advocates of jessica la man and second to none is the advocate in terms of getting us here today and deserving the credit eye we've been joined by supervisor yee so we'll hear in supervisor yee supervisor yee even to public comment has been cut off we're to make an exception. >> thank you for having me come up here i guess i've spoken about this issue and want to reiterate my strong support for free muni for seniors and people with disabilities it is not because i'm a senior it's because laura i probably qualify but i've worked with seniors pretty much all my life and seen the issues in regards to fixed incomes and so forth especially now where it

is the gap we're seeing the economic gap we're seeing really hits people with fixed income even more it's important for us as a city and stand up and support in notation is president noel was recalling to support this afternoon i'm here to stand by them he want to commend this commission i'm feeling confident he'll be supporting it and thank you very much. >> any more members of the board. >> i definitely will support this proposal it is a great step forward we're here to provide transportation for the entire city if people can't afford to use our transportation it is our responsibility as a senior to take care of people and make sure they have access to transportation and again to play on the note this is a good first step and the next step to press

forward with our vision zero goal to make sure that everybody what get to and from the business safely let's give you safe assess on the streets i'll go ahead and approve. >> second. >> obviously this is very critical i think one of the wonderful things not in the city i feel like you know when i get older i hope to remain in san francisco because you your able to be connected and it's exciting when we pick up a clear it rims me people are cut off and isolated and people are able to do their basic shopping and meet up with friends and get out of their homes it's critical i know that people are having a hard time getting bay but we're increasing our service to

accommodate more potential riders and obviously a large part of vision zero and overall muni plan to create the transportation around the city thank you for the boards leadership i'm the new but i'm excited thank you for your advocacy and leadership we're here to support you and thankfully your among us. >> thank you thank you, chairman nolan i'll support in enthusiasm and you mentioned two of you're most exciting days this will reveal only may be one person will like this comment two of the most exciting days our reserve policies were met and our upgrades we are taken (laughter) you know, i royals you'll tease me sophomore being bureaucratic

but that financial scrutiny and diligence that allows us to be in this position i'm very glad my colleague raised this not voting in the interest of people voting today or the media we're expanding the service and doing other things we minded our p and q is congratulations and on that sentiment what we're approving with respect to the pass for the low and moderate disability and seni customers is a 2 year program for 2015- 2016 and he assume director reiskin with the other programs to revisit this and see how it's holding up financially and make it better from a financial or service

prospective; is that correct. >> so the board approved the this fair program along with the service increase with the elimination of the customer service center and online traction fee and the fleet appearance in the last two years you made the execution contingent on the agencies finances in 2015 which is where we are before you today and this item contains that review it mentioned the credit rating increase the strong state of our reserves and the work that mayor ed lee has done has put us in a position along with the fiscal policy of the board i i'd like to thank the agency we can afford those we'll as it goes

forward it is hard to bring a budget proposal next time that will undo this program if it's approved today we'll be with our approval we'll be executing the change and the faster way i'll urge it we advance it by a couple of months be effective on march first and will stay that way you'll be legally setting that fair through the end of next fiscal year and the next process you'll contemplating this among the fair changes and monitor the fiscal impact what we expect it to be we're not looking this on a temporary policy should we need 0 recommend another change. >> >> i'm not suggesting 24 is

a temporary program i'll suggesting more there have been critics or concerns about the potential fraud or potential impact all things unforeseen circumstances and here we're putting this in at part of 2015- 2016 and hearing if our director of transportation to look at this the next time to address those issues i want to make sure this is in the record to make sure that's important other thing in 24 presentation he of time to say it struck me was how different the other cities are on this or perhaps how for a head we'll be so thank you to the staff for prep that report it is important to recognize the unique challenges that people have spoken to the cost of living and the disparity

their resilience on transportation and our city's commitment to transportation so i'll ask one thing as we go forward with us youth and senior and disabled consultant are not the only people facing the issue we have the lifeline program in place i'll urge we use the publicity and the attention to make sure our fell seniors understand the lifeline you can get assistance on your fair in san francisco on low means of you're not old or young or 12k5ib89d i will say that going forward at future workshops we revisit where the lifeline program is and revisit the goals that director heinecke stated well at the beginning felt

discussion we have an obligation to make sure we're serving their needs as well. >> thank you director reiskin. >> yeah. i was excited to report this i want to thank everyone in the community who have been working hard and diligently working in all her colleagues appreciate that everyone has spoken on it eloquently this is a huge access a person with disabilities myself it is difficult to pay for a ticket so hopefully with the clipper card this will be easier and very good economic benefits on the community members so thank you, again, for everyone and thank you staff for all the hard work it was great to read the report it was thoughtful and happen to support this proposal. >> director ramos. >> i wanted to say how proud i

am to be part of that body and to be in community with all of you and in this amazing city that has present us with this opportunity to be able to do things that are so important i don't think my of us are unaware how people have a hard time making ends meet particularly with low income for me personally, i see my own parent in their 70s having a hard time getting through the most and how important it is for them to be able to make every dollar stretch and while for some it might mean only able to get a tackle but eating a little bit better and being more active i'm trying to make sure my parents are healthy they have to

be social and one of the most challenging thing is transportation so i know how important this is going to be to get to keep all of us social and active and really a true community i feel that that for those that might be concerned that well, we can't keep on giving things away i'll remind them of the prayer of st. francis in this prayer it is not in giving that we receive the healthier our seniors are this healthier we all are we will all be seniors hopefully and want you to be healthy and be here and want people with disabled it be here and frankly i, say none of us want to live in a city without people of

disabilities you make our community richer i'm greatly honored and very grateful to chairman nolan and director reiskin for being committed from the beginning this could have been a whole lot harder just the entities in the leadership not only in this agency but the mayor and the board of supervisors it really says a lot about who we are so i'm looking forward to doing this. >> we are joined by supervisor kim happen to hear our words if i can get another expectation. >> good afternoon of supervisor. >> well, since i don't have to convince the board of supervisors i want to appreciate the board of directors and our staff taking up this issue it's something we have been talking about for a very, very long time

coming up 2, 3, 42003 the complept of having public transcript for those of our resident that need it and don't think our transportation all the arguments have been made i represent a difference constituency including our low income residents here in san francisco we have double the number of people living under the poverty line under 20 percent in my district and in the city of roughly $37 this is an issue i hear about from our low income seniors and 12kr5ib89d residents and our residents that are homeless that depends on the number of limited beds in the shelter to shufrtd back and forth with they're waiting lines for the shelter and job training to doctor

appointments this is a lifeline for many of the folks it was great for mta to really start the signature program with our low income youth many are here today in support of their another brothers and sisters and want to emphasize the community fought for prop a and prop b and they want to brings the revenues so this board of directors can make this a reality thank you four engaging in this important discussion and allowing the communities to have a robust discussion i sit on the other side and sit to long public system i want to thank you. the people are heard and the policies it impacts us congratulations to everyone that worked on the issue and thank you to the board of directors

for making this a reality. >> thank you, supervisor kim for your leadership we have a vote and second any further discussion all in favor, say i. opposed? the i's have so ordered we'll take yes item 12 propping the programming up to $210 million. exercise first population for light rail authorizing the director to enter into an agreement with the operator for $250 million if the sfmta ant secure the funds to contract 1219 dash for the exercise of opposition one to procure an additional light rail rails needing one and $10 million

>> director reiskin. >> last year you approved the contract for a one hundred and 75 new light rail options for 40 and 45 additional light rail vehicles last meeting first meeting in january you authorized the resolution indicating our intent to exercise the first option for 40 vehicles this example action before you is essentially making the funding available to exercise that option john halley our transit director has been shepherding this program to say why we have this opportunity and why it is the right time to take this opportunity it is subject to approval by the full transportation commission at their program and allocation committee lecture it was advance

to the commission for approval so with you're taking action today, if you choose to approve it we'll signal to the sfmta the mta board is supportive of this action. >> we have numbers of the public. >> no members. >> you want it st. to add something. >> thank you chairman and ed this is the action you took last july we described as the single more o most important thing you can do it approve the transit service not only forful now but future generations i'll remind the board the cars we're purchasing are state of the art extremely reliable 059 thousand miles between the fairs and the options that will approve the maintenance but most importantly

we need railcars now we have a lot of people everyday despite 5 years in a row of ridership right now on the light rail that are not able to get on because of crowding we simply don't have the cars we are doing everybody to overhaul the program that is really a tremendous benefit for us we appreciate the fact that you as a board all the policymakers in the region have colonel together to recognize the importance of this why it is happening right now in terms of why it's necessary to provide the contingency fund we're buying a good car the systems are in place on some 3 had had plus cars in north america and 3 other transit properties right

now that are moving to exercise their option first cars that will come in for us the first car will be n here in october of 2016 the first group that will come and include the cars we support the center subway the second group that will be provided in 2018 to allow a 40 year option to deal with the expansion that's coming the increase in the jobs in the city and the increase in the population the development of knowing along the waterfront so by moving forward and exercising the option right now your assuring we preserving the place in the production line to get a cost and we get the cars here most important in the quickest fashion i appreciate our support and certainly here to answer any questions. >> thank you, mr. halley.

>> at the mayors press event the question came up about our capacity to service so many strrls do you think that's an issue i know the new cars will need less maintenance if you think there is an issue what is the program to take care of the lovely new cars. >> two things i will assure you it's not going to be an issue for the following reasons at m m e we have a modern brand new facility we're in the process of bringing that up it is inside and outside with the intentions to make it a full service facility started at thirty doables we respect to have more maintenance staff and service overthrow so number one we're in the process of building

out a full service maintenance facility, and, secondly we've done as with the bus purchased and with the trolley coach purposes none of the things but to look at the maintenance programs and do in in a way we haven't done in the past do the motorbikes on the original equipment manufacturers schedule for the sew systems one of the things we've been incredibly supportive on the board is the number of special maintenance programs we've put in place in the last three or four years most of the components such the antenna and our signal system were never replaced that led to weak signals and bad service so the other thing we're doing the third thing so we are going to

commit to train as we purchase in the contract you've approve there's a significant amount of money for training by the manufacturers of the cashes the sub systems are less complicated than the bones the whole approach to microscopes is mod lur last year and modern we'll have to train the employees differently and we're accommodating for that our employees are from skills craft prospective our electronic employees can fix anyone they/have to unfortunately approve it on a day to day process we're paying attention to the maintenance both from the facilities and the employees training and the employee development for the future. >> thank you members of the board.

>> the person that takes the muni trains every single day if the station to downtown those cars can't come soon enough i'll say on a daily basis there's a door issue with a train car it shuts down the system and massive overcrowding because of the bunching or the car system problems so you have sometimes several trains you have to let by before you get on or doors are becoming worse off people are squeezing in to get on the cars i wish we could get them sooner ri89 i have to say whatever is a vast improvement. >> sound like a motion. >> i'll second it and two

comments there was an earlier comment it may not a member of the board of supervisors inclines in ridership i don't know if that's true it's not true on the l l r vs not sure it's true anywhere it is something that will alleviate the problems i'm one hundred percent confident we'll have more cars in our fixed spaced tunnels i assume we're planning how to accommodate one to pick one example we're dealing with the cars they'll get to embarcadero and making the switch was a back up all the way to montgomery obviously if we have more trains in the tomb ites bats problems but in our long term planning we're

planning for a larger fleet 6 is that a fair assessment. >> it is we're independent of the exercise of this option we began last year the rail capacity study that's currently underway that is looking at how to increase 2 feet within the tunnels there are many things like the embarcadero turn around but we're planning the use of all of the light rail fleet in particularly looking at the problem in our system the tunnel f in the prlt to the tunnels and and the related issue i'll take up with director nolan i know there's changes i believe there's changes in the way we're running the shelter service we may want to reinvite revisit the

shuttle service and worthwhile to have a brief update of our our pilots went i get oath questions as we're planning to purchase new cars i imagine the questions where are we in the shuttle service. >> if i may to add the truck tunnel to approve the other things and the shuttles 90 days or so we're going to redo the rail schedule from top to bottom we've continued to make adjustment in the real schedule based on the active car count rather than what we have i believe we've turned a corner with the car council holding it another a level that allows us

to deal with what we can by capacity having two car trains in the m for the most part but in the short term we're looking at the schedule and certainly we're talked about only about the logistics and the capacities of the other thing that was mentioned when you do projects lie, sunset tunnels not like twin peaks it will make not just operational reliability and safety improvements because of repairing the fiscal plant but give us additional flexibilities in the system to better manage the system along when you get you know as we move towards the new radio system and the control center that along with the measures i've mentioned will

help us better manage the details and accommodate for all of that but in the short term there are things in the existing system that's not maxed out and you know looking at the schedules the first step and continuing to look at the way we turn trains in the embarcadero for example. >> very good thank you both. >> other members of the board if not we have a motion and a second alleyway all in favor, say i. opposed? >> thank you very much let me go back to the what's the next thing consent calendar. >> consent calendar. >> anyone want to take anything off of that. >> no members of the board has come down. >> motion to approve your all in favor, say i. gracey's have it. >> quickly thank you to the staff for setting through the public comment. >> we've enjoyed it.

>> (laughter). so, now we are going backwards is hard >> any members of the public. >> one member of the public. >> good afternoon. >> okay hi hello yeah. thank you very much for pga the seniors free muni for seniors and those with disabilities that's a great moved and thank you for the reminder of the e ethics of the saint and the lifeline that exists for those who fall outside the perimeter for seniors i'm madeline the director for the folks report i wanted to expend any condolences to you colleagues of jerry lee i'm sad to hear about him and

sorry for you for lou gehrig's disease one of the members regarding the polk street project the final project has been unveiled they're are a couple of issues some very, very good and we're pleased but because of short pet i'd like start with to have the city of chicago points the cycle will 0 no longer be between pine and california a that's a high injury area and that change was done after everybody was told publicly no more fundamental changes that's not acceptable to us and also the pilot and the sidewalk extension pilots that were requested by the broadway back as of 2013 they're not we're not seeing