heard time and time again about examples where money that should be spent on m.t.a. matters is going to things that may or may not be -- may have a connection or a nexus to public transportation. many of you have rightly identified that problem, identified that issue and we have a report from the comptroller's office that points out that even paveg things as having a written contract that the basic things that something as basic sthazz is not happening. so we have -- basic as that is not happening. the money that is being work ordered to other departments. this charter amendment makes a couple of changes beginning with the fact that it requires that

written agreements be created before a work order actually is finalized. it also requires a closer nexus between the work order and the service. there that has to be a close connection between the service and the goals and the objective of the m.t.a. and before a work order is finalized i that members of the public and the m.t.a. ridership are given an opportunity to say whether or not their money should be used as proposed. the third issue that this charter addresses is the issue of service cuts. right now, we are facing pretty severe cuts that have been implemented because of the work of this board. we have managed to reduce the level of cutting of those services from 10% to 5%. there is a plan in place but the

fact is that service -- services are still being drastically cut to this ridership and we have a situation where many of us feel that the m.t.a. board of directors have circumvented the process that is in place that requires before a line is terminated that the board of directors comes before the board. that was circumvented because instead of eliminated bus lines they sid an across the board service cut that doesn't require board oversight and we're trying to address that circumvention by changing definition of line -- so that service cuts of a certain level actually require a public process and involved the board of supervisors. there is a creation by the inspector general position that provides an independent audit function for what other agencies and other parts of the country

we believe are following. we believe that is a best practice. that is the best practice that should be implemented by this agency and what we recognize and respect the work over the comptrollers office does, we believe there is a need for an independent party that reports directly for the board of directors to provide that function. lastly, we also recognize that there has to be a sharing of the pain if you will in terms of the financial stability and well-being of this agency and we, from a public policy standpoint, recognize that salaries should be set through bargaining and we in this charter amendment propose to take out the charter the provision is that sets the current salaries. we believe that that is something that should be left to collective bargaining and we owe it to the ridership that that change be made. in smarkse colleagues, we believe that this is -- summary,

colleagues, we believe this is comprehensive reform that we need now. i talked about some of the concerns that have been raised by the federal transportation administration about the ability of the m.t.a. to actually complete and oversee that project. i think that those of us who support the completion of that project have to recognize that for that project o or project s of that nature to be finalized that we need to implement a comprehensive m.t.a. reform, and we need to do it quickly and soobling. we cannot wait. again, y -- as soon as possible. again, i want to thank my co-authors. i ask for your support of this measure. the last thing i would say is is that a lot has been said in the last few weeks about the interrelationship between charter amendments and the very

long and complicated budget process that we have gone through. i have repeatedly said that when it comes to governing the city that we need to deal with each one of those items 13r59ly. that as important it is a budget process is, it has to necessarily be disconnected from the very important analysis of whether or not we need structural research. it is for that reason that i believe we need to move aggressively to reform this agency. again, i want to thank all of the co-sponsors and the office of the city attorneys that has worked diligently on this and my office, sheila has done a tremendous job in helpings to -- helping to put this together. >> thank you. before i ask kristin choo to speak, it is the amended motion

and 56 is the amended that deletes the set aside. are we all on the same page? >> thank you. colleagues, i have been one of the advocates along with the other co-sonsor of this measure for comprehensive reform. i don't think there is anyone in this chamber who does not think that muni and the m.t.a. needs very significant reform. i was very happy to use my name as a co-sponsor of this. i am very pleased today to help announce that the mayor's office, the m.t.a. and others have reached an agreement today on a set of four reforms that to help advance all of our shared goal s of improving the m.t.a. and fully restoring muni service. what i would like to do is

describe what the aspects are, those immediate reforms that we can put into place starting today. first of all, there is now going to be a plan for muni service restoration such that by december 1 of this year, the m.t.a. is going to issue a report outlining the agency's plan to restore the remaining 5% of service hours from the may 2010 service cuts of which 5% of those cuts will be restored in september 2010. that was one of the objectives of the originally proposed charter amendments. there is a group that is being put together that is going to be evaluating the various funding sources to restore service and to identify additional reductions of revenue service and from my perspective obviously i hope voters in san francisco will support revenue in november and we can use this

that for muni service restoration. the reform that we're announcing today is around governance and how we reform governance. by october 1 of this year, the government has -- with the board of supervisors to create a transportation task force to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of transportation governing of san francisco, and with the conference decision of the task force being broadly representative of the various transportation agencies with meaningful portis pation from the public. the third -- participation from the public. the third that we are goir to be able to immediately announce is the work orders. it has been a significant issue and a point of concern. by september 30 of this year the mayor's office will coordinate written agreement for each work order between the m.t.a. and another city department.

for any future change after september 30, work orders from between m.t.a. and other city departments, the staff sholed shall submit in writing, the impact they will have on the agency and finances and operation. lastly, one -- an additional component of reform that we are announcing today has to do with the stopic of auditing. which was an important component of the charter amendment that has been composed. the comp patroler is committing to convene a selection panel to select a new director who'll be tasked as serving as a liaison. the director of audit compliance will work with the comptroller's office. they will also work with the comptroller's city services auditor on all performance

audits in each of the six division of the m.t.a. the first audit shall include a broad vover view and shall be updated. administration taxing and services division, the capital programs and the finance and i.t. division, safety and training ux sustainable streets and transit. from my perspective, we need to move immediately with m.t.a. reform. i don't want to wait until november. i think even if this measure were to qualify and get on to the ballot this november, it would be another step towards significant muni reform. from my perspective i'm prepared to move forward with this today. i will be asking to take my name off of the proposed charter amendment. we have many things on the ballot in november. ygs it is important that we -- i

think it is important that we focus voter attention on important items on the ballot and girn that we have been criticized for an alleged paragraph here which i don't necessarily agree with, i do think, though, that it is important that we give voters many reasons to support all of the things we are supporting on the ballots. for that reason, i believe it is a reason to support what i think is m.t.a. reform. i express my commitmentened n the long-term to work with all of you colleagues and the comprehensive m.t.a. reform so our muni riders finally get a muni that deserver. >> if i may simply just briefly respond to president choo and simply begin by thinking him for his efforts to try to bring

about immediate reform. i saw this document and i think there are many things here that are steps in the right direction. and i appreciate the fact that the mayor's office, working with your office, is willing to do these things but let me just briefly, without belaboring the point, explain why i believe the chatter amendment is something that makes sense and that goes beyond some of the things a are here. if you look at the issue of service cuts, i think it is great that along the lines that the board of supervisors and the county transportation authority has been saying for the last few weeks, that there has been a hearing recognition to restore all of the service cuts that have been made. but again, i don't think that immediate reform -- i actually

subscribe to the first section of this document that calls for an evaluation of the funding needed without any commitment explicitly as to when the money will be restored. i think that evaluation and creation of a plan, good idea as it is, is not something that points to an immediate restoration, which is i think what we would like to see.

work order with another accident something that this mayor can do today. and there is no reason why we should wait until september 30. and with respect to the enhanced auditing function, i think there

has been progress made in is this proposal. but i would respectedfully submit that the inspector general position that this charter amendment that we have introduced and provides is a lot more probust and envisioned here in this document that you the comp patroler and the m.t.a. board of directors convening a selection panel from our perspective, it was important that that individual report directly to the board of directors and that the board of directors have the ultimate say of who it is what happened the responsibilities are and along those lines, the responsibilities and the authority that is provided into the charter amendment is a lot more robust than the responsibility s that areoutlined hire. there is no funding mechanism

for that position nor does it provide for the allocation of additional resources. the last thing we wanted to avoid, is to create an independent auditor position, whatever you call the position and then have one person that doesn't have the personnel or the staff, doesn't have the resources need to do r to do the job. for those reasons, among others, i welcome some of the change s that areoutlined in this are outlined in this document. they do not go far enough to constitute reform. thank you.

the resourceses to restore the -- there is no commitment to that in the framework. just some -- you know, some vague plans that don't need to be implemented. therefore cannot be required -- to be implemented. we actually don't even really have it set whether or not they are implemented past, you know, up or down votes on the budget. the real kicker here, of course, is governance reform. the only way we can get governance reform at the m.t.a. is by amending the charter. what we have in front of us is a charter amendment to have governance reform and that's

what the mayor of san francisco would most opposed to. he did not want to cede any of his power and wanted to hold it will budget of san francisco hostage. so we think that a transportation governance task force is going to be any more influence than thank god it is friday task force getting the mayor of san francisco to agree to a governance change. i think the only thing to get him to agree to a governance change is if he is not the mayor of san francisco, which may happen next year. this section probably, we might as well -- from the agreement and call it what it is. maybe some restorations. maybe not. and then some stuff around work order and work order and auditing. in terms of the mayor holding the board of supervisors and our

budget hostage, i know i'm sometimes out there and i'm kind of, you know, a lone wolf or what have you on a 10-1 vote or calling people out for stuff they are doing behind the closed doors but as of this afternoon i'm not the only one and probably words stronger than i even use, the san francisco bay garden elltorializing underlines the mayor's horrible deal. vote trading for all local officials including new sh. mayor gaven newsome put the supervisors in a terrible position when he held $43 million of critical services hostage to pack commissions with little hacks. the deal he presented to the board was shameful and the supervisors should have rejected it and now they should pass

legislation to make this log rolling illegal. the mayor's ill leeling budget plan included -- illegal. they found a way to add back more than $40 million in funding for strick beds at san francisco general helicopter -- psychiatric beds at san francisco general hospital. unless board would agree to reject two proposed charter amendments to reform the transportation agency and the recreation and park commission. let's remember the -- have nothing to do with the budget. the board wanted to overall haul this department and give them some appointments because they are a mess. it is a rubber stamped agency that goes nearly 100% tune in anymority on every issue. unanimity on every issue. the money was there but he

wouldn't. he would allow desperately old people to be turned away for lack of a bed if the board didn't stand by its own reforms. providing a critical vote for the mayor's agenda, the board went along with the deal. the mayor didn't give up his. the newsome measure would prevent lebtsed officials from servings on the democratic committee is still on the ballot. several deserve credit for refusing to refuse to accept a bad and embarrassing deal. the mayor played tough. if the supervisor traded one piece of legislation for another, it would violate state law. the board should immediately pass legislation for all local elected officials including the chief executive.

>> thank you. >> i wanted to just add to the day log by thanking president choo for working with the supervisor and myself and coalition of a novepl transit organizations and including my staff. i also wanted to applaud the president's effort to work with the mayor to come up with a municipal transportation agency reform framework. i think it is an important step forward and i'm appreciative of that but like my colleagues, i don't think it is enough and as one of the co-authors of this measure, i'm going forward and supporting it for the november ballot but again, i will -- for

his efforts of progressive of the muni system. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, chair. i will be supporting the m.t.a. charter amendment that does not have the -- and i would really like to set the record straight on the budget and the deal that was made. you know, i didn't really talk about this publicly. i will talk about it publicly now. we got to about $36 million and in restorations and revenue for those restorations and the budget committee and felt that the budget committee should have stopped right there. that was where we should have ended our budget and for those who wanted to get more out of -- which i also you know, like the

services. like the restorations that we have made. it neant since the mayor was putting that -- meant that since the mayor was putting that before us, to go through some ballot measures, it meant cutting a deal and to say that you want more of this restoration and not want a deal i don't think is quite -- is quite honest about what we were doing. i -- i pushed to have a restoration list that was equal to what we were able to achieve with revenue that came in that was unexpected and the work of the committee and to have these revenues, these charter members stored this there meant that we had to choose between living with our means or asking for more. asking for more meant somewhat cutting a deal. for me, i, you know, well, i feel we had some success in making restorations.

i have mixed feelings about it. but i do want to support this measure. i want to vote on these measures based on my conscious, based on what i feel is the right public policy approach to take as well as be supporting the version over the charter. >> number 56. >> thank you. i just want to respond to a couple of things that we're raising. first of all, i do want to thanks sponsors of this measure and all of the transit advocates that i and my staff are worked close with in recent months and we will continue to work to reform muni. i think it is better to have a bird in the hand than to not have anything at all. that is in part why i am very supportive of moving forward with this budget reform. to the supervisor's point, i have to agree with him that we were faced with very difficult

choices and i think colleagues, we all knew what we were all doing and so suggest that we didn't, i think is a little bit disingenuous but i get it. we are where we are. i also want to address the suggestion that this m.t.a. reform framework does not include an immediate commitment to restore the 5% service hours and in other words, there is not an immediate commitment on money to roll back these cuts. we don't have consensus on how we are going to get there. in fact, if there were five votes for my set aside idea so we could set aside money to do that, i might be thinking that we should have six. but we don't, colleagues and everyone thoughs that weand eve. we do not have a consensus within this body, with the mca, the mayor on how we're going to find the money to restore the

service cuts, and from my perspective, what i think is important is we now have a commitment on the part of the mta outlining a plan to restore that, and if they do not, i will be as upset as anyone, but we need to move forward and do this. from my perspective, i think the best way to insure that the other services are going to be funded is to make sure that the ballot in november is as lean as possible, and i think that we know the reality. it would allow people to campaign against the board of supervisors. that is the reality of how this campaign would be framed, from my perspective as president of the board of supervisors. i want to be sure that we are able to list the status of this body so that voters can understand to cooperate and move

rc forward with measures, that we do that, and that is why i am voting. supervisor mirkarimi: supervisor maxwell? supervisor maxwell: i still agree with supervisor avalos. people wanted more, and we had to pay for that. i did not support the measure, and i do not support it now. -- i did not support the muni measure vot. it did not go far enough in some cases, and in some cases, it went too far. i want to thank him for his honesty. president chiu: supervisor mirkarimi? supervisor mirkarimi: .thank

you, rich oester president, supervisors, wrote -- thank you, mr. president. thank you, colleagues, and those who contributed to this charter amendment. i believe that we are long overdue in returning back to the ballot with mta reform. i am not a fan of the portion that has been set aside, as others have mentioned, as well. to achieve that kind of reform, it starts with the government. granted, there have been other charter amendments that were once put forward for consideration. another one, like red and park, that did not make the cut. if there is any particular measure we could rally around,