disappoint -- to support doyle drive. we have to raise revenue some time. this is a huge international tourist attraction. maybe the biggest. we have 10 million pedestrians and visitors. many of them a one not crossing it, certainly not to commute. i do with all the time for recreation. i do not think that we should have tolls for people who consistently exercised and use the bridge for those purposes. however, capturing the tourist revenue that is there would be a wonderful boon to the bridge district and the bay area.

there are tourist dollars that can be made from the tourist bicycles that hog the bridge and cause administrative problems. i am on the bridge all the time and this is very crowded. >> in the you support charging a toll for pedestrians and bicyclists? >> i would support a visitor's fee. something that would go into the tourist experience. we are going to offer a museum. after we offer our pedestrian renovations. >> you support a fee for tourists? >> exactly. >> how would you distinguish between them and people who regularly exercise? >> i would not support a fee for

bicyclist. i would like to increase access for bicyclist. i don't think that it has to be closed as often as it is. i would like to increase bicycle access. this is a wonderful mode of transportation. >> you support it for pedestrians but not for cyclists? >> i would not support a toll for cyclists unless we can do this through the tourist-rented cycles. >> there is a fee when you ride the bicycle? >> i don't know. we are exploring that. my city directors know that as part of my long term plan to look into tolls for pedestrians. >> you voted against cuts to ferry and bus services?

>> i do not support future cuts. >> you did support them in the past? >> i don't remember. i believe that we voted unanimously to do that. we are in a dire financial situation. it will get worse. if government funding as cut, we have less and less people on the bridge. a lot of jobs have been lost. many people are -- we need revenue. >> i think there was a split on the ferryboat. thank you. >> thank you. >> at this time, we have richard grosboll. >> thank you. i have had the pleasure of serving on the board for the last four years.

it has been a rewarding experience. i have a history of being involved with some neighborhoods in planning and transit issues. i have been involved in labor issues as well as well as a lot of transit environmental issues. i will not repeat what my previous us what the two previous candidates talk about. the financial problems are overriding. -- i will not repeat what the previous two candidates talked about. we have three significant projects going on. we have the seismic retrofit which is a major project. we hope to finish part of that in 2012 and then we will move on to a bigger part. that is just hanging over us. this is very expensive but it must be done. we are all excited about finally getting a move will build a barrier in. also a suicide barrier.

-- we are all excited about finally getting a movable median barrier in. the suicide says -- the suicide barrier design phase should be completed soon. with the suicide barrier, between 25-35 people that we know of jumping off the bridge each year, i am excited about that. with respect to some of the other issues. we have dealt with issues such as the type of engines in the ferry's. our environmental can be be and still have reliable -- how environmental can we be and still have a reliable ferry?

i suspect that most of the bridges in the area will be without toll takers. i wanted to get more time for the workers to be able to train more to get some of the other jobs at to the bridge. second, there is a whole contingent. there are many people going across the bridge and who want to be anonymous. this was a close call and i understand the need to do it. i could have been more consistent with respect to the anonymous drivers. we have an excellent staff. it has been quite enlightening. our general manager and all the way down with the bridge workers and others. we have learned a lot from their comments. i have enjoyed working on the bridge. i have enjoyed working with the transit issues. many of us for get that the

tolls, people keep saying why you have such large polls? this is because we support the ferries, the buses come other transit issues. that is part of our policy. that is continuing that way and i supported that strongly. thank you, and i look forward to your vote. >> thank you for your service. are there any questions? do you support charging pedestrians and cyclists a toll to cross the bridge? >> i don't. we've talked about the challenge of whether you can somehow charge the taurus and did not the residents. -- tourists and not the res idents. if it you were going to allow residents to cross for free, you would have to do it for all six counties. i have concluded that there's

not a workable system to do it. maybe-maybe there will be a proposal. you have friends and colleagues telling me that there are all of those tourists walking across the bridge. there's a certain pride in having it be for free. people like to walk it and they liked the view. trudging people, up -- charging people, i am not quite ready for that. >> i know that there are some controversial votes on the board. i was curious about your vote for the cut in ferry service. why did you not support the cut? >> well, this was somewhat of a symbolic vote. i am a transit activist. i support transit. i felt it was important to show that there was some disagreement. i wanted to voice it and share

it with life -- a share it with my fellow members. i felt as a transit advocate i wanted to send a message to find some other funds or to something else but i realize there is no easy answer. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> next we have mr. david schneider -- david snyder. >> i am a 22-year resident hond to be here to request appointment to the bridge board. you have my resume, i will let it speak to the details. i have 20 years of transportation policy experience mostly with bicycle

safety but also with land use, walking, traffic. i would like to talk about my priorities. if i am appointed again to the bridge -- i will mention them in the reverse order in my optimism. the president mentioned the planned to get to fiscal stability. one of the items on there is incremental tolling for our electronic payment customers. we propose to do that right now starting three or four years from now but i would like to start of that right away. we have always had dollar increments because it is easier to make change that way. with electronic tolling, we don't have to do that. i don't think that people notice

and it will help our financial system of the lead. the second priority is to get a monthly pass for our transit users. we don't have that. i think that this hurts our transit ridership. i look forward to working with the san francisco chamber of commerce because it would encourage visitors. the bridge has challenges are around a monthly pass that muni does not have. i'd knowledge that this is challenging but it can be done. -- i acknowledge that this is challenging. i would like to improve bicycle safety on the bridge. also alexander avenue leading to the property. i look forward to working with the staff on that.

it takes and little while to learn the culture, plays, talents, perspectives of my fellow board members. i have developed a bad experience and the last two years. i look forward to using that to helping to make the district usable for all of its users. -- i have developed that experience over the past two years. >> what ideas and do you have are around collecting local residents to jobs? >> we at the bridge to conform to federal requirements. those requirements are very low. this is a few percentage points.

we get reports from that. as a board, we should consider increasing those requirements. i have not made that comment yet as a board member. when i heard the percentage that is required, for me, it sounded really low. >> you don't support charging a fee for pedestrians and cyclists? >> no. >> thank you. our next applicant is michael theriault. >> there was a long tradition of building representation. there was good reason for that. the geologist who did the studies for the foundations of

the bridge, the professor at of the california university, he went outside of the scope of his assignment and said that that bridge will have to be replaced once or twice a century. he was going around and telling people that the bridge is eternal, don't worry. they were both correct. instead of the bridge having to be replaced, it is undergoing constant replacement. there is a constant need for the building trade on that bridge. some of the chains were change the outcome of the southern arts has been strengthened, the workers on the bridge are constantly changing. -- some of the chains the souths

been strengthened. there are structural rivets that you look at and question their yield strength. the kind of knowledge that we bring to network. this is not represented on the board. we are different aspects of the same -- it is importance to have an understanding represented on the bridge board. i am an iron worker. that brigitte is our signature project here in san francisco for local 377. we are devoted to that bridge. we have accomplished a great deal. that bridge is our symbol.

we believe in it, we want to make sure it succeeds in every possible way. i would not ever presume to call myself a bridge man, which is a particular honorific, i am knowledgeable about structural steel. there are bridge men in the audience behind me who are supportive of my presence on the board. with the building trades, over the years they have come to represent the other workers on the bridge. as the bridges mission expanded to include buses and ferries, our presence was expanded to include them as well. that is important as well, particularly as the bridge over goes -- goes through its economic challenges in the future.

i am not a transit expert. my primary means of transportation is a mix of public transit and my own two feet. my secondary means of transportation is a bicycle. i have a 1993 dodge dakota which is my vehicle for other purposes but i primarily drive it to get away from street cleaning. there are some considerable challenges, structural challenges the financially that the bridge will face a. when i last participated in negotiations on behalf of the coalition of unions on the bridge, -- at the start of every public sector to negotiation, the public agency comes and tells you what an awful situation it is in. sometimes this is true,

sometimes it is not so true. come over the past decade, it was certainly true. we rebuilt the medical plan for the employees of the bridge. in the course of hearing the comptroller's presentation, we heard something that interested me. at that point in time, the bridge district was providing local bus service to one of the richest counties in california. the county was not doing for the bridge district and its buses what san francisco does for muni. i don't know how that has been altered. i know that bus service has been cut back.

i would be interested in exploring that further. there was in -- another issue that deals with the bridge long term and that is that we are actively trying to cut back on automobile use in this country, state, region. yet, the bridge district depends on tolls from automobiles to sustain all of its other missions and areas. at some point, we will have to look at what is involved in those two different ads on a collision course. -- path on a collision course. i hope you'll give me the chance to represent workers and others on the board. >> as someone who represents building trades, what ideas do you have in terms of insuring that we see some of the jobs for

many of these jobs going to the residents in our county? >> you have several counties. buthat makes it somewhat easier, actually. the structure of those involved insures that as well. if you are talking about underserved communities, i will stand on my record. in the eye and workers' union, 377, we had taken a local which have had about 1500 members. through an organizing program in which i was involved, we nearly doubled the size of local. we did that by reaching dyou are talking about. you do this by concentrating on specific barriers that have to

be overcome, by working hard to overcome those barriers. my complaint with the approach that has been taken recently here is that it is attempted to do this with the requirements from above rather than analyzing what actually has to happen in terms of removing the barriers and getting people to work. i will be supportive of every means of doing that. in the history of this bridge, there was just what you're talking about in the construction of the bridge, strict requirements for residency and the workers. ultimately, they had to acknowledge -- and they had not prepared to the work force in advance. they had to back off of that in order to get the bridge build. if you take that approach, the approach taken here, this is an

incomplete approach at the very least. you have to take the other approach as well. >> as a director, what can you do to increase local workers on these projects? >> i think it is necessary to work with the workers to make sure they have vowed reach programs and means of helping workers in the trades. -- to make sure that they have outreach programs and a means of helping workers. >> to support charging a toll for pedestrians and cyclists across the bridge? >> no. >> thank you very much. there's no comment from my colleagues, i will open it up for public comment. we have two minutes per speaker.

>> hello, i am with -- supervisors, i appreciate the opportunity to speak. i sent a letter, i am not sure if you got it, but basically i am supporting the appointment of michael theriault. i support labor unions at the bridge. we have had two years without a voice of labour on the bridge. we want a labor representative. bodman donald from labor was a director. -- bobby mcdonald from labor was a director.

i think for us, some of the comments that you heard from the directors, the times are not the best for workers who and decisions are made by the board that impacts lives and i am sure that everyone is heard about the toll operators that will be replaced. those are tough issues and it is really important to the 15 unions at the bridge to have someone that speaks for us and that we can go to. also, i want to let you know that i have worked closely with michael. he is honest, reputable, and a hard-working person. >> good afternoon, supervisor

kim. i am a senior field agent for local carpenters 22. it is strange to be here supporting an iron worker but i am. we have two people today but i'm speaking as an individual now. i have worked with him all the time and i know him and i trust him and i think that he should be the guy on the board turned down -- the guy on the board. i also support janet.

>> i support michael on the board. he has been very active to the environment issues. he also joined jack morrison who was a member of the 1960's board of supervisors. he put initiatives on the ballot to which the voters said yes. they have been representing labor unions and other members.

>> could afternoon. i would like to speak in support of -- -- good afternoon. he has a keen analytic mind, i again and a concern for the welfare of people that use the bridge as visitors.

he is a labor attorney, and the time and dedication he has dedicated has also been an invaluable asset. i want to say that miss reilly has an encyclopedic knowledge of the hall operation -- of the operation. and miss seagal has a kind- hearted mind. all three of these people have taken a stand oneterrent when ir to do that. when people believe to the myth that someone would kill themselves any way, just elderly

white men that were thought to be jumping from the bridge and not worth saving. we learned it was our children who were jumping. it was young people -- [chime] and the courageous stance that was taken to save everybody. president kim: thank you so much for being here today. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am a board member of san francisco tomorrow. i would like to read a letter into the record from our president to was unable to be here today. she is, and we are in support of the reappointment of richard. san francisco tomorrow