Director heinicke is anticipated. Director lee . Present. Director nolan . Present. Rib key present. Mr. Chairman, directors, you have a quorum. Announcement of produce sound producing devices during the meeting please be advised the ringing of cell phones, pagers and other similar sound producing Electronic Devices are prohibited at the meeting. Any person responsible for one going off in the meeting may be asked to leave the room. And please know that cell phones that are put on the vibrate position do cause microphone interference so the board respectfully request they be placed in the off tion position. Full approval of the minutes of november 20, 2012 regular meeting. Motion. Second. All in favor say aye . Aye. So ordered. Item 5, communications. Okay. Ms. Boomer, on this one, members of the board, because there are two issues today there are not going to be a whole lot of people. What id like to do is to begin with asking a question of the people in the audience here today, how many people want to speak on the free muni for youth . Issue . If you want to speak, please raise your hand. Free muni for youth. How many here to speak on behalf of the [inaudible] . How many people want to speak on the free muni for youth proposal . So, weve got three people. How many want to speak on behalf of how about the central subway issue . Okay. We have very few members, what id like to do is do the free muni issue right away. Thats 10. 3 on our agenda. We dont need a staff report. Remind that you this board the policy we have, we are doing this because the money has been found through the mta and through supervisor campos leadership. So, with that let me ask supervisor campos to come and join us, please. All right. Let me read it into the record. Item 10. 3, authorizing the director to accept and expend 6. 7 million in fy 2013 transit sustainability project funding from the mtc, to be used for the free muni for low Income Youth Program and the light rail vehicle Rehabilitation Project from the mtc to be used for the free muni for lowIncome Youth Program and the light rail vehicle Rehabilitation Project. Supervisor, good afternoon. Welcome. Good afternoon, mr. President. , commissioners. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to address you today. And if i may, id like to begin by asking all of the Community Members who are here to speak in support, to be here in support of free muni for lowincome youth to please stand so that you can see them. Good work. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. You can sit. Thank you. As you can see, there are many supporters here and the overflow room as well. And i also want to acknowledge the many youth and parents and Community Members who have been working on this not for a year, but two years, who could not be here today. And i want to begin by also thanking this board of directors for what is clearly going to be a very historic vote here in the city and county of San Francisco. Not only does it address the immediate needs of getting our youth to school and other activities, but it also makes a very strong statement that our local Transit Agency and the city and county of San Francisco value our young people, value our families, and that this agency wants to build a new generation of Public Transit riders. It is because of these riders that ultimately the system will be sustained. And i want to also highlight the tremendous leadership not only on this issue, but on zombie the head of transportation city and county of San Francisco, ed rifkin who has been instrumental, not only in this effort, but in so many efforts to improve Public Transit here in the city and county. Our path to this historic day has been a long one as you know. Over the past three years we have heard from lowincome and middle income families across San Francisco. But the drive ambition of our youth and parents and community is ultimately what got us to this point. And i am especially grateful to six organizations that have helped raise the funding power. Chinatown community center, the San Francisco youth commission, urban habitat, the student advisory council, and Jamestown Community center. I also want to thank so many folks throughout the city who have, you know, taken the time to pitch this, this program. And just to close, my colleagues on the board of supervisors, supervisors avalos, chu, kim, mar, our mayor has been supportive of this. It is a very historic time and i want to thank you for the opportunity. And if i may, i know that we have one member of this coalition who is here to speak. And, so, i will if its okay with you, i will turn it over to her. Thank you. Thank you, supervisor. applause good afternoon. [speaking through interpreter] spanish interpreter] good afternoon, my name is Elena Martinez from power. I know many families that will benefit from this program. And thank you for investing in the future of our children. Thank you to the director board. On behalf of the community and all families and children, we know that this wouldnt be possible without our movement and working together. Thank you very much. applause thank you. Members, we have a motion on 10. 3. Sorry, we need to see if there is any is there any other on this item alone . Seeing none on this item, is there a motion on 10. 3 . So moved. Second. Second. Any further discussion . Absolutely, director heinicke. Thank you. I appreciate the speed with which this is moving and i appreciate supervisor campos comments. He and i dont always agree on items, but we talk it out and i find him to be a genuine and thoughtful person and i appreciate the passion hes shown on this. Director reiskin, i have two questions on. This supervisor campos, if you want to address any of this, were addressing it on the consent calendar. It certainly wasnt an item of unanimous consent at the board of supervisors, but surely you did get the majority vote there. Director rifkin, when we first proposed this, we made very clear, i think as a group to the community, that if they found new funding for this, we were not opposed to this on policy ground. That obviously the idea of providing reduced or even free fares for the truly under privileged children in our community is a noble idea and one that i think we all agree is worthy of pursuing from a policy standpoint. But when we reached that sort of agreement, one of the points was that it be new money. And i think weve heard from some members of the board of supervisors and some members of the community the concern that this money is not really new money earmarked for this. Its discretionary money that we could have spent on something else. And, so, maybe i just say, what is your reaction to that particular, and you know, how do you weigh the benefits of spending this discretionary money on Service Upgrades or Something Like that as opposed to this project . What i would say is i think thats all correct and those are valid, legitimate points. When we had the discussion here back in the spring, and when the mta board approved this, it was contingent on funding from the mtc. So, actually in terms of the letter of the resolution that was adopted, what were doing here is fully consistent. What is different is that the discussion that we had surrounding that approval was the understanding that the identified source at that time from the mtc were funds that wouldnt otherwise be coming to the mta and that were otherwise available to us. We did i will remind you that that detail, notwithstanding the only division on this board, was whether to support a program of free for lowincome youth versus free for all youth. But ultimately we had unanimous support from this board for the Pilot Program we proposed which would have been the 22month pilot with that mtc money. So, fast forward, that Funding Source didnt come through, but i think but then this program was developed by the mtc and i would imagine supervisor campos will comment on his role in that and how this came together. But this was a specific Grant Program called the Transit Performance Initiative that had as an explicit goal increased ridership and had as an explicit Eligible Program a lowincome Youth Fare Program and thats not coincidental. And thats as a request. Sure. So, given that the guidelines of this Grant Program and weighing against the needs that we have, which i think i communicated to the board in a letter some of those needs on the maintenance side were, it seemed like we had a Good Opportunity to address both needs through this Grant Program. The lions share of the grant funds will go towards lrv rehab, light rare vehicle Rehab Program light rail which is a critical need that we have. You the smaller portion of the funds will enable us to fund smaller, now a 16month free muni for youth for lowincome youth pilot that i believe is, you know, very consistent with the spirit of the unanimous support of the board for the program. And its a balancing of different needs. We have needs of the system. We have needs of the community. These grant dollars i think are well positioned to enable us to serve both. Right. And just to focus the question, and please address this, as i said at the very outset of this discussion, i think its important we as a board keep our promises and thats why i was very sort of reticent to make too many promises and said so in the first instance. I didnt want to promise a program we couldnt then fund. So, here my question is specifically and i realize this doesnt end the debate. But do you feel that our original resolution sort of binds us to do this today, given the funding we have from the mtc . Or are we really evaluating this anew to see whether this is new money and whether this is a good use of it balanced in the program . I dont believe the resolution binds you because this board can adopt a different resolution that does something different. This use of funds is fully consistent with the words of that resolution. And i believe is consistent with the spirit, even though the Funding Source is slightly different. What youre approving here today is not the youth Pilot Program per se. Its really our Expenditure Program for this particular grant, that the mtc is requiring have the agency board approval for regardless of how we were going to use these funds. So, are we going to approve how we use these funds at a later point . No, this is where youre approving how to use these funds. And its the specific allocation of the majority for the light rail vehicle rehab and the smaller portion for the youth paths. We will bring next year a similar accept and spend resolution for your consideration that will have a similar split of funding for maintenance and for the balance of the Youth Fare Program. And my other question will be how sure are we of this cost figure . Because, you know, the month, its been condensed in time and we dont rile have an idea of how many people will sign up for this. So, ill put that out there, but i certainly want to give supervisor campos a chance to speak to this. Thank you, commissioner. You know, one of the things that its true about the small minority that have opposed this project is that they are very resourceful and along the way finding Different Reasons to vote it no. I will give them that. But let me be very clear here. The resolution that this board passed was a resolution that called upon the Program Going forward if there is funding found at the mtc. It didnt specifically say where the source of funding what the source of funding would be. And what happened at the mtc is that the original request failed because there were some concerns that were raised in terms of sort of the structure of that request. And it was actually one of the people who originally voted against the request who then turned around and asked the mtc staff to come up with a different source of funding so that this program could go forward. And it was actually a supervisor from marin who did that. And, so, the mtc crafted the funding that is before you in such a way to allow San Francisco pursuant to this resolution that you pass to fund this program. And thats the reason why the funding allocation has been structured the way it is. And, in fact, San Francisco is getting additional money that would otherwise get for that very purpose. The interesting thing i was having this conversation with supervisor cohen yesterday is that the unfortunate thing is that what we have seen is an effort to pit, you know, doing something to provide access to lowincome youth against the very important goal of actually funding maintenance for the mta. The two are not mutually exclusive and, in fact, the program thats before you, the funding thats before you recognizes that to increase access to transportation, you have to do both. And as director rifkin said, this funding proposal allows you to not only fund this Pilot Program, which is why one of the reasons that the mtc gave you this funding, but also allows you to meet the maintenance need that all of us should be addressed. You know, you dont have to choose between helping lowincome youth and actually making the system work. I do believe that that is a false choice, and i think that we can walk and chiu gum at the same time. I think that it is in the interest of these youth that we have a system that works. But a system that works will not be meeting the needs of lowincome families if families cannot afford to use that system. And, so, thats why were here. I believe that this has been fully vetted by the mtc with a vote, by the way, was unanimous and everyone expected that San Francisco would turn around and do exactly what youre about to do today, which is to fund this program with this money. A very eloquent explanation, and i appreciate it. I continue to have my concerns about the tradeoffs, which i dont think are necessarily a false choice, but i will say i am moved by the fact that i think we committed to this program if we got mtc funding. And i think it would be a bit of a refrenchment if we backed away from that. As we look at it again, i will look at the tradeoff between rehabilitation which is definitely needed, but i hear supervisor campos on the notion that there was a resolution on this, and that he went out and found the funding and thats his position. Thank you. We do a motion and second. Other Member Support . Second question about the cost. Its sort of a floating idea. This is our best guess. Is that the we have the same level of certainty about the cost as we did when we brought this in the spring. And time will tell. I didnt ask the question artfully, im sorry. If the cost turns out to be less, obviously the money could be redirected to rehabilitation. The bulk of it turns out to be more . The bulk of the budget is anticipated is offsetting the anticipated revenue loss. So, its really on the revenue side of the ledger. If we lose less revenue than we anticipated, then we will have the Funds Available for other purposes. If we lose more revenue than anticipated, then we would have to look for ways to offset. Right now, our revenue projections for the fiscal year are slightly above. I think a Million Dollars over on 8 28 million operating budget. So, we will put that into the pot as we watch revenues and expenditures over the course of the year and well adjust as need be. Okay, thank you. The motion and second on the motion. Anybody else . Id like to congratulate everybody here for an outstanding i support this as i did earlier. I would congratulate the organizations and the individuals and i want to say that we sit up here week after week. We hear a lot of stories. A lot of stories you told were very compelling about how vital muni is to people in this city, how absolutely vital it is. You made a good case. In my opinion. So, if no one else has anything. One more quick. Im sorry. Just very quickly, i do want to also extend my gratitude to everyone in the community. You know, its been a long hard road, at least two years. And the only reason why youre here today and were here ready to support this is because you all were united. There is a saying that is frequently said at rallies, and its Something Like, [in spanish]. In other words, the People United will never be defeated. I think that its clear demonstration of unity that has happened that this body and also at ntc and here that over the long two years that you guys have been struggling, that your unity and your persistence got you to where you are. So, thank you for your tenacity. I do want to express some interest in making sure that we move this thing along as fast as possible and get it implemented as quickly as possible. Two years has been a Long Time Coming and so if we can expedite this as quickly as possible to get it implemented so these youth can take advantage of this benefit quickly would be my best interest. We have a motion and second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say no. Ayes have it, so ordered. Congratulations, supervisor and members. [cheering and applauding] come back any time. [laughter] okay, ladies and gentlemen. Pardon me . We are going back to the regular agenda now. We are going back to okay, we are going back to the regular agenda now. We invited anyone who wanted to speak on this to speak. Only two people did. Okay. So, as the room clears pard