-- ongoing savings. $300,000 one-time savings. reductions would further reduce the planned decrease of its 1920 budget to the a decrease of ,737 o in the 19-20 budget. as i understand it, the department does concur with our reductions shown on pages 37 and 38 ofur report. >> supervisor cohen: so the savings include capital expenditures and savings? >> that's right.

>> supervisor cohen: and savings from r freigh adeicens fees. >> correct. >> supervisor cohen: last week we talked rfid. it was a spirited conversation, if you will. do you want to make a presentation about it? >> i can certainlyffer som additional remarks. let me first state that the only risk or way a patron's borrowing habits could be compromised is through unauthorized access to a secure staff database. rfid has noearing on that risk. at risk appears today. we do have safeguards in place that would mitigate that from happening. with regards to rfid, our intended use is from direction of american libraries association office of intellectual freedom and national information standards

organization. our privacy policy gov use of rfid technology. we have a plan to use a passive rfid tag. thislai p rfid tag on a library card. there would be n patr information stored on an rfid tag or any bibliographic information. the author orubject of given book would not be stored on an rfid tag. all that would be on that tag is a series of numbers that is plainly visible on every item in our collection on the bar code sticker. i stand by my earlier that is no risk whatsoever to patron privacy. >> supervisor cohen: okay. supervisor fewer. >> supervisor fewer: i wanted to mention that after last week's conversation with rfid, i met with mr. lantern and i comfortable in approving the recommendation for that expediture. and i also just wanted to say

that we had a conversation about if we should be buildino able abo our libraries that are to be renovated in a short period of time. we think it with probably be good use of public ld. thank you. >> thank you. >> supervisor cohen:nyth questions for this gentleman? k you. we appreciate your presentation and clarity. >> thank you. >> supervisor cohen: however, i stillnk t cversation l rag on about rfid. >> okay. [laughter] >> supervisor cohen: m.t.a. >> madam chair, i was wondering if you want to do that based on what you did at the airport and also at the po think the committee -- >> supervisor cohen: took office. >> as to whether or not you accept our recommendations. >> supervisor cohen: you are right. i realized that and was going to come back to it. let's go ahead and complete item 4 and then take action on -- >> madam chair, i'm sorry to

interrupt. should we also speak to the accept and expend for the friends and foundation? >> supervisor cohen: sure. the ,0u.ha eth resolution before you today would authorize the library to accept and extend up to $813,350 of cash and in-kind contributions from the friends and foundation of the san francisco public library. this amounts to an 8% increase over lastear's gift and we're extremely fortunate to have such robust support from our friends at t library. these funds allow us to enhance the level of service we're able to provide to the community and it funds popular programs like our open house events the a at neighborhood branches, summer stride, our one city-one ogram, initiatives like science bio blitzes. we appreciate the partnership with the friends and we appreciate your consideration of this grant award and i'm available to answer any questions you have about that as

well. >> supervisor cohen: thank you. i don't think there's any questions about the grant. it'sstraforwar donations are cash and in-kind gifts. colleagues, i wrong in my assumption? okay. looks like we're okay. just so there is clarity for the men and women in t chamber, items 1-3 will remain open. we'll take the b.l.a. recommendations as each department comes befo us, but item 4 we're going to take action and take public comment on. oer questions, why d't we take public comment on item 4. please come on up. >> excuse me, i'm not clear. are we doing 1, 2 and 3? >> supervisor cohen: no, we're we' taking action on item pen. 4. >> deputy city attorney john gibner. i believe the committee opened public comment on items 1, 2, an 3 after thertpo presentation but before taking any action. so now you are taking public

comment on item 4 and additional items on the agenda as you go through the day, bun, -- but 1, 2, and 3 have received public comment. >> supervisor cohen: it's open. maybe i should make a motion to reopen it. >> if there are people that missed the public comment call, committee could reopen public comment and take public comment on 1, 2, and 3 as well as number 4 now. >> supervisor cohen: okay. ommederstood that you did on that department and then went on to the next department and that the action on items 1, 2, and 3 related to the first department that you heard. i certainly would like to make public comment on 1, 2, and 3 and the acting city librarian has just given you an extensive descrif w ohahougs are on items 1, 2, and 3.i nk thi that merits public comment, separate from item 4.

>> supervisor cohen: back up. so for ims 1, 2 and 3, we haven't heard the full -- i'm going to keep it open. there will be an opportunity for you to take -- for us to take comment on items 1, 2, and 3. >> today? >> supervisor cohen: yes, of course. what i would like to do is complete item 4 and take public comment on item 4 at this time. if you would like to speak on item 4 -- >> i think that the committee should take a very close look at what the libry is not only taking supposedly from the friends but in particu what is being provided to the friends in a wle range of benefits that are not mentioned and invisible. so the first thi we'e atedpey found that the friends are keeping some 90% of what they take in and giving the library 10% o les taas true in the

past and there's a whole range of things that the friends are giving -- supposedly giving. for example, at the library, it's shown as a $9,0 donation, but it's a gigantic advertising piece for the friends that they get exclusive use of and extensive use of in that publication. year in the main entrance of the main library as the first things that you see. and it contradicts the library slogan of "fee and equal access." the friends get to essentially sell library assets for selected donors at various levels. so t naming of rooms, and the naming of bookshelves, the placement of bricks revamped library.

there's a whole range in essentially they're selling off the public good. and i would certainly be concerned with the friends -- some other ways in which they use funding and it's not visible. we know that the fppc in sacramento found the library in violation of open government law with respect to the prior reporting and luis herrera did not follow the law and had to sign a stipulation that he had violated the law for tee years in a row by claiming that he had gotten nothing in the way of donations from the friends. thank you. >> supervisor cohen: thank you for sharing your perspective. next speaker, please. >> members of the board of rviso, ray hart, director of san francisco open government. and can i get this to work? >> supervisor cohen: gov tv, overhead, please. >> and could i get my time back

while we're waiting for -- can i get the 30 seconds i've lost waiting for that? politics author frank hubbard says that politics is the art of appearing candid and completely open while concealing as much as possible. you have seenethi similar to this, the friends and family grant. and they will come in and say, we want to get $820,000. this is what they do. they put other people's money, the designated donors, as an inclusion as if it's from the friends. what the friends in this

particular year gave was $410,000. this from the website charity navigator, the numbers were provided by the friends to this website and they tout its wonderful thing. if you look at what they spent during the same year, $4 million. sohen you were a citizen of san francisco and you go to the library's website and there's a link directly from the city department website tohe friends, you think y mourey is going to the library and only 10% or less is actually going to support the library. 90% of it doesn't go anywhere. issiomes a said, libraryco this is a fraud, this is a scam, and they don't bother -- and i said, if you can prove i'm wrong, i would think you would want to shut me up by proving an the bottom line is, mr. warfield previously stated, we took the former city

librarian to the fbbc in sacramento because for three consecutive years, he filed his statement of economic interest saying he got nothing from the friends and the fbbc after investigation ruled he was getting $5,000 a year of stuff he was supposed to be reporting and failed to report. so basically, this whole thing is a scam the citizens give the money thinking that it's going to the library and 90% of it. >> supervisor cohen: next speaker for item 4. >> good morning. my name is carol simmons and i'm a san fraco a a former library director in the bay area. ieaking to congratulate the friends and the library on their wonderful partnership. i have to tell you that as a former director in daly city that the san francisco friends and foundation has been a model for us in how to create a

successful partnership between the library and the city. and so when we were forming our foundation daly city, we turned to san francisco friends and foundation for advice and for mentorship. and they were extremely gracious in giving both to us and have helped us as we've come along and really raised some money for the daly citybrary. so i did want to congratulations the friends and family for this wonderful donation to the library and celebrate the partnership. thank you. >> supervihen:cohank you. m maria sapella, executive director for friends foundation of the library. we're happy to be here. we've been a backbone and partner that allows the community to support its library. we do more than this gifrt --

gift to the library. the interpretation that you just heard is not correct. all of our audits and annual reports are on our website. half of ourudge is in our bo program. is pretty much a neutral, sometimes profitable pr of our book selling, which is a community organization of our own ande urhilanthropiciece and we're a very big advate fo the community. much of what we do is make sure that the lry psen fund is maintained, that can be renewed and that the lry a ve strong public base. i will just invite you to contin t look at the numbers. they mean different things to different people and can be interpreted in many ways. when you loo aereakdown of restricted and unrestricted funds, the restricted funds that are being referred to are funds that we -- we manage five endowments on top of the

restricted amount. there is management of these assets that are managed and released in a way that's strategic to the library. once again, we're happy to give this money and continue to be the comm advocate for in the country. library sysem thank you so much. >> supervisor cohen: any other member of the public that would like to share their ideas or mments seeing item 4 is closed. colleagues, can we take action on this item? may we move with a positive recommendation? >> yes. >> supervisor cohen: all right. we'll move with a positive recommendation. fyri to the public that de item -- and would i like to take public comment on items 1, 2, and 3. public comment for items 1, 2, and 3 are open. yes, we're reopening it. >> again, ray hart, director san

francisco open government and i'm talking about the budget of the library. i have 36rders of determination finding violations of the sunshinee,hich violations of either the brown act or cnia public records act. a dozen of those are the library either trying to keep me from getting public records to substantiate the phrases. the previous speakers -- i presented statistics and documents and they say, it's a wonderful relationship. i will tell you what's happened in the library. i've been going for 10 years now and the friends never show up at that meeting anymore. they used to show up and show of those false numbers saying, we're giving $700,000, $800,000, hiding that the money was coming from other people and there taking credit for it. erhehow numbers and they have access tol the numbers. one of the things that is hard to to try to get the library to financial arrangement.theor the

re supposook t oor the benefit of the library and yet they know absolutely noting out where this money gohond it' stopped talking about the friends at the public lib ngsmmhey can't prove me wrong. bottom line is, in all the people over here in the controller's department, etc., you know that if somebody walks up with numbers and statistics that are actually from a public source and they're confronted -- and the only response they get is, oh, we do wonderful things. and we have all this. we have all that. if they could have proved me wrong, they would have done it to shut me up years ago. and they can't i bec right. 0% of the money they raise goes to the ar 90% ofs questionable where it goes. and by now, the friends or the library, if they could, would have shown that i'm wrong and instead what they do is activelp

lic. >> supervicoext sp again, this is for items 1-3. if you would like to comment on any of the budgets for the -- regarding the airport, the port, the library, m.t.a., environment, building inspections or public utilities commission, now is the time. >> thank you, chairman, and supervisors. i'm carol simmons, san francisco resident and former library director in the bay area. and i would like to speak in support of the library's budge request and in particular in support of the implementation of rfid technology. having read the article in the paper last week, i think there's an unfounded fear of privacy violations. and so i wanted to speak to a little bit of our experience down on the peninsula in implementing rfid beginning in 2009. so i have touched base with my

colleagues down there to see if there has been any concerns or any reports of privacy violhereatns have not. and as acting city librarian michael lambert said, it's because of the way tt libraries implement rfid technology. they only use -- there are many types of id chipsnd labels and they're used in many industries, including retail and shipping. but the tags tat are used by libraries are for inventory control only and they're used in order to increase efficiency of operations. they've only two elements on them. the bar code is through a reader and interfaces with the system. when you check an item out, the security toggle is set to off, walk out of the item wou have checked out. it'shecked back in, the reverse takes place. the security toggle is on and libraries use that to prevent theft. but i just wanted to say that

rfid inlibr ies is industry standard and it also really increases the efficiency of the automated hing system, which is -- allows you to check out and check large amounts of items and have them fed more quickly through the redistribution process either nto patron hands or on the shelves. one of the other things that's really important about rfid is it prevents repetitive motion injuries to staff. >> supervisor cohen: thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you. next speaker, please. >> madam chair cohen, supervisors fewer, stefani, yee, thank you for the opportunity to speak before you. i'm joseph bryant. i'm the regional vice president of sciu 10-1. we're here to speak on a

particular issue that we're facing and it pertains to some of our employees wh the sfmta. i thin we' made all of you aware of this issue in regards to the school crossing guards, you know, school crossing guards provide essential services to ensure that kids can get to school safely and on time and so forth. with this positi, a number of these folks just faced challenges in terms of the that theirmploymt is structures, essentially short hourha't allow the to reach thelsehere they can benefit from pension, healthcare and so forth. so we're asking with this budget, the $1.2 billion budget within the sfmta, tosider correcting this problem of our school crossing guards to allow them to live and prosper in the

city and county of san francisco. sfmta is a department we've worked mutually with on many issues andeen able to resolve many of these. we aeel this is of mutual benefit to resolve the sfmta has referenced challenges in terms of retention of employees and so forth. from our perspective in regards to the workers that are dealing with it and struggling to stay on with that, but we ask through this process is we try to correct this issue. again, we feel it's mutually benefial for the department, for the workers, that we give those an opportunity to prosper in the city and county of san francisco. thank you. >> supervisor cohe: thank you. next speaker, pleas >> hello, chair and supervisors on the budget committee. i'm michael weinberg, political organizer sciu 10-1, and i'm speaking to you about the crossing guards as well.

we've been to you before. we'veee attempting to raise the issue with the mta and they've beene t address any of the issues. so we're asking you to address the issues so that not only these wkers can be treated appropriately, but that the service is provided in a safe and fair manner. we know that crossing guards provide a valuable service that is very popular service in the city. the way the program is management now, it's not fair to either the taxpayers or the employees who are being mistreated andiven poor opportunities to provide services and the department spends an inordinant amount of money doing constant recruitments because of the low wages and compensation and hours. and those are things that need to be addressed.

got copies of the m.t.a. presentation on the crossing guard program, where ty identify all of these issues and challenges with the program and et are refusing to address. so i have these issues here for you to take a look at. so we're asking for your assistance in giving guidance and direction to the m.t.a. to meet with us to work on addressing these issues this year, right now. thank you very much. >> supervisor cohen: thank you. next speaker, please. mr. clerk, could you grab the -- >> clerk: yes. please leave it in the box and we'll pick it up. >> hello. i'm marymid. i'm working as a crossing guard and i'm speaking up for them. i've been there for -- since 2014 to now.

let me tell you something, it's really, really dangerous to work in that place. i work and cesar chez and harrison and somets ars pa attention and the kids have to run awayhe other way on the street and it's very, very scary because sometimes we can get hit and nobody looks like anybody cares about us. and also they don't appreciate us. they just don't appreciate us. so, i don't know. >> supervisor cohen: is that it? >> yes. >> supervisor cohen: thank you. you are appreciated. >> thank you. >> hello,ood rnin, members of the board. i'm hector cardenos, uni dics.sentative for sfmta and

thesfmta presented the difficulties for recruitmentnd retent sc fool crossing guard program, illustrating the high turnover rate of employees s ipeortant work of getting children, disabled, elderly and general public across the streets of san francisco safely before and after school. is is b scrossing guard job is hardly treated as a obaly cuently, it's a temporary exempt job without grievance procedure. it is the lowest paid and no benefits for a job requiring putting one'sf in harm on the streets ofan francisco. the sfmta has refused to meet twice to adequately address the issues along with the request to review the equipment provided for the job. when asked for a review on proper care resistant rain gear, the sfmta provided the following

response. "sfmta has issued 90% of the protected r g access listed in your draft proposal to the sustain strets di unfortunately, we cannot entertain any new proposals at this time. you are encouraged to address this during contract negotiations in 2019." please put that money in the budget, so we canotie to make it a proper position for the city and county. thank you. >> supervisor cohen: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. good morning. my name is reese isbel, regular library user. and would i like to speak to the rfid issue. and i regularly check out graphic novels. he alot, actually. and along with other books that i check out.

and, as you can see, you can check out a lot when you go to the library with your library card, which is great. part of what our rfid does is allows -- as you know, when you k book, you have your library card. you put it under the scanner. and then you scan each one. this is for librarians as well as the public, like me. and it takes several seconds and several amounts of time. the difference with rfid is, you just put them in the block and it goes ng, ding, ding, ding, ding. you don't hav to go through the separate scannings. that's very important for large amounts of borrowing. and it sounds small but it actually adds up to 12,000 to 15,000 hours or the work of six to seven full time employees

annually. so that's quite a big deal. it also assists them and our community members using the self-serve with issues with the continual use of this, as well as when you check out an audio visual or a cd, the rfid will tell you if it's already in the case or not. you don't have to open it and then close it to check. so there's a number of benefits witrfid. and i would encourage you to support it. thank you. >> supervisor cohen: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. i'm karen strauss. i'm the past chief of the atan francisco public library and i'me in support of the proposal for implementing rfid at the library from the perspective of protecting our

investment and our collections over the more than 125 years of the existence of the san francisco public library tens and hundreds of millions of dollars has been provided to build up a gloous collection of mas and books and video and other formats and one of the things that rfid does in addition to the benefits you've heard about, mucbeer access t t for staff aat alike in terms of being able to find things. and one of the difficulties of a system as ours is so large and spread around so many locations in our city is that things -- things are not always exactly where we think they are at any given time for a host of very legitimate reasons. andsorfid, in addition to all these other benefits you've heard about, is inventory

control, which is no small issue when we talk about the $10 million every year that the library devotes to enhancing and imolle ction for all of san franciscans. thank you. >> supervisor cohen: thank you. next speaker. >> madam chair andmembers. my name is bob finebaum. i'm chair of save muni. and i suspect, madam chair, that you will hold a comment period after the m.t.a. budget as well, is that correct? >> supervisor cohen: no, that's not correct. now is your time to talk about the m.t.a. budget. thank you. >> thank you. two things. first of all, we've submitted a statement. i will submit a written copy for you today, which should be in your packet, where we're asking you to reject the m.t.a. budget and send it back for further work. today you will hear a report from the budget analyst on every

department other than the m.t.a. i understand the m.t.a. decision you have to make is to vote for it or to reject it. but that does not excuse the fact that you need information that can appropriate i will be given by a budget analysis. we call upon you to not take action on the m.t.a. budget today but to ask the budget analyst to do a thorough analysis, focusing specifically on theonal a onnel, additional bt, that is being asked for by the m.t.a. and whether those services cannot be provided within the existing budget as it is few constituted. so we think that the m.t.a. budget should be rejected. we think it needs more work. and we think that the process by

which it was adoptedth m.t. board is very flawed and would commend to you to use your extraordinary powers to reject the budget and i would like to give the clerk af our statement. >> supervisor cohen: please. you can put it in the box here and we'll collect it and make sure it's reflected in the file. is there another speaker? >> good morning.egor williams. came in here yesterd. and i indicated your unprofessionalism as councilmembers and you wibe terminated. rw i have a question. ards to indications that are being discussed now. is it in general or is it one specific category we're discussing at this time? >> supervisor cohen: it's public comment at this time. >> okay. again, what i identify on your

paperwork, which is proposed that it must be reviewed because there is so much excessive financial means that is being and it goes to the question where we don't s any change, where the actual financialbi to the ecic category doesn't provide any change. so wre is the funding going? and whom, one of you, are allowing this excessive funding? i'm the beneficiary. i own this wealth. what are you doing with e financial means -- education, libraries, law enforcement? what else? re ie the funding going? because we shouldn't be nt o talking osalopthe same concept in the hen we got to overreview the proposals because some of

them don't make sense. you are utilizing futile spending form things that we don't see betterment or advancements. so it's important that we understand what we intend to do. i will be sitting in that chair i am the chair. so hopefully before the day is over, constituentsill rise and escort you out of this building. i'm peterwarfield, executive director of library users association and we strongly oppose and join with others in opposing if i funding whatsoever for rfid. when the library says there's no risk toatron privacy, that's them saying it.

and conditionally, they're basically saying no risk to access tohe data be without that, you can't tell what the title is. the first issue is, there's authorized access very much available from one of thee people that people are concerned about with privacy and that is the government. the government with subpoenas or through the patriot act can get at that library database with no problem whatsoever. but it isn't even required to have access to the database to provide privacy threats. erfe ply safe? the library. the aclu and electronic frontier foundation have centers will to luis herrera. i've provided copies of those in which they say, oppose and continue to oppose rfid use in libraries because of its privacy

and free speech concerns. lso an early sty, w i've also ped supervis said, current conventional wisdom suggests that privacy risks negligible unless there is toss library databases. we show that's notcase. thre are books about this problem spy chips, how major corporations and government plan to track your every move with rfid. it's a serious privacy threat. it mtherfunctional problems, expenses. you can get fines and fees for years with the cost of this. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is bill calledman, first floor manager at the library and sciu10-21, having

worked in two other libraries that utilize rfid, i can tell that you it covers greatly increased efficiency. it frees staff from the routine process of checking in and out materials, affdingm to do what they're there for -- serve the public. despite what other commenters continue to report there, is no increas increased privacy exposure. of i've talked to berkeley public library ad contra a library who are in position to know about privacy concerns and they state there h b no cons of patron privacy in regards torfid. we're in a position t replace thehnolgy we hav in the ibrary that we already have regardless if we implement rfid.

the example i would give you. ifd an tra player in your car and it broke down, you probably with not replace it with an 8 track player. you would upe you technology, which is exactly what we're doing with this project. i appreciate your time. >> supervisor cohen: any other members of the public that would like to comment on 1-3 or the department budgets, airport, library, mta, inspections or puc. seeing none -- no, no. you have made your public comment. public comment is closed. all right. public comment is closed for items 1-3, however these items will remain open. now i would like to call items 5 and 6 together, so we can hear that. we're going to hear from m.t.a.

>> item 5 is a transfer up to $4 llion theo general fund for overpayment and duplicate payments to the city for park anrans t v between january 1, 1994, june 30, 2016. item 6 is a resolution authorizing substitution of a letter of credit offered b sumitomo mitsui acting through its new york branch not to exceed $100 million to support the micipal transportation agency commercial paper program. >> supervisor cohen: last week the issue of crossing guards was raised by supervisor sheehy, who isut o today. i don't know if there's an appetite on this body to hearyo. the other thing i want toind you is issue of taxi

dallmeon strategies was also ised a perhaps you can weave some information into your presentation. but the rest i give the floor u. thank you. mbers of the committee.r, ed briskin, director of transportation. ithwd to the budget items, i appreciate the feedback that we got from you last week. i think it was four of the five of you, including supervisoreeh interest in us doing more with regard to crossing guards. to remind you of the context, large pt of our dg is directed towards investing in phys chang in our streets to make them safer. a lot of them are targeted on h city and a lot ofhose school locations and other areas where we have vulnerable populations. we, moreover, do extra work at some of the areas in the yellow

crosswalks that we do at schools, lower speed limits. we have an engineering program where we have an engineer dedicated to working with schools to put further improvements in play and we recently assumed management of the safe routes to school program. so we are, as you v focused assuring performance and safe passage to and from schools and other such facilities. the crossing guards are really one part of that. and certainly an important part of that. as i indicated to you last week, we are proposing to increase from 195 215 crossing guards. and that would allow us to fulfill all of the outstanding we have for crossing guards. and changes that we have made recently to how we recruit crossing guards means it has brought us to the point whe we're at the highest staffing levels, i believe, that we've ever had. nevertheless, i did hear from

many of you last week that you would like to see us go beyond that. so what i sent to you yesterday t the level of ferease $150,000 that would allow us to do a menu of things. itoue to 10nal crossing guards. it could be for other services that support ourfe routes to school and safe routes to seniors program. and that was really -- it was the spirit of some of what i heardm fro you last week, particularly supervisor sheehy's comments, in that w like us to have funds available to fulfill any additional requests for crossing guards, if edene but not to lock up those funds such that they could not otherwise be used. so this proposal, which iave confirmed support for from my board chair and vice chair, would give us the flexibility to either add more crossing guards,

if there are morestwe currentlyd make sense for us to fulfill, or to flex those funds for other school-supportedtivies. at's what -- additional proposal with crossing guards. with the taxes and tncs, we would have an opportunity to get into that in detail athe hearing, supervisor cohen, that you called for in july. we have released a study that was commissioned last year by us to take a look at the issues airpon at yo somewhat thpast situation with taxis relative to tncs and we're taking comment and feedback from the taxi industry. it's certainly available for publicme ll. at we will be making our

recommendations for steps to take moving forward and we will use the hearing that out all have proposed holding as one of the essentially public hearings for that process and a t vet community feedback as well as to vet any recommendations that we come forward with. so those are the budget items on items 5 and 6. item 5 is the result of a state law requirement that we -- for any overpayments that we have rarkig ci that we make known those overpayments and try to seek return of those funds to those who have overpaid for whatever reason. people do apparently overpay citations. we w through the state-mandated process to do that and this is for citations from the years 2005 to 2015. and at the end of that process,

there remain $4 million that state law, fortunately for the general fund, says accrues to general city revenues. with this item, you would be accepting that and i believe the budget office has and fit -- anticipated these revenues with regard to the budget they're preparing. and item 6 is an item -- somewhat of a technical change, but the board of supervisors authorized the sfmta to establish a commercial paper program for funding, jus as you have with the transportation authority. there was a line of credit associated with that commercial re.er program that was set to through a competi process, we got a better deal on that line of credit. tha linef credit was part of th approval that you provided, changing the letter of credit requires your approval and that's what's ur

6. so we would respectfully recommend your approval of items 5 and 6. i would be happy to answer any questions about those or the budget. >> supervisor cohen: colleagues, any questions? seeing none. i have a few questions. >> supervisor fewer: i want to comment on the $150,000lexible funds for crossing guards. i'm in disagreement with supervisor sheehy that the funds should be flexible. i think the fact is that our children go to school every day, monday through friday, and even though i understand that you are making capital improvements, i don't think it's adequate enough. in my district, we have -- we have requests for crossing orriarrs that actually, i think, require a human being to stop the traffic. my husband was a traffic cop for

nine years, a police officer for 35, but all he did was strict enforcement on a solo motorcyclist. people do not stop at sto signs people do not yield for pedestrians. he said he is able to give tickets one after another not yielding to pedestrians. when we think about our children going to school themselves, this is crucial. and i actually think that the proposal of having crossing guards on a 20-hour workweek with benefits, makes it an opportunity also for some of our seniors to gain employment that is not only worthwhile and socially fulfilling, but also meet some of the basic requirements of them to be able to live here in san francisco. i feel like this is a small opportunity that m.t.a. can accommodate in their $1.1 billion budget. we're talking about a cost of about $2 million. and i believe that you cannot put a pricetag on the cost of a

child being injured going to school and so i am pushing m.t.a. to sink into their budget an additional $2 million to actually have those crossing guard js be something that is permanent. i'm hearing from crossing guards that if they call in sick, there is no one to tair ace. i do't believe that upping the amount from 195 to 215 solves the problem of recruitment. i think that it's going to take something that is much more foundational to make this -- to make recruitment not so difficult and attract a more stable and realible workorce without turnover and also, as i said before, supervisor yee and i are really looking at employment opportunities for seniors. a part-time job like this, i believe, is actually, could be a absolute to some melessness, but also to food insecurity for our seniors.

i urge you and the board to really look closely at this and see if you can fit that into your budget. i realize you are going i negor wioith seiu, but i think that this at this time, especially when we start school in august, that we -- i want to see our crossing guards in all of our schools be fully staffed with crossing guards. we hear constant complaints also from parents about crossing streets even with their children ause these crossing guards are very visible. they so car autrity with them and they don't cross just children. they cross everyone. they cross me when i'm crossing the street. so i'm looking to m.t.a. to actually see to it that this is in the budget. and i want to address the taxi issue. the taxi issue in your report gives some recommendations, but there is no -- there is no relief for any sort of -- the

financial responsibility on the medallions. to make the medallions have more value is not even addressing the issue that these people have taken out loans of $250,000. they come to our board meetings every tuesday. some of theme children. haey losthe mes. th'tey can even feed their children. people are now -- they are working seven days a week. they're wog a day and all night. this is thekingor class of san francisco. and i agree that m.t.a. had no say in the takeover of the tncs, but this has had an adverse effect on their lives and i feel like it is also very inhumane and heartless to not have a plan to address this financially. this burden, if they default on their loans, it affects their ability to ever get another

loan, to get them out of another financial crisis. and so i'm asking the m.t.a. to come up with more than just a -- what was suggested in the report. i think i need something much more foundational. and until these issues are addressed, i peaanno epprove an m.t.a. inow that or abilitye board and the way the charter is written gives me no option but to vote up or down the m.t.a. budget and knowing how the city depends on m.t.a. and people in my district are some of them wholly dependent on m.t.a. to get them to and from work, it pains me. but i think the two issues -- and i believe because i came before the m.t.a. board, before they e adopted a budget, to bring up these concerns, gave enough headway time and also leeway time to come up with some solid suggestions that actually attack the problem that we're dealing with.

and so i also wanted to mention that i would like to see an expansion of language access, meaning that expansion of language is available and including more languages for outreach and for surveys. and ihi that when i held a hearing on language access ordinance, m.t.a., you spent very little of your budget, your $1.1 billion budget, on language access. for example, i have a russian population in my neighborhood that is dependent on public transportation and no one has asked them what their needs are in their native language. i just think that -- i understand that the m.t.a. has a huge budget and it's ae job, t these main issues brought before the commission, i actually feel like i am not getting a remedy or solution or anything that fully addresses the foundationalissues.

personally, i'm unable to approve a budget that doesn't show me some real solutions to these problems. and because i think they're really important to the livelihood of people in san francisco, it aligns with a vision zero goal. it affects every ighborhood. a fect really the economy of people who are just trying to make a living here in san francisco. i see that we have other people on our list. supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: thank you. i have a quick question about some of the fees that i noticed that were increasing as part of the budget. and some of those pertain to the on-street car share permit fee. how were thencreases determined? >> thank you for the question, through the chair, sup thanu , all of our cost fees

that we add up, labor costs and also labor costs, for the on-streetcar share program, for example, there's signage, there's paint for the curb, but largely, it's labor costs. so we add up all the costs and divide by the number of units that weanticipate. so for the car share program, the number of cars on the street. what we found in the last few years, is that the number of cars that were authorized under the program, the car share companies are not putting out as many as we hadpate and some it's because of neighborhood concerns,arkig lo,. the demnominator is essentially the same. that's why in part the costs go up and generally the costs of

the increases and labor costs from the citywide and m.t.a. labor agreements bring the costs up. i have met with, both, my staff and one of the companies and found that there are some opportunities that we may have to reduce costs. there are a lot of staff time dealin with tows of car share vehicles that shouldn't have happened. so one of the things that we're looking at is to fix the process so if that doesn't happen, we can reduce the amount of staff we need to have to manage the program, we would be able to reduce the fees, but we committed as a principal of our budget that fees for programs like t do cove t cost o administering the program, so we're not subsidizing essentially the programs. we don't want to have to reduce muni service to enable to

private car share operators to have setwe.ant t progo be t successful, but we want it to cover its costs. >> supervisor stefani: thank you. >> supervisor yee: thank you, director. in regards to the $150,000 that you were talking about for the crossing guards to be flexible, just curious -- i heard that you say that it could be used for additional sites or some other usage. i guess -- i'm not too sure if the flexibility includes increasing hours to people so that they can go elsewhere -- as we sort of discussedast- wa it last week, is it an idea that's completely off the books

for your comion a this point? >> so the issue of expanding s nho what's contemplated. what is contemplated here was more intersections to have crossing guards. and then the flexibility is what i thought i had heard from the committee last week or at least maybe it was just from one member, such that if those weren't needed, because we with the additional 20, we will have filled all the known, outstanding needs that we have, that we would be able to flex those funds to other purposes consistent with getting kids to school safely. in terms of the change in hours or the structure of the crossing guard program, the city does have collective bargaining agreement in place with 10-1. the crossing guards are covered under the city's labor contract, not the m.t.a.'s.

they've raised this issue outside of the bargaining process. there is language in the collecti bargaining agreement that establishes the process by which s matter that comes up outside of the bargaining process is to be handled and we're fully committed to working through that process and engaging with seiu on a discussion about this. this didn't come up to me until fairly recently and i -- when it did, i wrote back, you know, responded in writing, saying that we're committed to exploring this with you. [please stand by]

per -- last night i was at the transportation aityor community advisory committee, and one of your appointe was telling me even with the service we added is so crowded often she cannot get on, why can't we add more service. so, we have a lot of demands on the resources of agency from a lot of different areas that we serve and the budget is a reflection of our best attempt to balance the different interests and meet the most critical needs and i believe that the additional, now two eases to the proposal for crossing guards and conjunction