we are not employees of the mta. how can you force a third party vendor on us when we are not your employees? we are independent contractors. you have gone out of the way to make sure we get none of the benefits of employees. how can you possibly treat us as employees after you have gone out of your way to make sure we are not employees? you cannot force a third party vendor on us at an incredibly high rate. thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon, everyone. my name is david. i am a driver. i am here today because i am suspicious of what the mta is doing to taxi drivers. there is no information. all we do is get a letter, "you come here to pay the result now we want to collect the credit cards and the information -- you come here to pay." now we want to collect the credit cards and all the information. they are scared. i want to know. are they a scam or not a scam? we are suspicious. >> and joe donohue, sam aryan, alec dutt. >> good afternoon. i would like to thank the mta for taking the three minute process of licens

as to why mta things that this contract is the right contract? >> as you know, as negotiations go, neither party windup for that wanted to be. mta interests for long term known amounts for budgeting purposes, where we started, the contract before us is where we ended in negotiations. but, we are happy to go back and revisit the contract. supervisor mirkarimi: i think that that might be in the stars. what about the mta commissioners? >> the board did approve the contract before you. it was a consent calendar item, 7-00. supervisor mirkarimi: why was it consent calendar? >> i do not know. supervisor mirkarimi: i do not mean to analyze from the couch, but from time to time these contracts that attract our attention, we learn that they do go through the consent process and the commissioners themselves learn after the fact that maybe it should not have been on the consent. i look and learn, not long after this hearing, why it was the case. it seemed like something that had sparked our interest would likely support, by the way, from what i can anticipat

supervisor supervisor chu: yes, and it currently is a city facility and is the headquarters of the mta. was it prohibitively expensive to retrofit the space? >> it was prohibitively expensive on the one hand. it was also specifically pointed out in the 2008 concept document that from a security perspective, it was not recommended to position the control center at the headquarters of publicly identified buildings. that was another criteria. there is a number of facility issues that relate to one south van ness that would make it difficult to retrofit. supervisor chu: thank you. >> ok, so, the agreement basically is divided into tenant improvements that will be done by the landlord and other work. first, to talk about the tenant improvements. there will be the architectural elements. this is mostly on the seventh floor. we will also be adding antennas on the roof for radio and other communications. the bike rack will be on the ground floor and the shower and locker room on the lower floor. one of the key features we are adding is an area where folks who are working multiple shifts in cas

the mta little guy referee there said, "i don't believe you." that was it. he wanted proof of the fact. many tickets i have gotten i have protested and one. -- and won. chairperson nolan: item 11, we have some speakers on that. >> megan weir, followed by eric brooks. and there is staff who wishes to present to you on the matter. >> good afternoon. i am meghan we're -- weir, here to speak on behalf of the department of public health. my colleague developed the transportation plan and could not be here today and sensor regrets. in 2006, the san francisco bicycle coalition and department of public health were awarded a grant from caltrans. the grant funded community- based transportation planning to create an accessible treasure island. there was meaningful of reach and community participation, focusing on sustainable transit improvements on the island. on 2009, we released a community-based transportation plan for treasure island. i have brought copies for those who are interested. the plan outlined numerous recommendations for infrastructure and policies for t

again, the mta $9.5 million. the landlord, $1.7 million, for a total of $11.2 million. the improvements are to be completed by june 2012. we point out about this -- about the options, however, as i understand it, mr. updike concurs with our recommendation that the options should be subject to board of supervisors approval, which is our recommendation. towards the bottom of page 214, we state that the sfmta currently occupies a total of 16,524 square feet of space across 256,237. the reason that they appear low is because a lot of this is city-owned or part-owned space, and this is operate the m.t.a.'s command and control functions dispersed among five locations in the city. if the proposed 39,573 square feet for the new lease is approved, sfmta's total cost for all five facilities would increase to $1,569,944 during the first year of the proposed lease, so the new lease would go up by $1,313,707 per year, an increase of 513% more than the $256,000 annual cost, which the mta is currently paying. in addition, if the proposed lease is approved, the m.t.a. would only elimin

i would like to thank the mta for taking the three minute process of license renewal and making it -- my name is joe donohue. i would like to thank the mta for taking a three men at license renewal and making it a three hour ordeal. you need to figure out whether we are employees are independent contractors. if we are employees, i want a salary. i want benefits. [applause] >> sammy aryan, alec dutt, michael monroe. >> i am a cab driver. there is a reason that 90% of the industry is not represented. a doctor does not go after a healthy person. the cab drivers, 50% does not come to them. it has to pay for medication, sick leave, vacations, everything. that is why they cannot attend. the other thing is it has been mentioned we are not employees. we would be happy to be your employees. give us the benefits. the thing is that cabbies that drive 20 years, they take home less than an entry-level muni worker. just look at your numbers. how much do you want to milk the scout? until blood come stacks -- how much you want to milk this cow? until blood comes? >> good afternoon. i am a cabdriver.

i am on the board of the mta, and i am thrilled to be here. i love this city and bike to work day is like christmas for all of us. the sfmta is at the forefront of providing support for this event. a lot of the speakers have mentioned the green by claims, improvements, park lit, thing that make our city more livable. so i want to thank the staff of the mta. i see a lot of you out there now. just to hear the support from the board of supervisors and know that the board of supervisors and mta is on the same page. the sustainable streets group, you are doing such great work, and i am proud to support it. the chairman of our board is here. he rode in with mayor lee. i rode in with supervisor wiener's group, from the castro. i want to mention the fact that there was a 58% increase in the city in the last four years. that is an impressive number, but even more when you put it in context. could we have handled a 58% increase for muni writers? 58% increase in car traffic during rush hour? no one would be going anywhere. this is a lesson to us. we have

we are now implementing the mta work rules. local 6 which we just implemented now makes the work hours different from the city electricians. we now have a seven-day work week and will no longer be getting overtime on a electricians' we typically have been. as we are rolling over, we are renegotiating them. >> what year were those propositions past? >> ea was in 1997 and e was in 1999. the bottom line is the way we manage overtime. very similar -- i heard the presentation last time, a lot of the big departments that have a lot of overtime, we sort of managed at salary and benefit bottom line because of some of the vacancies and we cannot hire. we traditionally have been able to absorb over time through savings and salary and that will be the case this year as well. to the extent we are able to hire up, we will have to revisit the way we budget. but as of today, we actually look at salary to manage the bottom line because of the flexibility over time does offer us. we have all these other issues. this is the last slide and then i

one thing i want to say to the mta today is that without the drivers there is no company. the driver is the company. it might be a rolls royce. we are the company. the 5% you are taxing us is wrong. also, when you come into play the gate, you have to pay cash for your pocket. if it is a credit card, you get your payment tomorrow. that this very wrong. we have to come by and pay cash out of our pocket. every day i go to cash in and the charge is 3%. put a stop to all this. i don't know what to call it. it is taking over. >> brad newsham. >> i have been a cab driver for 25 years. i am with green tab. i say it is time for a strike to put the cab industry on the front pages. but the cab industry on the front pages and on the airwaves. you go up in the street and used up 10 pedestrians, you stop 10 cabdrivers, no one knows the shenanigans going on here. no one knows that in 2007 a group of shady politicians, still anonymous, in a dark room not far from this room, slipped three sentences into a 10 page transportation bill and delivered the cab industry bound and gagged to the mt

right now, the mta looks solid. the capital budget has a great deal of pressure. we do have the central subway project. you have heard quite a bit about that. we do have some initial capital needs we will be working through for the next few years. we did a first of its kind, 20- your assessment of the operating and capital needs for the mta. yes, there is a big negative number in it, but our board is taking a pro-active approach, determining how we can make long-term decisions to improve the financial viability of our agency. i think the mayor has the toughest job, along with my colleagues. we are dedicated to working for you. quite often, the story does not get out. we appreciate the opportunity to come before you. and look forward to the question and answer period. thank you. supervisor wiener: we are now going to hear from our acting chief of police. >> the evening. i want to talk about the san francisco police department. the budget is above $475 million. up to $475 million, and i am obligated to give back 10%, which equates to a $11 million. unfortunately, al

dpw has become a regular attendee of meetings comprised of multiple city agencies, including the sf mta. dpw has also continued to work to identify implementation opportunities for the strategies in the final report. these strategies include a street master plan to address intersection and mid-block crossing signs and other safe facilities. we know the creaking safe and functional places for people to walk and bicycle can have a profound impact on health. some details are still being resolved. we recognize the importance of health and transportation planning. chairperson nolan: who is the next speaker? >> eric brooks. chairperson nolan: ahead. this is public comment time now. >> it is standard practice in most commissions for the coming to come after so we can, to what the presentation says. -- so we can comment to what the presentation says. this item is something you should postpone. at this point, the groups a represent -- green party, our city, san francisco tomorrow, and sierra club -- are all opposing this project. before the environmental impact report came out and during the env

i am sure that the mta has some way of enforcing what should be done. all other issues, do i need to review those issues? >> if you can specify that they are on page 3 of the permit holders response brief submitted to the board on september 23rd, 2010. >> with the issue having to do with reconciliation having to do with the figures on the permit and the actual cost >> was your motion to resolve that as a condition of their release of the suspension of the permit? >> yes. >> would this be an accurate amount? >> the motion as earlier stated was to prove that the permit holder would have to prevent dbi and planning with actual costs. >> with that, there is a consequence. i just want to get consequence with the record. there would be a corresponding increase in the feet that should have been made to the city. >> i think it that would be up to the permitting parliament to assess. >> i don't think they could issue a fine in that regard. >> i just want to make sure that is the natural consequence. if i can hit mr. duffy to confirm that with me. i would be more

supervisor campos: why not hear from the mta? >> -good morning. today i am joined by the director of finance and information technology. today's briefing will provide you with how and we will highlight accomplishments under required road map of deliverables. highlighting the police program as body authorized on the date of what is happening at fourth and stockton. the project is currently on the path to riches -- to achieve a full funded grant and they can -- continue to submit and satisfy the full funding grant agreement and i understand that there are necessaries of metals necessary to receive a risk assessment update that the project will go through, scheduled by the middle of may. as mentioned, central subway financial plans are comprised of federal, state, local, and nationwide programs. in dealing with financial sensitivity and risk, a good example of a funding amendment is a proposed swath of prop 1b funds. in the event that funding is delayed or project costs increase over the baseline as the during construction, beyond the program continge

we are before you to discuss this agreement between the mta and bart. we received the budget analysts report. at this point analysts are open to going back and renegotiating did agreement, calling back with a decision date. unless you have additional questions, that is where we are at this point. supervisor chu: could you just lay out the general conditions for the contract elapid >> the contract before you right now? supervisor chu: the proposal. >> currently, we reimbursed bart $1 for every ride that a san franciscan takes on bart. historically, this rate has increased with regular fares as determined by their board at bart. since 2003 they have had an increase policy based. adjusting to inflation at a less than 5% productivity factor, this policy expires in 2012. i am not sure what the bart board will be doing after that. based on this formula for wage increase, it should be left to 5.5%, if you look at a biannual formula and give it an average inflation rate of 3%. i know that for the past five years, there is in san francisco have increased by 40%.

we hope you will support it, and again, we are really excited to see the mta board itself become stronger, more involved, and really, a more capable body. thank you. supervisor kim: thank you. >> hello. i am executive director of walk san francisco. our city's charter says the san francisco is a pedestrian first city, but with 800 people a year are hit by cars and three people killed in four days last march, we have clearly not reached that goal of pedestrian priority. with that in mind, we are pleased to support joel ramos and his candidacy for the mta commission. mta is the agency most responsible, among many, for the safety and walk ability of our streets. there has been a tremendous amount of attention to pedestrian safety and, i think, supervisor kim among others who paid a lot of attention to this recently, and the appointment of joel ramos to this board could be a step forward in making the real change we need, translating the synergy into real change for our streets. we feel confident that joel ramos will speak up for sustainable streets, and we also know he will speak up for unde

transit signal infrastructure, the mta does not have any other identify the source of funding. >>supervisor chu: i'd think many of us recognize the need to have transit improvement work, whether it is the signals we are talking about in this situation, among other things, for muni. the question is why this comes forward with a street repaving bond. is there something that links transit signals to a street? if you are paying, is there something that you need to put into the ground anyway? >> what we're really trying to look at is the entire street and road network, the concept of the bond that we are approving -- we are trying to improve the entire network. yes, muni is implementing their signal upgrades to do that. it is much more efficient for us to be doing it at the same time with the same contractor doing the street resurfacing. throughout the street program, we are trying to coordinate with anyone else digging up the streets, and that includes the water department, sewer department, pg&e, and anything that mta is doing in the street because it saves both money and aggravat

knowledgeable about transit issues, and i think that's he will bring the wealth of knowledge he has to the mta as well. second, i do not have a car. i do have two children. my youngest learned to read going out to the school and back. i really appreciate the idea that you actually can be a family in san francisco and ride public transit. it does take a little extra push, and, yes, it is getting very expensive for families, so i appreciate the idea that public transit is not just for a certain group of individuals. it should be for everybody. that is the idea. the last thing i wanted to say is that we have -- i think it is nice that we embrace safe, diving, an inclusive, which is also our model for the neighborhood in the lower haight in the sense that safety is for pedestrians, for writers, and pedestrians -- for pedestrians, and for riders. i am pleased to be here to support the nomination. thank you. >> hello, good afternoon, supervisors. in the community planning manager at chinatown cdc -- i am the community planning manager. i think the whole spectrum of transit improvements, also includi

a lot of this is under way within the mta. supervisor farrell: i just say to the nba, to echo what president chiu was saying before, this is a big deal. this is $18 million this year alone. we are in tough budget times, but that could do a world of good for the rest of our city. it is surprising how high this number is. if it is the trend, i think consistency is even worse. i share the frustration, but i do not know what there is to do about it right here. supervisor campos: if i may jump in, let me just -- i know that we have a lot of people waiting for the next item, so we want to move on to that, but let me say this about the presentation for muni. i appreciate all the information that was given, but this is not the first time that we talk about muni over time. it is not the first time that we point out that almost half of the city's overtime comes directly from muni. that has been the case for quite some time. as the column -- comptroller -- controller himself noted. this is not the first time that we have had this discussi

the merger going? how's that seamless merger going? mta defines the word dysfunctional. it's the time you woke up rape than doolittle and smaller coffee, but i don't recommend a triple dose of espresso. a special tax the meeting was held for a meeting increase and that was yesterday. in your comparative analysis from fares and other cities, why weren't extra fees included? they charge extra fees for things like extra passengers or starting the meter over when there are two trips in one fair. several major changes at the same time of the pilot program are mechanism in place to measure the effects makes monitoring taxi services a moot point. even with one major change, there is an absorption changes needed if you want to measure any long-lasting effects. you want to micromanage taxi drivers. congestive pricing combined with cab pooling is a win/win/win situation. it is the greenest thing you can do. however, a living wage for a taxi driver is the least you can do. but both have one drawback -- it has to be carefully thought out by compassionate people with intelligence. wh

each year, it is a joint application between the mta and dpw for bicycle and pedestrian projects. it is a relatively small amount of money, as you can see, that comes to us. the department of public works portion is used for sidewalk repairs around dpw responsibility sidewalks, and for design and planning activities in our curve ramp program. both of these programs have quite a few other funding sources as well. mta is using this for bicycle projects. for a number of years, they were not able to apply for the funds because of the court injunction. their bicycle program is up and running. and representatives from the mta are here to answer questions as well as project managers from dpw. i'm happy to answer any questions that i can. supervisor avalos: ok, maybe briefly, if you could just talk about the general scope of the work specific to these moneys and where they will be. i'm sure is general all over the city, but if you could describe that. >> it is. with the curb ramp program, we have an americans with disabilities act transition plan that lays out the order and priorities for