the bicycle coalition regarding street safety and cyclist's ability -- cyclist civility. we have asked the coalition to come to a board meeting next month to update the board on the actions they're taking regarding cycling, street safety, and we would like in september to be a full board discussion around this. i think the staff has a lot to share our around our movements. i know the director having recently come back from a trip to copenhagen has some interesting things to say about the approach they take their. we would like to go ahead and get both of those things on the schedule. on a personal note, i got back from a vacation part of which i spent in montreal.

they have an incredibly robust system and it made me more convinced than ever that it could work in san francisco because this is not visible. it was very encouraging to see how many people were using their bike share program, how many people were cycling in general. some of the bike lanes go away and the winter. they are only there in the summer and months. -- in the summer months. this gives me hope on what san francisco can accomplish. >> it is any new or unfinished business? item 7, directors report. >> thank you. i have quite a few items to cover, so i will try to go fairly quickly.

starting with the best, the special recognition awards as we do each and every month. first, i would like to call forward our cfo and the real estate team who today are being recognized. the reason why we are recognizing the entire team today is because they have really come together in advancing some pretty significant real estate needs of the agency. we are a pretty big landlord in the city although we got often think of ourselves as much and have a lot of interplay with the other real estate of the city. this small group is very busy and has been accomplishing a lot of things. they have spearheaded the acquisition of more than 365

private property interests, everything from full parcels to licenses to access. they manage an acquisition budget of 36 million people. they relocated 9 residential households and 11 commercial tenants. they did this not just to meet the bare bones requirement of the federal and local law that actually got some good success stories in the process. some of the relocated tenants ended up becoming homeowners. that is 1 of the businesses that was relocated and end up buying the building. they were not just kept all but were better off as a result of the efforts. a $1.6 billion program that was partly the extra mile they went to make sure that process went well and smoothly. in fact, we went through that process of condemning a building, moving out all those

people and residents, enough for a demolition was really not any concern. this is pretty phenomenal and i think that speaks to the work that these folks have done. this is not to central subway, they have been managing various products -- projects. the relocation of the pain signed and the meter shops. -- of the paint sign and the meter shops. the transportation management center which will be open across the street from our facility next year. they have been put in charge of managing operator restrooms which we know is a very significant issue for us. we have entrusted the leadership and designated our chief restroom officer. they have been managing our funds trying to consolidate

spaces and relocate staff to process improve operations and to save money. so far, they have saved us $2.5 million annually of getting us out of this space and consolidating. they just recently negotiated a more than 12 and a half acre parcel from the border with brisbane to meet some of our future needs. this is not even speak to the big project plan that will be coming to you sometime this fall. this is a once in a generation effort. >> thank you, director. they're the best dressed team, by the way.

not only have they been working on some of the efforts, they have done really great work as a team and they never say no to anything. they do a small thing like moving the phone and they do a big strategic in negotiation. they have never been as active in the history of the agency as they have been in the past several years. thank you for your great work and keep it up. >> i am a senior manager for real estate. i want to thank you for the special recognition award. this is a valley it -- a very talented team that helps us to address and implement the agency short, medium, and long- term needs. we can do it. we work seamlessly with other city departments including very closely with the city attorney's office. with the unions, with the other

divisions, community organizations and stakeholders. we feel proud of having moved the central subway project acquisitions forward and to have relocated their residents and businesses and to also -- we are proud of the plan that will be coming before you and we are working hard with internal divisions and others to bring that to your approval and we are actively negotiating and implementing other real estate projects and leases and acquisitions, so we look forward to working with you closely in the future. thank you so much for this award. >> on behalf of the board of directors and the entire agency, thank you for the hard work you do. these recognition is so important because it lets the board directors and the rest of the agency know what you are up to and what the agency does. it reminds the public how important the job you are and

the work you did with the relocation system. thank you very much and congratulations. [applause] >> next i will ask mr. haley if he will come up with two of his folks. these are not coming up as a joint award but two different individuals being awarded within transit. the transit supervisor, he has been with us for more than 20 years and works as an operator. he is considered a professor with an honorary phd and new operator training. i did not know that we awarded

new honoraria ph.d. is. they are met with a pleasant personality and added to that focuses not only on training but excellent customer service. he also investigates and looks for a way to reduce future incidents of these types. we're certainly a better organization today but because of the work he has done and the way he has model behavior for our new operators coming in. next to him is john waller who has been with us for 12 years and was an operator of kirkland. the note says that he has received more commendations van the new york stock exchange. most, for his exceptional customer service skills. he had the opportunity to be at 1 of the operator awards ceremonies. he announces a traffic points,

he is courteous, and treats all customers and co-workers with dignity and respect. at a time when we are trying to reduce operator absenteeism, he has a perfect attendance record which is an example for all employees. i would like to thank both of you for your great surface to the people of san francisco and making muni shine. >> thank you. congratulations. [inaudible] >we talk about the importance of not only preparing operators but

also something we emphasize is the individual leadership that operators have shown in influencing other operators and showing them the ways of the road to ease their transition. we show them how to handle a difficult situation. we can express our appreciation at a time when all of us are working hard. i wanted to introduce -- if you would because it kirkland has done a remarkable job with their attendance in getting their services on the street. i might want to reveal a couple

of secrets or tricks. could afternoon. -- >> good afternoon. johnny is a good operator. he is known with his boss for his currency -- he is known for his courtesy. he is always very courteous. he never fails to say good morning, good afternoon. not only that, in addition to when he is out there, whether he is on the bus or on property, he is very caring to work with his co-workers. i remember, one of the dispatchers coming in and

telling me that she felt very touched that on a day when she seemed to be having a bad day, he was there and he talked to her just to calm her down and help her out. i also know that he never fails to recognize his co-workers for the good job that they do. we are all behind you. you can see several of your co- workers after letting them know that you were being recognized by the board. we came here to support you and to let you know that we appreciate the good work that you do. the help you give to all of us, thank you and congratulations. >> thank you. on behalf of the board of directors, the agency, and the entire city, congratulations. i did not know that was you

sitting there. my apologies. i did not mean to come down and ignore you. would either of you like to say a few words? >> thank you very much. i would like to thank my lord and savior, jesus christ. i would like to thank the superintendent for nominating me for this award. i am very grateful and humble and thank you to everyone. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> first of all, i would like to think the board. also, my co-workers, i did not know that he was back here. anyway, i would like to thank the mta as a whole. i enjoy my job. i take pride in providing service for us.

regardless of age, race, creed, i'm here to do a job and i do it to the best of my ability. if i get recognition for it, it is fine. if i don't, that is fine, too. i'm having fun and i will continue to have fun. >> do you drive the 21 route by chance? >> no, i do motor coaches. >> when my father was in town he was raving about the drivers and i thought maybe one of them with you. thank you very much and congratulations. [applause] >> thank you. thank you to all of the kirkland folks for coming out. >> every year, the city has a

green and blue awards process and ceremony and these are to celebrate the outstanding accomplishments and leadership in the field of city sustainability. the nominations come based on the climate action plan. this year, we have four nominations. peter brown was nominated for being a kreme pioneer. -- for being a great pioneer. we won two of those. just getting nominated was a great achievement. they have a pretty great role to

play in the stability of our city. moving on to other of dates, we did participate with california public utilities commission and a number of other transit agencies and other agencies including other folks that we regulate and a safety conference or a seminar that was held at their facilities a couple of weeks back. none of you were able to attend, which was great. i would be interested in any feedback that any of you have from participating in that. this was put on that as someone from the national transportation safety board as well as from the washington transit system which gives some good insights on significant accidents and how to bring a culture of safety to organization to hopefully prevent such things from

happening. we have been discussing internally with staff some follow-up things that we want to do and 1 recommendation was audits with the agency going forward to make sure that they have the discussion with those you will see audit reports coming as well as other safety information coming your way this leaves more broadly to thinking about with the policy and governance committee. what i am proposing that we will do when we discuss last week's meeting is changing the orientation a little bit and orienting the agenda to be lined with our strategic plan, the first goal of which is the safety goal.

we would get an update on the plan. what we would do is we would discuss any highlights or challenges or encountering in terms of implementing the strategic plan, so you have this ability not only to the safety item but to the overall plan and implementation. associated would be a review with the performance metrics that had been reviewed and adopted with the plan. these would be off track. so, we will get to the safety data that is available and we will aim to shift to more monthly reporting so we should have more current and frequent reporting and do it in a way that tracks the plan and keeps safety at the forefront. we have also discussed maybe twice a year having more of a workshop format to review where we are with the whole board in a

public session. we will continue working with the board a chair and any thoughts anybody has on the that, we certainly welcome. the idea is to make sure that you have all the information you need to perform your roles. some good news to report on the funding front. locally, you had approved issuance of revenue bond for the first time since we were given authority by the voters. quite a bit of process, getting all of the documents together. getting approval from his body and the board of supervisors. i am pleased to announce that we sold bonds, the financing closed on july 11th.

the offering was designed to give priority access to local san francisco individual buyers, institutional investors and accounts. i don't know the value purchased by san franciscans. the good news is that there was a lot of interest in these bonds. our credit ratings were on par with other transit agencies. it was a good rating, a very good market reaction. we had 155 orders totaling $154 million. we do have 155 individual investor orders. folks in the city investing right into our system. the good news is that to the true interest cost that we got

because of the strong reaction on our good credit rating was 3.7%, which was better than we had hoped for. a very low cost of capital to do the important work which you will recall is a state of good repair investment and improvements in our parking garages. a lot of great work but really a great show of confidence in the mta and transit system off. great news, there. reasonably good news in terms of federal funding. congress approved and the president signed the reauthorization of federal transportation bill which had been 3 years overdue since the previous one had expired. this new one is known as 21. one of the chief architects was barbara boxer who demonstrated a

lot of leadership to get this through as well as nancy pelosi getting a house together to get this done, which for a while was looking like it might not happen. very good news to get that done. in terms of funding levels, this is more or less the status quo for us, which is good. we got a healthy amount of funding, particularly capital funding from the federal government. that is maintained despite the unusual contention around this. it has always been a bipartisan effort. we will have more debate associated with it but it did get past. this supports the assumptions made in our capital plan. that was on the authorizing, the appropriations.

of the houses of congress have passed their appropriations. there was a number of anti- transit amendments on the house side that we expect will come out. we have every confidence that it will come out when it comes together in a conference committee. generally, the levels of appropriations seem to be in line generally with our forecast. that is good news as well. really good news for the region and the state. the state legislature approved the high-speed railat least thef billion dollars that will help the state pull down the match, $3 billion or so from the

federal government to make the first significant steps on that. the governor will be signing the bill in san francisco here tomorrow. certainly a lot of leadership from him to get that done. great news for san francisco and for the bay area to get high- speed rail moving, which includes the electrification of cal train and from cal train to the trans bay terminal. part of what got approved work connectivity funds, some of which were designated to muni and were part of that funding plan. you may remember a few months ago, there was the resolution talking about how we would address any shortfalls with these resolutions, which i do not think has been rendered moot, so that is very good news.

some smaller stuff, where we initiated some additional reroutes three union square, as well as ax and bx, kind of like the 30 and 45 and 91 owl as we continue progress in union square. this is work on the tunnel contract, which is progressing well. we have 93% of the utility relocation more complete, and we should be done, the balance of it soon. at a at -- at where the mosconi station would be. that is progressing forward well. there has been some concern, and that is putting it mildly, to be certain, with some merchants in

north beach. where they are building it to put the machine in. the machines in, they will come their way to north beach and will be retrieved. we have heard some very strong concerns from the north beach merchants as well as the supervisor about the construction impacts, so we will continue to work with them and help them understand what portrait was in proved and the impacts to mitigate. they have asked us to look at some alternatives to the machines, which is how our construction contract is based, we are working with them on that. since we last met, we implemented boarding. a and that was of little later than you wanted us to.

a at -- we will report back to you. so far, so good. two more things. on the youth fast pass, it included money from the region. the region has now considered this twice. the staff has recommended a few different things, but two of the options that will now go to the full commission, i think it is next week, two of the options would send $4 million our way. it is four out of five. one option would be looking at a

more broad regional program which would, i think, in effect delayed implementation. the first two options that staff is recommending, they will have $4 million out of $5 million, so a pilot would have to be shorter in duration because there is less funding, and that would be more positive. we are grateful to the staff for recommending this money. while we certainly would like $5 million, as anyone who has followed the discussion would know, it has been a lot of work to try to get the region on board with supporting a plan like this, and its approval is by no means guaranteed, but we continue to work with the city family and the region, and we hope to be able to bring forward a plan to build a pilot up and running. we have been working in the meantime. we have