fee, which as the representative of a very small company, green cab, which has now shrunk down to six taxis, is having to pay almost $3,000 for renewing the medallion or renewing the color scheme fee. an aftverage of $450 for each our cabs, whereas a very large company such as yellow cab, i'm not even sure how many cabs they have, but i'm estimating it's about 400 now, they're paying something like $28 percab on a percab basis, whereas we're paying 450, and so we're paying 16 times as much as them on a percab basis for renewing the color scheme medallion. the other issue that i wanted to bring up has to do with taxi stands, and taxi stands are treated under your fee

structure in the same way as white zones, although they're very different from a white zone, and they're actually not even in the budget at all. but they cost thousands of dollars to setup a taxi stand. these are a public good, and they should not cost anything. and i wish i had more time to explain it, but thank you. >> thank you, mr. gruber. next speaker, please. >> peter strauss. >> thank you. good afternoon. peter straw peter strauss. i'm very concerned with the struggles of the taxi industry, but there are a lot of things that we like in this budget from a tran ssit perspective. we really like doing a day pass, we like the reduction in the a-pass price. we'd like to see that go to zero differential. we like that there's some recognition of the need for -- to better address the budgetary

concerns of families, you know, that's reflected in some of the visitor past proposals, and we'd like to see that recognition of family needs addressed in other parts of the budget. but the main thing that i want to address today is the prop b fund. and we very strongly urge you to take a portion of the operating funds and use it for the operating budget. we feel it's very essential that the mta move into a mode of budgeting for expansion of transit service, not just maintenance. it's very troubling to see -- well, you didn't hear about it today, but the only proposals the staff suggested to us is there are efficiencies that would balance some of the expansion needs, efficiencies that are really a lot of those

service cuts. we don't want to see those cuts. we do want to see you move things like the prop b funds to help support the expansion of operations. there's a strong nexus here in terms of how those funds were created. actually, a lot of projects pay funds into the general fund, and to cover transit service, but there's no way to get those funds over to mta. the prop b mechanism essentially provides a way to move funds from the general fund budget to the transit budget where those funds were intended -- [ inaudible ] >> thank you. thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> david pilpal. >> allocating two minutes to talk about a billion dollar operating budget and a billion dollar capital budget isn't fair, and you should have given us more time. i understand that supervisor katie tang has asked for a review of the growth of the division which i hope will be

completed in the next few days. i hope that will be made public and discussed at the next board meeting as relates to this budget. if there are tough decisions to make, maybe we can cutback on some programs that have grown more than others within the agency over its -- the life of the agency. addressing transit service and equity for a moment, it seems a bit incongruous both at the same time to increase service in equity neighborhoods based on the service equity strategy and charge more for transit service in the belief that somehow more folks will get access to clipper cards that they don't have now. it seems like a great leap of faith and one that i'm not particularly sharing. i think that there are some efficiencies to be gained, both on the transit side and throughout the agency, and i hope that we would see some of those details in the next two

weeks before the next hearing. my understanding is that some of transit efficiencies are not that significant: chestnut street, various other small changes in service to better allocate and better balance service with demand. and finally, the expansion of lrv service, as i understand it, would program some of those 24 to 64 or 68 lrv's in the next two years, but really looks to increase peak service when there's no additional subway capacity, so it doesn't make sense how that service increase would be delivered, and so i really want to -- >> thank you very much, mr. pilpal. next speaker, please. >> our last speaker is barry corngold. >> hi. i'm barry corngold. i've been driving a cab in this

city since 1987. getting a medallion, earning a medallion used to be a reason for people to stay in the industry, and so some of your best cab drivers became medallion holders. you guys funded your budget, some $70 million off the backs of taxi drivers who then had to buy their medallions, basically giving up whatever extra income they would get by getting their medallion after a 15-year wait. now something like 90 of those drivers have had to default on their loans. you've waived their fees, rightly so because they're not making any money, but now, it's somehow devalued our medallions, where you feel like you can makeup for your short comings by charging us more. and this has become a minimum wage job or less. it's very hard to make it, and very frustrating, when we're surrounded by what used to be

illegal gypsy cabs. now they're considered ethical entrepreneur. you're making special stands for them. why don't you charge people more, fine people more for charging in taxi stands, and marking in tmc's, who get obstinate when they're asked to move. minimum wage isn't a lot of money when you're struggling to pay your rent and pay your bills, and then, in three payments, you have to come up with 375 bucks. you might think that passive income is just passive income, but all of you guys get pensions and passive incomes. we have to pay for our health insurance, and we get no pensions at all. it's very hard to stay in this industry -- [ inaudible ]

>> thank you, thank you mr. corngold. next speaker, please. >> herbert weiner. >> herbert weiner. what i really want to say is i support the taxi drivers. i don't think there should be medallions at all. i don't think they should have been instituted at all. i will always take a taxi, i will never take an uber or lyft. >> thank you, mr. weiner. anymore public comment? all right. seeing none, public comment is closed. all right directors, it sounds like mr. reiskin would like a weigh in on some of the 23 are changes. >> i'm happy to go first. so my daughter will probably not appreciate this comment. i -- i can see the policy benefit of free muni for all

youth, but i think at a time, just given the last comments from mr. corngold that we'll address in a moment, that having young people whose families can get their passes, having them get them for free, doesn't induce the right environment. i see a benefit to encouraging young people to ride muni and understand it, as they are in these classes, and i've certainly seen as a parent, it's really wonderful for children, but i just -- given the amount of money that would cost, my personal view would be to wait on that and not incur that cost at this time. on the 20% versus $15, my personal preference would be for 25%. having done this now many, many times, i'm starting to see the wisdom of indexing and having

things be flexible so that we're not having to revisit all of this. and these fares are going to change by indexing. it's possible they may even reduce by indexing, so to me, it seems that a permanent marker is much more consistent with our indexing program than is a flat dollar amount. on the day pass, i would favor 2.5 times because two times is a roundtrip that lasts more than the transfer time, whereas a day pass is good for all day. that may sound like a sort of silly way to approach it, but i think it's a situation where the day passes are going to be purchased mostly by visitors, and asking 2.5 times seems like the right mark for me there. so then, finally, on -- i'm sure this will not surprise you, on the fund balance, we heard a suggestion about maybe using that to backfill some

funds, but we didn't get a report on where we are with the fund balance, how that is with our current plan, and whether using that money would bring us below our guidelines or create other issues. so your -- well, i'll let you say your view. >> yeah, thank you. so what we expect in this fiscal year would probably double the fund balance that your policy requires us to have, which leaves us quite a bit of room to be able to propose use of fund balance in the next two fiscal years while leaving ourselves well above the 10% reserve requirement. i think last year, we had discussed trying to stay above 15%. >> right. >> so i -- i certainly wouldn't propose something that would bring us down below 10%. i think we'd be looking to aim probably closer to keeping it at least 15%. so anything i propose will be in line with policy and will probably still be -- leave us a much bigger cushion than the policy minimum. >> okay. i would favor that.

i would favor the 15%. just, you know, i've given this speech again about fund balance. i won't give it again, but one of the things that you said is in these certain times -- in these times, we have uncertain funding from particular sources, particularly the federal and state governments, all the more reason for us to go conservative with our balance. so that would be my preference for that. finally, on the taxi cabs, i'll suspect you'll hear this from others. it is a compelling point. i think we do need to look at ways in which we can alleviate the pain for our taxi drivers, and ways in which will also serve a policy goal. if there is a shortage of drivers right now, some sort of break on the a-card may be the way to go. if, you know, it's a situation where the k-medallions are being turned back in or we got

a disproportionate percentage, i'm not willing to say what the issue is, but it sounds like these are relativy smalleely s but i would appreciate solutions from staff on more things we could do to show the sort of understanding to that community of what we're going through. >> thank you, vice hachair heinicke? >> yes, director borden? >> yes, i would like to agree with all the points that director heinicke made. if students are going to school, they would be eligible under our program. i believe once you start a benefit, you can never take it away, so it would be one thing if we're talking about a long-term expenditure, but we're talking about a one time expenditure. i just feel like we're in a position where we can't extend

that. i also do believe that there is some value, especially if money is less of an object in your family, of having to pay for something. i used to serve on the board of the bayview ymca, and we always made families pay something for summer camps. some families paid $5 and gave their time, but they don't value something they get for free versus something they have to work for or pay for, so i understand that. if you can't afford to pay for it, that's a different analysis. i agree with the indexing, i agree with not spending too much of our fund balance because we just don't know what's going to happen with the economy and also at the federal level. i don't foresee that there'll be more dollars in the future, and we have certain ballot measures in so many other things, so i think the more cautious approach is the best approach. and then, the other question i had was about the tsf, the

transit sustainablity fee, and if we think the delay, was it when people paid because people can pay at different times in the planning cycle? why do we think there was such a discrepancy in terms of the fact that we thought there was some more $6 million expecting than what we were receiving? do we know what that was attributed to? >> you may recall when this was going through the board of supervisors, there was a lot of negotiation on grandfathering provisions on the tsf, and it passed with what i thought were somewhat generous grandfathering provisions, so there was some thought that perhaps because of all of the grandfathering that t-- i know

new applications into planning are down a little bit, so that might explain it, but it seems like in the end, the tsf is going to come in largely in line with expectations. >> and when do people pay in the life cycle of the projects? >> they pay when they pull their first -- >> okay. and then, the question was some people were trying to expand it to include medical facilities or something, and i couldn't remember if that ended up in the final version. >> so i -- i believe it was that there was a lot of negotiation. some was around health care facilities. nonprofits were exempt, and small businesses, small residential, affordable housing were the exemptions. i don't believe that the city ended up exempting the health care institutions. i don't remember exactly where that landed out. i haven't -- there's recently

been discussion to prove the increase on the amount of commercial, which would then change these calculations, but other than that, not heard any other -- other concerns with the current structure or proposals to change it. >> do you mean the increase on the special taxes or do you mean just the tsf? >> the ts fee, i think there's a proposal to increase it by $5 a square foot, the funds for commercial projects. whether that will move forward is a question that would presumably change our projections. >> maybe you can't speak to this because there's legislation potentially being introduced today related to tnc's. do you know if the intent was to earmark the funds to go to this program? >> so i didn't hear supervisor peskin's spoke to this, i believe, last week at the ta commission, and i didn't hear his remarks.

my understanding is that when he spoke about it, that he was speaking to it as a general tax, so not a special tax that would be dedicated to transportation. my understanding is that the introduction is going to be happening today. might be have already happened or happening as we speak, so we should be more soon. >> great. well maybe it would be dedicated to this. >> i would support that. >> thank you, director borden. director ramos? >> thank you. thank you so much, director reiskin for this hard work, and miss bode, i deeply appreciate all of the heavy lifting that you all are doing to make this all shake out, and it's -- it's something i'm very grateful for. i'll be eager to keep talking about it and figuring out what direction we should go in.

i'm going to agree with everything that i heard so far from my colleagues, reiterate colleague vice chair heinickes comments about the indexing. that's very real, and it's always a struggle if you don't do that. $15 would become under valued very quickly, i'm rather confident. i also want to appreciate mr. straus's recommendations around what you have in the report, around using the prop b funds for operations. i think that that's -- i suspect that there may be hesitation with that because it's a fluctuating number. it could at least go down. >> it fluctuates with population. >> yeah. that's something we should not hang our hat on with respect to operations, but i think it's something we should look into, and i think if we can pull it off, it would be great.

with respect to the free muni for youth, i, too, would love to be -- for those of us with means, we should pay because the system is still clearly not where it needs to be in terms of funding, and i would love for us to be able to get to a point where we subsidize transit as much as we subsidize cars. there was a comment made by a speaker earlier that bicyclists should pay their fair share. i think we should be thanking bicyclists every time we see one because they are actually saving us money by not creating wear and tear on the roads. they're not costing us money for the additional sort of

infrastructure that's required of cars, and even transit, for that matter, but i digress. i think that i would move love get to a place where we have free muni, but i heard the taxi driver's, and i think everybody's going to feel the pain when paradrivers and the ramp taxis become fewer and fewer. i would love to be able to do what we can for them in this budget. i don't expect we'd be able to do a whole lot more. i expect we're in a place where we failed at the ballot a couple of years back, and i think we're starting to feel it. maybe if -- if the free muni for youth would be a ballot proposal in the future, it would be great to have voters vote on that.

i would love a pension. there was an assumption made by mr. corngold that we get pensions, and i would encourage anybody never to make assumptions about what you see for anyone anywhere. i'm very concerned about my age, and when i heard anothere talk aboanothere -- another gentleman talking about seniors, i will be there in 20 years. i appreciate us being comprehensive in our thinking. once last little point i'll harp on is the term gypsy cab is derogatory. there's a whole people called gypsys, and they're persecuted in europe. they're regulated, as far as i'm concerned, and we should be doing more to regulate them. i don't know that we should be calling them cabs, but i would encourage my colleagues to veer away from those kinds of terms.

they are offensive to some. thank you very much. >> thank you director ramos. directors, anymore feedback, comments. >> question. >> oh, yes, director torres. >> i'm unfamiliar with this process. do we go -- do we go line by line and vote to remove invites that we don't like or vote to keep items that we do like? what is the process? >> what we try to do is use this kind of run up to the process to get the sense to the board so i can put together something that's going to be hopefully largely in sync with what you're seeking. hopefully next week, we will have a large ballot proposal, whi. >> so on that point, what's your feeling about removing anything for the cab drivers.

>> i would like to give you a comprehensive recommendation when we come back in two weeks, but it will show line by line here's what i'm proposing we subtract and add on the revenue side. in two weeks it would be great to get feedback on any of those that you like, don't like, so that when i come back on april 3rd, hopefully, it's a budget that reflects what you all want, but we do have a second meeting in april, in case you do want to make any changes to that meeting, which has happened in the past, and we can even schedule a third meeting. >> speaking of director ramos's concerns about reaching maturity, as we all will eventually. >> if we're lucky -- if i'm lucky. >> and i don't like people call gypsys out, because it was some other people that killed the gypsys and the jews.

lastly, i think the point you made was excellent in emergency ro room -- in terms of what kind of subsidies do we provide? do we make allowance for transportationly gifted? do we move toward no fee at all. >> for low and moderate income people with disabilities, they can ride muni for free. >> and chronologically gifted. >> and chronologically gifted. >> they're going to make that an item, madam chair. >> all right. if there are no otherment coulds, i'll add my voice to what vice chair heinicke said, and i also agree that for those families who are luckily enough

to be able to easily afford their children's muni passes, then let's go ahead and have them do that as their support to our system and their support to our friends who perhaps can't afford them, and no more gypsy term and we're chronologically lucky. >> we're gifted, too. >> all right. if there are no other comments, and director reiskin, if you have no other items for us. >> i do want to recognize our director of finance and technology, and the staff throughout the agency who worked to put all this together. it's a very large and complex budget, and she's not -- not only not gifted at operating powerpoint slides back and forward, but she's very gifted at all this work. i want to acknowledge her and all the folks that have worked on this budget to date. >> excellent.

excellent. it is. [ inaudible ] >> if people don't have computers at home, they can always go use the computers at the library, because i believe on wednesday, some of the libraries are open late. it comes back to us. when will we and the public get to see the actual numbers, the big file, the big budget book that people always love to pore over. >> so as director reiskin mentioned, we'll be before you with better numbers next time. it won't be completely balanced, but close to balancing. you'll see the book right

before the april 3rd meeting, sometimes the first of march to the third week of march. >> excellent. and if there are no other questions, we will move on. madam chair, item 13 is to take a vote and go into possible closed session. >> we'll take a vote. all in favor, aye? all opposed? we'll go into closed session, but take a two-minute break first.

♪ >> i am so looking forward to the street fair tomorrow. >> it is in the mission, how are we going to get there? we are not driving. >> well what do you suggest? >> there are a lot of great

transportation choices in the city and there is one place to find them all, sfnta.com. >> sfmta.com. >> it is the walking parking, and riding muni and it is all here in one place. >> sitting in front of my computer waiting transportation options that is not exactly how i want to spend my saturday night. >> the new sfmta.com is mobile friendly, it works great on a tablet, smart phone or a lap top, it is built to go wherever we go. >> cool. >> but, let's just take the same route tomorrow that we always take, okay? >> it might be much more fun to ride our bikes. >> i am going to be way too tired to ride all the way home. >> okay, how about this, we can ride our bikes there and then we can take muni home and it even shows us how to take the bikes on the bus, so simple right here on my phone. >> neat.

we can finish making travel plans over dinner, now let's go eat. >> how about about that organic vegan gluten free rest rft. >> can't we go to the food truck. >> do you want to walk or take a taxi. >> there is an alert right here telling us there is heavy traffic in soma. >> let's walk there and then take a taxi or muni back. >> that new website gives us a lot of options. >> it sure does and we can use it again next weekend when we go to see the giants. there is a new destination section on the website that shows us how to get to at&t park. >> there is a section, and account alerts and information on parking and all kinds of stuff, it is so easy to use that even you can use it. >> that is smart. >> are you giving me a compliment. >> i think that i am. >> wow, thanks. >> now you can buy dinner.

sfmta.com. access useful information, any (shouting.). >> more and more city's high san francisco is committing to dislocate to end all traffic death that means improving safety for people walking and driving and safety on our streets is everyone's responsibility people can make mistakes but not result in injury or death all traffic collisions are preventable as drivers you play a large role that will give you the tools to

drive safely on streets a recent survey asks hundreds of drivers about save city introduce driving what did they say watch for distracted behavior and slow down and be patient and check for people before you turn the facts about city driving shows how important to be alert most collisions happen in good weather allowance even at 25 mile-per-hour it takes a vehicle 85 feet to stop this is almost 7 car lengths slowing down makes collisions less savior when a person is hit by a passerby vehicle 25 minor the chance of death is 25 percent 40 percent that increases inform 85 percent

slowing down didn't cost much time driving behind a person takes 9 extra semiautomatic and stopping at the yellow light takes only 30 seconds by hitting someone costs you hours and weeks of our time and maybe a life take a deep breath and take you're time cities cross america are being safely for walking and driving some streets are confusing here's what you need to know all intersection kroukz of novelist marked some are marked to make them more visible other crosswalks and intersections are raised to the level of sidewalk to actress as speed bump and people are maybe crossing be cautious and watch for people

when you approach any intersection advanced limit lines and pedestrian yield signs show drivers where people walk and stop behind the lines at stop signs and for people crossing bulb outs where the sidewalks extends into the street make that tease easy to see pedestrians and remember to slow down whether making reasons and watch for people on sidewalk estimations extensions that maybe closer than you expect and bicyclists may motive to the left to get around bulb outs this gives people a head start allowing pedestrians to enter the crosswalk before transfer starts moving makes them more

visible pedestrian scrimmage and stop the vehicles in all directions allow people to cross including department of building inspection scrambles are paired with no light restriction and rapid beacons you turn bright whether the pedestrians are there or the center is activated precede slowly as you approach the beacons especially, if their activated a pedestrian crossing light turns yellow before turning sold red back to flash red procedure after making a full stop as long as the sidewalk is empty and, of course, stop whenever the light is red traffic circles reduce conflicts you must stop at the

strewn and precede around the raise your right hand of the circle watch for people in crosswalks and people in bikes coming around the circle arrows indicate where people with bikes share the intersections and people have ride to people on bikes have the right to use the lane whether or not in the sharing bike lanes are for people protected by parks e.r. parked cars and stay out of separated bike lanes unless an emergency dashed bike lanes are a shared zone four for vehicles to change lanes slow bike lanes allow the circles their unusually sprayed before

me from other traffic some bike lanes are built to the level higher than the street but lower than the sidewalk they provide a safe separated space sponsor cyclists are around vehicles the box areas are marked with the stencil at intersections act as advanced limit lines for people to garter at a red light this increases the 1r0ir7b9 to drivers people will ride past stopped vehicles at the fronltd of the intersection give them room and stop short of limit line behind the bike without objection and cross only after the green light and people cleared the bike box bicycle traffic lights allow people on bikes to proceed while vehicles are stopped be unaware aware of

those bike san francisco general hospital but stay alert and only skrans when the vehicle is cleared the intersection let's take a quiz to see what all of learned here we go number one when do month collisions happen did you say in daytime you're correct question two if an intersection is not marched is it still a crosswalk yes did you get it right great job one more before we go on what's one of the best things to do to avoid collisions? you can it take a breath pay attention and slow down city streets are crowded and chaotic so seeing everyone every single everything is difficult here's a test how many times did

the white team pass the ball? if you answered 11 you're correct but did you notice anything else also be aware ever you're surrounded and remember that is easy 0 miss something if you're not looking for it here's some basic principles driving near peep e people from you're driver's seat it is difficult address our mirrors to reduce blind spots people on bicycles maybe be in our blind spot give yourselves plenty of time to react look out stay on

the road from building to building not just curve to curve check driveways and behind parked vehicles for people that enter our path turning vehicles are especially dangerous important people walking and collisions often occur when vehicles are making tunnels when you turn remember check for people using the crosswalk before starting you're turn watch for people on bikes traveling in the ongoing direction always check our mirrors and blind spots patience pays off take a moment to make sure you're clear while it might feel you'll save time by driving fast or turning without checking you won't save driving only adds a few semiautomatic to our trip a

collision can cost you, your job or someone's live here's important things to remember all crosswalks are legal and pedestrian have the right-of-way people cross the street anywhere children and seniors and people with disabilities are the most vulnerable think city strits give buses and streetcars a lot of the space or people returning to catch a train don't block the box this creates dangerous situation for people walking how are forced into moving traffic and people bicycling out of the bike lane and people on bikes most city streets are legal for bicyclists even without signs people biking can fall in front of you provide a safe amount of space

when passing someone on a bike a minimum of 3 feet is required by law in california and people on bikes prefer to be in the bike lane in for the this is often to avoid accidents give them room people on bikes will stay away from the traffic or watch out for open doors whoops that was a close one expect people to go to the front of the light and pass on the right a tap of the horn maybe useful to make you're preservation known but avoid using the horn it may saturday night be someone vehicles anybody right turns are especially dangerous important biking always approach right

turns properly signal early and wait for people biking through the intersection move as far to the right to people on bikes can pass on the left let's try a few more questions who are the most vulnerable people on city streets? children? seniors, and people with disabilities why do people on bikes ride close to travel there to avoid car doors what is one of the most dangerous situations for people walking and riding bikes? turning vehicles and what can you do to make sure that everyone is safe in any situation? thartsz stay patient and alert

and, of course, slow down parking and loading a vehicle on accredit city streets is a challenge weather parking and unloading always check for people in our mirrors and blind spots and on the driver's side with our right turn right hand this causes you to look 40 on your left for bicyclists when passersby exiting the vehicle make sure about opening the door know where loading zones are if not loading zones available use side streets never stop in bike lanes or traffic lanes. >> bad weathering and visible

rain and fog or low lighting make it hard to see you're vehicle is likely to slide or loss control in eye i didn't controls and create issues for people walking and biking they tried try to avoid pulled and umbrellas and construction get slippery for people the safety thing to do in conditions whether wet or icy or dark slow down and drive more carefully remember going fast may on this save you a few semiautomatic but speeding may cause you a life or you're job people walking and biking are vulnerable people can be distracted or make unsafe decisions as a driver the responsibility for safety lies

with you a collision could mean the loss of our life or you're job and dealing with the legal implementations could take years or an emotional toll if someone is killed in a crash help us achieve vision zero and everyone can use the streets safely. >> thank you for watch and following the important driving tests your remember we're counting on you

>> all right. madam chair, directors, the sfmta board of directors met in closed session to discuss in two cases. the board voted unanimously to approve the anderson and huang cases. the next item would be to make a motion to disclose or not disclose. >> vote to disclose. all in favor? aye? all opposed? okay. we vote not to disclose. >> and madam chair, that concludes the items today. >> okay. thank you very much for spending your afternoon with us.

>> all right. madam chair, directors, the sfmta board of directors met in closed session to discuss in two cases. the board voted unanimously to approve the anderson and huang

cases. the next item would be to make a motion to disclose or not disclose. >> vote to disclose. all in favor? aye? all opposed? okay. we vote not to disclose. >> and madam chair, that concludes the items today. >> okay. thank you very much for spending your afternoon with us. puc. noe. noe. noe valley valley.