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MINUTES
OF THE
SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY FACILITY COMMISSION
MEETING WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28TH, 2007 – 6:00 PM
ALEX L. PITCHER, JR. COMMUNITY ROOM, 1800 OAKDALE AVENUE
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94124
1.0 CALL TO ORDER AND SUNSHINE ORDINANCE ANNOUNCEMENT:
Commission Vice-President Juan Fuentes called the Wednesday, November 28, 2007 meeting to order at 6:15 p.m. in the Alex L. Pitcher Community Room at 1800 Oakdale Avenue and announced the Sunshine Ordinance.
1.1 ROLL CALL
6:17 p.m. Commission Secretary – Carla Vaughn
Commissioners Present: Fuentes, Churchwell, Kennedy, Sampson, Brown
Commissioners Excused: Jones
Staff Present: Toye Moses, Executive Director
Carla Vaughn, Commission Secretary
John Roddy, City Deputy Attorney
1.2 CONSENT CALENDAR
Commissioner Kennedy moved to accept the consent calendar and it was seconded by Commissioner Churchwell
a) The minutes of the SECF Commission meeting of Wednesday,
October 24, 2007 and November 8, 2007 were approved.
2.0 PUBLIC COMMENT
None.
3.0 COMMUNICATIONS
The Commission Secretary announced the following items:
Emergency City Hall Toy Drive: Bins will be located at any entrance of City Hall from 8am to 6pm. Questions can be directed to the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services.
BAYCAT Winter Celebration & Open House on Thursday, December 13th from 5pm – 7pm at 2415 Third Street, Suite 230, San Francisco, CA.
Reminder memorandum notating the final commission meetings of 2007 scheduled on Thursday, December 13 and Wednesday, December 26.
Confidential list of Commissioners phone numbers and addresses.
Lennar Urban and San Francisco Redevelopment Agency invitation to the Hunters Point Shipyard Small Business Networking Mixer at Jewel Restaurant – 5251 Third Street, San Francisco – Thursday, December 6, 2007 – 6pm to 8pm.
Commissioner Fuentes acknowledged the arrival of Commissioner Brown.
4.0 PRESENTATIONS
Commissioner Fuentes introduced Nathaniel Ford, Executive Director/CEO SF Municipal Transportation Agency who provided an update on the Third Street Light Rail Project.
Mr. Ford stated that defective benches on the T-Line had been removed and would be redesigned.
Mr. Ford reported that although it started out rocky the T-Third Line had stabilized. He advised the Commission that MTA was committed to the third street corridor and to the community.
Commissioner Fuentes thanked Mr. Ford for his presentation and opened the floor to the Commission for questions.
Commissioner Kennedy thanked Mr. Ford for attending the meeting and providing his report. She stated that she saw Ms. Vincent, a senior resident of the BayView, who was concerned about the benches that he had mentioned.
Commissioner Kennedy advised that she would let Ms. Vincent know that the benches had been removed only because they were defective. Commissioner Kennedy added that Ms. Vincent had stated that the benches were too low for the senior citizens.
Mr. Ford advised that the bench height would be addressed for the seniors.
Commissioner Brown thanked Mr. Ford for returning to the Commission and had a question regarding the N-Judah line. The Commissioner stated that there was frequently a 20 minute wait going and coming, and wondered if something was going on that caused it, and if Mr. Ford was aware of the issue.
Mr. Ford stated that he was aware of the situation and steps were being taken to eliminate the wait time. He mentioned the possibility of implementing a pre-pay system for the line, which would eliminate the need of the driver to collect fares, which slowed down the travel time during the busiest commute hours.
Commissioner Fuentes recognized Commissioner Sampson, who thanked Mr. Ford for coming before the Commission, and had two questions. His first question was, “How much has the rider-ship gone up since we introduced the T-Line and eliminated the 15? And secondly, have there been any accidents and if there have been, what measures have been taken to make sure that people are safe? I’d hate for us to have an accident and then start some measures.”
Mr. Ford stated that this was a very good question, rider-ship was up, and there had been only one serious accident
Commissioner Fuentes asked whether there were any figures on the hiring of the personnel since the T-Rail went into operation and also, in terms of the training program, and who are you working on hiring and what are the numbers for that?
Mr. Ford responded that training and hiring were ongoing.
Commissioner Fuentes asked of the figures given how many were from the community, because that’s what folks would be concerned with.
Commissioner Kennedy stated that today she heard the Mayor talking about putting a freeze on hiring and she wanted to know if that affected Muni.
Mr. Ford said yes it did.
Commissioner Kennedy said she wondered since Muni generated most of its income and was not dependent on the city for it’s income.
Mr. Ford stated that Muni gets a pretty good portion from the city.
Commissioner Brown asked how Muni was being affected in terms of staffing with retirements, because a great number of the drivers are probably now at retirement age.
Mr. Ford responded that was 100 percent correct.
Toye Moses thanked Mr. Ford and stated that the concern of the commission was really the employment rate.
5.0 PUBLIC COMMENT
Alma Robinson, Director of California Lawyers for the Arts stated that yesterday she attended a request for qualifications bidders conference that was put on by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. Ms. Robinson advised that they were starting a service learning initiative in partnership with the unified school district around the theme of environmental jobs and service learning opportunities. Her two part question was, “What is Muni doing in terms of green tech and the transportation system, and would there be internships for young people, especially from this community that would be involved with environmental issues and Muni, and is there a way for this to fit in with a service learning curriculum in the high schools and middle schools.
Mr. Ford stated that tomorrow he would be announcing with the Mayor that the Muni green bus fleet is now 100 per cent operational He said, “It’s one of the things that we should be proud of. We have what is considered the greenest fleet in the Bay Area.” He mentioned bio-diesel, but said that within his organization there is an individual who’s the sustainability green expert. This individual is responsible for photo-electric cell and electricity generation as well as reclamation of water. And in the event that we have any type of spill we have a very strict regiment in terms of dealing with any spills.
On the internship side we’ve brought interns in, in terms of our operation with parking and traffic This is our industry and what we do with transportation is something that’s very important. We have not done that but I am proud of some of the steps that we have made as it relates to the environment. I feel good about being a 100 per cent bio-diesel system. All of the buses out there right now are running on bio-diesel.
Prince Onyebuchi, a citizen, stated that there had been a very remarkable improvement in the running of Muni from the time you would stay 20 to 30 minutes in the tunnel and when the buses finally come they are full. Sometimes you can just look at the billboard and see that the next bus is going to come in the next five minutes. He wanted to also ask this question. Mr. Onyebuchi stated that over the weeks or months he had been hearing of the merger of the DPT, taxicab, and transit. He asked how was that going to affect the effectiveness of the transport system or was it being done for fiscal reasons.
Mr. Ford stated that this recent development with the taxis, which are currently by statute the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors are effectively placing the management of taxis in the City also under the MTA. Mr. Ford stated that the City was much more effective when transportation decisions were made collectively and you don’t have Parking and Traffic historically making decisions about traffic engineering issues in one organization and have some of those decisions working against Muni and it’s organization. Mr. Ford said that what he had seen in the past year and a half or two years since he’d arrived was a more cohesive and effective operation as it relates to both modes. He noted that the T-Third Line is the prime example of that. He went on to say that the T-Third Line was not just the light rail operation it was the upgrade of all the traffic signals along the corridor. He stated that with that effort done by the Parking and Traffic folks in coordination with the Muni staff that are all reporting to him, and when they ran into some of the issues with the T-Third Line operation particularly at 4th and King, which are on-going, it was the Muni people and the Parking and Traffic people working hand in hand. He noted that historically it was his understanding that this was not the way things had been done. He noted that historically sometimes they were at odds, and whenever they are not working together it ultimately affects consumers and customers because it’s disjointed. He advised that here you had a coordinated transportation effort. Mr. Ford stated taxis are another arm of our public transportation system. He advised that the immediate change was the merger but there would be some discussion in looking at how improvements could be made in taxi coordination within the system. He continued stating the bicycle system, pedestrian system, taxis, Muni, automobiles, Parking and Traffic all under the same jurisdiction, working together. He noted that was the idea behind it. Mr. Ford stated that he never heard of it being an efficiency thing and trying to save money at this juncture.
Linda Richardson, community activist and Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission thanked Mr. Ford and congratulated him on the upcoming announcement regarding the green fleet. She stated that this made San Francisco a leader in municipal transportation nationwide.
Ms. Richardson continued stating that the Southeast area is really the last area in San Francisco that is slated for heavy development.
Ms. Richardson stated that along with the shipyard development that was proposed for Candlestick Park along with a total of 15,000 units of housing, and looking at the building of new communities that the city has never seen before, what is the plan for Muni? She advised that there were all kinds of transportation visibility studies going on right now that are earmarked for this area. She continued stating that as recently as a few days ago there was a presentation by the bi-county transportation and they were talking about an extension of the light-rail.
Mr. Ford responded that the Southeastern neighborhoods plan that is under way is being lead by the City’s Planning Department. He stated that Muni was very involved in it along with the Public Works Department. Mr. Ford advised that the whole concern here was that there is a great deal of development that is slated for this corridor in this part of the city. He noted that historically these developers kind of run rampant and they get what they need to do and they do the development and later on the schools, the transportation, and some of the infrastructure isn’t there to deal with that. Mr. Ford stated that fortunately Muni is ahead of the game and working on transportation plans and looking at what is the additional bus service needed to supplement the T-Third Line, and also looking at corridors in terms of dealing with the coordination of the truck traffic. He advised that there was a lot of work going on with that study and he offered to provide a briefing for the Commission that would include the Planning Department, the transportation folks and Muni in terms of where they are at this juncture. He continued stating that there was a Directors working group that included himself, the head of Public Works, the head of Planning, and a new
head of Planning that would be coming on board in January.
Commissioner Fuentes thanked Mr. Ford and Mr. McDonald for their presentations.
6.0 STAFF REPORT
Director Moses provided an update on the Southeast Community Facility Commission activities and operations. He reported that the Commission Secretary had returned from family medical leave and the process was started to retain an as needed/temporary 1425 Senior Clerk Typist. He noted that Liza Palega former on-call Commission Secretary was temporarily retained to reproduce the minutes of both October 24, and November 8, 2007.
Director Moses reported that the Founders Mural Dedication was very successful. In attendance were Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, Commissioners: Willie Kennedy, Louise Jones, Juan Fuentes, Kenneth Sampson, Caesar Churchwell, as well as all the living Legends. Mr. Dwayne Jones represented the Mayor and Mr. Claude Everhart represented former Mayor Art Agnos. PUC/General Manager Susan Leal was also in attendance as well as many City officials. He noted special thanks to Heidi Hardin and Santie Huckaby for the great job they performed.
Director Moses reported that the baseline budget for 08/09 was submitted without any increase per the Mayor’s directive. He stated that staff will keep the Commissioners abreast of any new development.
With regard to the Mayor’s request for Commission attendance records, he noted that staff is in the process of compiling the said attendance records. Director Moses advised that he would be on vacation from December 3 through December 7, and also from December 14 through December 29. He stated that Joseph Singh is responsible for the basic day to day activities.
Commissioner Fuentes thanked Director Moses for his report.
7.0 INTRODUCTION OF NEW BUSINESS BY COMMISSIONERS
The Commissioners identified items for consideration at future Commission meetings.
Commissioner Kennedy commented regarding the scheduling of future commission meetings. There was an agreement to discuss the date of the final commission meeting of the year at the next commission meeting.
Commissioner Brown suggested inviting James Blanding to address the commission regarding the senior housing being built by the Providence Baptist Church.
Staff was directed to forward a letter of invitation to Mr. Scott Rodrick of Rodrick Management Group, owner of the McDonald’s Restaurant located in the Bay View Hunter’s Point community. Commissioner Brown advised the commission that the rates of that particular McDonald’s Restaurant were in excess of other McDonald’s restaurants located in other communities. The Commissioner noted complaints regarding the quality and freshness of the hamburger buns being served.
The Commissioners agreed to invite several city departments to provide a combined presentation regarding the development of the Southeast Community. This would include DPW, Muni, and the Planning Commission.
Commissioner Kennedy advised that Home Depot was going before the appeals board with regard to their commitment to provide a store in the BayView community. She suggested letters of support be provided to Home Depot by the Commissioners and an invitation extended to provide an update on the progress being made.
8.0 PUBLIC COMMENT
None.
9.0 ANNOUNCEMENTS
Director Moses announced that he was in receipt of a job announcement from Decorative Plants Service for a greenhouse manager.
10.0 ADJOURNMENT
There was a motion by Commissioner Kennedy to adjourn, and it was seconded by Commissioner Brown. The Southeast Community Facility Commission adjourned at 7:35 p.m.
