 All right, then. Thank you, everyone. Let's call today's meeting to order at 901 by my clock. This is the December meeting. Donna, can you do a roll call, please? Director Brown. Present. Director Downing. Present. Director Dutra. Seeing him. Director Conantary-Johnson. Present. Director Conig is absent. Director Lind. Here. Director McPherson. I thought I just saw him. Okay. Director Myers is absent. Director Pagler. Here. Director Parker is absent. Director Rockin. Here. And Exofficio Director Henderson. Here. And Exofficio Director Northcut. Here. And I just saw Director Dutra come online. Here. Good morning, Jimmy. Anyone else I missed? Director McPherson just came online. Here. Thank you. And we do have quorum. Very good. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I'm going to go back to the meeting. I'm going to go to the meeting announcements. I'll note that today's meeting is being broadcast by community television of Santa Cruz County. And with that, any comments from our directors? Yeah, Mr. President, I just want to say. Congratulations and thank you to Michael three and especially Donna Bauer for having a great Christmas party for employees at the Elk's Lodge. I attended. It was really well done and much appreciated by members of our, the board of supervisors. I'm happy to have been re-appointed by the board of supervisors, County Board of Supervisors to the Metro. Those of you who followed this saw that there were a number of people from the labor movement who opposed my reappointment. And I just wanted to say that. I plan to make it a serious effort here. To reestablish a good relationship that I've had with the unions for over 30 years that I've been working on the transit board. And I'm going to do my best to make that happen. Because I think it's really important that we recognize the contributions of our employees and their representatives in the union. So. So I wanted to make that comment this morning. I'll be meeting, try at least attempting to meet with both groups and. See if we can figure out how to reestablish the confidence that they at least used to have in my performance here. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Any other comments from our directors. Seeing none. Let's go into oral and written communications. We've gotten more than a dozen already in the packet. And I know Donna's been a little bit of a nuisance. I'm going to go ahead and make a comment. I'm going to make a comment. I'm going to make a comment. I'm going to make a comment. I'm going to make a comment. I'm going to make a comment. I'm going to make a comment. I'm going to make a comment. I'm going to make a comment. I'm going to make a comment. I've gotten more than a dozen already in the packet. And I know Donna distributed one last night from San Jose state. I hope everyone's had a chance to see. Yes. Has there been anything else Donna? That's arrived overnight. Not this morning. No. Okay. And with that. I'm going to go to the public for comment. I want to know, Donna, we're going to have a two minute clock. Is that correct? Correct. All right. Let's start with you. Try now. Can you hear me? Yes. Great. Do you have the presentation up in front of you? Give me a moment here. I was told there was a three minute time. I had understood it. But. I'm sorry, misunderstood you, Larry. There is a three minutes. Oh, it's three minutes. All right. Okay, then three minute timer. There you go, Carrie, we're getting the clock fixed. I mean, he apparently had a presentation of some time, which we don't see yet. About now. That's true of the clock is running. Can we see the presentation? Donna, you may need to just warn him when we're at a minute or. At various points. Can you see that now? Yes. Okay. Okay. Donna will warn you at different time points. Okay. Is that good? Carrie. Looks like Carrie. Are you muted again? There. Yes. She just had me. Somebody had muted me. So let's let us start now. Yes. Please go to the next page. The title is just transportation topics. And this is really meant to be. There's lots of information that is not being passed along. But it's not being passed along. It's not being passed along. So. I'm going to read out. There are a thousand vehicles that use highway one daily, not 100,000. Half of the ones that come through Watsonville actually come from Monterey County. That's something that most people don't understand. That changes the whole conversation on bus versus train. Versus car and highway expansion. And when you look at Watsonville. The ones that would work. That would take highway one north. That would take highway 17. So they're not all heading towards Santa Cruz as. They like to talk about only 22% go to Santa Cruz. 30% go to the mid-county. When you look at the fish hook. About 50 to 60% of the traffic actually takes highway 17. And by the way, those aren't all Watsonville people. That's just all traffic. Going there. So there's so many misstatements on how traffic is done. And all this again, but there's a lot of traffic going on. And there's a lot of traffic going on. There's a lot of buses and trains and automobiles. And lastly, I'd like to point out that the new highway one project. If you look at it, it costs 15 million per mile or a little under next one. Next slide. Next slide. So now you may think that trail facts don't affect you, but actually it sucks the oxygen out of the room on focus on transportation. So the smart rail trail itself costs 2.7 million per mile. For 21 miles. And here we are in Santa Cruz. We're so focused on this rail trail stuff that we're willing to do anything. So the segment nine. First of all, the plan brings up concrete CO2 emissions to such a point where it's 6 million car miles. When you pour all that concrete, it would take 32 years to recoup that in terms of the number of bicycles. And that's why it's more than 2.7 million. Segment seven costs 5.3 million per mile. And that's because it's on level terrain. And I had a few street crossings. That's why it's more than 2.7 million. Segment seven phase two. Is near the nearly lagoon. That's 17 million per mile. And now let's get to segment nine. That is at 30 million per mile. You have to separate it. Segment nine. Segment nine. Segment nine is 18 million per mile, but when you separate it out, segment 10 itself is 30 million per mile. Next one. So compare that with the highway. That's half. Double the cost of a highway, let alone a trail. So here's my conclusion. Watsonville commute is not driving, is not driving the issue on highway one. It's 50% of the traffic coming from Monterey County. Santa Cruz is not the focus of commuters in general highway traffic. It contradicts RTC statements on the need for a train. This is what everybody should push for. They have cell phone origin destination data in their hands, or at least access to, they've paid for in a previous study. And that's where you should analyze commuting data. And then lastly, constructing a trail on non flat terrain is terribly expensive. And more than a freeway, the CO2 emissions, outweigh vehicle emissions, and it sucks all the energy that you could do for fixing, treat that streets. They should be focusing on metro buses and funding all that stuff. And lastly, I'd like to say is the sources that I get all this information from is from not my data, but CalTrans US Census Bureau, Sonoma Marin rail transit. And actually one thing I don't have on there is the Monterey public works as well. Thank you. Thank you, Carrie. The next hand I see, I think it was Brian from trail now. Brian, are you there? Brian. Right now. I'm on good now. Thank you. Yeah, this is Brian. Thank you for the time. You know, your organization really is a leading, like a business in the sense of transportation investments and how best to serve your customer. And really need to focus as a business does our factual data. And Carrie Pinko just shared with us very good factual data. And we're very fortunate to have a person like Carrie who takes the time to get this data and tell us about the data for highway one traffic flows. You know, and he also pulled up the information about 28 past rail studies, but since 1977 have existed. Now, are you sharing my, my photo of Park David in the railroad? I know it's in the package, so I won't wait if you take time, but you can see from the photo that these rail lines are on the cliffs. They're 20 feet from the ocean, the Pacific Ocean. And those cliffs might not exist in 2024. The California coastal commission will not prove any fixed rail system on this cliff. They've already rejected three past Santa Cruz County requests. Carrie's facts on cost of the trail really makes us understand how we need to you as an organization have to really focus on what's the best investment when we're paying 20 million a mile or more for a trail, a narrow trail versus what it should be, which is 2 million a mile. We need to step back and understand why we're doing the other factor that people don't really think about is the federal railroad guidelines, which requires the separation of a fast moving train from a trail by 20 feet, 25 feet. You can understand why they do that is because it's very dangerous. If we have trains flying 60 miles an hour along Park Avenue, we have to separate the trails. And what's going to really make it so the California coastal commission will not approve a rail on that Park Avenue through a way is the fencing that Bill will be required to prevent that will prevent access to the beach. So we're we're asking you to support the good investments. Look at the facts. We're again very fortunate to have people like Carrie doing that real data look, and we're asking you to take consideration of those facts over emotional decisions and public opinion. So thanks again for your point. Thank you, Brian. And the next speaker I see is David. David, are you there? Right now. Hello, can you hear me all right. Yes, go ahead. Good morning. Great. Hi, this is David Van Brink. So yesterday morning, we woke up in Yosemite National Park. This is a great time of year to go. And over the course of the day, we took five buses into train to get door to door service all the way home here to Santa Cruz. It's so much nicer than driving and definitely cheaper than renting a four-wheel drive kind of thing, which you would need to do this time of year during the snowy season. One of the first buses still in the park did have a mechanical problem. You know, I've been asked, oh, you like public transit so much, what happens when the bus breaks? You know, and the answer is, well, it's just like when your car breaks, except you don't have to do anything. I will mention that the last two buses, the Metro 17 and 18, were both exactly precisely on time to the minute. Bravo, but it meant we had to wait exactly 29 minutes for the next 18 bus to the west side. I know you've got a lot of moving parts to manage. But really, here at the end of the year, I just wanted to say thank you for making our transit work. I know you have public polling that says people like it, but I also wanted to say it clearly. I'm an actual user and thank you for public transit. Lastly, I wanted to pass on a question from a friend, which I hope is actionable. She says, I really like the bendy buses, but why do they only bend in the middle? Couldn't they be bendy the whole way? So maybe look into that. Thanks and happy new year. Thank you, David. All right, my next I see is Brett Garrett. Right now. Good. There you are. Good morning. This is Brett Garrett. I want to speak very briefly about transit on the rail corridor. I'm going to talk a little bit more about transit on the rail corridor. It's obvious to me how a conventional rail transit system is going to coordinate with the metro system. Because the rail corridor doesn't go anywhere near the existing transit stations in downtown Santa Cruz or capital of mall. Nor does it reach Cabrillo college. So I want to share an alternative vision of transit on the rail corridor to address these issues. This means an extremely convenient system that can be easily extended to serve the transit stations in Cabrillo college directly. Rail cat is designed to keep the railroad tracks in place. So that they could be used for freight trains. Running during off hours. And it's also fully compatible with the existing rail trail that is already being built. The infrastructure would be very similar to pavement with rail road tracks like chestnut street in Santa Cruz. The rail cat system could provide 24 hour service except when freight trains need to operate. The rail cat system could be managed by metro or by some other authority, whatever seems appropriate. It's based on very narrow, narrow vehicles that have already been created. These vehicles actually exist. The company called glideways is testing these narrow vehicles at go mentum state station in Concord, San Francisco Bay area. And they also hope to build a system using these vehicles in San Jose. Please keep an eye on what's happening in Contra Costa County, where the transit authority has recently issued an RFP to build a system somewhat similar to what I'm proposing for Santa Cruz County. They already have a vehicle. I'm sorry, they already have a feasibility study based on the glideways vehicles, the same ones that I'm suggesting to use here. The RFP is broad enough that it remains to be seen what will actually be built in Contra Costa County. But the plan is for an on-demand system very similar to my proposal. The main difference, one difference is that they're not dealing with a rail corridor. But they will probably have very high ridership because their system will be serving three BART stations. So please keep an eye on that. We need an innovative system to meet the needs of Santa Cruz County, so I urge you to take a look at railcat.org for a detailed explanation of the system I'm proposing. Again, the website is railcat.org. Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you, Brett. Donna, are you able to mute the other previous speakers before we move on to the next? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Next, I see Tiffany Rodriguez, colleague from San Jose State. Tiffany, unmute you. Hi, Tiffany. Hi. So thank you for the board. I hope you've reviewed my letter and I'm just here to speak, you know, to you all directly to talk about all of the, you know, the concerns we've been receiving. I'm speaking on behalf of San Jose State. Regarding this change to the highway 17 express ending that deer it on. I myself live in Watsonville and oftentimes use the highway 17 express as an alternative. And I will drive to the Scots Valley park and ride. And like many other people, even though I live closer to Santa Cruz or other areas where. There, I could potentially. Catch the bus. It just doesn't compare to, you know, the Scots Valley park and ride where it's very safe. There's lots of parking. And it makes it really easy for me to utilize that service like many others. As you all know, the 17 is extremely dangerous. And a lot of people don't feel comfortable driving on that road, especially with the heavy rain. And I myself look for alternatives because I just don't feel safe. And I think, you know, making this additional. Transfer at Deirdre is really going to make it difficult for people to want to take transit. And with all that we've seen with the pandemic losing ridership and the challenges that has had on restoring ridership, I really want you to reconsider this because I think it really goes against some of our goals. And, you know, we have the same goals to get more people on transit and make the road safer. And I really hope you consider this and the things that I've written in the letter. Thank you. Thank you, Tiffany. Let's see. Next, I see Terry Graziani. Terry, are you there? There we go. Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Hi, I'm Terry Graziani. I'm an employee of San Jose State. I've been riding the Highway 17 bus since July 1st, 2008. I use the Scots Valley Transit Center because that's where I have to go to be able to get home. There are people who ride the Highway 17 bus who are regular working people in San Jose State Monday through Fridays. They live in Scots Valley. And this new schedule doesn't allow those of us who get off work at 5 p.m. to get home. We can't get home on that 530 bus. That leaves the Deirdre. It doesn't go to Scots Valley. Our other choice is to wait for a bus an hour later and then possibly not get home till 8 p.m. at night. My big ask is, just as Tiffany's, keep going to San Jose State. My second ask is, have all the buses go to Scots Valley. I know not a lot of people get on and off there, but enough do. You stop at a lot of other stops where only one or maybe no people get on and off. Keep the Scots Valley open to us. We really, really need it so we can get home. And my other ask is for this new temporary, hopefully temporary schedule, have one or two buses in the morning and one or two buses in the evening that all serve Scots Valley and can get us to work through the downtown San Jose corridor to the campus because there's other people who get off along the way and can get us home also. Have the morning bus end at San Jose State. Have the evening buses start at San Jose State. And then the rest can just do the Deirdre thing. That's my idea. But there are students who take night classes and maybe there'll have to be maybe one bus later in the evening to help those students out because I've read this correspondence and I'm very concerned about the two students who said, I take night classes and now I can't get home. So please consider all your writers, not just the majority. Consider the minority also who ride the bus every single day. Thank you. Can I ask a question of this speaker of Larry? Go ahead, Mike. I take your points, all of them. And I definitely somebody who understands that having to make a transfer is a disincentive for taking public transit. I think that's a strong argument for us to not make any of these changes permanent. But my question is, isn't it possible for people, the one of one of your points to use the VTA system, leaving campus to get to the bus that still leaves from Deirdre and Station to get back to Santa Cruz? Or I'm misunderstanding the situation. Yeah, that's been told to us, but I've had, I've known people have done that in the past and it's not super reliable. If I miss a bus to get home, I'm kind of trapped and stuck for another hour. And my biggest concern is not being able to get off in Scott's Valley and get to my veal cone, go home. And all of our other us who, who live in a place where Scott's Valley, some of these people live in Scott's Valley. Some of them live up highway nine. What are they supposed to do? Can't get home. If you go look at that, if you go look at that new schedule, you'll be like, wow, if I worked in San Jose and got off at five PM and I have to get off in Scott's Valley, how do I get home? No, I take your point about the Scott's Valley stop. I was asking a question about the other piece of this around whether people could get back at all onto the highway, 17 express service. Using the BTA buses and options, but. No, your other points are well taken. And we obviously will be taking those under consideration. Thank you very much for your comments. Thank you. Thank you, Terry. The next I see is Joe Martinez. And you hear me? Yes. Go ahead, Joe. Okay. My name is Joe Martinez. I live in Aptos and I just want to take a moment to. Ask you to, to listen to what Brian. And people's has said today. And that you should. Should. Make your. I support Brian and Carrie. With the information they're provided and to use it. Use that information to make your decisions. So. That's all for now. Okay. Thank you, Joe. You Matt. Right. The next hand I see, I believe is Greg. Greg, are you there now? There we go. Maybe. I don't know. Did we lose there? Greg, are you ready? Yeah. Can you hear me? Hi. I'm a Aptos C. Cliff resident. And my understanding is there's a possibility of making a demonstration trail. On the line. So. At C. Cliff at a state park drive. There's the rail line runs just up from Marianne's ice cream. And it's actually being used right now. By pedestrians. In an ad hoc fashion to walk from that area to downtown. And it also goes by Rancho Del Mar. The shopping center. So I was hoping to make a case for having a demonstration trail. From state park to downtown Aptos. To downtown Aptos. But number two, and more importantly, there is absolutely no safe. Bicycle corridor to get from that place on state park drive. To Rancho Del Mar, the shopping center there, or especially to downtown Aptos. You have to go over a freeway overpass. Which is scary. Both on ramps and off ramps. And then into the Rancho shopping center, you have to go over the bridge. And if you want to continue on further into downtown Aptos, you have to go over the bridge. And the bridge is not built for. Bicycles at all. Very unsafe. Time to take your life in your hands that doing it. So that section of the, of the trail road. Converted into a demonstration trail would be used very heavily. It would be used by. Visitors to get from the popular beach there to downtown Aptos. And it would be a great place to have a demonstration trail to see what an actual bike trail. Conversion of the rail would be like. The other. Component of. That is that people, like I said, are already. They're already using it. And look at the topography there, there is no way to have a rail line run. Concurrent next to a bicycle trail, the width of the bridges that the train would be going over would require that the bike trail go back onto surface streets and surface streets there are, as I said, very dangerous. So I just wanted to make the case. I just wanted to make sure that the rail line would be there. And it's already being pretty heavily used. It would be magnificent to commit those two spots and Aptos. As to what the trail could be. Thank you for. Hearing me out. Larry, can I make a quick comment here? Yeah. You're probably beating me too. Go right ahead, Mike. Greg, you should contact the regional transportation commission. That's the agency that actually controls that rail corridor. And makes the decisions about, and some of our members serve on that board. So we're not going to be able to, you know, find free to speak to us, but I think your comments are best directed to the RTC that actually controls those kinds of decisions rather than a transit district. My apologies. No, no, no need to apologize. I mean, I say, we, we have some interest in this. I'm sure all of us, but we don't make the decisions about the use of that corridor. That's made by the regional transportation commission. And you can just Google RTC dot. Just Google RTC Santa Cruz. You'll find it. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. That was the clarification I wanted to make. We are, we are the transit group. The public transit in Santa Cruz County. The next speaker I see with a hand up is Ryan. Whoops. Where did it go? Ryan Sarnato. I don't know if I got the last name right. Sorry, Tom. I can't see the last name. I'm sorry. Sorry, Ryan. The long last name. Yes, I live in Aptos. And I'm. Very much a supporter of the idea that transit includes. A. Something more than. Motorized vehicles. And. Which means bicycle infrastructure, which is difficult in this county. I think it's important. That the public be provided proper information about. About transit in the county and the, and the presentation that Carrie Pico made is. Is kind of data that is just hasn't permeated the public. And. The county has just recently received a massive grant for building within the rail corridor. I understand this is not your purview, but. The sometimes political logic. Just seems irrational from a citizen's point of view. So you have a hundred million dollars that you're going to spend. Basically. Industrializing the rail corridor, taking out hundreds of trees, causing immense amounts of greenhouse gas emissions that will never be recovered. And leaving future generations. So you're going to have a massive. Retaining walls that are actually going to be a hazard, especially you take a hundred years from now or 200 years from now. What's the world going to be like those walls are still going to be there. I'm very much an advocate for. Expanding the free way. Because of the flexibility that's allowed. Now, and again, political logic says you got a hundred million dollars from one fund. You can't move it to another fund. You can't move it to another fund. You can't move it to another fund. So what's essentially going to be wasted. Or most of it is going to be wasted is. Of. A benefit to all kinds of people who receive that money. And so there that's where that logic is. Anyway. My. Kind of bottom line point here is that I would love for. Board such as yours to. Infuse more clarity and rationality into the public discussions about the options for our money. And I think that's where we can look like. Thank you. Thank you, Ryan. The next speaker. Buzz Anderson. Okay. You hear me? Yes, go ahead, buzz. Yeah, I want to thank Carrie for his presentation. On the cost breakdowns of the rail trail. It was very enlightening. And just make a quick comment on the relationship between. Metro and the rail corridor. And I just want to state that any planning for a train. And building an expensive trail offset from the tracks. We'll invariably take money. And resources away from Metro. And it's happened in other communities as well. Just want to emphasize that Metro is the future. Of mass transit in our county. Thank you. Thank you, buzz. Next speaker I see is Barry Scott. Maybe Barry's hand just went down. Okay, I'm sorry, but I see Shannon Miller now. Sorry, Donna. No, that's okay. And I think we still have buzz turned on. Hello. Hi, Shannon, there you are. Thank you. I'm, I work at San Jose state and I wanted to underscore and thank Tiffany for a very, very carefully done letter that articulates many of the concerns we have. Both about discontinuing the bus from San Jose state to Deirdre Don. And for cutting so many, even more of the buses stopping and starting at stopping at. You know, I, I, I want to speak to the Scots Valley thing where I think you, you, you do have a lot of sympathy for the issues around that. There will not parking at Paso Tampo. If you cut off the Scots Valley stop as much as the scheduled scheduled. New schedule imagines. But it is a, it is a transit center. And the point of transit centers is that you, you put in significant. You put in significant effort to provide a safe environment and that bus has stopped there. So for people who get having to get to Paso Tampo, if for example, they're taking the 35 to get there, how is that going to work? But the point of a transit center is everything stops there. So it's, I second Terry's points about those who live in Scots Valley needing to be able to do it. But as she underscored, it's people from throughout the country who are not allowed to get to Paso Tampo. Secondly, the idea that you can catch another bus. Is in fact true. But that catching up the bus has time problems as Terry mentioned. And you're going to lose a huge number of riders because. You know, everybody knows, and all the studies show that when you add that kind of transfer, you make it much less appealing for people to continue. So it's a public transportation. It's just at that point, easier to pop in your car and do exactly the counter thing to what we want to have happen right now, which is to have more people using public transportation. So I just think it's really important to remember the ridership will be stronger if it continues to San Jose state. And it will support us. Lowering emissions across highway 17. And my colleague, my colleague, my colleague, my colleague, I also wanted me to mention that it does feel significantly safer to be able to hop on the bus at San Jose state than try to get to a Dyridon after dark in the middle of the night, et cetera, when there are a fair number of people around there that can pose some threats. So thank you very much. Thank you, Shannon. Hi, so my concern is, well, first of all, my name is Maurer Leonore. I work for a nonprofit here in Watsonville that we serve North and South County and Mid County. We work with developmental, we do, I do implement development and independent living. So we use, we serve our community and with disabled adults in South County and we write Metro and Paracruz system. So we, we work with our clients and our clients family also write Metro. So on locationally we do have to call and we have to do some complaints about how the Metro system works and things that go wrong. However, today I did want to express about a disappointment that I have and that I'm disappointed about how we reelected a board member that was already serving on the board. We did want to reelect a third person that would be serving our board here in Watsonville to represent us here at Watsonville. We were hoping that would happen. So we, we didn't get that and we really would really wanted that to happen so we can have a better representation of how our community would be represented. But, you know, we didn't get that and what we wanted to do is what I wanted to say is that we, we needed new thinkers with new ideas. Our county is being deprived of that. We just wanted to have, give me a second. We wanted, I wanted to say that we are underrepresented and we have, I'm sorry, I'm trying to read my paper. Our community needs a board to have a better balance of inclusive representation and somebody that knows our community. So we were hoping we could get that with Daniel Dodge, but you know we did, we didn't get that and we were hoping that you guys were would give us that with a third person. Lastly, there's two changes that have been done with Metro, and they took two routes away from us and now it's going to affect students it's going to affect seniors and it's going to affect our disabled community to get to their doctors appointments to school. And basically to UC and to Cabrera college so we're, we're wondering if those can get changed back. We don't know if that's the reason is basically to save money or why. So, thank you for listening to me. I appreciate it. Thank you. Have a great day. Thank you for your comments bar. And the next, and the last hand I see is from Barry Scott. Thank, thank you for giving me another shot. And my name is Barry Scott I live in Aptos, and I'm an avid supporter of public transit and bike and anything that gives an alternative to bars and my member friends of the rail and trail and an active participant in the which is envisions the ability to get around without owning a car. Period. And to do this, we need bus, bus and rail and more bike lanes. And I just, I wanted to call in with just a statements of gratitude to Metro to all the commissioners and the regional transportation commission and recognize accomplishments of this community and these commissions for 2022. We just heard that we received $115 million from the CTC to build segments eight and nine of the rail trail. That's significant. It's the largest ever grant to active transportation project ever. The RTC's commitment to rail transit planning. Finally, the right thing to do we bought the rail line specifically for that. The defeat of measure D in June is, is, is important so that we can remember that 73% of the people do not want to remove rail from our future. And I'm very grateful for new leadership at Metro. And this is to Mr tree, but also all of our all of our commissioners but Michael tree is expressed a wish, a dream. I don't even want to call it a dream, a goal to double ridership and that's exactly what we need to do double ridership, if we're better over time, it's going to take time but it takes vision like that. It also takes a rail line I think because with the rail line serving as a backbone and I need to remind people that many bus trips many transit trips require a transfer and sometimes you have a backbone and the rail line would be a traffic free back bone with on on time arrivals and departures and some people would be served with just the rail line stops and others might take a transfer but between the rail line is a backbone along with with shuttles and other bus routes that coordinate with that and the trail, we can have that car free future so congratulations to all it's been a great year and let's keep going in the right direction. Thank you Barry. I've seen one more hand come up from David Tran. David are you there trying to hear me. Yes, there you are. Hi how you doing I'm sorry. Well good morning board members thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak. And for all that you do. My name is David Tran and I am with the city of San Jose Department of Transportation. Our director had co signed the letter that you received from San Jose State University, and I'm here to echo the comments that have been made around the upcoming changes in the winter service specifically around highway 17 express. We strongly urge the board and transit district to reconsider the change of having the highway 17 express stop and start a dirt on station. Along with sounds they say students we have a number of employees including city of San Jose employees that take the highway 17 express. The city of San Jose has set ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions caused by commuters driving alone. The highway 17 express provides a crucial service to city staff downtown employers and San Jose State students and staff that supports these goals. The city of San Jose has a number of employees that continue to extend the San Jose City Hall and the university and doesn't require a transfer is key to the success of the service. We don't see the transfer as we're done in service we know that where there is a lack of seamlessness in a transit trip. It also negatively affects passengers experience and consequently reduce ridership. So I think that's a good question of transportation understands they may be operative concerns with stopping at City Hall, and we are happy to engage and understand, understand better those concerns and explore resolutions so that we can maintain this critical route as is. We hope you will take our comments under consideration and thank you so much. Happy holidays. Thank you David. Let's see. Oh, I see a hand from equity transit. Hi, thank you so much. Equity transit would like to appreciate the work that bus Metro board and the staff, and Mr tree are doing. Looking forward. We want to appreciate your quick responses as the community is experiencing, you know, various levels of discomfort with temporary changes and growing pains, as you continue to work to hire more drivers during a long period of being short handed. I would like to also speak to the importance of prioritizing robust public transit for a community as a system of systems that looks 100 years into the future. With close to 74% of our county voting repeatedly and support a passenger rail that will connect us to the state rail network being planned now. And we'll connect us to from Santa Cruz to Monterey Salinas, San Jose, San Francisco and beyond. Our community worked for over 20 years to bring passenger rail to life for our community. During our essential workers spoke up loud during the Greenway measure D campaign, opposing measure D people like our nurses, our police teachers, elderly people with disabilities are underserved community members from Watsonville, all in support of passenger rail. Equity transit supports a strong busing program and a future with passenger rail that will serve so many more in our community. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. And I believe that was the last public comment. I think back to the board, I'd like to ask if john ergo from our planning staff has any additional information that he might share regarding the winter service schedule and plans john are you able to are you here. Yes, I'm here thanks. Thank you chair. Thank you. In brief, I first want to just acknowledge that we understand the impact that these changes are going to have on on our customers. We looked at adding the 530pm trip back to scott's valley. This bid. Unfortunately, it was on a piece of work where the operator is working 11 and 11 hour shift five days a week. With the contract we cannot extend beyond 11 hours so we couldn't add even just the 10 to 15 minute extension to serve scott's valley on the 530pm trip. And that really just highlights the strain that operations is under, given that we are facing a severe operator shortage like many of our peers in the transit industry we're currently 20% below our pre COVID numbers and this, this is what's driving the temporary changes that we've had to put in our temporary and we've taken all the public comments we've responded. And the next service change will be March 16. As I mentioned we're already planning to add the 530 trip back to scott's valley. And on the Watsonville and the 91x side. We also hope that will be a temporary change. And I just want to say that throughout COVID, we've actually added service to Watsonville, local Watsonville services 8% more today than it was pre COVID. And that's through the addition of the Watsonville circulator. If we take into consideration that the inner city routes the 91x 71 69s. We're about 10 to 15% below pre COVID, but that compares to UCSC that is over 30% below pre COVID and highway 17 that's around 30% as well. And so we've been prioritizing local service and local service and Watsonville throughout this process. It's a difficult situation that we're all in, and I would just urge the public to bear with us as we continue to try to hire operators and get to where we work pre code. So thank you chair. Thank you. Any questions or comments. Not seeing any hands. So I think we will move on. Our next item. What do we have here. Let me change my computer. James Sandoval. Hello, good morning. James, are you there. Try now. I can hear me. Yes, there you are. James Sandoval. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It seems to be a delayed option to amute myself. So apologies for that. Okay. Hi, James Sandoval here. General chairman of smart local 23, who represents the bus and paratransit drivers here at Metro. A couple of items I want to speak to first, the Christmas event party that we had at Metro. It was a great event. And I was glad to see a board of director make it. And I'm hoping to see more of that or we all get together. And that was a really good, really good proposal. I think it was a great proposal. That was a little tree. I know he tried to give me full credit for that. But I honestly think that was our idea, not just mine. Another thing is I wanted to say congratulations to Mike Rockin. I know we highlighted a few issues that we've had in the past, but we really wanted to put a spotlight on the real issue where there was a lack of representation on Watsonville. And I know. members represent Mid to North County and only two for Watsonville. That is a real issue when Watsonville has about half the population size of Santa Cruz County. So I just want to reiterate it was not personal and I'm glad to hear Mike Rock and say he's going to make an effort to where we can start working together because I will do the same. I will always answer the call and have meetings because we need to continue working together, not just for ourselves but for our community. They rely on us to work together so we could continue providing reliable public transit. And the third thing is, as John Ergo mentioned, we are lacking or we're understaffed for the bus operators and we do need help. So anyone here that's still on that mentioned problems with modifying the service, our operators are stretched to us then as they could be. And we need help and the quick solution to bring in most of this back is finding us more operators and we are recruiting from our operators right now. I believe the applications process closes January 7th. It is a great job and I highly recommend it to anybody whether it's yourself or family or friends. So please get the word out there. You can apply online. We need the help. Our drivers are strained. We need more people here and so that's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you, James. Thanks for the bus operator pitch. We need more operators. Thank you, James, for your comment. This is Mike speaking. Thank you, Mike. Next item, do we have any communications from the Metro Advisor Committee? There are none. All right. Thank you. Any additional documentation to support agenda items? Other than what I already sent to you, no. Great. All right. That brings us to the consent agenda. Are there any items on the consent agenda that directors care to pull or do we have a motion for approval? Move approval. I'll second. You know, I just wanted to make one comment on non-7. It's great about the consideration to execute the contract amendment for the battery operated electric buses. We're on the right track, literally. And I thank you for this board. This district, we're doing our part, so keep on moving. So I appreciate that very much. Good comment, Bruce. Thank you. That was a, I didn't catch you the motion and second word. I made the motion, Donna. Donna. And second was? I was one of them. I think Mike and I tied, so. All right, we have a motion. Give it to Jimmy. Yeah. Jimmy was the second. See, Mike gives the South County. There you go. All right, let's, let's have a roll call vote on that, please. Director Brown. Aye. Director Downey. Aye. Director Dutra. Aye. Director Cullentary-Johnson. Aye. Director Lind. Aye. Director McPherson. Aye. Director Pagler. Aye. And Director Rockin. Aye. And the motion passes. Very good. That brings us to the regular agenda where I have a lot to read, I believe. Presentations of Employee Longevity Awards. We have, oh, wow, we have 12 people who are celebrating their 10th anniversary with Metro. And I'm going to read brief bios on many of them. So bear with me and I hope my voice holds together. First is Crystal Ayres. Crystal started her career with Metro as a bus operator, was promoted to a transit supervisor, and recently to the position of Safety and Training Coordinator. Crystal served in the US Air Force and is possibly Metro's only employee that has a license to fly a helicopter. She is a talented artist and enjoys her time off with her dog Snoopy, husband, two children, and caring for her very happy chickens. I love that. I think I'll just keep going, if that's appropriate for folks. Pablo Baraleza, Barales. Pablo started as a bus operator and promoted to a transit supervisor. He's been in charge of scheduling operators' daily work and his knowledge is valuable to operations. He also served in the US Air Force and was stationed in Little Rock, Arkansas. He did three tours in Iraq, and we are proud of his service to our country. Pablo enjoys traveling the world with his family during his vacations. Next is Lorena Calderón. Lorena is one of those operators that always has a smile for all her passengers. She always comes to work with a positive attitude and an infectious laugh. Travis Havens, along with performing the duties of his job as a bus operator to the best of his ability, Travis also approaches gardening in the same way and is always generous with his amazing produce. He always makes the best out of every situation when he is out on the road and goes out of his way to make sure his passengers make their connections. Next is Allison Hernandez-Adair. enjoys her conversations with her passengers and takes pride in her customer service. She enjoys the outdoors and hiking in state parks on her time off. Next is Joan Jeffries. Grew up in Southern California and came to Santa Cruz in 1996 to attend UCSC. After graduating and working for many years as a paralegal at Seagate Technology, she realized she would rather be in a service-oriented environment and applied to Santa Cruz Metro. She began working here in 2012 before purchasing was even its own department. Joan's duties and responsibilities grew throughout the years and she became manager of the purchasing department earlier this year. She's very thankful for everything her career at Santa Cruz Metro has provided her. She resides in Felton with her partner of many years along with their TW cats, maybe that's two cats, Puppy and Chewy. In her time outside of work, Joan is co-owner of an independent record label and she recently edited a book about the Yippies and their Agitprop protest actions of the 1970s. Obviously I should read it. Next is Hermann Lopez. Hermann has enjoyed a career as a bus operator and is a new father. He's an amazing baker and enjoys his time off having fun with friends and family. Bear with me, we have a few more here. Michelle Martinez. Michelle is the perfectionist on the job. Her passengers can count on her to get to work on time. She enjoys her time off with her husband and daughters. Oscar Mendes. Oscar starts every day as a bus operator with a positive attitude. He's ready to work any shift for as many hours as needed. He's a hard worker and never lets anything bother him. He spends his time off with his wife and new baby. Next is James Sandoval. James is a Santa Cruz County native. He started his career with Metro unaware that his grandfather was also a bus operator for Santa Cruz Metro. James takes pride in his position as bus operator and as a union chairperson representative for all the bus operators. He enjoys his time off with his wife and two children. Next is Roberta Valdivia. Started his career as a bus operator and now enjoys the challenges of supervision. Roberta grew up in Watsonville and has extensive knowledge of the area. He enjoys spending time with his family and helping with the family apple orchard, especially during harvest season. And the last individual we wanna recognize is Michael Thorn. That's 12 folks who are celebrating 10 years with Metro. So I'd suggest a hand. And let's see, we have a motion. We need a motion for that. We want to appreciate these. We do not need a motion on that item. All right, thank you. Just a presentation. And that's probably true for the next one too, Donna, or retire. We should point out that these, they also get a small cash benefit from this longevity awards. And let's give credit to the union for having bargained that longevity award. It's not something that, I mean, I don't think anybody on our board opposed it, but the union was representing its members well and when they fought for that recognition, it makes a difference to us to have people that stay with us for a long time. And that's why we have that award. That's very good comment, Mike. And here's to the next 10 years for all of you, I hope. All right, then I think, Donna, the next thing I have are the retiree resolutions of appreciation. Yes. And I have one bio I'm going to read for that. And that's for Rhonda Carter. Rhonda has always been involved with the Santa Cruz community and was only fitting. She became a bus operator in an area that she was born and raised in. Her customers know her as the driver with the flower in her hair. Rhonda always looked out for her passengers by making their connections and helping Metro provide courteous, safe and reliable transportation in an atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation. Her favorite holiday is Halloween. And she would take the opportunity to show off her amazing costume designs while driving her routes. She also had a hand in organizing a flash mob dancing to Michael Jackson's thriller in downtown Santa Cruz. That's cool. We wish her luck and happiness in her retirement. And also retiring is Eileen Wagley for whom I don't have a retiree, but hand for both of them. And we do need emotion on that one. Okay, very good. I thought so. We need to move approval of the motion of the resolution. We have a motion. We have a motion and a second. All right, roll call. Was the second, Director Downing? Yes. Okay. Thank you. So roll call vote, please. Director Brown. Aye. Director Downing. Aye. Director Dutra. Aye. Director Collin Terry Johnson. Aye. Director Lynn. Aye. Director McPherson. Are you muted, Bruce? No. Director Pagler. Aye. And Director Ruffin. Aye. And the motion passes. Very good. I'm sorry. Aye. There he is. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you. All right, our next item is consideration of an award to Jared Walker and associates. I think John Ergo. John, are you presenting this item? Yes, sir. I'd like to share some slides. So I'm going to share my screen with everyone in that. Great. Very good. Good morning, Directors. John Ergo, Planning and Development Director. So in October of this year, Metro advertised and distributed a request for proposals for the Bust Network Reimagining Plan to 1,700 firms, including disadvantaged business enterprises. And in the RFP, we outlined four key project outcomes, which I wanted to share with you all before we get into the award. Okay. The first is an evaluation of Metro's current fixed route system. So in other words, a comprehensive analysis of all of our routes and schedules. As some of you on the board will remember, the last Metro completed its last major service restructuring in 2016 on the heels of a fiscal crisis that led to close to a 10% reduction in service and a 10% commensurate reduction in ridership as well. And you can see this historical chart of ridership and revenue hours over the past 20 or so years. Much has changed since that time, including a worsening housing affordability crisis in the county, increasing congestion on Highway 1, growing demand from UC Santa Cruz, and most notably the lingering impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, which has altered travel patterns perhaps irrevocably. And this slide just blows up the last two years ridership and revenue hours as we've gone through the pandemic and started to come out of it. The reimagining plan is necessary to help us have a conversation about how we're doing and where we go from here. The second key outcome will be an engagement with the public in a network planning exercise through a presentation of two or more alternatives that illustrate difficult trade-offs in transit planning. The trade-offs are difficult because they require balancing important goals that cannot be pursued with the same dollar. There's no right answer, but the purpose is to help people understand conflicting transit goals and imagine how different their transit system could be. And often the alternatives will be displayed as a ridership goal versus a coverage. And this is the discussion we wanna have with the public. This helps ensure that we're asking the public to give us actionable input because they can see a network, they can see how changes might affect how they currently use Metro and how they might use it in the future. And when people are asked to react to networks that illustrate competing goals, they are weighing real trade-offs that Metro must make today and in the future. Some of this work we've already begun, as you'll remember from the board retreat in October, we presented a survey that we had completed that month of a thousand adult residents of Santa Cruz County. And the survey revealed a strong preference for changes to the transit network in favor of frequency or broad availability with nearly 70% of respondents preferring that Metro provide fast and frequent service that comes every 15 minutes and takes the most direct routes, even if that means transit is only available in areas where the most people live and work versus providing service to as many places as possible, even if that means the bus only comes every hour or two. And currently Metro has no service that operates 15 minutes or better throughout the day. Also through the survey work, it was revealed that nearly half of non-riders, which is astounding, would likely ride Metro more if the service was more frequent. These we shared in October along with some other questions that we asked in the survey. And if the board approves this planning effort, we'll be doing additional survey and focus group work as part of the reimagining plan process. The third key project outcome consists of draft and final network scenarios, matching three possible financial projections. One with current resources. So really looking at, are we providing the best service we can with our current dollars that meets the community's goals? And two with additional resources. So envisioning future service expansion possibility should additional resources become available. On the plus side of this conversation, at least in the present moment, Metro is not staring down a fiscal cliff. We have a little bit of runway to imagine a future where we don't have to make service cuts and perhaps we can even expand service. And this will guide, this will essentially establish a blueprint as we work with the regional transportation commission and AMBAG to identify corridors and operational needs for the next five, 10, 15, 20 years. The fourth key project outcome includes a robust process of interaction with stakeholders, city councils, the Metro Board and the public that provides opportunities to provide a substantive and impactful impact to the plan throughout the process. So this will carry throughout the next 15 months and make sure that we're meeting people where they are and casting a wide net. The other piece that's driving this are the five year strategic plan goals that Metro CEO Michael Tree presented to the board at that retreat in October. The first is our ridership goal, which is 100% increase within the next five years. We need the network reimagining plan to envision how we get there. The second piece is our commitment to purchasing only zero emission buses moving forward, converting our entire 96 bus Metro fleet by 2037. This network reimagining plan will establish what our future fleet needs are and where that service will be operating. It'll also tie into the South County zero emission operating base that we presented to the board before. The first step in establishing the planning for that base is figuring out what the service looks like in Watsonville County at Santa Cruz. And finally, on the affordable housing piece, while we will not be addressing that specifically with this planning effort, it will guide future development decisions throughout the County as we identify which corridors will be operating more frequent service. So as I mentioned, we released the RPE in October, November 3rd, proposals were received and opened from three firms. A list of these firms has provided an attachment A. We had a three-member evaluation team composed of Metro staff from admin and planning and an outside advisor from Monterey Salinas Transit who just last week implemented their bus network reimagining plan, which was a two-year process that got them to a pretty comprehensive service network update again implemented a week ago. And Jarrah Walker and Associates was determined to be the highest ranked firm whose proposal fulfills the requirements of the RFP with costs that are fair and reasonable. Staff is therefore recommending that the board award a contract to Jarrah Walker and Associates for the bus network reimagining plan in an amount not to exceed $398,106 and authorize the CEO general manager to execute the Jarrah Walker and Associates contract. Funds to support this contract are included in the planning departments, FY23 and FY24, professional and technical fees operating budgets. And we're the board to approve this award that project would begin right away in January 2023. With the first phase of outreach, the alternatives process scheduled for the summer of 2023. The second phase of outreach, the draft planning process scheduled for the fall, winter of 2023 and the final phase and adoption of the final plan anticipated for spring 2024. I'll just wrap up by saying that I think we're all here in this Zoom room because we believe Santa Cruz County has the potential to support an excellent transit system that visibly contributes to goals that matter to many in our community, including livability, equity, access to opportunity and reduced emissions. There's a lot that needs to be done to improve transit here in the county like better infrastructure, zero emission buses and improvements to the rider experience. But what will make the most difference is how useful the transit system is for people to get to where they need to go. For example, how do we make it likely that when someone looks up a transit trip they will find a reasonable travel time? The design of the bus network contains most of the answers to that question in this process will get us there. And I'd be happy to take any questions if there are no stops sharing. Thank you, John. Questions from directors? Rip that cap, go right ahead. Yeah, I just have a comment, John. Thank you so much for working on this. And I really appreciate the presentation that you made and the goals that you described. I happen to live in a place where if I get on the bus and see Cliff and I were in the little app, how do I get to Aptus Village? I can't actually get there on the bus. That's just one example of one person and one neighborhood. And there are some other neighborhoods in Aptus like La Selva Beach, which we're well aware of. They don't even have service. And so while I appreciate the ridership coverage challenges that are especially acute during our driver shortage, I'm looking forward to seeing this project really engage communities and actually listen to them because we want them to participate, but they won't if they don't feel like they're not being heard. So I just wanted to mention that. And also I first saw Jared Walker speak at the RTC at a workshop there and there is a video of his presentation there. It has to do with transportation in the area. Some of you may remember participating or seeing that. And after I did, I visited his website for his company and he also has an area called humantransit.org. So I did a lot of reading there and actually prior to and when I was appointed to this board, I went and read more of it because there's a lot of information about like, well, now you're on a transit board. What does that mean? What do you do? And so I'm really glad we selected them because I think that they have in-depth knowledge and I'm looking forward to seeing what they have for us. Thanks, Rebecca. Sure. Thank you. Also more of a comment than a question. Thank you for the presentation. I just wanted to know that the county and the city of Santa Cruz will be revising their housing element. So very relevant to the goals that we've set at the Metro and I think can be, hopefully we can integrate what's happening with the county housing element and the city housing element with this re-imagining plan. I think there's a lot of overlaps there. So that's the comment. Thank you for the work. And if when appropriate, I'm happy to move this item. Thank you. Mike, I see your hand up. I'll make my comments now rather than after the public speak. But I want to reinforce what both Rebecca and Shebra had to say. Jared Walker's firm is the preeminent transit planning firm probably on the planet and it's a lot of money. It's not chum change. It's a lot of money we're spending for this planning process but I'm glad we've selected the group that we did to do it. I think they really will give us the kind of quality product that is worth that money. It really will affect our goal of being able to double our ridership over the next several years. And on the housing issue, one of the things it wasn't pointed out by John in detail but we're planning to build quite a bit of housing almost about 150 units. I think 175 units on our property, transit property in the county but a much larger number of housing units are impacted by the question of the frequency issues along the major quarter. So along Soquel Avenue, for example and we need to work closely with the city in the county, city of Capitola to make sure that we take advantage of the housing opportunities along these major transit routes. We really can make the housing more affordable by not requiring as many parking spaces that people really have a serious transit alternative a bus that runs it's for example every 15 minutes or so it really can make a difference to people actually using public transit. And in developing these, what I call them corridor plans it's critical that we address the design issues that neighborhoods around behind Soquel Avenue on both sides of the street these concerns that they have about this and as you can't nobody wants to live in a single family house with a five story wall up against their property line. So obviously designs have to shade down the properties in the back and there's a whole series of design issues that really need to be taken seriously designing this housing. So there's a lot more affordable housing but it's compatible with the existing neighborhoods rather than something they're gonna come out and as they have in the past fight tooth and nail and destroy the possibility of it actually happening. So our transit efforts really need to be coordinated well with the housing efforts of the various governmental agencies along these routes. I wanted to thank John for his presentation because these are exciting goals for us I think in the coming years. Very good. Next I see is Jimmy. Thanks, sorry. I just wanted to say also I think this is a really great idea to include a lot of voices throughout the county. I definitely agree with this and I do wanna say that I appreciate the support that our new chairs been giving South County. I know that I feel like this is the most attention that we've had in a long time. And I know that when we met not too long ago with the board, I know that they also have a commitment to South County and a new facility down there that we are trying to find space for. So I appreciate that. And also to talk about the housing and we've been having conversations about building housing on our property in South County with our bus station down on the base bottom and then going up several stories to create housing. And this is a conversation we're having that looks like it's gonna be coming to fruition. So this is really nice to be getting this attention down in South County and addressing the needs that we have there as well. And so I wanna say thank you and I look forward to this moving forward. Very good. Thanks, Jimmy. Looking to the public, James Sandoval I see your hand up. I don't know if that's from previous or would you like to comment on this might be hanging on from a while ago, James. All right, I see equity transit has a hand up. We'll go there while we check on James. Lonnie. Hi. Equity transit is excited to hear that Jarrett Walker's consultation services are being considered for award given his national and international work and his decades of extensive work and expertise for people unfamiliar with his work as commissioner Downing just mentioned we recommend you check out his webpage, his book and a video of his live presentation to the RTC in 2018 here in Santa Cruz available online. We support Jarrett Walker as the choice for this work to move bus metro forward. Thank you so much. Thank you. Checking in on, I've lost my pictures here. James, are you a, no, James took his hand down. Okay, I see no other public comments. I'm bringing it back to the board. Deborah made a motion, sorry. Sure, yeah, I'd like to move the staff recommendation to award a contract to chair. I'll second it. So we have a motion from Deborah, a second from Jimmy. Any further discussion? Questions. All right, let's have a roll call vote please. All right, director Brown. Aye. Director Downing. Aye. Director Dutra. Aye. Director Conn Terry-Johnson. Aye. Director Linde. Aye. Director McPherson. Aye. Director Pagler. Aye. And director Refton. Aye. And the motion passes. All right, I hope all of us will be engaged over the next couple of years. This is going to be a wonderful and challenging task, positive outcome to come from it. Next item, do we have a report from Michael today or is Don going to step in for him? Thank you, Don. No problem. And I will go quick. I know everybody's anxious to come out. So forgive me if I read too fast. So an update on the CELTIS contract, the newly contracted marketing firm CELTIS that was approved in December by the board was just onboarded this past week. And it hit the road running with some brand initiatives. Over the course of their contract, CELTIS will assist with marketing support, brand development, creation of a photo, video library, social media and an implementation of a new website. So that's exciting. One ride at a time campaign update, Metro's marketing department has been making great progress on our one ride at a time campaign. The campaign in partnership with Go Santa Cruz has created a customer loyalty program that will incentivize riders to use the system by making a donation to one of two of the local environmental nonprofits, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the Bay of Life Fund. Metro plans to unveil the first two bus wraps featuring land and sea photos from National Geographic photographer, Franz Lanting at his Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History Gallery opening on January 21st. Marketing plans to update you more about the program and the event in January and update on grants. TIS is the season for grants. Metro is currently working on the Tercif grant. This is a $40 million grant at the state level for hydrogen stations and buses and improvement of the Watsonville Transit Center. Arctic buses, Metro is in the process of acquiring 10 Arctic buses from San Diego MTS that are 10 years younger than our oldest fleet and this will help bridge the gap for when we order hydrogen and when we actually receive them which can take up to two years. An update, thank you James for your shout out for recruitment on bus operators. I appreciate all of that help because we are down bus operators and need a lot. So we currently have six new hires in our training class. They're slated to finish sometime in late January and hopefully be on the road soon after that. We are also currently running another recruitment so that we can have a new class start right behind this one and that recruitment is running on the radio ad right now KSCOAM1080 and FM104.1 and 957. This radio ad also includes testimonials from our current bus operators. The recruitment runs through January 7th and we are also looking for mechanics. We currently have two mechanics on deck to start on January 11th and we're looking for four more. And then to close with something fun that's already been mentioned but I want to send shout outs as well for our holiday party. Metro had a holiday party last weekend and it was a great turnout even with the rain. There were approximately 115 people in attendance. A very big special thank you to Bruce McPherson for his attendance and help with grading employees as they arrived and a huge, huge, huge thank you to Donna Bauer for putting the entire thing together. The decorations were beautiful. The hors d'oeuvres were great. Donna did dedicate many hours in putting this all together and she really did a wonderful job and deserves a hand. Thank you. Very good. That concludes the CEO report. Terrific. Thank you, Don. Any questions? I see Mike's hand. Don, I wonder if you could take just a moment to explain some of the benefits of be working at Metro as a bus driver. Maybe if you, I don't know if it's on the top of your head the starting salary which is paid while you're being trained and the benefits package and those, just in case there are members of the public listening that are not aware of what it is that we, the compensation package that's available for bus driving in this county. Sure. So we are currently hiring at step two, which is 2458. So we're starting them at step two instead of the training wage that we were bringing them in on before. So they are starting at that wage. We are also offering up to $4,000 higher on bonus as well. In addition to that, we're offering a $2,000 referral bonus to our current employees for anybody that refers a bus operator or mechanic position at this time that also includes paratransit. The medical benefits is wonderful. Metro pays 95% of whatever plan that the employee chooses. We pay 100% of the dental, the vision. We also have life insurance that we cover. We have the CalPERS pension that we have. I hope I'm not forgetting anything. Those are the most major. We also have longevity that you mentioned earlier. Sorry, I'll top of my head. I think I covered it. That's great, that gives people some idea that we're not just hoping people apply on the basis of like we need them, but it's also, it's a good job and well compensated I think. And that's our hope to try and reach out effectively to people in the community to take this job. Absolutely. Very good. Any other questions? All right, Dawn, terrific. Thank you for that. I believe I'm going to move on to announcing our next meeting and that will be January 27th, Friday of 2023 into a new year. With that, I wish you all a happy holiday and we'll adjourn this meeting. Thanks everyone. Happy holidays, everyone. Happy holidays. Happy holidays. Thanks, Larry. Great job chairing again.