 Good morning and welcome to the December 6 meeting of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission could we start with a roll call? They have to Obviously the fix is in Do you want to wait we're getting the IT folks, but it seems not to be coming on soon. Well, can anybody hear us is the question Can you hear us? Yeah Glad you don't live in my district What's the preference of the group should we start? Yes, if people can't hear us. That's what I'm Commissioner Olaynick Commissioner Bertrand Commissioner Brown here commissioner Johnson commissioner Coughlin Gomez Commissioner Caput Commission alternate shifrin Commission alternate Muldern Leopold here commissioner McPherson here commissioner bought torque here mission or chase. Yeah, I'm sure rockin Well, we're gonna take things a little out of order this morning After Conversation at last month's meeting about getting an update from progressive rail. We were able to secure The owner and president of progressive rail to come here make a presentation they have to catch a plane Back to the Midwest and so we're gonna have their presentation first and then we'll move on with the rest of the agenda So we'll move to Our first item, which is a progressive rail update and there's a report And I don't know whether mr. Dundee you're gonna make any introduction or no Not yet. I have no introduction, but I'm just wondering if we need the sound system. Yeah, how soon are we? Fernandez over at the IT department Well, we're gonna hold on then for a moment so everybody can hear Yeah I Okay, well, thank you for your patience We're gonna take things just slightly out of order at the last meeting there was a Suggestion that we have a report from progressive rail We're able to secure the owner and president of progressive rail to be here He has to catch a flight. And so I'm gonna take his item first and so Please welcome Dave felon from progressive rail to give us an update. Good morning. Good morning Working on a little bit of a cold here with my voice, but we're gonna get through it So thank you appreciate you taking the time So I want to just do a little bit back History buys when you look at the partnership between all the communities and the railroads and what they've done over the years It's a good time to have a little state of the union with today's rail running So you look back to Southern Pacific days you look back even further and how the railroads are intertwined between all the communities here And what they've done there's a lot of good parallels that we're gonna talk about and also show in some photographs as well But the big thing is that this architecture the railroads are a big part of the architecture of the community And how we invest in what we do and what we build and make the existing businesses the new ones even more competitive And you'll see some examples of that and the tradition continues today But before we do that I just want to hit a couple drivers that are important in the railroad industry and in general And everything we move is with four times less carbon I think that's an important point to make is that in the world of being greener and cleaner and having less carbon All the freight we bring into the area has done very green and very efficiently proud of that We're also the safest mode of transportation over any other mode statistically So when you look at freight coming on rail, it's being done in the safest most efficient mode as possible and the greenest And every train that you see go by and you'll see some examples Every car takes four truckloads off the highway, and I think that's important as well or more And it's nice from an environmental perspective when you look at what we are running on is to basically a French drain It's rock ties and rail. There's no pavement. There's no runoff. There's no collection of oils It is all pure rock and natural materials The other thing that's nice is what we're doing is we're opening up new doors for the industries in the area So a rail allows people to reach out further Source better and also sell further and I think that's an important important Difference is that all the people that are here in the business community. It's all about a global market How do they compete better? How do we make it more efficient and how do we act as more of a partner? And that's already starting to happen today. It's a good experience of what we're seeing already And the other thing that's nice to report is the money we're investing in the community things We're doing on track We're doing our facilities looking at a transled facility the engineering work that's going into that right now So a lot of good investments that are happening locally with the local contractors local people and we're hiring local too So I think that's another differentiation But as far as the community and what we're doing and what is happening with progressive rail is that We're being very communicative along the way. You're seeing some ads in the paper There's much more to come. We want to be open Any of our emails are answered and the whole idea is being collaborative with the community And that's where we're here today and take the time to do just this. I think that's important as well As we move on I want to talk about a little bit of the things that are starting We can start with the presentation. We brought a couple photographs with to give you an idea of what's happening I think the photos tell the story and We move on to the first one and it's it's interesting when you look at let's take a look right after the first Paper here It's coming So what's nice about the the whole Santa Cruz around in the Watsonville area that we're doing is that there we go Our first local motive is arrived another one's coming right behind it. It's a GP 15 1500 horse You're looking at a typical train doing its work throughout the day. It's clean It's modern. We named it the city of Watsonville another one's coming It's made to this in time and what you're seeing today There is how the freight is delivered safely efficiently you're seeing the train with very low impact No emissions that you can see visually. It's a very clean carbon-free way to go lower carbon-free way to go The next one is is exciting when you see all the infrastructure investments that we're doing so not only we have for a complaint But we're going above and beyond More ties more ballast more infrastructure new turnouts You can see the crews working down below here in the bottom-inset photos Repairing a turnout in an history that hadn't had cars in 20 years. It's a big difference What we're doing is putting the money into the facility and this is our money. We're not using state money We're not using county money. We're not using industry money. We're doing on our own because we believe in this industry So I believe in the railroad. I think that's important. You know, we're not asking for any any subsidies whatsoever We got the local crew here coming up next which is nice And you'll see that it's local people local community members. We again, we're hiring local We're keeping it local and we're proud of that as fellow new employer base in the community as well Moving on. I said one of my favorite photos right here is that train alone is taking 12 trucks off the highway And that's nice when you look at it just slips in and out very unintrusive does its work and it's gone There isn't any of the congestion or any of the issues that come with all the trucks in the community And when you look at what's happening in the world Rail transportation is a great option because freight is expected to double by 20 36 So when you think of the congestion today Look at 20 36 because our own government accounting office says all you think about and freight today plan on a doubling by 20 36 So rail is very important for relieving congestion Give you more options for the industries and having a cleaner option as well Next one coming up We've got it's it's it's interesting what we're doing is explaining our value proposition is when you look at The less carbon that's such a big part of our story is that how can we do the freight? How can we do it better? How can we do it without the carbon? And it's four times less a ton of freight can move Four to five hundred miles and just one gallon of diesel. It's huge depending on the car and what you're doing So when you look at that combined with the efficiencies in the market and what we're doing on the railroads It's really a nice value proposition You've seen this in the local paper the next one coming up is that when we came here One of the big concerns was all the tank cars and we made a promise that we're going to get them out of here It's been a hard process contractually It's been a hard process to get them to move because the incumbents Customer did not want to leave and we made a big issue and we put a lot of effort into it to cancel the contract and get Them out and that's something that we said we're going to do it and we're well over half doing it They have to go out five at a time There's a restriction with the Union Pacific but every day which is more expensive for us versus bringing a big string out Which would have been a lot easier but every day when the UP allows us we take five out a day So we're averaging about 20 cars a week and they'll be gone. We're down just just a handful now So I think that's important to notice that when we make a commitment We're gonna do it and what we say we're gonna do we're gonna do and we want to be collaborative along the way I think that's important too And in conclusion for the presentation we can obviously go beyond with some questions But you know you've got the local team here You've got people that they care about the community you've got people that you know frequent visits to industries frequent collaboration How do we make every industry here big and small more competitive? How do we create a better value and how do we make the railroad perform well? and that is So much the core of what I do We've got a team of 200 people here. They're a part of aggressive. We're proud of them all and If you have any questions more than willing to take them Thank you very much. I really appreciate it and I'll see whether my colleagues have questions Mr. Bertron Welcome here and thank you for keeping up your promise on removing the rails. I'm excuse me the vacant rails No rails too many concepts on my mind here, so What I'm concerned about is a couple of things to do with your potential business and your Performer when you approached us you talked about how much you felt there is potential in Watsonville and Upquarters, so I was wondering if you comment on Your progress to date on what business you're developing in Watsonville And what you feel is potential up quarter towards Damoport Watsonville has been a gem So we've called on all the the industries that are obvious and we're calling on the next second and third tier industries that have never Shipped by rail and the response we're getting is this phenomenal and what we hear time after time again as trucks are short and supply They're expensive and they're unreliable So we're encouraged and we're working in the right stages. It takes time to onboard a new industry to rail So it's the rates the cars everything you have to do to build the supply chain We probably have 20 to 25 different just now actively is that we're working on various levels different commodities I'll introduce to you Phil Smales here fills a colleague of mine, and he's in our sales and marketing department Maybe you can extend on that a little bit. Yeah, Dave. We as Dave said we have several customers potential customers You want to go to the microphone? Sorry use them too loud on this We have several customers that are interested in looking in a rail and my my task and As director of marketing for the St. Paul Pacific Railway is to bring those customers on to grow the business on the rail And most of this almost all of it is business that is currently moving on truck And so as Dave said we have several several opportunities and To quantify it I would say you're looking at thousands of truckloads that'll be taken off the roads A lot of that has to do with the economics of trying to get trucks these days Which are very difficult and very expensive so the potential customers were talking to you see that as a real economic benefit, but then if you overlay that with You know the actual physical taking of that many truckloads which surprised us in terms of we did the math And we saw how many truckloads they were actually shipping You'll see a physical true physical difference in terms of the congested You'll be on the highway just in terms of the number of trucks We're seeing in just since August 15th. We haven't been working on this that long, but it's it's obvious So there's a lot of opportunity So if you could take any trucks off of the highway 17, I take everyone in Santa Cruz. We appreciate that So in going with progressive St. Paul excuse me Watsonville. Was it St. Paul St. Paul and Pacific? Yeah St. Paul Pacific guys get the right term It's still a playoff with the concerns of this community So when you say you'll be able to deliver on moving product for customers your customers are Employers here whether whatever industry is that has to play off against what the negatives are for the community So I would like a report from you in six months to a year Telling us what you are actually done in actual numbers because I want to know Exactly how many trucks I want to be able to say to the community that when we go with the progress of St. Paul Pacific that we're actually giving a benefit that outweighs The losses to this community in terms of trains on the quarter and things like that That has to be demonstrated to the community so they actually know the benefits And I'll give you time to do that because you're just starting. Thank you You're more than happy to do that and we can do it quarterly my annual will be collaborative about it And of one more question. All right, okay So I got put into the contract of provision that you would do meetings with the public to address our concerns And that was in base. I think one of your officers suggest they would be willing to do that So that's now in the agreement with progressive and we would like to see that follow through at no We don't want to be pushing for it We would like to see you do it on your own so that when you have things to tell us We could come up with a meeting and allow the public to come and address concerns and here Which I have to say I don't want it to be a push. I'd like to be a pool on your part. Thank you Understood and we actually have some more outreach safety programs coming with operational lifesaver It's some other things where we can tie in that with a meeting afterwards So everyone will be there and more to come we're working on that action Yeah, you're you're now operating in a community saying Santa Cruz that demands The right to have public input. That's a very critical thing in this community The public here are very involved and we expect to be received that way. Thank you Good morning, Ms. Kaufman Gomez Yes, hi, I'm Trina from Watsonville. So Our entire community can hear the horns So we recognize what kind of activity is going on with a progressive downtown The vendors have many of them have approached me and are really pleased with the activity that they're getting with Your contract to help move their products and services We had a factory sale one of which was right along the the line And I'm hoping that you'll be able to pick up some of those vendors to to realize that this is another way of getting their product Out of our community that's being manufactured in our community here And in terms of a public venue, we have a very nice Chambers maybe we can see about getting placed on the city's agenda for being able to present into the community Of Watsonville itself what you're doing in any questions the community of Watsonville who sees your freight Has questions or concerns about so that's an opportunity for you for venue and I know that many of my questions were already asked about the number of businesses Even those that don't really want train have found a way that they could be utilizing this type of service for freight and I think that that's an opportunity for some creativity of Using this modality in our in our area our council is very pleased with the removal of a lot of the railcars and Has the patience to see that you're actually doing what you say that you were going to do based on the contract and the Concerns that our community has had so I commend you for all of that productivity that's there and look forward to being able to see more businesses Catch on to use your service. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Johnson, thank you chair So you're talking about less carbon and fewer trips on highway one based on the amount of Trucks that you would take off how many how many Vehicle trips come and go on highway one and how many what is the reduction of trucks and is it statistically significant? I just want to know raw numbers how many people travel on highway one and how many trucks you would take off and Because you're talking a lot about carbon. You're talking about a lot about environmental benefits. I want to know if it's statistically significant We can both answer that for my short answer is we can do it from the If you will from the destination and out so we don't have data on trucks on that I would we do have data on what's happening in your communities here So we can tell you how many car loads are being Brought into the area and that just does the math backwards for how many trucks are being eliminated And we can do that quarterly like you had asked or even bi-annual or annually so that's easily done. So what do you got? Well again, you know when we inherited this it was less than 100 some cars here. That's all that was happening. So we're just getting started with Drumbeat if you will of the existing customers things that are happening. So Today, you know, there's the obvious customers that we're handling today But there's a lot of on-board ones that are happening real time So that will be born out in the future meetings where we can show you how many cars are coming in rail cars And then you just take a times four and that's this one talk about rail cars. I'm talking about the end product Namely, you're saying that because of your activity and maybe future passenger rail Significant numbers of trucks would be taking be taking off the road and improve the traffic on highway one So I'm wondering how many does that represent how many how many trucks are going to be taken off the road and With respect to how many cars are traveling there and is it significant? Well, some of this is all spectacular one making that conversion, but if we were to Increase our volume say additional 400 car loads Then you're looking at almost 1600 truckloads and then there is a there is a model calculator that you can calculate Origin and destination to come out with a carbon number of tons of carbon you can take out So you mentioned the follow-up meetings we would have in terms of the number of new businesses Opportunities and car cars that we've brought on at that point would be a good time to sit down and go This actually equates to X number of truckloads These are the origins and destinations that they were taken off that were that were formerly moving on highway one And this is the amount of carbon that was that was reduced So you there is measurable so you're saying 400 car 400 car loads that would travel from north to south on this quarter Based on your business model Let's say someone's moving something from Chicago to Watsonville and it was moving by truck and it came down highway one We would be able to tell you exactly how much In terms of the the equation between truck to rail took four four and a half trucks for every row car I forgive me. I realize the equation part of it. Okay, but I'm looking for the actual Reduction on highway one based on your business model of Transporting product and I guess my what I'm saying is that it you keep saying that carbon Less carbon it's better for the environment But statistically it's just such a small infamintesimal amount of truck traffic that you take off the road That I wouldn't value it so much. I have another question. You're talking about At some point wanting to participate and be part of a passenger rail system in Santa Cruz County and To your credit you Boasted the fact that right now you're doing work on the rail line at your expense Okay, would you be would you be doing the same thing at your expense if you're going to use that rail line for your benefit for Excursions and so forth or would you expect the the taxpayers to do it? Passenger rail is is unique differently than freight. So passengers Generally done in collaboration between government local railroad as a collaborative effort You're not I'm not aware of any passenger system in America where it can be flooded by itself based on tickets So you do have to have a collaboration It's just the cost to make it work to make it functional and the equipment and the assets It's a different model than freight. Okay, last question. Sorry So you you're talking about expanding your business model up north all the way up to Santa Cruz Give me five of the the businesses that you would hope to engage and use your use your Cars system or whatever just quote take traffic off of highway one Well, the obvious ones are construction lumber. Where's that? What business is that? Well, we'll just say lumber I don't want to mention company names. So you've got lumber. You've got landscape materials You've got you've got water treatment Materials that come in for the water plants that are best to be moved by rail You've got all sorts of different Landscape and soil admixtures heavy bulky things That's that's what we see is that type of product It's that type of product, but are there that many businesses that would conform to your business model to make it worthwhile Yeah, no, we've we've been talking very much. So all right. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Schifrin or Ms. Brown Thank you. So I think thank you for the presentation and for coming out Appreciate you taking the time and providing us with some information I think some of the questions and concerns that I'm hearing from my colleagues here are speak to some of the questions and concerns I have which is in particular wanting to see some evidence some actual data to Demonstrate some of the assertions you're making I have no reason to doubt them But I also have some you know some questions And so it would be really helpful for us to get some additional information from you in writing Some some evidence that we are seeing some of these reductions in traffic the the some assessment of the contribution to the local economy You know in terms of jobs created jobs that are going you know local hiring processes for example I mean, it's it's one thing to hear that and You know with all due respect no no disrespect meant But to actually understand what that means it would be helpful for us So some kind of report about that in you know some You know amount of time six months whatever seems reasonable would really help us be assured that What you say is happening is happening, you know, we can sort of anecdotally see it I mean, you know, Ms. Kaufman Gomez is in Watsonville So it's probably closer to it than some of us, but that would be really helpful. I You know it would be interested to know Again that process of local hiring In for construction and maintenance also for your operations, you know, who is working in you know for progressive directly through subcontracts Are you getting former UP and NIP employees who are shifting over and continuing to do the work, etc So so just some better understanding of that would be really helpful for us And I would also be interested while you're here to and again I know this is prospective and you're working on expanding the business and longer-term planning, but just your plans for moving You know rail cars through the county I understand you're focusing on the Watsonville freight service right now But as you proceed what what that looks like And with all the investment that you're making, you know, which is much appreciated into our local economy How you anticipate Getting to an economically viable I mean, I know you've given us some of that But just kind of where you're at right now and where you see yourselves going Well, to respect of the reporting we use a service called RMI, which is on my general electric So every car that comes into any station point is recorded and it's a great impartial Fact-based report of every car that has a station point of Watsonville or Santa Cruz whatever it's going to be So we can pull those reports at any time and bring them into a quarterly biennial whatever meeting And then the carbon calculation that Phil spoke to is really easy because then we can go to the Actual carbon calculator and say here's the tons of carbon because of this amount of activity during this quarter So that's more than happy to do that And I think that's something that you know, probably quarterly would be a good thing to do just you know more is better Right, so and then we can give you our employment roster We can give you what we're doing in the span the capital spend more open book So we can break it down to like four or five metrics and just start comparing and then graphing them Okay Mr. Schiffer and then Bill and So in fact you're operating with a cloud over your business Because the Commission in making the contract with you made it very clear that that contract would not be finalized or go on beyond decision Unified course study unless the Commission So I think from my perspective asking a lot of questions about what you're Doing what you're going to do is a little bit unfair at this point since the Commission hasn't even decided that it wants to have you as And I think once It seemed to me a little bit difficult to run a business when you don't know whether you're going to be in business That's the fact that your contract was only signed. I think about six or seven months ago. So I think We may have expectations Your company that may be a little bit unrealistic at this point if the Commission January in January, I hope makes a decision on you fight for the study and if that decision is Keep the contract with progressive rail and have it Be going to the future for the length of the contract then I think it becomes more relevant for the Commission to start demanding reports on what you're doing the other thing and I Guess I have really two questions one question has to do with the potential of service to the rest of Santa Cruz County Sure, the Commission decide to Is your microphone on Where is the bottom that hit the green button at the bottom is it lit up? Press the button the grave on the top Hello, okay, sorry So my questions Should the Commission decide to continue the contract with progressive rail And allow the company to expand service beyond Watsonville My understanding is there's still a good deal of work that has to be done on the line before it's going to be possible to run Trains on it. Do you have any estimate based on any analysis that you've done? As to how long it would take before it will be possible physically to run a train on Freight train on the line Assuming that you do you are able to Achieve customers up in the north part of the county Thank you. So there is a meeting today. I believe with the Army Corps on the washout I can't answer that because the Army Corps is going to drive that decision as far as the permitting and as far as the sequencing I believe there's only a two-month window to do the work and that's coming up in the fall or early or late summer So it's a question. I can't answer with certainty. I can just say there's a process going on to get that repaired in the washoff fixed But you know, it's been an ongoing process for quite a while and the Army Corps has been slow to respond And they're needed in the process. So if I'm understanding correctly It doesn't make any sense for the Commission to ask for reports on the business and the rest of the county even assuming it Approves the contract since it's not going to be possible to you for you to serve any businesses for at least a year Well, we're actually hopeful that can go faster than that and take advantage of the window coming up You're gonna have a window this this late summer falls from what I understand So that it's not a large repair once that the design and engineering is done and agreed upon So we hope to be through it quicker, but stay tuned. The meeting is happening. I believe today The second question I have has to do with other kinds of transit on the line You've talked about the possibility of working with Passing the Commission if if passenger passenger rail ever becomes feasible in the future one of the options that's going to be before the Commission is Relationship with the bus system and the possibility of having bus rapid transit on the rail line Are you familiar with? Examples where it's been possible to run freight with bus rapid transit using the rail line for bus type vehicles that could also ride on Streets as well as with freight That's a product that you don't see a lot in America some foreign countries have something like that, but I'm aware of it It's it's something that's a ways out We're not into that buses We'd be anything with a steel wheel and we're supportive of passenger service But in our mode and what we do is is with rail cars But if the bus is a better alternative, let's have a discussion for sure we're open We want what you want Okay, thank you very much Mr. Caput Yeah, thank you for being here and with the state interest a State money of course and the interest of connecting Salinas Gilroy and I've heard that Monterey is going to try to connect also to All these different You know cities and then a connection with Pajaro, which would be Watsonville and that would be a connection with all of Santa Cruz County How does that impact? Progressive rail as far as the interest of connecting all these other cities with Pajaro and then of course Santa Cruz and Davenport It's a great question. So you have curfews you have passengers run at a certain point in freight at the opposite point So the two can live together in harmony. So in many many cases across America You've got your passenger windows and then freight runs opposite. So they can work together That would increase your Freight and possibly in the future passenger service greatly more activity breeds activity for sure And the the other questions I had were already answered. Thank you Good morning, thank you for being here. I appreciate your presentation I'm a metro a member of the metro and in that formula the the passenger fare He's usually covers about 22 to 25% and you were talking about if we got into the passenger service It's a collaborative effort. Is there any kind of is there a formula for you that? What percentage of the fares would cover should cover the cost and that kind of a situation on rail? Well, it's interesting if you look at Amtrak the fares that they collect pays to run the railroad But it does nothing for capital so they can run the trains with what you pay at the fair with Amtrak But there's no money for station improvements. There's no money for rail cars There's nobody for locomotives or for significant track Amtrak's a unique bird because they're running on the freight rail to run and they're paying a fee so that's not even a true example, so they're not even being burdened by that but Usually the fares at best cover the operating and in many times you're right at that 20 22% So that's where the collaboration comes from but it's got to be honest It's expensive and that's where it has to be a barn raising effect It's about okay great first of all I want to thank you both for taking the trip out here and coming in person making this presentation I want to remind the public especially that What we had prior to the contract with progressive although it's a limited contract was a failing railroad service and lots of complaints from the community about storage cars lack of maintenance and I want to acknowledge that since you've been here, you know You first started moving the cars and doing the maintenance and I appreciate that And I really want to stay away from the speculation about where we're going because as mr. Shipper mentioned you're operating on a contract that we haven't even consummated yet for for long-term plans Which makes it pretty hard to make those plans I do acknowledge that I know personally people that you've reached out to with businesses that and trying to solicit Additional freight service in Watsonville and other areas, so that's what you told us you were going to do So I just want to leave with the comments that you know so far as I'm far as I'm concerned You came here and you've done what you've said and I appreciate that Thank you First of all, I will also thank you for being here, although I realize how cold it is in Minnesota And so today looks pretty good if that's your work day and you're from Minnesota The We've had lots of conversations over the last couple of months About our future transportation planning and one of the things that comes up is The possibility of passenger rail and freight service coexisting and in your other lines, do you have Passenger service and your freight service coexisting in Minnesota in other areas in the Midwest you don't have that density of the cities like you have here. It's pretty rural Maybe close to the Twin Cities, but we just got light rail in the Twin Cities a few years ago Great controversy as you can imagine every time a rail line is being installed But today no we don't share rail with passengers just because of our geography. Yeah, and is But you've expressed here, but I just want to confirm You'd be willing to work with passenger service and with your freight service here Absolutely And you know, we would like to even be part of the passenger service itself as far as the operations of trains And we want to invest in the community. We're excited to be here and there's a lot more that can be done We have just scratched the surface of what can be done here Well, I appreciate the comments Mr. Mulhorn I Also appreciate the comments and I appreciate your willingness to come out here so often and engage with us in the community It speaks highly of your business model. So thank you so much just to some of the points that have been made Regarding the Administration coordination and license agreement we have with you When we approved that ACL That that gave Progressive rail the right to run freight service along the the full Freight easement which is the to mile post 31 point 39 So we're the tracks in a condition to run trains. They could conceivably run freight all the way up to Davenport It's just that our rail line obviously with the washout at mile post five You can't run any trains at all. But once that's resolved we could conceivably have freight along the entire corridor then but regarding Phase two of that agreement which is for transportation services There is a 120 day shot clock that started on November 15th Today, we're 21 days into that shot clock for making a decision about initiating transportation services Do we have any idea when we might vote on that on initiating transportation services? March 15th is the 120 day the end of the 120 day period January 17th is 63 days into that window. Did we have any idea when we might see a vote? Well, I'm looking at Louise, but Yeah Commissioners as you know, you do have a January 17th meeting where you took action to Consider the unified quarter investment study and that will you know determined the decision that you make on that study Will determine Then what sort of decision you can make about that agreement with Progressive Rail, so You could potentially make the decision at that meeting or it could be you know at a later meeting And you as pointed out you have until March to be able to do that. So Mr. Bertron You might want to check if your microphone is on thank you Tina so My questions are based on two things Recognition that you're in Santa Cruz and there's certain expectations for the community here And I think you've addressed that and I think everyone on this Commission Since we're elected and we run campaigns. We respond to the public and you're part of that now The other thing is whether or not you do well in your marketing Progress of your marketing plans, right? I've been in marketing and I know when I talked to my boss the year looks great You know and I got a lot of customers to feed the funnel, you know, but only a few come out the bottom so maybe a Shorter period time for a report would be good especially before we make a decision on doing the whole line My main focus really is on Watsonville. I think there's there's a lot of potential here There's a lot of people in Watsonville that are willing to be a part of the the rail solution Potentially it could magnify our ability our ability to market the various customers here that you would call customers their ability to market One customer did write a letter to us and talked about how Rail might be unfeasible and I think they're in produce. That's very perishable How would you address those concerns? I'm not sure you're aware of that but they try to get their product out in a very short period of time and Truck seem to be the only way to actually do that. There's some issues with transit using rail Is this something you're familiar with and it seemed it's a major customer in our area Yes, when we understand there's certain products That today probably wouldn't be feasible that we we think there's other things That probably be easier to go and look at first To the commercial side, there's things we need to prove to the customers that We can handle this and then we kind of move up. No pun intended to food chain to look at The more perishable time-sensitive products But there is the rail industry progresses things that weren't thought to be able ever to be move on rail or moving today So it's it's a constant change changing picture as rail improves. It's and continues to prove It's it's a process so But we're not going to start at the hardest items first and then work down But but we see certainly see it as an opportunity, but we have to get to prove ourselves first on some of the more Obvious products So Yes, I want to build in well said Phil But there is something to be said about the perishables working with Union Pacific They have what's called a cold train express and we're actively working on setting out a block of cars That connects with that train and how many days is it to the east coast is it four or three four or five days on an express Which is actually better than a team drive with truck. Okay, that's what I want to hear So we have particular problems here with certain customer base that you would be it would be your customer base So as long as I hear you're identifying that as a solution you want to achieve I'm happy so to me, you know, I said one point and the mayor is here and he heard me say this I think Watsonville is the jewel in this particular line for you guys and this is the one that I Want to see that develop big time. There's jobs for the public. There's magnifying the ability of our Businesses to market and that's all a good thing. That's what I'm looking for The cold train express. Why don't you give them a little highlight? You've worked on that. This is how valuable that is to this community well, yeah, the Union Pacific has a And there's in the rail industry and we talked about how the rail industry's progressed in terms of their product services that they offer but they run trains that are Unit trains that run and collaborative with the eastern carriers that run from the West Coast to New York in four or five days They actually beat truck delivery And those are very successful What we're hoping to work with in Watsonville and Watsonville be in a unique place in terms of the amount of cold Storage capacity that it has is to make and we were also not only selling to the customers We're selling to the class one railroads that hey, we'll turn your assets these Refrigerator box cars are a quarter of a million dollars a piece The Union Pacific's gone out and bought 1200 new ones with an op and with an option for 1600 So that's a huge investment on their part. They see that growing. But what we hope to make is Watsonville that kind of a Center point where they can concentrate those cars and and even our initial conversations with them is a way to Tie Watsonville into that express system You know if we can turn and provide the service not only to our end customers here, but also to the Union Pacific That's but then it that's further down the road It's you know show us first show us that you can do that And then also in terms of the destinations if you have that quarter of a million dollar asset, we're working on already Back hauls for those same cars to come back to Watsonville making both legs of the the process more competitive both for for the Union Pacific but also the Local businesses here in Watsonville Right, we got one more so when you look at those customers The fruit is very important for sure But it also comes down to the frozen fruit and we're working on new innovative load designs to get more product in the box cars Which makes it even more competitive for anyone here that's trying to get their fruit to market to smuggers or any number of people that are Consumers own so low design is one of the things more efficient box cars. We're identifying We're offering to clean cars for Union Pacific here to become an easy center to get cars in and out fast That used to be done back in the day in Watsonville So we're doing a lot of things to be collaborative with the UP with the customer with the city Transportation board everybody has got a stake in this to make it successful. I'll just leave you with this So all of these customers the fruit is important, but it's also the plastic resin to make the containers It's also the pallets. It's everything that's part of that supply chain And so when you look at that even the inputs the fertilizer the light wood aggregates the organic fertilizer All of that helps them be more competitive in a worldwide market So it's a stepping stone and we're already working with UP on cold train that started But in the meantime, there is some low-hanging fruit right now that'll make these companies more competitive today So Mr. Schifford Patrick raised a concern that I Really with I want to ask Luis about Regarding the excursion excursion requirements in the contract Could you remind me what does kick in the time period where? Excursion service has to be provided because I'm the reason I'm concerned Assuming that the commission decides to go forward with progressive rail The line is not available right now So if there's a short time period under which they could start they are required to start excursions or have excursion Service provided and it's not possible to run trains on the line. It's not very realistic. So what does the? contract say in terms of When excursion services needs to be? started the administration coordination license agreement then gives Progressive rail 12 months to provide an operating made a plan To initiate excursion service and and then and bring it before the commission So the commission can then consider approval of that plan and once they have that that Approval that plan for things that they can then they can proceed with that excursion service So they're only required to bring a plan to the commission not to start the service So if it takes longer to fix the line than the optimistic estimates from The company there is the ability it won't Undermine the the contract. Yes, so within that first year. They just need to develop the the The proposal for providing the service. Okay. Thank you. That's helpful Thank you for the presentation. I know you have to leave like something around 1015 And so I I want to open it up for any comments with the recognition with everybody that they have to leave I'll give them a moment if there's any questions they could ask But I really appreciate the effort to be here to be communicative with our commission And we appreciate the way you've been working with the RTC in the community. Thank you. It's a good partnership. Yeah Hi Brian people's with trail now First of all trail now supports freight in Watsonville Freight is we consider everything south of Lee Road When we talk about freight into Santa Cruz, I think of the milk carton guy When we were little he used to deliver the milk cart Bottles in front of your house, right? Could you imagine? That's kind of what freight is Delivering into Santa Cruz. I mean, are we really going to have big? Freight vehicles delivering milk to our neighborhoods lumber. I don't think so One of the things Greg. This is specifically for you. You do understand the current contract even if We agree that we're gonna have something other than passenger rail Watsonville is pretty much out of the loop on an alternative because you've given away the rights of the Corridor all the way to mile post seven, which is Buna Vista Road So you you've given it away. So I would ask that the commission Go back to progressive rail and say hey Can we look at an alternative because we think we want Watsonville to have alternative transportation Right something Can we get some sidling sightings? I think they're called right behind the you know right before Lee Road That would be a great win-win solution now We could renegotiate and not give up that valuable Harkins slew location So I think that's something that we really want to Impress upon you to look at in the way of the contract working with them because we want freight to be successful in Watsonville It's a great thing. It's it definitely is the other thing that I want to point out is We will socially talk about any companies that Get freight delivered past Lee Road. So say in Lorenzo lumber You know, we'll talk about it in the social space and that's not a good thing because we're not sacrificing that corridor for fixing our transportation problem for people for people for that simple milk run because Sam Lorenzo lumber wants its milk delivered It doesn't work in this modern age when we look at the technology of our mobile technology for individuals Using rubber tires. We can't sacrifice that for those milk runs To San Lorenzo lumber or any other little small operator along the rail corridor. Thank you Could I ask if you're threatening to undermine the business model of San Lorenzo lumber? Do I get another three minutes? No, just a quick yes or no would do. I Don't know their business model Not yet you should come forward and speak or you should let the next person come Okay This is really good that you guys are here Progressive presented their marketing plan five-year marketing plan and the graphs that you see are Directly from that and I've actually taken their marketing plan and plugged it through the ACL agreement and Calculated how much money goes in and goes out. So I'd like people to see it. Basically. I'm going to say this very quickly which is I've plotted the the actual freight done by Iowa Pacific Versus what was done by the progressive marketing plan on the very top graph Their freight is seven times the historical average of Iowa Pacific without counting partial quarters and things like that This is the actual developed stuff and it actually it coincides with Sierra northern number two Let's go to the next marketing plan which is Passenger service. I'm only going to compare the Davenport special or whatever the coastal train you can compare it with the the Polar Express or they're also they did the coastal train you can see in the orange the Iowa Pacific is way down there at About six thousand passengers per per year and progressive is promising by year five 60,000 okay, so it's 10 times that I should say to the public that don't that doesn't have this graph on the Freight they're offering. They're promising seven times the historical average. So it's it's It's very optimistic to say an understatement lastly. I did run it through the The financials part that's the graph number three and I took exactly the numbers very optimistic numbers of the progressive including the 140,000 passengers per year coming from San Jose to Santa Cruz actually should say 70,000 because it'll be a round trip But I took all their numbers their revenues and plugged it through and I will tell you a couple of things Freight comes to about $40,000 a year when they are fully up and running There's the the passenger service takes time to get up but you can see that the The net loss if you look at the bar graph those bars on the bottom That's the net loss and the net loss to the county is 15 million dollars over 10 years So we may like progressive, but how much are we going to pay to keep progressive running their railroad? This is net loss. Okay, this is not like how much are we spending? So when I say how much are we spending in that loss? I'm including the promises in the contract to fix the tracks So that they can do it. That's the phase two It's all in there and the estimates are there and my minute is gone. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Good morning, good morning, I'm Jack Carroll. I live in Soquel I appreciate the presentation today by progressive rail, but it talked about Watsonville freight And I know speaking personally I have no objection to a robust Watsonville freight service and I haven't heard any Objection to that. It's what happens after Watsonville. It's my understanding that You and I and everybody else in this room has to pay to rehabilitate those tracks past Watsonville and so I think it's a perfectly reasonable question to ask what possible benefit is available to the businesses and the taxpayers of Santa Cruz before we spend the sizeable amount to rehabilitate those tracks I happen to be walking on them this weekend and let me tell you they are in Sad shape There's also been a subject question about how freight and passenger service will work together And I want to read a couple of expert excerpts from the agreement that has been signed There's a definition of transportation services its paragraph 1.17 and it specifically says a transportation service does not Include regularly scheduled mass transit or commuter service. I don't think you asked for that I suspect they asked for that There's also a paragraph 2.3. That's headed and underlined no material interference with freight service So I think that kind of agrees with what progressive has told you that they are in the freight business and passenger business is Well, they say it won't be a problem but we have a single track that goes two ways for both passenger and freight and Evidently somebody wrote into this operating agreement that you guys signed that If there is a problem passenger service loses and regarding the excursion trains my reading of the contract says that Progressive has three years from perfect rails to run one Excursion train a year The fourth year they have to run to the fifth year. They have to run three now I'm sorry our Caltrans representative isn't here But I don't think that's what the state of California thinks of as passenger rail service to run a holiday train for the rather wealthy visitors to Santa Cruz to Go someplace I I I'm sure it's not legally fraud, but it certainly seems like ludicrous and when we're asked to pay a hundred million dollars to make it possible I'm sorry, I don't see the logic of that. Thank you. Thank you Good morning. Good morning Stanley Sokolow. I have two issues that I'm concerned about If we're gonna be running passenger trains every 30 minutes both directions Sort of staggered and they passed somewhere along the way How does that interleave with freight does The freight run just at night after the passenger service ends like from 10 p.m. To 5 a.m. Or what how did they picture interleaving? passenger commuter service with their freight and the second issue is the time window For making the decision to go ahead with them for passenger service or whatever that time window is 120 days or whatever I Thought that starts when the use the unified quarter study has been completed and a recommendation is made Isn't that what was the language in the contract? What triggered the start when staff recommendation was made? As the staff recommendation actually been completed or it's still in flux Because I see the Metro is asking for more studies as those the UCS is not completed So that those were my issues I'm Ryan Sarnitaro from live oak It's pretty obvious that there's two different Operating issues here one of them has to do with Watsonville everybody's in favor freight in Watsonville Progressives investing in it the other one has to do with the rest of the corridor and When Progressive came out here the first time I spoke with Craig Mackenzie about the fact that there are two different zones here that we that were concerned about and I urged him to come up with a contract that had a clean out for the passenger or the northern part of the of the rail corridor The fact that you folks have a contract in your hands that does not give our county an easy option to say great, do your progressive rails free service to Watsonville and And let us work out what we want to do with the with the rest of the rail corridor. I Think that was a profound a service to to the county on the part of whoever it was that created and negotiated the contract now Name-calling aside You're going to be faced with a decision here, which is going to if you're going to try and preserve the Rail corridor for any kind of use whether it's whether it's a bus whether it's a bicycle You're going to need to cancel this contract and renegotiate with progressive rail and It seems to me that You know that that makes it distasteful to say yeah, we're going to just throw that out but as you can see by the amount of investment that progressives is putting in here and also What I believe is there their good faith belief that there's a a lot of volume that can be moved down to Watsonville I think progressive will go for it You you have the strength in the negotiating position to cancel this contract and get a contract that only operates Freight out of Watsonville, and so I'm certainly urging the Commission to do that it would be I would be interested to understand the process by which you were not provided that as a clean alternative But nonetheless, that's what you've got. We now have a you know new leadership coming to the To the RTC and I and I hope that the new leadership understands community concerns to the point where they actually negotiate and sometimes negotiate hard To give the community the opportunity to take the time that it needs in order to actually Come up with the best solutions for this quarter. Thank you. Thank you Good morning Buzz Anderson. I'm a resident of live oak also have owned grew up in capital and own a business there for the past 35 years The The letter from progressive rail to this commission is an example of the type of unneeded bias that continues to be part of this process First progressive rail is biased to advocate for its freight business So why are they given a perch by our staff to opine on Santa Cruz County's transportation issues? More importantly progressive's letter of October 24th is full of incorrect information Progressive claims that it will reduce truck traffic needed for consumer goods like food products lumber and roofing materials as well as inputs to Manufacturing and municipal water treatment systems. We have had two failed trained operators Sierra Northern and Iowa Pacific they failed because the freight north of Watsonville is not economic The materials in North County referenced by progressive rail are peanuts for a thriving rail line inputs to manufacturing what manufacturing in Reality if progressive does bring in customers and new manufacturing plants to the Santa Cruz Watsonville corridor Then we'll see more trucks on the highway not fewer Progressive also claims they will convert a significant volume of car traffic to passenger rail really the rail transport transport Feasibility study shows low ridership Even the general manager of smarts at his train has had no impact on highway 101 traffic in Sonoma and Marin County's Progressive claims will need excursion trains as a transition to passenger rail We're gonna tie up the coastal corridor for ten years when there's little freight north of Watsonville based on this type of analysis I strongly urge you to do the alternatives analysis requested by Metro and delay any decision decision on the u.s UCS until this is completed The only thing in January 17th UCS decision will do is lock up the corridor for ten years and take Transportation options off the table Let's focus progressive rail on the freight that exists in Watsonville South and explore the right mix of active Transportation and public transit on the corridor anything else is reckless and biased Thank you Good morning. Good morning gala McNulty and for the record. I no longer speak for Greenway I speak for my children and for all of the children who are not in this room today But who will have to live with the decisions that this agency makes You are putting an incredible amount of trust in this out-of-state company and you are doing this naively With too little information You are putting our transportation options and potentially the welfare of the people of this county and our beautiful surroundings at risk That is not okay These gentlemen are good salesmen and they're good at making money as mr. Bator found out on his trip out west They're also in an industry that is heavily protected by our federal government Their team members including mr. Fellen and mr. McKenzie are well versed in the fossil fuel industry Which is by the way? The perhaps the only industry currently profiting on the u.s. Rails and California For all of our wonderful sustainability is the third biggest producer of fossil fuels So I ask you to stop and think for a minute. Why do these gentlemen want to be here? So badly why did they start reaching out to our county last summer before we put out an RFP? Why have how many of you have actually seen the proposal that they gave to this agency in October? Which was very very very different than the one of the public saw in January How many of you have looked at the page in that proposal that talked about the hazardous industries? They specialize in how many of you have looked closely at their website to see what they do what they move in other places How many of you have looked at what their industry in connection with the Frex and industry has done to the state of Wisconsin? And how much have you really thought about how this will affect Watsonville? Think carefully think very very carefully I've heard a lot of skepticism in the room today about this company being able to profit and quite honestly That's not what I'm worried about I would love for them to come here and fail because that's our best case scenario if these Gentlemen come here and actually turn a profit. It's gonna be by doing what they said they would do when we were in Scots Valley They said they would bring out-of-state customers here How many of you have questioned them mr. Schifrin you think it's okay to not know who these customers are my children Don't think that's okay. All right I want to know what they think they can do to make a profit here because it's not the lumber and it's not the produce Those industries have already said there's not that much business there and we've watched other companies fail trying to move that So ask more questions Please Thank you Good morning. I'm sorry Just sit here and cry for two minutes if you'd like to Wait no, I'm just gonna I'll say I'll say very little I Stayed up till 11 o'clock preparing something. I'm not gonna read it So that means I only slept for five hours, you know be on the road for three hours transporting my kids back and forth the PCS But I am here representing Greenway and I do have two questions. There's a question on the contract that seems to read that if progressive rail actually is Successful in their endeavors that that would actually Take precedent over any sort of transportation Use for the rail. So I have a question about that And I also have a question There's a letter in a packet that was produced I think in June where agron was asking For the signing of the contract with progressive rail and they seem to be very interested in transporting biofuels Through this rail company and I've heard no mention of them. So I'm really curious as to why That hasn't come up and if they are going to be transporting Biofuels in our community We just had a terrible fire Not so far from here Really scared the hell out of me and my kids and to not acknowledge that that could potentially happen in our community Through the transportation of very highly flammable product really bothers me and it concerns me And I really need you to pay a little bit closer attention to what is about or not about to happen here. Thank you Thank you Good morning. Good morning. Karina McFarlane Live oak resident and just to say that I love highway one. It's always empty. It's never congested Because I see my clients I say I won't see you after two o'clock in the afternoon or I'll schedule you at 7 30 in the evening And I do two more sessions after so that's my workaround and so my point is that Anyone could truck anything in the hours that I'm on highway one to Watsonville freight bless their heart Thank God they're there, but don't make freight up through North County. Thank you Thank you. Morning. Good morning bud Colligan live oak resident I'd first like to remind the Commission that we've had two failed Operators Sierra Northern and Iowa Pacific. Why did they fail? lack of freight business We've had consultants from the RTC our RTC owned studies that doubted the economic viability of freight in this corridor. I'm not talking about Watsonville freight I'm talking about freight in North County and Nothing has changed in the Santa Cruz economy. In fact, it's moved in the other direction to more services. We have no heavy industry Lumber for pro-build. Come on guys. This is not serious We have no manufacturing here We can't move produce we've got letters from Driscoll stating that the cold car is not a viable solution We hear a lot of happy talk from progressive rail about trucks off highway one and off highway 17 Commission we have the data. We have four years of data. Mr. Schifrin go look at it from Iowa Pacific You can see the number of cars and truckloads that have actually been moved in this county It's not a mystery. Let's go look at the data from the last four years How many of those truckloads were in North County and? Lastly I agree with our ability to negotiate agreements. There's widespread agreement on Doing something for Watsonville and keeping freight operations working there. Why don't we have a contract to do that? Why don't we try and find a consensus among this county instead of trying to continue this divisive debate? And I'll end with one thing because we've forgotten a lot about federal preemption You know, we have a sequel lawsuit against progressive rail and against the RTC that's going to be heard by Judge Burdick next week I just want to read one statement from the progressive rail brief on that This court lacks Subject matter jurisdiction over St. Paul's freight operations which are exclusively regulated by the STB Petitioner chose to ask this court to tread on STB's Exclusive jurisdiction and issue a ruling that would invade St. Paul's federally authorized freight operations. I repeat federally authorized freight operations So buyer beware. This is the Entanglement that we've gotten into with the progressive rail contract. We have been poor negotiators We can do something south of Watsonville. Let's solve our community's problems and not contribute to further problems going forward Thank you. Thank you Hi, my name is Kathy Marino. I haven't prepared anything I'm a native of Watsonville. My family first moved to Santa Cruz County 160 years ago and I want you and progressive to know that not everyone in Santa Cruz County uses histrionics and threats to try to protect their Whatever they are thinking about I don't know because I have a background in some pretty basic engineering But I worked doing electrical estimating and engineering and I know a lot about Rite of Ways, and I know the value of our rail quarter. I also know that rail is changing and Greenhouse gases in our earth's Environment everything is changing and we need rail and trail We need options Widening the highway might have to happen, but it's going to be much more expensive and a lot less safe and A lot works for the environment and then if we can get passenger rail and freight I want to just applaud you for being patient and putting up With all of this and I want you to know that there is a large bunch of people That know what you're doing and appreciate what you're doing and appreciate what they're doing Progressive is doing what it said it was going to do and it's doing it. Well Especially Watsonville which has my heart, you know And I think everybody can benefit from especially as Me when I get older and I'm getting older Everybody can benefit from rail And they just a lot of people don't want to train going by the backyard and a lot of people want to use that land instead anyhow to sell or whatever but Their motives they think might be altruistic, but I think we have to think about what's best for everybody and Anyhow, thank you for your patience and putting up with all this My name is Barry Scott, and I live in Aptos and I'm I just want to thank the Commission for their vote in June to bring progressive rail into town and and I want to thank St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company for the remarkable amount of work that they're doing to restore a condition to our rail line That it that it should be in and and I see nothing but progress how impressive is it that they've been doing this without phase two of the Contract. I really hope phase two will will come into being next early next year I want to speak to the process to you know, we bought a working rail line using rail transit money and and We we you know and began a journey to to do studies to test Alternative modes and we're we've reached the point where we have the unified quarters investment study that opponents to rail transit insisted upon and We've looked at it in so many different ways and it's unquestionable that rail transit is the direction that we should pursue But we need the freight easement To remain operational because it's it's that very federal protection that keeps it Preserved for our future use will we have rail transit next year and in five years and ten years? I don't know but if we ever ever give up that freight easement we'll lose our options forever Thank you. Thank you Good morning. Good morning Diana Adamic a committee member Progressive rail is a choo-choo train and choo-choo trains belong running around a Christmas tree on the living room floor Not going through Santa Cruz County I am not on the side of Greenway or rails or trails or any of those I'm for a Forward-moving solution to all our problems. I do think that we we definitely need public transportation And I'm a big supporter of trains and public transportation with trains But this is not the solution to people moving people It's an embarrassment to think that we're going to have progressive rail choo-choo trains coming through Santa Cruz County As a lover of this city, I do not have any pride in telling people come to my city We have this really noisy dirty filthy train coming through that does absolutely nothing for you as a tourist But I'd like us to see is to put some investment in the future with real technology. We are the home of UCSC We have really good brains here. We can come to some of the little bit better We definitely need bike trails. We need a lot safer ways to commute via the bicycles. We need better ways to walk we need to fix the The sidewalks as well because it's ridiculous that we have so few walkable streets around here And all that is connected to the train situation We cannot have any sort of reasonable train transportation without addressing Sidewalks biking to and from the trails trains what's going to happen with our parking to the trains to and from the trains And the noise pollution we know is a really big problem all over this world as well and those trains do not solve anything they are going to add to a lot of stress and Difficulties here in the city. I am not against putting a public moving sort of train Situation on the corridor if that's a visa viable with getting people to and from here for example There's just no way I would take a train to this meeting back and forth because there's no way to get there but it is Is it a bike trail that might be a better option? But the main thing is it's ridiculous an embarrassment that even think that this committee would consider having a choo-choo train Coming through the city doing nothing really for the no real benefits. Thank you Thank you Is there anyone else? Good morning, mr. Mayor Sure. Lowell Hurst mayor of Watsonville, you know, I didn't come all this way up here not to speak It only took an hour to get here Surely we all agree in the room that Freight well almost everybody agrees that freight to Watsonville is a good idea the businesses Along the corridor thing. It's a good idea. I think the agricultural industry would co benefit by Large volumes of organic fertilizers and soil amendments and Products that they use in their shipping and packaging and such and and it's been acknowledged that not everything is Going to survive a rail trip, but apple juice can in a bottle So there's a real need But there's also a need for Watsonville folks to get to Santa Cruz In a more expeditious manner whether it's by rail or road. I think there's great hope to increase the opportunities For folks to get together and understand each other better There seems to be some kind of polarization sometimes and maybe a better Transportation connection might be able to fix some of that At least build some understanding, but we need to build an economy too. So I Remember when I worked out of Buena Vista, I saw the train go by with lumber with Rock products with cement with All kinds of things that were on the track Taking trucks off the road is an important item providing an efficient flow for freight and passengers is an important item and so I say Move forward be bold be brave Let's look for the future and let's get Santa Cruz moving Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Anyway, can I say something there low? You remember those trains, but you do also we go back far enough to remember elephants and Lions and everything coming there on the circus to Watsonville a long time ago Okay, that's how far we go back All right when Giants walked among us So now we're gonna go return to our regularly scheduled Agenda the next item we have is oral communications and so a Couple things that I want to say before we start oral communications We are we're gonna limit it to no more than a half hour It if people still want to speak there'll be time at the end of the meeting and since we Just did the train and we have the unified quarter study on there. I'm gonna try to be very Try to keep people to the items that aren't on the agenda. So please come forward for oral communications. Mr. Chair Since we have our new director here, I think it's important to be reminded of the rules of public communication and I think it's it's the role of the chair to stop people when they Call out individual members of the Commission the public is to talk to the Commission as a whole not to individuals Somebody wants to tell me what I should do. I'm happy to talk to them after the meeting But I don't think it's appropriate when I talk and I think it's not really the rules to sort of single out a particular member of the Commission and Address comments to that person So if you agree, I appreciate the reminder, okay, so I will remind our Audience that to address the entire Commission Good morning, Mr. Nelson. Good morning kind commissioners My name is Jack Nelson. I'm a retired land-use planner and environmental planner When I first began working for the county of Santa Cruz planning department I was geographically located just down through this floor and over that way a little bit and across the cubicle isle at that time from planners with the transportation Commission So in that time I Well, maybe I'll just skip past that and speak to what happened when I retired I saw that I still had a mission to speak to our future and So you've heard me come here and talk about my concerns about climate change. Well What's happening today at this hour in Katowice, Poland? the UN framework convention on climate change has is more or less wrapping up its conference meeting today of Conference of parties on climate change Katowice, Poland is in southern Poland in in cold country and I Think it's not coincidental that it's located about 20 miles away from Auschwitz Auschwitz being the site of Some of the Holocaust that the Nazis perpetrated in World War two. I was there in 1977 after attending conference of Cold War peace advocates in Warsaw and What I saw was the leftovers of Holocaust I wonder how much the Participants at that climate conference are thinking of the next Holocaust. I know they are But the last Holocaust was cruel and in your face intentional The coming Holocaust a climate of climate if we don't avoid it Will be a Holocaust of incremental mix out of our future Again your commission and welcome to your new executive director mr. Preston Your commission and your staff are among the most potent Authorities we have to determine what Santa Cruz County does about this potential next Holocaust and Is is that just a scientific question? No, it's also a moral question moral philosophers Who have addressed climate change will tell us that we are Potentially judged not only by our actions but by our inactions and So you not only have I suggest a moral duty to act to not cause harm, but to also actively Lead us out of the way of harm I'm done. Thank you Hi Brian people's trail now I Rode I live in Aptos and I actually did ride my skateboard not the whole way. I am 54 The new 20 right right guy the new 20 Anyways, I Want to remind us that you know a lot of people talk about the need to provide public transit and solutions You know, this is a solution and what this does is it enables our community To not have to use those infrastructure Resources that other people need that other people require Because they're older than Not older just not able to do the skateboard But technology is advancing and the skateboard is advancing and it's a great opportunity for our community To benefit from I just want to Highlight that it would have been really nice to have ridden my skateboard from Aptos And I'm hoping one day I will be able to ride my skateboard from Aptos to this meeting. Thank you Karina McFarlane live oak I Want to the leftover Holocaust he caught me because the Center for wise democracy who brings the wisdom council process to Has bought it all over the world brought it to Austria by invitation and they did a wisdom council process there and Teenagers came out in tears saying the elders have never been able to talk to us about What happened with that concentration camp and those Nazis there so that's the wisdom council process so I had This is an update because I had written to RTC and other places in the county to say couldn't we sponsor a community conversation Dynamic facilitation by the Center for wise democracy and have Jim Ruff come down from Washington State and do that with us So I was attempting to have that happen in in conversation with Jim Ruff and Basically what happened? It was he said well teacher woman to fish And so we are now training to be dynamic facilitation facilitators for Santa Cruz County and the upshot is is that we are going to have We the people council process to address the rail corridor issue Because I have heard that it's so confounding to people that they've signed both petitions Foreign against and there are many of the same names and so I'm really thrilled that this could happen for our county And it looks like it's coming together and could happen quite quickly, and I'm glad to hear about the January date, but then the March date and hopefully we can have this wisdom council process Santa Cruz County we the people council Facilitated actually by Jim Ruff who's has mastery and many people in the world have mastery now, but to have Jim Ruff He's the guy that conceived it Thank you. Thank you Good morning. Good morning. How you doing commissioners Michael saying with campaign for sustainable transportation? I also had a presentation here, which I'm just going to ignore due to the characteristic of the comments I want to go back to the last meeting. I was unable to attend, but I did watch the video and I wanted just to make a comment about Mike Rottkin's comments not Singling him out because I see similar characteristics throughout the council Primarily, he said he didn't really like the ox lane projects, but being a pragmatic person He realized that if that wasn't part of the measure D we wouldn't be here talking about it And we wouldn't have the funds But basically for those of you everybody I sure Understands the term pragmatic. I see a lot of that with this council and other people I deal with Basically, you're practical matter of fact people sensible down to earth business like hard-headed No, nonsense hard-nosed is basically Webster's definition an example of that would be he or she remains pragmatic in Most emotional circumstances We have a very emotional Circumstance here, which I don't hear too much from the commissioners here and that's we have a climate change crisis No matter what your character is and we need what they would say all hands on deck When the ship is sinking and believe me the ship is sinking. I Also wanted to bring up. I attended Monterey Bay community power Meeting yesterday is really a breath of fresh air Mr. McPherson made a comment and you can correct me if I get the dates wrong That we are going to meet our 2020 goals of greenhouse gas emissions that we were going to meet in 2035 we'll meet it by 2020 and that's due to Monterey Bay community power, but I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings California Transportation Commission studies say if we don't do anything about our transportation problem all that will be wiped out by 2035 we'll be back where we were in the beginning and Supporting ox lanes and highway widening. It's just not cutting it Also wanted to mention which I thought was somewhat interesting. I got 40 seconds About safety if you're gonna be safe you're gonna do away with cars auto travel kills approximately 32,000 people a year in the USA heroin and cocaine overdoses Account for approximately 26,000 We say at that point it's horrible and we want to start a war on drugs What do we do about cars when we widen the highway and put people in harm's way? We do nothing. We actually Invite people to enjoy it that that type of Transportation thanks for your time. Thank you Good morning. I'm Brett Garrett I live in the city of Santa Cruz and I am very proud of my city for approving a climate emergency Resolution and I just wanted to highlight a few portions of that resolution I obviously don't have time to read all 20 of the whereas clauses or there's more than 20 But they include various Concepts including common sense and morality our local vulnerability to city sea level rise and saltwater intrusion It mentions transportation is contributing over half of our local city of Santa Cruz carbon emissions And there could probably be five more whereas clauses just based on things that have happened in the last couple of weeks fires that have broken out reports that have become available And the resolution goes on to say now be it therefore resolved the city of Santa Cruz declares That an existential climate emergency threatens our city's towns region state nation civilization humanity and the natural world And of course there are a Lot of further resolved clauses that I don't have time to read saying what the city is going to do including policies Transportation demand management affordable housing climate action plan educating residents community participation and responsiveness to disadvantaged communities and I'll I will read the last three clauses if I can especially there's one that's very specific to the RTC Be it further resolved the city of Santa Cruz endorses adjust county-wide emergency climate action mobilization effort To reverse global warming To reduce drastically City-wide greenhouse gas emissions and safely draw down carbon from the atmosphere as quickly as possible Be it further resolved the city of Santa Cruz calls on the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission and other appropriate local agencies to participate in this regional emergency climate action mobilization effort Be it further resolved the city of Santa Cruz calls for regional just transition and emergency climate action mobilization Collaborate effort Collaborative effort inviting concerned residents youth faith labor business environmental economic racial and social justice organizations as well as other community groups and all elected officials in and from the Santa Cruz and nearby counties and Especially all the mayors who have signed on to enact the Paris To enact the Paris Agreement, so every decision that we make here needs to be made in the context of a climate emergency Thank you, thank you Hello, Kerry, Kerry Pico from Aptos I do want to take a little I want to break the rules and I want to pick on Andy shifrin in the sense of I Really enjoy his logic his thinking his discussion. It's been very positive And even if we're on a different viewpoint, I just want to say I really appreciate his presence on the board So with that said I've been asked to read the editorial in the sentinel that managed to appear after about four months in the paper And hopefully all of you have read it I am not going to reread it because I don't think I can do it in a short enough of time considering that there was an issue that was brought up that I think people need to understand about the Saving of the rail corridor About the easements and I have a saying what's good for the goose is good for the gander so There's an issue that was discussed in in the agenda about whether or not Title to the easements are clear and if we take the rails out for whatever reason we may lose whatever easements we have and The what I want to point out is if you don't have title to an easement with or without a rail If I'm Joe blow sitting next to the tracks and I own that and I realize that there's no easement on my property I could probably go to court right now and go demand compensation for the taking of my land for keeping those tracks in place Okay, because you don't have legal title So my point is don't raise it as an issue of trail versus non trail or whatever It's an issue and you need to take it seriously number two is With or without a trail when you add a trail to that corridor that breaks Whatever rail easements exist if they're in writing most of them have reverted by the way most of the easements have reverted to Fee ownership already because of the California marketability Records Act So but the few that exists or the hundred and some I don't know what exists When you put in something that's not critical to rail operation Such as believe it or not even electrical line is considered critical to rail operation But a trail is not that breaks the easement and you run the risk of getting sued on that regardless of if it's trail Only or if it's rail with trail why it hasn't happened already the low-hanging fruit has is already get it started And you'll expect to see it somewhere in the future lastly This is the fear of rail banking really really boggles my mind because by going through rail banking if we do not put Okay, okay, all I'm saying is yeah So the point of the easement is how do you protect the easement? And that's really what I'm talking about It's not about the the corridor study. It's about What is the safest risk averse way to go about it? So I still don't consider that part of the investment study, but thank you. Thank you Hello again Last month's fires were a wake-up call We are Experiencing the end of the world as we know it and I don't feel fine. I for one. I'm scared as hell But as a mother I have to hold on to hope Bernie Sanders town hall on Monday night Offered us on climate change offered some sense of hope If you missed it, it's on YouTube, please watch it After stating that countries throughout the world must stand up to the fossil fuel industry and transform our energy system away from fossil fuels Bernie pointed out that his program unlike commercial television was not being sponsored by Exxon mobile or the Koch brothers We sit here in Santa Cruz and it's easy to forget about what's happening in the rest of our state It's easy to feel proud of the same sustainable choices that our county and our state have made And it's easy to forget that there are other counties in the state that are basically becoming the third world Because of the oil that's being produced there and the smog that's filling their air and other things that are happening The fossil fuel industry doesn't want the public to know that renewable energy can be cheaper And that fossil fuel jobs can reap can reap and can be replaced with healthier better-paying renewable jobs It's even teaching tomorrow's youth The need project is a 501c3 funded by the fossil fuel industry that creates K through 12 curriculums and sponsors solar projects in schools I have some pro fossil fuel coloring sheets that I'll pass around to all of you today That are part of their energy curriculum The California state program director for the need project serves on the board of our local friends of the rail and trail In fact, he's in the room today a little food for thought think about what is influencing our conversation That may be beyond our radar screens 90% of the world scientists agree that we need profound changes in the next 10 to 12 years to build a more equitable world and Sustained life as we know it we must all Question the systemic problems that are dooming our children and heal the divides that stand between a scary today and A nightmarish tomorrow to give our children a chance to build a better world Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's Green New Deal offers hope other change-oriented young people taking office around our country including Drew Glover Justin Cummings and Paco Estrada that have been elected locally offer hope The tide of change will help to bring integrity and courage to all levels of our government And those who have become too comfortable We'll begin to realize that there's more than one way to win an election and we simply cannot allow money Industry and ego-driven power to continue to steer our future. We need serious changes in your agency Can make those changes they can be profound and positive Thank you Good morning morning Ryan Sanataro. I have an accounting request and Because standard accounting Doesn't necessarily answer the questions that people have and so in in the case of the of the corridor or in the case of how how the Commission or how the how our County is Spending money in the in the rail area it would be really nice if we had a financial statement that gave us What monies were being spent in support of which aspects of the of the project so I Would personally like to know where the money comes from in terms of whether it's proposition D money whether it's discretionary money whether it's grant money to to be maintaining and fixing the rails So that we were we would be able to contrast that with what the costs would be if the decision had been made in the past or gets made in the future about taking the rails out and When I look at the statements, I can't get that answer because it's trying to slice and slice and slice and dice things differently than Then standard accounting does so if you can think in terms of the questions the public might have about what's going on and come up with supplementary Reports that that you know easily give us that information and also give it over a long period of time not just You know 2016 2017 But if you could give it all the way back to when we when we first got the corridor It give a given idea because you know one person here said well It's 15 million dollars in the next ten years and I've heard figures like we've already spent six million dollars because we left the rails and instead and instead of deciding to take them out and Those are questions. I'd love to love to see an answer to thanks. Thank you Seeing no one else will move on with our regular agenda Mr. Dondaro is there any additions or deletions to the agenda? Yes, mr. Chairman we have a replacement page for item 5 Replacement pages for item 10 a Hand out for item 23 another handout for item 23 and Replacement pages for item 24 Okay, thank you Then we'll move on to the consent agenda There are a number of items on here which are considered non-controversial. We'll see if there's any member of the Commission who wants to ask or pull any of the items miss brown Well, let me let me just see if anybody here has any questions mr. Mulhorn Just very briefly. I wanted to thank staff very much for the storm damage updates I'm looking forward to getting more information Sarah is doing a great job And I'm looking forward to her reports in the future in particular. I want to call out that The the rail the rail trestle fence at the real them are crossing Is going to be fixed in the short term here, so we've been waiting 18 months for that? Very excited. I'm looking forward to not getting any more phone calls about it All right, any other comments? Yes, mr. Schifrin if it's okay with the Commission I don't want to pull this but I'd like to add a direction to item number six, which is the update on the highway one Tier one and two final EIR and that was that we would get a report at our next meeting on the timeline and process for moving forward After the release of the final EIR What would what will for instance what will be Caltrans role in approving the Certifying EIR and approving the project. What will be the Commission's role? What is the anticipated time when we'll see the final design just so The staff report is is helpful as far as it goes But it doesn't really look into the future of how quickly the Commission's going to be able to or Caltrans is going to be able to move Tier two projects forward. So if it's okay with the Commission I would just ask for a report at our next meeting with the timeline of future actions on that final EIR Great All right, so there's been additional direction added to Number six, is there any member of the public who wants to comment on items on the consent agenda? I move the consent agenda as amended Motion by a Schifrin seconded by Bertrand all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed motion carries unanimously Now we move on to our regular agenda, which is commissioners reports Are there any commissioners who would like to report on transportation related items? Right now Seeing none move on to the directors report. Well, this is a Unusual day here and that we have two executive directors dueling executive directors So mr. Dondaro at the senior executive director We'll let you speak first. Thank you, mr. Chairman Yeah, you get a two-fer today. You're gonna get two reports So it's been a little over 12 and a half years since I arrived here and it's been quite a ride There's been many high points and just a few not so high ones along the way But as Mr. Leopold told me during the measure D campaign enjoy the high points You will forget the dark moments after the election is over and I think you were mostly right about that Many of you shared and creating those key moments that have enriched our community in our lives. What fun it has been Transportation seems to attract passionate citizen engagement at a very intense level. I think we've already experienced that today We are fortunate to live in a society that encourages open discourse in government and your decisions are enriched because of it and Along the way, we have all learned the true importance of never losing your sense of humor But the great thing about this job is the chance to work with so many truly dedicated highly educated visionary Articulate and very smart people How could one ask for more? The caliber of RTC staff sits a very high bar. You are fortunate to have them There has never been a day when I came to work wanting to be somewhere else It has been a privilege and an honor to work with so many fine people Including you our commissioners our many partners both in government and the nonprofit world our staff and our citizens Getting measure D passed accomplished a goal that I had long held and that was to work in a self-help County Passing the measure was the work of many dedicated hard-working people too numerous to name here a Few deserve special mention. However Casey Byer Bill Tisling Karenna Pushnick Don Lane Bruce McPherson, and of course mr. Leopold All played essential roles in getting 67% of the voters to support the measure It was a goal that many said could not be accomplished Well, they were wrong You face a similar challenge now to move forward on making best use of the rail corridor I encourage you to take the next logical steps towards implementing high-quality public transit in the county Your new executive director is well equipped to help you help you take such action Thank you again for your support and providing many opportunities to better our communities over the past dozen years And with that I'll hand it off to mr. Preston So good morning. Good morning commissioners Thank You George for for the service that you've provided to to Santa Cruz County in the RTC You have been an inspiration to me Now you get the rookie report Today today is my fourth day on the job, so I'll try to keep it a little bit short. I wanted to Thanks staff for all that they've done to welcome me as well as the commissioners. It's You know, there was no question that I was showing up to work today So I'm here. I'm ready to go and I've already started and I'm well Entrenched in in the details and the issues that are going on On my first day. I was fortunate to attend the pre-construction meeting for the San Lorenzo River Bridge trestle project that's a Project to widen what right right now is just a pedestrian walkway to one that would also allow bicycles to ride across it You will no longer have to walk your bike across and lift it up so you can get by the bike going in the other direction It was very exciting to hear that the contractor plans to mobilize on January 2nd and That kushman construction is committed to getting the walkway open before the tourist season it was also Very interesting to see the public-private partnership in place because the seaside company is Providing resources to make sure that that project is successful I would also like to report about my Monday meeting with Alex Clifford at Santa Cruz Metro he was also very welcoming and Gave me a tour of his office and his management staff We had a very positive a conversation on the importance of providing reliable funding to to Santa Cruz Metro I've had several briefings from staff that were very educational on the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail Highway one and the Railway I have been reading a lot. There are a lot of reports out there. I've read the UCS I've read the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail Documents and I've also learned and read a lot on bus on shoulders, which I did not know a lot about and was very important and tying things together The last thing I would like to report on is that the Santa Cruz City Planning Commission has postponed Consideration of the CEQA document for the phase two of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail segment seven project due to potential impacts to the Monarch butterfly and According to the city they will evaluate options including potentially refining the project and or developing potential mitigation measures and That's all I have on my report Well, welcome to the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. We're very excited about you joining our team and I'm looking forward to the leadership that you can provide To our Commission and to the community and I thank Mr. Dondero for his incredible service. We'll get to that in just a moment, but but We're very fortunate right now to have you both there and one more thing chair Leopold there will be a groundbreaking ceremony for the the project to to convert the the pedestrian walkway to a multi-use facility and That is going to be on January 10th January 10th. All right, we'll look forward to receiving more information about it Next I'm gonna move on to the Caltrans report. I see we have a new person in the Caltrans seat. Welcome. All right Good morning commissioners. My name is John Olanek from Caltrans District 5 here on behalf of Tim Goebbins our district director who is attending CTC this week also on behalf of Eileen Lowe our deputy of planning who is also Called the duty that being jury duty. So She was the last seat of the alternative group. So she was almost excused and was able to be here today, but I'm here on her behalf so I'll get my comments brief as SB1 of course has stayed so does the business of transportation in California And so there's a lot of work to do in California. We've completed already this year 50 projects under the SB1 Funding we have about 50 more that are going to be done before the end of the year. So in that short amount of time But it's not just construction. It's also planning. That's very important and the SB1 funding provides a good amount of money for continued planning and Allow allows for many planning grant opportunities for jurisdictions in District 5. We've been very successful with our planning grants We've been able to secure quite a few of them and quite a few within Santa Cruz County as well In fact right now in our district. We're screening 13 new applications for grants that we just received and hope to Be able to see those be successful in our area as well But all that to say that it's our intent and goal to continue to promote that with our jurisdictions And a part of our my personal hope next year is to be able to reach out to areas that haven't been traditionally applying for these Planning grants maybe for whatever reasons maybe we can help them encourage him So we've held workshops. We've done a few other things but just so you know it's our intent to continue to support the communities to apply for those things because if a Project or a study is not completed if it's not planned It's not going to get funded and so as a planning board and having an excellent planning staff that work for you We look forward to working together with you on that. So without all conclude my comments Thank you, and I I note that Santa Cruz County voters had the wisdom to reject proposition 6 by 75 percent I mean 75 percent voted against prop 6 So we're very proud of that and the and the messaging that went out from all the transportation agencies and public works agencies Are there questions for Caltrans? Mr. Caput? Thank you for being here With the on 18 dash 7 It has highway 152 Americans with Disabilities Act the sidewalk From Wagner Street all the way down to Hulahand. So it says winter of 2018 Is that gonna start pretty soon or it does that start in rain or shine? I? Don't know the answer to that I was told on my way to the meeting here that this this update Might have had a few more revisions to it even before it was presented So I can take that back as an inquiry through staff if that's how you'd like to to provide an update on that project If that's the board's wish and the staff's wish That'll be fine, and then one thing that I couldn't find on there was on there before on highway 152 at East Beach and March and Street It's supposed to be on the work order for a Safe route to school part where they're putting in a new Crosswalk light right there by the high school I Don't know why it hasn't it's not on the list. I saw it before If you could find that out, I'll take that note. So you said that was highway 152 in March It's highway 152 is normally Eastlake Avenue, but it has to because it's one way in that section It's actually I guess you would call an extension. It goes on East Beach heading East and It's at March and Street and East Beach 200 block of East Beach Street right at Watsonville High School supposed to be a State of the art I guess crosswalk for 2000 plus students that Use it in the morning and also at lunchtime and then the afternoon Okay, thank you Mr. Schifrin I'm going to also ask a couple of very brief questions. I don't expect you to have the answer To today, but would appreciate you're getting the responses back to me One of them is on page 18-5 project number 10, which is a highway 1 Davenport culvert replacement I've heard that there may be a study that Caltrans is undertaking Regarding the red-legged frogs and the impact of culverts on red-legged frogs. I Appreciate finding out if that's the case and if it is what the status of that study is it could affect other Projects if that study is being done other culvert projects. The second issue has to do with the Sky Creek bridge replacement project that's been going on for an interminable amount of time and I was told that the future of Caltrans ability to perhaps move forward with that project Had to do with the fate of proposition six with the failure of that That proposition and the continuation of SB1 funding. I'd like to find out what the status is of Caltrans Commitment to moving forward with that project. Thank you. I'll definitely take those back as Responses to need Mr. Bertrand I have two questions We did talk about this beforehand, but I just want to say it for the public so In Caltrans review you had specific comments, and I'm not sure if you're part of that review and If you had time to review them But it seemed like you had so one is the potential benefits of the HOV system And how that's considered an ultimate long-term sustainable solution for addressing congestion and delay on highway one So our scenario B doesn't have that has that been added I think What staff answer The question was again, I just want to make sure is HOV been added to Several communities Watsonville in particular have added various scenario Additions and has HOV been added to scenario B? If you recall the the recommendation that was Presented to the Commission in November it does include HOV lanes in a you know sort of longer term beyond 2035 possibility because the unified quarter studies looking at 2035 I seen you recall that time frame And within that time frame we don't see that that it's possible to fund Beyond 2035 perhaps Okay So we're committed to doing HOV beyond the time frame of this study Starting in 19th at 2035 But the unified quarter study recommendation is a recommendation for for the Commission That's up to the Commission to then determine what the Commission wants to commit to okay. Thank you very much Then I have one other question So in regards to section 5 B There were some issues with the rail quarter service and this has to do with funding Reference to Proposition 116. So Proposition 116 funds are restricted supporting passion rail service Are we are we on the Caltrans report? Yes, I am okay 23 page 237. Okay. Thank you for the the board 237 item 5 B so The funds are restricted to supporting wrap passion rail service in the other fund sources cited such as central federal lands STP and PTA are each subject to different sets of guidelines and may be managed differently to support To support and to avoid losses and repayment. So can you explain a little bit more what that actually means? This is page 237. It's at the bottom of the page So I think questions have come up in regards to CTC and Proposition 116 how we receive fundings to get Mr. Bertrand 237 is the unified quarter Okay, so I was I was trying to We will get to you I promise I just want to see if there's any other questions about the Caltrans report Well, it seems to be 23 23 denotes that it's item 23 And that is the unified quarter investment study additional information item We're on item 18 right now. Yeah, not 23. I don't Mr. Dondaro Yes, I'd like to respond to mr. Schifrin's question about the Scott Creek project because Terminable I think it was called I'd like to make a slight correction you might want to change your descriptor there We were encouraged seems that way. Yeah Staff has not forgotten the project actually it's it's a one of my favorite projects We are working in conjunction with staff over at the resource conservation district to put together a grant application Through the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to fund the first document that Caltrans needs to produce called a project initiation Sort of a planning level Description of the project and gets costs and scope narrowed in and We're actually working on that as we speak to to get resources Marshall for that That grant application is due the 18th of this month. So we have to scramble but we're we're working towards that So that that actually would be a significant step towards moving the project along Thank you welcome Alrighty any other comments about the Caltrans report is there any public testimony about Caltrans? Good morning I actually have a question Welcome The I know that Caltrans is currently conducting a climate change vulnerability assessment Summary report in the first segment of that was recently published on district 4 And I'm wondering if you know by any chance what the timing looks like for our districts Assessment and how this agency in their efforts to make Fiscally-wise and sustainable and adaptable choices for our future Should be incorporating that type of thinking into their thought process. Thank you Is there anyone else who like to provide testimony about the Caltrans report? Seeing none, I'll see if Mr. Olink I get it right Olay Nick. Oh, thanks. Yeah, thank you Just just briefly it is true that of the 12 districts of Caltrans We are on the list to eventually have district 5 have a climate vulnerability assessment report I don't know when that is to be their work, you know club districts to go through a long state of California So I don't they had the exact answer of when however Ambag our MPO Association of Monterey very governments We have given them a climate sustainability grant They're initiating a study to look at Sustainability as it relates to transportation Along the highway one moss landing area an area that's important to both Monterey County and Santa Cruz County So I'd encourage everyone to keep their eyes and ears open to that because there will be public outreach as that Progresses as well So that's somewhat it is kind of it is a climate vulnerability assessment type of report as it relates to transportation in that focused area And then hopefully in the future we'll come around to be on the list for district 5 for our full five counties for the report Thank you Next we'll move on to item number 19, which is an appreciation of executive director George Dondaro and fiscal officer Daniel Nacuna Daniel is here mr. Dondaro. Do you want to say something about mr. Nacuna? Please come forward Daniel Daniel is someone we usually see we don't usually see Daniel preceded me by many years on this commission and He's been one of the reasons that I can sleep at night because he keeps our books Absolutely squeaky clean we get good audits every year because of Daniel's integrity and his Focus and Determination to make sure we comply with all state and federal regulations. It's been a real pleasure to work with Daniel and Just by coincidence he and I ended up deciding to exit about the same time well, let me just say that I know Daniel well as as My wife was a former employee many years ago when the RTC was a was an arm of the county in this building on the fourth floor and The commission way before I got here made a decision to separate from the county and be a standalone Organization and when you're in charge of the the fiscal matters a separation is way bigger than just a move to a different office and And all the years that Daniel has been responsible for the fiscal matters we We've thrown a lot of curves at them But as mr. Dondaro pointed out we've always come through with shining colors When it comes to audits and there's never been a question of how we spend the money We might disagree of whether we're spending it appropriately But once we take the action Daniel make sure that we get it in the right place He's a choir presence, but a very important presence and and and a good co-worker So Daniel you will be missed as a member of the regional transportation Commission staff And I would just want to appreciate your many years of service 26 years of service and I have a Framed appreciation for you Daniel you're a back-office person, but this is your chance to tell us what you really think Thank you all member of the Commission Commissioner your board was correct. I was interviewed in this this building here on the second floor I was delighted, but I had my doubt when I don't survive Here I am 26 years later I really appreciate the opportunity to serve The community Also, I would like to thank the staff My colleagues and also the management I got really great support from the management past and present Also, I didn't have really good working relationship with staff from other sister agencies The metro The CDs culture and so Dad I was hired to work here in Santa Cruz. It's a good place to work for thank you Santa Cruz Having been on the Commission as an alternate probably since even well, I know for sure since before Daniel was hired and It's and having read Commission agendas for many years and also been on the budget administration committee I don't think it's appreciated just how complicated Funding of transportation is in the state of California. There's federal requirements as state requirements We have our own requirements. We have to deal with ambag It's enormously complex complicated and there's always somebody who's looking over your shoulder It may be the county it may be the federal government, but it's I really think it's a it's a great achievement on Daniel's part to have been able to get through all those years and all those documents and all those audits as well as he has and He's come to meetings to try to explain some of the Intricacies of the financing about why we pay overhead two years in the past I remember those meetings as being fascinating trying to understand what it all means Daniel has done it. You've done a yeoman's job over the years and I think I know I personally really appreciate the work you've done and Commitment to the commission and the achievements that you have Help to bring to the committee to the commission. So thank you. So I Learned to appreciate what you've done for Santa Cruz and RTC By the fact that you've avoided The necessity to go over a little bit of miscalculation on an audit Something that happened a long time ago and you were able to avoid I've been on agencies where sometimes Discrepancies are in the pennies and it takes a considerable long time and a lot of staff time that could be devoted to something else So it's amazing that you've been able to achieve that for this agency here Also, I had the pleasure. I think of spending some time with you for about two hours And I was very impressed with you your personality You're a very interesting person and I have a feeling that You're going to enjoy everything after the RTC and have a very full life. Thank you very much Okay, chair Leopold now we'll get to the other person of this monumental day I believe here if the RTC George Dondaro Is going to be leaving us and John, let's you say a few words sure The George Dondaro has been with the regional transportation Commission since April 2006 he came after a pretty devastating failure by this Commission and with a Sales tax measure in 2004 And so it wasn't a great time to join the RTC and On top of that the the Commission then had a transportation funding task force Which was complicated large And had a lot of meetings But in the end didn't deliver us To a place of consensus about what to do about transportation It's very hard to do here in Santa Cruz County George has been relentless in trying to promote a vision of Transportation that meets a lot of different needs and Sometimes he's he's been at the front of line. Sometimes we've had to we've had to drag him along I can tell you that when I became supervisor I thought we should buy the rail line and I had a meeting with George and some other commissioners And I said why why haven't we done that and he said well? I don't think people are that into it and I said you should get out more often and You know what what we see by the passion of our current discussion about it a train or trail is That people want that resource and we have strong opinions about what we should do with it But the fact that we were able to acquire that key piece of property allows us To think about our our transportation future on that corridor Likewise the very hard work that you did in you have done in terms of building relationships and Articulating a vision of multimodal transportation in Santa Cruz County allowed us To to work with such a large part of the community to craft a self-help measure That became measure D and enjoy broad support and When we think about where you started and that the This dismal failure of the previous sales tax measure to getting over two-thirds In 2016 that alone would would be an incredible accomplishment, but you also have done it by Supporting your staff and we have a lot of longtime staff members who've been here who have who have been nurtured And mentored by you you have helped have this commission address issues of sustainability and as a priority in our regional transportation planning documents Which we've never had before And you have arranged for us individually and collectively to be able to speak to other Transportation officials at the state level To be able to advocate for the transportation needs I want to express my appreciation as the chair of the commission as a Supervisor on the board of supervisor and as a member of the Santa Cruz County community for the hard work You've put in over the last 12 and a half years, and I wish you great success and happiness In your years of retirement. Thank you for your contribution to Santa Cruz. I do also have an appreciation here I think we'll probably hear from other commissioners But we'll let you have the Before you get a chance to speak us. I'll see if other members of the commission want to add any remarks You want to start with mr. Schifrin? Okay, I also want to thank you George for your long service, and I will echo everything that Chair said But I would also add something else because there has been criticism that the staff operates Independently and just does whatever it wants to do and I think that it's a it's a tricky line to to walk between providing leadership and yet representing the commission and From my perspective the only thing I would really add to what the chair has said is that you have represented the commission and You followed through and carried out the directions that the commission gave you and Not every you know that doesn't always occur with staff often times they have minds of their own and they go in directions of their own but particularly in a very contentious environment that sometimes it is in Santa Cruz County where staff often becomes the whipping boy for The the public in a sense that is great from a commission point of view because the staff serves as a buffer So that we don't get as criticized we wish But really I think I feel I really want to commend you for Maybe learning What Santa Cruz was like from where you came And then learning and changing as you saw where the commission was moving to And I think you helped make the commission more effective in the way and the direction it was moving Which is I think measure D is the example of that And you maybe took your values, but record recognized that really your job Was to carry out the directions of the commission and carry out the policies that the commission has adopted And as the commission has changed over the years, I think you've been very effective in helping Helping the commission carried out its policies, but I think it's important to Thank you for that as well. Besides your leadership. You've also been a good A good follower in a way of the commission's the commission's directions, and I really appreciate that I Would just ditto everything that's been said and just want to add, you know I one of the things that I really appreciate in addition to all of that is that you've done all of this with a sense of calm and clarity and good humor So so thank you. You really will be missed and Enjoy your retirement Yeah, I think any of the elected officials here or staff members Alternates would agree that probably Transportation is a subject that we get more inquiries about or Criticism of or whatever you might say than any other subject that we we faced day and day year in you're out And we bring a lot of those complaints or concerns and kudos at times to you and your staff and The I think the the length of the staff members that have been with you is a Testament to your leadership and your ability to work with different interests and different subject matters In particular, I want to say thank you for your efforts and measure D multimodal transportation network proposal that If any one of those facets would not have been included in that measure and people can say it wouldn't have passed without us or me or That subject they're right. It wouldn't have passed without any of them, but you found a way to help us Really develop a measure that more than two-thirds of the voters said yes to because this is a complex and really an integrated Transportation network that we have to work with and really make work for the people of Santa Cruz County And you've put us in a place that we can work as best we can and make the decisions that are about to come upon us To the best of our abilities because of your leadership. I want to thank you very much for your professionalism and your concern And your appreciation of Santa Cruz County transportation. Thank you very much I haven't known George as long as many people on this board, but George and I developed an intense relationship because I Relocated in Capitola last February and I woke up in the morning saw this man dumping trash in front of my house and realized that George was my neighbor and Since then we shared a lot of conversation about you know Transportation back in his job previous to this and all things he's accomplished pretty remarkable and some of his hobbies Which he has which is photography which I'm glad he shared that with me also because Just a wealth of knowledge. I was also fortunate to take a trip with George last February to freezing cold Minnesota Which both of us want to forget, but It just tells something about George, you know, whatever the job needed to be done George is willing to go do it He's done a remarkable thing for this county. Everybody's mentioned all of his other accomplishments But it's just been a pleasure getting to know George closely the past year and I appreciate his intensity and He's going to be missed Miss Chase George, I just want to say that I very much appreciate your ability to inspire enthusiasm and excitement about Transportation before I was elected I used a lot of different modes of transportation But I didn't think about them with the level of inquiry and inquisitiveness and That I think that you help us do as commissioners and as members of the public we got to go on several community leadership visits together and Because of our conversations during those visits Everywhere I go now I think about the different modes of transit transportation that are used in those communities and how they do it well and how they could Do it better and how we compare and I think that that's something that lasts for a very long time with people and I Just want to thank you for that for helping change the way that I think about transportation and then through that that I'm helping others do that too Everyone said so much Have to admit so um, I've been on this for a very short period of time and I'm sort of wondering why you didn't retire earlier I mean what a difficult job truly so Obama got a lot of gray hair his job, and maybe you know, yeah, you got a few too But I like to add something no one else's touch many of the things that people have said I can say too I'm really happy that when I reached out to you to ask questions You set aside time to to meet with me, and I value that a lot I See that in the new executive director is coming up He's already reached out to me without me even saying anything so but you know, you were very able to do that and To the public I have to say it was hard to find a day in a time to meet with you because you're so busy But you made the effort so sometimes had a week or so, but you made that effort, and I truly appreciate that All right, George, it's it's your last meeting you can tell us how you really feel Did you get the paycheck yet? Haven't got the last paycheck yet. Not yet. No, actually my last official day is the 21st But you know people ask me well, what are you gonna do with all that free time and I tell them I'll always the same thing and that's do all the things. I don't have time to do now that I love to do Ed mentioned photography and while I've been in Santa Cruz I've really discovered wildlife in particular bird photography and there's been so many opportunities here It's been great. I want to pursue that a great deal more. I have other interests and Jazz music. I like to cook. I like to get together with folks. I like to see her as I like to hike I mean, there's a lot of just so many things to do and then one one thing I've always it's been in my bucket list and that's to learn how to fly fish so Who knows maybe we'll we'll get to that too It's been a real privilege to serve this community. It's Certainly never been boring I remember when I first accepted the job and sent a note out to my colleagues around the state I got some interesting responses back My friend Phil Dow who was the executive director up in Mendocino County, which he thought compared To be a very close parallel to Santa Cruz County politically His only comment was are you nuts? Spelled in UTZ But I I knew I'd made the good choice. I knew there was going to be lots of opportunities to To help the community and certainly we've we've tried to to move things forward And I know that your new director will keep that momentum going and I wish you all well in the years ahead Thank you very much We're gonna Move to the next item which I'm actually gonna postpone Which is item 20, which is appreciation of departing commissioner Cynthia Chase May not be leaving us just yet she there's Because of the vagaries of them of the transit board Process the city of Santa Cruz is likely going to be voting on Keeping her on the metro board until this the city council makes the appointments to the various agencies with their new With their new council and so we're not gonna say goodbye to Cynthia just yet She'll probably be with us at least one maybe two more meetings So we're gonna we're gonna table this until that day actually comes so Next we'll move on to item 21, which is the election of the 2018 RTC chair and vice chair as Is our usual case? We try to have both a city member and a City council member and a member of the board of supervisors as a chair and vice chair Currently I serve as the chair and mr. Batur serves as the vice chair Our nomination group looked at Supervisors and we realized that supervisor Bruce McPherson has not had the opportunity to be the chair So so I'm nominating Nominating Ed Bautorf as chair and Bruce McPherson as vice chair for 2018 Closed Motion by shiffer and seconded by Bertrand all in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed Then I'll nominate the two Ed Bautorf and Bruce McPherson as chair and vice chair Now we just vote on that nomination. Yeah nominations are closed My parliamentarians as we can just vote on it. So all in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed Motion carries unanimously We'll look forward to your leadership in 2019. So thank you Next we'll move on to item number 23, which is our unified corridor investment study Good morning miss die car I think it's still morning. Good morning chair and commissioners Yes, I am ginger die car senior transportation planner here at the RTC and project manager for the unified corridor study at the November 15th 2018 RTC meeting staff was requested to bring back information Responses to a number of questions that the from the commission and the UCS staff report today does provide those responses Also as part of the staff report There is a comment letter from Caltrans on the unified corridor investment study I would like to take a little time to clarify some of the issues that were raised Caltrans commented on the carpool mode share and did not understand why it would decrease with an h o v lane project It was a simple explanation for that and I have had a discussion with Caltrans Kelly McClendon to explain this result I'll explain it to you here today. So for the mode share performance measure It's a forecast of the mode share based on the group of projects that were being evaluated in each scenario So in each scenario, there's a number of projects in addition to the highway project that include transit and bicycling and pedestrian Projects with the intent to reduce the number of autumn autos compared to a no-build scenario So in the scenarios with the h o v lanes the carpool mode share does decrease relative to the no-build Because the total amount of auto trips decreases, but it decreases less in the scenarios with the h o v lanes than scenarios without it So it's a different than if you're evaluating just one project as being evaluated in the highway one EIR That just looks at the h o v lanes. You'd see the carpool mode share numbers increase the Single occupant vehicle mode shares decrease, but given that in the scenario analysis. We evaluate a number of projects There's there's an overall decrease, but it's relative to the number of single occupant vehicles it increases with the projects with h o v lanes or the scenarios with h o v lanes Another comment from Cal Trans was on the performance measures that we use in unified carter study Compared to the 2018 comprehensive Multimodal car to plan guidelines these guidelines for just being finalized either yesterday or today For approval from the California Transportation Commission. So it's been a work in progress The performance measures that are provided in the 2018 comprehensive model Multimodal car to plan guidelines are examples of performance measures to use the California Transportation Commission Realizes that data availability as well as modeling capabilities vary by agency and that performance measures should be evaluated to degree degree Reasonable given the available resources of the agency. So isn't there is not necessarily one list of performance measures that fits all and There are some requirements There's various different areas that are required in the performance measures for example evaluate safety evaluate congestion accessibility greenhouse gas remission reductions But these are more generic Groupings and the performance measures used in the unified car to study does Cover these various categories Another requirement in these guidelines is that the performance measures used in the carter plan are to be Consistent with the goals and objectives to find in the regional transportation plan for Santa Cruz County Well, the performance measures for the unified car car to study were very much teed off of the the Performance measures that were developed in the 2014 regional transportation plan as well as the 2040 regional transportation plan There was a lot of work done in both of those plans to to Align our performance measures with the acceptable performance measures that are out there in California And they very much consider the data that is available for Santa Cruz County and provide a mix of measures that are understandable and provide the greatest insight for the Santa Cruz County community and As well the stakeholder and public input for the unified car to study was very much considered in developing the performance measures in this study and Lastly on that issue the unified carter investment study does meet the requirements as the carter plan that is needed to apply for funds from the Senate Bill One congested carters program for highway and other and potentially other improvements So now I want to jump back to the questions and responses that were requested of the Commission the first question Is the unified carter study exempted under sequel or is it required to have an environmental review? So the unified carter study is exempt from sequel as sequel applies to approval of a project Acceptance of the UCS report and selection of a preferred scenario Does not create any legally binding commitments as future decisions will be required to determine whether to implement a project So again acceptance of the UCS report and selection of a preferred scenario does not create a legally binding commitment The second question was can progressive rail Limit efforts to implement passenger rail service on the Santa Cruz branch rail line So the agreement as discussed earlier this morning the agreement between the Regional Transportation Commission and progressive rail Reserves the right to the RTC to use the rail corridor as long as it does not materially interfere with the railways operations It's clearly stated by mr. Phelan this morning in his presentation there is a commitment from progressive rail to cooperate and share the tracks The next request from the Commission was to provide a response from the Santa Cruz Metro on the unified carter study preferred scenario So the RTC staff has been coordinating with Metro staff on the unified carter study Staff from both agencies met a number of times to get input from Metro and the transit projects that were evaluated in the unified carter study The RTC staff presented the draft results of the unified carter study to the Metro on October 26th to receive input on the study And the preferred scenario The Metro staff recommendation was provided in your packet and the letter from Metro was provided as a handout to you today Just in summary some of the main points are that Metro supports a transit service on the rail right of way and Metro's would like to see an alternative analysis that would iteratively assess the most appropriate mode of public transport on the corridor And alternatives analysis used to be required as the first step in applying for federal transit administration funds Through the new starts or small starts program the current FTA or federal trans transit administration requirements for new starts and small starts, which is a type of funding source that would be most reasonable for our community to Apply towards transit on the rail right away So the current requirements are to include the alternatives analysis as part of the environmental review in order to expedite the process And the staff recommendation on the preferred scenario is to take the next step to perform an environmental review of passenger rail So evaluating bus rapid transit in the alternatives analysis of the environmental review Would allow for further analysis of transit in the carter while making steps toward meeting funding requirements with the environmental review Concern has been raised by Metro that funds to implement passenger rail service would take away funds for bus transit The funding assessment in the unified carter study for passenger rail service was consistent with the RTC rules and regulations And did not use funds typically available to Metro for bus transit If passenger rail service was implemented along the rail right of way an integrated rail and bus transit network Would need to be developed to provide the Santa Cruz County community with the most efficient and effective transit system Additional revenue from a new funding source would be needed to implement any of the unified carter study scenarios Including additional funding to expand transit service and implement passenger rail service Metro and RTC your partner agencies with many of the same board members Collaborative decisions can be made in steps to take advantage of this incredible opportunity that we have for our community To have a dedicated transit facility that runs the length of the county The next question was what would happen to the continuity of the rail right of way if RTC did not implement passenger rail How much of the right of way is easements across property not owned by the RTC in The 2009 title report there are approximately 120 parcels listed that are along the main tracks of the rail right of way And approximately 10% of these are easements across other properties There are also approximately 12 to 50 parcels with unknown title on the rail right of way That number is much harder to define and as projects are implemented more and more of this information will become clearer The last question was asked a new executive director guide Preston to provide his input on the draft preferred scenario With that I'd like to hand over the presentation to executive director Preston to provide a thoughts on the unified carter study Thank You ginger. I really appreciate the hard work that you've done on this and your report today was wonderful It really did answer a lot of questions I've read the report and it's really well prepared a Lot of work went into it a lot of time went into it a lot of thought went into it I I want to focus my report today on three opportunities The Uniform Corridor Study Has the opportunity to provide me and my staff with initial direction as To what potential projects to move forward with It also Number two sends a message to our funding partners that are we we are committed to improving congestion in a sustainable fashion And thirdly it'll help us to secure funding by sending By by serving as a multimodal corridor plan Which is a requirement for many of the funding programs and that's for for highway one It's potentially for some bike projects and it's also potentially for for the rail corridor itself so It's a little premature for me to come in after Staff and this community has spent a year working on the performance measures as well as the potential Projects and scenarios to say that one thing should be done or another thing should be done differently I've only been on board for four days, but I think it was really smart to do the UCS We are in a situation right now in transportation funding where there is a lot out there and a lot of opportunities to move projects forward and the UCS is a Wonderful initial step a necessary initial step for Santa Cruz County to use its measure defunding To leverage additional funds so we can actually start delivering projects There's been a lot of concern that Action on January 17th is Going to be an end all and it's going to approve projects and and ginger did a very good job today and Explaining that it does not do that We've had a lot of discussion today about next steps associated with just the environmental document for highway one I am I showed up today. I'm going to show up next month in the following month and I'm going to continue to provide the commission with guidance as to what the options are moving forward, but As of now, I think you've been provided with very good information from staff on on a direction and I Really appreciate how much has been done and the state that this agency is being handed over to me Now thank you for those remarks. This is not an action item. This is just information Are there questions that people have about the additional information? Mr. Bertrand First off my apologies to the Commission for Jumping to this item too soon. I was focused on the Caltrans report and didn't notice that it's really your report I'm awfully sorry On page 233 you mentioned in continuation of question 4 that there's 20 to 50 parcels We just don't have the information at this time. So you said as more information becomes available. Basically, you'll report so Where does that leave us right now, I mean we want to go ahead on various projects and We're sort of not knowing if we can because of the title and our ability to use the right-of-way Can you give me a sense of where you feel we stand right now? Hope that's not your general but question pass that on to our deputy director Mendez. Yes, Commissioner Bertrand As I was reported you need either a lot of parcels for which there isn't sufficient or even any information and that is typical for you know Very old and especially and especially railroad rights away Right, and one of the one of the challenges when we were negotiating this with any with any Pacific That you know in the time that this rail line has been existent in existence There was an earthquake in 1906 in San Francisco With fires there thereafter that destroyed a lot of us a lot a lot And including offices of Southern Pacific who owned the the line at that time so there were documents that were destroyed and They did go through an effort of trying to Redo documents, but we were told they might not have redone everything So that's part of the reason But there could be other reasons as well. They said they just didn't know why some of this information wasn't there But as the attorneys that the RTC hired to help us negotiate this purchase Communicated to the Commission, you know, it's a it's a rail line. It's been a rail line and it can continue to be a rail line So even with those With those parcels that for which we may not have information As long as the Commission wants to continue to use as a rail line. That's not a problem Once the Commission if the Commission decides to do something different indeed, there'll be work necessary to figure out Okay, what does that mean for those, you know, a few parcels that We don't have the information for so and as Ginger said as projects move forward and on some sections of the line whether it be for trail or anything else then we do delve more deeply into The ownership issues and try to clear some of those some of those things to make sure that that that we know what the situation is So we can move forward with those projects. Okay Hope you don't have problems in that regard there was public testimony that Perhaps there could be an issue if we added a different use to the quarter So if it's not rail solely rail, but if we add a different use Whether it's a fiber optics line or trail, which is part of our plan right now. Do you have any comments on that? I think again that that depends on the ownership situation in each particular section of the line so there could be some of those potential issues and As we move forward with specific Projects then we do have to do the work to you know figure out Those issues and some of what we're finding out to is that the RTC actually You know owns more than then we thought we acquired for any Pacific or the Pacific that that they owned So it's you know, so it's it's a variety of things in some cases We may actually have quite a bit more in some cases You know, we'll just need to clear up and make sure that that indeed the documentation is there For what the RTC acquired and the RTC needs. Okay? Understand that I guess The basis of my question is based on what the public input was If we change the use and my understanding of our right to use that quarter is because it's to move freight And if we change you use something to other than moving freight Is that a real issue? Is that something that? You know, we need to be thinking about From our My understanding is that there can be issues potentially and some and some sections of the line But again, we just we will need to delve into specific sections, you know more deeply to figure that and You know a lot sections of The line the RTC owns the property outright and fee and can do different you know I see it's not a problem there, but we want to continue as But if you want to continue this rock continuous a continuous right away if you do take out the track and that's something that you know Negotiators at the RTC used Law firms that that Were hired by the RTC They did say as long as you continue to use this as a rail Corridor you can you will be able to keep it as it, you know As a continuous corridor if you do something different There might be some additional work you need to do, you know to make sure that that's the case Do we know that this has come up in other situations where perhaps they did a rail and a Other means of transportation. Let's say walk path or a bike path I'm just wondering if there's some law on this particular issue. I Don't know that's up my head. Okay, so you can understand my concern. Thank you Are there other questions About this mr. Johnson, thank you chair So I'm gonna go jump right to the metro question because I think it's an important part of this whole discussion You know Churchill talked about the gathering storm pre-World War two And I think there's a storm gathering right here between the RTC and some respects and also metro And they bring up some interesting points and I'll refer to 2314 at the very bottom and forgive me for reading but I think it's significant where they say however, the scenario-based approach using the UCIS did not analyze nor Present specific data comparison between passenger rail and BRT in this corridor and would provide a clear choice between these two options And then the mode selection in this quarter should not be based on a choice between steel and rubber wheels But rather on the surface profile Alignment frequency daily span of service that most effectively needs to travel patterns and mobility needs in this area so I'm hearing that According to this and a well-respected entity namely metro is saying we need more study We need more options in order to kind of Before we kind of step out and make this You know To guys point mr.. Executive director Preston's point about this is not what we decide is not the end all But if we decide prematurely to go on in one direction before we have all the information It does set us up for moving spending money and so forth Be before we have all the data that is necessary to make an informed decision So help me understand This conflict a little bit and what we're prepared to do about it namely the conflict that Metro is saying we need more time. We have to study this corridor more effectively and Fully explore the options that are truly available for us to make the best decisions possible the staff recommendation that was presented at the November 15th meeting was to Pursue passenger rail service by initiating the environmental review Within the environmental review as required by the federal transit administration There's an alternative analysis that is required in order to pursue funding through their agency so the The next step in Staff's mind is to initiate that step with the evaluation of bus rapid transit as part of the Alternatives analysis within the environmental review So would that be would that just be a complementary? Choice added on top of rail or would it be something that would be exclusively one or the other When you said complimentary choice on top of rail. Well, I mean you have rail Conceivably which we heard before about places where there's bus rapid transit and rail and bike and everything else So would would would would bus rapid transit? be a True alternate choice, or would it just be a complimentary choice? Okay the vision that I was What the staff recommendation would be would be to evaluate bus rapid transit instead of passenger rail service So would be one service or the other there is the potential of freight was to remain For the tracks still to remain a place bus rapid transit to occur on top of that with a paved service But obviously it's up to the discretion of this commission But we're up we're on track to vote in early or middle January To choose the preferred scenario yet I'm hearing that we need more study more information particularly with respect to Bus rapid transit and all the benefits that rubber provides for the most effective Transportation modes available for the public is so Before we vote on something like that. Do we need more study? Is it premature for us to vote in January? There maybe Maybe mr. Preston has something he wants to yeah, I'll maybe it'll help if I talk about this a little bit So again The decision in January is just on a preferred scenario On a planning document That only goes so far and a lot of the additional information that people are asking for can take place in the next step It doesn't mean that we're approving any one form of transportation on the line SQL requires a scoping period. It also requires an alternative analysis so during the scoping period anybody can bring up whatever modes of transportation they would like to see analyzed and then that would be reviewed and Decided as to what alternatives would move forward so it's a iterative process and It allows a lot of flexibility moving forward, but it's It's important to have this planning document done so we can start to take those tests and Steps and and make that progress And with the way the funding works I mean there's a potential that we can get another agency to help fund these studies especially if we've cooperated with them and are looking at the performance measures that were important to them and You know prepared the plans and the prerequisites necessary to acquire that funding So it's really an opportunity and the initial additional analysis would take place no matter what so you're saying that Once a choice is made on a scenario that does not become the default Direction of this this agency and absent any sort of compelling reason to go off that that becomes that becomes the Direction that We follow well, it's initial direction and over time direction changes I mean there was a direction to pursue HOV lanes, you know at one point as our number one priority now It's after 3035 it changes over time. I mean this is The the issues associated with all of these different projects are Dynamic and we're looking at a snapshot in time based on performance measures that were provided in this this scenario analysis and Over time I Intend to come back with strategies of moving Projects forwards and that and this commission will have the opportunity to weigh in on how best to do that and You know, there's been a lot of questions already on how best to do that on other projects And and we will come back with different ideas and strategies moving forward and and project approval would be much further down the line I think that's appropriate as long as this commission and staff are Open-minded logical and moving in the best interest of the community and taxpayers So I guess I'm okay with that completely understood other questions Mr. Mulhorn Thank you very much So this the UCS is not a legally binding document planning level 50,000 feet look at a snapshot of our community The document itself also acknowledges that A lot of the project level decisions that are gonna have to be made in order to implement a scenario are actually gonna be made by other agencies Metro for example local jurisdictions will have to also agree to implement these projects or build the project or do the projects So But I also understand that we need a corridor study because it'll help us with the solutions for congestive corridors under SB 1 Which is new money for us But I don't understand why why do we need to choose a scenario if the scenarios are not legally binding and The information is useful to us in the decision-making process for future project level decisions. Why do we need a scenario? My my answer to that is because it sends a message and it helps us secure the funding moving forward that we're serious about it and often when You submit your application and you submit all the attachments that they ask for and we submit a corridor plan They're gonna want to see a resolution from our board that we have your support moving forward to the next step So so that's why it's important to Make a choice But you know, I'm trying to provide you with the assurances that you know based on the future studies And you know we can change directions strategically based on the findings that we find moving forward But this meets the requirements of that plan and they're gonna be looking to know that that this commission actually supports that that plan At this time a specific scenario will help us in our Securing new funds for these projects. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Schiffer I Think it's fascinating to hear from commissioners a desire for more studies I remember Not so vaguely Criticisms of the commission of studying things to death But somehow they keep coming I think also it's important to be real here about what this process is all about the unified corridor study It's about where there's gonna be a rail line or where there's gonna be trail only the commission made an agreement as a part of measure D That it would study the trail only option the unified corridor studies studies trail only option Scenario B, which tends to be the direction that staff is recommending is rejecting that option and saying we're gonna keep the corridors we're gonna keep the corridor for transit Maybe rail maybe bus rapid transit, but it's going to be the tracks are not going to be removed It's very important that the commission make that decision that decision will also say we're gonna have freight on the line If progressive rail can deliver it's fascinating that half the people who hate progressive rail hate them because they're gonna fail Well, if they fail they fail. I mean that's their their they think they'll succeed Maybe they will maybe they won't but on January 17th along with the reasons that executive director is giving for For approving a scenario is that it's going to put to rest at least in the short term The issue of is there is the commission supporting ripping up the tracks and just having a trail only That's to my mind. That's the key decision. That's going to be made in January I actually don't agree with the staff recommendation at this point to initiate the sequel process Assuming that the commission does approve scenario B. I think if we're going to ultimately have Rail some kind of transit on the line It's going to have to be integrated with transit district and it makes sense before we start a sequel process That will have to identify a preferred alternative is if we that we really look at the all the transit alternatives on the line Which is the way I read what the transit district is recommending is that Let's keep the option open of what kind of transit will be on the line. They don't want to rip They're not recommending Seem that they seem to be opposing the idea of ripping up the tracks But they're saying we don't know what the best transit option is Let's let's look at that and that's the study that I think needs to be done But it's subsequent to the decision as to are we going to keep the tracks or are we gonna Rip up the tracks and that's got to be the first decision once that decision is made Then I think it makes sense to hopefully get a grant if not use funds that we have to really look at What are the best options or what may be the best most feasible option for using that rail line? is it passenger rail with a train is it some kind of a Bus related kind of a vehicle. I don't know. I think it's worth looking at and once we get through that then it makes sense to do a sequel analysis with the preferred option at that time and Look for you know get get that looked at and then try to find funding to to To carry it out, but that's how I see what where we're going here And what one of the reasons why I think it's really critical that the Commission make a decision on the Unified Corridors Study as As been said it's not legally binding. It's not set in stone But it does provide an answer to the measure D problem and it does provide help it appears in terms of getting funding to go move forward with all with alternatives Whether they're highway or turn alternatives or other alternatives Thank you just This just want to make sure people haven't got a chance to ask questions Just checking here Mr. Bertrand and then Mr. Johnson Appreciate I think Andy did a good summary there and So I'm learning about the process as we go forward So I think part of the discussion has been this idea that we're making this definite decision and our new executive director You know portrays what we're trying to do We're making a decision now so we can move forward and refine our decision If that's a good way of looking at it because we're going to be studying options and we'll get a better idea what? Carrying out a decision or a scenario right now entails and at that point we'll have a better understanding of how to proceed Does that sound about right? I? Think you nailed it Okay, so I'm again. I want to go back to my original question on page 23 7 and This refers to proposition 16 funds There's been a mention of how much money we have to pay to get out of that obligation And there's other funds mentioned here Central federal lands stp and pta. So I'm just trying to get a better understanding of how all these funds Interact in terms of how we use the line for moving people If we were going to back out so what kind of obligations are we on? I mean, I know the 10.5 But I mean are there other funds and these just listing some of them So I just trying to get an understanding of that So in the unified Carter study we took a look at if the If the trail only option was chosen or if bus on the rail right-of-way was chosen What potential what would that be the potential cost associated with that and so the proposition 116 funds? Would potentially need to be paid back As well as an increase in the cost based on current real estate estimates on a Approximate number there is about 29 million when you include both the payment for to the California Transportation Commission as well as funds that were utilized to Repair of the Selva Bridge and other bridges Beyond that there was there's about ten and a half million dollars that we received or that are From central federal lands for the segment five trail On the north coast currently the requirement is to meet the deadline of construction start by 2020 We would not be able if there was a trail only or a bus rapid transit We would not necessarily be able to start that trail by 2020 because it's currently designed for the trail next to rail And There was also a cost for staff time in order to evaluate how we would move forward with not having tracks and Moving towards a trail only or a bus on the rail right away Mr. Johnson, thank you chair. I just very quickly just wanted to take issue with Commissioner Schifrin's I guess comments, you know, I think embedded in his Are the subtext that anybody who wants more information is somehow you know off track and is just a secondary way of stalling and delaying and Just wanting a trail only that's not my intention at all We you know if anything, you know We have in front of us as far as the train is concerned anemic ridership numbers We have nobody has pointed out a clear way how we're going to fund something like a train and The first and last last mile Associated with the train travel and passenger rail service has not been decided and it's very very unclear We know that every time somebody shifts from from one seat to another in Transportation whether it's from a car to a bus or from a from a train to a bus You lose ridership because of delays and so forth So the the question that we really should be asking is How are we going to pay for it? How is it going to be successful and You know before we just kind of embark on You know a train as a as a solution to all of our transportation problems We have to ask hard questions and the only way to ask hard questions is to get more information So I'm not a Trail-only person. I'm you know at some point somebody has to defend the taxpayers of this county and The only way that this any sort of you know Additional transportation solutions are going to happen is another big hefty tax increase So if you're going to do that Let's spell it out how we're going to best serve the taxpayers and make this feasible instead of just kind of pie in the sky Well, thank you for your comments. I I Appreciate that you were able to answer these questions Directly and I agree that this is a planning document for us And it it it it doesn't cast and stone the direction But it provides the guideposts that we are going to be asking you as staff to complete and we may disagree on at the moment about how that should be done, but Providing those guideposts through this scenario is the best way to give direction to you as the staff in order to Accomplish that goals. So I appreciate the clarity and I look forward to what I'm sure will be a robust discussion At the January 17th meeting. Thank you for all the work that you've put into this so far I do want to give a chance for people in the public to make comments About this Stanley so go again. Yeah, so I just want to Emphasize what I wrote in a letter to you which disturbs me a lot, but you're considering What to do with the rail corridor where you don't know that you own the corridor? that these Partials that are still clouded. Why hasn't effort been made to clear that up in court before Deciding do we want to put a bus instead of the train? You you don't know you can even do that But let's say you do decide to do the bus instead of the train And you go through the process of all the detailed planning and then there are objections from the parcel owners You're gonna have to spend more money to do eminent domain if they don't agree to a price For buying what you thought you owned So where's the price figured in these financial estimates for doing the legal process and Paying for the the right or the parcel these are the easement of the parcel that you don't actually own for anything other than a train right now I see that as a glaring error and you're proceeding to spend money and time on studying the alternatives that you may not have so I think you should stop and Deal with the legal issue. Thank you. I appreciate that Can I just before you start mr. Nielsen get a sense of how many people want to speak to this item? I'm trying to get a sense if all those people speak for three minutes a piece We will be here Way past one o'clock, and I'm concerned about keeping my quorum together So I want to I'm gonna ask the only speak for two minutes in the hopes that we can get through as many people as possible Before I that happens Thank you, I'm Jack Nelson Bottom line up front is I encourage your commission to support a kind of scenario be perhaps Making a clarification that you in the future do intend to further evaluate Train versus bus on the rail corridor But let me back up from that a bit and suggest that you have invisible forces at work That we all need to be considering and they're some of the most important ones You know just give you an example of an invisible force Right now, and I know you commissioners are all busy people who like to get things done So just consider what you're getting done we together are all traveling right now It's 66,000 miles an hour on this planet in our orbit or annual orbit around the Sun That's a hundred times the speed of a speeding bullet So I can snap my fingers twice, and you're in Watsonville at that speed. That's how fast we're getting things done here folks another Invisible force is What's in this room over 400 parts per million carbon dioxide the scientists know from studying ancient ice cores that go back 800,000 years it hasn't been that high in all that time, and they believe not in several Million years so that's a force that's going to show up in the future The good as people already suggested in your room here today Change if not crash or civilization, so that's a pretty big force to be working to resolve as we all have an obligation to do I would like to suggest that individual travel units with a tailpipe are What we need to be think of thinking of as the past Community travel units in a place like the rail corridor is part of our future So that's why I'm here encourage you to support something like a scenario be and I hope you do that soon. Thank you Thank you Good afternoon Good afternoon, but Colligan live oak resident I want to just say that Not much has really changed in this rail trail debate over the past four years The presentation I gave to many of you in July of 2015 Outline the issues and why the plan of record did not work for ridership caused health safety and Environmental reasons and those reasons today are still the same The only thing that has changed is the price tag has doubled The price tag for the train over 30 years was 660 million in the rail transit feasibility study now It's 1.3 billion dollars over 30 years The cost of the trail next to the rail was 127 million touted by many of you for the last four years and it's now 283 million according to the UCS more than double We know we don't have this money and the likelihood of getting it is extremely small This process is really broken It's broken because the Commission has so far refused to step back and recognize That at least half the community does not agree with the plan of record The process is broken because the Commission doesn't seem to fully grasp the implications of the ACL They signed Including locking in progressive rail for 10 years for freight rail and excursion services That's the meaning of the vote on January 17th There is a possible consensus solution Five different community community groups many who usually don't agree Support Metro's proposal for an alternative analysis on the corridor Greenway has embraced public transit on the quarter to show its flexibility in trying to reach a win-win solution We have proposed scenario are For realistic that not only supports a public transit option in each of the three quarters But also spends tax-mayor money wisely saving 423 million. Thank you. Thank you Good afternoon. I'm still Jack Carroll from so kill Any train past Watsonville is going to require a new tax That tax is going to be the size of the previous Measure D Measure D had a prohibition of using money for a new train That's how much the voters hated a train now. Can you imagine a new measure D of the same size? That's going to be used exclusively for a train Nobody thinks that that's going to pass sales tax in Watsonville and Santa Cruz is already nine and a quarter percent There is no money with the California Rail plan it doesn't come funded as a matter of fact They don't even plan on asking for anything for our corridor for a generation There's just no money to be had the actual Santa Cruz SB1 is called a highway Called the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 The name should tell you how much Santa Cruz Watsonville rail money is in there I asked the staff on November 8th as to where the Available potential government funding would be Would come from and I haven't heard yet from them and I have checked my spam filter and Finally the Cal ramp rail plan acknowledges that there's going to be abandoned rail rail lines as a fact of life and That they can be rail banked for future use And I suggest that we do that as soon as possible Please don't underestimate the consequences of keeping the tracks in place Every decision you make that assumes the possibility of a train is more expensive than necessary Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. Hi, Gary Pico again, and I still want to have this love affair with Andy we would be married except that we'd always disagree on one final thing and And so what it marks to the entire okay? What I do want to say is Andy's completely right probably the major decision is rip out the tracks or not Okay, the disagreement with with what's going on is we are going to rip out the tracks No matter what if you're gonna have a passenger rail besides a tourist train that runs a little bit You're gonna rip it out. Everybody knows that that's in the in the study The question really is can we use the corridor? Until transit on the corridor is figured out That's really the question that Greenway and everybody else in me is actually asking is don't commit to a fine fiscal Disaster until you really have the money to pay for the end, which is also what somebody said So the question is what do you do in the meantime? And that's why I always bring up rail banking I'm not a true trail proponent by the way But rail banking will protect the county and the city or whatever Against losing money. Okay, because the federal government takes stewardship of it lastly Secondly, where's the rail trail cost that was requested at the last meeting that was Staff item that was supposed to be done. They were supposed to review the cost of the the Rail because I came up saying it would be about four hundred to five hundred million dollars if you recall And you guys voted on on that request and lastly the UC is does actually take action It it nails in the progressive contract. It kicks in so there is a there is a Result that happens with that. Thank you very much. Thank you Good afternoon commissioners Manu Koenig executive director of Santa Cruz County Greenway I sent you two documents ahead of the meeting and they're being passed around now. I hope The first is the statement of principles for the coastal corridor We drafted these at the suggestion of Kurt triplet city manager from Kirkland, Washington Whose presentation on his city's own rail to trail conversion many of you will remember We hope more groups and ultimately this commission will join us in improving and endorsing these principles so our community can move forward together Also in the spirit of collaboration today, we are introducing scenario are a realistic and doable transportation scenario for our community Scenario are embraces trail and transit on the rail right of way It makes significant investments in bus rapid transit on the corridor Which can be implemented faster and more flexibly than passenger rail by building a multi-purpose Roadway that bikes and electric bus can share we can build the trail at a much lower cost than RTC staffs current preferred scenario But scenario R does not stop there It makes significant investments in bus rapid transit light on so cal freedom in addition to the intersection improvements recommended by staff It also invests in bus on shoulder on highway one and fully funds the auxiliary lanes Project to San Andreas Road note that because of profligate spending allocations for a train RTC staffs current preferred scenario Does not have enough money to complete auxiliary lanes? Which means it's bus on shoulder program would be stuck in the worst AM traffic making it effectively making it ineffective Scenario are also has enough funds left over to fix the critical highway one and highway nine intersection with additional lanes on San Lorenzo River Bridge In conclusion scenario R is realistic effective and affordable set of projects It provides congestion relief and public transit options on all three corridors for $423 million less Then RTC staffs current preferred scenario and it costs about half the annual annual operating expenses It can be implemented sooner more flexibly and realistically and we hope you'll join us in making it our scenario for the community. Thank you Thank you Good morning afternoon commissioners my name is Rick Lajanati. I'm co-chair of the campaign for sustainable transportation Our group is supported transit on the rail quarter for many years We just don't know what kind of transit we don't have that information and the UCIS doesn't really give us that information So we support the metros requests to do more study about to turn me that I do have some slides that want to suggest an idea to add to that study because that study needs to consider the whole transit network so we know from the draft EIR on highway one that Building auxiliary lanes will have a negligible effect on traffic congestion So this the was under consideration by the draft EIR something called the TSM alternative of which the auxiliary lanes and measure D Made up less than 25% of the spending The draft EIR, whoa, whoa, it's moving faster than I want Can I back this up here? I'm not having much Okay Can you operate this for me? Yeah, thank you. You're still gonna have the two-minute trick. Yeah, thank you next slide, please Okay, so we know for the draft EIR that this TSM alternative would have quote a very slight Improvement and traffic congestion and even that is overstated according to Susan handy next slide So if we only spending a quarter of the TSM alternative how much can we expect in terms of congestion relief? That's where I get the word negligible next slide So why would we spend the money? Staff is recommending auxiliary lanes as a stepping stone to the HOV project So making this the goal of the Commission the HOV project sometime after 2035 has an impact today Because we're spending money on something that's a goal in the future a goal that is unrealistic So the idea that that I want to leave you with is instead of spending that money on the auxiliary lanes 105 million for measured you money you put it into the bus on shoulder and make a real bus on shoulder system that works Thank you. Good afternoon. Hi My name is will mail I'm a board member of Greenway, but I'm representing myself. I've lived in Santa Cruz County with my wife for over 50 40 years I was an early employee at Apple and have a deep background in technology I love to surf bike hike and ride trance The UCS has many issues and scenario B is an especially poor choice one particularly disturbing aspect of scenario B is a excursion train scenario B Requires 15 million dollars for an excursion train an excursion train does nothing to address Transportation issues in the county the new train was clearly included to or in order to satisfy the passenger train requirement That handcuffs the RTC as a result of the 11 million dollar grant from the CTC But the excursion train will cost 15 million That's 15 million to save 11 million and where will the 15 million come from? measure these expenditure plan does not allow funding for any new train or rail service Also in measure D if the RTC determines that the best use of the corridor is an option other than rail transit Funds may be utilized for other transportation improvements Instead of spending 15 million on an excursion train Perhaps it makes more sense to use the measure D funds to pay back the 11 million and save 4 million an Excursion train from Senators to Davenport for 15 million dollars is not what this county needs from the RTC It would be effectively a subsidy to the rail operator. Thank you commissioners. Thank you Brian people's trail now you receive my notice on our support of the Metro's plan Our tweak was that it's not necessarily public transit We would call it mass transit. I do want to Say that a decision on scenario B actually will Make a difference. It's already making difference in property values in Aptos village Actually, the the the rental rate was lowered for some commercial property there Because of the current rail plan so if you come out and they decide that you're gonna have a train all of the Properties on those sales will have to disclose that that's going to be a Railroad 60 trains a day. So so there is a significant issue there in that I won't go on to the other items That Greenway and everybody's called out on but we need to use the corridor today. We need to use it now I do want to Reiterate the the importance value that actually George on his retirement. I want to give him some credit here I want to give him some credit on successfully getting the highway one Plan done and get helping get in measure D through so those two achievements. We need to leverage Let's focus on that today when you go to the California Transportation Commission And you're going out and you're saying we have a plan highway one. We are very far along on that, okay? But if you go and tie our hands today on the coastal corridor with a rail plan That's not the right path follow the community's request But don't just limit to public transit caught mass transit look at alternatives look at how technology is changing the way Individuals can get around. Thank you. Thank you One easements I think we need a lot more information about easements I'm hearing so many different interpretations of what the easements say I've I've never seen the wording of one of these easements. I have no idea what they actually say We're kind of missing the scope. We have a number of parcels. We don't know if they're big parcels or small parcels I would just urge whatever steps to pursue quit quit claim deeds or you know, whatever Whatever the Commission can do to pursue full ownership of the rail corridor I think needs to be done or full, you know, just Affidavits from owners saying that they're willing to allow this to happen or that to happen I've I've heard people even allege even if we have rail plus trail that the easements might not allow bicycles to be on that trail and somebody might raise a fuss Scenario choice I'm still trying. I still don't know why people are talking about scenario B as the preferred Scenario when it really looks a lot like scenario e to me, but whatever is decided on that. I think the Maybe it should be clear that it's an agnostic that it's that the scenario includes transit on the corridor without Specifying what the transit is because I think the preferred scenario is very clear that it's rail and if If you don't want that clarity yet don't Don't approve it out that with that clarity I strongly agree with the metro that we need a comprehensive alternatives analysis And they were very clear in the last metro meeting. They're not talking about the alternatives analysis in the sequel They're talking about a separate alternatives analysis process to determine the best mode and I'm I just want to advocate that one of the modes to be studied should be personal rapid transit And I'm out of time, so I guess that's all I'll say there. Thanks. Thank you Good afternoon. Good afternoon chair Michael saying campaign for sustainable transportation quickly I want to talk about Caltrans comments on the UC is Agenda item 23-6 page 176 if you're on a computer reliability and efficiencies number one Caltrans Believes it is not enough detail on the study to depict true value of highway one or benefits of HOV and Maybe because there are no benefits is would be my understanding Number or B is forecast a decrease in carpooling for HOV lanes, which ginger talked about And they thought these are unexpected Results, let me give you some ideas why that may happen People want to drive alone 76% They do not want to wait for a ride and share it with other people They do not want to be Inconvenienced and here's an interesting one that I'll give you to think about Once HOV lane becomes successful. It becomes unsuccessful So and that's basically saying people will start out using the HOV lane. It may become popular That lane fills up and it's actually going slower than the ones that are Single occupancy my wife can answer that when she goes to Stanford every day She says my sticker does no good. She sits in lane HOV lane stopped The only way the HOV lanes are successful according to the study. I read priority for high occupancy vehicles is most Beneficial when there are large numbers of people in buses Period see HOV lanes are sustainable according to Caltrans Not It just doesn't happen and that's we can reference the previous answer on that one Basically, do not like scenario e scenario be original Without any more development for car usage and we need to do put the freight in Watsonville You do not need ox lanes to have bus on shoulder. Thank you. Good afternoon My name is Johanna Nervous so bear with me. I wanted to reiterate what mr. Garrett said that I think the preferred Scenario is not really be it's a they call it be plus or be modified or whatever It is closer to e be Was changed with four modifications to create this preferred. They added auxiliary lanes Omitted the BRT light and express and they added freight but the changes to e are only two and It would be adding the bus on the shoulder and Removing the HOV lane so and beyond the 2035 scenario is exactly like e it goes right down the list so I Encourage you to go back to study the study and reread the performance measures of e I hope you'll invite stakeholders and local agencies to do the same because their recommendations may change on The table of the preferred scenario table three if you go down the listing the beyond 2035 all those numbers are the exact same under e the preferred if you compare it to be The safety number is the same but be at this preferred scenario has auxiliary lanes So I would think the safety or collision rate would change one information what important thing is that Buses on shoulders are faster than the rail transit under this and Under equitable access the vehicle my transit vehicle miles traveled is listed at five point three Be was six point six five, which is one and a half million miles less per year For transit, so I think that that makes a difference. I hope that as you move forward You will know that transit doesn't mean train remember communities as well as Commuters and choose function over potential funding. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Good afternoon Hi Sally Arnold Santa Cruz resident so this bus versus train discussion on I think you know, we've heard somebody who's talked about it. I think it can continue after you approve Scenario be preferably not e which is I agree kind of what they've presented to you in January the I don't think you should delay your decision about the tracks until after all the legal questions are About the easements are answered. It'll take way too long Whatever the future investigation does reveal our best bet to keep the easements is to save the tracks as Was mentioned in the Report that came with the packet today It's not possible to determine the extent to which the rights to the easements may occur as the courts would evaluate the records for each property Individually so that means we're going to court and that's going to take a long time It is going to be super expensive and so let's keep the tracks so we have our best shot there I think that this one piece of information clearly guides your choice unless you want to spend lots of time and lots Of money and litigation you must vote to preserve the tracks the there's there are buses and trains that can both run on tracks You can investigate those options after you approve the keeping of the tracks But you have to keep them or at best our public transportation options are going to be seriously delayed and at worst They're killed and the climate can't wait. Thank you. Thank you Morning good. My notes has good morning commissioners, but it's a good afternoon commissioners. I'm David van Brink from Santa Cruz And George is it here? So I'll change this to the third person. I wanted to thank George For everything he's done for our community and congratulations and wish him best wishes on whenever is next on his schedule And also welcome to Guy Preston. I'm sure we'll have lots of interesting times ahead. I Wanted to offer a very quick thought Please be skeptical of citizen advocacy for alternative transportation on the corridor or interim usages We've seen this strategy played out in other communities where they advocate for essentially anything but rail Then as soon as the rails are deleted that old advocacy disappears and they come back wearing their you know Mirror universe cotees saying, you know save our trail no transit on the trail So be skeptical. Thank you. Thank you Good afternoon. Good afternoon Barry Scott apt us I have a lot of favorite quotes, but one of them around transportation is by Enrique Pena Losa He says an advanced city isn't one where everyone drives a car, but one where The rich and the poor all use transit And I think as you make decisions and you look at that kind of guiding principle It won't be that hard to reach some good conclusions There's an interesting discussion. I know a lot of people are saying rail doesn't go where we need to go a lot of Transportation infrastructure and other infrastructure. It needs to be built for where things might be there's a discussion between kind of an argument between Jared Walker and Chuck Marrone both of them are trans transportation and planner planning experts and There's transportation oriented development, which is to create Transportation and then build to it and the other is development oriented Transportation which would be to pull transportation projects into where they where the existing uses are and I'd argue that if we develop our Rail plan the way we we would It goes through a lot of areas that are ripe for new development and that if we build it And it's kind of a if we build it they will come kind of an argument But I think it's been shown to be true often that you build your infrastructure And then working with a general and regional plan You see that infill starts occurring and that you're you're actually have you're actually providing for the future very effective System and of course, it's not it shouldn't it shouldn't be seen as a bus versus train thing either because the best systems are integrated BRT doesn't have An advantage over rail transit if it's express buses because you'll still have to transfer in a lot of cases to get to your Ultimate destination, so I think we can have both Finally, I'd just like to say I hope we get back to a point where Trail only is off the table because It's been such a device of thing, and I hope we make a decision in January. Thank you. Thank you Hello chair and commissioners welcome. Mr. Preston. My name is Yonikus Jalson the director of bike Santa Cruz County and Bike Santa Cruz County has been consistent for the last 15 years on our position of the rail corridor And that is to build the trail now and continue to study passenger rail We appreciate staff making it clear today that the January 17th decision is to continue that study and Perform an alternatives analysis for transit in the corridor the next step for any type of transit in that corridor We ask the commission to please make the commitment on January 7th 17th to continue building the trail as planned Which is the fastest way to implement the trail and will drastically improve safety for current cyclists And we'll encourage new cyclists to bike for daily trips. Thank you. Thank you Good afternoon. Good afternoon Ashley win from La Selva Beach I'd like to address the preferred scenario and ask that the small electric buses be the preferred option on the real corridor The cost is better The flexibility is greater the environmental consequences are better Second I would ask that the Hove lanes be prioritized sooner than 2035 They provide the most effective relief. They could be limited to electric vehicles electric buses and Carpools it creates more passenger mile results than any other option as indicated in the last board meeting third Why invest in infrastructure of the rail when one point two five Miles of the rail corridor will be gone by the end of this century. That makes no sense based on the climate issues fourth the fact that the The staff has not been able to provide more meaningful discussion of The rail banking idea and the concern over easements indicates that this problem may only be a victim of fantasy What attorney what property owner wants to challenge the corridors ownership issues? When there are no records according to mr. Luis Mendez So the likelihood of a lawsuit I think is questionable Not saying it can't happen, but I am a lawyer and I would look very carefully before I chose that lawsuit. Thank you Thank you Good afternoon Good afternoon commission and welcome mr. Preston I'm from Watsonville And I just just want you to make sure that when you make your decisions that you consider the needs of Watsonville residents And also greenhouse gas reduction. It's very important to us I also hope that all the possible Outside funding sources are pursued for the studies that are needed to determine the best use of the corridor and to move forward So that we don't use our local money for that From my point of view you already have a rail line and It seems to me that a rail line that you already have that's in existence can be brought online much more quickly Then then the massive construction and environmental impact that would be needed for highway widening or other highway projects and And as we know from the UCS study all of our options are going to be really expensive And the longer we wait The more they're going to cost so thank you Thank you Good afternoon Good afternoon commissioners Keith Otto Our Thanksgiving dinner table of conversation included discussion about things we think we know but we really don't or we don't fully understand Then included discussion about expressions or sayings that are often misused and Or they've deviated so far from their original usage and one of these was you've got another thing coming The original X the original expression was you've got another think think with the K coming And that would be my ask of the Commission here think carefully about the decisions that are being considered I try to do my part to have my other think To get involved to stay informed to get updated My view is that other than freight in Watsonville It makes no sense to pursue Passenger or freight rail services in the corridor simply put It's too costly to implement too costly to maintain maintenance being a forever Liability and there's too little benefit rather pursue maximum investments in highway one including HOV lanes As well as further investment in SC Metro. Look, I'm not a Transportation planner many that I talked to in my community share this view But I would ask that any decision go to the voters for validation or for correction So let's all get on board with have another think coming and thank you for your service. Thank you And happy Thanksgiving I Again Climate change activist Naomi Klein asks what if global warming isn't only a crisis? What if it's the best chance? We're ever going to get to build a better world Our little county has tremendous Potential we are full of people who are passionate and care and want to do the right thing Measure D can allow us to build on our history of environmental activism to show mid-sized communities around the world How to evolve their transportation systems in time to help the future of mankind? Impactful climate change planning must be affordable Adaptable and easy to implement like a better bus system and a protected bike network However, since most voters drive cars letting go of parking and lanes to prioritize buses and install protected bike lanes Will require tremendous political will Equal or greater to the tireless efforts that save our shores founders put forth to protect our marine sanctuaries 40 years ago Losing earth the decade. We almost stopped climate change in the August 2018 New York Times magazine talked about the decade from 1979 to 1989 and Explained how our future is always in jeopardy because public officials rarely possess the courage and Compassion to think beyond low-risk policies during their elected terms as a member of the public I Always feel disheartened when after a heartfelt series of heartfelt testimony from the public this commission Ties things up with a bit of comic relief as happened earlier today It feels as if the public process is little more than political theater The fact that the UCIS decision has been tied to the progressive rail contract Greatly raises our stakes the failure to understand the potential risks connected to that contract is Putting our community at risk Our children need us to recognize the severity of the climate change crisis and take bold action and Take the time to do the right thing and figure out what that right thing is. Thank you Seeing no one else and as this item does not require any action We're gonna move on to item number 24, which is the county bicycle wayfinding signage project This shank Thank you for waiting. I will try to keep this brief. Good afternoon Seems I'm often here in the afternoons so in 2015 we adopted a Implementation plan for this project and since then that has been our guiding document So I'll just give you a brief overview of the timeline. I have already talked previously about that guidance and 2015 we also received an active transportation program grant to fund the implementation of this project and then completed environmental review in 2017 in March 2018 we've completed the plan specifications and engineering phase and Then in June of 2018 we went to the California Transportation Commission to ask for construction funding to be allocated to this project They have allocated that funding and that funding In order to receive that funding we have to be under contract or award the contract by December 28th of this year So we released a bid for construction for this project on October 31st with bids due on November 21st After the the package had been out for a while We started to feel that there was not enough interest being garnered in the project This was despite efforts of staff to contact over 40 different contractors We advertised it publicly in newspapers as well as online and through the Central Coast builders exchange as well as on bid express so in order to attract more interest we Extended the bid deadline which is why in your packet there was a placeholder for the resolution We did receive one bid Linear text striping is the name of the contractor and so today we are asking for your approval to Award the contract to linear text striping with some contingencies their bid was below the engineers estimate They bid 205,000 and the engineers estimate is 208,000 I'm happy to answer any questions before you take action Specified There's a motion by shifrin seconded by Botthorff I'll just say I'm very happy to what McPherson So seconded by McPherson I'm very happy to see this moving forward. We actually first approved funding for this bike signage project Way before 2015. I think it was 2010. So I'm glad to see we're finally going to be able to do this My question is where's the vendor coming from? Is it a local vendor or they're from San Jose? We do have in the bid documents The Santa Cruz County ordinance which asks for 50% local labor So they're in the process of providing that documentation Which is one of the contingencies that we have on the award and this is countywide the ordinance is for Monterey Bay Area, so the Contractor could have employees from anywhere in the Monterey Bay area It appears that they will have employees working on this project who are in Watsonville I was just asking in terms of the signage is that countywide signage. Oh, yes Yes, it's it's through all five jurisdictions and Caltrans as well. Okay, and The turn time I've start to finish We plan to finish it in 2019. We do not have a construction schedule yet. That's one of the early submittals Okay, thank you Now see if there's anybody in the public who has any testimony about this Seeing none, I'll bring it back to our Commission for Action all in favor of the recommended actions And the opposed motion carries unanimously that takes us to closed session. There are two items on our closed session agenda Would anybody like to comment about those before we go into closed session? Mr.. Chair actually we will not need those items after all they were missed on the agenda in case they were needed But they're not neither one Right consider that your holiday gift And with that we will adjourn This meeting of the regional transportation Commission and we'll return to these very chambers on Thursday, January 17th 9 o'clock look forward to Well, we're we are not having a TPW meeting Yeah, yeah December 20th We're not meeting before January 17