fight obesity looks like, should come out the next two sundays. finally, the agency's employee wellness unit was recognized as a goal-level recipient, basically acknowledging the work of our wellness program to try to encourage and support healthy habits for our employees, which is not only good for our employees but good for the public we serve because when you're healthy, you are at work doing your job. congratulations there. that is the end of the word portion of my report. i think that, not to suggest that we do not have challenges within the agency and that we are sitting back collecting all these accolades, i think there is a lot of great work that happens in the agency that does not always get recognized, so i am pleased to have the opportunity to recognize some of

that work here. i have just a few other short notes, and i hope in the future, these reports will be shorter. i know it is that a couple of months since you all net. i think it has gone very well, been well received. the overhead line. it is not making the long detour around the library. it took a lot of work from both the operations and sustainable streets side of the agency to make it work. there was also significant out reach that went out in former fliers and customer alerts. we had embassadors posted to make sure that nobody would be going to a place that was not a bus stop any more, but a fairly simple change cut a number of minutes, and every one of those

is precious for the transit system. just wanted to update your that that, to date, has been a successful reconfiguration. another big project we have going on is the church and dubose project, which has a lot of different components from sewer replacement to streetscape improvements, but most importantly for us, rail replace them. the project is generally moving on schedule. we are, however, doing some raese sequencing that will not impact the overall schedule but does impact when some of the track work will be done which impacts some of the closures. it was previously reported to you that we would be doing the first shutdown of the j line on september 23. that now is going to be about a month later, october 21-23. that is, again, just changing the sequencing of when the crossover will get done. the overall project is still

progressing on schedule. we will do full 30-day public notification to make sure the public is aware of the change. two more quick things -- i attended a meeting of the general managers of the major transit agencies last week about the clipper program. just to update you on some things that you should know about -- first of all, in terms of overall boardings, they were up about 500,000 a day on a weekday average, which is pretty significant considering about a year-and-a-half ago, it was virtually zero. it has ramped up pretty fast. mostly because of the mta. we account for about 60%. we have by far the largest usage, and that is because of the work of staff to get us from the delegates to the passage to the ticket vending machines to get all that in place that has really put us at the front of the pact in terms of clipper,

which is a good thing. a couple of fee issues, though, that i want to make sure that you know about. the wheat contract the mtc has with the provider is written is that there is a monthly -- a fixed monthly fee in addition to a variable transaction costs paid to the vendor. it had been covered by a one- time source pot of funds that the mtc had. that source will expire, and this fee will continue to be paid by the region until we get 20 million transactions per month, which we are, as a regent, quite a bit short of right now. i believe the total fee that will be paid to the vendor that the transit agencies will have to assume is $100,000 a month. muni's share will be about half of that. the mta will be paid about

$50,000 a month until the region's usage of clipper hits that $20 million a month -- 20 million transactions a month average. there was a lot of discussion about how to get even further penetration of clipper into the systems. there was discussion about fair discounting, which i know this board and pretty much every other transit agency board has been reluctant to do in the past. also a lot of discussion about transfer policies or transfer elimination, which i know has also been an issue of great interest here. i think we have gotten major portions of our affair portfolio on to clipper already, so the rest will be difficult, but i just wanted you to be aware of that. finally, when it was started, there was a $5 a card acquisition fee. you paid $5, and you would load

it up with cash for a pass. that was waved at some point some time ago to try to get more people in to clipper. the mtc -- the mtc is moving back to reestablish that, possibly this january. actual cost is about $3.50. what the mtc is looking at is a $3 a card acquisition fee with a $2 minimum. that would be coming potentially as soon as january. they would be working with the transit agencies on out reach. i realize it runs a little bit counter to try to get more people onto the system, but there are some issues of card miss us, issues of negative balances, and the fact that mtc says they do not have a funding source for that. this is a way to recover at least a good chunk of that. finally, wanted to bring to your

attention the street's bond introduced by the mayor and board of supervisors that will be on the november ballot. it is a $248 million bond, the biggest component of which is for street resurfacing, but there is also $50 million for pedestrian, bicycle, and other streetscapes safety improvements. i think $22 million for city- wide improvements in the public right of way and $20 million for an g-8 transit and traffic signals. this was a bond recommended through the city was a 10-year capital planning process on which the mta has a seat, and what that means in part is that there would be no tax increase as a result of this bond because

it recommends issuing debt only as old debt is retired. because this has potential impact, i just wanted to make you aware that that is coming in november, and that concludes my report. director nolan: thank you. members of the board, comments or questions? director ramos: 90. i appreciate the update very much, and welcome, by the way here a first chance to really acknowledge you personally, and you're so excited about all this in receiving future reports. one of my first request for information reports. one of my first divorce was accounting or making sure that accounting was happening and our fair media was being collected accurately and what have you.

i wanted to reiterate that, based on this new fee that you have just brought up. also, there are conversations about a youth pass that people want to see implemented. i think that conversation needs to be had as well. i think maybe a report on something like that as well, integrated with the clicker discussion also, but other than that, it sounds like we are doing great work. thank you. director heinicke: thank you. just one idea on the clipper card -- it seems to me that in one respect, the ability to get a free clipper card expires in january. at least, that is what we anticipate. and yet, we want more people to sign up here it seems to me what we do encourage greater penetration is to let people know loudly and clearly that if you want a clipper card and you will need one eventually anyway, folks -- this is coming -- if you want to get one for free,

you better do it now. and by the way, if we get more cards signed up, that will save more money for muni. i am sure it probably dawn on you, but it seems to me that would be a message you would want to get out clearly with instructions on how folks could get their 3 clipper card. second, i would be remiss if i did not know that paul gillespie, the chair of the taxi commission, is actually here, and while this body took over the agenda and it well, it was really he and some others at the taxi commission and mayor newsom who did the coach. since he is here, i will let him share in that a little bit. >> i have two things. one of them has to do with -- a couple months back, i got a

chance to test and accessible taxi, and it was the only taxi that i could actually get into without having to -- whatever i had to do. i did not have to be a contortionist to get into the cab, and getting out was equally as easy. i think since we are encouraging alternative fuel vehicles, and this is, i think we should be putting some money from our coffers into funding something

like this because the more we get of this kind of vehicle, the more people like myself can get out into the community and really enjoyed what all san franciscans get to enjoy in the city. this city is one of the most accessible cities that people with disabilities of all kinds can be proud that they can get to and from wherever they need to go without too much of a problem. i have been one of the real advocates for accessible taxis since the beginning. we actually started the program in 1994. we have an extremely -- we have

been extremely successful, thanks to the efforts of yellow cab and the others that are involved, but we need to make sure that all our vehicles meet the environmental standards that everything has to meet, and this vehicle does. i would like to see us put money into it so that we can have a fleet of accessible taxis that we can all enjoy. director nolan: thank you. director bridges: 90. i also would like to commend director ramos -- director reiskin and staff. the efficiency level has been a great, and i do not know the feedback if you have any yet

from passengers, but i am to the bus drivers are happy about it. so thank you very much. i know it took time and effort to get that done. it is not an easy task. >> thank you. ok, members of the public? >> members of the public do have comments. we will start with ed healy. this is on the executive director's report. director nolan: good afternoon. director reiskin, we hear nothing but good things about you. congratulations. however, i would like to start out with something -- [laughter] why? do i always say negative things? i guess the bus drivers are happy about the way it is running because nobody else is.

the only street south of market that flowed smoothly was seventh street. during rush hour, it flowed like a charm. you have cut off one lane at mcalester, and this created a situation of gridlock every day. i think it would be nice if maybe the studies of years in the future, you could also take -- i guess automobiles are evil or something. you might take the driver's into account also. director nolan: thank you. next speaker please. >> good afternoon. we are speaking on item 7? yes. i would like to welcome the new

director, and i am hoping that things will get better for the ordinary cabdriver's instead of the cab companies and medallion holders. we need that change badly, immediately. thank you very much. you had a good day. director nolan: thank you. next speaker please. >> my name is rowland. i represent the paratransit. i would like to follow-up on bruce oka's comment on taxis. i am also a taxi user. sometimes i do find that we

cannot board on the current from the back, and oftentimes, there is not enough ramps to board, so having sideways taxis will benefit most of the people who use wheelchairs, so i am hoping to support the idea of finding more sideways ramp taxis so they will be more accessible for us. thank you. director nolan: thank you. >> the last person who has turned in a speaker card. >> greetings, directors. speaking of recognitions,

greetings. i would like to present you with my report on the taxi industry that i wrote last month, a copy that i set aside for you. there are a lot of meetings, and pretty much every one of these board meetings, there are zero words that go up. i do not expect an answer, but i do not meet my question to be rhetorical. when are you going to acknowledge a taxicab driver? thank you. director nolan: thank you. next item. >> peter witt. he is the last person to express an interest. >> welcome to our new executive director. i understand that you are politically-based. your knowledge -- your expertise is one of politics. i hope to change the -- that.

we need a change from politics. we need some concrete answers. we need some facts. maybe more information, but i do not think this should be run from the top down. i think it should be run from the bottom going up. maybe you disagree, but if you do not have any experience, it is a question of the blind leading the blind, and i have a real problem with that. i want to address that, but i do welcome you, and i want to express my fears. that would be one of them. and my hopes. my hopes are that things will change and drivers will be taken seriously. i am still waiting for my driver's appreciation award. i have been doing a survey, and little one, just a little survey. 1000 customers every year for the last 14 years. this is the 14th year, actually.

i am in the 14th year now. i believe you have two copies. the taxi commission had been receiving my survey prior to that. they were completely politically oriented. they did not run on facts. some of the facts are that actually some of the supervisors want to add more taxis. they want to saturate the market to people in the sunset will be able to get a cab when they want one. i have a great fear of that because we have more cabs per capita than new york city today, not including the ones that were recently added. so it has not worked in the past. it will not work again. so what are you going to do? that will be my question. director nolan: thank you. any other questions?

seeing none -- that actually, there are some people who recently turned in a speaker card. if there is anyone else who wishes to speak, please fill out a speaker card and step forward. this is the bond directors report on any item discussed by mr. reiskin. >> good afternoon. i want to welcome ed reiskin to the muni head and wish you all the lot because you have a lot on your plate, and i am just going to add to it. i do a lot of work as a police volunteer, and i watch the back doors, and there are a lot of people boarding the back doors, especially 38 geary, that i ride every day practically. it is out of control. we're losing a lot of money.

>> is there anyone else who wishes to address the board on the executive director's report? director nolan: seeing none, let's move to the next item. before we do that, i should have said to director oka's, earlier, that would be a concern if we get asked mr. -- if we could ask mr. reiskin to look at those as well. i also want to talk about recognizing people in the taxi industry for the contributions they make on a daily basis. i think that is a long overdue idea. >> item 8, citizens advisory council report. director nolan: good afternoon, mr. murphy. >> good afternoon. i am the chair of the mta

citizens advisory council. before i get started, i always enjoy seeing the employee recognition awards. i was particularly happy to see the award given to mr. alvarez. since i was just recently a victim of a copper fell -- copper theft at my home. i want to extend a welcome on behalf of the cac to our new executive director. the vice chairman and i had a chance to meet with mr. reiskin and welcome him personally, but i want to extend it public welcome, and we look forward to working with you over the coming years to make transportation in san francisco better. i will also note that mr.

reiskin is a muni writer -- muni rider. i can attest that he is not just a member but a client, or whatever the phrase is. [laughter] on a much sadder note, i want to note the passing of one of our colleagues on the cac, griffith humphrey, who passed away since we last met. griffith was appointed to the cac initially by supervisor alioto-pier and continue to serve under supervisor farrell. he was involved with disability issues for over 20 years, and he was a retired navy officer,

lieutenant in the united states navy, and a retired attorney. we ms. griffith terribly -- we miss griffith terribly. members of the staff were present at mr. humphrey's funeral, and the cac this month adjourned in his memory. i want to get to a couple of recommendations that we have for you from our last meeting. the first regards curb access for taxicabs within bicycle lanes. we recommend that curb access within the bicycle lanes be allowed for vehicles in order to load and unload disabled and mobility-impaired passengers. there are times when the only way that a taxi can load a

disabled or mobility-impaired passenger -- keeping in mind that some of those people have disabilities which are not visible disabilities -- is by pulling into a bike lane and loading them from the curb. we encourage the agency to continue exploring ways to safely separate modes of transit. we understand this is not an easy question. we understand that the agency has to balance a lot of interests with this. we are always reminded there's only so much right of way in the city. we also urge that the agency develop procedures to prevent abuse of this policy. this is something we think should be done specifically for mobility impaired and disabled taxi passengers, not necessarily for everybody. how you draw the line between the two groups -- that is a

little trickier, and we think that is something the agency should look at and have a discussion about. we also recommend -- you are considering a proposal to issue -- to exercise the agency's no authority to issue bonds, and we recommend that the sfmta proceed with the plan that was presented by staff at our september 1 meeting, to exercise the agency's authority to issue bonds, retire existing debt, and use the remainder to rebuild, replace, and repair existing agency capital assets. that state of good repair stuff is very important. we are certainly cautious about this. we do not want to see the entire operating budget consumed with bond servicing, but we think this is a reasonable proposal.

we recommend such an approach to bond debt not be used for the purpose of funding construction or acquisition of assets related to subway. we think that project needs to find its funding from some source other than this, and we do not want this to become a backstop for that. we also request that the final list of projects that would be funded by this first trod of bonds in presented to the cac for review before the agency commits to that list. i want to extend our thanks to sonali bose for spending a lot of time with the finance and administration committee and with the cac answering our questions on this and staying quite late the night we considered this. it is always a pleasure for us

as well. there are a couple of items on your agenda which we did not have new recommendations for, but i wanted to call the board's attention to previous recommendations on or work that we're doing. item 11 before you today regards the service standards report. we will be in the very near future taking a look at our service standards and asking those important questions of whether we are measuring the right things. are we measuring the things that really matter? are we capturing outcomes -- the outcomes we want? so we will be looking at that as well as reviewing the outcome of the specific service standards report for the end of the year. on item 13 on all-door boarding. while we do not have a new mm