[0:10] I see vice chair Jones. Let me just make sure we have, yes, we have a quorum, vice chair, we can get started whenever you're ready. Okay.

[0:34] Good evening, the VTA board, directors, regular meeting, Thursday, September, second, 2021 is called to order. Elaine, can we have a roll call, please? Yes, have a call, go. Here. Thank you.

[0:54] Here.

[0:55] Bert.

[0:56] Here.

[0:57] Carasco.

[0:58] Present.

[0:59] Travis.

[1:00] Here.

[1:01] Constantine.

[1:02] Present.

[1:03] Davis.

[1:05] Gilmore.

[1:06] Yes.

[1:08] Jimenez.

[1:09] Lee.

[1:10] Lee Aang.

[1:12] Here.

[1:14] Ricardo.

[1:16] Present.

[1:16] Antonio.

[1:18] Here.

[1:18] Paul.

[1:19] Here.

[1:20] Corales.

[1:21] Here.

[1:22] Thank you.

[1:23] Renny.

[1:25] Here.

[1:26] Thank you.

[1:27] Submitting.

[1:28] Here.

[1:29] Thank you.

[1:29] Jones.

[1:30] Present.

[1:31] Hendrix.

[1:33] We have a quorum vice chair.

[1:34] Thank you.

[1:35] Thank you.

[1:42] Before we move on to 1.2 hours of the day, I want to note that we will adjourn tonight's meeting

[1:50] in memory of Henry Gonzalez.

[1:53] Henry was hired at VTA in 2012 as a paint and body worker. He worked at the light rail division

[2:02] at Guantaloupe Bay. He was a valued employee. He was highly regarded and respected by his colleagues.

[2:10] He cared for his co-workers and served them as an executive board member of ATU Local 265.

[2:19] Henry's funeral was held last Monday.

[2:23] Henry left behind his wife and four children.

[2:27] Ars and Sirus condolences to his family, his co-workers,

[2:31] and all those who knew Henry.

[2:34] We will always remember and honor Henry

[2:37] and the other fallen employees.

[2:41] At this time, I'd like to ask for a moment of silence.

[2:59] Thank you. For orders of the day, staff is requesting the following changes to the orders of our agenda.

[3:10] We're going to hear to recommend to hear item 8.1 General Manager's report before the consent agenda.

[3:19] And also move close session after the General Manager's report.

[3:24] Are there any changes from my colleagues?

[3:26] it's

[3:29] being done.

[3:33] May I have a motion in a second to approve orders of the day?

[3:40] No, moved. Second constant time. All right, it's been moved and seconded. And we

[3:50] are now going to...

[3:52] Chair, I'm going to do a quick roll call vote if that's a kick.

[3:56] Okay, and also do we, because we're making changes, do we need to go to the public as well?

[4:03] We have two hands up, Chair.

[4:06] Okay.

[4:07] So before we take the roll call vote, let's take public comments.

[4:13] Okay.

[4:19] Mr. Rollner.

[4:20] Thank you.

[4:22] Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[4:23] Good evening.

[4:25] And for the record, Mr. Chair, you forgot to take public comment before adjourning to a second

[4:31] session at the GNA. But the reason why I'm addressing you is that of an out of respect

[4:38] for Henry and respectfully requesting that you put item 7.1 on consent, because quite

[4:48] frankly none of us are in the mood for that kind of nonsense right now. Thank you very

[4:52] much.

[4:58] Mr. Bigman, go ahead and begin speaking.

[5:01] Thank you, this is Blair Beakman. Thank you very much for taking public comment for orders of the day.

[5:11] Sorry, whoever that was, I'm very confused by why you're taking going into closed session after consent calendar today.

[5:22] Can you offer an explanation why you're doing this and can you offer an explanation

[5:26] and when we can expect you can return

[5:28] to the public meeting process and regular agenda items today.

[5:36] Hopefully, that's what this orders of the day,

[5:39] public comment can be about.

[5:41] These are questions that proceed here.

[5:43] I hope you can answer these questions.

[5:45] Thank you.

[5:48] This is Elaine from the board office

[5:50] for the other members of the public whose hands are up.

[5:54] I just wanted to remind you all

[5:55] that we're under orders of the day.

[5:58] We're taking public comment for that item.

[6:01] This is not for public comment for items on the agenda.

[6:04] So if you are planning to address the board

[6:07] under orders of the day, please keep your hand up.

[6:10] And if you're planning to address the board

[6:12] for public comment, please lower your hand.

[6:14] Thank you.

[6:22] Samir Gupta, you may begin speaking when you're ready.

[6:25] OK, I just want to say that I take the blue line

[6:29] And it hasn't even started been testing yet. And I'm a student and we pay $200. And I it takes me like three hours

[6:39] Every day just one way to take the bus you know, so I just want to say it's very frustrating. Excuse me

[6:46] I'm sorry for interrupting. This is specifically for words of the day. Mm-hmm

[6:51] I'm not sure what that is. But I just wanted to say it's very frustrating and that it takes a long time

[6:57] and that if you guys could start testing it, that'd be great.

[7:00] I just wanted to get my point across because it's in take

[7:04] like three hours for a 20, 30 minute way on the,

[7:07] when the light really takes 20, 30, thank you.

[7:14] Oh, you may begin speaking when you're ready.

[7:18] Yes, thank you, Paul Sokol.

[7:21] When I found out that Supervisor Sumidium was gonna be

[7:24] on this meeting, I had to come here

[7:26] because I wanted to let him know

[7:28] that I really have to reassess my,

[7:30] my judgment of you, my critiques have been very, very sharp.

[7:35] And when I heard you talk about,

[7:37] what you talked about at yesterday's meeting

[7:39] with respect to our sheriff.

[7:42] Thank you.

[7:44] I'm sorry, this is specifically for ours of the day.

[7:49] Okay, well, I'm executive about that.

[7:51] I thought it was public comment.

[7:52] So, okay, well, you got a sense of me, sense of me.

[7:57] Mr. Soda, this is Elaine from VTA. We're taking public comments for orders of the day when we are ready to take public comment for items on the agenda. The chair will make that announcement. Thank you for your understanding.

[8:10] Chair, we have one hand up on the panelist side.

[8:16] Great, Director Chavez.

[8:18] Yes, thank you.

[8:19] And I always get confused about orders of the day too.

[8:22] So the public speakers,

[8:23] I just want to acknowledge that I have that same challenge.

[8:27] Item 7.2 is to authorize a general manager to execute a contract with universal protection service.

[8:34] And I'd like to ask if that can be deferred to our October meeting until I realize.

[8:40] I mean, I've read the staff report that this is to Mrs.

[8:45] like the last meeting we could actually take the action and I have concerns about the contract.

[8:50] So I didn't know if it was possible to defer it or not and wanted to ask staff about that.

[8:59] Thank you.

[9:00] Staff.

[9:05] I'm going to ask.

[9:15] Sorry.

[9:16] have a current extension of the existing contract and it expires at the end of this month, so the

[9:21] recommended action would allow us to enter into a new contract beginning October 1st, which is

[9:28] before the next board meeting. We got caught in between committee meetings that did not occur, so we

[9:37] were not able to bring this to committee, but we do have members of allied universal on the line to

[9:42] answer any questions you might have. So we I see because our next meeting with

[9:49] the October 7th and the contract is October 1st. Yeah I think the challenge

[9:54] with that is that one I totally appreciate that we've just had a really rough

[9:58] time. It's just hard to vote on something that I then can't do research on right

[10:05] So I will leave it on the agenda, but I'm concerned about that as a process, but anyway, thank you for that. I'm making no changes to the orders of the day.

[10:21] Thank you. I see no other hands raised, so Elaine, can we have a roll call vote please?

[10:28] Yes, Bert.

[10:32] Bert.

[10:34] Yes.

[10:35] Thank you.

[10:36] Tarrasco.

[10:38] Aye.

[10:39] Thank you.

[10:40] Chavez.

[10:41] Yes.

[10:42] Constantine.

[10:43] Aye.

[10:44] Gilmour.

[10:45] Yes.

[10:46] Jimenez is absent.

[10:50] The cardo.

[10:54] The cardo.

[10:56] Welcome back to you.

[10:57] Yes.

[10:57] Thank you.

[10:58] Antonio.

[11:00] Yes.

[11:01] Paul.

[11:02] Yes.

[11:03] Perala.

[11:04] Yes.

[11:04] Good.

[11:05] Immediate.

[11:07] All right.

[11:08] Jones.

[11:09] I.

[11:10] And Hendricks is absent as well.

[11:12] Motion passed.

[11:12] Thank you.

[11:14] Thank you.

[11:15] The next item on.

[11:17] Our agenda is awards and commentation item two point,

[11:21] one is the retirement.

[11:23] Commendation for four employees.

[11:26] Carlos Ramirez.

[11:28] Coach operator.

[11:29] 35 years of service.

[11:32] Kevin Taylor.

[11:33] bus dispatcher, 34 years of service. Thomas Opus, electronic technician, 31 years of service,

[11:46] and Greg Orzel, facilities worker for 31 years of service.

[11:53] Our retirees are not able to join us tonight by still want to express the board's appreciation for

[11:59] their time, efforts, and dedicated service to the community and VTA. On behalf of the board,

[12:06] we wish them well in their retirement.

[12:11] And Elaine, do we have any hands that are raised for

[12:15] public comment? I think that that's for the next item vice chair. Okay, so item three is public

[12:24] comment and for items not on the agenda, a reminder for those who want to address the board

[12:29] under public comment. Please use the raise hand function in the app, or if you're

[12:34] using the phone only, please press star nine. This portion of the mean is

[12:41] reserved for persons desiring to address the board directors for any item

[12:45] within the board's jurisdiction. Speakers are limited to one minute. The law

[12:50] does not permit board action or extended discussion of any item not on the

[12:56] agenda except under special circumstances.

[13:00] For those with customer service concerns,

[13:03] are encouraged to contact our customer service department

[13:06] after you make your comments.

[13:08] Their contact information is on the screen.

[13:11] We will now start public comments.

[13:14] Rainey, please call the speakers.

[13:17] Yes, Mr. Chair.

[13:19] Before I proceed calling the attendees,

[13:22] let me inform the committee that Mr.

[13:25] Your co-hands, that guy's public comment has been received

[13:28] and he's posted on the online website.

[13:32] Calling on the first three attendees to speak,

[13:36] Paul, Bees and Rosie.

[13:40] Paul, you may begin speaking when you're ready.

[13:43] Okay, thank you, Paul.

[13:44] So there wasn't a assumption that was made.

[13:46] I did want to speak on those drivers.

[13:48] That's 131 years of experience

[13:51] that I just didn't want to leave unnoticed.

[13:53] I've never owned the car in my life.

[13:57] And so I want to do, I'm just talking about the process, the woman made an assumption

[14:02] that my hand was raised for another item, but in fact, it was not.

[14:07] It was for that. And so I'll let that slide because I'm just going to let it slide.

[14:12] But this is the way that you that have power constantly, just constantly, constantly,

[14:20] You know, it's just

[14:24] all I got to say.

[14:30] Bees, you may begin speaking when you're ready.

[14:37] Bees.

[14:39] Can you hear me?

[14:40] Yes.

[14:41] Okay.

[14:42] I'm here to bring awareness to the toxic environment

[14:44] in the customer service department.

[14:46] We have a new manager that absolutely does not have any

[14:48] information with the staff and only cares about himself

[14:51] and looking for proper management.

[14:53] Within the first few months of taking over the department,

[14:56] three key employees left the department because of his threat

[14:58] and a threat of behavior.

[15:00] To give you an insight of the lack of leadership, we have from this manager. My manager, Combis, has not spoken a single word to me in the last nine months. Yes, that's right. In the last nine months, I have not been provided with any mentoring coaching or having given any support from the person who's supposed to be my leader in the department. VTA family is supposed to be everywhere within VTA. We are certainly not being true to the like family. See something, say something, what's your act? Well, I'm here speaking up just like many others before me have done to bring awareness to the city.

[15:30] issue. We are tired of speaking up about the process and why culture within VTA is not

[15:35] time for us to use to this company to do something about it. I ask for it so far the other

[15:39] thing we're seeing all these things that are being swept under the company department.

[15:47] Rosie, you may begin speaking when you're ready.

[15:54] Rosie, please accept a mute and begin speaking.

[15:59] Yes, we can hear you. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. I am calling here for the

[16:05] director of hazard pay and I just want to say again my name is Rosie I'm from

[16:12] local 265 I'm a safety steward for customer service we too along with

[16:16] ATU brothers and sisters that are out on roads have helped move this

[16:20] community during this pandemic while mostly all VTA River Oaks office has been

[16:24] working from home or on admin leave we have had to come in each day to a sister

[16:29] community by phone by email and in person at the downtown customer service

[16:34] They've seen first-hand people that come in to ride VTA, not only VTA but CalTrain and

[16:40] other transit agencies along the Bay Area that come in to customer service.

[16:46] So the ISR customer service has, our department has been exposed a couple of times with the

[16:52] virus, the COVID-19, the downtown center for the most part because of fair inspectors

[16:58] also that I represent also are there and they had to deal with it as well.

[17:03] We stand.

[17:05] Thank you.

[17:06] Before we go to the next speaker.

[17:08] I just want to notify everyone.

[17:11] That we're going to have a last call to address the board.

[17:16] We will no longer take requests to speak on this item.

[17:22] After.

[17:24] Alicia.

[17:27] Right.

[17:28] So.

[17:29] She would be Alicia will be our last speaker on this item.

[17:37] Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair, next speakers, and Eugene and Kiko, and you may begin speaking

[17:47] when you're ready.

[17:48] Hello, my name is Ann Marie Ruiz.

[17:51] I'm a member of Local 265.

[17:54] Our methods serve the retroactive hazard pay.

[17:58] We are and have been in harm's ways since the beginning of the pandemic.

[18:03] We asked the person to put their mask on.

[18:06] We had a girl last week who was certain to be punched in the face.

[18:10] People are coming up and coughing on us and slapping us, pulling guns.

[18:15] Our safety and our health needs to be foremost.

[18:19] And I would like somebody on the board to please consider a motion to have the general manager sit down with union leadership.

[18:32] leadership to discuss retroactive hazard.

[18:36] Thank you.

[18:40] Next speaker is Brett Eugene.

[18:43] You may begin speaking already.

[18:46] Evening board members, can everybody hear me?

[18:49] Yes sir.

[18:51] This is Eugene Bradley.

[18:52] I'm the founder and CEO of the Silicon Valley Transit Users.

[18:55] In addition to need to have retroactive hazard prayed

[18:58] for the BTA workers, thank you.

[19:00] Welcome back light rail.

[19:02] I've already given my feelings

[19:04] to how this recovery has since the horror of May 26th is gone. Needless to say, we are showing

[19:11] the world how not to recover in terms of public transit from a horrible tragedy. It says this.

[19:17] I speak as somebody who's not only studied other transit systems, I personally survived.

[19:21] I was about two stops away from the World Trade Center when terrorists bombed that in February 1993.

[19:28] past transfer was only down for about one week.

[19:32] We must do better.

[19:33] I learned at the July 14, MTC planning meeting

[19:39] that Randy Kymons spoke about the need

[19:41] to have more resilient transit.

[19:44] Supervisor Chavez and Mayor Locardo,

[19:46] let's work to make that happen.

[19:48] Let's...

[19:52] Kiko, you may begin speaking when you're ready.

[19:57] I'm a member of ATU 265.

[20:02] Regarding hazard pay, it's obviously there's a problem we're having a zoom meeting when

[20:08] we should be face to face.

[20:10] We're asked to be out there to drive every day.

[20:13] Signs on the bus say no mask no ride yet, we're asked not to enforce it.

[20:21] Even if we call, it takes 15, 20 minutes for sheriff to show up, it's obviously there's

[20:28] a problem.

[20:29] Handle it board.

[20:30] that's what you're there for. Thank you.

[20:36] Next speakers are Big Man, Armando and Michael.

[20:42] Big Man, you may begin speaking when you're ready.

[20:45] Hi, thank you. I'm still hoping someone can describe why exactly you're going to close session

[20:52] after consent and what time we can expect you back to talk about the regular agenda so I can plan

[20:58] might evening accordingly and well and be a part of the process. Thank you. To try to return to

[21:05] some regular ideas and practices, I'm still very upset and worried about the 40 plus shot spotter

[21:13] speakers that are at the various part station. I really hope you can do something about it.

[21:17] I figured out some really interesting design patterns to like totally minimize it by half at least.

[21:24] Please be considering these things and thank you to Roland who spoke at public comment somewhere in San Jose, South Bay a few weeks ago or a few days ago.

[21:34] About the feature of high speed rail and he offered instructions about what to expect to the high speed rail that was open in public.

[21:42] And I hope we can all be doing that more and talk about Alameda County's part in this process.

[21:50] Armando, you may begin speaking when you're ready.

[21:53] Hi, can you hear me?

[21:56] Yes, we can.

[21:57] Hi.

[21:57] Thank you, Armando Barbosa, 82 local 265 organizer, and 82 local 265 Latino caucus chair.

[22:04] She said whether on the behalf of 82 local 265, I'm here in full support of retro active hazard pay.

[22:11] It's not going to go anywhere.

[22:12] We are still here.

[22:13] We were present at the last board meeting, and we're present now.

[22:17] And we shall continue to fight for the members that are out in service right now,

[22:20] Now, servicing this community as we speak.

[22:23] On behalf of a member who cannot be here today to share her word, I'm going to read.

[22:29] Karina Medina, coach operator from Soroni Division.

[22:33] I'm speaking today to share my experience and further validate why I believe we have

[22:36] more than entitled to retropegue throughout this pandemic.

[22:40] At the height of this pandemic, while continuing to show up and serve this county in my role as

[22:45] an operator, I was placed in hazardous situations.

[22:48] While boarding and securing an ADA passenger, the passenger struggled to keep her mask on and removed her mask and began to cough.

[22:59] Michael, please accept a mute and begin speaking.

[23:03] I'm a bus operator for the local ATU 265. I think the board needs to highly consider our retroactive hazard pay.

[23:13] At the moment, we are not thought of when we get on to the bus as a person like everyone

[23:20] else.

[23:20] We are just thought of as somebody that's just about to get them from where they are to

[23:24] where they're going.

[23:25] Many people have lost their lives.

[23:27] Many people will continue to lose their lives to this virus.

[23:30] By not thinking, not considering our hazard pay, you're not considering our lives and what

[23:37] we put on the line in order to come to work to make sure everybody else can continue their

[23:43] lives. Thank you.

[23:47] The next three speakers, Eric, Sultana and Rachel. Eric, you may begin

[23:55] speaking when you're ready.

[23:59] Good evening to the board and all attendees. My name is Eric

[24:02] Chavez. I'm a proud member of ATU Local 265. I just want to say that even prior to this pandemic,

[24:08] you know, professionals in the transportation industry were already deemed, you know, to do safety

[24:13] sensitive jobs, and even that where hazardous. You know, as this pandemic ravaged our communities,

[24:19] and the world, Bay Area bus drivers, train operators, service workers, mechanics,

[24:26] and a bunch of other frontline workers before it to work, put their lives on the line every day,

[24:32] not knowing if they would contract and take home COVID. Bay Area transit industry deserves to be

[24:38] compensated for their sacrifices. Good evening, and thank you for your time.

[24:46] So, Tana, you may begin speaking when you're ready. Can you hear me? Yes. Good

[24:54] evening, Sultana Adams, ATU-192, over at AC Transit, standing in solidarity with

[24:59] my brothers and sisters at VTA, ATU-265, and I'm going to state a lot of

[25:07] obvious things. Interacting with the public is hazardous. If it wasn't hazardous, this

[25:14] meeting would be face to face. This meeting would be in person. You would be interacting

[25:19] with the public in person. So obviously you know that the job that we do as operators,

[25:26] dispatchers, service workers, you know it's hazardous. There is no question as to whether

[25:31] or not my brothers and sisters deserve hazardous pay. We are simply asking you to do the right

[25:37] thing and direct management to sit down with the union and give my brothers and sisters

[25:44] what they deserve. You know it. The public knows it. We all know it. Let's just get it done.

[25:50] Thank you.

[25:54] Rachel, you may begin speaking when you're ready.

[25:59] Hi, can you hear me? Yes.

[26:03] Yes, my name is Rachel. I am an operator with local 265. First of all, before I get close

[26:15] to the call ending and not get to say this, I find it very disrespectful and very rude

[26:23] that when an individual is making their comment that they are cut off at exactly one minute.

[26:28] But people should be allowed to express what they need to say.

[26:33] We are under so much stress.

[26:36] We are in danger each and every time we get behind that wheel.

[26:40] I am pleading and I am asking for each one of you members there to think.

[26:46] And please, put hazard pay on the next agenda.

[26:52] If not, if you don't think it's hazardous, come ride the bus with us.

[26:55] write the bus and see what we deal with. Thank you.

[27:01] Thank you. Next speakers, President ATU 265, Johnny and Alicia.

[27:09] You may begin speaking, President ATU 265. Go ahead, please.

[27:17] Good evening, board members. John Courtney, President of Business Agent ATU Local 265.

[27:22] But I do support Bismarck's comments and this talk of cultural change is great and we're

[27:30] talking about it but really nothing has happened yet, to be perfectly honest, there are pockets

[27:36] of bosses who continue to act this way towards our employees.

[27:40] There's a frontline boss in North York who makes racist comments continuously.

[27:46] Obviously, this Mark's boss is just rude and obnoxious and doesn't talk to his own folks.

[27:52] So let's hope we're real about this and I'm glad to see it on the upcoming agenda.

[27:56] I also think that this disconnectness, cultural change has to start here.

[28:00] Honestly, to have one minute and then also to cut off a slew of speakers, it is your job

[28:05] to listen to the community and listen to the citizens and the workers.

[28:08] That's why you're on the board.

[28:10] And I would really, really beg that you open the speaker back up.

[28:14] speakers back up. That's what we're here for. So, again, thank you and you have a great evening.

[28:19] Thank you. And let's make Stephanie the last speaker.

[28:28] Alicia, you may begin speaking when you're ready.

[28:33] Hi, good evening.

[28:36] Alicia Pietro here. I stand in solidarity with my brothers and sisters, 265. We continue to beg for

[28:44] hazard pay and we stand out, we go out every single day, take our bus and it's not entirely

[28:55] safe to come home and give our families this COVID variant that's expanding. Now it's Delta

[29:02] variant. Who knows how much further this is going to go on? I think that we deserve that hazard

[29:09] pay and I think that you guys should sit down with John McCourtney and talk over how

[29:15] you guys are going to give us hazard retro pay.

[29:21] Thank you, Johnny.

[29:25] You may begin speaking when you're ready.

[29:27] Thank you.

[29:28] Can you guys hear me?

[29:30] Yes.

[29:31] My name is Johnny Geigels.

[29:32] This is represented from Team Sister's Local 8 by 3 and on behalf of our 17,000 members

[29:37] we've got a solidarity with HU265 and them getting the retroactive hazard pay. Thank you.

[29:44] Last speaker is Stephanie. You may begin speaking when you're ready.

[29:54] Stephanie?

[30:01] Okay, can you hear me? Yes. Okay, great. Good evening. Thank you for obviously listening to my call. I have been an operator for almost 11 years for VTA. I am speaking on behalf of my classmate, Janelle Rubo, who's also been there almost 11 years. And I find it convenient how the media doesn't cover none of our hazard, hazardous situations on a daily basis. My classmate has endured a gun in her face, along with

[30:31] many other assaults that I've endured. I think honestly that this hazardous

[30:35] pace should have been on the table a long time ago. I thank you for having on the next agenda.

[30:41] That's what I heard from my president. I appreciate that. I am eager to see something happen.

[30:49] Again, nothing changes, nothing changes. We got bull using our division,

[30:54] every division, as far as I'm hearing. So something needs to happen, something needs to change.

[30:59] you would consider us. That'd be great.

[31:04] That concludes our public speaking.

[31:07] Thank you. We do not have items under item four public hearings so we will go to item five

[31:15] committee reports to our members of the public. If you want to address the board on items 5.1 through

[31:22] 5.5 please raise your hand now. We will call it on you at the conclusion of all the reports.

[31:31] There is no report for item 5.1 for 5.2, Kitty Moore, policy advisory committee

[31:40] chair is here to provide a brief report.

[31:45] Thank you, Vice Chair.

[31:47] On Thursday, August 12, the PAC following a very robust dialogue, the committee recommended

[31:53] the Board of Directors adopt the Tasman Drive and Basque Avenue Complete Streets corridor

[31:58] studies.

[31:58] The PAC further requested staff to address the following in future analyses of these areas.

[32:04] Funding strategies and connections to bike super highways, vision zero goals, reducing

[32:10] conflicts between buses and bikes and environmentally friendly landscaping strategies and tree placement.

[32:17] We also recommended the Board of Directors approve the project priorities for the fiscal year

[32:22] 2021-22 Countywide Transportation Development Act Article 3 program, and lastly, the PAC will

[32:31] receive an overview of VTA's transit-oriented communities program and transit signal priority

[32:38] projects at upcoming committee meetings. The next PAC meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September

[32:43] 9, 2021 at 4 p.m. and we'll be conducted as a Zoom teleconference. Thank you.

[32:49] Thank you. Now, we're on to item 5.3. Reports for item 5.3 are in the online agenda package.

[33:01] There is no report for 5.4. For item 5.5, Rose Herrera, 2016 Measure Beases and Oversight Committee

[33:13] will provide a brief report and we will take public comments for items under committee reports item 5.1 to 5.5.

[33:23] After this report.

[33:26] Chair, this is Elaine from the board office. I don't see NBCOC chair Herrera.

[33:36] Chair Herrera, if you're here, if you could please raise your hand. If you're on the attendee side so we can unmute you.

[33:41] Yeah,

[33:49] we don't see her on the attendee side either chair, so I guess we can move on. Thank you.

[33:57] We have any public speakers.

[33:59] Yes, we do, Mr. Vice Chair. Mr. McMahon. Please begin speaking when you're ready.

[34:08] Hi, this is Blair Beakman. You can correct me if I'm wrong. I'm fairly sure there will be something of the worker comp's issues on these on one of these committee reports.

[34:19] and it was just I wanted to quickly offer that it's there's been some really good work in San Jose

[34:24] and Berkeley about city employee raises and and and to deal with city employee

[34:32] accomplishes in the time of COVID-19 that have been really impressive and I think they're

[34:35] studying good examples across for entire Bay Area this time and for the city government.

[34:41] I hope you can look to these examples in your work here at the VTA at this time and we can work

[34:47] well on the work of accomplishes. Thank you.

[34:52] Thank you. Public comments for this item under committee

[34:58] reports is now closed. As mentioned earlier during orders of the day we will hear the General Manager's

[35:04] report prior to the consent calendar. I would like to remind the public that we will take public

[35:10] comments at the conclusion of all items under the General Manager's report.

[35:20] Good evening,

[35:21] my students and members of the board. Before I provide a couple of timely updates, I wanted

[35:28] to take this opportunity to share a little bit about the priorities that I am passionate

[35:31] about delivering in my role as general manager and CEO. This is the first time we were able

[35:36] to address. We had quite a long meeting last month and I wanted to shorten it a little

[35:41] bit by not providing these remarks, but I do want to talk about them tonight. These priorities

[35:46] are tied to my personal values and work ethic as a leader who has dedicated the greater part

[35:51] of my career to improving the mobility experience for all, much of that time with VTA.

[35:56] I want to stress that we VTA are here to serve the public.

[36:00] If there is one thing about the pandemic taught us is that people rely on VTA.

[36:06] My focus will be on our service mission to provide real access to opportunities,

[36:10] Aligning existing riders and future customer needs with all the service plan in 2019 was

[36:22] developed with valuable input from our riders and community stakeholders and showed tremendous

[36:27] promise with an immediate increase in ridership at the beginning of last year.

[36:31] As we're edging our way back to pre-pandemic service levels, we look forward to welcoming

[36:35] riders back to transit.

[36:37] Along with safer and reliable services, we will continue to pursue mobility programs and partnerships

[36:42] to add to the portfolio of transit options, and we will need to appeal and engage with business

[36:47] partners and transit advocates to share strategies on how we best achieve share goals of combating

[36:53] traffic congestion and fighting climate change. I am fully committed to delivering the 2016 measure

[37:00] and trust it to us.

[37:05] VTA will continue to invest critical tax dollars

[37:07] to deliver widespread transportation improvements.

[37:10] We have the funding, the mechanisms, and the will,

[37:14] and the skills to improve mobility for Santa Clara County residents,

[37:17] whether you ride transit bike, walk, or drive.

[37:21] In addition to our local partnerships,

[37:23] our regional partnerships are now more critical than ever

[37:25] to improving mobility throughout the Bay Area.

[37:28] We've seen a great synergy with our sister transit agencies

[37:31] during some of the most challenging times and we will continue to focus on better connections

[37:36] to improve the customer experience. On that note, we're pleased to be offering Bay Area

[37:42] commuters an extended regional connection now that we have our first two BART stations open in

[37:48] Nopetus and San Jose. VTA's BART Silicon Valley extension phase two is even more impressive as

[37:55] the first agency in the United States to be accepted into the Federal Transit Administration's

[38:00] expedited project delivery program.

[38:03] As we work together on these important initiatives,

[38:05] we must remain cognizant that they will be intertwined

[38:08] with the challenges, the many challenges that we have had,

[38:12] but which we must also recognize opportunities.

[38:15] We are not out of the wood just with COVID.

[38:18] Every day seems to bring new challenges and considerations

[38:20] that will be needed to protect the health and well-being

[38:23] of our employees and customers.

[38:25] Another opportunity that tried to knock us off our game was

[38:28] the intrusion we faced with the hard-hitting cyber attack, only to be followed by the horrendous

[38:33] tragedy at the Guadalupe light rail yard that will influence everything we do moving forward.

[38:38] To meet the goal of providing access to transportation opportunities,

[38:42] it's necessary for me to shape and share my employee-focused priorities with you tonight.

[38:48] My goal is to better understand the needs of our employees while working together more collaboratively

[38:53] to boost morale and confidence among our most important asset.

[38:59] I've been meeting with the employees from different corners of the organization,

[39:02] even before my first official day on the job with VTA.

[39:05] And what I heard is that we have a tremendous opportunity to improve the culture within our organization,

[39:10] and we must improve the culture within our organization,

[39:13] and make it one that is more compassionate, collaborative, and prolific.

[39:18] Often referred to as workforce development, I want to focus on VTA employee development

[39:22] and training that truly builds a pipeline of talent within our organization to retain

[39:28] and grow the good people we already have in a VTA uniform, whether you're a doning operator.

[39:33] Blues, a construction vest, a dress suit or tie, I want our employees to feel fulfilled

[39:40] and appreciated.

[39:42] Employees have had to weather several storms over the past two years, culminating in an unfathomable

[39:47] way. We have put a number of resources in place and we will continue to prioritize the health

[39:53] and wellbeing of our employees, but that will also take additional resources and we will continue

[39:58] to look at that and work with our union partners to do that. Moving forward, I stand by my commitment

[40:04] to my staff, my board of directors, and to the public that we will heal. Our resilience will grow

[40:09] and we will all be stronger. We owe that to the public and we owe it to ourselves.

[40:14] In this way, I commit to providing the opportunities for transportation access so critical to this community.

[40:21] And we look forward, as a team, to be able to continue to our serve our community.

[40:27] Now, I like right now to just see our few recent milestones over the past month.

[40:32] And I'm going to be asking some key staff to join me in on this update.

[40:36] So on the first slide, slide one, we're pleased to announce that light rail service

[40:42] is back on track as of August 29th. We started service at 8 a.m. Sunday morning, and this video

[40:47] is showing that pivotal moment to explain what it took to get here is our Chief System Safety

[40:54] and Security Angelique Gallagher.

[41:05] Thank you Carolyn. I just wanted to let the video play. Next slide please.

[41:12] So this year rail safety month has a different fill for VTA as we bring our light rail service back

[41:17] online. And although we emphasized safety first every September, we must share what it took to

[41:23] bring our light rail trains back into service. These elements included employee safety,

[41:29] system safety, identifying the appropriate scope of services that we would be able to provide,

[41:34] and how we would publicly share that we were back in service. For employee safety,

[41:41] the components of that included onboarding of employees with trauma counselors,

[41:45] refresher and recertification training and continues an ongoing access to

[41:50] counselors. So to give you a little bit of detail of what that looked like, it's

[41:55] important to know that the entire time the mental health of our employees was

[41:59] critical to successfully bringing back light rail and to support our employees

[42:03] decision to return to work, VTA invited employees to intend an onboarding session with

[42:09] trauma counselors, training staff, operation staff, and safety and security staff.

[42:14] staff to see if they felt they were able to return. Once they made the decision that they wanted

[42:20] to and were able to return, BTA began the process of refresher and recertification training.

[42:27] The employees that were rail certified received training in light rail safety,

[42:32] light rail yard operation, light rail shop operation, main line operation, and high rail operation.

[42:39] Training was provided using written materials, presentations, video demonstrations, written exams,

[42:47] practical evaluations, and training onboard a light rail vehicle. That practical training

[42:53] covered pre-revenue light rail vehicle safety inspections, coupling and uncoupling of cars on

[43:00] the train, identification of safety components onboard the light rail vehicle, as well as ride-along

[43:06] evaluations and ride checks.

[43:09] Trauma counselors were available the entire time while the employees underwent training

[43:14] and will continue to be available for those employees.

[43:17] Counseling has also been available to all BT employees and their families for the past

[43:21] several months and will continue as long as needed.

[43:25] Next slide, please.

[43:27] From a system safety perspective, there were a number of components of our system that

[43:31] needed not just to be inspected but tested as well.

[43:34] And those broke down into various components, including inspections by our track crews,

[43:40] inspecting every inch of the trackway, inspections by our power crews of the overhead

[43:45] catenary system and substations to ensure all critical aspects were operational,

[43:51] and that no defects or hazards were identified. Our signal crews,

[43:55] inspected grade crossings and switch and signal locations, our SCADA crew completed and passed

[44:02] all testing for the rail lines. Our light rail maintenance crews performed enhanced

[44:07] ailing inspections and will continue to do so of all rail vehicles before they leave the yard.

[44:13] Our station maintenance crew inspect the yard, Guadalupe yard and all stations planned for use

[44:18] and will continue to do that as we move on to different segments of the system.

[44:24] Our operations control center became fully functional for train operators with OCC staff now in

[44:30] place and working shifts 24 hours seven days a week. Once the inspections and

[44:35] testing were complete for segments of the track and for operation, VTA was

[44:39] all able to bring our first train. And this is our test train shown here in the

[44:44] video. You can go ahead and play that please. You'll note that the trains being

[44:50] escorted by a sheriff deputy as well as our power teams that would check the

[44:55] overhead lines as the train was on operation. And again this was our very first

[44:59] test.

[45:00] The last train that went out on the tracks that occurred on Tuesday of last week. And since then, we've had a number of test crews or test trains go on various segments of the track to determine whether or not they were safe for operation. So this particular train actually came from the yard and went to Civic Center, South, and then from Civic Center up north to the Cisco station in North San Jose. On Friday, the same testing was completed for the entire orange line.

[45:28] And once those tests were complete and no issues were identified, we began operating non-revenue trains on Saturday, August 28th.

[45:36] Next slide, please.

[45:39] And after those non-revenue operations proved successful, the Director of Rail Operations Austin Jenkins and I authored a memo to our General Manager, Carolyn Ganat,

[45:49] recommending that VTA begin partial revenue service on Sunday, August 28th, which is what you saw this past Sunday and outlined in this slide.

[45:58] On Saturday, August 27th, our general manager also reviewed our recommendations and notified

[46:04] the CPUC that the next day, August 28th, we would begin partial revenue service.

[46:09] And I want to pause here to acknowledge the partnership of the CPUC.

[46:14] They have been incredibly patient with us, incredibly understanding as we engage in the inspections

[46:21] and the testing and things change daily.

[46:24] It's a very fluid operation out there, but we do pause when we find any issues of concern and we go over them with the CPC as needed to date.

[46:38] There have not been any critical or major incidents minor things that we were able to correct along the way and allowed us to go into revenue service.

[46:49] So, we will continue to do this for the various segments on our light rail line and as we do that will follow the same process, which is essentially Austin Jenkins and myself going through the documentation to memorialize that the inspections have occurred.

[47:06] Our safety team reviewing that as well and then making a recommendation to our GM that we believe a particular segment is ready for revenue service.

[47:14] Once that's done, she will make a determination and then notify the CVUC.

[47:22] Next slide please.

[47:25] So bringing light rail back into service on Sunday also coincided with the beginning of rail safety month.

[47:31] And as we usually do, BTA began engaging in a robust public safety campaign on how to be safe around our system.

[47:37] This was even more critical given that we were down for several months.

[47:41] Our theme this year is stay alert, stay alive.

[47:44] And we will have various messages throughout the campaign sticking with that thing.

[47:49] In fact, our market and communications team is planning blog posts, some of them which you

[47:54] probably already have seen. Social media messaging, car cards in both our buses and our trains

[47:59] and station signs. Messaging on the passenger information monitors at each of the light rail stations.

[48:06] And a letter that we send out annually to all school districts urging them to remind students how

[48:11] to stay safe around our tracks.

[48:14] We also offer attending with our safety teams

[48:18] and the assemblies that the schools want to hold

[48:20] and ask us questions about our system.

[48:24] We will also have a wrapped light rail train

[48:27] that includes our safety thing

[48:29] and that's sort of our moving billboard, if you will.

[48:32] And then we will continue our work

[48:34] with Operation Life Saver,

[48:35] a national organization that promotes safety around rail.

[48:39] And although rail safety month occurs during the month of September,

[48:44] VTA traditionally sees that as our kickoff, but we continue our safety messaging year-round.

[48:51] And it includes safety around our buses and our parrot transit as well.

[48:56] So I would encourage our board members and the public to follow our social media platforms

[49:00] and share our messages far and wide. And with that I'm happy to take any questions.

[49:06] Thank you.

[49:13] Okay. Thank you, Emily. You know, I do want to say that I think it's really important and one of the reasons why I wanted GM report up towards the front of the meeting was just.

[49:24] This was a momentous occasion of a lot of collaboration throughout the agency and our partners to be able to get light rail service back up, and I know it was frustrating for some of the public, but there was a lot of work done.

[49:37] When I was out there on Sunday morning, as the trains were leaving New York, just to

[49:42] see the employees who some are still grieving, many are still grieving, and always were grieving

[49:48] in some way.

[49:49] But it was just really—I had a lot of pride in just the employees getting out there, moving

[49:59] the trains, getting service back out to the people.

[50:02] I went out later on to some of the other stations, and you could just see the customers who are

[50:06] So happy to see the trains and get on them and that it's back and that, you know, it just is great to see people who really want to be on that service and really are going to use that service and in this week as well. So we're starting to see ridership already throughout the system pick up because we're bringing a light rail back.

[50:22] Just to let you know we are providing free fare on the light rail service until the entire system is up and running again.

[50:28] Later on, Jake Tyree will talk a little bit about the service that's being offered and

[50:32] what we intend to have in the near future as the remaining segments of the green and blue lines

[50:36] come back online because we have the orange fully running and a partial of the green line.

[50:41] Before I move away from this topic, I think I believe our vice chair wanted to say a few words.

[50:47] Thank you, Carolyn. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the team for resuming light rail

[50:52] service. There's not been easy task and VTA has jumped through so many hoops to get this done.

[50:59] I wanted to commend the light rail team, the operators, dispatchers, signal maintainers,

[51:05] employees from all levels who support this enormous effort. I want to recognize management

[51:12] and our union partners for working diligently and collaboratively to safely resume the service.

[51:19] Last but not least, I want to thank the writing public for your support.

[51:24] More importantly, your patience and understanding as we work on resuming the service on the remaining segments.

[51:33] Carolyn, that's what I want to say. Thank you.

[51:39] Thank you.

[51:40] I really do appreciate all the support you and the board have given us in terms of being able to get the service and working with us and meeting.

[51:51] each week, many of you, a couple of times a week, with management and

[51:55] delivery unions and helping us get that effort to get the service back up and

[52:00] learning. Another critical mission for VTA is to maintain a healthy workforce and

[52:05] protect them against COVID-19. And to encourage vaccination and

[52:10] continue testing, we brought clinics on-site to our employee divisions to

[52:16] provide both services. These weekly clinics rotate every Wednesday.

[52:26] And since we've offered

[52:27] on-site vaccination, we've had 20 more employees get vaccinated and over 200 tested. I want to

[52:33] thank ATU for getting the testing program started at the yards and working with the benefits team to

[52:37] include the vaccinations.

[52:41] On the next slide, you're going to see VTA's participation in the Silicon

[52:46] Convali Pride Parade. Last Sunday, about 40 employees and their family members marched alongside

[52:52] our brightly wrapped buzz, showing their community pride.

[52:59] Next slide, please. Congratulations,

[53:02] also I want to mention this goes to our VTA procurement team on receiving the achievement of excellence

[53:06] and procurement two years in a row. This honor is bestowed by the National Procurement

[53:12] institute to procurement organizations that embrace innovation, professionalism,

[53:18] productivity, leadership, and e-procurement. The VTA procurement team hosted two Bay Area

[53:27] Diversity Business Forms on August 10th and August 31st in collaboration with the Silicon Valley

[53:32] Minority Business Consortium, the events which had 370 participants in total were intended to identify

[53:39] by underutilized businesses and to help increase

[53:42] their technical capabilities and financial capacity

[53:45] to support VTA in various contracting opportunities.

[53:50] On the next slide, you'll see photos

[53:52] from the Montague pedestrian overcrossing

[53:55] ribbon cutting event last August 23rd.

[53:59] This overcrossing connects the west side

[54:01] of Montague Expressway to the Milpitas Transit Center

[54:05] with one side really right next to the development

[54:09] and Milpitas was instrumental in helping us work with the developer and saving that space for us to be able to have a landing for the overcrossing and the other side ends at the Bart Bridge.

[54:19] I want to thank Member Carmen Montano, who led the ceremony, along with our project team and other city leaders.

[54:28] Lastly, in my report, I want to share my great appreciation to board member Cindy Chavez and the County Board of Supervisors for proving the referral to create a County Trauma Recovery Center

[54:38] for survivors of violent crimes and other traumatic events, with a specific focus on our

[54:45] VT employees and their families impacted by the May 26 tragedy. We have had the tremendous

[54:50] support from Cindy and at the state level from Senator David Cortisi and Assemblymember

[54:55] Ash Kaurah in advocating for the resources needed to prioritize the health and well-being

[55:00] of our employees and other victims who have suffered from similar unspeakable events.

[55:05] It's extremely unfortunate that there is a need for this, but we are extremely fortunate

[55:09] to have their support in our corner, and I want to thank them all.

[55:13] I want to have Jay Tyree talk a bit about our service update, who also mentioned the

[55:20] light rail service as well.

[55:22] Jay?

[55:23] Great.

[55:23] Thank you, Carolyn.

[55:24] Jay Tyree, manager of service planning and scheduling.

[55:27] So we can go to my next slide here.

[55:29] I'm going to provide an update on ridership and on service restoration since my last

[55:34] report, which I think was in May. So first on the ridership, this is a ridership chart for ridership

[55:40] trends from the start of the pandemic through August 22nd. You can see here, I'll just point out

[55:46] a few data notes. A clear trend of increasing ridership that we saw starting in late January

[55:55] and continuing through today. In fact, like I said, the data was through August 22nd. We just

[56:04] got another week's worth of data so if we were to add that on here you'd see actually

[56:09] even higher ridership increasing. We're now at the point where we've seen the highest

[56:13] ridership since the pandemic has started and that doesn't even include any ridership

[56:19] from rail because you know as the rail was shut down so good trends in the right direction

[56:25] and ridership. So that's ridership. Now let's move on to the next slide. We'll talk about service

[56:34] So like we mentioned that we're very happy to welcome our writers back in the first phase of our light rail service.

[56:42] And so that's that started on Sunday. That's what you're seeing here. It's it's essentially the entire orange line from Mountain View to Alamrock.

[56:48] And then a partial of the green line from old iron sites to civic center.

[56:52] We're also still operating a bus bridge along north first street.

[56:56] And like Carolyn said, this is this is we're offering fair free system on light rail and the bus bridge.

[57:03] to welcome our writers back.

[57:05] The frequencies on the rail system

[57:07] is generally 20 minute frequencies

[57:09] during the daytime and weekdays,

[57:12] and then 30 minutes every evening and on weekends.

[57:16] So that's our first phase of light rail service.

[57:18] If we go to the next slide,

[57:19] I'll tell you about our second phase

[57:23] to bring more of the system back online

[57:25] that we're working towards right now.

[57:27] The next phase we will bring the blue line to restore

[57:31] so that the blue line isn't running today, right?

[57:33] So that's the last line.

[57:35] We'll partially restore the blue line,

[57:37] so that'll be from Baypoint to Children's Discovery Museum.

[57:41] And then we're going to extend the green line farther south

[57:44] from its current end, at Civic Center,

[57:46] down to San Jose, Deerodon station.

[57:48] So at least partials on the green and the blue line

[57:51] will be operating and the entire orange line as well, of course.

[57:55] And the same frequencies, it's generally 20 minute week day,

[57:59] date time 30 minute evenings and on weekends and it is the normal service hours from generally

[58:05] 5 30 or 6 in the morning to midnight or 12 30 a.m. depending on the line. We don't have a date

[58:13] for this next phase but we're hoping we're working towards getting this online in days not weeks.

[58:19] Next slide. Looking forward, we structure our system as you probably know around signups. We have

[58:27] sign-ups a year by which we make our service changes. And we have one more in 2021. That's the October

[58:34] sign-up. But looking forward to the next two sign-ups. Here's our plan for rail. Like we mentioned,

[58:40] our focus now is on restoring light rail, getting it back up and running. For the October sign-up,

[58:45] we're going to be continuing the 20-minute service that will be operating here, the full service.

[58:50] and also focusing on restarting the hiring and training process for light rail operators.

[58:59] Then in February, we are planning on restoration of the 15-minute rail network.

[59:03] That's the full pre-pandemic service level that we'll get back to in February.

[59:09] So that was rail. My next slide, talk about bus.

[59:13] This is a summary of service increases that we've implemented since my last report in May.

[59:20] Just to summarize this slide, we, some of the major points here, we restored Rapid 523 Weekend service.

[59:26] This was the number one request from our writers, and we started a new service, the VMC Shuttle service

[59:34] between San Jose, Deirdre, and VMC, with in partnership with the hospital and the county.

[59:40] So it was an exciting, celebrating event.

[59:44] And then we've done a bunch of things related to schools.

[59:47] We've restarted all of our school trip routes in conjunction with the start of school service and then extended some spans and hours of service for the colleges.

[59:59] So, you know,

[1:00:00] Looking forward, the pace of service on the bus restoration is driven by our operator hiring and training process, which we've talked about several times before. So on my next slide, we have a visual of the seven hiring and training classes that we are in the middle of in 2021. So we've graduated 38 bus operators so far this year, and actually we're going to class four will graduate next week. That'll be 29 operators that will welcome.

[1:00:30] and we've already started Class 5 and the next class because we overlap at the end.

[1:00:36] So let's move on to the next slide. We are working towards restoring full service levels.

[1:00:41] If you remember, we've committed to planning for that.

[1:00:45] And this is how the numbers shake out. We currently have 841 active bus operators.

[1:00:51] 923 is the fully budgeted number. And so we're 82 operators short.

[1:00:56] those 29 that graduate next week will help and so our plan here that I showed on the hiring and training classes is all of the cadence to get to that fully staff 923 level.

[1:01:10] If we go to the next slide because of the graduating class we are happy to

[1:01:20] to reintroduce full pre-pandemic weekday day time service levels in the October sign-up.

[1:01:28] So this is a very exciting, big, huge improvement for our service.

[1:01:32] And it does mean the return of the 15-minute frequent network.

[1:01:35] So if you're traveling weekday day time throughout our bus network, it'll be back to the 15-minute frequent network.

[1:01:41] We're also excited to introduce the Rapid 568, a brand new Rapid Service linking South County to downtown San Jose.

[1:01:49] And then in February, when more of those training, hiring and training classes graduate will be able to restore the remainder of our system.

[1:01:57] That's the evening and the weekend service back to its pre-pandemic service levels.

[1:02:01] And so so then in February, just like on rail, all of our network will be back to its pre-pandemic service levels.

[1:02:07] So my next slide actually is this slide just shows the each day of the week and the time

[1:02:14] period of each day and the progression of getting back to that full pre-pandemic service

[1:02:19] levels in two phases, the first in October and then the final phase in February.

[1:02:24] So I'm getting very close.

[1:02:26] And then my final slide is just a summary of the service increases since the beginning of

[1:02:33] the pandemic, you can see we're looking in the red line is where we are today, we're

[1:02:38] looking at a very significant increase for the October sign-up like I mentioned, and

[1:02:42] then another significant increase for the February sign-up, where we'll be back to our full

[1:02:47] pre-pandemic service levels. And that concludes my report.

[1:02:54] Thank you, Jay. For item 8.1A, the government affairs update, you will find a written report

[1:03:02] in your packet. It's also in the packet are the ridership and safety and security statistics.

[1:03:08] So that concludes my report and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

[1:03:12] Thank you, Carolyn. We will now take public comments for items 8.1, 8.1A.

[1:03:19] Rainy, do we have any requests to speak? Yes, we do. Eugene, you may begin speaking when you're ready.

[1:03:27] Anything more members as you gene Bradley founder and see all the Silicon Valley transit users.

[1:03:33] Great for a new carol in the keynote to actually move your general managers more

[1:03:39] to beginning because people need to know what's going on with light rail. Given that,

[1:03:44] my great question is that especially for the station south of downtown San Jose,

[1:03:50] I've written a guide to basically how people take the 68 since VTA doesn't have any alternate

[1:03:57] bus bridges like you used to have or we're soon used to have and now overcrowding and pass

[1:04:04] up the return to buses like the 68 so as light rail is slowly being restored to the South

[1:04:12] South and Camila is how overcrowding and pass up on buses like the 68 and even the 60 coming from

[1:04:19] Camila will get addressed. That's my main question to you.

[1:04:25] Next speaker, Roland, you may begin speaking

[1:04:28] when you're ready. Well thank you Mr. Chair. This is really impressive. I had no idea that the

[1:04:35] capital of Silicon Valley had moved to Mill Peters. It's on one forget to tell Mayor Ricardo

[1:04:42] how our students who live south of downtown supposed to get to Saturday state.

[1:04:49] Did a new general manager ever consider looking at pre-Massacre like real ridership

[1:04:56] to see where the demand really was in the system because if she had she would have

[1:05:02] discovered that the blue line is actually completely empty no bound by the time

[1:05:09] it gets to Santa Clara. Good job. Thank you.

[1:05:17] Samir, please Samir and begin speaking.

[1:05:21] I'd like to say it's very disrespectful that the CEO is talking about how

[1:05:26] impressive. It is that the light rail is back. The blue line is not functioning at all.

[1:05:33] It takes 20 minutes to 30 minutes to get from the blue line, but it takes three hours to

[1:05:42] take the bus one way, and it's very, very frustrating, especially since we pay $200 as a student

[1:05:48] to just have a fee, you know. And there's no time for him. You call customer service and

[1:05:53] And they're like, oh, we don't know when it's coming back.

[1:05:56] We don't have any time frame.

[1:05:58] They don't know.

[1:05:59] What are we supposed to do is spend three hours each way

[1:06:02] taking the bus, not including the 30 to an hour

[1:06:06] wait for the bus.

[1:06:07] And it's always delayed.

[1:06:08] What about the handicapped students?

[1:06:09] You guys, you guys care at all, it's very frustrating

[1:06:12] when she talks about how impressive it is

[1:06:15] and doesn't mention how frustrated the customers must be,

[1:06:18] especially when we're spending $200 plus dollars

[1:06:21] a student's just for that and it's included.

[1:06:26] Big man, you may begin speaking when you're ready.

[1:06:34] Mr. Big man.

[1:06:38] Hi, here. Can you hear me?

[1:06:40] Yes.

[1:06:41] Great, thank you.

[1:06:43] Blair Big man here, thank you for the General Manager's report.

[1:06:47] I can remember worrying about the cyber attack issues

[1:06:50] and talking about if we just bring on good open democratic

[1:06:54] practices, I think that could offer some important lessons

[1:06:58] for all of us.

[1:06:59] And then I'll just wrap up here's to hoping and our good stuff and we're continuing our good practices into the fall. I really hope we can be considering open democratic practices for the VTA really check it out.

[1:07:15] It's helpful.

[1:07:17] There's rail line issues, the safety issues of the electric lines over the rails.

[1:07:23] I hope that's being worked on.

[1:07:26] And well, with 14 seconds, I think I covered just about everything.

[1:07:31] Let's keep up really good open democratic practices.

[1:07:34] They're positive and they can really help us out of the doldrum.

[1:07:37] Thank you.

[1:07:40] That's the last speaker, Mr. Chair.

[1:07:43] Thank you.

[1:07:43] We will now close.

[1:07:45] Can I just...

[1:07:46] Oh, yeah, go ahead.

[1:07:47] I just want to address some of the comments on the blue line.

[1:07:53] You know, we had to make a decision on how we're bringing back our service.

[1:07:58] The truth is there were some additional repairs and things that we needed to do on the southern blue line.

[1:08:05] So we probably should have mentioned that that's going to take a little more time.

[1:08:09] And so I really am sorry that the people are having to suffer through even longer delays before that line comes on board.

[1:08:15] But we are working as hard as we can with the staff, and we have staffing shortages in some of these areas to be able to inspect the entire system and get it up and running and provide those repairs.

[1:08:25] But we are hoping that we do get that all up and running by mid September.

[1:08:31] Thank you.

[1:08:32] Do any of my colleagues on the board have any questions for the general manager?

[1:08:41] I don't see any hands raised.

[1:08:44] So thank you again, Carolyn, for your report.

[1:08:47] Thank you.

[1:08:49] To the members of the public who have just joined us, we move closed session up on the agenda.

[1:08:55] We will discuss items 9.1A through 9.1E, and we will try to go through these items as efficiently as possible.

[1:09:05] At this time, I would like to ask if there are any members of the public who would like to address the board on the closed session items.

[1:09:14] Great. Do we have any speakers? Yes, we do, Mr. Chair. However, I'd like to note down

[1:09:21] that there is a written comment that was received from Mr. Lebron and it is posted online.

[1:09:28] Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Lebron, go ahead and begin speaking.

[1:09:35] Thank you. So I hope you had the opportunity to read my letter. My question is this how much

[1:09:45] You know, available space you currently have in the north

[1:09:51] first street at the VT headquarters, want to using this.

[1:09:55] This new building is planned it.

[1:09:58] I mean, if you'd see it.

[1:09:59] I mean, it's a shining white elephant.

[1:10:02] I hope you've got enough room in there for your friends at the WSP

[1:10:05] Parsons Brinkerhof.

[1:10:07] You know, that really is a wonderful partnership.

[1:10:11] question through the chair. Are you planning on leading this binding for 10 or 15 years?

[1:10:17] So anyway, that's my two cents for now. Look forward to the P hour, in fact,

[1:10:21] how much of a space we currently are wasting on headquarters. Thank you.

[1:10:28] Mr. Bigman, please send mute and begin speaking.

[1:10:31] Hi, thank you. Blair Bigman here. With all your upcoming litigation issues,

[1:10:36] I hope I can just friendly remind that you know there is a whole new concept of open democratic practices that are happening with the future of community technology data collection.

[1:10:51] It's really interesting positive work based on ideas of peace not war and open democracy sustainability.

[1:10:58] a positive, helpful stuff and can really help us out of difficult times like this.

[1:11:03] I just wanted to remind everyone as we're looking for answers for our future and how

[1:11:08] to better address our future.

[1:11:10] I hope these ideas can really help and if it's possible, can it please be offered by someone

[1:11:16] of the council here?

[1:11:18] How long exactly will this meeting be and when will you return to the public meeting process?

[1:11:23] Thank you.

[1:11:27] that concludes our public speaking thank you we will now close public comments for closed session items board members the closed session teams link is in the calendar invite sent to you by the board office please click that link and call in and we will be back as soon as we can also put your zoom on mute and you can stop your video

[1:11:57] I will see you in teams.

[1:11:59] All right.

[1:12:00] We're going to mute everybody now.

[1:12:35] And then you know how to form.

[1:12:38] Yes, vice chair.

[1:12:39] Just wanted to confirm that are recording.

[1:12:42] Yes, we are recording now.

[1:12:45] Let me just count to make sure all the folks who are here.

[1:12:52] Supposed to be here.

[1:12:53] And we're not being led in on the video, I think.

[1:12:56] Um, you should be able to turn and turn on your video member, but let me, um, there it goes.

[1:13:04] All right.

[1:13:05] Perfect. Thanks.

[1:13:16] Chair, vice chair.

[1:13:17] We're ready to rock and roll.

[1:13:18] Thank you.

[1:13:20] We are now back to open session.

[1:13:22] Thank you for your patience.

[1:13:25] Helen Tran, General Counsel will provide the closed session report for items 9.1A through 9.1E.

[1:13:33] Thank you, vice chair. The board did not take any reportable actions in closed session this evening.

[1:13:40] Thank you, Evelyn. Now on to item number 6, consent agenda, item 6.1 through 6.12.

[1:13:53] Members of the public would like to address the board on an item on consent.

[1:13:58] Please raise your hand now on the app or press star 9 on your phone.

[1:14:03] to my colleagues. Is there anyone who wants to pull an item off consent or add an item to the consent agenda?

[1:14:12] I would move consent.

[1:14:16] All right.

[1:14:19] Been moved and seconded.

[1:14:22] Any abstentions or recuiting?

[1:14:29] Okay. I don't see any.

[1:14:32] So I will now open public comment for items on consent.

[1:14:36] but Rainey, can we have our public speakers?

[1:14:41] Yes, we'll share our first year.

[1:14:43] Big man, you may begin speaking when you're ready.

[1:14:50] Big man.

[1:14:53] Hi, I'm Brad McMinnon.

[1:14:55] On your consent calendar item,

[1:14:57] there's a few items.

[1:15:00] I'm dealing with basically surveillance technology issues, road safety issues, complete streets projects. That sort of thing. So a good reminder, the importance of open public policy practices with surveillance and technology that will be deciding that will be a part of all these complete street projects. And these things are always important to consider.

[1:15:29] and helpful, and I can develop a really interesting fall

[1:15:37] because we're talking about more factual things now,

[1:15:41] and it can be of help.

[1:15:46] Next speaker, Eugene, you may go ahead and begin speaking.

[1:15:52] asion to be brought up.

[1:15:52] Anything Board member, this is Eugene Brown,

[1:15:54] Silicon Valley transit, you use use,

[1:15:56] just wanted to give support.

[1:15:58] Regarding a couple of the consent items that are being brought up,

[1:16:04] in particular item 6.8.

[1:16:06] It's regards the resolution for the financial system.

[1:16:10] This is long overdue.

[1:16:12] And I want to also give my kind of thanks to the Pfizer

[1:16:15] Travis for the kind of supervisors of providing the necessary,

[1:16:20] setting up the necessary traumas that are not only for the victims

[1:16:24] and their families of 526,

[1:16:26] also families of any traumatic crime that needs such services.

[1:16:32] I also want to give a little bit of support to item 6.2 clearly.

[1:16:38] Once light rails fully back up and running.

[1:16:40] I'll discuss this, I've discussed this previous, I'll bring this up in a separate item.

[1:16:45] Having transit, transit, single priority is going to be very big and much needed once light rail goes back in the service again.

[1:16:52] So just want to support to the consent out in 6.2 and 6.8. Thank you.

[1:17:02] Thank you.

[1:17:03] Mr. Player, respectfully, I believe that common courtesy would recommend that you take public

[1:17:11] comment before voting on the item, but anyway, here we go.

[1:17:15] The thing I do want to talk about, though, is 6.6, the complete corridor studies, and I

[1:17:22] will underscore corridor, they never studied the corridor.

[1:17:27] So they basically studied Tasman Drive and they studied Baskam Avenue.

[1:17:33] When you study a corridor and especially in the start of the envelope on bikes and

[1:17:38] beds, the only way you are ever going to get to Vision Zero is you take all the bikes

[1:17:43] and the pets off the main altruists.

[1:17:46] The example I gave was in London, you get off the train, you get on a bike, you get on

[1:17:53] the cycle superhighways, these superhighways avoid major corridors like the

[1:17:59] plane and sooner we start doing this Santa Clara County the better. Thank you.

[1:18:05] That concludes our public speaking. Thank you. Elaine can we do a roll call?

[1:18:11] Please. This is for the consent agenda item 6.1 to 6.12.

[1:18:17] Yes.

[1:18:18] Yes.

[1:18:18] Can I ask all?

[1:18:20] Hi.

[1:18:22] Travis.

[1:18:23] Yes.

[1:18:24] Once in time.

[1:18:25] Hi.

[1:18:26] Gilmore.

[1:18:27] Yes.

[1:18:28] He manages absent.

[1:18:31] The corridor.

[1:18:32] Yes.

[1:18:34] Montana.

[1:18:37] Yes.

[1:18:38] Yes.

[1:18:38] Thank you.

[1:18:39] Paul.

[1:18:42] Welcome back to you.

[1:18:44] Parales.

[1:18:47] Parales.

[1:18:48] Yes.

[1:18:48] Thank you.

[1:18:49] Paul is a yes.

[1:18:50] Thank you.

[1:18:51] Thank you.

[1:18:52] That's okay. Thank you. Submitting.

[1:18:57] Thank you. Jones.

[1:19:02] Motion passed. Thank you. Thank you.

[1:19:06] That takes us to the regular agenda.

[1:19:10] First item on the regular agenda is item 7.1,

[1:19:14] which is to accept the design development framework for the transit

[1:19:18] oriented development site located on the VTA block in downtown San Jose. This item was

[1:19:25] deferred from the previous meetings and Ron Golem Director of Real Estate and Transit

[1:19:29] oriented development will provide a brief report.

[1:19:33] Great. Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair, also joining me is Peter Sogeloff, who's the principal

[1:19:38] of foster and partners architects. Okay, the next slide, please.

[1:19:44] So this presentation is about

[1:19:47] the VTA blocking future TOD and I know there's this is a very large topic and so I just want to be

[1:19:52] clear starting out that what we're asking the board to do tonight is to accept a design development

[1:19:57] of framework that is really a vision and a framework document that sets standards for how we can create

[1:20:03] World Class TOD on the site and I'm making this point because what we're presenting tonight is not a plan

[1:20:08] it is not a proposal or a project and that's why we're asking for acceptance. At next month's

[1:20:13] meaning we'll come back to the board and talk about the process for doing development and

[1:20:18] all the issues that come from that.

[1:20:20] So briefly set this stage for this discussion.

[1:20:22] For downtown San Jose, a VTA crony owns approximately 70% of the five acre downtown San Jose block

[1:20:29] where the downtown San Jose bar station will be located.

[1:20:32] This site was acquired many years ago for the purposes of foreign bar construction.

[1:20:36] Once construction starts and through maybe 28 it will be construction site.

[1:20:40] But once the bar construction is completed,

[1:20:42] it becomes an opportunity to leverage

[1:20:43] that 70% of property for major development

[1:20:46] that leverages the investment in barter.

[1:20:49] We've been working over the past couple of years

[1:20:51] in collaboration with the other property owners

[1:20:53] on the block to have the other 30%.

[1:20:55] To think about what could this block become?

[1:20:58] And as with any city block development,

[1:21:00] the best possible outcome comes when you think

[1:21:02] about the entire block as a whole.

[1:21:04] And in our discussions, we've all realized,

[1:21:07] and Peter will talk about this a minute,

[1:21:08] that we have the potential if all the owners can work in concert to create up to 1.8 million square feet of mixed use, mixed income, TOD, including significant affordable housing.

[1:21:19] And by the time that finishes being built in year of expenditure, we're talking about nearly $2 billion worth of development.

[1:21:26] Conversely, we've also come to realize that if every owner goes their own way, including the VTA, that the go-to-on approach reduces all this potential by more than 20%.

[1:21:33] So the challenge we started out with is how does the VTA, as a public agency, set a standard

[1:21:40] and a benchmark for how to create more class QD that really lures the bargaining investment,

[1:21:45] that maximizes the benefits to VTA.

[1:21:48] They can engage the other owners in a flexible and feasible plan about how to do this.

[1:21:53] And it also allows us to conduct in the future a developer offering that really attracts

[1:21:57] the largest and most experienced developers from throughout the country and beyond the experience

[1:22:02] student projects at this scale. Next slide. So the beginning point for this, and this is why we

[1:22:09] have the image of the current parking lot on the left, which is VTS property plus one building,

[1:22:14] is that we think it's essential for VTA to first identify and create that standard

[1:22:19] for what does world class TOT on this block look like. To do that, we brought more fostering partners

[1:22:24] who's already been working with the BAR project on station design to help lead this effort.

[1:22:29] What we've created is a design development framework, and you'll hear more about a minute from Peter,

[1:22:34] that really provides guidance to VTA to developers into the community about what won't

[1:22:39] pass to you.

[1:22:40] They will look like what the elements are and the issues to address.

[1:22:43] So as I said, it's not a client proposal, but it's the guidance about how to address key

[1:22:46] considerations.

[1:22:47] And so you'll see various illustrations, massings, designs, and so on, but these are in

[1:22:51] time to set the stage for future planning and design and review proposals as they come

[1:22:56] in.

[1:22:57] And with that, I'd like to turn over to Peter, really given the length of the document,

[1:23:02] he will only give you a brief overview of some of the key items.

[1:23:05] The full design development document has been on the website for a number of months, and

[1:23:08] we have social pinpoint media site with folks that have been commenting.

[1:23:12] But with that, let me turn over to Peter to give you a very brief overview.

[1:23:18] Thank you very much.

[1:23:19] Good evening, everyone.

[1:23:21] If you can go to the next slide, please.

[1:23:24] As Ron mentioned, fostering partners has both global and local experience working on

[1:23:29] world-class transit oriented development. We were tasked by VTA to develop a world-class

[1:23:35] approach to TOD for the VTA block at the future downtown San Jose Bard station.

[1:23:42] The result of the work is a design development framework document that will be used to assess

[1:23:47] future TOD work on the site. This presentation is essentially a summary of that proposed

[1:23:52] D-D-F document. Next.

[1:23:59] So over the past 18 months or so we've had multiple outreach meetings with

[1:24:02] stakeholders to discuss our approach. The meetings included downtown residents, downtown

[1:24:07] business association, neighboring property owners, and the city of San Jose and other key stakeholders.

[1:24:14] Next.

[1:24:17] We started our studies by exploring the history of the downtown area and the evolution

[1:24:22] of the site over time. Our goal is to recreate the thriving pedestrian and transit-friendly urban

[1:24:27] center that was at the heart of downtown San Jose in the era prior to the automobile

[1:24:32] and the gradual process of decentralization that followed. Next,

[1:24:40] the DDF is also built

[1:24:41] on all the valuable work that have already been done by the time we started. You can click next

[1:24:47] again. Yep, there you go, which includes the community working group input and also taking on board

[1:24:54] the city of San Jose's own aspirations and guidelines for the site including recommendations on

[1:24:58] and massing and accessibility.

[1:25:02] Next, from this research and analysis,

[1:25:05] we developed a series of five key design principles

[1:25:09] that are at the core of the design development framework

[1:25:11] document.

[1:25:13] The first of these principles is public realm activation.

[1:25:17] At the core of this guideline is the creation

[1:25:19] of a public plaza at the center of the VTA block.

[1:25:22] The plaza would act as a gateway to the BART station

[1:25:25] as well as an event space and gathering

[1:25:27] space for the community.

[1:25:28] This is a conceptual view from the downtown station looking out into the proposed plaza.

[1:25:34] Note that the precise location and configuration of the plaza is not prescribed by the TVF.

[1:25:39] Next.

[1:25:44] The second guideline relates to the creation of pedestrian walkways or paseos,

[1:25:49] which help to subdivide the parcel, improve connectivity, and make for a more pedestrian-friendly environment around the station.

[1:25:55] There's an existing network of paseos already in downtown.

[1:25:58] and given the block lengths, these new piseos are an important way to improve walkability and increase access to the station and the plaza.

[1:26:07] Next.

[1:26:09] There are also two key historically sensitive topics which have to be addressed in the VTA block.

[1:26:14] The first is the St. James Park Historic District which limits building heights around the park.

[1:26:20] And number two, the existing historic building and loan building at 81 West Santa Clara directly adjacent to the station.

[1:26:27] any future design or massing needs to be sensitive to these historic sites and

[1:26:31] ensure that any new development does not overshadow or overwhelm these

[1:26:35] historic resources. Next,

[1:26:40] the fourth guideline is to enhance the urban

[1:26:42] character and the public interfaces around the station. By restoring by respecting

[1:26:47] the historic data of 40 to 60 feet along Santa Clara Street, all the buildings

[1:26:52] will share a common podium base consisting of solid materials and the towers

[1:26:57] above will be set back with the material change to lighter construction. This guideline helps

[1:27:01] to integrate the new development with the historic character of downtown and create a more

[1:27:06] outdoor amenity space above the ground plane. Next. The VTA block is going to target building

[1:27:14] uses and construction methods that are aligned with VTA's sustainability and equity goals.

[1:27:19] These can be achieved through the creation of new housing, stock at a range of affordability

[1:27:23] levels and targeting a net zero energy development, which minimizes the amount of embodied operational

[1:27:29] carbon in the new construction.

[1:27:33] Next, so after multiple studies, what we developed was the following diagram to explain

[1:27:38] how the DDF approach might be applied to optimize these goals.

[1:27:42] We start on the top left with a solid block that's built up all the way to the current maximum

[1:27:48] building height all in one in one big block. And then like a block of play, you slowly carve away

[1:27:55] at it. The first step, number two, shows the carving away of the plaza at the center of the block.

[1:28:02] Then number three, the Paseo subdivide the block and provide access into the site. And then

[1:28:07] continuing through a series of moves, we create the podium, set back the towers above, gradually carve

[1:28:13] away at the massing to allow more light into the plaza and create outdoor terraces for building

[1:28:18] occupants. Next,

[1:28:22] what we arrive at is a test fit study which has commercial uses focused

[1:28:27] along Santa Clara street and market streets with first and Saint John's being quieter

[1:28:32] and more suited to residential use. Hotel is also proposed on the corner of Saint John's

[1:28:37] and first street. On the right what you see is a ground floor plan of the VTA block

[1:28:44] with all the buildings above sliced off which shows you all of the different buildings,

[1:28:48] the Paseos and the proposed plaza at the center as well as the Bard station.

[1:28:53] The test fit achieves an approximate FAR of 8 and also meets the city's

[1:28:57] requirement for a 4FAR for commercial use.

[1:29:01] Next.

[1:29:03] Florida Floor Heights have also been adjusted to respect the commercial podium along

[1:29:07] Santa Clara Street. That's shown in the lower images.

[1:29:11] And then the terracing of views to access views of St. James Park and the open spaces

[1:29:17] is to the northeast, as is shown in the upper diagrams.

[1:29:21] All of this is conceptual at this stage, and marketing realities will ultimately drive

[1:29:25] the final mix and configuration.

[1:29:28] Next.

[1:29:32] The DVFs intended to be a flexible framework, not a final design, as the actual plan develops

[1:29:37] it can be adjusted to achieve its overall goals.

[1:29:40] There's also an opportunity to make changes and adjust massing based on future demand to

[1:29:44] go taller in some areas, as is shown in blue on the diagram on the left, and then shorter

[1:29:50] in other areas, or to merge floor plates if that's desired.

[1:29:54] Next,

[1:29:57] another topic critical to the overall success of the...

[1:30:00] The DDF is the approach to parking. The DDF seeks to solution which will open up the ground floor to pedestrians and public spaces. So we started off by exploring a range of different options of what the site could support. Looking from the far left, which shows the current San Jose parking requirements, which are likely to be obsolete by the time this project is actually realized, to the far right, which would be a single basement level of parking, to study the range of options that are available to us on the

[1:30:29] site next.

[1:30:34] With car stackers and two basement levels, you can achieve approximately

[1:30:40] over a thousand parking spaces on the site. On the left is a plan with the

[1:30:45] basement level and you can see the backup house part facilities are

[1:30:51] directly underneath the plaza with the parking wrapping around.

[1:30:58] If you go to the

[1:30:59] sexual section of what that looks like showing how the

[1:31:04] BART station and back-of-house areas are coordinated to allow for the future

[1:31:07] TOD as well as a two-level basement with parking below the plaza and the TOD

[1:31:13] buildings above. Next,

[1:31:18] this chart shows a broad range of parking supply that has

[1:31:23] been provided on recent projects that are all within close proximity of the VTA

[1:31:28] block. Given the shift towards reducing parking ratios, the EDF proposes that VTA

[1:31:34] aspire to be at the forefront of this trend.

[1:31:38] Next,

[1:31:41] looking forward, it's unlikely

[1:31:42] that any of this work can begin on TOD on site prior to the completion of the

[1:31:46] station construction in 2028. For this

Board of Directors BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

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