welcome to our rules committee meeting for may 70, to 12 and 12. the committee would like to acknowledge the staff at sfgtv to record our meetings and ensure the transcripts are available on-line. >> please make sure any completed speaker cards are submitted to the clerk. comments will appear on the june 5 supervisor of's agenda at. supervisor kim: please call item no. one of. >> item number one, appointment of supervisor christina a lot the to the bay area governments

and board. supervisor kim: thank you. supervisor olague stated her interest. is there any discussion on this item? seeing none, we will open this up for public comment. is there any public comment on this item? >> good afternoon, supervisors. i have lived in san francisco for 60 years. i would like to speak in favor of this appointment. i feel that's having a female on that particular body is an improvement since most people complain there are too many males on such bodies. and secondly, i feel, according to my experience of the supervisor, that she is very compassionate and she is not afraid to ask interesting questions. i think on a board like this,

that is a good quality. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you, mr. young. >> walter paulson, and i have been in this city -- i will not say how long. ♪ give her another chance to be on the board we do beside us to guide us one more chance last chance to be on our board we need an executive board today we need herbicide as to guide us -- her beside us to guide us we need this chance today ♪ supervisor kim: is there any

further public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. i should clarify that -- is there a motion? >> and make a motion to move this item for were without recommendation? supervisor kim: thank you. madam clerk, please call item two. >> motion confirming the mayor's appointment of cristina rubke to the municipal transportation agency board of directors. supervisor kim: we have a variety of nominees for different positions today. the format will be the same. i will ask you to speak briefly about your work experience and the position you are applying for, are nominated for. and if you wish to speak a little bit about the priorities he would like to take on, etc.

that will be the format for everyone today. thank you. after you speak, we may have follow-up questions from committee members. thank you for being here today. >> thank you. i am honored to be mayor lee's nominee. i want to thank your staff members for taking the time to meet with me. today, i am here to talk about who i am and what i'm offering to the board. in a nutshell, i am an active young professional interested in accessibility in the broadest sense of the word. after growing up in southern california with little access to public transit, i moved to the bay area for college.

i practiced commercial litigation at the midsize firm here in downtown. when i am not working at my committee meetings and boards, you'll find me sailing on the san francisco the. -- san francisco bay. a currently serve on the board that makes sealing available to people with disabilities. between my work and my sailing, i also take folic vantage of everything the state has to offer. -- i also take full advantage of everything the state has to offer. it gives me the opportunity to have a very active and full of life here. my career gives me a solid understanding of the corporate world, but i have also been very

engaged in the community. i have been active on the bar association of san francisco and a long time delegate to the california bar association, of which lobbies for legislation to combat inequality. i am a member of a civil rights law firm that provides legal representation to people with disabilities. i also served until recently on the better market street project. is confirmed, i will bring this experience of -- if confirmed, i'll bring this experience of community organizing to the sfmta board. i am so grateful for the opportunity and i feel a deep responsibility to agitate for access to others. it is critical of his people can safely and reliably get around town, whether they are elderly,

in a wheelchair, from another town, or in an isolated neighborhood. my parents immigrated from portugal. i understand the need to reach out to communities whose primary language is not english, or communities that do not have the resources or the ability to navigate our complex bureaucracy. accessibility means meaning full -- meaningful access for everyone. it means more than a wheelchair ramp -- although that is a good start. it means helping people understand how to get a transit ticket, how to afford that ticket. and visually-impaired folks have auditory signals. i look forward to working on more improvements in this area. i had the opportunity to attend an ncaa board meeting. i was so impressed -- attend an

mta board member. ," so impressed by the current board. here are some things i want to highlight in particular. i want to assure you, i am an independent thinker and i will make my own decisions. i gather information at first and want to hear a wide range before making a decision. my experience on other boards and committees has also made me understand the collaboration in community outreach. for ss mta -- for sfmta in particular, community collaboration is important. i will do my best to arrive at an informed and equitable decision every time. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you.

to you have a question? supervisor campos? supervisor campos: thank you for your willingness to serve the city of san francisco. anytime anyone puts there name four -- their name forward, it is an interesting process. i just wonder if you can give me your thoughts on sfmta and muni? this is one of those agencies were just about every san franciscan has an opinion on muni. this is an opportunity for us to hear some of your thoughts on the issues that impact to the agency. i am wondering what your general thoughts are in terms of the challenges you see muni facing at this point? >> in general, i think muni does a great job of being accessible

and very present in this city. it affects a lot of lives here and people have strong opinions about a. at the major challenges -- and this is true of a lot of city governments -- is the lack of resources and trying to address the complex set of needs with liukin resources. i think there's a lot of opportunity for improvement. the folks i have met at the sfmta are incredibly hard- working, thoughtful individuals and i see a great opportunity to build on a solid foundation, frankly. supervisor campos: one of the issues my office has focused on, and it was actually the first raised by supervisor dufty when he was here, is the issue of work orders, held a portion of the agency budget is given to other departments. at some point, the work orders were very significant.

they are still pretty significant, although that number has been reduced. we're talking about $62 million in work orders right now. there are things within the work orders that, quite frankly, while important, are functions that may not have a direct nexus to public transportation. at least, it is questionable whether new -- muni riders should be paying for that. one example is the traffic unit the police department has which plays a very important function. but i think that most people would be surprised that $9 million of muni's budget is going to paper that. what the nexus to transportation is something that could be debated. i am wondering what your thoughts are, because there are many of us who believe before

muni goes down the road of charging for other things, we need to make sure it is doing the most with the money it does have. that means keeping muni money for muni purposes. i am wondering if you cannot speak to that issue? >> i think it is a complex one that goes back a number of years, as i think you alluded. it has improved a bit. i would be interested in learning more about the process by which these decisions are made. muni is giving services for each $1 in terms of fair allocation of resources. supervisor campos: thank you. i think it is important for the sfmta border directors especially to be -- board of directors and especially to be engaged on and that issue, because the board of

supervisors, as you know, does not have direct a say on specific budget items within the sfmta budget. our vote is ultimately i yes or no vote on the entire budget. when it comes to reducing the work order amount, that would be within the purview of the board of directors. on the issue of accessibility, i am very happy to hear some of your thoughts on that. but accessibility goes beyond it sort up, you know, the ability to get on and off of boss. it is also the issue of whether or not transportation is a portable. a number of us have been working to make transit more affordable, especially to low-income families who have been struggling in san francisco. as you know, we are going through this discussion with the school district, cutting yellow

school buses by half in the next couple of years, in the middle of an economic recession. i wonder if you could speak to that? >> in response to your question, i think the mta board's decision is generally to do a pilot program, first of all, and see how effective that is. and hopefully there may be a need to expand that to have an impact on more families. i think that is a great step in that direction. i look forward to learning more about that issue and what resources can be provided. i think we need to look at the whole picture to make sure we're not hurting other vulnerable communities out there, of course. i look forward to getting more funding in that area, absolutely. supervisor campos: i don't want

to belabor -- one general note, on what it means to be on the board, i think it is important given the importance of public transportation -- not just public transit, but also the taxicabs that are overseen by the mta, having engaged board of directors is very important. we have seen changes and improvements in the way some issues are addressed. but you know, we requested a management audit of the mta, including an audit of the board of directors with respect to some issues. when the audit came out, it's all for the two-year. -- two-year period, the board of directors had not once discussed the problem of overtime, even

though muni accounts for close to 50% of the city's overtime. that has changed since the audit came out. but the fact that something like that is happening in an $800 million organization is troublesome. i am wondering what your thoughts are in terms of the level of engagement he would have with the board directives -- board of directors? >> obviously, i would want to be as engaged as possible. i would want to -- i definitely want to be following up with questions on that type of issue. obviously, i am still getting up to speed on all of this. but, you know, my interest is to represent the community interest as much as possible, to follow-up were needed and ask

intelligent questions. supervisor campos: the last point i will make and i will turn over to my colleagues -- on that same point, the second phase of the management audit focused on management of capital projects by mta. it found on average, looking at the top dozen or so projects, not including the subway, the projects were delayed by about 530 days. and looking at some of these projects, they were over-budget by a total of about $90 million. and yet, as that was happening, there were projects that would be scheduled behind a year, year and a half, and close to $100 million over budget, the process of approval was such that every

project got a green light. there was never a discussion about delays in that sense or over budget. so, what approach would you have to make sure those kinds of issues, and in making sure the right oversight is provided by the board is addressed? >> i think it is important to look at the whole picture. i do not know of many projects that have ever been on budget and on time. that is not to say that you should not aim for that, obviously. if there was anything added to those projects, what were the reasons for the delays? or the reasons for the over- budget aspects and how we could avoid that in the future? i would definitely be moving forward with that. supervisor campos: thank you very much. supervisor kim: supervisor farrell? supervisor farrell: supervisor campos stole all of my thunder

here. but just to follow up on the point of overtime -- from my perspective, the budget was $30 million for overtime. it looks like they will come back at about $50 million. sometimes, you have to manage our work force through overtime, and that is the way you manage your employees, but to double it -- and my frustration is on the backs of that, we are imposing sunday parking meters. that is 2.something million dollars. we are very free to impose new fees on any public. not before we get our house in order. i know you're just getting up to speed. as supervisors, we get a lot of the \. it is all our responsibilities.

-- we get a lot the backlash. >> obviously, it is complex when you are running a 24-hour system. that is a lot of money. i think it is important to manage that efficiently and well. i would be interested in learning more, of course. on the sunday parking meter -- i do not know if that is a question. i think -- i do not know if it is fair to compare those two directly. there are other things we are charging for and spending money on. you know, i see sunday parking meters, and i do not want to pay for parking on sundays either, but at the same time, i understand sunday parking

enforcement is really a parking management issue, rather than our revenue-producing issues. -- are revenue-producing issue. we just need to work toward our management of overtime and looking at if there's anything that can be done to mitigate that. supervisor kim: thank you. as you know, pedestrian safety is one of the top transit issues our office is working on. i wonder if you could speak a little bit on how you perceive your role in bettering our pedestrian safety record? >> yes. thank you for sending me those reports this afternoon. that was very helpful. i am primarily a pedestrian. we are all pedestrians at certain points. it is a huge issue to have a city you can safely walk around in.

if i were to be a board member, i would reach out to pedestrian safety groups. and know there is a committee focusing particularly on this. i do want to look of there priorities in terms of what projects need to be focused more on for pedestrian safety. i just hope to improve those. supervisor kim: is there anything that you would like to see the sfmta move forward on? especially with your experience as a pedestrian? >> i was excited to see the overall planning for that, and just getting market street to be a more livable, walkable st.. i am really excited to see some of those changes. we're just making sure

pedestrians have visibility along streets sides, so when people are walking, cars can see them. area bus stops, things like that. your office is working on areas where there are long blocks. i think that as a positive for drivers as well, where there are pedestrians trying to cross illegally. those those of the sources of many collisions. >> we also had the increased fees and bus passes. what is your role on those before the board, whether it is the simple fare or the monthly passes? >> i don't know much about that issue so i would need to get up to speed before i can add to that intelligently. >> i know one of the issues that we often see is that with the rising fair or the fast pass, a

lot of that is to meet budgetary needs but we have boat in comes that can afford to buy monthly fares. the single cash fair is something that many of us rely upon. that has come off as an issue a lot. we have also talked about how we could work more in supporting our homeless disabled population. we would like to work with you on that. i don't know if you have any opinions on that. >> i would like to work on helping our vulnerable community and people that are trying to get off of the streets. as a general matter, i would like to see improvement on that. >> thank you. how do you plan on having

meaningful public participation, particularly those that rely on muni? >> i certainly intend to attend the various groups that are around. i know that there is a great amount of activism in this city. everyone has strong feelings about muni. we will hear from the local people getting in touch with the last local people is a challenge. i engaged in a lot of community organizations currently. i'd planned to be a part of more community organizations. the best way is to get out there and talk to people about the concerns. >> thank you so much. i think that is all the questions from the rules committee at this time. >> thank you. >> at this time, we will open it

up for public comment. >> good afternoon, chairman. it is so good to have the opportunity to speak to you today. i wanted to come and give my support to the appointment of christina to the board. long before i had the pleasure, i had heard about her reputation. last year, and had the pleasure of working with her on a special project that was undertaken by the bar association of san francisco. this is about doing some out reach to small business owners against lawsuits. what cristina and the folks at the bar association did was to put together a panel which included myself at the mayor's

office of disability as well as the director who is here today. a community group is there to provide some funding to help small business owners and also the office of small business. i was impressed with the efforts to reach out to the community and to give them some of the tools they needed to try to make the business is accessible and also to protect themselves from these lawsuits. my observation is that she is articulate, she is collaborative, she works well with both the city and the community as well as the advocacy groups and i think she would bring a very collegial presents to the board and would be a valuable addition. i do support her on that. thank you. >> thank you so much, ms. johnson. i will call out the speaker cards that i have.

we have the former director of the mayor's office on disability. >> good afternoon. i am speaking as a private citizen but a person with a disability that has a longstanding history for working on this. i have known christina for several years. through the bay area of the disabled sailors, and the boaters to work on the america's cup. i strongly endorse her candidacy here. i find her to be not just smart but thoughtful. she is not just a leader but an organizer. she is able to be a spokesperson

for the disability community but does not presume to speak for everyone until she has spoken to the people. she is someone who has worked in many different contexts with many different type of people with disabilities. i also think that it is important, the questions you have asked are important to go to the issue that she is not as a candidate to represent the disability community, she would have responsibility in terms of governance. i think she would be a very appropriate and a good candidate. she can be an advocate and she sees the full picture. she understands financial constraints and competing