Municipal Transportation Agency - Regular Meeting

May 5, 2026, regular meeting of the Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors and Parking Authority Commission to order. Secretary Silva, please call the roll. On the roll, Director Chen.

Present.

Chen, present. Director Felder. Felder, present. Director Hemminger.

Here.

Hemminger, present. Director Hinzey.

Present.

Hinzi, present. Chair Tarloff? Present. Tarloff, present. Director Henderson is not expected to join us today. Director Kahina will be here shortly. For the record, I note that Director Hinzi is attending this meeting remotely. Director Hinzi is reminded that she must appear on camera throughout the meeting and in order to speak or vote on any items. Places you on item number three. The ringing and use of cell phones and similar sound-producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. The chair may order the removal from the meeting room, any person responsible for the ringing or use of a cell phone or other similar device. Places you on item number four, approval of minutes for the April 21 regular meeting.

Directors, are there any changes to the minutes? Seeing none, we'll now open public comment for item four for two minutes each.

Members of the public wishing to provide comment will have two minutes each. There'll be a warning sound at 30 seconds and a chime when the time is up. Any speakers can come up to the podium at this time to provide comment on the minutes.

Seeing none in the room and no accommodation requests. We'll now close public comment. Colleagues, is there a motion and a second?

So moved. Second.

Secretary Silva, please call the roll. On the motion to approve the minutes, Director Chen.

Aye.

Chen, aye. Director Felder.

Aye.

Felder, aye. Director Hemminger.

Aye.

Hemminger, aye. Director Hinze. Aye. Hinze, aye. Chair Tarloff. Aye. Tarloff, aye. Thank you. The minutes are approved unanimously.

Thank you. Please call the next item.

Places you on item five, communications. I have none.

Thank you. Please call the next item.

Places you on item number six, the director's report.

Good afternoon. I want to start this director's report with two special recognitions from our streets director, Victoria Wise, for Albert Ho and Daryl Robinson. Before Victoria starts, I want to just add my personal gratitude. Both Albert and Daryl have over 30 years of service at SFMTA. And both really extended their time at the SFMTA in a large part to support the current executive team and to make sure that we had a really smooth leadership transition. So I am very grateful and excited to be honoring them both.

VICTORIA WISE- Thank you, Director Kirschbaum, Chair Tarloff, members of the board. I'm Victoria Wise, Streets Director. And it is my true, true honor to be here today to recognize two members of our team that have dedicated, frankly, their lives to this organization as they retire and take on new adventures. So first, I'm going to begin with Albert Ho. He has spent more than 30 years with the city and county of San Francisco. And you could say he grew up with the city, starting as a junior engineer in the Public Utilities Commission overhead design unit in 1994. He moved to work on the Muni Metro Turnback project, which extended the Market Street subway from the Embarcadero station to King Street for the T3rd line, so back in those days. And after that stint at the overhead design unit, then Albert moved on to the T3rd project, where he was part of the team that worked on the alignment of the very first phase of that light rail. Then in 2004, Albert moved to the Central Subway and eventually became its program director for this massive, huge infrastructure project. He ended his time at the agency as the program manager for the closeout of the Central Subway program, which I'm happy to report we are, if not complete, hairs away as he retires. Now, I just recited kind of where he's been and a little bit of his work career, just lightly touch. It's much more complicated than that, of course. But I want to tell you that I've been lucky enough to catch Albert at the tail end of this incredible career. And here's what I can personally tell you about him. He is incredibly dedicated to the success of his work and this organization and his teammates. Sometimes, if I may, Albert, at the expense of his own free time or time with his family. He likes to get stuff done, which speaks to me personally and to this executive team. He pinches pennies, you guys, truly, but also knows when we need to spend money to maintain things and to make it work. He juggles many, many balls in the air to keep things moving. And he understands the city's processes and navigates them expertly, which is an incredible skill that you earn after working in this organization or in the city for quite some time. He is incredibly honest about what he can deliver. And sometimes when we ask for the universe what he can't or how to problem solve. And he is so deeply knowledgeable about our work and is, frankly, a first-class engineer and project manager. So it's a loss to our organization and, of course, a joy that he retires for him and his family. For the last two years, Albert and I met... every other week, religiously, to talk about all the work that needed to get done to close that central subway, including water mitigation, finishing the art, all of the important things to really tie up this project. But in addition to talking about work, we also talked a lot about our kids and how they're about to fly into adulthood, and about our aging parents, and how upon reflection, frankly, we should be spending more time with both. And so that is what Albert is going to be focused on in his retirement, he promised me. And he will be a joy to his family and to his incredible wife, who's in the audience, and to some of his friends and colleagues. Eddie, who's in the audience, just told me that he has known Albert since middle school. So we're truly an MTA family, and that Albert was the best man at his wedding.

So that is how tight we all are.

I want to thank Albert for his many years of service. It's hard to imagine the Central Subway project without him. He is the Central Subway project. And not just the pretty stations and the art you see today, but the beautiful underbelly of it all, because that's what makes the subway move. So with that, thank you, Albert. On behalf of our entire organization, thank you from me, and congratulations on your retirement. This wouldn't be a retirement without a special gift.

Come on up. Let's open it up.

You get to open. Which way? The Albert Ho way.

So, Chair, Director of the SFMTA, Julie, Victoria, Senior Management, it's been a great pleasure for me to be here today for this occasion. I'd be remiss in not thinking that, you know, after 32 plus years, I didn't think it would ever come to this. But I just want to take this time, you know, I know Victoria said a lot of nice things, One of the things I do want to recognize is that the special people in my life that are unable to be here, the most important ones are my parents, who immigrated to America from Burma so that I can have this opportunity to be here, to succeed, and for them to sacrifice. So I really appreciate them. They cannot be here. But the other person that's very important and to make my project successful is my wife, my lovely wife, Judy Chen. She's here. And basically, without her, I cannot dedicate my life to the agency, to the project at hand. She was always there, very supportive of me when I worked late at night, weekends, whenever we needed anything for the project. And not just Central Subway, but from the Muni Metro turn back. Without her, I'm not here. And I know many people will say that Central Subway was my original child. I have three daughters. But I started Central Subway before my three daughters. And sometimes they're jealous because I spend more time with Central Subway than with my daughters. But it has progressed. So I'm relieved to spend, finally, more time with them. The other people that I want to thank is I have some special friends that are here who heard about this award. So I have friends, Eddie, who's been with me since middle school. We went to Presidio together. I have friends from high school, from Lowell, that are here. I also have friends from my college that are here. The family is what keeps me going. And to me, the most important thing is that I'm a San Franciscan. I want to make sure we make sure the muni runs properly, but also for the people that are here. And I grew up here, so this is very important to me. And finally, last but not least, is really the people that make Muni important. After 32 years, I have many of my colleagues here in the back row that are, without them, I'm nothing. I do not make Central Subway. I don't make any other projects. They are the unsung heroes of this agency. They do everything here so that we all can take success properly. And without them, we're nothing. So I want to take this time to recognize them, because they are the special people, at least for me. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

All right. Next up, I'd like to honor Daryl Robinson, the street operations manager who leads the temporary sign, paint, meter, and sign shop programs. Daryl, too, has a very long history here at SFMTA, starting in 1989 as a parking meter repairer. And before that, I think he worked even for the city even before that, right, Daryl? He later became a parking meter repair supervisor, a role he held for six years before moving on to manage meter technology implementation. In 2015, Daryl became the parking meter shop manager, where he was directly responsible for maintaining the state of good repair of the cities. I won't make you guess how many, like I did last time, but 26,000 metered spaces. In this role, he managed a budget of $20 million, generated more than $50 million in annual revenues. Daryl became Streets Division Operations Manager at the end of 2021. Daryl's team are the unsung heroes, just like Albert talked about, about his team of San Francisco streets, because they do all the street safety and bread and butter work that keeps all of us moving. We usually don't notice all the roadway striping, all the thousands of signs, all the meters, and how much work goes into all of our amazing special events, of which we have more and more of, all the quick build projects, but it is his team that actually puts all that stuff into the ground. Daryl has done a stellar job in leading the STEAM and constantly delivering new projects, juggling many competing priorities. Daryl will tell you himself how many times a month I call him. And doing all his best to respond to all the various 311 requests and provide the best customer service. But aside from being a terrific leader, Daryl is a team player. He always says, and I quote, teamwork makes the dream work, unquote. And we have now adopted this as our unofficial streets motto. Maybe official. Darrell exemplifies the kind of attitude that is imperative to being a true civil servant. Not only does he care deeply about the community he lives in, but when asked to do something, you know what his answer is?

Yes, let me try to figure out how to do X, Y, and Z.

He's flexible and makes adjustments and project delivery based on what we're hearing from the community. And here's something else about Darrell that you may not know. He gets people together. He has organized many and many gatherings and has hosted our annual employee appreciation luncheon for as long as I've been around and beyond. And those events always come with most amazing food. What I personally love about Daryl is how much he loves and cares about his family who are here today. And maybe unbeknownst to you, he shows pictures of the grandkids to all of us all the time. So Daryl, you will have to keep that coming. I'll have to tell you, Daryl's legacy will live on in many ways, including continuing the tradition of getting people together, breaking bread together, and getting our cohesive MTA family together, and celebrating the public service that the SFMTA provides. Daryl, we wish you well on a very well-deserved retirement. Coming up. Guess what this is. We've seen many of these over the years. I know.

Did he have to print his own sign?

Wait, wait, wait. All right. Daryl Robinson. And one more thing. one of these.

Thank you.

Now, Daryl, before I let you come up to the mic, I also want to invite Tad Graff to say a couple words. Come on up.

You can't have it, Daryl.

Thank you, Victoria. Board directors, thank you for having me here. Ted Graff, the director of operations overseer, our enforcement team, our parking and curb management team. I got a little teary-eyed today a couple of different times. We had lunch with Daryl before this, and it was pretty emotional. I came here in 2015, and I'd heard about Daryl I heard about this professional parking meter operator. I came from the private side operating lots of street infrastructure, parking specifically. And the rumors couldn't have been farther from the truth. The first thing I noticed about Daryl was his calm demeanor, his professionalism that he held. and really just, you know, his sense of humor as he operated. I'll double down on what Victoria shared. You know, his tagline, teamwork makes the dream work, which is really something we've embodied now, not only at the shops, but at One South NS. And yeah, just going to miss you tremendously, Daryl. He's been a great partner and a true great colleague. I wrote some things down. I'm totally going off script. But really, his contributions go beyond results that we talked about in delivering a significant amount of revenue to the city, managing that very tightly. But they're really reflected in the people that he mentored, which he really took pride in. That's really what he focused on in the last, in my opinion, the last five years of his career here at the MTA is really developing those next leaders of the agency, which we've seen step up in a different role since he's been here and will as he leaves. But simply put, Darryl really made this a better place to be and to work. Now as Daryl steps into retirement, I want to wish him the best in his next chapter, where deadlines are optional, warnings are slower, and meetings are thankfully optional. And hopefully some good barbecue along the way. I also want to acknowledge some of Daryl's family, some of which are here today. His daughter, Rachel, and his son, Daryl. So met them today for the first time, though I've seen many pictures. Don't want to share all that. And just want to thank you for everything you've done over the years. Really been a great partner from the early morning phone calls to late morning phone calls to evening phone calls. That was just one thing I really, every time I called, Darrell would pick up and just say, yes is the answer, what is the question? So just want to appreciate you. Thank you, Darrell. Congratulations.

What I have to say is that it's been an amazing journey working here for the city of San Francisco. I believe when I first started in 89, I was under the Department of Public Works, and then we became DPT and then MTA. It's been an amazing journey. I've met many people along this journey. I remember when I first started, I only had my son at that time. In 89, we have the 89 earthquake. I had my second child, which was my daughter, Francesca, and she was born two weeks before the earthquake. And I recall getting that call to go into the city and to make sure that our families were safe first. I always came first with our families. But coming into work to make sure the citizens of San Francisco were safe as well is something I've embedded into my family. I mean, to my work history is to make sure that family comes first, but also I want to give thanks to my parents because my parents instilled to me the work ethics that I've had and I've carried throughout my career of 37 years. I also want to give thanks to my staff. One of the things I saw early on in my career that there wasn't very much diversity within our agency, but I can honestly say now to see the different diversity of women and men and different backgrounds within the city. It's really amazing. I feel proud to have that. I feel really proud to have the team that I built and assembled. If you don't mind, those that have worked with me over the years, if you don't mind standing up, my team itself.

Yes.

Some of the staff have gone back as far as 30 years before we even had kids, but it's been a great journey. And I just want to say thank you to the commission, to the president of the commission, as well as Victoria and Ted. And I look forward to this part of my chapter in my life of retirement and grandkids and spending that time. But I did want to share with you one thing. We did do some photos a while back. I wanted to share with Madam Chair, if you don't mind sharing these with her. But it was one of our last luncheons that we had. And one of the things I think that the tradition that will continue on is that we will have these luncheons and bring people together. That's one thing I've learned from my parents was food and how that brings us all together. But I want to say thank you for the career within the city. I feel very blessed and a lot of gratitude to what I've accomplished. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Director Kirschbaum, if I may, I would just like to say on behalf of the board, thank you both, Mr. Ho and Mr. Robinson, for your many, many years of service to the city and to the citizens of San Francisco. And I don't recall another recognition occasion where there were so many staff members present and the feeling was so overflowing in appreciation. And speaking selfishly, I really appreciate, Mr. Robinson, you letting us know that the staff luncheons will be continuing because I have... I have very much enjoyed those occasions, and the food is indeed very good. So thank you both so, so much, and best wishes for a wonderful retirement.

Carry on my report. We're always so proud of the staff that we bring here for recognition. I'm also thrilled to share with you a special recognition that will extend beyond our agency. I want to recognize and congratulate Charles Drain, the SFMTA's Chief Maintenance Officer, who will be receiving a Good Government Award from SPUR, the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, at an event here at City Hall on Wednesday, May 13th. Charles, I think I see you in the back. Charles, thank you for being here and letting us celebrate you. And I know one of the first things Charles would say is he's really here as a as a representative of his team and all the incredible work that our maintenance of way and supporting staff do. Charles is being recognized for creating and leading our Fix-It Week program. During Fix-It Weeks, we close the subway early so teams have more time to perform essential subway and rail infrastructure work. This really started with the leadership of the SFMTA board and you all being willing to take a risk that if we did close the subway early, about once a quarter, that we would see strong results. The program has really exceeded expectations in reducing subway delays. Charles has incorporated leadership development opportunities into the program and used it to improve communication and collaboration among the SFMTA departments that sometimes operate in silos. Thanks to his work, we now have a generation of leadership that understands not just their role, but also how their role fits into our broader infrastructure program. So please join me in congratulating Charles for receiving the Spur Good Government Award and for all the good work he does keeping our infrastructure in a state of good repair and encouraging a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement at the SFMTA. The next Fix-It Week is scheduled for May 18th to 21st. Continuing really strong good news, last week we released new data on the effectiveness of our speed safety cameras. It's been a year since we launched the cameras at 33 locations in San Francisco. The new data shows that cameras have been very effective in getting people to change their behavior and slow down the corridors where we've installed them. One year into the program the share of drivers speeding 10 miles or more over the speed limit is down nearly 80% across the camera locations compared to before the cameras were installed. This chart here that we're going to be pulling up shows how speeds have come down even since the last time we collected data in the fall of 2025. As you know, reducing speeding saves lives. Speeding is the leading cause of severe injuries and fatalities on San Francisco streets, and even small reductions can make measurable difference. Most people who are sent a citation for speeding don't receive another citation. This is an indication that driver behavior is changing, which is what the program was designed to do. I want to thank San Franciscans for really embracing this program, having really great conversations around the dinner table, that sometimes these warnings or these tickets inspired, and for really making positive steps to keep all San Francisco safe. I'm also excited to report that we are beginning the transition of our Lifeline monthly pass customers to the regional Clipper Start program. This transition will allow customers to purchase their monthly discount passes through all existing sales channels, including third-party vendors such as Walgreens and the Muni Clipper ticket vending machines. Once they obtain their Clipper Start Card, customers will have the flexibility to purchase the Lifeline monthly pass or to load value to utilize the single-ride half-fare discount on all Bay Area transit agencies. They'll also be eligible for the free and reduced transfer benefit between operators. As of May 1st, we discontinued processing new applications for the Lifeline program and are providing information to customers on how to apply to the Clipper Start program. We have also been helping members of the public sign up for Clipper Start at community events. Sometimes that's just promoting that this incredible program exists, but sometimes it's actually sitting down and helping folks fill out the applications. I think Beatrice, for example, helped 10 people last week become part of this important program through application support. Existing customers will be able to continue to purchase their monthly passes through the SFMTA program through July to provide some transition time to apply to the Clipper Start program. May is Bike Month, and we're celebrating the work we've done to make San Francisco a more bike-friendly city. San Francisco has an extensive bike network, which now stretches more than 470 miles. This includes more than 50 miles of separated bikeways. Bike ridership is increasing, and separating bike traffic from auto traffic is one way we're making cyclists and motorists feel more comfortable using the roadways. Bike counts during the morning and evening commute hours were up 52% in 2025 over 2024. This week is Bike and Roll to School Week, where we show kids and their parents and guardians how to use bikes, biking and rolling to get to school and to feel safe doing so. And May 14th is Bike to Wherever Day. In San Francisco, it was formerly Bike to Work Day. Meanwhile, bike share is more popular than ever. Every month it's setting new ridership records. For example, January to March 2026 had 50 percent more trips than January to March 2025, rivaling some of the larger or mid-size Bay Area transit agencies. I want to end my report by telling you all about a new initiative that we just announced at a press event with Mayor Lurie a few hours ago. Thank you, Directors Tarloff and Chen for joining us. At your last meeting, you approved a budget that demonstrates accountability and strength and efficiency. What we announced today reinforces that commitment. We announced a new initiative that complements our existing fair compliance and education work. We are calling it Fairs for Our Future because it is so important to our ability to deliver excellent community service into the future that people pay their fares. I'm incredibly grateful to our transit fare inspectors who carry out thousands of proof of payment inspections on dozens of muni routes every day while also helping to connect community members to all of our different pass options or just spot somebody who's having a bad day. Because of their work, an additional $5 million in fare revenue was generated in fiscal year 2025 due to increased compliance. But we know that we still have more work to do. And one of the top concerns we receive from customers in the community is people are not paying their fares. Our renewed fare compliance initiative set out the key actions we are taking over the next 100 days and the next six months and beyond. And I wanted to highlight just a few of those actions. We're going to launch a new public education campaign to remind people that it is cheaper to pay your fare than to pay a fine. We're going to hire more transit fare inspectors and make sure we're deploying them on the meeting lines and at the times when the most fare evasion is happening. And we're going to move away from the forms of payment that don't require riders to tap the Clipper card reader. That's going to help both with our data and our understanding of fare compliance, as well as sending the message to other riders that you've paid. For example, SFMTA employees are currently not required to tap. And that could be interpreted as, oh, hey, Julie didn't pay her fare today. which I do. So we're going to issue clipper cards to our employees that will tap the readers, just like everyone else. We're also going to do more to help people learn about and enroll in our free and reduced fare programs, because this is not about punishing folks. It's about making sure that people know how to pay and do pay. I just want to ask everyone who rides Muni to help us with this initiative and to really respect and keep foremost in mind the safety of our fare inspectors as they do this work. Paying our fare keeps the system working and will keep it financially viable so we can keep getting people who live, work, and visit San Francisco where they need to go. Thank you. That concludes my report.

Thank you, Director Kirschbaum. Before I open public comment for this item, I would like to remind members of the public that they may provide comment on the topics that Director Kirschbaum shared. Those are special recognition of staff members, the new speed safety camera data, Lifeline Transition to Clipper Start, Bike Month, and the Fares for Our Future Initiative. If you feel the director missed addressing a topic, you may comment on that during Item 9, General Public Comment. If you are here to speak on an item later in today's agenda, please wait to make your comment until that item is called. With that, public comment on the director's report is now open for two minutes each.

Members of the public wishing to provide comment will have two minutes each. There will be a warning sound at 30 seconds and a chime when the time is up. Any speakers can come up to the podium at this time to provide comment on the director's report.

Good afternoon, board. Griffin Lee here representing Connected SF staff and membership. One, on the enforcement speed cameras, I think from day one we've been supportive of enforcement and enforcing the law. Don't want to overreact to the speed issues. I mean, there are outliers that, you know, speed, and they should be punished and face the consequences. But a reminder, the city average speed limit is just under 15 miles an hour, 14.1 specifically. On the bike month, go ahead, celebrate it, tout it, but remember the facts. Your colleagues at CTA this year even presented only 3%, 3.5% of the total population bike on a day-to-day basis versus people that drive still in San Francisco is over 50%. Those are facts from the CTA. That is not me. MAKING AN OPINION HERE. AND THAT'S THAT. YEAH, THANKS SO MUCH.

THANK YOU. ANY OTHER SPEAKERS FOR THIS ITEM? SEEING NONE IN THE ROOM AND NO ACCOMMODATION REQUESTS.

THANK YOU. PUBLIC COMMENT IS NOW CLOSED. COLLEAGUES, DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS CONCERNING THE DIRECTOR'S REPORT?

Thank you, Julie, for your report. And I think the data that we're seeing from our speed enforcement, I think, is really, really sobering and encouraging. And I just want to make sure that just congratulations to the team for executing just this project and how it was done. It's giving us a lot of opportunity to evaluate this and understand what the work streams might be to scale this in the future. And so I just really want to elevate that and just say thank you to the team for that effort. I did have two clarifying questions about the Clipper Start program. and fare enforcement specifically. With the Clippers Start program, I just want to give you a little bit more room to explain what the onboarding process is going to look like for folks that are currently with the Lifeline Pass. Will there be targeted outreach to folks that are currently using that service? And is there a way or methodology that we could just send a massive text to all those and say, enroll now? Or I just want to give you an opportunity to speak about that a bit more.

Yes, we have been promoting the Clipper Start program to our Lifeline users for over a year. And the reason for it is that we want customers who use Muni monthly passes to also have the option to receive discounts when they ride our partner agencies like BART, AC Transit, SamTrans. There's already been a large adoption into the Clipper Start program by our existing Lifeline users, and then we'll continue to be reaching out and connecting folks who have not yet registered in the next couple of months. And then for new customers, it'll be an invisible transition because they'll just start with this broader benefit. There's also a connection between the fair compliance work that I talked about and this program because previously, we could only offer the Lifeline Pass through an app. And the Clipper technology did not include it. So we're really excited to be making this transition. And we think this is just one example of what had previously been an invisible form of payment that will now have that tapping culture.

And considering the demographics that adopted the use of the Lifeline Pass and just considering how are we doing or what's our plan right now with in-language outreach and engagement? Are we hitting the news stations? If you have some more context there, that would be helpful.

Specifically to the Lifeline transition?

Yeah, so just getting the word out that this transition is happening, or it's happened, and just letting folks know how to then enroll in the Clipper Start program.

We will follow up. I do believe it is much more individualized because we already have a way of connecting with the current users. We are interested as we think about the broader effort to make sure that people who qualify for these programs know about these programs. looking at doing a lot of in-language communication and community partnerships and going to events that are already of cultural significance to meet folks where they're at.

Well, I would definitely encourage the team to consider marketing this through in-language news services like Univision, Telemundo, and Tigtal, like different publications that folks can access. And there's a big public at 6 PM that's looking at their news source and getting updates through those sources. So I would encourage the team to explore that a bit more just to get the masses knowledgeable about this transition and just how to enroll. Because I agree. I think it's quite powerful that now CLBR is going to allow for that functionality. It was a little wonky for the longest time. So I think this is a well-needed upgrade to the system. And since you mentioned fair enforcement, I just want to understand if you could speak a little bit more about the methodology that we're going to use with fair inspection and how we're going to ensure enforcement will be conducted in an equitable way.

The fair enforcement team, from the very beginning of their training, is receiving a lot of support from our Office of Racial Equity receiving implicit bias training as well as other cultural competency training so that wherever they are out in our system, they're providing services in a fair and equitable way. They also monitor and track where they're doing the inspections and make sure that it's being distributed across neighborhoods and across routes. Then they also look at data patterns, making sure, for example, that they're focusing on some of our heaviest ridership routes where we can interact with the most customers. It's a combination of using ridership data, using spatial data, as well as just their underlying training, really putting a strong emphasis. They've been very thoughtful. The group itself is very diverse. They have a lot of language skills and they bring a lot of their own lived experience to the work as well. they recognize that they're approaching customers in uniform, asking for proof of payment, and that can be hard and heavy stuff. I'm grateful that they take that responsibility really seriously and are just great ambassadors for our system.

And as we implement, and thank you for saying that, Julian, providing that context. As we're implementing this, has the team considered how to get feedback from different communities that might, you know, just have perception so that there's increased enforcement in their neighborhood and want to talk to somebody from the NTA to address that? Is there, have we made community connections with different neighborhoods just to offer that sort of feedback loop?

I believe we've started that work. We wanted to make sure that community partners heard about this program and this effort in advance of today's event. Many of them, we've now scheduled follow-up conversations to really talk about how the work rolls out. I think that there are some concerns, you know, folks who are focused on affordability and want to make sure that people who qualify for the programs know about the programs. So I think we're at the beginning of getting that feedback, but so far it's been, I think, very productive dialogues.

I just appreciate just starting that work stream. And I think it speaks to just how intentional we're being about how we're implementing this program or this shift. I know we've often talked about enforcement with fairs in this space. I just want to make sure that we're also considering how the public is going to respond to this. And I do see a work stream, just based on your answers today, that suggests that we are doing that. So thank you for offering that feedback.

Thank you, Vice Chair Kahina. Director Heminger?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Julie, I guess fairs for the future is fine, but we're not getting rid of Don't Be a Dodger, are we? I'm sure Director Felder would join me in that concern.

Noted.

Thank you.

Very good. Unless there are any other questions or comments, we'll move to the next item.

Directors, that places you on item number seven, the Citizens Advisory Council report. We have no report today.

Thank you. Please call the next item.

Places you on item number eight, new or unfinished business by board members.

Thank you. I would like to take this time to acknowledge two recently reappointed colleagues, Stephanie Kahina and Dominica Henderson, who were both officially sworn in last week for new four-year terms. I appreciate your continued commitment and the experience you bring to this board. I'm sorry that Director Henderson is not here today, but I want you both to know that your contributions have strengthened our work, and I'm glad to have your leadership for the years ahead. Colleagues, do you have any items to share or anything you'd like to add? Very good. We'll open public comment for new and unfinished business for two minutes each.

Members of the public wishing to provide comment will have two minutes each. There'll be a warning at 30 seconds and a chime when the time is up. Any speakers can come up to the podium at this time to comment on the item number eight. Seeing none in the room and no accommodation requests.

Public comment for this item is closed. Secretary Silva, please call the next item.

Places you on item number nine, general public comment. Members of the public may address the board of directors on matters that are within the board's jurisdiction and are not on today's calendar.

Oh, sorry. Let us open public comment for general public comment at this time for two minutes each.

Members of the public wishing to provide comment will have two minutes each. There'll be a warning sound at 30 seconds and a chime when the time is up. Any speakers can come up to the podium at this time. Go ahead.

Hi. My name is Richard Johnson. I'm with a group called HVSAFE. For 73 consecutive weeks, we have documented ongoing noncompliance on the Hays Street closure. Despite that, there has been no meaningful enforcement, no clear standards, and no explanation of when corrective action, including revocation, would occur. On April 10th, we filed a formal administrative complaint and requested a written response within seven days. To date, we have received no substantive response. Meanwhile, the same block is now being layered with another year-long weekly farmers market while the underlying complaint remains completely unaddressed. All of this is being pushed through with little to no dialogue or consensus from the broader corridor. This is still being framed as temporary, but in practice there is no recourse, no appeal, and no clearly defined enforcement framework. This is a primary commercial corridor. Small businesses, residents in the neighborhood are bearing the impact, all while the agency faces a fiscal crisis and continues to allocate resources without clear accountability. Due to no corrective action or dialogue, we'll have no choice but to pursue further remedies. Thank you. And also, in closing, I want to say I'm a proud Minnesotan and part of the Loon resistance. And I see no difference between what's happening with what ICE did at the federal level and what we're seeing at the city level of where you're letting politics rule the day and not doing your job. It's time for you to listen to the constituents and not to dictate to us. Otherwise, there's going to be recourse. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Any other speakers for this item? Seeing none in the room and no accommodation requests.

Thank you. Public comment is now closed. Secretary Silva, please call the next item.

Directors, that places you on item 10, your consent calendar. These items are considered to be simple or routine and will be acted upon by a single vote unless a member of the board or public requests that an item be taken off consent and heard separately. For all speakers providing public comment, please identify which item number you are speaking to. Item 10.1, requesting the controller to allot funds or to draw warrants against such funds available or will be available in payment of the following claim against the SFMTA. That's 10.1A in the agenda. Item 10.2, approving various routine parking and traffic modifications listed under 10.2A and B in the agenda. And item 10.3, suspending the requirement in the Transportation Code, Division 2, Section 916A2, that the terms of the Powered Scooter Share Permit Program, the program, be up to two years in authorizing the Director of Transportation to issue one or more extensions of the duration of the current program permits up to an additional two years, to June 30, 2028. That concludes your consent calendar.

Thank you. We will now open public comment for this item for two minutes each.

Members of the public wishing to provide comment will have two minutes each. There'll be a warning sound at 30 seconds and a chime when the time is up. Any speakers can come up to the podium at this time to comment on the consent calendar. Seeing none in the room and no accommodation requests.

Thank you. Public comment is now closed. May I have a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar?

I'll move the item.

Second.

Secretary Silva, please call the roll.

On the motion to approve the consent calendar, Director Chen.

Aye.

Chen, aye. Director Felder.

Aye.

Felder, aye. Director Hemminger.

Aye.

Hemminger, aye. Director Hinze.

Aye.

Hinze, aye. Director Kahina. Aye. Kahina, aye. Chair Tarloff. Aye. Tarloff, aye. The motion passes unanimously.

Secretary Silva, please call the next item.

That places you on your regular calendar. Item number 11, presentation and discussion regarding a transit division quarterly update.

Good afternoon, directors. Brent Jones, director of transit. Today is our quarterly update. In this update, we'll be covering MUNI by the numbers. We'll have a service update for June, Petrero Satellite Operations. We'll talk a little bit about MOW, Maintenance of Way. We'll talk about Fix-It Week again because we can't stop talking about it, and we should not stop talking about it because it's just that good. And then we'll talk a little bit about the Fixed Guideway Capital Program. Starting off with MUNI by the numbers. Our ridership averaged 529,000 weekly trips, a 79% of what it was in March of 2019, which is 6.4% higher than March of 2025. This is also a sizable 4% jump from the 510,000 daily trips that we saw in February. March had an 85% recovery in total boardings compared to pre-pandemic levels, with 14.9 million passenger trips delivered. That's our highest recovery since the beginning of the pandemic by quite a bit. The next highest month was last August, which was at 82%. Rail ridership is pacing the rest of the system, with daily rail trips up to 27% from March of 2025. Since March of 19, moderate delays are down 71%. Long delays are down 66%. Additionally, headway adherence system-wide has remained consistent at 85%, providing our customers with reliable daily service delivery. The results are in. 78% of our riders rated Muni service as either excellent or good. This is 6% higher than our 2024 overall satisfaction rating, which was already at a historic high. While riders' satisfaction improved among the ridership throughout San Francisco, there was a 10-point improvement in rider satisfaction for riders based in the Excelsior and in the Bayview. We had a nine-point improvement for riders based in the Richmond and the Sunset. Our highest ranked community service attribute, something I'm personally proud of, is providing access for people with disabilities, which rated as good or excellent by 84%. And it shows our commitment to serving the people who need us the most. Our summer service planning, I have to give a shout out to our service planning team who really worked hard to really provide a lot of the quality of life improvements from our last general sign up. We were able to listen to our operators, our supervisors, and most importantly, our customers in providing some really good tweaking and tuning of our existing service. Our service planning team continues to identify potential schedule efficiencies that save money and positively impact our customers. For this sign-up in the summer, we focus, as part of our phased approach, we begin to focus on the light rail system. We want to streamline it for efficiency and reduce costs. Effective June 6, we'll be implementing system-wide service changes that address crowding, schedule improvements that aim to reduce travel times and improve reliability, and changes to our routes and bus stops in response to customer and operator feedback to improve service delivery. Some of those details are bucketed into three main buckets, addressing the crowding, schedules, and the route and stop changes. For example, on the 5R, we frequency modifications to address crowding, including allowing less time after shorter 40-foot buses arrive. For the 14 mission on the aisle service, we targeted frequency increases in response to crowding between 10.15 and 1.15 AM. There are several other lines where we, including the 19 Polk, 28, 31, 35, where we adjusted the bus stops locations, repositioned them, or consolidated them as part of our feedback from our customers that we have received. All of this that we've accomplished, we've accomplished with one less division. We've closed the patrol division. And we've learned a lot of lessons from that endeavor. None of us had done this before. So closing a division is no small feat. Most of the people, or actually all the people who worked on the project and the process really really took themselves outside of their comfort zone. We worked as a team collaboratively, not just inside of the transit division, but as an agency. We had great support from our friends and colleagues at the streets division, which really allowed for the process to become cohesive. Something that was very, very difficult and annoying became something that we were able to hang our hat on as a real achievement as a team. So the patrol yard closed February 14, Valentine's Day, got to love that one, for revenue service for the patrol yard modernization project to begin. We expect the new yard will be open and operational, fingers crossed, by 2030. Many groups across the agency worked together for months and months to prepare for this closure. Fleet maintenance, maintenance away and operations, and planning really worked together as a team to pull this off. These groups innovated ideas in order to ensure that our trolley fleet would be well maintained and remain a possible viability for future service. What we did to support that was critical work on some of our satellite facilities in order to accommodate a fleet that has been displaced by the closing of the patrol yard. A few of those includes building out an existing new facility from the ground up to meet our needs and maintenance and operation staff. The facility at 1399 Marin was designed to be an acceptance facility for our new vehicles. We converted it into an active bus yard. for our trolley coaches for revenue service. We then utilized the four acres behind the MME facility, which was, in effect, a dirt lot. We paved it, provided drainage, put fencing, lighting, and security measures to protect our 90-foot trolley fleet, which represents the major portion of our capacity. We installed new charging infrastructures at the MME facility. And this was the first time that the MTA designed and constructed charging infrastructure for our trolley fleet inside of a rail yard. That is another milestone of innovation and creativeness between our operations and maintenance teams. The charging infrastructure is needed to maintain the batteries of the trolley coaches where they are parked and not being used. We're utilizing the overhead lines to keep them charged and rotating them in service to keep their useful life up and not lose vehicles while they remain stagnant, not working in a facility. This was a combined effort between our maintenance away team and our CPNC team out of the streets division. Speaking of maintenance of way, we talk a lot about Fix-It Week, but maintenance of way is a lot more than just Fix-It Week. It comprises 12 units, everything from custodial services to mechanical systems. There's an engineering team. cable car trackway, light rail, overhead lines, a very diverse team that we are really, really proud of. MOW is responsible for the upkeep, repair, and overall maintenance of all of our SFMTA fixed transit infrastructure and facilities. The group ensures the safe and efficient operation of multi-modal public transportation network. The teams play a vital role. They make sure that the trolley lines operate smoothly. They are stewards of our beloved yet temperamental cable car system, ensure the cleanliness of our stations and platforms, and they make sure all of our systems support our light rail system and are well maintained. The MOW team's coverage is vast. There are roughly 350 employees that maintain, operate, and are good custodians of the majority of the SFMTA's critical infrastructure. These assets and facilities and systems are integral to the safe and reliable operations of our day-to-day service. They include light rail, trolley, streetcars, and cable cars. These are just some of the highlights within our MOW purview. 25 properties, not only transit operational yards, but also various shops and locations that are critical for our day-to-day work. Scott Center, the Linux facility, streets division field operation locations, they're responsible for helping to maintain all of it. This is my favorite term, vertical transportation. OK, elevators and escalators, right, for the layperson. And I love that they came up with this term because I'm always on them about elevator and escalator availability. So it's like, hey, have you taken a look at our vertical transportation numbers? I'm like, what are you talking about? Vertical transportation, these are your babies. These are your escalators and your elevators. So thank you for that. I love the term vertical transportation. MAJOR INITIATIVES. OKAY, SO FISHING WEEK, IT HAS BEEN A GAME CHANGER AND A GAME SAVER FOR US AT THE SAME TIME, SO WE CAN'T SPEAK ENOUGH ABOUT IT. THE INITIATIVE CONTINUES TO PROVE TO BE SUCCESSFUL, A SUCCESSFUL MODEL TO OPTIMIZE OFF-PEAK WORK WINDOWS TO DELIVER MORE COMPLEX, TIME-DEMANDING PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE REPAIR ACTIVITIES. We continue to learn lessons and improve. That means Fix-It Week actually keeps getting better and better. I mean, the more that we do it, the more I'm actually intrigued. Not only are we able to address critical systems, but MOW has also used it as a way to build leaders. Each Fix-It Week has an owner. who leads, presents, and has an opportunity to play a role from the front, which is just as valuable as the actual physical and mechanical work that they are doing. Fix-It Week has applied the best practices from our Subway Fix-It. We continue to target it on a quarterly interval. The upcoming fixed week will be from Monday, May 18th through Saturday, May 23rd. We're going to focus on our friend, the Market Street subway, which is our most critical artery. We're planning future fixed weeks for the T3rd and M Oceanview. And we recently received notice that Mr. Drane and his team will be recognized at the SPUR event for the Good Government Award, which just shows or re-illustrates everything everyone's been saying about how successful, innovative, and necessary the Fix-It Week strategy has been. The past week, which was February 23rd through the 27th, focused a lot on the Cam Beach yard. It was the first fix-it that we had an actual live operations yard. I had a chance to go out there. And the one thing that was awe-inspiring was how many of the different teams had to work and collaborate together to pull that off. Not just the MOW teams, but fleet maintenance and other MTA teams like to have a special call out for the paint shop out of our streets division who did some amazing work and kind of prioritize Fix-It Week along their huge queue of other items or other work that they need to do. So shout out to the streets division paint shop as well. Some of the details about Cam Beach's Fix-It Week. The overhead lines provided grounding to ensure a safe work environment. They replaced and adjusted overhead line components, such as fiber, frogs, breakers, runners, Motive Power implemented rack-out electrical clearances, performed disconnect and switch PMs. The track team performed switch and welding preventive maintenance inspections and work, rebuilt switches, repaired high spots and potholes, removed vegetation, debris, and pressure washed. mechanical systems cleaned out our track drains with the jetter. The jetter is extremely cool, right? So I bought this jetter, right? Because MOW team said, hey, we need a way to clean out these drains to help weatherize. And it's been a real game changer. If you're a fan of water guns, it is a giant water cannon that, I mean, I'm sure they're having a great time utilizing it on a daily basis. Play nice, fellas. The mechanical systems team, I mean, the buildings and grounds team performed interior and exterior doors, locks and door closure PMs. They repaired and relamped light fixtures throughout the facility, wired HVAC units on the roof, and removed debris. Fleet PCC shop were able to clean up the shop, provide assistance securing lockers, plexiglass, and other debris for removal to create a clean and efficient shop. This is a picture of the team. So many different professionals with different specialties got together to make it a Fix-It Week amongst Fix-It Weeks, which is a big undertaking. So proud of that team. They did a lot of great work. with an older facility with a lot of different challenges. And it looks great. It's well lit. I mean, if you drive by it, it's lighting up the entire neighborhood. I'm glad we haven't gotten any complaints about the lighting, to my knowledge thus far. So I'll take that as a win. Even with all of our success, 78% rider satisfaction, innovative ideas like Fix-It Week, service planning team working to streamline schedules, fleet maintenance team using data to predict part failures before they fail. We have some real ongoing challenges with our infrastructure. Our infrastructure is fickle and is very vulnerable. There are numerous legacy systems and infrastructure that exceed 50 years of age. FURTHER, OUR ASSETS REPLACEMENT BACKLOG FAR EXCEEDS OUR CAPITAL REINVESTMENT, MAKING OUR SYSTEM PARTICULARLY AT RISK AND VULNERABLE. SOME OF THAT VULNERABILITY INCLUDES INCREASED RISK OF FAILURE, MEANING MORE FREQUENT BREAKDOWNS LEADING TO SERVICE DISRUPTIONS AND EMERGENCY REPAIRS. HIGHER MAINTENANCE COSTS. MORE FREQUENT INSPECTIONS, REPAIRS, AND SPECIALIZED PARTS ARE NEEDED. INCREASING OPERATING AND MAINTENANCE EXPENSES. RELIABILITY AND SERVICE IMPACTS. INCREASED EQUIPMENT FAILURES AND SPEED RESTRICTIONS. LIMITED SYSTEM CAPACITY. OLDER INFRASTRUCTURE MAY NOT SUPPORT MODERN SERVICE DEMANDS. Constraining the ability to increase frequency or accommodate ridership growth. Incompatibility with modern technology. Legacy systems often lack compatibility with newer control signaling, communications, or monitoring technologies. And then we have a deferred maintenance backlog. Funding constraints can and have led to Postpone repairs of replacements, compounding deterioration of systems, and increasing long-term costs. Construction and service coordination challenges. Rehabilitating infrastructure in active transit environments requires complex staging, often impacting service and increasing project cost. Workforce and knowledge gaps. Maintaining legacy systems may require specialized skills or institutional knowledge that becomes harder to retain as experienced staff retires. Climate and environmental vulnerability, more susceptible to flooding, heat, and seismic events as the system begins to age. In slow zones, these are areas where we are focused in our subway. We still experience delays in our subway based on the current state of the actual track system. The areas in red are parts of our system that are either restricted or not accessible, needing repair. In many cases, these slow zones are intentionally in place to preserve critical components, such as our turnouts, our switches, and are particularly important when we talk about the timeline for full capital replacement. While we talk about the timeline for full capital replacement remains uncertain, trying to lengthen out the life of existing infrastructure. So for the next five years, our fixed guideway capital program is focused on five core systems. Tracking wayside equipment, traction power, tunnel safety and resiliency, station enhancements, and train control upgrades. For the next five years, we plan to include small-scale projects that can be delivered quickly and maximize impact with limited funding. Focus on the state of good repair programs that will allow us to respond to emerging needs and maintain flexibility throughout the cycle. Initial phases of larger scale replacement needs like replacement of subway special track work and a phased approach to subway electrical upgrades. The program also includes the Multi-Cycle Train Control Upgrade Project, or TCUP. This next slide shows the annual funding allocations to the fixed guideway program, averaging about approximately $120 million annually. And almost 2 thirds of the annual funding is allocated to the Train Control Upgrade Project. Our current estimates place the full value of our fixed guideway assets at over $6.8 billion. Previous forecasting for the annual replacement need is approximately $170 million annually. However, these figures are now out of date and are likely significantly understated. Updating asset replacement values to $2026 and ensuring all assets are accurately captured will most certainly increase our overall system value and annual replacement needs. Further, this also does not address the backlog that continues to grow. The bottom line is our transit fixed guideway is insufficiently funded. What do we do about that? So our strategy for reinvestment focuses on five distinct areas. A commitment to lifecycle management. This translates to prioritizing state of good repair investments, using asset condition data to drive decisions, and sequencing capital work to minimize long-term costs and service disruptions. Prioritize the customer experience. Capital investment should ultimately improve how riders experience the system. This means focusing on reliability, safety, accessibility, and clear communications. Build in resiliency and redundancy. including dual power feeds, redundant signaling systems, crossover tracks, and hardening infrastructure in vulnerable areas. Planning for resiliency reduces service interruptions, improves safety, and protects long-term investments. And also, right-sizing project delivery, aligning our project scope and delivery methods to the need, phasing, bundling, streamlining work to maximize efficiency and our impact. and also create a flexible adaptive system. Our investment should enable the system to evolve with changing demands, exploring modular design, scalable investments, and data-driven analytics as reprioritization. We are working closely with our colleagues in finance and ensuring we understand the full replacement value of our assets. We are partnering on developing a 10-year capital investment strategy for this program. These are just some of the considerations required in that process. Sustaining and modernizing Muni's fixed guideway network requires a step change in long-term funding that matches the true scale of lifecycle needs, not just incremental year-to-year allocations. We must coordinate across multiple systems, major asset classes, and other capital programs. Reinvestment at the corridor level based on service demands. To maximize impact by concentrating resources where they can deliver the greatest improvements to reliability, capacity, and the customer experience. Prioritization based on our understanding of condition. So with that said, some of our key takeaways. In short, we're doing great working with a limited budget. Muni riders feel the impact of a great working service, and we're working hard to continue on that trend. But we still face challenges. Muni's infrastructure is vulnerable. Numerous legacy systems and infrastructure have exceeded 50 years in age, or will soon. And we need to do more. We're working to better understand the full replacement value of our assets. Development of a 10-year capital investment strategy for the program, which will need to be funded in the coming years. This is the generational investment of our time. Our infrastructure is the backbone from which our vehicles and our team members operate on, and it is the heartbeat of our actual service. It goes unnoticed until something is wrong. You never pay attention to the roads you're driving on unless you hit a pothole. You never pay attention to the lighting in the stations until the lights are out and you can't see. You never pay attention to the overhead unless it's not working as it's supposed to. It has fallen on us and our time to make tough decisions and invest in our infrastructure, not just for the now, but more importantly, for the future. All of the work that we've done to reach historic highs from our customer satisfaction, all of that is vulnerable. The way to shore up that vulnerability is to continue to invest. 15 years ago, we made the investment in new vehicles, new buses, new trains that fundamentally changed the way we deliver service, that fundamentally changed the way that our customers viewed our service. And we are today seeing the benefits of that now. Our predecessors were forward thinking in addressing a core issue, which we are still fortunately surviving off of. But this time, it's our infrastructure. If we want to maintain the positive gains that we've achieved over the last decade and a half, We need to start now in planning to shore up our infrastructure, build redundancy, improve our systems, and innovate in areas where possible. Thank you. That's the end of my update, and I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you very much, Director Jones. I would like to open public comment for this item before we move to board comments and questions. Public comment for this item is now open for two minutes each.

Members of the public wishing to provide comment will have two minutes each. There'll be a warning sound at 30 seconds and a chime when the time is up. Any speakers can come up to the podium at this time to provide comment on the transit update. Seeing none in the room and no accommodation requests.

Public comment is now closed. Colleagues, any questions or comments for Director Jones? Director Chen.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Director Jones. That was a very informative report. I really appreciate, I think, what we've done with Fix It Week. I think what we've seen with what Caltrans is doing with the freeways and on 19th Avenue is that I think what the public wants is really focused time where the agency or where agencies are able to get a lot of good quality work done. And so being able to say, hey, we're closing the subway early for a week, so that we can really engage in critical maintenance and not let, instead of something that's maybe a little less intensive, but lingers on for much longer. So I think that has been a really great program and really successful. I also appreciate calling out, I think, our infrastructure backlog and our, I forget what it's called, the state of good repair. To know that we're doing some really great things, but we also have a large amount of work to do and to say that, hey, we really need to be investing in the future. I think on slides 8 and 9, they were talking about some of the schedule changes coming up for June. And so I We're in a very revenue-constrained environment. And so I think all the changes that we're making are revenue-neutral, are cost-neutral. And so I think, so that I understand, and also for the benefit of the public, if you could walk through maybe one or two of how maybe some of our scheduling changes will improve crowding or improve the experience. I may have said it, and I think I might have missed it, but it's just if you could repeat. It's sort of like a walk me through exactly how that can be helpful.

Yeah, so thank you for that question. Generally, when we're talking about crowding, it's a capacity issue. So what we're doing, the work that we did at 1399 Marin, the work that we were actually doing at the MME back lot or where we develop portable charging stations, allows us to use more of our 90-foot trolley fleet. So you've been seeing 40-foot vehicles on traditional 60-foot runs, and that kind of compounds a lot of the crowding issues. So our plan is to continue to build out these facilities to continue to be able to rotate and use more of our existing 90-foot fleet. We are currently working on a program at the actual mint yard so that we may store more vehicles, whether they be 60-foot trolleys or LRV4s to free up additional space either at that location or at the MME facility so we can keep more 60-foot trolleys on charge. That way, during the next service plan, the next service update, we'll be able to incorporate larger vehicles to help deal with the capacity issues on those high volume lines.

Sorry, that was a lot of info. I was trying to write that down really quickly. Thank you. That's really great to hear. And I'm sure there's lots of other questions There's lots of other changes. That is one of them. But similar changes are happening with, as you said, there's a very long list of routes that we're hoping to make changes to help improve reliability, consistency, speed, and the quality of service for customers, right?

Yeah. For the first time in a long time, we really have the team in place to really actionize a lot of our customer feedback. Most of the work that we're getting, and when I talk about customers, I'm talking about our riding customers, but I'm also talking about our operators who are also our customers. That feedback that we're getting, the service planning team, the schedules team, is taking that information through the focus line workshops, and they are actually building action plans and implementing them. We only have a few times a year to do the service change, we'll realize those implementations. But these quality of life improvements are the first of many improvements that were made that are customer-based and getting that feedback from them. So we'll be making more. And we knew that once we closed the whole division, that there were going to be some challenges. We're finding out those challenges, and we're addressing them one by one.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Director Chen. Director Hemminger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, the price of gas is in the news these days. And obviously, it has an effect throughout the economy with anything that's fueled by oil. And it also has an effect, as you painfully know, I'm sure, about keeping the fleet of muni buses running. So could you describe a little bit what kind of cost pressure you are seeing on our cost of service? And describe for us if you have any mitigating strategies. I know some other Bay Area transit operators have a hedging program where they buy sort of some insurance in case prices go up crazy, which is what they're doing now. So do we have anything like that?

I do not know. I don't think so. That's the first I've heard about an insurance. I didn't know that we could do that, but that's something we will definitely look into. In reference to what we're seeing, the price of diesel fuel is up. Most recently, my maintenance chief said that price is up about 21%. which is a considerable cost of some of the efficiencies that we've already benefited from, from fleet maintenance. We're eating it up in fuel costs. Also, the price of oil. It's used in maintaining a lot of our components and our equipment that maintain those components as well. So we're getting an overall cost increase that's really – at least for a short time, mitigating some of the efficiencies that we've already been experiencing on the fleet maintenance side.

Yeah, I wonder what the assumption was for the budget that we just approved. Presumably Bree built something into it. It's just shooting in the dark to figure out what's the right number.

Yeah, and we would be happy to follow up. Fuel is an example of a purchase that we make through the city and we really benefit from being able to purchase at a high scale, high volume. We are using renewable diesel, so we are fossil fuel free, but as Brent indicated, we are seeing pressure across the industry, even though we are not specifically relying on a fossil fuel product.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Director Hemminger. Vice Chair Kahina.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Brent, for your presentation. I just wanted to commend the team for some of the stats that you relayed in your presentation, specifically delays being down by 71% and long delays being down by 66%. That is an incredible achievement. I want to give a shout out to Lupita Ibarra from the team. I'm sure it was instrumental in that stat. Also, muni satisfaction being at 78% is quite high, and I know that Some of that work was also, part of that stat was also led by Julie when you were at the helm of the agents of this particular division. So I just want to, I see this as a team effort. So love to see that that continuation of satisfaction just growing. And it's quite amazing, especially with the changes that have happened. Sometimes it's hard to retain that satisfaction, that level of work. So really impressed by that. Also, the MME facility, it's a huge project to create an additional facility from scratch, and the amount of coordination that had to go into that, I can just imagine losing a lot of hair from that. It's a lot. So I just want to commend the team for all the incredible work that happened there. It's tough work. You're building a process from scratch. A lot of folks that you relayed, Brent, were doing this for the first time. And just really want to commend the work effort there, because I know that it's not easy to do things for the first time, to build a plane as you're flying it. And you all did it. So congratulations on that. I also appreciate you noting just the power of the fix-it week and that particular strategy. I know it's sometimes tough to create a culture around we want to keep our systems in a state of good repair. getting that buy-in from our customers and getting that buy-in from, you know, just all the different stakeholders in the city to see that this is a – that they're also part of this culture. And so I just appreciate that work stream that we've had and just, like, you know, just changing the culture around, like, you want to make sure you're – we're all on the same page. You want to make sure our trains are running, our buses are running, and for that we need to do these sorts of one-week interventions. I think just to echo what my fellow directors are saying, the customer is such an integral part of this experience. And just letting them see behind the hood literally why these sorts of work streams are important I think is really important. So I just really want to commend the team for continuing that culture and just broadening that more and just keeping that alive. I did have a question about some high impact, one high impact event that's coming up this summer, the World Cup. And so just wanted to get your insights, Brent, on how you guys are all planning for that with the different system improvements that we're seeing that you've already tackled. Are you anticipating just having more service out there? Just what are some little breadcrumbs you can give us right now about what the customer can expect this summer?

So the customer can expect excellent muni service in support of the World Cup. We have a team that is in the planning phases. It is a overall cross-divisional agency effort to support this type of special event, partnering with our friends in the streets division as well. I believe Tony Henderson has been taking the lead as far as coordinating the special events teams from both streets and transit. We expect to have a very comprehensive service plan. Have not completely seen it yet, but I do know that even with all the stuff that is going on, we cannot miss out an opportunity to support Major League Soccer, hopefully I'll be able to go to one of the events myself. But my boss keeps me pretty busy, so I don't know. But I will definitely, once we get that plan in place, we will be more than happy to share that with you. And I'm really excited about it. We were excited about Super Bowl. We've been excited about NBA All-Star. And the World Cup is just going to be something else that excites us along with the Olympics when they come online as well.

In terms of how we're preparing our systems and making sure we tackle some of the work that an additional strain can cause to our systems, what's the team doing to prepare for that?

The team is resilient. We've built a deep bench. So for a lot of the leads, they have their team members or their direct reports who are taking, for some of them, for the first time, lead functions on working on specific events or campaigns. So I'm really confident that the fact that we've been able to build such a deep team and have been able to get ownership from our team members that we're going to be able to continue to deliver great day-to-day muni service and support these special events kind of in the manner that we are used to doing. We take pride in our special events. Our teams are built to be nimble and flexible. So I've not known a special event or combined with service challenge that this team has not been able to overcome in China. And I expect that to continue moving forward.

And also really appreciate you bringing up some of the infrastructure needs and the capital investments that we need to have on top of mind as we look at our capital budget in the upcoming years. If you could speak a little bit about the process of how you reconciled these needs with the budget that we ultimately did approve. And maybe, Julie, you could speak to that as well. Just wanted to understand. Are the needs in your presentation, you talked about using the scarce budget that we have efficiently and being very targeted. Do you feel satisfied with what we approved in our last meeting? Or are there things that we should start considering in the next budget cycle, just have top of mind?

The budget is what it is. I mean, always more is always better, but not always realistic. For our five-year plan, it's built upon what we can do now. My hope is that we think in larger terms for the 10-year plan that we're developing that will change how we deliver service in the future. For example, the TCUP project, the Train Control Project, is going to fundamentally change how trains operate on our shared right of ways and in our tunnel systems. It's going to have operator amenities. It will make them safer. It will have programmable speed restrictions to coincide with if we do have a slow zone, the vehicle will be able to sense that there's a slow zone and make sure that we're adhering to those speed restrictions. It will fundamentally change our presence, our experience for our rail operators, and improve our customer experience as well. That system is only as good as what it's on top of. We cannot realize the full investment in something like teacup if we have problems with the overhead or we don't have access to all of our track. So our stations are bad and nobody wants to go down there because they can't see or something like that. So investing in that infrastructure on a separate concurrent type of work stream, along with TCUP, we will get the maximum return on our investment. And that return is our customer experience. So what I'm proposing is that kind of the order of magnitude, we, along with this 10-year plan, we developed a focused working group and come up with ways that we can creatively fund source, source the funds for the future that are not necessarily available to us now. How do we plan for that? How do we strategically plan for investment in the magnitude of the billions. The number that I presented today is what we know now. And it's not $2026. It's the assets that we have cataloged now from Past catalogization, I don't know how long it's been, but I can guarantee you that it's going to be substantially more. The actual value of our tunnels, our trackway, our overhead, our facilities is going to be substantially more than what you were presented with today. The O&M on those facilities and infrastructure is going to be substantially more than the estimated $170 million annually. How do we prepare for the future? And then once we get there, be able to maintain and be great custodians of our investment. This is what we need to think about and start preparing to roadmap for future.

Thank you, Brent. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair Kahina. Director Jones, thank you so much for your presentation. And Stephanie, thank you for focusing on those capital needs projects. And it's daunting. to say the least, and I'm glad we're talking about it now in the context of a 10-year plan. We've experienced in the last few years quite a bit of dynamism in terms of funding, and I don't expect that that's going to change. But I will tell you one thing, which is that I'm very, very glad that this board did not take up the temptation to tap capital funding for operations in the last budget cycle. I think that would have compounded our challenge dramatically. And so I'm sure we'll be talking about that more over the coming months and years. And I have a lot of faith in our leadership that we are going to do that in a thoughtful and proactive way. I did have some questions regarding your presentation or just some things that I was curious about. Talking about the service changes, summer service change, I'm just really curious how that gets planned, because we have these really significant increases in ridership that we've been experiencing steadily, but it certainly feels that there's a significant uptick in you know, in the very recent past. And what we're planning against is last summer's ridership. So how do you square those two seemingly opposing trends in the planning?

So we're trending up in ridership. And the more that we do a good job, the more satisfaction we get. People are telling other people, hey, Muni's great. I took Muni to visit my neighbor, visit my friends. I normally drive, but today was a great day and I took Muni. So the word is getting out that Muni is safer, reliable, and a really great service. Our planners are already are already planning for what we anticipate to be the need to expand capacity, the need to maybe expand service as well, even though we are in very tight financial times. This is one of the reasons why areas like the mint yard project that we're undertaking to make that yard actually function as a satellite yard. where we can store more vehicles, keep longer vehicles for capacity available and charged is a example of collaboration between operations, fleet maintenance, and maintenance of way to be creative with stuff that we already have. Are we utilizing what we have? to the best extent that it and we are capable of. And the answer in this case was we weren't. We have some room to grow there. And that's just one of the projects that we're doing to address some of our chronic service needs as they are now. Again, the patrol project is going to be, when it's done, is going to be magnificent. But for right now, we need to toe the rope and continue to deliver a great product. And that requires us to be flexible and innovative. If we've got to move vehicles over here and over there to create room so we can build charging, we can do that too. It's just a matter of cost versus benefit. There are some things that we can do that are just simply not cost effective, particularly in these times. But the service planners are constantly thinking of ways that we can actually improve the existing service, making it more efficient so that the actual pain points that our riders are feeling are mitigated, even though it's in a cost neutral way. This is why we require a lot of partnership with our union partners in doing this, because We're taking something that has been systemically and historically viewed from one lens, and we're putting it on a customer, forward-facing customer first lens. And that requires a change in culture. These are some of the things that we are working on internally in addition to whatever limitations we have with vehicles and facilities.

Well, I think that's a really sound approach, particularly since we are seeing a benefit that the customer service approval ratings are increasing time and time again consistently, and that has got to have a benefit, a positive benefit for the working environments, particularly for the customer-facing staff. If we're dealing with people who are cranky all day, it's going to be a less enjoyable job. So I appreciate that and it's a very understandable lens that we are providing an essential service to the public. It's something to be proud of and our own way we wish we could do our jobs for convenience becomes less important than delivering a high-quality product, as you say. So I appreciate that approach. I am curious about what we're learning using the MME as an interim facility. And I was listening to what you were saying about the charging infrastructure and that that's the first time we've done this in an active yard. So I think maybe I don't understand how were the vehicles being charged previously.

So the vehicles, when we're talking about, we're talking about utilizing trolley charging inside an active rail yard. So the MOW team in coordination with Fleet Maintenance, they built, I don't even want to call them makeshift chargers. They're engineering works of art. They are like a portable charging system that allows our trolleys to charge on the overhead catenary system that we normally would utilize for our LRV4 fleet, which has never been done. And it would not be possible if Mr. Drane and his team did not have the foresight and the thinking out of the box mentality that's allowed this to happen, not just there, but also at 1399 Marin. And it's helping us to continue to utilize our 60-foot trolley fleet. And we actually hope to be able to expand usage of those vehicles, which will directly affect some of our issues on our high volume lines with regard to crowding. The actual technical aspects of how they did that from an electrical standpoint is beyond me. But I can tell you, I was all inspired by how it was explained, the level of coordination and technical aptitude without blowing stuff up. It's really been a work of art, and it's keeping us breathing right now. Once in a generation, something like this happens. And again, for us, the closure of the patrol yard, there was a lot of firsts. First for closing the division. First for moving trolleys over to a rail yard. We took a dirt lot and built a whole parking lot over there. We put fencing around it, lighting, security. It really fostered a close relationship with our friends over in the streets division that we're still benefiting from that communication and collaborations. I mean, never more than any other time from the Potrero Project have we really felt more one agency connected than at this moment. And our customers are continually experiencing the benefit of that. So I don't think that there's anything that we cannot accomplish. And I'm just anxious to see what challenges are next.

I think I still don't understand, though. Were the buses, were the trolleys being charged in another location previously?

Those trolleys were being charged at Potrero. But since they closed, we needed to find another place to actually charge them at. So Presidio accepted some of the vehicles. But all of our 90-foot fleet exists in two locations. The MME facility, which is largely a vehicle storage lot, but has some portable or makeshift overhead trolley charging, where we can charge about four to six vehicles at a time. to keep the batteries alive. And we also have the same but a lesser mechanism at 1399 Marin Street. And they're just simply there to keep the batteries alive. Most of the fleet is resting, so to speak. But we rotate them all through. We utilize them in service to keep their usable life intact. Because at the beginning of the project, we were really worried about Fleet sitting, losing that capacity, and then once we turn them off, we are not able to turn them back on. We lose them and we lose that capacity forever. So it's been real instrumental in keeping our fleet alive and at the same time being able to deliver almost what we were delivering previously as far as capacity and being able to use the 60-foot trolley fleet.

So I understand now that that's a real efficiency gain. Thank you for explaining that.

I would say it's an added efficiency gain, because when the project was first envisioned, we were actually going to spend tens of millions of dollars to stand up a temporary facility. because our vehicle demand is lower than it was prior to COVID, we made the decision to not make that investment. Then we had gone from there to the decision, well, we'll just park these vehicles. The combination of our demand coming back And our vehicle maintenance team really becoming increasingly uncomfortable with sitting an asset that complex for that amount of time is really what it got Brent to really activate the creativity of MOW and to try to find out how could we have the best of both worlds, not have this huge temporary cost, but still be able to protect the asset and protect the service.

Thank you. The Cameron Yard fix-it week, we did not have to curtail service to conduct that fix-it week. Is that correct?

No. Well, it did change a little bit for the M line terminal. So we just short-turned it outside of the yard. But that Fix-It Week was unlike any other. Just one, it was during the daytime. But two is the amount of work they were able to accomplish was very impressive. Like I said, everything from lighting to fall protection to trackway. They even fixed the sign over the Cam Beach yard, which was faded and dilapidated. So they did a great job working in a very complex environment. And it was really that one slide where you see all the team members together. Generally speaking, a lot of these people work in different facilities across the city. They know of each other. They talk to each other on teams. But working in that close proximity on a shared project was really a great piece. When we went out there, we actually got to see some of the overhead linesmen working in and around live overhead. And they're just going about their business. I mean, you're talking about votes. But they're going about their business, doing their thing, nice and safe. They got all their PPE on, just operating very professionally, but as a matter of fact, and just like, yeah, we got this. That Camp Beach Yard, I know that Charles and team have a lot of other fixing weeks planned. Excited to see what they do on Market Street. Really going to be excited to see what we do on Third Street. And I just think that it's leading the way as far as innovation and is really displaying our ability to be nimble. When we talk about being nimble and being able to change course quickly and then succeed, Fix-It Week is kind of like driving that narrative. And not just for MOW, but for fleet maintenance, for operations. I mean, everybody's on. Everyone's trying to duplicate their own version of Fix-It Week, but nobody's coming close yet. So it's been innovative. It's been a game changer. And our public and this agency owes the MOW team a debt of gratitude for being OK with stepping outside the box and outside our comfort zone and really coming up with something transformational.

So we can look forward to work on the service level of Market Street and then the T-3rd as well. Is that right?

I think it's the Market Street subway. It's Market Street subway. It's going to be the Market Street on the service. That's a whole big animal all into itself.

I was wondering about that. OK, well, thank you so much. Directors, any other questions for Director Jones? I believe that concludes this item. Thank you so much for your presentation.

Thank you.

Secretary Silva, let's call the next item.

Very good. Places you on item number 12, discussion and vote pursuant to admin code section 67.10D as to whether to invoke the attorney-client privilege and conduct a closed session conference with legal counsel.

I'd like to open public comment for this item for two minutes each.

Members of the public wishing to provide comment will have two minutes each. There will be a warning sound at 30 seconds and a chime when the time is up. Any speakers can come up to the podium at this time. This is to provide comment on the closed session. I'm seeing none in the room and no accommodation requests.

Public comment is now closed. May I have a motion and a second?

So moved. Second.

Secretary Silva, please call the roll.

On the motion to go into closed session, Director Chen. Aye. Chen, aye. Director Felder.

Aye.

Felder, aye. Director Hemminger.

Aye.

Hemminger, aye. Director Hinze. Aye. Hinze, aye. Director Kahina.

Aye.

Kahina, aye. Chair Tarloff. Aye. Tarloff, aye. Thank you. The motion passes unanimously. And the board will now go into closed session. We will need to clear the room for this. Thank you.

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Oh, wait, sorry. I should have made my announcement. Directors, that leaves you on item 13. The board met in closed session and voted to settle the matter. Places you on item number 14, motion to disclose or not disclose the information discussed in closed session.

Colleagues, may I have a motion and a second?

Motion to not disclose.

Second. Secretary Silva, please call the roll.

On the motion to not disclose, Director Chen.

Do we need public comment or no? No, okay. Aye.

Chen, aye. Director Felder? Aye. Felder, aye. Director Hemminger? Aye. Hemminger, aye. Director Hinze? Aye. Hinze, aye. Director Kahina? Aye. Kahina, aye. Chair Tarlov? Aye. Tarlov, aye. The motion passes unanimously and concludes the business before you today.

Thank you, colleagues, staff, and members of the public. We are now adjourned. We have a Vision Zero committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow, May 6th, and then our next regular board meeting will be on May 19th.

Thank you.