Technical and independent. There are a lot of issues, and we really wanted to make sure we stayed independent and brought that objective perspective. We also wanted to make sure that we reached a consensus which isnt easy for ten people. We want to make sure that our recommendations have been thoroughly discussed and vetted and that we agreed on them. I just want to take a minute to read our initial finding because i think its important and its its its a key starting place for us. The d. T. X. Rail Program Offers critical mobility value to the bay areagilroysacramento by area and country. And it should continue to be pursued with important advancements on accountability and services should be realized at Salesforce Transit Center as soon as possible. This took a little bit of time to craft, and i just wanted to read it to this board to underscore the effort and commitment by the panel, that we are committed to this pan project. That was the basis for which we kicked off this panel. So with that, a few of the consensus recommendations that i just wanted to highlight for you today. And director chang mentioned this in her opening remarks. You know, this is a project, right or wrong, that has been seen as a San Francisco project, and i think as as has been rielted, it is more than that. It is a it is a regional realized, it is more than that. It is a regional project, and it is a partnership amongst agencies for these big projects. We, too, see that a highly collaborative Interagency Team would be best suited for delivering this. And really, this is a project of regional and national significance, and that is n not that may be of course. This is not a throwaway line. This is a federal and region statute, that with advocacy, is an opportunity to leverage federal funds in terms of meeting that bar. Theres some work to do, but i think that project is a great candidate. The next recommendation is really redefining this Value Proposition, and i think this a lot has happened since this project has been adopted into the r. T. P. In terms of the region. There is a hunger for more rail service, and there are a number of small to medium to large megaprojects that have initiated development in their own right that this project has been opportunity to harness and plan for, and those are just if you look at the intermodal station at dierdorn, and obviously in the b. A. R. T. , ccjpa, and caltrain planning and discussion for a second rail crossing, and the opportunity to have connections between at Salesforce Transit Center make a whole lot of sense. But that doesnt just happen on its own, so thats one of the recommendations of redefining that Value Proposition and the benefit statement for this project. And then finally, i think theres really an opportunity to rename and rebrand this project, and it is. Its a program of projects, and so when you look at 4th and king or a new rail yard or a 22nd or 26th street station rail yard or extension, theres an ability to talk about these programs together. The regional connector project in los angeles is a good example of being able to kind of harness this. Its this idea, and i think its also easier to frankly market to supporters in the public and also elected officials. So thats one of the other recommendations. As i mentioned, megaprojects are all unique, but one comm commonality is they take a long time to fund and produce. We need strong support from federal, state, and local elected officials. Not just the current ones, but the next generation. So that really takes a lot of coordination and working with federal officials in washington to make sure they see this as a preferred project. Were competing against projects not just in new york, but projects in los angeles. The other recommendation is we need to engage the public directly and make sure that the Value Proposition and that the shared goals of this program are known around Environmental Remediation and protection and environmental development. We heard a lot of this from the shake holders to have the operators agree on the scope of this project, both timing and what will their contributions be and ultimately how it will serve their customers, so thats a really important aspect of this. At this time, im going to turn it over to my colleague, ignacio, to walkthrough the rest of our recommendations. So relating to the rail program funding, which is one of the major components of what the expert panel was tasked to look into, one of the main kind of findings or recommendations of the programs already strong claims on existing sources, any project of this nature, y. As john will know, we have very ambitious emerging rail projects, both caltrain on the peninsula, as well as transbay crossing project, high speed rail, so its a very ambitious regional and megaregional project that this is the linchpin. So in terms of the revenues, the funding plan that we looked at, theres an existing plan that has a number of Funding Resources that are planned to be used. So establishing a longterm Financial Plan is one of the main recommendations of the panel. One of the key aspects of that is the federal participation in the funding plan, and one of the things that we were able to ascertain is that really, theres a strong need to maintain the project in the greater stream at the federal level, and that its high on the National Priority list so that the congressional delegation fully understands and supports that task of keeping the project high on that priority list. And it is one of many projects nationwide that is competing for those limited federal resources, so its a critically important thing, and we believe there is work to do to successfully compete for those sources, federal Funding Sources through the type of positioning that john was explaining. Theres, of course, a number of efforts going on here in the bay area and in the megaregion. For example, the other efforts being led by various parties. Now in terms of governance and oversight, i know this is the most titillating part that Everyone Wants to hear about, i know that most of the work is still ongoing in this regard, and were looking forward to having a final set of recommendations and a presentation to the sfcta board in september where well be able to talk more specifically about this. But ill just recap what i said previously in our previous presentation. First of all, the panel did review and study what are the best practices and Lessons Learned not only from around california but nationally and internationally so we would build into our thinking what those best practices are. And from that, we identified a set of common key criteria for success. I wont go through all of them, but some of the keynotable ones is definition of roles key notable ones is definition of roles, and project transparency. Sometimes we take it for granted, but its important it always be front and center, which is a focus on the customer, on the end user, and that should be a guiding principle in thinking of delivering outcomes for customers. But theres also more granular issues such as, for example, the need for independent assurance, independent advice that really challenges the thinking ahead of major decisions. And this is a really important aspect, and i think its consistent with the review panel made a similar finding and recommendation that we should be thinking about. But theres also other things such as project delivery and operational expertise, the importance of having those in a very strong way. Any of these aspects that i just mentioned, and theres many others, can easily make or break the success of a project. And in fact, theres a study that was done by the Mackenzie Company that led this study, sort of managed the panel, herding the cats there, and that study indicated that two thirds or roughly two thirds of megaproject cost overruns and delays are directly attributable to governance and organizational issues, so that really kind of emphasizes the importance of making those decisions and having the right strategy with respect to that. I would say that, just to echo previous comments that have been made, there is no single recipe for success. Yes, there are common characteristics across the case study that john mentioned and many others, but ultimately for a megaproject such as this, and especially if we think of it in terms of are real program, you have to look at it in terms of financial and other realities of the program. So just to recap in terms of organization, our definition is of the architecture of the team and organizational structure is an approach that sustains the support at the regional and the National Level is ultimately the goal that were that were looking to achieve. Moving on, one of the things that the panel was asked to look at is, say, okay, thats all very good and fine with these big picture strategy issues. What do we do in the next two years . What is it how do we go about implementing this strategy . So this work plan that you see here on the screen is is a something that the panel developed as a panel in response to that. And really, ultimately, regardless of who executes on that strategy on the work plan and whatever work plan ends up being adopted, the most important thing is that it should be it should prioritize expediting and energyizing the delivery of the project. So and we believe as a panel the best way to do that is with a strategy as reflective in the previous remarks and that would be implemented something along those lines. Now in developing this work plan, we recognized that there were two Critical Path issues for the project. One relates to funding. This is a multibilliondollar project, and the funding identifies we could say very high Funding Sources, a lot of it, but not all of it, and the delta is significant. And then, the second thing is a resolution of a number of key issues with the two rail operators, highspeed rail and caltrain. So with that in mind, with the goal of achieving rail service to the transit terminal at the earliest possible date and specifically thinking of a goal of achieving that by 2029, which has been the published date for start of service, we worked back from that and then identified a and this is what you see in this graphic, the next what would be the next major milestone to make project toward that the ultimate goal. And so working back from that, we identified that the key milestone is the start of procurement or the start of the process of contracting the construction contracts. And so we we looked at the the plans as they had been laid out, and we saw that mid2021, i believe, is the date when or roughly the timing or the start of that activity. The twoyear work line is working back from that milestone, which is the red diamond in the lower right hand corner of the diagram. And then, we worked we developed a series of tasks that are aligned with the recommendations of the strategy. We made a series of four key decision points, which are the blue points in the diagram in a certain sequence. So without painting it with too much of a broad brush, ill go into what that is. So the first series of tasks would be related to whether to adopt these recommendations of the extra panel, whether its all of them or some of them, and then, theres a number of decisions that would have to be taken also in relation to governance as well as the actual tasks themselves. With a number of agreements and m. O. U. S and so on that would have to be worked out in order to implement certain tasks. So that would have to be an early task in that process that would be related to that. That would then allow that project to proceed with the start of the next task, which is the repositioning and redefinition of the project. That involves a series of tasks really related to the funding plan, looking at the potential for phasing, looking at what are the realities for start of service, looking at california highspeed rail in the d. T. X. And Transit Center . And those would culminate in a selection of phasing and funding strategy aligned with the work of that task. That contains in it a number of tasks related to engineering, completing there may be aspects of the Engineering Design that has been done to date that needs to be further developed, cost estimating, risk analysis. There are a number of things that are embedded into that set of tasks. The second one and happening in parallel with it would be related to governance and oversight. The the thinking being that the decisions being taken in the first task is really pacific numb task number two, in the yellow bars, what that governance and ta organization would look like. That would be the task itself would be to determine those things. And then finally, also in parallel because these things, they have a certain sequence, but they have to be developed currently in an integrated way, is the very important task of the selection of a project delivery option. And i will talk about that more in the next slide. But that sequence of tasks would allow you to eventually make that decision on a project delivery method that would then support the milestone of start of procurement. Okay. So moving on to project delivery. Like i said, first and fore first and fore first and most important factor relating to the projects is governance. The second choice and the project delivery method. So this is a really important set of tasks that needs to be developed very, very deliberately and really applying best practices. So first, i would say a structured market sounding process is really important. Time and time again in my career ive seen Infrastructure Projects that we thought that the project was well defined and well selected and we went to bid. And then, a contract came along and offered a completely different idea that actually saved a lot of time and money. And so this the ability to do the market sounding is a way to receive that type of feedback from the industry and it can be done in a structured fashion from early on, but to do it as part of the project delivery Selection Process so that is informs not only it informs not only the project itself but also the selection of the delivery. Second is conducting an analysis of delivery options. Doing that with no bias and rigor. And then, once that is done, the idea here is of course to target all of the every day ongoing on delivering that option, and that includes the scoping of preliminary engineers so that the that project delivery is aligned with funding and in thinking of the rail delivery. So just to finalize, the final item in this is the agreement of providing the services to the rail operators. All of this is to really build a goal of set of specifications with a high level of confidence which would allow the project to be delivered. So these are the recommendations that we will be building on in our final report which will also of course include, as i mentioned, the recommendations of governance. So with that, ill pass it back to john. Thank you, ignacio. So this is the timeline of really where were at today before you. The plan now is to go back to the t. A. Board with our final report on september 10. Thats obviously subject to change, depending on a lot of ongoing discussion with stakeholders, and we you can see in between now and the 10th, those are still continuing. So were really not wanting to come out with any breaking news today or any surprises on the 10th because this has been a real iterative process with the stakeholders. I think that has been very valuable for the panel, and the panel has really embraced a lot of the input from active participants to date. So with that, im happy to answer any questions that you might have and appreciate the opportunity to give you an update today. Great. Thank you for the presentation today. Any questions . Director reiskin . Director reiskin so one question, and then some comments. The question is on the funding slide, there was one subbullet that i didnt understand what it meant and it set Something Like said affordability limits for initial operating phase. Can you explain what that means . This one . Fl are wi well, i think that as i go in as o as that as ignacio says, we have to match the funding phase with the high level of competency thats available. I think theres an affordability limit is, thats maybe a technical way of just saying math. Director reiskin so when you say initial operating phase, are you saying what weve been calling more or less d. T. X. , just the compensation of the Transit Center . It could be. It could be something less and could be Something Different. I think part of what were also reflecting is the timing and need of the two operators has changed, and so i want to make sure if theres a if theres a available path to do something less now that doesnt preclude high speed rail, that should be something less than what were outlining today. Also, though, looking at what exactly the decisions are going to be made around those other complementary projects and the need to advance them enough to know. But so it it has to match at least whats viable on the funding side, you know, with caltrains needs. And then not to preclude highspeed rail, but you may be doing Something Different when that service is ready to come up the peninsula to d. T. X. Or whatever you want to call it or whatever its called. Director reiskin okay. Aside from potentially deferring the townsend street station, its kind of hard for me to see what you want to do, extending the tracks from point a to point b. Its a little hard to see to kind of how to downscope. Again, this may be separate from whats called deferring the station. At 4th and king. Yeah. At townsend. Director reiskin i know theres a lot of work that went into that. I think the presentations on recommendations are great, without the understanding of what that affordability and initial operating phase means, solidifying the funding is something very important. It needs to be done. I think the focus on project delivery needs to be done. I think theres the potential of dovetailing for some of afsma projects. The overall recommendation that we do, what well get, Train Service to the Transit Center most expeditiously, i think, is the most important and overriding. And so with that in mind, the recommendations that you have yet to make on governance and oversight with what give me some concern. I think you had said that it could be just kind of adjusting what we have today and maybe on the line of the afsma funding, and sfmta and project controls and other areas. Thats kind of one end of the spectrum. The other end of the spectrum would be a radical reorganizing of the organization, maybe creating another organization, bringing in other entities to take over parts of this organization. Thats where i think your timeline gets blown out of the water. You show a year to kind of noodle over this question and then three months of transition to the new if the new is kind of taking the existing framework we have as the joint Powers Authority as existing state laws and kind of history and context that have created it, if its modifying that, i think that timeline is reasonable. If were talking and just as a little example, we had started discussing that we really need a California Highspeed Rail Authority by a member of this board. There was no objection by the j. P. Members, the state. It probably took a year from that first conversation to when it was done, signed off by all the j. P. Members. So very common sense. Everybody supported change, took a year. At a radical restructuring of this agency, this program the governance of this program, i think runs the risk of actually killing the program. I think theres now momentum with phase one done again, done finally, with getting the record of decision for phase two as its currently defined. I think this momentum is important, and we should advance the Technical Work which supported all of it, i think your recommendations now, but i think any kind of radical restructuring that requires a whole new consensus within the region and the state i think potentially kills this project. And you said there were confidential discussions with the consultant, i will share publicly, that was my recommendation to them. I think thats great. But to the extent creating allnew entities or to the extent wholly changing this, i think theres a risk of significantly underestimating the time it will take to get regional consensus, if it ever comes, which could end up being fatal to the project. So all good recommendations so far, and as to the ones that are coming, i hope that they end up on the modest side. Were not starting blank slate here. If we were starting blank slate, that would be different. We have an existing situation that we need to make work so that the rest of the program can be successfully delivered, so thats my last soap box on the tjpa. If i could respond to that. Two things. I think there is a lot of sensitivity. I think the panel realizes, but there has been a pause in funds, and there is an urgency to get the project, keep the project going. So i will also say if you know, we have taken a little pause to make sure were understanding the caltrain Business Plan that was released. If youve seen that, almost a 100page plan, theres a conversation around the regional option. Were not doing that in a vacuum, and i think were mindful that its important to recognize this. Its not just for d. T. X. , but its the caltrain plan. So we will put out recommendations and hope that just fosters, you know, adds to the dialogue thats happening, and its up to the policy makers to really act on them. Thank you, director reiskin. Director hursh . It feels like the governance is being done in a back room, the governance study. The stakeholders are interviewed, but theyre not included in the back room discussions. My comments are somewhat selfish in that we cant overlook the 2 million achievement thats been achieved. And candidly, my concerns of the operating efficiency of the existing terminal and a. C. Transits relationship with that. Were proud to be on the board. Obviously, we have concerns about how the operation of the facility goes forward. We certainly want the success of d. T. X. , we certainly want rail there as soon as possible, but i would remind tilly and the constituents that i report to a board. Any discussions around highspeed rail is not easy. I would encourage them to engage in those boards not just mind, but c. T. A. And caltrain of california so that we can continue to move forward and not have recommendations sprung on us. Director . Yeah. Im a little concerned on what you said, john, kind of not to preclude view of the world here, because from our standpoint, you know, nothing in our timeline has changed. Were continuing to advance our work to bring highspeed rail to northern california. Certainly, this part of the program has not been fully funded ever, and we recognize that that could cause potential delays down the road, but thats not something were facing at this stage. And im not sure what you cant change when youre building what amounts to a tunnel. Why you cant change to something that makes more sense when it comes to operating. But i dont think our timelines are that different when it comes to the two views of the projects. Youre going to see some reaction from us depending on what that looks like. The other thing i wanted to just touch on and this is a bit of a question because i very much agree with many of your recommendations around repositioning the program. I think its been a long time since theres been a big advocacy push around the downtown extension. I think its been because were in delivery mode on the Transit Center. Now i think were closing that chapter and opening this next one, so i think all of those things are spot on and really important. To echo a little bit of director reiskins comments and pose this as a little bit of a question, a lot of what you laid out is looking into the transition and sort of the delivery options, looking at the government that had its own kind of delivery forces. What i didnt look at, in your executive director report, you laid out some of those things that needed to be ready in order to layout a procurement from a technical standpoint. Do you see some of those things happening one right after the other . Do you do them one after another, technical, or do you see them kind of parallel . There are a number of technical steps that that need to be taken, and we can walkthrough those now. Were also going to include that in our report, so itll be a little more detailed, but i think it i think that is the priority, is to understand, you know, how we receive that input from the private sector, how were looking at delivering this a little differently that has been contemplated to date. And so that there are a number of steps to that, and thats meant to continue the momentum of the project, and i think were not making a a big Statement Today about whos doing that, and i know that tjpa has that plan. I think theres i think we in our strategy are recommending an emphasis up front at relooking at the delivery options, and that may include ancillary projects, and thats different. That hasnt been done to date, and it should be in our opinion. I also just want to address so not to preclude. Maybe not the right word. I think what we were trying to emphasize, and ignacio hit on this, is we need agreement among the operators, and we need some certainty on the commitment of funds, on o. N. M. , on all of that. And its also not coming tomorrow, so we can we make sure we work through in continuing to advance this and also making sure its part of prop 1a, and i think were aware of that. I think that was not the right way to frame that. Its more saying weve got to get to the table and get agreement on that, on the operating side. Yeah. Maybe ill take your second framing on a much healthier place for that conversation to continue. Youre right. Its important for us to get to some sets of decisions for us to continue on the project and have that contribution commitment of what we actually need, how does that work, how does the two systems Work Together which has implications, not just here as d. T. X. , but frankly, it has implications up and down the rail line. I think anything that can help sort of drive towards a push towards having that sort of regional and system wide conversation, i think thats helpful, and i think we would certainly be interested in. I know theres been lots of talk amongst our partners as caltrain around expanding those types of agreements. I think its important to know how those would get shaped out here, as well. It gets to your other point which i think is also spoton. This project has certainly local, but then also regional and state and federal significance. And i think understanding that and understanding those link ages and what those are and how that ties across and how those are connected are something thats going to be really important to understand for advancing this project. So i think youre in some ways, maybe part of the frame is how do we advance the project, do things to move forward to procure when funding is lined up and everything like that, and then the local and regional and statelevel conversations what does the future look like, and how do all of those interactions lineup and how do you access those moving forward . Well, let me go forward. Were at the end of our time. Ive got a whole bucket of questions. If we do have follow up questions, how do we get that to who and when and how . You can get them to me and ill forward them to tilly and her team. Were more than happy to sit down with each of you. As, you know, appropriate through brown act, individually, perhaps or our team. Its not really the staff, its the peer panel. I would like to do that, but i do want to ask a couple highlevel questions. How long do we have the room to . We have to get out of the room by 12 25. How long do we have closed session . We it make it ten minutes. Ill make it real short. Theres a timeline in here. I suggest a timeline, but theres some obstacles to moving forward, and in the directors report, theres a whoil li whole list of activities. As you move forward, how do you move forward without funding. Great question. I really appreciate all this thoughtful comments and i know put and want to address a whole bunch of other things also that were raised earlier about process and ensure that were hearing you and will follow up. On the funding, vice chair, the Transportation Authority has suggested that by pushing out the second piece of the work, the governance and environmental recommendations, if the panel keeps working particularly to incorporate the caltrain governance work that art has helped develop that piece of work, that work will hopefully end up sort of advancing our ability to end up with an agreement that the Transportation Authority can bring to a september, october board meeting, so the idea is not losing time to have an extra month or two on the structural and organizational pieces together with a funding item be presented at the same time or right around the same time so that the board could allow some funding and work to resume on the assumption that were on the right path as far as regional consensus, stakeholder and party Agency Consensus on how to Work Together. Which leads me and sets me up on the second question, which is the timing report and all that link age. Th linkage. It was commissioned by our board at the Transportation Authority. We absolutely would be coming to other stakeholders thereafter. We may push it to october. I think ive heard from other stakeholders that there is a desire for that. You know, we want to make it clear though, all of this deliberative work is really important, and our chair has said so, and we actually dont believe it will impact the overall project schedule. I think theres maybe some difference of opinion over whats the Critical Path, the critical design. We believe the Critical Path is funding. Whi by the time we go through that, and mark wants to pursue 30 design, we may find its exceeded that. The idea that im learning from the peer panel and then to marry that with a topdownti topdowntime topdown timeline to figure out whats going to happen. We want to take the time to partner with executive teams and staff and board members. We want to ensure that its a productive conversation. I can appreciate that, but i can also tell you that the connection between time and money is very real. Yeah, yeah. No, thats why we appreciate that. Thats why weve made an initial proposal that we move toward a funding area with partner agencies. That might include caltrain at the rail yards to help come together and perhaps fund that work to kind of catalyze the work thats already been made out in a multiagency m. O. U. That might include tjpa funding to resume some of the work thats been on pause. No, i appreciate that. I just get concerned when i see the suggested timeline from a technical merit that is absent the stakeholder processing that may be required with part two emerging. There seems to be a potential serious disconnect between making whatever changes, whether it be at this level or other levels to get to procurement with the timeline suggested. I dont see them in alignment yet because i havent seen timeline two yet. Fair enough. Fair enough. We have a few meetings already scheduled with the stakeholders later this month. We have a call with all the folk folks involved to date. And id like to dig deeper into that. So the part that professor engelfield dug on, why should we believe and your panel . Well, the panel was selected because theyve been through the war zone on similar projects. Also, the deep dive that we did on other megaprojects, but this also these recommendations include a lot of recommendations. As i said, my initial remarks, our goal, the panels goal, is to help deliver the project. Theres no ulterior motive. But i believe its emerging, what projects are truly ready. That helps drive the consensus that helps us, you know, kick off other projects, compete against other projects that are not quite ready. Thank you. Thank you. We have one public comment. Clerk yes, we have mr. Lebrun. Vice chair, perhaps at the earlier suggestion, we could bring the copanel back and have them confer together. Yeah, thats i think its important to do that. Yeah. Well, this was truly extraordinary, as you only get two minutes. I read a whole bunch of cpuc and rail laws earlier. We say that you have to have six platforms, 14. 5 feet long. And your d. T. X. As it is right now is going to make that totally impossible. But then, i see this great planning platform for future connections, talking about the transbay future transbay connection. But now, i start rethinking of this wonderful 15. 5 by 30footlong box. You can have something really extraordinary thats going to solve all of your problems, including capacity. Thats got as much capacity as 4th and king in terms of storage. Let me wrap up very quickly. In the u. K. , i came from the southeast. In the 80s, i saw the chunnel getting build. The next thing was the connection between the chan tunnel and the company that did this was a company that in 2015 showed the highspeed Rail Authority they wanted the contracts, and they were turned away. These people are gone. They moved to texas. They built a texas center right now with private funding. What im suggesting moving forward is we reach out to people, it will be a cross rail. Build five stations each the size of an Aircraft Carrier under existing building and existing tunnels and see what they can do in terms of government and engineering. These people know how theyre going to get there. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Clerk the tjpa kbrboard o directors meeting is back in closed session. And with that, theres nothing to report, and well adjourn the meeting. Is back from closed session. And with that, theres nothing to report, and well adjourn the meeting. Sustainability mission, even though the bikes are very Minimal Energy use. It Still Matters where the energy comes from and also part of the mission in sustainability is how we run everything, run our business. So having the lights come on with clean energy is important to us as well. We heard about cleanpowersf and learned they had commercial rates and signed up for that. It was super easy to sign up. Our bookkeeper signed up online, it was like 15 minutes. Nothing has changed, except now we have cleaner energy. Its an easy way to align your environmental proclivities and goals around Climate Change and its so easy that its hard to not want to do it, and it doesnt really add anything to the bill