for the rail operation analysis.

>> i would rather be proactive instead of catching up with the project. >> could not agree with you more and the esc has discussed this as a potential risk item. you have asked for this, an ongoing risk register and just tracking and i know that's something director lipkin will do and project development, as well as vice chair. so we're all aware and appreciate your interests in getting ahead and not just reacting and playing catch-up and that way we're doing the best work we can to try to get ahead of these things. >> thank you. and i didn't want to go too far and ask what the register was or the p1 questioned for the 400 items and i won't go there. twelcome to the team, steven.

are you interested in pursuing the permanent position? there's a lot of questions about the interim versus permanent recruitment. >> you put me on the spot, director. this is an important project for me and feels like a capstone of my career and i think i'm in a better position to support this leading the pmpc team and thank you for having, sir, thank you. >> my apologies for putting you on the spot. >> any of the members of the board wishing to speak on this

item? >> you have director lipkin. >> ok, director. >> just quickly, and steven, thank you for the presentation. a little bit of the conversation about the operational analysis and trying to get a little bit ahead and one of the things to clarify for director gi. we're tapping into the existing contracts that activate the services as quickly as we can. i know there's a little bit of contractual stuff to work out and there are issues, but we're trying to go as quickly as possible with that critical path as certainly met. >> thank you, director lipkin. any other members? nothing from your end. >> i don't see any more members of the board indicating. >> thank you all.

that was all very helpful and i see we have an action item to appoint the interim project director and so, with that, do i have a motion? >> i'll move the item to support. >> and do i have a second? >> i'll second the item. >> so i have a motion and a second. thank you, board members and madam secretary, could you see if we have any members of the public wishing to speak on this item. >> yes, madam chair, we do have a couple of the members of the public to address you under this item. donald, if you could look to our first caller. >> speaker: i'm excited with the current developments. congratulations to director

chang and i want to touch a little bit on the importance of appointing as vice chair. for those of you who do not know who andrew is, he will probably be remembered, andrew used to be an engineer and he's a great engineer. but andrew will be remembered as the primary individual for putting the bay bridge back on track and one that thing they learned is waiting until a project is out of control to get involved is basically too late and have decided not to repeat the same mistakes and this is why andrew is here. with regards to the operation's plan, you may be interested in the plan present to mr. lewis zirinaga in 2015. it is basically modeled over the 2012 plan for the olympics.

and they achieved 12 trains an hour in and out per direction, with half of the tracks you have in trans-bay. i suggest you go and look at it and it was developed. (please stand by).

so through the chair, what i would like to ask is that moving forward, the board following the example and posts the written comments of the director on the website after the meeting. thank you. >> that concludes that member of the public. thank you, roland. the next member, donald, please. >> so my name is francisco da costa, and i've been following the various projects linked to the transbay joint powers authority for the last 25 years.

and what i see is that we don't really have a sound [indiscernible] assessment with sound leadership, and some of us know what i mean by that. while i've taken san franciscans for a wild ride, and we still have the same [indiscernible] that come, talking the talk but not walking the walk. not only on this project but other projects. for example, even the sewer system improvement project. and what i am alluding to is there is a lot of corruption, and there's a lot of change orde orders, so we all look forward to this high-speed rail, but why is it taking us so long? it's taking us so long because

really we do not have the main leadership having their heart in the right place. so we knew that total upheaval of the transbay joint powers authority, whether you like it or not. you've got the same guys giving public comment because maybe they got some pleasure giving the comment. i give up. i mean, you go to attend the meetings. you give solutions. but they do what they want to, so that's all i got to say. remember my name is francisco da costa. >> all right, thank you, caller. i've got appears to be the members of the public that have indicated they wanted to address you on that item.

is that right, donald? >> that is correct. >> all right, that concludes your list of callers. >> thank you, donald, for that. i'd like to close public comment. again, i want to thank kyly, andrew and [indiscernible] for their representations, and thank you for [indiscernible] looking forward to working with you in this capacity and the entirety of the project. with that we have a motion and a second. madam secretary, could you please do the roll? >> sure, and i did want to note, it looked like one member of the public just jumped right back in. i don't know, donald, if that is for this item or if they were getting ready for the next item. shall we check with them before we move on? >> yeah, it looked like they jumped in before she was ready to close out on that. >> okay. >> okay, go ahead, donald, please. let them.

>> hi, this is jim patrick calling. i'm calling relative to the recent item we're talking about there, and the philosophy of the -- of what is being done is said how are we going to defer this, and i'd like to see if we couldn't change that philosophy to how can we accelerate this, how can we get this done more efficiently and more quickly, and we've seemingly, in my opinion, from the slide presentation that was shown, well, we'll delay this and try to reduce this time forever. i think that's wrong. let's get after it and let's get it done. thank you. >> all right. that concludes members of the public that wanted to comment on that item, and going once, twice, that concludes your members of the public, madam chair. i know you did call -- you have a first and a second and asked that roll vote be called. i'll go ahead and move into

that? >> yes, please. [roll call] that's seven ayes, and item 13 is approved. >> thank you, madam secretary. please call the next item. >> all right, it is my honor and pleasure to call the next item. it's a resolution of appreciation for executive director mark zabaneh, and at the request of the chair and on behalf of staff, i would like to go ahead and read the resolution

into record, if that's okay with the rest of the board? all right. whereas mark zabaneh joined the authority in 2013 as a senior program manager and was promoted to executive director in 2016. and whereas executive director mark zabaneh has dedicated his career to building california's infrastructure, first in his capacity as an engineer at california department of transportation, caltran, and then as its deputy district director for program and project management where he delivered complex, capital and seismic safety projects throughout the bay area. and whereas prior to joining the tjpa executive director mark zabaneh was a team member of the team that delivered the tunnel, the largest stimulus funded transportation project in the country at the time, delivering the project on time and on budget. he was instrument lowest level in delivering inter-tait 880

interchange project, the interstate -- hov expressway project, san matteo hayward bridge trestle and east approach widening project, as well as several other large and complex projects. and whereas under executive director mark zabaneh's leadership, the tjp delivered the sales force transit center, a modern, regional transportation hub connecting transit systems throughout the bay area and one of the most important pieces of infrastructure to be delivered through the san francisco bay area in a generation, a center at the heart of a new transit friendly neighborhood [indiscernible] and parks and shops, providing access to public transit literally at the foot of people's doorsteps, allowing them to travel and commute without the need for a car. and whereas on behalf of the tjpa, mark zabaneh also successfully negotiated a $110 million naming rights agreement to fund transit center operations, secured environmental approvals and received an amended record of decision from the federal transit administration

[indiscernible] of the program and worked with the region to choose a preferred alignment, all critical milestones in moving the downtown rail extension forward secured 325 million for the development of the construction of phase 2 [indiscernible] one of the highest funding participants -- highest-funded participants, negotiating a complex management agreement to [indiscernible] salesforce transit center. leased more than 80,000 feet of retail space in a challenging real estate market and maximized revenue from advertisement promotions and sponsorships. and [indiscernible] benefit from the thoughtful leadership, knowledge, depth of experience and integrity that executive director mark zabaneh has brought to the tjpa and whereas on october 31, 2020, executive director mark zabaneh will retire from the tjpa. now, therefore, be it resolved that the transbay joint task authority expresses its

gratitude to mark zabaneh and be it further resolved that the tjpa fishes executive director mark zabaneh continues in his best in all his future endeavours. that is the resolution. >> thank you for that, madam secretary. i don't know if mark zabaneh has any words before i turn it over to my fellow board members to comment. >> directors, i just want to thank you very much for your support. i want to thank you, neela and tjpa staff for your continues support. i wouldn't have been able to achieve what i achieved without the support of my staff. thank you. i also thank the board members for their continued support through some really difficult times, but your support was unwavering, and that helped me get the job done, so thank you very much. it's been an honor to be part of the tjpa and it's been extremely rewarding to do that as well.

thank you. >> thank you, executive director mark zabaneh. madam secretary? >> yes, director hirsch and then director lipkin. >> i wanted to thank you mark for his leadership. for me, mark has always been transparent, no surprises. he's understood the problem from both sides of the equation. i will miss working with you, mark. i wish you great success in the next chapter, and i hope -- i challenge this board to find someone with the transparency, integrity and leadership that we're losing. i assume good news for mark, a sad day for us. thank you for your leadership and i wish you great success. >> thank you for your continued support. >> okay, director? >> this is a bit of a sad day but i wanted to celebrate you,

mark. i joined the board in 2017 with the opening of the transit center a couple of months after that and then the ultimate low of the transit center closing due to the vaccine. you provided tremendous leadership during that very, very difficult time and the most important testament to that is now that the center has reopened, there aren't any questions about the safety or the certainty of the repairs that were done, and that's the work that you did in making sure that both the right thing happened at the center and that it was communicated well and that we were able to regain the confidence about the facility, and obviously the transit center itself is an inspiration for what a transit station can look like, what we can do with city building, and it's a world class asset that should be celebrated by uli and anybody else in the world. through all of that you've been earnest and forthright. you know, you've always been concerned with respect to -- and from my vantage point, always been committed to leading in the

way that making sure we're doing right by the public, and you know, committed to kind of good governance along the way, and i very much appreciated that from having networked with you for a couple of years. i of course want to wish you the very best in your future endeavours, and i will echo others in saying we will certainly miss you and we will need to -- we will definitely need help from the next person up to keep that progress going. so thanks very much. >> thank you. >> thank you, director. i see another speaker. >> yes, i wanted to reiterate what the other directors have said. as the newest person to be a director in this group, i've had the least amount of time to collaborate and work with you, which i regret. i very much enjoyed meeting you and getting to know the operation on our tour and seeing the balance sheet and, you know, real estate people and finance

people, we have the same kinds of languages that we speak, and i was very happy to see othello real estate finance person very, very committed to public transparency, very committed to prudent financial management and to public benefits, so i am sad we won't have a huge future at all working together, but i enjoyed my small time. you made a major contribution to the organization and i wish you very well. the very best in your future endeavours. >> thank you so much, director. it's been a pleasure working with you. >> thank you, director. do i have any other members? madam secretary? >> vice chair gee. >> thank you, chair. mark, i'm going to go a little bit different and stay away from the engineering terms. but one of the things in the

business that we're all in of delivering projects, particularly projects of the magnitude you've been a part of, is what i tell my staff and my teams. every project that you do you leave a part of you in that project because you're passionate, you're committed, you're delivering. you cannot be passionate and deliver a project without dedicating yourself to it, whether it's saturday, sundays, going to cac meetings at night. you give of yourself. so i want to thank you, especially i want to thank your family for giving san francisco and the region part of you in the project that you've delivered here at the transit center. and i want to wish you the best on your next series of adventures, and just also a caution. i know where to find you now, so august 31 isn't, again, it's just a new beginning for different adventures, so thank

you. best wishes, and i'll see you around the corner. >> thank you, director gee. it's been a pleasure working with you. >> thank you, vice chair gee. >> you've got director hainey. >> okay, director hainey? >> something happened. >> i think director hainey went to unmute himself but he accidentally muted his -- oh, no, he's got that triangle of bandwidth problem going on there. someone's got his hand up. thank you. >> i'll fill the time. >> thanks. >> already offered my comments earlier, but i just wanted to thank you again for taking on [indiscernible] you shepherded this agency through unbelievably tough times and you've set it in

order for somebody to be able to succeed you skilfully. it really exemplifies the whole idea of public service. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. seems like we have director hainey back. >> yes. >> all right. wi-fi. i just wanted to thank you so much for your service, director zabaneh, and you are always responsive and professional and provided informed briefings. this is a very challenging [indiscernible] [indiscernible].

>> yes, city hall wi-fi indeed. yes, yes. i think we lost him, but in the interim, i do have some remarks if there are no other board members. i think we have everyone, so i will start. i'm very happy for you, mark, but i'm extremely sad. we've come a long way. we started working, and i feel like in most instance it's always been crisis mode. we started working together back in 2015 when we were working on the financing. i got to know you so well. it was such a pleasure working with you, just your ability to be responsive, be transparent, allow us as a city at my time in my prior position as public

finance director to be able to work with the agency to kind of come to some resolution. it was -- i got to really know you then really well, got to work with you, and of course the financing got resolved and you disappeared, but you became the director at the time, and i've just enjoyed working as chair and as a member of this board. one of the recent board members, less than about two years now, and you've just been available, accessible. you have been working through this in these crazy challenging times. i feel like the last three years have been pretty challenging for you, just in [indiscernible] and being responsive and having crisis of the day. i'm happy to see you do something and be passionate about what you will be doing, but the agency will miss you and i will personally miss you, especially now as chair i've

come to work with you even more closely. i'm used to getting calls or conversations with you every week. i don't know what i'll do with my time when you do leave, but you will be missed. really appreciate you and thanks to your family for allowing them -- you the opportunity to be available whenever we need you and be responsive, and thanks to your team for their support as well. so all the best. >> thank you, chair. it's been really truly a pleasure working with you and the other board members. thank you so much. >> i see supervisor haney came back. i'm so sorry, supervisor haney. >> no, no, i think i got in everything i wanted to say. thank you. >> okay. so with that, hearing that no board members want to speak on this item, madam secretary, i don't know if we have any members from the public? >> we have a couple members of

the public that have indicated they want to address you. donald, if you could put through the first caller. >> briefly i really want to give a final thank you to mark for his transparency and sense of humour, including in adversity. it really was a fun ride and i wish him the best for his next chapter in his exciting career. thank you. >> thank you, caller. donald, the next caller, please. >> hello. >> hello, there. >> hi, this is jim patrick calling. i echo roland's comments. mark has done a great job and it's been a pleasure just to be watch as an outside member of the public, watch this go on. i want to maybe address this to the board relative to this issue, the board has two

responsibilities: recruiting and retention. and i believe the recruiting they did a great job of recruiting him. retention, they didn't pass the mark. so i wish mark well, and we shouldn't have let the big fish get away. thank you. >> thank you, mr. patrick. all right, that does appear to be the members of the public that wanted to address you on that item, madam chair. >> i'll move approval. >> do i have a second? >> second. >> all right, so there we go. we have a motion and a second. >> all right. go ahead and call your roll call vote. with that