i look at the clinic -- work at the political action committee. and well organized mass transportation system like here in san francisco, when you have families and people raising children, people working jobs in order to afford to raise those children, we need a system that is efficient and effective. even at times that are slow, then you can have times at home that are different, raising productive children for the future. transportation system can eat away at the future generation. like what we have in california

, they have cut $60 billion out of the budget in the past few years. now they're going to cut $20 billion more? this is not a localized problem, this is a nationwide problem. not just california or staff and cisco. we are facing best budget cuts that will affect our budget, the mayor put pink slips on to the city employees for a 6% pay cut so that they could get their jobs back? that is the policy of labor recycling, ok? we are going the policies of labor for cycling because we have city officials, state officials, and other officials that refuse to address the

elephant in the room, possibly the elephant sitting on the bus and squashing it. the national economic problems are not being addressed by obama or the congress. we should be investing in our future by making investments through productive technology. we should have a productive economy again. we should stop bailing out wall street but obama did when he followed bush. wall street's is not the people. thank you. >> good morning. my name is david schneider. in the project coordinator for the transit riders union -- i am the project coordinator for the transit riders union, a new

group that a bunch of us started. somewhat predictable, based on what you would call the online neglect of the mayor and the mta over the last several years. i happen to know that the mayor and the mta board are not happy with where it is. i know that they need a lot of public pressure to do difficult things like saving the transit system. the transit riders union hawillo what the bicycle riders coalition does for bicycle riders. i want to talk about what our union is for the net -- over the next many years it will take a

long time to turn muni around. the principles that we work by constantly and in the short term, always having several campaigns running at once. short-term campaigns that we can get some wins from. people get excited about what you can accomplish, authentically representing writers to do a good job and understanding what they really want. promoting best practices in transit, educating drivers, something that we will do. finally, working in cooperation for the respect of the people that run muni, operators and mechanics. our first goal is to obviously

reduce the service cuts that are going into effect on the first. the buses are already ridiculously crowded, as you know. so, we had to reverse those service cuts. it is entirely possible to continue to reverse them. there's no reason why the budget cannot completely reverse them. they should charge for some the parking. the judge mentioned 10% in bold black for that. it should be at least 60%. if the board does not approve a budget for what they announce, we will pressure the board of

supervisors. we hope that they will approve a budget for service cuts, and we have a chance to pressure the board of they do not. there will be an organizing meeting to which we are all invited next thursday, march 25, 6:00 p.m.. the place has not been determined yet, please sign up for it outside. >> thank you. funds to release service cuts, an obvious idea that is on the table that should come through. we do have significant deficits for the next year. completely reversing them would

be another additional $25 million or $30 million. not saying it cannot be done, but something that should be looked up. we did a study last year to look at where these were happening, all over the system. it was saturation with a couple of police officers the couple of months ago, we wanted to make sure that we have the tools for the different communities. that is an important source of revenue. there were good point about translink de -- needing to be used to the fullest extent.

it is just one item in a possible budget solutions right now. talking about safety and crime, those are issues that we're working closely with the police department on. the new deputy chief has been working with the agency to uncover vehicles that have been hit with security and safety issues. we know it has taken focus from the police department, schedules between the buses and we completely agree. we need to make sure that they have enough on hand. transport was mentioned as well. mr. williams, the additional

source of revenue is a big topic of conversation. with regards to the portions of the salaries in the agency's overall, with all salaries and benefits, and the more than half, which makes sense, it is the largest employee group. not surprising there. the trouble for the agency as it was close to 450. making a general statement, delivering muni service every day is something that goes from the top of the organization to the bottom, we see it as a partnership that has got to continue going forward, we want

to make sure the reemphasize communication. mass-transit being the key to the lifeblood of the city, you can tell by how passionately people feel about it. it is the lifeblood of any economy, congestion in people not getting whether want to go, it is a tremendous loss of productivity. we agree with that, we talked about the mayor's proposal, some of that will be postponed even further.

mr. schneider raised quite a few comments. as an agency we work closely with advocacy stakeholders on transit. as the group it's going and moves forward, they will be a part of the conversation as well. i think that that was the point raised regards to work orders. we have to make sure that we get the services that are paid for. just a part of that discussion. those are my comments on that group of questions. were there any others? there were other folks that put their name them. anyone else that would like to speak? you can sign up over here, make

your comments and we will try to address them. anyone else that would like to speak? go ahead. >> [unintelligible] i live and work in the mission and i take the bus. service has really deteriorated on the muni. especially for seniors, disabled people, and those with children. generally they are covered with graffiti and trash. there are certain people that want to blame the bus drivers but you cannot expect them to clean the bus. i would suggest everyone read the supervisor's opinion piece.

for 14 years there has not been an independent management and muni -- at muni. last year they paid out $28.8 million in overtime. over 35% of the city paused budget. one problem is city funding, but the other problem is muni. why? how was it that you could have an agency like that being mismanaged? that is this year's deficit. $16.9 million is this year's deficit.

they also paid out $12.2 million to the police department. i have seen police officers checking people for transfers on muni. why not contract this out to security guards or young people? people from different communities to monitor policy. you do not have to have uniform, armed police officers. what we should do is have an accomplice with an independent audit by may 1. then we will see how management can save money, including salaries.

there are managers to make more than $150,000 per year. how many people in this room make that much? does anyone make that much? how is muni management supporting that? why is that? it is not necessary and a waste of public funds. there's a legal and fiduciary duty that is part of a problem. thank you. >> some of the issues raised,

overcrowding and cleanliness, that is something that is important, given that it is one of the busiest lines in the city. cleanliness and cleaning, that is a challenge with the budget. the audit was approved by the board of supervisors to move forward, we had a meeting with their staff overtime regarding governance. we do spend a significant amount in overtime, working to reduce it, it does not men -- mean the we are not sending the buses out on the runs just because we do not have enough operators.

we welcome a look at the audit and overtime management, but it is important to recognize that that is common to the transit industry with regards to the way that we do business. with regards to the police department, the biggest part of it is paying for the traffic co., something that we now have more control over. john murphy is in charge of the traffic company. again, trying to integrate, that is the idea. we have a program where we have people from the community riding buses that have a lot of school kids on them.

they could use more funding. it is a good program. it is important to address central criminal activity, people need to know that the buses are an extension of city streets and we need to make sure that we have the presence. if there are no other speakers, i want to thank everyone for coming out. we have heard a lot of great input from everyone. we will pass to don. to date is essential unless they hear, i would like to thank everyone i have worked with at the agency as i move on.

thank you very much. [applause]