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 working with people who really need understanding and also need resources that will help them to become who

they are. >> thank you. >> let's my people go. -- let my people go. >> if not beginning at 12:00, do you have an alternative proposal? >> my alternative proposal would be first and foremost, the board of supervisors to call people together in certain districts, may be in all the districts. what that would do is give us an opportunity to interpret to each other what we are going through on a very practical level. that is an issue that i would like to bring before us. it is important to be practical. it is important to get things done. and to let people know that we are with them and no matter what the resources are. we are with them.

frankly speaking, i would start with the board of supervisors. and then i would move from there to people in the community who have resources to try to make sure that some of the people who have places and churches that have to draw on those of their resources, that we find ways that they would come to understand that we are not putting them out from our city. we are drawing them into our city. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i have a little something that i've wanted to say.

i believe everyone has a spiritual beliefs. i believe that the metering on sundays is another form of racial profiling. it would hurt the ethnic communities and ethnic churches in our area and throughout the city. it profiles the african community. we all know that churches start up late, sometimes in the afternoon. it is another door been shut. when i look at genocide, the devil is always working. it drives people farther away from god. god says,, as you are. -- come as you are. >> next speaker. >> thank you for your time.

i feel like the parking meter enforcement on sundays present an undue hardship and burden on the inner city, lower income residents. i do not know -- they said the benefit was this it would be a $1.9 million increase a year. what kind of price are we going to put on a sense of community that we lose? presence in the tenderloin rely heavily on the -- residence in the tenderloin rely heavily on the sense of community created by the church. it is vital to their daily life. i feel that price tag is a very cheap price tag, considering the loss to the community. we are dealing with people with fixed incomes. it is an unterberg in and hardship on those people who already have -- an undue burden and hardship on those people who

already have limited resources. some churches do get out later in the afternoon. if nothing else, maybe we could help set the time a little later in the day. most of the members leave by 1:00. we do make sure that everybody is out of there by 1:00. as a last resort, that consideration, but it does not address the issue over all four other churches who have later services. >> thank you. next speaker. >> ♪ it is a tragedy it when you got no parking and you have no money from your job or salary it is hard to explain the money is going away it is a tragedy when you lost your job and got no money salary

the money is gone, it is just going away and hey ♪ ♪ jive budget topalking nobody believes what you say why don't you give it a way we're going to need some help bring it today there you go with your budget jive all your jive budget talking maybe to the church bring it their way

blaming it all on city hall blaming its bid all on the budget highway bring it to the city we needed our way in this crazy town go ahead and hate your neighbor go ahead and cheat your budget friend do it in the name of heaven you will justify its in the end you know it is going to happen one budgets soldier rides away ♪ ♪ >> thank you. next speaker.

>> i sat on not seat or you are sitting right now. as a member of the board of supervisors. i sat there to be concerned about everybody in this city. it would be most unfortunate to that this finance committee would adopt a budget of the transportation authority that is divisive, exclusionary, and it is mean-spirited. number one, the stakeholders were not invited to the table. never was this issue vetted. no one heard about it in the faith community.

we do not matter. it appears, friends, that of the faith community, african- americans, are excluded from this democracy. sunday, for us, is a day not only of rest, but it is a day to engage people for the empowerment of doing things for the good of the whole city. if there were an earthquake, our facilities would be used as a place of refuge. we have housed the homeless, fed the hungry, counselors to those who have been breakers of the law. for us, $1.9 million --

>> thank you. >> i deserve the respect for you to hear me through. i would do the same thing for you that has been done for others. >> thank you. as you know, we have to afford every single speaker the same amount of time. >> i know about the time. >> if there is a question? >> i have a question. maybe you could share with us your final thoughts. >> my final thought? it is not final, it will continue. i will never let this thing go. if you want to hear that -- >> yes, we would like to hear it.

>> of this measure, this budget's, should be sent back to the metropolitan transportation authority, because they have been mean to our community. the closedown churches continuously. there is no prior arrangements to give alternatives to churches, revenue is lost. they do not have their house in order. in terms of relating to this community. that is their basic stand, that is their basic wrong. they do not respect us, they do not consider us. when you talk about language, we should be language user- friendly, but there are people in this town --