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tv   [untitled]    November 16, 2010 10:30pm-11:00pm PST

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supervisor campos: good morning, everyone, and welcome to the november 16, 2010 meeting of the san francisco transportation authority plans and programs committee. i am david campos. i am the chair of the committee. we have been joined by david
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chu, bevan dufty, carmen chu is in route. the clerk of the committee is erica cheng. we want to thank the s.f.gtv personnel covering this meeting. please call item two. >> item 2. approve the minutes of the october 19, 2010 meeting. this is an action item. supervisor campos: we have a motion. is there any member of the public that would like to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, can we take that without objection? please call item three. >> item 3. citizens advisory committee report. this is an information item. supervisor campos: good morning. >> good morning.
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this morning, there are two items on your agenda from the cac. the first is action items 6, allocating prop k funds to the mta for the central subway utility relocation contract 2. cac members had quite a few questions on this item, and they were all answered by authority and sfmta staff. i will mention a couple of concerns. one member was concerned that the prop k funding for vehicle utility relocation could be at risk because it was not backed by real estate collateral. staff said that it was mt a's party. the delay and use of prop k funds would have a positive impact in the strategic plan.
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two cac members expressed concerns about issues raised by committee members who had attended prior meetings. staff replied that the eir-eis process had been established. the second item is your item seven, allocation of prop k funds for two mta projects to the joint powers board for six projects and bayview hunters point mobility solutions study, amendments, of various plans. cac members had two questions
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about this that was answered by staff. this was also passed unanimously with no public comment. that concludes my report. supervisor campos: thank you, mr. chairman. colleagues, any questions? is there anyone from the public that would like to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. madam clerk, please call item no. 4. >> item 4. recommend appointment of two members to the citizens advisory committee. this is an action item. supervisor campos: good morning. >> this item starts on page 17 of your packet. this is the appointment of two members to the citizens advisory committee. by way of background, the committee has 11 members, each serving a two-year term. staff, nor the cac, makes any recommendations to the board.
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we have two vacancies in the committee currently. one is in district 6. we had one member move out of the area. the other is in district 10. that is due to the term expiration of fran martin, who is here seeking reappointment. on page 19, there is a slight mistake on the roster. peter tanin is now the new vice chair, chris jones is the chair. supervisor campos: thank you. colleagues, any questions? are any of those individuals here who would like to make a brief statement to the committee? >> my name is friend martin. -- fran martin.
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i am seeking reappointment for district 10. one of the reasons we have an enormous amount of new development coming in there, we have the geneva extension, the caltrain station, there is just a lot going on. maybe 10,000 units of new housing. i am concerned about land use and transportation in our neighborhood. also, i want to invite you all to come out and see our streetscape improvements. we are a good model for low impact design, and it is pretty spectacular. i would also like to invite you -- i know that you can not all come at once -- but come to our cac meetings. i have never seen a supervisor there. no offense, i know you're busy.
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just to see what is happening. supervisor campos: commissioner dufty? supervisor dufty: thank you. i would like to channel commissioner maxwell right now and i want to thank you for the were you have done. she has worked ably departments as diverse as the police department, planning department, public utilities commission, and i know commissioner maxwell would like to see her appointed. for those of us turning -- terming out, maybe we can use some entertainment and we will come to one of your meetings. colleagues, i would also point out i know a couple of the candidates for district 6, stu smith being one. i do not believe he is here today.
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i would ask to reappoint ms. martin and then continue to next month the other vacancy so that we can make it clear district's six candidates should be here, and the supervisor elector may have some ideas about who she mayor mike to see. -- may like to see. supervisor campos: is there a second to that motion? thank you. commissioner avalos? supervisor avalos: is it leland ave? those improvements make me jealous. the work that has been done there is very good. a great deal of pride in the merchants that are there now. they know the difference between four and after. i want to congratulate you on your work.
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>> both supervisors avalos and dufty have experienced in our neighborhood, and i want to thank you for everything you have done in our neighborhood. you just missed me complimenting you. [laughter] i just want to compliment you for everything that you have done. anyway, come out to see us. supervisor campos: thank you. is there anyone from the public that would like to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues, we have a motion. can we take that without objection? motion passes. if we could call item -- actually, items 5 and 6. >> item 5. update on the financial plan for the san francisco municipal transportation agency's central subway project. this is an information item.>> item 6. recommend allocation of up to $22,599,331 in prop k funds,
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with conditions, to the municipal transportation agency for the central subway utility relocation contract 2, subject to the attached fiscal year cash flow distribution schedule and amendment of the 2009 prop k strategic plan. this is an action item. >> thank you, chief deputy. you have two central subway item before you. let me give a brief introduction on the financial presentation and then i will introduce the cfo of the mta to give the presentation. we will then present the advanced contruction request. allow me to direct you to page 52 in your packet. there is the most up-to-date funding plan for the central subway project. the item before you today was requested by commissioner chiu in october, asking for a presentation on the financial plan but particularly on the strategy to close the funding gap for the project.
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what this chart shows is funding source, project phase, right of way designed construction. it also shows you the status of each. allocated means money in hand. programs means the funds have been programmed to the project but there is still another book that has to happen for the funds to arrive. plan is not yet programs. we are hoping but it is not yet committed to the project. the good news is, we're here with a funding shortfall of the project estimated at $1.57 million. the shortfall is $137 million. 9% of the overall project budget. the good news is, mta has made good progress in the past few years in nearing that funding gap. what has changed now is that we are now at a critical path in
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trying to secure the full funding grant agreement for the federal transit administration. that agreement confirmed the federal commitment to the project that will enable the various funds put into the project to leverage over -$42 million in federal new start dollars. that will enable us to move into the construction phase. the target date for approval of the agreement is december 2011. that will enable the project to stay on schedule. we have a time when the before us. by february, the mta needs to submit a some but -- revised plan that details how the shortfall will be filled. i know over the next several months between now and december, we have to get those funds committed. on the one hand, i want to say, 9% is not a huge amount given
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the size of the project. it is doable. at the same time, it is definitely a challenge. these are tough financial times. costs are going up. states are in a mess financially. it is going to be hard. there are going to be trade- offs. at the same time, the window is now, if we want to stay on schedule and leverage all of these funds. we need to work closely with the mta to come up with a strategy. it is also the appropriate time to discuss the trade-off involved. there is no money sitting around and used. there will be a trade-off. we will need to have a discussion with interested stakeholders. the idea is to get to a financial strategy that we can all advocate for, in d.c., and wherever appropriate.
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also, in the financial plan we have that shortfall, but there are a number of funding sources that are risky. they are committed to the project but the risk is associated to the timing of when those funds will be available. i am speaking specifically about state funds. there are about $370 million in state prop1a,b, and regional improvement funds committed to the project but the money has not yet been enhanced. the question is when. it has to do with how the state budget situation gets cleaned up. and coming up with the financial strategy, we want to work with mta to work on short-term financing so that we can stay on schedule and deal with the funding when it is available. i believe you have before you hard copies of the presentation. >> good morning, commissioners.
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thank you for inviting us. we are delighted to be here. we have a quick presentation. then we will be open to answer any questions you have. we have been working pretty closely with the ta staff as well as regional partners in the mtc. we wanted to bring to use some of the key time lines associated with the full funding grant agreements that is due to the federal fta in 2011. some of the key dates are the financial plan expected to be completed and the first quarter of 2011. we expect to bring that to the board at the same time. we are expecting your approval of the fourth quarter 2011
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before the execution. that is the major timeline that we are looking at. we are really looking at a point -- a commitment from our founding partners to get to these key dates. the next slide summarizes the dollars we are looking at for the project. a $1.67 billion project, of which 91% of funding has been committed. that is in the yellow highlighted column. the remaining portion to be committed is the $137 million that was mentioned previously from the local source, and $869 million from the federal government. the middle group that was mentioned in terms of having committed but there was questioned about the timeline of when we can expect those funds.
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we have been working on addressing some of the commitment over the last several years. we have had a successful history of addressing financial issues. some of those examples are highlighted in slide 4 and 5. in 2007, we were able to lower the cost of projects by $100 million by doing risk- management. we're a word to allocate $200 million, a combination of mtc and mta to close a gap. in 2008, 2009, we were able to get the fda to increase their cotton addition to 60% of their cost, which is significant. we also included a federal annual contribution.
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we started out at the federal government agreed to $100 million, but they increased that to $150 million a year. we also were able to pass a high-speed rail measure. the mta has $16 million allocated to that. $27 million has over all gone to the central subway project as of today. we have also started to receive bids from projects, much less than engineer estimates. we are happy that the cost will go down. we are also forming a mind the gatt committee, made up of members from all of our partners in the project to look and ways to close the local gap. so what is remaining in fiscal 2010, 2011 is for all of us to sit down and focus how we can come up with the $137 million,
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as well as the other funds coming from the federal government. question about the state funds being available as to when we thought they would originally be. we are going to have to start discussions of about a replacement of sources. on the bottom of slide 5, we talk about some of the measures that colleagues brought up. we expect to see some of the gap be closed by cost savings from some of the bids coming in. we're also talking to the fta to see what we can negotiate with them, in terms of doing another innovative thing to address the issue. we are also looking at our remaining funds that are uncommitted. $140 million that we were to use for other funds. we may be putting those funds into the central subway and looking at alternative backup funding for those projects.
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we are also looking at financing. we have possibly grant participation for the $88 million. we are also exploring new funding sources. as we mentioned, some of the new funding sources are unlikely, given the economic environment. we are really looking to our key partners, continued regional support, for the project. in closing, i want to end by saying, it is important to remember most of the major projects in the city, whether it is the central subway, doyle drive, all these projects over time, have had local, regional funding partners. we are looking for that same level of partnership to help us address this project. i want to thank the
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transportation authority staff. they have been helpful. i also want to thank the commissioners. i think everybody has been supportive of making sure this project moves forward. with that, i will close. i am happy to answer questions. supervisor campos: any questions? if i may, -- before i do that -- commissioner carmen chu? supervisor chu: just a question about the timing. you talked about the fact that we created a group of individuals to come together to talk about how to close the gap for the $137 million, look at the $180 million, in terms of the timing. given that this is a long-term project that will happen over many, many years, is there a particular time frame under which we would have to come up with the $137 million?
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>> we have to identify that by february 2011 when we submit the ffga. we have to be able to show -- it cannot be a projection or estimate, at that point. it has to be with the fda considers a committed source of funding. -- fta considers a committed source of funding. supervisor chu: given that we are coming up on that deadline, are there any on the list that are more important than others? >> many of them are funds in hand. if we are able to find alternative funds, we will offer them up with the idea that we would be able to back fill the other projects. as i mentioned, $120 million in prop 1a, 1b funds.
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then we can work together to find alternatives for all of our other needs in the agency. it translates to about $27 million a year that we would have to back fill if we were to give up the money for the central subway project from those remaining 1a, 1b funds. we look forward to working with the mta to come up with funding, or hopefully the federal government will be able to provide us with some transportation funding. supervisor campos: thank you. these kinds of challenges are challenges that happen with any project of this magnitude. it is probably exacerbated because of the economic climate we are working in. i am just wondering if there is anything that this body, whether it transportation authority, board of supervisors,
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can do to help advocate for these funds. many of us have made clear that we are committed to the project, so what can be done to help us get to that end result? we are talking about $137 million, potentially $225 million. that is a lot of money. >> we would love to have the board of supervisors help us with the mtc, helping them come up with a loan type of arrangement or an alternative funding source. for example, in the state budget this time, there is a question of where the high speed rail was pentagon by the governor. we would ask for a movement to pencil that back in. -- penciled in by the governor.
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we would also be working with you and the ta body to come up with an additional financing structure, whether through a loan mechanism or brand participation note. those are three concrete areas that we would love to have your support on. supervisor campos: thank you very much. mr. executive director, did you want to add anything to that? >> i have a couple of reactions to this last slide that i would like to share with you. it is certainly critical that we get to a resolution on this. we do not have the luxury of time. february is around the corner. we are talking about a significant amount of federal money. as i have said to you before, what has spelled success for us
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over the past decade is we have been prepared. we have gone to d.c. to demonstrate that our products are competitive, they have their act together, and that is how we get both sides to vote, and that is how we can get representatives in washington to help us. this is not in great shape. it is true, we are close to the finish line, only 9%, but we have to do something about that. the fact that we are having this lack of provision on where the solution is coming from in november is alarming to me, quite frankly. i wish i could say that we had a tremendous partnership in the discussion with this, but i'm not sure that we have. from here on, we have to work as an integrated team with mta to get the issue resolved. let me point out a couple of things that i do not feel comfortable about that you need
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to be aware of. we are not likely to do a grant participation note because we have already had a discussion with our auditors in the past when we tried to do this. in fact, we did it, but we got our wrist slapped. we cannot commit future funds. we do not have the authority to do that. when we do engage in something like that, we run the risk of having others come in and say that you made an uncollateralized payment. we need to be careful with that. i certainly do not believe that my staff has agreed to that as an option on the table. we could do a loan, but it will have to be collateralized. you know from your work in the board of supervisors in dealing with the budget how difficult it is to collateralize something
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that passes budget time lines. when you to the next. the low interest loan program, it is not a funding source. that should not be here as a revenue source. it needs to be repaid. you have to put it in with a sense of how you are going to pay it back. they have the toughest rating committee that i know, so they will be looking for answers about long-term revenue source to pay for the loan. we have an opportunity to gain from the low bid environment. we are fully expecting that there will be $30 million worth of savings in the various contracts. we should be accounting for that because there is enough of a record of bids. fda should be able to recognize that. -- fta