the appointments are actually appropriate for m.t.a.i had misgivings about it but because it is a special agency i think it is appropriate at this forum. >> thank you. any other members of the public? sing to us, walter. >> thank you. >> ♪ you can cause a munirumpus but don't lose the compass but don't appoint some commissioners appoint some commissioners and get me home and drive me on the bus on time ♪ >> any other members of the public that wish to speak on this committee of a whole regarding the m.t.a. chatter amendment. seeing none, this hearing has been held in close. items 55 and 56 with r-in the hands of the board. >> thank you very much. mr. president and thank you to the members to have public who waited to speak on this item. let me again by just thanking the co-sponsors of this charter amendment. besides myself, this charter amendment has been co-authored by the supervisor, by the president as well as supervisor marr. i want to thank each one of them as well as their respectsive offices that and all the work that has gone in

i will be supporting the m.t.a. charter amendment that does not have the -- and i would really like to set the record straight on the budget and the deal that was made. you know, i didn't really talk about this publicly. i will talk about it publicly now. we got to about $36 million and in restorations and revenue for those restorations and the budget committee and felt that the budget committee should have stopped right there. that was where we should have ended our budget and for those who wanted to get more out of -- which i also you know, like the services. like the restorations that we have made. it neant since the mayor was putting that -- meant that since the mayor was putting that before us, to go through some ballot measures, it meant cutting a deal and to say that you want more of this restoration and not want a deal i don't think is quite -- is quite honest about what we were doing. i -- i pushed to have a restoration list that was equal to what we were able to achieve with revenue that came in that was u

i did cover the m.t.a. meeting and discovered that frankly this m.t.a. board is very isolated from the realities of the users of muni in san francisco. additionally, they were pinning the drivers against the community. under the leadership of mayor newsom. they were blaming the drivers if they raise the fairs for disabled, they raise the fairs for students, that they were responsible for this crisis. and i, frankly, as i said find that despicable. why should the drivers who are doing difficult work and difficult times be blamed for this economic crisis? but that's precisely what the m.t.a. board unanimously did. i think it would be a mistake to appoint her. it would basically confirm the direction. we don't need corporate executives on the m.t.a. board. we need some community activists, users of the service, and drivers who really know what the situation is. there's been no, for example, effort by the board to say that these high-paid executives who make -- the director makes over $300,000 a year, they should cut their wages. instead they are attacking t

on two separate occasions m.t.a. employees that we are recognizing, the two m.t.a. employees that we are recognizing today responded courageously in preventing harm or life-threatening injuries to two of our patrons who had fell into our mini train tracks. our first award goings to aramedes rivera. could you please step up to the podium? come right up here. arcamedes has been with the agency for over 12 years. on june 12 he witnessed a visually impaired man fall into the tracks as his train was approaching the civic center. because of his quick reaction he was able to stop the train and avoid any harm to that individual. his outstanding dedication, determination and excellence in train operations proved invaluable during this critical, life-saving incident. he takes great pride of performing his job as a transit operator and has a great attendance record and safety record. he is dedicated to his job and always places safety first. before you have john haley, our director of transit authority, to present the award. chairman nolan: good afternoon. >> thank you. i'd ju

point to address the concerns of the previous speaker as far as m.t.a. being on the hook. i am assuming you had time to read the information from the lenders and so forth. i don't know how familiar you are with the cab business, but some people are offering to pay cash for these medallions. those that are financing them, their monthly payments that you speak of, are within the realms of what the companies have paid medallion holders for the use of the medallions. in this regard you basically have a failsafe situation where if someone were to default and couldn't make the payments, rather than going back to the city, the companies are willing to run the medallions until they find another purchaser and basically cover the payments to the credit union that they would need to secure their loan. certainly this is something that's been researched for a while. i am excited to be where we are. i think it will benefit the community. the drivers have an opportunity now to have a stake in this business. i would ask you to support this before you. >> gosh. after months and months of t

it is difficult to believe that with seven deputy managers at m.t.a. on six-digit salaries that the money is unavailable. what is unavailable is the realism of this board which will hopefully listen to the public and not the mayor or the controllers office and other political hacks who have compromised and damaged public transportation. >> good afternoon again. i wanted to call your attention to the fact that the taxi advisory council has been appointed with participation of the deputy director and that there is not a single representative of united taxicab workers appointed to this board. united taxicab workers have been involved in every major taxi issue for more than 20 years. it is the only organized group that is predominantly composed of non-medallion holding drivers. the two other cabdriver groups in the industry, which are dominated by medallion holders have appointees. they are representatives of this group. this is not personal. i did not apply to be on the committee. i do not believe that there is a single driver in this industry with better

the cost savings that the m.t.a. achieved as a result of these discussions may not have materialized without their support. christine has been with the agency for four years and she is a hardworking and dedicated employee who takes pride in and is a team player who is always willing to mentor and assist others and is willing to learn new things. sheroline has been with the agency for two years. she's the ultimate team player who assists her colleagues without hesitation. her technical skills are part of her attitude. both are tremendous assets to their division, their agency and the city as a whole due to their unrelenting commitment to those they serve. debra is here to present the award to christine and sheroline. good afternoon. >> good afternoon. thank you, mr. ford, members of the board. it's with us team pleasure that i stand before you today and recognize these two employees. as you all know for the past several months i've been coming before you, briefing you about our discussions and our partnering with labo

arment. -- m.t.a. at some point we will be bringing back to the board a status update of the funded projects that we have under way so you'll have an update in terms of what's occurring with that funding at a more practical -- more direct level. you've read and heard a great deal of information of our september 4 service restoration at the st. francis circle project comes to an end, we're simultaneously preparing to restore service to the -- to our pre-- to our service modifications that we reduced 10%. we were planning on

i think you are talking about a revenue that might come monthly to the m.t.a. and when we are talking about transferable medailyions, those sold by a previous owner to new owner or that were held because of the death or surender of a previous owner and are being sold out right to the new owner. >> so it really covers direct sales situation. this is not public to a program where we will be splitting it with a retiree? >> no. other than some of the transfer fees go to the driver fund. but that is the only split. if we are forced, we will have a situation where we realized all of the funds or the vast majority of them in the first instance. >> right. >> my question is, is there any calculation for depreciation for use of the medallions? i realize that it is hopefully something that will never come to pass. but if we did have to repurchase a huge lot of medallions it would be very expensive. to give somebody the original purchase price when they had the use of the medallion for a long time. rather clear obligation is the board passes this item and if we enter into

arment. -- m.t.a. at some point we will be bringing back to the board a status update of the funded projects that we have under way so you'll have an update in terms of what's occurring with that funding at a more practical -- more direct level. you've read and heard a great deal of information of our september 4 service restoration at the st. francis circle project comes to an end, we're simultaneously preparing to restore service to the -- to our pre-- to our service modifications that we reduced 10%. we were planning on restoring. we were planning to restore approximately 6%. and based on some of the planning of our staff, we are going to be restoring a bit more than that. we've modified our service planning strategies to restore approximately 61% of the 10% service that was reduced. and while we have not fully restored the entire 10%, we are going to continue that work and our planning to try and reach a january 1 timeline in conjuncture with the board of supervisors and the mayor's office and the

and beyond that the m.t.a. ranked number fourth for jobs created or retained in the first quarter of 2010 using these federal funds. the transit capital assistance program, a grant of $85 million, is funding 14 of our transit-related capital projects. and as a result of these funds, 568 jobs were created and/or sustained including laborors, coordinators, electricians, engineers and expectors, quality control specialists as well as machinists and installers. so we remain committed to working with the federal government to retain and

brinkman's candidacy and know she will be a tremendous m.t.a. board member. supervisor campos: thank you super size visor mar. i agree. i think this is a very solid appointment. i do think that the experience that she brings is one that will be very youthful -- useful and i do hope that we, as a board, work closely with ms. brinkman and all the other commissioners to figure out how we can move this agency forward. i will be supporting the nomination but let me say that the problem that i have is not with the nomination itself. i think the nomination is a solid, as solid a nomination as we can have. the problem i have is with the structure that we currently have at the board of the m.t.a. i do believe that the current structure, notwithstanding some exceptions, i point to commissioner oka as one of those exceptions, the current structure does not, in my view, provide for the level of accountability and independence that is needed. i think that until that structure changes, that we are going to continue to have some of the same problems. we are going to continu