City and County of San Francisco Tuesday, May 01, 2012

captioned by the national captioning institute -- www.Ncicap.Org --

>> item number four, approval of the April 17 regular meeting.

>> motion to approve? >> second. >> those in favor? So moved. >> item number five, communications director.

There will be no discussion today. >> there will be a closed session?

>> just no discussion of anticipated litigation.

Item number six, introduction of unfinished business but board members.

>> thank you, Chairman.

good afternoon.

First of all, of a bite to -- I

feel that we did this in the

last meeting, but the budget was

approved last meeting, and out

of work goes into the budget.

people spend hours that we cannot even comprehend, home working, trying to work on problems.

I would like to commend them for that.

By and large, I would say that I support the entire budget.

There is one that I oppose, the sunday parking, I want that to be known.

In saying that I know it has been agreed that you and your staff would come back to let us

know how you plan to implement sunday parking.

I would like to go on record as looking forward to seeing a preview of that plan

recommendation, said the

vacancy but we have in the

community in sentences go.

>> thank you.

I said that would be willing,

myself, to work on this, or a

way to work on this in a way that works for the most group' s possible.

Any other new or unfinished business? >> thank you. >> seeing no one.

>> item #seven. Directors report.

>> that afternoon.

Members of the board, members of

the public, staff, I am happy to start off the meeting by

recognizing some of our best. This month we have folks from a few different parts of the

agency that we want to recognize, as we do each month.

Starting with the transit

division, I would like to ask Mr. Hanley to come to the microphone.

If there are here.

>> did they recognize me?

>> if you could go to the microphone? >> absolutely.

>> moving along to our sustainable streets divisions,

two different groups of awardees.

If Mr. Yi is here, I would like

to have him come forward to

honor some of our transit fare inspectors.

If you would all kindly come forward.

These inspectors had been with us for about five years.

As everyone knows, they do proof

of payment, but they also serve generally in a significant

customer service role, which is

often overlooked, but the operators in the public value it greatly.

They are here not just for their good day to day work.

Before the end of last year, they were doing their proof of payment work when they encountered a female customer that appeared distraught and upset.

They tried to console her.

They were trying to make sure at

that point that she was safe and that everyone around her would be safe.

She then indicated that she was

suicidal, making a beeline for

the tracks, at which point

inspector parish restrained her ,

giving her professional and medical assistance. The inspector rated with her.

They literally save the life that day.

Besides making sure that people

pay their fair, we certainly

want to commend the three for

the above the end beyond saving a life.

If you like to say a few words?

>> good afternoon, cmdr.

>> members of the board,

director, you know there is a whole group of the inspectors in the back of the room and I have

to say that I could not be proud of the work that these folks do every single day in our system for our agency.

This is a perfect example of the types of things, the types of

compassion that our fair inspector show our patrons every day.

they went above and beyond anyone' s expectation. I could not be prouder of the three of them.

I thank you all, director

particularly, for acknowledging their work, first and foremost.

>> thank you, and on behalf of

the board, I had the privilege

of meeting everyone.

It is really impressive an

outstanding work that you do.

I probably saw a bunch of you

there, doing this great work,

coming off and getting on the bus. It was impressive.

This is truly heroic.

Thank you.

>> before you leave the podium.

I know you have your video recorder at home, taping this.

i would love for you to go with a brief word.

>> on the spot? [Laughter]

I did not want to say anything, but I guess that I will.

transit fare inspectors, it is fantastic to be recognized for

all the things that for the

customer service, trying to advise, assists. This is what we do.

The rest of us do the same

thing the department is fantastic.

we have great co-workers.

It is different every day, if you can believe that.

I would suggest that everyone comes with us at least one time to check us out.

You get to know the patrons and the riding public.

>> thank you. >> thank you.

[Applause]

>> director? >> thank you.

Moving on, also in the

sustainable street division, I want to ask reggie to come forward.

Is reggie here?

Reggie has been the supervisor of the traffic paint shop.

He has been with us for more than 18 years.

Demonstrating outstanding work

efforts, a great performance.

He has been a great leader in

that role, producing the work

backlog by 50% over the last three years.

This backlog includes work that was referenced in an audit that the comptroller' s office and did

a while back, indicating that

there is work that needs to be

done to improvements in the streets. Reggie has been a big part of making that improvement.

anytime anyone is doing

excavation, given the work done by the utility companies and

other city departments, there has been a lot of work.

He is not a set in the office kind of guy.

he works with field crews and

serves as a mentor, sharing his

knowledge of the 18 years, with

high-profile projects, and the bike lanes they have all been hearing about.

A big part of the paint shop and the operations group.

>> good afternoon, Mr. Chair.

Members of the board, I am with sustainable streets.

It is my pleasure.

I want to acknowledge tony, the

director of might -- the director of the newly appointed division.

Back to what I was saying, I

always have the opinion that the

engineers and planners do really

good work crafting plans and so forth.

Reality is something else in the field.

We always rely on folks like

reggie and his staff to be our safety net.

Inevitably, we always make some errors here and there. he is always here to make it happen.

We are very grateful for that. Thank you for being our safety net.

>> good afternoon.

I would like to say that we just

recently hired and reggie

stepped-up, along with fellow supervisors to fill in that cap and work with me in a daily basis.

It has been a big job.

Reggie has been an invaluable asset.

We cannot thank him for the valuable work that he has done.

In the jobs to the extent that

we have been able to, planning how we move forward with

expanding the operation to really get it up to date.

With all the back log knocked

down, fewer complaints, having

the city in good shape in the near future. Thank you, thank you all.

>> we would love to hear a few words from you. >> thank you.

i would like to thank the bike

lane engineers, car engineers,

the genie, we have been working hand in hand together to keep this going.

the biggest goal was jfk.

We are down to finishing it all up and so far, so good.

Things are looking really good over there.

I want to just say, time to make it short, I cannot do this without my crew.

They cut their heart into this project.

The new work, the backlogs , always with me.

Always side-by-side .

a lot of respect there.

I want to bring out names, if you do not mind.

My lead man, charlie.

mine lead man, taking care -- taking care of the big jobs.

Making little changes their, but we all work together as a team

in always get the job done. Thank you. [Applause]

>> in my first few weeks as I

went to visit different facilities, I went to the new

bancroft facility, where they were operating out of.

The paint shop is a high energy

group you can feel it , a gung-ho and high energy crews.

The hard work is acknowledged.

finally, Mr. Haley is back.

It looks like we have at least part of the crew.

Tonight, from washington, and I think that I saw cynthia chambers here. >> a sister.

>> we will take " we can get.

I had the privilege of attending

the recent operator awards

ceremony that we have each month.

These were the three women that were honored. Ms. Chambers tells me she

operates the best division in unique. [Laughter]

-- in muni. [Laughter]

Apparently they have a particular women' s division tradition that she might want to

tell you about.

at this last one we were honoring this vision.

This is a message for the operators out there that it is possible to go years without having preventable accidents.

a great role model, she seat --

service as one of the people who

has demonstrated excellent in those that are coming up.

Ms. Washington is relatively

new, having been here for about

five years, never having had a preventable accidents.

Operator of the month, March of 2011.

These two

women, one very long

serving, one relatively new, demonstrating the kind of accident free record that we are

striving for.

Congratulations to you on one of

the best provisions in muni.

We are happy to have jonathan say a few words.

>> I have been operator for 35 someone years.

It would be even better if we had new coaches.

I would like to thank you for the acknowledgement.

[Unintelligible]

And I would like to thank my chair person.

My sister, I thank her for coming, hazel. [Laughter]

>> congratulations. Thank you very much.

Ms. Washington? >> how are you, the day? >> good. >> that is good.

>> I would like to

thank Mr. [Unintelligible]

For the award.

it is so lovely.

I would like to thank everyone.

This is a tough job out there, but we get through it. We really do.

It is kind of tough to deal

with, but we do our best and

maintain our composure, getting to our destination.

>> would you like to say something? >> hello.

>> the best

division.

[Laughter]

since I came, my goal was to

motivate my operators to come in and put a smile on their faces.

In there, probably, day and

night, making sure they' re ok.

they are the motivation that I have it exhibited toward myself.

We are having less accidents , in a contest called race to zero.

the no. 1 or no. 2 spot , we' re really striving to make sure that everyone really pulls together.

We have something called a breakfast club. Every tuesday and friday there

is a lady there who brings breakfast for the operators.

those new mothers to come there, single parents, grandparents, whenever, we try to get there is a family.

New equipment would be wonderful, yes.

New coaches, we would really love to see those.

>> there is absolutely no truth, reading the capital program to them. [Laughter]

Just to make an observation

based on what ed said, one of the things we are proudest of

here, we have the best of our operating culture.

In my words are our words,

collectively you have an

incredible record, with a lot of

her time and highlights that

were drawn attention to, the fact that she mentors or works

with newer or younger operators.

Here is the result of some of that.

It is something we have strived to make happen.

people that care about their

jobs and are motivated, sometimes we need to just get

out of the way and let people do what they' re very good at.

I wanted to

make that point

about how you learn from

excellent role models, as well as understanding the equipment.

>> talking about the equipment there. Thank you very much. [Applause]

Director? >> just a few quick updates. In terms of the state of repair

work, for those who live along

the n line, that work is continuing.

As well as on the carl and cold with switching replacement projects.

Thus a number of weekends during

planned shutdown work.

The work will resume the weekend of May 11. We will have a shutdown of the

end line, a prelude to the big work.

and in a day.

That will be the time we will

be redoing the entire section.

One of the most critical

junctures, we are very excited

to get that new overhead up in working, and new.

It will be a significant benefit

in terms of service it will come with disruption in distraction, we' re working closely on

promoting alternative forms of transportation and, of course, we'

ll have outreach, cited the, shovels, people that need to get around on muni still can.

in terms of the future of muni , we have been coming toward the end of this phase and the

outreach associated with the

environmental impact report, going around to different

neighborhoods, really tailored toward the rapid line in those

neighborhoods that we have been

developing travel time reduction proposals for.

The Chairman Was able to attend one of the ones this past weekend.

Today we have had seven workshop taylor presentations for the seven neighborhoods. They are ready to go.

We have been promoting them

through various means , beyond

the many town hall format and

accessibility advisory , going to

the pedestrian safety advisory council.

Lots of different stakeholder groups.

These large focused workshops

are giving us feedback that

helps us to refine and change

and adjust our proposals.

We have put out information and are trying to get feedback

electronically we have gotten a couple of hundred responses to that.

That is very helpful.

at 10:00 A.M., and therefore we will see if this is a central

location hearing in we will be putting these corridors up for review.

We had one good recognition.

our park manager was featured

in a series, a

nationwide blog that focuses on aggressive transportation issues, for lack of a better phrase.

The airport -- profiling 11

officials and putting them in the 21st century.

jay is the manager of the park

program.

But he put this dynamic pricing model in place, the first in the country. If not the world.

for circling the admissions and

congestion of those associated,

the lessons will be powerful for cities everywhere.

We have won a number of boards,

and cities like new york are now

falling gas.

A great honor that is well deserved.

This

sunday is the first of four

mission sunday streets , we are doing four of them.

The vice chair has been a strong

advocate , if anyone has not been

to make sunday street mission, they are the ones to go to.

Hope to see everyone out there.

In terms of bicycles, next

thursday there is a bike to work day.

We are wondering -- funding and

partnering on the event for the city.

In san francisco we have been working hard on outreach to get

more people out, with commuter

convoys where we have experienced bikers and first- time bikers. You get the idea.

someone tries at once, they then become a regular commuter.

Last year during bike to work day, I rode with someone who had that experience.

It really does work.

there will be snacks,

beverages, and everyone is

encouraged to go to the website if they want to sign up and volunteer.

I look forward to seeing you all out there on your bicycles.

Speaking of which, the bikeway

in golden gate park that I made reference to, it has been

getting a lot of interest. Much of it positive. Some of the critical.

I think that reggie May have made reference that we are nearly done with the work. We will be completely done by next thursday.

A topic that was actually

discussed last year with some of the bike to work participants.

We are taking the feedback we' re getting very seriously and

looking at the adjustments we

might want to make, looking closely at the migration with the parks department.

We are evaluating bicycles speeds, traffic volume, perceptions.

It is a design that is tried and

true, having worked well at the

other cities with which I know some of you have experience.

It is relatively new to san , so we are doing a lot

of outreach with iraq and park, and are comfortable and accustomed to the new

orientation, looking forward to getting that done over the next couple of weeks.

Finally, we had a very busy weekend this past weekend.

The doyle drive demolition was significant for us.

Traffic patterns on the city

streets, construction at the

port, the giants were in town with neighborhood events right here.

we had 63

pco' s working over the course of the weekend at different times.

Much of the work came out around

the city, moving smoothly, by all accounts.

a great job by all those engaged in the planning of that.

Particularly those that were out on the streets.

Making sure that san francisco kept moving.

>> thank you, director.

Members of the board? >> let me take the opportunity

to complement the staff of the workshop. It was one of those gorgeous days where you thought no one

would show up, but there was a

really good crowd and they did such a professional job of facilitating all the information that needed to be shared.

I wanted to recognize the fact that they did a fabulous job with that. The information was so helpful in terms of seeing what would

happen with stock placements. Well done.

>> I would second that. I would encourage everyone in

the audience, my colleagues here

on the board, to attend one of these workshops.

I recently had one in my

neighborhood and was amazed by the planning and recommendations being made to improve the line.

it is still impacted, looking

forward to the wonderful work in the workshops.

I am sure that there are similar

and amazing things happening in everyone' s neighborhood.

i wanted to reiterate the

support for the bike to work day.

Last year, bike to work, my partner, whom I have been trying

to get to bike for years, and

never was able to build up the courage to get her to come

through, we got her to do it.

She gets herself for not having

done it sooner, because it saves

herself easily 30 minutes from

the time that she used to muni. Everyone get out there and bike to work. >> thank you.

next item, please.

>> I do not see Mr. Murphy here.

So, public comment. An opportunity for the members of the public to address the board on matters within the jurisdiction but not on the calendar.

james bolden, thomas coleman,

leonard lynch are our first speakers.

Mr. Bolden?

>> good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon, board.

Thank you for hearing me.

What I see in front of me are some duly elected public

servants?

That being said, I know that you

guys are trying to balance a

budget with $312 million projected for the fiscal year 13-14.

Yet we are making an attempt to

enforce and bring in parking on

sunday, which everyone comes out to to shop.

Going back and forth, going to communities is going to interrupt that.

Someone could make the case that

could be looked at as religious persecution, which had nothing

is, but I have some suggestions about enforcing the carpool lanes.

10 tickets is $4,500.

You know the numbers on a larger scale.

Also, I will support charging a

fee for a bike license.

Quite a few incidents, people

getting hit by cars, bikes, etc., this would separate the

bad bikers from the good bikers.

i did not know that I only had two minutes, that is all I had to say.

>> thomas coleman, leonard lynch, micro roberta.

>> good afternoon, Mr. Coleman.

>> have been made a.

I' d like to speak to the notice today that we received in

regards to the changing contractor permit terms.

It is brief, so I will read the first part.

They are not intended for long- term, on the street parking.

my concern is that I would need

to have defined for me what long term means.

We have a lot of contractors with multiple permits.

coming to and from their place of business over the course of a

day, they could be several

hours and one job location, or

back at their place, take care of all of the paperwork.

Coming and going is an integral part of the business.

if the legislation seeks to clarify the business of keeping

your vehicle at 1,500 feet, or

three blocks, instead impacting the workday, it becomes a very

expensive issue for all the people in my association.

Everything in construction is very competitive.

Every minute on a generally been project is more than $1.50.

If you have these electricians

working and walking to and from, as opposed to working, it

becomes very efficient.

I would like to take that into consideration.

>> leonard lynch.

Followed by micro mark orszag.

>> my name is leonard lynch.

in a third-generation san franciscan.

Our cost per minute is $1.80 per minute.

Over 15 feet it becomes an

expensive proposition.

Going back and forth, it could take half an hour.

This is half of the actual working day.

It comes off the top of the overhead.

An expensive proposition.

If this is just another burden

that we will have to bear going through, we will have to reconsider this situation.

We must have had 300 trucks with

permits.

to tack an additional fee on top

of that, you have to go to in

from work as a service company,

in and out all day with a parking ticket for parking in

front of their own business?

it is almost better to take the ticket rather than go three

blocks and what, or whatever.

Please reconsider this amendment that you are trying to propose. Thank you very much.

>> next speaker, please.

what' s that afternoon, Mr. Gruber.

We went to the rules committee of the board of supervisors and

ask them to reject the

reappointment on the board.

It looks like standing up to the

opposition over the working life.

Especially since we knew that

this would not be successful .

We knew we had to send a message

about not only some of the

policy initiatives that have

been champion here, but the

direction of the agency itself.

i am specifically referring to

the current proposal, which the

director has inspired, of

leasing medallions to cab companies, one-third of all

medallions, to be specific.

this will rob 500 drivers of

their futures, and it will

benefit companies that, frankly, do not deserve it.

Many of these companies have

thwarted their drivers' ability to obtain workers'

compensation.

They regularly violate the terms

of around contracts, of which they write.

And they collect billions of dollars for year in under the

table payments in protection

money that drivers pay. these companies do not deserve it.

>> the afternoon. Four items.

First, I would ask of the board could inquire after the status of the new shelter the

installations, including the next meeting.

signs in the shelters have been constructed.

The second item gets into

transitions for his service.

An independent voice on this

board, and a friend, his service will be missed.

Greg petersen retired last

night, after 22 years of service for.

I was on during his last run.

He was a wonderful guy .

always tentative in being well-

liked and I wanted to recognize his retirement.

On a sadder note, a more

permanent retirement, frank

schisler, passing away last

week, rick after retiring at

age 95, he had lived 35 years,

breaking a record for a retiree manager.

In terms of time.

he retract -- retired as the superintendent in 1936.

He helped to run a railway in the 1960' s and 1970' s and was quite a force to be reckoned

with a wanted to recognize those

transitions. >> thank you.

>> next speaker?

>> looks familiar.

>> good afternoon, directors.

welcome back to work. Happy back to work month.

I want to briefly invite you to join us again.

It has been helpful to be out on the streets with you all. Thank you.

Coalition efforts, along with

your support and partnerships, it is of great interest to us.

The rainy weather, which was

great, with focusing more on the

adult riders, these have been

going out to thousands of folks , with increasing numbers of people biking and knowing the

rules of the road, including pedestrians having the right of

way, use your lights at night, etc..

the top-10 safety tips.

We are getting these out in 10,000 bags in bike to work day.

Going out to 30,000 people electronically in the next few weeks.

In the first three months of the

year we have heard the first

nine adult bike safety glasses , these people are taking an four

hour class on bike safety.

We have also been working with

you all to educate taxi drivers

in muni operators on how to share the road safely.

Thank you for your help on that.

i wanted to let you know that,

adding that up, we have directly

educated 1600 people.

Taxi drivers, many operators,

and folks in the operators.

they have been stepping up in a

way that is unprecedented in my 15 years.

We have a great partnership with the mta and the police department on enforcing, educating, making sure that folks know. Thank you so much.

Happy back to work with. Thank you for all your work.

>> moving forward, directors,

you have had a request for two items to be severed on your list.

10.3 and 10.4, leaving 10.1 and 10.2.

Motion to approve? >> second. >> those in favor?

Ay e.

I would also like to announce that we have rearranged the

agenda, slightly, to take no.

12, which should be cpc issue . some of those folks are here for that issue in particular. >> item 10.3.

Authorizing the chief of the bureau of claims investigation and administration of the city attorney' s office to settle and litigating claims against the sf

mta for an amount not to exceed $25,000.

>> in my opinion, this power should not be delegated.

When you review the claims not

exceeding $25,000, it gives the board the opportunity to review

circumstances, ask questions,

clarify procedures, and seek to

avoid or reduce those circumstances that lead to these incidents.

I think it would diminish your ability to do so.

I do not think that this type of

action takes up a lot of time or burdens the parties in any meaningful way.

i would encourage you to not delegate this authority.

>> is there a motion on the issue? >> motion to approve. >> second. >> discussion? Those in favor?

>> aye.

>> 10.4?

>> supporting the issuance of revenue bonds to serve as assurance funding in the event

of any delay or other shortfall

in central subway, face to of the third street light rail project funds.

>> good afternoon.

>> commissioners, my name is bob with save muni.

We are very much opposed to this.

This is a desperation measure.

You are $61 million short because the governor of

california had the good sense to

veto non connectivity bonds for

the central subway and high- speed rail.

As you know, high-speed rail is

a very, very chancy proposition, which May or May not go forward.

Therefore, what you seem to be

doing is obligating the city to have least $61 million in

revenue bonds by this measure.

And since it is an open-ended

measure, ladies and gentleman,

it does a very clearly that are

up -- all the shortfalls are attributable to the central subway. you might be attributing the city to a lot more than that.

Management won a one says the

you do not finance short-term cash flow with long-term bonds.

Seo' s in the private sector get fired for that.

this is a terrible idea, even if

you happen to favor the central subway, which I do not.

I urge you not to authorize this.

I know that the board of

supervisors has to approve it,

but it is your responsibility to look carefully at the whole

issue and see whether this is worthwhile. Thank you. >> next speaker?

>> david [Unintelligible] .

>> good morning.

We are a petitioner in the

abington high speed rail authority case, and I am personally the coordinator of

this litigation, as well as assisting in the litigation.

Based on extensive involvement with high-speed rail legal

issues, I would like to inform

you that the chances of the authority getting funded in

passing judicial muster in terms

of claims on bond funds , there

is little likelihood that high- speed rail will get the money it is requesting right now.

i have read each of your bios,

which are listed on the website.

I have been extremely impressed

at how transit support of this board is.

You May very well be the most transit supportive board I have seen in 30 years.

given that, I am suggesting to you that there is no feasible

source out there for funding

these proposed revenue bonds.

So that what is called a cash flow shortage is a cash shortage.

with respect to your

responsibility to keep muni afloat financially, I strongly

urge you to not assume that

these funds are forthcoming and that there is a reasonable basis

upon which to ask supervisors to issue revenue bonds. Thank you.

>> next speaker, please?

>> how long.

>> good afternoon, Mr. Long.

>> good afternoon.

We would like to ask you to delay approval of the revenue

bond until there is a bond

statement clarifying exactly the

intent of this bond, the maximum

amount of this bond, the bonded indebtedness, and the impact it

will have on other muni services.

In

April 2012, April 8 -- six.

the california transportation commission sent a letter to the

sf mta and other transit

agencies saying "this program

has not been supported because the project appears unrelated to

the high-speed rail project or a comprehensive statewide rail plan.

It later says that clearly the

current program of projects remains unacceptable to the

administration and will not be funded. This was very clear.

The governor vetoed the initial $27 million previously.

This letter indicates that there

will be no approval of prop. 108 funds for the entire year.

Contrary to the language of the

resolution, this is not assurance funding. It is funding that is being requested.

We need very clear language that

this is an attempt to be funded

through revenue bonds with debt.

as you know, the subway

proposed does not go to the trans bay terminal. In fact, it believes the current

loop to the terminal and market street corridor.

The subway reports to the fta

and their own final eir states that 76,000 bus hours will be reduced on the corridor.

>> jerry coffin, barbara schell.

>> Mr. Chairman, members of the

commission, I am a member of the save muni fund.

Thank you for taking the item off of the consent calendar.

I will read a few questions that

I think deserve detailed answers before any votes are taken.

I have copies of a like to give your staff said they each have a copy.

the first question, why is a

central subway revenue bond issue needed? We do not think that the presentation is accurate.

What is the anticipated amount of sail, or sales?

Which categories of muni revenue will be tapped to cover the cost of servicing the bonds?

What is the assumed annual

costs of servicing and retiring the resulting deaths?

-- debts?

It comes right out the top, which is already under severe pressure.

please give an explanation of the current concerns of the central subway project and the

ability to successfully manage

it that jeopardizing the remainder of the operation.

We have concerns today.

Number eight, skipping a couple,

according to the recent reports

the annual cost of 2013 would

run to $8 million per year in today' s dollars.

More in 20 $30.

It appears, depending on the

amount it costs, retirement could have doubled the amount.

is the mta concerned about the long term financial effect on the central subway?

And in deciding to issue revenue

bonds, did the mta consider the

fact that cal train, was

extended, many of whom elected

to stay on the train is thereby reduced the objective central

subway up to as much as 30%.

>> michele, robinson, richard.

>> ok. Let' s thank you very much. My name is part michelle.

I was requested to appear at today' s meeting, as well as another meeting that follows this one.

i am strongly supportive of the

concept of a central subway.

I doubt there is any investment we can make that will bring us

as much return in the long run

as the central subway.

I am sure you are all aware of

how superior the service is on

the east-west subway.

That is the subway that

includes the m, k, l, n lines.

but we have no comparable

service north-south.

Now the central subway to a

large degree has been presented

as serving china town.

It is important to recognize, i

believe, that once we get a bridge across the downtown

portion of the city, which is a

major source of conguestion

that we can go on and serve the

northwest quadrant of the city.

now it is intended that this

service would exist, in other

words would tie together the

southeastern portion of the

city, including the large new

developments

in mission bay.

It will bridge the downtown

portion of the city with three

major stations -- >> union and china town. >> yes. >> thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

>> thank you.

next speaker, please.

>> andrew robertson, richard

hanson.

>> good afternoon.

I am andy robertson here in

support of issuance of the bond.

we see the increase in public

transit good.

By our count, 5,000 by the last census.

We hope it will mitigate issues we see on third street.

We see it as a welcome

invitation and are excited by

the name.

>> thank you, sir.

Next speaker, please. >> good afternoon.

>> good afternoon. Commissioners and director, i

think that it is perhaps time to consider whether we will

have the money to run the central subway.

New details say it will cost $15.1 million per year.

You are considering revenue bonds. There is debt service.

I believe we can end up with a

perfect central subway but a broken muni.

I would like you to think of it in those terms.

Can we afford to operate the central subway without hurting

the rest of the system.

>> thank you.

next speaker, please. >> good afternoon.

>> good afternoon.

I am the senior field representative from local union number 34. Yesterday we sent our first

members to work on a central subway. Then I get the shock of my life that maybe this job is in danger.

Got a good job last month when

pier 32 was cancelled.

We would really like to see

this project go through for the

jobs and the city needs its transit. It is definitely important.

i would urge a yes vote on this.

>> karen flood.

Steve taber. >> good afternoon.

>> good afternoon.

My name is karen flood.

I am the interim director and i

am here to speak in the measure

of the contingency fund.

We have been in support of the

subway since 1996 the merchant

association and since 2009 our

motto has been no pain, no gain. We have certainly felt the pain

but we feel the long-term gain.

We realize that it is an investment in the future, future of transit and the future of the district. I understand it is a continuation of the third street light rail project which

will connect to the southeast

corridor and mission bay, south

of market, which I know is

developing rapidly. We want to be connected to

that.

Later if there is funding on to

north beach and fisherman's wharf.

We see a huge investment in our

transit and in the city.

We urge you to support the fund

today.

>> I am the Chairman Of the

central subway task force.

we strongly support the subway

and extension to the north to

serve the northeast part of the city. The northeast part of san francisco is the densest in the

country not serve bide rail rapid transit.

San francisco is the slowest of any of the systems.

the northeast has the slowest

in san francisco and the stockton and third street

corridors have the slowest

transit in the northeast, 3.5 miles per hour.

We desperately need rapid

transit and a comprehensive

system for the city and it is

an essential element of that. We are just about there.

We need to get the federal funding.

We need to be able to show the feds that we have the ability to do this project. We are just about there.

We urge that you support this additional commitment so that

we can move the project forward, get it done and get it

extended.

>> good afternoon. San francisco chamber of commerce and the alliance for

jobs, partnership of business and labor organizations. We testified before in favor of the project.

We will continue to testify in favor of the project. We believe in the long-range

interest this is the right project. The right funding sources.

It is the right project for today. And as you expand it.

If I thought it would end up in

portssmith square, you would

have a different argument.

Years ago we took our kids to europe.

Really the first time they had an extensive subway experience in london and paris.

they said why don't we have this at home.

They are planning a new subway.

That is what you are doing here today.

As a former co-chair for high

speed rail the funding that is

set forth in that proposition

will come forward to this and

other projects around the state.

You are guaranteeing an alternative source.

It is safe to say the odds are against them ever being sold.

So, please approve this. Approve what the federal government needs as a guarantee. Move this project forward in a timely fashion. Thank you.

>> thank you.

Where are this is not the first

time I have been testifying in front of this commission in our

support for the central subway project.

The motion in front of you

today we think is really critical at the end of the

phase of what we have been

pushing for

I urge you to seriously vote in favor of it.

Thank you.

>> patrick collins, david dellatory, michael yaki.

>> good afternoon.

I am patrick collins with the operating engineers. We are the union that operates the large equipment that helps to make this project go forward.

we near strong support of this

project.

Connecting local communities,

increase transit capacity to relieve the crowding. It will reduce the air and

noise pollution that we

currently have.

improving regional connections and the future high speed rail

at fourth and king streets,

relieving service conguestion

and encouraging developments

along the fourth street

corridor.

Serving a low auto ownership

population of transit customers.

Tell put to work dozens of out

of work construction workers, workers that are desperate to

get back to work and believe in projects like this that will help our city.

The federal funds allocated

cannot be redirected to offset another san francisco project

if the central subway project

were abandoned from the federal transportation authorities and

it would be redistributed throughout the nation. San francisco would not receive

any of this funding.

Any hesitation from san francisco would result in

immediate redirection to other cities. Thank you.

>> next speaker.

>> good afternoon commissioners. Local 261.

I am here representing the over

3,000 members to speak in favor

of this project.

I am also here on behalf of the

institute which I am a board member of.

We do a lot of community

outreach and t anticipating projects like this coming down the road.

we get a lot of the collaboration with the union, put them through the training

in order to have a sustainable career.

So, I have been asked to come

out here and strongly encourage

and urge the commissioners to

vote in favor of the project.

>> good afternoon.

>> good afternoon.

I think that I probably have the longest connection with

this project in a lot of capacity. The central subway was a project we started on.

i was on the board of supervisors.

We started the actual application process.

Of course I wrote the measure that created the M.T.A. You got stuck with it after I left.

I wanted to make a quick point.

It is critically important that the measure get passed.

Some alluded to that this is

not an issue of can we do this and maybe something will happen. You should do this and you must do this. There is no question that if

the funding for the central subway was taken away it would

not come back to san francisco. It would go somewhere else.

the idea that it would help another project in the city is a fantasy. It is gone. It is forever. What you are doing right now,

providing the assurance, just

an assurance that we are committed to the full funding agreement is important.

I thank you for your leadership and I would like to add one quick point.

I also have a private interest.

I work with a business affected

by the central subway in union

square. There is a lot of pain.

There is a lot of gain.

I would urge you to continue to

monitor and ensure that during economicicly fragile times we ensure that businesses stay healthy.

Look at creative solutions to

keep them going while this worthwhile project gets through. What you are doing is the right

thing and it is on the right track.

thank you very much.

>> good afternoon Chairman, members of the board.

I support the issuance of the

bonds in the event of delays or varibles that come across us.

The construction workers rely on these jobs.

we are in phase 2.

The people of china town

deserve the continuance as well.

Being a fifth generation san

franciscoan, strog take two buses to high school every day.

the needs of the many san francisco residents outweigh

the needs of the few. Let's keep this project going.

I thank you for your time.

>> charles lavaria, last person

to turn in a speaker card.

>> I am with the operating engineers union.

I would like to commend the

sfmta for promotion of the

central subway and other projects. We represent surveyors, construction equipment and

crane operators and mechanics

and soils and material inspectors. i just checked.

We currently have 896 people on

our out of work list.

All operating engineers. Fathers, mothers, sons and

daughters, providers for

families.

896 have depend ants at school,

their health care patients. They lose their homes and health insurance.

We need to keep moving forward

with the central subway.

The need will only increase and

the cost will only increase.

I am not a native but I did

grow up riding comprehensive

subway systems in europe.

We need to maximize the impact of the investment, get the infrastructure and the jobs we need. >> that's it. >> Mr. Chairman that is the last person to turn in a

speaker board speak on 10.4.

>> on the issue of revenue

bonds to pay for central subway.

>> john diamente. Native resident. Businessman in the city and county. Getting my breath, walking up

the stairs.

honorable commissioners I am

here to address you as representatives of the city

that once knew how.

In the context of a list of tricky projects that we have in

the stheans all of the money we are spending on the bay bridge,

bike paths, no train accommodations. All of the money we are

spending on the presidio freeway. Speak to you on the matter of

the central subway as a former

muni operator, and not just any

operator but a cable car gripman. I will speak about the

maintenance for a minute.

Your car, if you have a flat tire, maybe you can blame it on

maintenance or maybe not.

Maybe a downed electric wire. Cable cars.

maintenance .

Dead risk to passengers,

operators.

To take money from muni, which

is traditionally so short, so

sorry on a capital basis, on an operating basis, vehicle by

vehicle, barn by barn, year by

year, budget by budget.

To rescue this central subway

process it is outrageous.

You will see the proof of this

on central subway, especially

for the end user for whom it will take so much more time.

Please do not raid muni's

budget to bail this project out.

>> public comment subpoena now

closed.

>> I think it is a confusing but somewhat straightforward issue.

What is at issue here is not

really the overall project

which this board, as well as

the board of supervisors consistently and unanimously supported over the course of the years.

The concerns in terms of the

overall muni system, which is a

concern that we all share. Our ability to manage the project. The performance of the project in financial terms and

operating terms and environmental terms and any

other technical measure.

Any and every concern in all of

those dimensions has been

addressed numerously. And at this point we have very strong support up and down the

line for the overall project.

There is one outstanding concern that this item is

narrowly meant to address.

And that is in the context of a $1.587 billion financial plan

that has been approved by the

board and by the F.T.A., there

is $61 million programmed in, I

believe the year 2018, so this is six year in the future.

$61 million that rounds out the

approved funding plan.

That $61 million is the

legislated share of the high speed rail connect festivity

fund that was approved by the voters.

As one of the speakers said

this is money that will be coming to san francisco as part

of the voter-approved initiative.

But as others pointed out,

there is uncertainty

surrounding the state's high speed rail program and particularly the timing of it. The uncertainty around the

california high speed rail

project.

Its impact on that $61 million

of that funding plan that has

the F.T.A. Seeking some

assurance from us, from the

city, the agency and the city

that if those funds are not

available when we need them

that we are providing a commitment through this resolution that we will ensure

that the project can move forward.

One other point of context,

this is $6 million and the

contingency within the funding

plan is somewhere around $240 million. These are funds towards the end of the project that might not

even be needed even with the

connect festivity funds in

place. Another thing that is reported

to you in February when you

heard an item on the high speed

rail and adopted unanimously a

resolution in support of the high speed rail that included

the issuance of the funds in

question is that the city and the transportation authority

and many other cities, counties

around the region entered into

an M.O.U. With the high speed

rail authority that among other

things includes a commitment by the high speed rail authority.

This is done with their support, to advance these connect festivity fund to the

regional operators like muni

that will have a direct

connection to high speed rail. It was approved by the high speed rail authority and does have the support of the governor and the chair of the high speed rail authority who

is his appointee.

so, what we are seeking here

today is a backstop.

It is part of the belt and the suspenders that the F.T.A. Is

looking for in terms of comfort

and assurance that we have an

iron clad financing plan.

This is based on a very positive review of the project

that we had with the F.T.A.

Last month where they are very

eager to see this project move

forward.

This being the one remaining

item of concern they would like

assurance for.

we are not asking authority at this time to issue bonds.

We are asking the M.T.A. Board

and the board of supervisors that should funds be needed that we could include in a future planned revenue bond

issuance, and this is an

issuance that is already in the

approved five-year capital

improvement program, that we

could include those funds if

necessary.

It is very much a contingent

commitment.

Letters of no prejudice that

allowed us to advance the work. I think you heard about it. I made reference and one of the

speakers made reference to

construction work that put out of work people to work this weekend.

that work is continuing.

We will reach a point after which we will not be able to continue to advance and put

people to work and build this

capacity that muni will meet in

the future absent the full

funding grant agreement that we

believe this is the last piece of security that we need to put in place to achieve.

So, that is what is before you today.

>> thank you.

Some of the confusion about when this came as a separate

stand alone type of item you

wanted to see if it is part of

the overall business plan for high speed rail. >> the governor has previously

not supported the appropriation of the connectivity funds

generally because he, and I

think rightly so, saw that when

the voters approved pop 1a

there intent is that there is

that direct connection with

high speed rail and absent high speed rail business plan that he was comfortable with, which

I think was not in place until very recently. He was not willing to authorize those funds.

There was never a suggestion,

and his vetos of those funds that it had anything to do with any of the specific projects proposed for use with the connectivity funds.

It was not wanting to authorize appropriations of connectivity

funds until the plan was in place.

>> members of the board, questions or comments?

>> I am ready to make a motion to approve.

I want to thank the public for

their input and let everyone know that don't think the

M.T.A. Board take its lightly

because it was on the consent calendar. They have been discussed and

provided input at various

phases. I really appreciate the context.

I am ready to go ahead and approve.

>> I will second.

>> is there further discussion on this?

>> director bridges. >> aye. >> director lee. >> aye.

>> director ramos. >> aye. >> aye. >> Chairman Nolan. >> aye. >> ok. Thank you. Thank you very much. As I mentioned before we will

move to item 12 and come back to 11.

there are a number of people

here on 12.

>> authorizing the director to

execute the sfmta consent to

the proposed 10-year development agreement between

the city and the county of san

francisco and sutter west bay

hospitals and approving various

traffic changes associated with

the project and adopting findings, including environmental findings.

>> our role in this is simply

the part relative to the M.T.A.

>> that is correct.

This, as you know from what you

heard in the media and what you previously reported to you is a

process that's been underway in

a long time. A lot of great work by the mayor's office. Leading negotiations on behalf of all of the city departments with full input from the agencies and particularly those

that are impacted such as ours.

The mayor recently announced

that he had reached an agreement that has since been to the planning commission

there are aspects that would

impact and benefit the M.T.A.

And we have ken rich here from

the mayor's office and representatives from planning and our own staff to give you

an update on what this is in

the agreement to seek your consent.

So, I will turn it over to ken rich from the mayor's office to walk us through this. >> good afternoon board members. If I can have the overhead.

i am ken rich with the office of economic and workforce development.

As you probably know the city

is working on their proposal to build five new medical

facilities in the city in order

to comply with state mandates

regarding seismic safety for hospitals.

The project will provide two

new seismicly safe hospitals

for the city, inject over $2

billion into the economy and

provide over 1,500 construction

job in the short-term.

A development agreement is a binding contract which vests

their approval for these facilities in return for a set of community benefits which the

developer would provide to the city.

It includes community benefits related to health care,

workforce development,

affordable housing,

improvements and transit. together it was recommended by

the planning commission last

thursday which certified the project's E.I.R. The board of supervisors has the ultimate approval authority

and is expected to act within the next few months.

In a few minutes we will go

over the agreements.

first I would like to summarize

the project for you.

It is the construction of a new

five-story, 80-bed full service acute care hospital. It will be built on the existing parking lot.

The existing hospital will stay in operation until the new hospital is ready.

It also includes a new five-story medical office building adjaceant to the hospital.

At cathedral hill the project includes the construction of a

new 555-bed, 265-foot tall

hospital at the seattle of the

closed cathedral hill hotel.

Across from that a 130-foot

tall medical office building.

Construction of an underground tunnel connecting the two

buildings.

Once the cathedral hill camp

suscomplete, in about 2017, the

acute care services at california and pacific campuses

would be transferred to the new

cathedral hill.

Lastly on

dubose a new 46,000

square foot, four-story medical office clinic building housing

a neuroscience constitute

-- institute. That is a brief overview of the project itself.

I am go to ask briefly the planning department to go over with you the traffic and

circulation issues mostly

focusing on the cathedral hill campus.

>> good afternoon.

I am the transportation planner

for the cathedral hill campus.

I will give you an overview of the traffic and circulation at that site.

So this is an overview.

i will zoom into each location.

North is up.

The bottom there is geary.

In the midcell post street.

Ken was saying and it has been

described before, the hospital

on the left.

The medical office building is

on the east side. That is the focus of the presentation today.

This is the new building.

A medical office renovated at sutter.

So we zoom in to the hospital site.

Blue arrows indicate vehicular

access, driveways.

Purple indicate pedestrian access. The main parking access for the

hospital will be off of geary.

You can see that northbound

arrow at the bottom and access

off of post street for cars driving into the parking garage.

once inside there is an

anterior drop off and pick up zone. All of that activity will be

off street.

Then there is access to the

parking garage from within that drop off area. On the left you can see there

is a loading dock that can accommodate several trucks at

once anden ables large trucks

to pull in facing forward,

maneuver off street and then

exit facing forward as well

back on to franklin street.

You can see the emergency room access for ambulances and for

people that need to get to the emergency room quickly.

They will access that off of franklin.

Then they will exit on to post street to the north and immediately east of that there

is a small parking area for ambulances.

You can see the driveway in and out.

That is all the access in. For cars exitting the garage

they are exitting only on to

post street.

There is also an emergency drive way on to geary street and emergency situation in

order to keep circulation functional following an emergency. Most of the time that drive way

will be closed off.

Egress will be only on to post

street.

And this is to the east, the medical office building.

Blue arrows are the driveways in.

The medical office building garage is either from geary,

you can see that northbound arrow. There will be access into the

garage from cedar street.

Access out will be only on to

geary street.

There is no emergency egress at

all on to geary street. cedar street will be converted

from one-way operation to two-way operation.

The cars that are exitting will have the ability to go right

towards polk or have a new

opportunity to go left and make a right turn.

It gives them two exit points.

there is a passenger pick up and drop off area right at the front door.

There is also, in case that

area fills up, additional loading within the garage.

If that gets filled up it will

be attendant for further cars

to go into the garage.

That is the medical office building.

This diagram shows the truck routes.

The majority of trucks serve pentagon the construction will be coming from the south,

heading north if they are servicing the hospital site they will make a left on to

gear and he travel clock wise

around the hospital site and proceed south once they are

finished.

Trucks would head north, make a

right on to cedar and proceed

in a clock wise direction and come back on geary and make a

left when they are exitting.

That is the temporary truck construction routing for the

project.

This graphic shows the temporary lane closures that

will be required.

The orange and the orange hash represents -- the orange is

where a parking lane will be closed to have truck staging areas.

The parking lane will be closed. Whenever the sidewalk is closed

there will be a temporary sidewalk facility constructed in that parking lane.

Wooden structure so that pedestrians will have full

access.

the westbound transit only lane

will have to be temporarily closed during construction. Buses will have to use the mixed flow traffic lanes. On franklin as well there is a

parking lane that is a tow away

lane for an additional traffic lane in rush hour.

There will be reduced capacity during construction.

Once construction is done all

the lane guess back to their current configuration.

The parking will be permanently removed.

Besides that, it is pretty much back to the existing condition

once the construction is done.

lastly we talked about sidewalk closeures.

In purple around both sides

when necessary when a sidewalk needs to be closed there will

be a wooden structure to walk with the parking lane. You can see that it has been

discussed the pedestrian tunnel .

The construction of that will

take about five months.

It will be a cut and cover tunnel. 2 of the 6 travel lanes will be

closed at a time, only in the

evening after:00 P.M., I

believe before 5:00 A.M. Is

when the construction of that will occur. And also during that time one

of the two sidewalks sidewalks will be closed.

That is the only instance when construction could require

closing a sidewalk but always

at least 1 of the 2 would be open. and when they are not working on the tunnel both sidewalks

will be open. That is are the presentation about the traffic.

>> thank you very much.

>> I want to wrap up by showing this last slide. in this project we introduced

new concepts on improving

transportations in these corridors. This is the funding plan that they are committing to the

M.T.A., providing $5 million

for the B.R.T. Projects and

then secondly, which is a new

concept, they will be providing

a 50% off peak and 75% peak

charge for every car that interests and captains the garage this. Is a new concept

we are trying to implement.

These parking spaces are a little over a thousand.

We felt it was a good structure to mitigate some of the automobile use on that corridor.

They are providing $10.4

million for transit delay which

we will use for other capital

improvements and 400,000 for

bicycle studies. roberto probably clarified this

but in the documents we had not

indicated that the parking

charge would apply to all compensated parking. Physicians getting free parking

will be paid for.

So there is a change that says

in the agreement that the

>> thank you very much. Members of the board.

That concludes the

presentation. Anyone care to address the board from the public?

Come forward, please. Ok.

>> we just completed litigation

in sonoma county over a new sutter hospital to be built on the fringes of santa rosa.

The issue there is that it was

a transit unfriendly location.

And as a result of the

litigation sonoma county is requiring the hospital to

provide a free shut toll the smart station, which is

commutor rail and free bus and

train passes to employees.

When I looked at the list of

elements of the development

agreement relative to transit

the issue of transit passes

jumps out for employees.

It strikes me that the city's

employer transit benefit ordinance is relevant here.

It struck me that one could ask

for more. Thank you very much.

>> thank you, sir.

>> two items on this.

I had not been following the project very closely.

I only learned about the tunnel

as part of the presentation today.

i oppose this tunnel.

I think that it would make sewer and storm water management more difficult. In addition, as I understand

this proposed agreement overall

it would not contain or reduce

the city's employee health care

cost, which is a major driver

of M.T.A. Operating cost deficits.

So if these two issues are not properly addressed I believe

the board should withhold its consent to the agreement. I would encourage you to ask about the health care costs as

it relates to M.T.A. Going forward. Thank you.

>> public comment is over. Members of the board, what is your pleasure?

>> could we hear the amendment?

>> it has to do with your

resolution having to do with

the traffic and parking modifications.

Item b with regard to

establishing sidewalk widening.

There is a proposal to widen on

says ar chavez and the valencia

street widening needs to be deleted because it has to still

go through a public outreach

and hearing process.

So the amendment to the board's

resolution would be to delete reference to widening the

sidewalk on valencia to 19 feet . >> does that need to be a

separate action by the board? >> I'm sorry.

Just one more question. I think you mentioned that

there would be a change to the -- >> sorry. I should have been clearer.

It is not a resolution.

It is the change in the D.A., the development agreement. i am just informing you that

the D.A. Will be changed to incorporate that amendment.

>> that means people will get free parking?

>> it was originally written

that if you are a physician or delivery person you would not

be subject to the fee but now the amendment would make them subject to the fee. >> everyone parking would be subject to the fee. >> everyone. >> that is interesting.

We pretty much charge everybody for parking now. We discussed having free

parking at work is one of the highest indicators as to

whether you will drive to work.

I think that it is nice that we

are being consistent. Motion to approve. >> ok. Is there a second? >> second.

>> any further discussion?

If not all those in favor say

aye. Ok.

We will take a short break.

>> item number 11.

realming the board of

supervisors approve amendments to san francisco transportation

code, division 1, article 7, to

eliminate restrictions on rear

exit boarding of municipal

railway transit vehicles.

We have a member from the

public.

>> board members, my organization has been involved

in encouraging muni to improve

its effectiveness for the last 10 years.

we -- a settlement with us

resulted in the promulgation of

transit supportive streets

program, which we are eager to

see move forward under T.E.P.

I want to congratulate you today

for taking this action. it's something that we have

fought for a long time as the

single most important thing muni

can do to increase its effectiveness.

So we are very pleased to see this. I believe this action will be

noted in the future as the single most significant thing

that your board has done.

so congratulations on that.

I just encourage you to have

your inspectors keep an eye on

how transit times are working.

If this does decrease dwell

times as much as we expect and

speed up the trips, it will require rescheduling. And I want to call attention to that issue and I look forward to

seeing that happen and getting a

lot more productivity out of your existing plant. Thank you. >> that's the last person to speak.

>> is there a motion on this item? One more?

>> I believe I am in support of

the cost savings which will be

reported to you regularly as we

analyze the impact of that policy change.

It appears that staff has an

appropriate plan to educate

employees and members of the public on the policy changes and what they mean. I call your attention to the back of the paper transfer that

still refers to traffic code

sections 127, 128 and 130. I hope the next time transfers

are ordered the references to the transportation code be included since the traffic code

is now obsolete and I hope any

other fair media be reviewed carefully so all of the appropriate regulations are referenced.

>> I assume that would be done

when we reorder all those things? >> absolutely. >> that would probably be a while? >> I would like if I May, first

of all, I had assumed through previous discussion, if not action, that the board was

supporting, if not directing

that the move towards all-door

boarding, I think I had assured director ram oost it would

happen in the first half of the calendar year.

He was hoping more for January. What is actually before you

today, there is a little bit of

legislative change that's necessary.

So while we had already assumed your approval of the concept this is approving recommendations that required the board of supervisors

approval to make it not illegal

to enter through the back door, small issue.

There has been a lot of work

going to develop to get us ready for July 1 implementation.

We do have a brief update for

you if you are so interesting. It has less to do with the

specific action here, but more a general update.

It can be whatever length you would like.

>> how about succinct.

>> I would like to ask jason lee

to get this up and running and

to run quickly through an update

of where we are at this time.

>> so as you know, we are on track right now to become the

first major system in the united

states to have all-door boarding

on its system. I will give you a brief update

of how we are doing towards implementation. First, as you know, there is a

need for all-door boarding given

we have the highest bus boarding

rates of any system in the country.

We are pushing 70 people an hour

going through our bus system.

it's paramount that we are able

to expedite boarding.

And all-door boarding which has

been the current unofficially for many years now is part of that solution.

So some of the benefits include accelerating the boarding process, faster travel times, which can translate into

resource savings, more reliable

service and when we talk about the vehicle savings, those

vehicles that we're able to save

through faster service can be reinvested in the rest of the

system to reduce overcrowding and improve efficiency.

we are in the process of hiring 10 new transit inspectors.

This was approved by you with

the budget.

We have estimated approximately $900,000 in increased salaries

and benefits which

conservatively will get $200,000

back through citation revenues.

The transit fare inspectors have other important functions.

That really is not their primary objective.

As we saw earlier today, they enhance customer service and

safety by providing a uniformed

presence on the system and help improve fare compliance.

And the two-year budget includes

$4 million in increased transit

fares through increased fare compliance. In terms of the hiring process,

we are set for to get those fare inspectors ready by July.

in addition, we are working on

preparing our vehicles for this,

for all-door boarding.

So we are ensuring that operators can open the back

doors of all of our buses and

historic street cars.

There is one exception with the milan street cars. they do not open right now.

We are making sure that the

vehicles have card interface devices, clipper readers installed near the back doors.

There is one exception, the

milan street, the very rear

doors and the antique cars, they

will be able to transact clipper cards.

The existing stop signs which

you can see are going to be removed.

And new decals will be installed

before July 1.

Operator training, we are going

to go through an operator training program to make sure

they are aware how to safely handle customers with the

anticipated increase of volumes

going through the back door and

also clarifying the transfer policy and when it's appropriate

and not appropriate to issue transfers. Legislative changes, that's the calendar item before you, assuming that you approve that,

this will be forwarded to the

board of supervisors for their

approval by July as well.

customer outreach and communication, we have an

outreach plan that will include

social media outreach through twitter, facebook and youtube.

In addition, we will have

customer engagement to ensure that people are familiar with

our decalls and we are going to

be working with our accessible services unit that people who

need assistance can board and disembark all doors of the vehicle safely.

We are also going to extend

messaging to print media with

multi lingual ads and in spanish

and chinese newspapers.

This shows the proposed decals

and this would be language neutral and as people are entering through the rear doors will be able to tell what is acceptable and what is not

acceptable in terms of what --

when they can enter through the back door.

They show if you tagged your

clipper card or a valid muni

pass, that is ok. If you pay cash, you have to go through the front. The next slide shows the

proposed locations on the back

door buses adjacent to the back doors.

As you are entering you can see

the decals clearly. For the historic street cars, we

are proposing to put that on the windows of the cars.

The reason being, we don't want

to interfere with any of the historic nature of the car.

So we are proposing to place it

on the windows there.

You can see it in the photo.

We have also been developing car cards. These car cards would be placed on the interior of buses and historic street cars and give more information to customers about what is acceptable and

what is not acceptable to go through.

You can see the major types of

their media that would be valid

if you go through the back door.

And these would not only be in

english but also chinese and spanish.

Media outreach, we are planning

several major events, including when this legislation -- the legislation that is before you

today -- if it's signed by the mayor during the last week of

May, that there would be some media outreach at that point as

well as right before the launch

of all-door boarding in late

June and then finally in early

july once we implement all-door boarding.

An important component of this also is to determine what happens before and after all-door boarding.

A lot of people in the transit industry are looking at this and

we would like to make sure we understand the changes that are occurring in terms of the speed

of boarding, fare compliance and reliability. This shows some of the performance measures that we are

looking at right now through automated data collection or manual data collection.

As you know, a few years ago, we

started our fare surveys in 2009 and 2010 and we are in the

process of updating that.

We completed baseline surveys

and observed over 6,000

customers to date and we will be

doing a similar study after

all-door boarding is implemented. We are finding the same compliance standards as before.

we are going to go through busy

locations and observing how long

the dwell times are at those

stops before and after all-door boarding. Some of the efforts we are going

to look at include trying to reduce the amount of cash that

is processed through the fare box. so right now, we are estimating

based on our surveys, 15% to 20%

of all transactions involve cash at the fare box and we are going to try to get that down.

We are looking at increased clipper card expansion, expansion of the vendor network

and possibly looking into ticket

vending machines, technical and

operating and maintenance requirements and capital costs and repair. With that, that's the brief

update of where we are in all-door boarding and I would like to thank various people throughout the organization

because it has been a multi

disciplinary effort with many people involved.

>> members of the board? Questions, comments?

>> thank you for all this great work. I'm excited to be able to move this thing forward and get this thing done finally. Many of us that have been long

time passengers and riders of

muni have recognized that this

is happening sort of any way in

a loft places in some way or another and to make it official will help us overall. I'm confident of it.

I had two questions of staff,

just details, really.

the first is the idea of tagging your card when you get on

through the door, and I know

that in a lot of our vehicles, sometimes for whatever reason, mostly because it's so crowded that sometimes you can't get to

a reader, like a clipper card

reader and if you have like a

use pass or a pass, fast pass on your clipper card do you have to

tag it every time you board even

if you are already paid up, to avoid a fine?

I want to clarify that.

>> it is our policy we require

you to tag regardless of what you have on your card. it is an issue on the rail vehicles where we don't have readers on both sides generally

on the buses, it won't be an issue, but I have that experience that I can't

physically get to the card reader.

We do want people to tag their

card because as Mr. Lee mentioned, much of the data collection we are using or part of the data collection is the

clipper data and we don't have

the automatic passenger

counters, which is the A.P.C., presentation reference right now on the rail vehicles. So the tags of the cards are

very valuable to us. That said, I don't believe that

we are citing people. If they have their pass loaded,

what it does, though, is the

transaction time with the fare inspector is longer because there are a few extra steps.

If you are tagged and put their reader up against it and says yes. If you haven't tagged, it's

going to say no and there are extra steps that the inspector

has to go through to determine

that you have paid your fare.

We would like you not to spend

extra time with the readers and help make the inspection process work better.

>> as part of that campaign, can we please make that a fundamental part of the --

>> many people don't know that is the expectation.

>> that would be one recommendation.

It's like the census, you aren't

obligated, but if you do do it, it helps the community in the long run.

If people understand that, they would be inclined to say, they

are counting me me and through

this data they can improve the service.

Get the card tagged if they know

there is value to that tagging.

The second thing is we heard

some comments about loading

passengers through the back door at the same time passengers are unloading and there has been some conflict. I have experienced myself with

people getting on and off at the same time.

Is there any way we can roll out

sort of an an awareness campaign

like let people get off the bus

first or play like one of our

49ers and get onto the bus against the off-boarding passengers, if that could be part of this. >> absolutely. This is something we found as we have been developing this that we have all experienced.

We have been working with local

258, operators union on

developing a broader-based rider

education program and we are dove-tailing that with the

outreach we are going to be doing for this, because if

people are charging in before

people get off, we aren't going to realize some of the travel time savings that we are hoping for.

So that will be an important part.

Changing behaviors is not easy and doing this education is

probably not our strong suit but

something we recognize and will

be endeavoring to do this and will be part of the communication.

>> we have the overhead

announcements place pay fare share.

When boarding the vehicle, allow

passengers to outboard first.

>> motion to approve the ramos initiative? >> indeed it is. >> I'll second.

>> any further discussion?

>> real quick question. On the implementation, we are

talking about July 1.

Is it a phase-in or we flip the switch and that's it? >> flip the switch and that's it

and will be system-wide on July 1.

>> no further discussion. Thafere.

-- all those in favor say aye.

Etiquette on the buses recently

and I recently -- had to use a

cane and I'm impressed with the

courtesy of the people on the buses.

And I think the whole thing is when other passengers take it upon themselves to say something and this woman was giving a

lecture the other day and say

see that old man and his cane --

[Laughter]

>> there is a little bit of that etiquette.

We'll work on the etiquette. Next one is --

>> you need a vote. >> motion and second?

>> we did.

>> all in favor say aye. opposed?

>> number 13, approving the preliminary official statement

for the issueance of the series

2012 a and b revenue bonds

including the refinancing of outstanding revenue and lease

revenue bonds related to certain parking garages and parking

meters and providing funds for certain new projects.

You do have a member of the public.

>> part of the project was a preliminary official statement and we told you we would come back to you when we were close

to selling the bonds.

An official statement has been released. And we are in the midst of the validation period and the mayor

signed the legislation.

So we will be -- 60-day clock

starts ticking April 18 and we

expect to issue bonds in June or

July.

we will give you an update in the changes of the preliminary official statement.

>> good afternoon.

I'm here in san francisco and we

have been serving as your

disclosure counsel in connection

with this offering of revenue bonds. As disclosure counsel we have

been working closely with your

staff in terms of putting together the preliminary

official statement for the bonds. The preliminary official

statement for the bonds, it's

like the prospect us in a registered public securities

offering that its purpose is to

provide investors what they need

to know to make an informed investment decision with respect to the securities, with respect

to whether to buy your bonds or not. the preliminary official

statement has information on the

agency, the agency's operations

and financial condition, the terms of the bonds, security for

the bonds, tax status and

interest on the bonds and other

information that's of interest

to investors.

Federal securities law requires

that the preliminary official statement contain all of the

information that an investor

would want to have or need to

have to make an informed investment decision and not contain any material misstatements or omissions. So that involved -- that involves a process of working with the staff.

It's a process of investigation

to make sure that the agency's story, and particularly the

agency's story as it's told to

investors and the financial

community is complete and

accurate.

I'm very pleased to report that

your staff has worked very

diligently and very hard to provide the information and to

work with us and the rest of the financing team and putting together the preliminary official statement. The preliminary official

statement is now substantially

complete.

As the agency story is always an ongoing story and there are

always new things to keep up with.

There are some items that will

be needed to be updated, but it's substantially complete and

ready for your approval.

Also, pleased to report that as

your disclosure counsel we really have no concerns with respect to either the content of

the document before you or the

process or the work done by your

staff.

I will -- so, so, again, the

changes since this has been

before you have been further development, refinement of the

story and updating to reflect

things that have happened in the

last few months.

As your counsel, I must advise

you that under the federal

securities law that you as directors, are responsible for

the agency's compliance with federal securities laws and with

the adequacy of the disclosures you make.

And to that end, I would -- we would encourage you and advise

you to speak with staff, to speak with the city attorney if

you have any concern that the

information in the in the preliminary official statement doesn't fully and fairly present

the agency's financial position

or if you have any concern that

some of the information in it is

either incorrect, incomplete or

potentially misleading.

In that, we particularly

encourage you to focus on

things, matters that you as

commissioners May know that the

staff May not know.

So with that, I will be happy to

entertain questions on the

documents, on the process, our responsibilities.

>> I do have a few questions on

the process and as members of this board considering the vital

role we all have in this, review

some of these things, like in

preparing your review, did you review all these statements and everything that was necessary, all the documents?

were they all made available?

>> yes.

The general process is from a

working group standpoint is the

working group based on our sort of collective experience working

in the municipal area and

working with -- working with transportation agencies and transportation credits in

particular is to determine what

sort -- what types of information investors need to

know.

From that -- so that's a -- it's

your story, the story aimed at a

particular audience and that

needs to be consistent with what you're saying about the agency

and its operations to other audiences.

But it's a story that is tailored to particular investors.

so the process is to start from that collective experience and

our experience looking at that

issueance from other agencies.

We would review public reports

and public information that you have made available.

We have -- we review the minutes

of these meetings.

We have asked to see and asked

for review of a great number of

documentation to basically do

due diligence and do the investigation behind the story. >> you have gotten everything you have asked for? >> yes.

We have no concerns with that.

>> I assume this involves talking to staff and various

officials about what goes in there? >> yes. >> people been cooperative with you? >> the staff has been very

helpful and very cooperative.

>> do you see any outstanding issues remaining that we need to

be aware of as we go into this?

>> I'm not aware of any -- we're

not aware if there are any material issues that haven't

been fully and adequately addressed.

i will say that the bond sail is

-- bond sale is still a little

bit away and we have to stay on top of developments.

And again, we very much

encourage you to participate in

this process not only to read

the document and bring to staff

attention a particular matter,

any concerns, but also to give

some thought from your perspective as to whether the

presentation that's being made

to investors, that it captures what ought to be said needs to be said.

>> do you think the document as

it stands before us is still a work in progress?

>> it is substantially final. And yeah. It is substantially final.

the om caveat I would have --

the only caveat I would have is as things change.

>> members of the board? Questions, comments?

>> we have had a review by the

controller's office as well and

to make sure that everything we say is consistent and accurate as well.

Another set of eyes that have reviewed this.

>> this is kind of new territory

for us and it's a very big deal and first chance we ever had to

do this and make sure --

>> just a couple of other observations.

the controller's office and the

city attorney's office have been very helpful and supportive in the process.

And also I had mentioned as part

of the process is you look at disclosure documents and the

stories told by other agencies.

since this is the first sort of

securities offering done on

general revenue credit, it -- we

had to start the thinking really

from a clean slate and think

things through from the bottom up.

This wasn't -- sometimes these

are processes of looking at the

story told before and updating it.

Here you have not had an occasion or opportunity to tell

this story to this audience.

So it's been a huge effort. On the part of the financing

team in germ and on the part of

your staff in particular and would like to thank the staff for their hard work. >> I appreciate it. >> I will repeat what I have

said earlier, we have had the

revenue bonds issue before us

presented in various ways and we have been to the board of supervisors and acknowledge that

we are relativey unique in

transit agencies that we have a

revenue stream that we actually

can offer our own bonds instead

of having general revenue bonds from the city.

How unique are we in the U.S.? Are there other agencies and I'm

sure we have gone over this

before, but more for educational

purposes to anybody who is new

to this and hasn't been listening.

>> we are probably one of the

few who don't. They have sales tax and other

streams of revenues.

bart has issued. V.T.A.

We are probably the last

remaining system, new york all issue debt.

>> what is you feek, we have a

more diversified set of revenue streams.

And in that way, we have a good story to tell because we are

both a transit agency and city transportation department, which

is unique in the country. We have this will broader range

of revenue streams to be able to

pledge that many agencies have,

they have their fares and one dedicated range.

>> we'll know how strong we will

be at the end of the month

because we are going for our

ratings and get the value of the

diverseity in our ratings.

>> there is sometimes a

knee-jerk reaction against

issuing debt without the realization that it is a good way to finance and manage the money that you have available to you.

So thank you.

>> is there a motion to approve.

>> you have a member of the public who would like to address you on this matter.

>> I would have said earlier on

10.4 we were assured that no operating budget funds would go

into the central subway project,

but I assume you approved 10.4 earlier. As to the preliminary official statement, I continue to support

the garage work supported by

parking revenues and oppose the transit work which should be prioritized over other capital projects. Including the capital work will

result in less service and/or

higher fares in the future.

I would approve the garage work

and disapprove the transit work. I hope the official statement

will properly disclose the operating and capital budget

risks going forward, including

the opposition to the central subway project.

>> anybody else?

>> Mr. Lee. >> thank you so much.

I'm a taxi driver. when I look at this, you are going to offer a lot of bonds

and raise a lot of money, that's

fine, but remember one story

that you put the t-line at the first street. It's not functioning.

You are losing $650 million.

not that many people take it. Basically, I agree with you borrow the money today and use

it today and next year will be

inflation even if you pay 3%,

4%, whatever it is. Stran is a good credit city.

we have a lot of customers coming.

We do need the money to operate our system.

But before you are doing this

offering a lot of bonds and everything, very carefully using your money.

I'm asian and chinese and came

here with very little money.

I very carefully use my money.

I hope this is good money for

you to raise it and you can use

it very carefully for the interest of the whole city.

And because today, we are in a lot of debt. Everybody on the debt.

It's too much debt.

big companies are making money

because they are us using this

and they are borrowing money and raising money.

I always think I would use t-line before.

I said only build it only and

not the railroad system. Takes too much time.

You have to count which area you

raise money and money is very important. Thank you.

>> anybody else?

Is there a motion on this one? >> I would like to move. >> I'll second.

>> any further discussion?

All in favor say aye. Thoped?

>> vote to whether to conduct a close session.

>> is there a motion? >> motion.

>> all those in favor say aye.

>> it will take me a moment

to

>> all right. announcement of closed session.

They took no action, directors, it would be appropriate to disclose or not disclose. >> not to disclose.

>> meeting is adjourned.