The number of authorized, full-time Station Agents has been reduced from a high of 65 in FY 1981-82, the year that the MUNI Metro System achieved current operational capability. Staffing declined to the current authorization of 57 during the next decade, to current levels.

In general, Station Agents control access to the MUNI Metro System, provide information to the public, and monitor patron activities. The entry gates are designed to be operated by inserting the basic fare in coinage, an approved token, or a magnetically encoded valid pass. The specific duties and responsibilities of Station Agents, as defined in the "Station Operations Manual," are shown below:

Problems Encountered Due to Un-staffed Secondary Booths

Interviews with Station Agent management and a review of the Metro Station Operations staffing log reveal that the Powell, Civic Center, and Montgomery Metro Stations are the only stations consistently provided secondary booth coverage. Moreover, secondary booth staffing in those stations is provided considerably less than 100 percent of the scheduled time. The Metro Station Operations Manager believes that the cause of the irregular secondary booth coverage is an inadequate number of assigned Station Agents and excessive unscheduled absences.

According to the Metro Station Operations Manager, for most of calendar year 1995 the Station Operations Unit operated with only 48 Station Agents. However, as of the writing of this report, the Unit is assigned 53 Station Agents, three of whom were hired during the current fiscal year. In addition, two Station Agents are currently on workers" compensation absences and one is on a long-term disability absence. As previously stated, the Metro Station Operations Unit is authorized at total of 57 Station Agents.

The inability to consistently staff secondary station booths has had serious consequences, especially for the Powell, Montgomery, and Civic Center Stations. As previously stated, these stations are particularly vulnerable due to the physical separation of the primary and secondary entry booths. Some of the consequences of insufficient booth coverage are as follows:

• Patron inconveniences, such as the inability to use discount fares or transfers at non-serviced secondary booths;
• Inconveniences to the disabled;
• Revenue losses from fare evasion;
• Diminished safety and responses to emergencies;
• Fare-gate tampering and vandalism;
• Inefficiencies of requiring the attendant at the primary gate to handle fare gate malfunctions at the secondary booth; and,
• Transfer selling, coin receiver jamming, and unauthorized patron access through emergency gates.

Appendix 1.5.1 is an extract of recent incidents of vandalism, fare evasion attempts, and service problems recorded in MUNI"s Unusual Occurrence Reports. As noted in the Appendix, these incidents regularly occur, are frequent, and can result in significant revenue loss and inconvenience to patrons.

For example, according to MUNI"s records the cost of labor and materials to repair fare gates in calendar year 1995 was $26,600. That figure does not include approximately 23 coin canisters which were stolen and which cost $829 each, or an additional $19,067 for the 23 coin canisters. These costs also do not include revenue stolen from the coin canisters, which cannot be estimated. Additionally, the Department"s Revenue Management cannot provide an estimate of revenue losses which occur due to the misuse of discount passes, fare gate intrusions, other canister thefts, and illegal entries. However, we believe that the total figure would be far in excess of the $45,667 in identified costs per year.

Staffing Required for All Primary and Three Secondary Station Booths

With minor exceptions, MUNI Metro Station primary booths are staffed from 4:00 A.M. to 1:00 A.M. during weekdays. [1] Also during weekdays, planned secondary booth coverage is from 8:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M. for the Embarcadero, Montgomery Street, and Van Ness Stations, and from 6:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M. for the Powell Street, Civic Center, and West Portal Stations (the latter is staffed until 9:30 P.M.). Planned primary booth coverage on Saturdays is from 5:45 A.M. to 1:00 A.M., except for the West Portal Station, which opens at 5:30 A.M. Planned primary booth coverage on Sundays is from 7:45 A.M. to 1:00 A.M., except that the West Portal Station opens at 7:30 A.M. Planned weekend staffing of the secondary booths is from 10:00 A.M. to 8:30 P.M. at the Powell Street, Civic Center, and West Portal Stations, only.

The table on the next page shows that in order to achieve planned primary and secondary booth coverage, including staffing for breaks, a total of 175 eight-hour shifts and 45 ten-hour shifts are required.

To determine the number of assigned Station Agents that the Metro Station Operations Unit would require to staff the 175 eight-hour and 45 ten-hour work shifts per week, and to provide coverage for scheduled absences, such as for vacations, and for unscheduled absences, such as sick leave with pay, we have performed the analysis shown in Appendix 1.5.2. That analysis shows that using the annual maximum sick pay sick leave of 13 days, and allowing for an average annual vacation of 120 hours (which we calculated from MUNI"s payroll records) the total number of Station Agents required to staff the station booths is 57--composed of 42 eight-hour positions and 15 ten-hour positions. As previously stated, the Metro Station Operations Unit is currently authorized 57 full-time Station Agents, and has 53 assigned. The allocation of the 57 full-time Station Agent positions is also shown in the table below.

Table 1.5.2
Weekly Station Booth Staffing Requirements
San Francisco Municipal Railway - 1996

On a weekly basis, a total of 35 Station Agents are required to fully staff the 175 eight-hour shifts (175 shifts divided by 5 shifts per Station Agent equals 35.0), which includes staffing for regular days off. That would leave a total of seven Station Agents who could be assigned to the eight-hour extra board to cover scheduled or unscheduled absences (an absentee coverage rate of 20 percent).

On a weekly basis, a total of 12 Station Agents would be required to fully staff the 45 ten-hour shifts (45 shifts divided by four shifts per Station Agent equals 11.25, rounded up to 12), which includes staffing for regular days off. Based on the current authorization of 57 positions, a total of three Station Agents could be assigned to the 12-hour extra board to cover scheduled or unscheduled absences (an absentee coverage rate of 33 percent). Combined, the unit would be provided an absentee coverage rate of 23.2 percent which is adequate to provide consistent coverage at the identified primary and secondary stations given current absentee patterns (equates to a 76.8 percent work rate).

Controlling Absences

In order to obtain an indication of how well absences are controlled within the MUNI Metro Station Operations Unit, we extracted time expenditure reports for the various categories of scheduled and unscheduled time charges for the Field Supervision Department for pay periods ending in July and October of 1995, and January and March of 1996. The results are shown in the table below.

As shown in the table, the "worked" category percentage for the Metro Station Operations Unit is less than that of the Street Supervision and Central Control Units by a margin in excess of four percentage points, which translates to approximately 2.3 staff persons. The category percentages of the Metro Station Operations Unit significantly exceeds those of the other two units in the categories of vacation, personal leave, and sick leave absences. The reasons for those and other higher absence percentages should be investigated and, where possible, controlled in order to increase the availability to approximately 80 percent.

Table 1.5.3
Summary of Time Worked and Absences Based on
Sample Pay Periods for the MUNI Metro Station Operations Unit
San Francisco Municipal Railway - 1996

Given that a certain number of long-term absences will probably continue to exist within the Metro Station Operations Unit, the Unit would have to be staffed at its authorized position count of 57, and obtain the approval of the Controller"s Office to back-fill against long-term, non-pay absences in order to improve its secondary booth coverage. Mr. John Madden, Chief Assistant Controller, has stated that the Controller"s Office normally approves such back-fill requests against non-paying, long-term absences.

Electronic Surveillance of Booth Areas

It has been suggested that the installation of electronic surveillance equipment in the Metro Station booths could help to alleviate fare avoidance and fare gate tampering problems previously described in this report. We did not conduct a thorough analysis of this suggestion.

However, we observed that given the current scope of station agent responsibilities, station agents would often be unable to monitor activity around the secondary booths using such equipment since they are frequently required to leave the booth to repair malfunctioning fare gates, assist patrons, and perform other duties. Further, the Budget Analyst has also been advised that there are meet-and-confer issues that would need to be addressed concerning the installation of electronic surveillance equipment in the booth areas.

Although the presence of surveillance equipment could serve as a deterrent to fare evasion, and fare gate tampering, its utility is questionable at this time given its cost to install and maintain. The Budget Analyst has been advised by the Municipal Railway Transit Police that the cost of procuring electronic monitoring equipment for all of the primary and secondary booth locations would be approximately $14,165 and that the cost of installing the equipment, which would be performed in-house by the Department, would be approximately $67,000, for a total cost of approximately $81,165. Annual maintenance and replacement costs cannot be determined at this time based on available information, but could be significant.

Therefore, we are not recommending the installation of such equipment at this time. Instead, we recommend that the Department study the costs and benefits of installing electronic monitoring equipment at all of the Metro Station booths after the effects from fully staffing the recommended station booth locations is known. Once the impact of recommendations to fully staff the station booths is known, MUNI should present its assessment of the costs and benefits of implementing an electronic surveillance system to the Public Transportation Commission.

Work Environment of Station Booths

During the course of this audit, we received numerous complaints and suggestions from station agents concerning the Metro Station and booth working environments. Some of the concerns, such as the presence of rodents in booths, air conditioning malfunctions, and decaying floors, are strictly of a working condition nature. Others, such as the need for an updated procedures manual, improved signage in stations, and change-machine malfunctions in non-BART stations, are of an operational nature.

One universal complaint concerns the location of the station monitors within the primary booths. The monitors are located behind the Station Agent, who must, in order to view the monitor, turn away from viewing the front of the booth and the fare gate area. According to the station agents we interviewed, during periods of heavy usage, viewing the station monitor is not feasible.

The Department management should conduct a study of the Metro Stations to (1) determine steps that can be implemented immediately to improve operational and working conditions, and (2) to determine changes that would require significant funding as part of a capital project. The study should include all facets of the station environment, including:

Management of the MUNI Metro Station Operations Unit

As shown in Table 1.5.1 of this report, the MUNI Metro Station Operations Unit is managed by a classification 1941, Transit Manager II. Management of the Unit also includes four transit service supervisors.

During this study, we observed that the Transit Division Superintendents, who also are responsible for management of hundreds of transit operators, are classified as Transit Manager II. The complexity of the job and the scope of responsibility for a Transit Division Superintendent far exceeds that of managing the MUNI Metro Station Operations Unit. Further, the Station Operations Unit is authorized four Transit Service Supervisors who perform the preponderance of the work of ensuring that the Unit performs adequately.

Currently, the Kirkland, Green (LRV), Cable Car, and Flynn Transit Divisions are supervised by managers classified as Transit Manager I instead of the authorized position of Transit Manager II. Our observation is that staffing the MUNI Metro Station Operation with a Transit Manager II, while staffing Transit Divisions with managers designated Transit Manager I--unless supported by a significant mitigating circumstance--is a mis-allocation of personnel resources. The manager of the MUNI Metro Station Operation prior to the incumbent manager was classified as a Transit Manager I.

We recommend that the Department of Human Resources survey the management position in the MUNI Metro Station Operation Unit and classify the position accordingly.

Conclusions

Six of the nine MUNI metro tunnel stations have two fare gate entry booths. The MUNI Metro Station Operations Unit attempts to staff the secondary booths, depending on the station and booth location, for up to 15 hours per day during weekdays and 10.5 hours on weekends.

Secondary booth coverage is most critical at the Powell, Civic Center, and Montgomery stations, due to high levels of use and the remoteness of the secondary booths from the primary booths. However, even those three secondary booths are often not staffed, resulting in public inconveniences, revenue loss, and equipment vandalism far in excess of the $45,667 in identified costs per year.

By staffing the Metro Station Operations Unit at its authorized strength, by better controlling absences, and by investigating the costs and benefits associated with installing electronic surveillance equipment at all booth locations, adequate service and security would be better accomplished.

Recommendations

The Director of Public Transportation should:

1.5.1 Direct MUNI Metro Station Operations management to develop a plan for reducing absenteeism, and to closely monitor and manage staff absences in order to achieve at least 80 percent of paid time on the job.

1.5.2 Staff the MUNI Metro Station Operations Unit at its authorized strength of 57 full-time positions, using existing resources authorized for the Department.

1.5.3 After regular full staffing has been achieved, investigate and report back to the Transportation Commission on the costs and benefits of installing electronic monitoring equipment at all of the station booths, taking into consideration the full benefits from more consistent staffing of the primary and secondary booths.

1.5.4 Request that the Department of Human Resources survey and classify the top management position in the MUNI Metro Station Operations Unit to determine whether it would be more appropriately staffed at the Transit Manager I level.

1.5.5 Conduct a study of the Metro Stations and report to the Transportation Commission on steps that can be taken at minor cost to improve operational and working conditions, and on those working and operational condition improvements that may require significant funding through a capital project.

Costs and Benefits

There would be no additional costs to implement these recommendations.

By staffing the Metro Station Operations Unit at its authorized strength, by better controlling absences, and by investigating the costs and benefits associated with installing electronic surveillance equipment at all booth locations, adequate service and security would be better accomplished.

Footnotes

1. The Church Street, Castro Street, and Forest Hill Stations open at 4:30 A.M.