>> chair ronen: good morning, everyone. the meeting will come to order. this is the september 14, 2020 meeting of the rules committee. i am chair hill roe then. with me is supervisor kathrin stefani and victor mar. our clerk today is victor young. mr. clerk, do you have any announcements? >> clerk: yes. due to the covid-19 pandemic, to protect the supervisors staff, and public, city hall is closed to all members and staff, however, members of the committee will be participating in the meeting to the extent as if they were physically present. cable channels 26, 78, and others and sfgovtv.org website are streaming the event live. to listen in via telephone, call 415-655-0001 and enter the meeting code 146-379-1185. press pound, and pound again. when the line picks up, you will be in listening mode only. when the item that you wish to comment on is up, presidency star, three to enter the queue to speak. alternatively, you may e-mail your comment to me, at victor.young@sf.g victor.young@sf.gov. >> chair ronen: thank you. mr. clerk, can you please read item one? >> clerk: yes. item one is an ordinance amending the administrative code to extent by five months the deadline for the street-level drug distribution task force to submit its initial report to the board of supervisors and mayor and to revise the content of a report and subsequent reports issued every three months. >> chair ronen: and i believe we have a representative from supervisor haney's office to state the amendments. >> thank you, chair ronen. our request is to allow the task force to catch up because they have not been meeting since the shelter in place. and the second amendment would be to change the name from drug usage to street-level drug distribution task force. and i'm asking the rules committee for amendments to that legislation. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. we will will see if there's any members of the public that would like to make public comment. are there any members of the public that would like to make public comment? >> clerk: yes. one moment, please. my apologies. looking for my note page. yes. members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item should call 415-655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 146-379-1185. press pound, and pound again. if you haven't already done so, press star, three to speak. please wait until the system indicates you are unmuted before providing public comment. mr. qu, are there any members of the public wishing to provide public comment at this time? >> operator: madam chair, there are no callers on the line. >> chair ronen: okay. public comment is closed. i would like to make a motion to adopt the amendments. could have please have a roll call. >> clerk: on the motion to adopt the amendments -- [roll call] >> clerk: the motions are adopted. >> chair ronen: are there any comments from my colleague? if not, i'll make a motion to move the item forward with a positive recommendation. >> clerk: on the motion -- [roll call] >> clerk: the motion passes. the matter is recommended as amended without objection. >> chair ronen: thank you. and mr. clerk, can you please read item number 2. >> clerk: yes. item number 2 is a resolution confirming the nomination of mr. alfred sims as county veteran's service officer. >> chair ronen: thank you. supervisor stefani, do you have any comments? >> supervisor stefani: yes. hi, mr. sims. i see you on here. colleagues, i am excited to have the nomination of mr. alfred sims ad our county veteran's service officer. by early may, the job listing was posted publicly and qualified applicants were invited to apply. after a thorough vetting process, mr. sims was selected. i have met with mr. sims, and i am incredibly impressed with his credentials for this position. he joins the san francisco county veterans service office with over 20 years experience in management and veteran's services. based on his history of work and leadership, i know he will deliver the highest quality services for our veterans. mr. sims is an army combat veteran who served in the second armored army regiment in afghanistan and desert storm. most recently, mr. sims worked at the department of veterans affairs as a transition patient advocate, helping veterans all across the west coast. honoring those we've served isn't just about what we say, it's about serving them as well as they've served our nation. filling this vacancy is an important step that we treat our veterans in san francisco the way they deserve. i am so excited to hear more from mr. sims, and i hope you will join me in supporting his na nomination today. like i said, mr. sims, when i saw your name, i was so excited for your experience, and everything that you have done. i am the daughter of a viet nam vet who volunteered for the army and who served one here over there and one year over here. i just cannot thank you enough, and i'm so excited you've been selected. i'm excited to hear from you, and i'm excited for my colleagues to hear from you, so thank you for being here today. >> thank you so much, supervisor stefani. thank you so much, supervisor ronen and supervisor mar. it's a great pleasure for me to be here today. for me, it's an overwhelming honor to get a chance to serve our veterans here in san francisco. i'm from a military family. my dad, my sister, two cousins, and now nephew are military. for us, it's not a livelihood, it's our life, so thank you for choosing me to represent our great veterans in san francisco. a little bit about my history in veteran's services. i worked for six years in a local community health care system and the northern california health care system as a housing specialist. i was the first housing specialist in northern california, and they hired me to reach out into the community to cultivate resources in the private sector to help our veterans with this ridiculous homelessness problem that's not just specific to san francisco, it's a problem throughout the bay area, and it's so drastic, it's so well known to all of the veteran community in our area. so to have an impact on that, it's really been my life's calling over the last six years. i was fortunate, after working with the homeless veterans in the hud vas program, to get picked up as the patient advocate for b.a. nor-cal, and i covered bay area to yreka. i covered every assistance that you could think of. i spent a lot of time over the last six years cultivating connections with the local providers, and i definitely look forward to leveraging those connections to the benefit of our local veterans. really quick, just wanted to tell you about an initiative that we've kicked off since i've been here. i'm a lengthy significant ma process trained green -- sigma process trained greenbelt, so one of my first projects was to increase veteran service reps in the community, and also increase the availability of those services to the community. the way that we did that initially was i worked really close with i.t. to revamp our website and include a virtual office on our website, and it's been an overwhelming response to our website. the veteran community is very particular, and some of things that they're particular about is the interaction with people who really relate to some of the struggles. you know, a lot of the struggles fore veterans are pretty unique to the veteran community, so they really, really gravitate towards services and service providers that have an insight into those problems, and our staff here, we're really working hard to ensure that the veteran community knows that our staff are that staff to leverage the community resources for arthth benefit. another thing that i did besides the virtual office was everyone needs a mission statement and a strategy plan, so i developed a new mission statement for our team, and our mission is to be the best advocate for our military and service members, veterans dependent and survivors as they navigate civilian life and to ensure our veterans have access to the array of services available through federal, state, and local providers. we really want to endeavor to partner with nonprofit organizations, faith organizations, and other community leaders for the benefit of our leaders not just in the city and county of san francisco, but any veteran who is fortunate to get that number who knows that that is the preferred service provider for all veterans, no matter where they're at. that is our goal. and i want to say that the h.s.a. team, you know, one of my concerns when i first got here was how long a totem pole the v.s.m. was in the city hierarchy, but after working with shireen and kate, i'm absolutely confident that they're committed to providing the v.s.l. office the providing commitment ii plan. she allowed me to fast track my commitment process for two v.s.r.s. i was able to get temporary permission for two positions. we've already shot those positions out. we're just waiting on them to pass the background check, so we're really working hard not just to ensure that my department has the services they need to provide world class services to veterans, but that they're not doing the work of more people and feeling overwhelmed, three people with 21,000 cases. >> chair ronen: supervisor stefani, did you have any questions? >> supervisor stefani: nope, i'm fully convinced. >> chair ronen: supervisor mar, did you have any questions? >> supervisor mar: yes. first of all, mr. sims, thank you for all of your service to your country and veterans. when we had a chance to meet, i am from a military family, so these issues are very important to me in serving our families and veterans here in san francisco. you obviously bring a breadth of experience supports veterans and health care needs, but what is your experience with veterans here in san francisco? >> so i worked closely with veterans all throughout the bay area, including san francisco. san francisco is a little unique, and a lot of it has to do with the resources. a lot of the veterans resources are not centered in san francisco, so if a veteran does a search for v.s.o. offices, one will be located in san francisco, swords to plow shares, but there is no other local v.s.a. one of my goals is to connect veterans to providers in san francisco so they don't have to access nonlocal provides, that they can access the wide variety of service providers in the bay area. in major metropolitan areas, the veteran's service providers usually work together swords to plow shares has assumed the top position as a provider in the bay area, and that's not a bad thing, but my office's goal is to leverage the different qualities of the veteran's service organizations for the benefit of the veterans. so the swords to plow shares are good at housing resources for veterans and their families, and legal programs, so i would work closely with them on that, but i would try to work with other organizations for issues like registering veterans. swords to plow shares has that authority, but they don't provide it because historically, they've not been asked to do it. i would like to harness all the veteran's organizations for the benefit of the veterans, and that may -- without causing any kind of stress when i do that. i try to be cordial when i'm dealing with everyone. and everyone, in dealing with me, they find that i'm veteran-centric. in the past, i haven't found much push back from the other service providers, but i could, in some strange world, imagine that if you've always done things one way in san francisco, that you might be reluctant to think outside the box, so my goal is to bring some of that innovative thinking to the veterans service organizations in san francisco and help them help the veterans. >> supervisor mar: thank you. thank you, mr. sims. so just a follow-up question. i think that sounds great. you've already working with swords to plowshares, and you're starting to work with the broader network of service providers that support our veterans communities here in san francisco. i guess my follow-up question is just how would you engage veterans, other stakeholders in the community? >> one of my big philosophies is to meet people where they're at. in that vein, i've been working with the veterans commission to secure spaces for veterans over at the veterans building. i've been working with the veterans outreach staff to secure spaces at the vet center to interview veterans at the vet center and also at the hospital, to secure space there to interview the veterans there and city centralize our services so the veterans don't have to come to us for services. visuals matter to veterans. when a veterans come to a veterans service off, there's lots of veteran memorabilia. it changes that interaction with that veteran, and it increases the chances that they're going to continue to interact with your v.s.r. a lot of our clients, the veterans, they can be migratory when it comes to receiving services. if you live in the bay area, and you come into my office, and my office is substandard, then you're never going to come back. you're going to go to solano county or contra costa county. my goal is to make sure that everyone in this area knows in a the service provider of choice is -- knows that the service provider of choice in this area is the local v.s.r. >> supervisor mar: thank you, supervisor ronen. i don't have any other questions. >> chair ronen: thank you. i know that i come from a military family, but i never thought about it because my dad served in israel. he was an air trooper. he jumped out of airplanes, but it's so funny listening to my colleagues talk about it, and the fact that i don't think about myself that way, but yes, impart of a military family. it's really interesting. i want to thank you. i don't have any questions yet, and just wanted to open this up for public comment. >> clerk: yes. i can make a statement while mr. qu is checking. members of the public wishing to provide public comment should call 415-655-0001. the meeting i.d. is 146-379-1185. press pound, and pound again. press star, three to enter the queue for public comment, and wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted before providing public comment. mr. qu, do we have callers in the queue? >> operator: yes, we do have callers in the queue. i will unmute the first caller. >> good morning, supervisors. i am president of the veterans affairs commission. as you know, i'll just state this for the record, the veteran's affairs commission advises the mayor. we are 14 veterans from all walks of life, yet we have not had the opportunity to weigh-in on this veterans candidacy, qualifications. as you can see, this is a top position, the key service provider for the city and county of san francisco, and not a single member of the veterans commission was consulted or placed on the hiring committee or brought in to consult. instead, this person's been hired in an expedited manner, given a different job description, different working position, and different title. he's been working in the community, subverting the commission, even meeting with commission members one-on-one to get the support, and as president of the commission, i can tell you this is not right. this probably violates all sorts of very good laws. we were not made aware of this appointment coming to the veterans affairs today. we asked mr. sims when he knew he was up for this committee meeting, he avoided the question. so what i'm doing today is not speaking on his record because we've never had a chance to speak to him on his report or qualifications. what i'm asking you to do is postpone this item until we've had a chance to meet, look at his record, and discuss this. i would be happy to schedule a meeting on that as chair of the commission or until the next meeting. thank you for your consideration, and thank you for your consideration of my comments. >> clerk: thank you. can we have the next caller, please. >> hi. i'm mr. sims' sister. my brother is a long line of veterans devoted to serving our country. he has spent much of his post military career serving the community, so i think he has a deep understanding of veterans' needs and how to get things done. we are extremely proud of him, and thank you for your time. c any additional speakers? >> operator: there are no speakers. >> chair ronen: okay. public comment is closed. mr. sims, did you want to address any of the comments? >> yes. i tried to reach out to different members of the commission, but when i tried to reach out to mr. oliveri, i didn't get much response to him, his designated spokesperson or secret of the v.s.r. office. at your guys' suggestion, i did reach out to the commissioners with my specific goals. i did try to reach out to mr. oliveri. i do understand some of his concerns. i'm a little confused when he said he hasn't seen any of my resume or information as my information was forwarded to him not just by me by a member of the board of supervisors. [please stand by] >> i proceeded in the process which i have explained to this board several times. i think what is happening here is that in setting that process in place, commissioner olivieri clearly misunderstood the process by which h.s.a. and the county hired this officer. there's no provision for the veteran affairs commission to weigh in. we want to down the road can be changed at the same time, mr. sims made himself available to the veteran affairs commissioners. i find it to be absolutely shocking actually to treat another service member in this way. when the process is clear and i have engaged an open communication with commissioner olivieri about this. i'm actually dumbfounded as to the controversy by which commissioner olivieri is raising. i just absolutely don't understand it. we have mr. sims in front of us today who is more than qualified to do exactly what we need our veteran services officer to do. the fact that someone is saying they didn't get a chance to weigh in when that is not outlined in the way that we hire. i don't understand. i don't understand why we would create conflict in this manner when all we're trying to do is exactly what commissioner olivieri contacted me to do which is fill this position with incredibly qualified candidate. we have that person in front of us today. i'm thrilled when i contacted h.s.a. and the city manager's office about the vacancy of this position and how we need to fill it immediately. they did just that. they follow the process. they got someone in there started with programs that have helped veterans in our city. i don't understand the controversy. i absolutely think we need to move forward with this today. there's no reason to continue it. i look forward to your support. i hope you can see what i see in mr. sims which is incredibly qualified member and someone who served our country well. i hope we can move forward with this today. pass it out of committee to the full board. thank you. >> i would just -- it is concerning to me that we don't have an official process where the veteran affairs commission weighs in. that might be something we should look at in the future when hiring this position. because we have this incredibly talented 17-member board that is better position to know who is the best person to serve them in this position. we're not taking advantage of that fact. that's not to say -- that process hasn't been in place yet. i agree that we should delay this appointment. i do think in the future that having an official weigh-in from the veteran affairs commission for these positions is good policy. it makes a lot of sense. i'm happy to look into changing that hearing process in the future. having said that, i agree that we have a qualified applicant who's been in the role with us today and should move forward. is there any remarks that you wanted to make supervisor mar? >> supervisor mar: i want to thank supervisor stefani for her leadership on this issue. it's been a position that's been vacant for over a year. i do think that -- this is kind of different unique nomination or appointment than the rules committee typically consider. the process forward is a little different. it seems like the human services agency and the department of of disability and aging services went through a good process on soliciting applicants and recommending mr. sims. i'm impressed with his qualifications and his enthusiasm for this role. i do think it's important for the veteran affairs commission to be part of these processes. i would support chair ronen your point of looking at how we could ensure that the veteran affairs commission is in the future is more part of the process. i'm very comfortable with moving ahead with this nomination today. >> chair ronen: with that, supervisor, did you want to do the honors? >> supervisor stefani: yes. i would like to move the appointment of mr. sims as our county veteran services officer out to the full board with positive recommendation. >> chair ronen: can we have a roll call vote on that? [roll call vote] motion passes. the matter will be recommended. >> chair ronen: thank you very much mr. sims. >> thank you so much chair ronen and commissioner stefani and commissioner gordon. i will not let you down. we will make sure we're the best advocate not just in the bay area but in california and the whole country. thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. >> chair ronen: thank you. mr. clerk, please read item number 3. >> clerk: i like to take a moment to admit some applicants waiting in the lobby. >> chair ronen: sure. >> clerk: we have ms. wong waiting in the lobby. hopefully she'll call back shortly. ms. steinberg just logged in. if you don't mind staying on hold until we get to your item. actually, ms. wong is logged in. i will call item number 3 at this time. [agenda item read] >> chair ronen: thank you so much. i believe that mr. schmidt is here for seat one. i want to see if he wanted to introduce himself and explain his interest in this position. good morning. >> good morning. hopefully i'm on screen and also on audio. >> chair ronen: we can see and hear you. you're all good. >> thank you. in addition to the application papers that i submitted, i wanted to say that in terms of the experience that i think i can bring to bear here, one is that i spent lot of years in courtrooms and hearing rooms working with witnesses and every conceivable kind. i think that's critical to the way that the sunshine task force functions and functions well when it does. it often does, although i would hope that i could make it better than it is. i think also, my years have brought me quite a bit of experience first amendment issues. i think that the first amendment is something that -- it's sort of the scene that in addition to transparency and ultimately, ensuring citizen access and access to the press to all the government processes. i think that if we can -- it would really be my primary goal with the tsk force to try to make the task force better which would encourage citizens to make more use of it and that's something that generally is probably one of the higher goals of creating good government. specifically as to the attorney seat, i tried to sit there and i think, well, what is it that the attorney seat will do that's different from other seats on the task force? i came up with three things. one is that i would hope to be able to use my experience with cross examination to maybe focus the questioning, witnesses, to try to hone in on what's important and get to that information from witnesses before the task force. two, try to formulate what it is we need when we need to go to the city attorney to ask for legal advice and to try to sort of we call it issues -- try to figure out what the issues are so i city attorney knows what we want from them. whether or not they can give us an answer, at least try. third, there's not really a full-time parliament on site. maybe to have some sense of the rules of the room when hearings occur. other than that, it's certainly my pleasure to see you all here today and i open myself up to questions. >> chair ronen: thank you so much for your willingness. the importance of this body cannot be overstated. it has had -- it has been -- it is a commission that needs really good experienced people who are willing to serve and make it serve its purpose in reasonable ways. it has been a body that in the past has been either not been able to keep quorum or has been over aggressive in certain areas and underaggressive in areas that are more important. i appreciate your willingness to stop on and use your talents and experience to make this body what it should be. supervisor mar, did you have any comments or questions? >> supervisor mar: not really. i wanted to thank mr. schmidt for his willingness to serve on this critical oversight and transparency body for our city and city government. so thank you. >> chair ronen: supervisor stefani? >> supervisor stefani: no comments or question. thank you for your service. we agree, we don't always like to appear in front of sunshine, don't ever want to end up there. thank you for your service. we think it's extremely important. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. next we will hear from ms. ms. lahood. >> hello, good morning. >> i prepared a brief statement. good morning chair ronen, supervisor mar and supervisor stefani. thank you for considering my nomination and my application to serve for second term on the san francisco ordinance task force. i lived in san francisco for 18 years. last year public press launched a lower power fm radio station, 102.5 fm. i've been an active member of the board for more than 10 years. it's been my pleasure to serve on the sunshine task force since 2018. i came to this position to defending public access and information as protected by the sunshine ordinance and the brown act and now with the experience that i've been in my first term, i feel better equipped to serve the community in this capacity. i forgot to mention something in my application, that is for about a career, i've been serving as a chair of the task force and compliance amendments committee. i will continue to do so at the rules committee and if the board of supervisors approve my nomination. as with all city departments and agencies and committees the task force has faced challenges brought by the pandemic and the strength of holding meetings -- i have a strong interest making sure san francisc san san franco have access. i would appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve the community as a member of the sunshine ordinance task force. thank you for your consideration. >> chair ronen: i'm such a fan of public press. thank you for starting this independent journalist, now multimedia source of information. thank you for your service. it's so appreciative. protecting, especially in these times our first amendment right and right of free press. it cannot be more important. i really wanted to appreciate you. i'm sure my colleagues feel the same. are there any questions? thank you so much. last but not least. we will hear from ms. wong. >> hello. can you hear me okay? >> chair ronen: we can hear you. we can't see you. that's not a problem. as long as we can hear you. >> okay. i have the video on. i'm not sure what's going on. i have a prepared statement. i will read that as well. good morning esteemed rules committee, chair ronen, supervisor mar and supervisor stefani. i hope to be appointed to the sunshine ordinance task force continue my work in furthering government transparency. i'm a nine-year resident of san francisco, having lived in the haith and richmond districts. i'm part of of multigenerational san francisco family. as a professional software engineer, i focus on user interaction and accessibility and delivered conference talks across the world. as a board member of the league of women voters of san francisco, i volunteered as the co-lead for the last year and a half. we educate the public about government meetings. our focus is on observation of the police commission and district meetings. we observed and documented the board of supervisors, the budget appropriations committee, the rules committee, the public safety and neighborhood services committee and the sunshine ordinance task force meetings. our goal is to nurture more engaged and well informed committee. this includes trajectory towarded involvement in government. i volunteered with san francisco sunshine and improving the sunshine ordinance. i was under the tutelage of past and present task forces. with them, i helped work on a new draft of the sunshine ordinance considering what is technologically possible for citizen open access and government data. i educate friends, family and coworkers and neighbors and even strangers about the sunshine ordinance and the task force. should i be appointed to the task force? i will work with the board of supervisors, implement new and innovative ways for san franciscans to access government information. as a software engineer, i'm interested in marrying technology with the work of the task force. i'm here to answer any of your questions. >> chair ronen: hawk so much. thank you for using your talents and engineering and talent and understanding of technology for this purpose. it is so appreciated. is there any questions? we appreciate you -- we see you, hello. we appreciate you for being wellinwilling to serve. i can't imagine three better nominations from the different entities that have been charged with appointing someone or choosing someone to appoint to this task force. it's such a smart way to make these appointments, to have outside entities with different areas of specialty of their fields to be in position. it's working and i am really excited about all three your appointments to play this role in our city, which is such a crucial role. thank you so much again for your willingness to serve. we need public comment. we can open up for public comment. >> clerk: i like to ask, members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item, should call 415-655-0001. press pound and pound again. please dial star 3 to line up to speak. system prompt will indicate that you have raised your hand. please wait until the system indicate you have been unmuted. do we have any speakers? >> i have four callers in the queue. i will queue the first caller. >> hello, my name is bruce wolf. i'm the current chair of the sunshine task force. good morning chair and nominees. thank you for the time in bringing this forward. it is really important now because we do have a number of via -- vacancies. we really appreciate everybody who steps up and partakes in this very important service. especially now when we know that transparency is public information so important. i worked with member lahood for the past couple of years. she's been fantastic member of the task force providing a lot of excellent expertise and information and decision-making for the task force. i know dean and jen from working with them outside of the task force and they are equally excellent choices from their organization. i almost them. i really would appreciate your support of them and moving them forward to the full board for approval. thank you. >> next caller please. >> good morning chair ronen and supervisor mar and stefani. this morning i'm calling to support nomination to the reform task force dean schmidt for seat one and lila lahood for seat t two. this is a significant commitment and ms. lahood is an active experienced journalist and task force member. mr. schmidt will be new member. he's been able to gain experience with the since ordinance and rule of the task force through his involvement with san franciscans for sunshine. that's in addition to his experience as a practicing lawyer which includes significant amount of service. side note on seat five, i'm happy to learn about ms. wong interest and i'm confident she's also going to make a really valuable addition to the task force. with that, i want to thank all three of the nominees for their interest and commitment to public service and task force and urge the committee to recommend their nominations to the full board for consideration. thank you. >> next caller please. >> hi. good morning supervisors and nominees. i'm a board member -- on behalf the league i'm calling to support ms. wong for seat five. she's a proven advocate. her experience qualifies her for a seat on the task force. jen has been co-lead for over a year helping to lead transparency of policing practices in san francisco. additionally, she volunteered for many years san franciscans for sunshine to help modernize the sunshine ordinance. i strongly encourage you to appoint jennifer wong to the sunshine ordinance task force. thank you for your consideration. >> thank you. next caller please. >> hello, good morning supervisors. thanks for considering nominees today. i'm laura, cochair of the freedom of information committee of our regional chapter. i'm also a journalist who lives here in san francisco. we are honored and excited to bring you these two excellent candidates for the sunshine ordinance task force. lila lahood has been an active and engaged member for the past two years. beyond being a leader at the public press, she's been deeply involved of the chapter for the past decade and has made extraordinary contributions to journalism in our region. i think every professional community has those figures that are involved in everything and every event and has super human abilities to make things happen. lila is one of the examples in san francisco media. we performed a search and vetting process for a new attorney to appoint to the task force and we're pleased to bring you dean schmidt who bring the wealth of law experience in the bay area and in san francisco in particular. his most recently working pro bono with migrant children at the southern border of the united states. mr. schmidt brings great passion for sunshine. we encourage you to move forward with these two candidates today to restoring the task force to its full capacity. thank you so much. >> thank you. next caller please. >> hello supervisors. i maybe familiar face to you. i am never on this side of the public comment. i'm usually writing down what people are saying. as a executive board member of the society professional journalist northern california chapter, i am delighted the two back, lila lahood continue work on the sunshine task force and dean schmidt for his wealth of sunshine balance. also jen, we should also speaking on behalf of our league of women voter pick, she has incredibly knowledgeable and love communicating with her on all issues p.p.p. please consider all these candidates today. thank you so much. >> thank you. next caller please. >> that completes the queue. >> chair ronen: thank you so much for all the wonderful public comments and public comment is now closed. i'm wondering if our good government advocate on the board, supervisor mar wants to do the honors of making the motion? >> supervisor mar: thank you. i want to thank all the nominees and the applicants for your dedication to this such tremendously important body here in our city, ensuring transparency and good government. actually for all of the important work that you do and all of your -- outside the sunshine task force. i would make a motion that we appoint dean schmidt to seat one, lila lahood to seat two and jennifer wong to seat five of the sunshine ordinance task force and that we send these appointments to the full board with positive recommendation. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. can we have a roll call vote? >> clerk: yes, on that motion -- [roll call vote] motion passes. without objection. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. thank you for your willingness to serve in this capacity. we count on you keep our government strong and transparent. see you later. have a great day. mr. clerk, please read item 4. >> clerk: [agenda item read]. >> chair ronen: great. do we have ms. bonini here? >> yes. >> chair ronen: good morning. do you have anything you like to share with us about your interest and qualifications for serving on this task force? >> sure. thank you so much for your consideration for this very important task force. i'm cissie bonini. i have been a long-term anti-poverty and anti-hunger advocate in san francisco. i've been working towards alleviating food insecurity for over 20 years in san francisco. i've run a number of programs for homeless and low income folks including managing st. anthony dining and programs for st. anthony in the tenderloin. i have been a prior member of the task force many years ago. then i did go back to school and get my masters degree i intend to be task force -- [indiscernible]. currently over the years, i participated in many different opportunities and advocating for homeless and low income folks. i was one of the founding members of the tenderloin task force. some of the important work was creating a number of work around disaster feeding with the department of emergency management. that kind of work becomes super important recently. i been involved in that many years and what happened as a result of covid is that group we did activate that group on marcf covid. that's a major food providers in san francisco food bank. [indiscernible] that group gets together to add awareness among each other. we have been doing that and i have been coordinating that effort. we continue to work with the emergency operation center and i'm a member of the feeding units steering committee. it's been incredible the amount of work happening right now, the massive, unprecedented food insecurity issues. i would just want to say that i'm very privileged to work with a group. i have been participating member and i will be honored to be a regular member. >> chair ronen: i can't imagine more qualified person to this role. so thank you. i was going to ask you, how the situation on the street has changed since covid and how are we meeting the needs of san franciscans during this time. >> that's a complicated question. i think the response has been just heroic. i think the traditional feeding infrastructure had to do -- it was incredible how organizations had -- [indiscernible] we had to retool their operations. they had to go from congregate feeding. in addition to delivering meals, it's rough. i want to say what's been so interesting is what we call disaster, it has risen out of the community. those has been so important. we understand it's not just food insecurity and it's the trauma involved and losing your job and food support. lot of people never been hungry before. we've seen a lot of organizati organizations -- [indiscernible] i say that is just an amazing thing that has happened. the other side of that is that, we need more resources and we need lot more help. there's so much work. we need to work together and we need the resources. shoring up all of -- [indiscernible] >> chair ronen: i have gone to the latino commission few time. i seen the typhose. type of -- types of food and hearing about the community response receiving the comfort food of their own culture, it's something that i agree with you. it's just so beautiful in the mist of being so guttingly sad. the need is overwhelming right now. i really want to thank you for your work in doing everything in your power to meet that need. thank you so much. is there any other questions or comments? >> supervisor mar: i like to thank ms. bonini for her work and dedication for food security issues. especially for the most vulnerable in our city. thank you so much and thank you for bringing your expertise and your commitment to these issues to the task force. >> chair ronen: thank you. now we're going to hear from ms. good morning. >> hi, good morning. can you hear me? >> chair ronen: we. >> great. apologies i'm sitting in an empty patient room. if a nurse pop in and out, i apologize for the interruption. thank you so much for having me today and inviting me here. it's an honor to be here with all of you. i'm dr. emma signberg. i'-- steinberg. i came to san francisco only five years ago to start my training in pediatric but have long been involved with food and nutrition and thinking about how assistance and ways we can connect all the services, both healthcare and otherwise that we have in various urban settings. i'm really excited to be here. i think now more than ever, it's incredibly important to think about the whole aspect as well as the health and social determine -- determinant impact on health. the mental aspect cannot go unstated. three quarter of the patients that i have admitted that i'm taking care of now are admitted for mental health related issues. many of their families and the families of patients that i taken care of are experiencing new challenges related to food insecurity and loss of income. i think partnering with healthcare and trying to bring that perspective will be really important because this pandemic is not going anywhere. i think food is going to be a really critical piece in our healthcare area. i think the healthcare system has a lot of infrastructure and connection to people that i think can compliment lot of the services that exist. i will be thrilled to join cissie and rest of the task force, love to bring my perspective as a physician but also as as pediatrician especially. thank you. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. has there been any partnerships between the organizations that are fighting hunger and those that work on mental health? are those services areas being combined in my way? >> yes. cissie spoke to some of these organizations especially companies like mother brown. there was another woman who joined the meeting who was talking about this. lot of the case managers who are part of these organizations have really had to step up and lean in more to like a social work role to help provide that additional mental health support. i think that, especially when we're thinking about it from the healthcare perspective, we can't just offer any of these services or items in isolation. we really have to think about the whole person and make sure that there are enough mental health support for people as the procesprocess all the trauma and challenges. >> chair ronen: again, thank you so much for willingness to serve. cannot be more critical work. but especially right now in terms of the increasing need everyday. thank you for everything that you do. is there any other comments or questions before we open this up for public comment? >> supervisor stefani: to thank ms. bonini and ms. steinberg billion willingneo serve on this task force. we're looking at 10% of unemployment in san francisco. when it was 3% in february. i did a hearing last year with martha ryan, she's executive director of the homeless prenatal program and really looking at not just food insecurity but how people get to the food that they need and especially pregnant women and young families. we have a b.l.a. report coming out soon on overall assessment as a food security program in san francisco. i look forward to sharing that with you. >> clerk: members of the public who wish to provide public comment should call 415-655-00 415-655-0001. please dial star 3 to line up to speak. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comment. do we have any members of the public on the line? >> we have no callers in the queue. >> chair ronen: thank you so much. public comment is closed. i would like to make a motion to move forward, cissie bonini to seat 18 emma steinberg to seat 19 to positive recommendation to the full board. [roll call vote] motion passes without objections. >> chair ronen: chalk so much again. -- thank you soph again. >> thank you all so much. >> chair ronen: mr. clerk, is there any other items before us today? >> clerk: that completes the agenda for today. >> chair ronen: the meeting is adjourned. have a good day everyone. bye. >> thank you, joseph. good morning, everyone. i'm mary ellen carroll, i'm the director of san francisco department of emergency manager. i'm joined by the director of the san francisco department of public health. san francisco and our region continues to experience poor air quality as a result of the many wildfires that are burning throughout california. we have been very busy over the last few weeks in 2020, and as a city, we are prepared to respond to all of the incidents that we continue to face during this time of covid. in the past seven days alone, we have dealt with a heat wave, dark skies, continued poor air quality. all the while, we are still responding to a global pandemic. yesterday, we reached purple, which is very unhealthy levels for air quality, and we expect to have this poor air quality today and potentially through the weekend. this means that active use adults and people with respiratory diseases should avoid any activity outdoors. everyone else, especially children, should avoid any prolonged exposure to the outside or heavy exertion. we recommend to consider moving activities indoor or rescheduled to a time when the air quality is improved. as a result of this poor air quality, san francisco is taking the following actions: we are activating weather we l -- relief centers for people who need respite from the area fault. muni is free today. information on all of these activities are available on sfgov.org. we are offering respite especially to people who are experiencing homelessness. if you are able to stay within your own home or place of work, we recommend that you stay home, and we want to make sure that our respite centers are available to those who do not have any other options. we have a global -- and as a reminder, we are still in a global pandemic, and testing is considered an eventual activity. however, we are closing our soma testing site, and the community mobile testing sites in western addition and l.n.i. at the request of our community partners. our embarcadero site will remain open. the city and our community partners are also coordinating wellness checks on our most vulnerable residents, and that is happening right now. as the city responds, we also take our residents to take action. we're asking people to stay indoors, with windows and doors closed, as this is the best way to protect your health in this air quality event, and if this is not an option for you, the city does have weather relief centers available. we ask you to check on your friends and your family and neighbors, especially older adults, pregnant individuals, children, or people with respiratory illnesses. these folks are susceptible to elevated air pollution levels and really should take precaution to avoid exposure. we're asking that people avoid adding additional air pollution by curtailing certain activities such as woodburning, lawn mowing, leaf blowing, barbecuing if you don't need to, and other dust producing activities. we recommend you avoid hairspray or any indoor painting today, and if possible, not utilize your stove when cooking, you can find out about alerts in your area by texting information to 88077 or by going to sfalert.org. we will be updating our sites throughout the day. we want to remind people that we are still in a global pandemic. if you have to be out, always wear a face covering, observe social distancing, and wear your hands. san francisco is prepared for this because we have been doing years of planning and preparation in response to what we've experienced through climate change. we've learned lessons from previous heat waves and air quality emergencies and power outages, and we're putting those lessons to bear now. two years after back to back years of devastating wildfires and resulting poor air quality, we responded by a respond for our air quality. the result is we should all be communicating the same health and guidance to all of our residents. i'm very proud of these regional efforts and am so many that they've laid the groundwork for us to successfully respond in san francisco. i'm not happy about the fact that we have to do this, and that the effects of climate change continue to affect us in this way, but i'm proud of our collaboration of our neighborhoods and the work of the city and county staff. we are also here as much better coordinated because of our response to covid-19. i'm speaking to you from our covid command center. we've been here six months here. we work every day to overcome the challenges of this global pandemic, and that means that when we have these other challenges that occur, like air quality or heat waves, we're all here, ready to address those. finally, a reminder, residents should stay alert. if you smell smoke, you should stay inside and continue to monitor our website at sf72.org, and a reminder to sign up to text alerts by texting your number to 888777. i know that san franciscans are resilient, and i know that san francisc franciscos -- san franciscans are being tired of being resilient, we with you cannot stop. i -- but we cannot stop, and i know that whatever challenge we face, we will get through it together. >> thank you, dr. carroll. at this time, we have one question, and i'll continue to monitor for more questions. doctor, whenever you're ready. >> yep, i'm ready. >> operator: does the department have any guidance for restaurants that have outdoor dining? is there any plan to shutdown restaurants at this point of poor air quality? >> at this point, there's no plans to shutdown outdoor dining, but we are encouraging san franciscans to stay inside during this period of poor air quality. it's the healthiest thing they can do. if somebody must leave to go out for essential activities, they must bring their personal coverings with them. this is a personal choice, but the recommendation is to stay indoors to protect your health and your lungs. >> operator: thank you. and for director carroll, we're going to take one last question from amy grant. what are the hours of weather relief centers, and will they be open today through sunday? >> yes -- yes. so we are working to get them open today. the normal hours of operation are 10:00 a.m. to 5:30; however, please check in to 7 -- sf72.org for the exact hours of operation later today and throughout the weekend. >> operator: thank you, director, and thank you, doctor, for joining us today. that concludes today's press conference. if reporters have any questions today offline, please e-mail us at my name is doctor ellen moffett, i am an assistant medical examiner for the city and county of san francisco. i perform autopsy, review medical records and write reports. also integrate other sorts of testing data to determine cause and manner of death. i have been here at this facility since i moved here in november, and previous to that at the old facility. i was worried when we moved here that because this building is so much larger that i wouldn't see people every day. i would miss my personal interactions with the other employees, but that hasn't been the case. this building is very nice. we have lovely autopsy tables and i do get to go upstairs and down stairs several times a day to see everyone else i work with. we have a bond like any other group of employees that work for a specific agency in san francisco. we work closely on each case to determine the best cause of death, and we also interact with family members of the diseased. that brings us closer together also. >> i am an investigator two at the office of the chief until examiner in san francisco. as an investigator here i investigate all manners of death that come through our jurisdiction. i go to the field interview police officers, detectives, family members, physicians, anyone who might be involved with the death. additionally i take any property with the deceased individual and take care and custody of that. i maintain the chain and custody for court purposes if that becomes an issue later and notify next of kin and make any additional follow up phone callsness with that particular death. i am dealing with people at the worst possible time in their lives delivering the worst news they could get. i work with the family to help them through the grieving process. >> i am ricky moore, a clerk at the san francisco medical examiner's office. i assist the pathology and toxicology and investigative team around work close with the families, loved ones and funeral establishment. >> i started at the old facility. the building was old, vintage. we had issues with plumbing and things like that. i had a tiny desk. i feet very happy to be here in the new digs where i actually have room to do my work. >> i am sue pairing, the toxicologist supervisor. we test for alcohol, drugs and poisons and biological substances. i oversee all of the lab operations. the forensic operation here we perform the toxicology testing for the human performance and the case in the city of san francisco. we collect evidence at the scene. a woman was killed after a robbery homicide, and the dna collected from the zip ties she was bound with ended up being a cold hit to the suspect. that was the only investigative link collecting the scene to the suspect. it is nice to get the feedback. we do a lot of work and you don't hear the result. once in a while you heard it had an impact on somebody. you can bring justice to what happened. we are able to take what we due to the next level. many of our counterparts in other states, cities or countries don't have the resources and don't have the beautiful building and the equipmentness to really advance what we are doing. >> sometimes we go to court. whoever is on call may be called out of the office to go to various portions of the city to investigate suspicious deaths. we do whatever we can to get our job done. >> when we think that a case has a natural cause of death and it turns out to be another natural cause of death. unexpected findings are fun. >> i have a prior background in law enforcement. i was a police officer for 8 years. i handled homicides and suicides. i had been around death investigation type scenes. as a police officer we only handled minimal components then it was turned over to the coroner or the detective division. i am intrigued with those types of calls. i wondered why someone died. i have an extremely supportive family. older children say, mom, how was your day. i can give minor details and i have an amazing spouse always willing to listen to any and all details of my day. without that it would be really hard to deal with the negative components of this job. >> being i am a native of san francisco and grew up in the community. i come across that a lot where i may know a loved one coming from the back way or a loved one seeking answers for their deceased. there are a lot of cases where i may feel affected by it. if from is a child involved or things like that. i try to not bring it home and not let it affect me. when i tell people i work at the medical examiners office. whawhat do you do? the autopsy? i deal with the a with the enou- with the administrative and the families. >> most of the time work here is very enjoyable. >> after i started working with dead people, i had just gotten married and one night i woke up in a cold sweat. i thought there was somebody dead? my bed. i rolled over and poked the body. sure enough, it was my husband who grumbled and went back to sleep. this job does have lingering effects. in terms of why did you want to go into this? i loved science growing up but i didn't want to be a doctor and didn't want to be a pharmacist. the more i learned about forensics how interested i was of the perfect combination between applied science and criminal justice. if you are interested in finding out the facts and truth seeking to find out what happened, anybody interested in that has a place in this field. >> being a woman we just need to go for it and don't let anyone fail you, you can't be. >> with regard to this position in comparison to crime dramas out there, i would say there might be some minor correlations. let's face it, we aren't hollywood, we are real world. yes we collect evidence. we want to preserve that. we are not scanning fingerprints in the field like a hollywood television show. >> families say thank you for what you do, for me that is extremely fulfilling. somebody has to do my job. if i can make a situation that is really negative for someone more positive, then i feel like i am doing the right thing for the city of san francisco.go. >> shop and dine the 49 promotes local businesses and changes san franciscans to do their shopping and dooipg within the 49 square miles by supporting local services within the neighborhood we help san francisco remain unique, successful and vibrant so where will you shop and dine the 49 hi in my mind a ms. medina >> hi, we're live. >> chair sesay: good morning. i call the board of directors special meeting of september 10, 2020 to order. i am the board chair. the board meeting is being conducted pursuant to provisions of the brown act and recent executive orders by the governor to facilitate teleconferencing to reduce the risk of covid-19 transmission. ordinarily, the brown act sets strict rules for teleconferencing. the executive order has suspended those rules. as noted on the agenda, members of the public may observe this meeting by sfgovtv and they may offer public comment by calling the published public comment phone number. i'd like to welcome members of the public and staff who are watching us live on sfgovtv. mr. secretary, please call the roll. [laughter]. >> thank you, madame chair. prior to calling roll, i would like to note that julie chang is sitting in as director. with that i will now proceed to call roll. directors, please respond when i call your name. chang present. >> e. forbes: present. >> m. hursh: present. >> b. lipkin: present. >> j. tumlin: present. >> vice chair gee: present. >> chair sesay: present. >> secretary: directors, we have a quorum. >> chair sesay and secretary, if i may just a point of clarification, this is a regular meeting, not a special meeting, just a point of clarification for the record. >> chair sesay: thank you, i appreciate that. >> secretary: thank you. directors, the next item, item 3, is communications. we'd like to provide further instructions for the public comment process. to provide public comment, callers should dial into the published number, 1-855-282-6330, and enter access code, 126 729 5295. then pound and pound again and listen to the meeting. as they wait for public comment to be announced, members of the public have up to three minutes to provide comments on each agenda item. i will announce when public comment is open on each item, or for the general public comment at which time callers should dial star 3 to raise their hand and be added to the queue. this call-in number and access code will also stream on the screen during the entire board meeting. when callers dial star 3, they will be added to the queue to speak in the order that they are entered. all callers will remain on mute until their line is open. an automated voice will let callers know when it is their turn to speak. everyone must account for their time delays and speaking discrepancies between live coverage and streaming. it is best to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly, and turn down your television or radio. if there are any other communications from the board members, please let me know. if none, i will move on to the next item. hearing none, i'll proceed. directors, item 4, is board of directors new and old business. >> chair sesay: we have none. >> secretary: if there are none, i will proceed to call the next item, chair sesay? >> chair sesay: thank you, mr. secretary. >> secretary: directors, item 5 is the executive directors report. >> thank you. good morning, directors. first, i would like to thank you for the opportunity to serve as interim executive director. as we all continue our work to mitigate the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic, and as we look to the future envisioning a state interconnected by rail, stable leadership and a firm commitment to the vision of the agency is critical. and i'm honored and excited to temporarily fill that role. my focus will be on advancing the transbay program by operating the salesforce transit center in a world class cost effective manner, with transit agencies, neighborhood stakeholders. advancing by collaborating with the san francisco peninsula rail program executive steering committee and ensuring all aspects of the tjpa are met. in regards to the covid-19 health crisis, we're pleased to see that the city and county of san francisco is moving forward with more activities. our anchor tenant, has been conducting one of on one tt exercise sessions which is in compliance with the allowable outdoor activities. we're monitoring and adhering to all guidance from the city's health officer and we're working closely with our transit agencies and tenants to reduce the community spread of covid-19. commuters and visitors to the transit center are provided the most up to date information about mask-wearing and social distancing through multilingual signage, displays, throughout the transit center including the park and routine announcements. enhanced cleaning protocol remain in place. on august 19, we were glad to support the bay area transit agency's press conference and john updike will speak about that more. our role under the facility. and not to steal too much of his thunder, but i'm excited to announce we've had positive progress for lease negotiations which contributes to our health for the second floor of the transit center. as you're aware, christine's tenure as director of communications has come to an end. with her departure back to the city full-time, we're looking to fill the position of communications which is posted on the website. regarding phase 2. as you know, we are working with the executive steering committee to keep the public and our stakeholders updated and educated about phase 2. in order to accomplish this, we are taking a branding and outreach campaign. a communications and outreach services was released in july and we received seven proposals under review. we're pleased that the director of communications as well as our prior director of communications will serve on the evaluation panel. we anticipate returning to the board in october or november to recommend a contract for your consideration. regarding the general engineering consultant r.f.p. released in july, we unfortunately received only one proposal. we will evaluate the proposal and return to the board with the recommendation on whether to proceed or reprocure. it is important to note that there was extensive outreach and virtual proposal meeting held on july 8 was attended by 85 participants. our research regarding participation confirmed that more than 90 firms exchanged contact information. most firms were seeking subcontracting opportunities and the majority of consultants expressed interest in the future. we have had good progress with the steering committee. the review candidates, the interview time line and the process. that concludes my report, directors. be happy to take any questions before having john updike provide his report. thank you. >> chair sesay: i don't hear any board members. can you have john proceed, please. >> nila: sure. let's have john provide his report. >> good morning, all. thank you, jason. we can move to the next slide. so as mentioned, we were happy to host the press conference providing security, custodial and logistics support which i thought was an excellent message across many social media platforms. then to our operator partners on that effort. since our last meeting, we're continuing our efforts with our contractors and subcontractors. it is very busy within our future tenant space with lots of tenant improvements being done by multiple contractors. so we're working hard on logistics. and distancing between the groups and ensuring covid-19 health order compliance by everyone to limit the exposure and potential transmission while they're doing their important work bringing us these improvements. also keeping our open dialogue with our tenants as they are moving forward with their efforts and also pleased to announce we have a new tenant up on the ac transit bus deck. pharma box and they bring us to a variety of personal protective equipment as well as general health goods available for sale to our patrons. so we're happy to have them aboard. a sleek-looking vending machines they've brought forward for us. we'll give you a report when we have information back from them. so as mentioned, we're continuing our one-on-one training sessions. they've had some reductions in classes, of course, due to the air quality. but we're doing everything we can to help our tenant who otherwise is not able to operate, at least keep some of their contractors and trainers active and keep those client communications going that will foster success when they do return to indoor fitness. we're also prepared to move forward with activation and programming as soon as shelter-in-place restrictions allow. to date, we have not seen a relaxation of those restrictions to allow us to do anything beyond what we're doing currently in the park. as you see here, we're working on our exploratory work. modest program. important in that it has discovered clear paths to utility connections. we have some concerns that perhaps they would not be as accessible. this will bring dividends, bringing in a food and vendor kiosk on the plaza level, that will reduce risks and create certainties of the utility paths. we'll see a return on that investment, i can assure you going forward. more on that once the report is in from nova construction, which we should have in the next meeting. lastly, talking about the park in general. we're beginning to prepare for this transition. we'll talk about that when we come up to the item for landscape maintenance. as you can see here, several cubic yards of mulch were brought in to approve the ground cover, improve the health of the plants. we've also done trimming activity to address issues that security was having and overgrowth issues. so we're pleased to see that. we're also working closely with our various contractors to ensure we have a plan forward once the ash stops falling, to properly remove that from the plants and ensure their health through this latest crisis we're facing. hopefully, we will not have the locusts appear next month. let's hope ash is the last crisis we have. so now let's move to retail leasing. so this is a little deeper dive, if you will, into the exploratory work going on in the pad site. it's a very confined space, so it is taking us a while. operating carefully and following osha regulations and ensure we're finding variances from as-built, so this has been a fruitful venture. as mentioned, stealing my thunder, suite 232, we have a letter of intent, we're negotiating a lease agreement. when we have that lease ready, we'll be able to divulge that tenant that fits in very nicely with the health scene of the second level of our facility and we're excited to be welcoming the board. lease negotiations going fairly well, so i'm feeling pretty good in the next meeting or two, we should have a lease agreement to announce to you. and here's a little more detailed look at our occupancy status. this is something that, if this format works, we'll probably use this as a base for future discussions so you can see particularly where we stand today. this also reflects changes in square footage following more accurate measurements, updating things from a few years ago when it was a food court concept. we may have more dividing walls. so these base numbers will be what you will see consistently going forward. so we did -- apologies, it took me three months to get the details straight and every square foot accounted for accurately. now we have it. we're at 83.4% current occupancy. that's slightly different than the number last week, not because there is a change, but because the math is corrected and is more accurate. these numbers will change as we see tenancy change and we'll provide suite by suite updates as we secure new tenants. you can see the available spaces we have there. now to the work of the individual suites. making really good progress. first one up here is verizon's space. you can see the sign is up. finishes are happening inside the space. they're still on track for a late october or early november opening. precise date has not yet been set, but we're very close. we're making very good progress. we're looking over final signage on windows for approval. love to be at that detail level. it's very encouraging. another one that is moving along nicely is kaiser permanente space. they are still setting the public opening date as november 17th. that's consistent with what you saw last time. these pictures, i'll show you how we moved from framing to drywall and working on finishes within the space, so this, too, is moving along quite nicely. looking at the other spaces, a little better defined scheduling now for you so you can see the beginning of what we would anticipate for opening. this is also reflective of our ongoing conversations with particularly the restaurant and cafe operators concerned about opening a little too early. so we have tried to fine-tune the delivers of the spaces to match the economy and the foot traffic will be returning to this area. so, therefore, you can see these q120-21 opening slates. happy lemon, pokey, spring fertility which is across the hall from our offices. and the second which is delivered later, but opening occurs for charlie's and dim baos and tycoon kitchen. then we have the openings in q2. if you've been by the facility, particularly on that end of the space, you may see the site that eddie ricks has out front. we're moving forward with the potential opening of that before the permanent location opens. so we're discussing those logistics to make good progress with abc for liquor license approvals. we have other things to button up with the department of public health and other regulatory agencies, but we're very encouraged that could be open sooner than later. and then the precursor to many of these locations is having the gender neutral project completed. i think the last picture you might have seen was framing. as you can see, we're looking like it's moving along nicely. it is good work, remaining on schedule. that concludes my report. happy to answer any questions you might have. >> chair sesay: thank you. for the presentation. any comments or questions from fellow board members for the director? >> if there are no other questions or no questions or comments on the update, you do have the quarterly financial reports provided to you by our chief financial officer and she's available to answer any questions should there be any. now we can see the screen. i couldn't see. it doesn't appear that anyone does. that concludes items under my report. >> chair sesay: thank you. >> secretary: are there any members of the public that wish to provide a comment on this item? seeing none, i will move on to the next item. directors -- oh, we have -- sorry i thought i saw a hand raised. directors, item 6 is construction closeout update and we have dennis to present this item. >> good morning, directors. dennis truchon. i'm going to provide today's brief phase one construction update for you today. normally, you would see our director of all phase one construction activities, but he's been pulled away on other duties, because as a public works employee, he still has the san francisco general project to wrap up and he's in arbitration today. so i'll be providing the update for phase one. a few slides familiar to you. the first one here is the pie chart that we refer to show as our closeout of the trade packages of our 49. we have 37 closed out as of today. one is right on the fringe. may even be a final change order signed in the next day or two. leaving the 11 that we have referenced for a while now. a couple of those are working their way through dispute resolution hearings. we do have a hearing next week with our r.s.c., johnson controls, which is a low voltage scope that will have a hearing a couple days next week. so some of those are working through various disputes, but there are claims and lawsuit elements part of those 11 that will be discussed later today in the closed session. and also our contractor does have still two items left on his field condition reports, or punch list. so he has not achieved final acceptance yet. they're still pushing to get the last two which are low-voltage type items and then ultimately d.b.i. inspection required to closeout. so they're still on the clock as of today to close out the contract. so as we track our construction, cont contingesi contingesies. this is our new budget, to reflect the new balances to the contingencies where the construction now shows the 17.6 with $5 million in the cng contingency and 47.5 now showing in the program reserve. with some anticipated continued use, the forecasted use of a couple of million on various construction in cmgc will be continuing to whittle away as we continue to work through about 70 change order requests. that we're working through that are not in dispute as we finalize those out of the thousands that we have filtered through, so we're in a very good spot. almost near the end as we get to focus on really just those disputes, claims and lawsuits in the very near future. and then to complete it, the budget status, there is no changes to the bottom line number for the phase one package at 2.259. no anticipated changes at this point at all either. this new slide does reflect some of the budget changes that were reflected a couple of months ago where improvements are their own bucket and the program reserve funding at $47.5 million. that gives you a snapshot of where phase one construction is at this point and that completes my report for today. and wonder if there is any questions from the board? thank you very much. >> chair sesay: board members, any questions for dennis? thank you so much, dennis. hearing none, mr. secretary, do we have members of the public wishing to comment on this item? >> i think you're on mute. >> secretary: sorry about that. there are no members of the public that wish to provide a comment at this time. i will now proceed to call your next item. >> directors, item 7 is the citizens advisory update and we have our citizens advisory committee chair who will address you on that item. >> good morning, directors. can everybody hear me? >> chair sesay: yes. >> great. we had a productive citizens advisory committee tuesday evening. there was all around supportive comments for the interim director nila gonzales. we appreciate the level of consistency and familiarity with comprehensive issues that she brings. the cac members appreciate the staff report from john updike, as well as the closeout update by dennis. looks like things are wrapping up nicely and well under control. there were positive supportive comments of the facility plans that identified areas of the park that may be showing preliminary signs of wear from the visitor usage. sounds like that is under control. a number of the members are regular visitors to the transit center rooftop park and we appreciate updates on final facility projects such as the restroom facilities. the cac acknowledging the plans in progress while working with current tenants, given these unusual health and safety issues. it's great that we've got progress with a few merchants, especially in the health care field. john's team put significant research and problem-solving analysis into updating the wayfinding resources. and cac members shared international personal observations that john acknowledged when it comes to wayfinding topics. there were a number of questions about the phase 2 plans that steve addressed after his comments. the cac comments involved around understanding the clear path forward, including steering committee, topics, time lines, contractors and subcontractors, costs, political champions and general program manager, project director topics. we just want to be in the loop to understand the path forward. there was also a restatement of the need to continue nurturing political and regional champion support. we want to avoid this project becoming bogged down as time goes by. we still are excited about the significant support and movement of this summer. thanks again to all of you board members for your support and things you did behind the scenes to keep this moving forward. we want to make sure that the project continues and we want to look forward to key updates on the dtx dynamics, similar to what we received for phase one. lastly, because there are significant connections with regional transit authorities that tie into the transit center, we invite communications and presentations at our upcoming meetings from regional transportation authorities such as caltrain. we're aware these times are having an effect on ridership and revenues throughout the state. and we'd love to have updates on those dynamics as it affects our partners, so to speak. and this actually concludes my cac report. >> chair sesay: thank you for that presentation. do we have comments or questions? my fellow board members? if we don't, hearing none, mr. secretary, do we have members of the public wishing to speak on this item? >> secretary: yes. it looks as if we have one member of the public. i will have our moderator add that person to the queue and let him know he has three minutes to speak to this item. moderator, can you let the member of the public into the queue, please? >> they're unmuted now. >> good morning, directors. this is roland, very briefly. i think it is unfortunate that the significance of the dtx being moved to plan barrier 2050 period one was not communicated. it's almighty. it took effort by the entire region to get it there and i think this needs to be communicated to the cac in a strong manner because it's moving forward, thank you. >> secretary: i think that concludes public comment. i will go ahead and call the next item, directors. directors, item 8 is public comment. an opportunity for members of the public to address the authority on matters that are not on today's calendar. members of the public that wish to provide public comment under this item, please dial 1-855-282-6330 and access code, 126 729 5295. then pound and pound again. and then star 3 to be added to the queue to speak under this item. the system will prompt you when it is your turn to speak to draw your question, press -- to withdraw your question, press star 3 again. seeing none, i will proceed to call the next item, directors. directors, item 9 is approving the minutes of the august 18, 2020 meeting. >> chair sesay: thank you, mr. secretary. do we have questions, comments or edits? >> i'll move approval. hursh. >> chair sesay: thank you. i have a motion and a second. >> secretary: i will now take roll call vote. >> chair sesay: thank you. sorry, are there any members of the public that wish to provide a comment on this item? if not, i will then take a roll call vote. director chang aye. >> e. forbes: aye. >> m. hursh: aye. >> b. lipkin: yes. >> j. tumlin: aye. >> vice chair gee: aye. >> chair sesay: aye. >> secretary: the ayes have it. thank you. i will now proceed to call your next item, directors. >> chair sesay: thank you. >> secretary: directors, item 10 is approving an amendment to the employment agreement with nila gonzales for the position of interim executive director effective september 1, 2020. >> good morning, deborah miller. you have before you this morning a proposed amendment to nila gonzales's employment contract to reflect her appointment from chief of staff and board secretary to the position of interim executive director. it reflects a change in the description of her civil responsibilities as well as a change in her compensation. the form of agreement is in front of you, both her existing contract as well as the proposed amendment and includes all of the details, but as required by government code 54953c-3 i will note for the record that the proposed compensation this local agency executive would be revised to $124.88 per hour, which would translate to annual salary of $259,743 over the course of a full year. the form and approach of the amendment to the employment agreement is consistent with both the form and approach that the board took in 2016 when it elevated an existing employee then program manager to the position of interim executive director. the form has also been approved by the tjpa employment council. as to the amount of compensation, it's less than the outgoing executive director and it's within the scope of the tjpa's current budget. happy to answer any questions if you have any. >> chair sesay: thank you. any questions, comments from my fellow board members on this item? >> just thank nila for taking on this difficult assignment. i'm happy to move the item. >> second, gee. >> chair sesay: thank you. we have a motion and a second. and do we have members from the public wishing to speak on this item before we do roll call? mr. secretary? >> secretary: seeing none, i will take a roll call vote. director chang? aye. >> e. forbes: aye. >> m. hursh: aye. >> b. lipkin: aye. >> j. tumlin: aye. >> vice chair gee: aye. >> chair sesay: aye. >> secretary: the ayes have it. i will now proceed to call your next item, directors. item 11, authorizing the interim executive director to execute a general service agreement for landscape maintenance services for salesforce park with gachina landscape management for an amount not to exceed $911,297 for a three-year term. john will present the item. >> thank you, donald. this item seeks your approval of a general services agreement for landscape maintenance services with gachina landscape management to maintain salesforce park. as stated, the initial three-year term has not to exceed amount of $911,297 and the contract has two one-year options for renewal at fixed pricing. following the issuance of the request for proposals in april of this year, tjpa received six proposals prior to the published june 22nd due date. a selection committee was then formed, composed of myself, a representative of the east cut cbd and the chief sustainability officer at the city of san francisco. we were facilitated by ed sung of the staff. i want to give a shoutout to ed for his assistance helping the newbie through the process. the committee scored the written proposals and invited the top three scoring firms to the interview phase. attachment c in the package details the scoring of each phase. based on the reviews, the committee recommended the award of the contract to gachina landscape management. gachina landscape management's experienced resources, their environmentally sustained approach, competitive pricing and green roof certification were all determining factors in the recommendation. fiscally, the contract before you would have a fiscal year 2021 impact of $116,989 less than budgeted. per the l.o.u., cbd will be responsible for 79.81% of the contracted amount. to actively engage the salesforce park committee in the process, beyond the appointment of a representative to the reviewing panel, we discussed some of the key terms of the landscaping specifications with the committee before negotiating the contract with gachina and then advised them of the recommendations, which was well received by the committee. so award of the contract at this time will facilitate a proper handoff from our current maintenance services provider and the original installer of the landscaping with wire and hester, whose obligations terminate in mid october of this year. happy to address any questions you may have. >> chair sesay: thank you, mr. updike for the presentation. do i have any questions from my fellow board members for mr. updike? >> thank for the presentation. i just want to better understand. from the memo, when i was reading it, there one divergence in the proposal of the number of hours that we were seeing for the contracted amount. i don't have that page up, but i think it was somewhere in the 1500 or so to over 4,000. i know the winning -- the proposal that you're recommending is in the higher end of the range, not the highest. what is driving the difference in terms of -- in my simple world there is a certain amount of landscaping to do, so why were the proposals so different in terms of the hours involved? >> it's a really good question because it was a wide range of hours allocated to the task. the tasks were clearly outlined. i think what some of the vendors did not recognize is the diversity of the species. and as a result, those proposals that were closer to that 1500-hour mark, we felt, the committee review felt it missed the mark on the detail that is needed, again, because we've got so many different zones within this five acres. and so what we did look at to ensure that this particular proposal was the most competitive, was balancing in a chart between the hours allocated and costs. and when we looked at the gachina proposal, we got a bigger bang for the buck in terms of the number of hours, the actual costs per hour was more competitive than other proposals. so we felt it was in the sweet spot between that almost 5,000-hour proposal, which was over a half million dollars in cost to the tjpa and the lesser amount of hours which is still on an hourly basis fairly expensive for us. hopefully, that addresses your question. >> yes, thank you. >> chair sesay: thank you. any additional questions? hearing none, mr. secretary, can you see if we have any members of the public wishing to speak on this item? and then we'll entertain a motion. >> secretary: seeing no members of the public that wish to provide a comment, moderator, can you confirm? >> that is correct. i do not see any. >> secretary: you may proceed, sara sesay. >> move for approval. >> chair sesay: i have a motion. >> b. lipkin: second. >> secretary: i will now proceed to take a roll call vote. director chang? >> aye. >> e. forbes: aye. >> m. hursh: aye. >> b. lipkin: aye. >> j. tumlin: aye. >> vice chair gee: aye. >> chair sesay: aye. >> secretary: the ayes have it. >> chair sesay: thank you. >> secretary: i will now proceed to call your next item. directors, item 12 is presentation by the lower case productions and applied wayfinding on the wayfinding gap analysis and improvement plan for the salesforce transit center. >> i'll do a brief introduction. so first i want to thank our team for making the transition easy for me. i inherited this project when it was well along. pleased to provide this final report and thank you to the board of directors and the mtc for the funding that was made -- made this venture possible. at this point the implementation, this really is a template that is shovel ready to move forward. happy to ask wayfinding to take you through the program. gentlemen? take it away. >> this is dan ryder. can you hear me? >> secretary: yes. >> i'm the owner of lower case productions. joining me is agent bell, as john mentioned, representing applied wayfinding. after this brief introduction, i will turn the show over to adrian to walk through the physical signage portion of the report. and then i will return to discuss the kiosk-based digital wayfinding application. and then we will, together, complete our presentation with cost estimates and a time line for implementation. so if we could move to the next slide, please. thank you. there are two main focus areas in this study to improve signage in wayfinding at the transit center. one was physical wayfinding signage and two was the digital application found on the kiosk-based monitors primarily situated in the grand hall. and in order to research and discover what we did about these two areas, we went to a number of key steps, including conducting an initial assessment, which involved site audit, user and operator interviews, surveys that we track users while they tried their hand at the digital application. we followed them as they made way through the center, going from point a to point b. we then recorded our findings in the gap analysis report, which is the title of this project. after that we developed an improvement plan that recommended appropriate responses to the findings, as well as class 3 estimates on fixes. and finally, we brought everything together in a signage plan proposal that further details our recommendations along with the signage inventory and offered a set of estimates. i'm going to turn the presentation over to adrian at this point and i'll return in a while to discuss digital wayfinding. adrian, take it away. >> thank you, dan. thank you, everybody, for giving us the time today to present this to you. as mentioned, i'm going to run you through the information planning and the physical sign element of both the analysis we did. so slide 3, please. so the background as dan explained was a variety of -- could you move that one slide -- as i mentioned, we're going to run through really design concepts for the physical signage improvement we're looking at proposals for the digital system including the kiosk and management system, and the preliminary plans and budget estimates for program improvements. we were focused on transit customer journeys and the reason for that is that is the core function of the building. and also because these people are often unfamiliar with the city and time limited, which makes them highly susceptible to any wayfinding system. we acknowledge the fact as we all recover from covid, improving the customer experience of transit customers will be all the more important in the future. key findings from our review, which as i mentioned included a lot of engagement work -- concluded that the -- [inaudible] creates physical challenges to people, for instance, mistaking the bus deck for the plaza, can mean several minutes of confusion. this service as complexity and process steps. the design of the existing wayfinding overemphasizes esthetics and expense and the feature pilot elements are injectable to change. and that the digital which is an essential element of the design intent of the building have not been really successful. they're effectively unseen in our observation and the user interface is poorly designed and lacks accessibility. so, the key point of the way we approach this was to look really at three areas. one was the underlying logic of the wayfinding system. the concept design for adapted or new physical signs. then proposals for digital systems including software, hardware and associated applications. next slide, please. i'm going to start with the information plan. the underlying logic of any wayfinding -- information plan. the plan describes the objectives, structures and rules. assigns screens and other wayfinding tools. an example is found in the wayfinding standard, and describes the system of transit information to the whole bay area. there is limited evidence of a plan at the transit center and it does not use the m.t.c. standard. this creates the problems experienced by visitors and limits the potential for the existing system to be expanded to future trains like caltrain. as seen here, different stages of the transfer journey. this zoning provides the framework for what types of information are required where. this is just an enlargement of that analysis process, which shows how a sequence of zones can be connected together to provide better information -- better idea about what information should be required where. for instance, the building is the first point to be on the outside of the building. then to highly specific information like locating a particular service in that zone. the information plan also considers points to locate into motion intuitively. this shows design, so people typically take, mapped -- [inaudible] -- street, additional cross lines, and wayfinding decisions are made and information may be needed. in combination with the decisions that allows them to -- so it's progressively disclosed to the user. it's the way that the information for the decision is provided to any point. this simplifies information design and ensures a logical sequence of systems. the current wayfinding point results in pylons that is complex attracts and other points where the visitor is left unsupported. next slide, please. again, a detail of that process here that shows how design lines and resulting decision points don't necessarily align with where i expect your experience would tell you that existing signs are located. in some instances, this only creates a minor inconvenience, but other instances, visitors have expressed they missed a direction that was important to them and they were unable to successfully continue their journey or faced significant delay. the information plan itself suggests fundamental problems to the existing wayfinding system that cannot be fixed by design changes to the sign contents or limited editions alone. adaptation and use of infrastructure is possible and in some instances provides a wayfinding system that addresses current problems and scaleable for caltrain will, in our view require investment. we have suggested a phased plan. the intention is that the plan will create investment that will provide value to the -- each accepted phase. for the first phase, a rapid response and complaints right now, using materials, the existing signs. and phase one would develop the longer term plan as well. phase 2 is a more substantive upgrade of existing signs. this would involve upgrades that would replace some signs, reengineer. phase 3, is a new wayfinding system from phase 2 and allow you to scaleup for the use of caltrain without reworking the system yet again. we're going to show you a few consents, from the design process we undertook. the first example is the sort of iconic pylons used around the site. we found these are difficult to understand. that was supported by visitors and operators we spoke to. very difficult for visitors and quite difficult for you to maintain and update. that represents an immediate opportunity for improvement. our suggestion is that in phase 1, we would remove the embossed lettering and reclad those with a structural board and vinyl, so you have a clearer information system. that would be a temporary improvement. in phase 2, the top section of the existing signs would be removed and would be replaced with the permanent construction as illustrated here. this is a construction much more direct and easy to understand and more clearly follows the m.t.c.'s regional direction. the next example i'm showing you here is exit signage above the doors. this is important because of the footprint of the building that covers several streets and the need to connect essentially between different transit modes. the current arrangement has been temporary addressed, but the overall impact is quite confusing and rather messy. our proposal then is to cover those holes with vinyl panels and in phase 2, replace them entirely with illuminated sign boxes. next slide. the third and final example i'm going to show you is just transit planning information. this is at the bus deck. currently it's a little difficult to find. we experienced. and that information is very critical to the information plan. next slide, please. we proposed to much greater interest in those areas to create information hub similar to the transit information displayed at m.t.a. across the region. that would be done using graphics and in phase 2, we would -- [inaudible] -- for that. next slide. we also created an information plan of the preliminary locations of all of these. where possible in phase one we've attempted to reuse or make compromise to limit the addition of the new signs or new infrastructure, but in phase 2, we have opted for an information plan place that would replace existing signs. also, the proper place for the digital information in the transit information environment for customers. next slide, please. i'm going to hand it back to dan who is going to talk you through the wayfinding application, the digital element. >> thank you, adrian. so beyond the fact that most users aren't even aware there is an app living behind the ad placement on the kiosk monitors, our initial onsite assessment of the tool revealed two things. one, that there are so many fundamental flaws in the interactive experience. in the information architecture which is how the application is built. and the way the data is visualized and repurposed. that making incremental updates to the current -- is not going to fix the problem. the application needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up. the second thing we found, even after you rebuilt the application from the ground up, that in itself would not adequately solve the problem. the am caig is part of a -- application is a part of a larger ecosystem of hardware, software and work flow elements that all requires attention in parallel with development of the application. next slide, please. so in summary -- i'm sorry. in summary, there are two things. one, we need to rebuild the application from scratch. and, two, we need to redesign -- research rather, design and develop solutions for these other supportive associated needs and elements. i'm going to give you an illustration of what i'm talking about to help put this in better context. over on the left is a picture of one of our kiosks in the main floor. on it, is the monitor and inside that monitor is the application that we've been tasked with reviewing. on the right, we see this grey area showing these five areas that we feel are really important to get a handle on in order to make the full package successful. so let's take a quick look at each of these areas, starting with the first one, content management network. so content and transit data coming into the center and also frankly on the main departure arrival big screen is all managed by a third party, that also manages placements appearing on the kiosks screens. our recommendation is to consider options for bringing data management in-house for quicker response to user issues with the tool to achieve better response time on communication alerts. and really to respond quicker to need for fixes in the software glitches. if we move up to the top of this graphic, the monitors and digital media players, monitors is a big issue as well. the current problem with the monitors are low pixel resolution devices. these were optimized for placement for large illustrations. they work great at a distance. the problem is when you look at them -- when you look at data that is put on the monitors up close, it's really hard to see. you don't get the fine detail that you need to see maps, to look at small transit information, to look at floor plan graphics. it's just not there. so consider replacing these devices with very high resolution and very bright -- i say bright because these monitors need to -- are used external to the grand hall. right paired with the monitors are digital media players, small boxes, that feed the content directly to the monitors. that content comes from a third party. these media players have to work with monitors and if we replace the monitors, which we need to do, we're going to have to replace half of those media players as well. so consider the status quo and upgrading both monitors and media players accordingly. third category to the right is transit data dashboard. so the interactive wayfinding application is going to require regularly updated data from transit operators. it's going to be requiring live map data, including traffic conditions and things of that sort. and also up to date internal transit center floor plans, because we want to make sure that users, if they need to get from point a and point b and there is a retail chain, they need to know what is happening on the floor. so a facility of this sort of -- a public facility utilizing and sharing information of this sort typically has a backup house control system that is plugged into the cms, the application, that aggregates information and filters it and redeploys it smartly to the application. and this tool is recommended for this project as well. the fourth category is mobile. why mobile? well, viewers of public space software systems increasingly expect that they should be able to download these apps to their mobile device. you know, you don't necessarily want to have to go to an interactive tool on site in order to get from point a to point b when you can get the information on your way there, because you're going to be rushing when you get there. another thing to keep in mind, due to the pandemic, people are going to be much more reluctant to touch screens and interact with touch. so we need to do everything to protect our users and give them the best experience and quickest access to the information they need. one last point about the mobile app, it brings up a template as an option to consider what a regional trip planner might be like, because it will be utilizing this type of information. so that becomes an added concept to consider for the future. the last item is digital wayfinding and navigation services for people with disabilities. the current tool has an option where you can click a button and the control interface moves down toward the floor for people who are confined to wheelchairs. not only is it incompletely implemented, but there is much more to the disabled community than those with wheelchairs, including those with hearing and vision loss and cognitive impairment. our final recommendation is have a research study, what is the full extent of what we can do to bring this tool to the use of more people in the disabled community? unless there are any questions. i'm going to turn over to adrian and he'll discuss cost estimates. >> thank you, dan. if we could just move to it slide 23, please. thank you very much. so, we provide an outline estimate of mentioned based on the preliminary plan and visual designs. so this is sort of a plus-minus 25% assessment of costs at this stage. we've looked at physical signage. digital information as well as the potential contingency associated with developing those to the next stage. i think it's important to remember that phase one we're anticipating something that could be introduced in a year. so a rapid turnaround. phase 2 may take longer, obviously, it's a larger investment. and we understand of course that may take more than two years to budget, but it is -- it is in our estimation possible physically within about two years. the costs are laid out there for you. i won't go through them in detail. but just to comment that phase 1 includes detailed design of all physical elements we have shown as visual concepts. the physical adjustments. addition of static, temporary transit information display to replace diagrams on digital kiosks while they're upgraded. phase 2 proposals would be the physical elements for replacement of the signs as permanent items. reengineering replacement of signs. identity signage on the exterior of the facility. and also the potential of a mobile app development. i think at that point i'll leave it. and back to you, john, to manage questions. happy to take any. thank you. >> thank you so much. so all of us are available for questions if you have them, members. >> chair sesay: thank you for the presentation. do i have any questions from my fellow board members? and thank you. that was very thorough and detailed. >> question. >> m. hursh: jeff, did you have a question? >> j. tumlin: i do. yeah, let me dive in. so thank you, adrian and daniel for the presentation. this is a topic near and dear to my heart. in my global practice i use the transbay transit center as the best example in the world of failed interagency coordination and deeply anti-customer wayfinding. we do not have a wayfinding system at the transit centre, we have a facility inventory of agency terms. if i'm a customer and i know that i need to get to alameda or sunol, there is nothing there to help me find my destination. so i have a couple of questions. i'll go through all of them because they're related. one question is, can we please eliminate or at least diminish the use of agency logos as our primary wayfinding structure? i love the walter lan dow worm, but nobody knows what that means. and instead of having there be a worm and a little green circle with fog in the middle of it, can the sign simply say buses to san francisco and buses to north bay? secondly, the k1 panels are really useless. and yet they're very expensive investment and seem to offer a lot of flexibility. i would love thoughts on how to make them useful in the short-term, instead of counterproductive. even putting up just some static maps of how the system works and explanation how the system works would be very helpful in the short run. and then most of my questions are about wayfinding details, like a standard for numbering exists so that the entire journey train can be explained with google maps. and you know thoughtfully integrated. i'll stop there and hear your response. >> thanks. i'll take this first. i know there was a question about the -- >> sure. >> so if i may, through you, chair, thank you for the question. yeah, i would agree, we have ourselves used the problems as an example of design over -- in other instances. our view generally on transit system wayfinding is that they are often driven by operator identity for historical reasons. and that's not in line with the clientele. the new riders we need to draw into the system don't understand any of that jargon. so i think you see from the concept design i went through quickly, we are suggesting simple messaging to buses to explain the difference between the bus deck and the bus -- which is incredibly important. and we did encounter people who would spend 20 minutes lost in the building, which is a remarkable amount of time. so i would totally agree with the comments. they are in line with what we suggested. i will mention as well we have also suggested reinstating some static system maps and building facility maps in the building because that's the sort of thing that people look for, it's reliable and visual and increasing online information. dan, any other thoughts? >> before you reply, the idea of bus deck versus bus plaza is nonintuitive. there is a place where buses to the east bay depart from. and there is a different place where buses to san francisco and the north bay depart from. and then there is a street where buses to the peninsula depart from. and then there is a block away, regional rail, that is not mentioned in any of the wayfinding. >> yep. >> j. tumlin: so, again, rather than focusing on the facility and arbitrary agency terms, to focus on the information that the customer needs. >> i would agree. sorry. when i say differentiate, i don't mean repeat the name. i mean in a way that the customer appreciates. so thank you for that clarification. >> yeah, i would just add to your comments, jeffrey, in the short-term to rebuild -- to do something with the kiosks at this point while development is under way, let's say within the first year, what i can say is besides putting physical maps or digital static maps in place with the current application that is broken is one option at this point. it will take approximately a year to develop something that is consistent with the needs of the station right now. so a series of static images that we could replace the current application with. other than that, i'm not sure -- i'm concerned about advertising and how that is incorporated into this mix, which is something that -- as well. >> my turn now. first, i'm glad i yielded to jeff, because he was much more articulate than i will be. thank you for the report. thank you to staff for getting it here. it validates what we've been saying before the grand opening. couple of questions. well, a comment first. i appreciate the focus, but i also -- [inaudible] -- the use of the facility. the more we can drive business through our -- [inaudible] -- what are included with it. the wayfinding for transit makes great points about the buses in the city, to north bay versus the east bay. is this work in the scope? can we just say go? or does this need to be bid out? who is paying for it? and last, probably least important and probably not possible, i don't want to start a witch hunt, but we got it so wrong, is there somebody we can go after for errors and omissions? it seems like such a world class facility with so much attention paid to it. i don't want to start an investigation, but if there is someone we should hold responsible, we should at least try to -- thank you. >> maybe i can talk to one part of that, because i think a little of that is out of my scope. just to say as partners, our discussion with staff and operators, we certainly acknowledge that this isn't just a transit facility, that it's a mixed use development. and the idea of building directories and maps to explain the other authority in the building is certainly part of what we considered and recommended. john, perhaps you can talk to the other? >> i may defer the last question to my executive director. but with respect to implementation, as we noted, there is no identified funding source, but we're excited about the scope and completion of this project. we do have specifications here that allow us to move pretty smoothly to an implementation of that phase one work. given the scope of the project, yes, it would probably require a procurement process. but funding first. we will be as ready as we can be when eget the green -- we get the green light to go in terms of initiating a procurement process. so readiness is what we get from this. >> i think maybe to add to that, john, in terms of readiness, we also have a partnership established with m.t.c., who is very invested in helping us get this funded and implemented. we realize this is a time where no one has any extra money and it also says we need to have done, because when the economy comes back and the people come back, they can navigate easily. so we will have it ready and continue to work with m.t.c. and anyone else we might be able to coordinate or partner with to get funds for that. i actually had an idea i'll run by john after as we were going to a presentation on who we might seek for additional sponsorship on in implementing more wayfinding. >> and again, my last question. i mentioned this was designed 10 years ago, but is there anybody we can hold accountable? want to get back to us on that? >> i can tell you what i know from being here. well, i can tell you -- what i can tell you is, i am familiar with the staff -- or i should say the program management staff that worked. from what i understand, worked with m.t.c., but obviously not to m.t.c. satisfaction, not the staff that is working with us now, to implement the signage that was there which obviously needs improvement. i'll be frank and share that i, myself, who have been here since before and saw the plans, and sometimes wonder where i'm at and i'm a native san franciscan that knows the city all the way around. it's a huge facility that needs additional signage. we will definitely take a look if there is anyone to hold accountable and if we can draw on some other monies to help support the effort. >> perhaps if that is possible, thank you. >> a couple of questions. i don't know if i can follow jeff and mike on this, but just in terms of mtc's involvement. have we shared the product that adrian has put together with them at this point? and did they have any reaction to -- and desire to continue their partnership with us in moving it forward? >> yes, director. m.t.c. has been a valuable partner with me on this project. worked closely on the product that you have now reviewed. we find it in alignment with the overall bay area-wide program at m.t.c. is promoting. and i've been engaged with those discussions with a larger group. i think we have 88 on the last zoom call that was hosted. so lots of involvement from sacramento and bay area. so, yes, it's in sync with their plans. and we're continuing that conversation. >> i guess my second question was, almost the question for jeff and maybe i just missed it between the presentation and your comments, but i like what you were saying about helping passengers navigate to their destinations. and i know that some of the signs for the mockups that adrian presented, still was very agency focused. to me, that feels like there is still work to reconcile in terms of like, we can't -- because i agree, jeff, with what you're saying. if we're going to move in that direction -- the details if you will. so i guess leave it to put you on the spot, but if you have a couple extra hours in your day to help with figuring some of that out or having a staff member figure out, your team perhaps that you've been working on this kind of stuff, but maybe that's another avenue to making sure we get it right. because i want to go down the implementation route with things that we see as probably not quite up to what we're actually looking for and getting too far ahead of ourselves with it. >> i'm certainly happy to help on the next steps. i'm sure that director hursh would be as well. between the two of us if we can corral the other general managers and use our staffs to think about how do we focus on our customers and not just protect our turf? >> i would like to say, can we abolish the use of agency logos in the wayfinding system and instead pretend like we have one regional seamless mobility system that happens to be operated by 20-odd different operators. that the customer doesn't need to know about. they need to know where they're going. how to get a ticket. they don't necessarily care which one of us is the operator and what our 1974 logo is. >> one point on that, if i may. i think just to explain why we retained operator logo, because we have in other instances lobbied for exactly the same thing as consultant. you go to user focused approach. what we had been aware of and wanted to emphasize was the value of regional consistency and the m.t.c. standard which obviously this is a strategic -- [inaudible] -- still use operator logos and while there isn't yet a sort of regional transit identity agreed, that is something that we were aware that to fit in with the regional standard, that is something that perhaps is a concession that may need to be made to m.t.c. standards, but certainly from a wayfinding consultant perspective, i agree that operator logos are somewhat acis inistic at best, well constrained. >> i would suggest going straight to a dutch or japanese standard and bypassing the standard which i think is a good effort rather than a global standard effort. >> this comment about us helping. transit trivia for 400. ac transit manages the regional sign program for mtc. before my time, i wouldn't have done it, but we hired a contractor. we have staff that are very knowledgeable of the m.t.c. process and we're happy to collaborate and move this as fast as possible. sorry to interrupt. >> chair sesay: i see director chang. >> thank you. i really appreciate the whole item and all of the fantastic comments from the other directors. i wanted to suggest that we do continue to engage, if we've been doing so, the disability community and the c.a.c., and just continue to keep public involvement and engagement in line as far as the user perspective. and to be able to budget for that as well, so we can go together to seek funding. so in our capacity as a transportation authority, i also wanted to offer our help to seek grants or other opportunities to help fund this very, very important, really critical work, ultimately. so i'm glad we're discussing this today. thank you. >> chair sesay: thank you. so it looks like any of my fellow board members have questions, but it looks like director gonzalez, you have offers on the table and at some point would -- it looks like there is enough interest it may make sense to come back and keep us all informed about this, because it is a customer experience. i know we get all wonky on that side of the house, but we definitely want passengers to be able to navigate to their destinations. so thank you for that. do we have -- if there are no additional comments from my fellow board members, do we have members of the public wishing to comment on this item? >> there are no members of the public that wish to provide any comment on this item at this point. >> chair sesay: and an update, it's not an action item. so can we call the next item? >> item 13 is the san francisco peninsula rail program e.s.c. update. executive steering committee chair will present the item. >> thank you, mr. secretary. good morning, directors. pleased to help present on the update for the e.s.c. this month. since our last presentation before you in august, we've made steady progress on a number of items. as director gonzalez mentioned, procurement are making their way forward. the outreach and branding consultants as well as the general engineering contractor which is a really critical consulting service that we are going to need on a timely basis. so just wanted to underscore that as you consider. we have also been making recruitment of the permanent project director position. appreciate being included in on that. in terms of our critical path, as you'll recall from the last month update, it does remain, the rail operations as it will feed into the major focus of our work in this first period. and the good news there is that we have found a way as a team to provide the funding in the early stages of this work to caltrain, which is procuring the consulting for us. they're doing the work in conjunction with the high-speed rail authority and that the whole team is going to rely on. it is to help -- this work will help evaluate the different impacts of phasing options on caltrain and high-speed rails through input, capacity, reliability, safety, et cetera, among all the other factors that we'll be considering. we'll be able to move that along using existing sfmta funds. and we may come back to you at the end of the year, depending on how the other pieces of work shake out, and that relates to the next item i'll provide the update on, which is the joint board plan, the interagency schedule, and deliverables that the team has been producing. supported by aecon and our director. the team hass developed this initial work plan. we'll be reviewing it in a couple of weeks. that lays out all the interrelated tasks to get to a milestone next summer, which we hope to bring to you, the phasing results, phrasing study results operational analysis, funding and planning to support decision-making about whether and how to identify our initial operating segment that could be lower cost than the whole project that we see before us. so that's our goal. and we don't have that update for you yet today, but we'll bring that to you at your next meeting in october. other tools that the team has developed include the phasing analysis sort of cost estimation tools to identify the impact of project features that may be deferred. and to escalate those appropriately. it's also been great to see them updating the project's risk register, which we talked about last time we met. director gee commented on that as well, expressed a lot of interest. so we are using the f.t.a. methodology to assure applicability of this work as we head into future grant requests for f.t.a. so that is really good progress on that front. finally in terms of planning and funding, it did come up in public comment, following the good outcome of the placement of d.t.x. and the first period of the planned bay area, as was noted before, the team has participated in coordination meetings with related projects including the transbay -- the new transbay rail crossing with bart and capital corridor. and tjpa sent comments to the high speed rail authority, the draft environmental document. that just happened in the past week. so i appreciate that level of engagement and participation and really a form of championship since that did come up. i think it's really great to see all of the related projects being a focus here at tjpa. with that, i'm happy to take -- sorry, one thing i did fail to mention. our next meeting will be coming up september 18 at 11:00. as usual, the agenda is posted on the tjpa website and any callers who require additional assistance, we can provide that for the call-in process through tjpa and director gonzalez. we did have folks experiencing difficulty at our prior meeting. i wanted to acknowledge that and offer that assistance. >> chair sesay: thank you for that update. do i have any comments, questions from my fellow board members? i see vice chair gee. >> vice chair gee: thank you, chair sesay. director chang, i wanted to say thank you for the update. this is exactly what -- not just this board needs, but the public needs to see where this is headed and where they can engage in the process. so i appreciate it. look forward to the more detailed work plan as well as all the other items that you shared in your report. so thank you very much for that. >> you're welcome. >> chair sesay: thank you. anyone else? i don't see anyone else, at least my fellow board members. mr. secretary, do we have members of the public wishing to comment? >> secretary: yes. you have one member of the public that would like to comment on the item. jason, can you put that caller in the queue? >> they are unmuted. >> fellow caller, please state your name. your three minutes begins now. >> thank you, directors. this is roland from san jose. so, to start with i think that director chang is asking for the modelling on behalf of caltrain is critical. and in my mind, this is a very best $200,000 you will have spent on this project so far. moving forward, i expect that the analysis will finally expose the second street alignment. that will ultimately make it impossible for caltrain to vacate the 4th and king rail yard until the new transbay tube opens. i would like to close with a couple of recommendations. first of all, when you're doing the modelling, limit the model to the section between breeze bane and the sfdtc. any issues caused by -- to eliminate any issues caused by the rider way in san matteo county. i would like to share with you track work in the vicinity of the tank form that makes it possible to turn around 12 trains an hour per direction between the transit center and brisbane. the other thing i would like to address is to consider, is to expand the scope of the contract to study the 7th street alignment in parallel with the second street alignment, because this ultimately will inform the board -- the 7th street alignment is indeed the only alignment that will enable six full-length true platforms in translink. and i'm pleased to inform you that one of the seven design builders who responded to the r.f.i. gave me a verbal quote to construct both the d.t.x. and p.a.x. as a combined project for less than $1 billion. which means that you currently have a funding envelope of $1.3 billion, all this project needs is environmental to proceed. and we have two bills, one that passed, senate bill, i think it was from senator wiener. and the one that make in the session, which is 7965 which is extension of 8900. that bill is critical and i need you all legislators to basically join with the mayor in san jose and to convene an emergency session to pass that bill. thank you very much. >> secretary: thank you. it seems there are no other members of the public that would like to provide a comment. i will proceed along with the agenda. >> chair sesay: thank you, mr. secretary. >> secretary: at this time the board is scheduled to go into closed session. if there are any members of the public that would like to provide comment on the items listed for discussion in closed session, this is your time to do so now. seeing none, i will now put us in closed session. moderator, can you please put us into closed session? >> yes. >> i can hear you. thank you, jason. you may report out. as to item 16, conference with legal counsel, existing litigation in the matter as specified on the published agenda, there is no action to report. as to item 17, for the spaces in the transit center as noticed, there is no action to report. >> chair sesay: thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you so much for that. so i take it we're adjourned. >> secretary: it looks as if you have a member of the public who wants to provide a comment at this time. >> chair sesay: okay. jason, can you please pass the person -- the caller through the queue, please? >> hello, caller, please state your name. >> i don't need to state my name. i'm pretty well known. you know, you need to know something about the brown act. so i was listening to the meeting and we are at home because of the covid-19 situation. those of us who pay attention to the various deliberations are getting piecemeal information on what is happening with the transbay joint powers authority. you know, some of us are very interested in the high-speed rail system with all the millions of dollars that have been spent at the transbay. and the last meeting i saw the -- one of the directors, i think the main director retired. and i know they're going to get some new people in. i know your chair person pretty well. and all i say is, that san franciscans are very astute and stellar. don't hood wink us in broad daylight. keep us informed with goals that have time lines. and i know you have your c.a.c. and some others, but let's not have people that rubber-stamp issues. we need sound deliberation. we need people who understand what this process is, including the brown act. and, hopefully, if you do things the right way, we'll go to a better place. if not, i think that transbay joint powers authority will also be involved in some sort of subpoena-type of situation, which we do not want to be. or happen. thank you very much. >> chair sesay: thank you. mr. secretary, do you have any more? >> secretary: no. there are no more members of the public that wish to provide comment at this time. chair sesay, that concludes your items for today's agenda, you may adjourn the meeting. >> chair sesay: thank you, everyone. goodbye. congrats to you, director gonzalez. >> everyone be well, take care. >> thank you, take care, everyone. valencia has been a constantly evolving roadway. the first bike lanes were striped in 1999, and today is the major north and south bike route from the mission neighborhood extending from market to mission street. >> it is difficult to navigate lindsay on a daily basis, and more specifically, during the morning and evening commute hours. >> from 2012 to 2016, there were 260 collisions on valencia and 46 of those were between vehicles and bikes. the mayor shows great leadership and she knew of the long history of collisions and the real necessity for safety improvements on the streets, so she actually directed m.t.a. to put a pilot of protected bike lanes from market to 15th on valencia street within four months time. [♪] >> valencia is one of the most used north south bike routes in san francisco. it has over 2100 cyclists on an average weekday. we promote bicycles for everyday transportation of the coalition. valencia is our mission -- fits our mission perfectly. our members fall 20 years ago to get the first bike lane stripes. whether you are going there for restaurants, nightlife, you know , people are commuting up and down every single day. >> i have been biking down the valencia street corridor for about a decade. during that time, i have seen the emergence of ridesharing companies. >> we have people on bikes, we have people on bike share, scooters, we have people delivering food and we have uber taking folks to concerts at night. one of the main goals of the project was to improve the overall safety of the corridor, will also looking for opportunities to upgrade the bikeway. >> the most common collision that happens on valencia is actually due to double parking in the bike lane, specifically during, which is where a driver opens the door unexpectedly. >> we kept all the passengers -- the passenger levels out, which is the white crib that we see, we double the amount of commercial curbs that you see out here. >> most people aren't actually perking on valencia, they just need to get dropped off or pick something up. >> half of the commercial loading zones are actually after 6:00 p.m., so could be used for five-minute loading later into the evening to provide more opportunities or passenger and commercial loading. >> the five minute loading zone may help in this situation, but they are not along the corridor where we need them to be. >> one of the most unique aspects of the valencia pilot is on the block between 14th street. >> we worked with a pretty big mix of people on valencia. >> on this lot, there are a few schools. all these different groups had concerns about the safety of students crossing the protected bikeway whether they are being dropped off or picked up in the morning or afternoon. to address those concerns, we installed concrete loading islands with railings -- railings that channel -- channeled a designated crossing plane. >> we had a lot of conversations around how do you load and unload kids in the mornings and the afternoons? >> i do like the visibility of some of the design, the safety aspects of the boarding pilot for the school. >> we have painted continental crosswalks, as well as a yield piece which indicates a cyclist to give the right-of-way so they can cross the roadway. this is probably one of the most unique features. >> during the planning phase, the m.t.a. came out with three alternatives for the long term project. one is parking protected, which we see with the pilot, they also imagined a valencia street where we have two bike lanes next to one another against one side of the street. a two-way bikeway. the third option is a center running two-way bikeway, c. would have the two bike lanes running down the center with protection on either side. >> earlier, there weren't any enter lane designs in san francisco, but i think it will be a great opportunity for san francisco to take the lead on that do so the innovative and different, something that doesn't exist already. >> with all three concepts for valencia's long-term improvement , there's a number of trade-offs ranging from parking, or what needs to be done at the intersection for signal infrastructure. when he think about extending this pilot or this still -- this design, there's a lot of different design challenges, as well as challenges when it comes to doing outreach and making sure that you are reaching out to everyone in the community. >> the pilot is great. it is a no-brainer. it is also a teaser for us. once a pilot ends, we have thrown back into the chaos of valencia street. >> what we're trying to do is incremental improvement along the corridor door. the pilot project is one of our first major improvements. we will do an initial valuation in the spring just to get a glimpse of what is happening out here on the roadway, and to make any adjustments to the pilot as needed. this fall, we will do a more robust evaluation. by spring of 2020, we will have recommendations about long-term improvements. >> i appreciate the pilot and how quickly it went in and was built, especially with the community workshops associated with it, i really appreciated that opportunity to give input. >> we want to see valencia become a really welcoming and comfortable neighborhood street for everyone, all ages and abilities. there's a lot of benefits to protected bike lanes on valencia , it is not just for cyclists. we will see way more people biking, more people walking, we are just going to create a really friendly neighborhood street. [♪]

Related Keywords

United States , Netherlands , San Francisco Peninsula , California , Israel , Embarcadero , Valencia , Carabobo , Venezuela , Yreka , Togo , San Francisco , Dutch , Hill Roe , Sara Sesay , Emma Steinberg , Deborah Miller , Dan Ryder , Mary Ellen Carroll , Ricky Moore , Julie Chang , John Updike , Victor Mar , Lila Lahood , Alfred Sims , Jennifer Wong ,