commissioner mirkarimi: good morning. welcome to the san francisco county transportation authority meeting. i am are his mirkarimi. >> avalos present, campos present, chiu and accept. chu absent. chen absent -- cohen present. elsbernd. elsbernd present. commissioner fairly. present. commissioner kim absent.

commissioner mar, absent. mirkarimi, present. >> weiner present. we have a quorum. commissioner mirkarimi: read item two. >> approve mendoza of the january 25 meeting. action item. commissioner mirkarimi: motion to accept minutes by commissioner campos and seconded by commission farrell. >> item two, commissioner avalos. >> aye. >> campos, aye. >> champion chu. >> kwlie. elsbernd, aye. roll call.

>> there are eight eist, and it passes. commissioner mirkarimi: would you read items three and four? >> chair's report, item four, executive director's report. information items. commissioner mirkarimi: i have brief brief marks. this meeting will be brief. we had another busy month at the authority. there has been quite a bit of activity in sacramento as i am sure you have been hearing and reading about relating to transportation funding as the can he bait over the state budget continues. what we have seen so far in ferms of the governor's proposal is encouraging. the administration recognizes to the need to maintain funding commitments and the potential negative consequences of not keeping those commitments. there is a recognition that investment in san francisco is a key actor in reactivating the

economy. we have worked to develop a consensus on sustainable communicate strategy. the latest chapter is introduced as bill 57 which proposes to give cities of oakland and san jose one representative each on the m.t.c. the move would effectively give alameda and one ought county with three votes and other counties just two. this is a serious time when we are trying to build a consensus about the path forward in terms of how we are going to grow over the next three decades. san francisco won't take this, and we have called the united nations for assistance. just kidding, seeing if you are listening. san francisco needs a stronger, not weaker representation, and we are going to make sure we make that opinion heard. we have a position on the bill at the authority, and commissioner wiener has introduced ledge slakes which i

hope we will be able to get behind. san francisco is called to bear a larger burden of housing and development in the region over the next three decades, and we need to make sure that trance and other infrastructure services will be there to meet the demands of growth. the region needs to be prepared to help us get there, we should not have to worry about how many votes each county has on the m.t.c. at a time when that debate happens, but nonetheless, this is a crucial discussion. on other matters i remind you that the legislative advocacy trip is coming up in mid march, and that our presence in washington, d.c. is important this year in the context of the expected re-authorization of the six-year surface transportation act. there is no better way to show support for our projects than to be there exchange them to the people making the tough choices. i am going to ask all the

commissioners to consider if they would like to go to the conference, and you should talk to t.a. staff in that comports with your schedule. this concludes my report. thank you again for the good work of the p. and p, finance committee and all commissioners. please, director? >> good morning. i am the executive director. i have a report on your desk and several things i would like to highlight. the first one deals with the regard pressing issue of the short-term and longer term structural deficit problem that cal tran is confronting, currently pro can't jecting an annual $$30 million deficit for fiscal year 2011-2012, which as you have heard, if left unaddressed could result in a

drastic elimination of essentially all but other services. that would eliminate the weekend service to giant games and so on, and also the elimination of the san jose-to-gilroy leg and elimination of seven to 10 stations. there is a significant amount of activity over the last month trying to deal with the issue. the hearing will be held on march 3 to receive public comment concerning the proposed declaration of fiscal emergency and associated service reductions. this is not really the time for a discussion about this, but the structural deficit has to do with the way that the joint powers board is structured and the three partner agencies that are contributing to the annual operating budget, including the

san francisco valley transportation authority, san, mateo, and sfrkt. they have had to pass that on to cal tran. cal tran depends on those three agencies' contributions for more than 35% of its operating budget. as an aside, you are aware that the authority contribute capital money to cal tran through prop k, but not operating money. a couple of advocacy grooms have formed around this issue. there is a group called the friends of cal tran that has organized several meetings. it is headed by the former mayor of palo alto. and another group has been

active trying to address this issue. there was a meeting in january of that group that i know commissioner elsbernd attended, and several of my staff as well to try to onlyize the options for dealing with this. it is a serious issue. it is a serious mobility issue, and a serious air quality issue potentially for the peninsula and san francisco, and we will continue to track it and be involved in it, looking to structure a policy-level solution. not just a band aid for this year, but something that can help us into the future. on other regional related news, the regional transportation plan and the san francisco transportation plan have released calls for project. there is a joint call for project going on now for the regional plan and the san francisco long-range plan, which we are putting together, talking about the update to the san francisco long-range

transportation plan. these are documents that essentially become the blueprint for hour investment happens in transportation over the next two and a half or three decades. so they are important. the san francisco trance -- transportation play rests in the regional plan, which is in turn for the receipt of federal money to transportation projects in the region. currently we are encouraging the public to submit comments. our website has a web-based form that people can use to suggest projects. we are encouraging people to particularly suggest projects that would contribute to the region's ability to achieve it's air quality goals. but we are also planning meetings with all of you and your staff to make sure that we have specific guidance as to the priorities in your zrict. it maintains a hotline in

addition to the website and hot lines. the number is 415-593-5244. for people who are listening and interested in suggesting projects to the plan, that is the number. i made a comment last week already that i think is worth reiterating today, that the secretary of transportation, ray, lahood made an announcement last week for a $53 billion high speed rail initiative, leading to achievement of a goal of having 80% of the population of the u.s. within reach of a high speed rail line in 25 years. it is very ambitious, which kicks off with $53 bill over the next six years. it has already run into a serious opposition of the house

as the new leadership of the house prepares to make budget cuts, including that program. it is nevertheless a very interesting opportunity, and i think it is visionary of the administration to put this on the table at a time of climate. we are confronted with a number of climate change issues that need to be addressed. the authority is dealing with a number of new funding opportunities that require calls for projects. those are all on our went. they are summarized in a memo. i will leave it at that not to make the report so long. there is and annual call for projects for prop k that is coming up which has a due date of march 25th, and that is for the programic aspects of prop k. those are the line items that include a lot of small items like the bicycle facilities, traffic signals and so on. we understand that those are

items that tend to be of significant interest to you in your individual offices, and there four we plan to structure the approval of those items over a would--- two cycle period. we will bring them to you as an information item in may and then get approval in june to give you opportunity to interact with the democrats affected and give us guidance on how to get this prioritized in june. the clean air funds are up for a call for projects right now, which we issued on february 3. there is $750,000 available for projects like bicycle facilities, alternative fuel facilities, and ride sharing programs. those will come to you for approval also at the june meeting. and there is a safe routes to school for capital projects as well that was released on january 20th. projects are due on march 8th.

that is a $17 million regional fund, of which $2 million is done as a region-wide competitive call, and the other $15 million are allocated to counties based on school population. k-12 school enrollment. san francisco is getting about $1 million of that money, and we have already programmed $500,000 in this fiscal year for the education and outreach program of safe routes to school. and the our $570,000 is part of this call for projects. those i anticipate will come to you for approval at the board meeting in april. the report on page three also has an analysis of prop k allocations to date which i find rather fascinating. as you recall, we went through an exercise of prioritizing what should be programmed in prop k over the next 5-10

years. so we came up with a programming capacity of about $412 million for fiscal years 2010-2011 and 2009-2010. of that $412 million, only $288 million has come in and been allocated. in other words, eligible departments have left $123 million of prop k capacity on the table. so, our allocation records so far on average is about 70% of our capacity. i am not sure how much more to say about this right now, but my initial conclusion is that we may be looking at perhaps a delay in the date when we need to issue debt because of this dynamic. a couple of final things. a very, very important announcement, commissioners. the president's draft budget,

which was released yesterday essentially on the transportation side includes $30 million for the bus rapid transit project. that is a very nice a lot of money, a great piece of news. it includes $200 million for the central subway, which is another excellent piece of news. the budget needs to go through congress, but the fact that the administration has put this much financial clout behind the projects is a clear indication of how important they are to the administration. we are looking forward to seeing the projects move forward. on the other side, the administrative draft will be released at the end of this month in february, and we expect that the public documents, public draft, will be circulated in april. so we are moving forward expeditiously with that project and making sure that we can capture the funding largesse from the federal government on the project.

also to reiterate, we have concluded the commercial close on the presidio parkway project, and the financial close will be on schedule to happen toward the end of the summer. and finally, i would like to introduce two people that have joined the authority team. first of all, matt lee, who joins the capital projects division as senior engineer. he is a san francisco local. he has lived in six of the 11 districts over 30 years. he is, like commissioner cohen, a grade wait locally, and he has an underdegree from the university of cal davis, and a masters in engineering from san francisco state. he has spent part of his life in the public sector and some

in the private sector. he is great to work with, and i am delighted to welcome him to the authority team. i was like to introduced alex chiu. he is part of the outside counsel bureau, and we are delighted to have him as well. commissioners, that concludes my report. >> welcome, gentlemen, to the staff. commissioner mirkarimi: colleagues, any comments or questions for the executive director or myself? any public comment? seeing newspaper, public comment is closed. madam cleerk, read item five. >> approve the 2011 state and federal legislative program, an action item. commissioner mirkarimi: any discussion? seeing none, any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. roll call, please.

>> 11 ayes. commissioner mirkarimi: very good. read item number 6, please. >> award a contact to 12i carshare not to compete $1,700 for e-fleet carsharing electrified project and authorize executive director. >> any discussion? no discussion. any public comment? closed. so moved. >> item number after. appoint wendy tran to the

advisory economy. >> any discussion on this item? seeing none, any public comment. public comment is closed. take the same call. very good. so moved. item number 5eu8. >> allocate $35 in prop k funds with conditions to the transportation agency for the citizen of the 14th and market street curb bulb project. commissioner mirkarimi: long overdue. any discussion. public comment? public comment is closed. so moved. next item please. >> amend the baseline funding plan for the san francisco municipal agency central subway project. affirm the authority's communicateding commits. commissioner mirkarimi: any discussion on this item? public comments? one after the other.

>> my name is art michelle. i am a member of the citizens advisory group for the central subway, and i want to take the opportunity to ask you to support the funding for the central subway project, which will be -- will provide much improvement for the central corridor across the most congested portions of the city. thank you. commissioner mirkarimi: next speaker please. commissioner wiener, i see your name on there. can wait until after public comment? >> yes. commissioner mirkarimi: as you see fit. >> good morning. i am with the richmond association. i am also the chair of the land use committee. i am here today -- i am normally more interested in land use issues, but this muni

-- this central subway i think people who take muni haven't heard, and they are not fairly represented, and i think their concerns have to be addressed. in regards to the central subway, i think the transportation authority, m.t.a., muni has to provide accurate and honest information to the board of supervisors. i am not sure if all the pros and cons have been discussed thoroughly. this is such a huge budget item that is going to have impact for the future of muni. central subway may benefit some people. i don't know what percent. perhaps 5% or 10%. but the 90% or more, their concerns i don't think are being considered, and they are not being addressed.

i didn't realize i only had two minutes. i have to say i admire the public defender and his courage to stand up and point out an issue or problem that needed to be addressed. and in the same way, with the members of the board of supervisors, understand and see the future effect of this central subway and that you also could understand the problems. if you see an issue, if you oppose this, please stand and oppose this. thank you. commissioner mirkarimi: thank you, sir. next speaker, please? >> good morning, commissioners. my jamaica is jackie saks. i am not only a member of the citizens advisely authority, but i helped prop b and

re-authorize prop k years later. the 3rd straight light rail was part of problem b. i have been working on this since day one, and i have gone to all their meetings and their workshops. there is no -- like michael said at the plans and programs meeting, there is no reason to stop now. let it go forward. let the project be completed, because this is what the money is there for. this is what it is allocated for, and i see no reason why you should not oppose it. please vote for it. thank you. commissioner mirkarimi: thank you. next speaker, please. >> howard wong with save muni.com. the central subway, as we all know, started as a politically inspiredpr