SEC. 8A.101. MUNICIPAL TRANSPORTATION AGENCY.
§ 8A.101
The Municipal Transportation Agency is established as a city agency that includes a Board of Directors, a Director of Transportation, the Municipal Railway, and the former Department of Parking and Traffic. The Board of Supervisors may transfer the Taxi Commission's functions to the Agency, which would then have the same authority over taxi regulation as it does over transit and parking. The Agency must comply with all city ordinances of general application, including anti-discrimination laws, and may contract with other city departments to carry out its duties.
San Francisco has a Municipal Transportation Agency that runs buses and trains (the Municipal Railway), handles parking and traffic, and oversees taxis. The Agency has a Board of Directors and a Director of Transportation. The Agency must follow all city laws that apply to other departments, including laws against discrimination in hiring and contracts. The Agency can hire other city departments to help it do its work, but it cannot do the work of the Controller or City Attorney—it has to hire those offices to do that work instead.
- Complex:Section (b) is lengthy and convoluted, with nested conditions and cross-references that make the taxi-transfer authority difficult to parse on first reading.
- Controversial:The provision allowing the Board of Supervisors to abolish the Taxi Commission and transfer its regulatory authority to the Agency is a significant restructuring that affects taxi industry oversight and governance.
AI-generated · claude-haiku-4-5 · informational only, not legal advice.
Official text
(a) There shall be a Municipal Transportation Agency. The Agency shall include a Board of Directors and a Director of Transportation. The Agency shall include the Municipal Railway and the former Department of Parking and Traffic, as well as any other departments, bureaus or operating divisions hereafter created or placed under the Agency. There shall also be a Citizens Advisory Committee to assist the Agency.
(b) The Board of Supervisors shall have the power, by ordinance, to abolish the Taxi Commission created in Section 4.133, and to transfer the powers and duties of that commission to the Agency under the direction of the Director of Transportation or his or her designee. In order to fully integrate taxi-related functions into the Agency should such a transfer occur, the Agency shall have the same exclusive authority over taxi-related functions and taxi-related fares, fees, charges, budgets, and personnel that it has over the Municipal Railway and parking and traffic fares, fees, charges, budgets, and personnel. Once adopted, Agency regulations shall thereafter supercede all previously-adopted ordinances governing motor vehicles for hire that conflict with or duplicate such regulations.
(c) Any transfer of functions occurring as a result of the above provisions shall not adversely affect the status, position, compensation, or pension or retirement rights and privileges of any civil service employees who engaged in the performance of a function or duty transferred to another office, agency, or department pursuant to this measure.
(d) Except as expressly provided in this Article, the Agency shall comply with all of the restrictions and requirements imposed by the ordinances of general application of the City and County, including ordinances prohibiting discrimination of any kind in employment and contracting, such as Administrative Code Chapters 12B et seq.,* as amended from time to time. The Agency shall be solely responsible for the administration and enforcement of such requirements.
(e) The Agency may contract with existing City and County departments to carry out any of its powers and duties. Any such contract shall establish performance standards for the department providing the services to the Agency, including measurable standards for the quality, timeliness, and cost of the services provided. All City and County departments must give the highest priority to the delivery of such services to the Agency.
(f) The Agency may not exercise any powers and duties of the Controller or the City Attorney and shall contract with the Controller and the City Attorney for the exercise of such powers and duties.
(Added November 1999; amended by Proposition A, approved 11/6/2007)
Editor's Note: The Board of Supervisors exercised the power granted under division (b) of this section and abolished the Taxi Commission and transferred its functions, powers, and duties to the Municipal Transportation Agency. See Police Code Art. 16, Sec. 1075.1.
*Editor’s Note: Former Administrative Code Chapters 12B et seq. are now at Labor and Employment Code Articles 131 et seq. See Ord. 221-23.