carter was when we were going to reissue the rfp which would have -- 10 years -- five years past? five years past due. one supervisor said it hadn't been done by 2000. that was 1998. we have a real hard time and that's one of his real strength is his ability to reach consensus and making them feel good after they get the debt. -- after they get beat up. [laughter] it has been a pleasure working with you and much success

wherever you end up. >> thank you. >> thank you very much for taking the time for my development and education for the development issues and explaining them to me. i have had several meetings with you and your staff and they were very helpful to me. i will be forever grateful to you and your staff. i wish you the best in whatever you decide to do. >> it's part of my executive director's report, so i will wait until that time. >> i think you would look great in a white cowboy hat. [laughter] >> thank you, carter, so much for everything in the heart and soul you brought as well as your massive intelligence and the understanding of these very complex issues and the grace with which you have dealt with all of us and everyone i am aware of. on behalf of all this, thank you. we would love to hear a few words from you if you like.

>> i'm not normally be speechless. i am deeply honored. it has been an extreme pleasure, if i can use the word extreme. this board is so amazing in their knowledge and willingness to talk with staff and work things out. it has been five and half years but it seems like 20 because of all the engagement and involvement we have had, board members and staff. i am deeply honored that you have bestowed this on me and i am sure someday we will see each other in the future. maybe i will be hiring ranch hands. [laughter] [applause]

>> anything else under new or unfinished business by members of the board? >> item 5, the executive director's report. >> good afternoon, mr. chairman, directors and members of the public. i have a great news to share with you this afternoon. this morning, the san francisco transportation authority voted unanimously to approve $57.2 million in funds for the central subway project. these funds will make a possible for the purchase of to tunnel boring machines and constructions of the tunnel lunchbox. i think it is apropos as we are monitoring carter, without his leadership we would not be at this point where we had that wonderful victory today at the transportation authority. this vital allocation but the large portion of the funding in place for the guideway tunnel contract that you approved at your last meeting on june 28th.

this funding clearly signals to the federal government that san francisco is committed to completing the project on time and on budget. on a different note that is not so positive, on july 7th, the house transportation and infrastructure chairman introduced a proposal that would reduce overall transportation funding by 33%. this is more or less the brain work for the reauthorization bill for surface transportation that comes out in a six year timeframe which talks about a two-year time frame by which funding levels would be decreased by that percentage digest reference. the sfmta is working with regional, state and federal entities to provide examples after these cuts because we are not in this alone. this will affect every single facet of transportation throughout the country. should such a reduction in --

stood at sears -- should such a cutback happen, it will affect trolly coaches and motor coach vehicles, the way investment in real and over headlines and the structure, a delay in progress of strategic infrastructure projects like central subway, differing fleet rehabilitation of our motor coach and historic fleet vehicles with would have residual -- which would have residual impact as we look at service and the availability of vehicles that deliver the service and the delay of scheduled replacement of 35 paratransit vehicles. senator boxer is taking the lead to advocate for higher levels of investment in transportation and we will continue to work with transportation interest across the country to ward off these funding cuts. as you are aware, on july 7th, we received the civil grand jury report relating to the central subway.

the report reached a number of negative conclusions regarding the project itself as well as basic agency function and funding. the report sets forth a total of 38 findings and 26 recommendations, many of which dealt with agency issues and not the central subway project. currently, our response to the report is due by august 30th and the sfmta is working with the mayor's office and respiratory -- transportation authority and supervisors to coordinate a response. the bottom line from our perspective is there is no new information, no red herrings. these are the issues we have tackled diligently from the beginning of the project and more or less, our position remains -- our position remains steadfast and unchanged. it focuses on the important benefits that will provide congestion relief, transportation efficiency,

emissions reduction and job creation. we had a brief discussion about the report at the quarterly meeting. they are committed to ensuring that we are able to capitalize on a full funding grant granted by the end of this year. on a somber note, this weekend, as reports have indicated that there were a number of incidents in the debut this weekend and it adversely affected muni service. an operator on our call -- our 24-hour called to report the vehicle he was operating was blocked by police activity. as you know, the san francisco police department was involved in a fatal shooting at that location. we rerouted the bus route and terminated service at evan the t several hours, crowds of people were gathering in the area so we

continued to turn back southbound real service and operate buses to the terminal. there were no further incidents reported on saturday, but on sunday we receive reports shortly after noon that a crowd of protesters was holding the doors on one of our light rail vehicles and standing in front of the boarding platform. we reinstituted the plant employed on saturday and all of our light rail vehicles out of the needed area. we ran a southbound bus bridge to the close of service as we had done the day previously. at 1:15, we received a report on the 54 felton route that shots were being fired. we responded by rerouting the 54 to allow the police to investigate. after which, we returned the route to regular service are around 2:20. the shooting occurred on the street and not on muni property.

at a clock, one of our operators was a salted, hit in the face by thrown basketball and an unidentified wooden object. a group of approximately 20 use assault of the coach and broke windows. there were no injuries to the more than 40 customers on board the vehicle. our operator was interviewed by one of our street inspectors as well as the police department. the operator is an 11 year veteran operating a bus and was not seriously injured. he is back at work and i had the opportunity to speak with mr. haley earlier today who spoke with the operating directly and was pleased to report he is in good health and app sfmta. the police department has opened an investigation into the incident and it is on going. the second assault occurred just after the initial one year the same location. in this incident, a nine sambar no route was discharging a

customer when several youths threw objects at the coach. the operator indicated he was hit by one of the objects and described it as a thick wire. the coach had two broken side windows. the operator instantly closed the front door and left the area and he was interviewed by our street inspectors as well as the police department. none of the three customers aboard the vehicle claimed injuries and as indicated previously, the police department is investigating the incident. in addition to the damage of the vehicles involved over the weekend, to other coaches sustained a broken windows. this damage resulted from gangs of people throwing objects. there does not appear to be structural damage to our vehicles and we are merely replacing the glass which totals about $1,000 worth of damage. all of the coaches were returned to revenue service yesterday and we are meeting with the police to follow up on these plans

should something arrive in the near future. we are committed to providing service to all our customers in the city, but at the same time, we have to balance the safety of our employees as well to ensure they are operating in a safe environment and delivering service. >> thank you. before leaving as, a couple of things. you said the first driver seemed to be ok and was bad driving. second one -- >> conversations or had what that one today with our director of transit. >> i wonder if we ought to make sure we keep following up on that. it seems like a traumatizing thing, sitting on a bus and being attacked. >> exactly. mr. haley and i had conversations about that over the weekend. about our private -- prior to this meeting, working with transit personnel and leveraging the union share at the division for a much those routes are deployed, ensuring

they have our support and open doors of conversation so they know where we stand and if there is any thing they need while they go through this experience, there is an assistance program have in construction with the transport workers union. >> -- in conjunction with the transport workers union. >> what are we doing -- are we beefing up security in this area? >> yes. we are working in tandem with the san francisco police department. if you want more specifics, i can have our officers that to the might as he is working with the commander -- i can have our officer stepped up to the microphone as he is working with their commander. at this juncture, if you could step up to the microphone, please. >> good afternoon, mr. chairman,

board members. we have police department units out there working overtime. we have the mrts and housing authorities writing under cover to ensure passengers and our operators are safe. we have extra coverage on the bayview district and on those bus routes. >> are we working with a supervisor kim's office? >> yes. there is coordination. >> is there any connection with this and the shooting incident the other night? >> we are not sure. it is still under investigation,

but we do think there is some correlation. >> thank you. continuing on, i am pleased to report to the response of rate adjustment -- >> i mentioned of the wrong the supervisor -- >> i wanted to report on the parking program. at the end of the month, we will be giving our first response rate bridge just of hourly parking meter rates. more than two-thirds of the rates will be the same or lower than the current rate. the new, lower rates will be adjusted by at -- adjusted down by 25 cents or 50 cents. the remaining one-third of the rates will rise by 25 cents up to $2.25, $3.25 or $3.75 per hour depending on the current rate. going to our infrastructure

needs, the sfmta will host a community meeting about the carle street real replacement project which will replace track and carl street. the meeting is scheduled for next week, wednesday, july 27th from 6:00. the carle street real replacement project will extend up carl st. on the line and is scheduled to begin in january and will entail periodic shutdowns on weekends and other selected dates. the construction schedule calls for 13 weekend shutdown than 19- day shutdown between january 2012 and february 2013. substitute shuttle bus service will be provided. the sfmta marketing section has launched a three month advertising campaign to encourage customers to use muni

to get to popular destinations in the city, capitalizing on the concept with its offerings of world famous museums and other venues. the campaign includes muni interior and exterior ads as well as transit shelter and newspaper advertisement. the campaign provides specific bus route and rail line information to the golden gate park, ocean beach, and at&t park. it directs customers to utilize 311, the website for any destination in the city. klipper -- on the heels of the customer staff, staff has been assisting you than their parents making the change to clipper by august 1st. as a result, nearly 17,000 cards have been issued out of a base of 20,000 newspaper pass customers.

nearly 200,000 customers have been transitioned to clippers in the last 10 months. in closing, i would be remiss if i did not acknowledge my colleague, mr. rohan. as we heard earlier, he's leading the organization after five and half years of service to the city and county and i would be remiss if i did not thank you for all our support and leadership. i have had the distinct pleasure and honor to work with him over the past four and a half years and has always been a stout champion and a great leader and a friend and colleague. on behalf of the executive team, want to wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors and know you always have a home in san francisco and we wish you the best. >> thank you. >> that concludes my report. >> comments on this? >> just one comment on the parking rate changes and data.

that was a fascinating reading. that was one of those things i pulled up on my computer and an hour later, looking to the data about parking occupancy, it reminded me what valuable information that is. it was fascinating to see the block by block changes, how one block would be so heavily occupied at a certain time of day and just two blocks away, not so much. i just want to recognize what a good work has been done on that and how valuable the data is going to be not just for the data we're looking at in the time frames but on evenings and weekends as well to see what we will be able to do in the future to help the commercial corridors in those times. >> there is no mistaking you for someone else. i noted in our packet and it was not discussed here, the memorandum on the success of

the express bus. i found that memo very helpful. congratulations to mr. haley for his hard work on that. i do not want to rush into anything. i think we want to see how this project plays out. the trend is encouraging and i would ask we at least consider whether this is a project that might be rolled out to other lines. obviously people writing in from this to go along way and face a lot of stop signs. -- people writing in from the zoo face a lot of stop signs. obviously it would not just be the distant writers, it would be their riders in the middle who could benefit from a less crowded train. perhaps the suggestion of turning back at 30th street to bring it down. i think is very positive news about that program and if it

continues to play out this way, i would urge us to consider if this is a model again be provided on some of our other lines. -- a model that can be provided on some of our other lines. to carter, you will be missed it, you are a true professional and i wish you the best. >> i would like to piggyback on your comments regarding the incidences' weekend. the drivers -- for the incidents that happen this weekend, for them to perform the way they did it despite everything going on, there is a lot about the staff and drivers we have. i understand it was very stressful, but given that, they managed to work through it with the san francisco police and i would like to commend the staff for working through that with safety and operations, i know it is tough to work through major obstacles in certain areas and i think we should follow up with

the supervisors to make sure. i know is very distressful and considering what happened, we should do some follow-up. >> well stated. last fall, we had done some having directors going out to the various places to meet our employees and hopefully we can start that again. it is important to know we are supportive of them and we want to hear what they have to say and get to know them. anything else? >> i just want to say thank you very much for that wonderful report. very informative. the past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of things. it has been crazy for me as someone new to this board, but it has brought to light a few of the ideas i had coming on to this board and hope we might be able to speak to them and further them along in the

future. one of the things i'm hoping we can get to at some point is developing a stronger relationship with the community, particularly through the concept of community forums that will allow for more interaction and discourse between the agency and our writers. i was heartbroken when i read about what happened this weekend and iraq to my weekend. -- it racked my weekend. god help us if it ever happens again. we do everything we can to avoid it, but forums that would help the community understand more about the value of proof of payment and what really happened there or what all of that demand. the other they now want to talk about with respect to open forums is building awareness of why we are doing what we're doing. i was taken aback by the grand

jury report the failure to mention the need for that project with respect to that community that rides the 30 stockton. it felt like there was not enough due diligence with regard to purpose of the project. it is important to create jobs and i value that anyone doubt love this project just needs to ride the 30 stockton any day at a time and will cut off a believer. really take into are what that community needs in terms of what's the most immediate avenue for relief. we might also be able to talk about the benefits of parking and anything else, clipper, all of these things need to happen. i'm really looking forward to something like that in the future. >> maybe we could ask the policy and government folks to offer some suggestions on how we might do that. and you are right. if people see things out of comment -- out of context, leigh

said a chance to talk about it. >> the discussion is happening at the federal level right now with taking all of this funding away with regard to transit. that is one i hope all of us as san franciscans would be calling policy-makers in d.c., we are up against the ropes and we cannot afford to lose more money than you already taken from us. i would like to have these conversations with the committee so we can all be advocating to get us out of this mess we're in. >> thank you. we can ask the committee to take a look at that. any public comment on the executive director's speech? next item? >> this is the advisory council report. mr. murphy is not in the audience today so there will be no report. number seven is public comment.

members of the public may address the board. nobody has turned in a speaker card. this item 8, approving an employment agreement with deborah johnson to serve as acting -- >> there is a change to #eight? >> we have one member of the public to speak. you want to speak, come forward. >> good afternoon, directors. when any [unintelligible] why is it happening and who is the target. anything happening against the mta is very well watched in this city hall corridors. we made many efforts and we mentioned this morning in e-

mail's that we are trying to talk to debra johnson but she is not attempting to make any effort to speak with us. about this 5% imposed on the driver's and there are other cities where 5% as charged, but they know the fact that in other cities, it is way cheaper than san francisco. san francisco, drivers pay $104. in chicago, drivers pay $50. that is no competitor to san francisco. in other cities, there is no competitor with san francisco. $104 is the highest rate drivers are paying. about the terminals, the word

is this second credit card backseat machine. this machine is to benefit somebody personally and push this machine through our throats. there is no need for this machine in san francisco. she promised this would be stopped and about 100 machines are there. that will be it until we do further studies, but a few days ago in the meeting, they say you cannot stop us. we will sue you if you stop us. we need debra johnson to pay attention and have a meeting with us. >> next speaker, please. >> and good afternoon, board of directors. i'm from aero cab co. and black- and-white checkered cab.

we are the third largest cab company in san francisco. there are two things about who we are that may not be readily apparent. the owners of aero and checker are former caddies who believe in looking out for the best interests of cabdrivers. we employ and partner with members of various ethnic and racial minority groups in this city, along with drivers with disabilities is independence knows no bounds. even though we do not represent the interests of big business, we do represent the interests of a considerable portion of your constituency. last month, we presented to this board our second complaint against the sfmta which enumerates discriminatory practices against aero and checker analysts situations in which administrative decisions were made without public oversight and legislative codes are in the process of being change without being vetted by the industry.

how does this continue to happen under your watch? while we are grateful for the warm response we have received at the executive level of an eta, we have not received responses back -- executive level of the mta, we have not received responses back from the other board members. this is not just about arab checker and the discrimination, this is the community we represent. what does it take to get your attention? >> next speaker, please. >> thank you chairman and directors. i want to talk about the credit card fees specifically. i know the chairman has talked about finding a way to reduce these these -- these fees. that's going to be tr