the call of the chair. we will do that without objection. item three. >> hearing to receive updates on the mend a simple transportation agency's budget for fiscal year 2012-2013 and fiscal year 2013- 2014. supervisor chu: thank you. for this item we have ed rieskin with the npa -- and -- mta. >> good afternoon. i fully support full general fund support for the department of public works and for the city's capital budget. let the record reflect. supervisor chu: thank you. >> i am going to walk you through a bit of context and where we are in the operating budget and a little bit on the

capital budget. both of which will be first considered for approval by the mta board next tuesday, april 3. just to provide context -- supervisor chu: the reason we scheduled this one earlier was the mta board is about to also vote on the final budget they will be submitting to the board and as you know, we did not see the budget last year because mta is truly on a two-year budget and that is why we did not see it. this year we will see it and pass it to your budget. unless there is specific big changes or criteria met will not see the mta budget again. it is a good opportunity to provide feedback. in addition as you know, we are not able to change line items in the budget when it comes to us. we follow the entire budget, or down. it is important to provide feedback early before it comes to us. the one to think -- i want to

thank it for being here and presenting. >> thank you and i appreciate you moving this forward so we did have an opportunity for this hearing to take place before we finalize the budget and submit it for the board's consideration. the first opportunity to consider it will be next tuesday, april 3. they could take action to approve at that meeting or could continue the item for the second meeting in august. even could continue and create a special may meeting before the end of the month but we need to get the budget back submitted to city hall by may 1. just to settle -- said context, back at the beginning of this calendar year, the sfmta board adopted the six-year strategic plan. if you could go to this line, it is a fairly straightforward plan that establishes a vision which is san francisco, a great city,

excellent transportation choices which reflects alesci as the importance of the transportation system to making san francisco a great city and the importance of us providing options so people have good prices they can make in terms of how they get around the city. in order to realize that vision, the mta board has established four goals, with regard to safety, one basically in -- implementing the transit first policy, one relating to the role that mta and transportation plays in our city's economy and environment, and finally one and were looking at the organization and strengthening the organization so we can deliver on those other three goals. all four of which we believe need to happen in order to realize this vision. on the rich of these goals are speech -- are specific objectives, specific performance measures and targets.

we are developing action plans for each of those so that when we start the fiscal year, we can start implementing this plan. this is meant to be a working document that will lead to individual work plans and agency work plans and from which we can hold ourselves accountable, you can hold us accountable, the public can hold us accountable. what you should seek in the pages that follow are really in the budget are steps that are- we're taking toward achieving the goals that are laid out in this plan. just a little bit more on context. when i first entered the agency, like others, one of my questions is, why does it cost so much to run the mta? that is a lot of money. some of these figures give a sense of what is we are responsible for operating and maintaining in terms of the

millions of hours of service we provide on muni, the numbers of street signs, miles of stripping and rails and overhead wires, it is a pri -- pretty significant asset base we're responsible for operating and maintaining. this is what drives the budget of the department. our situation is similar to what you hear from a number of different city agencies in that our expenditure growth, lagging revenues, the revenue growth is lagging expenditures. expenditures are growing faster than revenues and in order to not reduce service or to limit the amount we reduce service, there are other critical needs that support the service that have not been adequately funded. maintenance is a primary one of those.

where we started those -- the process is there was a gap in the baseline. some work that was done a number of years ago, we had some structural gaps and -- in the system. we were able to provide below service we're providing. we need these levels of funding. 20 to 25 for the other modes. this meanws and dess -- means investing in that support and training and other services to deliver the service plan that we are delivering. last year, the comptroller's office performed an audit on our sustainable streets division and as a microcosm, identified that we're not renewing the striping in the streets and the signage

in the streets at the level that we should be. that is part of what is embedded in the $25 million number. a strategic plan has an explicit goal to close the structural budget gaps over the course of the next six years and we were attempting in this first of three fiscal cycles to take a step in that direction. the overview of the revenues of department, where one-third, that comes at -- comes through parking. both the in the payment of the general fund, its parking meters, parking citations, a quarter of the budget is transit fares and another quarter is the set aside from the general fund. the main levers that we can control in terms of adjusting our revenues are parking and transit. the baseline projections put us at $800 million in each of the

next two fiscal years. the expenditure budget, what is presented here is starting from the baseline, 1st making or proposing a number of cuts which are shown on the right side, the management cuts are cuts that are already made. we just did that a few weeks ago that will have eliminated 12 management positions, 10 of which were filled. there will be a few of those that will be replaced by positions at lower levels but the net annual statement and this is and gold -- an ongoing savings will be $2 million a year. our overtime which you heard a lot about and read a lot about, while our budget is $32 million, we're running at $55 million or $60 million a year. what i am proposing in the first

fiscal year is an overtime budget of $42 million, down from this year's projected at 55 and another $5 million reduction in the second fiscal year. we're working with the city on workers' comp, we run a second workers' comp system from the city so we are joining with them. we're doing the advertising for a third-party administrator anne truitt collaborating more strongly with the city with h.r. but also more actively managing workers' comp, i think we can bring those costs down. we have identified some of our equipment purchases for which we can use capital funds. we have been able to reduce them out of our operating budget. the first thing i did was propose these reductions to expenditures, really trying to find any efficiencies that i could find. what i am also proposing are investments and this is getting back to what i was talking about

in terms of investing in the services that support the front- line service delivery. you can see the bulk of what i am proposing and most of these are funded only half in the first year. these are the second year numbers is maintenance and this is primarily on the muni side. these are-these would be mature -- mechanics that are repairing the vehicles, the buses and that trains as well as the infrastructure, the rail, the switches, the signal, the overhead wires. it is the cleaning of the vehicles and the lack of the adequacy of funding levels for these things in our current budget that leads to a lot of the breakdowns and the failures that then have a very direct adverse service impacts, all of us who ride muni every day know all too well. a very significant investment we

are proposing to make in terms of the minutes of the system. also proposing a small amount of funding for transit effectiveness project, planning and design. the tep is undergoing full review of er which should be complete sometime in mid-2013. once that environmental review and public outreach process is done, the idea is that we will have some of the design worked teed up and complete so we will implement to the extent we have capital funding to do so. it is an investment so we can hit the ground running as soon as the eir is certified. we are living to an all -- all door boarding on all vehicles. we permit that on the rail vehicles but not on the buses because the queuing up at the front door to pay your fair or = -- or your fare adds to the

running time. we can speed of the system. we have pass holders on clipper, we have klipper readers at the back doors. anyone who is not pain with clash -- paying with cash can speed the flow of people getting on to the buses. to facilitate that, we are expanding -- adding more fare inspectors. we do not want to inadvertently sent this signaled that muni is free for everyone now. we want to make sure anyone writing m.u.d. @ -- muni at any time will be required to show proof that they have paid. we also have a safe to being the no. 1 goal of the plan.

because of the focus on pedestrian safety from the mayor and the board of supervisors, we're proposing some enhance staffing of our crossing guard program as well as some enhanced staffing with -- for our safety program. supervisor chu: in terms of the maintenance component and the investment there, do you think the mta will be taking a strategic approach to where you do the maintenance work, so it will -- will be based on the largest failures or the lines that carry the most ridership? is there something you would do to prioritize that? >> we will propose some kind of overall increase in level of maintenance. increasing the frequency of preventative maintenance across the board and that is mileage base. the busier buses will get -- or at least the ones that are troubling the most will get done sooner but we are also doing what we call campaigns and what

we do is we identify the components that are feeling the most -- filling the most and we focus resources on those components, lvr's, for example. we have had a number of us -- of failures of the steps that go up and down because they are fairly complex. we are doing a campaign on the steps which data has shown the mean distance between failures which is our main indicator, after we have campaigned the doors and steps is considerably better. the trains travel much longer. we will be focused with -- our resources not so much on a bus lines but on components that fail as part of this mean in staffing enhancement. supervisor chu: in terms of the parking control officers, we did not talk about it in any of the investments. that is one area where in muni's operations more could be

done and be done better. we had difficulty in the west side of town. not only that, sometimes it might be spotty enforcement that is out there. i wonder if there is more that can be done with pco's helping to alleviate or deal with traffic issues. oftentimes we ask the police department or local station but sometimes they are under- resources as well. >> there is more we can do. the police command staff person who is assigned to the mta is commander -- she oversees the parking and traffic enforcement and the fair inspection. she has -- had been focusing on the transit fare inspectors, working with them and looking at how they were deployed, modifying how they have been deployed, modifying their work program and as a result without

changing staffing has generated something like a 70% increase in productivity. she is now turning her sights to the parking and traffic enforcement and while i do not want to set her up and promised 70% increase of productivity, we have preliminary- -- preliminarily identified working with the control officers and kesse are you -- seiu on how they are employed and how they are used to manage traffic. we will see in this coming fiscal year before it starts, some improvements in that regard. we recognize it as a shortcoming and recognize one of the reasons mta was put together in the first place was the use parking and traffic management to help muni flow better and i do not think we have realized the benefits of that to date. supervisor chu: thank you. i would love to hear an update

as we go forward. >> i would be happy to. back to the slide. what we're trying to achieve in this expenditure plan, are reductions to streamline and make ourselves more efficient but also investments to make transit first work to improve safety and establish accountability for the department. these are things that i believe will start moving us in the right direction. a little bit more specifically, just for those who have not already read through and memorized our strategic plan. a few targets that we have concluded in the plan are listed here. we have a 10% reduction goal for each fiscal cycle. in crime and workplace injuries and collisions. that is all modes, bike, taxi, a

car, bus, train. this service go we are aiming for is what we call bunches and gaps and for the first fiscal cycle, the idea -- the goal is to eliminate them for 25% of the ridership. this would start on the most heavily traveled lines. bunches are vehicles that come within two minutes of each other and gaps are vehicles that are off by more than five minutes of their scheduled time. while we will continue to measure on-time performance, it is a requirement in the charter and it is the one that is publicly reported each quarter. what that is measuring is our performance relative to a schedule, a schedule that nobody knows exists. it is not meaningful as what people feel when you are star -- standing at the bus stop and you're waiting and you see two buses come, the first being

overly crowded and the other is empty. this measure is made to better reflect what people actually see and experience in terms of riding the in the service. a big part of this will improve the minutes of the equipment so it does not have breakdowns which in turn create some of the gaps which lead to the bunching we sail . -- that we see along the line. the big overarching transit first policy goal in the plan is to achieve at the end of the six-years -- six years a 50% improvement in the uses. 50% of the trips in san francisco are by private automobile. our goal is to drive that down to 50 being the muni means.

improving taxi service, eliminate bunches and gaps, work towards structural budget gaps -- causing structural budget gaps. in the 39 years since the transit first policy has been in place, we have not moved the dial on this measure. i do not know that we have good data. most people's sense -- people's sense is we have not shifted modes. that is a significant and ambitious goal for the plan and agency in the city. finally as i mentioned, one of the goals in our plan is to close the structural budget gaps and this proposed -- or the expenditure plan and what i will be proposing to the board next week is a step in that direction. supervisor chu: thank you. supervisor kim. supervisor kim: thank you. i wanted to go back to your previous item.

about reducing collisions and injuries. we talked about how we can reduce injuries for -- that is a huge -- reduce injuries for our employees. that is a futures -- huge expense for the city. [inaudible] >> in terms of the muni side, i am proposed -- proposing some enhanced safety staffing. these are the specialists who are evaluating every mini accident or collision that we have. every collision that we have, to determine the cause, whether it was avoidable or not. more importantly to start using the data and the trends to see what is driving these collisions. initial data shows that i think it is right turns, hit -- a

huge percentage of our accidents or collisions by muni vehicles are right turns. it could be refresher training for operators, it could be evaluating how mairs our position. we're trying to drill down and understand the roots of what is causing these collisions and that is something of this city staff will help with. in regard to pedestrians and bicycles, we're working closely with the police department as well as some of the other stakeholder groups, the pedestrian safety advisory committee, the bike coalition, a senior action network, walk sf. to do some of the similar work, to better use data so we understand where the problems are. the department of public health has been extremely helpful as the co-lead in the pedestrian safety task force. there is a few dimensions there. there is education and physical

engineering changes. that we can make in terms of education, we have been working with some of those partners as well as the da's office in terms of diversion programs and other educational approaches. with some of the funding we got from proposition d, brand and mohammed were talking about, we have the ability to start implementing bike and pedestrian safety projects that in the past we have had not as much funding for. same with the things in our traffic calming program. what we're trying to generally slow traffic around the city, we were two-thirds of the way of implementing a 50 mile an hour zone and speed limit zounds add to murder schools around the city, that should be done before the start of the next school year.

and generally tough trying to improve the project delivery of our programs. now that we have somebody coming in, we can get those projects delivered efficiently. very big focus area the sf mta board was delivered in identifying safety as the no. 1 priority in the plan. the final thing that we are doing is we're working with the police department and the mayor's office on try to identify funding for hand-held units for the traffic co. so that's -- so that when they are dealing with an accident, that the data goes right in electronically and immediately goes back to our traffic engineers. right now there's a big lag between what is happening on the streets and that data getting back to our folks to identify where we might have a problem intersection or an area that may be just with signage or light

sitting change or more capital intensive thing work. there is a solution -- there is a solution, getting hand-helds into the hands of officers, it is a relatively small investment that will have a pretty big payback. supervisor kim: i appreciate the use of the data we have been trying to facilitate more data coming in so we can prevent increases, if we know that there are areas that are prone are certain types of activities that facility that happening. the first time i heard we have been collecting data on what causes -- with pedestrians and others that are sharing the streets. i am glad to see we are collecting data and acting on it. i appreciate that work. thank you. >> definitely i and all aspects of the operation, trying to go to -- in all aspects of the operation, trying to implement data, going to a comsat process.

karl rove just for eliminating the bunches and gaps, is that identifying specific efforts? >> what we are proposing to start trying to focus on is the busiest lines that get us the more bang for the black. to the extent we can improve reliability on those lines, we can do so and benefit the greatest amount of people and from there, we will work our way through. the 25% is the goal for the first fiscal cycle and it extends subsequent to fiscal cycles of the plan. supervisor kim: i would love to hear what mta is doing to achieve the reduction in crime offline. >> i will note since you gave me entree, we do have one part of

our operation we believe has been fairly effective has been a grant funded unit of one sergeant and eight officers, this is the plainclothes unit that has been working on the muni system, that has been successful in making arrests of pickpockets and other types of crime that we see on muni. the grant funding for that unit and at the end of this fiscal year and as of yet, we do not have a backfill or sustainable funding. we're talking with the police -- with the police department and the mayor's unit in terms of reducing crime on muni. crime is down on muni. in all categories except larceny, which is largely related to theft electronic devices. if you get on muni, 90% of the people are immersed in their devices and it leads to inattention and it is making

them vulnerable to that type of crime. overall, crime is down on muni. supervisor chu: thank you. >> even after -- given where our revenues are and our expenditures or after the cuts we made but also the investments on proposing it, it has left us with a little bit of a gap relative to an $800 million budget. it is not huge but it is fairly sizable for us to close. it was last projected at a little under $20 million in the last fiscal year and $34 million in the second fiscal year. so our options are either to reduce revenues, increase revenues to reduce expenditures, or do both. on the expenditure side, i have done what i think you can do up to this point in terms of identifying ways to reduce expenditures. so what is left are either

making reductions in service which we really would rather not do and would work against some of our strategic plan goals that could be reducing muni service, by increasing the frequency, shortening the hours, or eliminating bus lines, or it can be reducing our street maintenance and it would take longer to clean graffiti off the sign or to get striping redone in the crosswalk. these are things that we really do not want to do. the other area, a potential area for expenditure reduction is in labor savings. the unions representing about half of our employees have open contracts right now that we are currently, along with the city, negotiating. the transit workers union, they are in contracts for the next two years through the next fiscal