train, and when it came, it was so packed that i had to stand on the stairs that go up and down, so when we got further out, i had to change in -- to inch in. i understand that we have the most ridership of the trains, and i think listening to -- i really could not understand muni's presentation, and it looked like you were having a hard time following it as well. it sounded like it is because it is flexible when you get out with the avenues, and that is why the train turned around. it should not be based on flexibility of where the trains are. somebody has got to be running this, and we want to ride it, but we feel like we enter into a contract.

when the front of the chain says ocean beach, we expect it is going to go to ocean beach. we should be able to expect to get on a train that has a destination and goes to that destination. thank you very much. supervisor chu: thank you. next speaker place. >> good afternoon. congratulations on your reelection. i live in the inner sunset. i'm not quite as impacted by the turnaround's, the short term ends. i understand that they are a necessary evil sometimes, but nonetheless, they are still evil, and i think there are ways to make them less evil. one radical change would be basically to try to pull up the

rails where they can make the short turns, and if they are short turning, just to get to the part of public works. i know that is pretty radical, the i heard from the other speakers that there is maybe only two-minute difference between sunset boulevard and ocean beach. again, that is pretty radical. one of the other things we could do is to mitigate the city short trends are have a bus bridge. i do not know if it can get a bus behind the trades that are affected, adjusted at least -- if it does require a two-c travel, at least you are getting to your destination. there is some inconvenience, but if you just want to get home, as long as you can get there, you are pretty much happy. at least knowing that there is a bus behind you or that they will have some buses set up, inform

passengers that there will be the boss, would go a long way to help mitigate some of the evil in this -- evilness that is occurring. those are just my opinions. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. next speaker please. >> afternoon, supervisors. the problem is when people are on the streets, they are standing on the sidewalks. some sidewalks are very narrow. suppose they get into an accident? a kid runs into them on a surfboard or something else like an automobile. i think the city is responsible.

if any body of the passengers get hurt because he or she was put out on the sidewalk. this is unacceptable. i remember the vehicles we have now, and we talk about the street cries. senator feinstein was there, and she learned to drive this thing, and this is about at least 20 years old, and the vehicle which is 20 years old demands a lot of maintenance, and the maintenance is pretty for on vehicles, including buses. the car stopped a long time because the whole system was not designed right, and market

street is continuously trouble. when the in a car goes through, electric wire gets stolen. why? copper is very expensive. they make big business out of it. first of all, the area where it goes through the haight-ashbury is the most delayed place there is. supervisor chu: thank you very much. next speaker please. >> charles moody, 34th ave. i'm concerned about the turnarounds.

i'm just amazed about the credibility problem that muni has with its riders. most of us understand that the trains will have to be turned around occasionally, and when you are put off a train, another one is there or coming soon. it is maybe a minor annoyance or inconvenience, but when you are put off a train in the middle of the night and there is no train, it is a real problem. as the previous gentleman said, for those of you would not -- who do not get out often, 19th avenue is not where you want to be hanging around waiting for a train that may or may not come. i think that some of the problems could be somewhat mitigated by having some better policies in place. the idea of science or indicators down in the subway is

fine, but just have it on the train. if the train is going to not go all the way, have it on the front of the train. they simply do not say that. oftentimes, even when it is going to go all the way to ocean beach, the signs on the trains say the craziest things. there are some other web sites that have photographs of some of the crazy signs. so nobody reads them, and guess what? no one reads them. they have no liability. i would like to suggest that muni in force some protocols for announcements. the announcements -- enforce some protocols for announcements. the announcements should begin with "this is an important announcement." and we find out at 19th avenue when we are put off the train that that probably was the

announcement. also, please fix the speaker systems so they worked -- so they work and have reasonable fidelity. you can do that. it does not require a lot of money. just have some protocols and enforce them. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. are there any other members of the public who wish to speak on this item? please come on up. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am 59 years old. i can remember that these problems used to happen when i was less than 10 years old. i grow up in chinatown and later moved to third and late in the richmond and later to kirkland street and the sunset. even though i was less than 10 years old, the problem still persisted, even in my day. i was forced to learn to read the destination signs and pester

the drivers continually to make sure i knew i -- where i was going. they used to happen so often -- be used to happen so often -- it used to happen so often. those little turnouts used to make me laugh because i used to have fun talking to all the older passengers and telling them that this was nothing new and that they should make sure they asked the driver continually where the bus goes. even when i was in high school, when i used to come home from games playing basketball at sacred heart, the team bus used to drop us off 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning by the time we got back to school, and five or six of us were forced to take the bus home on our own, and we

always reminded each other to make sure you know where your bus is going. do not end up stranded, especially in certain parts of town. that was back when we were teenagers when it was still safe to be out at 3:00 in the morning. can you imagine how people would feel when they get some house stranded on these buses without the proper notification? when i ride tehe muni, i notice they have these pre-recorded messages. they should have a pre-recorded message that says, "this bus is only going to sell and sell -- to so-and-so." supervisor chu: thank you. are there any other members of the public who wish to comment on this item? public comment is closed.

supervisor avalos: i want to thank you for holding this hearing, and i want to thank the members of the public for coming here today. my district as well has a similar problem. the 14 bus gets turned around quite frequently, and it is very frustrating. my agitation is based on that, and it is your experience as well. there is a lot of work to do. i do not want to be a constant thorn in the side of the mta, but i think it is important that we raise this as an issue that needs to be tended to on an ongoing basis, and i look forward to working with supervisor chu on it. supervisor chu: thank you. i also want to thank the members of the public who came to speak on this today and also the many folks who contacted our offices. this is a problem.

the mta like a way to get the system back on track, and i understand the way to do that, but julie having the experience is heard today about people who get left certain places across the city without clearly the next train really ready to pick them up and move them forward is a problem in terms of reliability and in terms of the public's trust about our transportation system. the other thing that i do want to underscore is in the outer reaches of our city, there are simply not a lot of options. you cannot suddenly get off a train that was short turn or stock in trends of service -- or stopped in terms of service and ketch another one very easily. in terms of the impact on the riders, you may feel like the number of passengers is low, but at the same time, folks in the

district simply do not have the richness of options the other folks may have in other places. i think that this topic is a good one to continue. what i would like to do is continue the item to the call of the chair. this is something that i think we have a lot of work that still needs to happen. specifically for me, some other action items, and things i would like to continue to seep from the mta -- i would like to see a breakdown of the causes for the delays in the system, very specific to what our -- are muni responsibilities and how many were related to things beyond their control. i would like to understand how much is presentable a rigid preventable -- how much is preventable. i would like to actually see what the policy is for the turnaround.

we talked about muni mta's policy, but i have not seen what that policy looks like. we have heard that the policy is if there is a train that is five minutes behind -- are there other things that are part of that policy that we need to better understand? perhaps as some of the public comments have made, the needs to be better public policy so we might consider not having these occur in the nighttime. perhaps we might want to consider making sure there is not consecutive turnarounds that occur, and certainly, we want to make sure there is a way to say when we say five minutes behind, there really is a train that will be moving people long five minutes later. we often have a lot of hearings, and sometimes, they result in some kind of change, and sometimes, they do not necessarily result in anything you can measure.

i would like to see something we can measure. i would like to see the mta work with us to figure out those metrics. do we want to see a certain number of turnarounds not really occur and that five or 10 months from now, we can see a different measurable number? is there something we can put together that helps us understand whether we are making any progress in trying to reduce this problem for many of our neighborhoods? that is something i would like to see. two final points -- in terms of the options, what we have heard today is not a whole lot of options that are really viable. we heard the idea of a stand by train, but we heard also that it is expensive. we have heard of the option of a potential express line, but what is the likelihood of that being implemented, given where we are with our budget constraints? i'm looking for things that will be implemented all, things that

really could work -- things that will be employmentable -- things that will be implementable, things that really could work. supervisor avalos: just to reiterate that, mentioning an option does not make the problem go away. it is nice to say that is an option, but if you have no intention of actually implementing that option, please do not mention it. that is something that i think is important to note. supervisor chu: with regards to communication, i do appreciate the changes that the m.t.a. has made in terms of improving communications to riders. better communications is not a solution to the problem. it is something we should have been doing to begin with. letting people know where the

end stock was really should have already been done -- letting people know where the end stop was. again, just with regards to the options, communications is not a solution. it is not something that is going to really help with the problem. with that, i do want to thank you for your presentation. i know it is not easy to come before the board, especially on issues that are difficult to tackle, but i hope we can make some progress on that. i would like to continue this to the call of the chair if that is agreeable. ok, continued to the call of the chair. without objection. are there any other items before us? >> no, madam chair. supervisor chu: thank you. we are adjourned.

>> good afternoon. it is friday, january 7, 2011. we are in session to take an item from the -- tuesday meeting. >> alioto-pier, present. -- chu, present. chiu, present. daly, present. dufty, present. elsbernd, present. mar, present. maxwell, present. mirkarimi, present. all members are present. >> can you join me in the pledge of of allegiance when yaho -- pf

allegiance. >> can we go to the item on the board of supervisors as a whole? >> item one is the appointment of a successor mayor. in the event of a vacancy to the mayor's office. >> i have asked for us to prepare a statement to discuss this item, we discussed this item at length on tuesday. >> on january 4, we -- elected

to recess this item to today, january 7. to appoint a successor mayor in the event of a vacancy. under this section, code 67.151 a, was completed on -- january 4, 2011. mirkarimi, campos, daly, and elsbern selected agnos, hennessey, and former board chairman aaron pescen. the role call was called in the order recieved, without yeilding

-- yielding six votes. mirkarimi withdrew his nomination of agnos. and had asked if we had spoken to the other nominees. sheriff hennessey has accepted the nomination. the former chair of the committee has denied the nomination. currently we have lee and pescen. you may wish to ask if they are willing to withdraw pescen. only electors willing to serve can be appointed.

>> as the first order of business, i would like to talk about one of the potential nominees. >> i would withdraw my nomination, and i do believe that this gives me the opportunity to make a new nomination. to make them go through the new process so that i can have a new nomination. >> this would require a majority vote of the body. >> i would open these nominations, for a nominee that i have declined, for this nomination. >> the supervisor has made a motion to reopen the nomination. seconded by supervisor mirkarimi. we will go down the roster.

supervisor avalos? supervisor avalos: i have no comment on this motion. >> would anybody like to speak? >> thank you. before speaking to the motion, i would like to talk about the breakdown of civility to each other, and i hope that we can proceed today, and work together with respect for one another, in the interest of moving the city forward. in a respectful and subtle way. i would like to ask to continue this moving forward, and i would like all possible candidates to be thoroughly considered. thank you. >> and other any other members?

-- and are there any other members? we will move on the motion of supervisor daly. >> chu, aye. chiu, no. elsbernd, no. mar, aye. maxwell, no. mirkarimi, aye. supervisor alioto-pier, no. avalos, no. campos, aye. five ayes, six no's. >> the motion to re-open nominations has failed. if we could continue discussion on this -- item. those items would be edwin lee and michael hennessey.

supervisor daly: i have a couple of questions, and i have one question. this is for the council. i have been thinking about this for some time. i have never formally asked this question. this is the county council on -- on august 27, 2010, we received a memorandum, from the office of the city. this is in regard to the a vice on matters concerning the mayor's race. in that multiple-page memo, we outlined the conflict of interest, that he has regarding

giving legal advice to this board of supervisors, when it comes to the election commission, and the ethics commission. with regards to the matters of the mayor's race. the subsequent memo, the city attorney, basically conflicted himself out in terms of giving this board of supervisors legal device on the matter with which we have been engaged for selecting a successor mayor, even though he has not been nominated at has not expressed interest. interest in being a choice or a candidate. and i saw some newspaper articles where i mentioned -- where he was mentioned as a declared candidate, but he has not been mentioned, in the

regular regularity. he has not been mentioned as a potential successor mayor. and thus, we have the standard council. i am wondering why the declared candidates, supervisor dufty -- he is actively running a campaign for the mayor of san francisco, i would like to know why he is not conflicted out of this. this situation -- the offices are different, but both of them are influencing or potentially would be influencing the outcome of the process and my question is, given that he is running for mayor, why is he not