quiet. occasionally, it is so loud that it is distorted. >> driver, may i have california st., please? >> no problem. >> whenever the announcement system does not work properly and a driver does not call out the stops, and i'm totally lost as to where i am. the announcement system calls out the stops, but to help the customer, i caught the destination, transfer points, and requested stops. and it is the law. >> i use the p a system to make sure everyone on the bus here is my announcements. >> i have had both experiences with the loudness and the to stop for the announcements. you are never going to have it exactly balanced for every trip because your level of noise changes. the announcement system ranges from 1 to 10. 10 would be too loud, a little distorted. eight is a good number. not too loud, but loud enough

for everyone to hear and understand what is going on. >> i think bus drivers might not be aware of the fact that if you let a visually impaired person off at the wrong stop, number one, they may be absolutely unfamiliar with the area they are in. >> the driver overshot the stock that i wanted. i decided to get off and find my way back, but it was very disorienting, not exactly understanding how far i was. number 2, it might be a potentially dangerous situation if they do not know the area and are attempting to make crossings that they are unfamiliar with. >> they let me off somewhere else. i had no idea where i was. i missed the stop, and the bus was gone. then, i look around. i tried to find someone to help me, and i cannot find anybody. i would have no way of knowing where i am at.

>> [inaudible] i asked why he did not stop when i asked. we did not panic. we do not know where we are. we do not know what is going on. i get over there, and right away, i almost got killed. >> #3, it's the person in question is trying to get somewhere, it is going to make them late for whatever they are doing. >> i had to find my way to a corner and ask someone where i was going to and how to get there. i eventually made it to my appointment, which was with social security, but i was very late, and they almost did not see me. >> i was very late former doctor's appointment, and there was concern about whether or not i could be fit in. >> when i get off i stock that is unfamiliar to me, because i

have no sight, i cannot just automatically orient myself off to a new environment. it takes a lot of training, a lot of work. there are a lot of skill sets involved when i am first introduced to a new area. to get off at an unfamiliar bus stop for the first time and to do it unintentionally -- it can be a really disorienting experience. >> i think there is a sense that it is ok, that person is going to find their way, and did they do not know where they are, you are potentially putting them in a seriously dangerous situation. >> i always appreciate when the drivers are proactive in asking questions like, "where do you want to get off?" i appreciate when they help find a seat for me. i also appreciate when everything is working properly as far as the voice announcement system.

they make sure that it is turned on, that it is loud enough for everyone to hear, not turned down so low that it helps no one. >> excuse me, driver, what stocks are we at? can you remind me when we get to venice and broadway? thanks. >> what we're talking about here is full participation and inclusion. i want to be able to lead a full life. the only way that i'm able to get from place to place this by using a fully accessible public transit system like meany -- muni. >> the americans with disabilities act of 1990 is a wide-ranging federal civil- rights law that prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities. title two of the ada addresses

access to public services, including public transportation for persons with disabilities. it requires transit operators to call out stops at transfer points, major intersections, and major destinations, and to announce particular stocks requested by customers with disabilities. stop announcements are especially important for passengers who are blind or have low vision. these individuals cannot travel independently if they are not assured of getting off at their intended destination point.

>> welcome to "culture wire." i'm here with james lee, and exhibiting artist, and we will have a chat today about the body of work you are presenting. after you left the military, what prompted you to go back to a place where the u.s. is engaged in military action? >> it is interesting. the population of afghanistan is around 29 million, and there's probably no more than 80,000 u.s. soldiers serving in afghanistan right now, but if you look at the stories that come out, you think the numbers are completely reversed. all the stories are about americans, and you see almost no images of stories about the

afghan people themselves, so if you look at the dominant representational paradigm uc today, it is all about foreign soldiers. my idea was to try incurred counted to that a popularized narrative and focus on images and stories that really reflect that lived experience of conflict through the eyes of the afghan people. >> you are exhibiting with three other photographers. it is true all three of them have really focused in the areas where a lot of u.s. and allied forces are seeing action, are actually involved in combat, so your story is different than theirs. what does it mean to show your body of work along side of the stories that probably are more familiar? what kind of juxtaposition does that create for you as an artist? >> i think the strength of bringing the two different stories together is i think there is a real danger in

focusing only on surface similarities between conflicts. when people look at a body of work and say that they see in this conflict photography, and it reminds them of somalia or iraq, i think that is dangerous because i think there are very unique elements to each conflict, and if you do not focus on the distinctions, you start to create a broader, watered-down topic, which is armed conflict, so i think it is important that when we focus on conflict, we make sure we do not just generalize, but we allow specific places and voices and people to be heard and we do not make these generalized assumptions about what conflict is like. >> the other photographers in the show, what is local, and the others are from new york and new delhi. what do you like about some of their work? >> in a big fan of the fact that he approaches photography from a non-traditional point of view. he also cunner has a mixed view

of cameras themselves. he calls them toys. >> he uses these cameras that one might assume our toys, but he also says all the toy cameras are cameras, so it does not really matter to him what he is using to take the images as long as he is getting the images he wants. and because they are taken with these film cameras, they have a very different feel than the other pictures in the show. one of the things i want to talk about is that lindsey's body of work is running down one side of the hall, and it is all about women in afghanistan and how they serve and their special interactions with civilian women and communities, which is the special role that women soldiers play in afghanistan. across from eric copeland's work, which is extremely masculine and black and white and very aggressive -- what do you think about that juxtaposition between their two

bodies of work? >> i like lindsey's contribution to the exhibit. she shoots in color, like i do, so it is great to see more color. she has a gift for capturing distinct moments that balance the conflict that these women are facing did today, but also very intimate, very feminine moments. she has one where a female soldier is shaving her legs at the beginning of her day, and it is kind of an odd thing to consider, but, obviously, it happens every day, but most people do not think about the challenges that face women in these types of environments where they continue to be feminine, continue to be women, but they also serve a vital role in afghanistan. she allows viewers to come in and see those kinds of intimate moments you might not normally think about. >> to our viewers, and actually the curator of the show. one of the things i was interested in with your work and with the other bodies of work i selected was that you are presenting a real human

perspective. each of you zeroes in on individuals, and the kind of sensitive, intimate, or private moments. >> if you look at most people's lives today and the way they spend their lives, it is probably not that different from what goes on on some of these larger for an operating basis. they have cafeterias. they have internet cafes. they have laundromats. they have their own spaces where they read, play video games. it is really like a small, microcosm of what they might find back in the united states. >> what do you hope that viewers take away from seeing your body of work or the exhibition as a whole? >> i think it is important for people to question how much we do or do not know about afghanistan, but conflict in general. too often today, i think we see one or two images and we think we understand what is going on in a part of the world, and we should try to get away from that. we should question what we know

about a conflict, where we got the information, and always look for new perspectives and new focus is on topics that we think we already understand. >> james, thank you for spending time with us, and congratulations on the exhibition and letting san francisco see this big body of work of yours. >> thanks. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- supervisor chu: welcome to the regular meeting of the budget

finance subcommittee. our clerk is mr. victor young. are there any announcements? please -- >> please turn off all cell phones. please fill out speaker cards if you wish to make public comments. items at the dupont today will appear on the board of supervisors agenda on may 10, 2011, unless otherwise stated. supervisor chu: please call item no. 1. >> resolution authorizing the san francisco department of the environment to accept and expend a grant of $100,000 from the bay area air quality management district to contribute to the cost of installing 60 publicly available electric vehicle chargers. supervisor chu: thank you very much. we have got bob hayden and mark western from poe.

>> thank you. good morning. this resolution before you is for one of a number of grants that we have or are expecting to receive shortly, which altogether provide the funding for us to install the electric vehicle public charging that we had planned for the city as our first effort this year in making public charging available for residents throughout the city. one month ago i was before you when we had a resolution for a grant that allowed us to receive a number of electric vehicle charging equipment, charters themselves, as a result of getting several federal grants. this resolution before you today is for a grant from the bay

area air quality management district that helps us install -- helps it so that we can install additional chargers for the remainder of the year. this grant is specifically to cover the cost of materials that are associated with putting those chargers in. pipes, conduit, wiring, a considerable amount. as i indicated, part of these chargers will be the ones that we received through the grant that you reviewed one month ago. we will be receiving additional grant funding, we anticipate, a bit later this year, which will allow us to purchase the remainder of chargers. altogether we are planning on installing 60 chargers in the downtown area. there will be additional chargers at the airport. the public ones are ones that are meant to supplement what

people used primarily in charging their electric vehicles, the electric charge -- but local chargers. we are putting these in on public property to provide access to convenience charging if people need it during the day when they're going to meetings at some location for a couple of hours to top off their batteries. there are additional chargers that will be available to the public in addition to what we are installing on public property, with commercial landowners, owners of retail stores, parking lots, they are also putting in public pay available charging throughout the city. " we have here is going to be on municipal property. we are looking at a number public libraries throughout the city, branches with locations where we can put chargers and are doing site visits this month

to assess the feasibility of doing it that individual public library branches. we are looking at the possibility of seeing if we can try to install chargers at the zoo, there is a redevelopment site in bayview hunters point and we are working with the redevelopment agency on other charges that we are installing in city-owned garages, primarily locations where we are updating existing charters that have been in place for 10 years but are now obsolete. as i indicated, this grant is to provide materials costs for installing chargers throughout the remainder of the year on public property. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you for this presentation. if there are no questions, let's go to public comment. with any members of the public wish to comment on item number one? if you want to speak on item

number one, please come on up. go ahead. >> good morning, supervisors. i am retired and living in san francisco, i have lived here for 59 years. the reason that i wanted to comment on this item is that there was a very interesting article this morning talking about $120 million hit that the mtc toke on a very interesting financial transaction. it is part of what i call voodoo economics. hopefully this item, which deals with electrical vehicles, is not going to involve any suspicious or hybrid financing. the reason why i bring up this item, when i read it, it looks to me like [no audio] use by

public employees. that is the feeling that i get. i am kind of wondering, what is the protocol for residential use? i have a feeling that most of these 60 units are going to be placed where local politicians will have access to them rather than the residential people that somehow could afford these the hackles. also, i would like to bring up the issue of security for these units and liability in case of a malfunction while the vehicle is being charged. i would like to know if that is being checked out thoroughly, especially the reliability portion. you know electricity, sometimes it is unpredictable. if a vehicle gets fried, who will be liable for that? i would like to make sure that those units will be located

where residents have vehicles. we should try to make sure the people that can afford them can use them. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is joseph [unintelligible] and i have a couple of issues concerning this. first of all, i was wondering if there would be any problems between municipally created stations as opposed to privately-owned, disrupting the market process. also, would these be exclusively available for san francisco residents only bella or are commuters going to be available to use them? thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: i had a couple of quick questions. i think that this is a very fitting step forward in the

city's ordinance commitment towards the climate action plan. i think that this is consistent with what our goals have been for the last four years. for public knowledge, where is the energy coming from. what is the source of electricity? >> for the chargers on municipal property, in almost every case said francisco public utilities commission. supervisor mirkarimi: i think it is important to underscore that point, something that we should be proud of, this is puc generated. also, are there costs that will be generated for the amount of electricity is used? what will be the reporting and assessment of how well these are used or not used? >> one of the benefits of the

new generation of technology we are able to use for the chargers, they have a lot of software that can record how much they are being used, what hours they are being drawn on. all of that information is being reported to a central location that we have access to and that we can monitor. but the individuals, but the degree to which they are used. supervisor mirkarimi: is it possible that this technology could adopt something similar, like sf park, where one could be made known in advance when a charter becomes available? in that potentially welcome problem that people are out surfing to find an available will trickle charge. >> two dancers. because of the location and miss

their -- and communications built in, the charter companies themselves are developing applications where people can access where they are and whether they are available or not. we will be working with charter companies on how to really integrate that so that there can be a very good system, very much like sf park, perhaps integrated, so that it is part of the information that people confined. not only where it is located, but if it is available. that is coming. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. i would motion to adopt this with recommendation for the board. supervisor chu: we have a motion and a second to send forward with recommendation. i will ask the department to follow up with the individuals on the questions that they had another conversation between private and public. thank you.

item number two, please. >> item #two. ordinance amending ordinance no. 191-10 (annual salary ordinance fy2010-2011) to reflect the addition of 0.25 social worker in the office of the public defender. supervisor chu: thank you very much. i believe that we have jennifer johnson on from the public defender's office? >> thank you, supervisors. this point to five position is what is left of a grant that we had hired someone as an employment specialist to work in the public defender's office, doing support of employment for people with major mental illnesses represented by the public defender, trying to get them into competitive jobs within the community. we hired someone to do that, thshe then left. this position is to fill the

remainder. i am here to answer any questions you have about the grant for the position. supervisor chu: my understanding is that this is a grant fund position without a general fund intact? >> correct. supervisor chu: thank you. without any questions at the moment, can we open this up to public comment? would any members of the public like to comment? seeing no one, public comment is closed. we can move forward without objection and recommendation. item #3. >> item #3. resolution approving the special transit fare (fast pass) agreement between the city and the bay area rapid transit district, with a term from january 1, 2010, to june 30, 2018. supervisor chu: thank you. i believe that we have a number

of representatives here on this item. would you like to begin? >> good morning, supervisors. we are before you to discuss this agreement between the mta and bart. we received the budget analysts report. at this point analysts are open to going back and renegotiating did agreement, calling back with a decision date. unless you have additional questions, that is where we are at this point. supervisor chu: could you just lay out the general conditions for the contract elapid >> the contract before you right now? supervisor chu: the proposal. >> currently, we reimbursed

bart $1 for every ride that a san franciscan takes on bart. historically, this rate has increased with regular fares as determined by their board at bart. since 2003 they have had an increase policy based. adjusting to inflation at a less than 5% productivity factor, this policy expires in 2012. i am not sure what the bart board will be doing after that. based on this formula for wage increase, it should be left to 5.5%, if you look at a biannual formula and give it an average inflation rate of 3%. i know that for the past five years, there is in san francisco

have increased by 40%. but the key financial terms of the proposal before you suggests that the reimbursement rate goes up by 17%, from $1 to $2.19. because of the length of the term agreement before you, after 2012, the rate increases are consistent with other fare policies as approved by the bart board. also suggesting annual rate cap increases of 10%. the budget analyst recommendation concurs going back and discussing this by not knowing what the board is going to do in the future, something more close to inflation. i will conclude by saying depth

both bart and ourselves are committed to this path that is a model for a nation in terms of two term assistance to create one of their product for the citizens of san francisco, referred to as a model for localities. i think they are committed to serving the san francisco writer is. we will be happy to go back and discuss this to bring it back before the board of supervisors. supervisor chu: i believe that we have a budget analyst report on this item. >> i will be brief. basically, summarizing key points in the report. on page 3-9, it is structured to look at the mta to reimbursed bart audit cost basis for an 8.5 year agreement on a fair policy year agreement on a fair policy that is yet to be determined, as