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Executive Director's Report

Report to the Commission: November 15, 2023

Personnel

New Appointments

  • Tarek Radwan – Tarek started with MTC on November 13th as the Assistant Director, Operational Accounting in the Finance section.
  • Glenn Brown – Glenn started with MTC on November 13th as a Doorway Technical Operations Manager in the Technology Services section.
  • Babs Deffenderfer – Babs started with MTC on November 13th as a Doorway Listings and Partner Project Manager in the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority section.
  • John Nguyen – John will be starting with MTC on November 27th as a Junior Financial Analyst in the Treasury and Revenue section.

Updates

CTC Recommends Two Bay Area Projects for Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program

California Transportation Commission (CTC) released the staff recommendations for the Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program (LTCAP) earlier this month. This competitive cycle of LTCAP included roughly $300 million in funding available statewide for the development and implementation of capital projects adapting local transportation infrastructure to climate changes. CTC’s staff recommendations include $56 million for two projects in the Bay Area: $6 million for BART (Expansion and Contraction of Steel Rail in Contra Costa County) and $50 million for MTC (Resilient SR-37 Sears Point to Mare Island Improvement). The proposed award to MTC will improve the resilience of SR-37 to better withstand rising seas and storm surges. The CTC will consider adopting the LTCAP program at its December 6-7 meeting in Riverside.

Bay Wheels Bikeshare Expansion

On November 3, I was joined by MTC Chair Alfredo Pedroza and ABAG President Jesse Arreguin at a Bay Wheels bikeshare program press event announcing the addition of 2,300 new e-bikes and docking stations to San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville, and a price reduction in annual Bay Wheels membership and usage rates. In related news, Commissioner Matt Mahan participated in the November 7th celebration of Bay Wheels’ San Jose e-bike expansion.

SMART’s Petaluma North Station Groundbreaking

SMART celebrated the groundbreaking of the Petaluma North Station on November 9. In addition to transportation benefits, the project will also support 131 new affordable housing units adjacent to the station. MTC was represented at the groundbreaking by Commissioner and SMART board member David Rabbitt, Chief Deputy Executive Director Alix Bockelman, former Commissioner (and state assemblymember) Damon Connolly and former Commissioner Jake Mackenzie.

Working Waterfront Coalition

Last week, I joined leaders of the Working Waterfront Coalition to visit Oakland’s Fremont High School Pre-Apprenticeship program. The Coalition is an employer-led, state-funded regional workforce development effort focused on growing the Bay Area’s waterfront economy by training young people and those reentering the workforce from the criminal justice system. The Coalition includes the Port of Oakland, multiple county workforce development boards (Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano), unions, as well as participating employers. Waterfront jobs offer good careers with excellent benefits and are especially helpful in achieving diversity, equity and inclusion goals.

Programs like the one offered by Fremont High School offer trade-skills training to supplement, or as an alternative to, four-year college-track programs. Access to reliable transportation is a key determining success factor for the participants, and we are studying ways MTC might innovate. For example, Solano Mobility, developed by the Solano Transportation Authority, uses OBAG funds to offer discounted rideshare services to older adults, students, people with disabilities and others, and might be a good model to build upon.

Local Government Roundtable

On November 6, Chief Deputy Executive Director Alix Bockelman and MTC’s Regional Planning Program Director Matt Maloney participated in the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research’s Local Government Roundtable. Several Bay Area city managers were also in attendance, including those from Oakland, Santa Rosa and Petaluma.

Large Bridge Project Program Grant Application

BATA is submitting a grant application this month to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Large Bridge Project Program to fund the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge West Span Revitalization & Innovation Project. This aligns with the Bay Area Regional Priority Project List, under which the region’s top priority for this program, the Golden Gate Bridge Seismic Retrofit, successfully secured funding last year.

COMTO NorCal 20th Annual Gala

The annual gala will take place on December 1 and amongst industry winners are my predecessor, Therese McMillan, who will be presented with the Shirley Douglas Lifetime Achievement award and MTCs own DeNise Blake who will be presented with the Member of the Year award. Heartfelt congratulations are extended to them both on these very deserving recognitions.

Holiday Wreath Returns to Yerba Buena Island Tunnel

Earlier this month, BATA kicked off the holiday season with installation of the holiday wreath over the westbound portal of the Yerba Buena Island Tunnel on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The inspiration for this tradition was a wreath placed in this same spot in 1937. This year’s installation was overseen by BATA staff James Go and marks the 12th annual installment since BATA revived the tradition in 2011. We can officially now say “Happy Holidays!”