City and County of San Francisco Monday, February 11, 2019
. . . [Gavel] >> the meeting will come to order. This is a special meeting of the budget and finance committee. I am supervisor sandra lee fewer joined by vice chair kathrin stefani and rafael mandelman. Our clerk is Ms. Wong. I would like to thank michael ballotazar and maya hernandez from sfgov tv for broadcasting this meeting. Madam Clerk, do you have any announcements? >> yes. Please silence all cell phones and electronic thank you. >> thank you, Madam Clerk, please call item one. >> ordinance appropriating
22: 000-0000 of educational taxes and rainy one-time fund for the small housing site and single occupancy and behavior health acquisition and behavior health
and educator funding fo thank you very much thank you very much. >> good morning.
>> please call item number two. >> ordinance appropriating
$381.1 million in access revenue
augmentation funds to the sfmta
and the $19 million for the light rail vehicles and $13.8
million for energy efficient audit and improvements and $5
million to the mitigation fund
and the mandatory city services auditor baseline of $38.1
million on comptroller's reserve
with the confirmation cash flow
timing from the state of california. >> thank you very much.
Leah levenson is here if there
are questions about this legislation. Supervisor mandelman.
>> Supervisor Mandelman: thank you, chair fewer. I am going to vote to forward this to the full board, but I
want to talk about this item. And I want to talk about prefacing the questions and
comments by saying that by, again, thanking you and the
colleagues and the mayor for the
tremendous flexibility and I
think good intentions that were shown throughout this process to get us to a very good result.
And this is part of this item is
part of that result.
But there are elements of it that have been troubling to some of the constituents and to me a little bit honestly, and this is
probably the least favorite part
of the set of comprises that were made to get us where we are.
I would like to talk about the three elements of what are in
the proposal and hear what the
money for the L.R.V. Visa is supposed to do and what it will get us and contextualize us in
what we need to do and replacing the fleet.
Hear more about what the specific energy efficiency improvements will be are and
hear a little bit more about what will be doing the small businesses that are will being impacted by the major projects around the city. Thank you.
>> thank you, supervisor
mandelman, chair, and I am the C.F.O. And I will do my best to answer your questions.
The light rail vehicle project
is a major effort totalling over
$1 billion actually to replace our entire light rail vehicle fleet and to expand it to provide more service to the
growing population of san francisco.
The original schedule prior to
the receipt of these funds, we
have already received a number of the expansion vehicles, but
to replace the remaining 161
vehicles had had been planned
with limitations at the speed that the manufacturer could manufacture the vehicles, which
made the schedule run out until sometime in 2027. And we have been in talks for
some time with the manufacturer about whether this was any way to speed up that schedule
because we know this is a major
issue of both maintenance and that the older vehicles break
down more often and comfort and
just the overall operational success of the entire rail
system to have the new vehicles in place sooner.
The manufacturer had said if
they opened another
manufacturing facility to speed
up as much as 18 months and additional costs with the additional facility and there
will be a few savings with the escalator on the cost of each vehicle, and we would be buying them sooner and the cost
wouldn't rise # a%, but the cost
of -- wouldn't rise at # a%, but the cost of opening that facility would more than offset that 5%. The total costs are being appreciated exactly how much extra it will cost and we have been working with the funding sources to where to find the money to bridge that gap. As we were planning this, we didn't yet have all of the funding to bridge that gap to
open that facility.
And so this $38 million was a xr siting source to be a -- a very exciting source to be a part of
that. And we are hoping actually to conclude those negotiations and
get a final dollar value by as soon as within the next month, we don't really know. Sometimes there are hiccups in how long these negotiations take. As there's been the conversation about the different uses of the $38 million, and there are other priorities that were established, there was a
proposal to reduce the number devoted to that gap to $19 million.
What director riskin has said is we are committed to this acceleration in hoping to speed it up by the 12 to 15 months,
and we will apply the $19 million from legislation towards that gap. If at the end of the negotiations there is an
additional gap, we will be reviewing our entire capital program to sew what other programs May be already delayed and where there May be some surplus funding and we have a capital program in the neighborhood of hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
and so usually there is the
opportunity to adjust priorities
and adjust the actual spending plan. And we are absolutely committed to moving forward on the acceleration to the maximum degree that we can with a variety of funding sources that
we have. >> and exact dollar amount still depends on the outcome of the negotiations
negotiations
negotiations underway and I was not just the opening of that
facility.
>> and quit working and why the
additional gap and talked about.
And the
>> in the my sense that although
people feel that there have been
significant improvement and
feeling of the service and and
actually and people trying get
into overcrowded streets and tunnels and proposing to be adding thousands and thousands more units along the lines
because they will be allegedly
able to carry thousands and
thousands of more people.
What I have heard and is pretty critical to being able to move
people around.
And to improve the people's
experience riding trains.
And glad to see the 18, 19
million dollars that managed to stay here. It is my strong hope that this
board and the mayor will look to
close any remaining gap through
any future eraf windfall we receive. I said that the last time we
talked about that and reiterating it now because I think people's frustration with our train system right now is so high. Or great.
But I would like to hear about
the other things that we are to get.
And I would like to get more
input on the reduction in the L.R.V.S.
>> the next largest priority is
the $13.8 million for energy efficiency and audit and
improvements for M.T.A. Facilities.
We're undergoing on overview of
the facilities and tremendously
exciting and over $1 billion.
We deal with big numbers because
they are over 100 years old and they have to be renovated in order to accommodate the new
buses and the new trains and the likely electrical power needs,
in fact, of the new fleet. And we'll also be working on the
existing facilities are not entirely rebuilt and we have
been in discussions about the
sfpuc about the best use of the funds and solar panel projects we hope to be able to move forward as quickly as possible,
one being looked at is our mme,
our metro east facility and we
have several others and with the
solar panel use.
And in the design phase and
rebuilding other features and energy efficiency as well as solar energy production is definitely part of the thinking and this could help --
>> which saves the system theoretically over time.
>> a yes.
>> Supervisor Mandelman: as well as reducing our reliance. >> it is probably likely to be reducing the increase in our
costs rather than an actual net
reduction because we do have
this goal of increasing the
battery powered bus system within san francisco potentially, and we're going to
have pilot studies of fleet
battery powered buses which is exciting and the expansion of the fleet and the expansion 'ute
of the L.R.V. Fleet and we May
not achieve a reduction, but deafly a reduction in the increase associated with that.
>> Supervisor Mandelman: thank you. And maybe that you can about
what we can do for the long suffering businesses that have been dealing with many years long projects.
>> yes, and this is something we work closely with the mayor's
office of workforce and economic development on this. And I believe that right now
there is even a study being undergone by the -- I think by the board legislative analyst on
these programs, which May help
us in the future, but looking at
where we do the best good for each of the projects. And this is evaluated on a case
by case basis to what is of most
benefit to the merchants and the public for that particular capital project. And we would be doing this with
very extensive outreach and
planning and stakeholder input
and with the help of the mayor's office and economic workforce development. I have not actually seen a precise programming for this $5 million. It would really be available with a number of major projects with major impacts and we would be glad to use this in a way that does the most good.
>> all right. Of course, the best thing to do from the businesses probably would be to figure out a way to get the projects done more
speedily and efficiently and not speak for chair fewer, but as she looks at additional projects
being proposed to her district,
we will have to figure that out before we undertake anything
else, I am imagining. >> well, thank you for spending
a little time explaining some of this stuff to us. As I said, I am going to be voting to forward this, but I really do want people to keep in
mind the necessity of moving
forward with these L.R.V. Acquisitions as speedily as we can. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> Superviser Fewer: thank you. I have one public comment speaker card. Christopher peterson. I'm sorry. Before public comment,
supervisor stefani has a comment.
>> Supervisor Stefani: yes.
Just a question on the eraf fund
and why weren't any of the funds allocated to the understood lying infrastructure and improving that of the light rail
system and the subway. Basically I read the transit
riders letter and had a concern on that.
>> we also have a major project
underway to modernize the train
control system for the light rail system.
That is a critical need and
something we were intent on the
moving forward with.
>> Supervisor Stefani: will that deliver service better around faster? >> I believe we are working as
quickly as we can to make that a reality. There is not a funding restraint, but a lot of complex
planning going into it.
>> Supervisor Stefani: thank you very much.
>> Superviser Fewer: thank you very much for being patient for public comment.
Christopher peterson, you have two minutes. >> thank you very much.
I would like to thank supervisor
mandelman for his comments. Unimetro right now is facing a crisis in reliability.
And I really do think that these extra funds should be used to do
-- to address the crisis that muni is currently facing.
If muni doesn't address this
crisis and that the major
transit systems are experiencing currently. And this is a huge problem in terms of the state's climate
change goals and the california
air resources board and stating
they will not reach the greenhouse emission targets unless it starts significantly reducing vehicle miles traveled.
I am very concerned about the two elements of the proposal
that seem to be diverting money
away from work to address those problems.
And the energy efficiency
component and the benign project
and from the unbaked, not ready
for implementation, and the small business impact fund, I
totally support the city
providing that, but the van ness project is not simply an muni project.
it is also a major utility infrastructure replacement project. The replacement of those underground utilities is what's causing all of the delays and
the interest expenses and so
with the other interested and other PUCs should be contributed
to that as well. >> I want to stick to the speeches I wrote when I was delayed this morning 20 minutes
on muni metro. Now by now each of you should
have received the letter on behalf of the organization and on behalf of the board of
directors and the 500 member. Thank you, supervisor stefani, for bringing that up.
This letter expressed concerns with the funding priority that happened today. I felt compelled to be here today. I don't know how much of an influence I will have on where the money is spent at this
point, but I am a daily rider and I feel it is important to speak up on behalf of the 170,000 and growing people who
rely on muni every single day who are literally left stranded,
late to appointments, late to
work because our understood lying infrastructure is not working.
So I am here to tell you that
the eraf funds should be
directed towards improving
service today, not some of the priorities that are being discussed.
And just to reiterate and I know this goes without saying, hopefully each of you are riders
of muni. Your intimately familiar with
this really sad reality that you can't count on muni which means people are looking for other ways to get around and more car
ride and getting on uber and lyft and clogging the streets which leads to more dangerous streets.
What we're also seeing is the
daily occurrences of broken switches.
Issues with the atct system, automatic train control system. And I recognize there's been a
10-year effort to improve that and 10 years is a long time. And including broken vehicles is
a daily occurrence. So I said I wrote this this morning when I was delayed to consider spending money on anything that does not improve service today is quite frankly a
smack in the face to 170,000
people who rely on uni metro every single day. Is that my time? You guys got it.
Thank you.
>> since you are discussing
revenue, I do have a pet peeve. I was wondering why with these tickets you guys don't have --
you don't partner with local
businesses to provide coupons, advertisements, for cultural
events, museums, automobiles, airlines, whatever to eek out some kind of revenue from the tickets and you don't always
have to go up on the fares. If there is 170,000 people
riding transit every day, then
five cents in revenue would amount to $8500 per day and May
not sound like a lot, but it all adds up and besides, if you can
get people out to the museums, then they are spending money and
discount some cultural events
and advertise them on these in order to provide a coupon to get
people out spending money.
>> seeing no other public
speaker, public comment is now closed. I believe supervisor mandelman,
were you going to make a motion?
>> Supervisor Mandelman: I will reluctantly move to forward this to the full board with positive
recommendation as a committee report.
>> Superviser Fewer: thank you very much. We will take that without objection. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. Madam Clerk, are there any other
