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City and County of San Francisco
Municipal Transportation Agency
Citizens’ Advisory Council (MTA CAC)

FINAL MINUTES
of
Regular Meeting

Thursday, June 7, 2007, at 5:30 p.m.
1 South Van Ness Avenue, Conference Room 3074
San Francisco, California

1. Call to Order / Roll Call
Chairman Murphy called the meeting to order at 5:33 p.m.
A quorum was present including the following:

MTA CAC Members Present at Roll Call: Daniel Murphy (Chair), Steve Ferrario (Vice Chair), Mary Burns, Cesar Perez, Greg Riessen, Norman Rolfe, Daniel Weaver, and Jamison Wieser.

MTA CAC Members Present, but absent at Roll Call: Bruce Oka (arrived at 5:38 p.m.), and Dorris Vincent (arrived at 5:35 p.m.).

MTA CAC Absent: Art Cimento, Joan Downey, Emily Drennen, and Griffith Humphrey.

MTA Staff (San Francisco Municipal Railway [MUNI] and Department of Parking and Traffic [DPT]) Present: Nathaniel P. Ford, Sr. (MTA Executive Director and CEO), Debra Johnson (MTA Chief of Staff and Director of External Affairs), Sonali Bose (MTA Finance & Administration), Judson True (MTA CAC Liaison), Jim Kelly (MTA Sr. Operations Manager - Central Control), Peter Straus (MTA Manager, Transportation Planning & Development), Julie Kirschbaum (MTA Manager, Transportation Planning & Development), and Debra Reed (MTA CAC Secretary).

Community Representatives Present: Edward Mason

2. Adopt the MTA CAC Minutes of May 3, 2007:

Minutes for May 2007 were adopted.

3. Public Comment – Concerning any issue within the jurisdiction of the Council and not noted on the agenda:

Public comments from Edward Mason regarding:
Reroute of the Carnival Parade, Muni maps, and Translink readers

4. Report of the Chair: Daniel Murphy (MTA CAC Chair)

Mr. Murphy announced Greg Riessen as Supervisor Aaron Peskin’s appointment to the CAC to replace Sue Cauthen.

5. Staff Report (Discussion) Judson True

Mr. True reviewed June’s staff report.

Staff-Initiated Items

6. Bus Shelter Project (Discussion/Action) Sonali Bose

There were some clear choices from the many responses to the bus shelter website. The MTA would be looking at prices to take before the MTA Board on June 19, 2007 for recommendation. Ms. Bose distributed and reviewed the PowerPoint handout “San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Transit Shelter Maintenance and Advertisement Request for Proposal Summary” dated April 26, 2007.

7. Strategic Plan (Discussion/Action) Nathaniel P. Ford, Sr. and Debra Johnson

Ms. Johnson distributed and reviewed the final draft presentation of the strategic plan to be presented to the MTA Board of Directors on June 19, 2007. The MTA Board created the Governance committee to oversee the plan’s development as a governing document and guide for accountability for the Agency.

Questions and Comments from the CAC

Dorris Vincent:

Would garbage cans be placed on platforms along 3rd Street? Mr. Ford responded that the Agency would look into bomb resistant or transparent waste receptacles.

Norman Rolfe:

How did the Strategic Plan tie in with the Transit Effectiveness Project (TEP)? Ms. Johnson responded that linking to the TEP to better re-align resources; look at service routes, moving people in a safe and efficient manner. Mr. Ford added that while Proposition E defined strategic objectives for the MTA, such as transit first, it did not include guidelines to achieve Proposition E goals.

How successful had it been to realign traffic engineers to focus on moving people rather than just moving traffic? Mr. Ford responded that in many cases, improvements for transit had often resulted in improvements for traffic, automobile users, etc. The Strategic Plan would apply to the entire Agency overcoming cultural differences among departments and unifying all the various divisions including traffic engineers to focus as a unit on transit first.

Steve Ferrario:

Often projects were subjected to run-away inflation due to years of delays. Spending efficiency should be included as a goal. Mr. Ford responded that the Agency had come to recognize spending efficiency as a goal for focus. Through managing resources with good decision making practices in place, how to accomplish and maintain, informative and complete management data the MTA would provide better service for customers by accounting for as well as making good decisions.

Dan Murphy:

The Agency measured outcomes through service standards. How would key performing indicators (KPI) mesh with the service standards? Would they be parallel or would KPIs be integrated with service standards? Ms. Johnson responded that amalgamating the measurements to define a vehicle would be conducive to achieving the goals set forth.

Jamison Wieser:

SFMTA name branding was very confusing to customers. City visitors looking at the SFMTA Transit webpage would not find Muni as a specific service mentioned on the home page. Visitors could easily assume that Transit would blanket cover the entire bay area transportation for services, rather than MTA’s relationships to BART, Samtrans, etc. Mr. Ford responded that the organizational spirit of SFMTA, including Parking and Traffic, Bicycle, Pedestrian and Muni, as well as employees and the MTA Board of Directors, was in an evolving mode to think as a single agency in order to coordinate transportation needs as a whole throughout the City.

Bruce Oka:

Mr. Oka was pleased to announce seeing an increase in parking control officers citing vehicles for parking on sidewalks.

Public Comments

Edward Mason recommended that since the MTA was a conglomeration of associations he suggested a short and simple branding statement that would identify the Agency for the citizenry as to what the MTA is and what does it do.

Motion 070607.01 The MTA CAC endorses the MTA Strategic Plan.

2nd by Steve Ferrario

CAC passed (Ayes – Murphy, Burns, Ferrario, Perez, Riessen, Weaver, and Wieser).

Norm Rolfe was not available for the vote.

8. T Third Integration and Service Design Issues for Metro Service to Caltrain (Discussion/Action) Jim Kelly and Peter Straus

Mr. Kelly reviewed overall train changes for the Castro shuttle, as well as plans interlining both the T and K lines together. Mr. Straus announced additional services, such as, the 9X route extended to City College, the 10 Townsend line’s weekend service, and trial service for the 20 Columbus line. The N Judah would resume service to Caltrain.

Comments and Questions from the CAC

Doris Vincent:

What were the resolutions to complaints about the T Third and the 9 San Bruno lines going to City College? Response: While the 9 San Bruno route would terminate at Geneva and Santos Streets, the “9X” actually provided service to City College and Balboa Park.

Mary Burns:

Why did some of the peak hour service lines in the financial district stop running at 4:00 p.m.? Response: Resources with operators were short. While the 15-Third had been discontinued, the 9X line still ran the identical route path during peak hours.

Dan Weaver:

Improvements with community outreach were needed. Service had changed on Columbus Avenue. Response: More outreach campaigns were being prepared. The 41 Union line would supplement the 20 Columbus line and service hours would be expanded.

Map graphics showing trains in the Market Street tunnel needed to be clarified. Response: Mr. Straus would be attending the MTA CAC’s subcommittee EMSC meeting on June 13, 2007 to discuss Metro train maps.

Bruce Oka:

Changes in service resulted in irritable operators. Response: New schedules and more operators would ease many problems and frustration. Julie Kirschbaum expressed that operators were under much pressure bearing the brunt of animosity on the part of patrons. Dorris Vincent added missed runs further burden operator efforts to accommodate waiting irate patrons on overloaded vehicles.

9. Charter Amendments (Discussion/Action) Judson True

Mr. True gave a brief overview of the Charter Amendments. Since some of the CAC members had to depart, the CAC will have a special meeting prior to the MTA Board of Directors’ meeting on June 19, 2007.

Mr. True listed the timeline with the MTA Board as follows:

• June 12, 2007 MTA Board of Directors Governance Committee

• June 19, 2007 Board of Directors’ meeting

• June 29, 2007 MTA Board of Directors’ meeting

For the Board of Supervisors, the timeline is as follows:

• June 21, 2007 First possible Rules Committee hearing

• July 5, 2007 Last possible Rules Committee hearing

• July 24, 2007 Last Possible Board of Supervisors action

The MTA CAC would like time to read over both Supervisor Aaron Peskin’s and Supervisor Jake McGoldrick’s Charter Amendments. A special CAC meeting would be planned later in June to further discuss the Charter Amendments.

Council-Initiated Items

10. Committee Reports:

Planning and Marketing Committee:

Bruce Oka is looking for a council member to replace him as chair of the PMC.

11. Council Members’ Questions and Comments:

Norman Rolfe:

Translink devices were placed at both front door and backdoor entrances of vehicles. How will entrances be monitored? Mr. Murphy responded that these placements will allow the Agency the option of choice to use backdoor boarding.

If merchants were to be successful in passing a new parking place ordinance, would the Charter still take precedence over the ordinance? Judson True responded that on June 11, 2007 there was to be a meeting of the Government Audit and Oversight committee, in which Supervisor Michela Alioto-Peir would be speaking on the final agenda item about related issues involving off-street-parking fund, parking garages built, and their revenue generated.

Dan Weaver would like a clarification on DPT’s position regarding refusing service for complaints without a street address. Chief Deputy Antonio Parra with MTA Enforcement would be attending the OCSC meeting on June 18, 2007.

12. Agenda Planning for the Next CAC Meeting:

The CAC will have a special meeting in June to discuss the Charter Amendments and related action recommended by the CAC. Date to be announced.

13. Adjournment: 8:03 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by:
Debra J. Reed
MTA CAC - Secretary

Accessible meeting policy – One South Van Ness Avenue

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