i have some type of fun. [laughter] this enlightenment of public transportation needs to be for everyone. i want everyone in the audience to have a clipper card like mine that has the plastic torn off because that means everyone is respecting muni and everyone is really into just the idea of public transportation. so, yeah, this will help the environment and improve, eliminate car-related danger and also it will just make our public transportation system something that we'll all share in the future and be extremely proud of. and san francisco's goal is to be a modern city so we need not only a modern mode of transportation system but think in a modern way and enjoys taking the future into account, not just the present. so for the future, let's not trade a stigma but come together to build a new

sustainable city. this will only happen if all youth are involved and that would mean making muni free-for-all youth. thank you. [applause] >> selena lane, maria tapia, francisco dacosta. >> is selena here? maria? tapia. stanitruculo. francisco decosta. jessica enron. any of those people here? >> hi, my name is jessica, and i'm speaking on behalf of ymac

members and coleman advocates. i support free muni for all youth. i believe all youth deserve a chance for free muni not only for school but for work and extracurricular activities. all youth deserve a chance to explore a place they call home and that's san francisco, obviously. so, yeah, thank for you listening to all of us. [applause] >> thank you. >> madam chair, the speakers i've called haven't respond. is there anyone else who has not had a chance to speak who would like to address the board on this matter? all right. no more speakers, in that case we -- oh, one more. >> two more. >> good afternoon, board

members, i'm earnest stokes, a long time resident of san francisco and have been a resident of san francisco for approximate 30 years. and i'm here to support free muni for youth. free muni for all youth, not just a free muni pass for low income youth because that doesn't stop you from raising the fare, not just a free pass for local youth because it doesn't stop you from raising the fare in the future if you set a fare for low income youth. that's number one. and really my statement is more about values than it is about muni and stuff like that. if i can read what i've got here. it's on money and the cost of war. we as a nation are willing to spend any amount of funds on needless wars, and by needless wars, i mean wars against nations that have not attacked us.

i'm talking about iraq. libya, afghanistan, and even now we're considering going to a shooting war against iran. we as a nation do not need any more wars against nations that have not attacked us. we have better use for that money. we can start by spending it on infrastructure and yes, that includes free muni for youth. >> thank you. yes, sir. good afternoon. >> how are you all doing? >> spread the word! free muni! >> spread the word. >> for the youth. >> free muni. >> for all the youth. >> yeah. >> good afternoon, board, my name is anthony navarro representing s.o.p. solidarity organizing at the high school. working with power two, wimac,

excelsior district, all our neighborhoods. can we give it up one time for all of the grassroots organizers, youth, students, families who have been coming for a year now out of their own time, not getting paid, out of the love and accountability to their community. can we give some love for all of you all. [cheers and applause] >> once again, as all of you know, i'm not going to repeat -- i'm going to repeat a lot of what the community says but we want to be accountable to our want to be accountable to the community and to serve the people, to provide the best service you can as public transportation. and it's my understanding that you need to listen to the -- you all can hear me? you all good? that we have fought and organized a lot of these folks who secured the funding for two years. these folks aren't getting paid

to do this. they have done out of their own blood have been supporting this campaign. we want to hold you accountable to your words saying you want to serve the people of this city. and look at the long-term pro muni folks, young generation. think of the impact you can make for this country, not just the city and changing the game. we have secured this funding and can see where we're going after this. this is pro muni. we have been pro muni. we ride the muni every day. you don't want to serve us into anti-muni. we'll hold you accountable and we love you all because you all are supporting this but we are asking to meet the needs of the people and we're saying free muni for all of youth. in solidarity, can you say this with us? spread the word. free muni. >> for our youth. >> right on, mr. ramos. right on.

>> all right. thank you and i think that was our last speaker for public comment. one more. one more. good afternoon. [cheers and applause] >> hello. good afternoon, board and members of the public and community. any name is renee antivaros, youth minister for district 9 and is my daughter, and we're here to represent the thousands of youth that were not able to attend and we're also here to represent the thousands of youth of our future. as you know, the 2000 census compared to 2010, the age from 0-18 has declined by 5%. we need to secure the future of our youth in this city to not only stay here but thrive here, teach ethics in our schools so we can bring forth innovation together. when my daughter is older, i would not want her to be segregated because she may qualify for free muni for youth as of now but i know when i get

my degree she will not qualify for free muni for all. but for low income, however, i would like her to be able to unify and interact with her peers on the bus, not profile each other and say hey, you're the kid that got the muni for free, i'm the kid that got it and had to pay for it. story telling and dialogue changes life and changes the course of history. we need to unify our youth again and we need to be that leadership city which we are and promote transit, be the first transit city of san francisco. i know we have a great, efficient city and need to continue to promote that leadership within our peers. thank you. and i appreciate all your willness to hear us today. and appreciate your willingness to work for this and let's just remember secure and invest in our future youth as sometimes financial burdens may not outweigh the outcomes if our

peers interact with each other. thank you. >> thank you. do we have any more public speakers? are i think that was our last one in which case we declare public comment on this item closed. thank you very much. you're very patient to wait all this time. we appreciate it very much and appreciate hearing from you. yes? >> i want to thank everybody who spoke and who came and left and wasn't able to speak, and all those who wanted to be here. a lot of good comment. i just want to try to offer some clarifying comments to some of the comments that were made or some of the themes that were brought up, and then just had one other -- couple other pieces of information. i do want to clarify that i didn't really speak to it much in the budget. the budget is built on the assumption of the staff recommendation which means that under a different scenario, we

would have to rebalance the budget, so just wanted to -- i don't think i said that. i wanted to clarify that. there was a lot of public comment about the revenues that are available for this, and i want to make two points that i think we heard some kind of conflicting things on. in terms of the source of funds and the different bucket of funds from the region, there is up to $5 million available from the m.t.c. that arguably without this movement would not have been coming to muni or to san francisco, and i think the folks here and supervisor campos all deserve great credit for those even being in play. that still is the subject to m.t.c. approval, a vote of the commission, but the fact that those are even in play, that wouldn't otherwise be coming our way, our testament to this

effort are only available because of this effort. the balance of the funds from the region are lifeline funds that will be coming to san francisco and for the most part to the m.t.a. regardless so that i think there were some speakers that suggested that all of the funding from the region were coming only for this purpose. the balance of those funds are for the overall -- they're lifeline funds and is a combination of capital and operating fund. we endeavored to explain that in our staff report. and the lifeline funds are for -- are meant for low-income populations so there was some commentary that -- making muni free-for-all youth is exactly in line with the lifeline program. i'm not sure that's entirely correct. so two clarifications on the revenues there, the lifeline revenues would be coming to san francisco and to the m.t.a. and they can be and would otherwise be used for other purposes. that's not the case in that

first, up to five million which is really there because of the efforts of this group. there were some discussion about whether the $4 million revenue loss was a low estimate. we acknowledge, and i think i tried to indicate that we don't know what the ridership impact of this would be. it's possible that is low. it was among the risks that are in the budget, to the extent it's greater, that's kind of more of a hole we will have to fill at the end of the two years if we were to go with that option. we heard from a number of seniors, as i said. i just want to reiterate, i think in the long term we maybe want to look at our whole fare structure so we don't have a situation where high income kids are paying more -- paying less for muni than low-income

adults. and i think seniors who are on fixed incomes have perhaps a higher call on any additional expansion of the program than high-income youth. there have been in this meeting and in others discussions about fare enforcement and about targeting youth. i just want to state, i think again, that less than 2% of the citations that we issue for fare revision goes to youth and while we don't have great ridership numbers of youth versus adult we know the youth constitutes more than 2% of our youth and are underrepresented on who is receiving citations on the system. whether that was true in the past or not, i can't speak to but that's where we're running often at 1%, 1.5% last month. so just a factual clarification. and there was some discussion

about the clipper card and the difficulty of getting a clipper card and requirements to getting a clipper card and we're certainly willing, and i think we put in the staff report, big to work with m.t.c. to see if there's a way to change the requirements. the use of a clipper card for this program in whatever option the board chooses was always meant, and i believe by all of the advocates as well, to be a clipper based program. if you're paying cash, you're still going to pay the regular fare. this is a clipper-based program, so whether it's free-for-all or cheap-for all or free for low-income youth, the clipper issues are there and we're committed in whatever format it takes to try to get clipper cards in the hand of the youth. that's what the regional climate forms would be supporting some of those are dedicated only -- or eligible only for use for education and outreach which would largely be getting clipper cards in the hands of students. so we would have to work

through that. we will have to work through that issue regardless. and i guess two more points. one is i neglected to mention that the mayor has been supportive in principle of this concept just as i think the board has. i think he shares the concerns about not wanting to engage in a program that adversely impacts muni. i don't want to presume to speak for him but i did want to communicate that he has been working with private sector entities to try to see if he could augment the revenues for this program from private sector funds that wouldn't otherwise be coming to the government or to the m.t.a. so that's another factor that is -- i'm about there. finally, i'll just second the notion of public transportation is cool. i wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. >> thank you very much, mr.

reiskin. in order to get this on the table for discussion, can i have a motion and second on this item and then we can discuss any -- >> i would move with the staff representation. >> ok. do i have a second? i don't have a second? you can second it if you choose? >> i'll second it and go ahead and discuss this item now. who would like to start? who wants to be the -- " >> i would rather have spoken to a recommendation that we go with the free-for-all that we create a resolution that would have -- that would send them back to m.t.c., getting the funding they need, the reassurance and commitment from this board that we would make something -- make it work out, contingent upon finding the funding. i don't know if this would be the appropriate time to talk --

[applause] >> i don't know if this would be the most appropriate time to talk about that but that's what i was hoping we could talk about. >> all right. so we have on the table for discussion the staff recommendation. now, we can absolutely talk about adding a whereas to that recommendation. i'd like to hear from some of the other directors. director oka, would you like to start? commissioner oka: everything that everybody has said has -- for me, made a big difference because those of you who know where i stood from the beginning of my term on this board knows that the first thing that i said was i wanted to lower lifeline. lifeline right now is too high. it is uncomfortable to me.

for lifeline, low income, transit dependent individuals have to pay $30 a month, and yet i tried and tried and have tried to get down into the 20's. the mayor's office at that time wouldn't support that. i think we have no choice but to do something for youth in this city, and i've always been a proponent of free muni for all youth. [applause] commissioner oka: if we can't do that, somebody has to tell me why we can't do it. beyond what i've already heard because there are people telling me the funding is there and i believe the funding is there.

i think we can make this work. and i'd like to propose an amendment to the motion that puts free muni for all youth. [applause] >> can i say something? >> yes, please, director lee. commissioner lee: i have to say that this group has been very well organized, very professional in their presentation, very passionate in what they're saying. and if i were to just base a vote on the passion, you'd get it 100%. and there are some things that i totally agree that free muni for youth is admirable. the question is, we have to ask ourself, where does muni stand right now in terms of operational scheduling, overcrowding the buses right

now. i kind of see even if we did do the low income first, that it's mostly a two-stage process where we can capture the information, know where the operational shortfalls are and maybe come back again two years after we run this test to say ok, we understand, we know where the cracks are, this is where we can fix it, this is where we can go with free muni if that's what we want to do. right now we open up the floodgates and if the buses are crowded now, can you imagine if by tomorrow we said it's free? so i support what you're saying. i understand what you're saying but from an operational standpoint, nobody has convinced me that, you know, the money that we have is going to cover all the runs we've got to make and if we can't make it, do we put more drivers back on overtime to try to make the runs? that's what i'm not convinced on, that we have that feasibility to do that. i agree with everything you're saying. and i wish i could totally support it 100% but there's this one little voice that says

operation, what's going to happen to the rest of the riding public? i'm willing to say -- to still add a second clause that says ok, we'll run the test and if we can identify where we need to strengthen and can we do it, then we do the free youth for muni as the next phase. i'm recommending like a two-stage phase. >> thank you, director lee. i just have a couple thoughts. again, thank you all so much. your passion really is amazing and this was an amazing program and an amazing outreach and you've done such a good job. i think you've put something on the table for all of us to think about, that as you heard, the very first time you came before the board, a lot of us had never really considered the fact that when we were growing up those yellow school buses just showed up and we didn't have to worry about it so we really do appreciate the fact that you kids have to worry about it, you have to think about it, you have to think how you're going to pay for the muni bus getting you to school. so i want to just mention a couple things that director reiskin mentioned, which is the

commitment to work with the m.t.c. about the clipper card documentation. i do understand that level of documentation can be daunting, providing paperwork and providing documentation for anything can be a daunting prospect. there's no guarantee we can change that in any way, but you definitely have our commitment, because as you mentioned, anything that we implement will be clipper card based and doesn't mean whoever gets this, whether low income or all, you don't just get on the bus, you still have a clipper card and tag on the bus. we still have a commitment to work with the m.t.c. to make that process to getting the youth clipper card more accessible and making it easier. i think that one of the big things that came up was the idea of a stigma around a low income clipper pass. again, i think with the clipper card, that stigma is removed to

a great -- in a huge way. i don't think the clipper card is going to look any different. the clipper card will look like a clipper card. i think one of the commissioner's held up his, one of the youth commissioners held up the clipper card. that's what it will look like no matter who is using it, whether you paid full fare, reduced fare or paying cash and riding ride by ride off the clipper card. so what i'd like to propose is that we have a motion and we have a second on the measure as it's written. i would like to propose a whereas. we heard concern from supervisor campos' office and from the organizers that if we don't have some type of commitment on this board to providing free muni for all youth, that it makes it difficult to go after some of the funds. so i thought about this a lot today and we've come up with a whereas clause that i'm hoping everyone will be able to agree on and perhaps this will alleviate some of the concern

around the ability to go out and get the funding. whereas, the sfmta board of directors recognizes the difficulties many face given the current economic situation, as well as recognizing the public interest in encouraging muni ridership among young people, the board wishes to endorse the idea of providing free transit for all youth in the future as long as it can be done in a fiscally responsible manner. do i have any feedback? i'm sorry, i would need a motion and a second on that whereas. >> you made the motion. you need a second. >> i need a second. >> i'm wondering if that kind of language would work. >> no. >> it wouldn't work. >> you need a second in order for that -- >> i'll stecked. >> for purposes of discussion. >> we've got a motion and a second on the whereas.

now may we have a discussion among the board with the whereas. >> so i just want to be clear, you're amending the motion to give free muni for all, whereas the fiscal funding is available to fund the entire program? >> correct. it will take the staff recommendation, add a whereas that says we endorse the idea of providing free transit for all youth in the future as long as it can be done in a fiscally responsible manner. >> but my question is, the first part of the staff recommendation says low-income, so does that -- will that remove that part? >> no, this is in addition, this is it the additional money can become a available, then it would be extended to all youth. but the staff recommendation stands. and then if by the board signaling that we find free muni for all youth to be a laudable goal that is not within our budgetary means at

this time, shoot money become available and should our making that statement help that money become available? then we would do free muni for all youth. >> i guess my concern with that is, will that affect the funding that they secured? because i guess my undergo is the funding they secured is based on the fact -- maybe i'm misunderstanding it but i want to make sure i understand that. >> that's a good question. because i understood the m.t.c. had talked about, the new money, the $5 million is essentially there to fund the staff proposal. so i guess maybe i'm asking the same question but this whereas clause wouldn't jeopardize that money, would it? >> if i could clarify, first of all, there has been no money secured. there has been money identified that following resolution by the m.t.a. board that would

have language saying whatever is adopted would be contingent on m.t.c. funding, then i believe supervisor campos would introduce language at the m.t.c. to try to secure m.t.c. support to get that funding, so that's point one. this is contingent on action the m.t.c. would have to take. this hasn't been introduced at the m.t.c. yet. it could be after our vote today. supervisor campos would want to know, have the commitment before the m.t.a. before bringing something to the m.t.c. and the right approach >> with refard to the funds, as i understand it, and i did speak to the head of the m.t.c.

is this, there would be i think the higher percentage of the overall program that we would be seeking the region to fund, the more difficult it might be to secure that funding. if you look in our staff report on page 11. we are identifying a $9.4 million revenue loss. so that's $9.4 million and assumes a $4 million revenue loss which many of the public speakers think is low. it also doesn't include any additional service or related costs that we might incur. so the .4 is at the low end of what the program would cost under this scenario.

and what we proposed, $.7 would be half and of this i would say a relatively low estimate. so i think the concern people have been expressing is by seeking more than half of the program to be funded by regional funds might be a tough sell but i would argue that $9.4 million is quite a low estimate and we've heard much public testimony in support of that, such that i think there is still a case to be made that we're not really asking the region to pay for more than half of our program. so that's the issue. there has not been any money secured. the money i'd find -- the money identified, from a pragmatic standpoint, at the regional level can't fund more than half of whatever it is we propose and i think that's the point and i think that's the point that the folks have been trying