 I'm glad to talk about the things that are on our agenda that we're sure about. Well, we can do that, right? Registry. I just met the new executive director of Greengrass yesterday. Hi, Randy. Good morning, commissioners. I'm going to go ahead and open the Zoom to allow the participants to start coming in. So just a note. We're just here. No. It's better to go. Okay. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the November 3rd meeting of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. We will begin with roll call. Commissioner Bertrand. Commissioner Sandy Brown. Here. Commissioner Johnson. Commissioner, uh, Commissioner Alternate Hearst. Commissioner Caput. Yeah. Commissioner Alternate Schifrin. Here. Commissioner Alternate Quinn. Commissioner Koenig. Here. Commissioner McPherson. Here. Commissioner Kristen Brown. Commissioner Parker. Commissioner Watkin. Here. And, um, Miss Ochoa, uh, Monterey Ochoa from Keltrans. You have a quorum. Okay. We will now move on to, um, any, uh, additions or changes to the agenda? Okay. Hearing none. Have handouts for item 21 that have been posted to our website. Thank you. Okay. Uh, we will now take oral communications. Uh, we will have time for members of the public to address the commission on items that are not on today's agenda. And I will take speakers. I don't see anyone here in person. So we'll begin with our, uh, virtual audience and start with our Quinn. Oh, wait. I think it is to Robert. That's Robert. Yes. Okay. So he Robert, or did you have an oral communication or were you just going to say he's here? Heading it. Yeah. Okay. Got it. Thank you. Um, okay. Uh, our next speakers, uh, Michael Lewis and or, and Jean Brocklebank. Uh, yes. Go ahead. Thank you. Impact report for the postal rail trail. As you may be aware, this is a 966 page document. It is extremely complicated. It is confusing to read some of the languages contradictory. And, um, I'm having a hard time getting through it, but I'm working way day by day. My main concern with this document and with the project itself is this consists of a, uh, in this case, uh, 1.6 mile. They're cut through the urban forest, particularly NYO. And it talks about removal of trees, but this is not just removal of trees. This is the destruction of habitat along this corridor that consists of not only the trees, the understory, the grasses and herbs and, uh, forums, say, for all the ground, the destroyed and removed, uh, from this corridor in order to create this, uh, recreational sidewalk and bike trail. Uh, and not only, uh, is it the removal of habitat, but it's the removal of a critical wildlife corridor that connects the, uh, right variant areas of the streams that flow down from north to south. And this is not only the construction of this trail that will cause that, but the continued operation will be a constant interruption of this wildlife corridor. It's, uh, it's a very critical corridor for birds, uh, mammals, bats, and lots of other creatures who not only move through this area, but all who also live and groups here, uh, in this day and age, the city and the county are both very much concerned with climate change and the developed elaborate procedures, uh, to deal, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The removal of these trees removes a significant, uh, greenhouse gas sequestration opportunity. These trees have been there many of them for hundreds of years. The mature trees, they have sequestered enormous amount of carbon in the atmosphere, they have carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and they produce oxygen. Even worse for this project is there's no mitigation for the removal of this, uh, carbon sink that's so critical to our, our local, uh, contributions to greenhouse gases. Mr. Lewis, um, I'm sorry, your time is up. So, um, we'll start the clock over here, um, for, for Jean. Oh, okay. We'll turn this over now to people. Okay, thanks. Um, do I hit start or do you click start? I see the clock. We'll, we'll, you can see the clock now. Yeah, we'll, we'll hit start. Um, go for it. Thank you. The problem is damaging and destructive and cannot be called sustainable or green by anyone with a straight face. The city's own EIR admits this throughout the document. You know, our European counterparts came to this place 150 years ago, and we then also settled in displacing those living beings who were not us. We did this to people and we did it to wildlife. Both were destroyed. We're now working hard to make amends to those humans whose homes we took from them for our Western civilization. Well, and get this, we continue with plans to do the same thing to the living beings of what the DEI are identifies as a wildlife corridor, especially through live oak. As we build housing for homeless people in this county, we're planning to destroy housing for wildlife by cutting down close to 400 trees and all of the underlying vegetation and cover the living soil that contains tens of hundreds of species of microorganisms with a hot asphalt trail. We're preparing to create homeless wildlife. Myriad of species of birds, bats, insects, small mammals, probably some reptiles will become homeless, homeless wildlife. There will be no replacement homes for these species because even the EIR admits there is no feasible mitigation. This horrific scalping of everything green in this corridor is shocking. I wish people could see it. I wish everyone who's listening to this and everyone who is attending this meeting would walk through this. This action is going to define who we are, define our morals and our ethical obligations to other living beings. Didn't we learn anything when we destroyed Indigenous people? Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Brocklebank. Our next speaker is Barry Scott. Welcome. Good morning, commissioners and staff. I'd also like to speak to segments 8 and 9 and, you know, and presume and looking ahead too to segments 10, 11 and 12. I am delighted and I'm grateful to staff, city staff, RTC staff and the consultants for their work on 8 and 9, where we find out of 14 different categories of study that the proposed project trail next to rail line is found to be the environmentally superior solution as we kind of suspect it all along. I might remind everyone too that we have the 73% rejection in June of a Greenway idea and the railroad is an active rail line and we, our commission and our government and all of us have obligations to the state and to the voters to keep that rail line active and working. Now I'll just read a bit from that. It's page ES6, kind of the conclusion. I didn't find the EIR difficult to comprehend and I know where to find the information that's worth sharing. It says here, the overall impacts of the build alternatives are similar and there's no clear environmentally superior alternative therefore the city considered two measures to determine the environmentally superior alternative minimizing the significant and unavoidable impacts and number two, environmentally superior for most resource topics. As I said, 13 out of 14 using both measures the proposed project ultimate trail is considered environmentally superior for the following general reasons and I'll go down to alternative one trail only more impacts. That's the takeaway here. So I thank you for your time and that's it. Thank you, Mr. Scott. Our next speaker is I'm looking for hands here. Sorry about that. No worries. Just one moment. We'll get on to the next one. It looks like Michael St. You are up next. Thank you, chair Brown. Good morning commissioners and staff Michael St. with CFST and haptos resident. This morning I'd like to go back to October's meeting and give Brett Garrett two thumbs up for his rail cat presentation. I've known Brett for seven years and to his credit he has not wavered in his beliefs of PRT as the answer to a modern mass transit system in Santa Cruz County. The two things that excite me about the rail cat is it has the potential of actually carrying more people than a single rail train and is being discussed as is being discussed presently and it can feed passengers to the main rail trail corridor by itself by extending the rail cat to other parts of the county. Cabral UCSC Watsonville Dominican Republic or Dominican hospital etc. You can reduce the use of not only cars but metro buses. Imagine as our buses get older we retire them instead of replacing them a huge financial windfall. I would also like to thank commissioner Johnson for his excellent question. Last month about will roads be necessary if we have this more advanced technology like a PRT. The answer is yes and no. Roads will still be here but need to be repurposed for PRT service protected bike lanes and pedestrian traffic. I can imagine an envision in the future that 41st Avenue Ocean Street Mission Street becoming two possibly three lanes of cars with reduced speed limits of IE example 25 miles an hour with calming features the remaining lanes for a PRT system and protected bike lanes. A PRT going into the city of Santa Cruz Pacific Avenue and other streets could be closed to cars and used for pedestrians and more outside dining. This could also be a future possibility for commissioner Johnson's beloved Scots Valley PRT up to Felton extensions down Mount Herman Road and Scots Valley Boulevard also using calming traffic calming features. Thank you for your time. Thank you Mr. St. Our next speaker is Joanna Lighthill. Good morning commissioners. I too wanted to comment about the EIR. Michael and Jean said quite a bit and I was wanting to echo their sentiment. What I wanted to mention is that the summary does conclude that the proposed project is the way to go. However, they reach this conclusion because every alternative project but one ends up with the same trail. The options are whether to do it in phases or not fewer phases mean less environmental destruction. So what the study doesn't talk about though and it has concerned me for a long time is the proximity of the trail to an active rail line. The RTC of course is currently in contract with the rail operator and although no freight is currently moving through the section, segment nine is what I focused on mostly. It's my understanding that the rail operator owns a freight easement of 10 feet from the center and this trail is being proposed to be built within eight and a half feet of the center. So before making decisions about future trails and this trail, I hope the commission will discuss what long-term safety mitigations are necessary. Especially since today's agenda includes further study of rail. I just want to point out that in the earlier stages of planning the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail, it was envisioned. I saw a transportation cafe video that the RTC put out early in 2011 or 12. And it was there that staff mentioned that this trail was envisioned as a place where grandparents could walk with their grandkids, safe separation of users of different speeds and abilities. And I hope that we'll reflect on what the original intention of the trail is in comparison to what is a reality for today. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, our next speaker is Lonnie Faulkner. And if anyone else is interested in oral communications now is the time to raise your hand if you're not there. Otherwise, Lonnie, you'll be our last speaker for oral communications. Thank you, Chair Brown and commissioners. I recall in the September 4th, 2022 meeting that commissioners unanimously voted to solicit proposals for the initial phase of the PAED for electric passenger rail with a budget of approximately four million. Staff indicated they expected to return to the commission with a recommendation for a consultant contract award at this first commission meeting this November. The agenda is silent regarding the expected consultant contract and there now appears to be a reduced 2.5 million budget allowance for this rail work in the Measure D five-year program of projects. There are considerable efforts and monies allotted by the RTC towards widening of Highway 1 from State Park Drive to Freedom Boulevard, a project phase which was not approved by the voters of Santa Cruz County as a part of Measure D 2016. Despite Caltran's own reporting that Highway widening is met with induced demand, we continue to see this project prioritized. We are hoping to hear more about progress on the PAED phase of development of our passenger rail system, keeping in mind the overwhelming support by voters for passenger rail for our community this past June election in prior surveys and given the work the community has done over the past 20 years to bring rail to our county and enabling us to connect to the future State Rail Network. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ms. Faulkner. I'm wondering if our director could respond. I've also received questions and I know that commissions has received some emails about this. I'm just hoping you could give an update response. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm not planning on addressing this in my director's report, but I will do so now. The speaker is correct that at the last RTC meeting, I indicated that staff intended to bring a recommendation for a consultant for the rail and trail project for the commission to consider at today's meeting. Due to a very competitive procurement, staff decided to conduct a second round of interviews with the grant firm and has started negotiations. We now expect to be able to make a recommendation at the December RTC meeting. Thank you. I see Commissioner Racken has a comment as well. Yes, thank you. I have a brief response to our first two speakers. Of course, people can disagree about these things. And I don't claim any expertise about what the long-term impact of climate change on microbes in this county is. I think it's very difficult choices about what the long-term prospects are for the various projects we engage in. And the issue of having an alternative to people driving in their automobiles through this county that is presented by the train and trail complex that we're planning will certainly reduce climate change. Admissions of greenhouse gases that lead to climate change. I think that's a very positive impact on all the animals that the two speakers referenced as well as human beings on the planet. And so I don't want people to think that when they make comments, they just go into the ether and we don't hear them. I heard the comments. It's unfortunate that we're often presented with difficult choices. But for me, the choice of doing something that we're not going to be doing is very important. And I think that's a very positive thing. Thank you. Thank you. I see and we have another commissioner wishing to speak. Commissioner Johnson, you're up. We're going to be doing back and forth based on the comments from public comment time. You know, usually we take it. We digest it. But I don't recall having. A comment in this way, but if that's what. The chair wants to do, that's fine. Oh, I'll just respond to that and say that we generally don't. From time to time and my time on the commission, commissioners have felt moved to make a comment. And that happens. So I'm not encouraging it, but I am willing to. To let people speak if so moved. And we did get a response from director Preston. So I'll. But I appreciate your. Your concern. Commissioner Johnson will try to. Keep moving. So our next agenda item in that spirit. Is a presentation from Santa Cruz. Metro. And we have John Ergo planning and development director here with us via zoom. And he's going to. Provide us with. An update. Thank you. Commissioners and members of the public. I have a few slides. So I'm going to share my screen if that's okay. Great. That will work. So I wanted to take this opportunity to. Briefly share with you all. A set of strategic goals and vision. We'll be doing that. And that shows new CEO Michael tree. He apologizes for not being able to be here. By the way. And staff set forth before our board. About two weeks ago. And these are focused on. Ridership. Climate change. And housing. So in terms of ridership. We're aiming to double. Our ridership within the next five years. Zero mission vehicles. We've said. 2037 and in terms of affordable housing we're aiming to develop 175 housing units at metro transit centers within the next decade so I'm going to touch briefly on all of these. The first goal doubling ridership in the next five years I wanted to start with a little bit of context and how we came to set this goal. You know as we were right before the pandemic hit in the winter of 2020 ridership had actually increased over the previous year that's the blue line there and this is comparing as a percentage of the last pre-COVID year 2018 and 2019. As a pandemic hit obviously the shelter-in-place orders came into effect ridership decreased 92% to a low of 8% in April 2020 and we cut service about 50% in order to protect our operators from the spreading pandemic. As the shelter-in-place orders you know began to get lifted to some extent we pretty much immediately began to restore ridership sorry began to restore service the red line there to about 80% of pre-COVID levels early on in the pandemic ridership took much longer to return and for a lot of the year the last two years it often felt like we were providing too much service for the relative compared to the amount of ridership we were seeing on our buses but that was intentional and and the intent of that was to make sure the service was there when people were ready to return for example of in 20 September 2021 we saw a huge spike as students began to return to UCSC in limited fashion schools reopened in person and greater segments of the economy reopened which we were able to handle because the ridership was there and that was all made possible by the fact that we were able to maintain our operational budget through Measure D which funds nine fixed route operators TDA and STA funds state transportation development act and transit assistance funds and successive rounds and federal stimulus that enabled us to maintain our workforce to maintain our bus operators employed and to be ready for ridership to return during the the winter of january uh 22 we saw the omicron spike ridership dipped down pretty dramatically again but the last uh couple of months coming through the summer into today have been really positive uh so total ridership currently as of september 2022 is 91 of pre-covid levels UCSC ridership is 104 of pre-covid levels it's actually more in this september than it was in 2018 non-student ridership was 87 of pre-covid levels and highway 17 is 57 of pre-covid levels we're probably seeing a spike associated with the return of UCSC students in greater numbers than they did last year and the three month average is about 71 percent of pre-covid levels but it's all good news that I wanted to share with you all today taking a step back and looking a little farther back in history meeting our the ridership goal that we set would bring our metro ridership back to levels last seen in the early 2000s so it's but we think that's a reasonable goal to achieve given where we are today and the recent growth we've seen in ridership as we've come out of the pandemic as we went back and looked through the history and this is common across transit agencies ridership tends to track very closely with the service provided for revenue hours there's often a misconception that ridership is heavily impacted by you know recessions unemployment rates changes in the economy and that is all true to the to an extent but the greatest driver of ridership is simply the amount of service that a transit agency can provide that is impacted by external economic factors but were there a way to maintain a stable source of operational funding ridership would stay more or less stable and achieving the goal that we've said will likely require an increase of service to levels to previous service levels as well so if we're going to invest in new service how should we do it for those of you that were at our board retreat two weeks ago this is stolen from jared walker who presented there but we have two options we can set a ridership goal which involves us thinking like a business focusing where ridership potential is highest supporting dense and walkable development maximum competition with cars and maximum vnt reduction or we can set a coverage goal which is which would involve thinking more like the public service providing access for all supporting low density development and trying to ensure that every member has some access to a little bit of service at least we think we're currently right in the middle 50 percent ridership 50 coverage most of our routes throughout the district operate at headways of 30 minutes or less this is actually pre-covid service the red line on the west side serving ucsc is not currently running but it was our only service that operated at 15 minute or better headways prior to the pandemic and the rest of our service the vast majority is hourly or worse so we we asked the public recently we had a phone survey during the first two weeks of october we had a thousand respondents adult ages 18 plus residents of santa cruz and we wanted to ask this specific question about how should we invest um future and future service and there was we asked many questions i'd be happy to share all the information i just want to highlight two responses so the overwhelming or not the overwhelming but nearly half of non riders so people not currently on our buses reported they would be likely to ride metro regularly if buses came more often so they they want frequency if there was a bus running at least every 15 minutes near their near their place of residence or workplace we asked everybody a set of questions on how we should potentially invest new resources and again the response was overwhelmingly towards frequent service over broad availability nearly 70 percent so they'd prefer providing fast and frequent service that comes every 15 minutes versus providing service to as many places as possible even if that means the bus only comes every hour or two and that was across all respondents and even those that are current riders or ride a few times a year so that has set the stage for our next phase of this work which will be a bus network reimagining plan our proposals are actually due today uh on this project and over the next one to two years we're going to be developing a five-year plan uh setting out this vision for doubling ridership over the next five years it will be phased uh and involve three scenarios one is cost-neutral so are we making the best use of our current resources in our in our network and then we'll look at two gross scenarios should additional resources become available um we we have had some additional resources become available in the recent past so we added service to Watsonville through a grant from the low carbon low carbon transportation operations program we're currently offering a fair free service on zero emission buses connecting key destinations and we'll continue to look for funding opportunities to do this guided by the work in the reimagining plan going forward um other projects were focused on towards ridership uh involved investing in speed and reliability we also earned this throughout our survey another project that just kicked off and we'll be going for the next uh one to two years as well is the line 71 rapid bus project which aims to identify locations for transit priority elements such as q jobs bus boarding islands to improve travel times and reliability between Watsonville and Santa Cruz along the main and so Cal and capital the corridors and this is funded by a CalTrans sustainable transportation grant uh and we're also looking to improve the customer experience so we've got a computer aided dispatch automatic vehicle locator program about to go live and not only will this will provide useful internal resources for scheduling and on-time performance but it'll also provide a public facing way for customers to access real-time information throughout our system and this should be launching in February and next year and finally on the the ridership front we're constantly working to expand access to fair products so we've got our program with go Santa Cruz which provides free transit passions to downtown Santa Cruz employees there are plans to expand this through the go Santa Cruz county program and we've also had a mobile ticketing uh app that launched in 2021 with a contactless credit card payment option uh for highway 17 buses coming very soon again focused on making it easy for people to access fair products wherever they are um quickly on the last two bills so we've spent a lot of time figuring out how we can meet the california resources board uh innovative clean transportation rule which requires us to convert or to purchase only zero emissions uh zero emission buses by 2040 um and the first phase of this was the procurement of four electric buses to which we're running uh in on the Watsonville circulator the next phase will be to convert 100 of our fleet serving Watsonville to zero emission buses by 2027 and the third phase will be the full conversion of our 96 bus fleet by 2037 we modeled three scenarios to get to this goal the first was um just purchasing cng buses going forward and most of our fleet is cng until the car regulations uh kick in uh the second we modeled was a gradual increase so kind of a you know what we're doing now purchasing a few zero emission buses and the third would be only purchasing zero emission buses going forward and i'll be honest the initially number one or two was where we were headed and that was simply because the cost of a cng bus was half that of a electric or hydrogen bus but due to recent supply chain issues uh and the code pandemic the cost of a cng bus has increased uh 25 and the cost of hydrogen and electric buses have decreased due to various federal and state incentives and so it made it financially possible to pursue bill number three it will still cost 130 to 140 million dollars uh and that is just the bus cost the bus replacement cost that does not include the infrastructure of fueling and the majority of that will be funded by measure d there's a lot of sources on that high chart and i apologize for that the point of it was just to highlight measures measure d is the critical uh backbone for our bus replacement plan and it not only is the largest source of revenue for uh for the bus replacement plan but it also enables us to leverage uh as a local match for various federal and state programs and then finally uh the goal to develop 175,000 units of metro channel centers by any by any measure Santa Cruz is one of the if not the most expensive housing market in the country and so we are determined to do what we can uh to help alleviate that burden on our customers and our employees uh frankly so one i'm sure everyone is familiar with redeveloping pacific station the joint project between the city of Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz metro this will be over 100 units of extremely low income and low income housing a new bus station and tarmac lead platinum all electric net zero building but we're also looking at our other properties throughout the county so one is the so-called park and ride and the other is the Watsonville transit center and i'd say we're currently in very conceptual planning stages on on both of these ideas but we think we can potentially fit another 75 units between the two of these um so that's it i'd be happy to take any questions if there are any and thank you for the time thank you mr ergo that was a wonderful presentation uh very um very inspiring to see all the work that's happening i'll take questions comments from commissioners i'm going to go uh commissioner Hearst has his hand up i'm going to call on you and then i'll catch the next uh commissioner Koenig okay commissioner Hearst you're up thank you very much chair mr ergo thank you very much and it's refreshing and satisfying not to see the Watsonville forgotten in this uh mix of metro and transit you know it's um an underserved community that really needs these services and i want to say thank you for thinking of us and making sure their equitable resources are provided uh to this direction so that's that's my comment thank you commissioner Koenig you're up thank you chair thank you for the presentation director Ergo my question is is both for you as well as for our rtc staff here um you know it's exciting to be moving forward with the uh bus on shoulder and auxiliary lane project um however as we've heard numerous times from members of the public um there's you know some concerns that the combined auxiliary lane and bus on shoulder product will mean it's it's not a true bus on shoulder that the bus will still have to share that lane with private vehicles and could experience some slowdown as a result and don't get me wrong it'll i think it'll be better than the status quo and i'm excited about the project as it is but um my question is i mean we're still we're adding shoulders with the highway project is there an opportunity for a phase two bus on shoulder more of a you know the true bus on shoulder or traditional bus on shoulder where the bus can actually use that shoulder in a in its own lane and are your two staff discussing that opportunity at all thank you mr bonig if i could i i would deferred rtc stop rtc stop on that question yeah and mr ergo uh sarah christensen is here so we'll go ahead and turn it over to you thank you chair brown i'm sarah christensen of your staff um i managed the bus on shoulder projects and um we see our current project as a step in the right direction it will be um very beneficial and transformative for this community however we do recognize that there will be future opportunities to enhance the facility an example of that could be um as we improve interchanges over time we can add ramp metering and sync with the bus system to kind of hold traffic so that the bus can have the priority uh so we definitely have been talking with metro and collaborating on future enhancements into the future because um i think there will be opportunities to do so if i can elaborate a little bit further um approval to operate on the system is subject to an operations agreement with caltrans and chp chp has significant concerns about running buses on shoulders shoulders are um in their minds um a safety zone a clear zone for a disabled vehicle to um um park in while they wait for assistance for emergency vehicles to go through um it was very difficult to get them to come to an agreement with us on um something that we could implement today and that was the hybrid approach now somewhere down the line if um we find that their concerns um regarding the sections where the buses actually will be um running in the shoulder are overstated or can be mitigated um we could certainly work with them to to see where or we can make improvements in the system so that the buses can operate better but you do need to remember that if the buses are operating in a true shoulder there are two you know there are twice the amount of conflict potential conflict points um at the ramp locations and that is an area that we need to to consider and so um i appreciate sarah's comments about the other improvements that we may be able to make on the highway because of a lot of the concerns about the buses getting stuck in the auxiliary lanes are associated with the configurations of those intersections um we have very short hook ramps at soquel drive we have two very closely spaced intersections between 41st and bay porter those are additional projects that should be considered for the highway um to ensure that operations work for everybody great thank you i'll just add one last comment which is having uh been recently in in denver it's pretty amazing how they have their bus rapid transit system well integrated into the highway um with the stops right there and so um it's clear that a good bus system can work fantastically well on the highway um and hopefully we'll continue to make progress with that first with this first project and then with others in the future thanks okay uh commissioner quinn oh thank you thank you mr ergo that was uh very informative i'm just curious when you mentioned that if the buses were more frequent obviously more people would take the bus when you're designing that how do you what's it's also going to drive up the cost what's the tipping point for ridership when you increase bus frequency what percentage capacity do you want to see the buses running that so we we typically want to see about 20 we measure productivity and passengers for revenue hour and a typical standard is around 20 to 25 passengers per revenue hour uh for a productive service we were at that at about uh half of our routes pre-covid we're currently only meeting that in our ucc routes and since the covid pandemic we're still trying to meet that measure on our our major inner city routes what the bus reimagining plan is going to do is develop two scenarios on this ridership versus coverage dial where we'll be able to model um what the level of investment in frequency is getting us and we'll be able to talk to the community about priorities essentially do prioritize the level of coverage so that everyone has some access or if we're really focused on ridership can we dial in that direction which will mean less coverage in some areas but more frequent service on the key corridors and destinations where most people are traveling through the county um and that's a discussion that we'll have with the public and also be able to model through uh that scenario development the first phase will just be a cost neutral so our existing resources if we change the dial what does a frequent network look like versus a coverage network and what kind of productivity would we expect to see with that the next two phases will assume a future level of investment we don't know what that is but assuming that we are able to find additional operating funds what would have uh more frequent service look like that and likely that will mean a frequent service overlay so we're doing this line 71 project and that is envisioning a future service that's a rapid limited stop service that operates every 15 minutes between SoCal and Watsonville along the SoCal corridor so that's that's that's what we're headed in the next year or two with this planning study appreciate it okay do we have any additional comments or questions from the commission I do not see any so we'll take it out to the public and uh or we have a couple of hands raised now's the time to raise your hand if you would like to speak um I see Michael St is um our first caller you're up Mr. St. Thanks Chair Brown uh very nice presentation Mr. Urgo thank you so much real quickly I know this is a five-year goal but in the future do you have you thought about serving the rail corridor with mass transit do you see an increase in service um and with that question if we were to put in some type of public uh rapid transit or person a public one that could extend out by itself would you see a decrease in bus service since it was feeding itself and we're looking at the future now not just the five-year program sure um yeah we haven't developed those plans but we would certainly be gearing service towards the rail corridor and major transit nodes of development should that or when and if that service is started um because that we want to be able to feed people into it okay thank you okay um thank you I will call it our next speaker that is Brian from Trail Now Hi it's Brian Peoples from Trail Now great presentation Alex um great work it's exciting to see the that you're back up from COVID numbers you know probably about seven years ago I met with former CEO of Metro Alex Clifford and another colleague of mine and and he talked about the same thing the service uh the key is providing the service to the public that they want and that service is really frequency as you said frequency of that that bus line and what he said was it's a funding issue we don't have the money and we're we're pulled away from that being able to do that and he also said the unique thing about the bus is it's the rubber wheels and so they have that flexibility to adjust to the public demand and Alex was actually prior to Santa Cruz was the head of Chicago rail and transit and what really was interesting what what Alex said when we talked about the idea of a passenger rail Alex specifically said it would be the worst thing for our community and the reason was because it pulls away valuable capital and resources and it makes no sense that's what Alex said and a good example of this we're seeing it today with segment seven B or two which is costing more the the trail is costing more to build this narrow expensive trail than it is to widen the highway and so when you have not effective planning and infrastructure planning you end up spending more money on those those resources and it takes away from our buses and that's really the message that we're trying to to send here is let's have some smart investments so that we can increase bus transit that's truly what our community is thank you again for your choice hey our next speaker is Nancy Yellen I I'm sorry I don't know how that happened I did not put my hand up thank you okay um we'll move right along then to David loves public transport good morning can you hear me okay yes I'm David Van Brink and I live on the west side and I've commented before how the relatively new route 18 you know I kind of just changed everything for us on the west side it's this like 30 minute service that goes well for myself anyway exactly where I need to go you know up the hill from safely like if I bicycle down sometimes I'll take the bus back up and a great connection to the highway 17 express so I'm just commenting to offer general kudos and enthusiasm and support for the aspirational increase of metro service and the growing the ridership just up thanks more of this please okay our next speaker is Rick Longinati welcome good morning commissioners um yeah I was really encouraged to hear about Metro's plan to double ridership and as I understand it that's going to need some money so my message would be let's give Metro more money we you know if we increase the service hours and the frequency and where people ride it isn't that the direction we want to go and it isn't that the way to address not only our climate issues but our social equity issues you know people can if households can get by with one less car per household because riding the metro becomes viable becomes practical that's that's just a huge savings for people who who really need it I was also encouraged to to hear the discussion that what we have in terms of bus on shoulder on highway one is not really bus on shoulder and I I'm glad that that's now the currency of discussion on them on the RTC and I just want to clarify that you know the the the proposal to run buses in the auxiliary lanes where they'd be mixed with other traffic was baked into the the plan from the very beginning the EIR the engineering studies never studied a bonafide bus on shoulder operation so the thought of just adding sort of incremental improvements to these auxiliary lanes really misses the point and if we want a bus on shoulder project we can have it we can dedicate those lanes to buses but it would be it would require the the RTC to to make a slight change of direction thank you thank you okay I do not see any additional hands up so with that I will thank you Mr. Ergo for being here to share with us and just really appreciate all of the work you're doing the forward thinking and I'll use the opportunity to once again thank the voters for passing measure D which I we just heard was making a real contribution to the transition to a clean fleet so thanks again and we will now move on to our consent agenda so our consent agenda is I know that this is items five through 19 today no five through 16 excuse me and these are items that are considered to be minor they'll be acted upon in one motion if no member of the RTC or member of the public wishes to pull an item uh members of commission can ask questions uh or uh raise comments without removing an item I'll ask no if any commissioners would like to remove an item from our consent agenda or ask a question okay uh seeing none I will uh take motion yes the public of a oh excuse me um so actually sorry about that I usually ask the public after um we uh Mr. Caput commissioner caput I see your hand is up I I was going to move okay we'll just we'll hold for one second and see if we have any members of the public who are interested in commenting on any of the items on our consent agenda this is items five through 16 I do see a couple of hands up Lonnie Faulkner you're up hi thank you uh dear commissioners I urge you to consider alternatives to the current proposal of item nine um I that would ensure more equitable representation across underrepresented groups throughout the county including a call for an urging of submissions and full review of applications for all advisory board positions as well as removals be reviewed by all commissioners resulting in these appointments um we should be concerned when the power of appointments and removal of community volunteers for these advisory committees is controlled by one individual um while recommended appointments and removals can be made by respective commissioners for each district we hope that all commissioners will um have some weight in review and the decision making um I urge the RTC again to ensure more equitable representations from the greater public and avoid locking in power into one of the individual commissioner and also didn't have a chance to look at this more thoroughly but perhaps more streamline the term limits so that all terms are similar instead of this confusing three-year term and four-year term thank you very much okay uh next up Paula Bradley is Bradley you are able to speak I'm sorry I'm Paula Bradley and I also have questions about item number nine the bylaws for commission members and um with the uh on page 30 of the packet the committee members appointed by the county supervisors would have a four-year term um I was wondering does that mean that uh with each election then the volunteer members of the committee would be dismissed or could be dismissed um and start a new term my second question is about the process uh where appointments by supervisors uh would be different than other members and other members would require uh application process and board a supervisor or supervisor appointments would not I was wondering what the intention of having a different process uh for different for members on the committee um I don't know why that would be uh changed thank you thank you okay I see one more hand up so call on you now Barry Scott and you okay thank you um I'm speaking to to agree with the Lonnie Faulkner as regards uh appointments to uh various various uh committees and uh and including um alternates uh where I uh was surprised whenever it happened last year I think when our our I'm in Aptos so I'm in district two and we used to enjoy meetings with Patrick Mulherin until he left the state and I was surprised to see that uh supervisor friend appointed Dr. Quinn in I believe a consent agenda matter with the board of supervisors meeting and I was kind of surprised and I would have liked for a number of people to have been considered we're kind of underrepresented here um and I'd also like to hear back respectfully Dr. Quinn to my request to to meet with you from time to time I enjoyed meeting with Patrick frequently on matters relating to transportation but also things like Aptos Village Park projects and other things that I work on so uh that's my comment and I hope that we can have a little bit more community involvement when it comes to naming uh committee members thank you thank you Mr. Scott so I just because um several members of the public brought it up and we did also receive some communications just hoping that perhaps somebody uh from the budget and administration personnel committee or staff could just um explain what this proposal is and and how it how it why it's coming to us today thank you commissioner shifrin this proposal is it on now okay sorry um this proposal is simply a follow-up of the actions that the commission took um several months ago to um essentially decide that supervisors should be able to appoint representatives from their district previously the there were five district appointments but they were kind of at large appointments and the commission decided not unanimously but decided to allow supervisors to make their own appointments this um what's before the commission now is it changed your rules and regulations that puts that change into the regulations what was changed also from the staff recommendation since at the board of supervisors there are many uh boards and commissions that have supervisorial appointments what the board has learned is it's much more efficient to tie those appointments to the terms of the supervisors and make them uh four-year terms so that while a supervisor can remove anyone just like the commission can remove anyone from uh the the two committees where we have appointments at any time if the appointment is made that person's appointed for four years and it comes four months after the supervisor assuming it's not somebody who's re-elected is elected and that gives that person time to decide do they want to keep the person who's there do they not want to keep the person who's there and they have the ability to then make the change although they could make it at any time if they so wished so um the committee recommended that change to um sort of bring the appointments of the district the supervisorial district appointments in line with what the how the county does it the concern that somehow um as soon as the new supervisors elected the appointees from that district would be removed is not correct they would continue to serve until the supervisor either removed them or appointed some appointed somebody else um so i think to try to end this as briefly as possible what what's being done is memorializing what the commission decided to do several months ago and rationalizing it so that it would allow for longer terms for appointees and a more efficient process for re-appointing them or appointing them so thank you i move the consent agenda okay um well okay well i've got a uh motion uh sorry we got we you got bumped uh commissioner cap it um on the on the motion but i'll give you the second i'll give you the second uh commissioner cap it um sorry my second um and so we'll um we'll have a motion and a second we'll call it for commissioner cap it um and uh oh we'll take a roll call vote commissioner Bertrand i agree commissioner sandy brown i commissioner johnson i commission alternate Hearst hi commissioner cap it hi commission alternate shifrin hi commission alternate Quinn yes commissioner conic hi commissioner mcpherson hi commissioner christen brown hi commissioner rodkin hi that passes unanimously hi thank you um so we will now move on to our regular agenda and uh we'll start with item 17 commissioner reports chair brown chair brown if i might um we do have a couple timed items on today's agenda including a public hearing um let's do that so um if okay with you i suggest possibly moving item 17 through 20 yes to after item 22 will do thank you i i've lost track of time here we're having so much fun uh so we'll go ahead and do that and um so we'll move item 17 through 20 uh down and we'll um now take up item 21 this is a public hearing on measure d five-year programs projects um and rachel morricone our senior transportation planner is going to give us a presentation take it away good morning commissioners before you today is our annual updates to our measure d five-year plans um and we will have a public hearing and this shows us how we anticipate spending measure d funds over the next five years so for those who aren't familiar with the majority that we're talking about today um voters in santa cruz county approved a half cent sales tax in november of 2016 um this is a 30-year um transaction and use tax that um revenues started to be collected in april of 2017 um and through the next five years revenues are anticipated to be between seven 27 and 29 million dollars per year um and we're we use these funds to identify local priorities they're funds that cannot be taken away by the state and so it really gives us a lot more local control over how we're spending money and um implementing the will of the voters the measure d um ballot measure included a voter approved um expenditure plan and uh that distributed the funds is it not sherry odd that i saw it for a second it was a moment ago yeah there it is you're not so if i go like that you're still not seeing it fine okay just a sec let me try to figure out why that's not going to presentation mode well we'll do that at least it's not quite as pretty um but at least that way you guys can see it so the measure d that was approved by the voters um split up the measure d revenues um with 17 percent of the revenues going to active transportation or rail group projects 30 percent of the funds going out to local jurisdictions the cities in the county by formula um with a small portion of that funding going to highway nine and highway 17 projects um highway corridors uh receive 25 percent of the funds and uh transit agencies including lifeline and santa cruz metro receive 20 percent of the funds and eight percent of the funds are designated for the rail corridor um so oh shoot so now it's showing all my slides instead of just my screen words now i don't want that venue um so the five-year program of projects that are before you today are how we propose to use the funds over the next five years so while the voters said generally here's the pots of funds that we want to send these funds to the purpose of these five-year plans are to give the public an opportunity to provide feedback on how the commission anticipates spending the funds we take these to our committees we have a public hearing to provide an opportunity for the public to provide input and it also identifies um for the regional transportation commission specifically how you will spend the funds that are designated for those regional categories um all right guys i thought i could share just my presentation um so for the 2022 updates that are before you today we're re-spreading some of the funds and adding funds based on updated project schedules costs prior expenditures and grant funding opportunities the commission also made some pretty significant updates in may of 2022 and those are reflected in these proposed five-year plan updates um the only really significant updates this cycle are um a proposal to add 2.4 million dollars from the highway nine slb category funding for complete streets in san ronzo valley um adding funds for electric rail transit engineering and environmental analysis um and 34 million additional funds for one of the highway one projects again we're focused on leveraging other grants looking at opportunities to utilize these funds to secure significantly more funding um from state and federal agencies a summary of the proposed updates are included as attachment to in the staff report and um all of our previously programmed and approved projects are identified on our website and the commission's action today will also be reflected on our measure d web page all right it's okay um so for the highway nine corridor in san ronzo valley the measure de ordinance designates exactly 10 million dollars over 30 years for projects in san ronzo valley um the commission has utilized these funds in the past for the highway nine slb corridor plan um access to schools in the felton area both studies and um safety improvements and then the new 2.4 million dollars for um the measure d complete streets elements um currently we're looking at putting those funds as a grant match for projects in the boulder creek area um and this is just an overview map that was also included in the packet that shows you all of the highway nine projects that are currently funded um for the boulder creek complete streets project um staff did make a presentation in september providing an overview of some of the initial um project elements that are being considered for that project um basically we're looking at addressing the fact that there's some long pedestrian crossings through boulder creek there's missing sidewalks there's um non-ada compliant sidewalks that are very narrow in some sections of boulder creek and there's some aging transit amenities so the project's really focused on making all of boulder creek both on highway nine and 236 more pedestrian friendly for the highway category um this includes still the three main auxiliary and bus on shoulder facility projects um that have been pursued by the commission that also includes several bicycle and pedestrian crossings and um new railroad crossings and aptos it also includes funding for our traveler information programs and services including the freeway service patrol roving tow trucks the safe on 17 additional highway patrol on highway 17 to get drivers to slow down and assist them um and then for the cruise 511 or go santa cruise county program and with that i'll hand it over to sarah christensen to talk a little bit more about the um highway projects thank you rachel i'm sarah christensen of yourself um you could go next slide please um so i was going to talk a little bit about the highway one program um these are three projects under development the first phase being um starting construction very soon the contract was awarded um so construction should be uh underway late this year early next year um the second project which is between bay porter and state park drive is um very close to finishing uh final design and is scheduled to start construction next year that's um includes the replacement of capitol avenue over crossing and the new bicycle pedestrian over crossing at marvis drive but today's actions really about uh the phase three project which is between uh freedom boulevard and state park drive this project includes segment 12 of the coastal rail trail the project is finishing up the um environmental phase in early 2023 and is um this commission authorized uh beginning the final design phase a few months ago next slide so the rtc next slide please has uh successfully used measure d to leverage for competitive grants as demonstrated by the senate bill one cycle two award of 107.2 million in 2020 staff is preparing applications for the next cycle of the same program which i will talk about in uh subsequent subsequent slides next slide please the additional funds recommended for today are for the phase three project which is the highway one and coastal rail trail segment 12 project it will serve as local match for competitive grants and we're pursuing the solutions to congested quarters local partnership program and trade quarter enhancement programs under the senate bill one grant opportunities as you know back in may we talked about financing quite a bit and this action may require financing if successful in uh getting the award and dependent on the project uh schedule the project cost estimate was updated recently based on recent bid prices uh this was mainly the 41st soquel project we opened bids and we got um really geographically um accurate bid prices as well as you know having it be so close to um being so close to excuse me sorry being so close to the um grant application um a deadline we thought it was prudent to update the project cost estimate at this time sufficient capacity exists to repay loans if the if debt financing is used so we did check the cash flow model and um based on the revenue projections we do have capacity um as you're aware uh we have the Watsonville the Santa Cruz multimodal corridor program this program of projects was um a result of the UCS back in 2019 it proposes multimodal and innovative transportation improvements along the three parallel routes as shown here it serves as our comprehensive multimodal quarter plan which makes us eligible for the competitive grant funding um this was a result of a robust and collaborative planning effort back in 2019 the program of projects improves safety for all modes relieves congestion improves access reduces vehicle miles traveled in greenhouse gas emissions next slide so the cycle three project we've been collaborating with our partners which include Caltrans uh the county of Santa Cruz and Metro more details about the cycle three project can be found as attachment four to the staff report the improvements include rapid transit improvements along 152 and main street in Watsonville to serve metro cross county routes improvements to the Watsonville transit station in lane platforms shelters real-time displays as contract three and green in the map and on the um on the fact sheet attached and the county so-called drive multimodal project will extend the buffered and protected bike lanes um all the way to freedom boulevard it will include transit signal priority adaptive signal improvements and additional two and a half miles south as contract two shown in yellow and then finally the contract one is in blue and that shows the highway one auxiliary lane and bison shoulder improvements as well as coastal rail trail segment 12 and I just want to clarify the scope of this project does include replacement of the railroad bridges although it's not explicitly called out in the fact sheet the purpose of the fact sheet is to be included in our grant application in the grant program because the project itself is not a rail project it's not implementing any new service on the rail line we can't really leverage the benefits of any sort of rail and so that's why we don't really highlight it per se but it definitely is part of the project because the um the widening of the highway requires the replacement of those bridges thank you for that clarification sure yes okay next slide I think this is my second to the last slide excuse me the cycle three project was developed through extensive community engagement which includes a recent update to our comprehensive multi more multimodal corridor plan which is underway now the team has made improvements and updates to the ucs to include this additional engagement and is planning to return to the commission to recommend adoption of an appendix to the ucs at a future meeting this engagement led to the addition of transit stop infrastructure along soquel drive and 152 that metro staff touched on earlier as the line 71 rapid bus project and this is in alignment with metro's vision to increase frequency along this route next slide please and then just some highlights for the cycle three project because this is a transformative and multimodal project um it includes comprehensive set of multimodal improvements along the three routes it's a joint application it shows a lot of collaboration between rtc cal trans metro and county we're pursuing the three all three senate bill one programs um which is congestive quarters local partnership and trade quarter enhancement programs the project reduces countywide vmt greenhouse gas emissions travel times and vehicle hours of delay it improves safety and mobility for all users and it enhances equity through adding and improving low-cost low-cost transportation alternatives and reducing congestion for disadvantaged communities who disproportionately suffer from impacts of congestion and i'm going to hand it back over to rachel and i'll be available for questions related to the highway program all right in addition to those the measure d five-year plans includes new funding within the active transportation or coastal rail trail category it continues to carry forward the committed funds for nearly 17 miles of trail this includes funds that are being utilized to leverage grants through the through federal and state agencies but in addition to that the updates to the five-year plan include 350 000 dollars designated for the new electric rail transit and trail project which will look at some of the engineering and design work for segments 13 through 20 of the trail system it also includes updates to trail maintenance costs based on the discussion at your last board meeting and it also includes some additional funds for segment five which are needed for the final design and right away services um we i also just wanted to mention that the commission continually meets with project sponsors and regulatory agencies to discuss implementation of all of these projects within the rail corridor funds in addition to the small portion of measure d trail funds that we're recommending for the electric rail transit and trail project this program includes 2.5 million dollars to initiate work over the next two years on that analysis it also includes about six million dollars over the next five years for ongoing infrastructure preservation this includes ongoing inspections and repairs slope stabilization culvert repairs um the matching funds that are being utilized um for the Pajaro river bridge grant that we received from the california transportation commission man risa bluff erosion projects along with some other additional ongoing maintenance um notably we are not recommending funding all of the measure d rail funds at this time that is in part because we are still awaiting response from the federal emergency management agency FEMA on storm damage repairs and so we need to reserve some funds until we know exactly how much they're going to reimburse us for some 2017 storm damage we're also working through some final design options around the man risa bluffs and are also in negotiations with the consultant for the electric rail transit project as previously mentioned by our director and so we do anticipate coming forward to the commission with some updates in the future but for today we're just trying to get some seed money to initiate some of that work over the next two years and we'll be coming back with more for the highway 17 wildlife crossing there's only one very minor change which is that based on the project schedule we are actually anticipating a slightly smaller loan interprogram loan from the highway corridors for this project we are just now starting to utilize measure d funds for the construction of this project which is nearing completion the land trust of santa cruz county was outstanding and has provided three million dollars for the project which covered the first three million dollars of construction costs there and we're also reducing um anticipated staff costs on um oversight of that project i bet so sarah already touched on a little bit on um the fact that we are using these funds to expite project delivery and leverage funds um so far we've leveraged over 300 million dollars in grants we're expecting to do so um in the near future in addition to asking the ctc for almost another hundred million for the highway one project um and some potential infra rural federal grants so um measure d funds are a big deal i mean it's fantastic that we're able to go out to the community and to state and federal agencies and say hey look we're ponying up our own money we're a self-help county let's see what else we can get um but in delivering projects to the community as quickly as possible um our revenues are not are insufficient to do this as a pay as you go um process so we do estimate that we might need to bond up to 125 million dollars five to seven years um to implement all of these projects if all of the state and federal grants are secure um but we've determined that that is possible um and can be paid back through 2047 um by measure d funds get that one yeah just go down two slides so today the commission is reviewing these five proposed updates to the five-year plans we recommend that you consider public input um some of those comments that we had received through committees and the community are included in attachment five of the packet and some additional comments are were distributed um yesterday as handouts um your committees did review these plans they did not have concerns with the staff recommendations um and then uh yeah so with that um we'll go into one more slide and we'll later today's agenda amend the budget to match whatever your decision is today so after commission approves this we continue to move forward with caltrans the cities the county um and our you know consultant teams and staff to implement these projects and bring them to construction um we're going to continue looking at every single grant opportunity and seeing how we can leverage even more funding from state and federal agencies and then each year um for those who might not recall we do have annual reports and audits those come from everyone who receives measure d funds and the commission's taxpayer oversight committee which serves independently of this committee looks at all of the financials and the audits um that are prepared on how funds were spent and then we also have a strategic implementation plan um that looks at how in the long term are we going to deliver the entire expenditure plan and um we are just now starting to update that strategic implementation plan we try to update it at least every five years um and we're continuing to look at opportunities to accelerate delivery make sure that we're maintaining all of our um trail and rail facilities um and just continuing to look at what what financing might be needed and other things and then we throughout the year do ongoing outreach and I encourage folks to check out the measure d web page um it has a lot of links to all of the five-year plans that are prepared by other agencies as well as um information specific information on the projects that were discussed today and with that um I would recommend opening the public hearing it seems like most people already know these rules but uh you can raise your hand and use the raise hand function and we'll unmute you thank you Ms. Morconi and Ms. Christensen and we will I'll now open the public hearing uh and uh let's see I want to actually before we open the public hearing I see a commissioner um give a question there commissioner johnson yeah um and this is a minor that's due to the mountain herman road and I don't know if it's appropriate to kind of throw in the needs and concerns of scott's valley and sailor runs the valley into this mix but as some people know we've added a new target in scott's valley and as many many drivers mostly who come from sandler runs the valley to make a left hand turn from the valley into the target the um left hand turn lane is not long enough to support the six eight cars that sometimes need to be uh have room to turn left and so it extends into the traffic and it's a traffic hazard so you know I think removing part of the island that is there right now and extending that left hand turn lane is something that concerns us and concerns the driver so again I don't want to intrude on this five-year plan or whatever I'm just it's appropriate to kind of include that uh if or there are going to be other means for us to kind of solve that problem I can reply if you like go for it thanks so commissioner johnson this the five-year plans that the rtc overseas would not be funding sources that are eligible to be utilized in scott's valley however um scott's valley does receive a portion of measure d funds directly and that would be an eligible expenditure of those funds um there's other grant opportunities also competitive grant opportunities um in the future that could be looked at for that type of project okay so we've got uh some commissioners who are interested in weighing in I we do we this is a public hearing so I do want to make sure we take it out to the public pretty quickly here um if folks have questions now um then let's go ahead and do those and then we'll come back for comments um so commissioner McPherson I see that your hand was up and then I'll yeah I just wanted to come um implement the staff for putting this together six years ago and we put measure d together it's a complicated um a measure that didn't but it was because we included all transportation aspects uh excuse me my voice but I just want to say thank you and um and to um really adjust to the moving target about how we're getting grants and what's available and and adjust in what we're going to do and win as quickly as we can to implement what we promise the voters and measure d I think they've done an excellent job in getting this together at this point and I just think that should be recognized uh uh in complimentary to the staff thank you okay commissioner rockin I have two questions um you mentioned that we're not spending all of the money in the rail corridor as I saw in this if I read the chart correctly is about 5.1 million that's not actually uh targeted for a particular expenditures and you said that that's available or maybe I figured one of the two of you said that that's available for dealing with um the issues of FEMA doesn't come forward with sufficient funds to fix washouts and things like that is that money also possibly available for matching funds for grants and so forth if it were it to if it's not all necessary I'm not trying to argue that as a priority but if it was not used up for the other kinds of things is that something that could be potentially moved in that direction absolutely and we are looking at a lot of different state and federal programs that might be available to help assist cover the full cost of the electric rail transit and rail um environmental analysis and that money stays in that bucket let's say correct the way the expenditure plan and the ordinance were set up is that measure d funds are designated for those specific categories based on the percentage except for my other question appears on page 21 21 chart of the um rail trail with various colors and it shows segment seven as completed green but it's still under construction is it just completed funding that's been indicated in that chart or was should that be corrected to show that you know a piece of it's completed and the others it's being worked on right now it's going to be done soon but I don't it's not completed that's for sure there was a lot of discussion about how to categorize these but yes in construction and completed it should have a a slash mark there thank you for pointing that out those are my questions thank you okay uh commissioner brown I saw your hand up but it's gone down should you have a question commissioner rock can address the question that I had so I lowered my hand thank you got it okay so commissioner conic you're up next thank you chair um my question is in relation to the cycle three grants that we're applying for um what are we obligated to as far as um the rail trail bridges in terms of that application and I know with the other grant applications that the city submitted for segments eight nine and that the county submitted for nine and ten which are both looking or sorry 10 and 11 which are both looking very positive at the moment with the current scoreings that we maintain maximum flexibility there in terms of what trail we ultimately build and you know as a sidebar I totally recognize the outcome of measure D as being the voters want us to maintain maximum options and the possibility for trail going or for a train going forward um but I mean I think in some sections like Aptos which are particularly expensive to build that new adjacent trail um I do wonder if you know down the road if we find that for some reason um we just don't have the capacity to build a rail project passenger rail in the near future if we might not want to look at another option like just covering up the tracks not removing them just covering up and using those existing bridges for an intermediate period of time so I'm wondering if we have any if we have any options around that in the way that we submit the cycle three grant do we maintain that or you know are we basically committing to building those bridges I'll just provide a general quick response which is the California Transportation Commission federal highways other grant tours they look at project applications and they look at what are the benefits of this project and how did we score the project based on those benefits um they recognize that during environmental review during final design um sometimes projects might change from what was originally proposed as long as you're not proposing a project that reduces the benefits of the project that we're scoring criteria for the application typically the California Transportation Commission will work with agencies on how to you know reflect those there are cases though where project scope changes so much from what was proposed that they say this is not what we approved this was a highly competitive program and we're going to have to pull back the funding from your project okay thanks I think that answers my question um you know just but it is a lot of money to put on this one piece of the project um that the one piece of the highway project and um you know I think given the uncertainty and uh various project mix going forward and as well as just the situation we face with the climate crisis and everything else uh future housing development within the community um that really it pays to retain as many options for as long as possible um so yeah and there's as I said in my earlier comment as we were discussing about metro um and I think there's opportunities to improve transit on the highway potentially in the future as well and so um it might come that the time comes and we decide that um that's really a project that we want to pursue instead thank you commissioner conic okay I do not see any additional hands up among the commissioners uh so we will now take it out to the public um before we do that yes do have a 1030 item and we have our assembly members sitting in the audience so why don't we hold up the comment until we do the 1030 item unfortunately we advertise the public hearing yeah 930 so it's it's only a tricky it's it's turning what there's only a few hands up so I was hoping we could just get through the public hearing we start yeah yeah I know you're right to have the hands up we'll take okay well we'll take uh and now the hands are going up I see um okay so we if it's all right with you uh assembly member stone well it'll hopefully be pretty quick here um okay so we're we're gonna um do the public hearing and uh our first speaker is uh Rick Longinotti uh thank you um well I'm looking at a fact sheet on the cycle three project including the auxiliary relays from um premium boulevard to state park drive and uh the total cost was listed at 155 million and that was that fact sheet was updated in July and then the uh the fact sheet that you have before you today the cost was raised to 250 million so I I think you know you need to understand where you know where that cost increase comes from and I also want to suggest that that's not the final cost because the there hasn't been completed engineering or EIR on this so uh what's the rush about this cycle three project I mean can we wait till we see the final cost estimate on this um before making the commitment of measure deep funds the other thing I want to mention is that um in the next five years this cycle three is is projected to get 88 million of measure deep funds when there's only 63 million available in the highway portion of the project so what that means is looks to me like it means borrowing money from some other bucket uh and you know putting off whatever uh improvements that would that you know in those other buckets uh the other question I have is will the commission get to review the SB1 grant application will that come before the commission before it's sent off will you have a chance to review that um I would suggest putting off the entire cycle three portion of this measure deep expenditure plan until after you've answered these questions and until actually after you've seen the results of the next auxiliary lane construction from Soquel Drive to 41st Avenue and see if in fact the EIR on that is correct that it actually increases delay in the evening commute you may want to change the whole uh plan if you if that's true thank you thank you Mr. Longinati our next speaker is Brian from Trail Now highest Brian people from Trail Now we have some literature in comments in there so I won't cover most of that but we have three main things we want to emphasize timely implementation we're hopeful that we get a trail built within the next five years from Santa Cruz to Watsonville even if it's a simple gravel trail we need to open the coast of corridor cost effectiveness I've already spoken the fact that spending the cost of a trail a narrow trail costing more than binding the highway is an example of how infrastructure planning is preventing us from investing in metro and then most important when we look at your proposed plan to spend money on the electric train the coastal commission will regulate that decision they actually have denied three latest agency Santa Cruz agency request and it's a very good example that you're not going to get approval for an electric train that is 20 feet from the from the Pacific Ocean think of Park Avenue where it's 20 feet on the cliff think of Manresa beach where it's 20 feet from the ocean um we've asked that the that the RTC staff actually reach out to the California Coastal Commission and do some prep work to see is it realistic that we will ever have a fixed rail system because based on our conversations with the Coastal Commission they will never approve new fencing along the coastal corridor preventing access and multiple trains driving over that look at southern California they're actually spending money to bring the trains inside so we ask you to prior to agreement on this contract with the engineering firm get pre approval from the California Coastal Commission for your train plan thank you for your time thank you our next speaker is michael saint thank you chair brown commissioners just two quick questions for staff um when it gets to the EIR process i know that's maybe a little ways off this does sound like you're rushing into this without too many good answers um what's secret limits secret limits are you using for the cycle three or the number 12 segment for widening the highway and the multimodal use presently you'll be under the new rules of lowering vehicle miles travel and greenhouse gas emissions and i don't see how you do that with widening of the highway the tier one project that you're going through with now the ox lanes your own EIR says that there'll be a 29 percent increase in VMT so that's going to be a toughie to meet especially with widening the highway my second question concerning the tier one EIR that's been set about set aside by a judge is there any update on the new cost of recirculating the full EIR you had a cost on doing it on just three items and you said you may be coming back with a cost for the full EIR that's my two questions thank you very much okay thank you mr saint our last speaker it will be barry scott welcome well well thank you and thank you assembly member stone for your patients and letting the public speak of it and congratulations on your retirement your your many years are so appreciated and invaluable i wanted to talk about and i want to thank to bruce mcpiersen for mentioning measure d 2016 measure d which i remember comparing i think 17 different county plans for transportation uh investments and on a sales tax measure and our county was just blew all the others out of the water with respect to having a a share to active transportation to transit most other counties were just roads and car centric so it's really a great job that we had that but that eight percent to the rail corridor i'm really concerned when i hear discussions that that never addressed the freight easement and the rtc's obligation to return the entire line to a a minimal operational capacity it's so important because the freight capability we must never let that go it's our federal protection against removal of the line it may provide some sustainable freight service in the future but my real concern is that we just keep keep all the bridges in the entire rail line in a freight capable condition partly or largely because that condition is what provides us with resiliency in the face of climate change the ability to have a rail line that can serve as an emergency prevention response and recovery and not be overstated as far as i'm concerned it's just not negotiable the freight easement needs to be maintained the federal government will will will protect that and i hope that we see every effort made to find funds to restore the bridges to address drainage and so forth and i thank you thank you mr scott okay seeing no additional hands i'm going to close the public hearing move the staff recommendation second all right um we have a motion and a second i do i did see that our staff was taking notes and there some questions did come up during the public comment and so i i want to make sure that we try to answer those questions but i don't want to delay any longer so um if we could go ahead and uh take the vote um and when we come back um after uh our next item uh we're we're going to recognize assembly member stone um it would be okay to kind of respond to those on the funding agenda item they're related okay so we have a motion and a second and i don't see any hands up uh so let's go ahead and take a roll call commissioner burton i approve commissioner sandy brown i commissioner johnson commissioner alternate hearst hi commissioner cap it commissioner hernandez are you sitting in for commissioner cap it now you're on mute we can read your lips okay thank you i yes commissioner alternate shifrin hi commission alternate quinn commissioner konig hi commissioner mcpherson hi mr christian brown hi commissioner rodkin hi that passes unanimously okay uh so we are now going to take item 22 and uh we will kind of get your folks questions answered when we come back on our next item um i so i wanted to uh take this opportunity assembly member mark stone is here and uh we'll uh say a few words um and then we'd like to show you some appreciation as well so welcome assembly member stone thank you thank you i was asked to come give a brief legislative update although as i remember you have one of the best staffs here who keep you probably far better informed than i ever could about what's going on in sacramento i think rachel knows more than most people about what's going on both in sacramento and federally and with a changing the changing fiscal picture your crystal ball has always proven to be very accurate as she's kind of figured things out nice to see a lot of familiar faces here and in an incredible rtc staff and a lot of work over the years i think the picture that comes out of sacramento is very similar to what sounds like you're looking at in your measure d plan that a lot of emphasis on the changing climate and impacts and what transportation really needs to look like in the future as opposed to what it always has looked like moving away from singular vehicles moving away from internal combustion engines trying to electrify the transportation system a lot of work on the grid and in some significant investments over the last number of years in that transportation system pushing away from gasoline powered cars trucks i think that the large transit sector is going to be some of the most difficult certainly electrifying buses but the large haul trucks and things is is something really that that the airport right now is is currently working on from what we've seen in the reports that are due out in the next couple of weeks the budget picture is very much changed for next year from the last couple years where we've seen a real glut and been able to put some significant investments in a lot of different sectors including transportation sector so i think that's going to significantly change one of the good news items over the last number of years is we've really pushed transportation revenues out of the general fund away from the general fund away from the clutches of the general fund so hopefully given the large reserves we have the large rainy day fund that we have completely filled and more and the fact that we've protected transportation revenues a lot of the work that you do should be as we go into the next economic downturn a lot easier to manage than it has been in the past those economic downturn so we will get to see everybody in Sacramento right now is talking about caution in the budget and i think going into the next budget cycle we'll see a lot of reductions in those categories but fortunately the state has an obligation to keep the rainy day fund and the various reserves up depending the downturn so i'm hoping that that will provide some stability over over time it's kind of the outlook i think a little more bleak than we had seen before but also pushing in a lot of the right directions and those directions that the state is going in really are the values that this county has this regional transportation commission has had over the years and i appreciate the work that you do some long-serving members some more recent serving members but at this rtpa level the work that gets done connecting Santa Cruz within Santa Cruz and outside is significantly important and it's a role that's been handed to the rtc and you guys have always done a very good job and your executive director through all the staff i just want to say how much i appreciate your crew your professionalism the amount of work that you've always put in in assisting commissioners but providing information and and being there to translate some very tough concepts in the transportation realm out to the public and it's interesting hearing the comments in them in the public hearing i'm glad that the public is still engaged that's really all i have to say really thank you i've been engaged in the rtc one way or the other for almost 20 years now and i just very much appreciate the time effort that all of you the commission and certainly the commission staff have spent and the benefit you've provided in Santa Cruz county thank you assembly member stone i will look around here and see if anyone has questions well i do have a resolution that i'd like to share but if anybody has questions before we do that happy to answer questions here uh your your last uh grilling of the from the rtc but it looks like people are people are um uh happy to just hear from you today um so um if i could i'd like to uh share a resolution that uh our uh commission staff put together and um and just say thank you and give others an opportunity so uh this is a special resolution in recognition of profound appreciation of distinguished service and leadership by assembly member and former Santa Cruz county regional transportation commissioner mark stone uh whereas mark stone as an assembly member county supervisor and santa cruz county regional transportation commissioner has provided outstanding service to aid santa cruz county rtc's efforts to improve transportation for the community and whereas mr stone has been an exemplary champion of transportation projects and advocate for a more sustainable santa cruz county and whereas during his tenure as california assembly member mr stone was instrumental in ensuring the passage of key bus on shoulder legislation securing critical funding for transportation projects programs and services and supporting the advancement of regionally significant highway bicycle pedestrian and transit projects and ongoing maintenance uh so critical uh of the local street and road and transit system and whereas as santa cruz county regional transportation commissioner mr stone was instrumental in securing the purchase of the santa cruz branch rail line right of way making it possible to develop and construct the coastal rail trail and continue the work towards future passenger rail service and whereas mr stone has always demonstrated a strong commitment and devotion to improving santa cruz county's transportation system preserving its natural environment and fighting to protect the rights of all community members and whereas mr stone has continually demonstrated the highest level of professionalism dedication and integrity therefore be it resolved that the santa cruz county regional transportation commission or by us that we formally acknowledge and extend our profound appreciation to assembly member mark stone for his unwavering dedication and commitment to supporting the santa cruz county community for decades for over two decades his past present and future contributions and efforts will always be greatly appreciated by commission members rtc staff and most importantly the santa cruz county community i'm going to come and bring you this thank you so much i'll move approval of this resolution that's in front of us second i do do adopt this resolution and a second and we'll go ahead and take the vote on that and then we'll take comments from folks who want to say something okay or we can make take let's take comments first i think we're going to adopt it go ahead commissioner rockin well mission or shift i want to join in what's certainly going to be a plethora of very positive comments about your public service mark um we we have a right to expect that our assembly members will vote well on important issues and you certainly know that but um i don't think you can always expect that the people you elect are going to be real leaders that um do more than just vote on things that come in front of them in a way that makes us happy you really have um shaped the legislation that others vote on and it's made a real difference i mean there's no literally no one in the assembly who can i think make a claim to be an environmental champion that exceeds your own right to that claim in general and particularly transportation issues within that so um i don't want to take a long time in making my comments but really deeply from my heart uh feel like you you just been a wonderful public servant for us and the public of santa cruz county and the state of california thanks for your service thank you thank you commissioner shifrin um i first met you when you became a supervisor and work with you at the board and i've always appreciate your dedication one of the memories i have of you and i don't know if you're still keeping up with it but that you swam the english channel that was something that was a big deal when it occurred and so it's certainly stayed in my mind i i want to echo all the comments mike made and just express my appreciation for all your years of public service and wish you the best as you move on uh to whatever you're going to do next so thank you again thank you okay um mr stone he had to bring up the crystal ball um mark stone was an outstanding commissioner and has been such a great assembly member also but he's also just such a team player and provides these like personal touches so at one point on the commission he gave me this very cloudy rock that he could claim this by crystal ball that i could never really quite tell what it was but he also is such a team player he was on a um santa cruise triathlon event or something with kori kaleti who was our bike planner for many years and karina prushnik who was our um public information officer and elderly disabled transportation advisory committee and karina regular brings up that you and kori were just like the superstar swimmer and bicyclist but you guys brought everyone in on the team and um she really appreciated being part of that team and you know so we do multimodal transportation here in so many different ways and mark's been part of that so thank you and i also want to give a shout out to his longtime staffer marina karthi who has been just so responsive all the time for us and a huge champion in getting mark to sign letters uh so support and uh for all of our different projects so thank you mark and i hope you'll we'll see you more in santa cruz county maybe testifying at public hearings and other things we do have a couple more comments from members of the commission who are with us virtually so um want to make sure they have an opportunity uh commissioner johnson i see your hand up thank you i want to thank mark for all the years of public service uh i believe i knew mark back when he was a scott's valley school board member you know so we go his way back and of course he lives in scott's valley and i just want to commend him on the wide spectrum of service that he's done in particular for this is for scott's valley when he helped with our tax measure when the governor vetoed it and he came forward and said yes we're going to get allow the people scott's valley to vote on a three quarter cents tax measure which pretty much saved the city but so i want to thank you for that mark and for all the public service that you've really done and help countywide and in particular the city of scott's valley thank you okay uh christin brown you are next thank you assembly member we are all so very grateful to have had you representing us as such an amazing leader in the assembly i'm grateful for all that you've done for the city of capitol for the entire county of sanikers your whole district um you know and personally in the five years that i worked across the hall from your office in um uh sam far's office i had the opportunity to get to know you and to get to know your staff including marine and karen and page and it was truly a pleasure um to do so to get to know you and your staff we again are so grateful thank you for all of your service thank you commissioner first i'll call on you next well thank you very much and greetings from Watsonville mark thank you for always paying attention to us and helping us out on the difficult circumstances and always being a friend to south county in Watsonville so i'll talk to you and thank you very much thanks and then commissioner quinn i i believe is also uh has a hand up there i want to make sure you get a chance to speak commissioner quinn did that work we can hear you oh finally oh i just wanted to say big thanks to assemblyman stone and uh looking forward to further dialogue in the future okay um i i want to uh oh okay let's see we've got commissioner tans coming up uh commissioner bertrand yeah um yeah i just want to echo uh miss browns comments uh your support at capitol has been great when we need funds to work on various projects unfortunately i never had a chance to work with you directly except for seeing you at meetings and one thing i really appreciate and i know capitol citizens appreciated we always look forward to when you came to city council and gave us an update uh your updates were extraordinary uh you gave us a real good feel of the conditions that were going on in sacramento and the various um things that were in front of ledge um i don't know that anyone else has done as good a job at least in capitol than you have in that regard so i personally appreciate that and i've heard many comments from our citizens how much they appreciate that too so i just want to say that and good luck in your future i'm sure you're looking forward to it and uh hey you don't have to trim your beard as much anymore maybe i don't know right right uh commissioner hernandez you're up uh oh thank you yes um you know i was i was just want to say i want to echo what the other commissioners have said and i want to thank you for all your work in sacramento and and thank you for all your work in watsonville as well um and then we hope to see more more of you around here you know at all all the local functions and all the uh public hearings as well you know and thank you for again for all your all your work in your leadership on on environmental issues over at the most standing lab uh so thank you thank you okay i uh now want to give guy pressed in an opportunity to speak so when i came into this position as rts the executive director um assembly member stone was already in the assembly and no longer a commissioner um so i didn't get the opportunity to work with him directly in this role as a you know one mark was a commissioner i was very um pleased to make my first legislative trip up to sacramento and meet you for the first time in your office and and i was very wide-eyed and excited about all of the great things we were going to do and and you looked at me and sincerely um let me know of the challenges i was going to have in this position and and your honesty i think really came across um but it came across in a way that you let me know that i would have your support and that you would be there for the commission to ensure that our projects could move forward and that i would be successful in my position and you were always there for me and your staff has been there for me and i thank you for that thank you could i add something i want to thank rachel for reminding me to thank your staff because as a staff member myself i know how much work the staff does in support of the elected officials um marine and the rest of your staff have been as you know super important in making you as successful as you've been so i think it's i want to take the opportunity to thank her and your other staff members for all the work that they do thank you as any elected knows we are not successful without our staff at all we're the front they do all the work i'm just going to take the chair's privilege to say a couple more things i i just want to say so echoing everything i've heard from my colleagues here um ever since the i met you when you were running for decided to run for board of supervisor i think you were thinking about it i went all the way to scott's valley to talk with you we were working on some county policy issues and and just ever since that day that i met you um seeing your work i just i just think that you you really are the you exemplify public service um you really do uh you you care deeply about our community it shows in you know all aspects of your work um you are a problem solver uh you think critically and deeply about policy and you provide leadership in areas of environmental and and social justice really um that are so needed uh in our our state and our community at this time and um you know you just i can't say enough um it's been great to see you uh work in sacramento and and represent us and um wishing you all the best uh in your future endeavors and uh morine as well thank you for all the work you've done to um keep our assembly member doing the the good work so i think that will uh we'll close i think appropriately yes i think a round of applause is more than appropriate absolutely really thank you okay so we've uh we've done a little moving around to the agenda let's get back to our next item and get us back on track i um chair brown yes did you want to finish up the vote on that oh i'm sorry that's i forgot that we yeah it was like already done in my mind we should take a vote on uh approval of that resolution that assembly member stones out the door with okay we'll go ahead and take a roll call commissioner burtrane i approve commissioner sandi brown i commissioner johnson hi commissioner alternate hearst hi commissioner alternate hernandez hi commission alternate shifrin hi commissioner alternate uh quinn who yes okay great i can hear you commissioner konig hi commissioner macpherson he might be gone so commissioner um jenny johnson maybe they're both hi okay hi thank you commissioner christin brown hi and commissioner rodkin hi that passes unanimously okay wonderful thank you so much all right we'll now come back around and we uh i think maybe since item is it okay if we do item 23 now and then come back around okay um just because we were kind of already talking about these issues and um want to make sure that questions get answered and we wrap this in so okay so we're going to move on to item 23 we will hold item 17 through 20 till after item 23 clarification uh the questions are on item 21 sir remember yes um so we're gonna do that for we'll go ahead and yes 23 yes we'll go ahead and do it um they're kind of related because a lot of them are about the funding um but i'll um go ahead and ask rachel uh morricone to respond to some of the questions that came up in item 21 before we look at the budget and i'm actually going to defer to sarah christensen since most of the questions were on the rail and highway programs which she manages okay thanks rachel thank you sarah so um there was a question about the timing of the cycle three application and whether we can wait on the um submittal of that application and uh staff does not recommend that because these funds are available in two year cycles and our project uh falls within the program years for construction it will be construction ready within the program years and therefore eligible it meets all of the requirements of the guidelines for the grant program and as you know our projects are highly competitive so it's better to get it um constructed sooner rather than later um and not defer further delay any um applications for funding um there was also a question about why the overall cost went up as you recall earlier this year i made several presentations about the cycle three project as we were developing it and um the cost did go up and the reason is because we added more multimodal improvements we actually um went back and forth with metro staff and um they pitched uh many many transit improvements to be added to our project and that was um adding costs but also adding a whole lot of benefit and so we um we squeezed those in um and then the county further refined their multimodal project cost estimates which went up a little bit and then this um as i mentioned we updated the cost estimates for the um the big contract the highway one and segment 12 project so that's why the cost have been refined and they did increase but also the benefits have increased substantially as well and um another question about sequa and the um the vmt requirements and how we will meet those requirements the highway one and segment 12 project actually reduces vmt it's a multimodal project it does include auxiliary lanes it also includes bus on shoulder so it offsets the vehicle miles traveled and the addition of the rail trail um looking at a holistic model of the countywide vehicle miles traveled the project does reduce vehicle miles traveled so we are compliant in that way um and then there was one question about the eir recirculation effort we have not um we have not gotten any kind of revised cost estimate and if we did we would potentially bring it back to the commission um but we don't anticipate um bringing that back anytime soon so thank you and if i could just add we we earlier discovered that not circulating that immediately doesn't slow down any of our actual projects so that's the reason why it's possible to not respond immediately to the the judge expressed an interest in it being done but it was pretty open and vague about exactly when and made very clear that it was not going to stop and he do his teamwork correct okay so uh thank you for the clarifications and uh we will now hear about amendments to the fiscal year 2022 23 budget and work program uh in relation to the previous item uh we have a staff report from tracy new our director of finance and budget welcome tracy morning commissioners thank you um each year the rtc receives revenue estimates from the county of santa cruz state controllers office and hdl companies to inform the development of a new fiscal year budget um mark staff present the budget to the presented the budget to the budget administration and personnel committee on october 13 for recommendation to the commission for adoption the fiscal year 22 23 initial budget was adopted by the commission in april we have amended the budget based on project status and funding needs including programming funds for grant matches and carryover from the prior fiscal year many have been done as part of the major fall budget amendment in previous fiscal years and this um fiscal year 22 23 proposed amendment includes an amendment to the transportation development allocation of $1,368,083 in additional distribution of tda revenues an amendment to the overall work program to include grant funds measure d carryover from fiscal year 21 22 and proposed changes to the measure d five-year plans for the highway active transportation rail categories as approved by the commission in part on item 21 staff continue to work with our consultants seeking input and information about market trends revenue forecasts and possible impacts to our major funding sources staff um and the budget and personnel committee recommend that the commission approve the fiscal year 22 23 proposed amended budget for rtc and measure d thank you okay uh do we have any questions from commissioners i see uh commissioner hearse to your hand go for it thank you very much chair i just wanted to check and see if this budget proposal would delay or postpone any uh uh funding for the uh watch the little portion of the rail trail i am going to defer that and if so what are we going to do so the measure d five-year plans that you just approved do shift funds for um the remaining segment 18 elements as well as 19 and 20 to later years um we are anticipating finishing the design work on that as part of the electric rail and trail project and so that is um initially we had anticipated or what's bill staff had anticipated moving forward with the remaining sections of segment 18 right now but due to a lot of regulatory requirements and right away issues it made sense to look at those remaining sections in um concert with the transit planning would just just know that uh we're anxious to move forward thank you thank you okay i do not see any more uh commissioner hands up we'll take it out to the public i do not see any hands up there so we'll bring it back to the commission move the staff recommendation second you have a motion and a second i would like to make a comment and commissioner shiffer and take it away one of the um parts of the the revised budget is to allocate the surplus from the last couple of years and it's a quite a significant surplus my concern which i raised at the budget administration committee and i wanted to um and you know make the whole commission aware of it is that our tda revenues are as are down in the first quarter by over three hundred thousand dollars below what was projected so i had a concern about whether um you know allocating all of the surplus at this time could um cause problems later on the year if the economy continues to go the way it's going i raised this concern with staff and um the director responded in a way that made it see you know that supported the staff recommendation that you know yes there was uncertainty but it's still made sense to go forward with uh with the proposal and i'm willing to support that what i wondered about though was whether it would make sense and i want to just ask other commissioners what they think to approve the allocation but maybe hold back the distribution of half of the surplus until we do our budget in march so that we know that in fact we won't be needing to either use some of next year's money to increase the reserves or i have to buy and buy therefore having to use the reserves this year to meet our obligations so i just i just want to raise that as assembly member stone mentioned it's a it's an uncertain time economically there is a need for seen in the legislature for caution and i just wanted to share that with the commission to see whether others would prefer to wait for the full distribution um although i totally support the recommendation for the allocation commission rockin i'm wearing my transit district hat here um we get like 85 percent of that or something that's some significant portion of it and we would be the most directly affected by decision to put off the funding till march the plan if we just spent some really detailed time on this at our retreat um our ability to not buy some cng buses you know because they were cheaper and go you know and go to a normally buy electric or hydrogen fuel cell buses totally depends on that money um and that's only one of the things the other issue has to do with our ability to um look seriously at the increasing frequency on the major routes which we think is the real key to bringing back our ridership so it does make a big difference to us i i understand your concern it's not you know not a ridiculous point to be raised but um if we can't depend on that money at this i mean we'd be better off deciding at a later date that we have to like step it back because you know we have to cut back in what we can do next year or something that would be much better for us than basically scotching the plans that we have right now to to move ahead with both the electrification of our fleet and the the other stuff that we've done i think it'd be a serious concern for us so i'm in favor of going with the staff recommendation noting your point and obviously we should continue to monitor that and it's we're not going to spend it all in january so the the issue really is to you know monitor it and if we start to see that there's a trend developing that's as bad as it might be and stuff then you know maybe we need to begin changing what we do but i wouldn't do it right out of the gate i would wait till we have an indication and typically these estimates are based on the county auditor and um they usually have had fairly it's fairly conservative kinds of estimates of what the revenues are going to be it's not like they they're out there you know predicting all kinds of stuff happening that's not going to happen so your points well taken it might not be even their conservative estimate may not come to fruition but i i don't think we were in a position where the transit industry could suffer that kind of a cut it'd be significant for us well let me just say as i said i'm willing to support the staff recommendation i just wanted to you know bring the concern forward it could affect the budget next year and the amount that the transit district gets next year but i guess the burden the hand is worth doing the bush is uh is uh is a strategy here and i support it you have secured your i told you so right it's right there andy good work uh commissioner brown thank you at the at the risk of sounding excuse me at the risk of providing comments that are redundant to uh what commissioner rott can just that i i also in in support of the staff recommendation you know we we just heard from the metro presentation this morning um the goals to increase ridership at a time when they're already working hard to restore the service and the ridership and uh transmission are excuse me transition our fleet and so i i would really encourage um moving forward with the staff recommendation as is okay thank you for your comments bring it back to um i think we've i think everybody's spoken who's uh gonna do that so we'll we'll go ahead and take a vote commissioner burtrance quiet proof commissioner sandy bro i commissioner randy johnson hi commission alternate herst i commission alternate hernandez commission alternate shifrin hi commission alternate quinn commissioner konig hi thank you commissioner quinn commission alternate johnson over jr johnson thank you commissioner christin brown hi and commissioner rottkin hi that passes unanimously okay we will now uh return to uh previous items that we postponed uh so we'll start back come back around to item 17 commissioner reports are there commissioners who have um anything they'd like to report to commission oh thank you so much for watching that uh okay seeing none we will uh move on to item 18 this is a nomination committee for chair and vice chair an oral report from me i just wanted to let commissioners know that i have asked commissioner mcpherson and commissioner rottkin to serve on this committee with me and we will bring recommendations for uh chair and vice chair to our december meeting uh anybody have any questions about that i agree to serve on the committee okay uh moving along then we have uh item 19 is our director's reports and we'll turn it back to guy preston thank you madam uh chair um i have a few updates um the first is on the highway nine san lorenzo valley complete street project rtc staff is currently doing outreach to gain community input on draft engineering concepts for transportation solutions along highway nine as part of the san lorenzo valley schools circulation and access study the study area covers highway nine between the southern intersection of glenn arbor road and graham hill road and includes site access and circulation improvements at the three san lorenzo valley schools and multimodal transportation improvements along highway nine based on data collected and past community inputs initial engineering concepts to improve circulation in and around the slb schools complex have been drafted and include pedestrian bicycle transit and operational improvements a virtual workshop took place took place last night we assume and an in-person workshop will take place tonight from six to seven thirty at the felton community hall more information can be found on the rtc web website home page under news and updates um i have an update on the construction of the watsonville to santa cruz multimodal corridor cycle two project um i am pleased to announce that the county has completed all the pre-construction work and has advertised for construction bids for their so-called drive complete streets project from la fonda drive to state park drive this project is a component of rtc successful watsonville to santa cruz multimodal corridor project which was awarded over 107 million an sp1 of funds for multimodal improvements on the corridor including highway one improvements for this project include pavement repair buffered and protected bike lanes sidewalk gap closures crosswalk enhancements and adaptive signal control with transit prioritization construction bids are expected to be open on november 11 or excuse me november 17 um i have an update on the scott's greek bridge replacement and ecosystem restoration project last week the resource conservation district was joined by state senator john laird to host a interagency field meeting to celebrate the scott's creek coastal resiliency project leaders from natural resource and transportation agencies gathered to commensurate a major milestone of this project and that's the completion of the project initiation document that's a cal trans document and um uh celebrate nearly a decade of interagency collaboration to advance this new paradigm for integrated infrastructure and ecosystem resilience planning this meeting resulted in a further commitment by agencies to build on our foundation of project champions to help move this effort through the critical planning and implementation steps ahead if you're not familiar with scott's creek it's a very low lining bridge with quite a bit of fill that was placed um in a very sensitive ecosystem and it is um threatened by uh sea level rise uh the coastal uh the scott's creek coastal resiliency project located in northern santa cruz county is an integrated bridge replacement and ecological restoration project with multiple benefits this project will improve community and highway resilience to climate change and sea level rise will implement a major recovery action for endangered coho salmon and a suite of other uh listed species will improve coastal access and will also create jobs amongst other benefits for nearly 10 years the resource conservation district of santa cruz county the santa cruz county regional transportation commission and cal trans along with our state and federal resource agency partners have collaborated to re-envision how we plan for major transportation infrastructure projects by focusing on first understanding the needs of the ecosystem then designing infrastructure and restoration activities together to meet those needs these projects have traditionally been extremely difficult to fund but the new emphasis on climate sustainability and the cooperative efforts of all jurisdictions provide a path forward for scott's creek and other coastal resiliency projects i expressed the commission's support for this project and how we plan to use this collaborative model to advance sustainable planning and project implementation efforts throughout the region we are currently working on our next cycle of cal trans planning grants and are looking uh at two locations on the north coast for uh similar projects to scott's creek um regarding the ab 361 findings that you just made as part of the consent calendar at the last commission meeting i expected the commission to be able to continue to give me 360 findings and hold remote or hybrid meetings for all participants including commissioners and um committee members for all of 2023 however since that time i have learned that the governor plans to lift the state of emergency at the end of february 2023 if so the rtc will need to start holding regular in person meetings effective in march for regular in person meetings rtc rtc staff will provide hybrid options for members of the public when the facilities contains the technology necessary for hybrid meetings missioners or commission meetings and committee members for committee meetings will need to attend in person unless they attend from another public location where the agenda had been posted in accordance with the brown act or if they have provided sufficient justification for the very limited just cause or emergency circumstances provided under the new legislation ab 2449 which i discussed at our last meeting staff will provide more information to commissioners on allowances for ab 2449 circumstances for remote attendance as we gain a greater understanding of the legislation and develop a system for implementation and that concludes my director's report guy would you like to also announce her 50th anniversary oh yes um yes any you you may have to help me out with this because i don't have the date in front of me but we have decided on a date for our 50th anniversary um open house which we will have at our office here in Santa Cruz our new office we were going to do a very informal um uh open house where staff is going to be available to members of the public we would like the commissioners to come and make themselves available at certain times uh do so in a way that we don't violate the brown act but give the uh public an opportunity to celebrate um the accomplishments that we had will have several stations around the office for people to engage with staff and see um some of the great work that we've done and the date on that yes any uh so that is scheduled for thursday december 8 from 2 to 7 p.m um it seems like a lengthy time but we wanted to make sure that the community had an opportunity to come out for those that are working during um the day and so do expect an invitation in your email we will also be reaching out to you um to help us locate some of our previous um commissioners and committee members and maybe consultants that we don't have information for thank you mr shifrin is there any reason it couldn't be scheduled at a special meeting so all the commissioners could come there at once um members of the public could come and would the agenda would be to celebrate the 50th anniversary and not take any action but it would be a you know a commission meeting that um because it seems a little cumbersome to have people come in going at different times your parliamentary skills are duly noted and i see absolutely no reason why we can't do that that's an excellent idea and we will move forward in that direction unless i hear otherwise thank you all right so we are now moving on to our next item i believe we are on caltrans report and it looks like we have orchid monroyo choa is here today for your patience and thank you for your patience absolutely you're on mute hey can you hear me now yes and good morning commissioners my name is orchid monroyo choa and i'm the branch chief for regional planning and local development review in district five i'm here on behalf of tim gubbins today and i have uh some announcements uh the first one would be that this friday is the last opportunity to submit public comment for the 23 24 sustainable community grant guidelines we can review um you can review and submit comments online through caltrans web page we expect a call for applications to go out uh near the end of december or beginning of january regardless of when the application opens applicants will have at least eight weeks to submit a grant application um there are still two upcoming workshops planned to discuss comments received for the guidelines those will be happening november 9th and 10th which is next wednesday and thursday information can be found in the same website which is easily googled through the search terms with available community grant um another one is that the transit and intercity rail capital program tursip program guideline cycle six are also for review with public comments due this upcoming monday uh comments can be submitted via email to uh tursip comments at dot ca dot gov and comments on draft guidelines are due november 7th also a reminder to motorist is that as we go into the wet season please be mindful that vehicle behavior may change uh that folks might need more time to stop to reacting to road conditions and that as the days become dark early and pedestrians and cyclists um are still out and about completing their daily tasks so please be mindful also winter under winter conditions um you know as they begin to please remember that caltrans has a customer service request web link uh for roadway concerns such as like debris uh roadway clogged or slow uh drains and other such maintenance concerns and that could be um emailed at csr dot dot dot ca dot gov so if not um you could reach out to your regional planner and paul gurgis and we could get that information with you that's it thank you any questions from commissioners okay seeing none we'll take it out to the public uh we have one hand up brian trail now hey uh thanks uh thank you for the time i actually wanted a comment on the director report my my only comment and i'll keep it short is um about the issue of hybrid meetings um it's good i guess that you're keeping it for the public but i think since this is a transportation committee our agency you should really put a focus on keeping that capability it's absolutely very critical that um the commissioners have the ability to work remote for these meetings um you know 10 12 years ago i started really participating in these meetings and i was after drive down santa cruz or watson bill sit in these meetings it's painful um the no offense it's just a you know we really need to keep moving in the direction of um of the next gen the next uh capability so to say but i'll shorten it up but i just really want to um encourage you to go after that requirement that commissioners have to come in and not prevent uh not allow them to do that to the committee we absolutely need to keep that hybrid capability thank you for your time thank you mr peoples and i apologize for not opening out the to the public on the ed's report um your comment has been noted okay uh so we are now going to move into closed session our our last item is going to be in closed session and we will be reviewing the public employee performance evaluation for our executive director do we have any reportable action we will likely have the potential at least for reportable action at the end okay so um so we will return or at least i will return with mr mattis to report out on closed session actions um and uh with that we'll um before you do it it's clear to the people who the commissioners are remote what the they have to go out and then come back on another number right cool that is correct yes so the link yes that was emailed to everyone again this morning to please do look for that it either came from ctv or zoom got it a separate link correct so yes thank you for for the reminder so commissioners who are joining us remotely please do look for that link and sign back in we will see you in closed session in just a couple of minutes to our report out from closed session for today's regional transportation commission meeting and i'm going to turn it over to our council steve mattis now it's coming through thank you thank you chair brown the commission just concluded the closed session that had two items the evaluation of the executive director and labor negotiations related to the executive director um following that closed session the commission did take an action by an eight zero vote uh the commissioner noted that mr Preston received an exemplary evaluation and that he's met the contractual standards under his country his employment contract for a step increase to level he is in edward effective december 3rd 2022 and so that's the commission's direction and authority is to implement that step increase under his previously approved contract thank you madam chair thank you um i just add uh such a valuable resource a wonderful uh leader and always helpful to commissioners and and the public so uh that with that we have an announcement about our next meeting our the regional transportation commission will meet next on thursday december 1st at 9 a.m and our next transportation policy workshop meeting is scheduled for thursday december 15th at 9 a.m uh see you there if not before thanks everyone and we're adjourned