Good morning and welcome to the San Francisco county Transportation Authority meeting for october 27, 2020. I am the chair of the authority aaron peskin. Our clerk is here. Could you please call the. roll call . Haney absent. We have a quorum. Haney is present also. Commissioner haney is present. 11 are present. We have a quorum. Do you have any announcements. I would like to make a comment about Public Comment. It will be available for each item. Call 415 6550001. You will be able to listen to the meeting as a participant. Please allow for audio visual delays and 30 second live time during the course of the meeting. Thank you. I will move to the chairs report. Mostly good and happy news this month. We are pleased to celebrate two milestones for our Transportation Authority. One for the agency itself and one for a special staff member who has been here from almost the beginning. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Half Cent Sales Tax Program as one of the early selfhelp counties in the state of california. I want to thank the San Francisco voters for twice approving the sales tax for transportation three decades ago in the form of prop b, which was then after its expiration revoted as prop k which is the program we administrator and remains a vital source of investment to help us reach our safety and climate and equity goals. Over that 30 years, the ta directed more than 1. 3 billion in half cent Sales Tax Funding citywide not only for every neighborhood but well paying transportation and industry jobs. In these Uncertain Times we have been very fortunate to have the half cent sales tax to support essential travel, reshape and repurpose streets and boost the citys recovery. I will let kelly and staff present more on what we have delivered in a moment. I wanted to highlight the biggest investment the tom mulcaitheembarcaderoroadway and. As we all know underway is essential subway, cal tran electrification, improvements and largest replacement of the muni light rail vehicle and rubber tire fleets. Congratulations to this board, to predecessor staff and to the voters. Happy note i would like to recognize the sister work anniversary of silver work anniversary of maria lombardo. She showed ta as planner in mid1990s still in high school and worked on many studies including the early Market StreetPlanning Efforts and rose to management positions including leading the Program Division and becoming chief deputy. She brings expertise and strategic eye when it comes to funding and planning and policy. We are fortunate to have you. Happy 25th anniversary. I would like to note that vicechairman delman and i gave maria and her family a Gift Certificate to a fantastic restaurant in north beach on the occasion of that 25 years of service. Finally, on a less happy note, i just want to acknowledge last year they approved 7 point cost cutting plan we read about in the newspaper to closes a 33 million deficit in the Fourth Quarter budget. Like every other Public Transit system in the bay area and around urban america face major financial shortfalls. We continue to join them and our representative House Speaker nancy pelosi in calling congress and the senate and ad ministration to approval additional covid relief funds to support transit services. I conclude my remarks. Thank you. Any members of the public who would like to make Public Comment on the chairs report . No Public Comment. Public comment is closed. Please read the next item. 3. Executive directors report. This is is an information item. Good morning. Thank you for those opening remarks. We are very proud and excited to celebrate this 30th year. Turning to the seconded topic regarding the situation for transit operators, in particular. I want to report discussions occurring at the metropolitan Transportation Commission which commissioner ronen says the representatives for San Francisco are the two directors. They have been discussing can return to transit plan and funding for operations and ways to reimagine transit postpandemic. They just met this past week to discuss these three topics. There is not, you know, the results to share but they are deliberating on what the priorities should be and there is agreement that providing for the needs of the central workers lowincome people of color should be a long term transit priority. We will need, barring more covid relief funds from the federal government, we need to figure this out locally and regionally and perhaps with the state. Mct staff provided options to consider. None of them is easy. They all need to be on the table as we try to support all of our transit systems. Muni and caltrain and other systems are facing dire conditions. There is no federal relief. Next i will note as well at the regional level. Disappointing news. The bridge toll appeal will be heard by the state Supreme Court. The howard drivers taxpayers challenged this measure approved by voters back in 2018. It was 3 over several years to raise 4. 5 billion for improved bus, ferry and other services and regional projects. The Supreme Court will hear this case. Challenging whether the 50 threshold was sufficient and their position is it should be twothirds of the dedicated source of revenue for transportation. We may not know the results for 18 months. The funds are held in escrow by m. T. C. Turning to one of the signature projects in the program the downtown rail extension. I presented together with the interim executive director to the state legislature a group of bay area and statewide leaders on the project. There was high interest. We had the senator hill, a former chair of the jtca at briefing. There are 20 offices including the San Francisco staff from senator weiner and senator chu to hear about the six Party Collaboration following the peer review and m. O. U. We are implementing as we speak. We have been holding monthly meeting we invite the public on the third friday of each month at the Transbay Joint Powers Authority board. You can find the agendas. Local level. Tomorrow we are hopeful at the commission that they will approve a lifeline Transportation Program cycle 6 for m. T. A. To enhance the central trip card. 1. 1 million. If approved would allow muni to expand this important project as you can recall our board in july allocated over 10 million to the program that helps older adults and people with disabilities to pay for central taxi trips during this covid pandemic. They found input from the community it appears we could boost enrollment of Latin X Community folks and other ways to expand the program through the paratransit program. We are grateful to the m. T. C. Abhope they will approve the item tomorrow. District 4 mobility study has been doing outreach on existing conditions. We are turning to the solution stage of the project. This is to find ways to improve walking, cycling and transit in the district. We identified there were quite a few high auto share travel markets with in the district and nearby neighborhoods. The sustainable concept in this round together with commissioner mars office at his request include looking at ways to assess designs for the great highway, as you know it is closed to cars at the moment and as assessing the feasibility of options there and system of transit and traffic calming improvements throughout the district. Stay tuned for town halls and sign up on our website. Also we will be hearing an item in november at commissioner yees request on driver less testing in San Francisco. The news crews did receive the permit from the department of Motor Vehicles. We will provide an update in november, but this is a permit to allow testing of vehicles without a safety driver. This would be on specified streets within San Francisco and only streets with speeds under 30 miles per hour. They have authority to issue with no specific role provided to local jurisdictions. Crews have been reaching out to city ourselves and i believe to your offices. We will provide a more thorough briefing in november. Also, exciting piece of news on the 19th avenue combined city project on the west side. Construction will begin next month on the mega project. Combination of three efforts. First, public works. Nineteenth avenue between holloway and lincoln avenue. This will include water main and sewer replacement, Water Service upgrades, water system upgrades. Curb ramps and buildouts for transit and pedestrian as well as traffic signal work. It will be followed by a series of m. T. A. Muni changes and stop changes to begin soon to make more efficient the 28 service and cal trans repaving on 19th avenue. Again, it will be done in stages. Folks can find out more at sf public works at 19th avenue. Commissioners are reaching out through newsletter and appreciate the information to travelers and residents. This is a multiyear project done in stages. It will boost safety and transit performance and traffic circulation on the west side. Almost to the end here. On the management side we are tracking sales tax. We have mixed news. In fiscal 20 at the end of the year in may and june we saw revenues higher than expected. We have collected 99 million through fiscal 2020 which was 14 lower than in fiscal 2019 which exceeded the Budget Amendment of 86 million. Sales tax revenues july were 6. 3 million. For august 7. 3. They came in a bit lower, and we are tracking the mixed nature of the revenue streams. We continue to monitor them, coordinating with the city controllers office, economist has been in the news to try to analyze what to make of these impacts. We see the purchasing going down, we see rents coming down, it is a mixed sort of picture as yet on the office. We certainly know there is work from home. The hope is those companies will return. Office represents we suspect will adjust as well. Finally, that brings me to the 30th anniversary presentation. I will just mention again that we are so pleased to present be this micro site today. We are announcing it on our web website. Eric young will provide overview of sales tax stories, website that features the stories of real life in San Francisco from those benefiting in the projects through the years, large and small, every neighborhood and every mode. The 1. 3 billion figure chair peskin mentioned should be kept in mind the through the efforts of the policy and Programming Division attracting 47 times that number in other funds. Thank you to voters for helping us to leve leverage the funds fe city. I will turn it over to eric young, Communications Director to share our website with you. Good morning. Are you able to hear me . Yes. Great. I am going to attempt to share my screen now. If someone could please tell me if you can see my screen. Yes, we can. Fantastic. Julie, thank you for the introduction. I just wanted to tell everybody briefly that a year ago the ta started the sales tax stories project. The goal was to hear how people across San Francisco benefit from the half cent sales tax for transportation. You can see the results at stories. You will see a broad range of people. Folks who take transit, walk and bike, commuters who drive, accident owners, paratransit users and muni conductors. Users can click on any face to see more about someones connection to a project. How it has improved their community and more information about the project itself. As you go through this website, you will see that all of the stories are unique, but a common theme that emerges is how the half cent sales tax benefits the citien economy and environment and live ability. I want to thank all of the people who shared stories with us, i want be to thank the policy and programming staff who have administered the Sales Tax Program and supported the project and project sponsors through the year. I want to thank you page miller, kim and brittany of the communications staff. Thank you to cuttants peter and justin who made the photos and the website. That coul couldthat concludes m. I will take questions if there are any. Any questions from members . Seeing none, is there any Public Comment on the extensive chairs report . Yes, there is Public Comment. First speaker, please. Good morning, supervisors. Congratulations on your new website. I do have a couple of housekeeping items. First of all,. [ inaudible ] the only other item i have is if it would be possible to poll the Transportation Authority. [ inaudible ] thank you. Any additional speakers on the chairs report . There is another caller. Next speaker, please. Good morning. I am owner of the house and my questions about the front of my house. Huge lot what can i say this is how you understand . Second. [ inaudible ] thank you for your comments. Any additional speakers . There are no additional callers. Okay. Public comment is closed. Please read the Consent Agenda. 4 through 8. Five through 8 were approved at the october 24 meeting and are now before the board for time approval. We are available for questions. Thank you. Is there any Public Comment on item 4, approval of the october 20 minutes . There is no Public Comment. Seeing none. Public comment is closed. Motion to move the Consent Agenda made by commissioner yee. Is there a second for that . Second by commissioner mandelman. On that motion a roll call, please. Commissioner fewer. Aye. Commissioner haney. Aye. Commissioner mandelman. Aye. Commissioner mar. Aye. Commissioner peskin. Aye. Commissioner preston. Aye. Commissioner ro ronen. Aye. Commissioner safai. Aye. Commissioner stefani. Aye. Commissioner walton. Aye. Commissioner yee. 11 ayes. The Consent Agenda has final approval. Item 9 is an item oppose the plan bay area 2050 final blueprinttelli commute mandate strategy. This is an action item. At our last meeting on october 20, our colleague and m. T. C. Commission representative commissioner ronen asked we schedule this. Thithere was widespread reports. Do you have any opening remarks before i hand it over to our staff to present . I will see the presentation first and then make comments if that is okay. With that, ms. Bolu. Thank you. I am the policy and Programming Division to present the item to oppose the planned bay area 2050 final blue present tele commute mandate strategy. For the last two years the association of area governments have been undergoing a longterm planning process studying transportation as well as land use and economic and environmental strategies designed to meet an ambitious Greenhouse Gas reduction target as part of the development of planned area or pba2050. For this plan, the California AirResources Board establishes the Greenhouse Gas reduction target at 19 per capita by 2035. This must be met through local and regional transportation emission reductions. This is a difficult target to meet. All of the transit investments the region has planned for the next 15 years only achieve 2 to 3 reduction in admissions according to the modeling. Run oone of the strategies is institute tele commuting mandates for major office space employers. Mandate large employers over 25 or more employees, would mandate they have at least 60 of employees tele commute on any given day, limited to large Office Spaced employers who work force can work remotely. Not including folks who cannot work from home or from a distant location. Telli commuting has been included in previous strategies in the 2050 process. The 60 mandate was in the last month. We understand this may seem like a good idea and we have seen reductions in emissions in the current work from home orders, a lot of negative impacts the broad strategy could have on transportation. Equity, land use and economy. If 60 were required to work from home. The walkable, bikable transit rich communities like San Francisco would see not only reduction in auto but walk, bike and transit trips which dont meet the intended goal of reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions. It could lead to more people moving away and into auto reliant areas where they may have to make more nonwork trips by automobile which would result in a net increase in Greenhouse Gas emissions. That shift away from transit would cause the fare revenues to drop forcing further cuts to Public Transit which is harm to the lowwage workers and people of color in San Francisco and across the region who rely on Public Transit. As a result the employers would be likely to downsize office space to impact commercial Real Estate Market in downtown San Francisco where businesses are reconsidering the commitments to maintaining presence in transit rich centers which are typically also higher price