Rescue Muni

Update: The Examiner has a story about this proposal today including skeptical comments from TWU Local 250A director Irwin Lum.

Supervisor Peskin is circulating a draft of a charter amendment to make some changes to Proposition E, which governs the Municipal Transportation Agency. In particular he is proposing to remove the section in the charter that specifies a wage limit for Muni operators. This section states in relevant part:

“The board of supervisors shall thereupon fix a wage schedule for each classification of platform employees and coach and bus operators of the municipal railway which shall not be in excess of the average of the two highest wage schedules so certified by the civil service commission for each such classification.”

The purpose is to allow Muni management and labor to more effectively trade off work rules for wage increases. Also included in this is measure is a proposal to dedicate more garage and parking fees to Muni.

Rescue Muni hasn’t seen this proposal yet but we will comment on it as soon as we see it. In general we like the idea to dedicate more funding to Muni, but it’s always risky to re-open Proposition E, as the previous proposal to do so was a bad idea that we worked to defeat.

(See SFist for additional discussion of this.)