Transcripts For SFGTV SFMTA Board Of Directors 20240713

Were sad to have the director not joining us and i know shes on the call and id like to open it up to directors and ill start with brinkman. Thank you, very much, chair board and its going to be hard for me not to always call you director rubke and thank you for all the hard work you put into this and were a thoughtful and careful director and you have such empathy and i appreciated serving with you on the board and getting to know you as a friend and now we can talk and travel as long as we want and we wont have to sensor ourselves at all. Thank you so much for your years of service and i will miss you very, very much on the board. Director eakin. Thank you. Christina, director rubke, its been such an honour and privilege to serve with you. You bring an important perspective i hope you will stay in touch with us and weigh in on board items. You are always welcome to call and share your perspectives. Ive learned so much from you and i really join director borden to be sad that this will lose perspective and your insights. Thank you so much for your eight years of service and encourage you again to please, please touch and share your vital thoughts with this board. Thank you. Thank you. Are there other directors who would like to speak . I dont see any on the chat. Ill open it up. Madam chair, can i say awe few words . Absolutely you can. Thank you. Christina, i, like our chairperson, deeply regret the circumstances that are causing your departure. Truth be told, i would regret any circumstances that led to your departure because youve been an excellent colleagues and to me for a short time and my colleagues for a long time. I encourage you and i dont think i need to remain engage in our City Government despite its ups and downs. I think you have a lot of valuable Service Still to give and i look forward, personally, to running into you in Golden Gate Park very often in deed. So thanks again, christina, for all youve done for our board and our city. Thank you. I cant find the chat to say a few words. Its ok. You absolutely k its your last meeting. I was hoping it was not going to be christinas last meeting. And i so enjoyed working with you, christina, especially on our trip to new york to look at the Transit System. You just amaze me at how you get around all over any city, much better than i could at times. I just believe that you have brought such an interesting perspective and a needed perspective and i hope that the mayor seeks to appoint someone with your back ground, someone with your commitment to the disability and coming off this board board tomorrow there was a tremendous amount of knowledge around the dais and people who are committed to transportation issues to transit issues and your commitment to a community. You had both of those so i just want to wish you all the best and great sailing ahead for you. Thank you, director torres. With that, director rubke, are you able to say a few words now . Hi, i dont know if you guys can hear me. Im not for speeches but it was a privilege and honour to serve alongside of you and it was an amazing experience to meet the impressive and talented staff of the sfmta and i feel confident the sag i agency is in great has with your leadership and the skills and dedication of the staff. Thank you so much for the kind words. I will leave you to your meeting and good luck. Best to you. We hope to see you again soon. With that, well have to move on to our agenda to the approval of the minutes from the april 21st, regular meeting. Do i have a motion. So moved. Seconded. Before that, item 3 announcement of prohibition of soundproducing devices at the meeting. There will be no such announcement. Great, thank you. [laughter] madam chair, you have a motion and a second. It would be appropriate to see, open the phone line for Public Comment. Yes. Are there people who would like to comment on our the further communication. For members of the public watching this meeting by sfgtv who wish to address the board with respect to the Meeting Minutes, call 8888086929 and then press 9961164 and finally 10. The moderator will let us know if anyone is on the phone call who wishes to address you under to summon each question press one and zero. This is just about the minutes of the april 1st meeting its not a time to comment on other matters. Looks like we have a questioner. You have one question remaining. Ok. All right. So, please give us your name and your two minutes and well start when you Start Talking, this is about the Meeting Minutes. Hi, my name is zack is this about the comments that were just mentioned about the departure of the director is that separate from the Meeting Minutes . Its separate. We will open up from general Public Comments after this. Great, bye. You have zero questions remaining. With that, is there a motion to approve the minutes of the april 21st meeting. You have a motion and a second on the floor. Im sorry, im sorry. Calling the question. All right. Director borden aye. Brinkman. Aye. Eakin. Aye. Ham. Torres. Aye. Madam chair, thats unanimous. Item 5, communications. Madam chair would you like to go to Public Comment . Yes, well do Public Comment and then i will actually maybe i should do this Communications First because its kind of in the relationship to. Due to covid19 issues by the San Francisco bother of health and they have lifted restrictions on teleconference. This meeting is being held for all members of staff and Via Teleconference. Well ensure the safety of the. On the web page, we ask the public to participate remotely by writing to the board or leaving a voice mail message. For all comments received in advance of the meeting, we have appreciated those comments. Thank you for honouring our request. Going forward, we urge to reach out to the board at sfmta. Com or to contact us at 415 6464470 in advance of the meeting. While this Technology Allows you to hold meeting Via Teleconference it may not work seamlessly as we would like it to be. There may be gaps, some dead air and some staff transitioning between technology and speakers. Please know were doing our best we can and ask for your understanding and patients as were still learning this new technology in our way of working together. If you havent done so already, mute your line to minimize the background noise. Board members and presenters unmute to comment and there is staff in the background and so we can switch from any slide presentation to whoever is speaking at the point and lastly. I want to thank the people who have been working long hours to make this meeting possible starting with our board secretary and including warren lamb, sean cunningham, art wong, jack chen, and tom of sfgovtv. Caroline, and everybody else who put together all of the hard work to make the meeting happen so we knows are not unusual times so we appreciate that and at this point i will open up to accommodate Public Comment at this moment and in response to an accommodation request from the public. All right s if the informed rater could please open the phone line right now, this is an opportunity for members with disabilities to address general matters not on todays agenda. Anyone else who wishes to address the board under general Public Comment that topic will come up will come up later in the meeting. This is for a computation and request. Mr. Moderator, let us know when someone is on the line. Bless one then zero. Please started with your name. Madam chair, we will ask the commenter to give their name and their two minutes will start when the person starts talking. Your time starts when Start Talking. My name is zachary. Im really concerned at this last meeting it was supposed to take place on may 5th and it was canceled. There was just a cancellation put up on the website. I requested an explanation from roberta boomer and the covid19 makes it only urgent action items necessary for publichealth should take place and during a live meeting and sending an email. I think its very that disabled people have been treated very poorly by sfmta for a number of years. There are hundreds and hundreds of ada disability complaints filed with sfmta every year and i published them on my website and documenting the mistreatment of disabled and videos if you searched or if you search on issues and this is a longstanding problem and we are treated absolutely horribly by the ada grievance procedures that are in place as well. I brought these issues to the attention of the sfmta executive board on october first, 2019 in great detail and so far nothing has been done to remedy that. Additionally, im concerned about the fare hikes and the attacks on the muni union and trying to say that muni union jobs will be removed if fears are nofaresare not increased ans ridiculous. There are people on staff with a sixfigure salary and have a nice Office Building that could be relocated. Doesnt need a multimillion dollar building and spending millions of dollars on new Construction Projects and buses left accessible to disabled people. Your time is up. Thank you for your time. Thank you, very much. Your complaint has been registered. You have one question remaining. Hi if you could give us your name and your two minutes will start when you Start Talking. This period is only as an accommodation for people with disabilities with regard to general Public Comment that item will be called a bit later in the agenda. Hi, this is michelle. What is your name, maam . Im michelle. Thank you. Go ahead. Your time is running, maam. Please address the board. Who is this . This is the mta board of directors. Oh, ok. Do you wish to address the board of directors . Anyway. Yeah. All right. Please credit, your time is on. Start speaking. What . If you would like to address the board, go ahead. Oh huh would you please identify yourself. Are you making a comment or do you want to call in later for the general Public Comments. Yes. Great. Its time to let her go. There are zero questions remaining. Thank you. So, this meeting is being televised by sfgtv. For those of you watching the livestream, please be aware theres a time lag between the actual meeting and what the members of the public are seeing if you are watching and you wish to comment on an item, please call the phone line. When the item is called. That will ensure you are in line when the chair calls for general Public Comment. For members of the public, please the phone number to use is 8888086929. The access code is 9961164. Make sure you are in a quiet location and if you are a livestreaming the meeting via sfgtv, please mute your sound. This will reduce any reverberations so the board can hear you. Again, at the appropriate time, the chair will ask the phone lines be open if you wish to comment on an item, you will be prompted to press 10. Then you will be added to the speaker line and there will be an auto prompt that the callers will hear that says question and answer time but this is your Public Comment time. You will be cued up in the order you press 10. This is an automated voice to tell you when its your turn to speak and your microphone is unutted you will state your name and to make your comment. I will start your two minutes when you begin talking. I will let you know when 30 seconds are remaining and your time suppose, well say thank you, next caller, please. At that point the moderator will put the speaker back on mute so i will repeat these instructions. Madam chair, for how to make Public Comment again as i am aware some of the members of the public may have joined the meeting after we made this announcement. Great. Thank you, and well move on to item 6, which is the introduction of new or Unfinished Business by Board Members and i will just briefly start by noting that today is director t torres last meeting. He was em pointed by the mayor ed lee in 2017. Director torres has had many titles in his lifetime. Im sure his favourite has been director of the sfmta board. [laughter] i just want to thank you for your service and your time. Its been so much fun having your breadth of knowledge and expertise of politics and State Government and you know, longer term perspective on things and its just been incredible and its been fun sitting next to you and trying to mind your interesting comments. You will be missed but not gone. Are there other districtors who would like to make comments . Director brinkman. Thank you so much. Senator, were going to miss you so much on the board. As our chair has noted, you are on to bigger and better things. All the best to you and we will miss your perspective and we will miss your sense of humour and its been lovely to spend time with you and get to know you so all the best to you. Director heminger. Its almost unfair we have to say t bye to two colleagues on e same day. You will be missed. Your sense of humour and i think your sense of reasonableness in occasion whats ouoccasions wheo the flights of fancy. For what its worth, going on to your new role at the university of california, ill just be the first person to lobby you for a cal stanford Football Game in the next season. [laughter] ok. Director eaken. Just worried what side of that game you would be on . [laughter] i just want the game. Its all you want. I know where i would be. Well, i cant believe i join director heminger and i cant believe were saying goodbye to so many colleagues in the last couple weeks, its been a privilege serving with you and ive also enjoyed your stories and your sense of humour and one my favourite things is your seekelly Endless Network of contacts. It seems like every time we brought up a memorial or a plaque you said i knew that person, i go back and back with those people. Its remarkable. Your experience and the perspective you brought to this board so we will miss you and dont be a stranger, please stay in touch. You get to close it out, i guess. It has been a pleasure to work with you and get all of your perspectives on transportation issues but the city and county of San Francisco. I know i leave at a time at a crucial time during this crisis and the challenge thats will face you are almost insurmountable but i cant think of a better team to do that for the future and county of San Francisco who i love very much. My hometown is los angeles as many of you know but since 1996, ive been a resident and taxpayer of San Francisco. And im in love with this city and always have been. Thank you again for the honour of serving with you and i will troy to work on those tickets, steve, but you have to report them as a gift. [laughter] with that we thank you. One final note, a special thank you to roberta boomer. I cant think of anyone who shows more patients ove patiencr years of service and its been an honour to work with you. Thank you. And you as well. Madam chair, next scheduled on your agenda is. I wish to nominate gwen to serve as chair of our board. Shes served with distinction and i cant think of more meaningful and wonderful notion as my last act to nominate her to be the chair. Are there any other nominations . All right. Hearing none, well close nominations. Its appropriate at this point to ask that the phone lines be open for Public Comment on the election of chair. To summon each question press 1 and then 0. If members of the public wish to make comment on the nomination of director borden to serve as chair of the mta board, please press 10 and mr. Moderator, please, let us know if there are any on the line. I need a second. No, nominations, director torres do not require a second. Oh, ok. You lucked out. [laughter] is there a commenter . There is. Ok. There are no callers on the line. There is one caller now. Just a moment. Theres one caller. All right. You have one question remaining. All right, so caller, this is an opportunity to address the board on the nomination of director borden to serve as chair and not on any other business. We will start the timer when you give us your name and start to speak. Please do so now. Hi, my name is zack. I just want to say director borden, i really hope that you can review the concerns of disabled people if you are going to be chair that you can take our concerns into consideration and lead in a better way than those who that have proceeded you. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else on the phone line . You have zero questions remaining. If you could please end Public Comment for this item. All right. So, on the motion to elect gwenth borden as chair. Director borden. Aye. Brinkman. Aye. Eaken. Aye. Heminger. Aye. Torres. Aye. Madam chair, its unanimous, congratulations. Thank you and now we open up nominations for vicechair. Yes, this is Cheryl Brinkman i would like to nominate director eaken. I think she will do a fantastic job. She showed our talent and commitment to the board not only in her past actions but handling the Search Committee and broad us and would like to nominate director eaken as vicechair. Any other nominations at this time. Seeing none, we open to Public Comment to see if theres any Public Commenters. Your conference is question and a mode. Press 1 and then 0. This is an opportunity to serve as vicechair. Are there any callers on the line . There are no callers on the line. If you would like to close Public Comment and we will do the roll call for the votes. On the motion to elect amanda eaken as vicechair. Borden. Aye. Brinkman. Aye. Eaken. Aye. Heminger. Aye. Torres. Aye. Madam chair, directors, its a unanimous vote. Congratulations. I look forward to working with you worklesley. I dont know if you want to make comments before we do additional directors remarks. Did you want to make any comments first . Im stumbled to assume this role anhumbled and i think thisi look forward to work with chair borden and the staff to navigate our way through these times. Great and i similarly want to thank everyone for their vote of confidence and look forward to working closely to make sure our Transit Agency stays on track during those critical times and we restore faith in Public Transit in the way we need to because we know many people count on our system to work well and effectively and we also need our streets to be with open space finding opportunities for people to get around so we look forward to working very hard in the next forever but for sure in the next year to make sure that we become the Transit Agency that people need for the times that were in. With that, im going to move on to other board comments or questions. And director brinkman, i think as some. Yes, thank you chair borden. I recently was sent the lasco, the local Agency Formation Commission Report that was the findings of a survey from on demand ride hail and delivery workers in San Francisco. And i had a chance to read the survey results issued regarding on demand ride hail and delivery workers and i look forward to centimetre mfta working and supporting lasco to accept and implement the recommendations of the report in particular those pertaining to health and safety of the workers and the public. We have a lot of opportunities to make sure that these services, which the public has shown that they value a lot, can be delivered in a way which is not harmful to the workers or the city. I think that helping move delivery workers to more sustainable modes, such as electric assisted bicycles from cars, fits with so many of our city goals and making sure the workers are being treated fairly is just basic human rights. I look forward to staff being able to work with lasco on that. Great, thank you. Any other additional directors comments or questions at this time . Secretary, do i need to open that up . You should. Ok. If members of the public would like to comment on anything the directors have said. To summon each question, press one and then zero. So this is for members of the public. This would be for only comment on director brinkmans comment as Public Comment on the motion to elect the chair and the vicechair was previously opened and taken. Moderator, please let us know if theres anyone on the phone lines. You have one question remaining. All right. So caller, this is Public Comment for items expressed during the directors new and old business only. Not on items that are within the jurisdiction, not previously discussed nor on items that are on the agenda. So, please state your name and your two minutes will begin when you Start Talking. I believe i may have called an incredit time. I was hoping to talk about management. I apologize. Thank you. Item 7, directors report. If the moderator could please close the phone line. Item 7, directors report. Good afternoon Board Members, i am jeff, the director of transportation and we have been very busy since we last talked. So let me go through a whole bunch of items that we should update you on. First is were expecting, some time this afternoon, supervisor peskin will introduce a Charter Amendment at the board of supervisors, a ballot measure to be placed on the November Ballot that would limit the sfmta board sole board to establish fares. Last we heard, there were still details to be resolved with that amendment and so well provide you with a detailed memo on the topic after it has been filed presumably today and we are able to review the final copy. We have also ive been spending a lot of time on the budget. As you know, the current publicHealth Crisis has turned into a dramatic and deep fiscal crisis. Weve been able to track revenues to the agency on most of our own sources of revenue are down between 75 to 100 and were now starting to get more detailed information about the state of the general fund and getting on going updates about how much our general Fund Contribution to the agency will be cut as a result of losses to the federal fund, which is dependent, as you know, on sources of revenue like hotel tax which is down dramatically. Were expecting to be submitting an interim budget along with other city departments to the board of supervisors on june 1st. Final budget will be submitted to the board of supervisors on august 1st and in order to get to august 1st, well be coming back to all of you on the sfmta board on june 16th with proposed revisions that reflect what are the latest estimates from the Controllers Office on the impacts to the general fund. Well also be able to update our own protections before shelter in place continues to be extended and that continues to have a deep negative impact on our parking fees, our transit fare and other sources of revenue. In the meantime, weve continued to make deep and painful cuts at the agency in order to save money. We have basically eliminated all non essential unscheduled overtime. Weve put a hold on all non essential hiring. We would want to continue like the back First Programme for our bus operators. But canceling these at this time, is going to be essential and through this crisis without much more painful cuts including to our workforce. Were putting a hold on all discretionary travel and non Mission Critical training and everything that we can cut that doesnt get in the way of us being able to directly deliver essential services to the public. On the goodnews side, we are positioning ourselves to receive money from the federal stimulus and in order to allow that to happen, the metropolitan commission is establishing a Blue Ribbon Transit Recovery Task force so look at ways of distributing the second amount of federal funding in ways that are most equitable across the 26 different transit agencies and also, to tro try to take some leadership on making the 26 transit agencies in the bay area more seamless from a user perspective. This is quite different than the approach and Assembly Member in the seamless transit bill but its been set aside by the state legislature in order to allow tem to focus on covid19. Were trying to lean on this at an agency level including and work at in order to figure out how can we take a more customer Oriented Approach and Work Together without being forced to do so by the State Government. One of the efforts is this blue ribbon Recovery Task force. Our first meeting will be on may 29th. I will sit on that task force along with the general managers and the larger transit operators and mtc commissioners and stakeholders throughout the region. Were expecting the sfmta to receive 197 million. This is hugely helpful and allows us to close out this fiscal year without layoffs, which we are deeply indebted to House Speaker nancy pelosi for her strong leadership in making that happen along with advocates from all over the country who helped push that funding all the way to final approval in congress. In addition to the cares act, as you probably know, the house is currently debating the second potential traunch of federal funding called the heroes act and the current measure includes another over 15 billion of funding for transit relief. Theres an increasing recognition the success of Public Transit is essential for the over all economic recovery of all of our metropolitan regions. If essential workers cant get to work, the recovery cant happen and if essential workers are all expected to get in their cars and drive to work, the Transportation System simply cant handle that and were already seeing this problem in parts of east asia and well talk a little bit about more later in this presentation about our efforts to get ahead of the problem. We did have one fatality in april. It was a singlevehicle crash, vehicle ran off the road on april 21st on the hill and that crash is still under investigation by sfpd and we have implemented some temporary barricades and other Quick Response efforts to make sure that never happens again. A key thing we want to update you on is the slow streets work that sfmta has been working on since the middle of last month. Im sure all of you know by now, in response to the shutting down of three quarters of muni transit lines, the sfmta stepped forward to try to identify corridors that would allow more san franciscans to feel safe walking and we start offtherecord with a modest effort focused on neighbourhoods that have lost the most Transit Service, specifically the our initial efforts around our push to move things forward and our lack of communication they are complaints why cant we have this in my neighbourhood and why cant you move more quickly as of may 8th, we had 15 miles of slow streets and we expect in our phase 2 planning is complete, it will have an additional 35 miles. Were soliciting input for phase 3 and hoping to have slow streets scattered throughout the city. I should remind all of you that slow streets are very much a temporary experimental Pilot Programme using very quickly installed easily removable we are changing things around in real time as we learn Additional Information and all of our work is being coordinated through the cities emerge see Operation Centre including collaboration with police and fire who have helped us make a lot of changes we have updates on micro mobility . Lime has been acquired by jump, which is a product of uber and lime stopped operating scooters in march due to the covid19 crisis but theyre how as of yesterday, starting to bring back a limited amount of scooter service. Meanwhile, spin, which had been our only operator for quite some time, s to join and expanding its fleet and expanding its geo cover nearly the entire city. We continue to be in litigation with lifts which operates bay wheels which is wanting to establish a monopoly for bike Share Service in San Francisco and meanwhile, they are working on rapidly expanding the availability of electric assist bikes shared electric assist bikes throughout San Francisco. Bay while and lime will be offering increased, micro Mobility Services and that will work well with our gradual expansion of the slow Streets Programme. I should also note that we are looking at some potential were looking at some additional quick build bike lane improvements including new bike way between baker in order to off load some of the pressure from the panhandle bike way. The panhandle path is experiencing a higher level of utilization that we have every seen since weve been collecting data. As more and more people are using our slow streets and taking advantage of walking, biking, skate boarding and scooterring in order to state during the covid19 crisis. A couple of other updates, the most recent or the health drick tivdirective earlier this monthn authorized new construction to get moving again and so we have been taking advantage of that to take care of some deferred maintenance in the muni metro subway ask taking advantage of the fact that trains are not operating there. Were watching up on some of that work as well as completing the westportal cross over that the former director advocated for. We should be able to complete the westportal cross over in time for the restorative rail service allowing us to be able to potentially offer threecar shuttles in the subway between westportal and embarcadero stations. Were also moving forward rapidly on the van ness Improvement Projects and the lack of transportation on van ness avenue and it has been able to allow the crews to accelerate the sewer and water work thats been the source of so much of the disruption on that street and that work is continuing quickly and it means that well be able to start the sfmta portion of that project and the transit portion starting this spring. Ill remind you all, that while the sfmta is in the lead of the brt project, none of our work has started yet. The work for creating the bus Rapid Transit line so were very much looking forward to that work getting moving and many of you also know about the cal trans 101 deck replacement. Cal trans replaced the bridge deck of 101 and as they have done before, thanks to the innovative contract structure that offered significant bonus for the contractor to finish early, that project happened extraordinarily quickly and it happened several months ahead of schedule taking advantage of the fact that traffic is so light right now. Were very happy with our partners at cal trans and their contractors for taking care of that critical projects so quickly. Were also moving forward on the geary rapid project and over memorial day weekend, this coming weekend, well be demolishing the pedestrian bridge at geary and steiner and that will cause disruption as most of you know, that pedestrian bridge is very steep and it does not need the american with disabilities standards and so instead we will be replacing it with an atgrade standard crossing helping to turn that portion of the geary boulevard back into more like a street than of expressway that it was conceived of in the 1950s. Were also moving forward rapidly with the project and that will continue to will end with better speed and reliability on the altera dock. I wanted to let you know we have carefully been watching how other cities around the world have been responding to covid19 since the very beginning of the crisis back in january. We had seen that the increase in covid19 transmission tracks very well by timeline to what we were experiencing as well as what the impacts would be on the Transportation System. We are now following the cities that have been most successful in crushing the curve and where transportation in particularly Public Transit is leading in the recovery effort and though the cities that were most inspired by for transit, has been sole and taipei. So two weeks ago, our departmental Operation Centre met with all of their equivalent, the city of taipei and taiwan, including a surprise visit from the mayor of taipei and we learned a lot about their visions as well as all of their operational details of what theyre doing in order to position transit to be a primary force in reopening the economy. Including realising that six feet of social distancing at a certain point simply does not work in Public Transit and so learning from them about how they had done things like ridgedly enforcing the facial covering standards, doing various contact tracing, doing very strong testing of their operators, doing te temperature checking of the members of the public having thermal standards at key rail stations has allowed them to analyze the risk factors, the mitigation factors, the time factors on Public Transit and compare that against the value of the activities, allowing them to create the case that full restoration of Transit Service was a relatively low risk and extremely high return activity. I would like to close with some gratitude. Gratitude to the entire sfmta staff who have continued to work excessive hours. As all of you know i. Spent my career in the private sector and i have never seen harderworking, more skilled people than im seeing throughout the entirety of the sfmta. This team has come together beautifully during this crisis, knowing that the public is completely dependent upon what we do and we need to get ahead of the problems that are facing us. Their strong effort has meant that the sfmta has one of the lowest covid19 transmission rates of transportation agencies in the country. Weve not had a covid19 positive case in two and a half weeks now and our total covid19 positive cases stands at 12. Which for 6,000 employees, while its too many, it is a very low rate, particularly for frontline workers. This is do you to the fact that all of our workforce are following the guidance and taking care of them sells, each other and their families to reduce transmission and we are continuing to have our staff maintain this Strong Health record. Im grateful of course to now former director rubke for her leadership, compassion, practicality and the deep experience she was able to lend to this board to help us understand the specific needs of people in wheelchairs and her experience will be deeply missed. To senator torres, another thank you to you as well. Your advice from deep experience, the way you bring both a sense of fairness and justice but also reasonableness to your leadership at the board, i cant think of anyone better than you to help the uc board of regions also get through this deep financial crisis with a sense of fairness so thank you again for your service. You are an inspiration to me and with that i will close. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you director. I want to say theres an echo but i want to say thank you to you and staff for all the hard work during this really difficult time and just all the efforts that youve made to keep everyone safe and to keep our population safe so i wanted to reiterate that at the end of your comments. At this point im going to allow directors to ask questions of your reports and then ill open it up to the Public Comment so maybe some of the questions of the Board Members ask might answer some of the questions that the Board Members are going to talk about. So director brinkman. Thank you. Thank you very much. What you said at the end of your report, thanking directors rubke and torres. Ive been so impressed with how the staff has managed to work through so many issues on this. I think its sort of like the duck analogy, where it lukes all serene on top of the water but under theyre paddling furiously because we cant see everybody and people arent working together and we dont get that glimpse of it. Its really impressive what theyve managed to do and i have been, im a huge open streets proponent but what ive seen on page street and lake street has just take not my breath away with how quickly people have come out to enjoy those streets. I just want to say thank you to all the staff. Im sure you and everyone in the agency are working so hard and just because we dont see it doesnt mean we dont notice it. Thank you to all the staff, thank you so much. I know the challenges you are dealing with working remotely and childcare at home and uncertain Financial Times all around us with your partners with your spouses and your families. So thank you all very much. Its much appreciated. Thank you, director heminger. Thank you, madam chair. Jeff, a question on the next wave of transit funding that might be coming from washington. My understanding is in addition to the total dollar amount being 10 million smaller the formula under credittatio considerationr allocating those funds around the country is quite a bit less favorable to the bay area. Maybe in part to make up for the fact that new york didnt do too well in the first one. Can you just give us a sense of where that issue is and whether we might be able to make some progress on it . I think its exactly right. So, the previous formula did quite well by the bay area and new york, which has a huge share of the entire countrys transit ridership did worse and so i think the the chances to make up for that problem while also helping all the rest us continue to survive in fiscal year 2021 so weve got we will get some money probably about 30 of our allocation will be available for the next fiscal year but that will not get us through without very deep cuts to the Transportation System sometime in the coming fiscal year. Does that conclude your questions director heminger. Yes being maam. Director torres. Thank you, very much. Thank you, jeff. I was honoured to serve on the Search Committee with steve and amanda, the chair when we recommended you to the full board and thats the decision i have never regretted. You have fulfilled, beyond expectations the challenges that are there. I most admire the fact that you get out of your sacrifice to run this agency and translate to San Francisco and part of leadership and always reach out to those people who are your constituents and employees so let them know that you are a stakeholder too and you are in this with them together. Its very, very commendable. And their planning and my work is never done were having a meeting to discuss how i can be of help to the staff. My hat is off to the entire staff of this agency. They are committed, they are making tremendous sacrifices, especially our drivers of the constant harassment theyre getting from people who dont want to put on their mask and dont want to abide by the orders in this provision. Good luck and im sure i will talk to you soon as a region of transportation issues. Thank you. Director eaken. Thank you so much. I just wanted comment as well on this programme. And agree with director brinkman, its just really just been remarkable how transformative these couple of sandwich boards and bones and barriers have been to neighbourhoods. I wanted to echo i think theres a lot more appetite. Were surprised by how much more appetite there is for these when people have gotten a feel for them. And i just know in los angeles, theyre taking a slightly different approach and theyre asking communities to step up and apply to host the slow street and in one woke theyve gotten 120 applications from communities for slow streets and so i just hope that we can find someway to allow communities and neighbourhoods to express where they have preferenced for more of these slow streets because i think theres a lot of excitement and interest out there. So for anyone wanting to express interest in slow streets, please go to sfmta. Com covid and click on the link for slow streets. Were still accepting requests for phase 3 of our experiments. And yearly looking forward to making sure that we are trying this in all corners of the city, particularly the corners in the city that have the least access to public parks and that are farrest from essential Services Like Grocery Stores and pharmacies. Were also needing to recognize for some neighbourhoods, particularly the tenderloin, we need to do more that its important for us to collaborate with communitybased organizations to make sure that social services are included in those and they work and that theres a higher level of management given the great need in neighbourhoods such as the tenderloin so those places are unfortunately taking us a little bit longer because were needing to do the additional collaboration that is necessary to make sure they will be successful. Great. Did you have anything else. I will just close out, im thrilled to see that you are accepting more slow streets. Theres a lot of interest, i hear every single day, and i seem that north Beach Business Association voted to close a portion of their street and i know haze valley is working so im hoping that do these people go online and apply at the slow streets that you mentioned, yeah, o jeff . Whats the best process for jeff . What is the best process . Getting more requests than we have capacity to deliver. Another thing that is effective, in addition to putting the question orequest on our websitg through neighbourhood associations and through your board of Supervisors Office that is a really helpful were delivering those in greatest need and those that are suitable. We look for low volume residential streets that are not Emergency Response routes and where theres not special activity that needs truck delivery and we also like a fair amount of con census and we have limited resources so its in our best interest to make sure were delivering the streets where theyre most welcome. Great. And then i had a couple other questions. Its great weve escalated projects including van ness vrt which is very important. One of the questions that people asked me is about our street repaving and i know thats not really our function, its more of i department of public works and i was it came up yesterday i saw a person on my street that bit it whether or not theyre taking advantage of the work related to the streets and the other projects were talking about but any street repaving work if we talk about slow streets and some of the obstacles to using the streets are the fact that they are very not well paved and and if you are on a bike or a scooter and in a wheelchair its uncomfortable to be on some of these streets. Dpw is accelerating their paving programme again. Were coordinating closely with them. Theres been another some of the moving around of corridors weve done have been a result of coordination with d. P. W. Great, and the other question i had, you mentioned this mtc past force for recovery and you talked about for the next town e money and focusing on the core it needs and not on some new programme related to working together. I just wasnt clear on that. So all the operators have been really clear. Look, we just need our money. There is an existing sta formula that works well at divvying it up. And it should be tied to financial losses. As you go into the details, there are questions about the margins of should you get this much money or this much money and so there is theres some discussion about how traunch 2 gets divvied up but it will be directly tied to our actual losses. The task force, however, will continue well beyond when the last of the cares act funding is distributed. Im really focused how we establish priorities for transit for the whole region and how do we help make the system more seem less from a user perspective. You know, and opening up many questions in that regard and i think theres so much we can do that is relatively lowhanging fruit. If we had a good forum for helping to make that happen. Great. With that ill open it up to Public Comment. This is the time for members of the public to have the line open so they may ask questions of the directors report only and obviously the related comments the directors have and questions to the directors report. For members of the public who are watching this Meeting Press 1 and then 0. For members of the public who are watching this meeting, who wish to address the board on topics that were discussed by director tumlin or commented on by members of the board, please call 8888086929. Then you will dial 9961164 and then finally, 10. And moderator, please let us know if there are members of the public. You have two questions remaining. So, members of the public, when its your turn to speak, the system will prompt you automatically and so please give us your name, your two minutes will start when you Start Talking. First caller, please. My name is zack. And i am i the first caller. Im disturbed with the way that sfmta is manipulating the covid19 pandemic to weaken the Drivers Union to cut back driver contracts and jobs and programmes that have helped drivers on the back of the bus is helpful for social distancing and as a person who uses a wheelchair on the front of the bus i do not want all the public running past me. It doesnt help social distancing for those at the highest risk on the front of the bus and theres no discussion about reducing the sixfission salaries that administrators and Communications People have at sfmta or other measures that can reduce the cost lowering or canceling expensive Construction Projects or other things and its very, very concerning to see that this is being used and manipulated to weaken a union which has always been the goal of sfmta and im very concerned about that and additionally, when people keep commenting about the work the previous director did for wheelchair users, i imagine theyre not wheelchair users and its a real slap in the face to those of you who have had to face tremendous discrimination for sfmta for being in a wheelchair and i would really ask that people stop making comments like that because it shows that you are not even listening to us or taking our concerns seriously and its hurtful. I really hope that sfmta will consider other measures instead of punishing contractors and drivers who only make 26 an hour driving muni buses, its very low pay for the hard work they do and the amount they have to put themselves at risk during the covid19 pandemic where as many people in administrative positions do not and earn a lot more money and there should be things talked about for relocationing funds that way if needed. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. You have four questions remaining. So this is an opportunity to comment on topics raised during the directors report when you give us your name we will start your two minutes. Next caller. Hi, this is eric roseel. Im a resident of the tenderloin. I would like to thank the board of districtors and director tumlin for your efforts in see during more slow streets and support of that. As a tenderloin residents for over 15 years, theres a growing need here, a desperate need to be quite honest for open space to be provided and i am a little confused as to why on the most recent map that was provided showing projects that were being considered why the tenderloin was deferred to the tenderloi td so it seems to be a back and fourth and uncertainty as to who is going to be assisting tenderloin and residents and securing slow streets or projects, community streets, whatever they may be called. Since theyre not the same. But just kind of curious as to who really is overseeing that project and who, we as a community, can lean into as the mta to provide support for what is happening here in the community and thats really all i have to say. Thank you for your time and best wishes. Thank you. Next speaker. Chair borden. You have three questions remaining. This topic is very dear to my heart. Since go ahead with barrie, ill come back. This is barrie toronto. I first off want to say that the slow streets are a little frustrating. Theyre not designated until you come upon it. It is really behove you to provide signage the block before to let you know that the street is closed. Because as a cab driver, i drive two days a week and i dont do more even though the business is there because of limiting my exposure and to be focused 11 to 12 hours in order to make money and to serve the public. It takes a lot of energy and motivation. Because of my age and diabetes, i have to limit my exposure. And im a really concerned that our inability to be able to manoeuvre the streets due to the slow streets is a problem since its not always marked well until you come upon the street. Also the traffic has increased. Ive noticed seven weeks ago when i started back driving again, once or twice a week, that the traffic has increased exponentially and if you want to make money get the double parkers on the main muni thorough fairs on the peak hours of 8 00 a. M. To 8 00 p. M. And theres a problem with delivery and tnc drivers and not pulling over when theres obviously parking. Theres lots of parking in certain areas because a lot of businesses still arent open or theyre limited opening. So i think theres an opportunity here to improve the flow of muni and also to generate some income. I know its thank you. Thank you, barrie. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Next speaker. You have three questions remaining. Your time will start when you Start Talking after you give us your name. This is hayden miller. Just wanted to say i would encourage you guys to expand the slow Streets Programme with mask and Face Covering enforcement work most closely with sftv to ensure everyone is wearing a mask because as some directors have said, operators are being harassed a lot and its not fair when really theyre coming to work providing a Public Service and the public is just harassing them and theyre getting more sftv on the buses. Thank you. Thank you. And do we have speakers . You have two questions remaining. Next speaker, please. Herbert winier and i have two questions to ask. The cutbacks in bus routes, bus stops, and services we contemplated even if this pandemic existed or not. I get the impression it will be cutbacks and service that have been contemplated months before and basically theyre destroying muni in order to save it. The second thing is i am wondering if the closer of streets or the slow streets doesnt add to Traffic Congestion. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have one question remaining. All right. Please give us your name. Joh john lisovsky. Im not sure if you saw over the weekend, there were dozens of illegally parked cars on great highway in the bike lane and that was very detrimental to cyclists being able to access San Francisco and exercise in a safe manner. The balance address are placed very, very far apart so the cars can easily drive between them. I would encourage mta to keep them closer together and to increase enforcement in places like that knowing that by closing the parking lots next to ocean beach, which was a correct decision, there will be a desire to find adjacent locations whether in Golden Gate Park or bike lanes. Just make sure through better infrastructure and enforcement that that doesnt happen, thank you. Thank you. And i think thats our last caller. Is that correct . If the informe moderator cous know. Members of the public. There are no additional speakers. Thank you. Moderator, please close publiplease closePublic Comment. I would like to address a couple comments. In the tenderloin, its from a Traffic Safety perspective its our highest priority in the city given the fact the tenderloin has the greatest concentration of Vulnerable People in San Francisco and Traffic Volume and speed and it shows us on every street. The healthy streets Operation Centre is the lead for coordinating that planning work and the sfmta is in a very prominent information in terms of the planning and implementation of that work so we are coordinating with them directly and our Vision Zero Team is working closely in order to figure out that combination of management and design. Were also learning a lot from the work that weve done on ferill street and ellis street in collaboration with communitybased organizations and then, the other thing i want today say is yes, were aware of the parking problems on great highway near the cliff house. Just as our muni operators have been hit severely by covidrelated leave. Having our parking patrol officers on the weekend. Were expecting this week to get a significant increase in parking control officer availability. That will allow us hopefully to restore our grea greater amountn the weekend and they know to target not only that portion of great highway cliff house and also south near as well as a few other locations that have created a lot of parking. Thank you. With that well move on to our next item, is there madam chair, our Citizen Advisory Council report theres no report today. Moving on to item 9, general Public Comment. This is an opportunity for members of the public to address the board on matters that are within the jurisdiction of the sfmta board but have not been already discussed by director tumlin or the board or that are on the remainder of the days calender. If the moderator could open the phone line for general public to summon each question, press one then zero. So, moderator, please let us know if there are members of the public who wish to address the board under general Public Comment on matters not previously discussed. For members of the public who are watching this meeting by sfgtv, please call 8888086929id9961164 and then 10. Moderator, are there members of the public . You have six questions remaining. All right. So when it is your turn to speak the system will prompt you. Please, give us your name and your time will start when you begin talking. First caller. Hi, this is barrie toronto again. I am first wanting to give a shout out to phillip. He works taxi essential services. He just got a new member to his human family and we congratulate him and i wish him all the happiness. He has been helpful to the taxi industry and he cant wait until his return to continue helping until theres a void right now. Also i want to thank director torres for all his support for taxis. He has been a big friend to us and i wish him luck. Congratulations to chair borden. I think her humour will help. Considering i believe torres did have a very important jobs at the state legislature. And also help for director rubke who is great work for the disability. I want to mention, taxis are still very important essential service. I i see an increase in business and in the need to be taxis for people who have to go to their jobs. Like security guards, store workers, people who work late at night. So theres definitely a need for taxi service and i hope that you will do a better job of promoting it and the essential programmes. So i would hope that you would help support it and unfortunately the mayor has not mentioned taxis in her press conferences and its a little disturbing because people i hope you promote the dispatch der advises with the etc people to call to have more taxis and the better disattache dispatch servt there because they need to get cabs and unfortunately not a lot of drivers are out there due to the impression theres no business because the airport is basically a long ways. Thank you, very much for your time. Thank you, mr. Toronto. Next speaker, please. You have six questions remaining. Please give us your name. My name is richard rothman. Im a resident of the auto Richmond District and i think the board needs to get more involved in the operation of sfmta. I was watching the board the budget hearings and realised that there is no oversight or independent oversight. How some harvey rose doesnt examine the budget and speak to all these people who need it for jobs like marketing . Why isnt so many people in the Marketing Department when they contract out some of the work. Some of my friends do contract work for marketing people. Do we really need all those people there . What is Innovation Department do . I dont know. Do you know what it does . The department that needs the most help is a sustainable Streets Division and livable streets in the Engineering Department need to be divided into districts so we know who were talking to. And the favourite word in engineering is no, they wont even put in stop signs or cross walks in the Outer Richmond and everything is a fight with these people. Fortythird and full ton there was a serious accident over 10 years ago before i moved back. It took over 10 years to fix the light. Every time i talk to the engineer, he had a different story. I could have wrote a book about him. I work for the city 26 years and some of the staff i would have been looking for a job and instead, they get promoted. The board needs to have a more hands on approach to the operation of sfmta. Thank you. Thank you. Intention speaker, please. You have six questions remaining. So the next speaker, when you give your name you are two minutes will start. Go ahead. Thank you, chair borden. Alena dupres for the record and my pronounce are she and her. Thank you, very important. I think we had some technical problems and i was not recognized for the directors report. I guess ill write you a letter. Anyway, on to general Public Comment. I heard a lot of good things but i have concerns. Im interested to see what will happen with this resolution that supervisor peskin is introducing because people are not happy about theirs and im not happy because this recent socalled Clipper Equity programme really sad to say, hurts more than it helps. It hurts people with disabilities and people of lower income of which i fall into that category. And im also a veteran so it hurts veterans who call into that category and it hurts those who have to travel and it needs to be simplified and only system because budget is really a forecast. When you look at elasticity, they dont always pan out so i want more people to ride muni but we have to help the people who need the help most. Which is the disabled, the seniors, the veterans, and the hardworking folks, especially those who travel on multiple systems who are participating in the clipper programme. It makes no sense to have expensive means of collecting feafare that results in a lower bottom line so why in this stage of covid19 we still have ticket offices. We have vending machines and clipper cards so we need to develop this programme that ensures equity for all the people of this place in this bay area. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Give us your name and your two minutes. Go ahead. Give us your name and well start your two minutes. Hi there, my name is Peter Hutchinson and im calling on behalf of the teamsters local 665 president tony. I wanted to thank the staff at sfmta for the time and attention helping us to stabilize as many of our members as possible during this uncertain time. Thank you for all your help. Thank you. Next speaker. You have five questions remaining. Hi, this is Jayden Miller calling. I was just calling to say thank you guys for the closed Streets Programme. Ive been enjoying the slow streets and im looking forward to the one on 23rd avenue. I also wanted to say that i hoch we do more to keep social distancing on the bus. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have four questions remaining. Next speaker, please, give us your name and well start your two minutes. Good afternoon, my name is pie ra with senior and disability action. Im here to comment on the recently approved muni fare hike. First, i would like to say how much i really appreciate all the great programmes who have been putting out there and response to this covid19 reality. We really appreciate that. Now this comment is the followup to sdas examiner oped published a week ago aftee decision to increase the fare and it was submitted to your board about two weeks ago. Sta and its disabled and Senior Community wants to again, repeat why the fare increase is wrong for the city of San Francisco. As far as i know, sfmta is not good at soup slaying. This is in the past when mta fare and in 2009 and the midst of the last great recession. Now in our new presence, or new future, reality, more factors and questions have come into place in predicting future fare increases or fare revenue actually. Such as what will covid19 economy look like . Will there be a second wave of infections and will people abandon Public Transit to go back to sheltering car transportation. So, to predict what your fare revenues will be like, its really basically a scientific wild guess. If anything that can be predicted is the fare revenue will be reduced significantly with or without a fare increase to the point that the fare increase will have little effect on the budget. Second on the city and ensuring the health and welfare of the citizens while this fare increase is doing just the opposite. Its actually throwing the poor under the bus. Time. Thank you so much for your input. We will have your letter and well read it. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have three questions remaining. Next speaker, give us your name and your time will start when you give us your name and Start Talking. Hi, my name is decker and just a quick thing. I was told by Roberta Bloomer of the sfmta board that Public Comment happens at the beginning of the meeting. This is what i was told over email just yesterday. And we had to wait over an hour and 20 minutes into this meeting to give Public Comment. Thank you. Are you done with your comment, sir . He provided comment under communications earlier in the meeting. Next speaker, please. You have two questions remaining. Next speaker, please, give us your name and well start your time when you start speaking. Good afternoon board of directors. Hello . Good afternoon bother of directors. Can you speak up. We cant hear you, sir. What about now . We can hear you now. Can you give us your name and well start your time over again. Good afternoon board of directors my name is im calling to draw your attention to what cities elsewhere are doing in response to this pandemic and were seeing a lot of cities across the world respond with bolder responses than in San Francisco and in particular like paris, berlin and ma lynn well see pop up like lanes. Im heart end to here mta is planning a quick build temporary bike lane. Its a great idea. I think director tumlin suggested that more might be in the works which would be welcome. I would like to point out that San Francisco is playing catch up here. Im looking forward to seeing catch up but for now were dealing with a net loss of bike lanes given what is happening on the great highway and i cannot wait to see that reversed because just here and everyone where else, bikes are selling out. Demand for biking and sustain ability transportation is really going to increase as people are moving away from transit to other things and moving away from driving. So i hope we can catch up and take bolder steps like our neighbours in oakland and international friends. Encourage people to bike. Thank you. Next speaker. Are we all done . You have one question remaining. Great. Thank you. Hello. Am i on the line . Yes, you are. Thank you. My name is ben bowl and i have recently been thinking about things we can do to make this city safer. And actually before i start, id like to thank you all for the work youve done to make San Francisco a better place in light of the pandemic and also in general. So, it occurred to me that adding Hand Sanitizer on buses would make people feel better about Public Transportation and theres been kind of a worrying trend as a lot of companies are urging their employees to take ubers and lift and its important for our environment and various other things that people dont stop taking buses after this is all over. Ive done the math and it turns out that you know, i fair increases would pay for not only the Hand Sanitizer dispenser but the cartridge you put in it within the first 1,000 uses. Which is the amount that comes. That is bu one idea. Another thing ive been thinking about. 10 seconds. Maybe having drivers handout face masks at the front of the bus for like 50 cents or something and i dont think people would have to pay that built into their fares because it seems like a lot of money. Thank you for your suggestions, sir. And i think were done with Public Comment or do we have another speaker . You have zero questions remaining. Well close the phone line. If you would like us to move on at this point. Lets move onto the consent calender and close the phone lines. Thank you. So, consent calender theyre routine and will be asked upon by a single vote of the board and there will be no separate discussion of these items unless the member of the board or public wishes to severe an item and to discuss it separately. Madam chair, item 10. 1 resolves various claims and to file complaints with metro pilot and for allocating ex existence in the Transportation Development acts state transit assistance and sales tax regional measures for fiscal near 2021 to support the sfmta operating budget and 10. 3 authorizes 608,000 in Transportation Development act funds for the San Francisco act communities plan and 10. 4 authorizes the director to execute unilateral contract modification number 10 to the van ness quarter Improvement Project with Walsh Company for additional costs related for modifications for sewer, water, and the amount of 2,187,655. 23 and item 10. 5 authorized the Steve Heminger to the Bond Oversight Committee effective june 1, 2020. Madam chair, thats your consent calender. Great. At this point, we will take Public Comment on any items on the consent calender. Is there Public Comment . Well open the phone lines. To summon each question, press one and then zero. Basically, you have a comment we will remove the item from the consent calender and hear it separately. Let us know if members of the public wish to address the board on any of the consent calender matters. You have zero questions remaining. Ok, well close Public Comment. Ill entertain a motion at this time. Motion to approve. Second. Second. All in favour. Roll call. Yes, madam chair. Director borden. Aye. Brinkman. Aye. Eaken. Aye. Heminger. Aye. Torres. Aye. Madam chair, districtors, the consent calender is unanimously approved. Moving on to your regular calender 11 presentation and discussion regarding the sfmta covid19 recovery and restart planning process. Great. Could you bring up the slide presentation, please. So before i begin this, i want to just pause for a moment to recognize that the last two months have been really hard. Not just for us as an agency and all the Technical Work we need today do our plan needs to meet the Transportation Needs driven by the Health Crisis and also to address some longstanding problems. Its difficult to create change in San Francisco. Despite the fact is world is changing around the city. We want to set things in place in order to allow the Transportation System to be able to return better than it was before and to serve customers and support longterm economic recovery and social equity. Next slide, please. We see some really difficult problems on the horizon. As we look at what is happening in the east asian capitals that are further along in their recovery they are experiencing Traffic Congestion that exceed in the pre covid19 economy. It only takes a relatively small shift of travel demand from Public Transit to driving alone to completely gridlock the entire Transportation System. A relatively small shift here in the San Francisco bay area would gum up all movement cutting the ability of the Transportation System as a whole to move people. A modest increase in congestion would cut person through put in half putting a halt to all of our efforts to support a strong economic recovery. In order to be the economic recovery to actually occur, we need to continue to focus on all of the most spacey efficient modes of transportation. And thenc means walking, biking, scooterring and wheelchairing and Public Transit. And as we look at the data here in the San Francisco area, you can see on the screen, the rates of driving are ticking up steadily. Our own data here in San Francisco is already seeing a return of congestion and some key corridors. We believe we have a very narrow window of time in order to set Transportation System up so the citys economy is not strangled in Traffic Congestion and we believe its two months. Between now and august. We have to make a lot of tough choices. Next slide, please. And so, we want to previous slide. So, as always, our highest priorities is protecting the health and safety of our workforce and the health and safety of the public. We also know that we need to make sure that the Transportation Network evolves to make and meet the ever changing mobility needs as the area progresses out of shelter in place. Travel patterns have changed dramatically and we expect some of those changes would be long lasting. The last job to come back support tele commuting, office jobs in the financial district. The places where were seeing the strongest travel demand is in neighborhood commercial districts and the key institutions that are not downtown. We need to make sure that the Mobility System we bring back supports these changed travel behavior so as a result, we need to use our actual data in order to bring the Transportation System back purposefully, the Transit System particularly. Allow the Transit System to reflect current travel behavior. Next slide, please. As always, everything comes back to our values. We have limited resources as an agency so we need to allocate those limited resources in order to best achieve the public good. And that requires deep clarity we need a laser focus on social equity and our role in supporting the economy. We cannot forget our environmental sustainability values, our Customer Service values, and the other values that are embodied in our strategic plan. Our infrastructure and Services Must be a reflection of the adopted values here in San Francisco. Next slide, please. So were developing a clear plan looking at all of our lines of work and how each needs to be adjusted in order to support the economy. We are, again, continuing to rely on the advice of the publichealth experts of the department of publichealth. We need to make sure that everything that were doing is a living document that continues to be adjusted based on evolving Health Conditions and what we learned as we go along. This agency is operating and implementing, perhaps faster than it ever has and so all of our documents have a useful life of two weeks before they need to be adjusted. We need to continue working to bring our workforce back to work while understanding the Health Science and minimizing the health risk to our people. We need to make sure that we are sequencing things in a logical way to bring back Transit Service and coordination with changes to Street Operations and we need to focus on all of the most efficient modes of transportation and that means not just transit but also investing in better protected bike ways and slow streets and transitonly lanes and improvements to paratransit and to regulated taxis. We need to support Small Businesses. Our neighborhood commercial districts that are essential to quality of life in our neighborhoods and as always, we need to be doing this quickly and on ex per mental and trial base is, learning from our mistakes and making sure to respond to customer feedback. So, with that, what i really want to do is to introduce to you dan howard. He is the Technology Assistance manager for the sfmta Transit Division and he is spearheading our Recovery Efforts as part of our agencys Department Operations center and he will tell you about his great work. Next slide, please and on to dan. Thank you, jeff. Good afternoon, directors. The transportation Recovery Plan consists of the six levels you can see on the screen there which layout the sequencing of how the sfmta will bring back transit theyre with our state and city health offered we can expand and were working with closely with our sister agencies as well as the economic Recovery Task forced to make sure that our efforts are coordinated. And our plans will of course be steed steed by the citys over all efforts to recover. Were currently in level two right now and as of may 4th, we still have the shelter in place which continues to limit the travel for essential trips as some outdoor businesses reopen and recreations restrictions ease and we still allow retail with Curbside Service as well as restaurant, quick up recovery and as we are able, muni and Street Operations will increase the levels of service to coincide with the increases and permitted activity where foe sure as the citys economic and our ability to increase muni service and Street Operations as publichealth restrictions ease, is depending on our of our staff which is experiencing trouble as jeff alluded to. To the first through levels were basically keeping a policy of maintaining the core Service Routes we establish at the beginning of the crisis and increasing the capacity and the frequency of service along those routes. Rather than looking to expand them right away. The Recovery Plan will function as a living document that will adjust continually based on the evolving Health Conditions new transportation data as we see it as well as input we receive from stakeholders, elected officials, members of the public. The implementations will be on a trial basis that will essentially expire at the end of the emergency at which point well pursue a legislative process to keep improvements in place or will remove the restriction thats were put in place. The Recovery Team will monitor and make adjustments to the plan as the conditions warrant. Next slide, please. In the process of the recovery our plan addresses the following challenges while meeting our core objective. The first is a quick return of Traffic Congestion and as jeff alluded to, traffic initiatives could return above pre covid19 levels and more quickly than we anticipate. We received data parents and Traffic Congestion is coming to the city with the latest relaxation of health order restrictions and the resource issues we have are an issue as we call them upon to move a large number of people despite the Health Precautions requiring more space per person as well as contending with the reduces revenues that are caused by a depressed economy. Lastly, Staff Shortages which could make it difficult to keep pace with covid19 absenteeism which is related to people falling sick or requiring to be quarantine or some of the structural mismatches between how our staff has been assigned and the new operational realities and its all of a sudden we need car cleaners in order to maintain our level of service much more than we previously did and pre covid19 and additionally, concerns about personal health and safety are in effect and a threat to this plan. If we find our employees are afraid to come to work and they stay home, using their sick time or vacation leave. In addition to the challenges, the plan will require careful consideration and mini trade offs and adjustments. So to meet these we have new and existing strategies and implementation of the measures will be during the emergency as we roll them out we look forward to learning from our constituents what works and what doesnt work and continuing to adjust the plan as we need to. Transit lanes, for example adjust Traffic Congestion and theyve been for 40 years. The transit lanes, as many of you know, improve media travel times and reliability but they also allow our buses to complete their routes faster which means that they can turn around more quickly at the terminals and the same number of bus actually help us provide more service or higher frequency if we protect the service from congestion with these lanes deploying transit lanes on more routes will save our customers time and the agency money which is something that weve always known but when we approach it with this crisis, we found they will allow us to provide the Similar Service with the vehicles that the staff that we have. With fewer cars on the road, the shelter in place actually simulates the street conditions across the city that we would see as if every muni route had its own transit lanes. And so on average, what were seeing with the data is that peak muni travel times were reduced by 15 on average except in corridors which had transit lanes where we observed no change between pre covid19 travel times and now. So, we can attribute that 15 change to the effects of Traffic Congestion and this is the most conclusive evidence or the most effective study that we can divide on how effective the Muni Forward Program has been in protecting our Transit System from congestion. Simply put, were finding strong evidence in this crisis that the investments weve made prior to it are working. The unusual circumstances have allowed us to use the new data to pinpoint specific locations where we can add new transit lanes and achieve even larger time savings. As we adjust to the effects of covid19, we do anticipate that service cuts will be necessary down the road and the distancing requirements also that are unique to this pandemic means that even if were running all of our pre id Service Today we would serve about half of our ridership. These two reality mean theyre never higher and adding these new transit lanes is a Cost Effective way inform allow us to turnout more service under the present conditions. Another new strategy is the slow streets that jeff has already referenced. The program meets our distancing requirement force recreation as well as as promotes walking and biking by meeting the travel needs and limiting traffic on certain residential streets. More space and lower speeds allows distancing and allows biking reducing demand for money or driving trips. It is couns them to use them in a way weve never seen them before. Its responsive to the neighborhoods which the sfmta has provided so jeff mentioned well continue to i am not more slow streets to move them forward in response they from stake hold and our multi label survey. While it was established as an emergency measure, we will continue to monitor the performance in responding to the citys needs and value wait it as a future tool. Next slide, please. The Recovery Plan includes strategies to support economic recovery. Sfmta stands ready to support neighborhood business corridors but adapting streets to meet their emerging needs. They will be vetted in advance so they dont conflict with media routes, vision zero goals or other access to needs and well provide more dedicated space for bicycling as well as a network that will help san franciscans be more comfortable as well as help reduce crowding on muni and the Traffic Congestion in the streets. In addition to physical infrastructure, like lanes, we are focused on a number of efforts and programs. In particular we want to engage with city staff as well as private businesses on various transportations and demand strategies and promote alternative modes of transportation during this crisis. Micro mobility has an Important Role to play and well partner with bay wheel to provide bake Share Services in the future, we expect to see up to 4,000 new ebikes and well also focus on completing our bike share Station Network so we can support a complete role out of the classic and the ebike share parking. As jeff mentioned, our work have also ensured they continue their operations particularly in support of essential workers and Community Concerns by expanding there to include the whole city. And of course we have additional bike infrastructure which will be important to support not only bikes but also these forms of micro mobility. Were implementing quick fill projects add bike lanes and other treatments to some streets as part of this Recovery Plan and were looking forward to engaging with our elected official and ski stakeholders to determine that location for additional bicycle facilities that go beyond those that have been in the program. Our plan includes taxi and accessibility Transportation Service which feel key gaps now as we scale it back to the core service plan. They help seniors and people with disabilities take essential trips and they minimize crowding on muni. The trip card supports our plan by helping to pay doortodoor service for seniors and people with disabilities. They still require Transit Service. This program will be conditioned throughout the Transportation Plan and we will continue to evaluate it for longterm continuation. The sfmta will continue to promote taxi trips as an alternative to minimize the crowding levels and as we scale back our service. We have cleaning and were work to go introduce for drivers and passengers. The framework that we have for Transportation Services and operations and scaling them up as restrictions on activities ease with the publichealth orders and as economic reassumes its called the transportation Recovery Plan. As we implement measures to support the economic recovery on the trial basis we look forward to learning what works what doesnt work and real time accordingly to what were hearing. In terms of next steps, i have our framework for the board and we plan on a dialogue on elements of what you heard and we would like guidance from the sfmta board on how bold we should be in advancing the various elements like the bike lanes and transit lanes you just heard about it. Within our budget constraints, how quickly we should advance the sequence of implementation and given what weve proposed will be on a trial basis, how do we approach the Public Engagement in this time of covid19 given our needs to implement these changes quickly but also understanding the limitations of not being able to do inperson meetings and relying on technology. By recovering from this crisis purposely, the sfmta will be better positioned to address longstanding problems, serve our residents and workers and help suppose sort the economic recovery. Thank you. Madam chair, would you like to take general Public Comment or Public Comment on that matter or go to Board Members questions and comments . Someone muted me. Of course, sorry. Id like to go to Public Comment first. Members of the public who wish to address the board on this please call 8888086929 if the moderator can open the phone line for Public Comment. Its in question or answer mode. Press one and then zero. Well wait a moment for members of the public to dial in. Let us know if there are members of the public. I have one question remaini remaining. Please give us your name and well start your time or two minutes when we begin talking. Go ahead. My name is herbert winier and any concern is are we going to get our buses back. Are we going to get our muni back after this pandemic and i dont like the idea of cutbacks and services. Theyve been cut back long enough and you are going to have crowded buttses, less people willing to take the bus service, decrease revenue and basically its a loselose proposition. All this you have contemplated to be put on hold and the money should be placed on Public Transportation. And basically you are going to need Public Transportation and right now, its one disaster preparing for another. I ream think you should focus on Public Transportation and these other projects are peripheral. Thank you. Next speaker, please. I have one question remaining. Please give us your name and we will start your time as soon as you begin talking. This is barrie toronto. I appreciate the presentation by both mr. Tumlin and his staff member. I also appreciate the mentioning of taxis and the importance of them especially with by evaluate hog is using the card and how quickly and the time of trips theyre doing and i think expanding the program was a great idea and im concerned theres not enough promotion done. It should be more promoting long the public and also among the cab drivers. As part of the presentation, you need to include what happens when the loan payments start coming due with the credit union. Right now a lot of drivers are not working and theyre taking their contacts ou cabs out of sd how will they make these loan payments. Take this as an urgency as part of the program presented today. Also, there is a lot more business and traffic has increased immensely and so its something that has to be dealt with and maybe more enforcement. Concerning the use of taxis is important you work with the major dispatch de services and u actually that there is business out there and then you encourage them to come out there and work and also to provide more cleaning supplies. We need more masks, and we need more disinfectant spray to keep the class disinfected and cleaned for our passengers. I appreciate you take these suggestions to heart and thank you for in concluding taxis as part of this plan. You have zero questions remaining. If theres anyone left who would like to call in press 10 now. We will close Public Comment. Moderator, let us know if you have anyone else. You have questions remaining. Next speaker, please. Give us your name well start your two minutes. My name is jody and im an executive director of walk San Francisco and i wanted to thank the presenter today for the transit recover row program and thank the sfmta for this program and for publichealth during this pandemic and one thing i want to make sure is we are not losing sight of vision zero and we are more reliant on our for getting around and we should we have not seen a traffic related fatality in the last weeks during our shelter in place and last thursday and we had close to 100 people sign a letter and sent a letter to director tom lynn and the sfmta board and asking for three core priorities and we node to have the sfmta focus on to keep us safe. We would love to see more read light cameras and we need to see more dynamic speed radar signs to were tracking speed and speeding in San Francisco and also we outlined three simple implement policies to keep people safe in the crosswalks and theyre focused and we see people driving that impact people walking and biking and so, we love to see these things addressed by this board and ask them to move forward and hear more about these very practical low cost ways that we can be keeping our eye on the vision zero prize and keep people safe while walking and biking. Thank you, very much. Next speaker. You have one question remaining. Speaker, as soon as you give us your name we will start the two minutes. This is robin calling in and thank you very much for getting through a difficult time for all of us, i appreciate your efforts and helping us all do that and i have a couple comments today and i would like to see as many routes as possible restored because people need to get around and without them i think theyre going to be stranded so my recommendation is to get all routes going but maybe with less frequency in the beginning if its a budget matter. So well all understand that. Help us get around. Second comment i want to make is one about air circulation in closed vehicles. Im wondering whether theres concern about that because the virus can be passed around in a closed area. Could there be windows open for cross ventilation or any other ideas that you have to keep fresh, clear, clean air in these closed vehicles and im just going to ask that question for your transportation engine engineers whatever you know to keep the public and drivers as safe as possible because we never know if people are still going to be getting this virus around so lets keep us as safe as possible with the closed areas situation. And number three, i heard the backs First Program got canceled and i understand that this Program Supports Workers Health and your workers need that support and it will cause workers in the city more if workers get injured and hurt and so for financial reasons and humans id like to see the restoration is so i recommend you restore the backs First Program so that our workers can be the best supported for their health in the city so thank you for your time Going Forward and i know you all have challenges. Thank you. Are there any additional speakers . You have one question remaining. If there is anyone else on the line who wishes to address the board call 8888086929 code 996116 for dial 10 in order to make a comment. Next speaker, please, thank you. Well start the time when you Start Talking. My name is rob and i want to thank the staff for all the work theyve been doing through the pandemic and the streets and like lanes and i wanted to especially highlight the proposal in this presentation we just saw for more transit only lanes and its great to here that natural experiment that happens during shelter in place to prove what we are expected to be true and than its only lanes and they speed up by a lot. I have seen the evidence of that from my kitchen window and the streets and go up in the recommendation and implement and transit only lanes in the next few months and we have before all hell breaks loose, particularly in places that have been in the works, approved or brought up for approval soon so im thinking of praise places like fourth street, 16th street, and also other locations that are in dire only lanes and i hope that we can due to the fact theres not altright now and theres not much of a need to cause to get this done. Theyre doing work outside of my house and theyre working from 7 00 a. M. To 3 00 p. M. Here on geary. Thank you. Are there any additional Public Commenters . You have one question remaining. See, all right. Please, give us your name. Give us your name. This is zack. Hello. Yes, we can hear you. This is San Francisco and really want to echo the hard work, thoughtful and challenging experiences within our sfmta and im thankful for all their time and effort to make sure we have essential trips in this challenging time. Thank you director tom line and howard for this report and i want to echo rowens support for transit only lanes. We know these gender only lanes remove with cards reducing collisions and getting them out of traffic. With Better Service and more buses we can make up for the few vehicles and fewer operators who will see in the crisis and make sure we can condition to provide essential trips. We look forward to working with sfmta for more transit only lanes to make sure transit is safe and accessible for everyone as we recover from this crisis. Thank you, very much. Any final questions . You have zero questions remaining. We will close Public Comment then and i will move on to directors when i hear the moderator say its closed, i guess. The line is closed. Wonderful. Well move on to director heminger. Thank you, madam chair, i do. And first of all, id like to thank jeff and dan for really excellent presentation and i think theyve made a good first passat the subject. At the same time, were just seeing it for the first time today. There is a lot of meat on those bones. Im sure each of us probably has a few more bones wed like to throw on the pile as well. Thats why madam chair, i would like to request you schedule a board workshop on this subject. I think not only do we need to dig deeper in the areas that jeff and down have outlined but there are probably some instances where we need to look wide are as well into other areas. Let me mention just three of them that come to my mind. Jeff mentioned it takes a little bit of movement from transit to autos to make things really bad. It works in reverse though too. That is if you can just get five or 10 of the transportation off the road at a given time, you can dramatically increase mobility and reduce congestion. Where i used to work at mtc we call it the columbus day effect because its a holiday hardly anyone gets. On that holiday, traffic is a lot better. Every year consistently. So, that is just one example where maybe this is a partnership that we could pursue with the board of supervisors and we seem to be in need of a little partnership with the board of supervisors lately. Is there a policy approach . Is there an ordinance or a city policy that we can put in place that would encourage more employers to maintain some level of teleworking . Which is being used extensively. I dont think we can keep it at the levels forever but we dont need to. We need a modest and sustained increase to potentially have a significant beneficial effect the second idea is whether or not we should be accelerating the project to put a price in downtown San Francisco and if in fact were going to go through a period of depressed transit ridership and increased auto use, then we really need tools at our disposal we can have and its a very powerful tool that right now is not at our disposal and we need to get permission for it to happen and should we move faster on that if its one of the tools we need to deal with this recovery. And ill mention a subject that jeffs presentation touched on but not as much as i would like to see and that is, how can we mainstream the quick build approach. Since ive been on this board, ive seen us use it from place to place. I dont think were yet into the regiment of using it systematically. And just to draw annan algae to the publichealth community, which right now has the ball, and is running down the field and as fast as they can in developing a vaccine we heard thoughtful ideas from walk sf as well as the public and ideally we would do this inperson meetings. Maybe thats not going to be in the cards. In the near future. If it is someone needs to mute themselves. Someone is actually on the call and they dont realize theyre not muted. Thank you. Go ahead. Sorry about that. No trouble. I was almost through. If we can have such a workshop, do we need to do it virtually as weve been meeting for the last several weeks or are we going to be sprung lose by the mayor and maybe we can do it inperson. It can be more free flowing than our formal Public Meetings and just the nature of the technology requires us to be a little bit more formal when we do the meetings virtually. But ill leave that to the staff and in your good hands and i would hope that you will consider scheduling such a workshop and when we can deal with a subject that is one of the most important ones this board has dealt with in the 20 years of the mta. Thank you, very much. Director brinkman. Fantastic ideas all around and i want to just second all of them. If theres a way to get the congestion or decongestion charging moving more quickly, you are right, it will be key. It will be key in our ability to control Traffic Congestion and keep our transit moving. I think that you are right, the quick build project has been really good but it was developed for a precovid time when quick was relative to what we were able to do then and now we need sort of super quick. We need a moon shot for transportation in San Francisco. So, two specific requests. One is that its going to be its probably going to be a big lift for staff to get everything ready for us to give them the legislative scope knowing what we need now is going to be a lot of work for them to get together. I agree that we need a really good freeflowing sort of openjawed meeting in which to discuss this and im hoping we can do that at the june 2nd immediating and if we all commit to spending the time that we need to spend, my hesitation is calling it a workshop, i know how much time and energy staff puts into our normal workshops that we do and im just worried about them being able to get that together particularly for the june 2nd meeting and then with enough time to follow through. I would love to hear your thoughts on this and if we can have, at the june 2nd an agenda item that is open jawed and we would all commit to spending the time we need to do it and i wish we can do it inperson and maybe because there will only be four of us and it will be easier to do social distancing so that we can be in some scenario with where were facetoface and i leave it up to staff and the city guidelines to decide if that is fees ability or not and we get better conversations and we get better interaction when we are able to be inperson so those are my two things. What else do we need to build on our existing quickbuild legislation and are we going to be able to legislate that and get it together in time for hopefully a june 2nd which can be a regularly scheduled meeting that we kind of shape shift to give us that workshop feeling. Thats all, thank you. Thank you, director brinkman. Director eaken. Thank you, so much. So thank you, dan, and jeff for the presentation. And also just for the hard work that went into creating it. I want to start by just echoing the comments from my colleagues about setting aside in real time and space to explore all the implications of covid19 for the Transportation System. I would absolutely make the time and i dont really think that there could be time better spent in terms of facing some of the these challengeds and looking at some of the opportunities. I heard you ask, dan, in your presentation, for guidance from the board on how bold we should be on transit lance and bike infrastructure. I want to reflect the way i think you laid out the issues, i start to feel convinced that the bus lanes are not just a matter of running in efficient Transit System, theres also a bit of a publichealth imperative to run more buses along a given corridor along a certain amount of time to allow for distancing and some of our Public Commenters have asked on those transit lines and they also seem to have a bit of a financial imperative, if we can save money for our agency at this critical time by avoiding our operators and vehicles sitting in traffic. I want you to be very bold and take those publichealth and financial imperatives in mind as you progress. As regards biking and walking and slow streets, i am delighted to see the progress and i also am very encouraged to hear you say that a bike network, a complete network is in the mix because you know, just personally i took a trip with my family by bike this weekend and we were so delighted when we saw that most of that trip was going to be along lake street. Its just so relaxing when you get to a place where due have to worry about cars for a minute. Especially when you are riding with kids. And if were serious about encouraging people to bike, i think we need to give people that continuous low stress network all over the city. Not just on a couple streets. And i think cheryl was talking about how wonderful it is to see children and see people coming out and exploring the public realm and their streets and i think thats a little bit of an cater, its like, if a 4yearold kid is comfortable riding a bike on a street, its a safe street. We need to look how our infrastructure does or does not reflect our values and a colleague told me and its not, theres not a commitment made to make it a safe trip and a comfortable trip so you ask how bold to be. I want to answer that question directly and i want to encourage you to be very bold and if we think about our infrastructure having to reflect our values, we also heard from director tumlin the safety and health of the staff and the public is our top priority and i just wanted to share i thought i heard from a colleague at the green lining institute and he said he doesnt believe that the covid19 pandemic presents us an opportunity but it presents us with a responsibility and i really, really love that reframing and i think our current street system does not adequately reflect our values and i believe its our responsibility in the recovery to make it so. Thank you, very much. Thank you. Director eaken. You had another comment. Yeah, i just briefly wanted to respond to director brinkman. I share her concern about overloading the staff. At the same time, workshops in my experience, others, over my career, they really go better if you do have preparation going into them and i know jeff is in the cue to speak zoom so he may have some thoughts about this and they may have done work already. But i do think for the workshop to have value, we at least need a concentrated period of time whether its during a or a special meeting and we may need more than one bite at apple to get the work done. Again, as i said, i think and those need to be briefed out and prepped. I think for us to have a useful discussion. Great. Thank you all for everything youve said. I agree with everything thats been said here. The only thing i will take with director heminger of Small Businesses and traffic for us to recover as a city and so i think that the sales tax revenue which helps us so while its what is actually been harder is a lot of this have decided to have their people tele commute for the rest of the year, twitter and goggle have made similar announcements and it will be devastating on our revenues in the longterm and short and longterm because of the fact were not going to have this sales tax purchases locally so we need to balance how we get people back to work and using alternative modes of transportation and making it more attractive and easier for them to access them and as opposed to encouraging people to tele com out commute. I did want to talk about how we can do Something Like a workshop or spend some time drilling down on these key areas and allowing more community input. I had a question around the masks and the cleaning and one of the things we need to do and it would be helpful if we had a more extensive demo and showing of the public of how were doing that. Theres a we have a fogger machine we work with and we have masks but maybe you could just put a fine point on some of the key things were doing in that area and i also saw the Transit Riders Union was raising money to give mass to drivers and i would love to understand what were doerg in terms of providing masks for shifts and those basic issues to help reassure the public and help better education us. If you can address that and all the topics we brought up and how we can do a workshop or drill down on the topics that weve talked about, that would be great. Ok. All right. Let me just dive in. There were a lot of points that i was able to take good notes. There we are and back. Why dont i take this in reverse order. In terms of masks and cleaning, it appears that sfmta is i dont know that were the National Leader but were among the National Leaders on cleaning our vehicles and keeping our operators safe and it born itself out in our virus transmission rates. In fact, were one of a very small number of operators where theres not been a single incident of workertoworker transmission of the virus. This is phenomenal. And so, a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are providing personal protective equipment to all of our operators and in fact all of our frontline workers including our car cleaners, our mechanics have access and were doing a lot of work around protecting the operator cabin and these are of course the reasons why we eliminated the cable car and fline service at the very beginning of the crisis to make sure were protecting our workforce. And over the last couple of weeks, we changed all of our operational schedules. Both to provide every operator with the consistent shift but also to make sure that each operator can return to the yard at the end of every shift and so that the bus can be cleaned before another operator takes the bus out for service. All of these things have enable us to [please stand by] Transportation Team management, we have a team working on this and we want to support probusiness, so not imposing new regulatory requirements on business, but, basically, providing them with helpful resources because what were finding is that businesses have a lot of builtin incentive to do transportation demanded management largely rooted in elevator capacity. , which is quite interesting. So the Office Building owners are doing work to spread out the peak which is helpful for us. Were providing some Additional Support including the taxiride home programs and other things that Partner Agencies are supporting elsewhere. So well provide you more information on that and maximizing the economy. One way is by spreading out the peak. And on the idea of a workshop, we have interested in this, but we need to do it very differently than weve done workshops in the past, and so the budget workshop weve put together for you, that was a massive behind thethe scenes staff effort and all of that was very carefully staged and we had all of that put together. If were going to do a workshop, you get to do it in the same way our Department Operations center is doing business. So weve expanded our Work Production output by a full order of magnitude and in order to do that, it means things are messy didnt in realtime and its a little chaotic. But i think if you and the public can handle reallife, realtime messy planning, we would love your engagement. This may be this is definitely a new way of doing business but everything requires a new way of doing business, so this will be an experiment and it will not be pretty. So that said, i think theres a lot that we can do bringing together core staff and revealing all of the data which is fantastic and hunkering down what are our priorities and it would be go good to understand w things are working. The last decongestment crisis study got plans in the 2008 recession. And this recession, however, is different from the last one in some fundamental ways and i think theres a recognition, particularly given the ffctas emphasis on using pricing in order to advance equity and Small Business success rather than raise revenue and i think theres a way that we can help frame the conversation in a different way and show the urgency doing the pricing now in or to forestall the real crisis of congestion to prevent further economic recovery. We know that this is moving forward with their study and we know that because implementation of that work requires state legislative approval, that its not a shortterm solution. Put one thing that we might want to have you all consider is things that would be shortterm solutions, like changing the Bay Area Toll Authoritys approach for pricing on the bay bridge. So as you know, mtc in its form as the Bay Area Toll Authority reduced toll rates on the bay bridge as a result of traffic and traffic will come rip roaring back and our current policy as a region is to balance the demand for mobility by using peoples time rather than using their money. And this would be a good time to experiment with actual decongestive pricing on the bay bridge, particularly given Health Impacts of storing the cue for the bay bridge in west oakland. That cue dumps a lot of particular emissions on the children growing up in west oakland and they have a Life Expectancy less than kids growing up in other neighborhoods. So, perhaps, it is time to have a real conversation about how to manage the Transportation System regionally for the public good. And i know that pricing is unpopular as you all know from the fair conversations that we weve had at this board and its how we balance supply and demand for all other public goods and that wasting peoples time as opposed to asking them to spend their money means we dont have the resources to invest in improved services for the people who need it the most and so ill leave that with you. If you want to take a role in that. Another key issue that could help us to move forward moving on to the topic of quickville, the emergency directive has eliminated a lot of pointless bureaucracy and most of the way most of the rules set up around governance are set up to slow progress and most of the rules that we have to follow are about maintaining the status yo so that corrupquoso that corrupy Department Heads cant move forward with stupid ideas. And there are good reasons for all of the of those reasonel rules and yet, they dramatically slow down our ability to do business. Under the emergency directive, weve been able to move very quickly, but we will soon run into problems as we try to make these temporary pilot emergency measures into permanent change. So, for example, something thats been talked about for years is creating a statutory exemption in sequa for transportation projects in the existing public rightofway so why should we continue to have to spend a lot of time doing that analysis on a bike lane striping project in the rightofway that doesnt represent a dire threat to the california environment. These are bureaucratic steps that slow us down and limit our ability to do good work. I think weve been able to demonstrate these last two months that government is really capable of getting stuff done if it is clear about its values, if it understands and can measure the public goods and if pointless bureaucratic rules are temporarily set aside. Imagine what we could do if those rules actually supported doing good work in order to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions, support public equity, support Small Business economy and support quality of life for all those in San Francisco. So all that said, i think that werelerring a lowere learningo institutionalize even within the constraints of the bureaucratic rules we have to follow and we are eager to demonstrate that for muniprojects as we have with some of our bikeway projects. With that, i would just close by saying to director eakin, i love this idea of just not taking advantage of this crisis, but acknowledging that we have a deep responsibility to ensure that we are directing our very, very limited financial and Staff Resources to protecting the Public Health of this crisis and establishing the basis of a strong and resilient and equitable economy coming out of this crisis. Thank you. So with that, i dont know if theres any final questions ors, director brinkman. Thank you. Just one final comment. Yes, i think that we do want to be bold. It sounds like we do want some type of nesty, down and dirt workshop scenario that doesnt create extra work for staff, but actually gives staff and gives you the opportunity to get our feedback so that you know were fully in support of the decisions that will be made and the direction that will be taken and again, ill agree with you, director eakin doesnt create a responsibility for us to respond to this whole situation is keep things going. So thats it and yes, lets we can figure out a way to do a down and dirty workshop scenario, lets do it. Director hemmingger. Dr. Bringingman stole the words out of our mouth. Our director was challenging us to down and dirty and i think we should accept the challenge. I would remind him the variable toll we had on the bay bridge before covid was something i put in place. [ laughter ] so maybe it just needs to be higher. [ laughter ] so director, i guess well talk offline about what that means, this down and dirty process. We, obviously, have a june 2nd u anticipate taking that meeting to do part of the process . How do you see that out of curiosity and maybe working through the secretary, as well, to think that through a little bit . I think ill want to make sure were collaborating with secretary boomer to making sure that my ambition is grounded in reality and one thing that we may want to do is rather than trying to do one workshop so look at a sort of rolling workshop pattern through the summer. And things need to move far more quickly than they typically do at this agency and so, having a workshop component of each meeting might allow us to move forward quickly and also reduce the burden on staff for preparing them. And that way, we could present to you in realtime what were working on, the guidance as we go along. So maybe we can pick the area that is most eminent in terms of what we want to address, whether its a quick build or things to get done in the near term as the first topic. Secretary boomer, i know that you want to weigh in. Thank you. , madam chair. So while youve been talking, i received an email and staff is being coordinated to bring a transit Recovery Plan to the board on june 2nd. Originally, we had not thought that meeting would be necessary given the lack of essentialtogovernment items scheduled for that meeting. We would still have those items all on consent but like you did today with this meeting, we could focus the rest of your time and most of your time in a workshop type of fashion, an informational item, and i think it may be too early for final decisions to give staff a little bit of time to get the information from you, you know, bat things around and come back at subsequent meetings for key decisions as staff is ready. So i think the june 2n june 2nd meeting could easily accommodate a messy down and dirty idea and just really focusing staff towards that at this point. Great, so if we can target those items that we like done more quickly, right, the things we want to work for that are much more eminent, that would be ideal, think i think, for june d june 2nd and we could phase out the stuff thats the Bigger Picture of how to be in the future versus the things we want to do in the near term. Yes, madam chair. We are very cognizant of dr. Tumlins sense of urgency and need to get not only decisions in place in the next two months, but also to put the disdisthedecisions in the groun, the earlier to start the dialogue with the board, the betterrer. Better. Whatever we can prioritize before we are reopened, so to speak, we have a real opportunity to do things and a real desire and if we dont make any changes and people just go back from completely shelter to how it was before, well have lost this opportunity to capture peoples idea and the spirit of creativity and desire to see Something Different because we will revert back to old patterns. So whatever we can do and if theres ever agencies and other people to engage in the process sooner, even have at that workshop, have the conversation and the second to think about, lets do that, as well, and maybe even tap into the mayors Recovery Task force and other things worked on there that intercept. Because i think because we were just talking about the way the Toll Authority works, i think there is a intersection of how we can best capture some of these economic violat vitality s that intersect with more open space and street space. Madam chair, that concludes all of the business before you today. Wonderful. So with that, we are adjourned and everybody have a safe couple of weeks and memorial day and well see you back on june 2n june 2nd. Thank you, director torez. Hi, im chris manus is sfgov tv and youre watching coping with covid19. Today im going to the gas station. [music playing] now, these are just my stories. Im not a medical professional of any kind. Im a video guy. And the reason im getting gas so we can go to the doctors. If you want to get the most uptodate and definitive information about the coronavirus pandemic, i highly recommend the f. A. Q. That is available at sfgov. Theres great info there. Today im taking two plastic bags and a hair tie and following the new bay area guidelines and im wearing a mask. Im taking the smallest number of items with me. Just my car key, credit card, i. D. , the bags and the hair tie. I dont want too many items to wipe down later. As aleave, i put on the outside shoes ive left on the porch. Can i track the virus inside with my shoes . I honestly dont know. But my floors are cleaner now. When i get to the gas station, i get out of the car, remove the gas cap and put the big plastic bag on my right hand and secure it with a hair tie. There are three main share surfaces here im concerned about touching. The p. I. N. Pad, the pump handle and the button to select my gas. After i use my card, i put it into the smaller bag and stash it. Most gas stations have a paper towel dispenser or maybe there is a piece of paper already in your car that you can use. Once i fill my tank and replace the pump, i walk to the trash can, roll the hair tie up my arm and let the plastic bag fall into the can. On my drive home, im careful not to touch my face. I leave my outside shoes on the porch and as soon as i get through the door, i wash my hands for at least 20 seconds. Next i wipe down my credit card, i. D. And my car key and, as an extra precaution, i wipe down the front door nob and clean the sink taps. Finally, wash my hands again. Thats it for this episode, i hope you found it helpful. Thank you for watching