distraction to the czechs, offices, like cats, labor disputes, or any other interference of work. as you will hear in a moment, basically it is close cooperation and continued harmonious relationship between the tjpa and the contractors union. it establishes standard wages, hours, working conditions for all workers. in exchange for that, the workers agreed to use thepla -- the pla to resolve any issues that come up and forgo strikes. we will present the terms of the proposal to the board and the propriety of pla, and we will be hearing public comment on that. to get into more of the test, i am going to ask bob beckel -- beck to make that presentation.

>> thank you. would like to reports todayp on the pla we have negotiated with the local labor unions. the project labor agreements are fairly common for major capital projects or capital programs. a little more common in the public sector than the private sector, but that is primarily because private sector employers can make the decision to the -- to go union only if they want to to forgo some of the disruptions that maria described. the pla sets out common workplace rules, labor rules, pay rates for the project. sets out the general terms and conditions of employment, hiring, referral process is --

processes, and other conditions of employment that will go into in detail. on a project of our size and duration, pla's are particularly beneficial because of the complexity of the program. she mentioned work stoppages with our construction. we are going to go through two cycles of renegotiation of labor agreements between trade unions and the contract the community, signatory contractors. with that, there is a potential for labor disruption. also, the union and non-union shops working side by side. deliveries of materials that have the potential for disruptions. the pla says all of those work stoppages aside, which is important to us as we try to maintain our overall schedule and we have significant costs

that we realize that we are subject to delays. also, we are going to have 50 or 60 trade subcontracts on this contract and about 250 total subcontractors working over 4.5 million hours of labor on this job, so there is just a lot of activity -- two or sometimes three shifts of work. what we call stacking of trades. multiple contractors working in the same area at the same time, and all of that increases the potential for disputes between trades. some of the benefits of the pla -- as we mentioned, it reduces the risk of those types of work disruptions and stoppages. the opportunity for cost disruptions overruns that. establishes the rules for

holidays, work rules, setting aside some of the unions have specific black friday's, which are the fridays before recognized holidays, so we should adopt a uniform schedule of holidays for all trades on the job. also establishes uniform rules for drug and alcohol testing across the work force, so if there are any problems, we can make sure we have a safe and secure project zone. the central terms -- maria touched on some of these -- will cover both phase one and phase two of the program. it is limited in scope to the on-site work and excludes offloading of debris and excreted materials. it excludes offsite manufacturing of materials. excludes work that will be performed as an example, by the

m.t.a. or transit which would involve ticketing or do improvements in the project because we can extend the pla to an outside governing board. and also, the specialty work related to the art program. we have specific rules for the artists to be able to select the craftspeople that will be working on the art program. some of the benefits that flow back to the beneficial terms of the agreement -- again, no strikes, lockouts. the pla does not limit participation but encourages participation from unions as well as small businesses. has special provisions for

employees and contractors that come on site and participate including specific provisions applied to small and disadvantaged business to ensure that they have continuity by bringing their core employee of to the first seven on to the project. also, to the joint administrative committee, which i will touch on in a minute, it puts the union in supporting the tjpa in meeting our overall dbe and sbe goal. we describe our targets for the program in the pla. a contractor happens to be lagging behind and needs review opportunities like doing small business set-aside contracts or other steps to make sure that we meet that 17% goal, we will take that to the joint administrative committee for input from the unions on how we can best achieve that participation.

the hiring will happen through union hiring halls. allows contractors who are non- union to register their employees with the hiring calls and receive referrals on a one- to-one basis up to the first seven with union and their core employees. requires all employees to pay union dues for their area of employment on the program, but all employees will also receive union health and welfare benefits. again, as i mentioned earlier, we established these uniform work rules, holidays, work hours, work days, the drug and alcohol testing procedures. one of the things we introduced in recognition of the nature of our program and also the nature

of our location is that most schedules provide for reinforcement of parking for people who drive to the construction site. not all of them provide for reimbursement of public transit. in essence, a lot of them encourage people to drive the site. it established a uniform policy that allows for reimbursement of public transit costs for employees coming to the project site, and to the limits that they would otherwise receive through parking. it also has provisions for the union apprenticeship programs to encourage youth outreach and women and economically

disadvantaged individuals as well as veterans. part of the veterans element is two programs that were established by the va. helmets to hard hats program, which is for veterans to transition into the construction trades, that allows veterans, based on their experience in service, to enter the unions of of the entry level apprenticeship program based on experience that they gained serving in the military. also, the wounded warrior program, which is to provide information about opportunities within the construction trades for people -- for veterans who may have physical limitations. in terms of the administration of the pla, it will be administered by the tjpa.

there is a joint administrative committee established in the agreement that would have two representatives from the tjpa and two from the trade unions. the joint administrative committee would meet quarterly just to review the overall status of the program, promote dialogue between the trade unions and the tjpa and also can serve as, it parties mutually agree, as a first step for the resolution of disputes before going to the arbitration procedures that are included in the pla. the pla includes a number of different arbitration and dispute procedure resolutions. one is if there is an issue that would normally lead to a work stoppage. again, that would be built through the dedicated arbitration procedures in our pla and not through another conventional arbitration

procedure that is set up underneath the schedule. one of the advantages is we are looking for expedited pay resolution as well as the jurisdictional disputes between unions. we have specific provisions if there is a dispute between, as an example, laborers and plumbers on a scope of work, whose jurisdiction that work is, there are specific provisions lined out in agreement for the resolution of those disputes as well. so it is a fairly hefty document we have for you. i can take any questions, but our intent was to bring it today for discussion and public comment and then come back in a month, hopefully, with the recommendation to adopt the labor agreement.

>> are there any questions that regarding this item? >> i am curious, when this is enacted, will it apply to existing contracts? >> all of the contractors are going forward. there will be a requirement in the agreement to sign onto the pla. for existing contractors, it is optional. we cannot retroactively applied to their contract, but they have the ability to opt in. >> that is what i was worried about, retroactivity. >> [inaudible] >> we have not told them directly, but for instance, the bse subcontractor.

webcor themselves are a signatory contractors. i think they will take a look at it. we are pretty optimistic that most of the contractors would opt in. director reiskin: i had a number of questions. i think the pla framework for this kind of project is a great one. i know from having worked on one previously backed it takes a lot of work to get one to the point where you have. i want to commend you and the folks you have been working with to get this in place. i have to admit, i did not read the entire pla, but i did read the staff report. i do have a few questions. the first has to do with apprenticeships, which is one of the main features address.

i am wondering -- are there specific provisions, requirements that would be part of this pla that would serve hard targets and targets beyond whatever requirements already exist? and how would those be measured if they are there? >> the pla does not set hard targets for participation. it is more of a policy of measures to encourage participation, but it does not have a hard target. >> may be to director reiskin: -- director reiskin: maybe during some of the public, it, that is something that folks can address. i know building the pipeline is important, and i think everybody is recognizing the need for stronger apprenticeship programs

to start building the pipeline. i would be interested to know what we would be getting in terms of apprenticeships out of this that we would not be getting otherwise. absent the hard target, i wonder whether there would be much we would be getting. >> one thing we will be doing now is we will be partnering with various trades and crafts and carpenters and laborers are working with school districts and going and meeting with them and letting them know about project like ours. we do that now. we go to school districts and let students know about professional careers in architecture, engineering, financing, all of this you need to build different skills, but in addition to that, we let them know about the training if they want to be carpenters or welders, etc. that provides an opportunity to bring them into our project when they are not in school. also, i know that building trades and others will be commenting on this. i know they strongly support

[inaudible] -- strongly support apprenticeship programs. in the history of tjpa, we require our contractors to have apprenticeship programs as part of their contract with us. what we can do is we could come back to, on a regular basis, and let you know as we report on all our things, let you know how it is going. >> this is one of my questions. i would like to see hard numbers, even if they are minimal, just so we know, and i know that building trades is committed to working with sfusc because i serve on the board of education, but i do think it is important to have numbers. on top of that, i think there should be a plan outlined, which schools we are doing outreach to, how many visits, what are

some of our targets. some hard numbers within the pla i think would be helpful, and having actually a written plan that we can get updates on so we have a record -- a mechanism for knowing what we can hold you accountable to as well. >> i would concur with that. and then related to the labor supply, i noticed at least in the right up, it talks about the guarantees the pla provides for labor supply, but then there's some best effort language. i wonder if you could help reconcile those -- guarantee compared to best effort. >> yes, i think obviously, there are limitations. i think it is more in the arena of best efforts. we do have provisions to go to

the union hiring halls for referrals, but at any point the unions are unable to fulfill the call, the contractors participating are free to go beyond the union hiring hall for employment, but the first stop is the hiring hall. at least in today's environment, the unions are showing as they have an ample supply to meet our needs, but i think part of it -- and part of the benefit of it is improving the communication and awareness of our programs in the unions so that they know this work is coming and when our packages will be coming out, and then we can plan with their members accordingly. >> there is one phrase that says for the trade unions that will be signatory to the pla.

are there any that are not? >> at this point, we do not anticipate any. >> with regard to the committee, are there specific reporting requirements from the pla or that are housed within the pla for the benefits of any of the programs that will be put in place? ways to evaluate that the committee will be recommending or reviewing that the board will be able to review? >> there's not any specific reporting to the jac that are outlined, but it is put in position of reviewing the progress. it would be looking for probably the same types of things that i think you are alluding to on participation. where we are on hiring, how much of it is local. i think the expectation is

there, although there are not black letter requirements. >> as you probably know, director, sarah at its regularly -- updates regularly on where we are with our dbe's and sbe's, and we could probably add another item with regular updates to what numbers we are reaching. we could certainly update you on everything else with respect to outreach to women, economically disadvantaged individuals, the wounded warrior program, which is, of course, important to everybody. we could add a line item that brings back to you where we are with everything. the tjpa will be bidding. certainly, if there is a major policy consideration, we will not proceed. >> i think that is great and

will be helpful. i think it may be great that there are specific benefits we are all hoping to get from pla. i think it would be good for the committee to identify what specific metrics they need to be able to evaluate whether we are getting or whether we are realizing those benefits. i also wonder if quarterly will be frequent enough to review, but something to consider whether we want to get more explicit on how we are going to handle that committee and ultimately evaluate the pla. and then, my last question has to do with something we touched on a little bit earlier, which is local hiring, which is an important interest for a lot of folks. i know the current federal regulations under which we operate not permit local preferences, but there are potential changes coming. the american jobs act, for

example, gave much more discretion in that regard. i am wondering if there are changes in law that come before phase two, if there are opportunities to make changes in the pla accordingly. >> we follow federal law because we are at federalized project. if there is a major federal change before phase two, we would certainly reevaluate the pla in light of the new federal law and bring it back to you. >> i did not mean to suggest we would ever not follow it. it is a matter of it gives us the discretion to take advantage of the additional discretion that we are currently not supporting. >> right. if the federal law gives us more discretion, we could go back and meet with the unions and representatives and come back to the board. >> are there any other questions? >> i had a couple.

just to follow up again on the community outreach portion. again, i wanted to emphasize that i would like to see some hard numbers within the contract. when we are looking at evaluating it next month, i would like a detailed proposal of what this will look like, separate from the pla. a document we can hold ourselves accountable to appear in my concern is that when we do not have goals, that we are saving 125,000 jobs. i do not want to see only 10 high-school students go through an apprenticeship program. i want to make sure that we are making sure that we are able to achieve benefits for our community through the pla as well. i support pla and that always have. i think it is good for all of

us. do we have a threshold for the pla or will this apply to every contract? >> it applies to all the construction work under phase one and phase two. all the transit center work being performed by webcor /obayashi, but also the separate contracts and the tunneling work under phase two. >> you touched on this already, but if you could talk a little bit about if we are not giving our 17% small business participation, what are some steps we can take to mediate that, beyond just talking about it? some things we know we will do in the future? >> things we have done already on this program in order to get ourselves off to a good start include the utility relocation work. all of the utility relocation work was put out at 100% small

business relocation participation -- small business participation. that scope, although small in comparison to the buttressed shoring scup, came in a 100% sbe participation and helps with the overall average and overall target. the sbe work, although large and complex, and because of its nature, it tends to lean towards larger contracts, on that subcontract as a whole, we are still meeting the 17%. we are in a good position right now, but one of our best tools is the ability to set aside, for instance, a landscaping package or specific trades package for small or disadvantaged business participation. also, if it suits within a

specific package under the federal guideline, we can set aside a specific scope within a larger package for small business participation in to say, for instance, just pulling something out of the air, the door hardware shall be provided by a small business. we have flexibility there, and we would be looking at these tools with the unions to figure out what would be our best opportunity. >> thank you so much. any other further questions? we have two speakers for public comment. >> that is correct. jim patrick who will be followed by mike brown. director kim: i think we may have other folks who may want to give, as well. >> i do not look at these things

very often, but i happen to see this on a couple of websites. it talks about prevailing wage, and i am personally troubled where it says, "we will pay the highest applicable prevailing wage." why would we want to pay the highest? what about the mean? what about the lowest prevailing wage, or de-prevailing wage? thank you. >> good morning to the chair and to the directors. first of all, i would like to commend and thank the committee that negotiated with us under this policy. i want to cover a couple questions discussed here.

what is the apprenticeships. it allows the unions involved to use their schedule aid, which is our master agreement. the 20% required apprenticeship on every contract. that would give you a hard number. we also have a pre- apprenticeship we need to discuss that is not in the pla but is in our master agreement that allows people to be recommended to the program, which is nine weeks, and that can allow us to take members of the community and bring them directly into the program. also, we have -- our local has jurisdiction for all of the carpenter worked. our local is san francisco. we have a little over 3000 current members.

we expect that to go once these projects start. francisco residents. every single one of my carpenters is qualified now as underemployed because there has been no work for two years. 52 apprentices, also agreed it majority are san francisco residents. we look forward to the project. we can make it work. we are also looking forward to the school districts expanding their shop and reopening shop class is so when we do get these kids, they have basic skills and it is not a complete learning curve they have to do. so thank you again. >> san francisco building and construction trades council. let me expand on the apprenticeships question. there is also a heart