MELISSA CULROSS, HOST: When spring ends and summer gets into full swing, it’s time to celebrate dads and grads.
LLOYD GLOVER, PARKING CONTROL OFFICER: Father’s Day is huge. It’s like graduation every year of being able to say we made another year out of being a father and raising our kids, our sons, our daughters.
MELISSA: Welcome to Taken with Transportation, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s official podcast. I’m your host, Melissa Culross. Father’s Day was a couple of weeks ago, and graduation season has wrapped up. So, we’re taking a moment in this special episode to honor fathers and recent graduates at the agency. From customer-facing staff to management to the young people who help guide our work, we’ll tell you the stories of just over half a dozen members of our SFMTA family. Or rather, they’ll tell you, themselves.
As with our recent Mother’s Day episode, please know that our celebration is for everyone. Whatever your relationship with parenthood or to education, this episode is for you, and we want you to join the party. So, without further ado, we begin with the dads.
JOE KIBBLES, MUNI OPERATOR: Hi, I’m Joe Kibbles. I am a transit operator. Well, I started in May of 2019. So, I’ve been here just over six years. In September of last year, 2024, I came over to F line. I love the historic streetcars. They are absolutely a joy to ride, and they’re so fun to operate. Actually, it’s, it’s a lot of fun. I have three boys. My oldest is Stephen. He’s 38. Um, my middle one is Geran. And Geran is, uh, 26. And my youngest is Luka, and he’s 9. I like Father’s Day. It’s, it’s cool. My youngest son is… He’s my world. I mean, that little guy has been sleeping next to me since he was a newborn. I mean, even the first night at the house, when I brought it home, he was leaning against my chest when he was sleeping. He… still believes in Santa. I’m trying to let him be a kid as long as possible. Because that’s the most important thing to me is that he enjoys his childhood. And I’m making sure that he does. There’s a lot of fathers out there. And there’s a lot of dads out there. But to be a true parent, a true parent, you have to really believe in your children, focus on your children and enrich their lives to a way that when they look back at their childhood, that they go, “My dad was alright.”
TED GRAFF, DIRECTOR OF PARKING OPERATIONS AND ENFORCEMENT: Hi, everybody, Ted Graff. I’m the director of parking operations, uh, enforcement. Let’s see, I’ve been with the agency almost ten years now. The work that my group does makes streets safer, makes the streets move more effectively, efficiently. It creates the opportunities for folks to find parking in certain areas and create that turnover in those spots and really be a steward of the city. I’m a proud father of two, uh, beautiful daughters. My oldest one is Ella. She’s eight years old. My youngest one is Theadora; we call her Thea. And she is four, turning five next month.
MELISSA: So, your daughters are still pretty young. They’re not driving yet, not worrying about where they’re putting their cars that they don’t have because they don’t drive yet. But do they know what you do for a living, and, if so, what do they think of it.
TED: Uh, they do know what I do, but they’re just kind of grasping with what it is. Um, my younger one isn’t tracking, uh, even though, you know, we often will take the cable cars and go, “Hey, what Dad does makes streets safer.” And she just looks at me with a questioned face (laughs). My older one, now that we’ve been spending a lot of time in San Francisco, she’s starting to grasp it. But she doesn’t really understand, you know, the policy side or the operations side. But I do make it a point to share that what I do is really giving back in that exact way: to make the streets safer and make our streets and the city a better place. And that’s why I choose to be here, as well.
LLOYD GLOVER, PARKING CONTROL OPERATOR: My name is Lloyd Glover. I’m a PCO, a parking control officer. Uh, I’ve been at SFMTA for 11 years. My son has the same name as me; he’s a “junior,” Lloyd Glover, Jr. And he’s nine years old in the 4th grade. Father’s Day is huge. It’s like our, um, graduation every year of being able to say that we did it again. We made another year out of being a father and raising our kids, our sons, our daughters and just being good at it.
MELISSA: How does your son feel about what you do for a living? How does he feel about your work?
LLOYD: Um, he likes what I do. Sometimes he gets to actually see it if he’s in the area, or… He’s just been around. He’s seen me working a few times, and he like the interaction with the public. He likes, sometimes, when I’m able to walk my area, stuff like that, but yeah, he like it.
JUDSON TRUE, CHIEF OF STAFF AND DIRECTOR OF EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS: Hi, I’m Judson True. I’m Chief of Staff and Director of External Affairs at the SFMTA. I have a daughter named Cora. She is just now turning one year old, and she is just the most amazing human I’ve ever met. And she brings just a tremendous amount of joy and love to my life every day, and Father’s Day is a reminder of how lucky I am to be her dad. Getting around San Francisco is obviously very different with a kid. So, it’s made me think about all the ways that we at SFMTA make our streets safer for everyone who’s trying to use them. And Cora’s first trip on Muni was the 44 O’ Shaughnessy. We got on right near Green Apple Books on Clement and went down to the DeYoung. And, uh, I hope that she enjoyed that trip as much as I did. Right now, I drive my daughter. I’m looking for a bike to bike her… around with her. We use a stroller. So, I just really value the work we do collectively to make it easier to get around the city. 1:08
MELISSA: Now we move on to the grads. Our first two actually are also fathers, and we’re celebrating their recent graduation from a type of school here at the agency.
WILLIE MOORE, PARKING CONTROL OFFICER: My name is Willie Moore. I’ve been with the city and county of San Francisco for seven years, and, like, in March, mid-March I finished the PCO training program. And then, now I’m out on my own interacting with the public. It’s a lovely job. I’m not going anywhere. We keep the city moving. We keep cars, uh, from being illegally parked on the streets; try to keep it from being cluttered areas, you know. People just park their cars all on the sidewalks and things like that. And we’re here enforcing that. We wouldn’t want to have anybody in wheelchairs or people with strollers pushing their kids or people that’s disabled having to worry about moving around a car that’s parked illegally on the sidewalk. I got six kids. I got seven grandkids. I got four boys, two girls. I just turned 50. I just had my 50th birthday. Uh, my oldest is 31, and my youngest is 18. And like I said, I have seven grandkids, and it’s just … it’s lovely. My daughter, she really, she’s like, “Dad, you going to work. You look like the police.” I’m like, “No, just a parking officer. That’s it.”And she, you know, she wanna come out here with me one day and see what I do and things like that. But like I said, I just started. So, we’ll see how that goes. 1:01
HAROLD LAUGHLIN, PARKING CONTROL OFFICER: My name’s Harold Laughlin. I’m a parking control officer. I was a transit operator, as well, uh, for seven years. And I was up, uh, at, uh, Tow Desk for a little bit. And then I transferred over here. So, this is my third job within the city.
MELISSA: So, why did you decide to become a PCO?
HAROLD: I just like the freedom of being out, you know, being in a bus is kind of the same feeling, but you’re in a seat. And this is probably more of my upkeep of what I want to do in life. Yeah. I have an 18-year-old daughter. Her name is Aaliyah. She’s, uh, going to USF. She’s gonna be a nurse like her mother. Um, and then I have a 13-year-old daughter. She’s, um, in, uh, middle school right now, and her name is Alana.
MELISSA: How do your daughters feel about what you do for a living.
HAROLD: My older daughter’s not too keen on it. She says, “Oh, you’re giving tickets to people. You’re mean.” (Laughs) My younger daughter is, uh, is, is okay with it. But I did tell my, um, older daughter there’s more to my job than just giving tickets. Because we help out a lot of people. You know, business owners, uh, they really approach us a lot and say, like, you know, “These are our zones. We need these for our delivery drivers.” And you know, it feels good to help them out. I just think we’re one piece of a big puzzle. We all kinda work together. We all kinda connect. I think everybody in the city is actually trying to move the city forward and, you know, to a positive and better place to live, you know. Um, and I just think that, you know, if everybody just does a little bit of their part, this city will be great. Better than it already is.
MELISSA: Moore and Laughlin were in the same PCO training class. And Moore says it could be a little intense.
WILLIE: Ooh, the classroom was the worst part of it all. Having to learn all these codes and all these different citations and violations and things like that. They cram it all into you in two weeks. So, you really have to study. Cause it could be a lot and really overwhelming, but once you get out that classroom, everything else is, is easy.
MELISSA: While Laughlin says the future PCOs were able to bond a bit during the training.
HAROLD: Initially, when we’re kinda in the class, everyone’s kinda in study mode. Um, we did have a couple opportunities to, um, meet up after work and study, like, at a library and stuff. After that, we became a little bit more close when we were out … out and about learning stuff. It was a little bit of a different environment.
MELISSA: Does it create any kind of sense of camaraderie in the classes?
HAROLD: Definitely does, yes. Cause we always rely on our classmates, you know. When we hit, uh … you can’t figure something out, we’re the first ones we reach out to. We’re all there to help each other, you know. We all came in together. :27
MELISSA: Our final grads come from our Youth Transportation Advisory Board or YTAB. This is a group of teenagers that helps us keep the needs of young people in mind as we design and implement our policies and projects.
MASON NGO, RECENT YTAB MEMBER: My name’s Mason Ngo. I have just graduated from Abraham Lincon High School. I’ve been part of the Youth Transportation Advisory Board for two years now. We’ve been, like, involved in a lot of, like, engaging with, like, other fellow, like, youth who are interested in public transit and some of the inner workings of SFMTA. Engaging in, like, discussions around, like, the budget situation and, like, service changes and being involved in, like, reviewing work for a lot of these changes. Uh, I am currently in the process of enrolling into courses at, uh, San Francisco State. I’m majoring in urban studies and planning. Still figuring out, like, all my courses and stuff, but I think in time, I’ll be able to continue working in, like, transportation-related stuff there.
MELISSA: Am I looking, maybe, at a future transportation planner?
MASON: May-haps. I don’t know. (Laughs)
CHANEL MARIE GREEN, YTAB MEMBER: Hello, my name is Chanel Marie Green. I just graduated one year early from Immaculate Conception Academy Cristo Rey High School. I’m going to Skyline Community College for a year, hopefully majoring in sociology so I can get on the path to criminal justice system. Hopefully, I’ll become, like, a criminal defense lawyer. That’s kinda what I wanna do and advocate for people who can’t. I joined YTAB because, I think, two years ago, I started using transportation in San Francisco, but I was constantly confused. I didn’t know how buses worked, and I was just, like, all over the place. I would take the wrong bus and then be lost. I’m like, “Why not join the YTAB, or the Youth Advisory Board, to educate youth on how to use transportation so they’re not as confused as I was when I first started.” My experience has been pretty good. We learned about what SFMTA does and how we can implement youth voices. Just having youth voices, in general, and having the youth involved in something so they know how San Francisco functions and how they can use transportation is very important. You can’t just have a bunch of clueless teens, you know, just, like, all over the place. They don’t know, like, how to use transportation or anything about politics. It’s so good to educate students on that. I’m hoping to stay with the Youth Transportation Advisory Board for maybe another year and just keep on pushing and keep on educating students.
MELISSA: Thank you for joining us on Taken with Transportation. We’re a production of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and you can find the latest episodes at SFMTA.com-slash-Podcast, as well as Apple, Spotify, our YouTube channel or wherever you listen. I’m Melissa Culross. Be well and travel well.
