February 6, regular meeting. Directors, any changes to the february 6 Meeting Minutes . Seeing none, open Public Comment for item 4, february 6 Meeting Minutes and close Public Comment. Could i have a motion and second . So moved. Second. Please call the roll. Motion to approve the minutes, henderson aye. Hinze, aye. Tarlov, aye. Eaken, aye. Thank you. The minutes are approved. Places on item 5, communications. I have none. Moving to item 6, introduction of new or Unfinished Business by Board Members. Colleagues, any new or Unfinished Business on todays agenda . Seeing none, no need for Public Comment. Item 7, the directors report. Thank you. First i like to introduce transit director julie curshbalm for our staff recognition. Good afternoon. It is mytransit director, it is my profound pleasure to be recognizing miriam surel today. She will come up in a minute. But she is over there with family and staff to support. We are on a multiyear effort to better support transit operation staff. That includes our operators, our supervisors, our trainers and our controllers, and that involves everything from implementing Employee Recognition programs to creating performance plans, to building stronger career paths, and the most complicated piece of that . Has really been to create a performance feedback program. We initially rolled it out for our supervisors and our trainers and our controllers and then in the coming two year budget cycle well be rolling it out for our operators. So, thats our vision. Cool to have a vision, but if you dont have somebody to take that vision and turn it into a nuts and bolts program, then it is really just a piece of paper, so miriam really did that for us. Shes been at the agency for 13 years, but she spent most of that . Time on the street side doing things like, Transportation Demand management and working with livable streets, but she got a taste of transit during covid when she was working at our Operations Center and some little birdies kind of tweeted in her ear, hey, we love to have your skillset in transit. So she moved over to implement a program that had no rule book, new to everyone, needed every step of vetting and she basically built the boat, sailed the boat, made sure the boat didnt knock into everyone which we are so grateful for. Because of her, now we have 300 people that had never gotten consistent feedback on performance, now all had a initial meeting this summer so they knew what they were going to be evaluated on and to hear any concerns they had. We are now in the process of giving them all midyear checkins so they know how their first 6 months of performance has gone, where they are excelling and where they need to make adjustments in order to excel and at the end of the year they will receive their sort of First Official annual performance plan. In order to do that miriam needed to coordinate with everybody from our Labor Relations team, union partners, human resources, it because a lot of this is data based in order to be replicable and consistent across such a large group of employees. Strategic communications, technology, so a lot of key people had to Work Together in order to make this program work, but the other thing she did is she worked with all four senior managers in transit operations to really help them understand what was important criteria for them in order to evaluate their employees, and then to figure out how to turn that into a databased performance plan, and to also acknowledge that on the first run it isnt perfect. Not everything we can usually measure lines up with what we care about, but a lot of it does and having some feedback is better then no feedback. We also trained all of the managers that were going to be giving these evaluations in order to make sure they knew how to have these conversation they were equipping staff with information about career paths and it really was a partnership between a person giving the feedback and the employee receiving the feedback and now miriam is as she is getting through the push of the midyear evaluations, the next thing she will do is start feedback looping. What worked, what do we want to do differently and so, it is just taking thisi think aspiring but messy idea we had on paper and turned it into this program. The other reason that we started with the supervisors is they are going to be the ones that evaluate the operators and we didnt want a situation where we were holding operators accountable to something the people evaluating them hadnt also been held accountable to and hadnt experienced firsthand, so i am just beyond excited about this work. It is not as sexy as ridership or some things we talk about, but it is what i think is needed to really get our staff and our system to the next level and it could not have happened without miriam and i am so so grateful for her. [applause] thank you julie, and members of the board for having me today. I really appreciate that julie and my manager brent jones entrusted me with this work. As she mentioned i have been at the agency a long time and done a lot of Different Things but this was something new not just for the agency but for me. There no rule book, so i really appreciated the trust there and the opportunity i have been learning so much about how our transit operations work and also learning about Database Management and philosophical questions related to Performance Measurement and it has been a wonderful opportunity to learn so much while giving back and kind of figuring it all out and i really enjoyed my time. One thing i loved about working at this agency is the ability to work on so many Different Things. We reach so many people and touch so many things. Havent done it alone, i have been working with a number of different divisions and staff and i couldnt possibly list them all, but i wanted to quickly say im a small team. It is myself and my fellow here today, nicolas who is from the City Hall Program and the other team that has provided staffing support for me is the transit Performance Analysis team by simon and they is have been invaluable and realizing some of the parts of the vision more technical then my particular skillset. Thank you so much for listening and i hope to talk to you about the project more another time. Thank you so much and congratulations. I want to say so much director what you spoke about and miriam what you implemented resinates with me. I believe in feedback and model of improvement to grow and strive and you spoke about not being perfect the right time. I think that is the wrong goal. I think we dont take risk if we have to be perfect. [indiscernible] i know where i would land. Continuous feedback, cocreation ability to model these themes and they come up later today on a itemoon thugenda. Ability to make changes and evolve with the time because of course we work in a dynamic city and Dynamic Agency and world, it is so much more important so thank you uplifting and values feedback and Continuous Improvement and executing on the grand vision. Really appreciate your work. Thank you. Director tumlin. Several of you were able to join us valentines day when we dedicated cable car number 53 to tony bennett on valentines day. Just outside the fairmounts hotel where he first sang i left my heart in San Francisco. Car 53 was first built in 1907 for the now defunth ofarrel jones and hyde line. The ceremony was deeply moving to me. It was attended not only by the mayor and larry bare and all city dignitaries, but also susan bend deto who is Tony Bennetts widow who spoke about the impact her husband made on the world and on San Francisco. Because it was such a great event and also because of the phenomenal work Market Street railway who sponsored the event did putting the event together, reaching out to media we got a National News coverage. All local papers covered it and Heather Knight wrote about it in the new york time jz also highlighted how our attention to these details is in part driving the extraordinary ridership success muni is experiencing despite the fact San Francisco is one of the cities in the world with the greatest amount orphwork from home impacting the commute ridership, but so much of neighborhood ridership is breaking all records nationally. So, it was a great event. You can look for car 53 climbing half ray to the stars oen the california street line. Next up, as you all know, it is year of the dragon. The Lunar New Year started february 10 and there is a key point of not quite the end, but really the center piece of the season is chinatown new years parade february 24 this saturday. We have all hands on deck, rerouting buses, managing traffic and we will also have muni ambassadors out throughout the system in order to make sure that everyone not only knows where to go, but also feels safe. Safety and security is going to be a key theme for all of our work this year, and the Ambassador Program that will be spread throughout all of the downtown stations and chinatown. As you also know, we are continuing to provide two hours free parking at the portsmouth square garage throughout february. It is fantastic day for anyone out of town who is listening to come in to San Francisco not only for the parade, but to also explore San Franciscos extraordinary neighborhoods and neighborhood commercial districts free on muni all day long before the parade. Finally, i want to update you on progress of the eltaraval project. Last week the board of supervisors Budget Finance Committee voted to take 1 million that had been set aside for the apec and put towards grants to support merchants on taraval street and we are particularly grateful to supervisors engardio and melgar as well as the mayors support for allocating the funding. The board of supervisors as a whole will be voting on february 27 and if that passes successfully the office of Economic Workforce Development will be distributing the funds to merchant who have been impacted by the work on the taraval street corridor. As all you know, much of the infrastructure in the sunset district was built all at the same time and it is reaching the end of its useful life. Particularly the water and sewer mains are at or beyond the end of useful life and needed to be replaced. In addition the el taraval tracts were set on slabs of wood in shifting sand and it was time to replace the trackway. But digging up the street, particularly for the underground infrastructure is disrupted to the community so we are grateful for the support from the city. As of today, 95 percent of the sewer and water work is complete and about 80 percent of the rail instillation is complete. We are absolutely on time and on budget as things stand today. And that is my report. Thank you director tumlin. Directors, are there questions or comments on the directors report . Seeing none, i will just agree with you that the tony bennett dedication was a really special San Francisco moment. It reminded me what a small town we really live in. This one person, this one song could just live on and mean so much to so many people so thank you for staff dedicated that work. That was really lovely. No other comments from directors. I dont know if director cajina gets to comment on the director report but i open up for Public Comment on the directors report. We just concluded the directors report and not seeing any Public Comment. Well close Public Comment. We actually have two request for accommodation. Thank you. Go ahead, please. Going to unmute the first caller. Go ahead , caller. This is herbert winer. One question i have in respect to julie curshbalms report is how does this relate to the full restoration of service precovid . Is that part and parcel of a plan . I wasnt able to decern that. I would like clarification on that. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Thank you. I hope you can hear me chair eaken and members. [indiscernible] good report. [indiscernible] i like to see this cable car with tony bennett. I dont know much about the music of tony bennett. I guess that is my grandparents day, but i am looking forward seeing what that looks like, and im very interested in the free muni. I love the idea of offering free muni, especially when we will have the this parade and we want to make sure that we have the ambassadors out there to let them know how people can be empowered to use muni on that day. Hopefully we can build relationships, so people will want to come back and use muni again. I hope we can get the taraval work finished. I have not been on the bus shuttle to taraval, but i used to take the taraval l line every day and it is a very important high capacity line, and i want us to have the best running taraval that we can. Hearing about old ties and shifting town, we need a good rebuilt taraval line from west portal to where it ends at sloat and i believe i used that line in entirety. I am encouraged we are getting more ridership. I want to see people come back to muni and i think we can get to precovid ridership even with remote work. It will take changes. Hopefully people might be driving and park their cars at the city line and get on muni and not have to worry about parking in the city. This is good. Looking forward to it. Thank you. No further callers. Director henderson, you had a question . Yes. Jeff, when do you expect the 15 or 20 percent of the track work left to be completed . So, all of the work on the taraval corridor will be done this fall. We are right now actually planning doing the planning work for restoration of el taraval service along the length of the corridor and into the tunnel. And once that is done, do you anticipate there will be any kind ofsince this has been so much more a production then i think anticipated from what it sounds like, do you anticipate you will have some sort of reopening or an event around it or is it just there will be an event. Got it. Okay. We need to celebrate getting the work done andsuming we are on time and on budget this fall honoring that as well. Okay, thank you. We can move to the next item. Item 8, the Citizen Advisory Council report. No report. Places on item 9, general Public Comment. Members of the public may address the board of directors on matters within the board jurisdiction and not on todays calendar. Well open Public Comment for anyone in the room not on todays agenda. We can close Public Comment. We do have a request for accommodation. Great. Ill unmute the first caller. This is herbert winer. One thing im concerned about is raising of the muni fare. I dont see the restoration of service. I dont see the improvement of service, and the raising of the fares frankly is a insult. You have to find resources elsewhere for your claimed deficit, and im thinking that you should perhaps freeze projects that are contemplated. You should freeze management salaries over a hundred thousand a year. There are other economies you can take other then raising of the fares. It is really necessary to do that. This is really a imposition on the public and is frankly a insult to injury. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Thanks again chair eaken and members. [indiscernible] for the record. She and her with [indiscernible] representing [indiscernible] speak generally. I was in the area and did get to use muni again. Took it from stonestown through the tunnel and on to embarcadero and it was fine. I like subway that works. Reminds me of a system that is actually called a subway in new york city, perhaps some of you got to use it. I do speak generally and very freely. Yes, im a unrepentant user of autonomous vehicles. I use it three times one day to help me get around San Francisco. Along with using muni and bart and i think i used ac transit that day. I like having options in my toolbox. I am letting you know i speak respectfully to you and share my opinions though many may disagree. I do ask that we continue building a muni that is inclusive and welcoming to those who are different from you. I think it is okay to disagree, but we should never have disrespect. I want to be fully welcome on this system. The system i used since 2009. I named my electric bike muni years ago because i wanted to honor muni with the cable car that enjoy very much. I want us to make sure we really keep the cable cars go because they are truly a part of history and do offer credible commuting options to people. Not an Amusement Park ride, it is real transportation. We definitely want to work on the clipper because i see people coming to the cable cars and they are trying to figure how to pay for it, so we want to make that more user friendly because i want more people on muni. Thank you. Thank you. No additional callers. Please call the next item. Item 10, consent calendar. These items are considered routine and acted apain upon by a single vote unless a member of the board or public. Item 10. 1upon by a single vote unless a member of the board or public. Item 10. 1 10. 1. Appointing mina yu to the bond oversight committee, effective march 6, 2024. explanatory documents include a staff report and resolution. 10. 2. Amending transportation code, division ii, section 901 to expand the definition of powered scooter to allow devices that have a seat and footrests in place of the floorboard, to better meet the needs of a broad