this meeting. commissioner mirkarimi: let me just finish on this item, but absolutely. item three and four is closed. we will continue these items at the call of the chair. so moved. returning back, i'm hearing a motion to excuse commissioner of avalos. commissioner mirkarimi: very good. so moved. please read and item five. >> progress report on limited scope performance audit. commissioner mirkarimi: it was earlier this year, colleagues, that we recommended and then we pursued an audit of the municipal transportation authority. with the guidance of commissioner campos, we initiated a two phase process of

the mta transportatiotransporta. the first was by our own budget analyst and focused on compliance with state and federal regulation in identifying areas where there could be potential savings to the operating budget. that effort did identify some welcome opportunities, i think it would be fair to characterize those as marginal in terms of how much they could help with the structural deficit in our long-term concerns. when the phase was completed, we discussed the next steps. i proposed to move with a second phase, funded with proposition k dollars. there are opportunities to ensure through the capital program that the mta investment projects that result in better service for the people who take

transit -- so we procured a second audit process with a firm, cgr. the auditors are here today. it's still very early in the process. we are not expecting findings. a number of board members, commissioners, have been interviewed. this is an opportunity to further understand the scope of the audit and how it is proceeding and relevant to our ongoing concerns about budget matters and efficiency matters regarding the mta. commissioner campos and the staff have been working with cgr, as has my office. i want to ask commissioner campos if he has any comments before the presentation. commissioner campos: thank you

very much, mr. chairman. i think you have essentially summarize how we got here and where the work is. i just look forward to hearing from cgr in terms of the status and in terms of the process. i think it is good for the rest of the transportation authority to hear that. i do not have anything to add at this point. commissioner mirkarimi: thank you. cgr, will you please join us? >> mr. chairman, commissioners, my name is jim ayers. in a principal with cgr management consultants. my team members here are jim kennedy and keith kennedy. commissioner mirkarimi: i'm going to ask you to speak directly into the microphone. thank you.

>> sorry. just to refresh your memory is about the three functional areas that you chartered in the audit, these are the three. they are important for a couple of reasons. one, we want to focus very much on the questions and issues that you presented to us. we have also had some differences with mta in terms of setting up meetings and perhaps trying to limit the scope of the meetings and the coverage we can do with any individual to a preselected items on this list.

we do not consider these three areas -- they are interlinked. they're not stand alone. that is an artificial kind of separation. one of the first tasks that we had was to focus the audit on particular areas of interest. that cost us to make these items in scope. when we had our entrancts conference, we wanted to make sure we had but central subway project included. one of the other themes that we heard in the meeting is getting value for money.

finding other ways to be more efficient, other than cutting budget costs. here is our task structure. we've provided our first deliverable, which i believe came to you electronically. it was an initial assessment. that was deliverable on october 29. we are probably going to be late because of noise we had including access to mta staff. commissioner mirkarimi: what was the reason? >> because of problems in getting access to the staffs at mta. we had a window of interviews.

and the reason has to do with conditions that i mentioned before about which topics we would be limited to, and also to have questions in advance that we would be asking during those interviews. we escalated this issue to supervisor campos' office and we are in the process of getting resolution. anyway, we think this will probably have an impact on our schedule of up to four weeks. we will try to keep the process moving as quickly as we can, of course, but we have lots of time.

moving on into some of the components of the audit, one key feature is what we call referenced projects. a reference project is a way to go back and look at specific projects, how they were initiated, and what the budget was at the point, and what happened during the execution of the process. it is like an auditor might sample accounts. one of the three criteria here -- only one of the criteria has to be met.

our analysis and documentation has three fundamental components. the first component is how mta defines a process now. that is something that can be gleaned from written procedures. in the absence of a written procedure, there may be a presentation, so how they say they do it. the second component is best practice. best practice is our opinion. it comes from sources like the institute for asset management and other sources. the third one, and this is where the referenced project comes in, this is what the current

practice is. is there evidence that the written procedure is being followed? the audit report organization will be in this format. we will have three sections. the first is called enablers and controls. we do not call it that. it is the infrastructure or the environment in which the products are carried out. it would be like what a road is to an automobile. a road enables an automobile to travel from place to place.

the second component is porfolio and program management. that means selecting the right projects, the process you go through all the time. setting priorities, how that is done, and how it compares with the best practices. the third component is the project itself, and that is during the construction, and during the purchase, or during the rehab and how that is carried out. are there any questions? commissioner mirkarimi: just one, and i think commissioner campos might want to underscore

this as well. i take it that this audit will only be as effective as we hope based on the collaboration of mta to provide you access to information. in your experience, if you have not received that kind of access, what has generally been your standard practice in dealing with these type of situations? >> well, the value of the whole effort will be enhanced by their efforts. your spot on with that observation. some adversarial audits will be paper based. you do not have the insight that you get from these people. they may not review the preliminary findings and documentation that you want to provide to them.

that makes it richer. that makes it less susceptible to criticism later by the agency after you have published your findings. they have a sense, perhaps, of participation in it. and no surprises. no surprises. unfettered access is vital. commissioner mirkarimi: commissioner campos. commissioner campos: thank you, mr. chairman. i'm confident that we will be able to work collaborative with the mta. i have a meeting with the executive director to talk about issues with respect to access to the information. i'm confident we will be able to do that. the second thing, a quick question for the auditors. i just want to make sure, in

terms of the budget, if you see yourselves staying within the budget that has been allocated. we want to make sure we are as close to the budget as possible. commissioner mirkarimi: it is the holidays. be careful. >> we respect that concern. the flow chart showed everything in a sequence. we are doing things in parallel. there's a lot of behind-the- scenes work. we dial thback our billing rates to do everything we can to stay within the budget. we take pride, in general, and not going back for additional funds, unless there is mutually agreed to changes.

commissioner mirkarimi: thank you. thank you, commissioner campos , for your focus on this. i want to emphasize one point that i think will be helpful for all of us. that is some sort of early warning system that provides us a heads up. especially with the holiday schedules in the next few months and the fluctuations in government, that we are provided as much early notice so that if access to information is not a fluid that we know. the last thing we want is to eat up the clock or the contract of cgr and then discover at the end of the contract that we did not intervene when we needed to. >> we would appreciate that. we would like to thank commissioner campos for his

rapid interventionç. commissioner mirkarimi: good. appreciate that. good work. colleagues, any comments or questions for our consultants? seeing none, thank you. you may have a seat. we appreciate the introduction. any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. this is an information item. madam clark, please read item 6. >> authorized the executive director to execute all master agreements, program supplemental agreements, fund exchange amendments, between the authority and the california department of transportation for receipt of federal and state funds. this is an action item. commissioner mirkarimi: very good. any comment from seeing none staffseeing -- seeing none,

public comment. public comment is closed. we take this -- we did not do roll-call. [roll-call vote] the item passes. commissioner mirkarimi: items seven, please. >> reappoint fran martin to the citizens advisory committee of san francisco county transportation authority for two year. this is an action item. commissioner mirkarimi: we take this without objection. congratulations. item eight.

commissioner mirkarimi: public comment is closed. we did this without objection. next item. >> allocate $460 in prop k funds with conditions to san francisco municipal transportation agency for two projects. this is an action item. commissioner mirkarimi: any discussion on this item? erikseeing none, public comment. public comment is closed.

item 10, please. commissioner mirkarimi: i just had a quick question to staff on this. the reach of our authority on the climate initiatives program -- can you just explain that a little bit in terms of how that would garner, and what that might garner in terms of grants? >>-understanding is that this is part of the delegation process. this is an opportunity for us to essentially show local support for the climate initiatives

grant program so we can continue to advocate for the program in various capacities. the resolution provides a little bit more detail on that on page 87. commissioner mirkarimi: i'm looking at that. >> we also need that resolution in place in order to accept grants under the program. commissioner mirkarimi: ok. any discussion on this? seeing none, public comment? public comment is closed. we take this without objection. introduction of new items. i'm sorry. next item. >> in the 11th, ethics annual compensation for the executive director for the period of january 1 through december 31. this is an action item. commissioner mirkarimi: this was handled by the personnel committee. any public comment? take this without objection, colleagues? so moved.

i'm sorry. i did not see you. thank you. please take roll-call. >> [roll-call vote] commissioner mirkarimi: aye. >> the item passes. commissioner mirkarimi: thank you. >> item 12. introduction of new items. this is an information item. commissioner mirkarimi: any information on new items? seeing none, public comment. public comment is closed. >> item 13, public comments.

commissioner mirkarimi: one last chance for public comment. public comment is closed. >> item 14, adjournment. commissioner mirkarimi: meeting is adjourned. thank you.

>> hello, i'm meg, welcome to "culture wire." for this episode, the director of cultural affairs, luis, will take you on a journey through presidio has been tet. -- presidio habitat. >> welcome to "culture wire." today i'm at the presidio trust, a treasure within san francisco, because the presidio trust is really a national park in the center of an urban setting. it dates to the very founding of

the city. national park. toting me today to talk about this amazing exhibition at presidio habitat is cheryl hanes. can you tell me a little bit about the idea of the presidio habitat? >> succinctly, i have been long involved in the presidio. i was here when it was still a military base in the 1980's. i remember driving down walmart to the golden gate bridge and

seeing the military guard at the gate and being utterly fascinated. >> so presidio habitat is an exhibition where you have invited, how many artists to think about the habitat? >> we put together a list of possible participants, local, national, or international, of people who are concerned with environmental concerns, made some sort of contribution to the landscape and conversation we're having here. we said that broke -- proposal requests and we received 25 back. from that 25, we went through and chose tend to realize in the landscape. >> including this building, which is an amazing example of recycling. >> we are proud of this space.

it was designed by a local architecture team. we said, we need something that is a temporary structure, something that can be brought onto the presidio in pieces, act as an exhibition space for one year. we came up with the notion of shipping containers. it was important for us that we made this project for the place, of the place. what i mean by that is participants would also used repurchased materials. >> we will be speaking to one of the artists that you selected. what excited you about his idea? >> have many things. first of all, i am a fan of his architecture. because of that creativity, i knew that he could come up with

something unique. i love the fact that he was specifically addressing the landscape around here, and it was also about the human interaction with this place. >> what are your expectations with the people coming to presidio habitat? >> we really hope people will come with their family, dogs, and come back a number of times the works will change over the year. the feedback we are getting is you cannot do all of them on one visit. it is really better to come back and have different experiences. >> thank you. i am with mark jensen of jensen architect. he was one of the architects to be chosen to do the presidio habitat. when you heard about this

project, what inspired you about that call? >> our inspiration is a great blue heron. it was the site itself that attracted us. this is an incredibly beautiful outdoor room. we did a bit of reverse engineering once we knew we wanted to work here. which animals live here? the great blue heron jumped out at us. we walked around, and quickly, you get into another pace. you slow down, leave the city behind you. you can feel the wind and the breeze. in our increasingly frenetic, fast-paced, connected life, the chance to be of here and slow down a bit was part of the agenda. as part of the installation, it

was suggested that this would be deliberately not mowed because it would allow the sustaining of insects, plants, that would graduate -- that would gravitate to the area. >> that is right. i think you quickly notice that. >> thank you for being here. presidio habitat is an exhibition at the presidio trust. it will be in san francisco through may 2011. we hope you will come out to experience this amazing exhibition and great natural treasure. >> to learn more about the other habitats installations in the presidio, visit