 All right, let's call to order today's meeting of the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District Board of Directors with roll call vote, please. Director Brown. Present. Director Downing. Present. Director Dutra. Here. And Director Cullentary Johnson will be absent today. Director Koenig. Here. Director Lynn. Here. Director McPherson. Here. Director Myers. Present. Director Pagler. Here. Director Parker. Here. Director Rockin. Here. Director Exificio Henderson. Don't see him. And Director Exificio Northcutt. Here. And we have quorum. Thank you very much. Well, in announcements, I want to note that today's meeting is being broadcast by community television Santa Cruz County. I'll also add that it's Earth Day and Metro is providing pre fair service around the county and also including highway 17 express right and para Cruz so people will enjoy that and take advantage and think about Earth Day today. Comments from the board of directors item four. Chairman Pagler. I just attended the two day legislative conference of the California state association of counties. And just in general, very in depth, but what the focus on everything was housing homeless and a lot of tie into transportation, of course, and how we can get people near transit corridors and so forth. It's a very strong directive from the state level to each and every one of our 58 counties. Very good conference. And got a lot of work to do and the state's trying to get down board to really be in a leadership role. I'd say one of the things is that was concerned to the representatives of some of the counties was that you know, includes some flexibility because all counties don't have the same exact needs and so forth. Rural versus urban for instance and so forth and transportation but anyway very good conference and transportation was at the top of the list of the discussions. I'm glad you were there director McPherson appreciate the report director Myers I see your hand. Yeah, I just wanted to let the board know that the city of Santa Cruz is beginning to operationalize our recently adopted homeless management program. Part of that is beginning to move folks out of some of the homeless encampments that are primarily unmanaged or you know have sprung up in various areas. I know the Metro facility has had a significant group of folks who have been back, you know, living along the river there. We were able to work with those individuals and have put, you know, have helped them get into at minimum the for at least an interim step into the San Lorenzo Benchlands. However, that camp will be slowly closed over the next few months and will be placing folks in managed encampments with services. And those are being located in various locations around the city and up at the armory, but I did want to let the board know that we did. We were able to go in and ask those individuals to find other sources of places to be as well as go in and clean up that area behind the Metro facilities which I think we took out about 20,000 pounds of trash from back there. We've also closed the camps across the river and also along health health trail, as we call it, where it's been named and those areas are now officially off limits if folks do try to bring encampments back into those areas they will be contacted to remove their items and move into the appropriate shelters or other facilities that were standing up. So, just want to let the board know that that did occur last month. Director Rock and you have question. I just wanted to follow up on Donna's comment. People need to understand that there are three different levels of different types of camping. One of them is unsanctioned that's where people just put up a tent anywhere and that's been a problem in neighborhoods and next to the river by cleaning behind the transit district facility operations facility. One of which is places where camping is sanctioned but not managed and that's the down in the bench lands. It's a mess there. On the other hand, we have to find some place for people to go temporarily in the city committee that I'll move them out of there to other better places by July. Third are these actually managed campgrounds and there's a real difference between the sanction but not not managed campgrounds. A lot of people confuse those because they're going to try and set up 20 managed campgrounds all around the county. And they'll be nothing like what's going on in the bench lands more like the one that said 1220 River Street where they're actually you know stuff is really neat and clean and people are getting help and services of a variety of kinds to actually get them out of homelessness. And so it's important that people not confuse what's what we're looking for in those 20 campsites with the still quite a mess down there at the bench lands but still better than having people camping down in the river. Whether environmental and serious social problems where there's no management whatsoever. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, that's a good point Mike. Yeah, the really the the model of the unmanaged but sanctioned areas is slowly going to be sort of not a part of any system that we think is sustainable and we're moving more towards these various located areas where we can establish people but with with the service provision with an agreement with the with the book person who is taking the spot that they're active in seeking housing, you know, seeking, seeking employment doing that doing the things that you know we need to do with regards to case management to help the individuals and we'll be standing up and an additional 70 beds up at the armory. And then you'll slowly start to see the transition from some of the individuals there at the bench and says the final step. So, but just want to let everybody know that that did occur and we've got a clean area behind the metro facilities now. Thank you for that update director Myers, director Northcut I see your hand. Thank you. I just want to give a couple of updates at Cabrillo and happy Earth Day, we are hosting a pop up event for student galleries tomorrow, but one of the and I miss you all last month I was out spring break with Cabrillo and I took it off. All the way. We are our students are starting to discuss a electronic bus pass. And we're looking forward to bringing that to your attention in the coming months. We are hosting our Student Senate elections this week next week and voting will happen the week of the second and then after that we'll have a new student body and they'll be talking about more eco friendly. The goal is to have more eco friendly things happening for students at Cabrillo as it relates to our commuter school so you see Santa Cruz and CSUM be those connections and building those bridges and one of those things is a mobile app or eco pass for us that is not the physical student ID card so more to come on that and just want to bring you to your attention. Thanks. Very good. Thank you. Any other comments from that are funded from that source the 2016 measure defunds and on Wednesday the 20th the RTC gave approval for those existing decals to be covered up until following the election. And our staff have been working on this for a number of weeks if Danielle would care to describe some of her efforts and I think Donna Bauer may have some images that we could share of the sticker that will be placed over these. Danielle, could you speak to this. Yeah, of course. So what we decided to do is temporarily cover up the measure these stickers with a dump the pump messaging. And it's going to be easily to remove after the June ballot. So those are being installed right now they should be done on all of our vehicles by Monday and that's for fixed route and para cruise. At that time we shouldn't have any other measure D mentions on our vehicles instead we'll just talk to the 2016 measure D on our website and landing page. And that way we can still support our obligations to the RTC. Very good. We do have some photos if we're able to share those. I have one up on my computer. I might be able to share. There we go. Thank you Donna. There is the new sticker and it's comparative size to the existing measure D moving Santa Cruz County forward stickers. And I think the next photo will show how we can place those over during the next two months. And there maybe didn't make this explicit that can problem is that there's a measure D on the June 7th ballot and people are conflating or confusing. Yes, you're D which we all love and appreciate deeply for the funding it provides for Metro and other services with the controversial matter that's on the ballot that people whatever their views are. We don't want to make it sound like we have a partisan view on the upcoming election. We're really, that's why we want to cover these over to the elections over. Thank you Mike, and I will offer that I believe all the jurisdictions that receive measure D funding were notified of the same opportunity to cover these decals if they wish, and I appreciate staff's work on this particular approach I thought it was a very smart way to avoid appearances of support or confusion to voters. So thank you for that. Thank you to the public. I am looking and see. I don't see any hands at the moment of anyone from the public who care to comment. Give it a moment. Seeing none. Let's move on to labor organization and communications anything from our representatives today. I see James Sandoval. Would you please raise your hand and there you are. Thank you James. If you'd like to let James speak. There you are. I think there's a delay every time I raise my hand. I'm so sorry about that. All right. I just, I'm sure you all know by now on April 7 we ratified the contract extension for one year. So I'm happy to announce that our members are happy. And we're looking forward to a smooth transition with the new CEO. I'm happy to report that he did meet with all the union leaders. I can't remember the exact date and thank you Don for me for setting that up. We had a great meeting with them. We talked about a lot of important ideas goals and ambitions. It's looking like we got a pretty good days ahead of us. So I just, I just want to report that and say we're grateful. We're excited. And we're looking forward to seeing what Metro is going to be look in the future. Thank you. Thank you James. I appreciate that. Any other comments. Okay. Seeing none we're on to the Metro advisory committee written communications. Have we received anything from. There are none. And I believe there were no additional documentations. Correct. Correct. All right, we are on to the consent agenda. Are there any comments from public on any items in the consent agenda. Seeing none. Board members have anything. I'll move, move approval of the consent agenda. Second. I would like to speak in a second that was rockin and juitra believe, I'm calling sorry. Of course, thank you. I have many boxes today. Thank you. All right, maybe vote on that please. I Director Downey I Director Dutres I Director Pone I Director Lidd I Director McPherson I Director Myers I Director Pagler I Director Parker Yes Director and Director Rockin I and the motion passes. Thank you very much. Director McPherson I Director McPherson I Director Director Director Director Director Thank you very much. With that we move to the regular agenda and Item 10. Request to improve the Fiscal Year 22 FTA funds. We have a report from John Ergo and planning. John would you like to take this please? Good Morning Directors. John Ergo, director of planning and development. So this item is a request to use FY 22 FTA 5307 funds to use FY 22 FTA 5307 funds towards future bus purchases. And we also presented an update on the long range bus replacement plan. So for those of you who remember, and we're on the board in FY 18, 2017, at that time Metro was facing 63 buses, over 50% of the fleet that was beyond its useful life, which is typically about 14 years for a bus. And at that time Metro and the board established a bus replacement plan to figure out how to tackle that issue with the primary component of the plan being the establishment of a bus replacement fund, which was a $3 million set aside, primarily funded by measure D Senate bill one and road repair and Senate bill one, the road repair and accountability act of 2017. And this Metro always knew it wasn't going to be enough to make a huge debt, but that $3 million was used as seed money and local match for competitive and formula grants. And as a result of those efforts entering 2022, Metro had reduced the number of buses beyond its useful life to 17, which was a huge reduction. However, we're about to see a coming wave of buses reaching their useful life. And so by the FY23, we expect the number to jump back up to 30 or the number will jump back up to 35. And by FY28, it'll reach 61 to complicate things or to make things more expensive, I should say because of the CARB's innovative clean transit regulation. I just wondering. Future bus purchases will be more expensive, frankly, as we transition to zero emission technology in the future. And so staff is recommending that this year, we use commit FY22, 5307 funding, which Metro normally uses for operations expenses, but it's eligible for capital that we commit that towards funding the bus replacement fund this year. We're not committing today towards any explicit purchases or even technology, whether it's CMG replacements, electric or hydrogen, we'll bring those requests back to the board in the future. But this is a request to commit, again, these 537 funds towards bus purchases. And I'd be happy to take any questions if there are on the side. I see Director Rockins saying it. Again, I have a brief comment. First of all, it used to be that the federal government to find a useful life of a bus is 12 years. Under the Trump administration, they moved it to 14, not because of any changes in technology, but just because it meant that you have to force to keep your buses longer. And that of course increases your maintenance costs and problems and breakdowns on the road and so forth. But maybe more importantly, I assume other directors get the same emails I do. Members of the public that ask, why are you buying anything other than electric buses? I mean, you're buying some CMG buses. And the reason is, Staff will correct me if I got the numbers wrong, but a CMG bus costs something like $700,000 each, which is a staggering number for many people like myself. But an electric bus costs something like $1.2 million each. And we don't have the money to simply buy all electric buses or we'd have to actually cut back our service on the road. And so what we have is a plan that moves more and more towards electric and we'll meet the state guidelines for being completely electric before their deadline, not right after deadline, but before it, but it's a way to keep us operating while we're moving there and stuff, but eventually end up with the electric buses we need. We simply can't afford to just only buy electric buses or we'd be in a position where we'd have to start cutting routes because we wouldn't have buses to service our existing routes. So I think it's a reasonable plan. We're doing our best to comply with it and ultimately comes down to the economics of it. If we hadn't the money, we would buy all electric buses. We just don't have that kind of funding. Thank you, Director McPherson. Bruce, you're still muted. The amount, you didn't mention the exact amount from committed 50 or 5307. What's the exact amount just for the public to know? It's $11 million. $11 million, okay. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none from the board, is there any comment from the public? I see no hands. Through the staff recommendation. Second. Motion Rockin, second McPherson. Any other roll call vote? Director Brown. Aye. Director Downing. Aye. Director Dutra. Aye. Director Koenig. Aye. Director Lynn. Aye. Director McPherson. Aye. Director Myers. Aye. Director Pagler. Aye. Director Parker. Yes. And Director Rockin. Aye. And the motion passes. Very good. Thank you. Next item, number 11, consideration of issuing a formal request for proposals for the South County Zero Emissions Facility. That is with one to move. I'm gonna take this one too. Okay, thank you, John. Planning and Development Director, since I already have the mic. So somewhat related to the previous item, this, in here we're asking that the board consider authorization, authorizing the purchasing manager to issue a formal request for proposals for the South County Zero Emissions Operating and Maintenance Facility, phase one planning project. As mentioned in the previous item in December 2018, the California Air Resources Board adopted the Innovative Clean Transit Regulation, which mandates starting in 2026 and escalating percentage is 25% in 2026 and 100% starting in 2028 of future bus procurements being zero emission. The initial planning that Metro has done and that's included in our CAR-ICT rollout plan indicates that our existing facility at JKS is just simply not big enough to accommodate future zero emission buses and charging or fueling technology. What this plan attempts to do is to look for sites in South County for a potential South County Zero Emission Operating and Maintenance Facility so that we can meet the, fully meet the CAR-ICT regulation. So we're requesting with this a million dollars to conduct this planning to develop, to identify potential sites, conduct environmental clearance and conceptual and preliminary design so that we can then be in an excellent position to pursue federal grant funding for construction and final construction. That concludes my presentation. I got a good question from the board. Jimmy. Director, do a trip, please. You can call me Jimmy, it's fine. I like director. You know, I'm really supportive of this. I think that a lot of times we have big grand ideas and we don't really ever push forward with them. So I think this is really an opportunity to capitalize on the grant funding that we could get for this facility, which we are primed to receive. And so it'd be nice to have this facility down in South County and continue moving forward with an environmentally positive fleet for Metro. So I would be very supportive of this and would love to make a motion to pass it. Second the motion. Yeah, we have a motion from director Dutra, second from Myers. Other questions or comments? Just a public. We're about to go there. Public, I'm looking to see. I see no hands from our public. I think we're ready for another roll call. But we're rolling through this meeting, aren't we? Don Jynx it. No, I don't want to. All right, Donna. Let's roll call. Director Brown. Aye. Director Downing. Aye. Director Dutra. Aye. Director Koenig. Aye. Director Lin. Aye. Director McPherson. Aye. Director Myers. Aye. Director Pagler. Aye. Director Parker. Yes. And Director Rockin. Aye. And the motion passes. Very good. All right. Item 12, request to fund the HR analyst position and defund the benefits. This is from Don, I believe. Take it away. Good morning, everyone. Don Cremé, HR director. And I'm here to talk to you about funding an additional HR analyst. It's not an extra position. My benefits technician has resigned and accepted employment. So she's really excited about at another agency, which we're sad about. But so she's left us this week. And so what I've done, what I want to do is defund the benefits technician position and fund another HR analyst position. And then that position would focus, their main focus would be on benefits. So this is the same thing I did with my last position. And the reason is to get more of a generalized position that can help out in each area. So recruitment, compensation, benefits. And so that's what I'm doing here with this position. Again, not an additional position. I'd be defunding the benefits technician position and moving the funding over to the HR analyst position. That is it in a nutshell, and I can answer any questions if you have any. Questions from the board. All right, what are the comparable costs? Is the new position more expensive than the other? I assume it will be a little more expensive because if you're looking for general focus. Yes, it is a little bit of a higher paying position. So there would be a bit more cost. And I can get that for you. 13.8, 13.8,000 increase in FY23. And that's assuming that we hire somebody in at a step one. So that would be the additional for next year. For this year, it's actually a savings because the year is almost over. Thank you. Any other questions? Can we have a motion or moving forward? I would move and I appreciate that creative thinking. And I think right now with everything you're dealing with having someone more generals going to be helpful and especially with the hiring and recruitment and everything that you're involved with right now. So that's a good plan and I move approval. Second. Right, we had a motion from director Lynn I believe a second from McPherson. Yes. Thank you. Donna. All right, director Brown. Aye. Director Downing. Aye. Director Dutra. Aye. Director Koenig. Aye. Director Lind. Aye. Director McPherson. Aye. Director Myers. Aye. Director Pagler. Aye. Director Parker. Yes. And director Rockin. Aye. And the motion passes. Thank you all. Thank you. That brings us to the CEO's oral report. Dawn, give us the news. Good morning. Hello again, Dawn Creme, this time interim CEO. This is my last day of my interim CEO reign. As you know, Mr. Michael Tree will be starting on Monday. We're all super excited about it. Ran into some people here at CalAC that actually came up to me to let me know how great of a guy he was and how excited I should be and all of that. So that was really nice to hear. And yeah, so I enjoyed my reign. First woman CEO in history at Santa Cruz Metro. So it was really nice to hold that even though it was interim. So thank you all for your support. It meant a lot to me. And yeah, so moving along, we also have some new hire, additional new hires coming on that I'd like to announce that actually started last month. So we've got Elizabeth Rocha Rocha and she's our new administrative specialist reporting into Dawn of Hour. She started with us on March 28th. We've got Mike Montes who promoted to Elite Parks and Materials Clerk from a Parks and Materials Clerk. So he promoted on April 8th. And then we've also got Mariano Bernal. He was previously in a provisional position for us doing IT support and he actually was chosen for the provisional information technology project coordinator to help with our ERP project over the next couple of years. We've got a new hire in HR. Her name is Amidia Frederick. She's our new HR analyst and she started on the 18th. We've also got a new Parks and Materials Clerk, Jesse Diaz who started on April 18th. And then Renee Lopez, Facilities Maintenance Worker 2 who started on the 18th. So congratulations to all of our new hires and our promotion, that's awesome. We love to see that. Wanted to give just some updates of what's going on. So Santa Cruz County leadership started back a week or two ago, I believe. I don't know the exact date, but they started back up. So if you remember, they were in the middle of class 35 when COVID hit. So then everything got shut down and I think they were only able to attend two of their classes. So they've started back up and that's wonderful. If any of you on here have attended that program, it's great, I did that. Class 34, I think it's the best class. And so it just takes you all over Santa Cruz County and you just learn everything. And if so, if you're not a native of Santa Cruz County and don't know a whole lot about it, going through that program is really wonderful. Metro is involved because we provide the buses for I think three of those field trips. And so with that, we have two or three of our employees that get to attend that every year that they run it. So that's really nice. As it was mentioned earlier today is Earth Day. We are offering free rides in conjunction with Earth Day. We are also setting up a booth today at noon at the Metro Transit Center just to hand out some information and see if we can get some traffic there and get the word out for Earth Day. We do have a new tenant in our Watsonville Transit Center, global roasting coffee. They serve iced coffee and coffee beans and they mostly serve to the police officers down there but now they're located in our transit center. So please stop by and grab some coffee. We do have a bus operator class starting on the 25th and I believe we have six operators starting. I could be, is it six? Okay, that's five, but I believe it's six. So we're excited about that and everybody just keep the fingers crossed that I can report out or that Michael can report out later on that we had six graduates from that class. I was really excited to announce today that we had no COVID positives but every time I do that I jinx myself and so we've had one positive for COVID in the last 30 days, which is still amazing. So we're doing great there. As you know, the mask mandate was lifted as of 419 and so we have changed our signage to recommended. We are still recommending that people wear masks and we're still requiring it for unvaccinated folks. The last thing I wanna give an update on is SB 957. So if you, as you remember, the board gave direction to staff last month to agendize this at a later time, which was in June when our new CEO was here. However, the Senator, the legislation is moving forward. It's moving forward faster than any of us expected. So there will be a hearing on March 26th instant in the Senate Standing Committee on Judiciary. As you know, Metro management does oppose this bill but it is moving forward before we are able to get it on the agenda. And once we are under that, the perp jurisdiction, there is no going back out of that. So just want to give you an update that that is moving forward. And that's all I have for today and I can answer any questions on any of that stuff that I rambled really fast through. I see hands up, but do I call on them or Larry? I'm sorry, I just had an internet lip and went off for about five seconds. Director McPherson. Yeah, I just want to thank you for the report, Don. And I just want to say thank you for an extraordinarily well done job in the interim. And there's some challenging circumstances that you were in with our CEO leaving and so forth. You did a fantastic job and it's much appreciated. Really, you steered the ship right in the right direction. So thank you very much for everything you've done. It's much appreciated. Thank you. That means so much. Thanks so much. Director Lin, you're muted, Donna. Thank you. I wanted to share my appreciation as well. I totally agree, Don, you've just done an outstanding job and I worried when some of the challenges were happening that you were going to step aside and say, never mind, but you hung in there and you really did handle everything just and communicated so well with all of us. It was just a pleasure to work with you and really cool to know you're the first female CEO and Metro, congratulations. Thank you. So, and I also had noticed and wanted to acknowledge I appreciate Michael Tree being here. And even before his first day, he's been meeting with the unions. I know you've shared that he's been doing very, very proactive and that just adds to our confidence and appreciate your coordinating with him and you're working that too. So, thanks so much. Thank you. Director Jimmy. I just want to say thank you, Don, for stepping in. You know, you did a great job. Okay, your face just moved somewhere else. Okay, there it is. You did a great job and you're so thorough and you really gave detailed reports. I really appreciate that. And I just got to know you a little bit more in person because we haven't ever met in person and it was nice to meet you at our, I guess, executive pre-agenda meeting. And so good, you're such a, you're a good asset to our organization and you'll be around. And who knows, one day you may be back as the CEO. Yeah, yeah, no, but thank you. Director Myers. I just want to say thanks to Don. Just, it was a quick transition so I'm really, really thankful that you stepped up and helped us guide us through some complicated things. And so I just want to say thank you and congratulations. I'm going back to your real job. Thank you very much. Just to kind of, you know, again, I could not do it without everyone on staff. There's absolutely no way I would have been successful at all. Everyone, the planning department, marketing, IT, finance, just everybody. Anytime that I didn't know the answer I could go to somebody, operations. You know, I go and ask, hey, what are we doing here? What do I do here? And really if I didn't have the help of everyone kind of giving me the tools and the information I needed I wouldn't have been successful. So I really do owe all of that success to everyone else, all of the other management team at Metro. And I want to echo that as well, Donna. It's been a pleasure working with you. Your attentiveness, your friendliness have all been very welcome. I appreciate all your efforts during this time. Congratulations and enjoy your job. Yeah, thanks so much. Director Rockin. I just wanted to add my praise as well. I don't know if the public understands how complex an organization the transit district is, but having somebody step in really quickly and take over the whole thing and make it run smoothly it should not be taken for granted. It was a really wonderful job. Thanks for your work. Thank you. James Sandoval, I see your hand up. Thank you, Larry. Thank you for your report, Don. I just wanted to mention in regards to SB 957 the reason why it's moving really quickly from my understanding is because there's a lot of support on it. The latest supporters are from the American Federation of State, from the AFL-CIO, the California Labor Federation, the California Teamsters, many other unions, including the Monterey Base Central Labor Council, and it's just because it's John Laird. I mean, he's one of the best California state senators from my understanding and got a lot of credibility in the legislature. So for him to carry our bill, that's why it's moving forward. And as far as I'm concerned, there's been no formal opposition or any opposition on this bill, nothing but support. And I don't know of any managers really opposing this from my understanding. But if there is, I haven't heard of it other than the recommendation at the last board meeting. But I'm just hoping to continue that support because it's really important and vital for us to have some recourse where we could resolve issues. So I just wanted to speak into why it's moving forward so quickly. Thank you, James. And Director Brown. Thank you. I just wanted to jump in to also echo the gratitude for Don and all the work that you've done in stepping into this role and keeping the bus rolling, so to speak. So thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Any further comments? I see no hands are waving from your windows. But that takes us to the end of this meeting. Announcement of the next meeting. Well, I guess so. Friday, our next meeting is Friday, May 20 at 9 AM via teleconference once more. And with that, we're adjourning in only 42 minutes. Yeah, I think you should be chair next year too. Well, I don't know about that, Bruce. I will offer that I'm still trying to find out whether I will be able to communicate from Michigan during our May meeting and do this. I may have to call on Director Jimmy to take my place if I can't get a good connection. Oh, Jimmy moves pretty quick through the agenda too, so we're good. I know several other directors who enjoy getting through a meeting rapidly. Erin, can you come help with my city council with that? No. Please no. No. All right, I wish you all a happy Friday. Enjoy Earth Day and the weekend, and we'll meet again soon. Thank you. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. You too. Thank you, Dawn. You're welcome. Call me. Recording stopped.