Wednesday, November 14, 2018

City Hall praises departing CFO---and itself


Her[Sonali Rose's] financial reforms doubled SFMTA’s budget so it could run more buses and trains than ever before in The City’s history. Her SF Park program pioneered dynamic meter pricing. She created the agency’s first-ever rainy day reserve fund and secured funding for the billion-dollar Central Subway. Her financial stewardship led SFMTA to carry the highest credit rating of any public transit agency in the United States.

Is Muni running "more buses and trains than ever before"? Like to see some numbers on that claim. Typical that Rodriguez didn't press Rose or the MTA for that information. 

Providing more money for the Central Subway is a mixed blessing, since that project began as an unnecessary boondoggle, though it may eventually redeem itself if/when it's extended to Fisherman's Wharf.

It's good that Rose helped put the system on a solid financial footing, but as of 2017 the SFMTA had 6,387 employees. If there are 2,200 drivers, what do the rest of those people do?

The agency has a $1.2 billion operating budget and a $600 million capital budget.

All Rodriguez's quotations for this story are from essentially self-serving sources: Peskin, Wiener, and Reiskin. See what a great job Rose---and by extension, we---are doing!


Next time he talks to Reiskin, maybe Rodriguez can get him to explain why the new, $26 million Masonic Avenue is attracting so few cyclists to its gaudy green bike lanes.

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