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Audit finds Munion-time performance and crowding lag targets; MTA accepts most recommendations
Summary
A Nelson Nygaard audit of Muni (covering fiscal years 2003'004) found falling on-time performance, rising crowding and problematic historical accident reporting. MTA staff said it accepts most recommendations and outlined hiring, reporting and pilot steps to improve reliability.
Bonnie Nelson, president of Nelson Nygaard, told the Government Audits and Oversight Committee that the contract audit required under Proposition E reviewed Muni data collected in fiscal years 2003 and 2004 and found the agency generally collects and reports data accurately but that key customer-facing measures worsened during the audit period.
"On-time performance hovered around 70% and did not increase," Nelson said, noting the Prop E service standard was raised during the period from 80% to 85%. She said the audit also found problems with historical accident data that make trend analysis difficult and recommended reporting accident rates (accidents per miles or service hours) rather than raw counts.
Nelson said Muni's percent of scheduled service actually delivered varies widely and correlates almost exactly with operator availability: "If Muni had 100% of its operators available, its on-time performance would improve immediately." She reported that the share of routes exceeding Muni's crowding standard (80—5% of capacity) grew from about 11% in the audit window to as many as 30% in more recent data, affecting core corridors including the 38 (Geary), the 30 Stockton and several express lines.
Judson True, speaking for the Municipal Transportation Agency, said the agency welcomes the audit and agrees with almost all recommendations; he said staff will carry the recommendations through the Citizens Advisory Committee and the MTA board, with board action required by July 1. True described near-term steps: increased hiring of operators, efforts to improve vehicle availability and pilots that showed measurable gains.
On staffing, True said Muni has roughly 200 funded operator vacancies and has hired about 75 new operators since last fall, is shortening processing time for new hires and is increasing training throughput. He confirmed training to bring an operator to revenue service remains about 9—10 weeks but that preboarding/processing has been reduced from eight to six weeks.
Committee members pressed the agency on unscheduled absences and the MOU; True said the current MOU removes a mechanism for unexplained "miss-outs" without discipline and that management is pursuing a program to reduce unscheduled absences by 10% year-over-year.
The committee asked MTA to send a letter to the clerk outlining which audit recommendations the MTA board has accepted, implemented or rejected and to return to the committee for any major outstanding items. The committee continued the item to the call of the chair so the board can act and report back.
