S.F.’s transit board reduced to minimal size
The board that oversees all aspects of transportation in San Francisco — from Muni buses to escooters to parking — is set to lose nearly half of its seven members next week.
So far, the Board of Supervisors has declined to reappoint one member and has postponed hearings to confirm another nominee. With a third director set to retire on Wednesday, the board will be down to four members, just enough to have a quorum to vote.
“If one of us is absent, then everything screeches to a halt,” said Director Cheryl Brinkman. She and others were chagrined to see the board all but gutted, at a moment when the transportation agency is grappling with COVID19 — and hemorrhaging money.
With the coronavirus pandemic and economic shutdown, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency will have to make quick, pivotal decisions on how to enforce social distancing, when to reopen Muni Metro light rail, what rules to impose regarding face coverings and whether to expand its Slow Streets program of closing roadways to car traffic. If a person has to miss a meeting because of work or illness, the board would be hobbled.
The crisis became apparent Tuesday, when the supervisors voted against reappointing board Director Cristina Rubke, a disability rights advocate who has served since 2012. Six supervisors opposed her confirmation, citing her support of a budget that included a 25cent Muni fare hike in the middle of the pandemic. Some supervisors were also rankled when Rubke and two other directors voted against naming the future Chinatown Central Subway Station after the late power broker Rose Pak.
Yet during the meeting, Supervisor Hillary Ronen alluded to a more fundamental power struggle between the supervisors and Mayor London Breed, who fills every vacant seat on the MTA board. The supervisors passed two resolutions over the past year — one to name the Chinatown station after Rose Pak, and another protesting the fare hike. Although the MTA ultimately approved the Rose Pak christening, Ronen said the directors ignored both resolutions.
By ousting Rubke, Ronen hoped to send “a message to the MTA board that when we speak ... overwhelmingly at this Board of Supervisors, we do not want to be ignored by that board, which is appointed, by the way, exclusively by the mayor.”
Brinkman was stung by the vote, and called Rubke “a casualty of war.” Rubke was not immediately available for comment Thursday.
This week, the supervisors also canceled a meeting of their threemember Rules Committee on Monday. It would have been the first hearing on Breed’s new MTA board nominee, Jane Natoli. When Director Art Torres steps down on Wednesday to join the University of California Board of Regents, the MTA board will be reduced to four members.
“It certainly surprised me when Cristina wasn’t confirmed, so I wanted to take this opportunity to share my qualifications,” Natoli told The Chronicle, noting that she’s spent the past several days on the phone or in Zoom meetings with various supervisors, listening to their concerns.
A few raised objections to the fare increases, while others felt they didn’t have enough input when Breed and transportation chief Jeffrey Tumlin rolled out the plans for Slow Streets.
“I haven’t made a decision on Jane Natoli, but I will watch closely to see what her plans and her vision are,” Supervisor Matt Haney said. He was one of the six votes who blocked Rubke’s confirmation, along with Ronen, Aaron Peskin, Dean Preston, Sandra Lee Fewer and Shamann Walton.
Shortly after the meeting, the prohousing group SF YIMBY began circulating a petition in support of Natoli. She is a bicycle activist who favors dense housing near transit, a form of urban design that has proved controversial in San Francisco. If confirmed, she would be the first transgender woman to serve on the transportation board.
None of these traits seemed to convince Peskin, who did not take a position on whether or not to confirm Natoli. However, he said she illustrates “a disturbing trend of the mayor rewarding her political allies with highlevel appointments.”
Breed endorsed Natoli for a seat on the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, a race she lost this year. But that doesn’t signify a trend, said the mayor’s spokesman Jeff Cretan.
“The mayor nominated Jane because she’s a committed transit advocate who is deeply involved in the community,” Cretan said.
Natoli, meanwhile, said she’s eager to take the seat and help the transit agency move forward.