Budget committee advances Muni authorization to buy 45 buses and rehabilitate 80 more

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Budget and Finance Committee on an unspecified date moved forward a resolution authorizing the Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA, commonly called Muni) to acquire 45 40-foot diesel-hybrid buses to replace vehicles past their useful life and to rehabilitate up to 80 additional buses.

Sponsor Supervisor Scott Wiener said the authorization would increase the number of usable vehicles and make service more dependable. “It will make the system more reliable. It will make service more dependable,” Wiener said in opening remarks.

Committee members questioned whether the department had all funds in hand. Chair Carmen Chu and the Budget and Legislative Analyst had discussed a suggested reduction in the measure’s not-to-exceed amount. Severn Campbell of the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s Office said staff recommended lowering the not-to-exceed authorization from $36,900,000 to about $34,300,000 based on MTA budget information. Campbell said the reduction followed an analysis of the department’s shortfall and budgeted amounts.

City Controller Ben Rosenfield told the committee that charter controls limit encumbrances to appropriated funds and that, in multiyear contracts, the Controller’s Office prevents departments from spending beyond the appropriation available for a given fiscal year. “We would only allow the department to encumber the piece of the contract for which they had funds in hand and for which the Board has approved an appropriation,” Rosenfield said.

The committee recorded no public speakers on the item. Chair Chu said the Controller’s controls were typical for multiyear contracts and proposed moving the legislation forward as presented rather than adopting the analyst’s smaller number. The committee moved the item to the full Board with a recommendation as presented, doing so “without objection.” The motion did not include a recorded roll-call vote in the committee minutes.

Clarifying note: the clerk’s initial reading of the item included a different large dollar figure earlier in the agenda text; committee discussion and the analyst’s recommendation repeatedly referenced a $36,900,000 not-to-exceed figure and a recommended reduction to $34,300,000. That discrepancy was discussed in committee and was not resolved on the record beyond the committee’s decision to advance the item as presented.

The full Board will consider the resolution at the next agenda noted by the clerk.