dataset 2 and we noticed that the meanings, the village is being reached by Ram is linked to Ramayana Gramo Gammayate in the Shabdakasha and then this gets expressed by the external audible speech Ramayana Gramo Gammayate, Ramayana Shala Gammayate, Mohanena Gramo Gammayate, Mohanena Shala Gammayate, Ramayana Shala Dhrishyate and Mohanena Gramo Gramah Dhrishyate. These are the sentences which are part of this speech dataset 2. Now what is this second dataset composed of? We by applying the same principles of Anvaya and Vati Rekha, we say that it is composed of these elements Ramayana Gramo Gammayate, Mohanena Shala and Dhrishyate. Here in finding them out, we have resorted to the similarities and dissimilarities between the meanings and the words. And the similar and dissimilar aspect of the sentence meaning is assigned to the similar and dissimilar aspect of the sentence. That is why these 6 elements are found to be the components of these 6 sentences. Now what are these composed of? So we note that Ramayana Gramo Gammayate which is audible or which is what is visible is one such component which can be reduced further by further exercise to Rama, Mohane is what is actually visible and which is what is actually audible. But Panini will reduce it to Mohana by further applying the same principle. In Gramo is Grama Shala is Shala, Gammayate is reduced further to Gammayate by application of the same principle and Dhrishyate is further reduced to Dhrishyate. Similarly on the right hand side we have Ana, N and Te as the other elements. In Panini and Gramar they are postulated as Ana as Ta, N as Ta and Te as Le and then Te. So we have these components which are parts of the sentences 7 to 12. So now we can say something about the composition of words over here. So now let us look at the composition of words or padas. What are the constituents which make the padas? Along with the components of the word meanings getting extracted from the word meanings components of words are simultaneously extracted from the words. Please note this carefully along with the components of the word meanings getting extracted from the word meanings components of words are simultaneously extracted from the words. They are called prakriti or root which always appears on the left hand side. So it is mentioned as the left hand side element which is generally bigger in size and the next one is pratyaya suffix which generally appears on the right hand side element which is generally smaller in size. Generally the pratyaya is considered as head in the unit of padha. Prakriti and pratyaya are called the linguistic atoms at the shabda level. To summarize what we have said like the sentence meaning the sentence is also compositional. From the sentence meaning word meanings are extracted correspondingly from the sentence the words are extracted. From the word meanings root and suffix meanings are extracted correspondingly from the words the roots and suffixes are extracted. The size and shape of these atoms is fixed by the grammarians using various methods and its the markers are used to assign several functions related to them the prakriti and the pratyaya. We shall study these the components namely the prakriti and pratyaya in some detail in the next lecture. Thank you for your attention.


Well, we'll go down, but we'll just thank everyone. We're all over. Good afternoon. I'd like to call the meeting of the Board of Public Utilities for the City of Santa Rosa to order. If we may have a roll call, please. Thank you. Board Member Wright will be absent today. Board Member Watts will be absent today. Board Member Walsh? Here. Board Member Walsh, can you hear us? Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me? Your audio doesn't seem to be working. I'm here. Board Member Walsh, can you hear us now? Yes, can you hear me? Yep, thank you. Oh, great, thank you very much. Okay, Board Member Grable? Here. Board Member Badenfort? We'll be absent today. Vice Chair Arnone? Here. And Chair Galvin? Here. Let the record show that all board members are present with the exception of board members Wright, Watts, and Badenfort. Great. Good afternoon again. A reminder to everybody to please mute your phones and microphones when you're not speaking and to please put your cell phones and personal computers away. We'll move on to item two, which is statements of abstention by board members. Do we have any? Hearing none. We have no study session. We have minutes for the July 7th meeting that were circulated. So at this time I'll open it up for public comments on the minutes approval. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Secretary Manus, do we have anyone? There are no hands being raised via Zoom and no one in the chamber wishing to make public comment. Thank you. That'll take care of the approval of the minutes. We'll move to item 5.1, which is our first of two staff briefings. Director Burke? Thank you, Chair Galvin and members of the board. Item 5.1 is our wildfire preparedness staff briefing and making the presentation will be Ron Morinchuk, our acting deputy director of water and sewer operations. Thank you for that introduction, Director Burke. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Thank you. Chair Galvin, members of the board, good afternoon. Today I'm going to provide what seems to have become an annual briefing on the status and preparations for the fire season and all things associated for local operations in the water department, but provide a little different approach as we are different. We're tempered, more experienced and continually improving. Next slide, please. As we all know, fire season is here again. June 6th marked the beginning of the 2022 fire season as reported out by the fire department and the press democrat and online. Next slide, please. So I'd like to begin with what we have done to date. As brought to the board as a consent item on the June 16th meeting, we're replacing 18 generators at our water and wastewater pumping facilities. We've also purchased two new portable generators. We're installing below ground fiber optic communication where applicable that utilizes station to reservoir communications. We've conducted a water system reliability study as well as a water system risk and resilience study. We perform abatement just as we asked our residences to do, we've increased communication and as with any good program, we practice and drill. Next slide, please. So during an event where the EOC or the DOC is activated, information comes from everywhere and is channelized very efficiently. Aside from that, we currently meet regularly with key groups and staff such as these shown. So with the groups proactively established, the frequency can easily be accelerated or decelerated as well as the function of the meetings changed to customize to whatever the situation may be. We also have two excellent internal means of communication that I will discuss further. They are INET and send word now. Next slide, please. So INET is City of Santa Rosa's internal web or intranet where pages can be created and customized to suit the need. This one is one we created for communication between water department personnel and the fire department. Each item can be situational item like taking a water storage tank offline or a proactive status change like raising our water storage tank levels. Beyond employees having the ability to access this, instant email notification can be set up to specific individuals when an item is created or modified. Next slide. This is an example of how the data is entered by the user created with dropdown menus, checkboxes for easy quick reporting for all to see as well as the direct email notification to assigned groups of fire and operations personnel. Next slide, please. So the last item I mentioned was send word now. This is a pre-populated notification tool similar to group email but can also be sent using text or voicemail to multiple phones per person or any combination of these methods. Next slide. Lessons learned from the Tubbs Fire and trying to organize different shifts on the fly during an event was difficult to say the least. Specifically to local operations, we have over 60 people that we predesignate to shifts on the onset of any emergency. We're in triage mode. So we basically have two 14 hour shifts as shown on this slide. We have day shift, night shift and as quickly as possible, we wanna move out of that through post triage and go to three 10 hour shifts, day swing and night. This was incredibly difficult to do as we were calling people up individually trying to get a hold of them. But with this one touch application, everyone can be notified either to report or to be prepared to report in at a specific time. Beyond the scheduling for shifts, this is also an excellent communication tool often during an emergency. One of the frustrations is lack of information for staff that might be stationed at a specific location in the field for many hours. With this tool, we can send current information and update staff at any given time and they'll all receive the same information very quickly. Next slide, please. So the screenshots that I have on this slide are two different moments in time from a site called purpleair.com. And we utilize sites like these to monitor wildfire smoke. Another lesson learned is the hazard of wildfire smoke even if there is no threat of fire. But there are other resources such as Bay Area Quality Management District and airnow.gov. The difference in hazard for a given location is shown numerically as particulate matter and in difference of color, green being good to dark red as hazardous. Next slide, please. Air quality monitoring is not only important outside but inside as well. These are two examples of air quality monitoring devices that we've purchased with documented SOPs for staff to use. Office personnel with indoor work environments such as support staff can use resources such as masks, moving work locations or thanks to COVID, some staff have the ability and experience to work remotely. In addition, we've also installed HEPA filters on facilities HVAC systems. Next slide, please. So moving forward, moving forward, we're going to continue in locations where applicable to install below ground fiber for more communications. We're going to install solar battery charging for our battery backup systems at our water storage sites. Look at installing high flow pumps at some additional water pump stations. Water and wastewater pump station hardening, utilizing fireproof materials and protecting vulnerable infrastructure. We also conduct our own abatement, continue this education or communication and continue to practice and refine drills. Next slide, please. For public safety, PG&E continues to rely on proactively turning off electricity when gusty winds and dry conditions combined with a heightened fire risk are forecasted as a way to minimize the potential fire risk caused by their infrastructure. As we all know, this action is commonly referred to as a public safety power shutoff or PSPS. These PSPS events will essentially happen when we are in a red flag fire condition and the forecast also calls for high wind speeds. Fortunately, these events are fewer, more focused with shorter durations than those in the past with much better communication, but we still take proactive measures to ensure we can maintain uninterrupted service to our customers. Next slide, please. Our water storage tanks need very little power to operate, only enough to run our SCADA and monitoring equipment. These systems have backup battery power that allows us to monitor tank levels and chlorine residuals remotely through our SCADA system. And as I previously mentioned, we're investigating solar powered chargers to maintain those battery systems. Next slide, please. All of our 20 water pump stations have backup generator power. These generators can operate for an extended period of time and will be supported by one of our many refueling procedures. We know how long each generator can operate with its current fuel supply. We can also operate our pump stations with portable pumpers or portable generators that can connect to each station in the event of a generator failure. Next slide, please. Our local sewer collection system is supported by 17 sewer lift stations. All but three of these stations have stationary generators on site. The size of the properties do not allow for generators to be installed and the area that is serviced is so small it's more practical and cost effective to use portable pumpers, generators, or vac trucks to service these facilities. Next slide, please. As we all know, we just flush the toilet or turn on the tap without a thought of how it works until it doesn't. Some citizens may not be aware they have their own private systems. We have the ability to identify and notify our customers that may be impacted if they have private water booster pumps or sewer grinder pumps so they can be prepared as well. Next slide, please. Some excellent resources are pgne.com slash psps as well as srcity.org slash emergency. We also want to spread the word that SoCo Alert is the best way for residents to stay informed about threats to themselves and their property but you have to sign up at SoCoAlert.com. Lastly, I'd like to highlight a free app that I recently found called WatchDuty. It was reported in the press democrat on June 17th. A retired person from the tech industry who lives in Hillsburg developed the free nonprofit app that has excellent fire reporting and communication ability. It started with within Sonoma County but now has gone statewide. I encourage people to check that out. It's a really nice app. Next slide, please. That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions the board may have. Thank you, Mr. Morinchik. I'll open it up now for board member questions or comments. All right, well thank you for your presentation. We'll now open it up for public comment on item number 5.1. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Secretary Manus. There are no hands being raised via Zoom and no one in the council chamber wishing to make public comment. Thank you. Thanks again, Mr. Morinchik. We appreciate the presentation and I know we're way better prepared today than we were a few years ago and thank you for all you're doing. Thank you for the opportunity. Very good. That'll take care of item 5.1. We'll now move to item 5.2, Director Burke. Thank you, Chair Galvan and members of the board. Item 5.2 is our water supply update staff briefing and making the presentation will be Peter Martin, our deputy director of water resources. Good afternoon, Chair Galvan, members of the board. Happy to be before you with the water supply update. If we could go to the next slide. So this is a snapshot of Lake Pillsbury storage as of last Sunday. Lake Pillsbury storage is at 47,000 acre feet and I just want to point out to the board this time that the FERC Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has yet to respond to PG&E's variance request for reducing their FERC mandated minimum flows to five cubic feet per second. And I just want to point out, if you'll recall, one of the previous updates that gave PG&E's goal was to secure storage to protect cold water, storage releases for the yield river and then also keep 36,000 acre feet in storage by October 1st. So in comparison to last year, you can see that olive green line at the bottom. That was the storage last year. Obviously there's a lot less water in storage then, but last year, FERC granted PG&E's request for variance to 20 cubic feet per second in May. And so you can kind of see the differences in slope of those two lines, the black line being this year and that all green line. So it's rapidly declining due to them releasing their normal FERC releases for this time of year. We don't really have an idea of when FERC may respond to PG&E's request, but we're definitely monitoring as you can imagine. Next slide. So storage continues to gain or remain flat in Lake Mendocino. As of today, storage is at 50,000 acre feet or 61% of the water supply pool availability for this time of year. And then releases are at about 82 cubic feet per second. Interestingly, Director Burke actually pointed out to me yesterday that storage is on a trajectory to be near where it was in 2013, which is prior to the previous drought. And really this just to me kind of underscores the impacts to the operational flexibility that the ongoing releases from PG&E can make up for Lake Snow in terms of their operations of Lake Mendocino and the Upper Russian River. I think it's a fail of two years basically when you look at these graphics here. Last year, very little releases being made after May and then continuing to release water at this time. So, and I think if you recall too, Snow Water was making their releases and operating on a very razor thin margin last year to meet their minimum flow releases. And then several, many, many people on the Upper Russian River were curtailed of their water rights. To date, very few curtailments have occurred in the Upper Russian River. I think you've heard some of the stories about these water sharing agreements that are going on up there. This year is obviously much better even though we're still very similar in terms of where we are on the drought. So, next slide. So as of today, storage in Lake Sonoma is at 127,000 acre feet or 52.2% of storage capacity. The releases are at 95 cubic feet per second. We did learn at the recent technical advisory committee that Snow Water continues to operate under their temperature change order that was issued last month. And anticipate still that storage were made above 100,000 acre feet by the end of October. This is very similar to the way the reservoir was being operated last year. So there's some experience gained there as well. So just a reminder, we now have allocations for our contract water from Snow Water and our tracking customer usage internally on a regular basis to ensure compliance with those allocations. Next slide. Just to circle back on status of PG&E's Potter Valley project license. Something did occur this month. As a reminder, PG&E is currently operating under an annual license from FERC. This is subsequent to the expiration of their prior license term. And then just on May 11th, FERC did request that PG&E submit a plan and a timeline schedule for surrender application for this project. And on July 8th, PG&E did submit to FERC a schedule. Pending, obviously approval from FERC, they submitted this letter. 30 months is proposed for surrender plan and application. This includes several pieces and components and timelines. It doesn't have a ton of detail in that schedule, but I'm sure that we'll hear more in the ensuing months in terms of what PG&E's plans are. Next slide. Unfortunately in June, Santa Rosa residents slip a little bit in terms of our cumulative water use reductions. We now have, as you can see, a year of data since we first initially enacted stage three of the Water Shores Continuity Plan. In June, Santa Rosa residents reduced their water use by 17% in comparison to 2020. And cumulatively from July through June, water use has been reduced by 17% compared to 2020. If we go to the next slide. So what does this all mean in the backdrop? Show these graphics and kind of see those cumulative reductions. Again, just we enacted this stage three in June 29th, beginning in July of last year. So it's one year from that time where we're still in that stage three requirement. And our customers in that meantime have saved over a billion gallons during that year. So that should be noted. And just wanna point out that we've doubled our efforts as a team internally as we head into our hottest time of the year. We're very hopeful that we'll start to see some gains in terms of water save now that outdoor usage makes up a significant amount of water usage by our customers. And then I just wanna point out, hanging out on the fact that customer response and demand remain strong for all of the services from the water use efficiency team, audits, rebates, water waste reports, they're all still at strong levels very, very much compared to where last year people are paying attention. So just some good news there too as well. Next slide. And then I just kind of wanted to go down this exercise of looking at the trends longterm in terms of our gallons per capita per day. This graphic was provided to me by Mr. Conclose. We've been tracking sort of trends of gallons per capita per day amongst the backdrop of what we're asking of our customers right now. As you can see where those gray lines show up over time, those are droughts and are below average years. And you can really see through this data the blue line representing total gallons per capita per day and the orange being our residential gallons per capita per day. There are significant reductions that occur after these droughts. And really what we're seeing is that they don't ever come back after that. So the rebound does occur a little bit but it's definitely not as large after these droughts. So over time the trend just continues to go down if you revert back to that line at the top. So just to point out that there continues to be progress and a lot of it comes out of these droughts in terms of people being as very efficient in their homes and businesses and the customer response associated with that. For comparison, if you go back to 2013 which was prior to our last drought, if you compare where we're at today in June of this year, it's 27% lower than 2013. So there's a little bit of an understanding of the magnitude there too as well in the progress that's been made. And then cumulatively 26% lower than 2013 for our timeline over the 2021 through 2022, excuse me, July 2021 through June 2022. So yeah, just very interesting graphic. I like to get into these and just really see what's happening and just see the progress that's being made. Next slide. Very excited about the efforts this year with the regional partnership and the snowmower and saving water partnership. This year we are coordinating on what we call our summer pop-up series and you can go onto the saving water partnerships website and see these pop-up events that are occurring throughout the region. So you can go on and folks can see where we're gonna be next and they'll be providing drought tips and supplies of these various events. And it really just gives people a roadmap of where they can go and receive materials, supplies and things like that and shows that we're getting on the community and we're messaging about the drought. Next slide. So in terms of our contribution to this pop-up series, we're gonna be out and about in the next month here which I've highlighted some of the events. To the left, that picture there is a, this will be a bill insert and it will go and folks bill so they'll see the event that we're having here in partnership with Friedman's of Improvement on Santa Rosa Avenue and that will be on August 20th. So we're hopeful that a lot of folks will show up for that. Furthermore, we're planning to be at the live at Julliard concert series for every Sunday in July and August. Those are occurring July 17th to the 21st. So we had our first one last weekend from five to 7 p.m. The hydration station is there too as well. So it's a good time to get out and talk to the public. We'll be at the family night events coming up here at the end of the month, July 29th at downtown Courthouse Square handing out drought kits. And so just folks if they wanna find out more information about where we'll be they can go again to src.org slash pop-ups. So we're definitely getting out there and staying out there and being visible. So next slide. And I just wanna highlight, we're retooling. We have some real key outreach messages to our customers and I wanna share those with you today. We're asking folks to go obviously to pick up a free drought kit in multiple events or at our offices during business hours. And we're really pushing folks to save water outdoors now and throughout the summer and providing those tips on reducing watering times, making sure your system and irrigation system is in top shape, using rebates to become more efficient in your watering outside and watering during the times which are required under stage three or reminding folks that those are in place. And then we've got our plant picker tool which has been really helpful. If people wanna swap out plants for drought tolerant plants and really we had a workshop two days ago that was very well attended on tree care during drought. Don't want people to forget they need to protect their shrubs and trees. During drought, it's very important that they don't lose those and the shade that they provide to as well. And then we're working to get folks to use mulch to reduce evaporation in their gardens as well. And then we're having folks report waterways when they see it and use the WaterSmart portal to track your water usage at home and in your business as well. Next slide. So that ends my presentation. We'll continue to ask folks to go to src.org slash WaterSmart and src.org slash save water for the latest drought updates. Happy to take any questions you might have. Thank you, Deputy Director Martin. I'll open it up now for any board member questions or comments. I think it's interesting that we're kinda hoping that FERC takes its time in making a decision on the releases out of Lake Pillsbury that'll hopefully keep more water going into Lake Medicino. So we'll open it up now for public comments on item 5.2. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Secretary Manus. Chair Galvin, there are no hands being raised via Zoom and no one in council chamber wishing to make a public comment. Okay, thank you again, Deputy Director Martin. I'll take care of item 5.2. We have one item, item 6.1 on the consent calendar. I'll move adoption of the consent calendar. I second. Okay, we have a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar. Any board member questions or comments on the consent calendar? Hearing none, we'll open it up for public comments on item number 6.1. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Secretary Manus. There are no hands being raised via Zoom and no one in council chamber wishing to make a public comment. Thank you, may we have a roll call vote, please? Board member Wright is absent. Board member Watts is absent. Board member Walsh. Aye. Board member Grable. Aye. Board member Batenfort is absent. Vice Chair Arnone. Aye. And Chair Galvin. Aye. Does the record show that motion passes with four affirmative votes? Thank you. That'll take care of the consent calendar. We'll now move to item 7.1, which is a report item. Director Burke. Thank you, Chair Galvin and members of the board. Item 7.1 is a contract award for Delta Pond Diffuser Maintenance Contract Number C02200 and making the presentation will be Rachela Mayeda, who's the associate civil engineer with our capital projects team. Thank you, Dr. Burke. Good afternoon, Chair Galvin and members of the board. As Director Burke mentioned, my name is Rachela Mayeda and today I will be discussing the contract award for the Delta Pond Diffuser Maintenance. Next slide, please. Today I will start off with a little bit of background for the project. Then I will go into permits and approvals. I will touch on the anticipated construction schedule and then I'll get into a couple of aspects that make this project a little more unique, which was the bid opening and contract negotiation. Finally, I will end with the recommendation. Next slide, please. The diffuser was originally installed in 2010 to satisfy regulatory requirements for discharging into Santa Rosa Creek from Delta Pond, which stores recycled water. The previous outfall was retrofitted to enhance the plant's compliance with evolving regulatory requirements for discharging into the creek. Since its installation, plant staff have been serving and monitoring sediment levels and have found that the diffuser is essentially covered in sediment. The purpose of the Delta Pond Diffuser Maintenance Project is to remove that sediment and make the diffuser fully operational again. On the right, we're looking at Delta Pond from the northwest corner, and the diffuser is located in that red rectangle. Zooming in to it on the left, those purple arrows coming in at an angle represent flow from Delta Pond, and then you can see a series of submerged vows in Santa Rosa Creek. Next slide, please. Here we are looking at a couple of construction photos from the original construction in 2010. On the right, you can see Santa Rosa Creek in the background, and then where those workers are located is where the pipe from Delta Pond is coming in. On the left, we're looking at those valves. They are two feet in diameter, and they are called ductile valves. These were originally selected because they are designed to prevent reverse flow, so water and gravel cannot enter into the diffuser manifold. They have no moving parts, which means less mechanical maintenance, and they are designed to be continuously submerged. Lastly, the water that exits from these valves forms a little bit of a jet, which provides good mixing properties between the water coming from Delta Pond with Santa Rosa Creek water. To address the issue that the ductile valves are buried in sediment, a handful of alternatives were evaluated, and those alternatives included solutions such as directing hyper-sure air or water to mobilize the sediment that is settled and adjusting the valves to increase their height so that it would take more sediment accumulation to actually cover the valves and impede flow. Next slide, please. Each alternative was evaluated for regulatory considerations, constructability, effectiveness, cost, and then also operations and maintenance. And ultimately, there were concerns with each of the alternatives. So plant staff opted to go with a different route, which is dredging. At the top here, we're looking at a plan view of Santa Rosa Creek, and on the bottom is a profile of those same extents. The diffuser facility is outlined in black, and on the bottom, there's a green dashed line that represents the natural channel bottom. There would be two types of dredging for this, mechanical and hydraulic, which are indicated by the orange and red areas. Mechanical dredging, which is shown in red, would be completed with an excavator that scoops out the sediment. And then hydraulic dredging, which is shown in orange, would be completed by divers going underwater with a pump and essentially vacuuming out the sediment. While mechanical dredging would be more time efficient, hydraulic dredging will provide the precision needed to protect those valves. What's not shown here, what I'd like to mention is that this entire dredging area would be surrounded by a turbidity curtain. With all of these dredging activities, we do anticipate that some sediment will be suspended into the water column. And so the turbidity curtain essentially acts as a screen that will prevent sediment from mobilizing downstream. Next slide, please. Briefly, I wanted to mention that all of the dredged materials would be hauled within these blue lines to the areas marked as soil handling areas. And this will be an area where water is allowed to decant from the material. It will provide a means for the sediment to dry prior to being off-hauled in dump trucks, which we really can't have leaking any water. I just wanted to touch on this briefly because in a couple of slides, I'm going to go over the schedule and you'll see some time allotted for drying and offline, so I just wanted to provide a little bit of context. Next slide, please. Here is a summary of the permits and approvals required for the project. We are in the process of securing a couple remaining authorizations, and we do not anticipate issuing the notice to proceed until all permits and approvals are secured. We are aiming to have all permits in hand in approximately three weeks, which brings me to our schedule. Next slide, please. In approximately four weeks from today, we anticipate issuing the notice to proceed. We estimate four weeks for the contractor to prepare this middles and mobilize to the site. Two weeks are provided for dredging, which needs to be completed by October 15th for permitting requirements. There will be two weeks for the material to dry and be off-hauled, and then the final four days are for site restoration, which would include things like replanting the area, and then also time for the contractor to demobilize from the site. Since the entire project area is located in the flood plain, all work needs to be completed by October 31st. Next slide, please. In the next couple of slides, I'll get into the background of what makes this contract award a little bit unique. The project was advertised on May 26th of this year. About a week later, we had a pre-bid meeting where two contractors were present, and then at the June 14th bid opening, and unfortunately, we did not receive any bids. Next slide, please. According to public contract code, section 21066, a city can directly negotiate a contract if nobody bids after going through the competitive bidding process. As I mentioned, at the pre-bid meeting, we had two contractors attend, only one of which is a prime contractor that the city can directly contract with, and that contractor is Dickson Marine Services. Although we are calling this contract negotiation, we didn't actually have any back and forth on the price of their bid with the contractor, but what we did do that was a little bit unique is we had open conversations about what the work would entail and what the cost would be prior to receiving their bid. In the end, their bid came out to 11% under the engineer's estimate. Next slide, please. It is recommended by the Transportation and Public Works Department and the Water Department at the Board by motion, award construction contract number C02200 in the amount of $514,728 to Dickson Marine Services of Inverness, California for Delta Pond Diffuser maintenance, approve a 15% contingency and authorize a total contract amount of $591,937. Thank you for your time and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, Ms. Mayeda. We'll open it up for any board member questions or comments. Board member Walsh. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a comment, I very much appreciate the basic engineering lesson and the vigils and the walkthrough presented by engineer Mayeda. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Any other board member questions or comments? All right, I will entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion. Thank you. I move that the Board of Public Utilities by motion award contract number 00 in the amount of $514,728 to Dixon Marine Services of Inverness, California for the Delta Pond Diffuser maintenance and approve a 15% contingency authorizing a total contract amount of $590,937. Second. Thank you. We have a motion by board member Walsh and a second by board member Grable. This time I'll open it up for public comments on item 7.1. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Secretary Manus? Chair Galvin, there are no hands being raised via Zoom and no one in Council Chamber wishing to make public comment on this item. Thank you. May we have a roll call vote, please? Certainly. Board member Wright is absent. Board member Watts is absent. Board member Walsh? Aye. Board member Grable? Aye. Thank you. Board member Battenford is absent. Vice Chair Arnone? Aye. And Chair Galvin? Aye. Other records show this motion passes with four affirmative votes. Thank you. That'll take care of that item. Item number eight on our agenda is public comments on non-agenda items. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Secretary Manus? There are no hands being raised via Zoom and no one in Council Chamber wishing to make a public comment on non-agenda matters. Thank you. That'll take care of that item. We have no referrals. We have no written communications. I don't believe we have any subcommittee reports and seeing nobody move otherwise. Any board member reports? All right, we will move to item 13 which is the director's report. Director Burke? Thank you, Chair Galvin and members of the board. I have a few items to report on today. First, I wanted to let the board know that last year, Santa Rosa Water was awarded a $75,000 grant under the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Small Scale Water Use Efficiency Project Program. And the U.S. Bureau of Rec recently gave the formal notice to proceed with the grant-funded project. And we will be using those funds to double the existing cash for grass rebate to $3 per square foot for a limited number of commercial, industrial, institutional and multifamily customers. The project will help us replace a total of 50,000 square feet of turf and customers that are eligible to participate in the grant will need to retain or plant one tree for every 600 square feet of turf removed and then comply with our standard rebate requirements. Targeted marketing to landscape contractors and eligible customers will begin shortly and we will return in the future with an update once the project has been completed. Next, I wanted to let the board know that the Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Sustainability Agency at their July 14th meeting, the GSA board took multiple actions to establish an updated groundwater sustainability fee. They adopted an ordinance, they accepted and adopted the final rate and fee study and then they passed a resolution establishing a five-year groundwater user extraction fee of $40 per acre foot, which is what was recommended by the rate and fee study report. The decision came after months of public outreach, technical evaluation by staff and the advisory committee and multiple meetings by the Santa Rosa Plain GSA Board of Directors. The updated fee will cover the forecasted costs necessary to begin implementation of the recently adopted groundwater sustainability plan for the basin for the next five years. The board may recall that the County of Sonoma and Sonoma Water had covered the initial fee for development of the Groundwater Sustainability Plan for private, domestic, agricultural and commercial groundwater users throughout the county. But now this updated fee will be placed on the upcoming county tax roll for all registered groundwater users, including those who were previously paid for by the County of Sonoma and Sonoma Water. So just wanted to make sure the board was aware that this fee process, which took a number of years, is now complete and in place, which is good news for the GSA and the desire for the GSA to be self-funded. Next, I wanted to let the board know that we continue to look for various opportunities to assist our folks with past due accounts or assist our customers with past due accounts. So Santa Rosa Water is now fully enrolled in the new Federal Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program, or LIWAP. This will provide one-time financial assistance of up to $2,000 to assist our low-income households with paying their outstanding residential water or wastewater bills. California has been allocated 116 million in one-time funding to provide assistance under the LIWAP program, and the program is being administered by the Department of Community Services and Development in California, otherwise known as CSD. CSD has contracted with community-based local service providers who are accepting program applications and determining eligibility. For this area for Santa Rosa, the North Coast Energy Services is the local service provider and they're now accepting applications. If they determine a Santa Rosa Water customer is eligible for a one-time benefit, Santa Rosa Water will directly receive the customer's payment and we will apply it to their past due bill. Anyone who is listening and is interested in finding out more or enrolling in the program, you can go to n-c-e-s dot org. Again, that stands for North Coast Energy Services or n-c-e-s dot org to apply and you can also go to our website, srcity.org slash h2o, and we have more information and links to the application from our website. And then some more good news for the board. I wanted to let the board know that due to great work by our reclamation team, we have identified that we can free up an additional 200 million gallons for our agricultural recycle water customers. So allotments have been increased. Initially you might recall earlier this year we started at 900 million gallons. We were able to increase those allocations a couple months later to get to 950 million gallons. And now with the additional 200 million gallons we have a total of 1.15 billion gallons for our agricultural customers this year. We are still on track to meet our contract with Calpine. We are targeting that we will meet 93% of the contract and we're required to meet a minimum of 90%. We are always a little conservative to ensure that we meet that contract amount. So we have shared that information yesterday with our agricultural customers and they were quite pleased with the information. And then very last due to the fact that we have no pressing action items prior to our August 4th BPU meeting, I talked with the chair and the chair has authorized that we will go ahead and cancel our August 4th BPU meeting. And that is my presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions that the board may have. Thank you, Director Burke, Vice Chair Arnone. Just a quick question about the GSA fees. When do those go into effect? So they technically are adopted for this fiscal year but they will be collected through the tax roll. So the first amount or the bills will go out, what? I think they're in October or something like that. They get mailed and then you have until early December to pay so that'll be the first round and then you can either pay everything up front or you can pay on the two installments. And then my understanding is that we will be receiving bills for all of the member agencies sooner so that we can keep cash flow going to keep the GSA board operating. That was my question. So we will continue funding. We'll pay the amount that we should be charged for the amount we anticipate pumping out of the groundwater basin so it is based on actual pumpage. So it's our fair share. Thank you. That answers my question. Yes. Any other board member questions for the director? All right, at this time I'll open it up for public comments on item 13. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand. Secretary Manus. Chair Galvin, there are no hands being raised via Zoom and no one in council chamber wish to make a public comment. Very good. That concludes our agenda and we will next meet then on August 18th. So I wish you all a good afternoon. We are adjourned. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.