and some people do we're concerned about that. >> it's about thirty something out there that's risky. you know, disliked by someone torn apart and that's the whole point of what we're drying to do >> you never take this for granted you make sure it is the best if you can. >> ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> good morning and welcome to the san francisco transportation authority personnel committee. my name is supervisor avalos chair of the transportation authority and chair of this committee and joined to my left by commissioner cohen and we will be joined shortly by commissioner mar. our sfgtv staff who are broadcasting today are jessie larsen and john. thank you for your work today and other committees at the board of supervisors. madam clerk would you call the first item. >> item number one roll call. commissioner avalos. >> present. >> commissioner cohen. >> present. >> commissioner mar. absent. we have a quorum. >> we have a quorum. great.

let's go to next item. >> item two is approval of the november 12, 2013 meetings. this is an action item. >> okay. we have the minutes. any questions? okay. let's open the minute for public comment. any member that would like to comment please come forward and seeing none we will close public comment. [gavel] motion to approve the minutes. >> move it. >> second. >> i will take a vote. >> on item two commissioner avalos. >> aye. >> hen human. >> aye. >> commissioner mar. mar absent. item passes. >> great. next item. >> next item is reorganization plans and job classifications with the 2013 strategic plan baseline. this is an action item. >> great. this item comes to us after the last time that we had

growth in stuff for the transportation authority was in 2007 and now there are many new initiatives that the transportation authority is involved in, and i think we're now relooking at our staffing plan, and cynthia fung is here to present. >> i am deputy director for finance and administration. i will walk you through the slides. this is the strategic vision and work and staffing plan. on page two you have our vision and mission statement. we are guided by the principles of accountability and transparency and the goal is provide fnlt strategy and project expertise and oversight and for a better city and through innovation and collaboration and catalyst in

delivery and a leader in the transportation feed. the agency has five core functions in one agency. we have our prop k local transportation sales tax administrator program. we have our county congestion management agency that we were designated in 1990. we have the transportation fund for clean air administration designated by the board of supervisors in 1992 when we have our prop aa vehicle registration fee administrator responsibility approved in 2010 by the recent sf voters on april 1 the board of supervisors designated us a authority to handle the treasure island plan. now the core structure and functions of the ta. we have our executive

director appointed in 2013. we have a clerk of the board and a chief deputy director reporting to her. we have five divisions. the capital project division dealing with oversight and project controls and delivery. the programming which handles the strategic planning, the fund allocation and programs legislation that affects the agencies in san francisco. small projects delivery and oversight and support. next we have the planning division that works on the county wide transportation plan manages the congestion management agency for the program. works on transportation plans and projects and studies in addition to policy studies. next we have the technology services division that oversees the transportation model and performs research and analysis and the technology for the office and handles the website and graphics of all

materials coming out of transportation authority. i head up the finance and administration that we handle the budgeting, the accounting and local business enterprise administration, the deabt management, hr function administration of the office. now this would be the point i would like to turn it over to tilly chang, our executive director to go over the operation analysis. >>i good morning commissioners. i am pleased to present the work that we have done and i appreciative as well of the management team to do this. the strategic view -- >> i have a question on the chart on page five. >> sure. >> just looking at policy and programming versus planning -- >> right. >> -- how would you really distinguish those two? >> good question. >> really policy and programming refers to all the funding and

the fun programming work that the agency does. it's coordinated and however if you break it down policy and programming role is looking at the strategic opportunities and do the engineering with the other partners in the city to design a capital strategy for the capital program and do this with the agency and the planning division will do long range and short and medium range planning and in addition do policy studies out of both and the recent bike share and a collaborative effort between the two divisions. >> great. thank you. >> good question. so diving right in one of the first things we did as a management team and agency start with the guidance you gave us last december when you adopted goals for the agency and the key work program say constant of course. this year we're also mindful and trying

to ensure good board support for all of your roles, not only in our role but on regional agencies and the regional metropolitan transportation district and other like districts and for example we have the cal train and golden gate highway and transit district for example. promoting efficiency and customer service was mentioned last year you would like to see and we ourselves recognize as an opportunity to increase our effectiveness across the city family coordinating and collaborating with partner agencies. that has really taken hold and really has shaped our work program and providing more concerted and consistent leadership at these levels which is a great here to do that and we have proposals by the governor and by desaw nehave

the opportunity to advocate for these positions and active transportation and policies and this is another opportunity in the 25th year of operation and facilitating agency and staff development. this is fundamental and core to our ability to sustain our operations. so these new goals certainly added new responsibilities and roles to the staff. some of the new assignments that show this have the vision zero program which we embraised in your leadership and started to ripple across the city family and result in projects on the ground. the transportation measures are another area with collaboration with the city agencies. the waterfront transportation assessment study is also under way and although the warriors development has changed location

that work remains very relevant. >>i would agree. >> and the neighborhood transportation improvement program of course came out of the transportation plan, the san francisco transportation plan last year and we're working on that as we speak. these other new partnerships that you're seeing here, third street phase study and the ocean view study and regional transit and management studies. these are examples where we're really partnering more closely with other agencies, particularly sfmta and they might be leading the study but we are providing core functions and outreach and procurement or other administrative support and this refers to the treasure island mobility management agency, a new role that didn't exist last year and designated this agency as the treasure island mobility management agency who is charged with implementing a comprehensive plan for treasure

island to support the 8,000 units of housing and mixed use development planned for that location. the new approaches we're referring down at the slide talk about our operations have started to respond to the new guidance. we're using project charters to establish priorities really at the start of every effort with other agencies so everyone is clear about each other's roles and responsibilities and we're encouraging other agencies to take lead planning roles to support them where needed and converting some of our operations from out source consultant basis to in house basis as a way to rebalance our operations, so even as we seek to respond to the new direction that the board gave us and these new roles we recognize the need to address existing needs and issues that have built up over the last seven years since our last reorganization and i would say this opportunity is a

welcome one for the whole agency to take a close look at what the roles included over the years and how we have been able to respond to them, or in some cases not able to respond to them as effectively as we would like. some of the programs that have emerged since 2007 include the prop aa program and the vehicle fee that the voters approved in 2010. this requires set programming which we welcome. it allow us to knit the program with the city bond and other fund sources but the more complex arrangements emerging at the regional or state level with the bay area grant program created under planned bay area as well as the active transportation program for bicycle and pedestrian projects and administered at the state level so we with other congestion management agencies find it challenging to respond to those in a effective way to

play the financial and architect and engineering role and make sure that the sponsors are getting the projects on the ground as quickly as possible. there is a lot of work from the state to individuals like cycle track projects. the bay area coordination has been a major emphasis for this agency and others in the area and across the state in response to climate legislation in sb375. this more than ever required us to be knowledgeable and coordinate with our housing agency partners on the abag side and planning department and the mayor's office of housing because they're interrelatinged and the challenges are affordable housing and transportation and transit in particular. increasing board support has been the commitment we're trying to be consistent with meeting and cac and the public is

another priority and staying in touch with the public so we understand who is on the ground. help them identify and understand their needs and establish priorities here at the board to address those. internal bottle necks is another area we recognize and when the chief deputy and i were involved with the programs and the county wide plan and the mayor's task force in addition with the executive director approval process it became apparent that the management team was not able to be as available for the staff in terms of providing key reviews and ensure quality across divisions so we want to make sure that the entire management team has more of a distributeddive function and more effective structure to support our operations going forward. one area of opportunity in particular is our communications which has been something -- somewhat done on an ad hoc basis by the management team and we would like to have the ability to focus that

function within the position at the agency so we could have more regular and consistent communications with the board and our communities and particularly communitieses of concern and disadvantaged business enterprise and -- business community members. one more slide on our existing needs and this goes to recruitment and retention as well as succession planning. every work place i think is dealing with this question and we're not unlike others in that we're responding to a changing demographic. more and more our staff has found there are other options and we want to remain competitive to retain our staff and ensure we can ease the work loads when they peak and offer a competitive work place environment. we have started to really review the use of our consultants because they got extensive and this came out of the review of our performance last year and they thought there

was an opportunity to rationalize the use of consultants. we want to make sure the staff has the opportunity and time to take the training to stay in the expertise in their field and may involve project management and expertise or work force management and the idea of managing staff and human resources type training. some of the division structures do have gaps so we identified some succession planning where we needed to fill in say a senior or principle deputy position so we could ensure a clear path toward a management track. as well as you have been hearing from cynthia fung talking about the enterprise resource planning system and this is modernizing our software systems and allowing for better integration across our systems which will benefit our operations but also

our partners both on the agency side when we pay the invoices more timely as well as our vendors. so moving toward the strategic view going forward again started with the goals that you all help us set. we looked at internal operations where we might be more effective and these new directions i hope reflect your guidance for us as well as we're excited to work on each of them. the neighborhood transportation improvement program is the first role going forward that we see as a main stay of the next five years. this is the idea to ensure planning and studies and activities in each district over the five years supported by our staff and consultants but also with the direct involvement of other agencies as well as two neighborhood scale projects in each district. this would ensure there would be a pipeline of capital projects in every part of the city and ready to

scoop up funding opportunities and well integrated with other opportunities and the streets bond and the new measures the voters will consider this fall. both of these activities will be prop k funded so they would have to ensure they're eligible which we believe there will be. no problem with the intent of leveraging other funds and all of these activities will heavily involve the public as well as communities of concern to help identify needs and set priorities. >> tilly could you give an example of a neighborhood scale capital project? >> sure. there are so many. some are happening in your district chair avalos. the ocean view improvementment is an example of that and the circulation study that was presented for review will be integrated with streetscape improvement and traffic calm it and widen the sidewalks and improve the pedestrian

crossings in ocean view and that is the typical improvement we see going forward with a capital project. >> thank you. >> in addition to commissioner cohen as well and we had a meeting on chavez and look at that improvement and streetscape and traffic calming and safety and i believe in commissioner mar we're looking to integrate the bike facility and the resurfacing program with the streets bonds so that's are some examples. the second area that we see really somewhat of a need we want to catch up but get ahead of and skip some steps is look at the regional and score system. this refers particularly to the places where the local interfaces with the regional network and obviously more downtown in our new emerging growth areas of mission bay and south of market but it includes all of the different

touch points of the regional network and freeway network across the city. the first priority is safety of course to respond to the vision program as well as the threshold needs we're seeing in pedestrian and bicycle facilities. our next look is at system management opportunities and manage the demand across the bay. utilize the network for more efficient modes of travel such as transit and walking and biking as well as freeway management strategies and refers to carpool lanes and how we might add to those on 101 and 280. in conjunction with other counties doing the same. san mateo is also looking at this so there would be a coordinated facility all the way from san francisco to san jose. finally capacity. i can't tell you how many meetings we're at that this came up in the last months, the capacity of the

network, the transit network, in particular a major need in face of all the existing crowding we have as well as the new development going up in the city. this is something that i know director reiskin and other transit leads are aware of and working electric ifz and increase capacity and working on the caltrans project with sfmta and add capacity and improved performance and of course for the bart network we're looking at multiple levels of capacities and improvements in terms of the main line and stations downtown and adding vehicles and the like and doing so requires us to work closely with all of the other agencies involved and mtc and the metropolitan transportation commission and other agencies.

treasure island mobility management agency i mendle here and it's a laboratory in many ways. it will channel us to meet the demand. >> >> created when we add the housing on treasure island and the mixed use development. our commitment to caltrans was to ensure the growth would not hinder the bridge performance and enhance the mobilityity of the bridge and treasure island and the inmain part of the city. in terms of partnerships we are working with countless agencies and caltrans and mtc, the transportation commission and other agencies and muni and transit as well. we hope this will result in a very robust and effective demonstration of things like pricing and parking management so that ultimately we will find a way of sustainable footprint on that island and

lead to implementation role for this agency heretofore we hadn't played. we recognize this is a new role and as a governing board the transportation authority you will play a role as well so we're in the process to set that up so we have coordinated yet separate financial management and hard walled fire walled operations so that the two agencies are distirnt and we may come back for clean up legislation to make sure that we have independent operations so that the tima which is funded by the treasure island development authority and the developers will have an independent operation from the main transportation authority efforts. down the line this could anchor a larger program in the future. as i mentioned we're looking at tolling on 101 and 280, just at the study level

coming up this summer with santa clara and san mateo and looking at hov lanes and as well as express lanes and that refers to as a solo user you could pay to use the carpool lane if there is capacity and if it has value to you and pay a fee during those times, so this strategy has been used in other parts of the state and world to have a integrated management system for freeways that then can potentially generate revenue to improve transit such as the cal train corridor next to the 101 corridor for example and that way you can manage mobility at the corridor level referring to not just one facility whether the 101 freeway or the cal train commuter rail. you're looking at them together and giving people good choices that meet their needs. shall i pause there before moving onto the

proposed structure for the reorganization? those three areas of strategic roles for the agency, the neighborhood transportation improvement program, the core program and the tima are three areas worth highlighting but by no means they're not the only things we're working on and there are analysis reports and strategic planning and other kinds of functions that we will continue to play. >> just before you go into this i want to add that from my perspective, my experience working on the board and the transportation authority for the past five years there's been an increased collaboration between the commissioners and the authority staff. there's a lot of expectations that we have about your work enabling us to support our districts and the city around transportation needs which is a significant factor

that i think you need to address with your staffing plan. >> no, absolutely. i think that coordination -- we have taken it to heart. it's always been there but the question of how active can we be, how proactive can we be supporting the initiatives and coordinated across districts and the city? so we enjoy that, i think the planners and staff like to get out in the community and see things on the ground, and show -- demonstrate the options to folks and give people good choices so when we have opportunities for funding when they come along we're ready and that is the key, but thank you for recognizing that. that's a definite goal for us to be more consistent in playing those roles. so how do we do that? our proposed agency structure on slide 14. we're essentially

proposing to add eight positions and add to this and starting from the upper right the first recommended new position is a senior communications officer who would assist me and the management team and ensuring consistent communication it's yes please? >> chair avalos can i ask a question? have there been vacancies in the department that haven't been filled like others in the city? >> thanks commissioner mar. there has been some in the course of the last seven years. it's taken that long to fill in the positions. last time we have nine positions added in 2007 and as i mentioned the competitive, job market is competitive and especially for some positions, and computer modeling and engineers and we

have folks interested but it's hard to retain them. we had senior planners look to other agencies for a growth opportunity but that's not great when we can't offer competitive growth opportunity. so yeah we have lost a couple and we believe to either the market or to other agencies that had advancement opportunities when we didn't have that path clearly laid out. >> how many vacancies would you say you have? >> at this time we only have the one -- no. we have -- pardon? >> [inaudible] >> i think we just have -- we don't have any at this moment so we have been able to fill them recently but last year we had a couple, so we were able to fill those in this past year but it's been a challenge and i think when i go to conferences what i hear a lot oftentimes is this challenge of having a balanced

organization, and making sure that we're offering a competitive work environment and that the changing demographics in the city, especially with the economy right now, we're feeling vulnerable especially without certain boxes filled in. skipping down to the division level, the finance andad min -- i am going to go from right to left. the finance administration division is proposing to add three positions and reflects the value to us and our operations and other agencies as well. increasing we're delivering projects for other agencies and the yerba buena and the folsom ramps for example on behalf of land use and economic development and this is in the staff and the procurement processes for example come into play. on technology data and analysis there is a gap here. the senior planner is meant to fill that

as well as under finance and administration. we have a analyst. these are the next layer of senior staff below the management level who are going to help alleviate the work load and distribute that decision making power across the operation and provides a track for the staff to move up and across all divisions you will see the analyst for ad min and the data analyst for the modying group. we have creating a deputy district level and allow the two large divisions to have distributed management capacity to assist the deputys in both divisions and on capital projects you see senior engineer proposed to be added and that helps provide that senior management support. and for the most part i think this structure should be able to help us respond to the three challenges that we identify in the memo, the