Good morning, everyone. The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the april 27th, 2020 meeting of the rules committee. Im supervisor hillary ronen, chair of the committee. With me on the Video Conference is rules Committee Vice chair catherine stefani. Id like to thank sfgov for staffing this meeting. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements . Clerk yes. Due to the covid19 Health Emergency and protocols, Board Members, City Employees and the public, the board room is closed. However, members will be participating remotely. This caution is taken pursuant to the statewide stayathome order and proceeding local, state and federal orders, and directives. Sorry, guys. Supervisor ronen sorry, i thought you were done. Clerk Committee Members will be attending through Video Conference and participating in the meeting in the same extent that they were physically present. Public comment will be available on each item on the agenda, both channel 26, sfgov. Org are streaming the number up. At the top of the screen. Each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. Comment or opportunity to speak during the Public Comment period are available via phone call by calling 888 2045984. Again 888 2045984. Access code 3501008. Again 3501008. When connected, dial 10 to be added hot queue alternatively, you may submit Public Comment in either of the following ways, email myself, the rules Committee Clerk at cictor. Oyung cictor. Oyung sf. Gov. Org. Written comments may be sent by u. S. Postal service to city hall, 1 dr. Carlton b. , good let place, room 244, San Francisco, california, 9410. Finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda of may 5th, unless otherwise stated. Supervisor ronen wonderful. Can you please read item number 1. Clerk item number 1 my apologies. Switching papers. Item number 1 the motion approving rejecting the mayors nomination for the reappointment of crstina rubke to Municipal Transportation Agency board of directors, term ending march 1, 2024. Supervisor ronen wonderful. And i understand that ms. Rubke is on the line and ready to join us. Clerk go ahead. Yeah. She is go ahead. Clerk hello, ms. Rubke. Hello. I had you bleeped out for a moment. So i couldnt hear anything. Now i can hear you. Supervisor ronen thank you so much for joining us in this remote way. We really appreciate it. We would love to hear any remarks you have on your nomination and then well turn it over to the supervisors to ask questions. Thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time today to hear my nomination to serve on the sfmta board. For the last eight year, i have had the privilege of serving im willing to serve a third and final term, should the board of supervisors confirm the mayors nomination. You have my rezmy and i understand that were focused on many other important needs. Ill keep my remarks short. But, of course, im here to answer any questions you have. Very briefly about me. Im a trademark lawyer, an avid sailor and a huge fan of public transit. I have a disability and used a wheelchair to get around. As a result, i rely on accessible Public Transportation to live an active life. One of the main reasons i moved to San Francisco and since moving here in 2005, i have regularly been on muni. My main lines are the t, the n, the 47, the 10 and the 82. As an sfmta board member, i have focused on the overall accessibility of our transportation system, including physical, economic, and programmatic accessible. Very quickly highlight a few of the things i have worked on, let me know if you want more details. In the last six months, i have attended several San FranciscoHuman Rights Commission meetings that address transit equity. I hope to continue to work with the Human Rights Commission, and the willingness to partner with sfmta on the critically important access issues. Currently serve as the chair of the sfmta boards policy and governance committee, that meets monthly to look at the Strategic Plan goals and how the agency is meeting or missing Key Performance metrics. I hope that we can take this unique opportunity and time to examine our expectation work as a whole and come out of this with a better, more equitable system. And to me that would be better prioritizing our transit, pedestrians and cyclists. I look forward to working with the other directors. Another thing i have advocated for is expanding the accessibility of emergeing mobility like car share. To me the mode shift goals we need the options to be accessible to as many people as possible, including populations that have historically been excluded from such options. One initiative is the bike share pilot that sfmta ran last fall in golden gate park. Finally and probably most important to me over the last eight years, i have focused on Pedestrian Safety. Im a huge advocate of automatic speed enforcement, as well as other dataproven tools. Additionally, i have focused specifically on Pedestrian Safety for people with disabilities and seniors, who as you know are statistically more likely to be victims of traffic violence. And i hope this continue this important work. If there were Public Comment, i would already have been cut off. So i will stop there. Im happy to answer any questions you have. Supervisor ronen okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate you joining us today. And your service thus far and your willingness to serve into the future. And im sorry i didnt have a chance to speak with you prior to today. But i know that you spoke to my staff and i really appreciate that as well. Im just going to start it off with one question. I was very concerned that the m. T. A. Board, including you, voted to increase fares on clipper card users during this period, when so many san franciscans have lost their jobs, are struggling to put food on the table, when service cuts on m. T. A. Have been extensive. Im sure that you know that the board of supervisors voted 101 urging you not to increase fares. And its its really concerning to me. And i wanted to hear more of an explanation on why you chose to vote to increase fares during this time. Absolutely. Thank you for that question. I voted without you know, there was much hesitation and thought and consideration that we that myself and i know all of us gave to both the board of supervisors perspective on this and frankly just a lot of compelling Public Comment. So i voted for the budget because i really do think it balanced the needs of the agency to move forward in a sustain financially Sustainable Way to be able to provide Transportation Service as we come out of this. So to be clear, the increases that were that are part of our budget will go into effect at the earliest in november of 2020. They arent going into effect now. One of the reasons that we chose to reduce the discount on clipper, which has the effect of raising the fare on clipper, is because when we did an analysis of the populations that use clipper, versus cash fare, the data though that more with this budget we were able to maintain fee cash fare at 3 for the next two budget cycles, the for the next two fiscal years. And so we in doing all of those things, in fact, we deviated from the board policy, thats a fair indexing policy that i very much believe in. Financial sustainability for the agency, as well as transparent and, you know, public transparency for what fares are going to look like as we move forward. The fare policy basically increases fares on an incremental basis over time, to match the cost of providing Transportation Services. As you probably know about 20 of our operating budget comes from transit fares. Thats not an insignificant amount of money. We as Board Members have a responsibility to make sure that sfmta is in a position to continue providing service into the future. Row the exact circumstances youre pointing to. We do have various we have in addition to the muni use program, we have free muni for low and moderateincome senior and people with disabilities. We do have a lifeline pass for lowerincome folks. And we do have other discounted programs. So i think the direction that our staff they were already working on this. But i think were always looking for more options to better serve lowerincome folks who may be in the middle zone, where basically they may not qualify for the lowincome discount. So i think our focus moving forward should be trying to capture folks who may not qualify for the lowincome discount programs we have in existence. I would look forward to input on those issues. Because i think thats really important. Supervisor ronen so i serve on the m. T. C. And we recently were successful in getting 100 i believe its 197 million from the care act in congress for the m. T. A. , which almost covers the cost of the losses during the shelterinplace and covid crisis. Was that considered when making this choice to raise the clipper card fares . It was. And i think an important thing to note that we entered this budget cycle with already basically, as i think the citywide is experiencing, a structural deficit that we needed to close the gap on. That was before coronavirus and covid, you know, that were seeing now. So we are very grateful for the federal funding. Its allowing us to move forward and not have to make drastic service cuts in the future, when were not social distancing. We also have, as you know, a backlog of funding that we need to address, to ensure liability of our transportation system. So we did consider all of that when we approved the budget. Supervisor ronen okay. Okay. Thank you. Do my colleagues have any questions . Supervisor mar yeah. Thanks, chair ronen. First of all, thank you, ms. Rubke, for your service to the m. T. A. Board and for your willingness to continue to serve. Its critically Important Role in our city and for our communities. I just had some followup questions, sort of im drawing on chair ronens questions around how you would approach the difficult and challenging decisions that the m. T. A. Board is going to have to make in light of the significant increased budget deficit. So, yeah, thank you for sharing your sort of general priorities around equity and expanding access, particularly for the disability disabled community and Pedestrian Safety. But i was just wanting to hear a little bit more about how youre going to approach making these really difficult budget decisions, particularly to ensure equity in our Transit Service and Transit System in our city. Yeah, i guess. Im sorry. Just a little more. Id appreciate it. Go ahead. Supervisor mar a little more elaboration on how you approach these difficult decisions. Right. Sees as a we move forward in just the financial situation, that we all are facing. Is that right . Supervisor mar yeah. Right. I think this goes back to one of the reasons i approved the budget, which included fare increases to make sure that we are appropriately or as appropriately as we can, under the circumstances, funding our agency, so that were not making painful cuts to service. Because we already know that in communities of concern and theres certain parts of our city that are, you know, still would benefit from more reliable Transit Service. And so i think, as you know, the m. T. A. Has an equity strategy. I think that strategy is something that im really proud that our agency does. And i think that would be kind of my first starting point as far as, you know, when were having to make difficult decisions. You know, using that as a guide to making sure that were providing service where its needed most, in communities that are historically, you know, left out or not, you know, have been have not had the service that the financial district has, for example. So i would start there. So, you know, transit improvements to the 3rd, for example. I mean thats just one obvious line that needs a lot of attention. But i would, you know, try to make sure that we are funding those that service appropriately, as we move forward, before cutting anything, you know, improving service all together i guess. That would be kind of where i would start. Supervisor mar yeah. Thank you. Just on that, you know, as we look at restoring service, you know, that has been so drastically cut down to the bone right now, besides you mentioned prioritizing the tline, can you mention how you would approach prioritying prioritizing which Service Lines to restore and if theres any other specific priorities specific priorities in terms of service restoration. Yes. I mean, i think as you said, the equity strategy has a really good menu of the things we know we need to do. And so i would, you know, i would want to look at those particular line and get those up and running, you know, as we restore service. And as things go back to normal. We also want to and i know the agency is very committed to doing this, as we ratchet back up as a society in general, see where the riders need the service. See where people are traveling and because i would imagine that in the transition back to transitioning out of shelterinplace, i would imagine transit trends would be slightly different than what we would expect before covid. I would be kind of looking at those two things. And i would also be i think its really important that we look at nontransit options as well. So i think some of the initiatives that we have in place right now are really exciting to me. And i hope that we can use them as a way to transition back. So, for example, making safer streets for people who are cycling and walking. Those are the Streets Initiative thats been really successful. Id be interested in hearing the supervisors perspectives on that. But i think enabling those types of modes to really to flourish as we transition back. I think its really important, because i dont think its appropriate to go back to businesses a usual with Traffic Congestion every business as usual with Traffic Congestion everywhere. Supervisor mar thank you. I dont have any other questions. Thank you so much. Supervisor ronen supervisor stefani, do you have any questions . Supervisor stefani yes, thank you, chair ronen. I thank you for meeting with me last week over zoom. Thank you for your eight years of service thus far. I do have one question that came up subsequent to our meeting. And one of the issues that i have had and ongoing problem with with the sfmta is communication. And it seems like at least, as far as im concerned, i feel like im always the last person to find out whats happening in my district and what the sfmta is doing in my district. For example, the most recent announcement of street closures, the Streets Program during the shelterinplace was announced as we all know, without any input whatsoever from the supervisors. There were no streets that were considered in district 2 at all. And i think its absolutely vital that when the sfmta is doing things that affect our constituents in our districts, that we be involved. And, first of all, i want to know your opinion on i dont think its just anecdotal. I think it does happen. I dont know if the other supervisors feel the same way. I know supervisor peskin made the comment about it. Why does that continue to happen . It seems to be a culture of lack of communication. And whether or not you see it as an issue at all. Do people really think the supervisors need to be involved in these types of decisions . And also will you commit to making sure that we are involved going forward, because i think when issues are affecting our constituents, we should not be the last to find out. So physical you can just opine on that a little bit. Yes. Thats pretty much it. Okay. No, thank you for that question. Youre certainly not the first supervisor ive heard that from. I think the sfmta has an amazing, talented, skilled staff. And i know that theyre committed to communicating with you. I know that me as a board member, i very much value, you know, partnerships with the board of supervisors, because i think our projects are more successful when the supervisor in the district, is not only in support, but just engaged. Because you are talking to your constituents and youre able to get a fuller discussion of the issues. And i think we end up with better projects that way. So im personally very, very supportive and very, you know, i think its very critical that you all are involved in whats happening in your districts. And i you know, like i said, this is not the first time i heard a supervisor complain about this. I know that our staff is working amazingly difficult during this time. I know that the safe streets issue i do think that this was the closed streets, sorry. The initiative i know that came out very quickly. And i did hear that from other supervisors as well that they didnt get advanced warning. I would i hope to look at this as a like an emergency precaution that, you know, rolled out very quickly. And so that is why that was that was the case. And i hope that that is not seen as a, you know, ongoing practice and certainly i hope that you all feel free to reach out to me if you feel this is a continuing issue moving forward. Supervisor stefani thank you for that. I just want to make sure that when items become when we have items that are before the board of supervisors, just to take note of that and make sure that thats a question. And thats something that you ask about to make sure that were involved. Because a lot of times what happens is that we react. And then were pegged as is not being supportive of the sfmta or the underlying project, when we havent even had a chance to evaluate it. So in that thats unfortunate as well. That were pegged as not liking bicycles or not liking this or that, when all were doing is actually reacting to the fact that thin