regular if there is know accident or a problem? >> after a major being or just above minor accidents we do drug and alcohol test to make sure well is nothing well and the right-hand sideom testing we do for alcohol testing the company's drug testing as well. >> thank you for clarifying that. and the second question, which i should know the answer to. what is the definition when it come to covid of a longhauler? i read about it. and -- how does the fire department define someone who is suffering with longhaul covid? >> i can refer to the chief on this if that's okay. >> i can speak to that. >> yes, madam president. so >> what we track is people who

have be out for 30 days or more. i don't know the medical definition of a language haller. but the majority of those people on that list have been out for numerous months but i don't have a definition of longhauler we do measure or count the number of people more than 30 days out. >> and when, if i may, chief, when they are out for months, how is there status monitored by the department? through the physician's office. >> they are required get regular updates from the clinician. that the member cease. >> i see. >> okay. >> all right. thank you that answers my questions. >> thank you, everybody. >> i think madam secretary?

unless i again can't seat commission room. i'm depending upon you to be my eyes there. >> yes. >> there are no hands raised. >> public comment is closed. >>. >> tell her she had her turn. why [laughter]. >> okay. on star chaef. why thank you. on a somber note. i ask the meeting adjourned in memory of -- eric dang who was -- one of our civilian members of the it team. he was senseless low killed left week in his home. and he leaves a wife and son. so and in addition there is information that is coming out from my office in regards to people want to help his family.

as well as services. so if we can adjourn in memory of eric deng. >> we can and our condolences to the family. >> a tough one. >> all right. okay. item 7. agenda for next and future fire commission meetings. >> and if i -- might go first. please don't think -- i'm not trying to have the presentations that were requested scheduled the secretary and i working on -- inviting -- the fire reserves to come in and -- talk with us.

and we have -- upon rate from the emt program exit will amend that with vice president nakajo's suggestion this we have invite -- some of our new, young emt's to join them. people prefer the 5 o'clock meeting. we are working on it. >> so any other -- suggestions i know the commission has been busy as of late given the number of hearings we have been the special meetings hearings we have been conducting and we have

2 remaining. and -- we will have more time available to -- return to ordinary business. but if anybody wishes to add to the list. police, let me know and we will do our best to make it happen. >> there is nobody on the public comment line. >> excellent. >> thank you. >> all right. again, i can't see the commission room so madam secretary? is -- do commissioner covington or commissioner morgan have anything they wish to add. i list the -- guests to invite >> not at this time. >> thank you. >> and commissioner morgan?

>> not at this time. >> all right. >> and vice president nakajo? >> [inaudible] combination of the city college program and the fire reserves. thank you. >> working on that. >> appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> okay. item 8 adjournment. >> all right. >> i move we adjourn. >> a second. >> second. >> seconded by commissioner morgan. >> and -- let's -- i have a vote on that. did you want to make your announcement. >> i think after the volt i will. skwoo okay president feinstein? >> adjourn. >> vice president nakajo? >> adjourn. >> and i would like to say

always with a heavy heart when things like this happen and -- the fire department is -- a big department and a small department. and has arc lots of diverse people in it and -- a lot of -- people that comprised family away from their family. and although eric deng was not a firefighter he was a part of that which is necessary to make this department department it is. i would like to adjournment and record in the his memory. and i think that -- the chief and announce am should be heeded by anybody that can help the family out really should give consideration for that.

because it -- it is really a tragic loss to the department. must be really horrific for them. so in his honor and with our deepest condollences and sympathy y we will adjourn at this time. i thank everybody. >> thank you and the time is 5:58. >> thank you. why thank you.

>> i am iris long. we are a family business that started in san francisco chinatown by my parents who started the business in the mid 1980s. today we follow the same footsteps of my parents. we source the teas by the harvest season and style of crafting and the specific variety. we specialize in premium tea. today i still visit many of the farms we work with

multigenerational farms that produce premium teas with its own natural flavors. it is very much like grapes for wine. what we do is more specialized, but it is more natural. growing up in san francisco i used to come and help my parents after school whether in middle school or high school and throughout college. i went to san francisco state university. i did stay home and i helped my parents work throughout the summers to learn what it is that makes our community so special. after graduating i worked for an investment bank in hong kong for a few years before returning when my dad said he was retiring. he passed away a few years ago.

after taking over the business we made this a little more accessible for visitors as well as residents of san francisco to visit. many of our teas were traditionally labeled only in chinese for the older generation. today of our tea drinkkers are quite young. it is easy to look on the website to view all of our products and fun to come in and look at the different varieties. they are able to explore what we source, premium teas from the providence and the delicious flavors. san francisco is a beautiful city to me as well as many of the residents and businesses here in chinatown. it is great for tourists to visit apsee how our community

thrived through the years. this retail location is open daily. we have minimal hours because of our small team during covid. we do welcome visitors to come in and browse through our products. also, visit us online. we have minimal hours. it is nice to set up viewings of these products here.

>> chair borden: meeting of the sfmta board of directors. >> clerk: this meeting is being held in hybrid format with a meeting occurring in-person at city hall room 400 broadcast live on sfgov tv and by phone. we welcome the public participation during public comment period today. public comment will be taken both in-person and remotely by call in for each action or discussion item. the board will take comment first by those attending.

and then those calling in remotely. the phone number is (415)655-0001. meeting i.d.. when prompting dial star 3 to enter the speaker line. speakers will have two minutes to provide comment. please speak clearly and ensure you're in a quiet locations and turn off any tvs or computers around you. the city policies along with federal and state local law prohibits discriminatory comments during the meeting. item 2, roll call. [ roll call ] you have a quorum. for the record, i note that

director hinze is attending this meeting remotely. directors are reminded they must appear on camera. because director hinze is attending remotely, all votes will be taken by roll call. item 3, announcement of prop hicks of san francisco devices. the ringing and use of cell phones electronic devices are prohibited. the chair may order the removal of any person responsible for the ringing or use of a cell phone or other similar sound producing devices. places item 4. approval of minutes for the april 12, 2022 special meeting and the april 19, 2022 regular meeting. >> i move to approve. >> chair borden: any additions? we'll open up to public comment. this is your time if you're a member of the public if you like to comment specifically on the minutes of our april 12th or 19th meeting.

i don't see anyone in the room. >> clerk: there are no callers on the line. >> motion to approve the minutes. >> second. >> chair borden: please call the call. [roll call vote] the minutes are approved. >> chair borden: please call the next item. >> clerk: item 5, communications. >> chair borden: i don't think we have any communications. >> clerk: item 6, introduction of new or unfinished business by board members. >> chair borden: i don't see anyone. >> clerk: director hinze has her hand raised. >> director hinze: one is the school year is coming to a close, at some point in the

summer, if we could get some kind of update on how the school year went from m.t.a. perspective and sort of what kinds of things we can do better as we move forward with that program safety and transit planning. if folks are interested in that. we haven't talked about better market street. i wonder if there are updates on that. i know that particular -- with director yekutiel and recovery of the downtown area? lastly, i'm sure this will be covered is on kind of the future of slow streets at some point this summer -- with the news

around j.f.k. probably good time to take a look at those future of slow streets. those are items to consider. >> chair borden: director yekutiel? >> director yekutiel: director mcguire and i participated in a very large walking group tour of the market zone last week. that was the area around the whole produce market down in it bay view as well as a bunch of p.d.r. with the police department, the fire department, public works, p.u.c., the supervisors offices, lot of small business owners and real estate owners to highlight the state of the streets down in that part of the city. lot of them are pretty neglected. there's some areas without walkable sidewalks, crime, very

poor street conditions. there's some streets called unaccepted streets. something like that. streets that no one seems to be taken control over. they were unacceptable. we went on that tour. i know there's going to be a follow-up. i'm glad i was able to put some attention on the part of the city we don't talk about. >> chair borden: any other comments? we'll open up to public comment. this is an opportunity for members of the public who like to comment on the director's comments that were just made. comments it director yekutiel and director hinze. now is the time to do so. we'll go to online comments. any online commenters about new and unfinished business by board members? >> clerk: i see no callers. >> chair borden: we'll close

public comment. next item. >> clerk: item 7, the director eats report. >> director tumlin: thank you. i would like to call annette williams who's the manager of our professional services taxi, access and mobility services division who will be presenting a special recognition to our paratransit van riders. >> thank you for having me. annette williams manager of professional services. i'm here on behalf of m.t.a. to congratulate and lift up our workers who have been working in paratransit through the pandemic. who has been there for taur customers, providing exemplary services to seniors and people with disabilities. i wanted to start recognizing paratransit van drivers. i want them to please come

forward. i wanted to especially point out that not only do they continue to provide exemplary service to our customers, our paratransit customers but also during the pandemic, they provided services to the public health department for people who were positive and needed to get to sheltered housing and also many other types of work. i wanted to also acknowledge that we have three taxi drivers that we want to honor today who unfortunately can't be here. that's joey brown, mohammed and wardel waters. the three of them have been instrumental providing accessible van and part of our e.t.c. program. another thing is that it takes more than the people on the front line. it's also all of those people behind the scenes.

today we wanted to recognize the call center and dispatch staff and kimberly watts is here to recognize them. [ indiscernible ] they have dispatched trips, taken reservations, provided information to clients about safety measures and they've kept everyone safe during the pandemic. i want to recognize the administrative staff. who kept the operation running, handling finance and administration as well as distributing p.p.e., advising employees about best practices and info about vaccinations and testing sites. we also wanted to recognize the maintenance staff. they continue to ensure that vehicles in good working condition and performed all the

increased cleaning during the pandemic. last but not least, i want to recognize the paratransit staff, the administration staff that handles eligibility, kept the office the paratransit offices open the dire pandemic so that customers who needed to pay in cash needed to see somebody in person can still do that during the pandemic and played a key role in development and administration of our essential trip card program in the taxi program that was put in place to serve seniors and people with disabilities when our muni services were cut back. on behalf of the staff, i thank them.

we want to honor these people who really went above and beyond in all of their colleagues who did as well. i really appreciate the board doing that today. thank you. [ applause ] >> chair borden: i like to sincerely thank you. you're the front line critical essential workers. you put yourself in harm's way throughout this pandemic. we could not be more proud and thankful for your service. thank you so much for everything you do. i know that our paratransit customers are especially happy. i have so much admiration for the work that do you. i hope you know that you make a real difference in the lives of san franciscans every single day. [ applause ]

>> just in case you wanted to hear from mark soto the general manager -- we like to hear a little bit. come on mark. put you on the spot. we really appreciate the management. they done such a good job partnering with us during this pandemic. >> i wanted to say thank you on. we are proud to be partnered with you. we appreciate the opportunity to serve san francisco. >> thank you so much. >> director tumlin: moving on. we do have vision zero report for the last two week. on sunday there was a scooter rider who was struck in a hit-and-run at taylor and turk streets. the collision is still under

investigation with sfpd. we have a variety of h.r. updates. i believe that our director kim ackerman will give you a more full update. we had some remarkable hiring success. h.r. has been hosting a variety of events to try to attract new workforce including south van ness and participating in the city wide career fair that's sunday. so far they've been able to get 254 candidates to sign up at in the house events as well as whole bunch of others at the sunday event. we reengaged the city drive program, really critical pre-apprenticeship program for attracting new operators. we do this in collaboration with the office of economic

development and nonprofit spaces s.f. which is a family support organization as well as mission hiring hall who serve moderate to low income job seekers and the city program helps applicants becoming qualified in their application including the dealing with issues like commercial driver's license. the city drive partners attended all of these events in april and as a result, we were able to register 134 applicants for the two week program. that will then make them ready to come to the sfmta with their full credentials for becoming operators. also i want to report that between march 1st and april 22nd, we're able to hire 69 new transit operators and in that roughly same time period, we hired an additional another 94 staff. this is a huge uptick in the amount of hiring that we've been

able to do. in part staffing up in h.r. and lot of the streamline work to make sure that we can follow all the rules, hold ourselves accountable, put equity first and make things work smoothly. as i'm sure all of you heard, the board of supervisors also voted last week by vote of 7-4 to permanently keep cars off of the mile and a half stretch of j.f.k. as well as roadway changes in order to create a permanent car-free pass from the panhandle to ocean beach. this project was controversial. however, it was very popular. about 70% survey respondents supporting it across all geographies in san francisco and most demographics. it was strongly supported by

mayor breed. our work was possible in part because of two recent legislative changes that include senate bill 288 which offers stream lining in the ceqa process for projects that don't increase vehicle miles traveled and focused on making walking and biking and transit easier. the second piece of legislation was assembly bill 773 which legalized slow streets throughout california. also made it easier to make changes on roadways and support better walking and biking conditions. the decision that occurred last week very importantly unlocks a whole set of other opportunities. the legislation that went to the board of supervisors includes dozens of additional accessibility improvements, focused on making sure that every single destination is accessible to people in wheelchairs and with other issues as well as making sure

that all the institutions in the park can get their deliveries done and their weddings taken care of and all of that other functionality that comes with an urban campus. this week, recreation and parks department is moving forward very quickly on paving a new a.d.a. only parking lot right there at the front door of the academy, the. japanese teagarden. today the sfmta crews have been out striping some new changes in order to make sure that it is safe and easy for the dejong museum to get the loading taken care of. since they can only get their loading access from j.f.k. we're moving forward on changes to the concourse garage. we're recommending that the sfmta take over management of

the garage so that we can have rational pricing, free accessibility to people with disabilities and variety of other changes that make front door pick-up and dropoff for the institutions available within the garage for free as well as for free on the concourse itself. we'll be collaborating with rec and park including steady ongoing improvements that we've committed to for the park shuttle and the establishment of the disability access coordinator position for golden gate park that we'll be hiring if our budget gets approve. that will be one of the first positions that get created. beyond the long list of accessibility improvements that we've committed to to the mayor and board of supervisors, we're starting work on some other improvements such as improving the connection between j.f.k. and the panhandle.

which is little confusing and scary for pretty much all modes of transportation. we're looking at creating a bikeway on oak street that is the mere version of the one we created so that the faster moving it bikes no longer have to use the pedestrian path on the panhandle. we can reduce the bike and pedestrian conflicts in the panhandle. next little update is our muni ridership recovery campaign. will be doing a two-month long campaign to start to rebuild trust with our riders. now that we finally recovered from the omicron surge, our main lines are operating faster more frequent and more reliably than they did pre-covid.

the muni campaign will highlight how the transportation system has evolved during the pandemic. particularly focused on the routes like the 22 fillmore and the 38 geary and the 9 and 8 that have enjoyed significant investment in reliability as well as our investments in transit only lanes all over the city. we'll be using all the media techniques and there will be a website at sfmta.com/munimove view. where you can go for more information. small business week is this week. for those who missed it, there's a small business fair here downstairs at city hall. we'll also be supporting small business week including highlighting all of the things that we've been doing with our major construction projects to make sure that we're minimizing negative impacts on small businesses.

just earlier today, i was out with the team where we talked about what we have learned from the first phase of the construction project how we're going to apply that on the second phase. the project involves not just redoing the streets, it involved major utility replacement underground. underground utility replacement projects run by pg&e and p.u.c. is super disruptive. we can communicate effectively with small businesses so they know what's going on. we can work to minimize negative impacts on parking. we can make sure that if we have to temporarily move small businesses shared space or parklet, we will commit to moving it back in place or rebuilding it so that the burden of the construction project is not placed only small

businesses. we're also very proud of our collaboration with oewd as well as for small business working groups on many projects to make sure there's a strong forum for communication that goes twoway as well as collaboration so that we can minimize impacts to make sure there are no surprises. one thing that we find is that san franciscans are tolerant of urban disruption but only if they are informed about what's going on and we're truthful about the reality of the impacts. we're excited that beta breakers is back. that is sunday may 15th. i hope all of you at some point in your san francisco lives have joined in beta breakers. it's a fantastic event. it is also one that is very disruptive to our streets. we'll be using the usual set of techniques for making sure that

both transit and traffic can flow relatively smoothly around those events. please do not drive to beta breakers. take transit. finally, we do want to recognize that this month, marks asian and pacific islander heritage month. we will also be doing a variety of internal informational events for staff, externally we'll be having staff decorating one of our cable cars for the month in collaboration with our transit division and office of racial equity and belonging. we'll be doing a roundtable and variety of other internal efforts. we'll also be rolling out our hate is a virus public service campaign. that will be happening on our vehicles later this year. this was inspired by the hate is

a virus social media movement that highlighted asian-american and pacific islander violence sparked by the pandemic. something that continues to be a significant ongoing concern, particularly for asian-americans but also for us as a transit agency. we need to make sure that everyone feels safe and welcome on muni. that campaign links to a lot of free bystander intervention training as well as provides tents for what folks can do in order to protect themselves and help achieve solidarity among our riders. this is in addition what we talked about at our last budget that includes the current additional transit ambassadors that we are hiring from your approval late last year as well as the additional 22 transit ambassadors that are included in next year's budget. in addition to that, the

$750,000 that set aside for the gender equity program that will be moving on very shortly. that is all i have from my report. thank you so much. >> chair borden: director heminger? >> director heminger: jeff, i want to congratulate you on your leadership about j.f.k. it's not always the best idea to volunteer to help somebody out who's in the middle of a barroom brawl. you did effectively that with the recreation the part department. the partnership that you established will be the start of of beautiful friendship. there's a lot that our two agencies and departments need to do. just given the prominent profile of golden gate park and the city, there's still plenty of work to do. i was out walking on j.f.k. yesterday. i noticed a couple of things. one of them is, we got a lot of

four-hour parking signs we need to take down. you mentioned couple of instances of improvements like the parking lot behind the band shell. it sort of struck me walking around there yesterday that we've got is an auto road that is used by all kinds of other users now. in fact, what we have out there now is sort of a super wide bike and pedestrian path. we don't have the road marked that way. it's marked for accommodating auto traffic. i wonder if this is an opportunity to sort of scrape all of that off the pavement and treat this like a bike pedestrian lane. one of the issuings i'm sure you're aware of, potential

conflicts between bikes and pedestrians. especially with the electric bikes, they got pretty good head of steam on them and making sure we don't have conflicts, little kids out there who decide to stop their tricycle all of a sudden and cause a five-car pile-up. i hope that's something you're thinking about and that can be another way of partnering with the recreation park department so we get the most ought of the decision the board made.

we're also fortunate that there are models that we can learn from. eastern golden gate park is a lot like a college campus. whether it's uc santa barbara, berkeley or stanford. there's also places that we can do to like vancouver, british columbia that's done a great job promoting civility in spaces like golden gate park. one of the problems we face here in san francisco is our transportation system is designed to reward aggression. in a place like golden gate park, it must always be a respite from our normal urban busy lives. that means prioritizing everyone particularly the people who have the greatest vulnerability. we don't want to take part of

high entry network and high speed cut through for car traffic and turn it into a high speed cut through for bike traffic. we want to make sure that everyone is respecting the rights and the joy of every other user of golden gate park. >> chair borden: director lai? >> director lai: i'll start by tagging on to director heminger's comments. my family did witness recent collision on j.f.k. between one of those motorized electric bikes and a cargo bike with kids in it. that was kind of scary. i think one of the things that's been on my mind just generally how we're regulating differentiating between regular electric bike versus electric bikes that are closer to a motorcycle and how we would treat our shared spaces. do we even as an agency have the

ability to regulate the degree of electrification of these bikes? >> director tumlin: i want to emphasize that we don't have management responsibility for the streets of golden gate park. those streets are under the jurisdiction of recreation and parks. it's why the partnership between our two agencies is important. recreation and parks department doesn't have transportation engineering expertise. we can support them there. there's some ability to regulate based upon the bicycle type. just like in our normal streets, the biggest issue is speed. in order to keep golden gate park safe, we need to make sure that speeds are kept low. people who have the greatest vulnerabilities maybe are provided with a space where

there aren't things that are jeopardizing their peacefulness. this is all the work that we need to get moving on quickly, now that it's a basic framework decision has been completed. we're fortunate that there are plenty of other places around the world that are far ahead of us and have solved most of these problems already. >> director lai: continuing along the lines j.f.k. conversation. this is about the garage. you mentioned it will be coming towards us rather soon. i wondering if you can go over what the technical steps, legal stuff that need to happen before the authority can be turned over to us. i think there needs to be b.l.s. action. is there a agreement that have to be struck? can you talk about the structure? >> director tumlin: we're still

investigating all of that. i rather come back to you with a full set of options about speculating about what the legal path will be. it is complicated. we know that it is doable. >> director lai: should we expect that the management of it will be more similar to essentially m.t.a. being advisors to the garage while the garage still owned by somebody else and not by our agency? >> director tumlin: from ownership perspective, that doesn't matter. we manage, for example, the muni square garage which is owned by the recreation and parks department. there are many different structures that we can engage in. we can act either just like contractor or -- there's many different approaches. the point would be, we'll be able to use our expertise in effective garage management in

order to improve accessibility, reduce the price substantially so that the garage rather than sitting almost entirely empty weekdays, can start to be mostly filled in order to make sure that there is much better and more affordable access to the entirety of the eastern part of golden gate park for people who need to drive. >> director lai: that sounds great. i want to make sure we're not taking ownership of the structure. >> director tumlin: i have no interest taking on anyone else's debt. >> director lai: i want to ask you about the hiring. it was great to hear that we had such success. sounds like we maybe even -- we were able to attract more than what we previously assumed. i'm wondering what this means for the service restoration. are we looking at a more

optimistic projection? >> director tumlin: in terms of service restoration, this puts us back on track. omicron wiped us off track because everything slowed down and we weren't able to do the hiring and training that we hoped. we are now perfectly back on track again which is very good news. the director of transit will be providing an update later about what we expect in terms of the next round of service restoration. >> director lai: thank you. >> chair borden: i will move to director hinze. >> director hinze: i wanted to tag on to director lai's question about the hiring. this may be more of technical question for director ackerman. you did mention at the beginning of your report, i think there was a 250 number in there somewhere. it was a number wasn't the city

number. do we know what classifications of the jobs? >> director tumlin: we do. the biggest set of hiring now is transit operators because that is who we need in order to restore transit service. we are hiring effectively every single job category in the agency. we have 1000 vacancies. they are everywhere every single team is overworked. that has been part of our challenge figuring out what do we need to move forward that's most urgently. >> director hinze: not all operators but the bulk of them. we are getting some movement in other classifications in the agency? >> director tumlin: in the six weeks from march 1st to

mid-april, we hired 69 transit operators and 94 other people. >> director hinze: thank you. i want to compliment everyone who represented the agency on a weekend at the career fair. i heard some folks that people really showed out for that. i want to tag on to my colleague's comments around j.f.k. and commend the staff for their technical work and really analyzing the streets and figuring out sort of the best path forward in terms of plan that we could give to the board

of supervisors that's sustainable and successful for folks. i know people in the disability community will be holding the agency accountable for some of the disability commitment. thank you, chair. >> director tumlin: we do expect to be held accountable. i am very grateful for the work from the mayor's office of disability and as well as the hundreds of advocates that we spoke to through this process. we are firmly committed to assisting the recreation and parks department and following through on all of their accessibility commitments so that every part of the park is accessible. >> director hinze: thank you. >> chair borden: director eaken. >> vice chair eaken: couple of point bees. on the hiring piece, director

tumlin, i wanted to ask how are we maximizing opportunities to advance and make real opportunities for existing staff? i know it's not always possible. it feels like that goes to morale and institutional knowledge, more seemless on boarding. just good all around. >> director tumlin: one of the upsides to having a thousand vacancies in your organization, many of those vacancies are supervisors and managers. what this has created is tremendous upward career path opportunities for our existing staff. as a public agency, we don't promote people necessarily. we do s allow them to compete for higher ranked jobs. people who have a deep understanding of san francisco and the sfmta and how we work

compete exceedingly well for those supervisorial and management job. director ackerman did provide me with the statistics about the fact that the vast majority of our supervisor and manager jobs are being taken by people who are already at the agency. certainly when i'm out there in the field talking to our people, our workforce is very well aware that there are advancement opportunities right now at sfmta. >> vice chair eaken: thank you for that. on the j.f.k. update, i will strongly endorse the need to create a safe connection between the panhandle and j.f.k. if -- i see people make so many questionable decisions. you're kind of like looking at the car. it's just a really big mess and the contrast between what we've create the on j.f.k. a