If these businesses fail, it opens the door to property being sold to developers. They may transform the property and change the charter of japan town, similar to what happened to the International Hotel property in malil a town where the hilton hotel now stands. Please support these ordinance to give Small Businesses a fighting chance to survive and preserve our communities of color. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Great timing. Thank you. Operations, lets hear from the next caller, please. Hello caller . If you press star 3 and you have are unmuted start speaking lets see if thats you. Well go bax to the next person. Can you hear me now . Yes, welcome. Very quickly, im following gill, marina and the atu local 1575 president and Mary Travis Allen and happy to be in that group. I note the unfortunate passing of ben and we should recognize City Employees with 25 years or more of service, i dont think the board does that now and could one of you ask dhr to followup and lets see if we can get a program to do that. And finally, operations, please unmute the next caller. Welcome caller. One moment. Hello. Start speaking. One minute is not enough, this is communism at its finest, folks. When theyre out of control, leftist of San Francisco get their way. We begin to lose our rights and madams to the attorney and madam clerk, 42 ufc1983 first amendment. I can say whatever the maam, you are welcome to continue. Your time is still ticking. Ok. All right. Operations is there another caller in the queue, please . Caller oh, wow, thank you very much begin. And im supposed to speak here in the budget i should talk weeks ago but i did a lot of budget hearings budget is not eligible content for you to speak on. Im not talking about the budget. I was not talking about the budget. Hello. Im talking about next years budget. Ways to save money. You know, im chinese but you know, the city doesnt need to pay Chinese New Year and im Third Generation and i dont really celebrate Chinese New Year myself. Why should can i pay, you know, i dont have to pay full price but i guys, its free. I can pay and i will think about it next year and we the. Thank you for your call. Operations, is there another caller, please. Hello, this is frank mack murry im an employee at the golden gate ferry which is part of the Golden Gate Bridge and im speaking on the same issue that marina spoke on. Were facing now the possibility of the prospect of being laid off and this is a huge problem for everybody because of course our Healthcare Benefits are tied with our employment and it means we lose our Healthcare Benefits and it also means that were getting laid off in an industry where there isnt any other work so there is no place else to work if we are with the gooden gate ferry. This is a disaster for our members so im asking, im hoping, that two representatives from the supervisor and supervisor and thank you, very much, i appreciate your help. Thank you for your comments. All right, operations, before you unmute the next caller ill just invite anyone who is in the listening queue to just press star 3, come on over and get yourselves lined up in the queue. We are going to take this group to the very end. Next caller, please. Caller next call, please. Hell oh caller. Just start speaking, lets see if thats you. All right. Operations, next caller. Caller hello. Thank you. Im sorry. I couldnt hear. I too am a member of the inland boat mans union of the pacific and im also an employee of the golden gate ferry as well. Id like to echo this words and frank mack murry who just called i believe and this layoff, this prospect layoff and extremely cumbersome to many of our families. Any loss would be horrific and i would just like to say the issuance of the worn, the issuance has been very debilitating and the moral, the environment, has been hostile in a way and lets say passively hostile and its just a very difficult environmental work and not knowing what our future is and just having the prospect raised at this point has been thank you, sir. Thank you for your comments. All right. Operations lets hear from the next caller, please. Good evening, supervisors. My name is ryan and im the owner of a japanese photo both shop. As a Business Owner for the past 14 years i can say its challenging running a Small Business in the city even before this pandemic. My kids are saying yall need to help us out my shop is in japan town where folks go to have fun and explore Japanese Culture but you know unfortunately with the circumstances it looks like it can come to an end. But its not too late to take action and say that thousands of other Small Businesses in the city. Extending the commercial conviction moratorium is great and i urge you to push the envelope further with Small Businesses to get back on their feet and you can snap a finger and its impossible to come up with six month rent but if you give Business Owners time it will give temperature a heighting chance otherwise we risk losing all the Small Businesses and many owned by people of color such as myself that make japan town such a unique place to live. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Perfect timing. Operations, lets hear from the next caller. Ok. Operations, lets go to the next caller and well come back to that person. All right, were trying this caller. We hope you are near i couldnt phone we dont want to leave anyone out. Just start speaking if you are there. All right. Operations that completes the queue. Thank you. Mr. President. Supervisor yee seeing no other speakers, Public Comment is now closed. Madam clerk, lets call the for adoption without committee reference. Items 111 through 119. Ok. Items 111119 were introduced for adoption without reference to committee and out nan muss vote is required foray deposition of First Reading today and otherwise any member may require a resolution to go to committee. All right. Madam clerk, lets go ahead and is there anybody that wants to severe these items . Id like to severe item number 114. This is supervisor stefani. Supervisor yee number 114 . And, mr. President i would like to be added to 116. Thank you. Supervisor preston, i believe. 111, please. On the. So that leaves 112, 113, 115, 117, 118, 119. Correct. Go ahead and call the roll on those items. [ roll call vote[. Vote ] add me to item 112 112 and , aye. Peskin, aye. There are 11 ayes and we will add you, supervisor. Objection. Madam clerk, please add me to 112. I know we emailed that but i dont know if it got to the clerk. Well add you here, thank you. Without objection the resolutions are adopted and motion is approved unanimously. Lets go to item 111. Item 111 is a resolution to urge the office of the governor of the state of california to extend eviction protections and Financial Support for Small Businesses and their employees beyond september 30th, 2020 with a healthy economy recovery from the covid19 pandemic. Supervisor yee supervisor peskin. Mr. President , i had no intention of removing item 111 and i called supervisor preston. My apologies. Thank you, president yee and sorry for the confusion and i just wanted to thank supervisor peskin for his leadership on this item. He outlined the importance of this and no need to reiterate that. Were obviously looking at it expiring executive order and the neighborhood commercial corridors in our district but as you can tell from the Public Comments in my district this is crucial for japan town and we have have a number of folks and and who stated it better than i can. The Japan Center Mall is really in so many ways, the anchor to the january an Town Community and its the home to dozen of unique and really important Small Businesses in our community and including legacy businesses and these businesses through no fault of their own have not operated for months and they really are, we are looking at businesses that are on the verge of massey convictions and my office and supervisor peskins office have been working with they represent 44 tenants and theyve been attempting to negotiate with the landlords and comments to try to workout some form of rent re loaf or compromise and landlords, thus far theyve been unwilling to budge at all or entertain these discussions and these losing these businesses will be a profound loss not just for the merchants but for the entire cultural neighborhoods and one that has experienced in generation past that the trauma of mass displaysment and so we know what needs to happen to a void this outcome and the first thing that needs to happen is for our governor to step up and extend the emergency order to allow us to continue our prevention efforts and i want to reiterate my thanks to supervisor peskin for leading the way on this. Thank you. Thank you president. Ok. Madam clerk, go ahead and call the roll. [ roll call vote ] i also want to be added as a co sponsor if im not. Can i also be add add as a cosponsor. Just in time. The resolution is adopted. Madam clerk, call 114. Ok. A resolution to urge the City Attorney and the District Attorney to investigate the Burning Man Party at ocean beach and to file charges against organizers for violating Applicable Health orders. Supervisor stefani. Id like to continue this item for one week. Ok. It will continue until next week. Why think we have to take a vote for that. Yes, mr. President. We do . Yes to continue this item to september 29th. Can i just ask, i mean, this seems like pretty routine and through the president to supervisor stefani and why do we need to continue this if they want to vote no, i have to condition it. Lets just see who wants to vote no. Im ready to support it. Did you want to continue . Is there a second to continue. The only way that we wouldnt condition it is if the result was unanimous and we cant vote on it today and it would have to be unanimous. You are correct. We can see if it is or not and. Mr. President , supervisor stefani can we have a little discussion about it and then if its on the agenda it we talk about it and hear if theres colleagues who disagree with this and why and continue it . I rescind my motion to continue it and happy to vote on it today. Any comments. Yes and im pulling it up but i was so grateful to supervisor stefani for her willing us to give us time to work on this and i shared my colleagues in the general sort of horror and shock about what happened at ocean beach. It seemed like a little bit much and i imagine that the full board would want to condemn the activities but im not thinking we should be calling for the time and prosecution of people over this. We can talk about it. Thank you supervisor stefani. So im happy to call roll for it. We have the option to send it to committee, is that correct . Its absolutely correct. One member can do so. What committee do you think it should be sent to . If they would like to send it to committee. Im speaking to the president. What committee would you recommend to this . Let me think. I would think that it could go to Public Service . Public Service Public safety sounds about right. That is where we, that is where you could have that kind of discussion. You know. And actually, ask the city and City Attorney what measures they would take because i dont think theyre here or available to answer those types of questions. Ocean beach is in my neighborhood and i havent had a discussion with the author about this and so i think it would be helpful to send it to committee. I think i understand and i heard supervisor stefani is open to that is there motion to accepted it. Parten my intrusion but did supervisor stefani want to send it to committee herself as the sponsor she could and. Thats fine. Ill send it to committee. Ok. Supervisor is there awe second. This is not necessary this is the issue with this part of agenda one member can do so to send it to committee i see that supervisor preston is still on the roster. I was on there if it was going to committee it can reserve comments i will just say briefly that i share some of the concerns supervisor mandelman has raised around the actual resolution calls for and when its too severe but i also just want to say that theres been a number of troubling gatherings including those hosted by churches and many that we see on a day bee basis and i am certainly interested in if its going to committee well hear about it there but just why the board of supervisors would be in what is the reason this is being brought forward. Were all troubled by larger gatherings and im unclear why this is singled out in this way. Im happy if you want to address that now or in committee, whatever your preference is. This is going to go to committee. Thank you. Thank you. So, that brings us to someone said something. I would actually like us to if i may and im thinking about this for a while and its not an easy thing but i would like to make a motion to rescind the vote on item 115 and is a motion to rescind the vote on 115s. Will a second . [ roll call vote ] there are eight ayes and three nos. Supervisor yee so the motion to rescind passes. I struggle with this and you know, i can tell you my struggle has resulted in me making this late in the evening motion. I have to tell you, i can produce the subject of any number of remark plea hateful antisemitic attacks by email and in perp on the street but this happens in San Francisco. Probably a lot less than in other places. After 20 years, i know how to suck it up and hang with it and it never feels good. When were in the middle of an election cycle, and there is applied for one candidate for one office and not another candidate for another office both of whom are proud jewish, i would like my name added to this item and to the president to supervisor stefani. As someone who is a proud jewish person of faith and who also is the subject of antisemitic attacks. I cant ignore these things and i think to myself, i can roll with this and handle this but i actually who experienced this i can turn to my right and during an election psychologistel if were doing it for one elected official we should do it for other elected officials. Im happy to vote for this but i feel like i should be included in this too and maybe supervisor mandelman has experienced this and maybe supervisor preston has experienced this and maybe supervisor haney has experienced this but i just wanted put that on the record. All due respect my straight colleagues urn generally called pepedophile. In the same breath, lets add supervisor mandelman to that too. Let us have this through the president be a combination of this kind of behavior against elected officials who only exhibits inclusiveness who only stands for unity and so yes, you have me at hello on that through the president supervisor mandelman and absolutely. Supervisor walton. Thank you so much president yee. I just wanted to, if supervisor peskin is making an amendment i would support that. Im happy to condemn anti sem tism and homophobic attacks on anyone who receives them. So if you want to send this to committee and or discuss it further, happy to do so because anyone who engages in such horrible anti sem tism, especially now, in homo phone i can attacks, im happy to include everyone who experiences it. If you want it to include everybody, im happy to do that or if you want to amend the colleagues here that are jewish, happy to do that. Whatever you would like as long as we continue to condemn antisemitism and attacks on people including homophobic attack and Death Threats and everything else, thats outlined in this resolution. I will let you decide what you want to do with this. So we also include racist attacks, quite frankly ive been subject to that. As the only woman of color on this board. Mr. President , sir. I think the findings in here are all true and correct. All of the recitals and the whereases are absolutely right and they could certainly be expanded and when we get to the one, the resolves they could be quite expanded and so that it is not about one elect official. It is really about the focus of hatred that often becomes focused on elect official and we are the man i havetation by the electorate of communities and color, religion, geographic communities. I would like to work with supervisor stefani and supervisor fewer and supervisor mandelman and i would like to make a suggestion that we continue this item one woke and i will work with to really denounce hate, of all sorts, particularly against people who do this as a matter of Public Service and so i would make a motion to continue this item one week and well work with supervisor stefani and mandelman to expand results. Thank you. What were you saying . May i respond . Go ahead. I have two other people. Just, thank you for the suggestions. I think while were at it we should also add misogyny on there and ive been victim of that several times. Lets go there too. All the attacks that happen on Public Officials and the Death Threats from the nra so we might as well as massag massage misogy to discuss all of this. Thank you president yee and i think we have all experienced these attacks and on Public Officials to i appreciate the conversation. I want to say the attacks, the really orchestrated attacks on senator wiener have been appalling and rightfully called out. I have a question and through the president to deputy City Attorney on the issue that supervisor peskin raised around timing and candidates. I would like to know if theres any guidance regard what is is or is not appropriate from the board in terms of resolutions in effect taking on attacks on a candidate and the numerous attacks launched on a candidate for office, for example. And latina, queer, indigenous person who i think that would likely not be an appropriate, i think its my question and i think theres a sensitivity in this body of not using the official processes to weigh in on the electoral matter and candidate races. As we consider this further and it sounds like theres some from the in considering it is there any guidance can you give us on when is it or is it not appropriate with an election so close for us to weigh in on resolutions direct low addressing those candidates for office. Anne peerson, theres an election hearing in need meetings and i appreciate you raising that point and it sounds like the amendment the board is contemplating are to expression the opposition to racism and all sorts of things more generally and not with respect to specific candidates and in the elections coming up. Thank you. And i just, you know, i want to be careful and i had an event just the other day and in which im not sim and a swastika was in the event and i would not bring it forward because it was something relate today a Campaign Type issue and it would not seem appropriate if it was something that deserved to be which we all would and i would assume that that would be an inappropriate and i dont know if my assumption is correct and genuinely tried to navigate as we talk about it whether its pro pro at given the proximity of elections. Its relevant in light of the upcoming election. Supervisor walton, i believe. Thank you president yee. I just had a point of clarification and moving forward the resolution to committee and as we brought injustices we inincluded in the resolution, are we adding names of people to include supervisor peskin and supervisor fewer and stephanie along with the senator . I dont think theres clarification and you can discuss with between today and next week, i guess. If i may, mr. President , im putting my name on the roster and i know that supervisor walton has been the recipient of the n word in public and on his fax machine and its something none of us talk about and i want to appreciate supervisor stefani for talking about this, lets be honest, people who chose to run for this office get Death Threats. That actually happens to us we get crazy emails and crazy faxes and we dont talk about it. But now that this is brought up, for which i appreciate, lets have a full conversation. Weve all undertaken the business of under representing people that make us the target of hate and hopefully not man fess the physically. Lets spread it around to the lbgt folks that get it and the women that get it and community of color that get it and lets spread it to the jewish people that get it and let this be a statement for all of us who any other comments. This item is continued until next muni which is the 29th. Well need a second on that and a vote to continue it. Its a different process than one member sending it to committee and i wanted and confirm with supervisor mandelman, did you want me to add you. I was added as a cosponsor. O. , ox. And who made it to september 29th. Is there a second . Can i have a second. Roll call, please. Item 115 to september 29th, supervisor preston. [ roll call vote ] clerk there are 11 ayes. Months t motion to continue e 29th passes. Thank you, everybody. This goes to. Today i have no member i am mor yums to present. Thats the end of our agenda. Madam clerk s. There any further before us today . That concludes our business for today. Ok, sorry, colleagues, its ending so early but meeting adjourned. Good morning, and welcome to the San Francisco county Transportation Authority for todays meeting, tuesday, september 22, 2020, our clerk is ms. Britney milton. Could you call the roll. Supervisor fewer present. Supervisor haney present. Supervisor mandelman present. Supervisor mar present. Supervisor peskin present. Supervisor preston present. Supervisor ronen present. Supervisor safai present. Supervisor stefani present. Supervisor walton present. Yee absent, we have quorum. I would like to make an announcement about Public Comment. Public comment is available for each item on the agenda, via telephone by calling 14156550001 and when prompted entering access code, 146 226 7339. Once you join, you will be able to listen to the meeting as a participant. To make Public Comment on the item when the item is called, dial star 3 to be added to the queue to speak. The operator will advise that you will be allowed two minutes to speak. When the two minutes are up, well move on to the next caller. Calls are taken in the order which they are received. Best practices is to speak slowly, clearly and turn down audio around you. That concludes my announcement. Supervisor peskin thank you. Could you read the next item. Item 2, chairs report. This is information item. Supervisor peskin ill be brief. By congratulating our Regional Transit partners at bart on winning an extraordinary federal grant in the amount of 1. 2 billion, thats with a b, billion dollars for their core capacity program. And this grant is the largest that bart has ever received and will fund the purchase of over 250 additional rail cars, a new communicationsbased train control system, a new railcar storage yard and enhanced power substations in San Francisco as well as the east bay. Together, these investments will grow train frequency and capacity by 50 . Improving the service for millions of riders for many decades to come. Weve seen firsthand how impactful direct lobbying for critical federal funds is with projects like the central subway and the caltrain electrification. I want to thank two of our bart representatives for going to our Nations Capital to advocate for these funds alongside bart staff. And that would be i want to appreciate chair simon and my former colleague director duffy and bob powers and his team. And thank you so much to our federal delegation, as well as barbara east from the east bay for their support of this multiyear effort. Just yesterday, we saw the next phase of opening our economy with the resumption of lowrisk indoor and outdoor activities. And we hope everyone continues to travel with care and follow Public Health orders and sfmta protocols to maintain distancing and, of course, wear facial coverings. Many are enjoying walking and buying on the slow streets. A final funding approval is on our agenda today and supporting our local Small Businesses through the citys shared Spaces Program that was pioneered in north beach and with that, colleagues, i conclude my remarks. Are there any Public Comments on the chairs report . Clerk there is no. Supervisor peskin seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Well go on to the executive director report. Ms. Chang . Good morning. Can everyone hear me all right . We can hear you. Thank you, chair, for again congratulating our partners at bart that is a tremendous effort. Congratulations again to the whole organization. And also in the federal front, i wanted to update the board that this coming september 30th does mark the expiration of the federal fiscal year and the federal transportation bill known as the fast act which is the multiyear bill weve been working under. And while the house did pass its proposal to renew the act, the senate has not yet responded. So we dont expect that to be taken up until the next congress, but, however, on monday, the house did announcement a continuing resolution that would continue the funding for another year to september 2021 at current funding levels. This is critical, but by no means is this adequate for many of our transportation systems, including public transportation. We need congress and the administration to Work Together to continue covid relief for transportation, particularly transit across the country. As well, i wanted to note another piece of good news, turning back to the bart topic, that is a new grant that we received notice that San Francisco received for the 5th street Improvement Project. Its been awarded a 420,000 grant in the first round of the bart program. This is a subprogram of measure r. R. As youll recall we approved a few years ago. This is barts bond program and is spend intended to fund projects. This would be for the portion between townsend market to townsend and would include vehicle lane reductions, protected bikeways and our prop k and double a funds will continue to leverage the bart grants, transit boarding islands an restriping. Sfmtas request for funds will be presented in the october Board Meeting. Thats another piece of great news. Thank you to bart for that grant. As i turn over to the regional picture, mtc, wanted to mention that tomorrow the commission will be acting on the final blueprint, which is the federalregional strategy, investments and policies designed to help our region achieve our equity, housing and climate goals. And we want to thank our mtc and abag commissioners for their engagement in the process, as well as our city agencies and representatives on the bodies. Particularly, supervisor ronen, thank you for advocating for more equitable policies, including discounts for the toll programs on the Regional Express lanes network and for the first time on the freeway in addition to the transit. We have these meansbased toll pilots in the region. I want to recognize our team, the chief deputy director. Together theyve worked hard over the past year and a half really to support all of our agencies and San Francisco reps and partner agencies. I want to thank you all for your support as we track this project to its final approval, environmental clearance stage next year, and move into the implementation planning phase this winter. Staying on the regional theme, we wanted to report out some data that our data team is tracking on regional budget volumes. You might have seen this reported on the local news. As you know, in march, as covid shelterinplace was instituted, Traffic Congestion virtually disappeared over night, but in the summer months we see that bridge volumes returned to 75 to 80 of precovid levels. This increase has been uneven with the northern bridges and bay bridge seeing returns of 7580 , really in that range, however some of the south bay and peninsula bridges remaining in the 50 level. 5060 level. And were surmising with the regional partners, the area toll authority, these differences could be the different employment basis in different parts of the region. With the Technology Industry workers more easily able to work from home than other industry workers. And so you in my report, which you can see online, youll find a graphic that demonstrates these trends, the Traffic Volume as a percentage of precovid across the seven bay area bridges overlaid on top of the share of workers who we estimate are able to work from home in the north bay, the central bay and the south bay. So, please, let us know if you have questions on that. Its just a note for your information we continue to track these trends to establish a covid baseline for traffic modelling and our transportation studies. On the local level, in addition to the announcement that chair mentioned about thursday and s. F. Transit week, the 59 of october. I want to mention a few studies and provide updates. Our ocean beech Steering Committee met last week. I was joined by commissioner mar and several directors and staff with the National Park service and all the folks along the ocean beach lower segment to discuss the critical and related improvements for the ocean beach Climate Adaptation project. Safety improvements at a great highway boulevard connection. And, of course, our Transportation AuthorityDistrict Board mobility study at the request of supervisor mar. All of these are interrelated and theyre advancing. Its complicated. We have some federal funds we must make sure to retain and apply as that picture continues to evolve. Now we have the Planning Department just release notice of preparation for the Environmental Impact report for its ocean beach Climate Change adaptation project. Just want to let the public know there is an updated proposal and its been released in terms of the n. O. P. , the environmental notice for that study. And includes several pieces of traffic and transportation circulation. Were happy to bring it and update to you at one of your future meetings. At the local level, the octavia Improvement Study is under way at the request of commissioner preston. Its focusing on survey, seeking interim transportation, uses and challenges, by not just the local study area or the extended study, but really citywide. Everyone really uses that whole system. Its a regional connection. Its a local, of course, network as well. And through the b5 study well identify in the survey, recommend eventually a list of projects to address safety and accessibility in the neighborhood as well as regional access. And this week will released a webbased and textbased survey, check out the website for more information. Its the octavia Improvement Study. Well also be reaching out to neighborhood and Community Groups, businesses and residents in the hayes valley and citywide upon request. Our downtown congestion pricing is in outreach mode. You may have seen our online and textbased messages. Thank you for those of you who included them in your news letter. Take the game we have called unfog the city. Weve presented to 40 Community Groups who are working very hard, some cases, two or three meetings a week, to reach neighborhoods and groups, community roundtable, which we were grateful to appear before, the Vision Zero Task force, and many, many more. The project team has also hosted Community Presentations with the mission, sf Interface Council and walk sf, which has conducted its own study and will be presenting results in the bayview, tenderloin and client at our Vision Zero Committee on september 29. Please stay tuned for that. Finally turning to project delivery. Lots to report. Caltrain has nominated a Bicycle Safety project on 13th street to receive funds under a new complete streets program. This is 100 million statewide program that ctc has approved and is ultimately selected the section between valencia and fulsome, right there it is hairy and the entrance areas will be improved. We look forward to getting confirmation of this, but its very good news. If so, we have longterm improvements, lane reductions, protected bikeways and upgrades. With that, im happy to take any questions to conclude my report. Supervisor peskin thank you, ms. Chang. Any questions for our executive director . Seeing none, thank you for that thorough update. Are there any members of the public who would like to testify on the executive directors report . Yes, there is Public Comment. First, speaker, please. Good morning, caller, your two minutes begins now. Good morning, can you hear me . Supervisor peskin yes, we can. Good morning, its david pilpel. Very extensive report, very comprehensive. Just wanted to mention i didnt actually hear it on the better Market Street project. I understand that a finding of Significant Impact was issued in the last couple of weeks on that which i think is significant. Also the better Market Street project. I also noted since last weeks Board Meeting ran long and you werent able to hear the federal and state legislation update, im wondering in is any important federal or state legislation that the board or the public should be aware of, particularly sacramento, given that the governor has until the end of the month to sign the bills from this session . Thats all for now. Supervisor peskin thank you for Public Comment. Any other speakers . Yes, there is, hold on, please. Good morning, supervisors. Roland. Through the chair, a very quick question. Given that this report was so extensive, i was wondering if it would be possible in the future for the director to post the report at the start of the meeting so that the members of the public can review it. Supervisor peskin thank you. Any other speakers for Public Comment on the executive directors report . There is no more Public Comment. Supervisor peskin Public Comment is closed. And director chang will post her comments, so mr. Lebrun it should be posted every month. If folks can check the website. Supervisor peskin there you go. Thank you, madame executive director. To the previous speaker, as mr. Pilpel is quite aware, pursuant to the law this is not a dialogue, but his comments have been noted w. That, can you read the Consent Agenda . Friendly reminder to keep the camera off, because it causes technical glitches if there is more than nine on. Item 4 is the concept agenda. 5 through 11 were approved and now are before the board for final approval. Staff is not planning to present, but is available for questions. Supervisor peskin is there any Public Comment on the approval of the minutes from september 15. There is Public Comment. Supervisor peskin first speaker, please. Hello, colleagues. Can you hear me now . We can hear you, mr. Pilpel. This is with regard to the approval of the minutes. Thats correct. Its actually on the minutes. Page 11 on Public Comment from last week, the third line should read be discussed in addition not in additional. About four lines down, the first day of the restart of rail service, looks like there is an extra space in there. The next line after that, all of the overhead lights should be singular, not plural. On page 11, there are references to jamie parks, the director with sfmta, which are fine. I see at the bottom of page 11 it refers to mr. Parks as jamie and perhaps that should be consistently read as mr. Parks and not jamie. Those are my suggested changes to the draft minutes from last week. Thanks very much. Supervisor peskin thank you. Any additional Public Comments on the approval of the minutes from september 15. There are no more callers. Supervisor peskin okay, Public Comment is closed. Colleagues, i would like to and thank you to the speaker make the correction to change additional to in addition and remove said space. We will remain with the colloquial jamie instead of mr. Parks. On that motion, is there a second . Second, mandelman. Supervisor peskin seconded by vice chair mandelman and on that, a roll call, please. On the Consent Agenda, commissioner fewer . Aye. Commissioner haney . Aye. Commissioner mandelman . Aye. Commissioner mar . Aye. Commissioner peskin . Reluctantly, aye. Preston aye. Ronen aye. Safai aye. Stefani aye. Walton aye. Yee aye. There are 11 ayes. Consent agenda has final approval. Supervisor peskin no, no, the item number 4 is amended and now we will take item 4 as amended and the balance of the Consent Agenda. I making that motion. Is there a second on that motion . Second, mandelman. Supervisor peskin seconded by voice chair mandelman. On item 4 as amended and the balance of the Consent Agenda, a roll call, please. Yes. Item as amended. Supervisor fewer aye. Supervisor haney aye. Supervisor mandelman aye. Supervisor mar aye. Supervisor peskin aye. Supervisor ronen aye. Supervisor safai aye. Supervisor preston aye. Supervisor stefani aye. Supervisor walton aye. President yee aye. The Consent Agenda as amended has approval. Supervisor peskin those items are approved. Could you read item number 12 . Item 12, van ness bus Rapid Transit update. This is an information item. Supervisor peskin thank you, madame clerk. I believe that all of us, because so many districts come together along van ness from supervisor haneys district to supervisor stefanis district to supervisor prestons district to the district that i represent, and i think many of us traverse that corridor whether on Public Transit or other means of transportation and have seen the evolution, albeit a little behind schedule, of the bus Rapid Transit project that was fishes initially first initiated by then executive director of sfcta moscovitch some 20 years ago and now together with a lot of work that nobody can see, because it is below ground, has been moving forward with massive lane changes in recent days. And with that, i will turn it over to sfmta who has a present for us. Good morning and thank you for joining us. And thank you for slogging through what i know is a very, very difficult project and i promise to keep my expressions of frustration to a minimum. Good morning, chair peskin and commissioners, thank you for the opportunity to present. Let me pull up the presentation. Can everybody see that . Yes. Okay, ill move forward. Okay. The van ness Improvement Project is working along one of the citys premiere boulevards. Its a critical street for Civic Affairs and for regional transportation. Its part of highway 101. We are building the first bus Rapid Transit system within the city of San Francisco as well as doing complete infrastructure upgrade from Property Line to Property Line along van ness avenue. At the completion of this project, we expect to have significant improvements in travel time and reliability. We have dealt with the covid crisis. We expect our ridership to increase by up to 35 , all of this with these improvements, will lead to actual cost savings on a perpassenger basis. So well be carrying more people for less costs. More quickly and efficiently along van ness avenue. For those who are not entirely familiar with bus Rapid Transit, the most obvious feature is the red lanes, but in addition to the red lanes, less obvious feature is distinguish it from exclusive transit lanes are transit signal priority and dedicated boarding islands which will increase the efficiency of the buses moving up and down the corridor. These lanes will be exclusively used for the form of transportation in the form of muni buses and transit buses connecting downtown San Francisco with the north. There will also be available emergency vehicles, which will actually have the ability to use traffic signal preemptoion to gt a clear run through van ness avenue for their work. In addition to that, we are putting in new bus shelters, new pedestrian crossings, signals, signage and striping to generally improve Pedestrian Safety along the corridor and brand new streetlighting which will improve the visibility and Pedestrian Safety at night. This Cross Section shows what weve been focusing on. The areas in blue are primarily the underground work that chair peskin referred to. We have found that 15, 20 feet underground and with the installation of the new streetlights going up 25 feet in the air, were putting in new sidewalks and new roadways, so were going from Property Line to Property Line along the length of the corridor. Im happy to say were wrapping up the utility work and moving into the actual transit portion of the project. The portion in the middle of the road, which is the running ways and new boarding islands and shelters, new overhead lines and planted median. To date, the project is approximately 57 complete. Weve laid just over 25,000 linear feet. We are just short of 25,000 linear feet of the water work. We upgraded the emergency auxiliary supply system for use in firefighting along the length of the corridor. And have installed just short of 12,000 linear feet of power, communications, lines for the sfmta and other city departments as well. All of this has been going on along a very busy corridor, right in front of city hall, which every effort to coordinate with. And not only city hall, but the opera house and the symphony and the other major civic venues along van ness avenue. Currently, as i said, were moving into the center lanes. Were starting to build the red transit only lanes. Were bringing in the new planted medians. The boarding islands and new transit shelters. Weve taken advantage of some of the drops in traffic caused by the covid19 crisis and moved as much work as possible to daytime hours. Right now i believe the only night work that we have on the schedule is the last of the water work, which should be wrapping up. That is done because we dont want to interrupt Peoples Water Service in the middle of the day. The largest challenge and weve been working closely with our contractor to maintain social distancing and make sure everyone has proper safety equipment, but to date with covid, the challenge has been a shortage of type 2 cement used for roadway work. This is a problem in the supply chain that affects california as a whole. Were working with a contractor to prevent this from having Significant Impact on the schedule, but its affecting all Major Projects in the state right now. Ill go through this first slide relatively quickly. This is a history where we were working alongside the outside of the roadway. The areas in orange and red show places where we have active construction going on. That work is finishing now and moving into what were calling phase 2, where were transitioning from the outside of the roadway to the middle. You can see well be taking up large sections of the median. We have to take parking lanes on the outside of those median construction zones so that we can continue to move traffic down the corridor. But as soon as the work is wrapped up, were putting those lanes back, including the traffic, and it will be its final configuration after the construction of the project. Again, sewer and water work and the duct bank work is finished. There is a fair amount of sidewalk work that is left to be done along the corridor. But that work can go on in conjunction with the median travel lane work that is going on. And will be wrapped up in the near future. To keep everybody abreast of some of the challenges of the project. We had a total of seven claims from the contractor totalling just under 10 million in value. Weve negotiated for the first three supervisor peskin peter, wasnt there an early claim about 20 million in size relative to sewer work . So those are claims 1 and 2. The original claim was around 20 million in hey, guys. How you doing . All right, what is going on. Sasha. Yes, put yourself on mute. Sorry about that, sir. The first claim the first two claims are 20 million in total value. The final settlement was 4. 8 and change. And so that claim has been settled and the contract has been written and signed. Supervisor peskin so about 25 cents on the dollar. Yes. Thats correct. There was initial third claim for additional potholing work because of the conflicts we were encountering. I forget what the original claim was, but the settled amount was 1. 7 million. Claim number 4 is for additional pedestrian monitoring to help control the volume of pedestrians around the construction site and keep people from wandering into our construction site. Supervisor peskin the 2. 6 is the face value of the claim . That is ive got it listed as pending because we havent written and signed the final contract mod, but that is the settled amount. Supervisor peskin got it. Okay. Weve agreed between and, yeah, this was a discussion what value we should put down, but i went with 2. 6 because between walsh and city, we greed on 2. 6 million, that is all the pedestrian monitoring for about 1. 5 and then 1. 1 million that is moving forward to get us to the end of construction. Supervisor peskin peter, was that not in the original budget . We did not have a line item for pedestrian monitoring after our experiences on third street and other places, central subway, where weve had pedestrian monitoring, that was not in the original scope . So, a peek behind the occur taken. When walsh was first brought on board and we were negotiating because this was a cmgc construction manager general contractor contract negotiated the construction amount with walsh. Pedestrian monitors were discussed in negotiations. However, the various parties involved felt that we could do the work with just the flaggers that were required. In the end, we were mistaken on that and it was determined that we needed to put in Additional Support for those flaggers. So, yes, it should have been accounted for. Supervisor peskin you would have think we would have learned that off third street, off central subway, unconscionable, but whatever, it would have been a larger number in the beginning, but, okay. Next item. The next three items are still in negotiation. Were not close to it. Third Party Utility coordination is kind of compromised of the conflicts we had. There was some question as to sewer cleaning and whether that was required in the contract or not required. And finally, 9,000 claim for having to adjust man holes. So those are supervisor peskin those are the face values of the claims . Those are the face values of the claims. Supervisor peskin got it. So the 2. 6 is real. The other half Million Dollars well be no more than that, but potentially less than that depending on the settlements. And are there any potential future claims that you are aware of . There are no we have a change order request in our hands from a contractor that covers the balance of days in delay that we have. You can see from the time extension days, weve already agreed on extending the contract by 279 days. Supervisor peskin without no lds . With no lds. The city has agreed to the overhead, thats part of the 4. 8 million and 149 yeah, 149, the contractor has agreed to extended time with no extended overhead. And weve waived the right to ld on those days. The contractor has put in a changeorder request for the balance of the days. Supervisor peskin the 149 . Correct. No, not the 149. Those are settled. The balance because right now with the supervisor peskin 135 . With the 279day extension we should have finished the construction in july of this year. So this is for from july of this year to when we have substantial completion on the project. So they put in part of the reason that isnt up here and we havent i dont have a value to give you on that right now is since we havent actually reached substantial completion, we dont know what that total number of days is. Walsh has requested change order has put in a change record request asking us to extend the contract to substantial completion. We said lets get the substantial completion and see what the days are and figure out responsibility. Im hoping it does not become a claim. They have submitted scheduling information. We requested additional scheduling information as well as information on the extended overhead. The two parties are now negotiating what they think a fair settlement for that is. Supervisor peskin thank you, peter. So, on business support. We have first of all, i want to thank the members of our Advisory Committee. Van ness set up a Business Advisory committee in addition to a citizens Advisory Committee that is made up of various businesses on the corridor, those businesses with concerns about the project to come in and talk directly to Business Owners and representatives as well as project staff to see if we can address their concerns. So weve been meeting regularly with them. Weve also been working closely with the office of economic and Workforce Development to provide support services to our local businesses. And have hosted some meetings where businesses can come in and find out about the services, early w. D. Offers. And the direct Business Support Program that was started with central subway has been extended to include van ness Improvement Project. My information is that Small Businesses request compensation of 5,000 or 10,000, have their applications in by october 31st. Supervisor peskin i apologize. As you know, in the case of the central subway when then mayor lee and i agreed that for the first time in the citys history we would do relatively small amounts of Cash Compensation in addition to the Technical Assistance with businesses. My understanding is that in the case of van ness brt project, not a single one of these grants has been distributed by oewd. And we have a lot of very frustrated people hanging on by a thread. So id really like to drill down into the status of that. This project has been going on now for years. And my understanding is that not a single amount of relief or dollars of relief have actually been forth coming from oewd. Do you have any Additional Information on that . Im sorry to say i dont. Ill be happy to go back and talk to the people at oewd and talk to the outreach people about what businesses have contacted us to participate in this. Supervisor peskin i know several businesses that applied many, many months ago and have not seen any response from oewd, sfmta or the city and county of San Francisco and it is very frustrating. And i will suggest at the end of this hearing that we continue this hearing to get a presentation on exactly this issue at our october meeting. But the money is there. We appropriated the money. But not a penny of it has been distributed to the van ness brteligible businesses. Yes. The person heading the outreach effort is telling me she has Additional Information on this, if she could step in. Supervisor peskin that would be great. Fantastic. Hi, everyone. Hello, commissioners. Thanks for pulling me in, peter. I wanted to share that we only just opened the application process for the van ness directive Business Support Program. Supervisor peskin are you new with oewd . I am with sfmta. I work closely with oewd on the program and im the lead outreach person for the bsp. We have the application process open now. Were doing serious outreach to businesses now to let them now they can apply, but the project needed to be delayed enough and we needed to set up the application process in order for them to be able to apply. And we were still wrapping things up with central subway and with covid19 it took additional time to make it happen. But businesses now have until the end of october to apply and we made it a relatively short application period based on what we learned from central subway that it needs to be enough time for folks to sort of like make it happen if we extend it too long applications drop off because people forget about it. Supervisor peskin and can you, for all 11 of us and members of the public who are watching, tell us how a business on the van ness b. R. T. Impacted corridor can apply between now and the end of october. We have information on the oewd website and today well have information on the sfmta website to direct folks to the oewd website. I believe it is oewd. Org constructionmitigation and i believe that owed. Org vannecessary. There is supporting business documentation that should not be hard for folks to pull together. Supervisor peskin thank you very much. That was super helpful and important. Back to you, sir. Thank you. So she has been helping got a lot of things on her plate, including the ongoing outreach process. Were publishing a forecast to help people know what construction will be close to them and what work is going on. Supervisor peskin if i can say, peter, on that, i read those every friday afternoon religiously. But the one thing it doesnt have in that email is what youre actually presenting here which is the final substantial completion is estimated to be the fall of 2021 and that its good insofar as it tells people along the corridor what to expect next week and the week after, but it would be helpful i think i said this in other hearings if that email could also say, by the way, you know, if you can slog through for one more year, we will be donedone and youll have a beautiful new b. R. T. , so just a friendly suggestion on that. Okay, well take that into account in the upcoming announcements. The 72hour notice for night work. Supervisor peskin night work is just about over . Im not going to say its finishedfinished because there is intersection paving work that needs to be done. Im hoping that can be done during the day, but it all depends on when traffic levels go back up. Well make every effort to minimize it. We have a citizens Advisory Committee as well as a Business Advisory committee. People have concerns and they want to talk to private staff, those are great opportunities to attend and let us know what is going on. Regular briefings such as. This and our quarterly newsletter. And thats the end of my presentation. If you have any other questions, id be happy to answer them. Supervisor peskin thank you. And just relative to site cleanliness, which i had heard a number of complaints about and is also mentioned in the staff document, can you tell us how were doing on site cleanliness during construction . Yes. It has been a challenge. Its a long corridor. Its been getting better. Our Construction Management staff specifically our new construction manager Lance Jackson and engineer hubert wong are walking the corridor regularly and have been working closely with the contractor. I think its gotten better. Its not perfect. We have to keep working at it. But were making improvements. And, again, people working on the corridor have specific concerns about areas, i encourage them to reach out to our public information. Supervisor peskin kate mccarthy. Its now kate is away handling covidrelated information, Service Change information. So she is temporarily reassigned and she has taken over the work. Got it. That is helpful. Look, today is the equinox and were a year out, so anything and everything you can do to keep that entire corridor clean, as clean as possible during construction would be greatly appreciated by me and my fellow commissioners and their constituents along the corridor. With that, colleagues or staff, any questions or comments . Seeing none, is there any Public Comment on this information item number 12 . Yes, chair, there are two callers. Ill move to caller number one. Supervisor peskin before we do that actually, lets hear from the public and then ill go to commissioners fewer and haney. Thank you, caller, your two minutes begins now. Can you hear me now . Yes, mr. Pilpel we can hear you. Excellent. Five points starting on slide 6. The reference to awss i believe is the auxiliary water supply system. Not the alternate Water Service system. On slide 11, claim 7, i believe that is man hole adjustments. I think there is a letter missing. Based on the discussion with chair peskin, it would be great if this slide in the future could include the initial claim amounts that you were discussing. That would be a great addition or additional column. Item 3 on slide 12 and 13, business support. If those represent models that other large mta or City Projects could use, then it would be great to document those efforts on this project so that those other City Projects currently or more so in the future could use the models or adapt them as appropriate because i think we developed and honed some ideas good ideas there in business support and outreach for large and complicated projects. Item 4, i still note the unfortunate choice to not replace the historic concrete overhead support poles. I think that was a bad choice, but perhaps that can be rectified in the future. Maybe there will be leftover project funds we could do that with. And finally, peter and nahama are doing great work on this project and thank you for their great work on that extremely complicated and delayed project. Thank you very much. Supervisor peskin next speaker, please. Caller, your two minutes begins now. One important fact about a senior citizen. In the past was weve had this project be the third street, the central subway, other projects. We have not made it a point to include our seniors and what their needs are so that they have input. Also on van ness. So if you are a senior and you have obstacles, it makes it very difficult. If youre a senior, and you have to carry something with you three or four blocks, it makes it very difficult for them. So lets not bypass our seniors. When it comes to contractors and ongoing issue of change orders, we see it in a very nonchalant manner. And then youre having a talk here as if youre having a fireside chat. Where is the accountability and where is the transparency . And do we really need the f. B. I. To be involved with van ness Rapid Transit process . It hasnt been a good one. And, you know, was part of it. Ed was part of it, no more part of it. Soon Harland Kelly thank you, caller, your two minutes are over. Thank you. Supervisor peskin two minutes up. Any other members of the public on item number 12 . No, chair, there are no more callers. Supervisor peskin Public Comment is closed. Commissioner fewer. Supervisor fewer thank you, chair peskin. I just wanted to also express my disappointment and frustration about the funds not getting out to the stores and Small Businesses along the corridor. Weve had the discussion at t. A. Over a year ago. Yeah, and i just want to say it is very frustrating considering the economic crisis that theyre facing also and theyve been, you know, double and triple whammied, i think not only by covid, but then this project that has extended far beyond what they actually, i think, thought was going to happen. So just very disappointed. I think this is something that the commission has really taken to heart and i think that it was unanimous that we allocate these funds to these Small Businesses. I just wanted to say how disappointing it is that we havent been able to offer relief to the Small Businesses along this very impacted corridor. Thank you. Supervisor peskin thank you, commissioner fewer for the comments and backing me up on my similar frustration. Indeed, this conversation has been going on for a long time. What i would like to drill down to, our october meeting, is how quickly after the october 31st date these funds will actually be distributed . And if these businesses are out of business, there is not going to be anybody to give it to. And this really, as you just said, should have happened a long time ago. Its unconscionable. With that, commissioner haney . Supervisor haney thank you, chair peskin. I was just going to back you up on that, too. I hope that we can learn from this experience, because when we do these larger projects, which obviously are needed and required, we want to be able to say confidently were going to be able to support the Small Businesses and residents impacted. And if weve failed to do that here, even when money has been allocated, its incredibly concerning and it puts into question whether we can honestly tell folks in the future that were going to be able to, you know, ensure their protection and their support as required considering the impact. I would like to know, not just kind of who is getting the grants when they come back hopefully theyll have start to have been issued but also if there have been surveys done of businesses and residents in terms of their needs, what the impacts are. I believe it has been supervisor peskin that has been done and maybe we can hear from staff as to the results of that on the ground yacht outreach. There have been businesses and some of them highprofile in the media that have gone under very early on in the van ness b. R. T. , but can you respond to commissioner haneys question . Hey, everyone. We have been trying to figure out how to best do outreach considering covid19 restrictions and not really being able to engage in person with businesses in the way that we have before. We have conducted a lot of outreach to businesses online, the phone and weve done a couple of things doing social distancing and wearing masks. We are canvassing businesses over the next two weeks to get them information about the grant and to find out how theyre doing. Supervisor peskin right, but i think what commissioner haney is saying, and i believe this to be true, we have a lot of precovid premarch 16 data. So i think when he hear this at our first meeting in october, it would be very helpful if the sfmta and oewd can present what the precovid data is, as well as the results that youve been getting on the phone through electronic sources and in your ontheground social distanced survey youre doing over the next couple of weeks. We look forward to seeing that at our first meeting in october. Commissioner haney, back to you . Supervisor haney that was all. I appreciate that. And i think a lot of the questions have to do with the business focus and residents and how to improve this in the future. So i was done, thank you