>> good morning, everyone. this is the tuesday, december, 13, 2016 meeting of the san francisco county transportation authority. my name is eric mar i'm the acting chair of the transportation authority. our clerk is mr. steve stamos, could you please do the roll call? >> item one, avalos? >> here. present. >> breed. >> present. >> campos. >> present. >> cohen npresent. >> ferrill, absent.

>> kim? >> absent. mar? >> present. peskin? >> present. tang >> absent. commissioner yee. >> present. >> we have quorum. >> item two, chair report, as our director will be recounting the accomplishments of the year and we will hold our chair elections in a moment, i am going to make my remarks extremely brief. with the adoption of plan bay area preferred scenario by the mtc and abag we are well posed to advocate for the priority projects in the bridge toll talks, which commence this week at the mtc. that is the met political transportation commission. thank you, so much, commissioner david campos for representing us in those discussions tomorrow

and we look forward to see the culmination through 2017, 18, when the voters will have the opportunity to approve much needed funds for transportation, i am hopeful that our local communities will also come together next year to develop a companion local transportation funding measure that can integrate closely with the regional measure in 2018. to fund our local contributions to bart caltrain and high speed rail, as well as to fund critical local investments in infrastructure repair and main nens, and safety, and paving and transit and neighborhood, traffic management city wide. before we turn these efforts over to the 2017, transportation authority board, however, we have one more piece of business to finish in the 2016 term. thank you colleagues for being so flexible in scheduling our special meeting on january fifth to consider environmental and planning approvals for the geary

corridor. bus rapid transit project. this prop k, signature project has been ten years in the making. and it has been coordinated with the van ness project which has just gone into construction, i am really glad that these milestones to be over seen by this transportation authority body, which has reviewed and supported this comprehensive out reach and technical work on both projects as envisioned in our county wide, transportation plan, van ness and geary brt will fill the major gaps in our city's regional transit network, both projects upgrade, several miles of vision zero high injury networks, and are anticipated to leverage the significant, state and federal funds, in closing i would like to thank each of the commissioners for your camaraderie, leadership and collaboration on this body during 2016. and indeed over the past 8

years. it has been a pleasure serving with all of you. on the three committees especially our plans and programs committee, the finance committee and our vision zero committee as well as in our capacity as a treasure island, mobility, management agency or tima, together we all planned funded and delivered critical transportation improvements in every neighborhood and across the region, my thanks, also go out to our hard working citizens advisory committee or cac, led by the chair chris, and for reviewing every item that comes before us, and for providing us and our staff with valuable input and ideas. and of course, i would like to thank the amazing staff for the transportation authority i'm sure that we will all work together and cross paths again as i return to civilian life working alongside all of you to improve equitable access and sustainable transportation options for all. thanks again for all of you, and with that icon include my acting

chair remarks. mr. stamos call the next item. >> public comment on item two? >> mr. war field. >> thank you, i'm the executive director of the library users speaking individually, although the library users all over the city use all of the public transit. the wonderfulness of the van ness and geary gus bus rapid transit has been mentioned by the acting director. and i wanted to make a few comments on those. i first got seriously interested in what mta was doing when it turned out that their so-called, 7th and 8th street, safety project was intending to bypass the library, the theater and the

asian art museum stops. but in doing further research on that, it seemed to me that the mta was particularly lacking in hard evidence in their studies of what kinds of accidents and safety record they had on the existing routes. and most particularly with regard to what the potential problems would be from having people walk extra distances and cross extra streets to deal with reduced bus stops and reroutings as well as the question of converting curb bus stops to island stops. and i think that is something that i am not familiar with this on these two projects but i imagine that if the research was as poor and as limited as it was in the one that i looked at, it wasn't good at all. and i'm very concerned in

general with curb bus stops changing into island bus stops. and with the removal of bus stops which really hurts people who with mobility problems. i hope also that vision zero latest's report showing no improvement makes an impression on you. thanks. >> thank you mr. war field. is there any other public comment? >> if anybody that would like to speak could just come forward. hello, commissioners i sent you a letter late yesterday, and i have copied to distribute in case you haven't seen it. i'm not really prepared to talk but have to add to mr. war field's comments that both van ness brt and geary brt really need a lot more attention.

removal of bus stops has not improved my ability to get around. going ahead and going this on faith, which is what these projects really have been based on and not the study is a great disservice to the city. and since geary has not ad vansz r vanced to delay the approval on the ier and to have them wait on that and give the public more time to read that report. 17 days during the holiday season not sufficient. van ness tree cutting will begin tomorrow, and the trees will come down and the lanes will be shut off. and disables and elderly will be

inconvenienced to say the least. year /* i urge you to look at the effect of these projects which individually may sound great, but aren't terrific. they are really injury yus to us and beyond. i guess i will stop there. but i think you need a better way to evaluate these projects before they go into ground breaking. thank you. >> thank you. >> any other speakers please come forward, we are going to close public comment. >> my make is robert and i am a director of san franciscans for sensible transit and we have

written you a letter about the need to extend the period of time during which the review is made of the final eir on geary. my letter focus on you need to read more than 1,000 pages of the final eir to demonstrate that you have made an individual judgment. and are not acting based upon what you have simply been told by the transportation authority. executives and planners. and frankly nobody is going to believe that you are going to interrupt your holiday to read the 1,000 pages of the final ier. instead the voters in the richmond will see that even though they voted 80 percent in favor of the two leading candidates that had doubts about the recommended hybrid alternative, you agreed to hurry up this hearing at january 5th.

furer is going to be sworn in five days later but will be excluded from questioning a recommendation which she agreed with. the transportation agency lack of process to challenge ideas of planners and consultants. you should be aware of that. executives have their plates full, and they can't inquire fully. our group did and we found serious flaws you should hear about those during that 60 day period. i suggest that mr mrmr. cordob a and i have the lecturm during that time, for the only fair way to proceed and the assurance that you can give that you have had an opportunity to individual judgment and we ask fon additional 60 days from the date of the publication, on december 9th. thank you. >> thank you. >> is there any other public comment?

>> hi, my name is glen urban and i am a small business owner on geary boulevard, and i question to why there is a rush to have a meeting on january 5th regarding the eir, when the eis is still be reviewed by the fta and why the rush for certatiificate identification. >> thank you. >> if you like to speak, please come line up. and we are going to close after this speaker. >> good morning, everybody my name is david and i am a resident of the outer richmond district and i have two thoughts to offer you today. first of all we had a very large building project downtown that everybody thought the due diligence was done, and it has had the people taken a little bit of extra time, we might not be in the predicament that we are with the building leaning and the city in all kinds of additional trouble. i kind of feel the same way with the geary brt transit project,

that it's like my grandfather's old suit that needs to be updated. the concept of grandpa's suit was great five years ago, but the lapels need a little bit of adjusting and the last time that grandpa wore it out he got the feedback from the people in the neighborhood that the pants didn't really fit. well, now he is at the taylor again and ready to recraft the product a little bit and now the people are telling the tailor to rush the project. i think that if we take the time and study it closure and tune it up, then we can do the justice at that ten years that the project has been on the drawing board and get a useable product for the neighborhood and at the same time, avoid pitfalls where four or five years down the road, we are coming back and not saying good things about this project and having to dig in and spend more money and spend more tax for energy and resources, thank you. >> thank you, mr. hertz., any

other public comment? >> my name is cory and i am a small business owner at the shell gas station at the corner of cook, and i think that the board of supervisors should come out and take a look at geary boulevard, west, and see the fact that traffic flows freely, except for maybe an hour, in bound and an hour outbound. the buses speed up and down that corridor, all day, every day, west and spending money, on a bus rapid transit is a waist of tax payer money and that is the fact, thank you. >> thank you, i see no other public comment, public comment is closed. i will just respond by saying that the significant community out reach done and many community meetings with many of you in the audience as well a lot of the staff work to produce the final eir i think has been years in the make and there has been endless delays as well.

and there is no rush going on, but this is an important process that we are moving forward, thank you for the public comment. mr. stamos call the next item. >> 3, the executive director's office this is an information item. >> and we have tang, the executive director. >> my report is on your desk and i will begin by reporting at the federal level that the president-elect has announced chow has his intended nominee for secretary of transportation, as you may know, chow served as as the secretary under the president, george hw bush, and labor secretary under george w bush, and so she has the experience running federal agencies, certainly, that experience will be serve her well. we are also mindful of some of her track record in adjudicating some of those responsibilities so we will stay ever vigilant on her proposals and leadership with respect to transportation.

we are encouraged that she and the president-elect have indicated an interest in promoting infrastructure spending and investment and they acknowledge the difficulty of finding additional funding detailed the potential tax breaks and the other types of public, private partnership and private investment as one potential way to finance, the infrastructure and as we know, that is not a substitute for funding and so the details at this point, remain scant and we will stay, of course, on top of this through the coming year as the trags takes shape, and i will note that the senate majority leader has expressed skepticism, particularly as one of the 100 day initiatives and it sounds like he also, remains very interested in hearing what the administration is proposing as far as funding sources. in the meantime, at the stalevee remain encouraged that the new senate bills, won in the

assembly and the senate side is the number of the bill is number one, by the chair phrafraiser a bell, and these two bells were introduced already. and as you will recall from last month, my report the governor and the legislature failed to pass a transportation state funding bill. and in the 2016 session. but we do already see the introduction of these two bills in the early part of the 2017 session. and so, they are about a 6 billion dollar, level of investment and they are very similar, as in addition to the additional 700 million dollar, one time funding source from repaid truck wait fee loans, and so we are hopeful, that this time, that we will find a path forward, and for infrastructure and there is a fiscal cliff at the state level where the previous funding programs have reached their end and in fact we delivered one of the major projects funded by the state

program. and so that whole program is at the end, and the state of california, really needs to come together to figure out how we are going to maintain our existing system as well as repair and enhance the over all transportation system. currently, the funding sources in both proposals on the state and senate side, include, revenue frz the gas tax, and the diesel fuel, and taxes and the higher vehicle, registration fees and opening up some of the unallocated tap and trade funds. so please stay tuned, we also are tracking some legislation where there is a potential constitutional amendment being proposed to allow the jurisdictions to approve the sale taxes with a lower, voter flesh hold at 55 percent, this is not a new initiative and it comes up every so often and so we will see if that actually moves ahead as well. so we will track both of those while also, of course, working as the chair mentioned our own potential local, path forward with new revenues at the local level and the regional level.

that recently approved, the dedication transportation taxes merced, santa cruz. and i think that there is monterrey, thank you, and congratulations to those counties and we will be hosting this conference in san francisco

francisco. eligible, street repair, and pedestrian safety and transit rely ability and transit improvements and we are reaching out through the offices and we welcome your thoughts and ideas as well as we are happy to follow up on any out reach to get the word out about the january 17th, deadline for this funding opportunity. and we will present recommendations to the board for approval in march. turning to pedestrian safety, and vision zero, i just wanted to congratulate fmta to complete the two year effort to use the sales tax and funds to install, the quick and effective improvements along the corridor throughout the city. these were identified through the walk first investment strategy and multi agency, and programs that was identified two years ago. and using performance based and data driven analysis