a combination system that is needed in the subway, yet it is open in the avenues. you can open -- enter the vehicles through the doors and you do not even need to tap to enter the vehicle. we knew it was going to be a huge transition period to move from our magnetics and multi types of their media to start types and it would be difficult on our patrons if we drove the paper media away initially. utilizing a tap in, tap out would not deal with the people having the paper transfers, the people with other types of their media. we chose not to activate that out. it is still a component of our gates. at such time that we feel the transition is strong enough, we move most of our products over to the smart clipper card. it is time for a policy change.

the agency will then take a look at at tap out technology. supervisor dufty: how many vendors did you look at? how many criteria? what kinds of technologies did you evaluate? >> the program itself is actually very old. starting the initial look at the vendors. in the transition of the contractors on the translink clipper card side, when cubic

took over on that side we would remove the technology and moving the fare gate system and the opportunities that push us in the direction to analyze cubic was american recovery and investment act funds. the funding team available was enough to move was in the direction, saying that we had to be shovel ready. we were not in the place to do a full performance check. it was a sole source situation

and not through city contracting. by virtue of the fact it was a contractor. the mta was granted the funding, but the m o u and partnerships that the mtc had utilize their contracts. supervisor chiu: having this competitive contracting process is an important point. the fact that we had problems with this that were publicized greatly by the press that came out of it, it gives me a lot of concern and it is something that i think that many of us will be monitoring as it proceeds. >> the fare gate issues, circumventing the sensors, oct. 3rd be deployed the software updates we have been working on since july. this deployment reconfigured the sensors and open logic to

mitigate the methods demonstrated. the second stage of software deployment happened on october 15, where the contractor used new configurations for station flow. if we could switch back to the power point, i could go to the remaining slides. the limited use ticket recovery process feet, which became an issue recently, the new ticket vending machines issued limited use tickets for cash customers. we had instituted an issuance fee on these cards intended primarily to recover costs on the ticket and the kurds the use of the full clipper card so that over the life of the program the agency was not expending a tremendous amount of funds to

purchase limited use tickets that would be only for a handful of trips. in the recent budget date budgeted approximately $2 million in revenue recovery directly through the cubic contract at 30 cents per ticket. since then they have suspended the feet. october 1, easing the transition process for the customers. we are currently soliciting bids from other vendors for subsequent ticket orders and ticket costs in the range of 69 cents per card. about 50% of the cost we have been paying to a contract. we are also evaluating options to currently close the budget gap caused by the fis suspension. >> can you tell us if you think this be will be proposed again?

>> we believe that if we can get strong enough competition on these cards, and the card prices are continually coming down. but they do not level out, finding the cards at 16 cents per card now, one year from now we firmly believe it will be even lower. if that is the case we believe that we will not have to institute any other types of fees for the cards. supervisor chiu: is that how similar the vending machines for limited use, but they charge? do they have charges like this? >> some of them do, some of them do not. much of it has to do with how they deploy their products. i know that in atlanta when the program was rolled out, the cost for their limited use cards were 42% per card. since the time of the rollout in

2006, they have found other ways to transition their customers over to the final product. the hard card, but can be used an unlimited number of times. they have diminished the use to defray the costs. clipper our reach, the out reach that mtc controls in the region, it bears saying here that the agency has done extensive outreach on the program. it is a learning process as we get through it, but we believe that our average efforts have paid dividends as well as established a lot of the positioning for future policy changes that may in the future

help us to transition to people from magnetics and fair media. the materials we have been putting out are multilingual. english, spanish, and chinese. we recently added russian, specifically for the materials in the distribution within the city. as those, this month, the type about reach we have done for the events and senior youth card applications, we have spent over 2400 hours of personnel at the fair gates in september to assist customers in transitioning to our new system. we had 93 new mobile distribution events in bus shelters. this was primarily for adult card distribution. there were 86 low-income, sr., disabled events.

with 14 youth outreach events. it sounds like a lot, but it is only scratching the surface. we have a tremendous amount about reached to continue with. as we go through the efforts we are finding more and more places to go and ways to deal with the out reach. >> thank you both for the efforts you have done already. i would like to reiterate the questions around what are the plans for providing multiple language information around the vending machines, updating the website, doing the same. i was highly encouraged continuing education workshops. i think that the media has done a good job of doing what they can, but obviously not everyone reads our newspapers or watch television when dealing with word of mouth or on the ground type campaigns with community- based organizations and other

direct outreach efforts. my suggestion is that that would be a fruitful way to market. >> on the ticket vending issue, currently the machines are trilingual. rudimentary. we are working on a software update, i believe. in the middle of november we should roll out an update to the language used and functional use in the three different languages. it will be the next step. i do not think it will be the end of it, we will have to continue to work on updates that provide better communication to our customers. is there anything else that we need to add? >> i think that the only additional thing to be bad is that we work closely with mtc to make sure that we are utilizing all of the resources possible to maximize the out reach that we

do, supplementing whenever necessary. >> i wanted to mention that i know that this hearing has lasted longer than expected. i think that supervisor avalos and dufty have to leave, so i will assign myself to this committee for the purposes of maintaining forum. >> so that we can move on to other questions might have, i think you alluded to the fact that we were utilizing the media. i think we have a fairly robust program where we utilize the radio, television, and the internet. we have been putting out facts to our customers. the team has also been conducting weekly customer service conference calls with mtc personnel where we identify issues and solutions, attaching those issues to the solutions.

that concludes my presentation. we have a full complement of staff that can answer questions. supervisor chiu: i have a couple of follow-up questions. talk about the repair and maintenance projects as i have seen them, not being able to expect the cards? >> let me step back and broaden that question. we have had difficulty on two fronts. not so much with variegate targets right now, but our primary focus is on the difficulty within the trolly and the rolling stock. these are older generations that were installed under the previous contractor. they are still good. the technology is still good. however, they have been installed since the spring of 2007. there was a time when fingertip maintenance was being done by

the contractor. however, that has done -- that has gone by and it is incumbent on the agency to do the maintenance on those pieces of equipment. mtc spoke earlier about assisting s with staff training and using techniques that golden gate had employed to try to get the percentage functioning up on those targets earlier. the fare gate target and infrastructure maintenance, the way it is established right now, we have a one-year contractors warranty and maintenance that is currently being reviewed with extended warranty opportunities. primarily because the operating budget is so constrained right now, it would be difficult for us to focus a hiring campaign on

maintainers in a short period of time, maintaining that equipment in the opera will fashion. there is the opportunity to extend the maintenance. we simply have not had our final decision with that or got uncomfortable with the numbers yet. in the long run, what the agency intends to do is utilize our staff to maintain the equipment. if we employ an extended maintenance. through the contractor, we intend to, throughout the normal hiring process, those that we are bringing on board and training emphasizes the contractor learning the system so that at that point when the maintenance time is over, we can supervisor chiu: take overchiu these talk -- over. supervisor chiu: these talk about the operation and

maintenance of these copper cards for the historical vehicles in the city. >> i would like to defer to greater green power on that. supervisor chiu: it is very confusing right now, especially for regular cable car writers. >> cable cars can be incorporated when we have a device that can read the card on the cable card. they are historical vehicles, so the opportunities to put the cart on their was unavailable. they are looking for a next- generation of hand-held readers, which in addition to the ability to read the card, can actually debit from the card, so that in addition to supporting the monthly passes we can deduct them from the reader and introduce products like our passports, which are currently not available as well. it is a part of the plan but it will be delivered and i guess

that mtc can talk about supervisor chiu: reschedulingchiu -- can talk about that. supervisor chiu: will that be rescheduled for november 1? >> since it is a changeover from the ticket their fire, it looks like it will probably be august through october of next year, if we can get everything in place. if i could step back to give you some groundwork, the cable cars were going to be the last element of the infrastructure that was dealt with for the clipper system. primarily because they did not have electrical systems that would support a fixed card reader. a fixed target. at the time, the original contractor had a hand held components that fair inspectors use.

those were read-only, not read- write. you need a handheld component machine that can write and deduct fares. which is part of the change that they're working through to develop right now. supervisor chiu: if i am currently a pass holder and a ship to a clipper card, what happens to that passenger? >> they will be able to flash their card until such time as we can set policies in place that make the use of a card easier. supervisor chiu: ok. great, thank you. any other representatives that wish to present? should we proceed to cut -- proceed to public comment? >> we are ready for public comment. supervisor chiu: i look forward to working with you moving forward on these. supervisor chu: let's item --

opened this item up for public comment. are there any members of the public that we should -- wish to speak -- wish to speak on this item number nine? >> walter paulson. ♪ on a stormy sea we talked about confusion for the motion in the ocean with me hoping that it works out like it should and hoping that we all work out something fine and that mean will work with every line. carry on with muni, which is good. it will work out like it should. please do not cry any more. we are just clipper ships from the muni that pass at night time and i want to hit a high high where we need to bride so that we can work out what is

great for everyone, like a clipper ship, a ship that likes to pass at nighttime, we are simply ships that pass at i working on this. i had a quick last question for

the mtc. are there resources that will be provided to the mta to help us implement this? these talk about the support you are providing on that level. >> it does give me an opportunity to follow up on leadership and those things. muni is the leader on this but the mtc is fully behind it. our commission has had its troubles. this has been a tumultuous task. but the commission is so behind this and we want to make sure that our resources make this a success. certainly as far as that transition, we had a great meeting last week. strategy's were in place to supplement what they saw as gaps in support. things that were just ideas on monday, friday be finely worked

out contract approaches. we are continuing to work with them to read out by the particulars of the question. do we have sufficient support for limited english proficiency? we will be looking at those strategies to make sure that they're used in the most appropriate way. subsequent impasses in the fall and spring, those are still in the works and we recognize that they will probably require equal amounts of support. we do fully expect that we will be their support and the mta on this. supervisor chiu: from the perspective of many of us on the board, i think we are rooting for various agencies to be very effective in their hassle free implementation. whenever my office can do to be helpful, we look forward. i would like to ask that we can continue this item at the call of the chair in case we would

like folks to come back to discuss issues down . supervisor chu: thank you to the department's for coming to present. since supervisor chiu: is now part of the commerce committee, we have quorum to take that action and continue the meeting. let's go ahead and continue this item to the call of the chair. without objection. ok, are there any other items? >> supervisor chu: nochu ok, -- >> no. supervisor chu: ok, we are adjourned. thank you.

>> about four years ago, [inaudible] look at how beautiful this was. there is our relationship to the

planet. these regions are the wealthiest, the most powerful. that really has impacted the planet. it is almost impossible now to go anywhere and had it really be completely dark. there are very few locations that you can find. that means our relationship to the sky, there is a way where we dominate the sky. we cannot see anything really. we are blinding ourselves in a way. >> you can look at the images, they are beautiful.

when i started four years ago, there was a conversation about environmental issues that was very different. this is not being talked about in the way it is now. . this has just been like an amazing growth. i anticipate the project to be something that opens a dialogue to public interest in these ideas. so the work is really made to be seen in this environment. it's been show in museum, in gallery, but never in a public setting. and it's kind of ideal for both myself and the works to have

this real dialogue with the public not only in san francisco but people coming from all over the world. >> since the dawn of electricity, that light is something that people feel connected to and inspired by. personally, there is space to keep that alive, just finding balance. the key is to find some balance.