Rescue Muni announced plans last week to fight Supervisor Tom Ammiano’s recently approved charter amendment that would allow the Board of Supervisors to appoint three of the seven people on the Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA). The MTA governs MUNI, responsible for everything from hiring the Executive Director to approving the transit agency’s massive yearly budget. Rescue Muni chair Andrew Sullivan cast the amendment, which will appear on this November’s ballot, as a “naked power grab” and a sure-fire way to destroy Proposition E, sending San Francisco “back to the bad old days” of the Metro Meltdown. These alarmist claims reveal three things. One, it appears Mayor Gavin Newsom’s endorsement of Sullivan in November’s District 5 elections came with a price. Two, the proposal will not destroy Prop. E – in fact, one of the people most essential to the creation of Prop. E and one of its biggest supporters, Ammiano, wrote the amendment. And three, Rescue Muni’s vigorous opposition to the amendment – which stands in stark contrast to their relative silence over recent fare hikes – shows they believe the MTA, which consistently presides over a structural deficit resulting in less service at a greater cost, doesn’t need reform. It’s doubtful the voters of San Francisco will agree.
The claim that Ammiano’s amendment is a power grab by the Board of Supervisors can be considered the most egregious misrepresentation of the amendment. To give appointment power of three of the MTA’s seven members to the Board would cause quite the opposite – a balancing of power rather than the concentration of it.
Sullivan argues that the Supervisors must confirm or deny the Mayor’s choices, giving them enough power already in the appointment process. But the supermajority required for rejection of a candidate makes this “power” negligible, as does the fact that the Board cannot currently choose a single MTA candidate to approve or reject, but must deal with whomever the Mayor chooses. This leaves splitting the appointment power the only real way to balance control over the MTA.
Sullivan’s support of Newsom in 2003 and the Mayor’s consequent endorsement of Sullivan in last year’s District 5 race, however, reveal the chair of the avowedly “nonpartisan” Rescue Muni to have vested political interests in the outcome of Ammiano’s proposal. Because it takes power, no matter how small an amount, away from the Mayor, Newsom will oppose it. Some of Sullivan’s reasons for opposition are likely similar.
Sadly, what’s best for the Mayor is not always best for San Franciscans. District elections brought real neighborhood representation to the Board of Supervisors, and this same sort of representation should be extended to the governance of our public transportation. Ammiano’s amendment would help do just that.
To make fire and brimstone claims about the proposal sending MUNI into a pre-Prop. E nightmare also severely misrepresents the proposal. Prop. E made massive changes to the way MUNI was run, folding the Department of Parking and Traffic and MUNI together into one agency and attempting to instill some performance standards into that body.
Yet now, Rescue Muni would have voters believe that Prop. E is like a pyramid of playing cards, and to touch one would make the entire structure tumble. This simply isn’t the case. Ammiano’s proposal will make a minor change to Prop. E, one that will improve rather than destroy it, and one that will not alter any of its most important mechanisms.
Furthermore, of all the people to accuse of trying to destroy Prop. E, Ammiano seems a bizarre choice. His efforts proved instrumental in the proposition’s creation and approval, leaving the chances of him trying to dismantle it slim to none.
Finally, to bury one’s head in the sand while the MTA continues to raise fares and cut service without doing anything will not solve MUNI’s problems. Ammiano’s proposal represents an important first step in fixing an agency that continues to operate with a structural deficit without actively seeking new sources of revenue, causing it to consistently balance its budget on the backs of transit riders.
When San Franciscans see their MUNI fares go up twice in three years and service reduced at the same time, they want change. Giving more neighborhood representation to the MTA will likely bring just that, as similar plans for reforming the Planning Commission and Police Commission have done.
This November, voters should find it easy to cut through any rhetoric espoused by Rescue Muni or Andrew Sullivan and see Amminao’s amendment for what it is – a sensible, reasonable step towards making public transportation more affordable, reliable, and better overall for our city’s residents.
