Working with the Authority During Coronavirus Precautions

Dear Friends of the Restoration Authority,

This message is to let you know how we at the Authority are coping with the Coronavirus outbreak, and what you as a grantee, contractor, prospective grantee, or interested citizen can do to help us keep moving forward.

As you are aware, seven of the nine largest Bay Area counties issued shelter in place orders effective today for the next three weeks. Everyone at the Authority is now working at home. Our most important task right now is figuring how to go completely paperless so that we can continue to pay invoices and keep all our existing projects moving forward. We are working hard on that, but it necessarily involves other parts of government in addition to us, so it will not be simple or fast.

In the meantime, if you are a current grantee or contractor of the Authority, you know that the Authority requires paper invoices with original signatures. We are making every effort to get approval to process invoices electronically. Starting immediately, please submit your invoices BOTH in paper (via the mail as usual) and electronically. The electronic version should be a complete copy of the paper invoice and should be emailed directly to State Coastal Conservancy's Contracts Division (SCC Contracts) at contracts@scc.ca.gov and your Authority project manager. We are also working on approval for electronic signatures on new contracts and grant agreements.

If you have mailed in an invoice to the Authority in the past 7-10 days, it would likely speed the processing time if you emailed the electronic version to SCC Contracts and your project manager. As usual, before sending your invoice to SCC Contracts, work with your project manager on a draft invoice to reduce the chances of having an error in the invoice.

If you need to reach someone at the Authority, please use email. If you have questions about your project or grant, please contact your project manager.

The Authority's March 20 Advisory Committee meeting has been cancelled. The April 10 Oversight Committee has been cancelled and will be rescheduled as a teleconference. We hope to be able to hold the May 8 Governing Board meeting via teleconference, and will send out an update in coming weeks.

If you want to talk about a possible future project, please email grants@sfbayrestore.org. If you have other questions, please email info@sfbayrestore.org.

Please stay safe and healthy, and follow the recommendations of your county health officials, as well as that of the State of CA and the CDC. Information from the latter two may be found at: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/Immunization/ncov2019.aspx and https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

We will get through this together, and I eagerly look forward to the day when I can see you in person!

Sam Schuchat

Executive Director

San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority