Joshua Arce

Commission president, Seat 2, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

Presides over the Public Utilities Commission; asked 33 questions at the 21 meetings where we identified them.

21 of 22transcribed meetings with their voice identified

33questions at the Public Utilities Commission

19 of 21present at roll calls through Jul 28, 2026, from the clerk

Presides over the Public Utilities Commission

See all

Public Utilities Commission · Commission president

Two clips, newest first

Joshua Arce · Commissioner · Public Utilities Commission · Jan 29, 2026 · 36:33
“…is— are we hearing right now item 3AII, the Water Enterprise and Hetch Hetchy Water new proposals for fiscal years ‘26-‘27 and ‘27-‘28? Or are we into the 3B 10-year capital plan including 2-year capital plan?”
Joshua Arce · Commissioner · Public Utilities Commission · Feb 10, 2026 · 2:15:51
“Where do I go to get the data for the projects that have closed out?”

Every roll call, and Arce’s other bodies

Present at 19 of 21 roll calls at the Public Utilities Commission, roll call through Jul 28, 2026

From the clerk’s own record. We don’t compare members on it.

PresentExcusedAbsentOldest first, 1 square per roll call

Excused 2, arrived later at 1 of those · Absent 0. Oct 28, 2025 to Jul 28, 2026. The clerk’s record covers 21 of the 24 meetings we hold, through Jul 28, 2026.

Official roll call, from the clerk →

Public Utilities Commission: talk time not compared. Presides over its meetings, so isn’t compared with the members.

Questions

Arce asked 33 questions at the 21 Public Utilities Commission meetings where we identified them

At least this many: direct questions only.

…is it possible to get a private and confidential attorney-client memo that outlines to the commission the rationale for proceeding with the search firm if we go with this kind of administrative process rather than coming back to the commission to vote on the selection?Public Utilities Commission · Jul 14, 2026 · Play at 54:43

Of Arce’s 27 questions to city departments at the Public Utilities Commission, 24 went to water, power and utilities.

Who they question: 27 questions to a department, 1 body · Oct 24, 2025 – Oct 8, 2026.

Public Utilities Commission27 questions to city departments

Public Utilities Commission: questions by department
Department	Share	Questions
Water, power and utilities		2489%
City attorney / law department		311%

Neighborhoods Arce named

2 places Arce named in meetings

Lines where Arce named the place, read by two AI readers that both agree it means that place. Each dot plays the newest one; brighter means named more often.

San Francisco

Bayview Hunters Point 2 times
Treasure Island 1 time

Places are drawn at the centre of their own boundary in the city’s Analysis Neighborhoods file (DataSF (City and County of San Francisco)). A dot says the place was named, not where Arce was or what was said about it.

Meetings

Every meeting where we identified Arce’s voice

21, newest first. The date opens the meeting; the time plays the video at Arce’s first remark.

Sep 8, 2026Public Utilities Commission18.8 min0:15
Jul 14, 2026Public Utilities CommissionCity workforce and labor11.3 min0:15
Jun 23, 2026Public Utilities Commission10.6 min0:20
Jun 9, 2026Public Utilities CommissionBudget and spending6.1 min0:18
May 26, 2026Public Utilities Commission3.9 min0:08
May 12, 2026Public Utilities Commission3.7 min0:12
Apr 28, 2026Public Utilities Commission9.5 min0:40
Apr 14, 2026Public Utilities CommissionBudget and spending10.4 min0:17
Mar 24, 2026Public Utilities Commission5.8 min0:11
Mar 10, 2026Public Utilities CommissionBudget and spending5.5 min0:09

Show all 21Show fewer

Feb 24, 2026Public Utilities Commission9.2 min0:09
Feb 10, 2026Public Utilities CommissionBudget and spending7.5 min0:10
Feb 5, 2026Public Utilities CommissionBudget and spending7.4 min0:15
Jan 29, 2026Public Utilities CommissionBudget and spending13.9 min0:13
Jan 27, 2026Public Utilities Commission10.4 min25:02
Jan 23, 2026Public Utilities Commission5.4 min0:17
Jan 13, 2026Public Utilities Commission4.9 min0:14
Jan 12, 2026Public Utilities CommissionBudget and spending8.0 min0:15
Dec 9, 2025Public Utilities CommissionBudget and spending20.3 min0:19
Nov 10, 2025Public Utilities Commission6.8 min0:19
Oct 28, 2025Public Utilities CommissionBudget and spending10.0 min0:12

How we identify who is speaking · blind check, pooled across five cities: of 340 commission lines drawn, 260 right, 4 wrong, 1 unclear, 75 couldn’t be judged

We identified Arce’s voice at 21 meetings. A meeting missing here means we couldn’t attribute the voice, not that Arce was absent. Claude and Gemini each read every transcript with that day’s roster. A voice gets Joshua Arce’s name only when both agree and a code check finds the name said on, or just before, their turn. Voices our transcripts merge with someone else’s are never attributed, so every count here undercounts what Arce said. For commissions, of 340 lines drawn, 260 were right, 4 wrong and 1 unclear, and the checkers couldn’t judge 75. We have since removed the voices behind 64 of those lines (3 wrong, 0 unclear, the rest we had already held for other reasons). Of the 276 lines we still publish, the checkers could judge 228: 226 right, 1 wrong and 1 unclear (90% lower bound 0.97). They couldn’t judge the other 48. The check is one sample pooled across the five cities, not of Arce or of San Francisco alone.