tv [untitled] April 1, 2013 10:30am-11:00am PDT
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developing the city's over all transportation system including advocating for san francisco's priorities within the region. it really talks to the external role that the executive director will play in terms of being a real catalyst throughout transportation programs and projects that are funded by prop k. and then we talked about some specific projects that immediate to be addressed in the near future. and then we talk about the work around transportation studies. we can spend a lot of time looking at discussing things that should be happening instead that are under way, but those who are the users of the transportation systems here, unless they are feeling that and seeing that, then a lot of times it's used
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facilitating discussions, but this talks about getting things done. one of the priorities, one of the key competencies is getting things done. it's important that at the end of the day that things are getting done and that there is this perception that things are getting done as part of the leadership role. so we had about 7 top priorities but we narrowed it down to 4. these are not the only ones but we thought these were key ones and then we talk about the role of the director, what they are responsible for and what their duties are and those are pretty standard for a leadership role. some are very specific to the authority and the authorities make-up. but we wanted to make sure that providing leadership is the critical element and not only leadership within the
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transit community, but leadership within the city, leadership within the region and leadership within the actual authority itself. making sure that it is a culture of excellence and excellence continues to be at the fore front of what we do and put in the 3rd responsibility to show justice equity and access and that's important to show disparities are addressed. we moved up that on the list of responsibilities and those are the kinds of things that we heard as part of the core competencies and we want the candidates to see. if we have taken the bullet like that and put it down maybe bullet 15, people think it's not that important because it's at the bottom. we want to prioritize
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the bullets. >> i'm happy that you have it here at eye level. >> thank you. and then the candidates for educational background. the educational background is pretty standard. we expect them to have some formal education. we expect them to be technically competent. in this arena, the lack of some technical knowledge will not serve them well. they need to understand transportation issues, transportation policies. they need to also have had experience managing projects, people and programs. and so, we are not asking that they have 20 years of experience or 30 years of experience. we are saying 10 years of experience do well. we'll find it. people will range anywhere from 10-30 years of experience. we don't want to shut people out because
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they have 11 years of experience or even 9 years of experience. we want to look at them on an individual basis. we put them here as preferences and we list some of the ideal characteristics that the candidates should possess. and some of those is team building. we heard a lot during our discussions about the ability to be a good team player, to be a good team leader but also to deal with adversity in a positive and comprehensive manner. but we spent a lot of the flavor of the write ups focus on the ability to collaborate and work with others. being a great orchestra leader is really a significant characteristic for the next executive director of the cta because they have got a lot of moving parts their dealing with. some they are in the lead
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position on, others they are not going to be in a lead position. so they have to understand how to lead from the rear and from the front and they have to be a good member of the team and good bench player but also a good star player. they have to be able to put all those roles and that's something that bret spoke do to about one of those core competencies. and this person has got to have some humiliation to them. they can talk and interact and they have to really care about transit, transportation, optimizing mobility and all the core values that we share here in san francisco. we loaded up on a lot of that terminology. it may seem at times redundant. we want them to hear words over
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again as they look at this brochure. and then we talk about the application process to be considered. we did not include compensation here. we are going to put in an insertion about the compensation. we won't put the salary range in the profile but we will put the compensation will be open depending upon qualifications and we'll list some of the core benefits that are part of the compensation package because the actual agreement between the commission and the candidate is negotiable. the application process, we did not put a closing date in there yet after our stakeholder engagement and after reviewing the preliminary diligence, we felt our timeline
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might have been too quick with a closed date in 3 weeks. we think it's a little bit too short of a window. we want to expand it by an additional 3 weeks. we would like approval to add additional 3 weeks to allow the staff to make those judgements in order to keep us on path, but making sure we can do this exhaustive national search and i think it also has the obvious advantage for us as well because it gives the -- if you have a short window of recruitment, then the expectation is just the opposite of what commissioner campos was talking about is the perception of the marketplace would be, well, they must have someone in mind already because they are not keeping it open for long. by hiring a search person to help you means you
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are doing something nationally and exhaustive and having a reasonable time that shows you are open to candidates from a variety of sources. we are impressed with the talent that we have uncovered within san francisco and regional agencies. we think we are going to have a wealth of talent that comes right from our own backyard which in our cases is beautiful. it keeps us off the plains. that's what the brochure is. we will then distribute this electronically to candidates who have expressed interest. we send this to individuals who we want to be sources for us and thought leaders for us. we also send this to targeted people that we are very interested in having them take a look at the opportunity and we also will have this posted on the
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authorities website, we will also have a personal invite taegs so everyone has a personal invite taegs to apply for the position. >> thank you. mr. hawkins. i know you requested or discussed perhaps wanting 3 weeks extension to the recruitment process. can you walk us through the dates what that would look like exactly? >> sure.
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>> initially if you look at the agenda of the timeline, the may 6th meeting was scheduled for a time when we came back and discussed with you candidates that you would then select to participate in interviews. in order for us to have that discussion with you, we would have to close the recruitment somewhere near april 25th in order to be ready for that kind of meeting. we would like to push that meeting back by 3 weeks to the last week of may.
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and everything else would lineup by the same kind of sequencing. >> you feel that 3 weeks will be ample time. >> yes. >> okay. commissioner campos. >> yes, why 3 weeks, why not 2 weeks? >> we said between 2 and 3 weeks. it could be less than 3 weeks. >> you have a scheduling issue as well and we want to be able to schedule to your calendars as well. we have a 3 week window and if we can line it up where 2-3 weeks would satisfy it as well. 3 weeks gives us the flexibility. >> i'm worried about the timing here and making sure we are not taking too long. i appreciate that. >> typically, that phase of the recruitment is a 6-8 week base
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for national recruitment. you are well underneath the standards, we recognized the urgency associated with this but in order to do the thoroughness that puts us at basically 6 weeks. >> thank you, mr. hawkins. you are saying typically a national search or any search at this level is 6-8 weeks and we are engaging in a 6 week process. >> as we are looking at now it's a 3 week process. >> interestingly enough my comments, i think you would need more time. i just want to make sure that we are able to spend time developing relationships and also evaluating so that we are able to really get someone that satisfies all the different type characteristics we are
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looking for. i don't want to sell ourselves short even in your request for the extension. >> right. i think 3 weeks will satisfy. the other elements of the timeline stay intact in terms of the sequencing. it just us more time. >> i was going to say that i think up to 3 weeks makes sense but i still have that sense of urgency that our chair has as well. i think there needs to be some mention of the mta, the municipal transportation agency somewhere in the narrative and explanation of our mta as well. i had a suggestion that on page under the executive director bullets, that it should list ensure where it's talking about
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effective communications with the board of supervisors, the mayor's office and san francisco's elected representative at the state and federal levels, it needs to mention the mta too, i think. that would be my recommendation and i just wanted to echo our chair avalos's suggestion that the track record of promoting social justice and equity is top priority. and focusing on track records that someone who has a demonstrated experience from promoting equity and justice. this you for doing that. >> i think it goes beyond the mta. probably there are other departments that are related to other work of county transportation authority. >> we always run the risk if we put one agency in there that we
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then have to put all the agencies in there not to lose sight of this. if there is a what the we can use a catch phrase that is inclusive for all of those regional partners that will work to our benefit. so but if there is -- if we know there is three agencies and three agencies only that we are concerned about and we fill those three in and we use a catch phrase for the rest of them. >> i think it makes sense to list some of them. i think the mta, puc and dpw. i think staff might have the best recommendation for which ones to list as well. but definitely mta and puc and dpw. the
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effective communication especially with the mta is going to be a core competency that we need to highlight. commissioner wiener? >> thank you, mr. chairman. in terms of the timetable, i have a probably similar perspective to commissioner cohen. while we certainly want the fros move forwards expeditiously and efficiently and we don't want to have any unnecessary delays, the most important thing is to cast a wide net and bring any and all potentially interested qualified candidates forward and get it right. it is better to get it right than to get it done fast particularly on deadlines that are frankly not self-evidently better or worse than other deadlines and that
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are in some ways artificial. it would be great to have an executive director who starts on july 1st. that would be terrific. if it takes, if it means starting august 1st or september 1st in order to be able to cast that wider net, that is not going to in anyway damage agency. we have very competent staff who are currently doing a great job keeping the ship on track and will continue to do so. so there is nothing magical about july 1st even though that is the date that would be great to meet. in terms of how much time you need whether it's 2 or 3 or 5 weeks. you are the professionals. you know what needs to be done to make sure we are casting the wide net and what i would say if it turns out that 3 weeks is not enough to be able to communicate and deal with the potential
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candidates from around the country, i would encourage you not to feel like you are being pressured to have the shorter time period if you feel in your professional judgment that we can use more. and frankly, having an artificially strict deadline will accomplish the opposite of what supervisor is expressing concern in that it will make it harder to conduct a national search because people around the country, it's more challenging for them to come in for an interview and i don't want to have the tail wagging the dog so it's artificially imposed deadline forces us to focus only on local candidates and that's what i'm afraid to do and that is my perspective. >> i would propose that in addition to adding the 3 weeks to the closing date that on that may 6th date we have
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already a meeting scheduled and we'll give you a briefing as to where we are and how it's shaping up so we know we don't wait until the end and say we need more time. that we've already, we want to keep you in the loop as we move through the process. we keep that date on the schedule and that becomes a progress meeting for us to come and give you the results of how things are moving at that particular point. >> thank you, we spoke on the phone and you mentioned this as well and your opinion at that time was that this would be ample time to do an effective search. i do appreciate that as well. commissioner campos? >> thank you, commissioner chairman. i think all the comments reflect the need to balance that are involved here. i have been involved in these process here, not in the area of transportation but in the area of education and hiring of
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superintendents. my experience is that the bias usually falls the other way. which is a bias in favor of outside candidates and nothing that i have heard today changes my view in terms of where that bias is here. but be that as it may, i think it's about balancing. i think that if you feel a 3 weeks is what's needed, i'm okay with that. but anything that goes beyond that, i would have a concern. i know we have a very capable staff indeed, but the transition we have in place was a transition that, an expedited process without exclusion any qualified national candidate. the one thing i thought was troubling and missing in this document and i think it's what supervisor mar eluded to that
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there is no recognition of the autonomous nature of the cta and i think there is some reference to that in terms of the description of the governing board. i think it's really important to make it clear that someone is coming into an agency that even though it's part of the city and county family, it's not run the way an mta is run. it's not run the way that dpw or any other agency is run. i don't know if it's necessarily captured here and there needs to be added emphasis on the fact that beyond the autonomy we want someone who is also going to be able toen than is collaboration with the other agency locally. you have some reference to that, but i don't think it's emphasized enough. i think if
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there is one thing that i have seen in the last couple of years especially on major projects and district specific that packet certain neighborhoods, the level of coordination among the various agencies is not where it needs to be and the mta can particularly play a role in that and i actually think that's something that has been lacking and it's not just a ta thing but an issue of the entire city and i think that's a priority that we have better collaboration. i think that's the other missing piece. thank you. >> mr. hawkins are those things that you will be make reference
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on? >> definitely we can add some language in here that talks about the autonomy of the authority and we can add more information or beef up the information already in here regarding the collaboration and coordination role that the cta plays. i think that could be added. >> okay. colleagues, any other comments or questions? >> commissioner wiener? >> this is as much for the commission or the staff for consultant. in terms of future meetings are we going to be sticking to monday morning? >> i want to say thank you for the morning or afternoon. i
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don't have a preference, but i'm just curious. >> we'll have a set for time. a tuesday morning if we don't have a finances committee meeting or plans and programs meeting perhaps we can double up with a finances committee meeting. we want to make sure we don't get in the way of any other committee meeting. >> any other morning is fine with me. >> thank you for you and your staff and your work and your presentations. i appreciate the effort. we can go on the public comment. any last thing? >> thank you very much for your time and input and we'll take everything into consideration and integrate those comments into the document. we'll allow commissioners campos to take a look at that and share with the rest of the commissioners and if we don't get the feedback we are good to go. we'll use our point person to figure out
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those last elements there and share with you. >> right, if you can consult with us on that that will be great. up to 3 weeks would be appropriate and i second that recommendation. thank you. >> okay any member of the public would like to comment? seeing none come forward we'll close public comment. next item please. >> this is an information item >> items introduced okay. public comment on this item? we'll close public comment. >> next item? >> no. 5. public comment. >> any public comment? we'll close public comment. >> last item. >> item 6. adjournment. >> we are adjourned. thank you.
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i think it is fun for them, they see our work process, our discussions, the decisions we make. it is good for us. we kind of behavior little bit when we have people in the audience. msk (music) >> we are rehearsing for our most expensive tour; plus two concerts here. we are proud that the growth of the orchestra, and how it is expanded and it is being accepted. my ambition when i came on as music director here -- it was evident we needed absolutely excellent work. also evident to me that i thought everyone should know that. this was my purpose. and after we opened, which was a spectacular opening concert
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about five weeks after that the economy completely crashed. my plan -- and i'm absolutely dogmatic about my plans --were delayed slightly. i would say that in this very difficult timefor the arts and everyone, especially the arts, it's phenomenal how new century has grown where many unfortunate organizations have stopped. during this period we got ourselves on national radio presence; we started touring, releasing cds, a dvd. we continue to tour. reputation grows and grows and grows and it has never stopped going forward. msk
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