we have been able to move costs into the capital budget. these are next steps that we want to work on -- supervisor chiu: could i ask a couple of questions? these will be some tough questions, and i just want the public to know that i have tremendous respect for what ms. bose does, but what i was hoping for the presentation is to understand how the $60 million is used department by department. you have shown us the difference in spending over the last few years and the marginal changes in how things are being spent and what the marginal changes will be between this fiscal year and next fiscal year, but not overall what we are spending category by category. what are the accountability metrics that we hope to achieve? how is this moving forward? i do not see that. >> you are right. that is not on this slide. the first part of the question is easy because we can break down the $62 million.

the second part, the accountability issues, is a little more difficult. some of the mou's have performance measures. but for example, if the department is obligated to perform services for us, it is a mandatory service -- by charter, we are obligated to use the city attorney for services and pay them for services. we, the mta, do not have enough expertise or skill set to determine whether the legal services are, you know -- those are the kinds of questions you are getting too, and, you are right. it is a difficult conversation. hopefully we can answer some of those questions going forward, but that is some of the heart of the issue of the discussion. supervisor chiu: we have been

having this conversation for as long as i have been here on the board. >> as long as i have been here. supervisor chiu: we debate what that number is supposed to be, and yet, for me, it is still a bit of a black hole. what is the plan to really get at this? >> i think we have a slide here. the next two slides kind of get to what the next steps are and what the director is committed to doing. first of all, continued to improve oversight with the performance metric -- supervisor campos: can we get an answer to the question that i asked the controller? are there performance standards in the mou's as required by the charter? >> some have them and some do not. sometimes, we have difficulty getting that information from

certain departments. supervisor campos: maybe that is a question for the city attorney. my reading, if you do not have performance standards, the expenditure is not allowed under the charter. so it may be that you have spent money out of compliance with the charter if you do not have those performance standards. do you know which mou's do not have performance standards? >> the majority of them do not. supervisor campos: you are spending $12 million with the police apartment. does the mou have performance standards? >> the police department mou is probably the strongest in terms of them providing reports. the police department is probably the strongest. i do not know if the reports have been provided in a way that we can assess the quality of

services. i think the director of our security is the project manager, so he could probably speak better to the quality of reporting. supervisor campos: if the majority of contracts do not have performance standards, then you are out of compliance. ok. >> the next is the value of discretionary services and bring them in-house rather than have department do it or looking at potentially private-sector contracts. and the third bullet really looks at whether we need the service or not. some of the services we may have gotten -- for example, the tax department is now under the mta. we no longer need the support from the other departments. this next one is another we are looking at, accounting mechanism. for example, some of the ways that these are allocated are by head counts.

take for example, e-mail accounts. the majority of the m.t.a. workforce does not have e-mail accounts, but we are still being asked to pay. the basics of the allocation need to be reviewed. we are also looking at cost recovery. the mta historically provided services to departments that have not initiated mou's on our end, so we have not had discussion with those departments. the next one is a means of procuring service within government outside of the core competency. that goes to purchasing and what is the mta's core competency, and how we evaluate the service. most of the work orders are formed with respect to services where the flexibility of our ability to negotiate some of these things depends on the accounting mechanism and

performance metrics. as we all know, they all need to be managed well. let me say, in closing, i have been here for five years. we have come a long way, but there is still some way to go. the bigger issue you are talking about is the overall policy discussion. i think the mayor's office and the other departments and mta all need the board of supervisors to participate in it. supervisor campos: has the mta given any direction as to when a work order is appropriate? >> all the mou's go to the mta board for approval, so they are approved during that time. they have asked us to manage the mou's better. there is nothing formally written, but there has been concerned about managing the more effectively. supervisor campos: who has the final say about whether

something is inappropriate for a quarter? >> after the mta board approves the mou, that is our authority to execute the work order and when we execute it, that is our authority for those services. supervisor campos: but the board has not said as a general matter of policy that they should only spend money on a certain kind of services? >> i think they rely on the charter language that you read as a guidance. i think they know it exists and it is within their oversight to manage. supervisor campos: so they actually reference the charter when they talk about it? >> i cannot say specifically i have heard them mention it, but i think they do understand the charter requirements. supervisor campos: let me ask a question to the city attorney's office. again, these questions are tough questions. they are not directed at any single individual.

but you had -- you just heard the cfo of the mta say that a majority of the mou's from her perspective do not have performance standards. you have the charter specifically saying that any contract shall establish performance standards. that, to me, seems that we are out of compliance with the charter. do you have any thoughts on what that means? >> we came here with -- in mind of the audit itself. this question's really were not addressed in the audit. we have not been asked to look at the adequacy of the mou's with respect to the charter language you referenced. we would be happy to look at that, but that is not a question we have looked at. supervisor campos: question on

the mou's -- are those reviewed by counsel? >> that are not considered under the charter. it really addresses procedural issues. we fulfil our duties as provided under the charter itself, but mou's are not considered contracts. we do not approve them as we would a contract. supervisor campos: that is interesting because the section of the charter that deals with these contracts specifically says that the agency may contract with existing city departments.

and then it talks about how those contracts must include the performance standards. and then, subsection f actually talks about the city attorney's office and the controller's office. it is interesting that the agency has not requested legal counsel review of those things. >> we have, as i say, look at particular issues as to particular mou's, but we have not considered them to be contracts requiring approval in the way that we would for others, for contracts with third parties. supervisor campos: maybe that is something that should change going forward, given that the charter does specifically say there have to be performance standards embedded in these contracts. >> that is something we could look at. supervisor campos: is it possible to also look at the issue of what the appropriate nexus between an expenditure and

the duties and powers of the mta is? >> we are happy to do that. it may be an initiative difficult to address in the abstract. there are a lot of services required to support the agency in the performance of its duties. some of those are provided by private third parties. some of those are provided by other city departments. it may be something that is an easier question to address in terms of specifics, but we are happy to take a look at it. supervisor campos: the question, for instance, that i asked the mayor was -- is it appropriate, does it make sense that the mta out of its budget is funding the motorcycle unit of the police department? right? let me be clear -- i believe the motorcycle unit is a very important one and plays an

important function and should be funded appropriately. the question is whether or not it should come out of muni's budget. we did not really get a response. from your estimation, would something like that be inappropriate expenditure? is there enough of a nexus between that and what the mta budget should pay for? >> honestly, i do not begin to know the facts well enough to make a judgment about that. supervisor campos: ok, thank you. president chiu, other questions? ok, why don't we open up to public comment again? i want to thank the controller's office and the agency -- before we do that, i do not know if there is anyone from the mayor's office who would like to say anything about this item. why don't we go to public comment? anyone from the public who would like to speak on this item, please come forward. but let me read a few names.

[reading names] please come forward. please come forward. you each have two minutes, and we have translation available if needed. please come forward. thank you. >> hello. i am staff at the ec commission office -- at the east commission office. our officers have recorded some video, it, which i will play for you right now. -- our officers have recorded some video comment, which i will play for you right now.

if i could have this microphone on by the speaker. supervisor campos: is the sound on? >> work orders and how they affect young people. to give you some background on myself, i grew up -- good morning, supervisors. share of the san francisco youth commission, wanting to speak on your item and work orders and how they affect young people. to give you some background on myself, i grew up in the west. -- i grew up riding the bus. i know the impact it has on the

lives of the youth. how to work orders affect -- how do work orders affect youth? they serve our city, and as soon as we improve the efficiencies, i hope to provide funds for really wonderful programs like muni that we can make sure get kids to school and home safely. i encourage you guys to think about these work orders and think about how they can improve the lives of the city and its residents and its young people. thank you and have a really nice rest of your day. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker. >> i'm on the youth commission.

i have seen the divisions that can happen between kids when they are identified by social class. we want to have a more united generation of young people, no matter what their socio-economic status. it allows us to bypass implementation issues that plagued the lifeline passed last time. it would encourage people to use more public transportation, which is very much in line with san francisco's environmental goal. in conclusion, it encourages a more united, greener generation of san franciscans. thank you very much. >> i am a mayoral appointee on the youth commission. i go to san francisco school of the arts. muni is a big part of my life. it is my main method of

transportation. i take it to school, meetings, to work, and everything. it is just going to affect me because i'm turning 18 in half a month and my bus pass is going to go from $21 to $70, a very drastic raise. i just want to remind you that the youth commission has been supporting free muni for use -- youth and the board of supervisors also recently supported this. this free muni program would only cost $8 million, which is less than 1% of muni's overall budget. i think that is a very reasonable price.

as long as we get a pilot program and see how it works, it is well worth it and would affect the lives of many youth, like myself who are at this transitional age and cannot really afford to ride the bus. it will really affect our lives and i hope that this community keeps free muni for youth in mind during this meeting. >> hello, board of supervisors. i'm here to send you a message about the support i have towards youth transportation in san francisco. i believe it would cost the mta 's entire budget -- 1% of all of it -- just to get free transportation to every youth in san francisco. as a muni rider every day, i know that it would help those

who ride muni. and since the economy is down right now and every low-income family struggles to pay for school, transportation, things like that, it would do a lot of help for new, upcoming youth in the community. thank you. >> good afternoon, the government audits and oversight committee. i am is 17 years old, and i am a muni rider -- i am 17 years old. i go to private high school, and i take muni every day to get to school and to go anywhere in the city, weekly, monday through friday. i get up early in the morning to take muni from my neighborhood,

the western addition, 2 ocean avenue, where i go to school. honestly, the prices for muni, all youth cannot afford it. where employment is not as readily available, it is harder to pay for transportation, and students need transportation to get to school because we are required to go to school to get our education and better our lives. muni plays a factor in that. personally, i remember, there was one day where i walked all the way from the western addition to ocean avenue because i did not have money to get on muni. this is a really important issue that you guys have the power to change to impact the

lives of youth in our city. definitely, i think we should get on this release soon. also another note -- we should expand the reach of this to not only youth under 17, but youth who are 18 and still in high school and possibly even a college students who take muni to get to their education institution. so i really support the free muni for use -- youth, and thank you. >> hello, board of supervisors government audit and oversight committee. i know you guys are talking about work orders right now, but i just want to remind you guys that i really strongly support

free muni for all young people. as a student myself, i really experience the importance of affordable transportation. it helps me to be on time at school, focus on studies. therefore, please support free muni for all youth. >> i'm a district 9 youth commissioner and a father. i'm a strong advocate for free muni for youth. when i was young, my family struggled when my father lost his job. at times, -- we all understand we are in economic times -- difficult economic times. i would like to commend you on your work. if we could figure out where

there is excess money being spent and figure out how to help youth. >supervisor campos: thank you to the youth commission. you can see that it is difficult for young people to be here during the day. they are in school. technology has allowed them to do that. >> i have to talk with other families every day about how hard it is to get access to muni. i think this conversation is very important. we are talking about a lot of money. our families now are being punished because they do not have enough money. we do not have a lot of clarity on how the money is being spent. i think we need to pay a lot of

attention on this, and i feel a lot of frustration because we do not have the answers to this issue, and we are confronting a lot of unclarity about that. this is the community's money, and on the other side, the community is having a lot of punishment because they do not have enough money in order to get access to transportation. people in the community should have this kind of information. we're going to have the answer to this question, we have to have the answers as soon as we can. we need to have this money in order to provide more service for our communities and give

back to them. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker. [applause] >> i would like to say if you want the kids to go to school and everything, i think that you should give free passes to them so they can get their education. that is very important. supervisor campos: thank you very much. next speaker. >> [speaking spanish] >> good morning. i'm here to ask that you make muni free for youth. something that i learned today -- i'm really surprised by some

of the financial waste that muni spends. i want to encourage you to go over your budget and see where you are spending your funding. i think that is something we can do and that is something you can do. i think, going over the budget, you will be able to find space to move funds to make this program possible. and i think that this is something that is very important, not just for children, but also a lot of the single mothers that are here because san francisco is a very expensive city. thank you very much. supervisor campos: thank you. muchas gracias.

i'm going to read a couple more names. [reading names] >> [speaking spanish]

[applause] >> good afternoon. i'm really angry because i have the opportunity to look over the statistics and to seek where the funding -- see where the funding in spending is going right now. i saw that a lot of money was being spent to pay police officers to scare the riders in

the city. i feel like it was made to teach us a lesson, and i encourage you to use that same level of vigilance to go over the measure and use that vigilance so they can stop scaring us in our community. they were treating us like criminals. i feel like criminals are here, the people who are not managing the budget well. i'm grateful for the opportunity to be at this hearing because i was able to open my eyes. i want to encourage you all to look over this budget. thank you. supervisor campos: thank you. muchas gracias. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. supervisor campos: if you could speak into the microphone so we can hear you. there you go. >> i was part of the campaign