Transcripts For SFGTV SFMTA Board Of Directors 20240712 : vi

In our published notice of this meeting we ask the public to participate remotely by leaving a voice mail messenger. For all messages we appreciate the comment. Call us at fouin advance is typr the day before the meeting. There will be gaps and silence as staff is transitioning technology between speakers. We are doing our very best and ask for your patiences and understanding. Sometimes we lose connection, please do not be alarmed if the connection is lost. I want to thank everyone on our team here, theres a lot of people to thank. Thank you. I would like to mention this is being televised by sfgtv be aware there is a time lag between the actual meeting and what members of the public are seeing on sfgtv. If you are watching and wish to comment on an item please call the phone line when the item is called. For those members who wish to make Public Comment, the phone number to use is 888 8086928 the access code is 9961164. Please make sure you are in a quiet location. At the appropriate time the chair will ask for the phone lines to be opened. If you wish to comment on that particular item, youll be prompted to press one, zero. This will add you to speaker line. Question and answer time is the Public Comment period. There will be an automated voice that will tell you when it is your turn to speak. When your motorcycle phon microd youll hear us ask you to state your name. I will say thirty seconds when you have thirty seconds of your one minute remaining. When your time is up ill say thank you. Next caller please. I will repeat these instructions for how to make Public Comment dpen aagain. Okay. Special calendar item five. Submission of one eighth of one percent retail transactions and use tax for cal train to support immediate and long term operational and capital costs at election to be held on november third, 2020. We have staff team manager of Regional Affairs who will be presenting. Thank you, chair. Good morning. Regional manager is sfmta. Were here to give you a brief presentation on the one eighth cent sales tax. Our executive descrecto directon transportation authority. We can move to the next slide. Thank you. In 2017 senate bill 797 authorization to put a one eighth cent sales tax on the train counties. Being a dedicated sales tax. The measure would require two thirds of the voters in two thirds of the county. Precovid estimated it would raise just over one million per year and one tenth being generated in San Francisco. Prior to the covid 19 pandemic the majority of cal trans funding came from self generated revenues. Today many riders are working from home and the riel riders dropped to 5 of precovid 19 levels. Annual contributions from the member counties and annual good repair projects. San francisco annual share was 14 point six Million Dollars. As noted senate bill 797 was proposed to raise and good repair needs s needs the expende outlined on this slide, the ballot question hasnt yet been finalized. We ask voters to approve one eighth of the sales tax to support regional economics recovery, prevent traffic congestions, make cal trains more accessible and affordable; make travel times faster, increase frequency and capacity. Authorized legislation they can put the sales tax legislation on the ballot. The measure requires the approval of the majorities of three thirds majority of supervisors. The board of supervisors approved resolutions to place the measure on the ballot. These go boards would need to it pass another resolution to provide those resolutions. Turning to the governance before you established an ad hoc committeea special council was hired in february in regards to governance. Two governing documents that cal train operates under today. The direct Powers Agreement established in 19 the one when ca1991 when caltrains is formed. The Real Property agreement that was amended in 2008. For giving thirty eight million in debt for the right of way purchase. Twenty Million Dollars outstanding. Theres a typo on the slide. The correct amount is thirty eight Million Dollars. Additionally the co ceo and c. Turning to the gornance governae provisions. Eligible expenditures at anytime with a two thirds majority vote. Up to the first forty Million Dollars collected. Its provided by san trans and covid 19 related relief options. If the governance solution is identified, the escrow account would be closed and funds would be transferred to regular use accounts. If no resolution is found another forty Million Dollars would be made available for operations. Next slide, please. All parties commit to working with state delegates on a legislative solution for the 2023 solution. Next slide, please. A joint statement was signed by 12 elected officials calling for this approach of funding for the california transportation authority. Last week voted to support and held a public hearing and adopted the resolution earlier this week. Im going to jur turn it over to jonathan to close out the presentation. Good morning. Budget manager. Next slide, please. Just as she mentioned, through the joint Powers Agreement. San francisco provides both the capital costs and operating costs for cal train. The formula is a little different for both. On the cal tal costs. Theres a category for specifically cal train. On the operating side the contribution of the operating budget and the need is split proportionally based on the percentage of ridership. That would be San Francisco. Thats typically 27 percent. We do budget contribution as part of our two year operating budget and the last one you a approved was on june 30th of this year. Youll see to the right, youll see amounts of the contributions over the last few fiscal years has been increases. In addition it includes that theres no dedicated funding source. As cal train has provided additional service, the need with contribution from the members increased. The budget contribution was twenty nine point nine million. The current cal Train Service plan in preliminary budget that has been presented to their board increases the amount of their deficit after the application of the cares act fund for both trunk one and trunk two. This would be additional five million contribution for a total of 14 million. If we did have to make that contribution we would have to look towards reduction in other areas to cover those costs. Just over time, this is an analysis of the impact of the legislation itself and the resolution that the San Francisco board of supervisors passed and the policy issue before you today. Again, the impact if approved and if the bill tax were to pass as proposed, it would remove the requirement for that additional five Million Dollars in fiscal year 21. It would reduce our member contribution to about three Million Dollars in fiscal year one. That will not cover the complete deficit but reduces it. Because we do a two year budget, i just wanted to tro throw this. Assuming it stays exactly the same. Thats seventy trains. Our contribution and this sales tax were applied in the way its proposed, our member contribution would be 12 million worth three million more in fiscal year 22. If the sales tax were not to proceed in the way were talking about, there were no additional salessorry federal funds that went towards the operating program, our operation could be a tie of 23 million next year. That is the last side. Were happy to take any questions that you have. Thank you. I know we have a couple members, i dont know if there was anything you wanted to add at this time before we open it up to directors for questions. Thank you. This is chief communication officer. Just want to thank the board for considering this item and holding a special meeting to do so. We understand that time is of the essence. We dont have anything further to add to the presentation thats already been given. Look forward to answering any questions or providing comments if we can be helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Directors are there any questions that you have at this time. Maybe you can queue up Public Comment at this time. I do have a question. Thank you. You mentioned the crafting of the ballot language, what process does that go through and the changes that have been made by the San Francisco board of supervisors to include the governance requirements. Do we have any idea what kind of impact thats going to have on the crafting of the language because it did seem pretty straight forward before those governance concerns were added . Thank you, director. I wonder if you would be able to respond to this question. It would be best answered by cal train who has been working to craft the ballot question. We hav i can speak from a can perspective which may or may not be helpful for this particular question. Weve been working over the last year plus on this ballot measure and working with stake holders from all of the agencies, the seven agencies that need to take action on this measure in addition to some board members. We did just as recently as the last cal train Board Meeting get direction, confirmed direction from a two thirds majority to pursue placement of a clean ballot measure that did not include these directions. Weve been working under that direction. The cal train have not had a chance to review these conditions. We do not have direction from our board at cal train in terms of what our position is on these conditions. That is the honest answer about where we are. Maybe you could talk a bit from the c ta perspective. Certainly. Thank you. The drekor of sft c a. The los angele language that the supervisors introduced on tuesday, building upon the question. Im wonnerring abou wondering ag the conditions today given the august 7th deadline which is coming up. Could somebody speak to the logistic the other five poreds s and coming back and the likelihood of that occurring . The effect of today is one of the seven required approvals foreplaysing thapprovals approvr placing it it on the ballot in november. Mtas approval in the process. What remains are the dta and board of supervisors and the two san mat mateo agencies. Cal train would be the final in order to place the measure on the ballot. There can still be changes as long as theres the practicability to handle those changes. I believe its still possible. Were running out of time. These conditions have all the other boards acted to pass the resolution, would we have to go back and revisit their approvals. I can take that which is that the, this particular version has beenwas approved by the San Francisco board of supervisors earlier this week. San mateo county transportation district and board of supervisors approved the measure without the governance changes in may. Santa clara is set to act on this on august fourth. A demand for ridership a couple weeks ago in the context of our transportation Recovery Plan. Pushing out tele work based, are you able to share any of the projection nz terms of your ridership returning in terms of the bol a ballot in 2020 and 20. I can take a shot at that. We do have, i think its anybodys guess. What were doing is scenario planning at this point and trying to understand what the parameters might be for a spectrum of ridership rurp thatn given circumstances that might play out. The go pass program which is an annual pass program that drives a lot of ridership on the cal train program. Its very encouraging. Seventy one percent of former riders that would call themselves frequent cal train riders said they would expect to ride just as much or more when they can get back on the system. Thats an encouraging number. Similarly the majority of companies that are participating in the good pass program indicated that they anticipate bringing their employees back to work on their sites and campuses and not have gone a long term tele commute policy is also encouraging on how ridership may return to the cal train system. None of that may occur until they can go back to work, we dont know how long that would be. I think you covered it very effectively. I would add during that interim where we really in a latency period with much of the other transit operators around the region, our focus is to meet the needs of the riders, folks who depend on transit to make regional trips that cal train is uniquely positioned to serve. Anymore questions . I cant leave you out. As a matter of fact, i dont. Im a little bit too informed on this issue. Ill wait for a little later to give you some comments. With that why dont we open the floor to Public Comment. Madam secretary if you can open the phone lines. We can file questions after the callers. This is a reminder to the public. The phone number to call is 888 8086929. The access code is 9961164. Moderator do we have any callers on the line that wish to speak at the moment . Great. Wonderful. Good morning. This is peter, im one of the San Francisco riders. Im not entirely in support this this measure. The process that led us here today. I strongly urge you to support this measure. Cal train is an essential service. Its in desperate need of a funding source. As stewarts of mta directly, were in strong support of the measure today. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good morning. This is cal train as an organization dedicated to Successful Organization and Stable Funding for a regionally integrated Transportation System that is accessible to all. We have been when this first came forward preparing to support this measure as covid lifts and people return to traveling, this has the risk of bringing crushing traffic to our road ways and having can you hear me . Yes, we can. Having people need to go buy cars who dont own cars today. Its an essential piece of our regions transportation net work. Weve been working four years to build the underlying groundwork for some equity measures and new policies that would be funded by this ballot measure. That would make cal train who is historically accessible im sorry your time is completed. Thank you so much for your comments. Next speaker, please. Good morning. Ive been advocating for changes in grchanc governance for eight. San mateo countyill give you an example, the [indiscernible]. There are some things in it that could be fixed. It talks about amening the joint towers agreement in a way that the joint towers agreement cannot be amended. A two thirds vote to amend the agreement. The agreement does not allow itself to be amended that way. It requires a vote from all three counties. It needs to be clear to voters and not needlesly muddle the issue with all the governancing at the last minute. Thank you. Next speaker, please. This is david. First of all, the agenda states that people will have two minutes but youve only been giving people one minute to speak. Can you clarify that so i know how long i have to speak. What does the agenda specifically say . On page two in the box when prompted callers will have two minutes. Thats correct. If people want to come back and give their second minute, they should be allowed to do so. I agree. Im a long term cal train supporter. Theres a lot going on here in money and governance an turf and such. I havent gotten into that. I wont go into that right now. My primary concern today is the noticing of the meeting. On tuesday the notice that was posted had the wrong date and said tuesday june 30th 2020. I saw that in the Late Afternoon and left a mess abl message boad secretary. And because of my call or somebody else noticed it, that was changed and corrected on wednesday. At the time when that was changed or corrected, that was less than seventy two hours prior to this meeting. In my opinion, there is a brown act and sun shine ordinance vi violation occurring by having this open. If you have this today, you open yourself up to a vailation and hand any tax pai payer or groupn issue on the tax because of this procedural problem. If you actually want to get this measure on the ballot, i strongly encourage you not act today. Renotice this meeting and take action at a different meeting with the proper date next week. Thank you. Any additional Public Commenters. Please be sure to give everyone two minutes. Thank you to the previous speaker for clarifying the amount of time to talk. As i had been saying. The friends of cal traib was cas preparing to strongly support this measure. We also support of the measure of cal train to achieve the long term goals of the Business Plan to increase ridership and have connectivity with the rest of the transit system. We do have some concerns with the current language and well be watching to see what the implications will be in terms of deciding what to do in terms of what are the legal risks of the problems in the language in terms of if there is something in the language that cannot be done. What does that mean in terms of legal suits and a ballot language that will be really easy to persuade voters to support. I urge you to move this forward so the process can continue and well be watching to see how these issues are dealt with in order to decide how to support the measure. Organize grass roots support to pass it. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have three questions remaining. Theres two bridges. They are about to close the bridge and were going to have a new chavez station day. Let me just wrap up here. We have the exact same problems. Please vote on this unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have two questions remaining. Thank you, chair. Im taking the one minute. We just have to do this and get this passed Going Forward. I was bringing up the matters of new york with the decline of the sub way and Grand Central terminal. Its very difficult. As the city sub way goes, so does the city. Im asking you to pursue the uncomplicated solution. This is about giving the public the chance to vote on the most important decision for this railroad which is in the process of electrification. Its going to take some bold leadership for you to step out. Because really we have to have the lowest common denominator Public Comment<\/a>, the phone number to use is 888 8086928 the access code is 9961164. Please make sure you are in a quiet location. At the appropriate time the chair will ask for the phone lines to be opened. If you wish to comment on that particular item, youll be prompted to press one, zero. This will add you to speaker line. Question and answer time is the Public Comment<\/a> period. There will be an automated voice that will tell you when it is your turn to speak. When your motorcycle phon microd youll hear us ask you to state your name. I will say thirty seconds when you have thirty seconds of your one minute remaining. When your time is up ill say thank you. Next caller please. I will repeat these instructions for how to make Public Comment<\/a> dpen aagain. Okay. Special calendar item five. Submission of one eighth of one percent retail transactions and use tax for cal train to support immediate and long term operational and capital costs at election to be held on november third, 2020. We have staff team manager of Regional Affairs<\/a> who will be presenting. Thank you, chair. Good morning. Regional manager is sfmta. Were here to give you a brief presentation on the one eighth cent sales tax. Our executive descrecto directon transportation authority. We can move to the next slide. Thank you. In 2017 senate bill 797 authorization to put a one eighth cent sales tax on the train counties. Being a dedicated sales tax. The measure would require two thirds of the voters in two thirds of the county. Precovid estimated it would raise just over one million per year and one tenth being generated in San Francisco<\/a>. Prior to the covid 19 pandemic the majority of cal trans funding came from self generated revenues. Today many riders are working from home and the riel riders dropped to 5 of precovid 19 levels. Annual contributions from the member counties and annual good repair projects. San francisco annual share was 14 point six Million Dollars<\/a>. As noted senate bill 797 was proposed to raise and good repair needs s needs the expende outlined on this slide, the ballot question hasnt yet been finalized. We ask voters to approve one eighth of the sales tax to support regional economics recovery, prevent traffic congestions, make cal trains more accessible and affordable; make travel times faster, increase frequency and capacity. Authorized legislation they can put the sales tax legislation on the ballot. The measure requires the approval of the majorities of three thirds majority of supervisors. The board of supervisors approved resolutions to place the measure on the ballot. These go boards would need to it pass another resolution to provide those resolutions. Turning to the governance before you established an ad hoc committeea special council was hired in february in regards to governance. Two governing documents that cal train operates under today. The direct Powers Agreement<\/a> established in 19 the one when ca1991 when caltrains is formed. The Real Property<\/a> agreement that was amended in 2008. For giving thirty eight million in debt for the right of way purchase. Twenty Million Dollars<\/a> outstanding. Theres a typo on the slide. The correct amount is thirty eight Million Dollars<\/a>. Additionally the co ceo and c. Turning to the gornance governae provisions. Eligible expenditures at anytime with a two thirds majority vote. Up to the first forty Million Dollars<\/a> collected. Its provided by san trans and covid 19 related relief options. If the governance solution is identified, the escrow account would be closed and funds would be transferred to regular use accounts. If no resolution is found another forty Million Dollars<\/a> would be made available for operations. Next slide, please. All parties commit to working with state delegates on a legislative solution for the 2023 solution. Next slide, please. A joint statement was signed by 12 elected officials calling for this approach of funding for the california transportation authority. Last week voted to support and held a public hearing and adopted the resolution earlier this week. Im going to jur turn it over to jonathan to close out the presentation. Good morning. Budget manager. Next slide, please. Just as she mentioned, through the joint Powers Agreement<\/a>. San francisco provides both the capital costs and operating costs for cal train. The formula is a little different for both. On the cal tal costs. Theres a category for specifically cal train. On the operating side the contribution of the operating budget and the need is split proportionally based on the percentage of ridership. That would be San Francisco<\/a>. Thats typically 27 percent. We do budget contribution as part of our two year operating budget and the last one you a approved was on june 30th of this year. Youll see to the right, youll see amounts of the contributions over the last few fiscal years has been increases. In addition it includes that theres no dedicated funding source. As cal train has provided additional service, the need with contribution from the members increased. The budget contribution was twenty nine point nine million. The current cal Train Service<\/a> plan in preliminary budget that has been presented to their board increases the amount of their deficit after the application of the cares act fund for both trunk one and trunk two. This would be additional five million contribution for a total of 14 million. If we did have to make that contribution we would have to look towards reduction in other areas to cover those costs. Just over time, this is an analysis of the impact of the legislation itself and the resolution that the San Francisco<\/a> board of supervisors passed and the policy issue before you today. Again, the impact if approved and if the bill tax were to pass as proposed, it would remove the requirement for that additional five Million Dollars<\/a> in fiscal year 21. It would reduce our member contribution to about three Million Dollars<\/a> in fiscal year one. That will not cover the complete deficit but reduces it. Because we do a two year budget, i just wanted to tro throw this. Assuming it stays exactly the same. Thats seventy trains. Our contribution and this sales tax were applied in the way its proposed, our member contribution would be 12 million worth three million more in fiscal year 22. If the sales tax were not to proceed in the way were talking about, there were no additional salessorry federal funds that went towards the operating program, our operation could be a tie of 23 million next year. That is the last side. Were happy to take any questions that you have. Thank you. I know we have a couple members, i dont know if there was anything you wanted to add at this time before we open it up to directors for questions. Thank you. This is chief communication officer. Just want to thank the board for considering this item and holding a special meeting to do so. We understand that time is of the essence. We dont have anything further to add to the presentation thats already been given. Look forward to answering any questions or providing comments if we can be helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Directors are there any questions that you have at this time. Maybe you can queue up Public Comment<\/a> at this time. I do have a question. Thank you. You mentioned the crafting of the ballot language, what process does that go through and the changes that have been made by the San Francisco<\/a> board of supervisors to include the governance requirements. Do we have any idea what kind of impact thats going to have on the crafting of the language because it did seem pretty straight forward before those governance concerns were added . Thank you, director. I wonder if you would be able to respond to this question. It would be best answered by cal train who has been working to craft the ballot question. We hav i can speak from a can perspective which may or may not be helpful for this particular question. Weve been working over the last year plus on this ballot measure and working with stake holders from all of the agencies, the seven agencies that need to take action on this measure in addition to some board members. We did just as recently as the last cal train Board Meeting<\/a> get direction, confirmed direction from a two thirds majority to pursue placement of a clean ballot measure that did not include these directions. Weve been working under that direction. The cal train have not had a chance to review these conditions. We do not have direction from our board at cal train in terms of what our position is on these conditions. That is the honest answer about where we are. Maybe you could talk a bit from the c ta perspective. Certainly. Thank you. The drekor of sft c a. The los angele language that the supervisors introduced on tuesday, building upon the question. Im wonnerring abou wondering ag the conditions today given the august 7th deadline which is coming up. Could somebody speak to the logistic the other five poreds s and coming back and the likelihood of that occurring . The effect of today is one of the seven required approvals foreplaysing thapprovals approvr placing it it on the ballot in november. Mtas approval in the process. What remains are the dta and board of supervisors and the two san mat mateo agencies. Cal train would be the final in order to place the measure on the ballot. There can still be changes as long as theres the practicability to handle those changes. I believe its still possible. Were running out of time. These conditions have all the other boards acted to pass the resolution, would we have to go back and revisit their approvals. I can take that which is that the, this particular version has beenwas approved by the San Francisco<\/a> board of supervisors earlier this week. San mateo county transportation district and board of supervisors approved the measure without the governance changes in may. Santa clara is set to act on this on august fourth. A demand for ridership a couple weeks ago in the context of our transportation Recovery Plan<\/a>. Pushing out tele work based, are you able to share any of the projection nz terms of your ridership returning in terms of the bol a ballot in 2020 and 20. I can take a shot at that. We do have, i think its anybodys guess. What were doing is scenario planning at this point and trying to understand what the parameters might be for a spectrum of ridership rurp thatn given circumstances that might play out. The go pass program which is an annual pass program that drives a lot of ridership on the cal train program. Its very encouraging. Seventy one percent of former riders that would call themselves frequent cal train riders said they would expect to ride just as much or more when they can get back on the system. Thats an encouraging number. Similarly the majority of companies that are participating in the good pass program indicated that they anticipate bringing their employees back to work on their sites and campuses and not have gone a long term tele commute policy is also encouraging on how ridership may return to the cal train system. None of that may occur until they can go back to work, we dont know how long that would be. I think you covered it very effectively. I would add during that interim where we really in a latency period with much of the other transit operators around the region, our focus is to meet the needs of the riders, folks who depend on transit to make regional trips that cal train is uniquely positioned to serve. Anymore questions . I cant leave you out. As a matter of fact, i dont. Im a little bit too informed on this issue. Ill wait for a little later to give you some comments. With that why dont we open the floor to Public Comment<\/a>. Madam secretary if you can open the phone lines. We can file questions after the callers. This is a reminder to the public. The phone number to call is 888 8086929. The access code is 9961164. Moderator do we have any callers on the line that wish to speak at the moment . Great. Wonderful. Good morning. This is peter, im one of the San Francisco<\/a> riders. Im not entirely in support this this measure. The process that led us here today. I strongly urge you to support this measure. Cal train is an essential service. Its in desperate need of a funding source. As stewarts of mta directly, were in strong support of the measure today. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good morning. This is cal train as an organization dedicated to Successful Organization<\/a> and Stable Funding<\/a> for a regionally integrated Transportation System<\/a> that is accessible to all. We have been when this first came forward preparing to support this measure as covid lifts and people return to traveling, this has the risk of bringing crushing traffic to our road ways and having can you hear me . Yes, we can. Having people need to go buy cars who dont own cars today. Its an essential piece of our regions transportation net work. Weve been working four years to build the underlying groundwork for some equity measures and new policies that would be funded by this ballot measure. That would make cal train who is historically accessible im sorry your time is completed. Thank you so much for your comments. Next speaker, please. Good morning. Ive been advocating for changes in grchanc governance for eight. San mateo countyill give you an example, the [indiscernible]. There are some things in it that could be fixed. It talks about amening the joint towers agreement in a way that the joint towers agreement cannot be amended. A two thirds vote to amend the agreement. The agreement does not allow itself to be amended that way. It requires a vote from all three counties. It needs to be clear to voters and not needlesly muddle the issue with all the governancing at the last minute. Thank you. Next speaker, please. This is david. First of all, the agenda states that people will have two minutes but youve only been giving people one minute to speak. Can you clarify that so i know how long i have to speak. What does the agenda specifically say . On page two in the box when prompted callers will have two minutes. Thats correct. If people want to come back and give their second minute, they should be allowed to do so. I agree. Im a long term cal train supporter. Theres a lot going on here in money and governance an turf and such. I havent gotten into that. I wont go into that right now. My primary concern today is the noticing of the meeting. On tuesday the notice that was posted had the wrong date and said tuesday june 30th 2020. I saw that in the Late Afternoon<\/a> and left a mess abl message boad secretary. And because of my call or somebody else noticed it, that was changed and corrected on wednesday. At the time when that was changed or corrected, that was less than seventy two hours prior to this meeting. In my opinion, there is a brown act and sun shine ordinance vi violation occurring by having this open. If you have this today, you open yourself up to a vailation and hand any tax pai payer or groupn issue on the tax because of this procedural problem. If you actually want to get this measure on the ballot, i strongly encourage you not act today. Renotice this meeting and take action at a different meeting with the proper date next week. Thank you. Any additional Public Comment<\/a>ers. Please be sure to give everyone two minutes. Thank you to the previous speaker for clarifying the amount of time to talk. As i had been saying. The friends of cal traib was cas preparing to strongly support this measure. We also support of the measure of cal train to achieve the long term goals of the Business Plan<\/a> to increase ridership and have connectivity with the rest of the transit system. We do have some concerns with the current language and well be watching to see what the implications will be in terms of deciding what to do in terms of what are the legal risks of the problems in the language in terms of if there is something in the language that cannot be done. What does that mean in terms of legal suits and a ballot language that will be really easy to persuade voters to support. I urge you to move this forward so the process can continue and well be watching to see how these issues are dealt with in order to decide how to support the measure. Organize grass roots support to pass it. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have three questions remaining. Theres two bridges. They are about to close the bridge and were going to have a new chavez station day. Let me just wrap up here. We have the exact same problems. Please vote on this unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have two questions remaining. Thank you, chair. Im taking the one minute. We just have to do this and get this passed Going Forward<\/a>. I was bringing up the matters of new york with the decline of the sub way and Grand Central<\/a> terminal. Its very difficult. As the city sub way goes, so does the city. Im asking you to pursue the uncomplicated solution. This is about giving the public the chance to vote on the most important decision for this railroad which is in the process of electrification. Its going to take some bold leadership for you to step out. Because really we have to have the lowest common denominator Going Forward<\/a> which is the basic sales tax. Thank you again for affording me the extra minute. I appreciate it. Thank you. Next speaker, please. You have one question remaining. Hello. My name is alexander and im calling to urge the board to move the measure as the legislation was originally created and how it was passed by the San Mateo County<\/a> District Board<\/a> and board of supervisors. Transit planning and Transit Service<\/a> relies on constant and dedicated funning. Not complicated and muddled escrow accounts that dont have transportation planning. I urge you to pass the tax as it was originally created to give cal train a more Stable Revenue<\/a> source and get it on stable footing as many other agencies in the region are. Its unfortunately that this has become such a political issue. I urge you to show strong leadership and take the correct action by passing it as it was ormingloriginally create. Any other callers. With that Public Comment<\/a> will be closed. I juf wanted t just wanted to mt based on a noticing issue. She waved sunshine requirements it allows for twenty four hours. The agenda was reposted with the correct date well before twenty four hours. Its it well within compliance. Deputy City Attorney<\/a> john kennedy. You are correct. The mayor did submit a proclamation and waived the sunshine requirements. This is in compliance since the agenda was posted within twenty four hours of the meeting. Directors are there additional questions or comments for members of our team or the cal train team or just generally . Seeing none i would just like to say we would like to see this go forward. I dont know this is the perfect ballot measure or language. Its imperative to ensure we continue to fund cal train which is a critical part of our transportation net work. I think advocating and making sure this happens. Im hoping through this vote and process we can get to a fiscally solvsolvent agency. Its going to be very hard to deal with in the short term. With that i see director has a comment. Yes. As we all know the board of supervisors is the senior policy making body for the city and county of San Francisco<\/a>. Our board is a junior partner in that enterprise. Since the supervisors have staked out their ground on this cal train sales tax issue, i believe we are duty bound to follow their lead. I will be voting for the resolution that is before us today. At the same time i do want to make clear that i would not have chosen this traditional approach path myself. In fact, its just not very friendly to leverage your neighbors. I have spent considerable time over the last several weeks talking to those neighbors as well as our San Francisco<\/a> leaders as your representative on the cal train board. Trying to find a different approach. Thank you. Thank you, director. Any final questions before i ask for a roll call vote . This is director franklin. I do have a few things i do want to point out about the cal train board and staff. Ive spent almost three years on the board. I did start with the idea that we were more empathetic and aware of equity an equality issues. Somehow we were more progressive in our policies. What ive seen and heard showed me to be wrong about that. Doing a quick look back, i found that we had a fair equity study in 2018 possibly earlier, i remember my colleagues from all three counties coming down solidly on the side of better fair policies for low income riders. Not once was there push back. Its in tandem with the regional fair programs. Those who can least afford the fairs. We still have work that needs to be done. No one is ignoring the issue of fair equity. Developing land is another learning curve for me. All these parking lots that have moneying making signs on them. The survey showed we had two plots of land large enough. The housing policy pass by cal train board in february 2020 requires that 30 of each transit oriented Housing Authority<\/a> is market rent. All three came down on that policy. I want to thank all the staff of cal train who overlap a lot. So many of themwhat i saw was a dedicated professionalism and concern for customers. Last week i was simply pushing forb a clean measure to go for the voters. I realize that was a bit naive. As i read more opinions and those who crafted and voted for the legislation that enabled for this ballot measure, i feel i have to vote no. I feel itsi would like to recommend that in request for our governance and changes is sf representative. Make sure they attend meetings and dial into briefings. Make sure they have time to devote to important jobs. I found it a challenge to get clarity on the interest and opinions. I believe in doing right thing. It would be easy for me to hold my nose and vote yes, but on this i simply as cannot. Thank you for sharing your experience on the cal train board and really highlighting some of the things that dont often get daylight here. We reflect your position. With that unless directors have additional comments well take a roll call vote. One thing. To the attorney, i do have a question just into the City Attorney<\/a> orif this board does not vote for this resolution, does that in some way hinder this going onto the ballot . Just out of curiosity . Deputy City Attorney<\/a>. It is a requirement that the mta board approve the sales tax measure in order for it to be placed on the San Francisco<\/a> ballot. If the mta board does not approve this resolution, it will not be placed on the november ballot. Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. Just further point of clarification because this is important. The mta board would not have to approve this resolution. The mta board would have to approve a resolution. The seven agencies act to put this on the ballot, is that correct . There was a previous action in the previous Board Meeting<\/a> that was rescinded and removed from that agenda. We would just have to pass a resolution. Not necessarily these conditions. My understanding is that all seven entities will need to approve a resolution unless all entities approve the same resolution, then the matter will not move forward to the ballot. As it stands right now the board of supervisors has approved the resolution with the conditions that are before you. If the mta board doesnt approve that same resolution, potentially it will not be put on the november ballot. I do have another question related to that point of clarification. The major action is the sales tax. Thats what really requires the vote. If we were to endorse the sales tax measure but make no reference to governance at all that wouldnt be sufficient because thats really what people are voting on. Its not part of the original legislation. Its about the sales tax structure. General kennedy in response to your question. The mta board could amend the resolution that is currently before you and remove the conditions regarding governance and pass that version of the resolution without those conditions on the resolution. That is a approved by the mta board. Correct. The question is does that change how that is seen in terms of the larger ability for it to go on the ballot . My understanding that all seven entities will need to approve the same resolution. Either with conditions or without conditions in order for the matter to be put on the ballot. Okay. Great. Are there any other questions from the board members, if not. Is there a motion . I guess ill move the resolution thats before us with conditions. Is there a second . Second. Secretary could you please call the roll. roll call got the majority so the motion does pass. No it would have to be unanimous. Im sorry. City attorney kennedy, maybe to this point. Maybe amend the time line for the other agencies acting. They havent acted on this specific resolution. Im try to go figure out what the time line is, should we decide we need to have another special meeting to vote on this . There is august 7th deadline to put this measure on the ballot. The votes that are scheduled include the board of supervisors on tuesday of next week. The cal train board would be on the sixth along with the bta board. Theits very clear, the legislation states very clearly that all of the other six agencies need to agree in order for the cal train board to approve something. That is not the case currently, not just because of sfmtas decision today. Ill note that the San Mateo County<\/a> board of supervisors and Transit District<\/a> have not taken action on resolution that include the conditions that were passed by the board of supervisors. There is not agreement among the six currently. To that point, when are they expected to act . Those two boards have meetings next week. Its not clear whether they intend to act on another rez leug. Resolution. Everybody could read the articles on what their opinions are and determine whether its likely they do so. Just extrapolating for that, if they havent changed the voting, its pretty much dead any way unless were not going to take new action on the revised version. If thats the way it plays out, this measure would not be able to go on the ballot. Thats correct. Are there any other final questions or comments. I think at this point, we willon this item. This motion doesnt pass. If theres something that does happen in the next week or so in which there seems to be alignment with San Mateo County<\/a> we might need to revisit this item. This item is closed for now. I think that just to the public that depending on what happens in the next week, there could be another special hearing to take up this issue again. Director did you have a comment . I think thats from earlier. Okay. My comment for my colleagues is that we must conduct our deliberations in public. My question for my colleagues is do we want to act today to pass a resolutiona md fieda modified resolution because were urgently approaching deadlines. Do we have the ability to pass a resolution to place the measure on the ballot with the absence of the conditions. I would love to hear reflections of my colleagues on that because were currently convened and the deadline is rapidly approaching. If we remove the language of the conditions, i would absolutely pass the measure. I believe it was san mateo that already passed the clean ballot language. This is john kennedy with the San Francisco<\/a> City Attorney<\/a>s office. If you were to amend the resolution that is in front of you to remove the conditions that are listed in the resolution both under the whereas clause and the resolve clause, that will remove the conditions that were passed by the board of supervisors and you can act on that resolution if that is what you choose to do. Thank you for asking that question, director. I absolutely support passing the clean motion. Im at a very unusual position here. I certainly dont want to argue against the merits of that approach. I do feel that given the fact that the pored o board of supers acted on this very question. That we do have some duty to follow their lead. If they had not acted, if they were not part of the calculus for this seven agency monster that has to agree to put one measure on the ballot, i think i might feel differently. I think ive made my views clear. I would not have chosen this approach. I think we are where we are. I would not that in the last several months, we have had a back and forth with the board of supervisors about the limits of our authority, limits of their authority and the need to work more cooperatorrively together. Moving forward in that fashion, i want to make cleur clear, i dt impeun my of our motives. I dont know the definitive answer. I think n that yes, you are correct. We need to check that and get back to you. Right, my concern is, given everything we know in the short term, i would hate for San Mateo County<\/a> to act because of that imperative. And then i guess the question is, is it possible, i guess you cant really pass we vote to pass both. That sounds bizarre. Not to say that you want to change your vote and but it there a way for the City Attorney<\/a> to pass both measures . We prefer no government structure but if there were government structure positions, we support them. We couldnt do Something Like<\/a> that. I understand this is very unorthodox. As of our meeting right now, and if they vote the Santa Clara County<\/a> board of supervisors. That impasse is what will prevent the measure from appearing on the ballot. It wont be the action we take no matter what action we take. Because thats what you might call a preexisting condition. And as i said, i had any number of conversations with members from both of those counties and i really am not optimistic that someone will change their minds and and party. Ok, sorry about that. Hopefully we dont get disconnected. I hope you heard amount ofc Health Crisis<\/a> and where do we go from here. Today im joined by our department of Public Health<\/a> director. Today we have six thousand ninety two cases and sadly sixty seven people have died from covid. Until we have a vaccine and until we are in a better place, we know that we need to continue to socially distance ourself from one another. Wear our mask as much as possible and follow our Public Health<\/a> guidelines. We know that for months to come, this is something that we are unfortunately going to be living with and the fact is, there is still a lot of work to be done. I just want to say a few things before we get into the details of the budget. The fact is, weve come a very very very long way. Many of you remember even in january where we declared a state of emergency and we Start Talking<\/a> about the crisis and whats to come, and when we shut down the city, that was back in march and here we are. Its august. We thought that in august wed be in a different place. I think whats happening with san franciscans as hard as weve worked to contain the virus, its gone up and down, and up again. We still have a long way to go. As tired as we are of doing what we need in order to keep one another safe, we have to start getting comfortable with it. We have to start changing our behavior. It really is whats going to make the difference because we notice that recently we had to basically put a pause on our oopenning. Reopening. We saw the numbers spike. Once we saw the numbers spike, behaviors started to change again. Now we see the numbers declining. That doesnt mean we dont have several people every single day testing positive for the virus. That doesnt mean that some of those people, sadly, have lost their lives. We anticipate seeing more. Only we can be the solution to this big challenge. Just think about it. When we first started off, the big conversations were around ppe and testing and other things, weve definitely come a long way. Although, its clear that due to, what i believe a lack of federal response and coordination with our state and cities, its been very difficult for so many of us. We didnt let that stop us. We prepared, we worked hard, we redirected resources, we redirected staff from all over the city. We adjusted to our situation and because of that San Francisco<\/a> has been a model for the rest of the country. I want us to be even better than that. Its up to us. Its up to us to change our behavior. Its up to us especially because when you think about it, sadly, what we see in terms of businesses not being able to open. Some of our favorite restaurants and retail shops and places where we get our hair and nails done, they may never return. People who need to send their kids to school because we, regardless of the achievement gaps and equipment were providing for low income students were still seeing problems and increase in the achievement gaps. We have work to do. Im asking people in San Francisco<\/a> to just really change their behavior. I know its not easy. I know we want to enjoy ourselves. But its up to us to make a difference. Today, i want to really talk about our budget and the proposed budget thats working its way through the legislative process as we speak. Part of why we are investing 446 million in response to covid has everything to do with the understanding that were going to be living with this for some time. Thats money that i wish we could divert to other things. But unfortunately this is the reality of today. I hope thats not the reality of our next budget cycle. Were committing about 93 million directly from the general fund. Again, thats money that i wish we could be diverting to other places and the fact is, its going to be important that were prepared and doing whats necessary to keep the public safe. Today, i want to get into our slides and talk a little about our investments so you have a clear understanding of why and whats being invested based on our response based on our budg budget. So lets look at exactly what it is that our response is this year in the budget. It includes 16 point five million for operations. Health response. 62 million for Food Distribution<\/a>s and housing and shelter programs. Its important to remember that this funding really assumes that we dont see any major surges. If that happens, we will need to divert even more resources. Thats why it is so critical that everybody does their part to stop the spread. It assumes that well continue to be reimbursed by fema. We all know how the federal government has been. This is only through june of 2021 for the next year. If this stretches beyond june theres even more of a drain on our budget next year. The funding for communications and operations is critical to not only staffing our Covid Command Center<\/a> but also providing communication in the many different languages and cultures in San Francisco<\/a> in different ways. 50 of our cases in San Francisco<\/a> have been in our latino community. Visitation valley have the highest rates of cases in the city. Communication is key in a Public Health<\/a> response. Thankfully we have an Incredible Team<\/a> of people doing this work every single day. One hundred eighty five million for Health Operations<\/a> is a lot of money. Its important to understand in the context of all the things that were doing as a city. Were talking about testing, ppe, surge capacity, preparations, Contact Tracing<\/a>, community out reach, out break mitigations and Everything Else<\/a> required to fight this virus and keep our re residents safe. We have massively expanded our Food Distribution<\/a> to people in the si city and will continue to this for as long as needed. Keep people fed and increase sanitation conditions on the streets. Pit stops we chose to expand city wide for an additional 16 million. As you can see from the slide, this is a significant investment. In short term options to keep people off the street. Continuing to fund hotel rooms and shelter in place. We also know we need more housing for people which is why this all feeds into our homeless Recovery Plan<\/a> to create six thousand replacements for our homeless residents. These are absolutely critical for our plan to work. Building on some of our existing programs as well including our waste replacement, meantle healtmental health programs. Educational efforts to support our schools. Mobile testing for neighborhoods that are disproportionately hit. These investments in our budget this year as we know, are absolutely critical in order to get us through the very challenging time and i cant reiterate enough the need to make changes to our behavior. I dont know about you, but as i said before in some of these press conferences, i was a very challenging kid to deal with for my grandmother who raised me. I can remember time and time again, when you tell someone to do something over and over and over again. Dont touch that fire, dont touch that fire. Youre like, i wonder what the fire feels like. You touch it the fire and youre like, ill never do that again. Thats the kind of kid i was. It feels like im a parent telling people in San Francisco<\/a> over and over again wear your mask, socially distance, do this, do this that. Really, this is about protecting Public Health<\/a>. This is about getting us back on track. This is not just a problem in San Francisco<\/a>, its a problem all over world. When you think about it theres some countries in the world that have reduced the virus and gone back to normal. Thats where we want to be. The only way were going to get there. The only way were going to be able to open the gyms and nail salons and visit our parents and grandparents in senior homes and places they are housed, is if we change our behavior. We listen to our Public Health<\/a> expert. Especially in places like dolores park. Especially in places where people continue to gather and not socially distance. From our contact tracers, we know that many people who are contracting the virus are contracting the virus because they are having gatherings. They are having family gatherings and birthday parties and other events. You know what . Today is my birthday. Im going to socially distance myself and talk to people op opn zoom. If we all did our part rkts wher, where wewould be today. I know youre tired of hearing it from me. I say it time and time again. I cant reiterate enough that we need to do our part. We can be a leader and crush this virus if we all do our part. With that, i want to ask the director of the department of Public Health<\/a> dr. Grant kol fa x fax to please come forward now. Good morning. Im dr. Grant colfax director of Public Health<\/a>. Happy birthday and thank you for your commitment when it comes to covid response. When it comes to shelter in place, a surge of covid 19 cases. Our investments in testing, Contact Tracing<\/a> and Food Security<\/a> among other items have helped San Francisco<\/a> manage to slow the spread of the virus. Thank you again for your ladership anleadership and dire. Here is an update of where we are with the virus. As of this morning. Six thousand forty two have been diagnosed and sadly sixty seven of them have died. Were currently caring for 88 in our local hospitals. Thats a slight drop from last week. Its a 20 reduction from our peak in july. Because of our efforts. Because of your efforts such as face coverings and social distancing, we have lowered the effective reproductive rate to just below one. The effective reproductive rate or re is a key measure of how fast the virus is spreading. Its the average number of people who become infected by an infectious before. If its above one, the virus will spread and it will spread quickly. When the re factor is below one, its slowing. Our best estimate is that re has been just below one, between point nine eight and point nine five. We continue to exceed our daily testing goals and lead the state and nation it testing. In this next phase of our testing strategy, well be more targeted in our testing even as we expand Testing Capacity<\/a> in the city. Last week, we brought mobile testing to communities with highest infection rates of covid 19. Including in the bay view, sunny dale, mission and omi. We are indeed following the day awe to identify the communities where testing can have the greatest impact to identify and slow the spread of covid 19. As you saw in the budget presentation, the mayor is proposing a nearly 56 milliondollar budget in testing next year. That number has started to drop from the high point a few weeks ago. Its a cause for great concern and could easily go up again. This is one of our key health indicators. Anything above 15 new cases per day puts us in the red zone on our highest alert level. Were been there for the past few weeks. Weve seen our numbers improving. Lets stay vigilant. Weve seen issues with the state reporting system that may have caused issues with cases. We see many many san franciscans covering their faces. Recent Research Indicates<\/a> if 80 of a population is regularly using face coverings we can prevent out breaks of covid 19. Please, be one of those 80 . Thank you to everyone who is doing their part to reach that critical mat. Why dont we make it ninety. Why dont we make it 100 of people wearing face coverings in our city. We know unfortunately some people are not covering their faces complicitily. I see some people trying but maybe they dont know both their nose and mouth need to be covering. Maybe they dont know that face could havings are required in San Francisco<\/a> for everyone age ten years and up. If you have any questions or doubts, wear a facial covering. Its right thing. Its the safe thimg t ting to t. Its like remembering your wallet or keys. Its a habit were going to need to develop and have with us for some time. My mask protects you. Your mask protects me. This is something we can all do and indeed we must do for each other. We must keep up our momentum and stand our ground and sustain our gains and continue to make progress. Were seeing some hopeful signs. As weve seen before this virus is persistent. We cannot let our guard down. Please, again, continue to do your part. Continue to take caution and care. Take care of yourself. Call your friends and family. We are all in this together. We will get through this together. Together we have the power to save lives and again, crush that curve. Thank you. Thank you dr. Colfax and madam mayor for your time. Well begin our q and a portion. First we have Health Care Related<\/a> questions for dr. Colfax. What specifically is the city doing to shorten the time it takes to get test results and boboaster Contact Tracing<\/a>. The turn around times have averaged general 48 to 72 hours. We did fall behind because of the great surge in testing. We have caught up on that. Were increasing looking to expand our city test sf capacity. Those times will hopefully continue to be shorter than a few weeks ago. Weve trained three hundred people in Contact Tracing<\/a>. Were try to go catcing to catcm the flood of cases. Making great progress on that. We continue to expand our capacity and Contact Tracing<\/a>. As you see in the budget theres investments to strengthen that work Going Forward<\/a>. Thank you doctor. Have any out breaks been traced to a gathering in dolores park. Where are the out breaks happening. We know that out breaks occur when people gather. Indoor gatherings are more at risk than outdoor gatherin gatheringpeople doing essential work and need to work in close proximity, we need to have that happen. Lets not gather for things that could otherwise be delayed or be done on zoom or in other virtual ways. With regard to specific out breaks, i cant comment on drawing conclusions from the gathering at dolores park except to say thats behavior that were very concerned about it. Our message continue continues o not gather unless absolutely essential. Do not gather out side your immediate household. If you do, wear those face masks and use good hygiene and socially distance when possible. Look, when i walk or drive around the city, we know this is still not happening to the degree it needs to be. We need to hit that 80 mark. Lets go for 90 or one hundred. We need to crush this curve. Thank you. The next set of questions are from the associated press. How have the states problems with cal ready effected San Francisco<\/a> effective reproductive rate. Its based on the number of hospitalizations. Our data is not part of that calculation. 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