deployment and scheduling of resources, weakened considerably reduce overtime costs, and that is something we need to do. finally, the capital improvements themselves, the big work, for example, that we're doing this weekend as part of the improvements along one of our lines, replacing the tracks, switches, and signals. and when they fail, they require us to bring in maine and its resources on overtime. to the extent we get our infrastructure in better shape, we will have fewer of those unplanned shutdowns that drain some of -- that demand some of our overtime resources. same with procurements. you'll see in the capital budget that we are proposing some bus procurements because of the age of our fleet, we have breakdowns that generate sometimes overtime expense as we are trying to

compensate for those failures. the more we can invest in the capital side, we can often generate some on the operating side, especially in terms of unplanned responses which are often done on overtime. you had asked for reporting on fte. changes. we are, because of the investments that we are making, going up quite a bit. in some cases, it is budgeting -- it is just restoring positions that were in the agency but not budgeted. these are all front line positions. we have reduced the number of managers. we are not adding any administrative staff. much of this is going straight to the front lines.

you asked for us to touch on job creation. there are a few different ways we are contributing to job creation. the first is the capital program. we are spending a lot of capital dollars on the order of about half a billion dollars a year, we have a very strong capital budget. a big chunk of that is the central subway. we have done some of the utility relocation now. we are advertising all the construction contracts this year. while this is a federally funded program, it inhibits from using local hiring practices, we are

bringing the spirit of the local hiring practice to the central subway and all of our other programs. we are working closely with workforce development and there getting some good success. in the central subway, we've partnered with the laborers union to find tunneling apprenticeship program so that we can train laborers that have not had the experience to work on tunneling projects to get that experience so they can get to work on the tunnel contract. in the central subway, we have been meeting all of our coals on the design contracts -- all of our goals on the design contracts and we have strong participation. we're not able to give those preferences. the balance of the system, we

are using the opportunity of the capital spending to put people to work. a lot of opportunity on the capital side. in terms of the summer, we will have 40-45 young people participating for youth summer employment. making as much space as we could afford to to bring young people in. most of these we have been using for many years and said that a lot of good success. we are parting with the mayor's office and the city to make those opportunities available. we are in the -- we are investing in the system and will be hiring city employees, a fairly significant amount of city employees. doing some direct job creation. the most indirect, but i don't

want to not notes id, the transportation system is the big part of what makes the economy make san francisco move. we have 700,000 boardings on a an average weekday, which is more than the next three transit agencies in the region combined. it is more than 40% of the boardings on transit in the region. we are moving a lot of people and a lot of that is getting people from home to work in san francisco. i just want to note the royal dutch be played in the economy in supporting job creation, -- the role we play in the economy in supporting job creation. in terms of language access, which you have also asked us to speak to, and we are addressing across the hall in the hearing at the same time as this one, we are a very out were facing

agency. we have a lot of interaction with the public in a lot of different ways. we also, we are subject to title 6 of the civil rights act. in some ways, the local language ordinance helps us be complied with that. in some ways, we need to go further because of the title six requirements. we do that in a lot of different ways through various materials, translations, using 3-1-1, training of staff, using by local staff, performing outreach. a couple of examples just from last night, we have been doing a number of workshops around the city. we have also been reaching out to groups, particularly those that represented or have membership that have a lot of people who do not speak english. last night, we did a meeting

with power. the meeting was largely done in spanish. it was a way of the are trying to make sure the programs that will have real impact to people on the ground, that we can get feedback. also last night, we had a public meeting -- we are changing the structure of were the 49 it turns around by city college to make way for some development and improve service. we had a meeting out there last night and and our translator that was -- was not able to show up, so we ever able to pull a train operator from the train yard nearby who speaks cantonese, who was able to enable the people and the meeting to access all the information. there is a lot of different avenues that we are pursuing to

make sure people have access, good access, to information. some examples of some materials that we have available at different locations that help people get access to a translation services if a person sitting at the desk or the counter or on the bus is not able to communicate to them in their language. >> we have worked with your department and the past. primarily the idea that the buses do not go all the way to the end of the schedule, but turns around some more in advance. one of the things you want to try to memorize -- minimize that as much as possible. announcements to passengers to let them know ahead of time that those trains in tend to short term. i am wondering if you have thought about -- intercom

announcements are sometimes garbled. do you have plans to improve that system? have you thought about doing pre-recorded messages for some of these things that are common occurrences that might be -- that might translate into multiple languages? to the extent that you have certain things that always happen, such as a delight in a tunnel, that you would want to communicate -- such as a delight and a tunnel, that you would want to communicate to passengers. a lot of the folks who are on those lines are limited english speakers. >> the answer to all that is yes. with regard to turn back, we have been working to reduce the unplanned turnbacks. we're making good success in doing that. there will always be instances where it makes sense to turn

back or because of an emergency, or we schedule it. we have been working very hard at communications with people when they first get on the train. with regard to communications, we are currently upgrading our radio system as well as our public address and public display system. in doing so, it will give us much clearer autozone. right now, the on board audio is pretty clear, but only make announcements from our central control center, that is when it gets pretty garbled. automatic announcements, you will notice on the train system, the automatic announcements only happen underground. we will have that same automated and announcement

happening above ground as well. we will also have pre-recorded messages for the various kinds of events, such as short turns in multiple languages. all of that is coming. we are doing the best be can to ensure our communication is clear. were we can use -- where we can use signage that is universal. as we are transitioning to outdoor boarding, we will be removing those signs. what will be replacing them are signs that are visual signs, no tax. step -- no text. so you do not need to understand english to get the message. we will try to do more of that. good things are coming in terms

of the public address and communication systems. they will improve our ability to communicate to people of different languages. supervisor kim: thank you. i really do appreciate the multi-lingual recordings on the muni bus lines. going back to supervisor chu's point about some of our longer bus lines not completing their stops, i represent a very central portion of the city, so it is not as much of an issue. when i get off, i get a lot of writers that are frustrated -- riders that are frustrated. being that there is limited transportation options to certain neighborhoods, i was curious as to why it happens. it seems to happen fairly often.

it seems to be a frustrating experience for a lot of folks who really need to get home. >> we have heard that frustration from supervisor avalos. there are a few different things that are happening. usually, what we are doing is dealing with an emergency situation, a break down, or a blocked line. we do fairly often have our right-of-way blocked by a non- muni incident. it is our own equipment, part of the investment we are trying to make is to improve the reliability of the equipment so that we do not have these gaps. for example, if a train goes out of service, which happens, not

uncommon, now we had a big gap in service. sometimes, what we will do is rather than running the next train to the end of the line, we will switch it back to close some of that gap. it is not the train that is getting switched back that is the problem. it is trying to adjust for a problem that has happened upstream. we are currently undertaking an upgrade of the doors and step systems and the undercarriages of the light rail vehicles, which are some of the sources of failures. that will help reduce the need for that. the other challenge that we have and that we are working with the union on is operator

availability, which is the other reason why we sometimes have gaps in service. if we miss a run going out at the beginning of the shift, we have one of these gaps, and just like we have if a train breaks down, and sometimes we try to rebalance said that while we understand that it takes eight -- it is a little bit of an inconvenience for those few writers that need to of boards, it is improving the overall service for everybody on the entire line. that is a trade-off that to we consider when we do this. we're trying to minimize doing the unscheduled once. we are trying to make sure we stick to our policy. the need -- i will say in terms of scheduled switchbacks, our

ridership does not justify bringing every train and bus to the end of every line on every run. we are looking at places where it makes sense to schedule switchbacks into the normal operations, which will allow us to much more effectively move the greatest amount of people. the signage will be very clear, just like you can get on a point train from bart. you know that it is only going to concord. you would be able to get on a muni train and know from the start. it is something we are working nine. there is a place for scheduled shutdowns. the unscheduled shutdowns is

something that we have made some good progress on, but need to continue. supervisor avalos: i'm almost embarrassed to bring this up. [no audio] i have been asking for it for a long time. we do not even have basic signage for the tens of thousands of people who use that side every day. when are we going to get it done? >> we have been working with parts on that. it is their jurisdiction and will not let us run conduit. the issue is getting power to those shelters. supervisor avalos: we have been talking about putting signage on the box.

i know we have gotten to the conduit part. what is gone to happen in terms of this coming about? >> my understanding is that bart is seeking the funding to enable them to install this. they are doing it through one of the grant programs, through the mtc. the timeline is roughly this fall. i would be happy to give you a more specific update than that. i know it is a long time coming. i know we have a lot of bus lines that run right through their through geneva. that would be a great customer on an nt -- amenity. supervisor avalos: so far, we have had a lot of studies to tell us what we all know that we

need. this year would be fantastic. is that possible? >> i believe is. i share your frustration with this. it seems like such a simple thing, it should not be taking this much time. supervisor avalos: it takes this much time because everyone else in the city gets their stuff done. our demands are important in our district as well. >> we do not make that kind of distinction. this is one of the most heavily used transit hubs in the city. it is a top priority for us. the things we have been able to do around their, we did the crosswalk on the ocean at 280. pbart did get back east side

connector done. -- that east side connector done. we have a pretty big work plan for that area. we are making our way through some of the items, like this one. we have had institutional barriers that we have not been able to overcome. it is not representation of a lack of interest for the district. supervisor avalos: there has been a lack of care for the district. i had to bring the mayor there last year to get things moving. we have garbage that was never picked up. i called in a number of times and it never got done. it was not until this push came from the mayor's office to really gets things moving. we need that kind of push all the time and we need to make

sure that we are moving past that neglect. i pushed hard to get those curb ramps as well. i remember pushing my son in a stroller, and it was awful. people in wheelchairs, it is not accessible. we have a lot of work to do and i would like to see that we have a greater focus on that area. >> absolutely. nobody should have to go to the mayor's office to get basic things like that done. from our standpoint, given the high volume of people that use that area, it is a top priority for us. >> i know that we want to go to public comment soon. i know there a lot of people who have been awaiting an awful long time. thank you for your patience.

i want you to go through the encumbrance component. the rest of the document talks about capital and other things. perhaps we can skip those slides. colleagues, if you have questions, we could follow up offline. >> absolutely. i do not think they typically have undertaken this review of the mta, and they did it on short order and did it very well. they took a complicated budget and distilled into a and understandable report. i want to thank them for their efforts. i think they recommended that i speak to you about overtime. they also raised some incumbrances that are sitting on their books that they suggested i explained. there are two categories. project funds for a number of

miscellaneous projects, mostly on the muni side. given the size of our budget, these are relatively small amounts. we will be using as part of our year end close to balance projects and ultimately to balance the budget. that will all be reconciled at the end of the fiscal year. the one more substantive and significant one is that we are holding back $5.3 million related to our bart agreement. this was something before this committee. it is something that remains unresolved with bart. i did sit down with the new general manager of few months after i started. we had discussed a framework for an agreement that our staff has been working to bring to close. we do hope to get that to

closured soon. that is something that will have to come back to the board. during number of different agreements that are involved in -- there are a number of different agreements that are involved. we will have that resolved so that we can make that payment so that we can get our payments from them. >> thank you is very much for your presentation. i know you did a report for us. is there anything that you would add that has not been covered? >> [inaudible] i think you have covered it. unless you have any questions, i think we have covered it. >> ok. call this, why don't we go to public comment? thank you -- colleagues, why don't we go to public comment? i will call the names that i do

have. [reading names] if you have heard your name, please line up in the center aisle. >> hello. i am here representing -- i am here to address something that was discussed briefly this morning. about the puc. for 30 years, we have worked to protect the river from our headquarters in san francisco am. are bay area program director cannot be here today. i am standing in to express concerns we have about the proposed 2 million gallon water per day water transfer.

the river trust has submitted a letter to the puc that addresses our concerns. i have given you copies of the letter. the puc is negotiating an agreement to purchase 2 million gallons of water per day at a cost of $1.5 million per year. a second contract would be negotiated transferring an additional 22 million gallons of water to the bay area. we believe this water is no longer needed and would be a waste of money. in 2008, when the transfer was studied, san francisco was collectively using about 250 million gallons of water per day. however, our water use has declined dramatically. last year, it dropped to about 205 million gallons of water per day.

the contract would be -- customers would be obligated to pay for the water every year whether it was used or not. there are several other issues that we find regarding the programs environmental impact report, which was based on outdated data. the recommend that the $1.5 million per year for the water transfer be eliminated from the budget. the economic costs to ratepayers are enough to justify the elimination. thank you. >> next speaker, please. >i also have one more card. >> what is our time. >> two minutes. >> two minutes. i have never spoken in two minutes. [laughter] i hope you can add another

minute on that. i am from the united methodist church in san francisco. i am from this city. you are a part of this city. all of us are part of the city of san francisco. it seems to me at times, we began with bringing not solutions, but divisions. when we bring division, it hurts. somebody in our city. that is exactly what has happened in regards to this sunday parking meter situation. i think supervisor cohen is right. you have not solved the problem. you just created more attention and perhaps, sometimes, even

more serious problems. we find people on able to get things resolved. here we are, i would hope that we would be creative. it is time for us to not accept things as they are. things as they are just do not work sometimes. i want us to know that there is always the plight of people who are hurting in our city. they need assistance. rather than bring people and and bring resources, we have to go get resources. when it comes to the church, and especially in the black community, it is the soul of the community and the neighborhoods. we should be