in terms of the administration of the pla, it will be administered by the tjpa. there is a joint administrative committee established in the agreement that would have two representatives from the tjpa and two from the trade unions. the joint administrative committee would meet quarterly just to review the overall status of the program, promote dialogue between the trade unions and the tjpa and also can serve as, it parties mutually agree, as a first step for the resolution of disputes before going to the arbitration procedures that are included in the pla. the pla includes a number of different arbitration and dispute procedure resolutions. one is if there is an issue that would normally lead to a work stoppage. again, that would be built through the dedicated arbitration procedures in our pla and not through another conventional arbitration procedure that is set up underneath the schedule. one of the advantages is we are looking for expedited pay resolution as well as the jurisdictional disputes between unions. we have specific provisions if there is a dispute between, as an example, laborers and plumbers on a scope of work, whose jurisdiction that work is, there are specific provisions lined out in agreement for the resolution of those disputes as well. so it is a fairly hefty document we have for you. i can take any questions, but our intent was to bring it today for discussion and public comment and then come back in a month, hopefully, with the recommendation to adopt the labor agreement. >> are there any questions that regarding this item? >> i am curious, when this is enacted, will it apply to existing contracts? >> all of the contractors are going forward. there will be a requirement in the agreement to sign onto the pla. for existing contractors, it is optional. we cannot retroactively applied to their contract, but they have the ability to opt in. >> that is what i was worried about, retroactivity. >> [inaudible] >> we have not told them directly, but for instance, the bse subcontractor. webcor themselves are a signatory contractors. i think they will take a look at it. we are pretty optimistic that most of the contractors would opt in. director reiskin: i had a number of questions. i think the pla framework for this kind of project is a great one. i know from having worked on one previously backed it takes a lot of work to get one to the point where you have. i want to commend you and the folks you have been working with to get this in place. i have to admit, i did not read the entire pla, but i did read the staff report. i do have a few questions. the first has to do with apprenticeships, which is one of the main features address. i am wondering -- are there specific provisions, requirements that would be part of this pla that would serve hard targets and targets beyond whatever requirements already exist? and how would those be measured if they are there? >> the pla does not set hard targets for participation. it is more of a policy of measures to encourage participation, but it does not have a hard target. >> may be to director reiskin: -- director reiskin: maybe during some of the public, it, that is something that folks can address. i know building the pipeline is important, and i think everybody is recognizing the need for stronger apprenticeship programs to start building the pipeline. i would be interested to know what we would be getting in terms of apprenticeships out of this that we would not be getting otherwise. absent the hard target, i wonder whether there would be much we would be getting. >> one thing we will be doing now is we will be partnering with various trades and crafts and carpenters and laborers are working with school districts and going and meeting with them and letting them know about project like ours. we do that now. we go to school districts and let students know about professional careers in architecture, engineering, financing, all of this you need to build different skills, but in addition to that, we let them know about the training if they want to be carpenters or welders, etc. that provides an opportunity to bring them into our project when they are not in school. also, i know that building trades and others will be commenting on this. i know they strongly support [inaudible] -- strongly support apprenticeship programs. in the history of tjpa, we require our contractors to have apprenticeship programs as part of their contract with us. what we can do is we could come back to, on a regular basis, and let you know as we report on all our things, let you know how it is going. >> this is one of my questions. i would like to see hard numbers, even if they are minimal, just so we know, and i know that building trades is committed to working with sfusc because i serve on the board of education, but i do think it is important to have numbers. on top of that, i think there should be a plan outlined, which schools we are doing outreach to, how many visits, what are some of our targets. some hard numbers within the pla i think would be helpful, and having actually a written plan that we can get updates on so we have a record -- a mechanism for knowing what we can hold you accountable to as well. >> i would concur with that. and then related to the labor supply, i noticed at least in the right up, it talks about the guarantees the pla provides for labor supply, but then there's some best effort language. i wonder if you could help reconcile those -- guarantee compared to best effort. >> yes, i think obviously, there are limitations. i think it is more in the arena of best efforts. we do have provisions to go to the union hiring halls for referrals, but at any point the unions are unable to fulfill the call, the contractors participating are free to go beyond the union hiring hall for employment, but the first stop is the hiring hall. at least in today's environment, the unions are showing as they have an ample supply to meet our needs, but i think part of it -- and part of the benefit of it is improving the communication and awareness of our programs in the unions so that they know this work is coming and when our packages will be coming out, and then we can plan with their members accordingly. >> there is one phrase that says for the trade unions that will be signatory to the pla. are there any that are not? >> at this point, we do not anticipate any. >> with regard to the committee, are there specific reporting requirements from the pla or that are housed within the pla for the benefits of any of the programs that will be put in place? ways to evaluate that the committee will be recommending or reviewing that the board will be able to review? >> there's not any specific reporting to the jac that are outlined, but it is put in position of reviewing the progress. it would be looking for probably the same types of things that i think you are alluding to on participation. where we are on hiring, how much of it is local. i think the expectation is there, although there are not black letter requirements. >> as you probably know, director, sarah at its regularly -- updates regularly on where we are with our dbe's and sbe's, and we could probably add another item with regular updates to what numbers we are reaching. we could certainly update you on everything else with respect to outreach to women, economically disadvantaged individuals, the wounded warrior program, which is, of course, important to everybody. we could add a line item that brings back to you where we are with everything. the tjpa will be bidding. certainly, if there is a major policy consideration, we will not proceed. >> i think that is great and will be helpful. i think it may be great that there are specific benefits we are all hoping to get from pla. i think it would be good for the committee to identify what specific metrics they need to be able to evaluate whether we are getting or whether we are realizing those benefits. i also wonder if quarterly will be frequent enough to review, but something to consider whether we want to get more explicit on how we are going to handle that committee and ultimately evaluate the pla. and then, my last question has to do with something we touched on a little bit earlier, which is local hiring, which is an important interest for a lot of folks. i know the current federal regulations under which we operate not permit local preferences, but there are potential changes coming. the american jobs act, for example, gave much more discretion in that regard. i am wondering if there are changes in law that come before phase two, if there are opportunities to make changes in the pla accordingly. >> we follow federal law because we are at federalized project. if there is a major federal change before phase two, we would certainly reevaluate the pla in light of the new federal law and bring it back to you. >> i did not mean to suggest we would ever not follow it. it is a matter of it gives us the discretion to take advantage of the additional discretion that we are currently not supporting. >> right. if the federal law gives us more discretion, we could go back and meet with the unions and representatives and come back to the board. >> are there any other questions? >> i had a couple. just to follow up again on the community outreach portion. again, i wanted to emphasize that i would like to see some hard numbers within the contract. when we are looking at evaluating it next month, i would like a detailed proposal of what this will look like, separate from the pla. a document we can hold ourselves accountable to appear in my concern is that when we do not have goals, that we are saving 125,000 jobs. i do not want to see only 10 high-school students go through an apprenticeship program. i want to make sure that we are making sure that we are able to achieve benefits for our community through the pla as well. i support pla and that always have. i think it is good for all of us. do we have a threshold for the pla or will this apply to every contract? >> it applies to all the construction work under phase one and phase two. all the transit center work being performed by webcor /obayashi, but also the separate contracts and the tunneling work under phase two. >> you touched on this already, but if you could talk a little bit about if we are not giving our 17% small business participation, what are some steps we can take to mediate that, beyond just talking about it? some things we know we will do in the future? >> things we have done already on this program in order to get ourselves off to a good start include the utility relocation work. all of the utility relocation work was put out at 100% small business relocation participation -- small business participation. that scope, although small in comparison to the buttressed shoring scup, came in a 100% sbe participation and helps with the overall average and overall target. the sbe work, although large and complex, and because of its nature, it tends to lean towards larger contracts, on that subcontract as a whole, we are still meeting the 17%. we are in a good position right now, but one of our best tools is the ability to set aside, for instance, a landscaping package or specific trades package for small or disadvantaged business participation. also, if it suits within a specific package under the federal guideline, we can set aside a specific scope within a larger package for small business participation in to say, for instance, just pulling something out of the air, the door hardware shall be provided by a small business. we have flexibility there, and we would be looking at these tools with the unions to figure out what would be our best opportunity. >> thank you so much. any other further questions? we have two speakers for public comment. >> that is correct. jim patrick who will be followed by mike brown. director kim: i think we may have other folks who may want to give, as well. >> i do not look at these things very often, but i happen to see this on a couple of websites. it talks about prevailing wage, and i am personally troubled where it says, "we will pay the highest applicable prevailing wage." why would we want to pay the highest? what about the mean? what about the lowest prevailing wage, or de-prevailing wage? thank you. >> good morning to the chair and to the directors. first of all, i would like to commend and thank the committee that negotiated with us under this policy. i want to cover a couple questions discussed here. what is the apprenticeships. it allows the unions involved to use their schedule aid, which is our master agreement. the 20% required apprenticeship on every contract. that would give you a hard number. we also have a pre- apprenticeship we need to discuss that is not in the pla but is in our master agreement that allows people to be recommended to the program, which is nine weeks, and that can allow us to take members of the community and bring them directly into the program. also, we have -- our local has jurisdiction for all of the carpenter worked. our local is san francisco. we have a little over 3000 current members. we expect that to go once these projects start. francisco residents. every single one of my carpenters is qualified now as underemployed because there has been no work for two years. 52 apprentices, also agreed it majority are san francisco residents. we look forward to the project. we can make it work. we are also looking forward to the school districts expanding their shop and reopening shop class is so when we do get these kids, they have basic skills and it is not a complete learning curve they have to do. so thank you again. >> san francisco building and construction trades council. let me expand on the apprenticeships question. there is also a heart requirement that says -- it varies, but overall for most trades, it is one apprentice our must be worked for every five trading or local our spirit we did not have to write that in. it is pre-existing. there are also maximums. i tool happen that the number of apprentices on the job will vary between the minimum and maximum. they all have apprenticeships requirements. i have a sense that part of the question has to do with our penetration into underprivileged communities, but if any of you bother to look at the report that came up prior to look higher ordnance, you will know that the vast majority of our affiliate's already are majority/minority. we already have a profound penetration into minority communities and underprivileged communities, and that is not going to change. that, if anything, will accelerate over time because that is the nature of the trades and the nature of california's population. with regards to the provision of a work force and our commitment, we have the advantage of unions of having national networks for workers. we have a consistent level of training across the country for our apprenticeship training. we have the ability to go on line and make phone calls -- to go online and make phone calls. believe me, for a lot of trades, they are happy to come work at the higher wages they find in san francisco than they would find in omaha or in lubbock, texas. with regard to the threshold question, in those pla's where we have had a threshold, they have had the possibility of geographically distinct work, so you do not have workers working under profoundly different standards side by side. in the school district, they have threshold, but that is so you can set aside the best schools over there as exempt from the pla. we insist, and i think anybody who looks at the school district will know that the pla does not exclude non-union contractors -- [bell rings] i could keep going if you let me go. >> i was not suggesting that we have a threshold. it is just a frequently asked question. i was not suggesting that we have one. >> where we have had public sector pla's that have non-union participation, it has not excluded small businesses. there are specific things you could do -- [bell rings] anyway, you're sort available for questions. >> thank you. -- anyway, i am available for questions. >> thank you. >> thank you. market representative local 22. going on 31 years. i cannot believe it. i do want to commend maria ayerdi for a job well done. i know dealing with these construction workers on pla -- i commend you. they have proven that they do work. a couple of good points have been brought on the apprenticeships program. it so happens that local 22 recently sat down -- we had a very good conversation with school superintendent carlos garcia, and he was like,it was'g baby steps right now in implementing that. it is very important. even people say, why are we doing high school? i said, ok. it is a lot of work, but we can do it. again, it is baby steps. not everybody -- no, you can go to college. they do not want to go to college but that is it. i did it for two years. that was it for me. it is possible. we're looking at it. again, it is going to be baby steps. i am looking forward to that, and it is very important. i also want to stress, you know, on the apprenticeship program, my boss, mike brown, when he mentioned, you know, what is key to this split on the a condition is, like, we have our nine-week boot camp training. we stress the importance of safety. safety, safety, safety. and i am the market representative, and i deal with a lot of these contractors they said, you know, why join the union? well, you know what, we have the training. the training and the safety. that is key. that is important. tell me what you have. we do not have anything. let's sit down. one, two, three, and we explain it to them. i see. ok, and they come over. that is the key to this, safety. very important. again, thank you very much. supervisor kim: thank you. >> good morning, madam chair and esteemed colleagues. i am with painters and allied trades, district council 16, local union 913 of dry wall painters and finishers. the district council covers painters, dry wall finishers, glaser's, and for lawyers. all of our collective bargaining agreements with sub contractors required 20% of the hours to be performed by apprentices. i stand in front of you in support of this pla and encourage you to get this project done so we have no interruptions in the workforce and we get this fantastic project finished on time and on budget with the highly skilled craftsmen and women who belong to our trade and getting paid a decent wage with health care and attention. thank you for your time. supervisor kim: thank you. is there any other public comment? >> there is one more. supervisor kim: if there is any more public comment, please line up. >> good morning. on behalf of the labor local 61, over 3000 members in the city and county of san francisco, on the apprentice, i do not think we have any problem. we have more than 99% of the new emperor this is coming through. there san francisco residents. thank you to maria for working it out to do this pla. i think it is going to agree to a lot of work for all the san franciscans. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you. >> at this time, public comment is now closed. >> we will move into your next item, approving the minutes of the september 8 meeting. >> so moved. >> we have a first. is there is second? >> i will second. supervisor kim: thank you. we will do a roll-call vote. >> with that, first and second. director harper. dr. lloyd had another engagement and left. director metcalf. the next one. and madam chair. with that, the minutes are approved. that does conclude your agenda for today. supervisor kim: thank you. are there any announcements? the meeting is adjourned.