>> please be advised that the use of self phones, pagers, and other sound-producing electronic devices are prohibited at the meeting. anyone responsible for one going off may be asked to leave the room. cellphone set at the vibrate position cause microphone interference. the board respectfully requests babysat at the off -- be set at the off position. item five, communications. chairperson nolan: we will be adjourning our meeting in memory of the secretary for the market

street railroad historical association. his service to the mta was steadfast. he had a great personality. he was involved in the vintage street car project from the very beginning. he was involved with the market street railway festival in the 1980's. he was the definition of leadership and will be greatly missed. with member consent, we will adjourn this meeting in his memory. also, this afternoon, the board of supervisors, across the hall -- the board is going to be considering the unanimous recommendation from the rules committee about our newest member, who cannot vote because she is not confirmed yet. she is dying to start voting on things, i know. good luck this afternoon. we look forward to working with you.

secretary boomer: could we discuss the order of business today? >> we have a lot of interest in taxi items. i have asked for accommodations. let us get to the rest of the meeting after the taxi items have been hard. is there any unfinished business? -- chairperson nolan: >> this will be very quick. i would like to ask the director if he can direct staff to update us on the status of the installation of [unintelligible] throughout the city. many businesses have been waiting for that. where are we waiting on that? chairperson nolan: thank you.

now we are at the executive director's report, right? we are skipping over everything else after this. director reiskin: absolutely. thank you, members of the board, members of the public, and mta staff. i would like to start by recognizing a couple of individuals, who after many years of service to the city are choosing to move on, and want to wish them well. i would like to ask ban yi to step forward. ron has been not with the agencies since muni was part of the puc. i had the opportunity to speak briefly with him yesterday, and

learned that he has really had his hand in much of what we see in our rail network today, particularly in the downtown and embarcadero area, in getting the f line up and running, starting back in the 1980's, the extension of muni metro to caltrans. he played a major role as part of the waterfront project team, which was part of its own office that developed plans initially to snake around the supports for the embarcadero freeway, and was able to reformat those plans and go right down the center of the embarcadero. it is hard to imagine what the embarcadero used to be like, compared to what it is now. he was involved with many different rail replacement

projects, such as the church in dubose, and getting historic street cars back into service. doing all that, he had to work with a lot of different parts of the agency and the rest of the city government -- the business community, the residential community, the tourism industry. as i said to him yesterday, it is quite a legacy to leave to the city of san francisco what we see today. really, a remarkable career and remarkable service. i want to congratulate him for nearly three decades of service critical of san francisco. -- to the people of san francisco. >> good afternoon. ron yi, with sustainable streets.

first order of business, i want to make sure you spell his name correctly. it is the toughest surname i have ever run across all. all we could put it in the national spelling bee. it seems yesterday we worked together on the waterfront project. we were much younger than. i noticed a disturbing trend. all of my buddies from the old days are retiring. anyway, congratulations for your many years of faithful service, and happy retirement. i know your wife is here to share this moment. congratulations. [applause] >> do not tell my wife i am retiring. members of the board, thank you for taking the time to give me

this special recognition award today. i greatly appreciate it. i must say thank you to the many dedicated employees throughout the city, and also the dedicated board members of sf mta and the puc before you. without the dedicated work of so many people, my work with the city would not have been as enjoyable and as successful. i think the transit and transportation system in san francisco would not be as great as it currently is. a special thank you your leadership and support, and a special thank you to my wife, betsy, for her support. my passion has been planning and developing for transit, in part because i believe that, when

done right, transit is the best and most efficient way to move large numbers of people, mass- transit. we have a transit first policy. although it has evolved over the years, to me, the most important section is section 10, encourage innovative services were possible and where the provision will not affect service provided by the municipal railway. transit is the lifeblood of our city. i am very happy to be here. i am grateful to receive the award. it is a great honor to be recognized for my work over the years. i have had a vision to do my best in developing conceptual engineering that maximize safety and efficiency for pedestrians, cyclists, taxis, autos, and transit. i wish everyone the health,

strength, wisdom, and courage to continue to help move people, especially by transit, in san francisco, safely and efficiently. chairperson nolan: thank you for your outstanding service, and we wish you the best in your retirement. thank you. [applause] >> next up, i would like to ask commander milatello to join, with a captain who has spent 42 years with the police department, punctuated by accomplishments, and is also deciding to leave for greener pastures of retirement. i have had the pleasure of working with al since before i started in this current job. he has had a great reputation to route the police department,

particularly in the area of transportation. he has been intimately involved in traffic control since 1974. he cites "avoid the eight" campaign as a high point. it is will the jurisdictional, a crackdown on impaired drivers that puts together education and enforcement to make our streets safer. it is one of 40 similar campaigns throughout the state, and it is the largest funded crackdown to the nation. for the second consecutive year, our program, created by al, took first place in its category. that is a great accomplishment and a great legacy. he started the program in 2003. he won an award for the

california office of traffic safety from madd. thank you for your great service to the people of san francisco, making it a safer and nicer place to live. >> good afternoon, director nolan. i always say director. chairman nolan. i have known al my entire 31.5 your career. he has been an incredible support to the city and police officers in general. i know of no person who is more committed to traffic safety than captain al cassiatto. he has been intimately involved with every aspect of traffic safety.

this is a tremendous loss not only to be a 78, but to our city. it is all i can do to sit here and not get choked up. he is someone i admire a great deal, and a very dear friend. in addition to his work in traffic safety, he spent 18 years as part of the san francisco retirement board. he has been involved throughout his career, to the benefit of the citizens and workers of san francisco. i wish him nothing but the best, and much love going forward. [applause] >> commissioners, members of the board, thank you very much. i really appreciate this. my plans for retirement are to

be a tourist in san francisco. >> i want to wish you the best in retirement. it has been a pleasure working with you these past two years. your commitment to your job -- in the time i have known you, you have been going full force, as though you were a 30-year-old who just joined the force with all these great ideas. i appreciate all the work you have done. i am going to miss you so much and which -- wish you the best. chairperson nolan: thank you very much, and all the best in their retirement. -- your retirement. [applause] director, you are going to continue your report after all of this. director reiskin: as instructed. secretary boomer: the board is

going to move to the items on a regular calendar, after which it will return to general public comment and the remaining items on the agenda. just so you know, on today's agenda, i just made a litigation agenda. closed session will not occur. also, we have an overflow room when this room gets filled to the brim. item 11, amending the transportation code to set the maximum rate the taxi company may charge a driver for credit or debit card payment processing service at 3.5%, requiring taxi companies to accept debit cards and services be provided through a certified third-party merchant to deposit funds into an account of the drivers choice within one business day, and to allow drivers to use their own account services provider. director reiskin: thank you.

let me just provide a little bit of a leading, just for all of these items. i am not sure if we are intending to take them one at a time, but i want to set a little context before may be a brief staff report, a brief comment, and then opening it up from -- for public comment. the overview and want to provide is that taxi service is an essential part of making the transit-first process work. if we want people to be able to live in san francisco without feeling the need to own or use their own cars, we need good texas service, because not every trip is going to be supportable by transit, biking, or walking. taxi service is an integral part of making the transit first policy reality, achieving the

goal of getting 50% of all trips out of private all those. the taxi industry, the drivers, the companies, the other folks that are part of the industry are a very important part of san francisco is transportation network. that are sometimes working over very difficult conditions, often not getting the recognition that is deserved, but an essential part of providing transportation in the city. another important aspect are the writers of taxis, -- riders of taxis, which are often not part of the discussion at these meetings. we need to keep them in mind as we consider the policies we are contemplating, because it is ultimately to provide service to those who ride taxes, or would be riding taxis, were they more

available. i believe the taxi staff of the mta has done an amazing job to get us where we are today. this is a complex industry. strong feelings around taxi service because of the history of the industry, because of politics, because of transitions of taxi service, and because there is a lot of money in the industry. all of those things, any changes, bring up strong feelings, understandably. it is very complex. many of the interests are across the board, and many are conflicting. been working through, i think in a very diligent, responsible way. in doing so, they are endeavoring to advance the interests of all san franciscans, taking into account

the difference stakeholders' of the industry. there are a lot of legitimate concerns about here, some of which are being addressed here. illegal taxis and illegal limos is a huge issue for the taxi industry, something the staff is working hard with the police department to try to address. the budget you approved includes more positions for taxi investigators, enforcement to make sure there is safe, legitimate travel. legitimate taxicabs is an important part of what we are doing. we have been trying to strengthen and make more transparent and enforceable our regulatory structure, and of course address the -- we just fittingly honored al cassiotto. for the safety of the public, we

have been trying to advance safety throughout the transportation system. there have been a lot of elements of taxi reform and prog board today. we were hoping to have medallion reform as part of the overall package. unfortunately, i was not able to pull it all together to a point i was comfortable to bring in before you today. that will come later in the summer. there has been a lot of good work done on that front, by the staff and many others who have weighed in. a lot of important issues are before us today. i think there is some disagreement over the recommendations, but these are issues that have been in the public realm for some time, some of them before this board, through consultant studies, and

a lot of staff work, research, and discussions with various aspects of the taxi industry that i think have gotten to a set of thoughtful, deliver and who, and diligent proposals. -- deliberate and belgium proposals. -- deliberate, and diligent proposals. there are many years of experience working with the transition to the police code and integration into the mta. what we have here may not be perfect. we do not suggest that it is. but it represents an honest, intelligent, thoughtful, and responsible effort to try to advance the interest of a proven taxi service in san francisco.

i look forward to getting these things through, and getting to medallion reform later in the summer. this will go to the end goal of approving taxi service. with that, i will ask for a brief overview of item 11. we will also ask the co-chair to come up and give some comments, and then turn it back to you. chairperson nolan: thank you. good afternoon. >> could a afternoon. -- good afternoon. thank you. i did in denver to be as comprehensive, concise, and complete in the written materials presented to you, and i know a lot of people want to

be heard today, and you may have direct questions. rather than elaborate on what you already read, i would like to know if you have any questions of me, and i would like to turn it over to the industry for their feedback. >> thank you, deputy director. as i suspect you are well aware, several of us have received several communications over the last few days since this item went in. this came as a shock to some. they did not feel the issue was properly vented, particularly some of our cab companies. i thought maybe it would be appropriate, because i suspect some of them want to speak to that, for you to give us your response to that view so we have some flavor of that. i might say to the folks that are going to respond to this that i would urge you to not spend all of your time speaking to just the procedure.

if there are merits or problems you have with this proposal, address those. director, before we heard some of these comments, i thought it would only be fair to give you a chance to address whether you think they have any validity. >> thank you. i think director reiskin said it well. there has been a lot of discussion of this over the past two years. it resulted in a staff pilot program under board oversight and supervision during october of 2010. here we are in the spring of 2012 and meeting to resolve these credit-card issues. it was never a complete solution. it was always kind of a band-aid or lifesaver solution under

circumstances that existed at that time. the discussion is a matter of public record over the last two years. i would very much appreciate hearing from the industry there positive and constructive suggestions as to what would be a better policy. i hope we will hear about that today. >> i would suggest we defer further questions until we hear from the public. chairperson nolan: what we are doing now is just item 11. after we finish that, we can consider whether to groups some of the rest of them together. secretary boomer: [names are read] chairperson nolan: good afternoon. >> i do have problems with >> i do have problems with procedure and the way this was