Aaron Peskin voted to chair SF transportation authority

San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin was voted in Tuesday as the new chair of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority.

Commissioners on the transportation authority, which consists of the Board of Supervisors, unanimously voted Peskin to fill the chair position for the remainder of year after voters elected former chair Supervisor Scott Wiener to the state Senate.

Supervisor John Avalos nominated Peskin citing his work as the former board president of the Board of Supervisors:

“I really believe that based on his work as board president in the past, that he will have a real strong focus throughout The City, not just his own district, and will be able to understand the huge needs we have in underserved neighborhoods that require greater investment of transportation infrastructure.”

Avalos added that Peskin provided “good strong oversight” when he chaired the transportation authority’s Plans and Programs Committee.

Supervisor David Campos second the nomination in support of Peskin.

The transportation authority distributes local and regional funds to transportation projects that include purchasing new Muni vehicles for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to providing funds for BART’s rider reward program “BART Perks.”

Commissioners will vote again in January next year to either keep Peskin as the chair or vote for a new chair.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.