Is because its surrounded by buildings of a certain height and we have to protect people from wind. We have to encourage sunlight for use or it wont be used at all. As we do that, we find there are certain thank you. Thank you for hearing me as a member of the task force in 2013. I was the chair of the energy and natural resources, subcommittee of that task force. My name is cole roberts. I work with a Company Called air up here, focused on sustainability in the built environment. When we were undertaking that task force report, we understood and interacted with the community that deepened our understanding of the neighborhood. It needed to be married with robust infrastructure, infrastructure for Energy Systems and the ecology of the place thats been damaged and not restored. Theres need for investment. Soft investment in the parks and also hard investment in the energy and stormwater systems. Its not always obvious in how it benefits the community, but there are deep, longterm investment benefits. Thats why its called an investment, not a cost. They gain significantly to Smart Investments taken now. In that investment, i would include social institutions like the San Francisco mint. It is an even more valuable project thats valued today. And another that is not met or in terms of cattlizine catalg the neighborhood. Thank you for hearing me out. I respect the decision of the group. Thank you, supervisors, for hosting the meeting and the Planning Department for doing their Due Diligence to try to balance the needs of the community. We would like to see some tweaks to the central soma plan to ensure that were not a museum piece of a community that was once there. We want to see it be a community of longtime residents, businesses, artists, and activists. One way to reach this bill, is to ensure the 20 million will be allowed more public programming be sustainable. Over half of our budget is spent on infrastructure oewd is not enough to work with the community to bring long time residents to participate in the night market. Were generating 60,000 in economic activity. We want to ensure that some of this goes to the residents. And we would like to see some provisions so we can create a new Performing Arts Center. What is shown is there are 5,000 people that want to see filipino arts and culture and we need to give a platform for our arts groups to scale up. And we would like to see more pathways for community ownership. That being a Performing Arts Center or being in the commercial spaces, so the community is not stuck in this cycle of sharecroppership. Weve want to participate in the growing Real Estate Equity in San Francisco and thats one way we would like to see that happen. Thank you. Thank you for hosting this. Many of the members of the filipinos in Tech Working Group are soma natives, grew up here and moved on to tech positions. So our community, our working group, is aware of the issue us that face the community over the past two decades. Partnerships with Tech Community are central. We would like to encourage them to join the community of children, seniors, laborers, as new Companies Move in as development grows and changing the face of the neighborhood. We have survived many waves of displacement, with the most recent being the tech boom. The filipino movie will continue to thrive and take part in the neighborhood in a place weve called home for years. Thank you. Good afternoon, supervisor peskin, supervisor kim. Im connie ford. I want to stand in solidarity with everything thats been said here. I have greats a respect. Ive been working with soma. Ive been on the Soma Stabilization Fund since its beginning realizing that my son and daughter in law live here and so i belong to in this instance an Organization Called good jobs for all. Were in solidarity in particular with what alex said and mario said. These jobs, this community, is going to be experiencing must be good jobs, somewhere in the report it says 30,000 to 40,000 jobs. What are the jobs . Are there categories . Are they good, livingwage jobs . Who will be the people that are doing the work at the hotels, the people that will do the service jobs in these high towers, the Security Guards, janitors, how will they be good jobs and good jobs for all is a program that well sit down with the developers as the plan goes out and we would like some of this within the plan that says, any of these jobs need to be for especially the entry level jobs need to be opened up for the community, for the people that live there, for the residents, for a targeted population that needs to take advantage, provided the advantage of living and working in a city that cares thank you, ms. Ford. Good afternoon, supervisors. Im heidi mahogny from the transcultural district. I want to thank supervisor kim for scrutinizing the funds. And not simply to certify the projects of developers. I support the public spaces that are truly acceptable and the further greening and environmental sustainability. As the owner of a small lgbt bar in soma, i hope that some of the funding will go to stabilizing the businesses that are impacted by the fast and frequent development of the neighborhood. I hope that it will support the businesses in the district and the cultural districts in soma, lgbt leather and even comptons with a corridor on 6th. Money from central soma could help to grow and stabilize projects that would belief end the displacement of our communities. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, supervisors, im rachel ryan. Im here on behalf of the leather cultural district. The Leather Community has been based in soma for over 70 years. In that time, its been home to over 100 bars and businesses dedicated to the Leather Community. Im an owner of the stud bar, the oldest queer nightclub in San Francisco, which was originally opened as a leather bar in 1966. My hope is that we can allocate some of the funds from the western soma plan, just as honey said, to protect legacy businesses and protect cultural districts. The leather district does not have a source of funding through the city yet and i think this could be a really good way to do it. Were looking for stabilizing organizations and businesses, but we have a community of older folks, many of whom are living with hiv that need access to Affordable Housing. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good afternoon, supervisors, im john alderling. First, i want to note the importance of funding for central soma fun, which has done great work. And the 10 billion of future development, there has to be a way to continue that worth with that funding source. Second, as many note, theres an essential need for regular funding for the two heritage districts, so we can implement them and not be an empty shell. Third, hasnt come up, but its central to be a Community Participation process attached, with all of the programs, the hundreds of millions of dollars from all the sources. These neighborhoods set up a cac to do that, but its failed. A, its too big. For neighborhoods, you cant pay enough attention to any of them. Second, its purview is too narrow. It looks like the childcare funds that come from the fees. They refuse to have any public input at all. It takes a Community Advisory board of some kind. The bureaucrats, the departments, all came to ask on every separate topic. And the members listened to each other. They were not just siloed in their own interests. For this plan to succeed over 10, 20 years, and promises turn to real stuff and need to enact that process. Thank you. And there has been an opportunity to bring our communities together. Corey smith speaking on behalf of the Housing Coalition program with the distribution of funds, well defer. On the housing front, we have an opinion. Weve made this request repeatedly and would love to see an amendment change in this. Its regarding the implementation measure, calling for everything over 30,000 square feet have 2 3 of redevelopment be nonresidential. Were asking for 40,000 square feet. It could be more homes in the neighborhood. Generally, were very supportive. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, supervisors. Im with the council of Community Housing organizations. Today speaking on my experiences as a district 6 representative for the eastern neighborhood, cac. I want to echo was john said earlier about the need to have fees that are dedicated to support for the soma stabilization fee and to the two new cultural districts. Its critical that the cultural fabric be maintained and funding corrected that way. One of the drawbacks is how you off the often look at the budget, most of the funds are allocated to a certain number of priority projects and to a certain distribution of uses. What is needed is Real Community control over the funds, to be able to look at not only those categories that i think steve already spoke about, but to have flexibility to support programming and facilities for nonprofit uses, arts uses, local uses, Small Businesses and so forth, to be able to have fees that help to shape the fabric of south of market. Finally, i think, when a new district is created with a new advisory committee, its critical like the pacs and Soma Stabilization Fund, particular constituencies from the neighborhood be considered. That from the soma lgbt Leather Community be on there. And so we have real representization. The full cost of impact needs to be covered. Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you, supervisor kim for having this hearing today. Weve been very active about the street improvements. Yesterday we had a meeting about pedestrian safety, open space and community planning. Its an initiative from Robert Wood Johnson that has diverse partners to build healthier communities where children and their families can thrive. There are six communities participating in this. In this initiative, when children are the focus, everyone benefits. For example, when the seatbelt laws originally adopted to protect Young Children have saved an estimated 3,017 lives since 1975. So when we heard from attendees, they would like to see more sidewalk programs and to have signs lit, crosswalks for children and their family. And to organizations that can provide culturally competent outreach and education. For example, through the folsom and howard, there was no english or no spanish surveys, and so we want to see more of that. To clarify. This is sfmta were not in spanish . Correct. So when we partnered with them, we collected 200 surveys of in three languages. I know mr. Parks is still here. So i appreciate the feedback about Children Service signs as well. I want to be sure that infrastructure includes tenant support, including tenant counseling and legal service. We struggle with our tenant support and making sure that theres that were able to serve all the tenants that come to us for counseling. And we need Legal Support for a lot of the tenants that come in for our counseling and theres just not enough language appropriate and want to make a note that we serve a broad range of immigrants and wanting to make sure there are Small Businesses that are responsibility and provide language appropriate and culturally appropriate and affordable goods and services that there are supported by an infrastructu infrastructure. Thank you. Hello, supervisors, im david wu with somcan. Somcan has been very active in the central soma meetings. Aside from the buildout of the park, there must be a dedicated source of funding that goes toward maintenance and programming on the puc site. In order for it to be a wellfunctioning, True Community space for all. To ensure maintenance, a Community Steward program should be made up of residents and community groups. Its essential that its hired from the community and competent to make sure that the new park reflects south of market. They must be held to a higher standard than what has previously existed. It must be youth and Family Friendly thats accessible and designed for youth and families. To this point, the majority are not youth and Family Process does not function as true, open spaces. They must be in the central soma plan. The design review, should be a standard for all in soma where they function as true, public open spaces, rather than being a new design process, there should be a design in place. And one example of a good plan that exists is in Bridge Housing and put together in conjunction with community members. Madam clerk, if we could allow the mike to keep going so folks can finish their sentences, that would be great. Im from the Veterans Equity Center and Filipino Mental Health initiative as well as were here with soma coalition. Soma is home to a lot of people with thattor are seniors and disabilities. We serve the community and Cultural Assets such as services for immigrants and people with adult disabilities. It should be considered Historical Resources and we seek to recognize places like Filipino Education Center and i fell like it could prevent atrisk change and knowing that places are frequented by filipino members and in the larger bay area. Some of the fees should support and guide those sites. Thank you. Tony robles. Safety is a topic thats been coming up quite a bit, with the upzoning, the wind impacts, the safety and traffic. Weve had members of our organization that have gotten into accidents, who have fallen because of high winds, because of oncoming traffic, that have spent time in the hospital with serious injuries. Safety impacts and ramifications must be taken under consideration within the plan. As they say, the road to misery is paved with good intentions and there are a lot of things that are imposed upon us and the community thats lived there, existing community, is treated as though they were the furniture that came with the place. There must be oversight and a voice for the communities being impacted. Somebody mention the the ongoing fees for cultural sustainability is very, very important. Were dealing with communities that are being squeezed, who are working extremely hard to maintain their equity and their presence and to continue being an asset to the cultural fabric of San Francisco. Job, once again, who are these jobs going to go to and what jobs are going to be generated. Are they going to allow people, particularly residents of the neighborhood to stay. Will they be sustainable . Are they going to be jobs that will allow people to pay the rent. Speaking of rent, housing stabilization. We need to make sure that there are Legal Services and Tenant Services so people dont start getting evicted all the time. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Robles. Thank you, supervisors. Carl shannon. Were project sponsors for three major projects, two of which are 100 housing. 900 units at the creamery and a project at 5th and howard. The third is a combination of office and small Affordable Housing. Steve has been to thousands of meetings. Weve only been to a couple hundred. Hes been working on this for seven years. Weve only been working on it for five. Were thrilled to see this come forward. Its a huge package of community benefits, unprecedented in the citys history. We do have a timing issue with our 5th and howard project, where to get the taxexempt bonds in place, the project needs to be approved and ready to go by 2019. That seems a long way away still, but having been at this for seven plus years wanted to be sure that were aware of that. Look forward to getting this done. We look forward working with the community and bringing the public park forward, which is part of our project. Thank you. And don shaw reached out to me personally to ensure that this project thats 100 Affordable Housing will of is not impacted. And to ensure that we move forward with that project or pass this plan in a timely manner. Im alice rodgers, Vice President of south Beach Mission bay organization. I want to commend the Planning Department on all of the extreme outreach and hard work they put into the plan. And likewise, want to commend the community, people that are here today and john elderling, in particular, for helping the city focus on this as a community plan. Its always talked about as industrial, but as these people have illustrated and you well know, theres a very Rich Community and cultural legacy in this area. So im looking forward to this being a plan that ends up not displacing people that makes good on its promise of cultural and community, Community Involvement and guidance. And i want to thank you supervisor kim for asking the prioritization of the strict projects and the other projects. So far the promises have been quite general and i have had a hard time seeing it brought down to the street and i appreciate your comment today on air quality. It is an emerging issue. Its not a new issue, but its a difficult issue to grapple with. And i think its an emerging, important focus. Thank you so much. Thank you, ms. Rogers. Good afternoon. Teresa flanderick, community action. Im here to support my friends, my community in soma. We represent soma. What we also know is how important it is to feel and know that you are safe in your neighborhood, in your home, that your home will not be taken. And so to have funding that would also afford a purchase of some of the rentcontrolled buildings so theyre not turned into tics and luxury condos and sold to the highest bidder. To preserve the housing that is there, also the sros. That it would be great to have funding that is specified for these purchases, as well as any Affordable Housing that is to be built, if there is no more land yet because its been used for other things. That becomes a problem. So in terms of securing a cultural district, a community thats been there for many, many years, to do all that we can to preserve what is there so that the people can continue to grow their community, rather than have it destroyed. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, supervisors, for holding this meeting. Im raquel odondis. I thank the Planning Department for the presentation and glad to hear that the plan is to keep whats great in soma. For us, what is great about soma for decades is the seniors and immigrant workers of that been fighting to make the neighborhood livable, for everyone. And this is before the city and planning and the whole region has come to focus on soma as a place to build this housing. So we hope to keep the existing community there, thats first and foremost. As you know, central somas plans comprise our cultural district and many vulnerable seniors. Weve survived many waves of displacement and to the most recent with the tech boom. Weve lost half of our community in the last several years, but were still here and we love soma and soma is a cultural and social hub for filipinos citywide and regionwide. While there could be many opportunities with the central soma plan, there are no illusions that there arent risks for our community. The new development can bring about another way of displacement for our community and other populations. We need to make sure there are strong measures and concrete investments to mitigate potential harm. We look forward to working with the Planning Department and board of supervisors and everyone involved to make sure there are relay ford real Affordable Housing and that the Public Benefits are somawide and not just central soma. There is provisions for development of Community Assets and Strong Community oversight of benefits. And last but not least the dedicated funds to community and economic development. Thank you. Im michelle levis, soma resident. As you all know, soma has been in development for San Francisco and has become a neighborhood of ultra rich and ultra poor. I would like to advocate for an increased range of affordability. We have families where two families work minimum wage jobs and they dont qualify for the affordability, making too much. I have a struggle between talking about the new dream community when across the street, part pardon my language is a [beep] show. Its hard to not think about what is happening on the other side of sixth street. The school is in crisis. We have one school in our district and talking about a new school is ridiculous to me. We had to get pinterest to pay for a second social worker because we have the highest number of homeless kids. 85 of middle schoolers were reading below grade levels. We know that means they will drop out and become incarcerated. For us, its a huger issue, instead of just what is happening in the footprint of this plan area, but we hope that some of this can reach over to the other side of 6th street. Park and rec in this plan, i frankly have more faith elsewhere than the soma plan. The rec center has not had hand towels since may. So there are issues when we talk about renovating the rec center and creating parks, what it means for now . How can we creep eight new when we dont take care of what we have . And i feel theres disproportionate investment in structures, not people. There are people in crisis that need the support and putting it into a building or a set of activities doesnt meet the need where it is. I dont want my kids to have to see that on the way to school. Its a huge issue that we hope can be taken as a whole and not just within that footprint. Thank you. Seeing no further comments on item number 3, i request that we close Public Comment. Public comment is closed. I want to thank all of the staff and members of the public and supervisor kim and her staff for the long road its taken to get to here. In the first hearing i raised some questions about whether or not there are studies that could allow for more housing and we discussed that offline, and also talked a little bit supervisor kim, havent talked to you about it, but the initial propk notion of metering and to see if there were ways that we can meter the amount of housing as offices being developed. I think thats a conversation we should be having. Before i got back on the board, supervisor kim attempted to do that and ran into some opposition from the other side of this building. But to get the plan forward, it has to get out of this board. It may be an opportunity to insert metering in, so we dont end up with office and then housing way later. You guys can take a crack at that as you would like, but also a way to communicate with my colleague as were supposed to do. Noted. Well come back to you. And i know that weve had conversations and i know first of all, i know through watching some of the Planning Commission meetings, theres been a lot of Public Comment about the balance of housing and office and theres been requests to examine where we can adore add or convert within central soma. Can you go into that a little bit . Yes. The plan has 7,000 Housing Units rebuilt. I. E. R. Assumed 8,000 or so Housing Units in the area. So there is margin to move that around. That said, since we started the conversation, we identified a few locations where we have additional housing. The Planning Department was not considering use of the state density bonus in this area. Supervisor kim, we looked at that, so its resulted in about 600 more Housing Development units. And weve identified a few office sites proposing to carve out space for Affordable Housing, so that adds to the total. There are not many more moves up our sleeves to add units altogether, unless some of the sites that are slated to be office somehow switch over to be residential and that moves the needle, recognizing you want to move that within the bandwidth of i. E. R. Or else we have to start that over. So we discussed this previously and the 30,000, 40,000. Right. Its abstract, but to make it a jobsoriented district, were requiring large parcels to be jobsoriented and the threshold is 30,000 square feet. If it moves to 40,000, it will be several hundred other units built in the neighborhood. Thank you. A number of things i want to know one additional question for mr. Wartheim. One member of the public talked about height and shadows. Yes. We would not allow any building to move forward with a shadow on south park. That is built in and thats why heights around south park are around 45 feet. And well make sure any building would not. So none of the heights being contemplated in the central soma plan right now would add additional shadow to south park . No. Thank you. I just want to acknowledge the members of the community that came out today. And for talking about the priorities that the community would like to see in terms of how we distribute the benefits of the central soma plan. And, first of all, to acknowledge that we have a community thats accepting of density and growth and height and i think that says a lot about the neighborhood that the south market is. But ensuring that as we accept growth and we understand that it is a role to build more housing in San Francisco and the bay area that we want to ensure that the benefits or the value that private developers are building upon, that it be shared with the community and how we would like to see that value shared. And to reiterate to be sure that were supporting our Small Businesses and our legacy businesses and those communities with the leather lgbtq community, as well as filipino, and making sure its more than historic districts, that were able to support them to live and continuing elements of south of market community. I also heard a need to ensure that we are supporting our tenants and allowing them to continue to live there with support services and Legal Support in languageappropriate services and that we are ensuring preservation of Affordable Housing and building new housing. I had just heard about a site grand aurenti, singleroom occupancy hotel units that have housed philippifilipino Members Community and the city is working to acquire the 22 units, but i had a heart attack when i heard about the 10 million in deferred maintenance that is coming with that site. And so theres a lot of work to do to preserve units and not build new ones. Finally, i think its important to note that were able to articulate the list of priorities that we have under the different buckets of benefits. And i did want to just, again, support some members of our public that spoke about air quality. I think its incredibly sad when we hear about, you know, all the particulate matter that people see on the leaves and our trees in the other open space areas. I see that in my unit where i live when i open my windows, but we want to be sure as we grow this neighborhood its safe neighborhoods for children, families and seniors to live in. So im very excited about the plan of the portion of the plan that will be dedicated funding to improve air quality and greening the district. I think thats just vital. We need to make sure that people are living, thriving, and were doing what we can to mitigate for the negative environmental impacts in the neighborhood finally and most importantly, what i walk away from, we need to think about how the governing structure of the fees as they come out through the multiple buckets, Affordable Housing, residential, environmental, pdr, open space, schools, childcare and cultural preservation, that as much as we can that we set our priorities with the soma plan and we have a longterm governing structure that can ensure that fees 5, 10 years down the road still reflect our community priorities. We heard mention of the cac through the former Redevelopment Area plans. I should note we have the Soma Stabilization Fund that looked at how to distribute infrastructure and community service, looking at it as an option for some of the fees as well as the eastern Neighborhoods Advisory Committee as well. So michael is to work with the community as well as planning to set up a governing structure for how we disperse fees in the future. I think theres a lot of work to do and i ask the community to help us to develop our list of priorities as well, as we think about what the Priority Services are, im struck by, you know, hearing the staff at betsy carmichael, in terms of the readi reading level scores, its hard it hear, but sacramento does project spending needs for prison based on 3rd grade test scores. There is a nexus between when children succeed in Elementary School and the likelihood of ending up in our prison system. So whatever we can to do strengthen our communities in the long term, i think we should certainly be focused on that. Finally, i mentioned this in the beginning, but really thinking about our cultural districts and how we support that through the central soma plan as well. So this is the second of three hearings that ive called on the central soma plan. I want to thank all the departments for being here. Weve didnt ask all of you to come up and speak today, but think its important for the departments to hear from the board and members of the community. So, chair peskin, i have no further comment. I make a motion to file this item. Councillor peskin happy to file the item and look forward to the third hearing and hearing both from members of the public as well as continuing to work with supervisor kim and Planning Department staff on the notion of metering. With that, well file the item and adjourn the hearing. Women sustainable future. San francisco streets and puffs make up 25 percent of cities e citys land area more than all the parks combined theyre far two wide and have large flight area the pavement to parks is to test the variants by ininexpensive changing did new open spaces the city made up of streets in you think about the potential of having this space for a purpose it is demands for the best for bikes and families to gather. Through a collaborative effort with the department we the public works and the Municipal Transportation Agency pavement to parks is bringing Initiative Ideas to our streets. So the face of the street is the core of our program we have in the public rightofway meaning streets that can have areas perpetrated for something else. Im here with john francis pavement to parks manager and this parklet on van ness street first of all, what is a parklet and part of pavement to Parks Program basically an expense of the walk in a public realm for people to hang anti nor a urban acceptable space for people to use. Parklets sponsors have to apply to be considered for the program but they come to us you know saying we want to do this and create a new space on our street it is a Community Driven program. The program goes beyond just parklets vacant lots and other spaces are converted were here at playland on 43 this is place is cool with loots things to do and plenty of space to play so we came up with that idea to revitalizations this underutilized yard by going to the community and what they said want to see here we saw that everybody wants to see everything to we want this to be a space for everyone. Yeah. We partnered with the pavement to Parks Program and so we had the contract for building 236 blot Community Garden it start with a lot of jacuzzi hammers and bulldozer and now the point were planting trees and flowers we have basketball courts there is so much to do here. Theres a very full program that they simply joy that and meet the community and friends and about be about the lighter side of city people are more engaged not just the customers. With the help of Community Pavement to parks is reimagining the potential of our student streets if you want more information visit them as the pavement to parks or contact pavement to parks at sfgovtv. Org go well start the meeting tuesday november 21 for the transportation authority. Please call the roll. [calling roll] director rubke. You have a quorum. Director hineki will not be here. And please be advised the ringing of sound producing electr Electronic Devices are prohibited and anyone responsible for one going off may be asked to leave and the board respectfully requests they be turned off and approval of the minutes. Do you have Public Comments in no, chair. Do i have a motion. All in favor say aye. Approved. Item six, introduction of new or unfinished business. Do i have new or unfinished business. Well move on. On the directors report. Mr. Mcguire. Directors, staff and im pinch hitting today. I want to start on our efforts we created a Rapid Response team that can go after the sites of traffic fatalities and identify immediate improvements. When a fatality occurs the public can expect a rapid review and response on site. It will include an analysis of what we already know about the circumstances surrounding the crash, the crash history of the location and existing conditions and recommendations for any immediate engineering changes that can be made quickly sim to the changes and were the topic of a discussion a few board meetings ago. A key element in improving the rapid review will be to increase our information and coordination sharing with the San FranciscoPolice Department and key part nor partner who investigates every fatality and the protocol is focussed on making sure the city coordinates the services it provides to survivors and families and victims of traffic crashes. That protocol is a collaboration between the medical Examiners Office and Police Department, Fire Department and direct Attorneys Office and building the protocol on top of a robust existing protocol and already helping to build and strengthen partnerships with these key [aud [audio difficulties] the next thing i want do address is the pilot project. There was an open letter to city agencies about the concern on safety and traffic implications of how tncs and ridehailing vehicles block lanes. In his letter the mayor called on mta and the Companies Like uber and lyft to Work Together on a pilot project. Under the mayors direction we had the meeting to determine how such a pilot could be developed and importantly how it could be implemented and evaluated. No decisions have been made about a Pilot Program yet. We have made progress on goals and how data can be shared. The goal is to eliminate stopping in transit lanes and bike lanes and eliminate double parking and impacts on bus lanes and crosswalks and areas of high pick up and dropoff. Our initial hypothesis on the mta side was by promoting and enforcing the safe and reliable curb space we can increase Public Safety for all modes on the street. The city has not determined when, where or how many locations such a pilot might take place. We do know that consistent with instruction weve gotten clearly from this board it must be in an area where theres community support. Were conducting Robust Community engagement and outreach process before we make any commitments to work forward and we also know and had made it clear its imperative to commit to not double parking and making sure operators operate safely in an area. Thats the current status of that effort. Another thing you may have read about is the audit of the Cypress Security conduct and there was an audit of an agreement with Cypress Security services to determine if cypress and the mta complied with the contract and evaluate how well were monitoring the compliance and there were findings in the audit. There were invoiced hours that could not be matched to timekeeping records. The audit found cypress and the subcontractors could not demonstrate full compliance with the requirements on the Security Guard and some could not demonstrate compliance with liability, insurance, minimum compensation or Health Benefits requirements. We take it seriously. They affect not just the quality of the service we give the public but that we provide and support immunity but get to the way the public funds this board appropriated to pay the contractor are getting to employees and compliance is very important to us. Were already addressing most the areas and have been able to provide most the documentation that appeared to be missing during the audit but well continue to upon for the accountability practices and compliance more closely over the remaining life. The contract runs through march 31 of 2018 and theres provisions for extending it after that. I want to be clear that as you may know the Cypress SecurityServices Include armed and unarmed guards. None of the training lapse were found in the audit had anything to do with the armed guards not being trained properly. You may have also noticed new colorful compliant designs are being installed and tested on signs is at platforms that are showing the estimated time of arrival of trains. Theyre long awaited features. Making them work is not as simple as making the switch. Theres backend work to integrate new and old systems so for the next couple months well be testing rolling out it out on a stationbystation basis. Because theyre still in test mode we advise customers to use audio announcements but our goal is to have the signs displaying reliable information by next year. It will be a great step forward in the quality of information we give subway passengers. Some other good news, the Northern California chapter of the officials named the Public Agency of the year. Its an award received at the holiday dinner and Scholarship Award dinner in oakland. It brings together individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in transportation and further the goal of supporting minority youth who wish to enter transportation careers. In the last 13 years the groups awarded nearly 250,000 to students of color. Its an organization some have been instrumental in. Some former awardees are now