Transcripts For SFGTV MTA Board Of Directors 20240713

Sfg tv from april 7th, please call 888 8086929 and then code 9961164 and then finally 10. Mr. Moderator, yo if you would let us know if there are members of the public who wish to address the board. Operator to summon each question press 1 and then 0. It looks like no members of the public dialing in at thisman. This minute. So we will close Public Comment. Well close Public Comment on item 4 and ill entertain a motion to approve the minutes. So moved. I heard two and would you please call the role. role call . Mr. Chair, you have a unanimous vote. Very good. On communications, well provide overview as to why were doing things this way and ill be more brief than i was last time, but due to the covid19 Health Emergency and given the Public Health recommendations issued by the department of Public Health and given that the governor has lifted it, this is being held with all members and staff Via Teleconference to ensure the safety of the board of directors, staff and members the public. In our published notice, we ask the public to participate remotely by writing the board or leaving a voice mail messag mes. We have received and appreciate these comments and i will tell you they have been circulated to all Board Members both in voicemail and email form. Going forward, unless and until these restrictions are lifted, we would ask write mtaboard at sfmta. Com or call us and if assuming we will have more meetings this way, we would ask that you do so in advance of the meetings. There will be gaps or dead air as we refine this process today. So we would ask for your understanding and that folks show respect and let other people speak when it is their turn. If you are not speaking, i would ask that you mute your telephone lines so that we or mute your microphones so we do not have background noise. This is the second time we were doing this and i want to extend great thanks to our board secretary, roberta boomer, warren lamb, art wong, and tom loftess, as well as the board of supervisors. There was a lot to put together to do this and its really, really appreciated. Its been seamless for us Board Members. Roberta. Thank you. So for members of the public who are online, please be aware that this meeting is televised by sfg tv and be aware that is a time lag, so if members of the public have called in, and theyre watching the meeting, please know there is a discrepancy but seeing what you are seeing on sfg tv and what you are hearing. For members of the public who wish to make Public Comment on items on the agenda, the phone number to use is 888 8086929. The i. D. Number to use is 9961164. Hold on just a second. I just lost where i was. Please make sure that you are in a quiet location and that you turn off any tvs or radios and if youre livestreaming the meeting, that you mute the sound. This will reduce any reverbations so the board can hear you. We urge you when the item is called, if you wish to comment on a particular item, please dial the phone at the time that the item is called. This will allow you to be in the cue so we can take your comment when the chair aske asks for the phone lines to be open. The audio prompt will say callers are entering the question and answer time, but this is the Public Comment period. You will be cued up in the order in which you pressed 10 and there will be an automated voice that will tell you when it is your time to speak. So when your microphone has been unmuted, you will hear us ask you to state your name and make your comments. I will start your int two minuts when you begin talking. When your time is up, i will say thank you, next caller, please and at that point, the moderator will put you back on mute. I will repeat these instructions later on during the meeting. As im aware, that some members may have joined the meeting late and may not have heard them. So mr. Chair, moving on the agenda item 6, new and Unfinished Business. One piece of business is the announce of our april 7th, 2020 closed session and so miss boomer, if i could ask you to handle that, please. The mta board of directors met in closed session on april 7 to discuss anticipated litigation. The board of directors took no action. Mr. Chair, it would be appropriate for either a motion to disclose or not disclose the information discussed. Ok, and do we need Public Comment on such item . Yes. So lets see if theres Public Comment on the announcement of our april 7th, 2 2020 closed session. Operator to summon each question, press 1 and 0. For members who are watching and wish to address the board on the announcement, please dial 10 and moderator, please let us know if there are any callers on the line. Moderator confirms there are no callers on the line. Ok, with that, we will close Public Comment. I move to disclose. Im sorry, actually, someone this is the moderator and someone joined and dropped off. Never mind. Thank you. So that will close Public Comment and i heard a motion from director borden and is there a second not to disclose. Miss boomer, please call the role. role call didn and this is oe motion not to disclose the session. Mr. Chair, the motion to not disclose is unanimous. Wonderful, thank you. Any other new or Unfinished Business by Board Members . I think we have i do, director heieke. Anyone else besides director borden . So as many may not know today is dr. Heinekes very last meeting which is very sad. The chair has been on the board since i arrived in 2014 and has been a great, strong leader for transit in this city and we have been so fortunate to work with him and to see his knowledge and i dont know if everyone realizes, his knowledge goes back far to the Taxi Commission and hes been a great resource on taxi issues. He has been tremendous in helping us lead us through those sort of issues. Even before the Taxi Commission, though, the director was a servant of the city having formally been on the Human Rights Commission which i found quite surprising to know. He has a distinction of being the longest serving director since the mta was established in 2000 and so joining in 2008 with and the time with the Taxi Commission before that. Hes been so critical, as you all know, we just celebrated when we were able to be together, the carfree Market Street and malcolm has been a true leader on this issue and it was just so fitting to have him be about that on that momentous day and even throw out new streets with his quite a extreme seat when we think how easy it was to make the decision when the decision was in flux for so long. So thank you to him for that leadership. Hes also been actsly doinged dn improving the subway and improving the approach. There was the key portal specifically and we all know that the west portal crossover is really the heineke crossover which we will be honoring in his name with a proclamation and a plaque coming at a time when we all can be together in the future. But more than anything, i just want to thank him for his leadership, his guidance, his friendship and sharing his knowledge and his wisdom and being patient with some of us as weve come along to learn the new things as being more intimately involved with this and i want to thank him for his contributions. I dont know how he balances being a highpowered attorney, having been chair of the Bar Association and being chair here. He is such an amazing leader for this agency and so many others and im proud to call him a colleague and a friend. And then really looking forward to the day we can officially name the heineke crossover and the port yachal station. Thank you for everything and wish you well as you move on to your next endeavor. Well, thank you very much. I want to say something, too. Please, art, go ahead. I think im the only one who knows malcolm anyone currently on this call because malcolm began as a fellow in the California State Senate and served with the distinction and followed gavin newsom. Now here malcolm followed this, as well. Im grateful that malcolm welcomed me with open arms and gave me a good addition and understanding of the transit issues in sanfrancisco whe san i came on the board and ill always be grateful for that counsel and advice. I look forward to seeing that plaque, that tremendous asset that youve helped to protect and hopefully dedicate, as well. So thank you so much for your service and youre the embodiment of why term limits are ridiculous. [ laughter ] im glad i could be a help in your political statement. Working with you is a true pleasure and i consider you a friend. I see other people lighting up. Steve, you wanted to say something. All yours. Yes, i do. Youll have to sit there and take it. [ laughter ] ok. I just want to dwell on one word that i think epitomizes your service that ive seen just from my brief tenure on the board and thats courtesy. And your unfailing courtesy to your colleagues, to the staff of the agency, to the public, even when some of us may not have deserved it. I think this is a real halmark of how you conduct yourself and god knows courtesy is something our society could use a little bit more of. My only regret, and i do have a regret in terms of our own relationship on the board is that i was never able to contrive for you a 33 deadlock vote and put you on the hot seat to break the tie. [ laughter ] and so i guess i owe you that one. Fair enough, fair enough. Christina, thanthank you very m. I appreciate it. Christina. Thank you so many years of your Public Service. Ive been on the board since 2012 and ive enjoyed serving alongside you and im very thankful for your ability as the chair of the board to move discussions forward. Youre able to find consensus and when theres not consensus, you know how to move on to the next step in a constructive way and im thankful for the fact youve pushed carfree Market Street while still being really respectful of staffs expertise and skill. So thank you again for everything youve done for this agency. Well, thank you. Its been a pleasure to work with you. Amanda. Malcolm, i have delighted in the sense of humor you bring to meetings and i want to say theres nobody ive met for as much passion for turning around trains for turning around a pocket. I also hope you appreciate how apt it is that today mayor breed announced 13 miles of slow streets on what happens on your last day of service. If you think thats a coincidence, maybe you have another thing coming. [ laughter ] i want to thank you again for your service and please dont be a stranger. Thank you so much, amanda. Cheryl, the last word. Thank you. Malcolm, im going to miss you so much and i know that not everyone in the city realizes how fantastic your service on the board has been and what a huge impact youve had on Public Transportation and Street Safety and the subway and everything. Its been a pleasure to serve with you and all i have to say, malcolm, you truly are one of the good ones. Well, thank you very much for that. I will keep my remarks brief here today because we will, as has been announced have a ceremony at west portal and maybe when we have a meeting in person, i can come in and say goodbye to all of you in person. When i took over as chair, i was focused on expanding service, particularly that in the subway. As i leave this chair, the subway is shut down and the bus service has been cut. I wont take a total cause and effect on that from my being chair, but seriously, these have been very difficult times in having the group of you as colleagues and roberta and now jeff, as well as julie and tom and everyone on the staff has been truly remarkable and a real blessing for me. You know, ill save my further remarks for the ceremony to come, but just know that this has been a great joy for me because of you guys. Thank you. Director tumlin. Actually, before we get to the directors report or if director tumlin wanted to say a few words here. Ill conclude with my words. Go ahead. Very good. Is there any other new or Unfinished Business by Board Members. That takes us to item 7. Directors report. Director tumlin, how has your month been. Actually, i had to check my math three times when i was thinking about when our last board of directors meeting was, since weve gotten about, i dont know, 18 months worth of work done in the last two weeks. I was trying to figure out what i had covered in the last directors report and realized that weve been very busy. So my directors report will try to cover a lot of material as briefly as i possibly can. So first of all, i would like to start off with some gratitude, particularly to mayor breed who has made it very clear in her statements to the Department Heads and also in the press that the frontline workers at the sfta, our transit operators, line supervisors, the people out there in the field everyday providing us essential service to 100,000 people in San Francisco every single day should be considered in the same light as we do our police officers, our firefighters and other essential workers and mayor london breed has made sure that our frontline workers have access to the same personal protective equipment, masks and gloves and Hand Sanitizer and cleanser and also access to hotel rooms and other services that are necessary to acknowledge the tough job that our workforce has. Im really grateful to dr. Grant kolfax at the department of Public Health and they have been instrumental in helping us to do the scenario planning to get prepared for any scenario and, in fact, get prepared for the inedge abilitthetheinevit artge. We are happy to report that as far as we know, they are all doing well. Weve done dozens of interviews that our contact tracers have done and we also have 41 staff people in selfisolation as a result of the potential exposure. So far, the good news is that of each of the covid positive cases weve had, none appears to have been transmitted from one sfmta employee to another. This is a much better position than the dire situation that our counterparts are experiencing from detroit to maryland to new york and others. So we will continue to work hard to follow the dphs guidance to the t in order to do the best that we can to protect our workforce, rooted in the latest available science. Well also recognise that while on the one hand we need to follow the science in order to help protect the health of our workers, we also need to recogniserecognise this is a teg time and we need to respect the emotional reality of our workforce. Ive been spending a lot of time in the field talking to our workforce in helping to provide emotional support where its needed because we are, in fact, emotional beings. So there was a lot going on with covid and its all covid all of the time and a lot of information has needed to go out and im doing a series of twotofour minute videos a couple of times a week on not only what is happening with the agency wittheagency but celebrak the crews are doing from the paratransit workers who are helping out in countless ways, clerks and middle managers who are working as Disaster Service workers to do additional car cleaning, to make sure that not only do we clean all of our vehicles everyday, but we also clean the vehicles three times a day so each of the operators gets into a clean vehicle at the beginning of their shift. Weve been working on our external messaging, our coms team has been working, getting the message out that muni is only for essential trips. Its for essential workers getting to work and its for people in San Francisco who have to get to essential goods and Services Like food and pharmaceuticals. We are not getting out the message that thanks to the mayors most recent health directive, not only is wearing a mask required when out there in the public, but also required while riding muni. Wearing a mask for any other Face Covering, is not about protecting your own health but protecting the health of others around you, including our operators. Face coverings are about keeping your sneeze or your cough or your heavy breathing, whatever it is to yourself and not spreading the disease because one of the remarkable characteristics of covid19 is the fact that it can be spread while you are still asymptomatic. So wear a Face Covering in order to protect others. Weve also having been doing a ton of communication in the work we implemented before our last meeting which was stripping muni down to its bare essential core network, the 17 lines that served the majority of our passengers that is connected to essential services, particularly the hospitals and focusing the muni service wer where it was nd most with the fewest choices. That has involved a huge amount of engagement with the community. Were happy to report that starting on april 25th, this saturday, we will bring back four lines that we had previously cut or portions of four of those lines. That includes the fulton from downtown, serving st. Marys hospital and essential services in the tenderloin and the Western Addition and bart street to gerry. We have a lot of Community Engagement because it serves a lot of hospital workers from the peninsula as well as on gerry street and that was great to get that feedback. Were restoring a portion of the 12 pacific along pacific avenue between battery street and vanesse and a large concentration of Senior Citizens living in that corridor that didnt have any eastwest Transit Service. This was also something we saw in the data, as well as from Community Engagement. Were restoring a portion of the 54 felton which is the First Community Service Route to be restored and it connects a whole series of neighborhoods from Hunters Point to bayview and the portal district and silver terrace, the Crocker Amazon to the balboa station and were also now engaging with the online neighborhood about potentially trying to extend it into the omi, as well. So this is some good news and it has come about because all of the efforts of the dph and the mayor and a half a dozen city departments at the Operation Center have helped us to stabilize the availability of our operators, but also our mechanics and thanks to the Disaster Service workers, were able to have sufficient people to keep our cars clean so that means were able to deliver more service. Another program we implemented this week is a new Ambassador Program. Its something weve been hearing from a lot of our passengers and writers about is that as were trying to as the Police Department and the social services have been trying to address crowding on the streets and social distancing with the naked neighborhoods lie tenderloin, people who had no where else to go were seeking up refuge on the muni bu buses ande started an Ambassador Program to make sure muni is used for essential trips and essential workers and that people who need social services can be directed to social services and that people who dont have face masks can be given them or given information about where to get them. And also to encourage people to space themselves out at the bus stops and to provide information about what are the essential Transit Services available and to otherwise provide critical information to our passengers. So far, the results of this have been positive and one of the things we have learned from is the phenomenal success of our muni ambassador transit program, focused on the school trips in the southern neighborhoods. By engaging with people and meeting people as equals rather than as an agent of enforcement, weve been able to promote civil behaviour by San Francisco middle school kids. So were hoping that the same approach can work for adults downtown and well provide you with more detail about those results at our next board meeting. Another key program that we elemented this week is the essential trip card program. Again, this is the program that in a normal situation would have taken us 18 months to develop and implement. We did this in a week and this is to help deal with the fact that so much of San Francisco no longer has Transit Service within immediate proximity and many seniors living in hilly neighborhoods or neighborhoods that have suffered from a loss of Transit Services at this time. So in order to provide an alternative for those folks and to support the people who work in our beleaguered taxi industry, we decided to use some of the limited resources in order to develop a subsidized taxi fare program for people over 65 can get a debit card valuvalid on any taxi service. 410 people signed up and super easy to get by calls 311 or go to sfmta. Com etc. In addition to providing real financial benefits to the taxi cab industry, weve helped the taxi cab industry by providing taxi cab drivers with personal protective equipment, cleaning equipment and by using our taxi inspectors to ensure the taxi operators are actually cleaning vehicles in between runs. Providing a comfortable level of health as were offering on ouri buses. Because we cant stop announcing new programs that would normally take 18 months to dro develop, e announced this morning, through the mayors office, our new slowStreets Program. Many of you, perhaps have been following, the success of cities around the world and we in San Francisco have been inspired by the phenomenal work the city of oakland has been doing the last couple of weeks on their slow Streets Program, which is designed to serve several functions. S fofor us, one of the most important is addressing the parts of the city that have lost the most muni service and that have the los loss access, in orr to provide safe corridors for people to walk or bike in order to be able to make their last mile connection to transit or to get to essential services or open spaces. So the proposal, which we hope to start implementing at the end of this week, is to identify the low volume residential streets where we can limit through automobile traffic in order to make those streets feel safer for walking and biking and in order to allow particularly pedestrians to spread out more so they can walk or jog while maintaining six feet of social distance. The first phase of work was developed mainly around places that had lost muni service, that needed additional access to services and where there were major gaps in the both transit and bikeway networks. So well be rolling that out this friday and well probably be able to implement about two streets per week and well be learning as we go along and collecting input about how to make adjustments to our initial set of streets, as well as where should we expand to. So well look forward to providing you with Additional Information on that, as well as hearing any input you may have about the program and how it is going and where we should expand to. I should emphasize, as well, unlike the chronicle story today which got the message completely wrong, were not closing my streets to cars. All of the streets will still be open to cars. Were not eliminating any parking spaces. Everyone will have access to their driveways. Were limiting throughtraffic and slowing pedestrians down so. The big news since everything is accelerated in the time of covid, caltrans is moving forward on their u. S. 101 project. This involves taking the entire freeway deck basically at the 280 interchange around alamani street and replacing that entire deck. They are shifting that forward to start on april 25th, this weekend. Theyre taking out 800 feet of the freeway in both directions and doing it now because traffic volumes have so light. This is a fantastic opportunity, both for caltrans in the the city to do a lot of work when it has the least amount of work and it will allow them to do the work much faster. So you can get a lot of detail on that project by searching caltrans u. S. 101 and we are coordinating with them closely to make sure, again, that the traffic impacts on surface streets are minimal. A couple other interesting Little Details also that were working on, as some of you know, two weeks ago, the great highway had to be closed because we faced heavy winds and the sanddunes had blown across the street. Working with public works after they removed the stand, we agreed that we dont need to reopen great highways. Highway. Keeping the great highway closed to car traffic helps us to maintain social distance on this critical recreational commute route. Were watching it closely to make sure that it doesnt become too much of a destination, which is a concern that the department of Public Health has. So hopefully through some management, we can allow that to be retained as a useful state for exercise and commuting and not a place for product parties which would require that we reopen the street to cars, which is the last thing we want to do. Were also working with the giants, both the ballpark and Mission Rock Development to create Additional Space on the third street bridge between the ballpark and the Terry Francois boulevard. Right now the sidewalk is less than three feet wide and no traffic in the roadway to bridge. We want to take the most eastern lane on a temporary basis to be able to provide a safe space spore pedestrians a cyclists to get across the bridge and it also makes it possible to open up Terry Francois street and illinois street as a potential expansion opportunity for our slow Streets Program. And with that, i think i also want to take the time to thank director heineke well, perhaps thank and curse him, maybe, for being part of the reason why i ended up taking this job and why despite this job having completely changed into something far different than way thought i was taking, director heine conscience es work has inspired me to realize that i didnt take this job just to able to do a bunch of cool stuff. Theres no better time to do Public Service right now in San Francisco, the city that i love most in all of the world. My job, though, i get paid well for. Its always rather baffled me why all of you serve. Your work on our board of directors is completely unpaid and completely without any thanks. Theres no real benefit, aside from the benefit that you get understanding that you are making a substantive difference in this small unmanageable city. And director heineke epitomizes that to Public Service. Your dedication to this agency for as long as you have served is phenomenal and you will remain an inspiration to me, a kind of north star, if you will, for the kind of service that i want to provide this agency in my particular way. So thank you so much and i will look forward once its allowed again to not only enjoin the ceremony at west portal station in naming the crossover after you but enjoying several drinks at the club around the corner. [ laughter ] thank you so much. Mr. Chair, it seems like your microphone is not cooperating right now. And director hemminger has a question and maybe director borden can manage the meeting while we work on the chairs microphone. No problem. Director hemminger. The guy has not even left the building and weve turned the mic off. Thats really rough. [ laughter ] i had nothing to do with it. Yeah, youre al hake, huh. I had a question about the slow streets proposal, and that is, why no love for the rich mon district. Richmond district . It was used with key inputs and the most important is where have we cut the most Transit Service . If you overlay the proposal on our core muni service map, youll see a direct correspondence and the biggest gaps are where we have emphasized the slowstreets investment. We wanted to make sure that in the first step, that one, we respected the limitations we have in material is were working on sources additional materials and so we wanted to make sure that we did enough investment that people could truly spread out. Were actually worried about doing too little investment, attracting too much attention and therefore, crowding. So the sunset district which had faced the deepest muni surface cuts is also one of the easier neighborhoods to actually make a significant difference and create a real network. We also, like hollowway street was a key consideration for us, as well, given the big gas in the oli, even after we brought some service back. So the Richmond District by comparison has much better access to Retail Services and to open place than almost any neighborhood in San Francisco. Its also been a place that has suffered the least muni service cuts. The same is true for districts 2 and 3 and south of market where most muni Service Remains and where there is easier access to essential services nearby. And so im hoping that if we can make phase 1 successful, that we can start expanding this citywide, but well want to do that with input from all of you, as well as members from the board of supervisors and Many Communitybased organizations and its something that we did not have the luxury of doing in order to respond to the crit cal needeneeds, a week and a half ar we have done such dire service cuts. Sorry for my mic failing that. I wanted ti see several mics ard and what i might do is see if we have Public Comment on director tumlins report. So miss boomer, can you see if theres Public Comment on item number 7, please. For members watching this meeting and wish to address the board on this topic, please call 888 8086929 and then the code is 9961164. For those of you who are on the phone already who wish to address the board under general Public Comment, which are items only raised and discussed by director tumlin, presence 10 and moderator, please let us know if there are people on the line. Your conference is now in question and answer mode. Press 10. You iyou have three questions remaining. When its your turn to speak, the system will prompt you automatically. Moderator, please take the next caller and we will set a toominute time limit and i will give each caller two minutes and a 30second warning. First caller, please. Hello . Caller with phone number ending in 7186, its your turn to speak. Lets move to the next speaker. Speaker, weve had no response and if you want to rejoin, please dial 10 to rejoin the cue. Operator you have three questions remaining. Ok, next speaker, please. Question hi there. Hello. Thanks to the secretary and the department of technology for making this possible. Somehow im more nervous doing this than i would be if i were standing in front of you. Go you give us your name . My name is jed holtzman, i moved here in 1999 and i work on climate policy. I want to thank the director for the whov huge list and great w. Were really glad to have you in the city. I think theres some learning there when all of this settles down on the needs for the termination times when such amazing work can get done at a breakneck pace. I was originally planning the last week, plus the comment on the desperate need to open the streets, whether because of joggers, couples, families, kids, dogs, as someone with Outstanding Health problems, i have really found any time ive gone outside to be really just dodging selfish humans all of the time, it doesnt make me feel great about living in San Francisco. Now that this plan has been announced, its fantastic and includes my street and thats great. I really am also concerned about crowding, as well. And thats the whole reason for me to open the street in the first place. So i would hope there would be some light enforcement, where possible, rather than leaving to everything for a freeforall and shut it down if people are irresponsible. 30 seconds. Question the stay at home order is until may 3rd and i understand thats to be extended but even to midjune, it seems like two streets a week, the program wouldnt get ramped up to full until almost this is hopefully, fingers crossed, getting to be over. And so, this has been well over a month for folk and the need has built up. I would encourage quicker action to slow the streets and allow for more personal space. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, mr. Holtzman and thank you tor commenting. Miss boomer, would you unable the next speaker. You have five questions remains. This is for topics discussed by director tumlin. Next speaker, please. Give us your name and well start your two minutes. Question im cliff barger and thank you for giving us the opportunity to call and give comments. This is the first time ive been able to give comments because of the time and place of the meetings. I want to thank director tumlin for his great presentation and thank you, chair, for your long service to the board and thank you, also, members. I want to applaud mta for approaching this slowstreets initiative. It was exciting to see our friends across the bay do this and im glad were learning from their experiencing. As a resident, im glad to hear director tumlin mention the third street bridge and the possibility of extending closed streets to Terry Francois. Opening up the waterfront is more important and one of the most crowded places ive seen since the lockdown has gone in place. And so thank you very pitch. Much. I echo the previous caller to implement this as fast as possible. Thank you very much. Miss boomer, the next speaker, please. Operator you have five questions remaining. Question im paul barrara. That was a mistake and i died the numbers by mistake, so excuse me for that. Im still adjusting to this. Operator next speaker, please. You have four questions remaining. Question this is Hayden Miller. Im just calling to say that i urge you guys at muni to look at reducing the capacity limits on your buses. Right now, for a 40foot bus, youre allowing 20 people on it, which doesnt allow for sixfeet instancing. Other transit agencies, ac transit has limited it to ten people and golden gate transit has limited it to eight people, which i think will allow for better social distancing. So i encourage you to look into that and thank you for your service, mr. Heineke. Thank you, mr. Miller, thank you for saying that. Next speaker please. Operator you have three questions remaining. Next speaker, please. Question good afternoon. Im here for the record again. Let the record reflect my pronounces are she and her and concerning the directors report, im appreciative of you bringing back the 28 line, which will help to close a big gap in the outer sunset section of San Francisco, this is an area that i spent many, many nights in and probably my favourite area of San Francisco. So this will help a lot of people to be able to get around in that very hilly area with long distances. Concerning covid19, obviously its a matter i take very seriously. We can have limits. We can have mass requirements. Its important to ensure that they can be easily complied with. What we dont want is to have people who are left on the side of the road. There was an innocent in philadelphia in which a passenger didnt have a mask and it turned into a very ugly incident. We dont want to have a situation where bus drivers are trying to play Good Cop Bad Cop and having things escalate and worse yet, having people get hurt. So it wont be easy if masks were easily had but theyre not. I think it important for muni to be involved in the process of helping to get these protective Face Coverings so people can comply and not be left out in the cold. So i appreciate the work you do and to the chair, im going to miss you. You have been an inspiration to me to come and speak at these meetings to get involved. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Operator you have two questions remaining. Next speaker, please, give us your name and we will start your time when you start speaking. Question yes, my name is john mccore mechanic an mccormig in regards to the safer Streets Program that was just established. The tenderloin only has one block that has been blocked off. In terms of equity and common sense, i dont at all think that makes sense. Tenderloin has seniors, children and people with the disabilities, the highest, and yet one block has been reserved for slower streets . If were trying to be equitable about this situation, we need a whole route through the tenderloin. The sunset district has miles of blocks and blocks and blocks of the streets to these lower street expose werstreets and ig about the most vulnerable populations and helping them, we need to be putting more attention on the tenderloin and looking at the tenderloin to see where we can block off more streets so that the people that live there are treated fairly and equi thattablabley and i doe that reflected in any initiatives and directives. It just not fair and thank you. Thank you for the helpful comments. Miss boomer, anyone left in the speaking cue . You have one question remaining. Question im a Community Organizer and cochair of the intender loin Peoples Congress and thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak. Im concerned, also, the last speaker spoke about the slow streets in the tern loin. Tende. We have a crisis here and if youre not down here, youre probably unaware of this. I live here and im not able to access my corner store. I can do without my prescription from the pharmacy, because its just not safe for me to travel outside. Im an atrisk person exi haveae to be careful. Streets are overcrowded. Theres no safe passage and so, we really need some blockedoff lanes. We need some lanes reduced. We need parking lanes taken away, so folks can travel and Access Services in a safe waist. Therway. Perhaps you could do len other neighborhoods, because the need, the need is greater in the tenderloin than in any other neighborhood in the city. We have a crisis happening here and theres a medical i mean, there is a real, real problem thats getting ready to happen because folks who ar arent ablo practise social distancing. Youll end up with a disaster coming out of the tenderloin and that puts the whole city at risk, not just our neighborhood. So please, please, we need help here. We need help now. Thank you. Thank you for your comments, sir. Operator you have zero questions remaining. So anyone else who wishes to address the board and who is currently on the line, please dial 10. This is on the directors report only. Moderator, please let us know if anyone else joins. This is the moderator and there are no current participants wishing to make comments. Well close Public Comment on item 7 and as soon as the tech takes care of that. Director rubki, youll be up. Moderator confirms that Public Comment is disabled. Director rubki, please. Thank you. I appreciate director tumlins comments in the way its meant to supplement muni service that was taken away but comments from the tenderloin and knowing we need more space in the tenderloin, in general, i would love to see the staff come back with some ideas how to make that Space Available in the tenderloin, in particular. And i know that staff is working so hard and i really appreciate it, but that is my one request on that. And on the essential trip tripr program for facilities and seniors, i think a traffic way to help out our taxi industry and i think it would be really helpful to get feedback from the taxi drivers about their experience on this and see if theres a way to use this model in other ways, post covid and those are my comments, so thank you. Chairman, if i may, i want to point out that the tenderloin is high on our priority list, as well. We are wanting to partner with communitybased organizations within the tenderloin and weve got a strong relationship with them, particularly in the work that weve done on the 300 block of ellis and were working with them on the 100 block of cheryl. We recognise in the tenderloin, we want to make sure theres a Management Plan for insuring the success of slow streets. Not only is this the integrate concentratiogreatestconcentratin the city but theres incidents and fatalities as a result of traffic violence. So we want to use this as an opportunity to address that both in the short and long run, but do it in a way that involves more Community Involvement than we had time to do in a week and so well look forward to coming back to you with a more sophisticated approach from the tenderloin. And i would also note that its also one of the greatest concentrations of children in the city, too, which is why ive personally asked that you all look at levinworth or some other streets as the next carfree streets and director tumlin understands that and i appreciate it. Director eakin, please. Thank you, chair. First of all, director tumlin, thank you for your heroic commitment to Public Service during this time. I know its more than you bargained for to navigate your way through this challenge to work your way through the position. So please let us know how we as a board can support you and the staff during these difficult times. As to your update, it was, of course, exciting to see the mayors announcement this morning, taking important steps to make more safe space for walking and biking. And the city has offered to do so in a way thats low cost. Im glad well be monitoring and learning as we go and we can address some of the comments were hearing today. I wanted to share a few comments as i look at the map. It seems there are definitely some parts of the city that have a great deal of pedestrian traffic and narrow streets that screen out more pedestrian streets and chinatown comes to mind clearly without any slow streets proposed on this map. And i also heard your explains very clearly about the nexus to transit. I think that makes a lot of sense. Ill note it seems there are parts of the city that have relatively less parks access than some of the parts receiving the slowstreet treatment and i see some of the eastern neighborhoods and southeastern neighborhoods standing out with relatively less treatment and need for safe space for for rec creating, as well. Listening to you talk about the success of transit and treating people as equals as opposed to agents of enforcement has been so effective and im wondering if we can take a page out of that playbook and think about the Ambassador Program and that style of enforcement could be a successful model as we think about the slowstreets network and how we encourage people to adhere to social distancing guidelines. Thats what weve been doing, so our parking control officers have been partnering with sfpd and Recreation Parks Department to help them with social distancing support in ocean beach and the arena. So well want to learn from that success. Supporting compliance rather than toppedout enforcement kind of way. Wonderful, director hemminger, you had one more comment. Yes, i did and thanks tor for allowing me to doubledip, mr. Chairman. This is the last time ill allow it. That joke will gel ol get ole end of this meeting. [ laughter ] the only place i have myself experienced excessive crowding is in Golden Gate Park, on the sidewalks there. I know there was discussion awhile back whether or not we could close some of those roads like we do on the weekends. And the concern i heard respected from the department of Public Health, they were worried it would draw too many additional crowds and i guess the response i would make to that is i think the crowds are there. I wonder whether thats worth another discussion with the department of Public Health so that we could avoid the crowding there. Its an obviously magnet for people. Thats what they want to do with their dogs and kids and everything else. But right now, its a bit of a madhouse on the panels. Paths. I just wonder waed what your thoughts might be. Were engaged with the department of Public Health and Recs Department. As most of you know, the streets in Golden Gate Park are uniquely not controlled by sfmta but managed by the Recs Department and during the covid crisis, w l city departmented are respecting the center. And so throughout this crisis, all of the work that were doing has been coordinated through the citys eoc and we are so grateful for the very strong and direct leadership from the department of Public Health here in San Francisco. You know, having learned from their experience from the last pandemic in sanfrancisco and gotten ahead of the curve here for the bay area, we respect their conclusions on Golden Gate Park. However, we know that were starting to have the conversation about how shelter in place starts getting rachetted down. At a certain point, we should be able to demonstrate and experiment on noninstagrammable street like kirkham. So well get experience with management techniques that work. In addition, at a certain point, the utility of a safe bike, commuter, corridor exercise place will be a risk for a regional attracter and those lines will cross as people in San Francisco get used to wearing personal protective equipment everyday, get used to having socialized, social distance and having it be selfenforcing, unlike the situation we had last weekend where sfpd had to do some hardcore enforcement in deloris park and Golden Gate Park. We believe at a point, people in San Francisco will get used to this and that we will be able to take a second look in collaboration with rec park and the department of Public Health about what should we do with Golden Gate Park and jfk drive, in particular. But in the meantime, i 100 support the conclusion of the department of Public Health and i stand behind them. Wonderful. I dont see any other virtual mics up from the directors. So if none, i will say a few things. Jeff, first of all, the taxi program sounds fantastic and thank you for your attention to the safety of our taxi drivers, as well as giving them an economic boost when they need it. Im thrilled with the slow Streets Program. Its not lost. Its my last day and i do think that may be a little bit of coincidence but it makes me happy and i hope it gives us more information in that i know my remaining Board Members will be pushing for us to look at other carfree streets and similar benefits that we can provide to people in San Francisco didnt im pleased about that. One thing that i would ask, jeff, and i dont think its appropriate for today and i know you guys are thinking about this. But i think its appropriate for a board member briefing or the next meeting would be starting to lay out your plans for how well dial service back up, how well come back online, how well turn the dimmer switch in the other direction to use the analogy everybody is using, and bring muni back because i think our customers and our employees need to start thinking about how that will play out so they can visualize it, so they can follow your directives and so they can feel the optimism that is going to come back. This agency is going to respond. The city is going to respond and well be ok. And i think starting to plan for that, which i know youre doing, and communicating those plans will help people understand what the situation will be like and i think it will make folks really optimistic. I suspect im not the only one who misses dearly riding on the subway. And then a question that i had for you, that ive asked you, but i wanted to share, i very much support the idea of getting the work on the 101 now when we were presented what it would be in july, it was there would be the least traffic and now we have the time where its the least traffic and im glad theyre proceeding that way. I asked you and i thought the Board Members might like to hear the answer to this, can we utilize our time when the subway is out of auto allegation t uti. So these are all questions that we are spending a lot of time thinking about. Theres this unique period of time as shelterinplace starts getting ratched down but before the economy and congestion come riproaring back. Its an opportunity to get a lot of work done and deal with the residual fear that many people will have about getting on to a crowded train or walking on a busy sidewalk. These are fears that transit shares with the restaurant industry. In order for San Francisco to come back and to be San Francisco again, we need to be able to celebrate the closeness. So in terms of how the system comes back, were also working with the department of Public Health about exactly what happens as it gets rachetted down. Rachetted down. Weve been hoping to get some major maintenance projects underway, but we realize the nature of that work made it almost impossible to keep people six feet apart. We need to have groups of people repairing the subway. What is the amount of personal equipment that is necessary at what point in time to allow this work to get started . These are questions that were asking the department of Public Health and were getting ready to get started on. I think this is a onceina lifetime opportunity to keep the subway closedded a bit longer than necessary to address decades of deferred maintenance and get it right. Moreover, its an opportunity o rethink our service. Much of the muni map remains fairly unchanged since 1912 when streetcar operators were competing for franchise. Do we want to bring back that same exact map . How can we best make tradeoffs between much better frequency on a fewer number of routes versus Core Frequency on many routes . Should we even bring back schedules . So we have switched in a moment of crisis from having everything operate on a schedule to having most lines operate according to Headway Management. Were getting much more Reliable Service as a result despite the erraticness of operator availability. Should we ever bring schedules back . We changed this week to predict the first few stops on every run and to eliminate ghost buses. Should we continue that. Should we bring the rail system back the way that it was . Should the j ever go back into the subway or can we use the new Malcolm Heineke crossover to improve capacity and frequency in the core subway and have lines that connect to it. Unique among cities, the singleseat ride to the financial district is sa sacred. The job growth in San Francisco is not in the financial district. Its scattered everywhere. In the new San Francisco that were becoming, were going to need to get used to the idea of the transfers. So how should we make that work . Should we make it work by much better frequency in our core line . Should we be looking at timed meats like other cities do . Again, we will never again have this opportunity to rethink the Mobility System of San Francisco from the ground up and be thoughtful about how and why we turn lines and Services Back on. Well, thank you for that fantastic answer and i hope Board Members found it as inspiring as i did. I just wanted you all to hear that. This is a unique opportunity, not just on maintenance of the subway, but on sort of the planning discussions that director tumlin has talked about and i think as we are ambassadors for this agency, and some folks are really going to be pushing on us to turn the Subway Service on as soon as we can, we need to be mindful and communicate to our fellow citizens that there may be a little bit of a delay so that we can make the system so much better as we go forward and i think this is a unique opportunity and im thrilled jeff is doing what hes doing to seize the opportunity. With that, jeff, thank you for your kind word about me personally. I feel very strongly about this agency, but leaving it in your hand ans is a true relief to me. With that, thats the conclusion of item 7. Miss boomer, if we can move on to item 8. Item 8, this is Advisory Counsel report and we do not have a report so moving on to item 9, which is general Public Comment. If members of the public who wish to address the board on matters within the jurisdiction of the mta but that are not on todays calendar, please call 888 8086929 and the code is 9961614. And then finally dial 10. So thats the opportunity for members of the public to address the board on matters in the jurisdiction and not on todays agenda. Operator so summon each question, press 10. When it is the publics turn to speak, the system will prompt you and if you give us your name, we will start your two minutes when you start talking. Operator you have three questions remaining. First speaker, please. Question hello, this is Hayden Miller again. I just wanted to comment on something director tumlin just said about keeping the subway closed. I definitely support that and i think with the messaging to the customers, but back before with the tcentral subway when it was first built, you would get a monthly or even like a weekly video about what work was being done. I think thats very important for us to see as customers, you know, what work is happening and how is the system getting better. So i think that could be a better idea for a message to the customers and then, also, more covidrelated stuff. The recycling on the buses, there are still people bringing on whove bags of recycles and reaching on to the seats and floors and creates a real hazard. I dont see a real policy on that, but its just a real safety hazard. So just thank you. Thank you, mr. Miller. Next speaker, please. Operator you have two questions remaining. The next speaker, please. Wheel start your time when you give us your name. Question hello. Im jessica wynne, im a student organizer and im speaking out against the fare increase. Jessica, that is an item on the agenda. This is an opportunity for members of the public to address the board on matters that are not on todays agenda. So that is item 13. Thank you, ok. Next speaker, please. Thank you for your cooperation. Operator one question remaining. Question i want to talk about the fare increase. That is item 13 on the agenda. Thank you both for your cooperation. Thats appreciated. Operator you have zero questions remaining. Mr. Chair, well pause for a moment to let anyone else dial 10. And if the moderator confirms that no one else is on the line, we can move forward. Moderator confirms there are no additional participants. Wonderful, that will close Public Comment on item number 9 and that will take us to item 10, which is our consent calendar. What i would suggest is call Public Comment right now to see if theres anyone who wants to sever an item and speak to it. Would you agree with that approach . If i can read the item first so members can read whats on and then we will ask the moderator to open the phone lines. That sounds fair. Thank you. So if members of the public do wish to address an item that i will read shortly, pleads dial 888 8086929. These are considered to be routine and there will be no separate discussion unless a member so requests in which case it will be considered a separate item. Mr. Chair, just for the record, no member of the board has asked that an item be severed. With item 10. 1, a lots payment for various claims against the mta including donna marleno for 5,000, wang for 17,000 and 10. 2 awards 1295 r, phase 1, metro rail to perform rail grounding services in the tunnels not to exceed 12. 2 million in a term of 548 days. 10. 3 authorizes the director to approve a program of projects to execute the required certifications and assurances for all transit projects for fiscal year 2020. 10. 4 finds the twin peaks boulevard to the sound end of figure eight is no longer needed tor vehicular travel and permanently closing the section of twin peaks boulevard to vehicular travel except for bicycles and emergency vehicles and changing the oneway direction of twin peaks boulevard, western alignment as stated above. Mr. Chair, those are the four items on the consent calendar item. Public comment on those in. Members who are watching this meeting on sfg tv, if you wish to address the board call 888 8086929, i. D. 9961164 and dial 90. If the moderator can let us know if members of the public wish to address operator your question is in question and answer mode. To summon each question press 1 and then 0. Your conference is now in question and answer mode. Press 1 and then 0. You have one question remaining. So member of the public, when you begin talking, we will set your timer for two minutes. Please start by giving us your name. And letting us know which item you wish to sever. Question this is Hayden Miller in regard to 10. 4. I wanted to voice my support for the closing of twin peaks boulevard to vehicular traffic. I would support approving that. Thank you. Very good. Any other speakers. Operator you have two questions remaining. Next caller, please. Question hi, my name is matt rizina, calling about 10. 4 and i support the closing of the eastern alignment to the cars, but i want to tell the board how much i enjoyed having this turned into a park for people during this crisis. And i would like to push the board to think more broadly about how we can help nature. Theres a massive opportunity, maybe the biggest in all of San Francisco for Tree Planting in that area which will work with the San Francisco board before us to plant in that area and for tour buses to access and not for porsches to ride up and down. I would like to close all of twin peaks to cars. Thank you. Very good, next speaker, please. Operator you have two questions remaining. Please give us your name and well start your timer when you start talking. Operator you have one question remaining. Please give us your name and well start your two minutes when you start talking. Question my name is kristen leche, im on behalf of the San Francisco bike coalition. Im calling in today on behalf the 10,000 plus members to show our support for the road closure on twin peaks boulevard. Since this pilot went into place, we have seen the speed limit dropping by 77 and most folks who have been surveyed are in support of this. So with the success, were excited to see this moving toward becom becoming a permanet closure. From here, we look forward to working with the recreational Parks Department to focus on securing funding and creating this into beautiful park space, not only for San Francisco folks but all of the visitors that visit during the year. Thank you for your time. Thank you. I dont believe we have any more speakers. Operator you have one question remaining. One more. If you could please give us your name and well start your two minutes. Question this is john mesabski on the mta cac and i speak in favour of 10. 4. I think its a great item and i hope its just the beginning of turning twin peaks in a carfree haven for cyclists and pedestrians. Thank you. Thank you for your service on the cac. Any further speakers . Operator you have zero questions remaining. Assuming the moderator confirms thats it, we will close Public Comment. Moderator confirms there are to more participants and Public Comment is being deactivated. Public item on 10 is closed. Let me ask if there are any questions. I should note for public we did receive a fair number of advanced comments on 10. 4, and those are circulated and reviewed by all Board Members. So with that, directors, i dont see any virtual mics up and i would entertain a motion on the consent calendar. Move it. Second. Always downe count on senatoz to move it along. We had a second and miss boomer, would you call the role. role call . Mr. Chair, directors, you have a unanimous approval. Wonderful. That takes us to item 11. Presentation and discussion regarding Transit Service. Director tumlin, will we hear from you or miss kirschbaum. Julie kirschbaum will be presenting. Wonderful, the last time i get to do this with you. Ill be polite. Hi, everyone. Im the transit director. Its bittersweet that i give this last report and i want to echo all of the feedback weve heard on chair heine conscience. Youve been an incredible support for me and the Transit System and we appreciate everything that youve done in service to transit. Im going to go ahead and share my screen. Did that work . Yes, we have the covid19 transit performance update slide in front of us. Ok. This is a different type of transit report than weve had in the past because most of our focus right now is on keeping both our operators and our passengers safe. And weve had a completely different set of objectives that has guided our work to date. The first and primary goal is to limit the exposure of sfmta edges to covid19 and then to also limit the exposure of our passengers to covid19. One moment, please. My apologies. Were also doing everything that we can to maintain mobility and access to our customers as long objectives 1 and 2 are not pro myselfed ancompromised and youe changes weve had to make. Fourth, were doing everything we can to maintain and communicate situation awareness. Were finding that really the only way to get through this is by preserving the trusts that we have with our employees and with the public and we take that very, very seriously. please stand by . We have provided cleaning supplies, and staff are routinely cleaning common areas as well as their own workstations. So part of how were getting through this is that cleaning becomes everybodys responsibility and part of our core work. And then as jeff indicated, we have also established a very strong Contact Tracing for when a staff person does have covid19, and we are also modifying procedures as we go with the goal of minimizing the amount of people that need to selfquarantine and reducing any contact that people can have. And that includes things like our mechanics now wipe down the vehicle before they even move it to park it. Or they wipe down the area they are working in and share too manies are also cleaned as well. Within the system we have also made sure the employees have the protective equipment we need including masks and gloves. Operators go out with additional cleaning supplies and in addition to getting a clean bus. You will see in this photo we have made mandatory the protective shield. Were very fortunate that all of our buses have this. Getting all of the buses equipped with this was a 90day plan initiative, so its really come back and been a tremendous value to us. Our operators are protected by a shield of plexiglas and we discontinued those where operators protection was comprised on the cable car in the historics. The best feedback were getting about staff safety is coming from the staff themselves coming from our Union Leadership so we are spending a tremendous amount of time listening, understanding what peoples concerns are and responding as best we can. We also in addition to making the mandatory operator barriers, we have also implemented rear door boarding except for customers with disabilities. We have lowered the load standards to support social distancing and we are using our announcement system as well as printed materials like the sign here to deliver the information to our passengers. Ridership as you know is trending down very dramatically in this time really by design. And we are working as hard as we can to make sure that people under that muni is just for essential trips so that we can maximize as much social distancing as possible. And we estimate right now were at about 8 of our typical daily ridership. The covid19 Priority Network was something that we put in not just because of operator resources but because of also places where we were stretched on units as well as to implement these increased car cleaning protocols. We have delivered service on 17 critical routes and as director tumlin indicated, we will be adding four more. These routes were selected based on things like hospital access, ridership, after the shelter in place was issued, equity needs, as well as city wide coverage. As we see Staffing Levels improve, i am optimistic that well be able to continue to increase and get people back on transit. Communications to the public have been key. We are a partnership on this. Crowding is currently our biggest service challenge. We have been trying to address that through proactive Marketing Campaigns as well as the Ambassador Program that was described along with Strong Social media and web presence. Any time we get an opportunity to talk about safe practices on muni, we do so. In terms of data a lot of the data that we typically look at is not relevant here. Things like subway travel times and other issues. I do want to point out that we are seeing very good safety data. Significant reduction in collisions many day where is we go zero collisions or one collision, so as we have reduced the service miles, we have seen safety collision data improve. We continue to see, i think, a troubling trend is on security issues. So while we significantly reduced the amount of service, our security instances have not changed very much. Per vehicle security instances is quite high right now and something that we need to continue to monitor and support. In terms of next steps, we are continuing to look nationally and internationally for Public Health best practices as we think about how we go from the current shelter in place to what will eventually become a new normal. We are monitoring Staffing Levels and vehicle availability constantly, and we are also launching the Complimentary Program for essential trips that jeff described. We are working in Close Partnership with the Emergency Operations centers so while most of our service has been for muni passenger, we have also been supporting city wide Transportation Needs including connecting people who are in shelters to sheltered facilities. This photo here shows a partner shup of us working with the sf hot team, and we continue to provide support as needed city wide. So just in conclusion, i do want to put a thank you out to our incredible staff. Theyre demonstrating resiliency every day. People are doing new work, new locations, different hours, different schedules, and theyre doing it because they know that this is an unprecedented emergency and that our role as Public Servants has never been more important. So i just wanted to say that everything that were doing is really because were backed by an incredible staff who is willing to keep San Francisco moving even under these incredibly challenging times. Wonderful. That concludes my presentation. I can answer any questions that you guys have. President so lets first see if there is Public Comment on item 11, ms. Boomer, and thank you very much for the words and the person encouragement to me. I really appreciate it. Secretary members of the public who wish to address the board on this topic and watching via sfgtv, hopefully you have called into the line. I will give the number 8886086929. The code is 9961164. And then you will dial 1, 0. The moderator will queue those up. Great. When it is your turn to speak t system will prompt you automatically. Moderator, please let us know if there are people on the line. You have one question remaining. All right. Good afternoon. Please give us your name and we will start your two minutes when you start talking. This is Hayden Miller again. The presentation particularly to the customers so i think one area where the communication could really be is improved is for the stops regarding the metro buses. Theres been a lot offen cofusion and people waiting at s line stops particularly in upper market where it has the little yellow flag from when the twin peaks was happening and those stops no longer line up to the early bird metro shuttle plan that is being run. It is very confusing and a lot of customers have been getting passed up i have been seeing on twitter. So maybe removing those signs would be helpful. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Miller. Any other speakers, mr. Moderator . Awe off you have zero questions remaining. All right. If our moderator confirms there is no one else, we will close Public Comment. Moderator confirms there are no additional comments. Thank you so much. Okay, with that, vice chair borden please. Truly i want to thank you for all the great work you are doing and i am so thrilled were going to be able to add back some of that service. You talk about how were looking on the operator side in terms of the staffing for our phasing up of our service. The other question i have and maybe this is more of a director question, but with people not Wearing Masks, that changed the social distancing needs that we have for our buses. So if you could answer those two questions, that would be great. Absolutely. The Staffing Levels, i think, have stabilized. We do not have enough operator who is can drive 60 foot buses, and so that continues to be a challenge. Were addressing it by increasing frequency on 40 foot buses which is how we, for example, handle that this week. And we also are constrained on the 40 foot bus side with some of the maintenance needs. For example, out of our woods division, were actually preparing more buses than we would during a typical weekday because of the double cleaning. So in some cases were continuing to be very tight on operators and in other cases like at some of the 40 foot divisions, we have operator availability and are working through maintenance constraints. In terms of social distancing as far as it goes with masks, we have not received updated guidance from the department of Public Health so were continuing to approach it that even with the masks social distancing is important to provide support for. Very good. Director eaken. Thank you so much, chair heinicke. I have been doing a ton of thinking about what this crisis means for our transportation field broadly and what it means for our Transportation System here in San Francisco. And thank you so much, director, for the very helpful transit update. I also observed the creation of the Economic Recovery Task force that was convened by the mayor to think about seeing how we recover as a city. I wanted to just put out a request to staff at this point and if its possible to get any input from my fellow Board Members thinking about malcolms comments earlier in the meeting about when and how were going to signal to the public that the Transit System is coming back online. Thinking about the comments from the public about creating walking and biking space. And its not and also thinking about director tomlin and the time to rethink the Mobility System from the ground up. I wanted to request that staff work to kind of develop and the Mobility Plan work and what this will do is key up an opportunity to praise staff for doing that area. And we are able to move with this very interesting world and so quickly in this time of need. And at the same time i think its important for the board to have a discussion and public to be able to weigh in about which streets make sense to prioritize and i just wanted to put out that request to staff and from a personal note, i biked this past weekend with my family all the way out j. F. K. And out to the great highway and got to experience great highway. Which director tomlin reiterated after to that low stress was a real privilege and just made me think what if we could create a low stress Bicycle Network all around the city . As we recover, how do we encourage and just make it safe and really truly comfortable for people to get around the city in a way that is including and affordable. Put that out there and if there is any reactions from my colleagues. Director eaken, i thank you for the comments and those are, i think, we are starting to do that work of planning for the Recovery Period now and would actually love to have the direction of the board to formalize that work and to come back with the presentation. And probably come back with a regular presentation on this topic. What are we doing in order to help San Francisco get through the immediate covid crisis while protecting the health of the public and our work force. And then how are we taking advantage of this unique opportunity between the ratcheting down of shelter in place and the return of Strong Economy in order to build the San Francisco that we all want. I would be happy to come back to you with an update on that. Wonderful. Director heminger . Briefly, i wanted to second director eakens idea. And jeff, i think you anticipated quite a bit of her thinking in some of the earlier comments you were making. And i am a big fan of ask forgiveness, not permission, and i think you have been doing quite a bit of that the last several weeks and i think by necessity and i think we have done it very well. And to get the board engaged and if we are going to take advantage of this opportunity and another phrase is common is if you want to go far, go together, right . That is i think what were going to need to do here. Agreed. President wonderful. Director brinkman. Thank you. It to agree with that. Lets formalize the discussion and present it to the board for feedback and show the public and board of supervisors that we do intend to approach this thoughtfully and creatively. And that we have an Incredible Opportunity here. To echo director eaken, lets hear from the public about how theyre going to feel getting back on Public Transportation. What other modes could they use if those modes were safe and welcoming . Could a lot more people bike . Yes, we know a lot more people could and would bike in the city if we had those safe corridors that connected us. Would a lot more people walk if the traffic were as reduced as it has been the past five weeks . Its been amazing to walk for essential trips and to have so few negative car interaction. Although this is a dislocating time and been so hard on so many people and continues to be hard, i feel optimistic that were going to take this opportunity and come out with a better Transportation System for San Francisco and a safer one, and one that works for all the modes that people want to use. Very good. Vice chair borden. I want so support what has been said previously. What is evident is we dont have enough open public space as people start to go outside their homes and they are definitely going to look forward to having the space and some people are going to be looking forward to get back to transit. Thinking about how we deal with that. I also think about the question about masks and social distancing and unfortunately we know that this crisis, while it seems short term s probably more long term. It will change the nature of how people ride transit and really thinking about how we get back to where places in asia where people are back on transit and Wearing Masks and theyre adhering to certain other standards. And i think really thinking those things through in the long term will be very much important because these are not temporary concerns. These are more longterm concerns and getting the public comfortable to move forward in that regard with using transit and also providing the space for them to use it. And use our streets and the way they need to move about will be wise for us to plan. Very good. Director rubke. I just agree with everything that everyone else said, so i dont have anything further to add. Thank you. Wonderful. Julie, thank you for all of your work and our collaboration together. Its been an absolute thrill working with you, and i have every confidence cha that the system will run as well as it can when you are in charge. I would say coming out of this, what i would really focus on is optimism. The city will come back. The Transit System will come back. And now is your chance to make it better. Yes, there may be some social distancing protocols for a while. Yes, we may be Wearing Masks for the foreseeable future. But the reality is that the city is still going to have to use transit to move around, to keep its air clean, to keep people safe. It is really now more important than ever. And if there is one thing that sort of will come out of this, look at what our city and our state did in this time. Pretty well. Pretty well and we did it together. So please do use this opportunity to relook at things. Specific projects like the j. Church not going underground which we have talked about. Specific projects like certain flow or car free streets going forward. There is a unique time to look at those things and say just as we tackled this covid problem or in the process of tackling it, the city will tackle the transit issues that face us. Im glad to hear that you and jeff are looking at it that way, and in my final meeting, i would really strongly encourage you to look long term with optimism because i think some of these ideas and plans can really make for a better system. Hear, hear. With that, we will go to item 12. Let me unmute. So item 12 and i would like to call item 12 and 13 together because the presentation yes, we do. The presentation is combined for both of them and you can do Public Comment and the vote separately for each of them. Very good. Jonathan, do you understand was jonathan ready to go . A were all ready to go. Wonderful. And i will be. And item 12, adopting the fiscal year 20212025 Capital Improvement program totalling 2. 5 billion for 188 projects within 10 program, including communication and Information Technology, facility, fleet, parking, security, signals, streets, taxi, transit fixed guideway and transit optimization and expansion. Item 13, this is a long read. Aproving sfmta 2021 and 2022 operating budget in the amount of 1,283. 8 million and 1,336. 9 million respectively and the Capital Budget in the amount of 559. 8 million and 553 million respectively. Certifying that the both budgets are adequate and making substantial progress toward meeting the performance standards established pursuant to charter section 8a. 103 and authorizing changes to various fees, fare, rates, and charges beginning july 1, 2020 and july 1, 2021 to address fees and penal tis. Previously noted including a waiver of taxi fees for fiscal 2021 and 2022, reducing the lowincome boot removal fee creating a new onetime waiver of boot removal for hshapproved individuals experiencing homelessness, establishing reduced tow fees for lowincome individuals with hshapproved individuals and experiencing homelessness, and approving the sfmta title vi fare Equity Analysis for the fare changes. Approving muni railway fare changes, various fare changes, extending discounts of prepaid fare media, fare increases in excess of the automated index plan for all other passes. Increases based on the sfmtas indexing plan for passports, cable cars and authorizing all fare changes to take effect the first day of the next month that is at least 30 days after the fy2021 budget takes effect pursuant or according to the extended deadline for the board of supervisors review as adjusted by an Emergency Declaration of mayor. Acting a z the board of directtors and the Parking Authority commission approving additional increases to various fines, fees, rates and charngs. Amending the transportation Code Division 2 and increase and decrease payment penalties, special collection fees, boot removal fee, transportation code and vehicle code penalties, color curb painting fees, towing and storage fees, Community Service processing fees and various fees. I wont read through all of them. Very good. Sorry. And i think there is a few more things in here. Approving the site l vi analysis of the impact of the proposed fare inchanges on low income and minority communities in San Francisco. Approving a waiver of fees on new years eve and authorizing the director to implement shortterm experimental fares. And concurring with the controller certification that parking citation processing and Collection Services can be performed by private contractors at a lesser cost and to provide the same services to the employees. Authorizing the director to make necessary technical and clerical corrections to the budget. And to allocate additional revenues in order to Fund Additional adjustments to the operating or Capital Budget provided that the director will return to the board of directors for approval of technical or cler kl corrections that in aggregate exceed a 10 change to the operating or Capital Budget respectively. And i am done. Okay. Thank you for reminding me there will be some things about that job that i wont miss. And just for members of the public who are watching this meeting via sfg tv who wish to address the board on either the Capital Improvement program or about the budget to please call the number 8888086926, code 996164. So you are on the line when the chair opens to Public Comment. Very good. Director tomlin or jonathan, we have gone over much of this many times, so i dont think that we have to have a full rehash, but at the same time, if there are things you would like to present to us, please, the floor is yours. Yes. Mr. Chairman, i would like to make some introductory comments and i will apologize because it is going to be long in part because this is some of the most important work that we are asking you to do. As i have said repeatedly, the most powerful statement of any organizations values is its budget. And we began this budget process three months ago during a peak Economic Cycle when we needed to use our values in order to make difficult decisions about how to spend our money to best achieve the public good. Were now three months later in a deep economic crisis and likely at the beginning of a longterm and deep recession. The exact same values that we used thinking about expansion we now use thinking about thoughtful contraction. How do we spend less money while still delivering Critical Service that meet San Franciscos needs and meeting our list of many objectives. So we have engaged with a lot of people. Hundreds and hundred of individuals. We have met with and received comments from. We have engaged in a lot of conversation. And those conversations have significantly changed our approach in the budget. Many of our proposals, in fact, all of our most controversial proposals have been adjusted significantly based upon the feedback that we have received from organizations all over the city, but particularly from organizations representing our most vulnerable populations. We were inspired particularly by the Youth Commission and the Small Business commission. We listened deeply to many members of the south americanbased Community Association who were worried about how increase in fares would impact their community members. And so that is actually one of the place where is i want to start the conversation. Arguably, well, clearly the most controversial aspect of this budget is what were proposing to do with fares. As you well know this week the board of supervisors voted 101 asking us not to raise fares. In the hundreds of comments that we got, the largest the largest topic that we have addressed in those comments was asking us not to raise fares. And yet, in the board of supervisors vote and in 100 of the comments about fares asking us not to raise them, not a single one suggested where we should get additional revenue in order to make up lost revenue from not adjusting our fares, nor did anyone ask us or tell us what we should cut from our budget, from our other programs or from our services in order to accommodate not increasing fares along with our costs. And unfortunately and fortunately, prop e makes that hard tradeoff decision your fundamental responsibility. The sfmta board are the only people in the room who have the responsibility in order to address this critical tradeoff question between Service Versus fares, between cutting revenue and Cutting Services. Theres no easy answer to these questions, and i am grateful for the amount of thoughtfulness that you have put into the tensions in tradeoffs that we have to address in our many previous conversations. I would just like to remind you that we have a policy to increase our fares every single year along with the costs of our delivering services. So that as we increase operator wages because it is essential that we provide our operators with a living wage, we need to increase fares in order to keep up with those expenses. But if we didnt do that because its never popular raising fares, the alternative is Cutting Service and laying off workers. So our current proposal around dealing with fares brings us in a net of 15 million a year. Keeping fares exactly the same would require that we would have to make substantial service cuts and lay off over 100 transit operators. We dont want to do that. We understand, although for many members of the public, if you look in a simplistic linear way at questions of equity, of course we do not want to raise fares for low income passengers who are hurting in this economic crisis. But at the same time, our riders are more dependent upon muni than ever, and there is necessary tradeoff between bringing in revenue from fares and being able to deliver service. So what we did in our work was try and to cut fares for rich people in order to maintain the service weve got. And similarly in order to keep fares flat but cut service for lowincome people also didnt make much sense. We looked at who were the riders using each of our different fare products. And listening to the community we have come up with a proposal that focussing on making sure that were not raising fares for the service for the fare instruments that the most vulnerable populations are most likely to use. I want to be clear to everyone that our 3 cash fare, we are proposing to keep flat in both this coming fiscal year and the following fiscal year. But in order to close our budget gap without having to cut service, what were proposing to do is to focus on reducing a discount that single use clipper card users are given. Right now there is a 50 Cent Discount for using clipper instead of paying cash. Keeping in mind that it is our lowest income and most vulnerable populations that are most likely to use cash and higher incomes more white populations that are most likely to use clipper. Our current approach is not terribly equitable. By reducing the clipper discount, not only are we able to close the budget and maintain service, but were also able to focus the discounts on the people who need it most. So the result is that many people will be paying higher fare, but thats not increase in fare will hit vulnerable population the least and well be able to deliver service, muni service to the people who need it the most. That is why we have strongly recommended to you that of all the options that jonathan will be presenting briefly, what we call the clipper option. And this was an option we created in response to community considerations. So there is a couple of other quick things that i do want to cover. Basically that this budget is already starting to anticipate transportation and specifically transits role in supporting San Franciscos recovery. As i have also told you repeatedly, there is a good reason why the feeding is in the city of San Franciscos flag. We have been through boom and bust cycles before and at in every bottom of the bust cycle, in every time San Francisco has suffered a calamity, it has been transit that has been one of the First Services to come back and it has driven the recovery. And so we are focused our Capital Budget and setting ourselves up for an economic stimulus package knowing that every billion dollars of investment and transit yields about 50,000 new jobs. And knowing as well that if were clever about this, we could use any capital money that is directed at us and operationalize it in order to save our planner, engineer, Maintenance Worker and construction worker jobs both at the sfmta and the department of public works, particularly if we direct our capital money at quick built projects for muni as well as for walking and biking. The budget note that were presenting on the capital side and both on the capital and operating side are trying to strike the right balance between being realistic about the fact that things are not going to be good for the next two years, but also setting ourselves up to ready to receive state and federal stimulus dollars both on the capital and operating side. So we need the budget to accommodate what we hope we will get, but at the same time we need to be ready to spend only what we actually have budgeted. So this budget is going to require very careful management of our expenditures in order to make it work. While at the same time aggressively pursuing every possible avenue of new revenue with one of the things that we keep in mind the most is making sure that we cut every unnecessary expense and save every dime that we can in order to save our workforce. And in particular, pay careful attention to the work force that is most difficult to replace. Here at the sfmta we have a phenomenal array of highly skilled technical people that would be extremely difficult to replace, and this is particularly true in our shops. The machinists who hand Machine Parts for our very specialized skills and the people who slice the cable car cables and there is a long list of skills that we need to make sure we are increasing in this time period even just to hold still particularly as we look at the age of our workforce. We are making sure we are delivering in the budget in addition to preparing for the recovery and making sure we direct the service that comes back at where it is actually needed, not just based upon where our services were six months ago. We are proposing in this budget and one of the things that the reducing the clipper discount brings us is the ability to provide free muni for all youth which is something that we were very much inspired by the Youth Commission in order to deliver. Not just to make it easier for enforcement, but to also make it a lot easier for low income youth who may not have easy access to the particular program that we have got now. So an Important Program and again, we are not raising the cash fare at all, which is quite different from our original proposal. We are supporting the taxi industry by waiving all of their fees and fines for the next two years. We are significantly reducing lowincome tow and boot fees. And also dramaticcally reducing the use of towing and booting as tools given the disproportionate impact on lowincome populations. We are partnering with local merchants to help best manage parking not just during the day but also evenings and weekends in order to support recovery for Small Businesses. We are delivering on some of the Muni Reliability Working Group recommendations and the Service Expansion recommendations, but we are going to be investing in deferred maintenance, particularly for the subway. Making sure we have staffing to operate the central subway and were going to continue to build our h. R. Functions which are going to be necessary whether were expanding or contracting. Were also wanting tom expansion and a couple of key areas including Line Management and other system management and to help us learn from our experiences with switching from schedules to the Headway Management to improvement reliability. We want to expand the Muni Transit Assistance Program in order to help deal with managing homelessness and teenagers on our buses. Were wanting to add more parking patrol officers to manage the streets, particularly given the phenomenal job they have done as the citys most beloved Disaster Service workers the last coup of months. Well be investing in our infrastructure to better maintain a state of degree repash and investing in parts of the systems like our parking bans in order to be able to bring in more revenue. We need to spend money to make money. And of course in our Capital Budget there is a lot of very high return investments in quick build and muni forward. Were still thinking about what well need to do in this budget in order to win people back to transit, and that will shape our communications and quality and reliability investments over the next two years. We definitely need to make sure that San Francisco residents believe in transit, trust it, and feel safe riding it, and that is the duty of the residents to make the most efficient use of our limited street space. We cant take a suburban approach out of the covid problem in order to bring our economy back, we need to design the streets to maximize the movement of people. Were also wanting to support the return of tourism economy that we rely upon for so much the revenue we get from the general fund. And so other things that i just wanted to call attention to that are themes in this budget include our commitment to preserving critical and safe Transportation Services, prepefshing our existing jobs at the agency, but also jobs in Small Businesses, communitybased organizations, tourism, and the arts. Supporting a quick city wide recovery by showing San Franciscos optimism about the future. And continuing to be transparent and continuing to provide updates to you and the public about the reality of our budget situation. [inaudible] and so with that, i would like to turn it over to jonathan, but i do ask for your support in approving our twoyear operating budget and i believe i am turning this over to leo levinson who will give a brief introduction to the presentation. Reserve our comments until after the presentation. A yes, director torrez, that will be the plan and hear the presentation, hear from the public, and open it up for board discussion. Thank you. Yes. Thank you very much. I am leo levinson, the director of finance and Information Technology and chief Financial Officer with sfmta. I want to make a few preliminary remarks before we go through the details. The first thing that i am really proud to work in the agency in the way that we have worked to develop this budget because there is really three things about this i think that is extremely important. It is the focus on values. It is the focus on transparency. We want to be very clear about what were doing and the Public Outreach and listening that are part of this budget. And finally, i want to say a commitment to the focus on what is really happening in the world as we do this. This is one of the most unusual times for budget development. We have unprecedented Economic Situation, and our commitment in this budget allows us to do strategic planning, and it provides a Reference Point for where we hope to be as we go through this downturn and recover. But we are committed to regularly reporting to the board on what is actually happening as we go through this time. So this will be the Reference Point about where we want to be, and we will report on where we are as we go through it. This budget is this budget includes a realistic scenario for an economic downturn looking at the past, but it also preserves our reserve in case the downturn is worse than the budget, and i want to make sure that is clear. And so if the board approve this is budget, our team will be working with the controller and the mayor on actually an interim budget that will go into effect july 1, and for submission of the final budget on the citys new calendar, which will be on august 1. And during that period we may need to make technical adjustments to the budget for balancing purposes as we go through there and to reflect any changes that happen during that period, but we will, of course, be sure to report back as to what those adjustments may be and to the course of the budget period. As jeff has emphasized this, budget reflects the values of this agency and that the board has presented to us. Fundamentally, safety, equity, decarbonization as we move to remove carbon from the system, all within a resilient and financially sustainable system and a work culture that delivers excellent service. And you have heard as we have gone through this budget process and spoken before you and before Numerous Community groups that there are tradeoffs that are necessary as we consider those values. We have tried to make those tradeoffs as transparent and clear as possible to support your decision on this budget. So to move to the next slide please. So i am not going to read through all of this, but the Public Outreach as you know, not just at this board, but to other groups and stakeholders have been very extensive throughout the budget period. Numerous other board meetings in which we have presented and our Citizens Advisory Council and we go to the next slide, many other stakeholder groups. And we have listened during that process and this budget has been informed by it. And there have been changes that you have seen and we have talked about as we have gone through this. And if you two to the next slide, all of the feedback that we have from the public has been collected, analyzed, and posted on our website at sfmta. Com budget, where we also have frequently asked questions that shows our response to the most common categories of comments from the public, so that anyone interested in how their comment was received can actually see their response and the analysis and how we have taken it into account there on our website. And so some of the most important things in our budget that have really changed through this process as a result of what we have heard from you and from the public relates directly in the area of fares as director tumlin has mentioned, as changes to the way we have structured the fare proposal here. In terms of parking hours and the outreach that would take place as we discussed changes in parking meters hours throughout the city. And certainly the towing impact on lowincome individuals was definitely informed by what we heard through this process. The response to the taxi fees in the budget, and in the capitol budget also. And the addition zero focus in the tenderloin and focus on that is what we heard as part of the outreach process. So with that background on the budget, i want to turn it over to jonathan brewers, our senior budget manager. And he will go into more of the details of the programs and choices in this budget before you. Good afternoon, directors. Hopefully you can hear me. And we are now on the slide that says values as policy and programs. So building on what director tumlin and leo just said t critical part about this budget process as we designed it was we were being iterative. As we heard from you and as we heard from the public, we made changes to the presentations that we brought before you. All the way up to what you are seeing today. So next slide please. So i am not going to restate, but we are bringing forward the equity clipper option as the final fare policy, so we can move on to the next slide. That was listening about fares. We will be including in the budget the other options that the board has heard about since the beginning of this process in january including working on a day pass at the fare box, setting fee capping and how that might work with future electronic fare media, looshging at the cable car discount, and including that discount on muni mobile. And e tending bulk sales and eliminating the clipper differential for passport. The value here was ease of use for our customers. We brought forward our fare policy and these were things we got positive feedback on and they are integrated into the final budget proposal. Next slide please. Parking is managed based on demand, so again, i am not going to repeat the hourser to change, but the policy proposal is to extend and into the evenings beginning in fiscal 2021. Next slide please. Also, this was late in the game, and again, taking note of the Economic Situation with regard to covid19, we are now recommending and it is integrated into the final budget that we do waive all taxi fees in fiscal year 2021 and 2022. Next slide. Again t low income tow program and those two new and for zero boot fee for those experiencing homelessness. We had a hearing on this, and again t feedback we received in the meeting resulted in a change in the final proposal. Next slide please. And then the elements of the budget we have built in for the period of time where we expect there to be restoration of Transportation Services in San Francisco. So key to the budget is having built into the budget the ability to implement the policies and programs that we feel will support the agency coming back and coming back stronger than it was prior to covid19 emergency. Next slide please. With vision zero and the specific Capital Projects that the director mentioned including funding the Quick Build Program for the first time on the muni and transit side. Edition, we have since taken the data that we have and integrated that into the final budget that you will see is lower than prior it racingses you have seen in the iterations we have seen in the past. We have increased the funding through hr78 which is the cares act. Next slide please. At the prior meeting we had noted what we expect to see in the form of a revenue loss. So let me start with the current period and the economic shock and closing the current year balance. So when this emergency started, we immediately saw reductions in parking and fare revenue. We expected a reduction in the general fund and so we did an estimate of what we thought between essentially mid march to the end of the fiscal year and how much we might lose. Conservatively we were at 195 million. Last week we did a revise base and more data and we were about 209 million. Now we expect that the agency will lose between when the public Health Emergency began and the end of the fiscal year approximately 211 million. So we were pretty good about the range. The longer the period, the more revenues, of course, we will lose because there is zero or very little Economic Activity that were seeing within the system. And this comes to the next two fiscal years, and as i noted at the last meeting, we did look at a number of downturn scenarios. To remind our board and the public and the employees, we have always planned for an economic downturn and that was prior to leo and i, but we discussed this at the january board workshop. We showed you a recession scenario in which we anticipated if a recession were to hit similar to the one we saw in 2009, a revenue loss of about 158 million. Quick look on what we thought would happen in fiscal year 2021 and 22, you will see the ranges. The maximum loss over two fiscal years and again, this isnt zero like we are seeing now with the economic shock. It is a slow down of Economic Activity meaning the revenues at the agency might receive. So on the high end, that was roughly in the 210 to 220 million. We can go to next slide. The cares act will supplement some of the loss were expecting and we have plugged that into the budget between fiscal year 2021 and 2022. The objective is to be to be, one, conservative, and bringing forward and 25 billion in that ask and the bay area is expecting to receive 1. 3 billion. The metropolitan Transportation Commission will take action on that tomorrow, and with luck and out in the press, the m. T. A. Is expected to see about 197 million in the first crunch. There is no local map required with that and the tiff requirement has been waived. So what i want to show you and i will tell you we spent lots o f time talking about hoe to show this to you, but on this supplied, Pay Attention slide 21 to the yellow portions of the bar. That is the operating grant amount. I am going to go slow. On the very left, fiscal year 2021 as we thought the last time as we showed it to you and fiscal year 2021 now. In the yellow bar you are seeing a tig cant revenue that is the cares grant. That is what we expect the federal government to close with regard to our revenue loss. You will see the other areas, the general fund being the dark blue going down. You will see parking revenues going down. Maybe not as much. You will see transit fare revenue going down. You will see a lot of the other traditional Revenue Sources going down, and i will cover how much we think thats going to be, but to balance the budget, we have plugged in a certain expectation of what we will get in federal grants in future traunches. And you will see we still needed that revenue to plug our holes and generally get as close as we could to a balanced budget. So the stressor and the headline here is without the support of the federal government, we would be in a much worse situation than we are proposing to you right now. So i wanted to clearly show you how those dollars are being plugged in over the next two fiscal years. Next slide please. So here is the basic numbers. Within that range that i showed you between the 100 and essential 220 million revenue loss, for the purposes of the budget, we have to come up with a number, and so our expectation of revenue loss in the two fiscal years is roughly 173. 6 million. And so the total revenue loss you will see is 13 between the two years. We expect a revenue drop of 10 in fiscal year 2021 alone. And that is significant. That is a significant revenue loss. That would have had Significant Impact on the operations of the agency. We planned for a certain level of recovery. However, the economic model we plugged into the budget assumes that a downturn will continue through calendar year 2021. So we dont expect anything close to normal normal happening until calendar year 2022 at the earliest. We stretched out the period by which we think there will be a downturn that stretches into fiscal year 2022. The reason we did that is the m. T. A. Board will be considering the next twoyear budget in that period of time. We would have given you a lot of data and made a lot of decisions but we essentially spread the pain out being very conservative in when we thought the economy would fully come back. The bottom three boxes show you the impact of the cares grant. So with the revenues in 2021 and 2022, there is still a reduction and the budget will be reduced from what we have shown you on march 17 and at the april 7 board meeting. I did promise at the last meeting the final budget would be less than what you had originally been shown. Its down by 1. 2 in fiscal year 2021 and just about half percent,. 4 , so we have to reduce by 21. 5 million in revenue. That is revenue. We have to cut back on 21. 5 million of stuff. In addition, we have brought up and we told the board in the past that there are triggers in retirement contributions and i know director torrez asked at the last meeting about were we covering the cost of benefits. The answer is yes. The Fringe Benefits are all paid for. And the additional pension contributions that would be required because city revenues are left is also included through 2022. So that trigger will occur in fiscal year 202. And the agency will have to increase the retirement contribution by 22. 3 million and which makes it approximately a 45 million problem that we were solving for to bring you a final proposed budget. Next slide please. So this is essentially the results we were solving and we have solved for many problems iteratively and step by step, and for 16 million and 6 million problem with regard to expenses within the budget. That is where we ended up. That is where we see the cares funding works. It is where we see the economy going. And again, we tried to be as prudent and conservative, so on that 173 million, we went with the middle bad scenario. The middle bad has been plugged into the budget with regard to revenue. Next slide please. We do have Capital Projects and contingency costs we need to cover and the operating budget is recommended to be reserved for fiscal year 22. As director tumlin noted, we need to replace our parking meters and again, on the transit Capital Projects, this was part of our objectives to and the value to have Ongoing Services paid for by ongoing revenues and onetime sources paying for onetime needs so we will switch over the proposition set aside that we had been using for capital and we can backfill those projects with onetime fund balance. And then, of course, we want to continue improvements at our facilities to make sure our employees have good conditions to work. Next slide, please. Here is the map of what we put in and i wont go through this all, but we assumed 173 million revenue loss and we did make labor changes and costs, so the colas planned and the labor agreements delayed and we accounted for that reduction in those labor costs and we shifted some of the new positions, potential start dates by a quarter which got us over a Million Dollars of savings. We did include the additional expense of increased retirement contributions in the fiscal yead balance for the operating budget for fiscal year 22 and then changes around classifications and those save savings were basd into the budget. On slide 30, this is to give you a net difference between what you saw on april 7th and youll see we did reduce salary costs in the two fiscal years is benefits did go up and that, again, i wanted to make sure to address director torezs question and to fully cover the costs is youll see retirement costs in fiscal year 22, 22. 6 billion. The overhead has to do with accounting for a grant and it is the grant you approved today, so were counting that as revenue to cover some operating costs and we were able to reduce Debt Service Costs and we are working with the department we spent a lot of time scrubbing through work orders to try to reduce overall costs to, again, balance the budget and get to reduction numbers that we needed. Next slide, please. I do want to make it very clear that the fiscal controls that we have put in place in this fiscal year will continue into fiscal year 21 and that includes unimproved or unscheduled overtime and there will be quarterly are review and a timing sequence on hiring and so as director tumlin noted, well will step up hr and well have the opportunity to do a hiring plan and schedule out testing and civil lists that dont cost salaries but set us up again to hire up the technical trades that have been difficult for us to fill at the time we have been able to fill them and we will focus on Service Critical positions. We are reviewing all purchases of nonservice Critical Services, special professional services, work orders and supply costs and it will be a period of austerity and we will be monitoring all expenses and the use of regimes and procedures have been put in place and we will monitor expense as much as we are monitoring revenues and provide the board with regular updates on the Fiscal Health of the agency. Next slide, please. This particular slide, in addition, as director tumlin noted, we are plugging in all of the potential programs, essentially the new things we agreed to put in the budget. However, again, if the Economic Situation does not prove out as we have projected it, we can eventually stop or choose not to turn on a series of things. So we do have an additional 22. 7 million in expenditure control and so any delay in the authorization of filling these positions or paying the salaries, just a reminder that this is essentially a two Million Dollars revenue loss and well be starting that later in the fiscal year and so how that works out, but technically, its something that could be controlled based on the approval of the board or the board looking at that particular program. We did want to include it on the list, but we still have the full intention of implementing it after your approval. But that is another 22. 7 million in savings that we could realize that was extra stuff, but again, the extra stuff we may not choose to turn on if revenues do not come in as we expect. Next slide. That gets me to the budget of 1. 28 billion, 1. 34 billion on the operating side of the ledger and we do anticipate that through the fiscal controls, we probably can realize a minimum of another 10 million in savings and again, very conservative, having additional insurance policy and this does include 23 million in extent tourexpenditures if revenues dot come in as projected. We will still have after that, a 10 reserve appropriatated by the board of supervisors to be used if we have a severe revenue shortfall. Next slide, please. This is the final result. Remember, one of our key objectives was to create the sustainability in the budget and reduce structural deficit. As i noted, the structural deficit does remain, but again, shifting revenues, ongoing revenues to ongoing committed services and reducing costs, working towards more efficiency, we have flattened the curve to some extent, at least on the fiscal side of the house. So hopefully, we will review the Fiscal Health of the agency and hopefully, we wont continue this trend. Were to secure additional revenues and additional sources for the agency to deliver the services we would like it to deliver. Next slide, please. Just just quickly to the Capital Improvement program. So as ro roberta noted, we would ask you to approve both today. Just really quickly, ive gone over the need, 21. 9 billion to 30 billion and dont want to cover that again. Next slide. So here is the final program. What i really would like to do is give a shoutout to the bicycle coalition, to walk San Francisco and to the transit riders who spent time with us to go through the Capital Improvement program and really give us ideas and recommendations, many of which we were able to implement change timing on projects. So those were integrated into the final cip and i really do want to commend them for being so engaging with us as we develop the final fiveyear Capital Improvement program. Next slide, please. These are the programs that you know that we split it up and its not by division. Next slide, please. Here are the sources we have in and let me add this, that in the next fiscal year, we will begin the work on the second general Obligation Bond. We will begin our bond planning. The election is still planned for june of 2022 and we do anticipate using about half of that bond for facilities. We do need to make a plan for the use of the entire 500 million which is not included in the fiveyear cip. Too early to fully name projects and point to sources. But we will start that work this the fall and we do need to be done around september of next year in order for them the board to take action, the city of Capital Planning committee and the board of supervisors, usually the deadline would be february of 2022 to get that on the ballot and we will engage the board on that work in the coming year. Were actually wor working withe Transportation Authority on sales tax and we have not used a revenue bond in this budget. I know dr. Heineke, you have been interested in our bond rating. The rate agencies have been calling this. Leo can speak to this after. I dont think weve heard anything that should make us concerned be yet. But the state of the economy will impact where we end up in the next couple of years. Next slide. So this is where the final cip ended up, 2. 45 billion, a little more than you thought at the last meeting. I think we were on 150s on the project and we got it up to 188, total funded projects in the Capital Improvement program. Again, the agency only includes the project in the fiveyear cip if we are able to fund 90 of the work. We do not want to make a commitment on behalf of the organization that we will deliver a project. Iif we do nothave the financialo do so. Again, we program 50 plus forces in the fiveyear cip and i know a certain director likes to eat his peas, so we included our state of repair investment over the fiveyear cip. Again, it is the value of the agency to maintain the infrastructure in a state of good repair and the minimum we tried to invest is 255 million a year and we got it up to 268 over the twoyear period. Next slide, please. Youll see where we ended up, and we did include the good repair investment, yearoveryear. You will approve the Capital Budget today, which is the first two years of the fiveyear Capital Improvement. Next slide, please. We did want to show you the changes in the fiveyear cip. The technical adjustments since april 7th and youll see, we did include some geo bond funding in facilities that largely have do with the bart canopy project on Market Street. We do want to include all projects that we are funding with the general Obligation Bond and that has been added. In addition, were moving forward. The mt board has improved or i believe youve approved our nexf the general Obligation Bond and i think i presented a month ago. We took the opportunity to add them into this Capital Improvement program and include that revenue and that included the bumpup and associated projects and we got up to 2. 5 billion ho. Youll see fiveyear cip is 7. 7 billion and we would like 7. 7 billion but we have 2. 5 billion. So thats about 33 of the needs that we were able to cover and we do track that by Capital Improvement program and this datdata is important to allow tt bond planning and do the advocacy, to show people, really, where their dollars will be invested and where they will see the benefit and where the agency just does not have the Financial Capacity to fund. That was the final slide. What i would like to close with is nobody has thanked the board. This was i mean, when you have a designer as your senior budget manager, he likes to do things differently and that was me. And i was hoping, and my team, we would make this an ir iterate process, engaging the public in the budget. We had clear views identified. It was a sustainable budget, meaning we could afford the things we would propose. We werent going to surprise people and a resilient one. In a time of uncertainty and change, that the agency would still be able to follow through on its commitment. In spite of the covid19 emergency and the future, w i think we have built the most resilient budget we can. I would like to thank you for all of your time and the feedback was amazing, so thank you. Thank you, and unless leo and director tumlin have anything else, i think it would be appropriate to see if we have Public Comments on items 12 or 13. I became public in last hour that San Francisco was awarded 41. 6 million tircp grant for the muni program and this is good news for this specific Grant Program because it allows us to take state capital money and not own invest in the liability improvements, but to direct most of that capital money to our own planners, engineers, designers, construction workers, trades people and supporting the department of public works in order to hold on to jobs in this recession. Wonderful. Thank you for that news. Miss boomer, Public Comment, please. So mr. Chairman, this would be Public Comment on the Capital Improvement program and so take Public Comment and deal with that item and move to Public Comment on the budget and deal with that item. Very good. So item 12, please. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, for members of the public watching the meeting via tv should wish to address the board dial into 888809629. Operator your question is now in question and ann mode. You have three questions remaining. Im the executive director of walk San Francisco. Thank you so much, director, for your years of service. I havent had a chance to thank you today. What youve done for sfmta and prioritizing transit and especially for leading the conversation, we cant thank you enough. Quickly, thank you, jonathan, for your budget presentation and the sfmta team that put this together. Its been a long haul. I appreciate this opportunity to comment on the Capital Improvement budget and sfmtas main focus on safety for pedestrians and while the agency does manage major financial constraints. And i want to thank you for keeping the Pedestrian Safety as a priority and to continue investing in the quickfill program. I want to say that the tenderloin is a neighborhood that is in immediate attention and meets the demand for safetye streets. This should be prioritized and focused and even as the director tumlin said today, the neighbor neighborhood has the most children and seniors and yet the most dangerous streets. We need to try things and change if we need it. So as funding becomes available, the tenderloin streets are sfmtas top priority. 30 seconds. Funding is pending and these programs are required to get us to vision zero and so if theres any way to keep the momentum going and keep funding certain ones, that would be fantastic. Thank you, and i appreciate this time to comment. Have a great afternoon. Thank you, next caller, please. Operator you have three questions remaining. The next caller, please state your name and well start your time when you begin talking. Hi. I just wanted to say that thank you, jonathan and thank you for all of the mta staff who have worked on this. I really support the capital plan and i hope you approve it. The projects there, i hope, will improve muni service, like the embarcadarro pocket trac track d the new 30foot buses that often break down and provide unReliable Service on the Community Lines which have some of the highest headway in the system and i really hope this Investment Plan can help strengthen muni. I appreciate all of your work. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have four questions remaining. Next speaker. This is for talking about the Capital Improvement project only. So please state your name and your two minutes will start. Question hi. Im wit a San Francisco resident with the collaborative and Pedestrian Task force. Im calling to support the sfht as treating this mormtaas more. The necessary nature of the increase reflects years of underinvestments which we see played out tragically in the unacceptable number of avoidable deaths on the neighborhood streets. If theyre truly serious about this, they must think about the tenderloins and i ba want to emphasize this is just the beginning of what must be years of meaningful communitydriven changes to the neighborhood streets. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, please. Operator you have three questions remaining. Please state your name and well start the clock. Question heiim herbert wir and im mr. Winer, this is about the Capital Improvement project, not about the budget. Were on the Capital Improvements. Do you haveny comments on the Capital Improvement project . No, not at this time. Thank you. Nexnext speaker, please. Good afternoon, please give us your name and well start your two minutes. Question im Curtis Bradford im part of the tenderloin safety task force. I want to say thank you for your increased attention to the tenderloin neighborhood and the Capital Improvement plan and we really appreciate the recognition of the urgency and the need for unique attention that the tenderloin requires. It addresses years, even decades of being neglected and marginalized as a community and as a neighborhood and as a matter of equity, trying to rebuild our community and we have a great amount of need and i applaud you for taking this bold step forward, but i agree with some of the earlier speakers that i would ask that you keep in mind that this is just the beginning of what needs to be many years of bold and aggressive support for the tenderloin neighborhood to make up for those years of neglect. Its the only way, i believe, that well get anywhere near our vision zero plan for San Francisco. Its going to be take years of bold investment to really correct those 30 seconds. Years of neglect, so thank you. So thank you for your support and i look forward to working further with you in the future. Thank you, next speaker. Operator you have two questions remaining. Speaker, please give us your name and well start your two minutes. This is for Public Comment on the Capital Improvement project. Question , hithis is eric w eric roselle and i want to say thank you for all of the hard work that the board has done in keeping us up to date with the Capital Improvement budget. Thank you. Operator you have one question remaining. Please give us your name and well start your two minutes. Question again, im will the philippino community sense and im a resident of district 9, born and raised in San Francisco and i wanted to thank the board for their continuous work despite this new condition, this very uncertain condition, under covid19. I am, however, really concerned that the sfmta right now is considering raising the fares again on transit riders. Katrina, hold on. This is a topic were talking about the Capital Improvement budget, not about the operating budget and not about the fares and signs. So that will be the next Public Comment. Anything you would like to say about the Capital Improvement budget . Not at this moment. Thank you. Operator you have zero questions remaining. Very good. So if our moderator would confirm theres no one left who wishes to speak on item 12. Operator you have one question remaining. Speaker, please give us your name and number and your time will start when you begin speaking. And this is not for the budget. This is only for the Capital Improvement program. Question thank you, chair. Im going to talk about the Capital Budget here. Theres a lot here. Its a big document and there are some things i like in it. I think its very important that we be focused on the basics. Because really, all i want at the end of the day is the bus system is subway that works. I do support the purchasing of the electric buses in the pilot and converting our fleet over in the future. I think its really important that we work on our signal system in the subway because i have been on the subway and the signal system would cut out, sitting in the tunnel. Certainly, to work on our turnarounds, in the subway, as the subway is very, very important to me, and i think we have to have an eye towards accessibility. There are still places on the outlying light rail lines out in the sunset where there arent Wheelchair Accessible places for passengers to board and so i think there really has to be something done about that, because that can be a hilly area and we want to be more inclusive. So i think overall, we have a good program. But we have to prioritize the basics first as far as simply making things work and ensuring that everybody is included. 30 seconds. Thank you very much. Nice to hear your voice. If our moderator can confirm that theres no one else in the cue, that would be wonderful. Operator you have zero questions remaining. Thank you, mr. Chair. If you would like to close Public Comment at this time. Ill close Public Comment on item number 12, miss boomer. Would it be appropriate, i think let me ask this. So i do have director comments on item 12 and well take those now. Director rubki, on the Capital Budget, please. This will be quick. I wanted to express support for the Capital Budget, in general. I has wonderful projects, as many of the commenters noted and i just wanted to highlight that it does include both in the l project as well as other places, funding for accessible stocks on the light rail on the west side of town. So i appreciate that inclusion n and i wanted to address that ad. Vice chair borden. The 20 million you mentioned that we just got, is that for capital or was that for operating . Go ahead. That was a 40 million capital grant, but because its for muniforward quick bills, we can use that money and operationallize it on our own staff. Our staff will be doing the design and construction of that work. We can spend our capital money to save jobs within the agency. Great and is that a part of any of the numbers you showed us or that we were anticipating . The tircp grant, we do include those in the fiveyear cip. We do an estimate based on prior awards and this is better than our pessimistic guess, so its probably a little more revenue than we anticipated in the cip. So well see more money in there, but the tircp grant itself is included and funds the projects that director tumlin noted. Thank you. I see no further requests to comment on item 12 and if there are no further, miss boomer, my inclination is to entertain a motion now and move to Public Comment on item 13. Senator torez, the floor is yours. Thank you. And thank you, jonathan, for your good work. Number two, thank you for references the Fringe Benefits and im happy to report from california that it looks like our insurance premiums wont go up to 40 under this pandemic but maybe up to 20 increases and well see what happens at the end of the day. When you said you relied on general obligation funding, are you taking into account the debt service decreased because of Interest Rates decreasing . It shows to refin refund thet from the federal government that would save 20 million. Within the general bond for the program, i do know and for our projects that are always looking to get the best rates, and they will look to refinance, to realize more general fun dollars. Were doing that at a stemcell agency because they did not project a decrease. And who could of during that period of time and more so. So now we have it in front of us and whether that debt service has been reduced and what reduction we can use. And thats a very good idea and i think its part of our fiscal control next year. We can definitely take a look at the Debt Service Payment and see if there are any opportunities to refinance the current bond, to try to keep the money back in the agency. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I waspie would would entertain o approve. Approve. Miss boomer, please call the role. role call . Mr. Chair, you have unanimous approval. Lets go to item 13. And call Public Comment. For people watching this by sfg tv, who wish to address the board, please dial the number 888 8086929 and i. D. 6924. Operator youre now in answer and question mode. When its your turn to speak, it will prompt you and mr. Moderator when youre ready. Operator you have eight questions remaining. First speaker, please. inaudible . Next speaker. Question im a student organizer at city college of San Francisco and i am against any of the fare increases because as we have a number of individuals who have lost their jobs and have filed for unemployment and the bus system is for essential workers going to work, as well as frontline workers and for those who are getting essential goods like groceries and medications, these people are my neighbors are heavily taxed already and are not able to pay rent or cannot pay for their medications, so people are making decisions on what things that they can afford and and Public Transportation should be accessible to all. Im wondering why has never anyone brought up the fact of, you know, uber is their ride shares are decreasing and uber eats, number of rights have been increasing and those are not essential activities. Why cant we tax corporations that operate very unsafely on the roads. Ive seen many pedestrians get hit by lyfts or uber and delivery drivers that are doubleparked in dangerous situations. Why cant we have corporations to get taxed to help with the Public Infrastructure to reduce our Carbon Footprint and allow more people to ride Public Transportation . Our citizens cant be even more stressed out and more taxed in this unprecedented time, because so many people dont even know about these fare increases happening. The Impact Report says there was no impacts on lowincome and minority groups, but that happened before covid19. Im sorry, time. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. You have ten questions remaining. Next speaker, please give us your name and your time will start. Question hello. Im the lead staff person for the Housing Community for the Youth Commission. Im also a district 4 resident and i want to thank you for the thorough budget presentation and the intense work to craft an equitable budget under a pandemic. I know the Youth Commission urged you not to increase if fares. I can see youre vested in the community and i can see the intention behind it and trying to decrease the impacts on the most mor marginalized people. A lot of the young people are students and a lot of schools, aside from sf state dont provide free Public Transit and i would encourage you all to extend that 24yearolds. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. You have ten questions remaining. Question im in district 6 and im here to share my concern that the sfmta is raising fares again on transit riders like myself, especially during these times in covid19 where many people are wondering how will they be buy necessities and pay rents, utilities and keep their Small Businesses. We dont know how this will impact residents in the upcoming months with this Public Health crisis. The last thing we need is that the fare increases. We ask to take into consideration the impact that came from yet another year of increased fares. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Operator you have 11 questions remaining. Next speaker, please. Please give us your name and well start your two minutes when you begin talking. Question im also a City College Student and i wanted to thank sfmta for all of the incredible work theyve done so far. Its amazing to hear all of the efforts taking place in regards to the fare increases, i myself along with students from a Student Group are asking for the facebooks nofares to not be inc. Were all feeling this. Also, the fare increase is not affordable when were unable to pay. Its t inaudible . Thank you. Next speaker, please. We just ask people who are on the line to please, if you are watching via sfg tv to please turn the volume down so we dont get reverberation. Next speaker, well start your time. Operator you have ten questions remaining. Thank you, well start your time when you begin talking. Question hi. Im an organizer for Community Housing partnerships. We are Supportive Housing providers, operating mostly in the tenderloin for formerly homeless residents and im also a district 9 resident. I want to thank the sfmta boards for instituting the changes around serving the hopeless population and youth, but a concern that we have still about the budget is whats been said before, which is around increasing the monthly passes, which are still going to be pu put are still putting people in the cycle due to not being able to afford the fares and increasing the likelihood of something we cant afford. And also, there was a lot of argument that was taking down that we could get to a free muni system because it would serve rich people who cant afford it, but that is the same argument we hear over and over again against any universal program that because it does actually serve, like the whole population 30 seconds. That the benefits of helping people who are struggling the most dont matter at that point. So we strongly urge that we continue this fight for making a universally free Transportation System. Its happening in other places like kansas city so it is a possible outcome and so thank you. Thank you very much for though comments. Next speaker, please. You have ten questions remaining. Next speaker, please. Mr. Moderator . Call with phone numbing ending in 8962, please unmute our microphone. Ok, so we have no response. Lets move to the next speaker. Operator you have nine questions remaining. Next speaker. Question we have been demanding a nopay increase on all options. We gave over 1400 postcards of people stating they cant afford another pay increase. We also submitted yesterday a statement yesterday where our community is struggling to stay in the community. This will be a big burden for people trying to get back on their feet. Sfmta needs to hear the options. Every time we bring up nopay increase on all payment options, sfmta replies with it will affect reliability. And i havent seen any reliability or a Better Service ever since i started riding muni when it was 35cents. If we want to be a transit first city and if muni wants to win people back, it needs to be affordable. Again, i urge you to vote no fare increase on all payment options. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Operator you have nine questions remaining. Give us your name and well start the timer when you begin talking. Question hi. This is barry toronto. Thank you for your service, chairman. And i wish you luck in the future. I want to thank all barry, if you could turn down the volume on sfg tv. Its not on. Question i want to thank jeff tumlin for making sure that taxis fees are waived for the next two fiscal years and i hope you will support that. Also, i wanted to see if it was something in todays agenda item about waiving the paycard fees for the rest of this fiscal year. I didnt see anything on there of that, maybe i missed it. But im hoping that will be included because right now, theres hardly any drivers out there. I drive about once a week and for safety reasons and i want to thank sfmta for the cleaning supplies to help us get through the shift. You would like yo to consider ug a clipper card as a way of paying taxi fares and to possibly help encourage taxi use by finding money for marketing that ta taxis are right now safr or continue to be safer in the future. Plus, we also have access to the transit lines and we have special leftturn privileges like buses. So i appreciate 30 seconds. What youve done so far and hope that we can continue in the future and see if we could waive the fee for the rest fiscal year. Thank you very much. Thank you for your nice words. Next speaker, please. Operator you have eight questions remaining. Please state your name and we will start the time when you begin talking. Question thank you. Ive been reading this and i wrote you a letter about it. We call this Clipper Equity, but i fail to see how it helps the clipper program or advances equity, because im a clipper user and i use it because i am a person of modest means and it saves me money. And yet, were not encouraging people through this fare increase to use clipper. And so, where pricing the lifeline and the reduced fare passes differently, but there are many people who would qualify for life line but they cant because they dont live in San Francisco. So a typical day for me involves riding on three different Transportation Systems and so, muni is not just about San Francisco, but its a system of regional significance and the clipper program has to make certain benchmarks and transactions to avoid certain fees and if we want to help people, i think our energy should be spent on helping people to get on to clipper and save some money and have the incentives to do so. Because im wondering if we really looked at the globalling cost of cash and electronic fare collections of which, are we losing efficiencies by still collecting a lot of cash fares . Our goal should be to reduce cash. 30 seconds. Question so we should tap their tappings. Two levels of fare capping, both fafare and reduced facebook. Fare. We need a simplified fare schedule. I appreciate it. Thank you very much and chair, i wish you well. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Operator you have seven questions remaining. Speaker, please give us your name and well start your time when you begin talking. Question im from the mtacac. I appreciate mr. Tumlins emphasis as we look at the hard choices presented in the budget. As we look for badly needed revenue, i wonder, could we dramatically increase parking rates . Could we expand metering in residential neighborhoods and keep meters on until 2 00 a. M. On friday and saturday . Could we raise annual parking permits to the extent that state law allows . Could this board officially endorse congestion pricing and perhaps, with tiers, depending on levels of congestion as well as any state legislation we would need to make that happen . Finally, could we follow the example of hong kongs Mass Transit Railway corporation in developing housing on our own real estate and using that revenue to Fund Operations . Thanks. Thank you very much and next speaker, please. Operator you have six questions remaining. Speaker, please give us your name and ill start your time. Question hi. Im here today as part of the Transit Justice Coalition and im a San Francisco native. I grew up in the tenderloin and im taking mumi my entire life. I take the bus because its one of the only options to commute. I never really wanted to own a car in San Francisco. But im concerned that sfmca is considered raising the facebooke because so many people in my life are workingclass people are so reliant on muni to get to is from work. Monthly passes would range between 325 to 400 and on top of that, we pay 2300 for rent and 2500 for groceries and many dont have 400 to spare, especially right now. Many low income people are being laid off and many are lowincome people and if you really want to do right by lowincome people, last thing we need are facebook increases. Fares. I think its irresponsible to say it needs to keep hiring muni officers. I would like for there to be no increase continuing to pay and sustain service. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Operator you have six questions remaining. Next speaker. Question im a student at the university of San Francisco. I want to thank you for your integration of Public Feedback into your new budget proposal. I wanted to highlight something. The Clipper Equity plan uses data on cli clipper and monthlys usage and your certificates show 30 of clipper users and monthly pass users are low income. Sfmtas current level of low income varies drastically compared to the other requirements established. Whove data amongst lowincome riders who make above the sfmtas low income requirements raising monthly passes will impact riders and this new equity proposal is much less equitable than it appears so we urge the board of directors to stand in solidarity with the Transit Justice Coalition that 27 organizations have signed on to and make the decision not to raise fares in my capacity. Thank you. Thank you very much. Networks speaker, please. Operator you have five questions remaining. Next speaker, well start your time when you begin talking. Question good afternoon, directors. I take the bus for work everyday and i am very concerned that the sfmta is considering raising the fares again on transit riders like me because our communities are hurting economically, especiall. This impacts lowincoe residents like me and the last thing we need is a fare hike. This must be affordable. We ask you to take into considerations the daily impact that will stem from yet another year of increased fares thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Operator you have four questions remaining. inaudible . Operator you have three questions remaining. Please give us your name and well start your time when you begin speaking. Question i wish to protest the increase in the bus fares. Reality is that services are going to be decreased by mta, even if the price of the bus fare is increased and frankly, you should not be increasing the fares because the service is atrocious. Its not fair to do it on the backs of passengers. If you really want to get increased revenue, have a decent transportation service. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Winer and thank you for your patience in moving to this item from the last item. Its appreciated. Be well, sir. Next speaker, please. Operator you have two questions remaining. Before the next speaker starts, if there are other people now watching via tv who wish to address the board on the operating and Capital Budget, please call 888 8086929 and then 99961164 and finally 10, so you can be in the cue before we reach the end of the Public Comment. Thank you. Next speaker. Question good afternoon, directors. I live in philma. Im a rider of Public Transit, i dont have a car. I know that Public Transit is a huge challenge, especially now, and i deeply appreciate all of your creativity is hard work in the service of the public. There has to and way to put this burden of funding elsewhere on our most vulnerable. I think if there is nowhere else to look for the money, then maybe riders who have money could be obligated to purchase a more expensive clipper or do so voluntarily. What i feel is that Public Transit is a human right and that going forward, we need to be looking ways to make it guaranteed for all. This pandemic, of course, made it clear that many of the financially vulnerable workingclass riders are all essential workers and for now, please put the most vulnerable riders first and no fare increase, at least for them on any payment option. Thank you. Thank you. So next speaker, please. Operator you have two questions remaining. Give us your name and well start your time when you begin speaking. Question im a member of post united save the mission, which is a coalition of equity organizes and individual stakeholders here in the Mission District as well as Transit Justice Coalition and im speaking to urge the mta to refrain from any muni fare increases for fiscal year 21 and 22. We dont know how this pandemic will impact residents lives in the years to come. But we do know that this pandemic is placing the greatest hardship on residents who rely on Public Transit. The last thing we need right now are fare increases that will serve only to exacerbate their burdens. Halting fare increases would mean losing drivers, i dont agree with this. I believe this to be a false narrative and that these two priorities are not exclusive of each other and it was mentioned earlier that no one had come forward with any solutions, but i doubt very much that the mta has bothered to ask for solutions beforehand. I believe in the mta were to come together, we could work to develop solutions, to make sure that we could both maintain the stability of the system while also making sure that it is affordable to the folks who most rely on it. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Operator you have one question remaining. Unless anyone else dials into the phone number, then this will be the last speaker. Please give us your name and well start your time. Question hi, thanks for having me again. Im katrina lee and i was born and raised in San Francisco in district 9, still living in the house i was raised in and i am a staff member at the philippino community. I remember hearing a comment about having to pay 35cents and i grew up using muni, i have a drivers license and do not have enough money to buy my own car. Im here to reiterate support for the campaign to stop the fare increases on all payment options. So the philippino Community Center and other organizations based were compelled to support this at all because we have so Many Community members, specifically those in the extremely, extremely lowincome brackets. During this covid19 crisis, i just wanted to ask a question of how fare increases in general, let alone for clipper and monthly pass is encouraging ridership. And its not. Its not encouraging ridership at all. We should be moving towards that direct. We have Many Community members that are scared already and many are essential workers and documented caregivers, facing harsh working conditions, low wages and our unemployed workers are very disappointed to find their weekly benefits are barely amounting to 400 a month. 30 seconds. So singleincome households are worried about paying rent and utilities and even our small efforts to give them food for free, its not enough to shoulder their anxiety. So throughout the budget proposal, the lowincome ridership is very loosely used as a term. We really need you to prioritize the needs of lowincome riders, lowincome workers with this growing sentiment. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any further Public Comments . Operator you have two questions remaining. Next speaker, please. Question im an organizer at the market. At this time of crisis, no essential services should be raising prices. In fact, the opposite should be true. I. inaudible . Question this will be a disgrace and we should be moved forward in the interests of the essential transportation. Thank you. Thank you. Operator we have one more speaker. You have zero questions remaining. Mr. Chair, unless no one dials 10 at this point mr. Moderator, will you confirm when we have exhausted our speakers and well close Public Comment. Operator you have one question remaining. Question good afternoon. Im angelica and this phone is really hard to be on the phone for four and a half hours, trying to do a publicspeaking on one of the most important budgets for all of us transit riders affected by the increase for the next two years. 27 organizations have submitted a letter stating that we are against the fare increase. This is not the time to increase the fares when we are all struggling. Were all trying to figure out how were going to basically pay for the essential things we need to pay for during the pandemic. Even before the pandemic, though, we submitted over 1400 postcards, petitions, Read Community testimonies and while we appreciate the sfm has efforts if proposing to no longer increase the cash fare, the plan of continuing to increase the clipper, muni mobile and monthly passness thee working class is unequitable and unacceptable. We ask you to take into consideration the daily impact that will stem from yet another year and vote no on fare increase. 30 seconds. Question also on your budget what, theres a lot of s low income and we would like to know your terms of low income. Were struggling and were still pinned as rich riders when were not and we would like to know, what does rich riders mean and working class mean to the mta staff. Thank you. Operator you are zero questions remaining. Very good, mr. Moderator, if you could confirm that weve exhausted our speakers, we can close Public Comment. Moderator confirms that Public Comment is now closed. Very good. So well close Public Comment on item 13. Director torez . Mr. Torez, if you could unmute your microphone. Thank you, roberta. I just wanted to thank the staff for all of the hard work theyve done and i think its e emblemac of what they have achieved because they have convinced he to support this. After a couple of mornings, it was clear to me they had been working so hard to find out what is the best compromise to deal with these fare increase issues. I think they did that by that chart they showed earlier of all of the people you spoke to to get that input including members of the board of directors to try to figure out what that means. So i think the last ladys comments need to be answered because i think she might have a better idea of how equitable this compromise is, number one. Number two, the other issue which i raised during debate was basically dealing with the towing of homeless people. And i know jeff addressed that, as well, again in this proposal. And i appreciate him listening to me as staff did, as well, to make sure that we take care of the folks that should not be criminalizing poverty and i dont think thats the intent, nor the future. Secondly, i think jonathan may look at what is in store for us in respect to any money that may come from the tremendous effort that nancy pelosi just completed in washington with segment two of the stimulus bill to enhance the cares act. But maybe there may be transportation money there, as well. Lastly, i want to thank jeff and the the staff for embracing the teamsters and their concerns about their jobs and their particular issues in respect to contracting out. I know you all have ta taken a sensitive approach in your response. That tries to address the issues affecting some of our most valued employees. And lastly, i just want to say that i think that this is the most difficult part and i know many of you have had this experience and i know malcolm has of putting a budget together that affects and impacts the undeserved and lowincome people the least. And i think we need to reiterate exactly what this proposal does to help them, what the issues are with the clipper card and how that affects lowincome people and how and most importantly, we need to save our employees. Well be looking for other monies. And i think thats important to note, as well. Thank you. Very good. Thank you, director torez. Director eakin, the floor is yours. I just want to join in thanking the staff for teeing up such a thoughtful conversation to receive and put from the board and the public. I think there are definitely many things we can be proud of in this budget and i think muni for all use in San Francisco is a breakthrough and the way things should be and i personally feel proud were able to accomplish that, especially in this budget and economic context. And dr. Tumlin mentioned, no increased in the singleride cash fare and thats an intentional decision being made in light of a lot of input received. I want to acknowledge, because we havent talked about it, that were creating a Brand New Office of raising questionty and inclusion at sfmta that i think will serve all of us to further elevate the equity issues were hearing from commenters and i think thats also a remarkable accomplishment in this budget context. And then i want to address all of the Public Commenters who have concerns about transit fares. I just want to say we have heard you and that your input has impacted our thinking and i believe the selection of the equity clipper scenario goes as far as we can to address your concerns while also generated the needed revenue to pay for critical Transit Service. I dont want you to think were not hearing you. We are hearing you and your Voice Matters in this process. I just want to pose a couple of quick questions for leo and jonathan i had in response to the presentation. So if we could go to slide 19. There are numbers for fy20, 21 and 22 and those numbers looked quite similar to the numbers that were presented to us at our last meeting on april 7th. I just wanted to confirm, are they the same numbers or do we have any new information to work with with with the revenue projections in terms of the next few years . So we did choose right now the economic shock on slight 19 is that well lose about 211 million this year, so its on the more severe end. For fiscal year 21 and 22, the number we selected between that range, between the two years is 173 million. So we think well lose, due to an economic downturn, 173 million. The majority of that being in fiscal year 21. Great. And slide 26, you estimate transit fare revenues and those numbers, again, looked relatively consistent with the numbers back in january. In terms of transit fare revenues and i wanted to confirm how those estimates have been adjusted with the ridership projection. The transit fare revenues are down and im glad you brought it up because we were having a lot of challenge, kind of redicting what will happen with parking and ridership. In the last one we saw ridership increase and fares decrease. So we did take into consideration that peoples comfort was coming back to transit will take a lot longer, number one. And that was built in and revenues are lower in both years. However, San Francisco itself, and this is one of the key levels of advocacy, especially in the region, has a very transit dependent population. And you even heard that from somsome of the speakers. A lot people in San Francisco use the transit to get to work and their daytoday transport and other needs in the city. So we kind of took that into account, as well. Plus, the faceboo fare increases included. So i would tell you right now, my personal belief and this came up, is that were probably being too optimistic about transit fare revenue and being too conservative about parking revenue. But what we felt was between the two, they would net out. So we didnt change it. Great. Third question is on slide 28. And this is related to the reserve and the fund balance so i just wanted to clear about this. Were starting with 293, and the 129 million is going into the reserve. So when you look at slide 22 and the beginning balance of 39, separately somewhere else, 139 is accounted for. That is correct and we would add another five and it could go up to 134 in fiscal year 22. I thought that was a little misleading. Its an additional five on top of the 139. In 21, we are cutting into the fun balance but not going below the 10 balance. And in 22, well be rebuilding and be below. No, maintained at the 10 reserved. Because the budget increases, i got you. Sorry, amanda. Thats a great addition. And then my last question on page 33, you mention youll come back to the board with updates on Fiscal Health of the agency, just wanted to understand how often well be hearing those updates. So the city budget is being delayed for final approval until october and so, the city is always, as leo noted, in budget from june to july and then final approval in august and that will be delayed until october. Thats one quarter for us. And depending on how the Public Health orders are maintained between now and october, well get a view. I think currently, were thinking to give you a quarterly update on the health of the agency so a month after, maybe, just before thanksgiving, after the final budget is approved by the board of supervisors and then definitely early january or february of 2021. Great, it feel like were in an era where we learn something new everyday. So i would encourage those to be as regular as you feel they are relevant. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you, vice chair borden. I want to thank jonathan and leo for all of your hard work on this budget and you have very much, i think, taken into consideration the issues that we as a board brought up, and then also had to deal with a real unexpected change in financial fortunes that happened in the middle of this process. I want to thank you and commend you on all of the work youve done. So for those members of the public, its think its important to point out. Evacueweve talked about the fon how we really tried to calibrate increasing the number of people who are not paying fares, whether its for homeless individuals, students and youth and others. We really are trying to expand the programs as much as possible and we really reduced as much pressure as we could on people at the bottom. We know that its not enough. Theres more to be done and we know that it will be a tough economic time for many going forward. Unfortunately, we are up against the reality ourselves that as an agency, well be looking at major funding shortfalls, local government will be looking at major funding shortfalls and State Government will be looking at shortfalls and its been a real balance. Someone earlier asked about parking meters and were significantly expanding parking meter hours, going back to sundays. I mean, were looking at all kinds of ways to increase that revenue. And as people would look at the budget, the parking revenue and find the greater number in our budget than actual fares. So i think that, you know, its been really hard. Obviously, it is not our first choice to raise fares at this time. But the reality is that weve made great gains in the agency and hacking away on the one side, the capital side dealing with side and the operational side and getting things done. Weve made a lot of work by making those investments and we cant i mean, now we cannot afford to keep our fares stagnant if we wanted to because of the economic realities. This is the reality a lot of businesses will be facing in the next month. I work a lot i restaurants and theyre trying to figure out, like, how can they afford to raise their prices if they can seat less people and stay open . This is just a reality of the economy that were looking at going forward. And i just want to commend staff for bringing us this budget, taking into account the equity plan and trying to be creative in different sources. We didnt even go into the some of the cuts we made or close to where we want to be in the capital program. But i think this is a great this is the best i mean, we have a balanced budget at the time when its hard to do that and were lucky we have the fund reserve to put into some places. Obviously, if we had an external source of money that wanted to pay for a certain population of individuals, i think we would be open to it, but i just dont know in the climate where so many people are fundraising for so many things that is likely. So please know we do this with a really heavy heart. All of us, my work is dried up in terms of things that i do. So i understand how that is for people, but at the same time, in order to provide the service at the level that people who rely on the service need it to be we just, there are no other choices to entertain at this time. So i just wanted to say that. I want to thank the public for all of their input. Were looking for more and Creative Ideas and if there are Funding Sources that can become available in the future, we would explore how to expand having less people. Wonderful, thank you very much. Director hemmingger. Hemminger. I am going to vote for the budget, but im going to do so, i think, with one very significant reservation and that has to do with the subject that i think most of us have been talking about, including the public for the last couple of hours, transit. I do consider it a failing that i consider it a failing that i couldnt maintain a discount for clipper. I agree with miss dupree that labeling this the equity clipper oclipperis a bit of a misnomer. As the staff report indicates, clipper customers are about 200,000 folks and 30 are lowincome. Thats 60,000 people. So thats a pretty significant number of folks who will see a fare increase. Im also troubled by it because clipper represents a very significant, 400 million regional investment in a fare collection system. And it benefits riders all over the region because the clippers card within the basic idea is you can use it to ride any system. But the guts of clipper are about muni and bart. Those two systems represent about twothirds of the patrons. Barts appls plan for the futue to go all in on clipper and to be clipper only. We seem to be taking a step backward by removing the incentive to use clipper. In doing so, theres a cost that goes with that. And that is that it costs more to run two fare collection systems than one. And muni is sticking to two and bart willing try t is trying to. I hope we can continue to talk about that choice, because its a choice that does have a cost, even though it appears that its a way to raise some revenue now to offer some reduced fares for other customers. Nolet me talk about that, secondly. To talk about what the free means. And this budget does expand free muni for middleclass and upperincome kids and on its face, that sounds a little bit odd. But i think there are some good technical and policy reasons for doing so. I think our chairman eloquently outlined that in terms of building a ridership base for the future at our last meeting. I think theres a counter fundamentaargument to that. I would put it this way, that people not to value things that are free or that they think are free. They really dont have any skin in the game. Remember, the average contribution of a transit rider in San Francisco to the cost of tear bus ride is 20 . Three covering 20 of the cost is the taxpayer, the motorist and other sources are covering 80 of the cost and the capital cost of running this is 100 theres a significant investment already in systems around the region. And driving the last few wards tyardsto the goal line to free t without a cost. What i worry about is that free muni is considered to be somehow free to the mta when its not at all. And any reduced fare for one class of passengers has to be paid for by either a cut in service or a higher fare for another class of passengers. And i think, really, the debate that is headed our way and its the debate that will be had in cities around the country, one of the commenters mentioned kansas city, is whether we should forget about this and make it free for everybody. And as my colleagues know, here in San Francisco, thats a 200 million a year proposition what i worry about again is that we will spend years arguing over how to fill a 200 million revenue hole of our own making rather than seeking new revenue for the capital and operating holes that we already have. And i do think that debate is going to come four square in front of us. Weve been nibbling around the edges with lowerincome travelers and kids and seniors for many years. And theyre all surrogates and that will get to the question of should Transit Service cost the passenger anything . And we arent there yet but we have reached the last lap in that debate and i worry that we are, as i said, going to spend a lot of time trying to make up revenue that we ourselves are going to decide to lose. Now with those words of caution, as i indicated earlier, i certainly do intend to support this budget and i want to say, if i could, a word of thanks. And i know i speak for all of us, to Speaker Pelosi in washington, because without the 1. 3 billion that her legislation got the bay area, we would be in a world of hurt and in budget debate would be just brutal. So thank you to her and thanks to her leadership and were able, i think, to hobble across the finish line here with a budget that doesnt do too much damage. And lets home jonathans revenuerevenue estimates are ass theyve been in the past so we can ride this budget to a better tomorrow. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, director. Director rubki. Thank you. I wanted to start with a quick question. When would the fare increases go into effect . I know the city budget is being delayed somewhat, but when would our passengers be affected . I will let leo clarify that, but it would be 30 days after the board of supervisors takes action, which would be november. Thats correct. But also, the board of supervisors could take no action, in which case under the mayors new calendar, this would go into effect november 1st. If members decided to reject the budget, then none would go into effect until something they could accept. Our budget would go forward in the sent we would have appropriations to operate under our existing policies, but neither the fare increases, nor the other changes would go into effect until the board allowed a new budget to go into effect. So the earliest would be november . November 1st. And i think this question was asked and answered earlier, but i want to be clear. From what i understand, well get an update novemberish, on the updated fiscal outlook and you were saying early in january, february, woe would get an update. Updates earlier and more frequent more be appreciated depending on the circumstances. We trust you to make that call. Just in general, thank you so much for all of your work. I think everyone has given you thanks and i want to pile on the thanks. I am in full support of this budget and i know the fare increase is really hard for all of us in light of the Public Comment and very compelling Public Comment, but i feel that as a member of the board, of this agency, we have an obligation to ensure the Financial Sustainability of our Transportation System and i want transportation dependent folks like myself to have a system that we can rely on in the future. So that is one of the reasons i support our fare indexing policy in general and i hope that we can look to more smooth times ahead where we can rely on those that provide transparency and predictability for our riders, as well. So i just want to say thank you and i think this budget balance is a tough choice that we all need to make and im in full support. Thats all i have. Thank you. Thank you. Director brinkman. Thank you. Jonathan, leo, thank you both so much and all of your staff, the work has been amazing, from the very first discussions about budget at the board workshop, weve been able to go in depth into this and youve taken all of the feedback and youve come back with what i think is a good compromise and intend to support this. I just want to note that when we first start the wited with clipd offering a discount, i was 100 all in on clipper. I was looking at the golden gate ferry or whenever one was losing clipper that went to a high Adoption Rate so quickly and thought, we could do that and go there. But the big difference is, our riding public just doesnt have access to clipper load sites. Bart is so lucky, there are clipper machines at every bart station. So if youre riding bart, you have access to reload your clipper card and so much of the city doesnt have that and we need to keep that in mind. As much as i would love us to go 100 to clipper, youre right, its cheaper than running two parallel fare systems, were not there because we dont have the ability for our citizens to easily put money on their clipper card. So until we have another method of fare payment or our turnstyles are phoneclipper enabled or something. Again, i fully support this budget as is and thank you to leo and jonathan for all of the of the work. Thank you so much, director brinkman and i think that covers all of the directors. Jonathan and leo and director tumlin, ill give i a final comment and well move forward to a vote. First of all, i do appreciate the accommodation given to our taxi drivers through the fee reductions. One of my regrets and time on the border i board is that i han able to do more for taxi drivers in this situation where uber and lytt have basically eaten into their income. Weve tried and we tried as a board. I tried personally and im glad were able to do this in the last meeting for me. I am proud for the reasons that director hemminger suggested to go forward with the muni, free muni for youth and thank you for pushing that forward and i think we will be building a new generation of riders and that will enure to the benefit of the city and system. And frankly, those young people, as well. Two lessons that play out here in this discussion today. Indexing, i was a big proponent of it early after going through a few discussions where individualized fare proposals and fine proposals were made. I think we see here over years how indexing works and what will happen if you stray from it. I would urge you in the future not to stray from it. It is a system that in my view, over time, has worked and then when there are extreme situations, there canning exceptions made but those wh shd be rarely made. Coming full circle, when i started on this board just a few years in, i saw firsthand the importance of the conservative physical planning and maintaining a reserve and its not lost on me that im now coming full circle and seeing it again. This sort of crisis budget or this crisis plan that were putting forward today still maintains our reserve policy, still has a 10 reserve. This is where most agencies are dipping into that, violating internal policies because they need the money. Because this board was conservative at the direction of sonali and now leo and others, we have this cushion. Let me say this to you, as your years go on, there will be times in this very budget process where people will come to you with what sounds like a great proposal. Some shortterm or longterm proposal out of that fund balance and say, why should we have that money sitting there . We should use it and use it now. Remember this moment the same way ive remembered the 2009 crisis, this is why you have a fund balance and this is why you plan conservatively, so when we get in a situation out of our control, we can maintain the core Critical Services and not spend money on shining new objects but maintain core Critical Services for the mean need them the most. So i am proud of the fact that we have this fund balance there and im very grateful to jonathan and leo the way theyre continuing to respect it. So thank you to the staff for this. Its a rewarding, final meeting to see this all come full circle and with that, unless theres any other comments and i dont see any, i will entertain a motion on the budget. I approve. Second. Director, eakin and director brinkman has seconded and miss boomer, would you please call the role. role call . Mr. Chair, you have a 70 adoption of the budget. Great. And with that, my understanding is that means that the may 5th e canceled and so for my final act, i will cancel the may 5th. The next meeting possibly will be may 19th, which would be director torezs best meeting and best of luck. And to the rest of you thank you and ill see you soon, because well come back and do some things but thank you for whats been a really remarkable experience. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes the business before the board today. applause . Thanthank you very much and n meeting a adjourned. The meeting will come to order. Good morning, everyone. This is the april 22, 2020 regular budget and finance committee meeting. At this time, i will also be calling the appropriations committee. I am joined by supervisor [inaudible]