Muni

On March 1, the terms of the MTA Board's two longest-serving directors will end, and a convergence of factors could make their reappointment or replacement more closely scrutinized than any in the agency's ten-year history. Adding to the uncertainty, one or both of the directors - Shirley Breyer Black and Rev. Dr. James McCray, Jr. - may actually be termed out of their seats, depending on how the City Attorney's office interprets the City Charter.

In a move that delighted the dozens of MTA bus and light-rail drivers and representatives of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 250 at the Board of Supervisor's Rules Committee Meeting today, Supervisor Sean Elsbernd withdrew a proposed charter amendment that would have removed a provision in the city charter that sets Muni base wages and benefits, on average, to the two highest paying transit systems nationally. The amendment would have required base wages and benefits be set through collective bargaining.

Two new online campaigns are helping transit supporters pressure the Mayor to save Muni from the brink of massive service cuts.

Muni's budget saga continued today as the MTA Board heard details on proposed service cuts and future deficits, prompting a growing outcry from the city's transit riders. The cuts would include eliminating ten percent of Muni service, bringing frequencies on many routes to historic lows.

A proposed ballot measure that would change the way Muni operator salaries and benefits are set didn't appear to have much steam after a tense Rules Committee meeting on Thursday.

The MTA released detailed plans (PDF) today for how it would eliminate ten percent of Muni service -  the most severe cuts in the Municipal Railway's 97-year history. As promised, almost every line would see service reductions, a draconian measure MTA staff is proposing to help close the agency's $16.9 million end-of-year budget deficit. The MTA also revealed today it faces projected deficits of $52.7 million and $45.3 million for the next two fiscal years - even after calculating in the proposed service cuts and other deficit-closing measures.

It's no secret who controls the MTA budget, and the pared down solutions that wind up on the table to solve the agency's worsening deficit, so it comes as no surprise what happened yesterday at City Hall in Room 200 when the Mayor's office called in three members of the MTA Board of Directors who so boldly expressed an interest in extending parking meter hours at their last meeting. Directors Jerry Lee, Cameron Beach and Bruce Oka were apparently told to back off. At least one of them, however, is bucking the Mayor's wishes.

A Board of Supervisors committee is set to vote on a proposed ballot initiative that would end a decades-old policy of guaranteeing Muni operators the second-highest transit operator wages in the country. The Rules Committee will take up the proposal at its 10 a.m. meeting tomorrow, after a week in which the proposal's sponsor, Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, and Muni labor leaders met to hash out what such a ballot measure would look like.

Riding the 28-19th Avenue northbound towards the Richmond on a recent weekday afternoon, Pamela Moye has almost nothing but good things to say about Muni.