>> 2013 meeting of the san francisco municipal transportation agency board of directors and parking authority commission. please read the roll. >> director byrningman. >> present. >> director heinicke is anticipated. >> director lee. >> lee present. >> director nolan. >> present. >> director rbi keis present. >> mr. chairman, directors you have a quorum. announce of prohibition of sound producing devices during meeting and please be advised ringing of these electronic devices are prohibited at meeting and anyone responsible for one going off during the meeting will be removed during the meeting. -- [ laughter ] >> that would be the point. >> case in point. >> thank you for illustrating that. >> cell phones set on vibrate

cause microphone interference and the board respectfully requests that they are in the off-position. >> item no. 4, approval of the minutes of the november 19th. >> motion, second. >> all those in favor, signify by saying aye? >> aye. >> thank you >> item 5 communications. members of the board, on next monday december 9 the mta board will have a special meeting with the small business commission combining at 4:30 here in this room and the focus of the meeting will be on the impact of sfmta's planning processes on the small business community in san francisco. so we're all looking for that and that will be noticed and would love you all to come back at that time. >> if people could please step away from the wall there. also, out of respect for the fire codes we do need people to find a seat. we can't have people standing. >> okay. >> roberta? >> yes. >> all right, directors,

please be aware that with respect to item 10.1 j the proposal to establish a tow-away zone has been removed from the agenda at the request of staff and therefore, item 10.1 j is only for the tow away proposal on mission and 16th street. >> anybody else -- ladies and gentlemen, please, [ gavel ] . please. okay. so is there a motion on the consent calendar as it stands, minus that one? >> there is no can request from the member of the public to take item on that. actually, do you want to take the consent calendar out of order? i was just making a communication and there will be no discussion of anticipated litigation for today's closed session. item 6, introduction of new or unfinished business by board members. >> i have been in touch with some of the community leaders in chinatown, and an issue that came up as a concern was the 800 block of kerney where the

chinatown, city college is and st. mary's school and the hotel senior center. they have been in operation for a year and that year they had a white zone in front of that facility. they said that in february all of a sudden no parking from 3-6 was posting and they are having problems with that now. they have been in touch with the staff since february, and it seems to be unresolved. can we have somebody look into that? >> we'll have the director to do that. thank you, any other new or unfinished business by the board? seeing none. >> director's report. >> director reiskin. >> good afternoon, board, members of the staff and we'll start with recognizing some of our employees as we do at the first meeting of each month. first, just kind of a follow on, i had mentioned last meeting that we had held our 2013 safe driver award event which is honoring muni

operators who have 15 or more years' of safe driving. it's something that we did in collaboration with the transport workers union local 258 and today we wanted to recognize a couple of those operators who are in the 35 plus years of safe driving category. so i want to ask our transit director john haley to come forward. >> mr. haley. >> good afternoon, mr. chairman, board. waiting for the guests of honor to make their way up. >> okay, good. >> it is my great pleasure to introduce them, who you may remember from another appearance and dwayne allen, both who work at cable car and have truly outstanding safety

and operating records. you may recall a line from a famous song that i will neither sing, nor quote the whole song that says we're little cable cars go halfway to the stars. with the skills and attention of these two individuals, they have proven that line to be a great understatement. average cable car goes about 4200 miles a year. if you combine their 30 years' of safe operation, not only have they gone to the stars, but they have gone more than the 239,000 miles to the moon and yet they have returned and they have brought the car back to the barn. [ laughter ] so it is my distinct pleasure to introduce two individuals that embody all of the best that we have for the agency and the city. they are not only terrific ambassadors in dealing with the public, but really have unsurpassed safety records.

>> on behalf of the of the board of directors and the agency and the entire city, thank you for your outstanding work. [ applause ] >> thank you very much. it's been an honor. thank you. >> good afternoon. >> it's a great honor to receive this trophy, and we are really true ambassadors of the city. we love this city and we love the people. thank you so much for this distinction. [ applause ] >> thank you. director reiskin. >> let me ask if president eric williams wants to come up and say a few words about the safe driver awards.

he is an indispensable partner with us putting these honors on. >> good afternoon president nolan and board members. yes, i would like to say something. we have six honorees who have 36 plus years, but i believe the other four are retired and wanted no part of this -- [laughter ] ironically i had the pleasure of working with both of these young men, when i first got there. this young man has true skills as a gripman. and he can't be replaced. so any knowledge or anything like that that you can give anybody coming up will be well-used, okay? mr. dwayne allen, wow. i don't know how many people didn't make the cable car messing with him because of his tricks -- just understanding being a conductor, what it takes.

and if you didn't cut the mustard can dwayne allen, you couldn't be a conductor, not just based on seniority, but if you can do the job. it takes a lot to perform the dutis that you do day and in and day out and i salute you on behalf of your train operator brothers and sisters, i salute you. [ applause ] as well transport workers union has taken upon itself to promote transit operator safety campaign, because we need to have that, all across the board. safety campaign. for the next month, all the chairpersons at each division will be out and about on the streets, promoting a safety campaign in which i have long-awaited for since i have been in office from mr. melvin

henry's office to the safety department with the sfmta. we look forward to this, because our members take this safety issue seriously. no matter what we hear that is going on the streets, how many incidents or accidents that we have, that is part of the course, unfortunately. if you count the number of members that don't have any incidents or accidents out there on the platform, it's rewarding. it should be refreshing. it should be acknowledged. it should be taken to the public in that aspect of what the hard work that the men and women do on the streets of san francisco, navigating these 40s and 60s and trolleys and lrvs through this city. i get kind of emotional, but i'm serious there. don't think i'm playing, because i'm serious. so we have to. so over the next month if the sfmta wants to join me and my team on the

streets promoting safety among all operators, join us. don't call my office, because we won't be. there we'll be on the streets. thank you. >> thank you, mr. president. [ applause ] . >> director reiskin. >> safety is the no. 1 goal that you all adopted in our strategic plan. it's the no. 1 goal of the agency. these two represented six operators who have more than 35 years' of safe driving and represented more than 170 operators systemwide who had more than 15 years' of safe driving. as i think eric was addressing, safety is not a one-time event each year for an awards ceremony, but needs to be part of the culture of our organization and operators operator in difficult circumstances so.

the emphasis from the union and the city is essential and i want to thank them for the hard work they do everyday. our second and final presentation is a little bit bittersweet. actually i don't know if it's sweet at all, but bitter. we have one of the members of enforcement staff who wants to say a few words to honor our outgoing director of security and investigations and enforcement, if he can make his way up. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon; mr. chair, members of the board, mr. reiskin. first of all i do like to salute our colleagues, muni with those impressive safety

driving records. it's quite an impressive feat having all of these years of safe driving is much longer than i have been alive. [ laughter ] anyway, this is a bittersweet moment for myself personally, as well as all of the colleagues in the back there. this occasion of her impending retirement. she is obviously with us on her second career. she retired from the police department in 2011 after over 30 years' of exemplary example as a commander and she joined us as the director of security and investigations and enforcement and has been with us were to for two and a half years. she has really been impressive

with her leadership, not only is she direct and she has tremendous communication skills. believe me, she will tell you what she thinks. and one of the things that she was charged with was managing our special events transportation management program. and she implemented a program called "the integrated command system." and we put it to good use right away in that october, you may remember last year? when all of these events took place, such as the america's cup, and the concerts and 49ers and giants game all happening over the same weekend. we survived it and managed it well with flying colors and has been successful ever since ever

time we have implemented the plan on subsequent events. so at this time i want to take a moment to thank her and her tireless service and wish her the best. her partner anne marie is in the audience, along with all of her colleagues who could be here in the back. [ applause ] now kathy, you want to say a few things? >> thank you. hi everybody. >> good afternoon. >> i am a little nervous. i don't know there would be this many people here. commander, thank you for being who you are. >> would you state your name for the record. >> kathy broussard. >> thank you for being who you are, i have always known how busy you were working on the

administrative side of our department and the countless meetings, negotiating and campaigning all the way to the top of us, work on the inside now i got a better glimpse of what you do and have even a better understanding of how you did what you do. everyday you made a difference for us. you have shown me how much you can love us, yet keep us disciplined at the same time. you taught me to never spare effort or i would meet disaster. my spirit of sacrifice is now great. thank you for believing in me, now and also in the past when i wasn't sure when i believed in myself anymore. your believing had in me has led me to succeed and do better. you have inspired me in so many ways with your words and action and with this i have achieved greatness and will be forever grateful to you. with that, i will take a part of the torch that you lead for us to carry and i carry with great pride and integrity.

thank you for changing our department and our destiny. it is with great appreciation and admiration that i wish you a wonderful and fulfilling and adventurous retirement. thank you. [ applause ] >> lee i would like to say on behalf of the board of directors and indeed the entire agency thank you for the outstanding job you have done throughout all these years, with the police department and with us. your professionalism and dedication, but most of the us that always touched me is the grace that you bring. so thank you for outstanding service and join in wishing you a wonderful retirement. >> thank you. boy, this is going to be tough for me, i think. kathy, thank you very much.

[ laughter ] i think it's too late for that. a couple of years ago i was blessed to come to this agency as a police officer. and i have to say it's one of the most amazing experiences of my life. the people that work at the sfmta are some of the finest, most talented human beings i have ever had the opportunity to work with. i want to start by thanking bondi for his leadership and for his friendship and always steering me and pointing in the right direction. i will miss you very much, and i can't say enough just what you mean to me. the same goes for ed reiskin. i am so blessed that you asked

me to take on this challenge after i left my job in law enforcement. i will be forever grateful to you for your leadership and really just bringing an end to my career in city life that has really just touched my heart in ways that i can't even express to you. so thank you so very much. i need to acknowledge -- a person is only as good as team that they surround themselves with and i would like to acknowledge my managers, because quite frankly they do the lion's share of the work and i have been blessed to hire three of them under my tenure here, and the fourth came along when i first came here and he is just remarkable. so i would like to introduce chris, who is

the manager. sammy, our director of enforcement. [ applause ] scarlet lamb, manager of emergency preparedness and sue, who is the manager of m tap, the muni transit assistance program. [ applause ] the other folks i want to acknowledge are the folks that really do the job every single day, our front line staff that are our fare inspectors, our pcos. i can't say enough of the job that they do and i would like to ask them to stand up and be acknowledged. [ applause ]

i think this is going to clear out in just a second here. and just two last mountains, one is the muni transit assistance program who really doesn't get a lot of kudos, but they ride our buses every single day and they deal with our youth and support our youth each and every day and sue, you have done a fantastic job with those folks as well and lastly i would be remiss if i didn't think the most important person in my life, which is my partner, ann marie. [ applause ] she has really supported every turn and twist in my career and when i retired from the police department and said i wanted to come back and do this, i expected to plug my ears, but she supported me whole-heartedly. and so i thank you so much. that is about all i have. i have been so blessed to work

with each and every one of you and i hope this isn't the end of our chapters together. thanks. [ applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, you have to be sitting. 408 is available and the fire marshal and sheriff's deputy is here. we can't conduct the meeting if people are still standing. so at this point i ask you to take seats that are vacated or go to room 408.

we're back in order, director reiskin, i want to continue with your report, please. >> thank you. obviously, a tough act to follow. i think she has already left, but she is certainly one of the finest managers and leaders that i have worked with and we were certainly blessed to have her for this period. and to let you know what we're doing in the taxi division, you may remember last year, the taxi and accessible services division created an incentive program for the highest-achieving drivers that provide wheelchair service to try to make sure that we incentivize -- >> [ gavel ] , ladies and gentlemen, please, director reiskin. >> make sure that we try and

incentive folks for doing wheelchair pickups, which worked fairly well. we had a 20% increase in wheelchair pickups in 2012. however, when we started to do some of the medallion reform we lost some of the effect of that incentive program. so we are initiating this month a new incentive program to incentivize wheelchair pickup by taxi drivers and it's basically $10 pick up per wheelchair trip. so it's a pretty significant benefit. and for any wheelchair customer who is picked up from an area outside of the central part of the city, a driver will receive front of the line credit at the airport, which is a big deal for a taxi driver. it can save them and get them back in service much more quickly than they would otherwise. we estimate that we would have

about 800 requests for wheelchair service during december based on past data and for every pickup of a paratransit debit card holder, the driver will be paid $10. so for the moment we're only able to do this for paratransit debit card-holding wheelchair users, because that is the only payment mechanism that we have. but as we look at this pilot and evaluate its effectiveness, we will figure out ways to expand it. so some good news there. we do have some ramp kind of larger ramp reform coming in the new year. this is something that we didn't think could wait and so we'll start the pilot this month. finally, i want to give you a central subway update and seems that we always have something to report on. wanted to let you know that just a few days ago, our first tunnel boring machine achieved

probably its most significant milestone since launching, which is crossing under market street, including under the bart and muni tunnels. very, very significant milestone. one that had a lot of analyses and testing and contingency plans and vetting and support around it. but it went out without a hitch and we're ahead of schedule in terms of the tunneling. it has been going well with no movement of buildings or the tunnel and it's great news that it's going, as well as it is, the second tunnel boring machine has launched and we now have two of them moving north throughout the city. we are stopping construction for the holiday -- or have stopped construction for the holiday moratorium and the public right-of-way on stockton

and columbus, et cetera. we will be working in the chinatown corridor to accommodate the chinese new year celebration, which somewhat spills out on the stockton street and continuing to work with the merchants and particularly union square, chinatown and north beach as we continue the work of the tunneling and the station contracts, which are underway. so good progress to report there. and that concludes my report. >> thank you, director reiskin. members of the board, questions or comments for the director? director heinicke? [ inaudible ] >> oh, thank you. thank you, bob, i appreciate that. [ laughter ] i will take you on the road with me. the last time we had one of these sessions, i pestered you

about a plan for market street and closing it to private vehicles and you said maybe it would happen and this is our last meeting in december, so i think i at least expect that we'll be hearing something about the plans -- much-anticipated plans for market street and this board's direction maybe in january? >> that is correct. what i have for you -- i have it already, just not vetted and ready to present, is a list of kind of an array, a spectrum of options that we could do from things of signage and education and enforcement to a much larger auto restriction. so i wouldn't say it's a plan that i will be bringing to you, but i will bring you the range of ideas and costs for your consideration in january. >> very good. and then the other thing sort of ongoing item is at the last meeting, we sort of put one aspect of the taxi information contract on hold in the hopes

that the information will be coming in from the cab companies. so that we wouldn't need to capture it ourselves. if at one of the january meetings, maybe the second one to give us an update in the director's report so we can address any issues before we hit that deadline would be great. >> yes. >> director rubke. >> i have a quick question about the incentive program or the pilot. first of all, it sounds really great. are we going to get data that feeds into the recommendations that are coming forth in terms of proposal for the ramp cab program? >> we will have data based on this pilot, because we're doing it through the debit card program. we'll have very exact data. the kind of larger recommendations on how the reform for the ramp system are really already developed. there has been a number of town hall meetings with taxis. i think we're planning to