 All right. Let's call this meeting to order. This is the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District Order Directors Meeting for November 2022. Donna, may we do a roll call, please? Yes. Director Brown? Present. Director Downing? Present. Director Dutra? Here. Director Cullentary-Johnson? Don't see her. Director Koenig? Here. And Director Lynn will be absent today. Director MacPherson? Director Myers? Present. Director Pagler? Here. Director Parker? And I do see Director Cullentary-Johnson came on board. Present. And Director Cullentary-Johnson? Here. And Director Cullentary-Johnson? Here. And Director Cullentary-Johnson? Here. Present. And Director, let's see, and Director Rockin? Here. And Exofficio Director Henderson? Here. And Exofficio Director Northcutt? Do not see her, and I don't see any other board directors that have come on board since. We do have quorum. Thank you. We probably will see a few others arrive here shortly. Yeah. All right, under announcements, I want to note that today's meeting is being broadcast by community television of Santa Cruz County. And we appreciate their assistance. Any comments for the board of directors? Prior to the meeting. And items not on the agenda. Seeing none. I'm looking to the public for any comment. I see one hand. Brian from Trail Now. Thanks for taking my time. My comments. Hey, you know, I wanted to make sure we communicated the rate it is that the Metro's plan or objective is to double your ridership. We're fully on board with that. And anything we can do to help publicize that. We really want to step forward and do that. You know, me personally, I've been in transportation policy for over 20 years. I've been involved in the RPC for over 20 years. Actually. Going to the meetings for over a decade. Because I believe in transportation. And you know, what's really important is that we spend our tax dollars effectively. And we really need to drive the money to Metro, get more buses and do that. And in that sense. And so at this time, I really want to remind everybody about. What we have in our community. Being next to the coastal bluff. We're really restricted on how we invest in our postal corridor. Because essentially it goes 20 feet from the, from the ocean in Manresa. And then over at New Brighton Beach. There's a lot of restrictions. And we've seen that with the California coastal commission where we've actually denied three times. Request. And so. Any idea of a fixed rail system running along Banbury send to Brighton. Is, is really not. Going to happen and we shouldn't be spending money on that tax dollars because when we do that, it takes away from Metro. You know, when we waste it. Now understand that in the RFP for the. RTC's train proposal, they put horizontal and vertical alignments. And the idea that they're looking at as well. Maybe we'll have it run along highway. Well, I want to remind. The transportation policy centers. That the TCAA study. Actually. I downed. Did not select. They train along the highway because it wasn't very effective. It wasn't effective at all. It was actually removed from the plan initial. So the point is, is we really need to. Use our tax dollars. And one other note is a lot of people believe that the public wants to train. We don't leave that. And even if they did want to train, the public can't have everything they want. In 2004, the public didn't want the high did not want to widen the highway. So that's what we're going to do. One of the things I'll always say is the problem with Santa Cruz infrastructure is it's publicly. A public opinion rather than the engineers designing system. I think we're getting there now with the highway, widening in Metro. Bus on shoulder. So again, I just really want to emphasize that. I'm hopeful that the Metro representatives for the RTC support Metro. That's what we're going to do. We're really supportive of that. And I really appreciate your guys's time and effort. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. I see a hand from Mario. Mario, can you speak please. I believe you're still muted. Okay. You are. That's fine. I like to address the board on a concerning matter that has come to my attention. I'm a bus driver and watchable citizen. And traveled throughout the community to hear that your intentions on cutting 69 a and a 91 from once though is a travesty. You'll be hurting the people that need and use our service for lack of drivers and safety. Why only hurt what's wrong and not other areas in the community. If we are really concerned about driver safety and concern about the drivers. Why is a Metro planning board cutting time service for the residents. They are not getting into the service. So I think they're getting into the service. Our intent minutes for the 71 now we have to do that in 55 minutes. That is not only concerning for drivers. They have to rush throughout the time. They also are getting into more accidents, more incidents. Continue to see that they want to cut in. They want to increase service. And highway 17 and UCS this is. Cutting into a community of Watsonville. They're always getting hurt from the Metro. So I want to address that and make sure that you guys They go to the mall, they go to the hospital and that's what I'm saying. Thank you, Mario right into the public. Do I see any additional members of the public who'd like to comment on to the board today. I see an additional hand for many, many. Would you like to speak please. Can you guys hear me. Yes, very good. Hi, I am a resident of Watsonville, and I'm also a driver for Santa Cruz Metro and I too would like to address with Mario, I believe said. You know, I drive the buses and I also ride the buses and taking away 91 69 a. I don't think it's a good idea. I, I think the WC route I think could be eliminated and those, you know, keep these other two routes to keep the same coverage. It's just going to affect the people on that corner of Watsonville to make one bus to, you know, Santa Cruz and the mall. I think we need to focus on other things and other areas. Instead of cutting that those two routes. We, we I've been there for 10 years nearly 10 years and getting keeping those two instead of the WC which we've only had for a year is a better option. I'd like for you guys to consider that. Thank you guys for your time. Thank you many for your comments. All right, another call to the public if you have any comments to make. I'm seeing no additional hands so. Mr chair, can you can you hear me all right I've been on but you haven't heard me so I've been here. Thank you Bruce I think I saw you your name appear somewhere in the attendees list. So we'll note that both director Calantari Johnson and director McPherson are here. I see your hand. Yes, we had two comments from members of the public about temporary changes that were making in routes because as a response to the lack of the shortage of drivers that we're facing. And I wonder if Michael tree or someone else. I could explain what. And so the issue is that we've been leaving a lot of students that you CSC standing, you know, left behind what are called pass buys. They're standing at the bus comes by but it's already full, including people standing, you know, shoulder to shoulder with us. My understanding is that we. The readjustment that we've done first of all it is temporary we're now actually have some good news we have some classes of training some new drivers that allow us to reduce the shortage that we've been confronting. But I wonder if someone from the staff might explain. The problem is that when we did the real the real I'm really readjustments this temporary shift in Watsonville. I don't think the public is maybe fully been educated about what their alternatives are we didn't stop service anywhere. We basically we realigned to reorganize how it was delivered temporarily will eventually probably go back to something close to what we have now. I wonder if someone could explain, you know, at least, and I mean briefly not every route exactly where it's going to go and stuff but and what we might be doing to educate the public about because you know people are used to the bus coming to a certain place at a certain time and that's what they've been doing for years. And for changing stuff even temporarily that may be somewhat of a hardship on people if they don't understand what the new we know where what bus they should be catching now to go to the same place they were going before. I wonder if someone could explain a little bit about what we've done in terms of that realignment. Yeah, director rocket I can take a step. Thank you. So the idea that this is a service cut is a is a bit misleading on paper it does look like the 91 x and 69 a are being temporarily suspended which they are. These three routes are being restructured into one essentially that will provide into the 69 w which will provide more frequent service between Watsonville along Main Street, serving the hospital and on the Cabrillo. There will be essentially no travel time change between Watsonville Main Street the hospital and Cabrillo. It'll be around three to five minutes with a because of the deviation that extra service we're adding to the hospital. There will be no change in essentially change in travel time and no change in frequency between those two destinations so we did that purposefully so that we weren't affecting the core riders on that trip which are between Watsonville and Cabrillo. There will be impact to customers that travel from downtown Watsonville and the current 91 x alignment to downtown Santa Cruz, because that express route will be temporarily suspended, and we think that trip is about 10 to 20 minutes longer on the 71 or 69 w. Depending on time of day and traffic, we're fully aware that that is going to inconvenience about 50 trips per day with our new APC automatic passenger counter sampling. We're seeing about 50 to 60 trips per day that travel and more than half of the ridership is is between 41st Avenue and Watsonville this is information that we've sampled over the last couple of months. What else can I there's an additional change that we're making to the Watsonville circulator to cover freedom and airport Boulevard. Essentially, there is no loss of service or coverage on any corridor that we serve in Watsonville or Santa Cruz. The idea that we're cutting in Watsonville and not in other places simply not true. You see the service has been operating at a deficit throughout COVID 75 to 80% of pre COVID service. It continues to operate at the greatest deficit of all the service that we operate in Santa Cruz County. And highway 17 also has operated at a deficit of COVID. We're currently operating half of the weekday schedule. Just as ridership has started to come back and in the winter will continue to operate about half of the weekday schedule we are cutting service to downtown San Jose so that we can provide a few more trips over the hill. But Watsonville service was the first to be restored fully to 100% of pre COVID levels and even above pre COVID levels because we launched the Watsonville circulator shortly after so we had additional service in Watsonville. There was a suggestion that we cut that service this is actually a grant funded service on the zero mission buses, the pilot. And so due to the grammar, we need to continue to operate that on a fair free basis. We can restructure that route which is what we're doing now to provide the coverage that we're taking away in the 69 a all of this information. If it's not currently will be on our website shortly we also have a fact frequently asked questions that we put together to explain, you know, what are my options. There's no commuter between between Watsonville Cambrio between Watsonville and downtown. Also the highway 17 changes. And as Director Rockman as you mentioned this is these are temporary, you know we were still, it feels like we shouldn't be saying this anymore but we're still coming out of COVID we're still in a public health emergency. And these are still temporary changes that we need to do to try to make sure we're providing the best service we can to help our customers. I will also note that the fact that we're not serving San Jose state is taken up by the fact that there's actually very incredibly frequent service offered by VTA, our partners over the hill that people can make a transfer and it's like I think five minutes you have to may have to wait five or 10 minutes that may I think it's mainly five minutes for the next bus to come along to go to the same place they're going before and while a transfer is always not quite as good as being able to sit in the same seat for a ride. Nobody's nobody's been stopped from getting where they need to go and nobody's been asked to stand around for a long time waiting for that next bus to come. I appreciate the response and I wonder if we might spend a little bit of additional advertising money of some kind just to because I've gotten a couple calls about this and just to let people in Watsonville know that you know this is the way you can get to where you need to go with for this temporary chapter we're making my final question is when is this all being implemented it's not happened yet I take it. Now it's not happened yet and do the number of changes we've actually pushed back the start of the winter bid, which is usually the first week in December. It's now the 22nd right now 22nd is the first day now. So, that'll carry Santa's they stayed through their full term, Cabrillo as well before any changes kick in over the holidays will be implementing research change. Thank you so much for the response I do appreciate it. No problem. Thank you john. I saw Alta had a hand up I think she may have taken down Jimmy I see your hand. Okay, thank you. Sure. A few questions I just john just to be to clarify because I know that, you know, there is a question of equity when it comes to the, the, the rerouting and I know I've been working closely with Michael and on this issue as well. We were able to successfully add back in Watsonville hospital into the circulator route, so that we, if there's no transfer. There won't be any, you know, extra charges for people getting to the hospital also, you will be able to find a seat. And so I think that, you know, temporarily this is a, this could work out. So, but I think when you discuss, you know, cutting service and you said it happened it's happening throughout the entire system. I know we talked about the, you just discussed about in San Jose State University, where else exactly our routes going to be cut out outside of the two that we've discussed. This bid, the point I was trying to make is that since we reduce service at the start of coven, if you'll remember we reduce service about 50%. We've slowly been trying to build that backup right. And low and on local service, including Watsonville we we got back to 100% of the COVID service pretty quickly and Watsonville is it was even above because we added the Watsonville circulator. And UCSC, on the other hand, operated at about 50 to 60% of pre COVID service in the beginning so there was a 40% cut of COVID that during COVID when students returned, we got to about a 25% cut. And we're about, I would say 20% below pre COVID today. And so we're, we still are a huge deficit. There aren't additional cuts that were proposing this. This for this winter service change. We've been trying to get back to 100% and where we were everywhere and we still have not done that on Highway 17 or UCSC. But don't a lot of UCSC is serviced doesn't a lot of it depend on the funding that we get from UCSC which provides for the routes that go into UCSC. And the contracts that we renewed last year restored their funding to fully 100% actually more than pre COVID levels that contract, knowing that we couldn't quite restore the service yet. But we were attempting to get there and that we wouldn't be able to, if they didn't restore their contract and they agreed to do that. So the funding is there, the services now. But I think that during COVID in, if I remember correctly, you know, UCSC withheld the funding that you know was that Metro is expecting so there had to be some sort of cuts if I remember if I'm remembering this correctly. So, because they do their their funding is what pays for the service. That's not the case for Watsonville right I mean so we're we're making a cut to something that. Is not depending on the funding coming directly from those people that live in the community, whereas at UCSC, the funding is coming from the students. So, I, you know, I just want I just encourage everybody to, you know, keep that in mind, you know this is not an apple this is not apples and apples and apples it's that's completely such a different situations. And, you know, I'm glad that we're able to work, you know, some things out but it's at the end of the day. You know, it's a community that's considered disadvantaged in many ways and, you know, make taking routes away from that community doesn't, you know, the optics doesn't look so great to the community. So, I, I just want to say thank you to Michael for, you know, helping, you know, work out some, you know, some of the glitches that we had. But I just I really have a hard time when we start comparing the two routes UCSC and Watsonville to get that, you know, because they're different, and the funding is different. And so I hope that, you know, we can get back, you know, really soon to, you know, regular service hopefully, you know, three to six months. And, you know, I think anything longer will, you know, really cause a bigger, you know, concern in the community. So, I don't know if you have any comments on that. Just the, the UCSC contract pays for fairs. And so the, the amount that we receive from UCSC allows students, faculty and staff to ride for free on the buses. So the contract. The, you're right in 2020 when COVID hit, they withheld the contract money for the remainder of 2020. And then in 2021, there was a reduced amount of fiscal year 2021. But if fiscal year 2022 they were stored fully the pre COVID levels of service and they committed to doing that for the next five years. And that money pays for fairs. So it's, yeah, it's a little bit different, but it's essentially that it's not as different as I think it seems. And so we're still the greatest deficit of all of our service compared to pre COVID is still the UCSC and West Side routes, even with these changes that we're implementing in winter. So at this point taken it looks like it sounds like we're making lots of cuts, the amount of service and revenue hours being provided to Watsonville is being reduced slightly but compared to pre COVID, it's the same because we added the Watsonville all that is to say, hiring is looking good in the next three to six months, I think we can restore the 91 X to what it was. Okay, thank you. Mike, I see your hand. I don't want to prolong this and I take Jimmy's point. Obviously, we all would like to restore serve full services quickly as possible. I just want to say, we it's, it's, it's misleading when people say UCSC students ride for free. They're paying the highest transit fee of any students in the United States of America right now. They voted. Who is that fee upon themselves because I think mainly they believe in environmental issues that as well as wanting to have, you know, the service but to be fair, it's not free. It's just they collect their buying their tickets collectively, you know, together. And the university then the university takes all the money that they're giving them and pays us with that money but it's not a free ride it's just not paid it that when you walk in the door of the bus you show your card. And so it's like it might look like it's free but they're paying a fee that's pretty pretty high and so nobody should sort of assume that they're getting away with something here it's not the case at all. Thank you for that clarification director I can and in fact, you know, every student pace at UCSC even those who don't ride pay other students transit fare essentially, but they all pay. It's not free to any of them. All right, I see a hand up from our public member Daniel Dodge. And would you like to speak please. Yeah, yes, I would. And can you can you hear me. Yes, right ahead. Good morning, my name is Daniel Dodge senior, I might I might add. And I just wanted to be able to address the subject really quick. I know that it's, I was previously served on the Santa Cruz metro board I know it's a numbers game at times. But when you're talking about reducing service to the 69 a the 91 X. It directly affects the community where I reside my neighbors, my, my family. This that these routes are our lifebloods to people to get to work accessibility to health care accessibility to employment accessibility to education. And so when we're talking in the buzzwords that are used around the county and other institutions such as the one that I worked at the college formerly knows Cabrillo diversity equity inclusion are always a driving in things here and in the way we we're trying to do business and live our lives here in Santa Cruz County. So when you're making changes to these and no offense to any of the metro staff, you're not you're not noticed to the public by placing something on the website you're talking about a community that has X access issues to be even to get to the internet or your website and these are the folks that are writing the 69 a the 91 X. So, you're, while it seems like a number crunch at times to be able to move things around you're directing effectively affecting people who reside work raise families in our community. And so any kind of changes to those those routes. And no, I don't believe you know, I believe there's been sufficient notice to be able to these changes, even on a temporary basis are are are they could make out damaging consequences. And this is with the Santa Cruz Metro has a little has always had a loyal ridership in the city of Watsonville here in the south and also here in the South County. I would just. It appears that these are already moving forward but I would I would like to echo the sediment my community and residents that these routes actually cause cause harm to two folks in a minority majority community that relies on the Santa Cruz Metro as their access point to all the things that I described above. So thank you for allowing me to speak. Thank you, Daniel. All right, I'm looking at once more for any hands or comments. And I'm seeing on any final words from staff or directors on this will move along. Just a quick comment. I'm sure john I only mentioned posting changes on the website, we will post notices at every effective bus stop at the bus stop itself. Danielle can chime in on our other channels. But we will make these changes known through all of all of our channels it's obviously not just electronic communications, it's translated all of our messages are translated in English and Spanish, and we'll be we will be posting physical notices at every effective bus stop. Thank you john. All right, I believe we're going to move on to the next item that would be labor organization communications do we have anything from our labor representatives today. I'm looking for a hand up. I'm not seeing anything. All right. Move on metro advisory committee any communications from that group Donna. Don't think so. No. All right. Finally, the additional documentation to support existing agenda items I know Donna you sent out email I believe, just a sample of a follow up. That was to the board this morning. All right. Correct. All right. Next item is the consent agenda. Are there any items on the consent agenda that directors here to have discussed pulled from approval. I see a hand from Rebecca director Downing. Yes, I was looking at the schedule for next year and saw that there were meetings in both Scots Valley and Watsonville. So I'd like to propose that we consider having one meeting at the community foundation and apt us. Lots. Okay. I'm not sure of the process that's put in place for a scheduling where and where the meetings occur. But perhaps our staff can look at that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I just, I just would like to throw that in because it's a sort of mid-county and the facilities available. Yeah, I think we've held meetings at the capital city. That would work too. Yeah, that would work too. Yeah. We have had them there in the past. That's been our other mid-county point. Cool. Yeah. All right. And just so that you know, I'm not sure if we're going to be able to see that we reach out to and I did reach out to the Capitola city clerk to see if we could schedule a meeting there in 2023. At this time, they are not allowing outside entities to reserve space in their chamber. They weren't sure how they were going to be handling the governor's notice of the suspension of the state of emergency. Yeah, I couldn't tell from the bylaws if there were restrictions to specific sites. So maybe we can look at that too. Thanks for that item, Rebecca. We'll look into that further. Were there any items on the consent agenda that the public was concerned of? I see. I have a hand up. Jimmy, I see it now. Thank you. Bouncing back and forth from attendees. I just want to say thank you in regard to the meetings, bringing them back to our, you know, individual jurisdictions, because I mean, this was a big problem that I had last time when I was when we took them away. You know, a lot of people can't travel outside of their communities. So this gives an opportunity for people to at least attend one meeting a year and either, you know, Watsonville, Santa Cruz, Scots Valley. It makes it convenient for them. So I really, I appreciate this. I don't know if Michael, if you were behind this or, or who was, but whoever was, thank you. Thanks, Jimmy. Yes, and it will be good to see all of you in person again. I'll move approval of the consent agenda. We have a motion. The second. The second was from monitoring monitor. Thank you. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion. Any comment from the public? All right, maybe we vote on this place Donna. Director Brown. Aye. Director Downey. Aye. Director Dutra. Yes, yes, sorry. Director Colin Terry Johnson. Aye. Director Koenig. Aye. Director McPherson. Aye. Director Myers. Aye. Director Pagler. Aye. Director Parker. I'm not here. And director Rockin. Aye. And the motion passes. Very good. Thank you all. That brings us to our regular agenda. And the first item is a resolution of appreciation for retiring bus operator Lenore Baldwin. Lenore started with the Metro 10 years ago. She's taken the responsibilities of bus operation very seriously, including her service to the community and riders. She will be missed for her participation in many employee events where she spent time making every occasion. A success with her special touch. And the next item is a resolution of appreciation for retiring bus operator Lenore Baldwin. I'm sending her time enjoying Santa Cruz County with her husband Dennis, who also is a retired bus operator. We wish her well and thank her for her many positive contributions to operations that we have a resolution for appreciation. We need to take from the board here. There's a motion and a second. I see a motion. I'll call on this appreciation. Rector Brown. Aye. Director Downing. Aye. Director Dutra. Yes. Director Colin Terry Johnson. Aye. Director Koenig. Aye. Director McPherson. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Director Myers. Aye. Director Pagler. Aye. And Director Rockin. Aye. And the motion passes. Great. Thank you Lenore for your 10 years of service. Very much appreciated. Our next item presentation of safety certificates of achievement for the first quarter ending September 30th of 22. Major safety milestone of zero incidents over 1300 accident incident free days in the following departments. There are five of them administration, finance grants and planning human resources and information technology. We also have, and I hope someone might help explain this a bit more most hours of service during COVID pandemic and four individuals Miguel S. Carsega, Jr. Mario Espinoza, Yoruel Mendoza, and Ruben Valdez. Do we do something here Donna, do we have an action or no action is required. I believe Curtis Moses is online if you'd like him to speak a little to the topic. That'd be great Curtis could you elaborate a little bit more about this. Sure. Good morning, members. We've recognized five different departments in this quarter with zero accidents and incident over 1300 days that's equivalent to four years plus without having even a scratch or even a needing of a bandaid. One of the major accomplishments was definitely recognized and one of the highest most achievements for safety and any type of industry. So we recognize those five departments and also similar to what other transit agencies are doing across the country. And to get COVID in the rear view mirror, transit agencies are now recognizing the hard work and dedication of frontline employees and are giving them some recognitions of transporting the public during the COVID times. And what we did with here, we recognize four employees that had one employee had over 5000 hours of service during COVID and as well as so many other operators had 4000 hours so the Safety Department wanted to recognize these four employees for in gratitude for their service. That's terrific Curtis. Thank you to the, all the staff who put that together and staying safe. I appreciate it very much. You're here. Mr. Jared should, should we write a letter of thanks or congratulations to those four, or do you think there's many people involved, I know, but very good question. Michael, would you have a suggestion on that. You know, we certainly could write a letter, they did receive a very nice plaque, and we presented it to him, and if it a company lunch. So there was some recognition in regard to a plaque and recognition in front of their peers, but if it's the board's desire we could certainly do that as well as just kind of finishing touch on that. Rebecca, I see your hand up a comment. Perhaps, perhaps we could do a press release with the photograph of them for the power on in the sense. That sounds like a good idea. Fantastic. Very good. Any other comments from the staff. Well, we'll let the staff work on on those ideas and directors any other remarks comments on this. Well, I appreciate that. It's really great to see that kind of performance and record and safety. All right, item 12 consideration to approve accepting metros updated title six program that's going to be from Julie Sherman, I believe. Thank you and good morning everyone. This is the every three years submission to the FDA where we take a fresh look at metros title six policy and service standards policy, make any updates that are required by law. And we also just take a fresh look, you know, because you just see things that you could improve. Here my civil rights team worked with Ricky and Ricky and did a great job reviewing the policy. We did not make any revisions to the title six policy and service standards policies those were in great shape. We did however update another number of other sections of the program. We updated all of the exhibit documents to confirm they met with all legal requirements. We updated the title six complaint form and process, and we the main revisions we made were to the language assistance plan. We updated the LAP so that each of the four factors in the four factor framework analysis reflect all current legal requirements set forth in the title six circular. Now typically we provide the board with revisions. However, the revisions to the LAP were so extensive and went through so many iterations that we just didn't think it made sense to put that in the packet because it would just confuse everyone. So we have clean versions but if anybody's interested in seeing those, you know, I'm happy to share those with anyone, you know, from the board and the public. But please rest assured all they are doing, you know, is just reflecting what's required from the title six circular. We didn't, you know, we're not going off and doing our own thing. So that that's the basic summary of what we did and we're looking for the board to approve this policy so we can send it to the FDA. Thank you, Julie. Any questions from the directors. Mike Rockin. Julie, could you take just a moment to explain I mean the board members know this but the public may not. What is title six and what do we, you know, accomplish here. Thank you. Of course. So, yeah, so title six is title six of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination against any individual or group on the basis of race color or national origin under any program. Now Metro is a grantee of the federal government and in this case the FDA and the FDA has oversight over Metro's, you know, system and services to make sure that Metro is not discriminating against any individuals that are listed in title six. And so every three years. No, well, I mean all the time Metro is making sure that's the case. And we have a title six policy that we follow. Anytime there are service changes, fair changes, you know, route changes, we have to make sure we're not discriminating. This kind of goes back and ties into the earlier discussion about the changes in Watsonville. And so every three years we review what we've done during that three year period, we look at any complaints we receive from folks that say hey, you're discriminating against me because of x, y and z we have to analyze those complaints. Make sure they actually fall under title six because they may not. For example, someone might say you discriminated against me because I had a dog or something that wouldn't fall under title six but that might fall under a different policy. And then we have to respond to those complaints. We have to make sure that we are providing appropriate translation of key documents. So that folks that may not speak English as their first language are able to access the services that Metro provides. So it's a whole program of policies and procedures to make sure Metro is not discriminating. And so every three years we have to check all of that make any changes any improvements and any and check any updates to the law that happened during that three year period. Make those changes and we send it to the FDA and then the FDA will review if they find anything wrong with what they've done they'll let us know we can make further changes. I don't anticipate that to happen here. And it's okay if it does and we'll just make further changes, and then the FDA will approve our program for that three year period, looking ahead. Thanks that was really helpful I think and FDA is federal transit administration for those that may not know. Thank you Julie good question like any other comments from the directors. I'm also looking to the public and any comment that might come from them. I'm not seeing any hands rise. All right, we do have we need an action here to approve this. I'll move if nobody else is moving. I see Shebra as the second Rotkin as our motion. Right Donna roll call please. Okay, director Brown. Hi, director Downing. Director Dutra. Hi, director commentary Johnson. Hi, director Konig. Hi, director McPherson. Hi, director Myers. Hi, director Pagler. Hi, and director Rockin. Hi, and the motion passes. Very good. Thank you. Thank you for your work on this Julie. All right, our next item is the oral report from our CEO Michael tree and COVID-19 update Michael. What's the news. All right, hear me okay to your paper. Yes. All right, we'll all start off with the COVID-19 update. I think we're faring okay. We've had five new cases since we last met, but none of the divisions that are within Metro are currently in a minor outbreak status, which was kind of a lingering status that we had, you know, over the last six months or so. So, you know, I think we're faring well and not seeing a huge impact. The next most important thing to talk about is your new operators. We graduated going into this weekend seven of the nine that we had in training as new operators. The other two will be closely behind. So that's really exciting news to get seven new operators out on the road. It's balanced with the thought with the fact that we've lost six operators to retirement over the last six months and a couple of other reasons. So, you know, it's dampened a bit but we're still moving in the right direction. There's still a net positive number of operators. Just looking forward to kind of looking at this in six months increments over the next six months we've got 12 new operators that will be starting actually later this month in class and in the training. So we're really hopeful, you know, to have good results and to not have any of those 12 drop doing everything that we can to keep them and support them. That's balanced against the outlook of six additional operators over the next six months, excuse me five additional operators over the next six months retiring or leaving the agency. Following those 12 that will be in training, you know, we'll begin very soon advertising all over again and hopeful to have another class right behind. And so, you know, my thought my hope my goal is to get back to where we can restore that service that we've talked about this morning. I had a couple of other things that were kind of high on the radar. Certainly the newspaper article about the goals the three goals that we have at Metro that we talked about in the workshop and the most prominent and important of those goals is obviously ridership not only getting our recovery done but going beyond and doubling the ridership based on this year is kind of a base year. That would get you to 7 million rides in five years. And I thought it might be worth just a couple of seconds to talk about that goal, because you may have received some questions from neighbors or colleagues about that goal it's ambitious and you know it's quite frankly that that's why we like it. It's going to be tough to reach but we see a path. And so we don't mind setting that goal high if we see a path. And basically the path to get there would involve what people want in public transit you saw in the public survey that we did going into the workshop people want frequency and the bus system on key corridors. They want speed and they want reliability. And so, looking at the routes we've got a comprehensive operational analysis that you'll approve hopefully the contract for that at your next board meeting in December. And also a long range plan built into that kind of a blueprint, if you will have improvements that will follow that look at the routes. So we'll move towards that that frequency that speed and that reliability what folks need and want. Hopefully during those planning efforts the other two areas that will allow us to really make leaps in ridership, obviously Watsonville. John and I talk a lot about Watsonville and the opportunities in Watsonville, and also with the university, both the university and Cabrillo college and other students like junior high and high school students. So if you kind of look at those areas John and I felt comfortable with that ridership goal. Again, it's 7 million within five years to get get us to 7 million, and you haven't been there in about 20 years so we're all excited about it and wanting to move forward with it. I mentioned that see away in the long range plan. We got great response from consultants on wanting to do that work we've graded their proposals and we're kind of in the final stages of getting a recommendation to you in December. Just a couple of other items. We're working on. Well actually I'll back up just a second. I'm hopeful that you had a chance to review your key performance indicators that were in your consent calendar. Everything's going in the right direction. I mean your your ridership on your fixed route is up 33% over the first quarter last year. And your ridership on paratransit you are done with the recovery and going beyond that and it's 30% up over the first quarter of last year and comparing first quarters. What's exciting and we're writing that enthusiasm and is quite frankly a lot of our challenges on routes is is managing pass buys that are generated from full buses. So, just a couple of other things we've got a major grant opportunity coming up it's called the transit inner city rail capital program. We're working really closely with Cal State which is over transportation at the state level on our grant application. It's really a dive into hydrogen buses hydrogen hydrogen fueling station. And we've also packaged into that grant thus far some housing elements to move housing forward as we talked about in our workshop. In all it'll be about a $35 million grant application and we're working really closely with the state on that so you have not received funding from the TIRSA program, I believe in seven cycles. And so you're due. And so we're making sure that everybody in Sacramento, including those who represent us in the Senate and the assembly know that this is an important mask that we have coming up in the near future. I think I have just one other thing really, and that is it you know we continue to be active in the community. Danielle certainly worked hard during, you know, October, as we got close to trick or treat time. The first two activities. The first one was with the county sheriff's department. We help them with their truck truck or treat event. We provide a shuttle service and help a few hundred people get between Capitola mall and the sheriff's headquarters where the event was held. And then the other one was with the county probation office and their trunk or treat event at the Watsonville fairgrounds. So, you know, we continue to have a lot of fun with the community and we're looking for ways, obviously to to even grow closer to the community in regard to being a great transit system and being their hometown system here in the county so with that all. I'll just see if there's any questions. Questions from our directors. Michael is there anything board members could be doing to help lobby our state elected officials on that grant that we're looking to receive. I mean, I might be how I'll leave it to you decide I mean maybe that's a process that doesn't need our input but if it does, maybe you could send us talking points and you know set us loose and I don't mind calling our state officials and and you know educating them about our needs here. Yeah, that's fantastic this this grants do in February and we're working with Cal State to kind of tidy up what will exactly be in the grant the details. It's aligning nicely with their goals so I like that offer director Rotkin and yeah I'll reach out to to board members to strategically, you know, make contributions there as far as advocacy there in Sacramento. Thanks. Yep. Any other work to as well. Yes. Any other questions or comments from the directors. Looking at the public as well if there's any comments from the attendees seeing none. That's very good Michael I appreciate the updates. Glad to hear that the next class has a dozen folks in it that will be welcome that we get them through everything. All right. I think that brings us to announcement of our next meeting which will be on Friday December 16 again via teleconference just as we're doing it today. And, unless there are any final comments we're about to adjourn. And with that, I think we're adjourned.