>> ok, thank you. i am excited about revising and resources and making sure we support our independent film makers, our documentary film makers. we have a lot to talk about. i am also excited about some of the ideas that have already been on the books. but now that we have the space, we have a great -- production crews have already started here. i understand there is pot luck productions. cob great -- congratulations for being here. [applause] >> there is stampede productions here. >> [applause] >> there is ecopoise here. [applause] >> and then there is a production company, and i will have to admit to you when i heard this name, i thought they were engaged in horror films. scary cow. [applause]

>> having learned what they do, and what their reward system is and how they incentivize by rewarding the great initiatives that some of the film has, and when their popularity grows, they get rewarded to get their next film. i love that concept. i have an entry for you. it is something called too legit to quit. [laughter] anyway, i had a little bit of fun watching the producers of that come out as well. that should indicate to you there should be a lot of fun, a lot of information to share with the rest of the world, postseason. one of these days i am sure somebody is going to do something about occupy san francisco. i know that is going to happen. please better view me. i've got some opinions. but we are working closely about that. but there is just -- in san francisco when you're a film maker, i know there are a lot

topics you can cover, a lot of lines, a lot of precious stories. this is a hot bed for opinions, for postseason and for film making. and i want to make sure that that story-telling, that ability to show the postseason, the ability to educate our world and our own communities thrives and success in our great city of san francisco. and that we are also an international city. so that my hope is that when these offices are filled and the real energy of this innovation and spirit that is already reflected here, when these production companies find their gems to produce, that you get international attention. because these stories probably will have international themes to them and will resonate all over the world. congratulations, i will be a

background supporter. we will be working with the commission to support it as much as we can, and you may see something in the budget. [applause] >> thank you, mayor. just a couple of notes before we get started. for those of you that don't know about the collective, in is a space that has four minimum making grooms at this point. we have six other offices still available. there is information on how big they are and how much they cost. but we welcome you to submit an application if you are interested. we would love to have more film makers in here. it is a great environment for collaboration, sharing ideas and just getting your work done. i think it is a pretty beautiful space. we are very fortunate to have this space here tonight. before we get started, i wanted to give thanks to pressure island wines. they are donating the wine for

tonight, and it is really delicious, wonderful, and we are thankful to have their donations. let's give them a hand. [applause] i also want to acknowledge the hard work of christine monday, who is from our film office. really, this film collective is her idea, and she has put a lot of energy into it. thank you, christine, for all the work you have done. [applause] >> and again thanking our film commission for supporting this. they have really put a lot of support behind it, letting us have it to start with. and then also giving us the go-ahead to put funds toward connecting this to high speed internet. right now we have tapped into the city's broadband network, so we have 25 up and 25 down, which not being a tech person, i don't really know everything that means.

a file used to take 30 minutes to upload, and now it takes three minutes to upload. that is fantastic. in the rent, that is included. utilities and john torle are -- jantorial are included, and a common area and your own space. it is great a good deal for film makers if you are interested in participating. craig larson is the owner of the building. he has worked with us, and he has been so generous to make it where we could afford this space and where we could give it to you at an affordable rate so. thank you, craig, even though you're not here. i think that's it for now. christine, if you would like to come up and introduce the next

>> this lodge is home to some of the best fly casting pools in the world. these shallow concrete pools don't have fish. this is just a place where people come to practice their fly casting technique. ith was built in the 1930's and ever since, people have been coming here to get back to nature. every year, the world championship of fly casting is held in san francisco and visitors from all over the globe travel to be here. >> we are here with phil, general manage of san francisco

rec and parks department at the anglers lodge. what do you think about this? >> it is spectacular, travis from oregon, taught me a snake roll and a space cast. >> there are people from all over the world come to san francisco and say this is the place to be. >> yeah. it's amazing, we have teams from all over the world here today and they are thrilled. >> i flew from ireland to be here. and been practicing since for the competition. all the best casters in the world come here. my fellow countryman came in first place and james is on the current team and he is the head man. >> it's unique. will not see anything like it where you go to compete in the world. competitions in ireland,

scotland, norway, japan, russia each year, the facilities here in the park are second to none. there is no complex in the world that can touch it. >> i'm here with bob, and he has kindly agreed to tell me everything i need to know about casting. i'm going to suit up and next, we're in the water. >> what any gentleman should do. golden gate angling has free lessons the second saturday of every month. we have equipment show up on the 9:30 on the second saturday of every month and we'll teach them to fly cast. >> ok. we are in the water. >> let me acquaint you with the fly rod. >> nice to meet you. >> this is the lower grip and the upper grip. this is a reel and a fly line. we are going to use the flex of

this rod to fling away. exactly as you moved your hands. >> that's it? >> that's it. >> i'm a natural. >> push both arms forward and snap the lower hand into your tummy. push orward. >> i did gave it a try and had great time but i might need some more practice. i met someone else with real fly casting skills. her name is donna and she is an international fly casting champion. >> i have competed in the casting ponds in golden gate park in san francisco. i have been to japan and norway for fly casting competition. i spend my weekends here at the club and at the casting pond. it's a great place to learn and have fun. on a season day like this, it was the perfect spot to be.

i find fly casting very relaxing and also at the same time very challenging sport. takes me out into the nature. almost like drawing art in the air. and then i can make these beautiful loops out there. >> even though people from across the globe come here to compete, it's still a place where locals in the know relax and enjoy some rely unique scenery. until next time, get out and play!

commissioner campos: good morning, everyone. welcome to the transportation authority plans and programs committee. happy new year to everyone. we are joined this morning by a committee vice chair commissioner carmen chu, john avalos, david chiu and scott wiener on on routes -- are en route. please call item no. 2. >> approve the minutes of the december 6, 2011 meeting. this is an action item. commissioner campos: we have the minutes from the december 6 meeting. before we act on it, let me open up to public comment. is there anyone from the public that would like to comment on this item?

seeing none, public comment is closed. motion by carmen chu, seconded by commissioner avalos. motion approved. please call item 3. >> citizens advisory committee report. this is an information item. commissioner campos: we have the chair of the committee, mr. davis, who represents district 9. good morning, happy new year. welcome to the plans and programs committee. >> good morning, commissioners. i am here to provide the citizens advisory report. you have one item on your agenda today that we took action on at our october 26 meeting. that is item five, the allocation of roughly $40 million to the sfmta for their

c3 program. to upgrade technology that is 40 years old. we passed the item in an ms. lee based on the fact that it will be upgrading technology and should improve services to their residence and folks writing muni. with that, i can open it up to any questions. commissioner campos: thank you. we have been joined by commissioners david chiu and scott wiener. any questions for the citizens advisory committee? why don't we open this up to public comment? again, thank you to the members of the citizens advisory committee. any comments on this item? is there anyone from the public that would like to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. thank you, mr. davis. please call item for. >> >> item 4.

report on limited scope performance audit of the san francisco municipal transportation agency, phase ii. this is an information item. commissioner campos: i would ask for a brief presentation. before that begins, i also think mr. reiskin is an audience as well. i want to acknowledge his presence here and thank him and his staff for their collaboration in this effort. we will be hearing from him shortly. >> mr. chairman, commissioners, my name is jim ayers cgr

management consultants. we were asked to give a short overview of the audit, just as they were pressured to the point that we -- were fresher to the point that we made here -- refreshers to the points that we made here. we completed the draft of the report in march 2011. we had three rounds of the review. final presentation in november. we had a fairly lengthy review process that went on, by the

agency, and by the board, because we did not want to give sfmta a report that had not been vetted through the commissioners. these are the five areas of concern. with these, we had 19 recommendations, which we highlighted in the executive summary. these were reviewed by sfmta. they concurred with 17 of the 19, partially concurred with two others. let me just highlight some of those recommendations under these categories. with respect to project time,

cost overruns, we had recommended an asset management team to improve accountability for project execution for assets foreign generating -- for generating projects as part of the state of repair initiative. and then having within that asset team, the skills to execute those projects. another concern was accuracy of the estimates. we have looked at a sample of projects and found 12 out of 13 of those had four runs in both cost and schedule. the second item, board reporting

an oversight. we are recommending that there be -- the tracking was done in quarterly reports, project by project, with no overview on program and portfolio law loss. these are sort of an aggregate. -- portfolio levels. we provided that in the document that we delivered. one issue was the use of approved budgets, rather than baseline budget, to track whether a project was in trouble or not. we advocated, what was happening, when you track an approved project, everything shows up on the report.

our recommendation was to track also against baselines. we put out a number of examples, quoted figures about the capital program, planned expenditures, seemed inconsistent and confusing. we also recommended that other factors needed to be added to the report, like cash flow, the use of contingencies. there were two recommendations in that area of management process design and improvement. one called for additional information technology staff. another called for an

organization within the agency to maintain process descriptions and to make continuous improvements. finally, we looked, in conjunction with the central subway project, we looked in some detail at the systems project that was just beginning as we were conducting the audit. we noted some concerns of integration with other systems. any questions for us? commissioner campos: we wanted to give members of the committee as well as members of the

public a brief summary of some of the key findings and recommendations, without belaboring the record that was done at the full transportation authority meeting. i think this captures that. unless there are specific comments or questions, let's turn it over to the mta. let me ask director ed reiskin to come up. thank you for being here. the one point i would make about this, mr. reiskin, as we noted, this performance audit looks at a period of time that well proceeds your tenure. to the extent there are concerns

that predate your arrival, i want to thank you for the open this for which you have approached in these reviews. i know that your tenure at dpw, your administration is always focused on best practices. i know these are things you are worried about. i am thankful you are trying to see how we can learn from this and address these issues. i appreciate that because i know it is not an easy thing to do necessarily for an agency. usually, people become defensive. instead of doing that, you have indicated you want to tackle these issues on. >> thank you and good morning. you kind of stole my opening.

that is absolutely right. i want to thank you for your leadership in bringing this audit to bear, to the committee, and to the full ta commission. there is no question, being handed a best of things that i can do that would improve how the mta is doing business, whether on the capital side or operating side, is very much welcome. i am grateful for the opportunity to talk through where we are with this. i will say, wow discovered a period of time that predated my tenure, likewise, many of the corrective actions predated my tenure. i will be talking about a lot of good things that i cannot take credit for, that were already under way, but based on my experience in delivering capital projects, managing capital

programs, it will certainly be a main focus of mine, moving forward. i have a brief presentation that i will walk through, and then i welcome the opportunity to answer questions. one point i want to make, in addition to the fact that this covered in a limited period of time in the past, it also covered a limited scope, in terms of the capital projects and programs the agency delivers. it covered certain projects within our capital division. we also deliver projects elsewhere in the agency, such as sustainable streets. it is just a caution about extrapolation through the entire capital delivery process of the agency. however, all of the corrective

actions i will be speaking to our agency what improvements. i am just going to walk through the audit concerns and then talk about some of the things that are underway to address them. you heard from the team what the main areas of concern were. i will start with what i think is the most important, most concern to you all, to me, and to the public, including the way it has been portrayed. they did look at baseline budget and schedules for a selected number of projects and found, relative to the baseline that were established, many cases where the final budget exceeded the baseline budget, and the final schedule exceeded the base line schedule. this is something that i focused

on their much when i was at dpw. we made it a key part of what we were measuring for each project, tracking where each one was relative to budget and schedule. this is the bread and butter of good project management, the able to deliver what you say, on time, and on budget. i will first acknowledge, there is no question in my mind, from my limited time at the mta, there is room for improvement in how we are managing the delivery of capital projects. you will hear about some of the things are already in place to address that. i do want to caution against taking some of these numbers without understanding some of the underlying reasons behind things having apparent cost and schedule overruns. i think a lot of it has to do

with estimation and process. i do not think as much has to do with some level of rampant mismanagement or misuse of public funds. again, no question there are ways to improve so we can use our dollars more effectively and deliver projects on time and on budget, but here are a couple of examples of what i'm talking about, and why what appeared in the audit as a cost overrun, schedule over run, was not an example of wasted money or time. one example i made reference to last time was the church and dubose rail replacement project. that is a very busy intersection with bikes, pedestrians, the 22 crosses in the north-south direction.

this started as a real replacement project. the rail is at the end of its useful life. the baseline budget was established as a rail replacement project. when we first brought that out to the community to do the standard public notification that the mta does for any capital project that will be disruptive in the neighborhood, the community stepped up and started to provide feedback in terms of other transportation- related improvements they felt needed to happen at that area, going all the way up to the n judah stop, down to church and market. the mta sat down with the community groups, dpw, puc, and started looking at the project, not just as a rail replacement project, but a