Getting ahead with anti-carism

Jeffrey Tumlin

FROM:

Mary Miles (SB #230395)

Attorney at Law

San Francisco, CA  94102

(415) 863-2310

for Coalition for Adequate Review

TO:  

Thomas Maguire, Interim Director

Roberta Boomer, Board Secretary, and

Members of the Board of Directors

San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency

1 S. Van Ness Avenue, 7th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94103

PUBLIC COMMENT, MTA BOARD, NOVEMBER 19, 2019, AGENDA ITEM 13,  PROPOSED APPOINTMENT OF JEFFREY TUMLIN AS DIRECTOR OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MUNICIPAL TRANSPORTATION AGENCY

This is public comment opposing the proposed appointment of Jeffrey Tumlin as Director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency ("MTA"). Please distribute a copy of this Comment to each member of the MTA Board and place copies in all applicable files.

The proposed appointment presents ethical and legal questions and conflicts of interest, has been shrouded in secrecy in violation of Public Records Act/Sunshine Ordinance Requests, and offers no evidence that Mr. Tumlin is qualified to direct the transportation system of San Francisco.  

Mr. Tumlin's role as corporate principal of the global Nelson-Nygaard corporation presents an apparent conflict of interest, since that firm with Mr. Tumlin has been a paid private consultant on many City Projects, including the Market-Octavia, Balboa Park, Central Waterfront, Glen Park, Visitation Valley, and Ocean Beach Master Plan projects. These contracts on City Projects indicate a potential conflict of interest that MTA has failed to disclose and must publicly consider before the proposed appointment.  

The fact that Mr. Tumlin is a principal in a large consulting corporation with millions in contracts from the City and County of San Francisco and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority should disqualify him from the $342,483-per year position as MTA Director.  

That conflict is undisclosed, and the records of Mr. Tumlin's and Nelson-Nygaard's for-profit private dealings with the City are not available to the public from MTA. There is no assurance that Mr. Tumlin and Nelson-Nygaard will not profit from such a conflict of interest.  

MTA's anonymous staff report also notes that Mr. Tumlin's firm has "stitched together an historic neighborhood following the removal of the Central Freeway," when in fact the Market-Octavia Project has created chronic traffic congestion in the Hayes Valley neighborhood and throughout the City's central area.

MTA's staff report also states Mr. Tumlin and his firm have been leading advocates of the SFCTA's congestion pricing project in spite of its rejection in public opinion polls by the majority of San Francisco residents, while claiming that charging motorists to travel on public streets would somehow achieve "equity." 

Mr. Tumlin's long tenure at Nelson-Nygaard shows no interest in modes of transportation other than bicycling and anti-car "improvements" to city streets, including the contracts with San Francisco agencies. 

MTA published Mr. Tumlin's claim that he was "a month away from being homeless" when he began his career in "transportation" after getting a B.A. in Urban Studies at Stanford, one of the most expensive universities in the world. In that November 13, 2019 interview on MTA's web site, Mr. Tumlin restates his anti-car agenda as some form of "equity" or "diversity."  

No information is disclosed of any public employment or qualification to direct the public transportation system of a large City. The Director of MTA must serve the vast majority who choose to travel by motor vehicles, not just a (2.4%) minority of bicyclists who dominate the transportation system of San Francisco with projects opposed by the majority.  

The selection process was conducted entirely in secret. Efforts to obtain any information on other applicants for the Director position or the process that resulted in Mr. Tumlin's selection remain undisclosed in spite of Public Records Act and Sunshine Ordinance Requests. MTA's staff report claims without support that "the search committee conducted significant internal and external outreach" on the appointment. 

This Commenter requested under the Public Records Act and Sunshine Ordinance copies of all records of the "search" and received no record showing who applied, when, records of "surveys," interviews and other records showing the selection process, much less disclosing Mr. Tumlin's potential conflict of interest.

Mr. Tumlin's conflict of interest requires that this Board reject his proposed appointment as Director of MTA.

Rob's comment:
Early in his career, Tumlin went too far with the anti-car stuff, but he can't go far enough in San Francisco, the city where Critical Mass was born.

See also The bike lobby is working to save the planet, and Drive in SF? You will be punished.