 Good morning. Welcome to the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District meeting for September 25th, 2020 We'll begin with the roll call, please Thanks a lot. I get this together sometimes Gina, are you there? She's mute on Alex. You guys are new. You guys are muted. Gina. You have to unmute yourself. Alex is muting me I never mute myself I don't mute myself. Alex. Good morning. We'll begin with a roll call, please. Thank you Dr. Bautra here Dr. Copping them as present. Dr. Gonzales Dr. Leopold Dr. Lynn, Dr. Matthews here Dr. McPherson here Dr. Myers here Dr. Pegler here Exefecio Director Rathbaugh Here Director Ratkin here Exefecio Director Northpam here We have a quorum we're going to begin We're on a zoom call this morning obviously and if there are members of the public on the call This is to let you know We're gonna do our best to make our meeting accessible to you To recognize people and make sure that everybody who wants to speak to us has an opportunity to do so I'm not sure there's anybody on the line right now, but we'll know soon enough the first thing to announce is that this meeting is being broadcast and Or the whole zoom call organized by community television of Santa Cruz County We want to thank them for their work without them. We'd have a hard time pulling this together. I'm sure The members of the board have comments for the board members and the public that are on items not on this morning's agenda I don't see any hand. Mr. Chair. I don't see any hands either Okay, if you want to maybe let the public know About the hand feature I'm gonna suggest unless this with the staff have a problem if we have people raise their hands simply by putting them up By their head or they as opposed to using the formal hand feature What do you think? So for everybody on the panelist side, you'll be able to see their hands But in the public attendee side, they'll have to use the hand-raising feature in zoom Okay Then and I should also report this meeting is being recorded I think Okay, well in that case you can raise your hand either way and we'll take enough pauses to make sure we capture anybody who'd like to speak to us Mike, can I just this is Donna linds? Yes, I had trouble with my audio initially. So I am here for roll call I think I missed my eye are here. Thank you. That's noted now and John Leopold is here as well I think he missed the roll call as well Okay This is now an opportunity for members of the public if there are any online with us to Give us comments on items related to transit, but that are not on this morning's agenda. Are there any such comments for us? I don't see any Don't see any hands. Mr. Chair. Wait just a moment. I We last meeting we had a couple people came a little late for our communication and we'll once again give people an opportunity to speak if they've gotten online Okay This is an opportunity for labor organizations to give us comments on items that are not on this morning's agenda Are there any comments from labor organizations the unions that represent our workers? Mr. Chair, you have mr. Sandoval James good morning. Give us your comment. Good morning. Everyone can hear me. Yes, we can. Thank you All right, thank you. I just wanted to make sure everybody saw that article yesterday that came out from the county health department indicating that Santa Cruz County is on a horrible upwards trend for COVID-19 cases Well, they're actually saying Director Mimi Hall and I quote said we're in such a concerning place right now Our epidemic curve is going up dramatically and when you compare how exponential our spread is we're one of the worst performing counties in the state right now So I haven't heard anything indicating that we're gonna relax on any of our precautionary measures I just wanted to make sure we keep that in mind moving forward and we continue working together. Thank you Thanks for your comment. Are there other comments from labor organizations or representatives of labor organizations this morning? I See any mr. Chair Okay Do we have any additional documentation for existing items other changes to the agenda? There are none. Mr. Chair. Thank you Written comments from the Metro Advisory Committee, I didn't see any when I went through the packet There are none. Okay. We are now at the consent agenda This is a item in which we'll take a number of items all of which are numbered nine dash something nine dash one through nine dash ten I believe and We're gonna take one all these together in one single action unless somebody wants to pull one of these all one of the Board members wants to pull one of these offer further comment and discussion Let me ask first if there are Any members of the board would like to pull an item from the consent agenda. I see none Are there any brief comments Cynthia Matthews when support have a comment on one of the items? Go ahead. I don't want to pull anything but Alex maybe when you get into your comment I just like a little more background on the enterprise resource planning thing. I'm I'm not suspicious of it I just want to know a little bit more about it. So Okay, there's a request for a direct CEO's report to cover an item any other brief comments John Leopold Well, I was also going to just comment on that enterprise item I was surprised to find out that we still use a system that Depends on take backup and so I was glad to see us moving forward to move in to the 21st century with our systems and so It's always a good reminder that we the back line of This organization sometimes is using the latest tools and I appreciate appreciate us moving forward to getting those Thanks, any other brief comments or items to pull I don't see any Let me ask for a motion then to approve the entire consent agenda so moved Was moved by John Leopold and I didn't catch the second I think Donald in Second second from her State regulations require us to have a roll call vote on each of these motions. So we'll have a roll call, please Okay, I'm glad somebody's having fun. That's Dr. Kaufman Gomez Dr. Gonzalez Yes, Dr. Leopold. Hi Dr. Lynn. Hi Matthews hi I Dr. Myers Dr. Pegler. Hi Dr. Roswell. Hi Dr. Rackin. Hi We have for him. I mean we have it passed That carries unanimously. Thank you Now we're to the regular agenda and the first item is Appreciation of retiree and Vicki Trent is retiring and I'd like to read a resolution which I will then I assume I'm going to take the optimism of assuming will pass after I read it Resolution reads This is a resolution of appreciation for the services of Vicki Trent as a bus operator for the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District Whereas the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District or Metro was formed to provide public Transportation to all of the residents of Santa Cruz County and whereas the provision of public transportation services requires a competent dedicated workforce and whereas Metro requiring Recording employee with expertise and dedication appointed Vicki Trent to serve in the position of bus operator and Whereas she served as a member of the operations Department of Metro for the time periods of January 3rd 1978 to May 31st 1995 and March 6th 2017 this September 19 2020 And whereas Vicki Trent provided Metro with dedicated service and commitment during the time of employment And whereas Vicki Trent served Metro with distinction And whereas the service provided to the residents of Santa Cruz County by Vicki Trent resulted in a reliable quality public Transportation being available in the most difficult of times and Whereas during the time of Ms. Trent's service Metro improved existing facilities build new operating facilities Converted the fleet to a CNG propulsion system Developed accessible bus stops improved ridership responded to adverse economic conditions Assumed direct operational responsibility for the highway 17 Express service and the Amtrak connector service and assumed direct operational responsibility for Perak who service and Whereas the quality of life in Santa Cruz County was improved dramatically as a result of the exemplary service Provided by Vicki Trent now therefore be it resolved that upon her retirement as bus operator the Board of Directors of Metro Is hereby commender efforts in advancing public transit service in Santa Cruz County and expresses concern appreciation on behalf of itself Metro staff and all the residents of Santa Cruz County Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be entered into the official records of the Santa Cruz metropolitan transit district And now I'm looking for a motion on this resolution So moved most moved by John Leopold Matthews Are there any comments in addition? You can't hand a plaque over as we would typically do if we were in person, but I'm sure that one will be delivered And let's now have a roll call vote on this motion Dr. Batoff hi Dr. Kaufman Gomez Dr. Gonzalez hi Dr. Leopold hi, Dr. Lynn. Hi Dr. Matthews I Dr. McPherson hi, Dr. Myers hi Peter I Dr. Oswell Hi Dr. Rutkin hi unanimous again Thank you Our next item is the CEO's role report Alex you're on. Thank you, Mr. Chair directors Happy Friday Couple of items here for you just in the way of new hires and promotions. We had Adrienne Jenkins are our new senior accounting technician She's helping us out over in the Vehicle maintenance area. She will be Replacing Don Martin who as you may recall actually started off in the CEO's office and then promoted Don is going to be retiring and we're going to miss her. She's been a fabulous employee At the committees I Briefly talked a little bit about our updated two-year modeling of the COVID reserves, you might recall that as a result of the CARES Act We were able to identify additional revenues from the prior fiscal year in which we could place those revenues Into what you called what we all called a COVID bucket That will help try to sustain us through this crisis for as long as possible And the most recent update taking into consideration the most recent sales tax numbers Do actually reflect reflect quite a bit of optimism about that bucket being able to help us sustain Ourself through the end of 2021 Now I will tell you the same Asterix and caveats that we told the committee that is today. It is a very quick and narrow snapshot That could change very rapidly And let me just give you a couple examples When the next set of sales tax revenues sales revenues come in Which will reflect the period of time following the six hundred dollar weekly federal unemployment augmentation You know we can at least we speculate right now That those revenues will be Significantly lower if that materializes Then that gets plugged into the model and the date in which the funds are exhausted moves closer to today Potentially in a very significant way and then as that occurs from month to month going forward the model continues to be adjusted Equally if UCSC does not return say in the spring and Continues to do a significant number of their courses online They will probably not have a need to purchase back the services that they had pre-covid That would get plugged into the model right now the model is optimistic that they're coming back and buying their services back Early next year. So all those caveats taken Thank you cares act Hopefully we'll be able to continue to sustain ourselves and everyone hopes that As we sustain ourselves at current levels the economy recovers at some point in a robust way The other thing that I talked at committee about was FEMA You know we sort of had an unlimited ability up until recently to Identify FEMA qualifying expenses and to prepare to submit for those reimbursements through the FEMA program For about I think it's either 75 or 80 percent reimbursement level However, as a result of one of the president's initiatives recently That has changed in a very dramatic way What the president has done is to shift money out of the FEMA program Over into a number of his programs that he identified recently including his proposal for Federal augmentation at a lower than previous level for those unemployed So what that resulted in is? Trans transit no longer qualifying for reimbursement after September 15 So they will allow us to submit for reimbursements as we showed you last month I believe it was somewhere in the 200,000 200 300,000 range But we will not be able to accrue any other FEMA qualifying expenses because there is no more money The transit qualifies for in the FEMA program after September 15th So how did that impact us? Well for us it it impacts us obviously because we anticipated continuing to accrue expenses against Potential reimbursements from the FEMA program, but we were also working on moving from the temporary clear plastic curtain bus operator Curtain as you know that we installed in all the buses to a permanent plexiglass concept and we were hoping to get 75 80% of that funded through the FEMA program. We will now have to figure out a way to do that Self-funded because we will be able to put it through the FEMA program and then lastly you had Requested earlier that I talked just briefly about the ERP the enterprise resource system and This started out as you probably will recall from the past several years when we've been talking about our FIS system our financial information system and how antiquated it is and how It just has no flexibility and it forces us to continue to be highly spreadsheet based and and I know From experience agencies get themselves in trouble when they are too dependent on spreadsheets You really need to have your financial system in in an enterprise system. We're in a program So we started on this journey several years back It's had some fits and starts because we've had some financial challenges And then at some point you allowed some money to be identified to bring us a consultant Abort as we got closer to this item that you have before you We started thinking about it more broadly that is we have other Antiquated systems systems that don't talk to each other systems that are no longer Supported by their vendor or we're unnoticed will not be supported by the vendor So we've expanded this item To the enterprise level so that we look at all of those systems with this consultant's help and Identify which ones are the highest priority it may not be that FIS is the first one we should launch So that consultant will help us identify which ones are the highest priority And the order that we should implement them and and the way that we implement them So that once we start down that road when we get to the end We don't end up with antiquated systems that we've put in place a year or two or three earlier, right? So they'll help us with that and then and then in parallel with that We of course have to identify the money to support the purchases of those modules Could be one or two a year that are implemented could be one We'll see we need this expertise that we do not have in-house to come in and help us Through this item that consultant will help guide us through the entire process That is looking at what we need helping us to develop the scope of work for a future procurement um Most important to this process is that you look at process Changes what you would have what I mean by that is you don't want to buy systems and then Customize them to your current processes. That's a nightmare And agencies make mistakes when they do that you will always have some level of customizations But our our Participation here is that along this journey we will revise our Processes to the greatest extent possible so that we can adjust our processes to what you would call quote the off-the-shelf software So that's that's the journey that we're on they'll help us with the scope of work They'll help us with the evaluating respondents. They'll help us with the implementation And as you know from your experiences at your agencies when you get to that implementation stage, that's a real important Process because you want to make sure you're running your two systems side-by-side before you turn off your old system in order to avoid any kind of catastrophe So that's that's in a nutshell why we need this kind of expertise help us guide through what is going to be a multi-year Process towards a new ERP Thank you. Are there questions about this program from any of the board members? No, but I I really appreciate that just from the report it looked like there were a whole lot of inadequate systems So you can you just give us a rough timeline to the RFP choosing to consult and any idea of a fall apart Contract amount Let me put that to Angela and see if she has a preliminary idea or Isaac Are we waiting you're gonna get back to us. I was just looking for Angela to comment on that. She might be having audio She's in the forest up there, so I think you want to jump in what she works on her audio Okay, well Are we asking about the timeline on the initial? The procurement for the the consultants or the entire project I was thinking initially just to get it going Okay, well consult, etc. Well, we already have a scope put together So, you know that that's a that's a major element is to get that scope built out and the rest of it is just Getting on the street with procurement. So I'm guessing we're looking at it probably 60 days And at that point then we can initiate and any idea of ballpark what you're looking at just curious For the contract for the contract. Well, we're looking at We don't envision it exceeding 50,000 at this point Yeah, yeah But but it could so if it does we'll come back and talk to the board about that and make some recommendations And then mr. Chair before I give up the microphone I just wanted to do one last item at the capital committee. I think a director Matthews had requested that we Introduced Sandy Woods. I think we introduced her on paper to you previously but not in person and Sandy Woods our newest Project manager is here and and on screen. Hi, Sandy Walk, I've been running your money Sandy will help us help guide us through the implementation of numerous projects and help us to try to Expend grant funds in a timely fashion so that we can compete better for future grants Thank you. Thanks for the CEO of Alex our next Item and in fact the next two items have to do with our representation in Sacramento and Washington, DC as a Board member certainly know and most members of the public. I assume. No, but perhaps not We do not Operate the system based solely upon the fairs paid by our riders We're heavily dependent upon public funding locally at the state and the federal level. We're well represented by Josh Shaw and Michael Pimento who come and tell who are here this morning to give us an update on what's going on in Sacramento We are often Hemmed in by Sacramento required to do things Without having funding is supported and so forth and it's critical that we have representation to Help us make sure that we don't have we don't get Stripped of funds that we absolutely need and and I get the funds that we do need out of Sacramento So let's have our California lobbying report in effect. We really appreciate your work And I want to hear from you this morning about what's going on in Sacramento. Mr. Chair I'm sorry to pre-empt Josh real quick. Yeah, can we just double back? We neglected to do the public comment on the CEO come Comments. Oh, thank you. Sorry Josh. Just a moment. Sorry Josh The public like to comment on anything that CEO Alex Clifford just told us I Don't see any hands. Mr. Chair. Thank you. Sorry. Go ahead All right. Good morning. Thank you chair rock and good morning board members Josh Shaw here on your state legislative Advocacy team calling in from Sacramento and I am here as the chair mentioned With my colleague Michael Pimentel whose integral to our firms transit practice here in Sacramento Sounds like Michael might be on mute Yes, good morning. I'm gonna miss your chair and board members Michael Pimentel Let's sit about a kid with Shaw. You're the intuition I'll remain. I really do appreciate the opportunity to be before you here today Good to meet you. So board so board members As we begin today's quick discussion and legislative wrap-up on the state Legislative affairs, I just want to remind you of the obvious but with a little extra spin on it the unprecedented and truly historic nature of the pandemic and its effect on all sectors public private and non-profit included an adverse impact on the state's Legislative and executive procedures and processes for instance when Michael and I last saw you at your February board meeting in Santa Cruz It was the beginning of a year times were significantly different. We were full of energy interacted with you and board members on a whole suite of expectations for the Final year of the 2019 2020 to your legislative sessions. We were expecting a healthy state budget Strong transit funding as the chair mentioned in his opening remarks to our item here We were preparing to engage for Santa Cruz Metro on several high visibility bills impacting public transit whether Adversely or opportunities that we saw for transit to help you do your job Even better Including for instance three bills that we focused on and interacted with you quite a bit I remember several board members made a lot of comments about a package of bills that would have mandated essentially fair fee fair free transit free transit for a certain number of ridership demographics, whether students or older Californians, etc. Of course in as soon as we got back from your February board meeting a week or two into March The shelter at home order because the pandemic had hit California and hit hard Forcing legislative leadership to temporarily suspend the legislators Session the legislative session by way of first and extended spring recess when they figured out Can we come back to Sacramento and meet as a group? Would it be socially distant? That can we do calls to legislate like this? So they took a long time to figure that out Later they did come back after an extended summer recess and by July Did return to carry out the work of the people But all of that undermined our usual expectations thwarted movement on a whole range of measures touching a bunch of policy sectors Including public transit Basically anything unrelated to covet 19 almost anything was as a set aside But after fits and starts the legislature did return to Sacramento in late summer and carried out its business And with that compressed legislative timeline a shakier state budget the fair free transit bills as a for instance Like many other bills impacting transit at the time were put on hold for 2020 What emerged then was really a singular focus on the covet 19 pandemic and various forms of relief Including a raft of new bills many bills were gutted and amended in july when they came back If we had told you it was about one thing and January program our triple major in July All of a sudden in July with two months left in the session a bunch of bills got turned into something completely unrelated Often with a focus on covet 19 to assist in some kind of recovery In terms of the view of the legislators Reintroducing those new bills. So on behalf of sander who's metro We engaged with your state delegations specifically and regularly and with others of course in legislative leadership positions What a budgetary or policy with overseeing the transit world to Try to Generate momentum for some additional relief for public transit We saw early and obviously that there would be passenger fare declines across the state and at metro And then you would be worried about your sales tax declines after that Unlike what chris and his colleagues were able to achieve in washington dc uh When we at first thought there was some promise for relief coming out of the state legislature As a result of the pandemic And despite our push and our documentation for your delegation. We work with alex and angela and daniella and wanamoo to to Frame up the particular challenge facing sander chris transit as a bunch of transit agencies Of course, we're doing across the state despite all that push The legislature essentially punted on any further discussions on any new state expenditures For the most part any new covet relief for any sector Public or private much less public transit. So ultimately the legislature did adjourn late the night of august 31st That's the usual Adjournment day for an even number of years like this when there's a general election coming up in november They did send hundreds of bills to the governor for his action whether veto or signature by the way The amount of bills they sent is about 75 lower than You know the data would show in any normal decade. So it was a constrained year The governor still has five days left in this month to act on some of the bills Including a couple of the transit bills that michael's going to talk about And then just as a preview of course following the november general election a new class of legislators the 2021 through 2022 class Which will include mostly returnees and incumbents, but some newly elected Legislators will be sent to sacramental for the first time They'll come back to sacramental on december 7th for a quick organizing session They go home then for the rest of the calendar year Come back to sacramental where we will see them in january to formally start the work of the 2021 2022 legislative session I'm going to turn it over to michael pennantel right now To briefly touch on some of the bills that arose brand new that were not even in print when we last saw you in February that had some impacts on public transit Thanks, josh. Yeah, so thank you so much. Josh for for that tea up and in board members As josh noted when the pandemic hit sacramental Nearly all the legislative efforts were refocused on covid-19 response and recovery One such recovery measure introduced in the legislature and now on the governor's desk is sp288 Which creates a series of new statutory Exemptions from sequa for various transit project types now We engaged on this bill to see included a new language to exempt from sequa Charging and refueling infrastructure for zero emission buses Now this should help greatly in easing the administrative burden and costs of these projects and ultimately should support metro's long-term transition to zero emission bus technologies as mandated by ARB's innovative clean transit regulation Now on the response front We did see three measures introduced related to expanding access to workers compensation Now these measures pursued at the behest of our brothers and sisters in labor Would create new presumptions essentially lower proof thresholds for claiming covid-19 infections are work related And to ultimately accessing workers compensation benefits This measure before usb 1159 Would create a new rebuttable presumption Which would shift the burden of proof for disputing filed claims to the employer Now as a result of several of the amendments we pursued This new presumption is one that would be made contingent on an employer facing an outbreak Of covid-19 at their specific place of employment Now the traction of sb 1159 meant that necessarily that one competing measure maybe 196 Which would have created a conclusive presumption for covid-19 related workers compensation claims Was held in the senate now had that bill passed and it's been signed by governor Newsom It would have established as a matter of law that all covid-19 Related i'm sorry all covid-19 infections That were experienced by employees while at work are inherently work related but again That measure was held in the senate not under consideration by governor Newsom Now finally Now finally we didn't well we didn't secure funding this year For transit agencies as part of the state's ongoing work We did secure a series of meaningful statutory and regulatory relief measures through two rounds of budget action These measures include several that were directly shaped By ceo and general manager elec slipper the better aligned with metro specific needs and i'll highlight just a few of them But just know that there were A series of measures That are on your screen that we did pursue in in total So measures that i'll highlight include the suspension of the financial penalties for non-compliance With tda and sta's efficiency criteria Give you one explicit example We did manage to secure a suspension of the financial penalties related to non-compliance with farebox recovery ratios We know that for many transit agencies today Particularly as you have waived fares that has created some challenges for agencies Meeting their farebox recovery requirements We did also secure some new flexibility in the use of the state's state of good repair program fund Allowing these funds which have typically been used for capital projects to now be used to explicitly save Transit service that would otherwise be cut as a result of cova 19 impact on your operating budget We were also able to secure an extension of the use Of low carbon transit operations fund and this was a specific request of ellie. I'm sorry Then a cruise metro as they were considering The the use of funds that had been previously awarded to them and then very finally i'll highlight deadline extension for the submission of Dev rollout plans that are mandated by the innovative clean transit regulation And i'll now hand things back to joshua to touch Let me ask what are zeb the rollout plans Yes, sure thing. So as part of the innovative clean transit rule, there are series of requirements for facilitating the transition to zero mission bus technologies That starts with the requirement that transit agencies submit a zero mission bus transition plan And that transition plan is meant to outline their schedule And the technologies that would be used for meeting the requirements of the ict regulation Now the specific release measures that we secured is one that would actually impact the largest agencies in our state That would delay the requirement for them to submit their plan What we do fully anticipate that is part of our ongoing discussions around statutory and regulatory release One of the things that we would pursue when the time is right Would be similar relief for the smaller agencies like Santa Cruz metro that would be charged with submitting the rollout plans come 2020 Thank you. Thanks for that clarification No problem. So at this time i'll hand things back to joshua to Close up the discussion and to touch on the funding landscape here in sacrament Thanks for your work, michael. We appreciate it Sure thing. Thank you Josh you're on mute still on mute josh jenna. Can you unmute him by chance? No, we can't he has to unmute himself josh you have to unmute yourself You can only tell him that he needs to unmute himself He may be having technical problems We'll wait a moment. This is the COVID-19 environment So mr. Sheriff if you don't mind I can handle the remainder of this presentation. Okay, please do So board members I will highlight that as part of the this year's Regular legislative session We were laser focused on the impacts of COVID-19 on the operating budgets of transit agencies And one of the clear impacts that we did see was that Several of the state's primary funding programs that impact public transit. You did see some significant decline in funding Now these are these are declines that are the result not necessarily of any specific actions the state took Or rather just the underlying fundamentals of the economy So for example, we're looking at the state transit assistance program Which is funded by diesel sales taxes and the transportation development act Which is funded by a quarter cent sales tax applied to all sales of any goods during the state of california As the economy has slowed down we've seen declines in those revenues by the same token We've also seen significant decline in the revenues that the state's cap and trade program has brought it And that is the result of just decreased economic activity And as a result that has created significant uncertainty Around the state of the cap and trade market as a result the state did punt on taking any action As cap and trade trade expenditure plan for this year But there are some brief glimmers of hope that the economic landscape here in the state of california are improving And and to highlight just some of the the factors that we are seeing we are seeing an uptake An uptake rather in economic activity across the state State is bringing in more revenues than it that than were anticipated with regards to sales taxes and with regards to income taxes And we expect that we'll know more about the state's budget outlook when it comes To the governor's newly released budget in january and so we'll report to you later In in 2021 to really highlight for you what the pandemic's true impact was on transit budgets as it relates to state funding program And my Michael let me jump in before we open up for questions. Mr. Chair. I will note. There was some Specific transit good news earlier this week as it turns out the timing is great Day before yesterday. I'm sure you all saw the press that governor Newsom announced a sweeping new package of measures Intending to combat climate change during his press conference standing next to the area sources board chairwoman Governor Newsom mentioned the role of public transit The board the car board chair mentioned the regulation mr. Chair that you asked about And and that michael responded on and noted that the state has got to help and partner with transit agencies to not only accomplish Their requirement to convert all transit buses to zero emissions as part of the effort to combat climate change But moreover she said the more important thing the state has to do is help transit agencies expand service come up and out of this Pandemic return to at least where we were in serving our public if not go Way beyond that to provide even more and better public transit for all to to really contribute to the state's effort to Combat climate change. So that's our presentation for sacramento. We are happy to answer any questions Are their first questions from board members on the situation in sacramento I'm not seeing More now Like this bruce You said I think they said that some capital money it will now be okay for I think operations That wasn't before is there just how much are we talking about and Can we what's the sense of how that much that might be to us? Awesome, so I couldn't feel that Yeah, I can feel that question in the initial So the the program that we're we're speaking to specifically is the state transit system stated to prepare Program every year that program as a whole provides about a hundred and five Million dollars the transit agencies statewide And Santa Cruz metro does get a portion of those dollars based on Its historic share of the state transit systems program fun now I have to do a bit more research to provide you the specific Allocation that Santa Cruz receives year over year the parameters of this new flexibility Would allow you in instances where you would be otherwise cutting service to be able to repurpose those dollars to preserve that service So it is very narrowly focused on again preserving service that otherwise would be cut But it does create some new flexibility That in years past is it's just been a disallowed use for this program Thanks, are there other board members with questions and comments? If you see anybody, I don't see anybody Okay, are there members of the public? You might like to comment over ask questions presentation Don't see any hands. Mr. Chair. We'll neither. Okay. Well, josh and michael Thank you very much for your presentation. Thank you for your representation of us in sacramento. It's very important And for your work with alex who also serves on several statewide committees that are Critical work for us next we're going to hear from our Advocates in washington dc A capital edge group which is headed by chris jiglio and chris has ably represented us over many many years in washington dc and a great deal of our funding comes from the federal government and Less than the way of regulations than from the state, but certainly funding is critical from washington dc So we're going to get a legislative update from chris chris. Welcome and good morning. Welcome to santa cruz at least virtually Thanks, chairman rockton. I appreciate your uh Having me, which I was out there in person as I told you earlier Actually, the last time I stepped on an airplane was after the february board meet so Um, I'm hoping to hoping to get back there in person too and also, you know, just thinking about all you folks out there who Who have been sort of personally impacted by this kind of double gut punch of covet 19 and and terrible wildfires So I have been thinking about you here in dc It's it's you know, just like in sacramento, uh, and and santa cruz. It's been a strange year Since since I last saw you in february Here in dc, uh, congress has kind of been operating under kind of a modified Virtual situation where members are sometimes here. Sometimes they're not here They're either voting virtually or not virtually mostly in the house the senate The senate has tried to keep their activities in person Some hearings virtually that sort of thing, but it's been very quiet You know, the public's not allowed in the capitol building Lots of staff have sort of decamped To various places around the country, you know, especially the young ones. They they've gone home You know, and you know with their families and are conducting their business from there So it's been it's been a challenge, but I think they've done a pretty a pretty decent job of it Um, and I'm not as good at sharing my screens and all of the zoom stuff as michael is and so Thank you for community tv for running this side. You can go go ahead with the first slide Or the next one after this uh, I also am blaming The wildfires covet or anything else on somebody taking, you know, getting rid of my spell check on my My power point But here's some of the things I just wanted to mention Today, uh, and they're probably all pretty familiar to you, of course COVID-19 relief We starting on october 1 will be the new federal fiscal year That by 2021 so talk a little bit about the budget the 2015 fast act which as you all know authorizes the federal transit programs and and as well as the highway trust fund that funds all of those programs That expires on september 30th. And so congress has to deal with that in some way We've talked before last we've talked for the last several years about an infrastructure package and That comes up here and now here and now and then of course just a little bit about what what the elections could mean For next year So next slide please So covet relief, uh, alex mentioned this before in his ceo report But in in march as you all know, uh, congress enacted a two trillion dollar package of COVID-19 relief known as the cares act Congress never lets an opportunity to have a goofy acronym go by and so we've the cares act that stands for something But uh, most importantly for us it included 25 billion dollars for public transit. It was a it was a very effective Lobbying effort by apta by santa Cruz metro by everybody to get that to get that transit funding in there However, you know, the bad news is that apta and others estimate that That the transit industry will need at least another 32 billion dollars by Before the end of the year to kind of keep everybody whole given the sort of freightering sales taxes the ridership and all As if you are are well familiar with and the ceo and we and and new folks on the board have been Been really great about advocating for more funding. We've uh, you know the ceo in particular has challenged me to Contact whoever will listen here in washington with regard to that. He's uh, he got together a letter of some of uh, colleague Small medium-sized systems who would be, you know, really impacted by the loss of additional COVID-19 funds and Getting that letter all over capitol hill earlier this year was was effective Uh, the white house and the senate republicans, you know, sort of there's just three headed Negotiating monster over COVID relief and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi mitch mcconnell and the senate From the republicans in the senate and the white house The white house and the senate have floated there. They're they're COVID relief plans their next steps None have included transit not necessarily because they oppose transit It's probably more of a negotiating tactic They know that the democrats as democrats are going to want transit funding in their next bill And so they leave it out for leverage The house earlier this year passed what they considered to be the next step In in Kobe relief they The acronym there was the heroes act. It was 3.5 trillion dollars across the board with lots of Assistance for lots of different areas 16 billion dollars of it for transit However, we were disappointed to see that the distribution formula for That 16 billion dollars in the house democrats heroes act was was severely flawed The 25 billion dollars from the cares act was distributed and i'm sure that alex is Talked about this a lot But it was distributed using existing formulas And so everybody got a piece of that 25 billion dollars The house 16 billion dollar transit funding in the heroes act decided that it would only but that the great majority of it I think 12 or 13 billion of that 16 billion would you be distributed through a formula that only allowed for urbanized areas of over three million population to receive it And so as a result only 14, you know areas in the country we're going to get that money so again With the ceo's help and and some of our colleagues We've been sort of fighting that distribution formula for you know for whatever that next tranche of money for transit if and when it comes Uh to to just go back to what worked before and that was the cares act distributed it using existing formulas and you know keep everybody Keep everybody home. So we continue to fight for that Last year is uh, you know, will there be any covet 19 relief pre-election? If you had asked me a month ago if you'd asked me two months ago, I would have said there's a really good chance of that happening as we get closer and closer to congress wanting to go home and Campaign for the month of october before the november elections. I'm starting to be less and less Positive about that. I think barring a real breakthrough in the next couple of days really I think we'll see congress next week adjourn until after the election without doing a covid relief package the White house and the senate republicans seem to be hovering around a one trillion dollar overall price tag Whereas nancy polosi And and house democrats have kind of moved down from their original 3.5 billion and the heroes act about 2.2 2.4 billion They believe they're trying to meet The republicans halfway nobody's linking And so I know there's a lot of things that have a lot of support But nobody wants to let go of their leverage And and give in so I think we're we're at loggerheads at least until until after the election on covid relief I hope i'm proven wrong hope over the weekend, you know, uh the speaker and the white house meet and they come to an agreement, but uh, I am not I don't think that's going to happen Next slide, please So and a lot of these things are sort of all related these the you know the the f y 2021 budget I mentioned the the new fiscal year starts on october 1 um The the budget process starts in february when the president makes his recommendations for Budget for the next year and as the white house has done in the last in in all the years They've been in this particular administration's been office. They have recommended pretty steep cuts to the department of transportation budget This year was a 19 percent Reduction every year congress has has rejected those Those proposed cuts and this year the house was no different The house in the summer approved an f y 2021 budget for the department of transportation That rejected those cuts it funded all of the transit programs formula and competitive programs kind of at or near the The numbers that were authorized in the 2015 fast act and actually gave some of them increases like the bus and bus facilities competitive program the the competitive program that funds zero emissions buses They they added and they actually added money to that which is somewhat unusual They've been doing in the last few years, but in general is pretty unusual house appropriators often feel hemmed in by The authorization levels that are sort of handed to them by another committee and they often don't change them But this year in the in the past years. They've we've gotten some some increases. So so that's been a good thing The unfortunate part is the senate has not been able to come to an agreement on how they proceed with their 2021 budget So they have done nothing formally on this 2021 budget and we are now what six days out to over one so And this has happened in the last several years to partisan differences prevent budgets from being Finished right before the official start of the fiscal year. So congress have produced what's called a continuing resolution or c r And what that does is that essentially keeps the government running in the absence of a an enacted formal budget and it kind of keeps it running at, you know, sort of its current levels Now the problem with a cr is while the government is not shut down The agencies are also not really anxious to Come out with a lot of new policies programs and that sort of thing because they they know they don't have a final budget And there's always a chance that they could be sort of cut back And so they don't want to step out. So it's it's really kind of a you know, kind of a stand in place budget That'll that'll probably delay some Some grant programs from being from being in there but The house passed yesterday. I believe it was yesterday or tuesday the house passed Yesterday the day before their version of this continuing resolution It's a bipartisan continuing resolution. So the senate will probably vote out on thursday and the government will continue to run at least through december 11th When this particular cr is there Another interesting part of this this cr is that Because our federal highway and transit programs are funded by the highway trust fund which is funded with federal gas tax revenues Congress needed to add an additional 14 billion dollars from the general fund To do t's budget in this just to keep the government these programs running at their current levels And so that shows you sort of the revenues from the gasoline taxes going into the highway trust fund that pays for these programs Is severely lagging and so It's a you know, it's something that we're we're going to be you know, sort of dealing with again for the for the next year Next slide please The fast act another uh acronym, which I can't remember what it is, but essentially it's the it's the legislation that authorizes federal highway transit railroad Programs it was passed in 2015. It was a five-year bill and it expires in in six days as well The house this this summer You know sort of presented its version Of of a reauthorization bill. It was a five-year five billion dollar plan passed on the floor in july as part of a larger infrastructure package It was very generous to transit included a hundred billion dollars More over those five years for for public transit a 54 increase over over current levels And another highlight was our beloved small transit intensive Cities program the stick program. That's a good acronym That one is going to get an increase from its current level of 2% of the Transit formula program to 3% of the transit formula program. So that means more money for for santa Cruz metro through that program Senate has moved a little bit on their Can you hear me? Could I interrupt you just? Yeah, I'm sorry. Sorry the um Are we at some risk because our factors for getting stick have to do with ridership among other things Miles travels, etc. Etc. All of which are way down Are we at some risk that we're going to not get stick funding? I know it lags by a year or so So it won't happen overnight, but is there a serious risk here that we should be concerned about? That's a great question, uh chairman rockin, and I'm sorry. I I didn't mention that off the start But fta has you know has sort of put out some guidance And congress agrees with that that FY 2020 essentially didn't count So when they're doing these ridership numbers, essentially what they're saying is you can you can use 2019 or 2020 whichever you want Uh for the next you know go around with the transit database. So uh excellent question Thank you for for reminding me of that. So I think we're okay on that Thank you for going to those those numbers As far as the senate they have not moved as quickly on uh, particularly on the transit portion of the fast act reauthorization back in the summer 2019 The senate environment and public works committee approved the highway title of the fast act reauthorization But none others the senate you folks may have heard me talk about this before but the senate has several different committees with jurisdiction over highway transit You know the fast act so we've got the senate environment public works committee which does highways We have the senate banking housing and urban affairs committee which handles transit We have the senate commerce committee which handles railroads and safety issues Whereas all of those are are the in the jurisdiction of one committee house Takes a little longer for the senate to get going but they did in 2019 put together And again republican controlled a pre robust highway title that included a lot of money For climate change initiatives. It was it was done in a real bipartisan way Unfortunately, the banking committee and the commerce committee haven't done anything on their portions of a so So again, what what what is needed here is is an extension similar to a cr to extend the budget highway and transit programs need an extension to continue to Use those highway trust fund dollars to pay for the programs After september 30th And so in that cr that I just mentioned with the f y 2021 budget. There is a one year extension of the fast act it'll be through september 30th 2021 giving congress an extra year to To handle the the reauthorization My guess is that like the differences here are not going to be in policy. It's going to be, you know, how to pay for it Again, and you can see how down here that the house bill Again would need about 140 billion dollars in additional funds to get the pay for that bill This is in addition to what they expect to come into the highway trust fund. So Yeah, it doesn't it doesn't mean a gas tax increase. Do we finally, you know, go to vehicle miles travel that we've been talking about for 10 years Do we dip into the general fund to pay for that? These are all the questions that are that are going to be debated over the next year or so And I will mention that that, you know, the house committee that deals with this sort of thing is the house ways and means committee it's the tax writing committee Which is a member so we will be deeply involved in all of these discussions over the next year Next up please So infrastructure package, I think in february I'd like declared infrastructure dead You know, and like I even had like a goofy little, you know image of a of a gravestone But people kind of keep bringing it back and and I will say that You know the house put together this summer a 1.5 trillion dollar package That included You can see here water infrastructure school construction wireless broadband energy grid. It had had pretty much everything in it 5 billion of that 1.5 trillion represented that fast back reauthorization So it was good news bad news here and that, you know, they they did a fast act reauthorization They got it on the floor. They approved it but And and it included some significant increases, but It the the the house's idea of an infrastructure package kind of included a fast act reauthorization Which they have to do anyway, right? And so it didn't include any what I would call new stimulus for transportation now, you know, I think, you know folks on in congress would say, you know Gosh, you know, you can't complain about this. We're giving you, you know, a 50% increase in funding in the fast act What are you doing? But, you know, I think that I think that we're we were hoping that Congress could, you know, walk in chew gum and do a fast act reauthorization And provide us some additional stimulus money So and that particularly hurts it, you know, if no covid funding comes around So again, all of these things are sort of weirdly connected and, you know, so we're hoping that, you know That it that it all comes to, you know, the past that the congress realizes that all of it is necessary needed and can be used so that that That infrastructure package also included a bunch of tax incentives for green energy and it did include congress and panetta's legislation that we worked with him on to as the jasper michael To do a tax credit for the manufacture of electric buses So we're hoping that would lower the lower the cost of electric buses sometime down the road And as I said before the the senate's not likely considered this infrastructure package in 2020 The the senate republicans are not not eager to to To do any any more deficits Next slide please And then, you know, the last thing I just was going to say elections and unfortunately like I said, I have no crystal ball here I couldn't tell you what's going to happen in november But I will say that the results are going to have a really big impact on on all of these things. So for instance If you know if congress is going to come back into session after november 3rd For what they would call a lame duck session between november sometime november in the end of the year Which they will have to do because at the very least they will have to deal with that budget That by 2021 budget that continuing resolution expires on december 11th They've got to come and deal with it. Um, and so do you do cobit relief there? Do you negotiate on an infrastructure package? Do you do you even talk about a fast act bill all of these things could conceivably be done in a In a lame duck session in december november But the results of the election are going to impact that so if you know if uh, if We have a change in the in in the white house and we have a change in the senate and democrats control all three There are no position to want to negotiate with republicans on anything budget Fast act infrastructure or anything because they'll say hold on and in january. We're in charge So we we don't need to negotiate if things, you know, sort of either see the same or mix up a little bit might be a little bit more Interest in in negotiating Some of these things so so it really will we could we could have a really kind of boring November december or you know, it could be kind of, you know, all bets are off and everything this Happened there. Of course, you know, you know Wired into all of that too is we're going to have A supreme court justice Being confirmed during that time very likely hearings votes Uh, that's sort of things so so that'll add to the That'll add to things, but I don't think it will have any impact on any of the things we just talked about, you know I think People in congress who are dealing with the supreme court justice thing are not the same that would be dealing with your budget So that was about it. Happy to answer any questions, uh, you guys have or if I forgot anything Thank thanks again for your time. Thanks chris. Let me begin with a question Um To use your colorful colorful Boxing metaphor santa cruz tends to punch above its weight in your in your words In terms of our lobbying effect in washington dc and perhaps in sacramento, but in dc And that's partly based upon an annual trip we used to take With several leaders from the district going into lobby members of congress. We're not doing that obviously. Um I wonder to what extent you think there is a kind of a Uh online virtual lobbying effort that we should or need to I mean, we don't know now But at some point if it turns out that congress does have an appetite for doing something between the election and the end of the year Whether you'd be in a position to help us organize a effective virtual lobbying Would that be something that's useful or how would we do that or what thoughts do you have about that at this point? Absolutely, uh, you know, thanks. Thanks again for that that question as well That's something that alex and I have been talking about, you know, if is there a right time To do such a virtual fly in as they, you know, like call it Where we can get, you know, sort of folks on either on the phone or on zoom to uh Talk about these issues and yeah, we talk about that one and I think I think that there will be, you know There will be a time, you know, in the not too distant future where or that would be, you know an effective thing to do But there are other members of the board who have questions or comments And mr. Chair if you wanted to check the public, I don't see any hands up Let me ask are there members of the public who would like to comment on the federal legislative report? No hands, sir. I see nothing All right, thank you chris. Stay safe and we appreciate your report. Thanks, mr. Chairman. Appreciate it Our next item is item number 14 This is uh, except in file a metro planning development annual status report I must say I read this report last night. I found it fascinating. We're we're doing an amazing number of things I mean given our other crises and problems and everything else. It's amazing how many things are Irons are in the fire in terms of what our district is up to in terms of new initiative Not just maintaining what we do are struggling to maintain what we do but Actually expanding our service and improving the way we deliver the service. So I'm looking forward to a We're a report here from uh, john ergo our planning and development director john take it away Thank you, mr. Chair. Uh, good morning directors john ergo planning and development director It's been one year since the last metro planning department annual updates. Uh, this reporting effort started following the comprehensive operational analysis in 2016 And in the years following metro ridership more or less maintained itself at about five million Thousand or boardings per year in spite of national trends to the contrary This is my first go around as planning director and oh, what a year 2020 uh, it's really a tale of two years and it may seem Moot to talk about it at this point, but I think it's important to highlight that prior to the covid-19 pandemic Uh, metro ridership was actually on an upward trend Um Ridership had increased through the first seven months of the fiscal year about two and a half percent Driven largely by a six percent increase in ucsc on ucsc racks Following the outbreak, of course and the accompanying service changes ridership declined over 90 percent And we ended the year about 30 percent less in f y 20 compared to f y 19 Also commensurate with national trends Um, currently all routes are operating below industry accepted standards for productivity This is happening everywhere in the country as shelter in place work from home school closings continue to take effect It it suggests somewhat that we should set aside the traditional metrics for the time being recognize that Public transit is an essential service that supports essential workers that travel equity environmental goals and I would say the general functioning of society But it also suggests that we need to focus our resources to where they're needed most And as you saw in the report the the primary service related initiative Currently and during f y 21 will be the development of a covid-19 service recovery plan as we've presented in the past we Conducted a covid-19 rider survey the results of which will inform That plan and serve and future service planning efforts And we really hope that this plan will be a living document. So given the uncertainty around the timing and phasing of relaxation or strengthening of shelter in place orders the reopening of the economy Health orders particularly as they might affect our vehicle capacity This is a plan that we'll need to that that one that will bring to the board But one that will continue to revisit as we go through the year And in fact we've we've already implemented kind of what we think is the first phase of this plan Which is the restoration of full service on all local routes With the major exception of ucsc And of course highway 17 is also not it's not been restored. So we're currently at about 25 percent Lower in terms of revenue service hours than we were at this time last year On paper. This is going to look like too much service But it was done in response to the survey that that showed the majority of our riders And particularly our frequent riders cited the restoration of service As the most important thing that they're looking forward to coming back And encouraging them to ride metro currently and more in the future Along with cleaning sanitization and forcing face masks and PPE Which we're also doing on board our vehicles. So again, we're continuing to work on this plan We will bring a draft to the board at a future meeting The next major effort so there's a lot that's in the report I'm just going to highlight a few of the major efforts and then I'd be having to talk about any of the other items and answer questions And everything that's in there But the next major effort is the contactless fare payment, which started pre-covid as our mobile ticketing pilot we were planning to launch On highway 17 Coming out of the pandemic We decided to accelerate this effort and on september 3rd We launched mobile ticketing across all local services. So as of now any customer can buy A any metro pass products on their mobile phone. It's a flash pass to ride any metro service and besides The importance of reducing Any exposure risk between operators and customers at the fare box This this product has the added benefits of speeding up the boarding process And expanding fare products throughout throughout the system. So The the mobile flash pass was the first phase It's implemented the next phase will be installing mobile ticketing validators on board highway 17 So these are actually physical validators where customers can tap their mobile phone Or a smart card and the future phase will be developing a fully account based system to store value accounts And this will allow us to do some really interesting things And particularly it will allow us to expand cash acceptance throughout the districts at retail locations Through either exchanging cash for a mobile ticket or through a new smart card that that will roll out along with this effort um We've we've already sold some mobile tickets We've about I think our near doubling what we did the first week. It's only been in operation two weeks But so far people are using it, which is exciting to see the uh The next major effort I want to highlight is our bus stop signage update So staff is currently working on a bus stop signage update that would That helps to bring metros bus stop signs in line with industry best practices and better god customers through the metros service and informational systems I would say that our current signage provides a lot of useful information if you know it's there and if you're looking for it And this effort will feature double-sided signs that you can see from both directions larger route numbering color coding according to service type to enforce metros brand identities through the strength of the metro's brand identity throughout the community um And improve the customer experience of both of which we think are critical to retaining existing customers And drawing new riders into the system. Again, we're bringing more details on this. I believe at the next board We are also in the process of launching a pilot program for on-demand transit service Uh the service would allow customers to book trips on demand curb to curb and the basic idea is You know, we've talked a lot about the ridership declines in fixed route service The same thing is happening on the para crew side And so what the idea behind this project is to open up some of that capacity at For customers to book on-demand trips through our para crews operation. So at first We prioritize para transit trips And then which need to be booked 24 hours in advance and then on the day of or completely on demand Customers would be able to book trips into the system curb to curb The cab the caveat being that rather than the Para crews trip which can happen from any point in the district to any other point in the district This service would be focused on several zones. So the Watsonville area Aptos, La Sola Beach, Capitola, Live Oak St. Tanikers west side and Scotts Valley With the idea that it's its main purpose is shorter trips So first last mile but also opening up new origin destinations that aren't possible under the current fixed route network So look look for more That to come It also is benefited by our new eco lane app. So customers will be able to use the app They can also call customer service to book a trip But potentially someone can use the eco lane app to book an on-demand trip and our new mobile ticketing to purchase their fare um lastly Planning is also in the way for the introduction Of our new zero emission bus circulator service in Watsonville in early 2021. I know that this has been in the works for some time And was significantly delayed as a real as a result of COVID-19 The buses have not been delivered yet. We expect delivery of the zero emission vehicles Uh in late this year possibly early next year Testing acceptance and during that time we'll work out we'll work through the public outreach and planning aspects of the circulator itself I think those were the main Efforts I wanted to highlight from the report. There's a lot else a lot of other things that are in there You know continuation of the Santa Cruz Uh eco pass will also bring a report to that on that is on that initiative next month um avl a number a number of other things in the report, but Right on avl told the public what what's that? avl Yes, I know it is but automatic vehicle locator. So this this will um It's now been installed. I believe on on all of our buses and it will allow real-time customer information and also lots of planning data on transit travel speeds throughout the district Thank you. So that That concludes my remarks, but I'd be happy to answer and and discuss any other efforts that are highlighted in the report Are there questions from board members? I just have a comment Mike. I mean Go ahead Bruce. There's a lot of COVID and uh fire or whatever. Um, you know, I think it's really uh Uh, really great of how many things we're we're addressing They will all come to fruition and uh in abundance before we know what I hope But uh, I really want to thank john and uh, the whole district team for keeping us on track with what we were doing That's the electric buses everything that's that's all good about travel letting people know where the bus is avl There's a lot of things That are going at the same time. There's a lot of things on your plate john and alex and the whole team And I just want to say thank you for sticking with it This too shall become reality. I hope them in a very near future all of the above And I just want to thank you for all of your efforts and keeping us on track with Providing better service when things get back to normal whenever they that may be so thank you very much Thanks, Bruce. I'm sure you're speaking to all of us Cynthia Matthews next and then john leopold Yeah, I just wanted to thank you for this report john and everybody else who put it together. It was so clear And comprehensive to the ray reader Very well organized. I appreciated that you gave stats and then trends and then reasons for those trends and I just thought of this excellent and the critical decisions that We'll be facing and things that will be our priority consideration to making this decision. So My experience out here in the world is that, you know, all the city council members and all candidates and all community They all want public transportation and you should do this and why aren't you doing this and blah blah blah? You know, I think it's all these things are really easy and obvious if you don't know that is more of the details and I'm actually going to share this members and Members and candidates in fact I just found it in a few pages very So I just want to thank you Thanks Thank you chair I do want to recognize the work that's going on You know if as we seek to increase, you know, bring our riders back after covid Or when people feel comfortable these tools from the from the automated AP AVL, sorry, I just lost that I thought was thinking AVL the the the mobile ticket and all those pieces become really important That's what people are expecting and transit. We have been talking about that for a long time here I know it's been it's been a work of a number of different folks. You know, I know I think Isaac has been involved with this and others have been involved To help make this happen and then one earlier in the The report about, you know, our our transit replacement plan, you know, it all feeds into that whole piece, right, which is we are modernizing The metro in a way that I think will attract riders and will help us Grow over time. So thank for the work. Thanks for the work of everybody keeping it going, especially during these difficult times Thank you. Are there other board members with questions or comments? Yeah, I I just want to add my my appreciation as well. I've been amazed at how well everyone has adjusted to Still working towards these goals and still accomplishing the things Well, while we're trying to adjust the life and code. I mean just amazing work everyone's been doing and and Just as everyone else has said other board members have said we just really appreciate and proud to be serving with everyone with the board here Other questions from board members? Yeah, I like Yeah, back from the city of Watsonville, we'd like to thank you for all the work you guys have been doing I know we're a major part of the transit service riders And the the new avl will actually be really beneficial for a lot of the folks within the city of Watsonville So thank you for your work Thank you for your comments Anyone else from the board? I don't see a hand Members of the public who might like to comment on this report You have mr. Sandoval James go ahead Hi, john. Um, I just had a quick question I did see that the on-demand on-demand pilot is planned for late fall If that's this year, um, I was wondering if you were planning to meet and confer with the union because I believe the peri cruise contract And 9.06 actually prohibits on-demand service. So I just was wondering if that's in your plan Yes, we'll do that. So this is initial planning Again, the idea was to serve additional on-demand trips But we'll certainly schedule that meeting conferred Okay, thank you Thanks for the question and the response I have a question. Um Have we generally thought about what the price of a ride on on-demand is there was no mention of that in the report So the same as peri cruise is what we're thinking. So four dollars flat flat fare For that type of trip. Thank you Any other questions? I'm either the board members or the public Thanks again for your report, john. It was really pretty good. I think by the board. I'm glad it was useful You never know who's going to read these things, but I'm glad it'll Very unlikely I have to say Okay, we're done with item number 14. You're now have a you're also on again for an oral update on what's happening in pacific station Yes, so This effort has also been re-energized in recent weeks and months. So staff has met with the city of santa cruz staff on two occasions Recently to discuss the joint redevelopment projects at pacific station And the discussions have specifically focused on whether to apply For the next round of affordable housing and sustainable communities Not a grant program, which would be due in february 2021 As the board may recall the mou that was approved in june left open the question of whether The city and metro would be applying for this next round or in 2022 And it it looks like that at least drafts proposed changes in the ASIC or ahsc guidelines could make this year particularly favorable for this project particularly there's a geographic set aside to fund a project in the central coast region and there are some changes to the scoring of projects related to greenhouse gas reductions that As a result of transit that in the past have favored larger transit agencies All that said it's There's still a lot to be worked out From these initial meetings. It's not It it doesn't appear that the on their side that the city is committed to which site they want to apply for in this round whether The pacific station site or some other site um, and consequently We have been asked to consider Other types of transit projects that that we might want to fund through this grant application that don't involve joints The joint pacific station redevelopment such as the procurement of zero emission vehicles for service expansion um, that's somewhat of a challenging ask and for metro standpoint uh, we are considering that but We're ready to support an application that is in line with the mou and specifically that involves a turnkey 24 bus bay facility at pacific station as outlined um The city has re-raised concerns about the footprint of the 24 bus bay design and We're open to revisiting The specifics of the design, but we're we're committed to The 24 bus bays as has been studied for many years and was laid out in the mou um, so there's still a lot to be worked on we've now committed to meet weekly um Along with the city's consultants that are working on the ASIC grant so At least from the standpoint today, I would Say it seems unlikely that we apply this february even though it is a favorable round unless we can get to agreement on Funding specifically pacific station redevelopment in this round and Whatever mixed-use housing project the city wants to put forward on their side that uh, that's the update on pacific station Are there questions from board members about this update? Matthews, it's not a question. I'll say I just talked to bonnie that's coming this morning who's to check in and Our staff is really committed with everything else on their plate to try and Resolve the unknowns and make obviously it has to work for both parties so I just want to relay that that message to the board And bonnie for those who don't know is the head of the Development Development Agency now it's called I believe Economic Development Agency Other questions from board members Other questions or comments from members of the public Chair you have uh, heather admison from ambag Heather, please welcome to the meeting good morning Good morning. Can you hear me? Thank you My name is heather admison. I'm the planning director at ambag and over the past six cycles of the SGC's affordable housing sustainable community Program ambags really been pushing them hard To modify their guidelines to you know, have a great opportunity for central coast projects to compete As you may know, we've competed in earlier projects from the ambag central coast area have competed Submitted and we just have not fared very well We have pushed for over five years for a geographic equity And now it looks like the proposed draft guidelines, which will be approved in the next couple months We'll have that in there and I just really Pacific station Really is the poster child of the type of project that this program would like to fund and I would really just Encourage the city and metro to work together to get a project in for round six knowing that This geographic Particular apportionment could really benefit awarding a project in our region And I'm happy to work with Metastaff and and Bonnie. I've talked to Bonnie city of Santa Cruz staff and anything that we can do to help at ambag To help with the application. We more than happy to do so Thank you. We appreciate your support Yeah, mr. Chair. Yes, Alex. Yeah, maybe I can be a little bit more blunt than than john John's real good Being careful on this one, but I just want to let you know For transparency purposes this this is going to be a challenge this the city staff has Basically thrown us a left curve here and we're a little bit surprised at this late date at that happening You know, we spent nearly two years Uh in partnership with the city is the city co-funding a study That answered the question does does the bus Operations have to be centralized in the downtown or not the answer to that after a study was yes for the particular geographic Challenges that we have in this county a bus hub in the downtown Is the way to go the second question that was studied during that two-year process was The number of bus bays as you might recall the city really wanted us to have Far fewer bus bays. We said we need to not only accommodate our current service needs But we need to be thinking about the future and not foreclose opportunities to grow The study was co-funded study said This is the number of bus bays that that you need to Address current operations and plan for the future So we thought after a lot of money and a lot of time that question was answered We were a little surprised that that question has returned all of a sudden recently um In addition to that this this proposal or proponents potential proposal from the city That we go in for a grant but instead of going the path that we had planned all along which is To jointly apply for this grant and the money In conjunction with the four million that you've allocated Would rebuild this facility this new tarmac facing front street and parcel off commercial Residential retail all that on on pacific avenue We thought that's that's what we've all been working for but now this new proposal suddenly has popped up in which um, they would propose to fund buses and other things that that They think we might have money on And if the ahsc grant were to pay for that That would free up money in addition to our four million That's just not reality. There isn't that kind of money Programmed for pacific station at all that can be freed up And so part of what john's challenge will be in working with city staff in the coming weeks Is to get them back focused on what we all had agreed upon The project that goes for ahsc grant is not only what they're doing in the in the commercial retail housing side between our property and laurel but would fund the difference between You know what what we have available the four million you committed And whatever the cost of the the ultimate build out of the tarmac is remember our agreement under the mo You as they build us a turnkey project. So we need to get them refocused on that Or else the the deal as envisioned and as approved by you is in serious jeopardy Thanks for that clarity Well, we'll be optimistic that we can work this out between the agencies Are there any other comments from board members for questions john leopold? Well, I've been on this board For 12 years. We've been talking about this project I thought that we were we were getting to a place where it was actually going to move and I'm confident that we can make that happen, right? I think I think they're On the part of metro and there's definitely interest in the part of the city, but we have to The best we can stick to a plan. I mean we we spent all that money On on on a study. I'd hate to throw that out. There's a there's a lot of work that the That the metro has done to to be ready for this project There's very clear that pacific station is in desperate need as the as the information that we have, right? It's the it's the worst Out of all of our facilities. It's the worst one. It rates the lowest and the and the transit asset information that's in today's board packet, so I'm really hoping we can start getting Better forward momentum on this Because it'd be the the customer our customers are definitely want that the change We have an interest in changing that and we want to work with the city so I hope that that everybody can work together to really So we can get some forward motion instead of just study study study study Any other questions comments? Donna Myers Yeah, I'll just I'll just chime in. I've spoken with our economic development department a few times over the last couple days. I think They are very much intending as john mentioned trying to figure this out in the near term The you know the city is balancing a lot of moving pieces in the front street and pacific avenue area and and so part of this You know analysis and accommodating what what really is in the mo u is Is really looking at those needs on the ground as we work through Access and various things in terms of widths and you know one thing to have a drawing It's another to actually put it on the ground so I think our staff is acutely aware of the importance of maintaining The intent of the mo u and I know that they'll be working very diligently over the next week to try to square this up and But I'm just want to let the public and the rest of the board know that the city certainly is is not trying to Turn this into something different since it's really just a matter of trying to put these two these projects on the ground amidst Other opportunities in that particular area So and I spoke with alex earlier this week. So I do think that there's a very very clear intent on the city side to Try to keep moving on this Thanks. Hopefully we'll come together Any other comments from board members? Any comments from members of the public? I don't see any hands. Mr. Chair. Maybe why Okay, our last item Oral update Rosa Transit division Take it away dango I think margo our coo is going to introduce this item and I believe we have also Representative from our contractor Good. Thank you Good morning Board of Directors, and we have an update from our contractor regarding you had a couple of questions about space and Square footage Let me see if he's on I don't seem do you alex? No, he's not on the call. No, I don't see him. Oh, oh Ken Ken is here Ken Hart. Yeah, he's got his hand up Ken you're you're showing us muted Okay, there he is better now. Here you now. Thanks. All right. So this is ken heart with swift consulting I understand that there have been some questions by board members about the size of the building at the for the para cruise facility Before I Comment on that. I just wanted to say that we have received proposals on the for the project for for the design team from archaeologists traffic engineer noise consultant and landscape architect I wasn't listening to the meeting earlier, but Assuming that you adopted You approved item 9-10 and added mark thomas as the project engineer We did we can begin in earnest now with the design of the project and the most important Initial step is to lay out this the site and especially in terms of parking and circulation for the vans The building that we've talked about and that staff is Is supportive of would be a 4 000 square foot building that would house the 13 para cruise staff and create a mobility center which would Assess the the needs of the community in terms of service by the para cruise program The final building size even though we've we've Indicated that 4 000 square feet would be the ideal it's going to be determined kind of an iterative process through the design The design process and that's going to be again This based on the layout of the site for parking and on-site circulation Okay, any other comments on this item? Margo and No, not at this time. Thank you for that report. Are there questions Mike? I just want to make a comment Because of the nature of my life. I had the opportunity to walk the neighborhood around the park and ride lot and The feelings about metro were very strong. They were very much They appreciated the information that metro has provided They appreciated that the design concept and doing something with the with the site um Yeah, it's not often that I that I that I walk neighborhoods and people have just they just have a warm glow about metro And so I just want to thank the team um and just the responsiveness And the and the folks helping maintain the lot right now and everything we've done it It's really made a difference in that neighborhood. They've noticed so I just wanted to share that Thank you. That's an exciting moment Are there other questions from board members? Mr. Chair, yes Yeah, just to add one other element that we'll try to fast-track for possible consideration We will investigate whether or not it would make sense to also Locate our customer service center in the same facility As you as you think about the discussion that we just had about pacific avenue If that comes to fruition During construction we'll we'll have no place for our customer service Function because it is in the building that would be demolished And the new tarmac doesn't envision that function being there because we would only have a very small building that would accommodate some customer service or customer interface for past sales I'll operate a break room and and operate a restroom. So very very small building envisioned there So for the time being if that comes to fruition It is assumed that customer service would have to be in some sort of leased space somewhere else That might not be the optimal thing to do So we'll also investigate whether or not it it makes sense to co-locate it in this new building And resolve a couple of problems here Thank you for that Okay, are there members of the public again with any questions or comments here? I don't see any hands You had director botorf the botorf go ahead remember the board You had a couple of questions and I'm hoping that there's somebody here that can answer them Um, it looks like the size that was quoted out and it's kind of moving all over the place is now 4,000 square feet for the new building My question is how big is the existing space that we are releasing now? Yeah, margo. Did you get that number? Uh, it was over 3,000 square feet. I believe um, but it's kind of all um It's not all centralized If that makes sense Um, this will be more centralized and provide More room for more employees will centralize our peer transit um facilities for everyone um Members of the public can come in and get travel trained and And we can provide services for the public Yeah, I I appreciate that answer that my main concern when I'm really looking for is I want to know the square footage Of the building that we're now leasing. I know it includes some inside office space And there is some covered parking quasi garage type unit And I know that the new place was planning to have Maybe uh, I was primarily for some inside office Maybe I'll cover parking meeting not so I'm really specific about you know, we're going to be in budget constraints How much we're going to be spending And and I know that for a fact that if that building that we leased is 3,000 square feet It was probably minimum 50 percent occupied Which makes me wonder why if we're only using 1,500 square feet of an existing building why we need 4,000 square feet I am I'm I'm appreciative of the fact that alex has mentioned there may be a need for customer service And if there is future needs for that building But I know that as we start designing these buildings I unfortunately just got done building a 9500 square foot library in capitol that went to 12,000 square feet and went $2 million over budget So I'm I'm trying to just get a handle on the fact that this is a much needed facility. I believe alex I believe this is a priority building And I I tend to agree with that and I know that we're all trying to get specific stations to come together But this is one that we may or may not receive grants for it may require funding And the size is really critical to me. So I I'd like to have some further discussion on Why we're Increasing the size of this building over a facility that we have that we don't use at 50 percent. So I'd like to get some Input or discussion or meet with somebody to explain to me why we're going down that path. Thank you And director butter if I might suggest let's bring it back to committee next month with the actual diagrams I mean if we're quoting 4,000 square feet, we should have a diagram to support that You know one of one of the features that isn't there today that they spoke about earlier is the travel training feature I believe if I recall correctly, we're sort of modeling that off of something that we've learned from our our colleagues to the south mst And so that that is something that's not in the current facility today, but why don't we bring back the actual at least High-level diagram is we must be working from something in order to be at 4,000 square feet All right, if we could bring this back to the capital committee, I would really like the input of that committee So to look at this and and you know, we just approved the engineer looks like we're starting to move forward with this But I don't want to get too far out in front And so we actually have an idea about how much we need So I think that's great if we can bring it back to capital and get get some kind of parameters about A working side so thanks for that suggestion Ali And thanks for raising that concern Sounds like there will be that it will come back to that committee Any other questions or comments from board members about the paratransit? building Okay, and members of the public any comments Seeing none no hands mr. Chair. I'm gonna run back now. I should have done this earlier But it'll make it quicker. We'll do I'm going to have looking for a motion on items number 13 14 12 13 14 to accept and file the reports that we got We should take a motion on that that requires a roll call vote and that'll be our last action of today Larry Pegler is moving that And the second unit Any other comments about that? All right, we've already taken public comment on it on the matter So let's have a roll call vote and basically accepting and filing these reports And I'm sorry, Alex was trying to mute me again. So who was the motion in the second on those two, please Motion whereas Pegler and the second was Donna Myers. Thank you Other dogs The other don't got it. You got it on Donna Lynn. No, it's Donna Myers. Good Oh We both tried but I think Donna Myers beat me You got the other one Donna Lynn. There we go. Little jeopardy. She was quicker at unmuting herself So we're taking agenda items 13 and 14 together 12 12 13 and 14 I'll have a second file there's reports Dr. Bautorf Dr. Kaufman Gomez Mr. Gonzalez He's me. Hi. Thank you Dr. Leopold. Hi Dr. Lynn. Hi, Dr. Matthews. Hi, Dr. McPherson. Hi, Dr. Myers. Hi Dr. Pegler. Hi, Dr. Rothwell Dr. Rotkin. Hi Yes Thank you That concludes our meeting. We're fortunate they're not having a closed session today, which is a rare a rare pleasure Not that we don't enjoy meeting with our Our legal representation our council um Our next meeting will be friday october 23rd 2020 at 9 a.m. I'm going to assume that it will be a zoom conference again It's unlikely we'll be having public meetings by that point. Unfortunately Um, and we are now prepared to adjourn. We don't really need a motion on that I'm going to simply declare that we're adjourning the meeting. I want to thank the Staff for all the work they're doing The heroes that work for us that are out there interfacing with the public our bus drivers and other folks Throughout the agency. It really makes a difference that people are Serving the public in this way, and I want to thank them for their great service And appreciate the work that they're doing for our community And we're about to adjourn this meeting. We are adjourned everybody stay safe and take care Thank you everybody. All right. Thanks everybody