vote of the board, the legislative body, and a majority vote of the people. i think he has format did it in a way to do two things -- one to meet the governors need to have a vote of the people on taxes, and second, to avoid having an overwhelming opposition. i know automobile manufacturers and some other tax groups have been opposed to it because a state wide applicability. supervisor mar: mr. watson, looks like it takes a 2/3 of the county transportation authority members and a majority vote of the ballot. >> the general fund purpose, so it would be the county board of supervisors. in your role as supervisors, you would have that opportunity. >> what is the timing on that in your estimation at this point? >> he has met all the time lines

and is in good shape. the legislature recesses' thursday until august 15. when they come back, he will have four weeks to get it out of the assembly. after that point, augus15 will be the -- not august 15, september 15 -- whatever the friday is closest to the 15th -- for legislative action, and the governor would have 30 days to act on it. the latest, probably the fail- safe way to look at it is mid- october. this could be enacted. supervisor mar: ok. please continue. >> a.b. 57 is what we watch very carefully. the chairman of the transportation committee became a surprising ally to san francisco. he is very uncertain about the

approach in the bill and convinced him to put the bill over to next year. i think the action on this bill, when the legislature reconvenes in january, our recommendation is to work diligently with mtc and try to come up with a structure that represents a true regional compromise rather than let the legislature back and around in sacramento. finally, last time i mentioned something like 20 high-speed rail authority bills. there are still several out there, but it has whittled down to two key bills. they both do relatively the same thing. the reorganized the high-speed rail authority function within state government. the first is a.b. 145 found on page 3. we have a watch position on this one. it would create a department of high-speed trains and transfer the functions of the high-speed rail authority.

it would retain authority for political guidance, said the structure would be similar in concept to caltrans and ctc. s.b. 517 by senator lowenthal, page 22 of the matrix, simply places the high-speed rail authority under the secretary of transportation and then in both cases, both bills, dissolves the authority board, requiring new appointments by the speaker pro tem and the governor, the governor appointees to be subject to senate confirmation, which they were not previously. in both cases, they require that the members have certain expertise -- lock, financing, high-speed -- a list of expertise. my only political observation is the legislature is intent on

reforming the authority. they will do one or the other of these or some combination of this. i'm not sure how it will turn out. he has taken ownership in my view of the project, and, you know, the focus in the administration to date has been on the budget, and they have not had a lot of time to analyze and spend time understanding the complexities of the issues swimming around. so it will be interesting to see how these bills fare when he gets a chance to take a look at them. if you want a brief report, there's a couple of activities in the state budget related to transportation. supervisor mar: yes, briefly. >> the key thing accomplished was not in the june 29 budget bill. it took place earlier when we re-enacted the fuel tax swap and protected $2.5 billion.

more recently, as the budget went through a couple of generations towards the end of june, there were a couple of highlights. first, the governor did sign the budget bill. that included total appropriations in excess of $3 billion. that is very important because the first step to putting an allocation on the project is you have to have the appropriation. the second step is you need assurance that you have a bond sale coming up. once you have that, the ctc can then make allocations. the first step has been accomplished by the governor proving that budget item. disappointing -- i alluded to this -- proposition 1a connectivity. we work hard to put $264 million, which would have fully funded the amount needed in the fiscal year for connectivity funding, including the funding for central subway, but the governor took a page -- -- took

a page from the prior governor and whittled that down, and it is only available for train control systems that improve the safety of commuter trains. last thing -- minor detail, but it will end up costing all the transportation agency's. project initiation document. those are important documents required by the ctc. customarily over the years, going back to the early 1900's, the state took a position that was a partner with these folks, with the counties that are going to make investments on their system, and the state stepped up and funded this project initiation document. the governor says they can no longer afford that, so he has

severed the reimbursable authority. as a result, project on the system that any local self-help entity is going to fund will require that entity to fund the initiation documents. with that, i will bring my presentation to a close. supervisor mar: thank you. ." >> i know that we are late, so i will be super brief on this. on a.b. 57, i had quite a bit of activity on this bill in sacramento, and they were coordinated with the mayor's office and senator lyndon's office. the bottom line is we have communicated with the mayor's office about the need to take the bull by the horns and have this discussion about regional representation now, not as an

emergency in january when the thing comes back up. my goal, and i think it is a shared goal with the mayor's office, is that we get to january with a solution that we can bring to the legislature. there is no question that there can be different ways to ensure good representation for everybody in the bay area. it does not have to be what mr. bill is proposing, but ignoring the issue is not productive to either, so we are going to have that discussion, and all of you in one capacity or another will be involved, especially those of you who are on regional entities at this point. it is an overdue discussion, and we are committed to having it and being as constructive as we can so we can present a solution to the legislature. that is on that issue. the other thing i wanted to mention was there has been a flurry of activity at the federal level on the issue of the reauthorization of the six- year transportation act.

and congressman mike, who is the chair of the house transportation infrastructure committee, is putting out full press court on the idea of a new bill, a new act, although we have not seen all the details. but let me tell you, i will reiterate my prediction that we are not going to have a surface transportation act approved by congress probably until after the presidential elections because the republican side of the aisle is not interested in any kind of new revenue generation for transportation infrastructure. what we are left with is a bill that would essentially provide less money than what we have today. on top of that, laced with value judgments about many of the programs that were essentially multi modal gains that happened during the clinton administration and even during

the first bush administration, related to things like bicycle facilities, transit and accessibility in general, those issues are now being described as hitchhikers to the original purpose of the highway trust fund, which is the main source of funding, and, of course, there is a great deal of disagreement on the democratic side of the aisle as to the appropriateness of that characterization and to the tendency to see only card- related improvements as improvements that are worthy of funding in a time of crisis. we think it is exactly the other way around. so it is a debate that is essentially breaking on ideological lines. unfortunately, i do not think that that will lead to a compromise bill anytime soon. >> -- supervisor mar: mr. watts mentioned the disappointing budget news. was it the prop 1a connectivity

funds, how it impacts the central subway? i'm just wondering what is the impact on our ability to fund the central subway. >> it is a statewide proposition, but the governor's action is simply to postpone the moment when that money would be available. fortunately, it will not have an immediate impact on the project as long as the money materializes next year. we understand that the governor's action has to do with rick compensations he is getting from the department of finance related to the state to actually issue that and so on. even though we think it is an unfortunate position, we understand that it is part of the circumstances the governor is dealing with as far as the state budget, and we expect that there will be a revisiting of that topic and hopefully a better set of news next time around. for now, there is no change to the suggestion of the central subway funding plan.

what we are looking at potentially is a cash flow issue. project will continue to be eligible and it will get the money. the question is when. supervisor mar: thank you. colleagues, no other questions? members of the public that would like to be heard? seeing none, we will close public comment. this is an information item only, i believe, so there is no action on this item. can we move this forward without objection? thank you. last item? >> item 7, investment report for the quarter ending june 30, 2011. this is an information item. >> thank you. deputy director for finance administration. this is your quarterly update of our investment report. typically, we bring this item with a quarterly accounting report. since we are right here in right now, the entire city is closing its books, and we will have a final statement during the fall of 2011. as of june 30, the authority

has $133.5 million in its various banking accounts. approximately 75% of those funds are with the city and county pool. the remaining 25% sits in four different operation accounts and in a money-market fund in deutsche bank. also in the month of june, we received our first two checks for our proposition aa funds. we opened a new account. we are currently at a balance of $240,000, and we hope that will reach up to the projected $5 million once we have a full cycle of the funding. in addition, the authority is in position where we have enough funds to pay our debts over the next six months. we also are meeting all requirements of the government authority's investment policy.

with that, again, this is an information item, but i'm more than happy to answer any of your questions. supervisor mar: seeing no questions, is there anyone from the public that would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is closed. thank you. could you please call the next item? >> item 8, introduction of new items. supervisor mar: there are no other items. is there anyone from the public would like to comment? public comment is closed. >> item 9, public comment. supervisor mar: and one from the public that would like to speak? public comment is closed. thank you, everyone, for being here. the meeting is adjourned.

>> in this fabulously beautiful persidio national park and near golden gate and running like a scar is this ugly highway. that was built in 1936 at the same time as the bridge and at

that time the presidio was an army and they didn't want civilians on their turf. and the road was built high. >> we need access and you have a 70 year-old facility that's inadequate for today's transportation needs. and in addition to that, you have the problem that it wasn't for site extenders. >> the rating for the high viaduct is a higher rating than that collapsed. and it was sapped quite a while before used and it was rusty before installed. >> a state highway through a federal national park

connecting an independently managed bridge to city streets. this is a prescription for complication. >> it became clear unless there was one catalyst organization that took it on as a challenge, it wouldn't happen and we did that and for people to advocate. and the project has a structural rating of 2 out of 100. >> you can see the rusting reinforcing in the concrete when you look at the edges now. the deck has steel reinforcing that's corroded and lost 2/3's of its strength. >> this was accelerated in 1989 when the earthquake hit and cal

came in and strengthened but can't bring to standards. to fix this road will cost more than to replace. and for the last 18 years, we have been working on a design to replace the road way, but to do in a way that makes it appropriate to be in a national park and not army post. >> i would say it's one of the most ugly structure, and it's a barrier between the mar sh and presidio. and this is a place and i brought my dogs and grandchildren and had a picnic lunch and it was memorable to use them when we come here.

what would it look like when the design and development is completed. and we are not sure we want an eight lane highway going through this town. and it's a beautiful area in a national seaport area on the planet. >> the road is going to be so different. it's really a park way, and it's a parkway through the national park. and they make the road disapeer to the national park. >> and the road is about 20 feet lower, normally midday, you go through it in two minutes. looking back from the golden gate bridge to presidio, you are more aware of the park land and less of the roads.

and the viaduct will parallel the existing one and to the south and can be built while the existing one remains in operation. and the two bridges there with open space between them and your views constantly change and not aware of the traffic in the opposite direction and notice the views more. and the lanes of course are a foot wider than they are today. and they will be shoulders and if your car is disabled, you can pull off to the edge. and the next area, the tunnel portal will have a view centered on the palace of fine arts and as you come out, you can see alkatrez island and bay. and the next area is about 1,000 feet long.

and when you come into one, you can see through the other end. it's almost like driving through a building than through a tunnel. and noise from the roadway will be sheltered. and the traffic will be out of view. >> when you come out of the last sort tunnel and as you look forward, you see the golden dome of the palace of fine arts and what more perfect way to come to san francisco through that gateway. >> it will be an amazing transformation. now you read it as one section, the road is a major barrier and then a wonderful strip along the water. all of those things are going to mesh together. >> right now the road really cuts off this area from public access. and with the new road, we will

be able to open up the opportunity in a new way. >> this bunker that we see now is out of access for the general public. we are excited to completely rework this side and to open up the magnificent views. and what we want to do is add to this wonderful amenity and restore this coastal bluff area and respect its military history and the doyle drive project is allowing us to do that recorrection. and this area is not splintered off. >> and we can see how dramatic a change it will be when doyle

drive is suppressd and you have a cover that connects the cemetery to this project. it's historic on the statewide and national basis, but you could rush the project or put thought and time to create something of lasting public benefit. >> we really want this, for everyone to feel like it's a win situation. whether you are a neighbor that lives nearby or a commuter or user of the park. that everyone will experience a much better situation than they currently have. >> the human interest to me is how people could work out so many challenging differences to come to a design that we believe will give us a jewel. landmark of a place. >> i am sure it will have refining effect like embark did.

and there were people about that and no one would think of that today. and when you look at growth and transformation of the embark, the same with doyle. it will be a cherished part of the city and a worthy addition to what is there. >> it will be a safe and beautiful entrance to a spectacular beautiful city. it will be the entry to golden gate that san francisco deserves.>> the court is now acg applications for the civil grand jury. this investigative watchdog body is comprised of 19 public spirited citizens. >> we are seeking candidates from all walks of life, 18 or older, who will bring to the grand jury a wide spectrum of talent, ideas, and issues of

concern. >> for more information, visit the civil grand jury website at sfgov.org/courts or calll