LEGISLATIVE ANALYST MEMORANDUM

To: Members of the Board of Supervisors

From: Andrew Murray, Office of the Legislative Analyst

Date: June 1, 2005

Re: Employee Suggestion - Eliminate Bottled Water Service for Employees (OLA#: 038-05J)

Employee Suggestion

As part of the 2005 Board of Supervisors Employee Suggestion Program, a City employee suggested that the City stop providing bottled water to employees.

Executive Summary

Bottled water service cost the City and County of San Francisco nearly $500,000 in FY 2003-04 and is projected to cost nearly as much in FY 2004-05. The Office of the Legislative Analyst recommends that bottled water service be discontinued for employees that have access to tap water. Departments might need to maintain service for employees and customers that do not have sufficiently convenient access.

Analysis

As part of the 2003 Employee Suggestion Program, the Office of the Legislative Analyst (OLA) researched a similar suggestion (http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_page.asp?id=18474). At the time the OLA found that individual departments were ordering bottled water and paying for it out of their budgets under a blanket contract that the City maintained with a single vendor, Danone Waters of North America (dba Alhambra Water). The annual cost to the City for the water was approximately $612,000. The OLA recommended that the water service be discontinued for all departments to which tap water was accessible.

The current situation is similar, although the City is now spending somewhat less on bottled water (approximately $500,000 in FY 2003-04 and nearly as much in FY 2004-05). Appendix A contains a list of departments and their bottled water expenditures. As it has been established that San Francisco’s tap drinking water is of high quality, it seems reasonable to reduce expenditures by eliminating bottled water service except in cases where employees or clients do not have access to tap water.

Recommendation

The OLA recommends that the Board of Supervisors direct departments to eliminate bottled water from their budgets except in cases where employees do not have reasonably convenient access to other sources of drinking water or the department is providing bottled water to customers that need drinking water and do not have access to other sources.

Source: Controller

* Projected by the Office of the Legislative Analyst based on actual expenditures through 5/15/05.