"Sumeet Singh showed up to answer questions about the December blackout, and none of the members of the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee seemed to accept, or even believe, most of his answers. Singh in essence said that, hey, these things happen, we are very sorry, and we will try to do better. He said that PG&E had worked closely with the city from the start-although he couldn't explain why it took two hours for his staff to alert the Department of Emergency Management."
"Sean Kim, who owns Joe's Ice Cream and represents the Geary Merchants, said that after the power went off, he lost much of his stock. Filing a claim with PG&E, he said, was difficult and time consuming, particularly for a small business owner. "There are no clear guidelines," he said. "They want to know how many cups, napkins, toilet paper ... How many slices of tomato go on a burger?" It seems to me that this is not a good time for PG&E to be acting like the worst type of insurance company and asking for the cost of tomato slices."
"Then there was the political intrigue. Sup. Bilal Mahmood demanded to know why, when vulnerable people in the Tenderloin and the West Side were without power, electricity was restored to the Opera House. Singh said that wasn't just his decision; Mayor Lurie contacted PG&E and asked for temporary power for the Opera. Gabe Greschler at the SF Standard dug into this a bit, and found that Lurie was asking for as special favor to restore electricity for a facility where his daughter was performing in The Nutcracker."
PG&E's CEO Sumeet Singh faced strong skepticism from the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee over the December blackout and delayed emergency notification. Singh apologized and described the outage as relatively minor compared to an earthquake, saying the company was working to prevent future disruptions and compensate affected merchants. Small business owners reported lost stock and a difficult, unclear claims process. Supervisors questioned why power was restored to the Opera House while vulnerable neighborhoods remained without electricity, and a text message reportedly showed a mayoral request for temporary power at a venue where the mayor's daughter was performing.
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