Press Officers Who Won't Talk

It has come down to this: public information officers paid with your tax dollars, refusing to answer reporters’ questions. As we reported on the 6pm news tonight, we began filing Sunshine requests five months ago, to find out which MUNI bus drivers get the most complaints. The first surveillance tape MUNI’s just turned over to us raises serious questions about how the agency’s drivers respond to crime on their buses. Nat Ford heads the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which oversees MUNI. We’ve been trying to interview him for our series of reports, and filed a new request to interview him for today’s investigation. MTA spokeswoman Maggie Lynch told us that Ford “was not interested” in discussing the issues with us. We asked to interview her and she declined. So, Monday morning, there we were at 7am – waiting for Nat Ford to arrive at work, camera ready. We didn’t see Ford, but Maggie Lynch spotted us waiting in the MTA garage. Within a few minutes, she e-mailed us these answers to some of the questions we sent Nat Ford. It’s a continuing problem -- should we really have to go through this to get answers from public officials?

Written Answers from SFMTA Director Nat Ford

I-Team: Are you confident that Muni bus drivers are properly preventing and/or responding to crime on Muni buses?

Ford: We take operator and passenger safety very seriously. Operators are required to report all observed incidents of crime immediately. We have a very close working relationship with the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD). During calendar year 2006, 2058 reports were made and 1190 arrests resulted from those reports. Vehicle operators are not trained police officers. Our vehicles operate on the streets of San Francisco and are equally vulnerable locations for the same crimes that happen on the streets. Unfortunately, operators often become victims themselves in the normal course of their duties in addition to when they physically intervene when a crime is happening on one of our vehicles.

I-Team: What investigation, if any, did Muni conduct into driver Robert Parks' (ID#1689) handling of an assault that occurred on his bus on December 22, 2005? And what were the results of any investigation?

Ford: The SFMTA has a process for investigating alleged incidents occurring on our transit vehicles, as well as processes for imposing discipline on operators and handling discipline-related disputes. But you should understand that in light of the personal privacy protections in the California Constitution, I am not at liberty to discuss specific personnel matters or incidents involving SFMTA’s transit operators.

I-Team: How did Muni respond to PSR #181188, where a passenger complained about Robert Parks' (ID#1689) lack of response to a pickpocket incident that occurred on the bus?

Ford: Again, while SFMTA has procedures for investigating incidents and for imposing discipline on operators, because of the State Constitution’s privacy protections with respect to personnel matters, I am not at liberty to discuss specific incidents or allegations against a particular operator.

I-Team: Both of those incidents involved the same driver, one of the top 25 in terms of complaints filed by passengers. Are you concerned about that driver’s performance?

Ford: Once again, the privacy rights in the California Constitution keep me from being able to discuss specific personnel matters, including incidents or allegations against a particular operator.

I-Team: What are you doing to address the fact that a relatively small number of drivers account for a large number of passenger complaints? Is your discipline process effective? Does it need to be changed?

Ford: The fact that we have a “relatively small number of drivers who account for a large number of passenger complaints” is something that I identified once I had an opportunity to review not only PSRs but attendance and accident histories as well. In all of these areas there seems to be a similar small cluster – often of the same people. I initiated a program at the SFMTA which tracks the performance of all operators on a bi-weekly basis. From this information we are able to identify the operators who receive the most complaints, have the highest accident rate and most absences. With this information we are able to provide refresher training for, and/or counsel these operators so they have an opportunity to improve their performance. We want to ensure that all of our operators have the right tools and training to do their jobs. In tandem with TWU Local 250A, we work with these individuals in both customer service and driving procedures when the need is evidenced. In addition, we counsel them on the job requirements including acceptable attendance. If, after retraining and counseling, an operator does not show both a marked improvement in their performance and an ability to adhere to the requirements of the work rules, they may be dismissed from the Agency pursuant to the MOU.

I-Team: Are you concerned about the image those two incidents give for Muni buses?

Ford: Two incidents over the course of several years by a single operator should not be construed as a pattern that is representative of the team of SFMTA operators who provide over 200 billion trips a year to the residents of and visitors to San Francisco. We have more than 270 operators who have had no avoidable accidents for 15 years or more. Of those, 47 drivers have 25 years or more, 140 have 19-24 years and 92 drivers have 15-18 years of safe driving. I think this statistic is far more representative of the great work our employees do in San Francisco’s demanding transit environment than the numbers you cite.

Comments

[Janet Campbell (415) 261-2613]

Thank you for doing the story, Dan.

Don't stop!!!!!!!!!!!

I witnessed a HORRIBLE attack on the Mission bus, riding a few blocks, where a pregnant black female, HUGE, 20ish, was beating up on a young Korean (slight) 20's woman, an Interior Designer. I and everyone sitting in the back was absolutely shocked - the woman tried to fight back and not ONE person helped, people ran up to the front, tried to get the driver to stop, he refused, he refused to come to the back....it started at 8th street .... then he stopped at 6th street and kept the doors open at the back - LEFT them open!! and waited for the woman to stop attacking - LET IT GO ON!!!!!! the two women finally got off, with a horde of people standing at the stop backing way off....the bus driver wasn't letting anyone on....it was HORRIBLE. I went forward, the guy siad he didn't see anything (BULL!!!!! - he was looking at his rear view mirror, watching it!) and I begged him to call MUNI Central...he refused....the girl got off at the nice new hotel at 3rd and Mission, with me right behind her, trying to help her from 6th street on...and that full bus had no one else doing it...I could not believe it!!!!!!!!

So while she took the MUNI Central no. to call that the Driver finally gave me, I ran out into the street, flagged a cop and he got an ambulance....while her two coworkers came out and tried to help, and she called her boyfriend to help her at the hospital. This was since mid-2005 sometime, I can't remember when. She called me later to profusely thank me...I cannot IMAGINE ANYONE in my hometown ignoring this - or not getting fired for NOT helping!

Don't they have health, safety, welfare issues of the public they have to uphold????

PLEASE see if you can find this woman! And the tape - MUNI Central got it for the cops....you talk about absolutely shocking! That is far worse than the one you showed tonight!

It was a HORRIBLE beating - and one where the huge woman was beating the slight little one into the bench, pummeling her over and over, in her stomach and ALLLLL over...including her face.....just horrendous!

That woman - and driver - should be in JAIL.

Sincerely, Janet

[sfmike]

And Mr. Noyes, your main point is completely valid. Every stupid department in the City and County of San Francisco seems to have a $150,000 "press spokesperson" and most of these spokespeople, including Ms. Maggie, seem to be doing their best to keep information out of people's hands rather than the other way around. Thanks for banging your head against the doors, repeatedly.

[Stan]

Please don't let this drop. If the Muni officials and union are fighting this hard, then it must be even worse then we think.

[Bambi]

I have been following this story/investigation since it started and am glad that I have. Basically, I want to say that the core issue is being evaded time after time, when the problems are addressed to SFMTA. Your questions to the problems are being redirected with "not being able to discuss" or "the other drivers and their outstanding records" which does not answer any of the questions being asked. Thank you for pursuing and pressing for answers. Glad I don't ride MUNI and never will.

[D. Nebenzahl]

Let me repost here the message I posted on the Usenet newsgroup ba.transportation (those who know how to access Usenet can follow a discussion there on this topic):

=================================

So this poses quite the dilemma. Say you're a Muni driver (some people here are), and someone yells that people are being pickpocketed on your bus. You can:

1. Follow the Muni driver's handbook and, as the article says, "obtain 'a complete description' of the suspects, ... obtain the names and addresses of all victims and witnesses, and ... set off the bus' emergency strobe lights", or

2. Keep on driving, since, according to the driver, "they're professionals".

It sounds as if I'm implying that the driver should always "do the right thing" (#1) here, but I can see why drivers would pick #2 instead. First of all, as the driver interviewed says, "Please note that Muni will deny driver compensation if the driver becomes involved in a situation while out of the driver's seat." Which implies that while Muni advises its drivers to "do the right thing", it penalizes them if they do so.

On routes with frequent incidents like these, it also appears that if drivers actually followed this protocol, traffic would quickly come to a standstill, and they'd be spending more time acting as police informants and babysitters than as transit drivers. So on this point I sympathize with George.

On the other hand, maybe they *should* follow the rules to the letter. Just think what would happen if bus routes all across the city ground to a halt as drivers actually reported assaults and other crimes, and followed up on them. At the very least, it would grab the attention of the pinhead media, if only for a few milliseconds.

In any case, I suspect that ABC-7 (the particular member of the pinhead media here) took the easy way out by focusing blame on the "elite group" of drivers with the most complaints. Once again, I stress that this is in no way meant to excuse those drivers who truly are insensitive scumbags, and Muni ought to fire their asses forthwith. But as in all things Muni, the stink can probably be traced all the way to the top.

[Mark Eichman]

What's this ridiculous 200 billion trips per year? Assuming a trip means one passenger traveling from point A to point B, then if MUNI had 10,000 drivers on the roads every day of the year, that would be almost 55,000 trips per driver per day! That's more than one passenger getting on and off the bus every two seconds!

[anpade]

I was attacked on the 22 Fillmore once several years ago. The bus was packed solid in the front, but there was a group of teenagers in the seats in the rear third of the bus, but no passengers standing in the aisles where there was a lot of room. I guess I wasn't thinking that a bunch of little thugs were preventing all the other passengers from standing in that space, and I went back there myself when I boarded the bus.

I was wearing a skirt, and pretty soon, I felt a hand up my skirt. I swung around, and when I did, I felt hands behind me on my chest. Swung around again, hands up skirt again, etc. I was screaming STOP STOP STOP. In one split second I looked another passenger in the eye, an adult man standing a little in front of me, and he just turned his back to me.

It was happening so fast and was so confusing, then one kid grabbed my breasts from in front of me. I was carrying a bag of books and I raised it over my head and smashed it down onto his face. I felt his nose break, saw it spread across his face.

HIS scream is what got the bus driver to stop! She pulled over and opened the back doors and they all ran off. I was yelling "Call the police! Don't open the doors, they're getting away" and trying to shove my way to the front of the bus.

I finally got up there and asked the driver, WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP? She just sat there looking straight ahead, silent. I said, Lady, what is wrong with you, call the police! I've been assaulted. Those kids were jumping all over me like monkeys!"

Well THIS got her to speak up. She stood up in my face and started screaming at me, "You don't have to call them monkeys because they're black!" (She was black, I am white.) I was like, Listen, lady, I don't care if they were purple, they sexually assaulted me and I need you to call the police."

She finally did, they finally showed up. The 2 cops put me in their car to tell them what happened, then the black male cop got out of the car and got on the bus, and I could see him yelling at the bus driver, who finally looked like she was getting it.

Of course the kids were never caught, but I hope that the one whose nose I broke remembers me.

Very recently I was walking down Octavia Street and was waiting to cross the street at Page. A black male driver of a Haight line bus that was stopped across the street picking up passengers made a lewd gesture at me with his tongue! I couldn't believe my eyes! His window was open and I said "I'm calling MUNI!" And he said, They don't do nothin', I'm in the union!" with a big grin on his face, and drove away.

Many years ago I used to ride the Haight lines almost every day, and there was on driver who would regularly stop at Laguna and Page, get off the bus, meet up with some guys on the corner, exchange parcels, and get back on. Hmmmmm.

Muni is run like a transportation mafia. Start from the top down and make some heads roll.

[bonbon]

Ever since I moved to San Francisco from Oakland I have encountered numerous unexpected events on Muni - or 'trying to get to Muni.' The first most memorable was my first day on the job in SF after moving here from Oakland and I wanted to take public transporation to and from work. I got there successfully. But on the way home, it was after 9pm, dark, and the area of the station where I had exited to go to work, was not operating. In otherwords when I tried to re-enter the turnstyles the coin slots were all blocked and no one was in the booth. Confused I saw a couple walking in through the emergency exit gate and I followed them, coins in hand, wondering why the booth was unattended - just to be met at the bottom of the stairs by a Muni Police Officer who asked for my ID. I was still confused and I asked him, 'excuse me but where do we enter the station ... I could not get my coins into the slots and did not know how to get into the station otherwise.' After harassing me about the ID in a less than kind manner and treating me like a complete criminal he tried to point out the sign that said 'Please use Other Entrance ...blah blah' except that where the sign was posted was not where anyone could see it or read it if they are facing foward and then looking 'down' at the coin turnstyles trying to get into the station. It is a fact that the sign was posted. But it is also a fact that the sign was not visible from my perspective and the signage in general 'sucked.' First timers would not see it coming as aproximately 6 tourists did exactly the same thing that I did while the Muni Officer was pointing out the sign to me. When the Tourists asked out loud "How do we get into the station?" The cop did not even answer. In fact a most interesting point was that his English was not very good. AND I have to point out here that when he acosted me for my ID I initially did not trust or believe that he was a Muni Cop, nor had I ever heard of one before until he kindly wrote me the ticket for two hundred something dollars for toll evasion... a simple mistake. Why would I have six quarters in my hand and be trying to 'ask him for directions' when he offered to arrest me for not complying. I have other stories about Drivers harassing me unessesarily for asking where some place is or what the name of the next stop is, etc; and I unfortunately take the 23 Monterey line daily which is never on time and although the schedule says it should be passing by every 15 minutes; One is lucky to catch it every hour. And that is a known fact to anyone who lives and commutes in my neighborhood. And then after being almost arrested for toll evastion it really pisses me off when the bus driver doesn't ask to see your fast pass and in addition lets people enter through the back of the bus. Confusing?

What I do perceive the biggest issues with Muni are:

1) Marketing - a new marketing agenda would educate people on the 'wheres' and 'hows' and 'how muches' of the stations/buses, etc. and avoid 'unintentional toll evasion.' Instead of paying more cops to stand around like idiots giving tickets.. they should be educating the public what is going on in large, legible format (that probably costs much less than an hourly salary for a Union Muni Transit Police Officer.)

2) Customer Service - it seems some employees and drivers feel they are entitled to some sort of status and they are untouchable to the human factor and downright rude.. is that a 'Union' thing? Some folks know they cannot get fired so why in the world do they have to go out of their way to be nice or do a good job?

3)Muni needs to invest in some real toll evasion blocking turnstyles like the one's used in NYC - floor to ceiling; then there is no jumping or getting in the 'out' door. If someone uses the 'out' door it should sound an alarm that alerts an agent that someone has used it and then they can investigate whether it was an accident or an intentional fraud; they could even place a camera on the emergency exits

5) The money they save in toll evasion and the cut back on unecessary policing due to good signage could be put back into the system for 'mandatory customer service training' on a regular basis for all drivers, not just those offenders or drivers with the highest complaints; and of course they could add more buses to the lines like the 23 Monterey which don't have enough buses to meet their schedule, but they won't admit it so they never change the schedule to 1 bus per hour... A realistic schedule with gradual improvements would make people gradually happier and happier, no?

[Courtney Moore]

Get a load of this.
My daughter goes to school in the sunset, so everyday we take the 29-sunset and the L taraval lines, two and from Clement and 25th. While boarding the 29 Sunset outbound with my husband and my daughter last month, I was cursed at by the driver for not having my fare ready and taking a long time to put it in the fare machine. I was told to "just forget it and sit the f*** down". I informed the driver that it was inappropriate to curse at me, and she responded "whatever-just sit down".
The next day at 7:30am, while waiting for the same bus line, which stops right outside our building, the same bus driver slowed to our stop, saw there weren't any other riders waiting but my daughter and me, looked at me and slammed on the gas instead of stopping to pick us up. I called Muni and filed a complaint.
Since then she has refused to pick us up six or seven more times, and I have called Muni and left multiple complaints. If there are other people waiting for the bus, she'll stop, but if its only me and my daughter, or my husband and my daughter, or the three of us, she refuses. On two occasions she drove across the street of the bus stop, where we couldn't catch it time, dropped the people who's stop it was off, and then hurried off without letting us on.
Yesterday, at 2:30pm on our way home from my daughter's school, me, her, and my husband waited at our usual inbound stop, Sunset and Taraval. The same bus driver stopped, as there were five or so others waiting, let everyone board, and shot me and my family a dirty look. We walked to the very back of the bus and sat down. She then got on her phone(bus phone)and sat there for twenty minutes with the bus running with no explanation to the passengers as to what the hold-up was.
I had a bad feeling and decided to call Muni and inquire about what was going on. The bus was fairly full and soon another bus came and everyone got off and boarded that one, except for me and my family. I could tell a few minutes after boarding that this was about us, as she kept looking toward us in her mirror and scowling. I never spoke a word to her. My husband got off the bus when she was talking to the driver of the other bus and asked her what the issue was. My husband said she whispered something to the other driver, then turned to him and said," I'm waiting for my supervisor", who never came.
Instead, a few minutes later, we were approached by five police officers responding to her call that there was an altercation on the bus and that she was in danger. When the police boarded the bus, what they found was me on the phone to Muni, my nine year old daughter, and my husband, sitting in the back of the bus, wondering what was going on. My daughter became very afraid and started to shake and cry at the sight of policemen coming towards us. The bus driver had called them and lied and immediately the police realized this and told us it was best to get off and wait for the next bus. They said they understood the principle of staying on the bus to see what the issue was, and understood as well that we were never once asked to get off the bus. They acknowledged that we all had valid transfers, and were well within our rights to ride, yet this driver refused to transport us.
When we got off the bus, which at this point was surrounded by officers, who seemed dumbfounded upon sight of my me and family as to why they had been called (we look about as non-threatening a it gets)the driver jumped up and started dancing and laughing. During all of this, I was on the phone to Muni filing yet another complaint. The woman who took my complaint was shocked and apologized quite a few times. She told me that she was sending this complaint to her supervisor and informed me that said supervisor would be calling me personally. I have yet to receive such a call.

To my knowledge, the bus driver never called her supervisor. She used the San Francisco Police Department to scare me and my family as a retaliatory measure for my calling and complaining about her refusal to pick us up. I believe the correct term is retaliatory discrimination.
This morning my daughter was very upset by the idea of having to ride the bus and was fearful that we may be dealing with a situation like this on a regular basis. This ongoing treatment has caused my daughter to be late to school several times, and has also created a strain on my family regularly. I would hope that this letter would spark the interest of those who feel it unjust and ultimately illegal to be harassed at this level of consistency for exercising my right to file a complaint to Muni.
I intend to pursue this issue to its end.
Thank you for your time,
Courtney Moore