Minutes - December 2020 Board Meeting
Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors
City of San Francisco Japan Center Garage Corporation
(A California Non-profit Public Benefit Corporation)
Thursday, December 17, 2020 – 11:00 a.m.
Zoom Meeting
MINUTES
Present: Edward Ong, Rodney Chin, Hagen Choi, Arcadi Kolchak, Vas Kiniris, Kim Kolbe, Jan Masaoka, Keiko Murase, John Noguchi and Jerry Ono
Absent: Green Chang
Also present: Jeffrey Tumlin and Rob Malone, SFMTA; Claudine Cheng, Corporate Counsel; Richard Hashimoto, Corporate Manager; Alan Wong, Fred Bekele and Solomon Abayneh, IMCO and Grace Horikiri, Japantown Community Benefits District
1. Call To Order
President Ong called the meeting to order at 11:03 a.m. For the reason that Director Masaoka will be late, Ms. Cheng and Mr. Hashimoto will take notes for the minutes.
2. Special Guest – Jeffrey Tumlin, Director of Transportation, SFMTA
President Ong introduced special guest Jeffrey Tumlin, Director of Transportation of SFMTA. Director Tumlin talked about how MTA’s policies have always been made with customers, motorists and merchants in mind. As far as the parking garage is concerned, the MTA is committed to help the garage maximize resources. On the revenue side, it is about how best to adjust the rate structure in response to demands and on the expense side, it is about how to manage the financials. It is a delicate balance.
Director Tumlin then invited board members to ask questions and the following are the responses to some of the questions:
· On the question of the Geary BRT – The project is on time and on budget
· Question about the financial picture – The MTA is an enterprise agency and is expectedly to be financially independent; there is no mechanism for support from the City’s general fund. Unfortunately, transit has been hit hard during the pandemic with revenue down 70-95% with no recovery in sight.
· Question on adding revenue stream – The MTA is working on bringing business back but some approaches are harder for San Francisco and residential parking permit is an example. Most people are against the state law that allows managing residential parking rate same as commercial parking and this is an area to be explored.
· Another interesting development is the autonomous vehicles – There is an opportunity to be creative about pricing of parking.
On behalf of the Board, President Ong and Mr. Hashimoto thanked Director Tumlin for his time and presentation and look forward to working with him.
3. Approval of Minutes from Regular Meeting of December 17, 2020 (Action Item)
A motion to approve the Minutes was made by Director Noguchi and seconded by Director Chin. The motion was unanimously approved.
4. Board President’s Report (Action Item)
Board President Ong thanked Ms. Cheng and Mr. Hashimoto for sharing information of the Muni exterior bus Ads marketing Japantown and the garage. It was noted that marketing the garage is a high priority from the impacts suffered by the pandemic.
5. Corporate Manager’s Report
a. Corporate manager reported that he has applied for full forgiveness of the $41,600 PPP loan in August. The SBA has forgiven $38,082 of the $41,600 resulting in $3,518 that will have to be repaid.
b. Transient parking was down 64% in the summer but there was a slight uptick in October due to lifting the Stay at Home Order. Unfortunately, with the latest shut down numbers were down again. As a result, there is a need to furlough the administrative staff Joelle as of January 8, 2021.
c. As of December 1, 2020, CPMC’s parking contract was terminated. The garage was able to retain 31 monthly parkers and it was helpful that the MTA reduced the monthly parking rate from $205 to $180.
d. The MTA has also modified the hours of the Early Bird Special for the debit card program rate to attract more parkers.
e. Due to the December 6, 2020 mandatory Stay at Home Order, it may result in more permanent merchant closures.
f. Regarding the newly redesigned website, Greg Viloria has successfully updated the domain address making it easier for people to access the garage’s website.
g. To reflect the reduction in staffing, the garage’s administrative office now has limited its hours. Anyone needing assistance will have to call the Command Center at 415-956-8003.
h. The Picnic at the Plaza closed on November 29, 2020. It was a successful project with an average of 1,100 diners over the weekends. There is hope that the project can resume in the Spring.
6. Corporate Counsel’s Report
Corporate Counsel defers her report to the committee report.
7. SFMTA Update
Mr. Malone stated that the IMCO one year extension due to COVID will be disseminated soon for signatures.
8. Treasurer’s Report
Director Chin summarized the July and August 2020 financial statements prepared by the corporation’s bookkeeper, Julie O’Keefe.
For the month of July, Change in Total Current Assets and Total Liabilities and Equity reports -$227,889. P&L Comparison to Budget, Gross Parking Income YTD reflects losses in all revenue categories resulted in 21.49% compared to 25% of budget for the three months ending July. For the month, total revenue income ended at ($284,467) to budget. Expenses were at 23.33% to budget allocation of 25% which is -1.67% under budget.
Number of Transient Vehicles decreased -33,538 for the month and -105,806 YTD. Monthly Vehicles decreased -176 for the month and -532 YTD.
For the month of August, Change in Total Current Assets and Total Liabilities and Equity reports -$662,175. P&L Comparison to Budget, Gross Parking Income YTD resulted in 21.10% compared to 33.33% of budget for the four months ending August. For the month, total revenue income ended at ($246,661) to budget. Expenses were at 29.53% to budget allocation of 33.33% which is -3.80% under budget.
Number of Transient Vehicles decreased -33,315 for the month and -139,121 YTD over prior period and Monthly Vehicles decreased -175 for the month and -707 YTD from prior year
A motion to accept the Treasurer’s Report was moved by Director Noguchi and seconded by Director Choi. The motion was unanimously approved.
9. Committee Reports
A. Contract Review Committee – Director Chin reported that the committee met on Monday regarding extension of Corporate Counsel’s professional service contract. The agreement was first signed in December 2010, then extended in January of 2018 for two years. The committee recommends a 2-year extension.
Director Noguchi asked if this extension involves any increase in rate of fees and Director Chin responded that the rate will remain stable.
A motion to approve the Contract Review Committee’s recommendation was moved by Director Noguchi and seconded by Director Ono. The motion was unanimously approved.
10. Community Updates
Grace Horikiri of the Japantown Community Benefits District distributed a report and provided some highlights. Covid-testing was conducted at the Peace Plaza on November 14 and 24 and she thanked corporate manager and others for helping out. In addition, the CBD is continuing to provide support for small businesses and there is an online application for grants.
11. Garage Operators and Security Report – see attached.
Solomon Abayneh of IMCO proudly reported the fact that there was no vehicle break-ins reported in October and November. Unfortunately, the presence of the homeless was still an issue that impacts garage patrons and merchants.
12. Closed Session – There was no closed session.
13. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Claudine Cheng and
Richard Hashimoto