>> also just to note, we

welcome john haley here who is not at risk and he is acting on behalf of at risk today. >> i'm happy to be here. >> lastly, there will be no closed session for today's meeting. that item has been canceled. >> okay. >> item 6, introduction of [inaudible]. >> i was reading up on the coverage from the recent nacto meeting which is the national association of city transportation officials. and i know that we were well represented there. mr. reiskin was there along with other members of the sustainable streets division. i thought it would be good for us to get an update on what was discussed there. i think there are a lot of things we can learn from other cities that are going through the same challenges that we are with our multi-modal shift and goals. i know they recently came out in an urban streets design guide. [speaker not understood] called out transportation planners as being so important to the future of america. so, i know that we have thankfully some of the best and

the brightest in the nation. so, i think it would be really interesting to just get an update from them about what went on there and what it's going to mean for us and our work. >> thank you. members, we'll ask mr. haley and mr. reiskin report back to the meeting. unfinished business? seeing none. >> item 7, directors report. and we are anticipating scott wiener shortly. >> better hang onto that for the first part. i will go to the next one, if i may, mr. chairman. let me take the first awardee that we'll recognize is alan ewan who is a senior of fair collection receiver in the revenue department. he has had a long and distinguished career with us at the mta. he's been here for over 18 years and is viewed by his

supervisors and colleagues as a model employee and leader among his peers and subordinates. he has a long list of accomplishments, most recently he's taken on the responsibility of manage being and improving significantly the lost and found operation, which is very important as you can imagine to a lot of our users and passengers and riders. and in one year, in fiscal year 2011, over 3500 items, including things like keys, electronic items, watches, all of those things came through our system. and through alan's leadership and work, we've reduced the time that it takes to return things from 30 days to 7. so, terrific work in the revenue department.

and our cfo bose is here to present alan with the award. >> thank you, director. alan has been here for 19 years and is a key member of our revenue division. just to let you know about alan and his colleagues, there are 16 employees there. they're responsible for collecting $100 million and they're the ones who go out at night and collect the revenue from each of the buses. so, they have a very important unheralded activity they do for us. they are also responsible for stacking the booths that you see that customers buy revenue tickets from. they're also responsible for transfers and special events. and i know they work in the backyard, but they have a critical role. so, congratulations, alan. thank you for your dedication to the agency. if you'd like to say something. >> first of all i want to thank the director of the mta and the

cfo and the senior manager hill man. i'm honored to receive the employee recognition award today. and i'm thankful for the recognition that i receive for my work. this work could not be done [speaker not understood] without my managers and coworkers to make [speaker not understood]. again, thank you for [speaker not understood] and i truly

[speaker not understood]. thank you. >> on behalf of the board of directors and the entire agency, thank you for your outstanding service for all these years. the people of san francisco are very grateful to you. (applause) >> mr. haley. >> thank you, mr. chairman. our next two awardees are going to be recognized for their extraordinary deeds on what is a night a week ago sunday, which, very dramatic night for the city. the celebration of the giants' victory and the subsequent events that followed with that. and first we want to recognize mr. simon timany who will be introduced by the supervisor

from the 8th district, scott wiener. it's our honor to have supervisor wiener here. but mr. timany, very briefly, took -- at a time when the celebration -- that everybody looked forward to became something more than a celebration. mr. timany intervened dramatically to try to prevent an unruly mob from attacking one of our vehicles and others. for his actions, he himself was personally attacked. nonetheless, he remains an unrepent ant person in terms of trying to intervene and do the right thing and we are pleased to introduce him and to have supervisor wiener to say a few words. >> good afternoon, supervisor, welcome. >> thank you, chairman owen,

director, mr. haley. i'm very happy to be here and communicating with you. when i'm not haranguing you about any maintenance or liability. the day after this happened, i learned -- a friend of a friend of a friend knew simon and knew that he had done this and tried to protect one of our very important muni vehicles that helped get people around in the city. and, so, we were put in touch. and i was just really absolutely touched that someone instead of just watching what was happening, would actually try to protect not just the bus but there were passengers at risk. there was a really bad situation and a lot of people were tempted to take out their phone and video what was happening, which is important. but it's also important citizens be willing to step up and say, this is wrong, don't do that. and simon paid the price by being attacked for that. so, ways happy to have him as my guest in the vip section of

the giants celebration at the civic center. and we're trying to help out in other ways. and i just think it's really a tremendous, simon, what you did. i know that the mta is thrilled to be honoring you as am i. so, i want to present you with this proclamation from the mta. (applause) * >> mr. timany, will you say a few words, please? >> thank you. thank you, supervisor wiener. honorable board, i prepared a statement. i'm not good at public speaking so i wish i could say i copied this off someone else. i'll start with a quote. a wise man once said, hey, you shouldn't try to get between a group of people trying to

attack a muni bus. [laughter] >> and i said, watch me. [laughter] >> thank you. my physical wounds have since healed, but the damage done to the reputation of the city still lingers. my hopes are that the recognition bestowed on myself by the board this afternoon will begin the process of healing our esteem and our pride. for some of its minor faults, we have the greatest transportation for any city in the country and it should be treated as such. it gets me through life, treats my friends and my neighbors and when in danger should be defended. i thank the board for their offer of free unlimited muni for life. [laughter] >> but i respectfully decline, not looking for fame or fortune, just for people to do

the right thing. but i thank the board for your recognition and now maybe we can come together as a city. for alone we may stand, but together we are a giant. thank you. (applause) >> thank supervisor wiener's fine words, and our thanks to you, sir. on behalf of the mta, all the people of san francisco appreciate that. thank you. mr. haley? >> thank you, mr. chairman. our next honoree is a bus operator from [speaker not understood] division for the last two years. his name is alan yim and alan, on the night that the giants won the world series, was operating an 8x motor coach that was surrounded and the

lives of himself and his riders were put in peril. his calm demeanor, his actions, his safety first attitude for his riders, he saved not only them, but himself. he prevented what was a very grave situation from becoming even worse. and i will -- probably couldn't do justice in honoring him to say enough things. so, we'll turn it over to him to let him speak for himself. but we couldn't be any prouder of the actions -- of his actions that night. he is the very embodiment of a hero. alan? (applause) >> the superintendent, alan has been at sfmta two years, no chargeable accidents, very good record. in on behalf of the mta and

your dedication to improvement the quality of life for the transportation agency and the residents of san francisco by the san francisco municipal transportation agency, november 6, 2012, [speaker not understood], director of transportation, congratulations and thank you. (applause) >> thank you for this award. i think that night the mta transportation operator would do the same. they would do the safety of our passenger is the first priority. thank you. (applause) >> thank you on behalf of the muni, on behalf of the board, all the people of san francisco, thank you for your outstanding work. this is an amazing day, two heroes. we are touched and inspired by both of your work. thank you so much. mr. haley? >> thank you, mr. chairman. one of the things that we all

want to do in our goals is to relieve congestion, whether it be traffic congestion or pedestrian congestion. our next honoree is somebody who not only spent an illustrious career here at sfmta and its predecessor agencies relieving congestion, but building a strong and sustainable relationship with the community and a variety of schools. she has been a crossing guard for over 22 years. she served at the corpus christi school for any number of years. she was known to be on the corner of alemeny and santa rosa. recognized by her colleagues and peers as somebody who could train other crossing guards. she is recently retired you but

we're pleased to have her come back to make an encore appearance. she is recently retired as a school crossing guard. her honor will be presented by bond yee, our director of sustainable streets. >> good afternoon, mr. yee. >> good afternoon, mr. chair, members of the board, mr. haley, bond yee with sustainable streets. after all these years of working, i have come to learn that there are only a few things i can say unequivocally, and one of them is our crossing guards are universally loved. and if you met pauline, you'll see why. she embodies all the great qualities that the public sees in our crossing guards, and that's dependability, dedication, love of children, deep concern for our school area safety, and most important of all, she's got a great,

sunny, cheerful personality just puts you at ease and feel comfortable at home. so, pauline, we're really going to miss you, but don't be a stranger. feel free to come back any time and teach us something you learned in retirement and congratulations. (applause) >> thank you. i won't say too much of anything. i want to thank all my friends, my coworkers, my granddaughter, [speaker not understood]. thank you. >> on behalf of the board of directors, the entire agency, more importantly, the people of san francisco whom you've helped every day for all these years, thank you so much and all the best in retirement. (applause)

>> there is a fan club back there. everybody in mr. gill's fan club, please stand up for a second. (applause) >> mr. haley, i interrupt your presentation for a minute here. we've been joined by supervisor avalos. he has a board meeting shortly. supervisor avalos wants to say a few words. good afternoon, supervisor. >> good afternoon, director. thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak on balboa park capacity study. i really appreciate the many, many months and years of work that has been involved in looking at balboa park station. certainly we need to know how we can build a road map for improving the station and the people who use that station every day, passing through either on transit in their cars, on foot. definitely need improvements to be made there as quickly as

possible. we had a hearing today in plans and programs, the transportation authority. we talked about the need for making improvements. we have timelines that are very tentative for moving the improvements forward. i'd like to think we can work more closely to make sure we can really put the meat on the bones as quickly as possible to make improvements to one of the most used transit hubs in the entire bay area region. that's what balboa park is, and it's something that desperately -- the peepople and the central part of san francisco need improvements on. i've worked with community groups how we can build transit oriented development around the balboa park station. i'm very encouraged by the item you have before you about transfer of land to the mayor's office of housing. that's a step in the right direction. we actually have planned for housing development, transit oriented development at balboa park station.

it was in the better neighborhoods plan. that was approved in 2009. i'm just really happy we're at the point now where we can actually move forward. there are many, many residents in my district who want to have a partnership with the transit agencies around balboa park to make sure we can actually build the improvements that actually really make incredible experience for people who use that station every day. people have their blinders on. they don't see what it's really like because they're so used to it not being what it should be. and we're going to work together to make it what it should be. my office will be helpful in that process and look forward to working with you on that. thank you very much. >> thank you, supervisor avalos. members of the board, any questions? >> i would like to express gratitude for supervisor avalos. i know you've been out there working to facilitate communication, dialogue between the mta and the community and your efforts do not go unnoticed and i really appreciate them. >> thank you. >> can i second that and also

say i met with you earlier this year. you asked me to take a visit there and i was able to do that with some of our staff here at mta. i just appreciate your efforts on that, too. thank you. >> thank you. i really appreciate your following up and taking a look. in fact, the experience people have who are in wheelchairs or pushing strollers or who have other mobility needs is great. and you're seeing it as a director here at this agency is essential and hopefully that will lead to greater changes. so, thank you very much. >> thank you, supervisor. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. just a quick overview of the events around the joint celebration. -- giants celebration. for the city and for us, it was a glorious day. well over a million people coming into the parade * . we encouraged everyone to use public transit as much as possible. and we put into effect a

coordinated plan with the other city agencies to get people to use transit. the plan included bringing in all the pcos and the proof of payment staff, closing mission street so that it was for our use only. having people out in a variety of public service positions to provide people with information, putting extra service out to run rush hour trains all day. we put people in stations. and we also had brought dpw into our departmental operations center to help with, in particular, with street closures and also at the break of the parade to go behind. i think there was a couple of things -- we motorized all of the trolley coach lines in order to make sure that nobody

climbed or threw anything up on the electric wires. and that seemed to work very well. and the dedicated lanes worked very well. i think next time we'll continue to refine the staffing level of -- in the hours of our plan. but, again, i think we have a lot to learn. we did pretty well, and i think it's important that we do learn some lessons from this because most of us feel that the giants will win again and we may have to do this again next year. so, with that, mr. chairman, that concludes my report. >> thank you. members of the board, questions? members of the public want to speak on mr. haley's presentation? seeing none, let's move ahead. next item. did we have somebody to speak on mr. haley? he finished. he finished. >> i'm done. >> okay.

item 8, council report. i do not see mr. murphy here and nobody has indicated [speaker not understood] board on public comment under the director's report. moving on to item 9, public comment, this is an opportunity for members of the public to address the board on matters that are within the jurisdiction but not on today's agenda. herbert wiener followed by richard hibals and then mark gruber. >> good afternoon. herbert wiener, passenger at risk. what is the difference between the giants and muni management? muni management always strikes out. now, i can applaud the apprehension of the vandal who is genuinely ashamed of being caught. i applaud the gentleman who defended the vehicle and its passengers. but in order to improve your

batting average, you have to do something with the money that's available to you. now, you have come into funds recently. i think what you have to do is you have to start improving transportation. and one thing would be to restore the buses -- bus runs that were cut and start putting some of the bus stops back. it is now expected that passengers will walk up to a quarter of a mile to get a bus. this is extremely cruel to senior citizens. it is extremely cruel to those who are critically ill. and so far mta has not batted an eyelash about this. they are extremely insensitive to the endangerment of people who have to endure this. now, the only thing probably that will wake up this board is a lawsuit where someone falls, fractures a hip and dies. and the only tears that will be shed will be over the loss of

money. so, you have the money to really start making improvements and really start improving services. muni services should be available to every person in this city, and that means to the outlying routes. those in the neighborhoods and those are being yanked away. so, now is the time to do something. and you really, you really have a responsibility to do this and don't shirk it. the motto of this agency should not be "no service, no apologies, no shame." that should not be your banner. >> next speaker. >> [speaker not understood] followed by mark gruberg and then carl mcmurto. previously he did distribute some communication that i will send to you. mark gruberg followed by [speaker not understood]. those are the last two people who turned in a speaker card.

>> good afternoon. good afternoon, mark gruberg, united taxicab workers. at your last meeting some of us were really angry and i think we had a right to be. i've been doing this for many years and for me it's always been a question of how do we provide citizens and visitors to san francisco with superior taxi service, keeping in mind issues such as driver income, working conditions, fair treatment, opportunity, the opportunities which you're now stripping away piece by piece. equally important to all of that is the question of respect. and i believe that was lacking at your last meeting. people have waited for over three hours to speak.