Municipal Transportation Agency - Regular Meeting

Thank you, colleagues. It's now open for comment from us. Director Henderson.

Thank you very much. And thank you for the report, Director Kirschbaum. I have one question on the EV chargers. Will you produce a map of the areas that would be similar to the community corners, how you all say that there are some corners that are more optimal for that kind of use? Is there a map or something that will identify areas that might be better for the chargers than others?

Yes. In order to support the public-private partnership, we have produced a map both where we see high priority need, but also areas that we're intentionally excluding, like commercial corridors at parking meters and things like that. So there is a map. And then we will overlay on that some of the feedback we get from the public. on where people may be requesting or interested in this investment. But ultimately, it'll be an analysis of where's there the need, where's there relatively easy access to parking, I mean, not parking, power, accessibility concerns, and things like that.

Perfect. And so we can access that through, presumably through the website at some point soon. Yes. Yes. Okay. Perfect. And then my other comment, I just wanted to say the fairs day out or fairs for our futures was a really great, you know, trip for me to visit and sort of be in the shoes of the transit fair inspectors and some of the staff. And so I had a good time riding the nine. It also was a chance to see how, depending on where in the city we are, how different the users are and what sort of on one end of the city, there's a whole different type of demographic that are using the bus for transportation and their needs than others. And so I think that I appreciated the sort of breadth and scope of all of the diversity of the riders that we have and seeing them and getting to interact and also just really Being able to provide folks with information about the discounted fares was a good chance to talk to people. I was really happy to see that a lot of people did have the discounts or were signed up for them or had information about them, so that was great. But we did have a chance to also meet some folks and hand out some stickers, and it was a great time. So thank you for inviting me to that. That's it, Chair. Thank you.

Thank you for joining us.

Thank you, Director Henderson, and happy transit month to you and all of our colleagues. We shared a fun ride this morning with the transit riders on the F market, and it was delightful. And I, Director Kirschbaum, I have a couple of questions or follow-ups. I am very pleased to hear that we are taking steps to move away from invisible forms of payment and having MTA staff kind of first on the list I think sends an important message. Additionally, I mean, a public commenter brought up the Free Muni for Youth program, and I recognize that there's a lot of complexity to that. On the one hand, if you're under 18, you're or 18 and under, you can ride Muni for free. And that's a simple way to know, just with your age. But then on the other hand, there are members of the public who are as evidenced in our correspondence, frequently monitoring who is paying and who is not, and they may not be aware of the Free Muni for Youth program and other invisible forms of payment. Where is our thinking currently related to that?

Well, our broad thinking is that we do need a critical mass of folks tapping in order to ensure general compliance and also to build trust with customers. We think that the first phases of that should focus on adults. So, for example, with the rollout of Clipper 2.0, we were able to transfer all of our Lifeline pass users to Clipper. That happened in July, and that's a really important investment because that also automatically enrolled them in Clipper Start. So giving them a 50% discount on all regional transit. We are also working to phase out the Muni app, especially initially for non-cable car purchases. And that will include our day pass and then our employees. I think we are taking a wait and see approach on youth. On the one hand, what we hear repeatedly from students and from parents that just the logistics of not having to have anything on them has made transit much more accessible and seamless. At the same time, we have also heard from some youth that if they themselves would feel like they had less scrutiny if they were able to tap. So we wouldn't, I think, do anything without a lot more dialogue and discussion. And we're starting first, as I said, by getting as many adult users to tap as possible.

Thank you. And also related to state budget, last minute just news, that unwelcome news, I would say, I would characterize it as the mixed results from last night's meeting Do we know yet in rough numbers what the financial impact to the agency will be, both in the restoring of the greenhouse gas funds and then it sounds like a 75% reduction in other forms of funding?

We'd be happy to share the specifics. I think at this point, it would be premature, since the decision is so new and we have not gotten formal communication. But it will affect. lc top funding which goes to the operating budget we believe it will allow us to fully fund this year's allocation for train control but we want to make sure we confirm that and then it also by although it doesn't directly affect us by meeting the state's commitment to the region for SB 125, it prevents a large and unexpected capital hole in the region that would have drawn from everything else. So there's both direct and indirect funding impacts that we're sorting through.

Yes, please. Once that analysis is complete, if you could share that with the board, I'd really appreciate it. Colleagues, anything else before we move on?

Very good. Secretary Silva, please call the next item. Places you on item number seven, citizens advisory council report. We have no report.

Thank you. I would like to take item eight at the end of the meeting. Can you please call item nine?

Places you on item 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. We'll now open general public comment for matters not on the agenda 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 that want to provide general public comment can come up to the podium at this time. Alita Dupree.

And Chair Janet Tarlow and members, Alita Dupree for the record. She and her team folds. I must be off my game today. Where is everybody? I used Muni today. It was fine. I haven't really had any issues with our subway with the small s. The fare inspection system seems to be working well, because I was in the small S subway a few weeks ago, and they checked my phone, and the reader worked fine. So I think that's certainly debunking a lot of myths about Clipper. I am getting my Clipper discounts with the transfer credits. So I have a method of which systems to use in what order. But how do we think of Muni in a more regional perspective? This isn't just about San Francisco. I come across the Bay all the time. I ask that we view MUNI as a partner in a much bigger ecosystem. There's 27 agencies, I think. It's just like there are 50 states. They all have equal status, even with different populations and different representation. There's still 50 states. So we have 27 transit agencies that we should view with a sense of equal status. I'm certainly pushing for more inclusive muni. It's not easy coming here sometimes. I have to be strategic about when I speak. Because if you get a verbal battering from a bunch of people, and then I come up here, and I don't know how easily you reframe, and then what I say can get lost in the laundry, I have to be very strategic. And sometimes I write you a letter to help remind you of the things that I say. Because I believe in immunity that should be for everybody, even people who are different. Thank you.

Thank you. As a reminder, this is a time to speak on item 10.2, which will be heard at a future meeting if you are here for that item. Next speaker. Go ahead. This is time to comment on general public comment, so items not on the agenda, and also item 10.2, which is being continued to a future meeting. Go ahead and you can start.

Hi. This is mainly a question. I recently moved to SF from Seattle, and I'm a transit rider and transit engineer. And I noticed that the end line that I'm taking over the past few weeks here had some of the trains did not stop the door opening by the ADA boarding sign. So I just... noticed that as an ADA compatibility, the door openings had not been aligned with where the wheelchairs would be standing. So I don't know if this is a known issue or if this is something that will be fixed. Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good afternoon. Board Griffin Lee here representing Connected SF. Two things, I think both we've probably brought up in the past, but one is when announcing additional service or whether it's presenting a new project, whatever it might be, really urge the board and MTA to be very clear on funding sources. Example, the August 29th additional rollout to service sounds great, seems positive, but when we're facing a deficit, the agency's facing a deficit and asking for additional money, we think it's really important to be really clear where the funding is coming from, whether it's cost neutral or whatever it might be. Disregard the scenario. Just be very transparent about the funding source. Secondly, regarding future projects specifically, I think this is something we've been echoing for the past year, but ensuring that there is some sort of cost-benefit analysis tied to each project. We know there's a handful in the pipeline, and we hope that there's some sort of feasibility report tied to those projects moving forward. Thanks so much.

Thank you. Any other speakers in the room for this item? Seeing none in the room, I do have one accommodation request. Speaker, you've been unmuted. You have two minutes for general public comment.

This is Herbert Weiner. One question I have is about the survey that was done that shows the satisfaction with muni services. Now, I'm wondering if those people who were surveyed are San Francisco natives or people from out of town. Now, contrasted with people from other cities, this service looks very good. But that is quite deceptive because services have been cut. you've truncated some services. For instance, the 2 Clement used to run to the ocean. Now it runs to Presidio Avenue. And these are services that have been cut. Now to an out-of-towner who's unaware of this, this still looks great because there's still a greater amount of services. But at the same time, this city has the density second to New York. And we've been cutting those services progressively. We have less and less services. And to an out of counter, this looks great. But to a native San Franciscan as myself, this looks like a decline in services. So I'm sure that that survey that was taken did not include the amount of native San Franciscans. So that satisfaction survey is deceptive.

Thank you.

Thank you.

No other speakers.

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. Please note that item 10.2, as I mentioned before, will not be heard today and will be heard at a future meeting. For all speakers providing public comment, please identify which item number you are speaking to. Item 10.1, approving various routine parking and traffic modifications, is listed under 10.1A through K in the agenda. That concludes your consent calendar.

Thank you. We will now open public comment for the consent calendar 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 who would like to comment on the consent calendar, item 10.1, can come up to the podium at this time. Seeing none in the room and no accommodation requests.

We will now close public comment. May I have a motion and a second to approve the consent calendar?

So moved.

Second.

Secretary Silva, please call the roll.

On the motion to approve, Director Felder?

Aye.

Felder, aye. Director Hemminger? Aye. Hemminger, aye. Director Henderson? Aye. Henderson, aye. Director Hinze?

Aye.

Hinze, aye. Director Kahina? Aye. Kahina, aye. Chair Tarloff? Aye. Tarloff, aye. Thank you. That motion passes unanimously. Secretary Silva, please call the next item. Places you in item number 11, authorizing the SFMTA to pursue five one-year exemptions from the California Air Resources Board, CARB, covering calendar years 2027 through 2031 from the Innovative Clean Transit, ICT, zero-emission bus purchase requirements due to financial hardship associated with funding zero-emission buses and related infrastructure requirements. including a letter from the board in support of the SFMTA's current application for an exemption and authorizing the chair or vice chair of the board of directors to submit a letter on behalf of the full board for annual exemption requests based on financial hardship as needed.

Thank you. Good afternoon. from the Program Delivery and Support Group. Today, we're seeking your support to pursue an annual exemption from the California Resources Board's Innovative Clean Transit, or ICT, regulation for procurement plan between 2027 and 2031. AND THIS REQUEST IS BASED ON THE FINANCIAL HARDSHIP ASSOCIATED WITH THE COST OF THE ZERO EMISSION BUSES AND THE INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDED TO SUPPORT THEM. I WANT TO START BY EMPHASIZING THAT THIS REQUEST DOES NOT CHANGE OUR COMMITMENT TO ACHIEVING A FULL ZERO EMISSION FLEET. INSTEAD IT PROVIDES FLEXIBILITY WHILE WE CONTINUE TO ADVANCE TOWARDS THE ZERO EMISSION GOAL IN A FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE WAY. BEFORE WE GET INTO THE EXAMPTION REQUEST ITSELF, I'D LIKE TO START BY PUTTING THIS DISCUSSION INTO CONTEXT AND HIGHLIGHTING WHERE SFMTA STANDS TODAY WHEN IT COMES TO SUSTAINABILITY AND ZERO EMISSION TRANSIT. WE'RE ONE OF THE GREENEST TRANSIT SYSTEMS IN NORTH AMERICA. WE'VE BEEN OPERATING ZERO EMISSION BUSES FOR MORE THAN 85 YEARS. IN FACT, LAST YEAR WE RAN THE MOST NUMBER OF ZERO EMISSION MILES IN NORTH AMERICA. Our trolley buses, our light rail buses, historic streetcar and cable car, they all operate using the greenhouse gas-free HHC power. We've also completely replaced our diesel buses with cleaner hybrid buses operating on a renewable diesel. And then we also run our hybrid buses on green zone, where it can run on gas or emission-free zone in neighborhood that have significantly or historically experienced higher level of air pollution. So again, this request comes from an agency that has a long history of environmental leadership and continued commitment in reducing emissions. Our strong environmental track record is one of the reasons we support the goals of the ICT regulation. So let me sort of briefly review what the CARB is requiring and how we got there. In 2018, they adopted the ICT regulation, which was the first statewide zero emission mandate in the country. And it really established the pathway for all California transit agencies to transition their fleet by 2040. Now, we support the goals behind this regulation, and we share their commitment to improving air quality, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and addressing climate change. The challenge is not the goal itself, but the challenge is finding a realistic and financial sustainable path to get there. So to understand why we're requesting exemption, it's kind of helpful to look at the specific of the purchasing requirement that transit agency like SFMTA must comply with. The regulation requires the agency to purchase increasing percentage of zero emission buses each year. So for example, in 2023, 25% buses has to be a zero emission, 50% in 2026, and then 100% beginning 2029. The regulation also requires agency to develop and maintain a vehicle rollout plan, which sort of outlines how we intend to make that transition. We first adopted this rollout plan in 2021 and updated it in 2025 after we gained a better understanding of vehicle technology, the facility requirement, cost, and implementation challenges. Rollout plan update. We incorporated several important changes in the 2025 version. We added the paratransit fleet transition strategy. We incorporated findings from 2024 facility framework and then developed an updated cost estimate for both bus purchases and facility electrification. The update also reflected the lessons we learned through pilot project and real world experience operating better electric bus in San Francisco. What became clear was that the transitioning to full electric fleet requires not only the vehicle purchase, but also significant investment in facilities, utility infrastructure, and operational changes. The rollout plan provided a clear picture of opportunities and challenges ahead. So in 2023, we updated our zero emission policy to align with the ICT regulation. And then since then, we have continued to evaluate battery electric technology, conducting pilots, and sort of refining our implementation strategy. So, our current approach is to continue to procure hybrid buses through 2031 while seeking this exemption from the ICT purchasing requirement as necessary. The approach allows us to purchase and operate very electric buses, trolley buses, and other zero-emission vehicles as they become available when funding and infrastructure are available. The exemption does not stop electrification efforts. It simply really recognizes the reality of funding and facility readiness over the next several years. Even with the challenges we're discussing today, we continue to make investment in zero emission technology. Let me highlight some of the projects that are currently underway or we've already delivered. We began the pilot program in 2020 where we purchased battery electric buses from four different manufacturers. Since then, we've gained valuable experience operating and maintaining battery electric buses under San Francisco's unique operating conditions. In 2025, we entered agreement to procure additional 18 battery electric buses, 12 40-foot and six 60-foot battery electric buses. And we kind of divided those buses among the three major manufacturers. There are currently, well, two of them are already here. One is establishing their base here. And so we continue to learn, test technology, and prepare for future large-scale deployment when the necessary infrastructure is in place. This is really the upcoming procurement. As we are continuing to doing pilot and demonstration projects, we also need to plan for the much larger fleet procurement decision coming over the next five years. So if you look at the vehicles between 2027 and 2031, we need to purchase both fixed route and paratransit vehicle. We need to purchase approximately 132 40-foot vehicles, 224 60-foot, and then 22 large and 78 small paratransit vehicle. And under the requested exemption, we're not planning any large scale battery electric bus purchase during this period. And again, this is not because we don't support zero emission technology. Rather, we currently do not have any funding or facility infrastructure necessary to support these vehicles at the scale required by ICT. Next slide. So the obvious question is, why aren't we planning a large-scale battery electric bus purchase during this period? And the answer really comes down to funding and facility readiness. This slide kind of summarizes why we're requesting an exemption. For our adopted fiscal year 27 through 2031 capital improvement program, we did not include any additional battery electric buses or major facility upgrades required to comply with ICT. And second, the facility readiness remain a major challenge. Potrero Yard is currently our highest priority facility project, and that's really foundation to the future of all the facilities upgrade across the system. And until Potrero is complete, There is currently no really practical path to fully electrifying other major operating facilities. Finally, the exemption allows us to continue replacing our aging vehicles and maintaining reliable transit service while continuing to reduce emissions through hybrid technology. Fortunately, CARB recognizes that agency may face challenge that make compliance difficult. And they've built several exemption pathway into the regulation. And so some of the exemption that you can apply for is related to bus availability or vehicle performance, meaning daily mileage range not meeting or not having ability to climb the hills, delivery delays, or financial hardship. We are going to be applying the financial hardship category because that is what best reflects our current situation. Our application demonstrates that we've actively pursued all available funding opportunities and we still cannot offset the significant incremental cost associated with a full ICT compliance. The exemption category really that best applies to us is the financial hardship and let me kind of walk you through how the situation in line with those requirements. To qualify for financial exemption, CARB requires agencies to demonstrate that they have pursued available funding sources and cannot offset the higher cost of zero emission buses and supporting infrastructure. OUR APPLICATION INCLUDES EXTENSIVE DOCUMENTATION SHOWING EXACTLY THAT. THE BOARD SUPPORT LETTER ACCOMPANYING THE APPLICATION AFFIRMS THAT WE MADE GOOD FAITH EFFORT TO PURSUE GRANTS AND FUNDING OPPORTUNITY WHILE CONTINUING TO ADVANCE ITS LONG-TERM ZERO EMISSION TRANSITION. SO BASED ON THE CRITERIA ESTABLISHED BY CARB, WE BELIEVE THAT SFM CLEARLY QUALIFIES FOR CONSIDERATION UNDER THE FINANCIAL HARDSHIP. Since 2019, we've applied for approximately $473 million in federal funding for the fleet electrification and facilities improvements. Of that amount, only $179 million has been awarded. In addition, changing federal priorities required us to reprogram previously awarded grant that we received for facility electrification. TOWARDS A HYBRID BUS PURCHASE. AT THE SAME TIME, OUR OPERATING BUDGET CHALLENGES MAKE FINANCING OPTIONS SUCH AS REVENUE BOND IMPRACTICAL. SO BETWEEN 27 AND 31, COMPLYING WITH THE ICT REGULATION WOULD ADD APPROXIMATELY 400 MILLION IN COSTS. THAT INCLUDES 223 MILLION IN ADDITIONAL VEHICLE COSTS AND 229 MILLION IN FACILITY LIQUIDATION COSTS. So next steps. Today we're asking the board to authorize SFMCA to pursue the annual financial hardship exemption from the CARB covering procurement from 2027 through 2031. And we're also requesting the authorization for the chair or vice chair to submit the supporting letter on behalf of the board for future annual exemption application as they become necessary. We will continue to pursue external funding opportunity. We will update our rollout plan. We'll refine our facility framework and advancing any electrification project, whatever feasible. Again, our long-term goal remains unchanged. And I just wanted to thank you all for your time and consideration. We have Wade here as well from our facility team to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Khatri. I will open public comment for this item before we move to director questions. Public comment for item 11 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 of 30 seconds and a chime when the time is up. Any speakers who would like to comment on this item can come up to the podium at this time. Actually, I do have one speaker card for Alita Dupree.

Thanks again, Chair Janice Tarloff. And members, Alita Dupree, for the record, she and her with Team Fultz. I can understand the need for a waiver. Yes, it doesn't hurt to have one in your back pocket. But things don't always turn out the way we predict. And we can say that it's not going to change our priorities, but it could. Delaying will only further increase costs of buying new vehicles and infrastructure. It's called inflation. I see it all the time, both in equipment and any kind of capital plan has that. So come 2032, The vehicles are probably going to cost more than they cost now. It costs less to run electric buses over time. So we buy these buses that are supposedly less expensive. But then we have to buy fuel. And we have to do more expensive forms of maintenance. That's one reason why I got rid of my gas-powered car in 2009. I think what we have to remember is living values and being intentional. I guess I can see and feel this because I live in an all-electric home. So I have an electric stove and water heater and all that kind of stuff. And I live this daily. And if I'm going to go out and rent a car, I'm going to go out and rent an electric car because it will cost me less to operate that car. And I have less worry about problems with it. So I fear, though, that we're giving up our values. There are lots of people and entities that don't want transit agencies to have electric buses. And they put pressure. Don't let them put pressure on you. Stay the course. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other speakers for this item? I'm seeing none in the room. I do have one accommodation request. Speaker, you've been unmuted. This is for item number 11.

Mr. Herbert Weiner, I would like to see this board and this agency acquire electric vehicles as soon as possible, which includes TerraTransit. This definitely is a benefit to the environment and also doesn't put the agency at the mercy of fuel costs. So please do everything you can to acquire electric vehicles. Okay, there is a financial hardship, but I shouldn't We shouldn't let this stand in the way of acquiring electric vehicles. Thank you.

Thank you.

No other speakers. Thank you. Public comment for this item is now closed. Directors, Director Hemminger.

Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, on the exemption request itself, is there any reason we couldn't submit a request for five years all at once and just be done with it?

Yeah, the CARBS ICT regulation requires that you submit an exemption on an annual basis.

So that just gives them four more chances to bust our chops about the subject, right? Yes. OK. Well, they've got the money, so we've got to pay attention. Secondly, You know, every once in a while when we talk about this subject, we talk about the trolleybuses. And there's usually some lonely guy in the back row who stands up and launches into battle. But we never seem to get past the introductory phase. And I'm wondering if there's a way for us to get some additional light on the subject. I think some time ago we did an analysis, or the electricians did an analysis, someone did something, that purported to show that this would be a good deal if we could transition some of our fleet to trolleys. I'm looking at Julie just because I hope she has a better memory than me. And that maybe there is a way of getting the trolleys into play. Remember, the trolleys also are powered by clean, hetch-hetchy power up in the mountains. So it is end-to-end a good deal in terms of environmental protection. The question is, can we afford it? And I just don't recall seeing anything that really says one way or the other, can we afford it?

Thank you for that. One of, I think, the biggest changes that we're going to make in the next facility update is to really focus with certainty on a five to ten year timeline and then really allow for the technology and some of the other questions to evolve before we try to predict beyond that, because it's created a situation where the document is out of date almost immediately after it goes to print. One of the main reasons we brought the policy back to you all was because the Collective Us of 2018 did not see a future at all for trolleybuses and had a very narrow policy of just battery electric. Our policy now allows for the flexibility. And then as we finish Petrero, which will be a really a centralized trolley hub. That will then allow us to rethink trolley expansion.

Do we have enough capacity at Potrero to accommodate a pretty significant increase?

Assuming that we maintain Petrero and Presidio, Petrero includes about a 45% expansion, which also will allow us some swing flexibility to update other facilities. Right now, our maintenance team is doing incredible work to maintain and keep some of our 60-foot trolleys in service just out of a very makeshift yard across from Islayas Creek. But Potrero really anticipates the overall facility program.

Well, let me just leave it here. I just hope that we can try to get out of the first box into the second box so that we can move this down the road and see whether we've got something or whether we don't. And if we don't, we don't. But it'd be nice to know sooner rather than later. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Director Hemminger. Thank you, Mr. Khatri, for your presentation today. And in reading the staff report on this item, staff has listed out all of the funding requests that have been made since 2021 that would support the agency in deploying more battery electric buses. And I'm just saying this because I want to be sure that I understand in broad strokes what's happening here. the agency's values around switching to sustainable or more sustainable than even hybrid technology is not so much on the procurement side, although I do see that there are procurement requests that have been made to the FDA that have not been awarded. But But it's more on the facilities side to the tune of we've requested $433.5 million in facility funds from various funding programs. And we've only been awarded $39.3 million. And one of the things that I feel like I learned is that the Potrero Yard upgrades that we are undertaking currently do not count toward the battery electric bus because of the trolley buses being maintained in that area. So the goal is advancing, but not in the direction of battery electric buses. So if I understand it correctly, that is the crux of the financial hardship that is being argued here. And it does just, you know, to public comment, that is a shame because the costs of these programs are not going down over time. But it is what it is. And I am... I am interested in entertaining a motion and a second to approve the item, unless there are other comments from directors.

Second.

Thank you. Secretary Silva, please call the roll.

On the motion to approve, Director Felder.

Aye.

Felder, aye. Director Hemminger.

Aye.

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

Aye.

Kahina, aye. Chair Tarloff. Aye. Tarloff, aye. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Secretary Silva, please call the next item. Places you on item number 12, presentation and discussion regarding the Safe Schools Connection Program.

Good afternoon, Chair Tarloff and members of the board. I'm Jenny DeLumo. I'm the school's coordination manager, and I'm joined by my colleagues Liz Bryson, a streets planning manager, Alighton George, a senior transportation planner, and Krista Highfield, who is the school's coordinator. The item before you today is part of the agency's broader effort to improve safety and access for students traveling to and from schools across San Francisco. As you know, SFMTA manages a wide range of programs and projects that support safe, reliable transportation for school communities citywide, including safe routes to schools, education engagement programs, school crossing guards, walk audits, muni school trip or service, and so many more initiatives. Together, this reflects the agency's comprehensive approach to supporting these communities that SFMTA staff work to advance every day. The Safe Schools Connections Program represents the next critical piece of this work by answering the question, how do we connect schools to the All Ages and Abilities Biking Enrolling Network? As you will hear soon, the SFMTA is also advancing a new initiative to bring these programs and projects together. Called the Schools Coordination Program, I'll serve as the program manager, working closely alongside Krista Highfield and the agency's school teams. Our charge is to strengthen internal coordination, make it easier for families and schools to access SFMTA's resources, and improve communication with our stakeholders. So I want to thank you for the opportunity just to share a little bit of context about the item, and I'll turn it over to Liz Bryson.

Thanks, Jenny, and good afternoon, directors. Can we get the slide deck up? So as Jenny mentioned, the reason that we're here today is to share our draft approach to the SFMTA Safe School Connections work, which aims to connect all of the schools in San Francisco to the All Ages and Abilities Biking Enrolling Network. We're here today as an information item because we want the chance to hear from you before we finalize approach to this work. And additionally, we're opening up a broader public outreach opportunity over the next month to also give interested members of the public the chance to weigh in. So of course, safety is a top priority for the SFMTA in general, and especially in your schools, and especially for our youth. And I myself am a parent of two young kids, so I know how hard it is to be a kid today. Kids need outlets for physical activity. They need opportunities to unplug from their screens. And that's why we have so much work at the SFMTA that's focused on encouraging kids to try one of the fun modes to school, which is walking, biking, muni, and rolling. And there's so many benefits that come from that. It helps teach independence and autonomy. It improves, oh, it's about, sorry, teaching the next generation the proper rules of the road so they can be responsible young adults. And we also know that there's so much research that shows there's benefits in terms of physical health as well as mental health and getting that active transit as a part of your regular routine. And all of this really works together to make San Francisco more livable for families, which is a key policy priority of the city right now. OK, and Jenny really touched on a lot of this already, but because there's so many benefits to helping kids in this way, we have so many programs that contribute, from our capital improvement work, such as speed management, daylighting, infrastructure projects like bikeways, as well as education and encouragement, which includes our Safe Routes to School program and our crossing guards, as well as the many ways we support kids getting to school by muni, which We talked a little bit about the Free Meaning for Youth program earlier, as well as the extra service we schedule around the school peaks to support those trips. OK, so why are we here today? You all asked us to do this work. Back when the biking and rolling plan was approved in 2025, there were significant public comments specifically asking for a plan to connect all of the schools in San Francisco to the biking and rolling network. And specifically, the direction from that meeting was to put this together and then to share it out for input before we finalize it. So that's why we have the information item today. Additionally, the linkage between this work and our overall city safety priorities and policies related to both the Board of Supervisors and the mayor's directive on this, it all sort of nests squarely within that work. OK. And on to Lydon.

Good.

Thanks, Liz. Good afternoon, board. My name is Lydon George. I'm the project manager for Safe School Connections. Can you bring the slides back up? Thank you. So the goal of Safe School Connections is to establish a safe, accessible, and seamless connection from all 249 schools in San Francisco to the bike and enrolling network for users of all ages and abilities. So when we're talking schools, schools include all SFUSD schools as well as private schools that serve at minimum kindergarten to fifth grade, but as well up to middle school and high school. And when we're talking about the All Ages and Abilities Network, that includes streets with separated bikeways, slow streets, and non-separated bikeways with traffic calming. This is a lofty goal to connect all schools to the Bike and Enrolling Network. We want to recognize that it is a long-term goal. It could take up to 10 years to fully implement and requires us to find more funding to see this work through. But all of this has influenced our strategy to how we approach Safe School Connections. So the chart you see here represents the 249 schools in San Francisco and their relationship to the existing or potential future All Ages and Abilities Network. The good thing is we're not starting from nothing. We do have 15% of schools that are connected to the current All Ages and Abilities network. The purple slice there reflects those 37 schools. To take it back a step, last year's bike and enrolling plan outlined a North Star network to extend the All Ages and Abilities network citywide, based on extensive committee outreach and analysis, which was led by Christy Osorio, Maya Small, and too many others to mention right now. As we continue to build out our North Star network, this alone will connect more schools. So the orange slice that's there represents the 23% of schools that are connected to segments of that potential network across the city. The slices with the purple and orange outlines reflect the schools closest to the existing and potential network, schools within one block. This is where we'll be focusing Safe School Connections work, aiming to maximize connectivity, access, and positive transportation and social outcomes with limited resources. The remaining schools within the gray slice are not too much further from the network, but will require more resources to make those connections. We'll continue to seek opportunities to connect those schools as well. So Safe School Connections has three main elements. The first is to partner more effectively with school communities by unifying our efforts. The second is to identify the best paths to link schools to the Bike and Enrolling Network. And the third is to plan and build connections using a proven toolkit of options. And I'll be walking through each of those elements in the following slides. So the first element revolves around improved coordination and how SFMTA engages with school communities. So as Jenny mentioned, we're working hard to make sure that our work is understandable to the communities that we work with and ensuring we're making improvements around schools in a strategic way. So this coordination effort will be facilitated by the new schools coordination program led by Jenny along with Krista in close coordination with other SFMTA staff working on school related projects and programs. This program is a primary contact between SFMTA and school district administration and will support relationships with individual schools across the city. Jenna and Krista will also help enhance coordination of school-related work across our agency. This ensures that staff are in alignment with school-related issues and opportunities and that future investments are prioritized where they are most needed. Last but not least, we want to tell a better story about the work we're doing and communicate that to students and families and people that we serve through our work. Through these efforts, we aim to deliver even better outcomes for schools throughout San Francisco. The second element of Safe School Connections is to identify the best path from schools to the bike and enrolling network. So this element is like a pre-planning stage where we're initially engaging with school communities to better understand the on-the-ground social and logistical considerations of how school populations are actually going to and from their schools. Through this work, we'll identify specific routes for school connections and begin creating a list of potential connections for future projects. Our approach here is to connect with existing SFMTA efforts to engage school communities. This allows us to be as efficient as possible with our resources and better manage our work with school communities. So each item on the slide represents ways that we'll be engaging with those school communities. And I'd be happy to go into more detail later in the presentation. All right, so once a school is identified, the next element is to plan and design that connection using a proven toolkit of options. These connections will be known as school connector streets in our bike and enrolling network. And what's special about school connector streets is that they will combine physical infrastructure improvements with educational and community building investments to further socialize and support safety for those using the street. The ultimate design of school connector streets will be planned with school communities, working with them to select appropriate treatments from a toolkit of options. So what you see here is a general representation of our toolkit. There is a more detailed toolkit in the appendix we could pull up later. But you have the physical infrastructure side, which we have elements that focus on biking and rolling. And that's our standard improvements, such as separated bike lanes. We have elements that focus more on general traffic calming, such as speed humps. And I do just want to highlight that as an agency, we are revamping our traffic calming program to be more proactive with extending improvements citywide. So Safe School Connections will be strategically connecting with that effort to advance this work. And then we also have placemaking elements, such as seating and gathering spaces, which help bring a more human element to the streets. On the community building side, we'll be working very closely with our Safe Routes to School program, led by my colleague Ben Frazier. Safe Routes to School provides valuable programming related to school safety at schools across the city to share educational experiences that are engaging and interactive, and encourage students and families to actually bike and roll on San Francisco streets. So we'll be working very closely with Safe Routes to School to ensure school connector streets benefit from the great work they do. Something new that we're a part of, which is very exciting, are school street events, which temporarily close streets near schools and enable safer school access, allowing school populations to see and feel how different a street can be with very intentional design changes. We'll be partnering with other organizations to set up school street events next year. As an example, back in May, a School Street event took place at ER Taylor Elementary School in the Portola District. And it was just a really great event. The street was like an interface between schools and the community. It offered space for communities to interact and socialize, space for all the fun and educational and encouragement activities, including my favorite, which is the bike blender. I absolutely love that thing. All my team can attest that I don't stop talking about it. So we're excited to be involved in those events going forward and increasing their presence in other school communities. Lastly, I do want to emphasize the collaborative approach of this program and that we really want to work with schools. And we're open to new ideas and working with them to see them through to move this work forward. And I'll bring back Liz up.

OK, so Leiden talked to you about how we're going to start building this list of potential school connections using all those different pathways he described. Then we're going to have to make the decision of which ones go through that process of planning, outreach, approval, design, delivery. We won't be able to do all of them at the same time. So this slide summarizes some of the main criteria prioritization criteria we're envisioning to apply to make those decisions. Some of these are pretty straightforward, such as schools that are located along the high injury network, as well as if there's an opportunity to integrate the project with other capital project work that's already happening in the area. I'll touch on a few of the others. One is community readiness. You might remember this being a big part of the biking and rolling plan. And this is a key to some of the equity policies of the biking and rolling plan that says, especially communities that have experienced historic injustice, we want to make sure we're addressing what may be a longstanding, more important issue before we come in and propose biking and rolling infrastructure. The other one of these that also relates to equity and the biking and rolling plan is fulfilling the priorities that were laid out in the community action plans. These were neighborhood-specific plans that were prepared in partnership with a community-based organization. And each of the equity neighborhoods of San Francisco as a part of the biking enrolling plan. And if there's a way for us to advance what was prioritized there through school connector work, we'd like to make that happen. And then we also want to prioritize the Safe Routes to School focus schools. These are a subset of the schools that Safe Routes to School program focuses their education and encouragement around, based on both some demographic characteristics to prioritize schools that might need the most resources, as well as schools that have a high potential to shift vehicle trips to another mode. And these criteria are not in priority order on the slide, by the way. OK, so that's how we're planning to do the work. Where we're actually going to get started next year is really to start building out that list of potential connections. We'll build that list out from both the subset of schools that are a block away from the existing network, as well as schools that are a block away from the potential network, if we think it's likely that project might happen in the next five years. Which schools from those lists end up being the first ones with connections identified is going to be based on where we're already doing other school work so we can tag on to those opportunities and be efficient when we're asking a school community for input on one thing that we ask them for another thing at the same time. And the reason we really want to focus on these schools that are just a block away is because it could be so impactful, essentially, that someone's just one block away from being able to make a trip. And it could be very impactful to all of a sudden connect those families to a safe way to take their kid to school by bike and roll. And then after we populate that list, we'll be able to speak with a little more detail about what implementation is going to look like. We'll definitely fund the first few connectors. I know a lot of folks are eager to understand how many per year. And we're trying to sort of set up the program and not commit to everything until we get a little bit more of the program underway. We've also given a little thought to how we're going to measure success. Of course, since the goal is to connect all the schools to the biking and rolling network, we do want to keep track of our progress over time in filling in the pie chart with more schools connected in general, but also specifically for keeping track of which schools within equity priority communities and schools along the high injury network that we connect directly to the network. We also hope to see an increase in active trips to school. There's already a biannual count that the Safe Routes to School program does of all the schools or all the public schools to see how the mode trends are trending. And ideally, we'll see those trips increase as we make these connections. And then we also will keep track of our ability to close gaps in the citywide biking enrolling network, as well as advancing those equity policies from the biking enrolling plan that I touched on earlier. I'D LIKE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WHAT YOU'RE SEEING TODAY HAS ALREADY BEEN SHAPED BY A GOOD AMOUNT OF PUBLIC FEEDBACK. WE SHARED AN EARLIER VERSION OF OUR THINKING HERE WITH ALL THE GROUPS LISTED ON THIS SLIDE THAT INCLUDES ALL OF THE COMMUNITY ACTION PLAN PARTNERS FROM THE BIKING AND ROLLING PLAN AND IT ALSO INCLUDES SOME OF THE MAIN STREET SAFETY ORGANIZATIONS. And we really actually were able to adapt and improve our approach quite a bit based on that feedback. So I want to thank everyone who was willing to meet with us and give us their insights already. But we're not done asking for feedback. You can visit sfmta.com slash safe school connections throughout the month of September. There's essentially a written version, very similar to what we've presented today. And then there's a brief online feedback form. Our materials are available in English as well as Spanish and Chinese. And we'll look at that feedback and incorporate it into a final version of this work that we plan to bring back to you by early next year. I'd also note that while we are doing this outreach right now, there's going to be a lot more interest in the place-based outreach of when we're designing an individual school connector street. That's when we really want to make sure all the people that use the street have a chance to weigh in and participate in that process. Next steps, I think I've touched on most of these already, but we're essentially working on finalizing our approach to this work this year, and then next year start building out the list of potential connections and choosing the first ones to run through the steps of planning and delivery. And so this next slide is our last one to sort of close the presentation. This is just a recap of some of the main elements of the staff proposals that we're sharing today that may be of interest for the board to discuss or give us feedback on. One is a recap that our starting point for this work is to first focus on the schools that are just a block away from either the existing or potential future network. Another is the criteria we're thinking about using for prioritization, all of which are listed on this slide. And then finally, our measures of success for the program, which are also listed on this slide. Thank you.

Thank you, team, for your presentation. I would 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 who would like to comment on this item, item number 12, can come up to the podium at this time. If we have several speakers, you can start to queue up on the TV side of the room. But go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Directors, I want to voice my support for the Safe Schools Connection Project, because it's a first step towards making our infrastructure not only safe, but convenient and inviting for people, not for vehicles. And I'm imagining a city where more and more parents are OK with their kids and the kids' friends walking and biking to school. without parental supervision, just independently, because they're not constantly in the path of cars. And I see this as a flywheel effect, because you make these changes benefiting the children who are going to schools, but then everyone can use this and bike and walk in these connecting streets. And, yeah, so I really want the MTA to fund this and provide concrete timelines so this doesn't get, like, forgotten or deprioritized. And I also don't want this to be a half measure where only the closest blocks near schools are improved, even though that makes sense for just, like, the short-term vision. But overall, entire paths door-to-door from home to school need to be walkable and bikeable. So I hope that there is funding for the whole program. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon, Chair Tarlov, directors, and staff. My name is Sam Greenberg. I'm the advocacy director at Walk San Francisco, which advocates to make our streets truly safe for pedestrians. We'd like to thank the SFMTA staff for expanding and connecting what the agency is doing near schools to improve safety. We're hopeful that the Safe School Connections program will mean that the SFMTA can make more safety improvements near schools and make them sooner. Families and kids unfortunately face dangerous driving and dangerous intersections near many schools and more solutions are needed to keep kids safe. And we know this because that's what the SFMTA school walk audit program is all about. This program goes directly to schools to work with parents and school staff to identify what the top issues are and what's most needed, like speed humps and pedestrian safety zones. The school walk audit program is crucial, but currently the SFMTA only conducts 10 school walk audits per year, and it typically takes three years for the SFMTA to implement the improvements. If this pace continues, it will take 20 years to bring needed safety improvements to all K through 12 public schools, public and private schools in San Francisco. So in launching the Safe School Connections program, WalkSF urges the SFMTA to make sure a stronger school walk audit program is part of this new effort. Please ensure the school walk audit program gets the funding and reforms it needs. We urge the SFMTA to shorten the walk audit project delivery timeline to 18 months and complete 20 walk audits per year. That's what it would take to bring safety improvements to all schools within a decade. But regarding what was shared with the board today, thank you to staff, to SFMTA staff for their very thoughtful work in launching the Safe School Connections program. We're eager for this to accelerate progress around schools. And thank you to the board for your leadership on safe streets, especially for kids and families.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon, SFMTA Board of Directors. Clara Mobley, Director of Advocacy for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. I want to thank directors for your leadership in directing staff to strengthen the focus on school safety and the biking and rolling plan. The intent of the program is excellent, and we extend our gratitude to the MTA team for meeting with us and many others who are here today for preliminary feedback on the proposal before you today. Our biggest concerns are that the program does not include dedicated funding or concrete measurable goals. Without those two things, there is a real risk that this becomes a recipe for inaction rather than a roadmap for safer streets around every school. We urge the board to take two specific actions today. The first is to direct staff to identify funding for the program. We encourage staff and the board to explore every available funding source, including using speed camera revenues to support the assessment and implementation of school safety improvements. The second is to direct staff to establish ambitious, time-bound, and measurable goals. The program needs clear benchmarks so we can track whether meaningful progress is actually being made. The WAC audit timeline requires ambitious goals. If we are going to successfully connect schools to the All Ages and Abilities Network within the next decade, if WAC audits are the primary mechanism for identifying the safety improvements that are needed at each school, the pace of assessments must increase substantially. The math makes the urgency clear. There are 249 schools, 155 don't connect to the network, and 10 walk audits are conducted a year. At that pace, it would take nearly 16 or 20 years to assess them all. School safety demands more urgency than this. The assessment itself also cannot be the end of the process. An important component of this program must be how SFMTA remains accountable to schools after a walk audit. We strongly support the intent of this program. Members of the board, please give staff the direction necessary to make sure the program delivers results. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Good afternoon, directors. My name is Robin Pam. I'm the director of Streets for All San Francisco. I'm also a public school parent whose kids have the ability to walk to school on safe streets in our neighborhood. And I really appreciate everything that the agency and the city has done to make that possible. And getting to school really is something families do every day. And when there's a safe route to take, walking or biking does become an option instead of something parents have to weigh against the risk of speeding traffic or unprotected bike lanes. So we really want to thank staff for all the work they've done to bring this plan to life and see it start to take shape. But today, just 15% of the city's 249 schools are connected directly to the network. So every kid deserves to be able to walk and bike to school safely. And we're going to have to move faster. We support the approach outlined by staff. I think there's a lot of really great work in here, especially prioritizing schools that are close to the network already. And I think the work that hopefully will be coming to continue to expand the network The All Agents and Abilities Network will also help expand that. But echoing the previous commenters, I think a 10-year timeline is really too slow for something this urgent for so many families. We're not moving fast enough. We kind of have a plan for a plan here. And it's a good plan. And there's a lot of work starting, which is great. But I would urge the agency to commit funding to get some schools connected to the network by 2028. Let's test this approach. Let's choose a small cohort and actually get something done, get some connections in the ground, and prove that this works. I think there's a lot of room for iteration and experimentation to help us move faster toward meeting this goal and test some of these solutions quickly and prove that this plan that we're on over the next 10 or possibly 20 years, if we don't speed up those walk audits, is the right way to go. So I urge you to work with staff to prioritize some funding to get some infrastructure in the ground quickly. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Thank you, directors. Dylan Fabris from San Francisco Transit Writers. And I'd like to support the previous comments, first of all, thanking staff for the work on this issue so far, but also calling for concrete, speedy, and funded deliverables for this project. But I also want to highlight that I think transit should be more of a focus of this as well. The deck lists that more students on transit is a success metric. But it doesn't say how it will do that. And I understand that the focus of this really is on street safety. But I think there are street safety aspects and infrastructure improvements that can go into improving transit around schools as well that could fit under the bucket. I think 50% of high school students and 27% of all SFUSD students rely on uni to get to and from school. But there's still lots of inadequate transit infrastructure and access around schools. Recently, I took the 36 up to around where Clarendon Elementary School is as just an example. And the bus stops on a steep hill, drops you off, and you have to go through a lane of parked cars to get down the sidewalk, which I think is just It's scary if you're an elementary school student or a parent of an elementary school student to get on and off the bus in a situation like that. I know there are other examples from across the city as well of places where transit access and transit infrastructure can be improved to help the safety of students and families taking transit. I also think this could be especially important in those 29% of schools that are more than one block away from the planned biking and rolling network. quick and hopefully easy way of increasing access while we're still waiting for those connections on the biking and rolling network to arrive. So thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker.

Hello. Again, my name's Mason. I'd like to share my gratitude and support for the Safe School Connections project, especially as a former SFUSD student and former YTAB alum. I wanted to reiterate from the other speakers about the need for funding and Just the urgency to get these sorts of improvements done, I think the sooner the better, especially as a former Lincoln student who cycled to school damn near every day, even during the rain. I definitely do love to see a lot of the new proposed routes and stuff. on the biking plan. And I'm just hoping that a lot of these sorts of things will get implemented as soon as possible, of course, with a lot of the school feedback as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other speakers in the room for this item? Seeing none in the room, I do have one accommodation request. Speaker, you've been unmuted. You have two minutes.

Yeah, this is Herbert Weiner. I can understand the need for safe schools, but you also have to balance this against fiscal considerations. Now, you're claiming fiscal hardship, you have a ballot measure before the polls and everything, and yet you're spending money. And it's almost like sinking ship where they're constantly bailing out water and water still keeps coming in and unfortunately your expenditures are draining your funds. So you better weigh this in consideration. Public transportation may suffer because of that. And so far, transit first stands for the first program that gets cut is public transportation. So please keep this in mind as you are thinking of all these projects. Thank you.

Thank you. No other speakers.

Thank you. Public comment on this item is now closed. Directors, just to focus us for the discussion that will follow here, staff is asking, this is an informational item only, and staff is asking for our feedback. on the direction that they are taking. And so I believe that there is a slide that gives us a little bit more. So slide 20. And of course, any other feedback you might have. But perhaps, Steph, could we bring up slide 20 just to remind us of what you are seeking? And maybe, Ms. Bryson, could you just reiterate a little bit what staff is looking for here?

Is the mic on? OK. These are just some of the main elements of the proposal we presented. One is the starting point of focusing on those schools that are either a block away from the existing or the potential future network. One is how we prioritize from the list of potential connections which ones go through PLANNING AND DELIVERY PROCESS FIRST WITH THE CRITERIA LISTED OUT AS COMMUNITY READINESS, HIGH INJURY NETWORK, SAFE ROAD TO SCHOOL FOCUS SCHOOLS, COMMUNITY ACTION PLAN PRIORITIES AND OPPORTUNITY TO INTEGRATE WITH ANOTHER CAPITAL PROJECT IN NO SPECIFIC ORDER. And the final being the measures of success focused on how many schools are connected overall, as well as in equity priority communities and on the high injury network, as well as closing gaps in the network and advancing the equity goals of the biking and rolling plan and increasing in those active trips to school.

Right. And the next time your team comes back to us, it'll be with individual projects that are under this framework. Is that how it will work?

The next time we come back, we won't yet have the list of projects. Because we're envisioning coming back in early 2027. We may make some changes based on what we hear from you or from the outreach over the next month. We're planning to start building that list in the year 2027. So sometime in the year 2027, we'll decide the first projects to go through the planning and delivery process.

Very good. Thank you very much. First, I'd like to call on Director Hinze, the chair of our Street Safety Committee.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to staff for the work and for them being so responsive to our request to look into this a little bit deeper from last year. I think the approach is largely sound. I do have questions related to the two big kind of themes that came up in public comment. Could someone talk, walk us through a little bit about the school walk audit program? And I had heard that there was a little bit of a backlog there in that work. So could someone sort of talk through the sort of current state of the school walk audit program?

Yeah, let me start, and then I think Jenny will join to round out the answer. So just to clarify, as a part of the school connections work, we're going to be populating a list of potential connections, and there's multiple ways we might identify connection. One could be through our walk audit program, which chooses 10 schools each year to do a safety assessment around the school and identify improvements that could be made by all modes to improve access to that school. So this year's walk audits, the 2026 walk audits, are the first that are identifying potential connections to the Bike and Roll Network in addition to looking at things like where the color curbs are and should one of the streets get traffic calming, et cetera. So we may identify ten new bike and roll connections through the walk audit process, but then as Lydon covered in his slides, we also are going to collaborate with the school street events, and we're going to have maybe six of them. So that might be six more connections. We may find five capital projects happening near schools, and we may build five more in there. So I wanted to clarify that Even though the 10 per year means it could take a long time to touch all the schools, it's not going to take that long to identify potential connections to the bike and roll network. The other sort of theme of feedback was on wanting various improvements to the walk audit program, in particular improving the pace of how quickly the recommended improvements get implemented. And I know Jenny has a few things to share on that.

Thank you for that question. We're continuously exploring ways to speed up project delivery. One improvement that the walk audit team is implementing for this coming school year is that they're identifying the schools for the walk audit for 2026 through 2027 currently. So rather than identifying those schools in December, they'll be identified in September. And ideally, that they can share this information at the walk and rule to school week, which is the first week of October. When it comes to implementation of past walk audit recommendations, We are still developing the final list of recommendations for the 2025 and 26 school year. But for the previous school year, 24, 25, there's 27 improvements that are on track for consideration at the October 16 engineering public hearing.

Oh, great. OK. So to that, we're up to speed in terms of that project delivery on that side.

We're working through the team is working through the list.

through the list. Okay, great. And then my, my, my, my, my next I guess set of questions is, and I know there's a slide based on in your appendix, but could you talk through probably Liz or somebody kind of the colors of money? I know we don't have a dedicated sort of pot of money through this, but I know we have like certain types of money that can be used in certain categories. Can you talk through that and kind of maybe a rough sketch of like how much of said money could be available for this in the initial phase?

Yeah. So the board approved our CIP recently. And within the streets, program of the CIP, there are a few different funding sources that can fund this type of work. In particular, the SFCTA sales tax prop L does include a specific line item for, it's called active communities plan implementation. That's essentially implementing anything that came out of the biking and rolling plan. So that's one potential funding source, although there's other types of bike and roll implementation that also will want to use some of that money for other elements of plan implementation. We also will be regularly monitoring competitive grants to identify future funding opportunities. I do think as we build this list of connections, we'll be able to have a much more specific ask for what we need. I know that often helps when you're asking for money. The more you can make it tangible, the easier it is. So we're working towards that as well.

And then my last question sort of speaking to collaboration is I'm assuming we've run through this approach with SFUSD and kind of how are they feeling about this and do they have maybe you know sort of money that they can kick in or any sort of resources that they're willing to sort of bring to bear on this at all?

Yeah, we were able to brief several key staff members at SFUSD, and they're definitely really excited and supportive of this work. We did not ask them for funding. I imagine that would be a tall order, but it doesn't hurt to ask, I guess.

Just thought I'd ask. Anyway, thank you for your work, and I look forward to the rest of the discussion. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Director Hinze. Director Felder.

Thank you. And thank you for this really important work. And I'm hugely supportive of the efforts overall. I do have actually a significant question. I won't go so far as to say it's an issue with the prioritization as it's put forward. But I do want us to look at things a little differently in that The notion that we're going to prioritize schools that are already within a block of the network, I understand that because it's easy and it presents an opportunity for a quick and potentially sort of cost-effective win to get us to a better place. On the other hand, if we're doing that, though, at the expense of evaluating the schools that, and there's 70 or more of them, that are further from the network, I'm not sure that makes sense to me. Because in essence, what we're doing is we're prioritizing the schools that are already pretty close over the schools that actually are in the most significant and dramatic need. On the one hand, I don't want to discourage easy wins. But I also don't want it to be at the expense of us actually addressing the schools that are in the most dire need and the schools where potentially parents and families are least likely to walk or bike to school. And I would argue that in many cases, making more significant incremental progress for those schools is actually more important than bridging that last block for the schools that are already sort of 85% of the way there. So I don't know. I mean, I heard a lot of support from the public, from people that I respect for this approach and the prioritization. But I really do worry about the degree to which we're, in essence, ignoring the 70 schools that are further away. So anyway, it's just something for us to think about.

And that's why we're doing an information item. I think we don't need to respond right this minute, but I think we'll just think about that a little bit more and see where we end up.

And by the way, I don't see it as black or white. I think actually it may be a mistake for us to prioritize one over the other definitively, because there may be situations where you know, we have an opportunity to really make a big difference for a school that is further from the network. And I just, so anyway, I think I've said enough.

Thank you. Thank you, Director Felder. Vice Chair Kahina?

Thank you for your presentation. And this is such a critical item for us to think about more deeply, especially because it has such an impact on so many people's lives, from families to grandparents to kids to aunts. Everyone's involved in this decision. So I appreciate just the amount of work that's going into this. give props to the team to how we're organizing our staff to really have an internal think tank within the agency to think about schools more comprehensively. Because prior to this approach, it was a little disparate. It was a little bit siloed. And I see how powerful it is when colleagues are able to speak to colleagues and connect the dots that community members connect often, but we sometimes in public agencies do not for whatever reasons. So I appreciate just this approach, and I'll credit Victoria for this, but how internally you're organizing the team to start thinking about this more comprehensively. And of course, this also speaks to the priorities that Mayor Lurie has also placed for families and getting families more resources and schools to think about schools more comprehensively in the city. I will say I did have a similar reaction to Director Felder when I saw this. Again, this tension between let's go for the easy wins because we are resource strapped right now. It's important for us to really do the most with the least amount of resources that we have. But of course, the big thing that came up for me was, OK, what about the equity priority neighborhoods? What about the folks that are less connected, the folks that have the communities that have had less access or less infrastructure historically, and they might not be a block away? Our school system is such where a student could travel across town to get to school. They are likely a multimodal type of student. That's the way that they get around. So just curious, from your perspective, these are really tough questions to tackle. And I'm sure that this prioritization list came after tons of discussion from everyone from this think tank that we now have internally. and curious to understand what was the thinking around those crosstown commuters, those student commuters, and how you factored those experiences or those travel patterns into this criteria.

I don't know that we have a really good answer to that. I think both you and Director Felder are raising good questions. And I think that could be approached where we take some of the schools that are a block away. I do think that those schools afforded a quick win in that it may just be you need traffic calming on one more block to make an otherwise great connection the last leg. But it could be that maybe we take a look at the map of the schools that are more than a block away and see if you can string together several of them and do one proactive new corridor and maybe we kind of bridge the two extremes so we're not leaving those schools behind. That's just an off-the-cuff idea. But I think that this benefits from thought partnership from you all and the public. So I think that's a good question that we can take back and think about between now and early next year.

Yeah, I would consider just trying to weave in, especially for those multimodal students where they are walking to a school bus, biking or taking or rolling to a bus stop, just thinking about those that their journey is more multimodal and seeing how some of the approaches that we're already taking with our community service equity strategy, how those linkages can happen in a more seamless way. So not just connecting them to our biking and rolling plan, but also considering some of the other networks that we have transit-wise and how those connections are happening. Yeah, students get around in the city. And especially if we're looking at private schools, we're also considering regional connections at that point too. So just really thinking more comprehensively about this because it is, I think this is a fantastic start. I think this is great. And we're just nitpicking at this point. We're just trying to figure out like, okay, what about this scenario and that scenario and this scenario? So I appreciate you all bringing this as an informational item to us so we could noodle over this a little bit more. And by the time you come back to us, we'll have more time to sit with this and have more ideas to discuss to contribute in our briefings as well. But this is a great start, and I so appreciate that this work is getting done. And we honestly have the best minds in the agency working on this. So appreciate you all for the work that you're doing. Looking at that section right there. So thank you all for this work and just the thoughtfulness that you have in working with community partners, school partners, and everyone in between to really understand how to crack this nut, how to make sure this happens. I think we're almost there. This is going to be something that I think we're going to take a strong first stab at. Over the years, we're just going to innovate on this idea more. It's just going to get better over time, but this is a fantastic start. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. I am also very encouraged that this is being brought to us. I think this might be the first or the next step that has occurred since we approved the bike and roll. That being said, I think it makes a lot of sense that this is happening under that umbrella. But what I feel like I'm hearing in the presentation is that Jenny DeLumo's work as a school coordinating manager is going to help us be less siloed. And as we heard in public comment, there's a lot of concern about walking to school and taking public transit as well. And I would definitely encourage, even though this is kind coming under the auspices of the bike and roll plan that the board approved that we are always communicating about all of the modes. And to that point, the biannual count of or audit of modes, I believe that's coming up this school year. So understanding the trends, I think, should be part of the priorities. So that would be one piece of feedback. And then also, I think that the pie chart is a good benchmark for us, just to understand how many more schools we have yet to connect. But I share my colleagues' concerns that if we're too focused on that, that there are schools that are in that bucket that may deserve more attention that will be missing them so I I guess what my feedback is is that the the prioritization needs to be all-in-one you know maybe we need to put those priorities in order of importance and when we're communicating about the plan. And so, you know, starting with ease of implementation that we've identified and then community readiness and the high injury network, et cetera, et cetera, and trends for the, for mode shift. That's, I guess, the main piece of feedback that I wanted to offer. I do have a question around the walk audits. Since we are going to be announcing those this month is what I feel like I heard, or we're going to be identifying those.

Working on them this month with the aim of announcing them during Walk and Rule to School Week, the first week of October.

Great. So does that mean that we'll be able to conduct more audits in the course of the school year than we would have had we announced it in December?

We would conduct the same number of audits. But what it allows the team to do is early coordination with the schools. Typically, the schools are announced in December. It takes some time to coordinate. Walk audits happen in the spring. Recommendations come out in the summer. And by then, families are gone. It's summer. They're not really thinking about this particular issue, no matter how important that it is. And so this allows the walk audit team to do that early coordination and really work closely with the school on what the recommendations are and what their implementation next steps would be earlier before school's over.

Right. And just something that comes to mind with the walk audits, are our crossing guards part of that outreach or is their input gathered in some way?

We will talk to the school administration and then if we know there's crossing guards then we can reach out to them to get their feedback as well.

Yeah, I think that that would be really helpful to the team, because those folks are really seeing a lot. And there are also, I think, that SFUSD administration and parents, there's a fair amount of turnover within that. And so we might have a little bit more consistent understanding from those voices. Thank you so much. I just want to echo my colleagues in appreciating the work from the team here. I really can't think of another priority that's more important than students getting to and from school. And I just really appreciate it. Any other questions or comments from my colleagues? All right, then. I think what I would like to do now is, I think we're about halfway through what is a pretty significant agenda. So I think maybe a break would be in order. I've got 10 past 3. So let's reconvene at 3.30 promptly. Thank you so much, everybody.

sf gov tv san francisco government television

Mm-hmm. Thank you.

SFGov TV. San Francisco Government Television.

Thank you.

SFGov TV, San Francisco Government Television.

SFGov TV, San Francisco Government Television.

Thank you.

Item number 13, presentation and discussion regarding a transit division quarterly update.

Good afternoon, directors. Brent Jones, director of transit. Happy transit appreciation month. Today's our transit update. We'll be talking about the muni update to service, service changes. We will also focus on some groups that work behind the scenes to support our operations, both transit administration and security and investigations. For the fall 2026 service changes, our goal was to be cost neutral and to address crowding on some of our frequent service. The updates are based on a very important metric, which is information from our operators and from our customer feedback. So between the two forms of feedback that we're getting, they're driving our decision-making process as we continue to evaluate and streamline service, with our customer focus being in the forefront, both external customers and internal customers. So to address the crowding, we increase frequency on the NJUDA and the One California from 10 minutes to every nine minutes. For the One California, this means the bus is coming every four to five minutes between Presidio and downtown. We are also now running the 5R Fulton Rapid on 60-foot vehicles to address some of our crowding issues. The 22-hour schedule is more reliable for its 340 average daily riders. The schedules are better aligned with travel times every 30 minutes. This time of year, when these services take place, as of the 29th, we're focusing on school-related services. We're now providing a one-seat ride from Visitation Valley to Francisco Middle School for students who previously had to transfer from the 8AX Bayview Hunters Point Express to get to school. There are now a couple of eight Bayshore trips that depart from Geneva and Sherwin after 8 AM. And the 28R 19th Avenue rapid now serves 19th and Eucalyptus near Lowell, providing decreased travel times for those students as well. Let's get into our numbers. Muni ridership in 2026 is between 1% and 6% higher than the same month in 2025. Weekday all-door boardings are up 1.2%, and rail boardings are up 13% in July of 2026 compared to July of 2025. Muni ridership, as you all know, is subject to seasonal effects. Weekday ridership typically decreases in June and the start of the summer break and increases again in August where we're at now, August, September. Overall, ridership growth continues to grow with economic recovery and a return to downtown work and weekend vibrancy. Continued support on our subway system is quite frankly working. We're still seeing the benefits from the Fix-It Week strategy. Our moderate delays are down 76%, and we're still stable on our long-term delays, which are down 66%. So we're proud of the work that our MOW team is doing. Fix-A-Week is continuing to work. It's popular, it's famous, and we're sticking to it until we can get some longer-term fixes to the infrastructure. Discussing some of the teams that are not necessarily in the forefront. Our transit administration team is, quite frankly, the glue to our entire division. Emily Williams is the Chief Transit Administration Officer. And she leads a very robust team that supports all of our operating units, both by workforce planning and budget, employee performance and career building, transit performance and technology, which work on a lot of our internal efficiency work with existing technology, helping us make the most of what we already have while also looking towards what we can think about as far as innovation in the future. Training and instruction, which I'll get into a little bit more in this presentation later. And then also transit program delivery, which is the big tamale of what our administration team does. One of the things that the admin team did was partner with our fleet maintenance group and our budget reduction strategy. We heard Director Hemminger several months ago when he talked about turning over every cushion to find some savings. We answered that. And we continue to operate under that same focus. So today, the transit division has saved $20.5 million in savings with no impacts to our service delivery. A significant portion of those savings came from reducing vacancies while maintaining critical operational functions. We deleted positions from the budget as well. Some of the largest reductions that we are seeing came from our non-labor budget expenditures. We closely monitored our expenditures on materials and supplies and non-personnel service contracts without compromising service quality or safety. Additionally, fleet maintenance made the shift in certain work groups to adjust the start times to maximize efficiency and also reduce shift differential pays, but also maintain the same flexibility to address vehicle repairs. We continue to manage and identify personnel, potential areas of efficiencies, as well as ensuring that the projected savings are realized while not negatively impacting operations or service quality. Our current hiring strategy prioritizes operators. while all other hiring is slowed. In the slide, you can see that a large percentage of our highest vacancy positions are in our maintenance work groups. These are maintainers, automotive mechanics, transit car cleaners, technicians. These are all positions that really make it possible for us to put out equipment so that our operators can serve the public. While we have slowed this hiring, we do want to highlight that prolonged maintenance vacancies over time will degrade our ability to provide service. With that said, we are still working to improve the people that we do have. It's really easy for us to say that, hey, this is what we don't have to do our job. But also, looking internally, how can we maximize the people and the equipment that we currently do have? And one way you do that is through training. Part of the administration's team is also our transit training department. The transit training department plays a critical role in supporting employee development, governance and management of training programs, which include new operator training, annual operator training, supervisory and support staff training that's heavily weighted on the operations side of the house. I'm going to share a couple of states with you, where we're at with training, what our vision is, and how we're going to get there. First, our current state, training developed independently across functions. Training content and curriculum is developed and managed by subject matter expert groups. We have found that it is inconsistent in training standards, content, and actual delivery methods. It's difficult to implement agency-wide when all the information resides in different areas of the training department within special groups or sometimes specific individuals. Part two is decentralized record keeping and ownership. Records are maintained across multiple systems, locations, and departments, which is not efficient. Manual reporting and tracking increase administrative burden, limit visibility into workforce readiness, and actual training status. It is also difficult to manage career pathways across classifications. Employees have limited visibility into advancement opportunities Competencies and qualifications vary across classifications, and employees don't have clear understanding of actual promotive pathways. That's kind of our current state. Our future state, we see a training department with centralized training governance, established a single point of responsibility for training governance and oversight, central ownership of the curriculum, records compliance and workforce development, and improve coordination across all the transit functions. Standardize comprehensive training programs. Develop and maintain standard training curriculum across all of our operational groups, ensure an alignment with safety requirements, regulatory requirements, operational standards, and agency goals. put our training programs and presentations into a professionalized format, standardizing all of our training templates and materials for employees, a consistent naming convention of all training files and records so that they're easier to find, And most importantly, digitization. Centralize our SharePoint sites to maintain all of our training records so they're easily accessible to those with the proper authorization. We want to simplify the reporting for our record management and provide quick access to all of our training compliances. So what are we doing to get to this future state? We're in partnership with a consultant, WSP, in doing this work to enhance our training program. It's multiple phases. Phase one, the goal was to assess and evaluate the MTA's transit training material for opportunities to professionalize, digitize and standardize, as I said earlier. I'm happy to report that phase one was completed. Using the findings from phase one, WSP is now supporting the training department to further develop and centralize their programs into one cohesive informational repository. It will enhance the training program by organizing and training materials, providing structure to the course curriculum, and improve the functionality and usability of our SharePoint sites. Phase two, which is our current state at this point now in the project, is we're setting up the SharePoint site with SFMTA IT. The goal at the end of the project is to have all of our training materials, tests, and current employee training records centralized in one location. It will be standardized and professionalized for ease of use and digitized for intellects usage and it should be complete by the end of this fall. What's upcoming after phase two? Phase three will focus on an assessment that mimics the same process that we embarked on on our operations side. It will focus in on our fleet maintenance and our maintenance of way employees. Going through the same process of evaluation, building out new programs, which will also include biannual refresher training, which only a few of our teams get currently right now. But more importantly, something that's cross-functional for all of our teams and agency-wide in that we're going to be introducing managerial skills training. SENIOR LEADERSHIP TRAINING, COURSES FOR EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT SUCH AS PUBLIC SPEAKING, BUSINESS WRITING. WE REALLY WANT TO OFFER A LOT OF PROGRAMS THAT AN EMPLOYEE CAN COME TO US AT AN ENTRY LEVEL POSITION AND THEN BE ABLE TO LEAVE OR RETIRE FROM HERE FROM THE C-SUITE IN WHATEVER ROLE THEY WOULD LIKE TO DO. BUT WE WANT TO MAKE SURE WE ARE ALSO GIVING THEM THOSE SOFT SKILLS NECESSARY FOR ADVANCEMENT TO ALIGN WITH THEIR ALREADY TECHNICAL EXPERTISE. What are we looking for for outcomes? Number one is safety. Better training consistency. By standardizing training content, delivering expectations, we ensure employees receive the same high quality instruction regardless of location or team. Consistent training reduces variability, strengthens compliance, and supports a safer work environment. workforce and stronger career development. Clear learning pathways help employees build skills, prepare for advancement, opportunities, and growth professionally. Investing in workforce development improves retention, succession planning, and overall talent readiness. The operations increase readiness and efficiency. for both operations and maintenance, well-trained employees are better prepared to perform their roles effectively from day one. Standardized knowledge and process reduce work, improve productivity, enhance operational performance. Employees who feel supported in their growth are more engaged, motivated, and connected to organizational goals. And that really speaks to our culture. While it's too early for me to talk about phases four, five, and six, we expect excitement to build as employees begin to benefit from our updated training program and brand new programs that offer more skill building opportunities for them to take advantage of. I have an update from our program delivery team regarding the 30-foot fleet. As of today, our 30-foot fleet availability is increasing every week. Our current availability is at 18 vehicles ready for service on a daily basis. We are continuing our accelerated inspection program, which is at every 2,000 miles to ensure quality control on repairs that are made. And we expect to meet our installation goal of components by the end of September, in which we expect to have a stable fleet that's able to return full 30-foot service to our hilltop communities with consistency. Another part of our program delivery is our overhaul program. For phase one of our overall program for the midlife, there are two groups that worked in phase one. The first group was completed in 2024, where we overhauled 112 40-foot hybrid electric vehicles. Group 2 just completed this June with another 203 40 and 60 foot hybrid electric coaches. That work was done by our contractor CCW. Phase two is currently underway, performing overhauls for 221 40- and 60-foot hybrid vehicles, including technical specifications, including lessons learned from the first phase one production. We have a target of four to six vehicles completed per month. Currently, five buses are in production now. We expect to complete this portion of our overhauls by quarter four of 2028. Scheduled in beginning April of 2027, we are going to begin our 60-foot trolley overhauls. We're going to use this experience to refine the scope of work and then continue the midlife overhauls into 2029. I do have to say, this is a first of a kind overall for this agency in recent memory and will be focused on obtaining maximum return on investment for the aging vehicles. The program is expected to be completed by the end of 2029. We are hiring additional staff in order to support this work. Again, first of a kind for us, for our team, with the 60-foot trolley overhauls, we expect to have some lessons learned. But we are preparing to take that on, knowing that we're going to be connecting with some of our interior and exterior stakeholders when it comes to ordering parts, development bill of materials, and working with one of our consulting groups to finalize the actual scope and technical specifications of what that actual midlife overhaul is going to look like. At a meeting earlier this year, or I think at the beginning of last year, Dylan Fabris asked me, what are you excited about? And I said, I'm glad you asked that question. because I'm excited about these 94 buses that we are in the process of procuring. We got the first pilot in November of 2025, pilot vehicle. Production started March of this year. We have a full-time third-party inspector on site. 20 coaches have been delivered to the SFMTA. And our last bus is scheduled to be delivered in quarter two of 2027. Why do I like these buses? This is why I'm excited. These buses are equipped with several different components to enhance safety and the passenger experience. All 94 of these vehicles will have a fully enclosed operator barrier, which is huge. It's huge for our operators. They will also have a plug-style exit door, USB chargers on our lower deck seats for our passengers, and an additional stroller parking space to meet the needs of some of our customers who are with small children. In addition, the transit team is piloting the digital side mirrors on the first 10 buses. These digital side mirrors are not replacements for the analog existing mirrors. They are also visual aids. We will maintain the same analog mirrors as operators begin to transition to the new digital capability if the feedback we get from them is favorable. When we look to the future, there was a pretty robust conversation earlier today regarding BEB vehicles. I think Bhavan did an excellent job speaking to it. We will be procuring over the next two years 18 of these vehicles. While the infrastructure is not fully in place for a larger investment at this time, the information that we're going to learn about this emerging and maturing technology is going to guide how our future procurements align with our facility upgrades. The good news is we are almost done with LRV4. We are at 218 of 219 vehicles delivered. We have three major priorities for these LRV4 vehicles. First, we are working to complete vehicle acceptance on all remaining deliverable parts, tools, and technical documentation so we can begin the task of closing out payments for the project. Next, we are focusing on keeping the vehicles in a state of good repair via a series of system overhauls. We are finding and evaluating alternative parts and ensuring warranty repairs are made by Siemens. And lastly, we are working with Siemens to find solutions for any reliability issues with the vehicles. We are aiming to have these solutions ready to be implemented by the time of the next overhaul project. The paratransit vehicle replacement program is an ongoing program, with each vehicle having a useful life of about five years per FDA guidelines. Since 2022, transit has procured a total of 94 cutaway vehicles for the paratransit fleet, 73 replacement and 21 expansion vehicles. In 2028, the vehicles procured in 2022 will be due for replacement. A few additional procurement projects are in the pipeline for the next five years, as shown in the table. These vehicles are operated and maintained by the contractor, Transdev, to serve our ADA community. I want to talk a little bit about our security investigations team. By the nature of security and investigations, We don't share very much detail about some of the work that they do, but I can share with you that they provide a very necessary functionality for all of our teams in and around our facilities and our operators and staff that are actually working in the field. The current security team is led by Kimberly Burris, which includes a security investigations program, the security operations center we call the SOC. They are liaising with SFPD on response, and they also manage our security contract with our outside contractor. One area that I am happy to talk about is our proof of payment team. I have to say I have much gratitude for this team that's out there doing fair compliance. They have a very difficult job. A lot of times their interactions are less than polite from some of the people that they are interacting with. And I have nothing but gratitude for people who are coming to work every day in what can be a tough environment with all of that face-to-face interaction. Which is why that I know the executive director spoke to you a little bit about our future fairs for our future day out. It was very powerful for this team when after the event, they felt like they weren't out there on their own. They were well supported. Many of you were out there. They had a really good opportunity to be humanized with our riding customers. They were able to provide information and education, which is an area that I would like to lean into a little bit more in addition to our enforcement. You know, being able to also provide information about all of our available programs for people who may need assistance to pay their fares. Can't say anything better, more about this group other than I'm thankful for them every day. Every day that I see them, I'm like, keep up the good job. We got your back. Let us know what you need. And I think they've been responding. So what are my key takeaways? The biggest takeaway is when it comes to the service, our ability to actionize the information, the feedback that we're getting from our customers, our operators, and our supporting staff in the field is extremely important in driving our decision-making process of how we are constructing the service moving forward. We need for that to continue. We need your feedback. Good, bad, or indifferent, we are utilizing it to make incremental changes that we hope improve your rider experience or your operator experience on a daily basis. My second point is, even with limited resources, We are continuing with our playbook, and we are fundamentally preparing to build back better. We can't waste time about what we don't have. Let's continue to optimize what we do have and continue to deliver great service and be consistent and communicate out effectively. That's the end of my report. I'm open for any questions that you may have.

Thank you, Director Jones. Let's go to public comment first. I'll 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 who would like to comment on this item can come up to the podium at this time. Alita Dupree.

Thanks again, Chair Janet Tarlow and members. Alita Dupree, for the record. She and her with Team Foltz. There's a lot here. We're doing a lot of good. I must admit, I haven't done much muni riding. But I used it today in our small s subway. And it worked fine. So hopefully a lot more people will enjoy our small S subway, and then they'll get on flights to go to New York and ride on the subway with the big S. Hopefully we'll get more people. I ask that we be willing to hire people who are different. Let's not be hidebound by traditions of who we think would do a good job. There's lots of people from all different walks of life who would do excellent work for Muni. So let's make sure that we don't have hangups about that. I'm looking forward to new buses. We're going to have USB ports on the buses. I'm not familiar with this lower deck. I didn't know we had double deck buses. They have them in Las Vegas. They have them in AC Transit. So I'll look for some clarification on that. But the USB charging is a good thing. They're doing that in New York City on the buses. And I still haven't got a good answer about the There was a mention in the report that you can't charge devices on BART. I guess they are pretty particular about their electric use pennies. I'll have to get answers. And this transit security team, I mean, I don't know much about that here. BART is different. BART has a police department. So we don't have a transit police department here. I hope that we're not going out and investigating skirts. Nobody should be skirt-hunted on Muni like that used to happen years ago in New York City 50 years ago. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other speakers in the room for this item? Seeing none in the room, I do have one accommodation request. Speaker, you've been unmuted. This is for item number 13.

This is Herbert Weiner, and I think you're knocking yourself out to make economies and the operations of muni. And I have to commend your effort in doing that. But at the same time, you really need to expand the size of a fleet in light of the population of the city changing. And I think that that will resolve a lot of your problems of overcrowding and related problems. I also think you have to restore a lot of the runs that you discontinued as well as restoring the bus stop. that will make things much easier on the public. And I think that you chose the quick and dirty way of improving public transportation by stealing buses from the neighborhoods and placing them on the most heavily used run. What should have been done was to expand the fleet on the most heavily used runs and leave the neighborhoods alone. 30 seconds.

Thank you for your comment. No other speakers.

Thank you. Public comment is now closed. Directors, questions or comments for Director Jones?

Vice Chair Kahina? Thank you, Chair Tartaloff. Brent, thank you so much for your presentation. It is so promising to see that our ridership is up. I wanted to make sure you had an opportunity to speak a little bit more about that, specifically on the 13% increase in rail. I'm curious, which lines are you seeing this occurring? And what do you attribute that to? Is it more efficiencies? Just curious to see what you're seeing from your vantage point.

over 13% over all of our rail lines in total. Efficiency, availability, I get a lot of compliments about the cleanliness of the vehicles. So our car care teams are doing a very good job. The LRV4s themselves are pleasurable to ride on. Smooth ride, quiet, comfortable, well thought out with the seating and standing arrangements as well. We are also having a great generation of operators as well. I was on the train earlier today, and there's nothing like an operator calling out all the stops, connecting routes, and local coffee shops that you should try out. It really puts a great touch on to the actual service, and we need a lot more of that. I think the combination of everything and then the reliability of the actual trains is making people choose our rail system. And that's exactly what we want. We're going to have 219 vehicles once we take final delivery of the last vehicle. And we want to use them all. And I think there's a lot of opportunity for us to continue to build on the rail success that we've been experiencing. I think it's just a combination of all those factors that is the reason why our numbers are growing on that side of the service.

And do these data sets also incorporate the recent events that have happened, so like the World Cup and other things? Or are these stats prior to those events? These are prior to this last. Interesting. Well, thank you for sharing that. I also wanted to commend you and the team just thinking a lot deeper about the training department. And so much of the work that folks see externally, a lot of it is just like the tip of the iceberg for all the things that are happening internally. I really commend just Julie and you, Brent, just really focusing on, how are we supporting our staff for success? And how are their current roles a gateway into other professions or other opportunities within the agency? And just trying to see, how do you start operationalizing a way for folks to access those opportunities? It's an important investment for us to make as an agency, especially because it reflects our values, and it reflects what sort of workplace we are. And it's so critical to who we are as an agency. And a lot of this, I imagine, also came from some of the equity work that was happening internally. I wonder if you could speak a little bit more to that piece.

To the actual equity work? Yeah, how that influenced how you- Yeah, because I've been doing this for a few years now in different roles. And one of the biggest ways that you can be equitable is to provide opportunity. And the way that you provide opportunity is by making sure that people are all ready or have the ability to be ready when that opportunity presents itself. The way we do that functionally is by training. And we realize that when you sit on interviews and you read resumes and applications, some of our staff that we know is technically sound, they don't always have all of those skills that are, I don't want to call them niche, but are kind of pivotal to getting that opportunity for the next level. So we wanted to make sure that we mirrored our actual professional development with what we're already doing on the technical side, which is robust. I mean, right now there is nobody better trained than us in many of our technical areas, quite frankly. But on the professional development side, when it comes to transition from the platform to a supervisory role, Then from the supervisory to a managerial role and then to a senior leadership role or executive leadership role, we want to make sure that we provide the ability for people to explore what they want to do and give them the tools to interview, to write a great resume, to be excellent at public speaking, to be business writers, all the kind of skill sets that you need to continuously improve and let that be available to everybody who is interested. That is the way that we functionally provide a tangible hopefully a tangible positive outcome to level the playing field for everyone to improve themselves professionally if they would like to.

And it's a culture shift, too. And I really appreciate just your leadership in that piece, too, and making space to hold these trainings and to be able to invest in our team in that way. I am sure that, again, this is something probably that translates into an operator feeling a little bit more relaxed in their role and being able to offer up those cafe suggestions or small business suggestions because it's like you're part of a greater team. So I appreciate the work that you and everyone in the agency are doing to invest in the team in that way. Just to shift a little bit, I did have a question around program delivery, particularly around the 30-foot fleet update. I'm curious if you have a projected date of when the lines will get restored, and I guess the routes will be restored to those hilltops.

We're projecting by the end of September, early October at the latest. Right now, the issue is getting all of the components fabricated and shipped and then installed. Then we need to go through a period of quality control inspection to ensure the installations are clean. And we should be, once we reach a certain fleet number, we'll be able to restore full service with confidence that our customers will receive the consistency in vehicle availability that they are deserving of.

Thank you for that. Another pivot. There's a lot in this presentation. But curious about the piece that you mentioned around safety. In terms of there's both operator safety, but then there is passenger safety. I'm going to focus a little bit on passenger safety for a moment. And I'm going to surface a little bit something that, or like elevate something that came up during public comment of how BART does have a police force, and we don't. And I also noticed that they have an app where folks can report incidences and even QR codes on their cars that different riders can just scan a QR code and download that app. Wondering if, just looking at Bart's example and other regional examples, are we taking inspiration from that? And how can we, like, what are, you know, if a passenger's curious, like, I want to report something that's happening on the bus, or I'm feeling a certain way, or I'm feeling harassed on the bus, what's the work now, or what can a passenger do to address that?

um first of all i believe in our and i believe in our partnership with sfpd i believe that um this new group uh both at mta and with the pd are collaborative we're in constant communication so i believe support will will be improving i believe the lines of communication are improving we're doing that with our soc um we have some things that we're working on to kind of tighten that relationship We don't have a dedicated police force, but we do have willing partners. And we just need to be able to communicate what our actual needs are and have a uniform vision of what that actually looks like. When it comes to reporting incidents, it's interesting as you say about QR codes. I've been talking about QR codes for like five years. So I envision QR codes on the car cards in the vehicle, but also on the outside. Because there are people who see other people doing things they shouldn't be. And I would love for them to be able to pull out their camera outside of the trackway, be able to pull out their camera, and be able to identify the vehicle, the location it's going, and what line it's on, so that we can actually respond. How we envision that concept is, Through that rapid reporting, the TMC is able to send any sort of responders or resources to that. We've played around with it, but we have not gotten to a full-scale usage of the actual QR cards. But it is something we're investigating to see if it's viable or not. One of the things that... People are saying like, well, you know, Keogh cars have been out for a while. You know, maybe there are other technologies that may be improved or better. So we're also investigating that. Our transit performance and analytics team is kind of knee deep in everything innovative or things that we're utilizing but have access, or not utilizing, but have access to. That is definitely one way. One way to get information is a QR code. And to my point earlier, when we have so much value in the information that we get from our customers, I want to make it as easy as possible for them to give us feedback in the hopes that the more feedback we get, the better picture we can have of the issues. the faster we can actionize the solutions in order to improve their ride for them. So that's kind of direction that we're going in, but we're not there yet.

And then in the interim, while we're working towards that more tailored system, as part of our anti-harassment campaign on the vehicles, we do direct folks to 311 for non-emergencies. And they're helping to make sure that Brent's team gets all of the data, as well as for folks that want to send a quick email, I believe they send it to tellmuni.com? No, that's tellmuni at sfmta.com.

I would encourage the team to consider ease of use for the writer. I really do admire what BART's doing. In particular, their app called BART Watch is really interesting. I've had an opportunity to play around with it and see how it functions. But in those moments where a writer is in a very uncomfortable situation, they have to look for discrete ways to alert someone that something's going on, or they might not feel comfortable approaching an operator and saying, hey, by the way, this is happening. And so really taking this issue and looking at it from the writer perspective is critical to ensure that there's an ease of use. and a reliable use of whatever our solution is to this problem. And it's just something that I would love to see a work stream around and perhaps your next transit update, if there is a safety component, to elevate that a bit more. because it is an issue that writers do feel, and we're in a position where we can address that. Again, we don't have a lot of resources to address those things, but it would be great to see how we're... 311's great, but it has limitations, and I think in those moments, it's really important for us to offer resources or a solution to writers that are easy to use, are discreet and can help us address the issue with the information we need to address those issues and connect with our partners that support us with that. But yeah, those are all the questions I have and all the comments, and thank you again, Brad, for your presentation.

Thank you, Director Jones. I always look forward to these quarterly updates. There's more to be learned about the largest and arguably most complex part of the agency each time. And I just so appreciate them. So regarding the fairs for our future, is that, I know that the harassment education effort that we undertake is an annual effort. Is fairs for our future envisioned to be more frequent than that or annual or just until there's no more fair evasion ever?

Right now we're envisioning it being annual. I think that the actual fair compliance program can also, to a lesser extent, transform to fair education as well, providing information about resources. I mean, you could spend 90% of your time doing compliance. You can spend a certain percentage of your time doing education and just options because there are a lot of people who don't necessarily read the internet or they're not really reading newspapers or whatever medium is available to them that sometimes face-to-face interaction like, hey, if you're having problems paying, many have some great programs. Or hey, kids ride for free. There's a lot of different ways that we can instill or implement into our rider culture about fair compliance. The biggest thing is, hey, this ride is funded by your fairs. Your fairs matter. Your fairs move not just yourself, but everyone else in the city. And I think it does not have to be 100% compliance negative. I think we can balance that out and create many future fair days out regularly with bigger events where we get all of our collective power and it's really more about showing our customers that we are in support of our transit fair inspectors as they do their work every day so that is something that uh one of our efficiency teams is working on just redefining our actual approach when it comes to fair compliance and fair education

Yes, and I know that our staff who are tasked with liaising with particular communities have been doing a lot of that work, say, with the Latino community or the Chinese American community. Or just going out into areas where people may qualify for these programs and making sure that people understand. Or in many cases, just one-on-one helping people sign up in the moment, which I think is a really helpful thing. And then also the support for the fair inspectors. I think that is one reason that I feel that this kind of agency support of that team could be implemented more than annually, because a year is a long time to feel like somebody's got your back. And I can imagine that it's not always pleasant interactions with the public around that topic. So I was very interested in training as well. And I had a couple of questions relating to that. So our work with WSP, the consultant, what has been the timeline for that? When did it start and how long do we expect it to last?

So it should be, the first phase will be, we should be delivered and implemented all the digitization and co-locating all of our training documents and programs by the end of this year.

When did they start working on it?

They started this work, it's been about two years. It's been about two years, and the hard part was just when we thought we had all the training programs, we'd find more in some obscure filing cabinet that's in some hallway somewhere. So we'd find that, so we had to operationalize that, update it, and then digitize it. Also, it's been quite interesting because my role has kind of changed over this project's time. So originally, it started out as... purely just the operation piece of it, talking about operators, supervisors. But now it's grown into station agents, fare inspectors, ambassadors, so administrative staff members, and then soon to come, all of our maintenance specializations. So it's continuing to grow. That scope has kind of changed and lengthened the actual process. But as far as the first phase, we are, well, we're dealing with the first phase. As far as the second phase, we're ready to deliver that by the end of this year.

Ah, OK. And the total project is a?

For the operations side of it, yes. Phase three is we have to duplicate the same process for the maintenance side, which will be more challenging because where the operations had training programs that needed updating, On the maintenance side, a lot of their training comes with the vehicle manual, the tools that they use and stuff like that. We still need to get our arms around it collectively and see what makes sense for internal training and what makes sense for a biannual refresher training. because in a lot of cases, some of the techniques and equipment that they use will change, and we need to make sure that we are changing our program, updating them on a regular basis, and also exposing them to new ways of doing the work that they're doing as we introduce new infrastructure and new equipment. So a biannual training program for all of our teams is extremely important. It keeps them engaged, keeps them up to date, and it helps us be able to gauge and track how we can best support them.

So the Intellix platform that you mentioned, is that an existing platform that we are tweaking in order to accommodate this? Or is this new as suggested by the?

It's an existing platform. Some of the platform, we're not using all the available modules. or we did not necessarily purchase the modules that we now need. So we're leveraging what we already have. We entered the project stating that we're not going to at this time be purchasing a brand new training software program. We wanted to make sure that we leveraged what we already had. To the fullest extent and I think we've made a lot of inroads and things that we did not know were possible with the current intellects program So I'm anxious to see What then what the end result is I'm hearing that is very favorable And that's able to handle at least from a starting point What what the goals that we were trying to achieve with? consolidation record keeping, and transparency for those who have the proper authority to view the training programs themselves.

OK, thank you. OK, so finally, related to your favorite topic, the new buses, just a super quick thing. What is a plug-style exit door? It's very exciting. I understand that.

Can you speak to the plug-style exit door? It's kind of hard to.

They open out instead of in. So you get a lot more space in the bus for people rather than doors. And it's a nice customer feature because you also don't get knocked on the crowded bus when the doors try to open. So it's pretty nerdy, but it is kind of an elegant customer feature.

So there's a bracketed hinge, and then it pops out.

Yeah, it just comes out and opens.

Oh, OK. That is exciting.

It's how the trains work now, yeah.

Yeah, OK. I got it. Thank you. Well, and so as you continue to include procurement details, I'll be particularly interested to hear about any additional technology related to safety that is part of that. I saw that with the operator, the full enclosure for operators. I think safety of our employees is tremendously important and something that we talk about frequently, but there's a lot of emerging technology that we see in the automotive industry that I am curious if those features are possible to include or are being included in our vehicles to enhance safety as we operate in the city.

Yeah, our fleet engineers are excellent. And they're always bringing us new things that are possible. They are a can-do team. And when I said, hey, we got to do something about the strollers, Oh, no problem. We'll just take this out and move this over here. And it happened just like that. And then when we said, hey, well, we want to put charging on the lower portion, on the low floor of the vehicle, and we're concerned about when we're cleaning it, are we going to short out the USB port? Oh, no. We can just move it. We can just move it at a different angle and place it in a different place, which solves that part of the problem. As new things come out, we are all in on making or acquiring tools that make our team members' lives easier when they're in service. So we're working towards that.

Yeah, certainly. The customer experience and our employee experience. What I'm asking about is things like speed governors on the vehicles or collision alarms, those sorts of things. And I think I and my colleagues would be interested in knowing what, in just new procurements, what safety features are included in the vehicles that will be safety related.

So 25 mile an hour speed governors are coming to our LRV force. After working through some software issues, we're back on track to continue implementation on our fleet. You all know all about the benefits the teacup brings as well. The new Samsara SmartDrive, if you will, will give us another level of safety in and around the vehicle. It also has the ability to help address or help identify any potential operator issues, whether it be something medical or otherwise, so that we can act in a proactive manner before we have an incident. So we are in current either implementation or procurement of those particular technologies mainly on board our LRV vehicles. We will be doing something similar in the future with our actual rubber tire fleet as the technology and the resources become available.

Very good. Well, that's all my questions. Directors, anything else before we move on? Very good. Thank you so much. Thank you. Secretary Silva, please call the next item.

Directors, that places you on item number 14, presentation and discussion regarding a state legislation overview.

GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AFTERNOON. GOOD AF AND THE ICT RULE DISCUSSED EARLIER IS ALSO A STATE POLICY THAT WE ARE DEEPLY INVOLVED IN AS WELL. AND THEN ALL OF THESE BUS PROCUREMENTS RELY ON STATE AND FEDERAL FUNDING AS WELL AS LOCAL MATCHES TYPICALLY. Our state and federal government affairs is an incredibly important part of what we do at the agency. It receives a lot of focus from Director Kirschbaum, myself, and then today you're going to hear from our manager of state and federal government affairs, Monique Webster, who's a longtime colleague at the agency. And I look forward to being available with her to answer any questions that you have after the presentation.

Good afternoon. So thank you, Judson. I want to start right here. And so each year, SFMTA prepares a legislative program that is adopted by this board to guide our advocacy efforts for the coming year. The shot that you're seeing here is of the meeting in 2026, in November 2026, when the last program was adopted for this year. The legislative program is a high-level strategic document that covers legislative and policy engagement at the local, state, and federal levels. It's kept intentionally broad in order to cover a wide variety of issues that might be taken up locally by the Board of Supervisors, and that work is led by my colleague, Joel Ramos, and also in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. We also try to keep it very flexible so that we're also able to respond to any kind of unanticipated developments that might come up throughout the year. So at this time, we're working to prepare our 2027 program, and we'll be bringing that to you in the next few months in November. So these are the key state and federal policy areas that were included in the 2026 program. And of course, hearing loud and clear the direction from all of you, maintaining, stabilizing, and increasing funding for operating and capital needs are always a central focus. And I'll touch more on that a little bit later in the presentation. The other policy areas cover the various aspects of the work of this agency, including the important areas of overall street safety for all road users, supporting climate action goals, land use and transportation integration, and others. So this is a bit of legislative 101. The California State Legislature operates on a two-year timeline. And it's divided into two single-year segments. And what you're looking at is a typical annual cycle here. For this next year, the session officially begins on the first Monday in December with swearing in of new members and other business taking place at that time. But the action really begins in earnest in January, which is when members actively introduce and vote on legislation. And that goes on from January through late August or September of each year. So every session, there's a limit set on the number of bills any one member can introduce. And this session, it was about 35 bills per member, or it was 35 bills per member, which it's kind of interesting. It changes with each session. And it was actually a fairly significant reduction from the number of bills that they were allowed in the year before. In this session, there were a total of almost 1,800 bills introduced across a wide variety of issues, and many of those bills never make it to the finish line. I think it's something like a quarter of them make it to the governor's desk and then make it into law. So during this time, we're working to identify, analyze, and follow bills that may have an impact on SFMTA's priorities and pursue any amendments that may be needed. The city can and does take official positions on state legislation, and there's a formal process that we follow to do that. If there's a bill that rises to the level where we think that the city should take a support or oppose position, we work through the mayor's office to present a recommendation to the city's state legislation council. The council is chaired by the mayor's office, and it consists of representatives from various city departments and the board of supervisors. If that position is approved, then the city's Sacramento advocates are engaged to provide support. So the annual state budget has also been quite important for our agency in recent years, and it follows a separate timeline through the legislative process. There's a mandated deadline of June 15th to adopt a balanced budget, but most years, like this one, the legislature and the governor get more time to resolve the trickier and more difficult policy and budget matters through subsequent bills, and those are known as budget junior and trailer bills. The recent state loan and the current greenhouse gas reduction fund actions that Julie described in her director's report are examples of those. So looking more closely at funding, you know, as I mentioned earlier, of course, advocacy to maintain and increase funding for All of our programs, streets, transit, all of the program areas covered by SFMTA are, of course, our top priority. This table is focused on just one of those, which is transit funding. And it shows the sources of funding for transit capital and operations. The information here is a little out of date, and it's a little bit of a busy slide, but it dates back to 2023. But we're really including it here to illustrate the point that transit in the state is funded through a diverse and complex array of federal, state, and local sources. All the sources on the slide total about $12.5 billion, and they're split roughly equally across federal, state, and local, plus there's Fairbox and other revenue there, which I would argue is local as well. This is the state slide. They haven't quite categorized it that way, but that would total about $4.7 billion. Of course, the work that we all do together is to try to continually and effectively communicate and inform decision makers of the importance of funding and the impacts that certain decisions that they're considering might have on our agency and on the services that we provide to San Francisco. So moving up to the federal level, I'm just going to highlight one thing for you, which is very important, and it's happening right now. It's the renewal of the Federal Surface Transportation Program. This program sets all policies, priorities, and funding levels for years to come. And it typically happens only every five to seven years. It's one of the most important sources of funding for SFMTA's capital program. And the numbers are different each year, but it amounted to about $180 million coming into SFMTA in this current year. The current program called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was enacted in 2021 under the Biden administration, and it expires at the end of this month. It totaled about $643 billion. And the reason why I'm not showing a flow chart here like on the others is because with reauthorization, there's really no formal or standardized process, and it never unfolds the same way twice. It's also important to know that reaching consensus around funding levels and sources is not easily accomplished. A new reauthorization bill is rarely passed on time, especially since gas tax receipts stopped being able to cover the cost of the program back in 2009. So there are a lot of difficult decisions that need to be made around it. The status as of today is that the House has passed their version of the bill through their Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. So that piece has moved forward. However, the Senate has not yet released their proposal. And it's expected that Congress will extend the current law to provide additional time for negotiations. And that is not unusual either. The last two reauthorizations were extended by over a year apiece over several extensions. And the one before that was extended by nearly three years. So last, lawmakers rarely make policy for one agency or one city. But they listen to coalitions. And I want to call out these organizations that are really critical pillars of our advocacy work. The California Transit Association, which is the organization that led that coalition of a variety of 80 different organizations to really bring home the message about the importance of of the greenhouse gas reduction funding and the programs that fall under that. And it resulted in the outcome that we saw really last night was led by the California Transit Association. And CACDI, the California Cities Transportation Initiative, which is made up of the departments of transportation of the eight largest cities in the state. Both of those are really vital champions in Sacramento that we work with. On the federal level, we work through the American Public Transit Association's and they have a really strong lobbying presence and organization in Washington, D.C., along with the National Association of City Transportation Officials, also known as NACTO, that advocates for funding and policies that prioritize street safety. And with that, I will wrap up, and thank you.

Thank you very much. Let's move to public comment. I'll open public comment for this item for two minutes each.

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

Thank you, Chair Janet Tarloff and members. Alita Dupree for the record. She and her team folds. I go to these legislative presentations often. I'm dependent on legislative advocates. to share of our needs. I've never been to the Capitol in Sacramento. I don't even know if there's a way that the public can engage there. I can say that I have spoken before the Nevada legislature, where they do take public comment at various kinds of committee meetings, both in person and through video conference from their Las Vegas It's important to know that the capital of Nevada is Carson City. It's not Las Vegas. But this is complicated. So much of what we do is predicated on legislation, whether it be for funding or whether it be in policy, for us to be able to do the things that we need to do. So the way that I know that I can share my thoughts on legislation here in California Transportation is to attend meetings such as this and to speak in public comment during the presentation of legislative items for you to support, watch, or to oppose. I hope that we can get the money that we need from all the different sources that we would get it from. The formulas are very complicated. And hopefully we will get our full allotments because we are dependent on this and other systems to operate. So I'm grateful for these very nice folks who can do things that I may not be able to do. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other speakers for this item? Not seeing any in the room, I do have one accommodation request. Speaker, you've been unmuted. This is for item number 14.

This is Herbert Weiner. Gee, to get funding approved is so thick and bureaucratic. It's amazing. I wish there were a simpler way. One thing I did notice, though, at the beginning of the presentation, and I need clarification, was the public transportation got less priority than, say, streets. Now, I think it's really important that public transportation get the utmost priority. In the past, I've seen bike lanes and all these other projects get priority, and public transportation is getting short shrift. Now it has to be placed in the front of the line for consideration for funding. This is extremely important and I wish to see that happen. I don't have a vested interest necessarily because I live in assisted living right now. But for the benefit of everyone else, I would like to see that happen where public transportation gets priority. Thank you.

Thank you. No other speakers.

Thank you. Public comment for this item is now closed. Directors? Director Henderson.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Monique, for the presentation. I just have one question, and it's sort of dovetailing off of what we heard a little bit in public comment period. So first, I should say thank you for the 101, because I think it's really helpful to see it laid out in a snapshot or a graphic way how the state process works, and federal, because it can be complicated and sort of different, depending on which entity we're working with. And so I am wondering, as just a regular person, how would members of the public engage or somehow participate in the legislative process when it comes to advocacy or speaking on some of the pieces of legislation that might substantially impact this agency?

Yeah, well, I mean, I'd say that particularly through the advocacy groups and following some of the organizations that I described there, that there are oftentimes calls to action that come out through those that are broadcast widely and publicly. So those are times where the public is activated to participate.

Great. And then is the CAC also active or supportive or involved in any of the legislative days? Or do you present to them this similar type of presentation at their different meetings?

Yeah. We bring the legislative program to them once a year. And that is the engagement with the CAC. So they will be seeing the presentation before it comes to you in November. Yeah, answer the review first.

Okay, very good. Again, I just think that it's really helpful to sort of understand in a simplified way how we might be able to plug in as, you know, of course as, you know, members of the board, but I think really as community members to support some of the long list of legislation that is being proposed. And then also to understand what the potential impacts are once they actually do get signed off by the governor. So thank you for the presentation.

Thank you, Director Henderson.

Thank you, Ms. Webster. So helpful. This was a request from the vice chair and myself. And because we want to be engaged with the really fine work that you and your teammates are doing, on the government affairs side of things. Your regular communications about state and local and federal legislative matters that we need to be paying attention to is very much appreciated, but it's such a complex topic. And understanding it is, not only is the state different from the local, it is different from the federal, But each different funding agency, importantly, there's a lot to understand, and this process has been tremendously helpful. I don't have any questions at this time, but I want to say that I'm really looking forward to the next step in this and seeing the legislative program come before us. And I'd also like to thank Mr. True for helping make this happen. And so unless there are any other questions or thoughts, we'll move on. It's very much appreciated. Thank you. Secretary Silva, please call the next item.

Yes. Okay. So we are calling item eight out of order. Item eight is new or unfinished business by board members.

Yes. Colleagues, do you have any new or unfinished business? Well, I have some unfinished business with our former director, Mike Chen. Thank you so much for joining us today. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Mike for his dedicated service on both the SFMTA Board of Directors and, for years prior to that, his service to MTA on the Citizens Advisory Council. That's just a lot of service, and we are very sorry to be losing you to the planning department. Mike has demonstrated a strong commitment to public service and to improving transportation for the citizens of San Francisco. And through his work on the CAC and later as a board member, he brought thoughtful perspective, consideration, and a focus on the needs of the communities that we serve. While we are very sorry to see him leave the board, we are pleased that he will continue to serve San Francisco in his role on the Planning Commission. His experience, dedication, and collaborative approach will be a great asset in that capacity. On behalf of the board staff and the public we service, I'd like to thank you so much, Mike, for your leadership service and your many contributions here on the board. I'd like to wish you success. I know we all wish that for you as you begin this next chapter in your public service. And I'd like to invite us all to congratulate and thank Mike Chen. Thank you so much. Yes, so how do we do, but Mike, do you have anything you wanted to say?

Thank you so much for taking some time out of your meetings. I know that they can be very long, and you have a closed session in front of you. The Planning Commission meetings are more frequent, so we shall see what happens. And hopefully, if we see more building and corner housing, we will see a more packed Planning Commission agenda. It's been shy of two years that I've served on the SFMTA board. And it was, I think, a total of four years on the Citizens Advisory Council. And so it's been a true pleasure getting to know and learn more about the agency. There is so much that you can dig into. And there's always more to learn about. There is so much that this agency does for the people of San Francisco. Just very proud and very confident and very in this board to continue on in this service and to make sure that transportation still serves San Franciscans and the community. So thank you so much for your recognition.

Thank you. And we have a not that small token of our appreciation to share with you. Should I bring it up?

Janet, while you're doing that, can I also make a thank you just on behalf of the staff? We really appreciate everything Mike has done, not just in his tenure on the SFMTA board, but also on the CAC and in the community. And I'm not going to take away from this exciting reaction to the sign. But I do want you to know how grateful we are, and just always taking briefings, just really taking the time to make staff feel comfortable, and we're really grateful for.

Thank you.

Oh, my gosh.

You're going to take it, Christine? Yeah. I think you can go up.

What's the best background?

That's better. That's better.

If you do it for the TV in the background, I can put Fiona up.

Oh, OK. Cool.

Fiona, are you ready? Director Hinze, we are going to put you on the TV screen.

I heard. Yep. We're good. Thank you.

Right here, one, two, three. There we go.

Thank you.

You don't get your picture up in all the garages.

So I 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 will be a warning sound at 30 seconds and a chime when the time is up. Any speakers can come up to the podium to provide comment on this item at this time. 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 number 15, discussion and vote pursuant to admin code section 67.10D as to whether to invoke attorney-client privilege and conduct a closed session conference with legal counsel.

I would like to open public comment on this item for two minutes each.

Members of the public wishing for a comment will have two minutes each. They'll be awarding at 30 seconds and a chime when the time is up. Any speakers can come up to the podium at this time. Seeing none in the room and no accommodation requests.

Public comment is now closed. Directors, may I have a motion and a second to go into closed session? So moved.

So moved.

Second. Secretary Silva, please call the roll.

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

Aye.

Belder, aye. Director Henderson?

Aye.

Henderson, aye. Director Hemminger? Aye. Hemminger, aye. Director Hinzey? Aye. Hinzey, aye. Director Kahina? Aye. Kahina, aye. Chair Tarloff? Aye. Tarloff, aye. The motion passes unanimously, and the board will now go into closed session.

SFGov TV, San Francisco Government Television.

Thank you.

SFGov TV. San Francisco Government Television.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you

We are ready to reconvene. You left off at item number 16. Announcement of closed session. The board did meet in closed session and voted to approve item number 3. Places you in item number 17. Motion to disclose or not disclose the information discussed in closed session.

Make a motion to not disclose.

Second. Secretary Silva, please call the roll. On the motion to not disclose, Director Felder?

Aye.

Felder, aye. Director Hemminger? Hemminger, aye. Director Henderson? Aye. Henderson, aye. Director Hinzey? Aye. Hinzey, aye. Director Kahina? Aye. Kahina, aye. Chair Tarloff? Aye. Tarloff, aye. That motion passes unanimously. And before you adjourn, I did want to note that we will be canceling your next regular meeting, previously scheduled for September 15. And so your next meeting will be on October 6th.

Thank you, colleagues, staff, and members of the public. We are now adjourned. Thank you.