and jose luis has over the years led the authority to embrace brt has a faster, or flexible, more cost effective way to bring rail quality service to different corridors of the city. i know the adoption of the brt strategy by the authority happened in 2003. i want to commend jose luis for his leadership in bringing those projects, van brt and gary brt, to where they are taking into consideration the concerns and needs of the neighborhoods. as chair of the authority, i want to thank you for the services you have provided to the city and county of san francisco.

before we make the official presentation and before we allow you to say a few words i want to open it up to my colleagues they would like to add anything. commissioner avalos. >> thank you chair campos. i'm going to be brief because you mentioned a lot of things i want to mention. thank you for your great service and dedication to the city and county of san francisco, and transportation. your mark is been made in the city. i share the same sentiment about the staff, and the level of expertise in helping us make decisions and move forward on a number of key projects. i want to say thank you for your great service and wish you all the best. you have many years ahead of you to explore music, and your loved ones and i wish you all the best. >> colleagues, any other comments? one we now go to mr. moscovitch.

>> good morning chairman and commissioners. i am honored to have been asked back. i am at the tail end of the flu, my voice is low. i appreciate your comments mr. chairman. i will give you a couple of observations. first of all the city and the challenges it brings is way too complex for a single person to ever be able to make a mark. this is an excellent example where teamwork is needed; there has been amazing teamwork with my former staff, with the city departments, with our partners at the regional, state and federal levels all of whom have contributed tremendously. that may say about those relationships because it's very easy to turn everything into a soundbite. a relationship is something to

work on. we are not all around here to love each other; we are here to love the city and accomplish something. sometimes there is strife involved in that, and out of the give-and-take comes the best outcome possible for the city. that is what has been the commitment for the past 20 years. i would not have been able to accomplish it without the one thing that i think is worth keeping out of this whole picture which is continuity. the continuity given to our work by the support of his board and its predecessor boards all the way back to 1990. with all of the controversy d'jour and all the changes in policy that were appropriate to the culture of the moment, the policy of the moment, keeping in mind that no big agenda can be accomplished without continuity, without perseverance over a very long period of time. today and your agenda you have the annual report;

i asked staff before he left the authority to take the time to put together a timeline for you which i think should be informative to the general public as well about what has happened over the last 20 years. it is amazing to see in each column how a seed planted in 1992, 1994, finally came to fruition this year or last year. it takes oftentimes a decade or two to get a bit complicated project through the consensus process, through the environmental process and to the funding process. and the messes that i have for you is that it is worth it. what we're seeing today, central subway under construction, presidio parkway halfway built already, an amazing miracle,

the transit terminal on the construction, that is a result of the effort of many people not just in this agency and boards before this one over the last two decades. it's really a tremendous i think, testimony to the continuity that i was referring to before. i move on now with a sense of satisfaction that those things have happened, and a reminder to you that the agenda to make san francisco a better place as many projects. the continuity is going to be key to be able to achieve all of those, to get the region to pay attention to us, to get the state government to pay attention. thank you for your trust over the years; for your dedication to this very complex area that is not

always very rewarding and for your support of me and the staff. i wish you the absolute very best for the years to come. >> thank you mr. moscovich and before we do a formal presentation i want to ask if there is a member of the public who like to speak. seeing none public comment disclosed. we present to you this commendation in recognition of 12 years as executive director with a tenure marked by vision, and dedication to -- on this 29th day of january, in

the year 2013. (applause) >> thank you very much. >> chair campus: of course with commissioner wiener you get the tallest and shortest member.

item 5. >> chair campos: it is now time to elect chair and vice chair of the transportation authority. i would like to begin by nominating my colleague, commissioner john avalos who in the last year has served as the chair of the plans and programs committee for the county transportation authority. all of us are very familiar with commissioner avalos's work in one of the things that i think he will bring to this body is a commitment to ensuring that there is equity income resources are allocated by this agency,

making sure that the needs and interests of every district are met. and to make sure that when it happens it is done in a transparent, open way that is inclusive and allows people to voice their concerns. i had the honor of serving with commissioner avalos for four years. i am proud to have the opportunity to nominate him. he has demonstrated leadership qualities in so many ways. i know the authority will be well served, the entire city and county of san francisco will be well served, especially important as we are going to this transition, as we will find a new, who knows, a permanent executive director that we have that continuity. it is my honor to nominate

commissioner john avalos as chair before you. is there a second? seconded by commissioner weiner. any other nominations for chair? seeing none, why don't we open it up to public comment. any member of other public like to speak on this nomination or election please come forward. >> again, every year we give an opportunity to one of you supervisors, to represent our city. i would like to offer a suggestion. the focus on the seniors. i even attended a meeting in our district with ms. abner

james, so you know i am doing due diligence. she happens to be the chair the senior commission. the seniors in our city need some extra help when it comes to transportation. simple things like even getting a clipper card; notices have been sent; when the seniors go to [indiscernible] wait in line, sent to 27a, assigned again to 11s to find out that is where they can get a clipper cart.

little things like that. you may think this comes under the jurisdiction of the mta; it comes under the jurisdiction of all supervisors so they represent seniors fairly. i hope in general of having a strategy to improve traffic flow now that you will attend to that. i will be attending some of the meetings, not all of the meetings. to remind you again again what is best for our city. thank you very much. >> thank you. any other member of the public alike to speak on this item? so please come forward. >> good morning, my name is peter cohen, with the council committee organizations -- look forward to work with this

body this year. look forward to working with him and the rest of you all. we have seen the transportation issues increasingly are embedded in the much broader and more complex set of issues around community and economic development; it has pulled affordable housing into the conversation more often than not and i think it is important that we start to move towards a dialogue around transportation, whether it's infrastructure, ridership, the future of the system that thinks holistically about the communities being served in the relationship to jobs, housing. i think this is if you will a more contemporary frame. at the regional level we have been quite active. the conversation of how to do "smart growth" is still right, not a recipe off the shelf.

doing also equitable transportation development is also a puzzle. this body continues to be a leader in helping to figure out that puzzle without necessarily having all the answers. we continue to be ahead of the curve; this bodies an excellent place, san francisco is an excellent laboratory; from the affordable housing standpoint we look forward to working with you all and the new chair. >> thank you. commissioner cohen? >> good morning everyone. i want to make a couple of comments. i represent many of the southeast neighborhoods. i have an acute in detailed understanding of the shortcomings of the cities transportation for structure. i am a member of the regional board governs caltrain.

in determining the future of the regions transportation agencies, i want to talk about the imperative things that the next chair will have the sole responsibility of seeing - of being a steward to get it done recognizing the inequities that have existed in our transportation expenditures. i want to make sure our need is lined -- our resources i lined up where our needs are. working with ntc and bart, to make sure that we are planning on the modernization of the regional transit lines and looking for smart ways to expand transportation in our city. it is important to leverage the local sales tax dollars to complement and support of the city funded infrastructure investment

coming from voter approved initiatives such as the street bond that we all i think worked on. working in tandem with mta to deliver pedestrian safety, traffic calming and other improvements faster and more efficiently and very fair and process to select our executive director. i believe that commissioner avalos will be able to handily take the wheel and help us usher and addresses key issues that i've outlined today. thank you. >> thank you commissioner, before i turn to commissioner wiener, i want to ask if there is any other member of the public who like to say something else on this item? public comment on this is closed.

commissioner wiener. >>i'm happy to support commissioner avalos as chair. sometimes something to get lost in the debates is that even though we have areas of disagreement but often get a lot of attention, a lot of press coverage because anytime you have a big dispute at city hall that is likely to get the attention, in reality when it comes to transportation policy in the city, the vast majority of what we do and what we need is completely not controversial when working together on getting high speed rail, transit, that we get adequate funding from muni, improving pedestrian safety, bicycle roads, we have broad consensus. i know that our chair campos,

we are proof in the pudding, we have had our disagreements. as chair and vice chair of ta in the past year, we have worked together incredibly closely, almost always having a common voice, fighting together whether regional or within the city. even though supervisor avalos and i don't always agree on everything i will be able to have that same kind of relationship and working collaboratively to move together the broad goal of making the city truly transit first, and improving transit throughout the region. i look forward to working with

you together. >> i appreciate the fact that is vice chair you have worked hard to make sure that we have a common ground. and some of the differences on a couple of issues don't get in the way of the work that needs to be done. i appreciate that and i appreciate the work that not only you do but also your staff. commissioner mar. >> thank you chair campos. i want to say that avalos as chair will continue love the great work that our current chair campos has led, making sure that there is equity in how we distribute the transportation resources, and having strong inclusive processes that involve the communities that we serve and transit policies. are also want to say that his background as a social worker and community organizer really has a key role in his ability to lead from the bottom up. that public comment made earlier by mr. -- also by mr.

cohen, looking at other issues such as aging, mobility in isolation become issues with transit. also the transit oriented development and the work that we're doing at the mtc level, make sure we have enough resources to create -- some call them smart development, i call them equitable development. also the tremendous leadership by josé luis moscovich -- we'll missing quite a bit. commissioner avalso will help us look for the best possible executive director. mr. moscovich brought incredible staff at the mta so

there is already incredible leadership. i am strongly supportive of avalos as chari. >> thank you commissioner. commissioner kim. >> i'm happy to support supervisor avalos for the position of chairmanship. it is something that he has been enthused about. i think the ta is an important piece of what we do here at city hall. i think transportation whether we talk about pet safety, cars, muni and public transit continues to be one of the preeminent issues that we talk about here at city hall and some of the things that i hope we are able to push forward % i appreciate supervisor cohen's

comment about city neighborhoods they don't have as much resources. it is great to have a chair that represent one of the areas of the southeast sector that doesn't have great access to muni and public transit; we should figure out how to create more equity among public transit. the second issue is, that supposed to be transit first, where we build less parking spaces and meter all streets to make sure people are not parking in the street; we have to provide them public transit as well and cannot say that t line is enough. and also to bayview and hunters point. as we encourage people to move to these transit first neighborhoods and don't allow them to have cars that we are also able to address how they are able to access public transit as well.

the last pieces that i think over the last year i found very interesting, and i think this is been a long threaded conversation here at city hall that we also have a debate about our investment in infrastructure versus our investment services and access to people most tolerable in our city. as we move forward, i hope that we can think about it way to balance both approaches here in the city and that we don't blame one of the other for the reason for not getting this or that. i thought that was % and stand with that conversation came from % but going forward we have to figure out a way to balance those and understand the importance of them. although we have restricted and limited funds, that we are able to get a sense of how investing in those services, investing in our vulnerable communities, is in some way supporting our public

infrastructure but there is a balance so that we can keep whole system going. >> thank you commissioner. commissioner carmen chu. >> a want to thank and highligh supervisor avalos comments; in addition to efforts made underway in the central corridor, the subway, big projects good for the city and for the region, but we also need to think about the folks left out whenever we see a muni bus turnaround for the last up, or services that don't connect people. i also noted having seen supervisor avalos work of the budget and seeing how much he

cares for the neighborhood and how you connect, it will be a focus this year so i want to thank you for that. >> on the motion nominating commissioner john avalos, if we could have a roll call. >> avalos, aye, campos, aye, chu, aye, cohen, aye, farrell, aye. kim, aye. mar, aye. weiener, aye. the motion carries. >> motion passes. congratulations commissioner. the gavel is yours.

>> thank you commissioner campos and thank you colleagues for your support; i take to heart a lot of the comments he made about but you see this body should be doing and what the chair should be doing. those are things that i've been talking about for a long time. the word equity said almost by everyone; i see the power of his body is to make sure to create a better equity about how we build our infrastructure in san francisco. all of those who live and work here rely on our transportation system to get us to our job, to school, to make sure we have access to all of the services that we need and this body is going to be critical to make that happen.

i am excited about carrying out the tradition of outgoing chair campos about looking at the neighborhoods, to make sure we have a neighborhood focus, to our deliberations, and i want to make sure we continue with the presentations on the neighborhoods by district here in this committee but also working with each of you individually to hear your concerns and how we can make sure that this body can be responsible. i've spoken with commissioner chu a number of times about how the outer neighborhoods often don't get their fair share. these are issues that are examples of things happening in my district as well; district like district 10,

parts of san francisco far from the downtown corridor. we are seeing a lot of development resources going to places where development is happening in greater numbers that we can actually use this body to fill in the blanks, neighborhoods not getting that key support. that is what i want to be able to work on as chair of this body. i want to make sure we have a real critical decision coming before us this year, the permanent executive director for the transportation authority and i want to have a very inclusive process of his body to make sure that we can actually have the best the most talented person comment to carry out the staff of this organization. thank you and i really appreciate your support. having said that, i want to make a nomination

for the vice chair. i want to nominate the current vice chair scott wiener to serve another term as vice chair of the transportation authority. there is no other person on our body who has committed so much time and effort to transportation and transit in the past couple of years as commissioner wiener has; the voice he has a multiple levels weather here, or on the county board of supervisors, all the people involved in building the transportation infrastructure he is key. i want to make sure she continues to have a strong voice on that body; of the forward to working with you, i want to make sure you know for me that i support you. as vice chair i look forward if you're elected to collaborating with you and getting your input on theec