ia. why are you saying, "that's so emma and julia"? well, you know, when something is dumb or stupid, you say, "that's so emma and julia." who says that? everyone. announcer: imagine if who you are were used as an insult.

director beach: present. director bridges: present. director heinicke: present. chairman nolan: present. >> mr. chairman, you have the form. please refrain from using cell phones or electronic devices. the party responsible for one going off may be removed. the board respectfully ask that they be placed in the off position. would you like to do all of the items? approval of the minutes of the january 11 closed session ended

january 25 special close session? >> the items so moved. >> second. >> all in favor, say aye. >> aye. >> there will be no discussion of an anticipated litigation in closed session today. >> a couple of things, members of the board. on february 15, we are having our workshop on the agendas. several members of the board have expressed interest in the discussion for consideration at a later date. tell ms. boomer or myself about an issue you would like to have in further depth. two weeks ago, i attended the caltrans summit at stanford

university. some very interesting information. the metropolitan transportation commission, i would like to see if we could have that permission made available to us. -- information made available to us. somebody from san jose has been involved in transportation issues for a long time. i talked about a long-term approach. there are 27 different transportation agencies in the bay area. this is the first time they have been considered. caltrans gives it a new sense of urgency. i would like to hear some more about that. >> i am going to talk about

that and the information you suggested go to the entire board. we will give it to the board secretary and she will address the rest of the board. >> executive director's report. executive director ford: good afternoon members of the board and the public who are with us here today. i like to recognize our staff for the outstanding service and contributions they have made to the agency and the city and county of san francisco. this month's report will be going to a team of employees. it is going to rod and martina sanchez. could you please step up to the podium? they form our training team for the sustainable streets division. they both work to properly

provide service and protection to our most precious users of our transportation infrastructure, our children. rod has been a crossing guard since 2004 and a peel trainer since 2008. he began his career crossing school children at 19th avenue and vicente street. because of his high standards and professionalism, he was asked to become a pool trainer in 2008. he completes numerous field observation forms on all of our guards as part of their performance evaluation process. we would inevitably get a call from this principle or secretary inquiring if rod could stay at that corner. we informed them that he had to move on to another assignment. martina has been a crossing

guard since 2005. she has been a trainer since 2009. she is crossing students at hamilton and manzel streets. because of her exemplary job performance, she was asked to be a few trainor in 2009. she has been a valuable asset at training many of our spanish- speaking crossing guards. one parent to her that she was leaving wrote us a note to tell us how much they appreciated her at that school. >> with her professionalism and friendly nest she brings to the job, i have not seem -- seen one close call this year. even bicycles seem to stop for red lights. she made us all feel comfortable and confident in

crossing what seems like crossing one of the busiest and daunting corners in the city. i could not remember -- recommend her more highly. they have completed over 150 performance plans for our guards in the last fiscal year. this was needed to complete the performance plans by the management team. we would like to take this opportunity to salute both of them for the work that they have done and give them an award for director of these sustainable streets. congratulations. >> good afternoon, members of the board. when he was reading all of these accolades, i found my second career when i retire. congratulations to rod and martina for being such great

teachers and goodwill ambassadors for the program. i am sure that the other crossing guards appreciate your help. thank you very much. >> on behalf of the board of directors and the entire agency, thank you for your outstanding and vital work for all of us. congratulations. we would love to hear a few words. >> thank you for giving us the opportunity to be out there with the children of san francisco. it is a great opportunity. thank you very much. [applause] >> i would like to give you an update on our central subway project.

the central subway project continues to be one of the largest investment projects in san francisco infrastructure in a number of years. we began the second phase of the central subway construction program. that will require relocating all of the underground utilities to along the sidewalk on stockton street. we will continue to work with businesses and residents to make sure that the construction process is as smooth as possible. here to talk about this is our central program manager. >> good afternoon, the directors. i am the central subway sr. program manager. i am pleased to give you the status of the central subway, which will improve the quality of life for the residents and businesses. 2010 net was a banner year for

the program. they received approval for final entry to design in january followed by ground-breaking construction contract in february. for the future station and portal, the project management, the local enterprise. the central subway was also listed for the first time in 2010 in president obama's department of transportation budget. they were awarded a $27,000 grant for -- from the transportation commission. this board authorized in 2010 the award of three design contracts and the transportation office on bradstreet which has a staff of 95 employees. these contracts are employing a small business in excess of 39 on average. it allows for a the business

participation level of 40 local businesses. professional service contracts have also hired a total of 16 for source training placements today, hiring it economically disadvantaged individuals. in september, 2010, central subway joined the international labor union of america to host a conference and supported a bonding and finance assistance program for small businesses. 2011 began with the central subway team hosting the prime small business meet and greet event for construction subcontractors on the 11th. this was attended by more than 230 people and provided an excellent opportunity for local

subcontractors to meet with the contract in community. the tunneling contract will be issued for bids this month. this offer the permission to succeed. this included a 100% that small business set-aside for trucking and hauling services. our contract indicated that a resident participant level of 22 workers to date and six city- built construction placement. this is a union approved pre- apprenticeship program. we continue to work closely with the sfmta to receive the full funding grant agreement projected for december of this year. thank you and i look forward to briefing you on the successes of

the central subway program. >> i appreciate it. >> moving on in our report. they are making preparations for the park project. the park has a bold new approach to parking management that contest weather sparked parking policies can reduce congestion and improve safety for pedestrians and private automobiles. they will test a package of smart marketing management techniques that include real- time information about parking availability through the web, 511, and the text messaging, mobile device arena. we will be installing new parking meters, which will make it easier to pay whether you are using collins, smart cards, or a credit card. there will be incremental price

changes that will be adjusted no more than every four weeks. time limits will be in the park to meet demand. new parking rates will respond to parking prices. the plan is to start much of these improvements in the spring of this year. we will come back to you with a specific launch date in the very near future. we look forward to success and the attention we are receiving from around the globe. the chairman mentioned earlier that on friday, january 21, the silicon valley leadership group posted a summit in palo alto. the chairman was joined by over 200 people, many local elected officials. there were presentations from a san francisco supervisor elsbernd. and steve, who serves as the mtc

executive director. the purpose was to kick off a six-month effort to identify sustained options beyond the current model which relies on funding on partners beyond the mta. the budget scenario for caltrans is extremely dire. that includes the elimination of service south of san jose and the closure of stations as soon as july 1, 2011. for some of our new were board members, i served as the executive director. i also serve as a board member. i will be attending that meeting. various ideas being discussed include everything from agency consolidation, fare increases,

advertising revenue, savings from advertising negotiations, funding from sites which include developer fees that would support transit operations. ultimately, there was recognition that a permanent, sustainable operating source will include some sort of voter action. the campaign will look at possible options over the next month and over the next six months. we will keep you up-to-date on those matters. >> it was very interesting that todd train is a very successful system with about 40,000 riders per day. they are in the neighborhood of about 43%. ours is about 23%. it is an increasingly important revenue source. another important thing is that

steve talked about the overhead cost of doing this. they are doing everything right, yet they still have very serious economic problems. anybody can guess what the long- term effect will be. >> that will be an ongoing item of discussion. we will keep the board replies. >> the next item on my report this sunday streets. the mta will be hosting this year's sunday streets of events. our sister agencies include the department of public works and the police department as well as the bicycle coalition. 8 events are currently planned for this year.

they will take place on the second sunday of each month. the eve3nt will be on march 20. april 10 along the great highway. may 8 in the mission. july 10 along the great highway. august 14 in the civic center, tenderloin area. september 7 in the western addition. we are in discussion about the additional night event. we will give you an update if and when that occurs. staff will begin the process of planning for a more permanent venue that will connect various areas of the city. going forward in the future, we will look at how we can make this a permanent activity with a regular schedule year to year. my last item that i would like to bring to your attention is a

report regarding a significant delay that we experienced on january 27 with outr muni system. a bridge failed to set properly after opening for a pleasure boat. the bridge opened at upon closing, it was on able to block and allow us to operate trains over that bridge. -- unable to lock and allow us to operate trains over the bridge. there was a bust bridge to the mission bay platform. our service was a -- was impactive for seven hours before our staff was able to connect rods to the bridge locks. we will have a discussion to debriefed this actual incident.

we will also work towards developing a suitable diversion. there was some difficulty in terms of setting up the bridges. we will look forward to setting up the future occurrences. this is the first time it has ever happened in terms of our operation. we will work very closely to prevent a reoccurrence in the future. with that, that concludes my report and i am available for any questions. >> thank you, members of the board for coming. >> the only person that has turned in a speaker card. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. somebody using your name wrote something. i am interested in pointing out that taxi services has not had

an employee honored by this in a long time. i am here to say that you should all honoredjarvis murray. i know you propose -- by proposed ricardo and he was honored with the name month. i think it is important that you honor somebody in that department finally. you are calling us a stepchild or a foster child and that is not fair. i appreciate you honoring an employee today. i appreciate that and thank you very much. >> does anybody errors -- anybody else care to address the board? >> advisory council reports. i do not see mr. murphy here today. moving on, item nine, an opportunity for members of the public to address the public --

at the board on the items relating to the mta board but not on the agenda today. you have two people that have turned in a speaker card. >> good afternoon. >> i came to talk on a power point that they have presented earlier from the community advisory committee on bus stop consolidation. i was -- i believe it was presented to you folks on september 7. it is an example of a distortion or misinformation based on statistics. what is scary about this is that this is being suggested for a pilot project. give some statistics, but it does not give all necessary statistics. it calls for a number of stops

to be totally eliminated. you will see that the ninth san bruno will have 13% of its stops eliminated. the 28 line, 20%. stockton, 22%. there are other statistics beyond that. it does not make reference to the fact that several of these lines are overlap by zero other lines. this does not say bank they will exclusively stop serving only the 30 line. there are two portions. to the western terminal and along columbus and from washington square to north point. all of the lines are overlapped by other lines. if you talk about taking out stops, you have to look at the impact on other lines, the

number people impacted, the delays. this does not reference any attempts for better enforcement. i suggest this is given to you edit is incomplete and misleading. it does not allow people to realize the greater impact than what this shows. >> good afternoon. i wanted to add another name to a person that was very good to me the other day. james was so helpful and cooperative yesterday in allowing me to do some research. i just wanted to let you know that you have another employee working the front desk, unlike another person that gave me a lot of stress.

previously, we did not have just 4.5 hours to get in line to read our a card. we had seven or eight hours over at city hall. we are being treated like these idiots. we are paying $60-$88.50. we are being yelled that to stand in line. youra card -- a card and driver's license out. we are paying a lot of money to be treated by a little kids. i know they are doing a tough job. it is difficult when you have a lot of people to deal with. i would ask you to allow people to renew their a cards without

incurring a penalty for this. you are collecting a lot of money and sucking money out of the drivers without telling them about this. i had a dispute with one of the employes. the streamlined the process by eliminating a lot of the hearings. what are discovered, we are not being told by e-mails. find it on the web site. we are not being called on the web site. we deserve to get loiinks to know who is going to get a reissued medallion. so that we know why we are being left out of the process. >> next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. i am a taxicab driver. good afternoon, everybody. summertime is coming very soon.

our giants team is coming very soon. i would like to mention the action in san francisco. this is market and third street. they do not know. they cannot see where the line is. the first time in america, the driver can see the line with the blinking red lights. do not go across this light. there is a blinking red light. the driver does not have the eyes sight to see that. you have to put the screen up, please do not block the intersection. they do not know. the line is too long. we cannot cross because at the mission, people are blocking the intersection. you can blame the people.

you can do straight ahead blinking red lights for the intersection. that is like a disco dancing lamp. please do not stay there. if bay blocke i --f they block it, send the a ticket to their driver's license. that is a good way to make money for you. >> are for public comment on matters not on the agenda today. >> for the record, the first, the law does, the most accurate data generated was cemented accurately by myself in 1998. to provide a fair and objective of accounting of taxi service, that includes san francisco. i live, work, play, a vote.

i do not live in san francisco. when in san francisco, i travel mostly by taxi or some other independent form of transportation. in my opinion, san francisco taxi service is unsatisfactory, good, or excellent. i think they are generally unsatisfactory, and good, or excellent because i would add a number of calves, not sure, or no more cabs. the number of cabs it is, you are asked if your e-mail or female, address, neighborhood, zip code, states, or country. the age group, 18-26, 56-70 or older. i have submitted this data for the last 13 years. over 12,000 customers have been surveyed. i have yet to