there. this young man has true skills as a gripman. and he can't be replaced. so any knowledge or anything like that that you can give anybody coming up will be well-used, okay? mr. dwayne allen, wow. i don't know how many people didn't make the cable car messing with him because of his tricks -- just understanding being a conductor, what it takes. and if you didn't cut the mustard can dwayne allen, you couldn't be a conductor, not just based on seniority, but if you can do the job. it takes a lot to perform the dutis that you do day and in and day out and i salute you on behalf of your train operator brothers and sisters, i salute

you. [ applause ] as well transport workers union has taken upon itself to promote transit operator safety campaign, because we need to have that, all across the board. safety campaign. for the next month, all the chairpersons at each division will be out and about on the streets, promoting a safety campaign in which i have long-awaited for since i have been in office from mr. melvin henry's office to the safety department with the sfmta. we look forward to this, because our members take this safety issue seriously. no matter what we hear that is going on the streets, how many incidents or accidents that we have, that is part of the course, unfortunately. if you count the number of members that don't have any incidents or accidents out there on the platform, it's rewarding.

it should be refreshing. it should be acknowledged. it should be taken to the public in that aspect of what the hard work that the men and women do on the streets of san francisco, navigating these 40s and 60s and trolleys and lrvs through this city. i get kind of emotional, but i'm serious there. don't think i'm playing, because i'm serious. so we have to. so over the next month if the sfmta wants to join me and my team on the streets promoting safety among all operators, join us. don't call my office, because we won't be. there we'll be on the streets. thank you. >> thank you, mr. president. [ applause ] . >> director reiskin. >> safety is the no. 1 goal that you all adopted in our strategic plan. it's the no. 1 goal of the agency.

these two represented six operators who have more than 35 years' of safe driving and represented more than 170 operators systemwide who had more than 15 years' of safe driving. as i think eric was addressing, safety is not a one-time event each year for an awards ceremony, but needs to be part of the culture of our organization and operators operator in difficult circumstances so. the emphasis from the union and the city is essential and i want to thank them for the hard work they do everyday. our second and final presentation is a little bit bittersweet. actually i don't know if it's sweet at all, but bitter. we have one of the members of enforcement staff who wants to

say a few words to honor our outgoing director of security and investigations and enforcement, if he can make his way up. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon; mr. chair, members of the board, mr. reiskin. first of all i do like to salute our colleagues, muni with those impressive safety driving records. it's quite an impressive feat having all of these years of safe driving is much longer than i have been alive. [ laughter ] anyway, this is a bittersweet moment for myself personally, as well as all of the colleagues in the back there. this occasion of her impending

retirement. she is obviously with us on her second career. she retired from the police department in 2011 after over 30 years' of exemplary example as a commander and she joined us as the director of security and investigations and enforcement and has been with us were to for two and a half years. she has really been impressive with her leadership, not only is she direct and she has tremendous communication skills. believe me, she will tell you what she thinks. and one of the things that she was charged with was managing our special events transportation management program. and she implemented a program

called "the integrated command system." and we put it to good use right away in that october, you may remember last year? when all of these events took place, such as the america's cup, and the concerts and 49ers and giants game all happening over the same weekend. we survived it and managed it well with flying colors and has been successful ever since ever time we have implemented the plan on subsequent events. so at this time i want to take a moment to thank her and her tireless service and wish her the best. her partner anne marie is in the audience, along with all of her colleagues who could be here in the back. [ applause ]

now kathy, you want to say a few things? >> thank you. hi everybody. >> good afternoon. >> i am a little nervous. i don't know there would be this many people here. commander, thank you for being who you are. >> would you state your name for the record. >> kathy broussard. >> thank you for being who you are, i have always known how busy you were working on the administrative side of our department and the countless meetings, negotiating and campaigning all the way to the top of us, work on the inside now i got a better glimpse of what you do and have even a better understanding of how you did what you do. everyday you made a difference for us. you have shown me how much you can love us, yet keep us disciplined at the same time. you taught me to never spare effort or i would meet disaster.

my spirit of sacrifice is now great. thank you for believing in me, now and also in the past when i wasn't sure when i believed in myself anymore. your believing had in me has led me to succeed and do better. you have inspired me in so many ways with your words and action and with this i have achieved greatness and will be forever grateful to you. with that, i will take a part of the torch that you lead for us to carry and i carry with great pride and integrity. thank you for changing our department and our destiny. it is with great appreciation and admiration that i wish you a wonderful and fulfilling and adventurous retirement. thank you. [ applause ]

>> lee i would like to say on behalf of the board of directors and indeed the entire agency thank you for the outstanding job you have done throughout all these years, with the police department and with us. your professionalism and dedication, but most of the us that always touched me is the grace that you bring. so thank you for outstanding service and join in wishing you a wonderful retirement. >> thank you. boy, this is going to be tough for me, i think. kathy, thank you very much. [ laughter ] i think it's too late for that. a couple of years ago i was blessed to come to this agency as a police officer. and i have to say it's one of the most amazing experiences of my life. the people that work at the sfmta are some of the finest,

most talented human beings i have ever had the opportunity to work with. i want to start by thanking bondi for his leadership and for his friendship and always steering me and pointing in the right direction. i will miss you very much, and i can't say enough just what you mean to me. the same goes for ed reiskin. i am so blessed that you asked me to take on this challenge after i left my job in law enforcement. i will be forever grateful to you for your leadership and really just bringing an end to my career in city life that has really just touched my heart in

ways that i can't even express to you. so thank you so very much. i need to acknowledge -- a person is only as good as team that they surround themselves with and i would like to acknowledge my managers, because quite frankly they do the lion's share of the work and i have been blessed to hire three of them under my tenure here, and the fourth came along when i first came here and he is just remarkable. so i would like to introduce chris, who is the manager. sammy, our director of enforcement. [ applause ] scarlet lamb, manager of emergency preparedness and sue, who is the manager of m tap, the muni transit assistance program. [ applause ] the other folks i want to

acknowledge are the folks that really do the job every single day, our front line staff that are our fare inspectors, our pcos. i can't say enough of the job that they do and i would like to ask them to stand up and be acknowledged. [ applause ] i think this is going to clear out in just a second here. and just two last mountains, one is the muni transit assistance program who really doesn't get a lot of kudos, but they ride our buses every single day and they deal with our youth and support our youth each and every day and sue, you have done a fantastic job with

those folks as well and lastly i would be remiss if i didn't think the most important person in my life, which is my partner, ann marie. [ applause ] she has really supported every turn and twist in my career and when i retired from the police department and said i wanted to come back and do this, i expected to plug my ears, but she supported me whole-heartedly. and so i thank you so much. that is about all i have. i have been so blessed to work with each and every one of you and i hope this isn't the end of our chapters together. thanks. [ applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, you

have to be sitting. 408 is available and the fire marshal and sheriff's deputy is here. we can't conduct the meeting if people are still standing. so at this point i ask you to take seats that are vacated or go to room 408. we're back in order, director reiskin, i want to continue with your report, please. >> thank you. obviously, a tough act to follow. i think she has already left, but she is certainly one of the

finest managers and leaders that i have worked with and we were certainly blessed to have her for this period. and to let you know what we're doing in the taxi division, you may remember last year, the taxi and accessible services division created an incentive program for the highest-achieving drivers that provide wheelchair service to try to make sure that we incentivize -- >> [ gavel ] , ladies and gentlemen, please, director reiskin. >> make sure that we try and incentive folks for doing wheelchair pickups, which worked fairly well. we had a 20% increase in wheelchair pickups in 2012. however, when we started to do some of the medallion reform we lost some of the effect of that incentive program. so we are initiating this month a new

incentive program to incentivize wheelchair pickup by taxi drivers and it's basically $10 pick up per wheelchair trip. so it's a pretty significant benefit. and for any wheelchair customer who is picked up from an area outside of the central part of the city, a driver will receive front of the line credit at the airport, which is a big deal for a taxi driver. it can save them and get them back in service much more quickly than they would otherwise. we estimate that we would have about 800 requests for wheelchair service during december based on past data and for every pickup of a paratransit debit card holder, the driver will be paid $10. so for the moment we're only able to do this for paratransit debit card-holding wheelchair users, because that is the only payment mechanism that we have. but as we look at this pilot and evaluate its effectiveness,

we will figure out ways to expand it. so some good news there. we do have some ramp kind of larger ramp reform coming in the new year. this is something that we didn't think could wait and so we'll start the pilot this month. finally, i want to give you a central subway update and seems that we always have something to report on. wanted to let you know that just a few days ago, our first tunnel boring machine achieved probably its most significant milestone since launching, which is crossing under market street, including under the bart and muni tunnels. very, very significant milestone. one that had a lot of analyses and testing and contingency plans and vetting and support around it. but it went out without a hitch and we're ahead of schedule in terms of the tunneling.

it has been going well with no movement of buildings or the tunnel and it's great news that it's going, as well as it is, the second tunnel boring machine has launched and we now have two of them moving north throughout the city. we are stopping construction for the holiday -- or have stopped construction for the holiday moratorium and the public right-of-way on stockton and columbus, et cetera. we will be working in the chinatown corridor to accommodate the chinese new year celebration, which somewhat spills out on the stockton street and continuing to work with the merchants and particularly union square, chinatown and north beach as we continue the work of the tunneling and the station contracts, which are underway. so good progress to report

there. and that concludes my report. >> thank you, director reiskin. members of the board, questions or comments for the director? director heinicke? [ inaudible ] >> oh, thank you. thank you, bob, i appreciate that. [ laughter ] i will take you on the road with me. the last time we had one of these sessions, i pestered you about a plan for market street and closing it to private vehicles and you said maybe it would happen and this is our last meeting in december, so i think i at least expect that we'll be hearing something about the plans -- much-anticipated plans for market street and this board's direction maybe in january? >> that is correct. what i have for you -- i have it already, just not vetted and ready to present, is a list of

kind of an array, a spectrum of options that we could do from things of signage and education and enforcement to a much larger auto restriction. so i wouldn't say it's a plan that i will be bringing to you, but i will bring you the range of ideas and costs for your consideration in january. >> very good. and then the other thing sort of ongoing item is at the last meeting, we sort of put one aspect of the taxi information contract on hold in the hopes that the information will be coming in from the cab companies. so that we wouldn't need to capture it ourselves. if at one of the january meetings, maybe the second one to give us an update in the director's report so we can address any issues before we hit that deadline would be great. >> yes. >> director rubke. >> i have a quick question about the incentive program or the pilot.

first of all, it sounds really great. are we going to get data that feeds into the recommendations that are coming forth in terms of proposal for the ramp cab program? >> we will have data based on this pilot, because we're doing it through the debit card program. we'll have very exact data. the kind of larger recommendations on how the reform for the ramp system are really already developed. there has been a number of town hall meetings with taxis. i think we're planning to bring those forward january 7th. so we can tell you how the incentive program has been, but it will have been very new at that point. so i don't think that will meaningfully necessarily inform, but it will inform how we incentive going forward. to the extent that we have information about it during the ramp reform item we'll bring that. >> do we have public comment

on the director's report? >> no, mr. chairman. >> next item, please. >> item 8, citizens advisory committee, i do not see mr. weaver here. moving on to public comment this is an opportunity for members of the public to address the board on matters within the jurisdiction of the sfmta, but not on today's agenda. we have two members of the public who wish to address you under this section, eric williams followed by vera hale. >> mr. williams may have left, i believe. >> all right. >> is he out in the hall? okay. >> vera hale. >> miss hale. good afternoon, miss hale. >> good afternoon. i wanted to say a couple of things at your last meeting, and i was so surprised

president nolan's move that i didn't and there is some information in here that i wanted to pass onto you. on the accessible parking recommendations, especially on disabled placards and the charging of fees at meters, charging of regular payments. i think you should know there are 60,000 people in san francisco who have disabled placards. and most seniors who have them live on fixed incomes and the added expense of paying $2-$5 an hour to park would work a great hardship and eliminate their ability of what they need to do or reduce it. i know it's not appreciated very well around here, like if you have to go to the doctor, or you have to go to the grocery store or senior meals program, or if you want to go

out with friends or relatives or volunteer for an agency. many of us do volunteer work. some of us get paid for it, some of us don't and now that you can't park in the city hall lot, even if you are commissioners, then you understand some of that. and my third point is the changing meter regs will not bring more parking. i complained during this committee about otis street there were so many disabled placards that you couldn't park. but when they changed it it was all city trucks and cars that parked there. so i don't think that that will increase parking in spite of your very nice video. there is nothing like that will increase the parking.

it will make it harder for people with disabilities. i wanted you to know those things. >> thank you, miss hale. next item, then, consent calendar. >> seeing no other person who wishes to address you on this matter, moving on to the citizen consent calendar. these items are considered routine and will be acted on one vote unless a member of the board or public wishs it severed. item 10.1 j, that item is now only an establishment of a tow-away, no stopping time on mission on 16th -- on mission street on 24th. >> motion on the consent calendar? >> motion to approve. >> second. >> all those in favor, signify by saying aye? >> aye. >> ayes have it. next item. >> next item on your agenda is item 11 a presentation and

discussion regarding the transit effectiveness project. >> as we get into this, i just want to make sure you understand this is an informational presentation this afternoon. the board will not be making any decisions. it's not scheduled for that. it will come much later and we'll hear about that in the process. how many folks are here to speak about jackson? thank you. we're glad to hear from you all, of course. just wanted to re-emphasize the

transit effectiveness product is undering review so that if the board is not able to or planning to make any decisions with regard to any tep recommendations and what the environmental review does is clear an envelope of changes that the agency could consider from that following public outreach. we would subsequently bring recommendations to the mta board in the coming years, but we certainly have heard and seen a lot on the three jacks and maybe on the 8x. and that feedback is very helpful and we'll be engaging with the community to solicit that feedback before we make any recommendations to the mta board. sean kennedy is project manager for the tep has a presentation, an informational presentation to give an update. >> good afternoon, mr. kennedy.

>> good afternoon directors. my name is sean kennedy and i'm the planning manager for the tep, the transit effectiveness project. and i'm here to offer an update on where we are with the program and then discuss our outreach efforts coming up over the next 6-8 months. you know, san francisco is a wonderful city, and it deserves a world-class transit system. since 2006 we have been working with the community, as well as this board, transit operators, and other stakeholders to put a plan together to develop a system that will accomplish that. but we are faced with three big obstacles. one, we have an aging infrastructure. we have the oldest -- one of the oldest fleets in the country transit vehicle-wise. two, we have a dense and congested city, we're the second densest city in the united states, besides new york

city and we operate in a con strained right-of-way. a lot of competing interest for space and roadway space and there is really no room for expansion. so there is a lot of different modes and options that want to vie for that space. these pictures on the slide here really represent how these obstacles are experienced by the customer. so two of the major concerns that we have heard from our customers over the years are that one, muni is unreliable and two, muni is crowded. and thankfully, we're on our way with the help of the community and you on the board, we're on our way to developing a program of enhancements, that we think will really improve the system dramatically in the short-term. the tep at its base is first comprehensive review of the system in over 30 years. imagine san francisco 30 years

ago. the travel patterns, where people lived, where people were going is vastly different than what we see today. and we really need a system that relates to that dynamic change and addresses today's community's needs. so that is really led us to a goal of two things with the tep >> one improving reliability and two, improving the user experience. muni is the backbone of our community. we support a vast number of neighborhoods throughout the city, 95% of people within the city of san francisco are close to muni service. we support trips to schools, to work, to cultural events, to basically just hanging out with friends and family. and if you are a choice-rider, so somebody who has other transportation options and