 All right. Good morning everyone and welcome to our October Metro meeting. It's nice to be here in these beautiful chambers in Watsonville. Thanks for having us here So I'll call the meeting to order and ask for a roll call director Brown present director Downing present and director Dutro is gonna Come online, but I haven't seen him yet director Colin Terry Johnson Present director Koenig Present director lend here director McPherson Director Newsome present Director pay grower is absent today director Keros Carter and director Rockin here and Exofficio director Henderson is absent today and exofficio director Northcut here. Thank you and we have quorum Great. Thank you Today's meeting is being broadcasted but broadcasted by community television of Santa Cruz County and Let me just see. Do we have language service here? Is anyone here from language line service? No, okay So we do not have interpretation Here today. All right, we move to item four, which is board of directors comments comments from board of directors Okay, so we'll go to oral communication It's noted that we have received some oral communication via email and those are in our pocket Is there anyone here who wishes to speak on items not on the agenda? But hopefully related to transit issues. Thank you and and related to transit issues Transit Pills to get water off my body. I could be a baby. I can be an adult I could be a kid but when you get off the bus after riding the 71 and you're on that thing for an hour and 10 15 minutes It's running late and you have to use the bathroom And you're going into Santa Cruz and they tell you sorry with clean bathrooms very clean You need to go down two blocks. You're putting a senior citizen anybody in the elements of society down there to get hurt You have not taken them from where they need to go to where they go without putting their welfare in jeopardy There's not no that That would not sound too good on the headlines on your part Man uses bathroom being told to go two blocks away gets mugged on the way coming back or maybe I should slip a diaper on or something I don't know but the answer is not Send them away. You got two bathrooms there when you go to your house. You got a his and hers No, you got a bathroom put a lock on it do something the guy had enough time to argue with me But he didn't have enough time to come up with the solution. That's one occasion in this last couple weeks You cut your Santa Cruz your Watsonville circular bus broke down the other day. I had an appointment 130 at Crestview This into the month I'm on Social Security. I asked your ladies at the attendant Will you get me on the 10 after bus? Does that mean I could write that for free? No, that's not our problem Was the response? What kind of service is that customer service? It's all written in the words customer service Wouldn't have been nothing to it to say hey look our bus break down talk to the driver or whatever that was sad Same thing with missing buses Have a cut-in bus like Monterey Metro used to do when you're running you got a driver that's been over Flipping and flipping. He don't even have enough time to take a break and he's got to go back out there And maybe over time and all that you can bring a bus over in the morning and take a bus back at night They told me all I need to be serviced you got drivers you got extra drivers According to drivers not according to customer service. They could show me nothing in literature They have the got to be the cheapest. Yes persons I've ever seen didn't cost you but a day's education to teach them to say yes Yes, no, no. Yes. No No communication whatsoever And I'm not looking to anybody lose their job. What do you guys come from any of you ever rode the bus? How do you fill those seats? To get down and take somebody from from the bottom who's been there who knows the needs not the greeds I'll give you the 20 seconds to somebody else. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that sir Anyone else who wishes to speak on oral communications? Good morning You know, I've been an activist for more years than most I'm 86 years young I'm here to talk about something not on the agenda that deals with the problem of graffiti Aside but sir this not on the agenda and related to Metro business. Oh, yeah, haven't you seen the People who have to go around employed by you to take that graffiti where you have places like where I Watch and see, you know that you have to hire someone to take care of that problem So it is related. Okay, Metro, but it's also to Say hello I'm Richard Lewis full-time. I am that I am a community organizer and Back in the days of AC. That's the Alameda service She moon ran AC But the kids thought that that was somebody that they just did a lot of graffiti Somebody back in those days that ran a System Had Bay Area United youth and he gave him office and sent him to the schools to deal with the graffiti problem So I just wanted to share that and as you know, you all got emails I'm not going to go into what I represent, but I'm not a stranger to some of you So I hope that as we move forward that will Have an opportunity To do what I represent. I want to say that as I looked for the express. I was looking for Being able there was no 91 no more But I did catch the bus and I just want to say thank you as I remember when there was a Strike it was let's be neighbors. Let's be friends So that's what you guys have created and there's one particular person on your board That's sitting up there that I know that he'll remember how many many years ago We first met with much respect The fact that you took policy to allow our young people to ride the bus for free that didn't come from Staff it came from policy of the board So I appreciate being my first time in this city hall, but for sure not in Santa Cruz If you know what it means to be my age and not give up That's something that people who know me. I'll never never give up what's vision and that's for a better Santa Cruz County Thank you for Checking into Bay Area United youth We need to unite our youth and I think that if it didn't pass Carlos had indicated January 1st a new youth commission Think what we can do to get them involved in in the school system To do what it is that would help deal with that issue of graffiti. Thank you, Mr. Lewis Good morning And welcome to our chambers, you know been a while that we did some upgrades and we're still working on the little kings But I wanted to give you an update From what we're doing on the hiring because that's one of the critical points for our our first phase of Reimagined so currently we've processed as of next Monday. We're process 50 50 something applicants We're slated to bring in a class of about 20 people in mid and mid November So it's it's an incredible Task that you know HR has been and I want to acknowledge all the HR staff have been you know Putting a lot of pressure on them and you know, they've they've come through But we're we're everybody's working real hard the training departments working on their processes. We're working towards you know Getting this target date, but we're we're on target to get You to get a lot of people so we can put that service out there in the community One of the highlights is that we're in farmers market We've even been at the senior centers educating people read Redesign of our you know reimagined how our community is going to look like you know So it's been great to be talking out there because we're not only recruiting We're educating at the same at the same time for people that that have questions, but so it's been Great to be out there with with the community in the educating So like I said, I just wanted to put those efforts out there and like it But we haven't had this big of an effort You know 20 people are you know at one time being since 2011 2012, you know When we you know up the service a little bit and then we went down, you know a few years later, but Great, thanks for that for that opportunity and like I said, I'll keep you posted how we're doing. Thank you Thank you so much. Thanks for that update Anyone else who wish to speak on oral communication Do we have anyone online? No, there's no one with their hand up. Okay, great. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to Item 6 labor organization Communication good morning Brandon Freeman general chair local 23 We're gonna keep it short today. I just wanted to introduce you all to this man to my right His name is Jaime Renteria. He's an 18 year driver here, and he is my chosen number two moving forward I may if you'd like to say a couple words Good morning to all like he said my name is Jaime Renteria 18 years driving first center to Metro It's been an opportunity to privilege Looking forward to working with all of you Thank you, Jaime. Thank you. We're as well good to meet you. Nice to meet you. Thank you board We'll be back later on a couple other things. Thank you Okay, item seven additional documentation to support existing agenda items Okay We'll move on to consent and that's items 8.1 through 8.9 Similarly, let me see if there are any items that board members wish to pull Any items that board members wish to comment on? Okay, I'll go out to see if there's any Public comment on consent items 8.1 through 8.9 Okay, nothing on move on online. Okay, so I'll come back for a motion move approval second was that director Lynn and second by director Rodkin and Do we need to do a roll call? Okay director Brown I director Downing I Director Colin Terry Johnson I Director Koenig I director lend I director McPherson Director Newsome I Direct and director Rockin I and the motion passes Thank you Okay, moving on to our regular agenda item 9 is presentation of employee longevity award and Today we have Leonel Ruiz Chavez for 10 years of service. Are you here? Mr. Chavez? Okay, not here. Thank you for your 10 years of service. We do have a certificate and a pin for you So we'll get that to you Okay, we also have item 10 which is retiree resolution of appreciation for Francisco Estrada is Mr. Estrada here. All right Thank you for your years of service at the Metro move approval of the resolution all right who it that was rockin and Okay, Brown, I Did your other last name? That's why I paused. I know who you are And I think Since Jimmy still hasn't come online. I think we can do a voice. Okay, okay? Yeah, all right. So all in favor to approve the retiree resolution say aye. All right any Opposed any Abstentions All right. Thank you for your years of service. We also have a certificate for you All right moving on to item 11, which is FY 24 budget and five-year plan update As of October 27th 2023 Mr. Farmer And chair we do have a Spanish interpreter here now and it's Maria Avila Great. Thank you for being here. That's Avila. So if If anyone needs Spanish interpretation we can provide it. I don't know if you would like to make an announcement in Spanish. Yeah Thank you for being here. All right let's start so I I'm going to present some information here some of its news some of you've heard You know, I'm not asking for an approval here at this point in time This is really more informative approval down the road will come but you know, yay or nay, but I'm bringing it up So back in March, we presented the FY 24 budget since then we've done it again in May And we did it again in June to get final budget since then, you know We've settled with the union as well as management for colas and all sorts of different changes. So our base budget has changed You know, we knew it was coming and at that point I want to kind of walk you through that real quick But before I do it I want to kind of Level set here. We have three goals in mind as I go through this process recording in progress As I go through this presentation So these are three that Michael has mentioned Multiple times and as we are we're reimagining Metro and in order to do that, you know, one of the things is seven million trips Annually over the next five years We also want to look at, you know, zero emissions fleet, which we're very aware of the 57 buses Hydrogen buses and then of course, you know the 175 units over the next 10 years as is housing You know, those are the big three items and goals So with that in mind what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you Currently our board approved budget right now on our operating surplus is 7.5 million We've now layered in the colas and we've layered in all the different Various aspects and we're trying to hold everything kind of somewhat flat and like I said, this is base base budget So kind of going to the next slide As you can see 1.7 million dollars of that is The cola impact of the raises that we gave everybody We had some other adjustments have made piece like said we started this budget way back in February And as we kind of go through things change and directions change and strategic goals Start coming up that we have to fulfill. So as part of that We were talking about bus wraps Cal tip insurance bill we received net net. It's about two million dollars In expense higher and we're basically offsetting that with our 5307 grant which is good So net net it's about a hundred thousand dollars worse And that's our level set budget if we do nothing But as you remember Last board meeting we approved phase one and we had a heavy discussion around phase one and phase two This is a reimagined metro in order to get the seven million riders and so forth of that nature You know, re-envisioning all the services So as part of that, you know, we're going to move into Our rollout of our phasing and another thing to bring up is Free fares So as part of going into this, you know, the first is, you know, phase one Which is a focus on like 15 minute frequencies ucsc Down to santa Cruz and that would take place here Really at the end of december but for purposes here january of 2024 Phase two would start the rollouts and this would be the rest of the county Possibly in april of 2024 And as part of it because we're making all these different changes We're looking at doing free fares As part of it. So, you know, as we change these routes add these frequencies and so forth Free fares throughout and this would be a trial period, you know, for no more than like 12 months possibly going longer You know, if it works out As part of that too What i'm going to show you in here is 30 36 month period and we do have funding for that and as part of that i'll explain that a little bit more In part of phase one Each phase will require additional drivers Support personnel and then approximately about 10 buses, maybe 12 buses It depends in order above and beyond the bus fleet that we have right now to be in service The money that we're going to look at to possibly cover all of this extra 36 months of phase one phase two free fares recording in progress Is the tersep operating in in this case, i'll just say a tersep grant That's about 34 to 35 million dollars 34 or 35 million dollars that will actually cover us for the 36 months And as possible too, there's also some discussions with ucse too So in phase one You know, this is the one that was discussed at the last board meeting at which you approved The impact over this 36 month period and this would start in january of 2024 and go through the december Of 2026 so it's 36 months Would it cost about approximately 3.8 million dollars? And that would be in the service above and beyond our base budget that i just showed Phase two on the other hand would be a combination of 24 million dollars of expense over the 36 months with additional help from ucse Of about 9.2 million. So the net of that is about 14.8 million dollars to cover that over the 36 months So the total between The total between phase one and phase two is 18.6 million dollars I remember i still talking about the 34 that i have on the side. So this is 18.6 And that phase two the cost is really driven Is the fact that we need 50 more bus drivers As well as five transit supervisors and two mechanics in order to kind of make this happen And that starts in april by the way And then the last one is our free fares So as part of free fares the free fares would start at the initial roll out in january of phase one And that would cost about 10.7 million dollars So in that total is 29.3 million dollars less than the Current 34 35 million dollars will receive in terms of which then we could push on capital The remaining portion and this would cover us above and beyond our base budget So this is actually a good thing and just to kind of go in One of the new concepts that i'm kind of bringing up right now on the table is this free fares concept We've talked about phase one. We've talked about phase two Now we're going to talk about free fares. So in free fares, you know the benefits of this just you know Just right off the bat is you know, there's shorter dwell times because now we could board at both We could actually get on the bus and off the bus on using both doors Instead of coming on the bus in the front door and then exiting on the back door You know, we don't have to worry about people collecting the fares. We don't have money transactions We don't have the processing of that. We eliminate the tvms You know, we don't have the splash pass and the credit card transactions that you have to do on the bus There's no fair pricing or marketing activities that that kind of goes away at that point This also becomes very accessible to all the low-income people across as well as students and seniors Because now they can just get on the bus and go and they don't have to worry about struggling for change And cash to get on Also, this is one more big item that Drivers don't have to deal with is getting on the bus and people not having The exact change or for that matter even any money to ride the bus You know, they just get on the bus and then of course all the maintenance and the equipment and the support personnel And so forth that's associated with running the fares and dealing with the cash Is eliminated. We don't have to deal with it Now there is an flip side of this and I think we've seen this before, you know during covid You know, there are these people, you know, there's people who are destinationless ridership that we have to worry about So as part of that there would be additional security personnel Who would ride our buses, you know and making sure that they you know people feel safe and everything works well So there is a cost associated with this You know, the other thing too is if this thing really takes off Which we expected to take off and as I think michael has mentioned before at least in the finance committee You know, you're talking about 30 potential increase or more when you add free fares You know when it comes in there that if we start filling these buses even with all this frequency we could leave people behind um, the other thing is uh There's also the perception of you know for people out there. Why do transit riders get to ride free? And I think you know that is a big question and I don't have that answer for it But what I can tell you is that you know if we're really going to Into this society where we really want to help people and people get around and realize the cost of living here is very expensive and And people who are struggling, you know to get them to and from the grocery store and in their jobs and so forth you know, this is something that at least we can give back and help and Then like I said, the biggest thing is the financial impact because we end up losing You know any type of payment that we receive, you know in lieu of giving free riders And by the way, this hits not just our buses, but it also hits our paratransit too as well So if we go free on buses, we go free on paratransit And then going to the next slide, um, you know, this is where I kind of want to talk talk through So for example in the very top line, uh, our june 2023 budget over that 36 month period is about 13.7 million dollars positive By adding in those general adjustments where we're saying we're going to stay flat But we also have these colas that are going to go in that's really driving the most of this cost increase We dropped to about 3.8 million dollars From there when you layer in all these different phases the phase one phase two Free fares and some help from uc Santa Cruz Our impact is 29.3 million Our new budget would be 25.5. We would completely offset that whole 29.3 million dollars with this turf sub funding So effective So effectively we'll be back to the 3.8 million dollars So this is our one time shot And we can't use that money Just in general if we just have our base budget, we can't use it. It's about expanding service It's about doing what phase one and phase two are trying to do And how does that result? Relate into our five-year plan. So in our five-year plan right now Set up, you know, right now we're talking about, uh, you know 5.9 million dollars And then of course it it does increase this does not include That funding that I just talked about for the 29.6 So coming across, um We'll actually be much better than what you see here And then I think one of the bigger issues here and I want to explain this is You know, what is Okay, there we go. So What I did was You know, this is a lot of money going out the door What is it if we continue this beyond 36 months? How do what how does that impact our cash deficit? You know, what's our physical cliff and so on? so we took, you know and Basically modeled out into the future to about 2034 what we think it would be if we continue it And one of the key caveats here is we need a sales tax to continue it There is no if and spots or it's no sales tax We don't continue this we shut down the program But right now the real issue is that we Basically modeled out what we think the projection is going to be You know, we don't know what inflation is going to be in 10 years or for that matter You know, even if we're in a recession things kind of drawback, but We made our best estimates and from there before I go into the next one I just want to remind everybody of these buckets You know at the very top, which is basically our workers comp liability operations sustainability cash flow As well as our UAL OPEB Those are we kind of restricted buckets. Those are our restricted buckets These buckets are what they are and they're not part of this discussion about what you know, where we hit negative and cash And the reason why is this money is specific for specific reasons It doesn't mean we can't free it up to use it for things But it takes board approval and a lot of heavy conversation to do it But think of this as Not part of when I show you the cash aspect is part of that However, the bus replacement capital operating reserve as well as the covet recovery fund are part of the cash That's part of we're drawing that down to keep and the operations going So on the next slide, here's where if we do nothing we keep the base budget very first slide. I showed As we go through And there's no phase and we don't do the phase one. We don't do the phase two no free fairs We're talking about somewhere in the neighborhood of 2029 is where we're going to start running into negative cash And if we start running in a negative cash, we got to do something now, you know, I mean at least start thinking through What do we want to do? However, now that we've talked about phase one and phase two, which is basically here The biggest thing is have since sales tax that that's big key You know the free fairs they continue to go our sales taxes grow based off of pre covid years You know, we need the help from uc santa cruz and then of course, you know, all of this Continues beyond the 36 months. You know, this assumes sales tax. We continue this process You know, we are at 100 of our personnel We're going to continue the cola At four percent throughout even though I know before we usually take it away But I mean in theory that cola may be three percent. Maybe five percent. It's not about Negotiations, this is about just a projection to figure out where we are. So we understand And then inflation too as well And what that does if we go to a sales tax on the november 24 ballot I know we'll receive money in 2025, but we're taking kind of a conservative approach and saying january of 2026 We're going to start receiving it. So a year later, you know, everything kind of gets put in place And from there, as you can see the curve is actually pretty high and pretty healthy And that will keep us You know viable to probably 2040 If if we do that and this also by the way keeps all the phases in as well as the free fairs That's great news You know, however, if we push to the sales tax ballot, um, you know two years out From november 24 to november of 26 And then of course start collecting a year later in 2028 year 2028 As you can see that curve comes way down And like I said, there's some a little bit of negativity sitting there in 28. That's okay We have that covered, you know, we have a little bit of flexibility in some of these numbers here But ultimately that gets us all the way out to 2034 a decade later So actually more than a decade 11 11 years later before we have to do anything And so as part of that, um Basically, it's really kind of moving forward with, you know, the phasing the free fairs And then of course, you know, this is where we could demonstrate like a world-class system Meet the goals that I talked about Uh, uh at the very beginning the three different goals And then at the same point too, the biggest thing is it's the sales tax as long as we get that sales tax You know, that will really make us viable to keep moving forward If we don't get the sales tax, then we would have to cut back to our base And then really look holistically on what we can do going forward beyond 2029 because as you saw the first chart That's where we kind of fall and that's where we got to figure out what we need to do from Thank you. Mr. Farmer See if board members have questions or comments director downing Going back to the slide about assumptions of Which one on on here or way back. Yeah way back It has to do with the free fairs Of the free fairs right here. So have you consulted other transit districts to reach some of these Some of these numbers have you have you spoken with others to see if there is anything we're missing here on the Benefits and the challenges Yeah, this is actually most of these were driven off of another A transit agencies board report that went in to go to free fairs Or I'll say keep free fairs because there are already free fairs You know versus going back to actually charging. Yeah, because sometimes there's just unintended consequences If somebody else has already done it, there's no reason for us not to Know it ahead of time. Yeah, thank you so I wanted to comment on the big picture issues here First of all, thank chuck for the presentation The numbers are critical. It has to pay for itself. It has to work Um We dream of being the best transit district in the country or one of the best and this is a Practical map of how we can actually get there And when we ask for people for a sales tax, we're not asking for money because we're failing And we desperately need to have some help to stay afloat We're saying With your help we could become A transit district that competes with boulder and portland and these places people talk about is having a wonderful transit system Um The to the answer the question about the public asking why why do these people get to ride for free? You know how come they get away with that? I think there are two major answers to that that I think will resonate with Drivers that don't take the bus One of them is how can you get these other cars off the road? And how much would you pay to have people on a bus instead of having and driving around in a You know several ton Vehicle because people are no longer driving one ton vehicles. They're driving much heavier stuff around on the roads And climate change Is an issue that people in this county have paid serious attention to And it makes a difference when people get out of their individual cars and and take public transit And so we I think we have to push hard on those kinds of issues but I kept that we had a present take this presentation or close to it at the finance committee And and I asked the question there How can we do this the transit districts around this country are going under? They're having major crises and cutting back on service and Bart talking about shutting down routes and Frequency dropping dramatically and so forth and the answer that I got from chuck and from michael tree and others was other districts depend a lot more on their fair their fairs from their riders for their their financial success And we're at about 20 percent of the money we get to run this system comes from people paying for their ticket for their fair on the bus Bart it's 60 percent So if you ask why is bart in trouble when covet hit and people stopped taking public transit or a lot of people stopped taking public transit They took a huge hit in their budget. We took a hit, but it wasn't As dramatic because we because again and what the difference is People in this county have been willing since 1978 To tax themselves to pay local funding to keep a transit system operating at a level that really serves the public That's critical because compared to other districts around the country We have a lot better public support from the people in our community Whether they ride the bus or not because the voters all have to vote on this not just the bus riders And it really makes a difference. So what we what we've had here are a bunch of numbers that show that it'll work But I keep holding on to the bigger picture If there are narrative description of what's going on, we're talking about becoming an amazing transit district 15 minute service in year one from the university and 15 minute service throughout the county in the in phase two Free fairs I've been on this district Board since 1979 And I can't remember when that wasn't one of the biggest issues that members of the public got out How come we can't ride for free or you know, it's so you know, we can't afford it or I take the bus But it's too much or I don't I never have the right change I don't it's confusing and I don't know how you pay for it And it's such a difference just to say if you want to get some place get on the bus You don't have to you don't have to have the correct change You don't have to go pay ahead of time 30 days to get a a pass that'll take you on there or something So I'm incredibly excited by what you've just presented to us and the numbers are just kind of dry and that's our Responsibility and your responsibility to get into that and understand how they work But for the public the picture here is not about these numbers It's about how really a reimagined bus system that really carries people where they need to go And it's not just about public transportation. It's about housing If you have 15 minute service that runs along Soquel Avenue You can start and think about all the way down Soquel not just in the city of Santa Cruz But all the way to want, you know to potentially freedom boulevard and down to Watsonville The the opportunities for affordable housing Where you don't have to have Parking pay a third of the cost of building the house Because you don't need two cars for every family or three cars People can get on a bus If the bus is coming every 15 minutes, you don't have you don't have to know when it's coming It's an average of seven minute wait If you just go out there and hope it's coming soon You know seven minutes is that you're not really taking a huge punk out of somebody's life So I think we'll be able to have a real increase in affordable housing on these routes Public transit for people to get to hospitals and work and schools and places they need to be I just think this is one of the most exciting things going on in this county right now And I don't think we should underestimate that and I think we we can get the public to support this half-sense sales tax If they understand that picture It's not a oh, we're desperate. We're going under and maybe give us a little more money And maybe we can hold on for by our fingernails for another couple of months or something No, we're talking about really having a wonderful transportation system here. So thanks for the presentation I'm awesome. I'm very excited about this conversation and Looking forward to how this rolls out. I do Appreciate the efforts that are being made because at Cabrillo we have a lot of tiers that I personally have to Navigate through when I have my K through 12 get to ride for free and dual enrollment And the bus passes and then I have folks who are a pair of crews and then I have exempted students And so then I have to charge all the other students the extra fees So it's nice to know that some of my accounting efforts will be different And I appreciate that. I do want to know you made a comment. There's a comment on the Slide about the u.c. Santa Cruz contribution I want to know if that's above and beyond the contract that we're already in and what does that look like for the Cabrillo Because our contract is not set to expire until 2025 and this will go into a place in 2024 Yeah, so it is above and beyond what ucse Is contributing today And it's about service. I think there's been discussions, you know, I think scott's Very well of it and I know michael's been talking about it. But yes There is addition to what's currently getting paid by uc santa Cruz And that's why I said that we really need that help to make this happen Um, we haven't got there yet. Thank you director north cut. I'll add I think ucse intends to Or at least imagine some of their service shifting from taps their internal transportation system over to us Which is why they can Not get rid of all of it But it allows it allows them to afford additional contribution because they won't have to put that into the taps of loop buses We run the we run the same place on campus and the loop buses and our buses So that's one way that they can raise some additional funding plus they do have some reserves at this point in their transportation budget And we don't but i'm happy to buy out the contract and and be done because we have different types of agreements that if we go over uh If we collect more than what we owe then we kind of pay the difference And maybe we talk about that later and i'm probably missing an email, but There's an option there of us buying it out so that we kind of settle the difference And get to be on the train of the free fair starting 2024 Yeah, it's a great marketing tool for community college students Thank you other directors Yeah, um God help me if I we get into a discussion on rail trail, but Uh, I think it's going to have be a component in this discussion on our sales tax because people are talking about public transit and of course That issue hasn't been resolved and I think it's Going to be uh enlightening when the cost of it and whether the coastal commission will allow for the i'm talking about the rail and so forth I um, I just I was I just begging for a decision of what these Costs and environmental impact of rail will be And if it's realistic then it can be a reality and believe me I'm not trying to get into an argument about this, but I think it's going to be part of the discussion Because without the rail they said well, what are you going to do and this is what we're going to do with metro to greatly improve our service um So in some respects, I think that could be a sales point But I don't think we're going to get that answer anytime soon and believe me pardon me If I got under the rail trail deal, but I think it's going to have an impact on how we address this issue Thank you chair Yeah, I think this is an incredibly exciting Moonshot if you will Metro's moonshot Really could create a world-class transit network for our community And as has been said it would be Revolutionary not just for the way people get around our community, but also for our ability to build more housing Uh, and I have heard firsthand just this week from a father of Student that's using the free fare program and he says it's been life changing Because now instead of being all stressed out in the mornings rummaging around for free for spare change And sometimes you know not finding it and then having to drive His his high school student to wherever they need to go. He can rest assured. They're going to be able to get on the bus Uh, so I just have a couple of a quick question. So first of all, um, when we look at that That longer timeline through 20 34, uh The cash line does that assume the free fares continue? Uh after we pass the sales tax? Yeah, everything that's associated with kind of the all the way out to 20 34 Assumes we keep phase one phase two in all free fares intact. It does not stop after 36 months All right And then the other question is but I hope that ucsc sees the benefit of this whole package For operations on their campus But if they give less then We would You know, ultimately like how could we modify this program to make it work? I mean that is the one piece that is not fully within our control In as a part of this plan and it's it's significant. So would we Uh, I mean Reduce the number of people who are eligible for free fares. Would we look at um, maybe reducing some of the frequency on certain routes? Or is that just sort of something we'd have to model out separately John ergo planning a development director. So we would this phase two envisions Uh 12 buses an hour serving the ucsc campus in both directions. So a bus every five minutes in both directions Uh, if ucsc Doesn't see the benefit or doesn't contribute with what check has bottled We would just reduce that service Commensor it with the contribution that we're modeling today. So essentially it it requires a shift in thinking I mean, I think and it somewhat applies to the cabrillo contract as well where it's There's This thought that they're paying for free fares But really what it's paying for its service And so if we reduce those contracts, it means we have to reduce service to the to both campuses Right, okay Makes sense. And of course the the free fares will improve the the service overall because people will be able to board front and back And the bus will ultimately be more reliable as a result Any any ideas what we would do beyond 2034 I mean one thing that is clearly we We have a model beyond 2034, but as you can see I think if we go to Here this is the one where we kind of kind of put our pencils down and and if we decide we are going to go with Phase one phase two and free fares at least for the 36 months We are going to take more of a heavy scrub at going beyond 2034 probably going to 2040 and beyond probably a 20 year time frame But really it's it's really around the magnitude of the economy You know that that's really going to drive that because you know, we know we're going to have Kola adjustments for the most part for people, but You know if the economy takes off and we have cpi's of five or six percent That could blow our numbers out of the water, you know We're we're losing money fast because everything's go up at price, but if it cuts back down to one percent You know we've modeled out and it's going to go actually farther. That's where it gets tough when you start getting way beyond 10 years We just don't know Yeah, it might be valuable to look at some of the other funding mechanisms as well that other agencies around the world utilize I mean one that comes to mind is potentially the creation of transit funding districts since ultimately has been said um Some of the folks that will benefit the most are those who are living in the new housing that we're able to create So it makes sense to utilize that leverage it In order to ensure a stable budget Long into the future. Thank you other directors Okay, thank you so much for the presentation. Um, oh I just had a couple of comments because this is a really good discussion. This is like a paradigm shift for metro in a big way Right in the community You know, I I had uh jotted down some notes I think in regard to where do you go after 20 34, you know, chuck mentioned the economy. That's a big one and director konig Talked about alternative funding sources and rethinking how you pay for public transit. That's another benefit districts and so on And we've had some discussions with lafko. Thanks to a connection from Uh Board member konig in regard to just thinking out in the future How do you sustain your public transit system, especially with uh infrastructure and other needs? And I think the state and the federal government are the other two huge pieces to what happens after 20 34 because they For the most part pay for the majority of your system. They pay for your buses. They pay for your fueling station they pay for your maintenance And I I really think there has been Shifts in in thought as to the importance of public transit But you know that kind of ebbs and flows with with politics But I think that's a big factor in 20 34 is where are the state and the feds and in regard to support for public transit So I I think that I'm optimistic, right everybody likes to get behind a winner and uh, and I think public transit Could be a real big winner as you move forward in santa cruz county um, we've talked about that ridership goal and You know john ergo and I saw the path to get to seven million through the phase one and the phase two because we were We just thought out of the box for a couple of weeks on how could we double ridership and get back to The top of where metro had been so phase one and phase two do that and then um Fair free adds a whole new component into phase two in mazula We took the system fair free first through a pilot just like you're contemplating and then actually it just became part of a ballot measure which the residents approved but they approved it because they saw a 70 percent increase in ridership in mazula And so if you just got like a 50 or 60 percent ridership increase off of Fair free in a phase two environment That's where you start to approach 10 million rides a year I think really confidently you'd be probably at nine million, but you'd be moving towards 10 and that is a rare error I mean for a system this size to be carrying that many people all kinds of great things happen in a in a county As director rock can talked about efficiency of the transit system Environmental impacts Helping free Basically equity right your folks that can least afford Good transportation now have great transportation just like everybody else in the community Transportation doesn't become as much of an issue for jobs for important medical appointments for For Really tight budgets So there's just a lot of things that flow and a lot of things to think about In regard to phase two and in fair free You would not even be able to remotely Contemplate going on phase one and phase two and fair free if it wasn't for one time Tersip grant of 28 million dollars that gave you the opportunity to do this for three years it's one time money And so uh as that money comes before the rtc commission you should defend that at all costs that is metro money It's its intent from the governor was to provide funding to build ridership for the public transit agency in the region To help with any deficits that might be there and to finish up zero emission bus projects So there's 28 million and there's 7 million don't let anybody else get their fingers on that Because that is your golden moment to show for the next three years What a world-class transit system looks like and then you could take that if you desire You know to the voters uh or find some other mechanism and you know They'll have seen what it is and can make a good conscience vote on whether they'd like to continue that in your county So I think the finance committee will continue to work The ad hoc committee that was set up by your chair will meet again and talk about the ballot measure and make some recommendations for the board that would be forthcoming in the real near future I would like to say in regard to the fair free Slash benefit and challenges slide that chuck put up that the the one thing that's not there that we experienced in Missoula and that most would Would definitely make a comment on is if you take your fixed route system fair free You also need to take your your para cruise system fair free And chuck has skillfully budgeted in the numbers that you have seen here today Increases for para crews to accommodate the fair free environment But over the long term that's the one where you'd want to watch very closely your costs because Uh, that's a really expensive System to provide but to be honest with you when you go to the voters That's probably one of your biggest sound bites is And one of the biggest supports for a potential ballot measure or whatever you're looking for is Taking care of your seniors and you're disabled And so generally speaking you're able to keep pace with that just by talking to the public about it But we did want to in case it was in the back of your mind recognize that Uh, your senior and disabled service your door-to-door para cruise is budgeted also for increases within these numbers Thank you, mr. Tree and um, I'll add some comments I I made these comments at our santa cru city council meeting this week, but there are a lot of eyes on us national state as is apparent with the grants that we've gotten and the Events that we've had so there are a lot of eyes on us And as as you mentioned mr. Tree that people do like to get behind winners and this is our opportunity to shine so Um, I'm really excited. This this is beyond transportation. It is about equity It is about environmental system sustainability and it's about overall community well-being. So Um, thank you so much for laying out a path for us to to make it there Great Okay, so we'll move on to Speaking of paths to get us there We'll move on to agenda item 12. Yes Um, could we pause for a moment our technicians are having a little glitch here and so that we can get that Taking care of before the next item. No problem. And that is the pacific station update Thank you downtown transit center We're good. Okay And we're back on hello, mr. Ergo. Let's let's let's see it. Thank you chair Good morning. John Ergo planning and development director So i'm here to give an update on the pacific station progress to date and Request your review and approval of the temporary operations plan The city council Santa Cruz city council approved this plan On tuesday of this week and as part of the mo you that we have with the city We need to review and ask for your approval of the plan as well. So Pacific station, of course has been a partnership with the city of santa cruz With for the future housing eden housing And as cobbled together multiple funding sources to get us to where we are today We received a 29 million dollar grant from the affordable housing and sustainable communities program of the state an infrastructure grant sales tax credits for the affordable housing And of course metro's contribution of four million dollars And what we're talking about today is really In support of this plan to redevelop pacific station into 128 units of affordable housing Which include 32 extremely low-income units 63 very low-income units 31 section 8 project-based units And two manager units and of course a new modern state-of-the-art transit center so the I am Not planning to get too much into the weeds Well, i'll go as as far into the weeds as you all want on the plan The circulation patterns etc. I'm not going to go into the weeds alone though So you'll guide me how far we want to go in But everything i'm going to talk about today is meant to be temporary as we move our current operations from where they are To where they're going to be for the next two years give or take while construction and demolition happens at the current site And uh I will just Into the map the new site So current pacific station and future housing new tarmac And temporary operations center. So we're looking at the block bounded by Front street river street south and so kehl And the key elements of this plan include a temporary revised transit circulation patterns pavement restriping A clockwise pattern around this block. So all routes will circulate clockwise conversion of river street south to one way southbound with a contra flow bike lane parallel to the levy path And a front street shared bus bicycle lane to facilitate bus movements at a new temporary ticket sales call center at 603 605 front we're In bid package development right now. It's actually complete Assuming approval. We will advertise it later this month Well, the city will the city is the lead on on both the project the pacific station development and the temporary operations facility We'll look to start shifting operations in january But the project needs to break ground in february. So by february 1st is when we plan to be operating out of this new temporary transit facility Just a note there was a mistake on the last slide that is january and february 24 Did we not change the years? Yeah, okay We'll be sure to change the years going forward Not moving backwards So it's illegal So here's the site plan layout the red on front line on front street is the shared bus bike lane It's a 13 foot facility Except for around the bus stops where it's 15 foot which creates space for cyclists to pass buses at the bus stops The primary loading areas will be at the existing stop. That's by cvs On front street just north of soquel At the existing stop. That's a pullout on soquel in between front street and river street south And we'll install the plan is to install a new stop river street south Just north of soquel and the whole point of The strategy behind the bus stop relocation or the bus stop layout that way is so that Any transfers that are occurring in the system are happening at the same stop. So if you're a ucsc passenger customer coming up on the 18 19 You're you'll pull into that front street stop at cvs If you're continuing south or to the san lorenzo valley on the 35 All of that activity will happen at that stop same thing on the other side. So it's Meant to create maximum convenience for our customers Those are the two essentially in service bus stops. There'll be one on front street One on river street south and then not shown here, but the 17 and 35 will use the pullout On soquel between front and river street Um We currently have layover space and bus stops and in pacific station for 25 buses and so We are looking to recreate that around This block which necessitates Using all of it essentially on the inside of the block So we are going to be temporarily removing all of the on street parking around this entire block On the front street side of it is where we'll be implementing that shared bus bike lane On the but some of it may be need may need to be used as layover space On the back side river street south is where primarily the layover locations will be But we we will just need all of that space During the interim period I'm not matt starky, but he did prepare this presentation for the city And that's that's really it. So if there are questions on the circulation on the map, I'm happy to get into it But This is the plan as we prepared. Thanks. Thank you director rothkin I assume somebody's looked at the parking impacts from removing all this on street parking and that there is Space available in the garages or something, you know, or is it just like well good luck I'm How much work has gone into the thinking about that? Yeah, I want to go to because there's a bunch of stores and Restaurants and destination areas down there that people park at and Without all that parking is all gone. It's it's tight now. Yeah The the the on street parking at river street south is not heavily utilized It's primarily the front street spaces that are the main concern The city staff have done an audit of the two parking garages One that's on the front and so kell and the other one that's in the top of the middle of the block There's plenty of capacity. The issue is incentivizing or encouraging people to to use that and so The transportation and public works committee directed staff to come back with a plan For encouraging that use and also for a constant assessment and update on the parking impacts Education about where a park or something we actually spend some money to let people know where the parking is going to be Thank you Other questions comments So as far as the transfers Are those mostly just going to be happening kind of at the cvs side of this or roles would be some cases where people would actually For my understanding is that those are the three main stops Would someone be transferring, you know completely across this vertically or horizontally No one will need to be transferring completely across unless you needed to get back To where you had just come from so the 18 and 19 will become the ucse routes 18 and 19 and 20 will be coming up front street stop at cvs That essentially will be the last In service stop or they the they will circle the block and their true last in service stop will be at river street south That same location cvs will be the first in service stop of The what will be the one and the two what currently are the 71 69 aw The 35 will also pick up there the 17 so all routes will pick up there heading out of downtown And same thing at going in the other direction all of those routes will serve the new stop at river street south as their last in service stop Which will be the first in service stop of ucse so bottom line is all of the connections will happen at the same location Great. Thank you. Yeah So how long do you think this will Do you have any estimates at this point? I know it's early. I mean we think two years but Two to three years i would say Fingers crossed all goes well Other questions or comments Thank you so much for the work on this. Thank you for the partnership with the city It will be a time of transition So again, I said this Tuesday afternoon, but we'll have to be patient with ourselves and with each other as a community And this this is the this is the way forward to get us to where the presentation that we just saw So appreciate all the work that's gone into this Over the months and years. Thank you. Thank you Let's see. Is there public comment on this item anyone who wishes to speak on this item Okay, anyone online All right, I'll bring it back for a motion second I don't know who was first Rodkin was first. I think konig maybe was second and Do we need to do roll call Or can we just let's say we I think we can do the voice. Okay. So all in favor Signify by saying I I Any opposed Any abstentions that passes great. Thank you Okay item 13 is federal legislation update. Oh, excuse me. Yep federal legislation update from mr. Giglio Welcome Thank you making it to santa cruz. Yes. Thanks chair callentary johnson and Vice chair brown and directors. It's great to be in santa cruz in watsonville in santa cruz county here And getting away from washington. I uh sent my uh slide presentation to donna a couple weeks ago And just a couple things have happened in the interim in washington So I may have a little updates. Is there is this going to get me move it forward? Yeah, I also am not Matt starkey So So just a few things that I wanted to go through uh, you know kind of in addition to kind of again What's what's been going on on the house? But uh, the f y 2024 D o t budget, uh, the federal fiscal year technically started on october 1 of this year But of course, we do not have a finalized budget. That's not new congress hasn't done that in about 25 years The ii ga or as the president calls it the bipartisan infrastructure law the five year bill that Reauthorized transportation programs and also created some new programs So I wanted to give you a little bit of an update on that and then the overall 118th congress Next year is the second session of the of the two sessions of the 118th congress So just kind of give you a little bit of a highlight about that So f y 2024 budget as I mentioned started the budget technically the year started on october 1 We don't have a budget enacted again. Like I said, not uh unusual congress has not met that October 1 deadline for the past 25 years. I believe this is 26 years now that they haven't met that Deadline and so what what is needed in these cases is a stopgap Funding measure, which we call a continuing resolution that keeps the government open and it essentially funds agencies at their current levels So we don't have a government shutdown But what also a cr kind of does is is it holds everybody? Kind of nobody wants to do anything big during a cr because they know that that's not their final budget And they could potentially get cut or maybe they get increases And so it kind of holds everything Steady at these agencies, but they're not moving forward. And so of course we would rather have this this budget Unfortunately, the house the republican led house and the democrat led senate are pretty far apart on their f y 2024 budget proposals So for example The budget is made up of 12 bills that fund the various agencies and congress tries to take them up individually The bill in the house that funds the department of transportation It also funds HUD and some other kind of related smaller federal agencies right now The house is proposing about a 25 percent overall cut to that bill And and while the senate is proposing kind of level funding near f y 2023 a little bit far So very far apart there on that I also wanted to add and I may have talked about this before it's kind of a bugaboo with me But we have heard on both sides democrats and republicans that they want to concentrate a little bit more on deficit reduction in the years to come The problem with that is that right now 60 percent of the u.s budget is annual budget takes up Medicare medicaid social security things like that another 10 percent is about interest on the debt Another 20 percent of that letting maybe a little bit less is defense And then 15 percent of that is what we call non-defense discretionary spending And that's really where most of congress is looking to find these very very ambitious deficit reduction goals They're only looking at that tiny 15 percent of the budget and that includes The usdot budget and so we worry about these deficit reduction discussions that Don't include Everything I saw something in the new york times. Somebody somebody said the u.s government is like a a giant insurance company with an army You know when you talk about that entire budget so so anyway So that so just wanted to by way of background when you hear about this deficit reduction stuff in washington In a lot of cases they're talking just about that that pretty small Slice of the of the federal budget The good news about the usdot budget while that there is a 25 proposed cut Overall for that bill that funds dot and HUD in the house The formula programs the 5307 formula program that funds a lot of the transit operations here Would be sort of held harmless the if you recall the the ii j or the bipartisan infrastructure law authorized funding from f y 22 through f y 26 For those formula programs both the house and the senate sort of stay with those Authorized levels which would be about a two to three percent increase. I believe Over f y 23 levels. So I think we're pretty good there You've probably heard me use the goofy budget term in the past plus ups And that is where congress will provide in in recent years has provided a little bit more money To those authorized levels from the bipartisan infrastructure law In the past so the bus program the bus discretionary grant programs and all those things got little plus ups This year. I think those plus ups are going to be harder to get again Sort of trying to keep the budget steady the the house has none of those plus ups the senate has some pretty small plus ups And with with regard to dot the the heavy Victims of proposed cuts in the house bills are are amtrak What they call a capital investment grants program. They used to call it new starts at funds light rail and brt projects And some other f r.a programs. Those are the big culprits of the cuts Usd ot like I said the formula programs the programs that were authorized in the ii j a overall are protected So it's not all bad news This budget impasse that we're at sort of has its has its roots in the debt limit deal that was that was agreed upon earlier this year where Where congress agreed to essentially freeze The budget the annual budget for f y 24 and f y 25 In exchange for allowing that debt limit to be increased and we wouldn't default on on some of our responsibilities What the house did was they took that debt limit deal agreement as a As a ceiling and not a floor and so they composed their f y 2024 budget using An overall budget level that was significantly less than what was agreed upon in that budget deal the senate took it more literally And they've been using you know using a budget at that higher level So It's going to be difficult to break this log jam and and I say here the new new house leadership won't likely break that log jam I think it's going to be very difficult to do And and again this this one's actually a little bit of a change Two weeks ago. I thought the likelihood of a shutdown on a government shutdown on november 18th was very high Because this new house leadership might not be interested in it But from all the reports we hear the new speaker of the house has Has You know gotten his caucus Around the idea of another cr at the very least and this one would be a longer term cr Through either january or april of next year to allow more Negotiations on the budget So good news that this new speaker doesn't want to shut down the government and his caucus seems The republican caucus seems to be behind this The bad news is I think that They want that extra time to really try to squeeze hard On on implementing that 25 cut to the HUD DOT budget and others So so it's going to be a messy next few months with regard to the budget I think the senate and the white house are going to hold firm on on that debt limit deal ceiling and so we'll see I don't know where we're going to more what's going to happen But I think for a lot of agencies, you know, like again a 25 cut is is bad So and even if you meet them halfway On that you still got a 12 and a half percent cut, which is pretty significant to a lot of agencies again Going back to the fact that I knock on wood our formula program money is Is probably in pretty good pretty good hands So the infrastructure law 2021 ii j a we've got probably years one and two of the Five years worth of funding kind of on the street either with awards that were given or Notices that are currently out there for for people to apply to I think the white house is trying very hard While you know things get messy in congress what they do is they roll out money You know for for various programs and and I think they're happy to do that I just wanted to kind of give you again kind of an idea of the high profile funding You know, these are these are billions of dollars that that are given away annually It's pretty historic unprecedented for all of these programs On the other hand, they're all oversubscribed And so when you hear oh, there's all this infrastructure money out there billions and billions of dollars Yes, the needs far far away what we even have and so for instance the 1.2 billion annually for the loan No emissions vehicle program and you know the 20 million dollars that you folks were able to secure this year Was just you know fantastic and and I wouldn't say that oh, well, I got a billion dollars Of course, you got some money. This was highly highly highly competitive oversubscribed lots of real Thoughtful strategy by mr. Tree and his staff Putting together this Getting the congressional delegation on board for it. It was it was a very very heavy lift and a really impressive Really impressive outcome So a couple of the other programs are, you know, I'm Santa Cruz county and Santa Cruz metro benefits from to with that mega grant That was a the highway one Award that was from earlier this year The safe streets and roads is a kind of a pedestrian safety program that a lot of Entities in Santa Cruz county So so a lot of that money is is coming into Santa Cruz county through most a lot of it through metro But through other through other ways As I mentioned before the ii j a provides funding for federal Authorizes programs at the ot for the next five years so through 2026 And and those competitive programs as well So as far as transportation reauthorization, we've got a little bit of time But I'll I'll talk a little bit about later about how maybe it's never too early to discuss these things We have found that The White House in their, you know, awarding of these programs they continue to feel very very strongly about by america Requirements with regard to purchasing u.s domestically produced things And permitting environmental permitting and and things like that again the dot Priorities again if you look at the awards that they've given out very heavily Um, you know focused on on issues with regard to safety modernization climate equity And also equity with regard to geographic geographic distribution. That's been something that they've care quite a bit about Here's just again overall just a reminder. We've got in the house. We've got a pretty slim republican majority We also have a very slim democratic majority in the senate and that will continue into 2024 Adding on top of that the idea that it's an election year is going to make things probably pretty messy with regard to legislating I would predict that you know again sort of the budget the f y 2025 budget will be a focus and kind of a quote unquote must pass Maybe not a lot else will be able to get done Next year on that line again the budget battles will continue as I mentioned before the white house again Kind of has this benefit of allowing congress to kind of fight over things But they've still got this ii j a and the inflation reduction act of 2022 which includes a lot of Climate change tax credits and some programs at epa So they'll continue to be able to implement that and award money While congress fights I would also say there's probably even though we're funded the dot is funded through 2026 and I and listening to these really impressive presentations that you know both chuck and john are giving you know about kind of these out years right what happens past 2026 I don't think it it is too early to start talking to our congressional delegation congress You know dot about what happens in this next authorization With this you know with the deficit reduction being sort of very you know Close to a lot of members of congress Keeping those levels that those authorized levels from the budget From the bipartisan infrastructure law as the baseline For the next five-year authorization is really important We want to grow on what we you know continue to have as opposed to people saying well you got your you know You got your chunk in the in the infrastructure bill now. We're going to start ramping down I have not heard that but I think that we need to you know talk about the needs out there and I think again The the proposals that that staff put forward today Are a great starting point to educate our delegation and congress that There's more to be done on these things so I think that was all I had I'm happy to answer any questions or anything I missed But thank you again for your time. It's it's fantastic to be here Thank you questions or comments Dr. Rockett So I'm a news junkie and do my best to follow what's going on in dc And I'm still always confused when I'm done and I have to say your presentations to us once or twice a year Really help So recently for example We got we heard the news that the bite administration has agreed to support hydrogen Station development in california. Yes big number big big 1.2 billion dollars So first thing I want to do is thank you for your in general your lobbying work for us because I don't take it for granted. We have a really good congressional delegation, but Someone has to pull that together and direct that at the right people in congress And that's your job and we really appreciate the results we've been getting so thank you for your work The small To us small amount maybe large to you. I don't know That we pay you for doing that work. It's well worth it. This is not money. We're just sort of throwing out there It's a difference to us in the bottom line Um, but so I'm trying to figure out in the middle of this mess. The house can't act Or apparently can't act Is it that that there's an authorization bill that took place in 22 That that's the money that biden's playing with when he says here Here's several billion dollars for this or that or whatever. That's money that Won't become a crisis until 26 even if congress doesn't do anything this year. Am I right? Correct. I wouldn't say I a lot of people call it guaranteed money. I don't know if it's guaranteed congress could Go back and and and you know in annual appropriations between now and 2026 Cut some of that money, but it's pretty unprecedented those those transportation Authorizations seem to hold with with every congress And very few times will they go back and do that I think only in it would be have to be a real budget emergency for them to go back and do that with regard to the formula programs The and and I think that the white house is going to be very protective of the bipartisan infrastructure law The new programs and the increased funding that was included in that outside of the the authorized formula programs And so I could see if congress was to bring him something that was going to cut those programs significantly He would probably veto it So to ask it again just to be a really clear. Yeah, let's say nightmare scenario They they can't pass a budget a continuing resolution. They It just doesn't happen. They can't agree on anything. That's just too There's no reason for us to think that our formula money would be cut till 26 There's no reason to I mean again. It could happen, but right I think that it would be it would be rare for them to do to do that Yeah, and I think again probably, you know, we're I don't know if it's a worst-case scenario But like that year-long continuing resolution It actually happened during the obama administration where congress just couldn't come together On a budget and they did a year-long cr and as everything was kind of funded at their current level So what we wouldn't get if we did the the year-long cr was we wouldn't get that kind of 2% Increase in the formula programs that's built into 24, but it would again. It wouldn't be a huge cut and To what extent does the biden administration have the ability to move money forward? Towards now You know, it's funded for five through 26 right could they take all the money I mean it wouldn't be wise, but take all the money to 26 and fund spend it all this year Yeah My understanding is they can they can go backwards and they have in some of these programs that were new programs created in the infrastructure law they've done You know, uh, you know this year They would do an fy 22 and fy 23 notice Uh, and so they could go back if they haven't spent it, but I don't think that they're able to I think still technically You know a A budget has to be enacted for that year for for the dot to go and make those awards So they couldn't kind of bunch it all up into one But do they need congress to act for them to be able to do that? I don't think back to my first question. Yeah, I don't think I don't think under under cr I believe the dot can still award that it can still award that money on a competitive basis as well Without a new appropriations bill of any kind or continuing Yeah, I think again It would the congress would have to be very very specific in a cr Which they try not to do they try to make it as clean as possible and not do a lot of policy changes in those Thanks, and thanks again for your work, sure Thank you Other comments or questions So in 2016 we voted to tax ourselves to do some grant matching Applications, and I'm thinking about the potential For this next Opportunity are there going to be is that something that we can propose in the selling of this of this ballot measure Because in the future You know if we have if we can match grants what's our what's the possibility that we'll be able to Add to the to the revenue that you were talking about outside of this of this ballot measure Yeah, I think I think that measure was really important in you know in sort of showing washington the the self-help kind of aspect of of things in santa cruz county So I I I can't discount that as being part of the success again of that that lono Application earlier this year and and one's going forward. There are a lot of There are a lot of entities that come forward and say hey We just don't have the match and they're kind of at the mercy Of the dot and sometimes They might go along with it, but other times they say boy. They don't have any skin in the game So I think it's an important fair. I think it's been very important and will be Future so and and it makes sense, you know as you're selling things going forward that this is something that That's been a benefit Yeah, I'd just like to repeat what Dr. Rotkin said about Your effectiveness back there. It's uh, it's really remarkable and I just want to say to our From uh our jimp, uh, mr. Tree on down It's it's remarkable. It's unbelievable what we've been able to attain Obtained uh in the recent years in this last year in particular So I'm glad we got it when we did and uh, it's the uncertainty of everything right now is Is really troubling, but uh, thank you for everything you have done And it's really good to Learn about the hydrogen Issue about the stations and all I hope that we can take full advantage of that as well And just thank you and everybody and the staff on down Uh, I I just don't know how we did it. It's remarkable. So it's uh, thank you very much for everything All right, thank you so much for all the work as my colleagues have said and thank you for coming out here to santa cruz county Thank you. Appreciate it here. Appreciate your time Okay, we'll move on to our next item, which is agenda item 14 state legislative update Welcome Good morning. Good morning. Madam chair and directors. I'm michael pimentel legislative and regulatory advocate with the with shah yurei anthuich melzer and lang Here today to provide To you a year in state legislative update and before I jump into my prepared presentation I just want to reflect That much like the success at the federal level. This has been a banner year for santa cruz metro in our state capitol As you know, well this year delivered for the agency It's first transit intercity rail capitol program grant Just under 40 million dollars to move your hydrogen bus program forward Of course also includes a variety of other elements that will touch on in just a moment But you also did receive new legislation Which has been topic of discussion this morning That would actually authorize you to move forward with a new local option sales tax transaction use tax And provide you all with some greater operational support in the years ahead Now, I do want to just acknowledge that much of that success. I think owes to the progressivism of this board The work that you had done Early in the tenure of ceo tree to outline the priorities for the agencies And I think there are a lot of ways in which the priorities that you have identified for this agency Align well have congruency with The direction of the state primarily at the california state transportation agency california resources board and that is why we have seen the level of uptake and respect for the agency in this last year And then finally before I jump into the formal program want to just remark that ceo tree has taken a very direct role in engagement in Sacramento meeting with your legislative delegation Meeting with the state agencies and departments and really building that through line between the work That's happening here at the local level and again those statewide priorities And so i'm going to touch on some of those successes as I move through today's pro program or rather presentation But what i'm also going to highlight for you are a variety of process and then Big successes albeit from a broader statewide perspective Throughout this presentation and so it's a matter of process. We'll just note that the state legislature has been on recess since september 14th And when they adjourned for that recess That was ending the first year of the two-year legislative session They will be back in sacramento on january 3rd For the start of the second year of the two-year legislative session Now after the adjournment on september 14th that did kick off a 30 day period for governor Newsom to evaluate all bills that were provided to him in the final weeks of legislative session Now in toto not just in the final weeks, but over the course of the year He reviewed over a thousand bills He signed 890 of them And so he had a rough effective rate of vetoing 15 of the bills that crossed his desk many of the vetoes That were issued related to Bills that would create new cost pressures on the state in a period where we've just gone past a 30 billion dollar Budget deficit as we look out ahead. We know there will still be some additional Budget challenges for the state. He did not want to create new pressures on the budget box in The legislature and his administration on what they could do in the years ahead to resolve the budget and hence Many of those vetoes and as you'll see in my presentation There were several bills that were put on ice because they would have created some budget pressures His administration intervened talked to the legislators and said if you send that bill to me, I'll veto it Many put those bills on hold Now there's been some major developments in the state capitol relative to legislative leadership We have seen the transition In both houses and the ascension of two new leaders In the assembly, we've seen the ascension of assembly member robert revas To the role of the speaker of the california state assembly It's notable of course because he's a member of the metro legislative delegation And we've also seen on the senate side the ascension of senator mike maguire To the role currently President pro tem designee or designate. He will be assuming the role of senate president pro tem at the start of next year Now why this is remarkable? Beyond just the reality that mr revas is a member of your legislative delegation is is that it's the first time In decades that we've seen a non. I should say non Large urban legislators take the helm of their respective houses. It has been for many decades matter of musical chairs between la region san francisco bay And san diego You'd have to go back to the most recent example Of cruise bustamante from fresno being the head of the california state assembly where we'd have a smaller than Larger of an Representative heading these houses and so what that means is that we're likely to see a reorientation in the considerations That the houses assert on matters of transportation expenditures housing Many other areas of policy to recognize what are the needs of smaller urban areas rural areas of our state And that may provide some balance to again what has long been the dominance of la san francisco bay area and san diego Now i'm going to touch on the budget act of 23 24 because this is one area where Stepping back. This was a success for the broader California transit industry the transit agencies across the state And that will deliver some meaningful benefits to metro So the budget act of 23 24 Was something that included a variety of components There's some transit funding their statutory relief and accountability requirements I'll go into detail on what those mean in particular And then there was a base of infrastructure streamlining proposals That were advanced by governor Newsom and then ultimately taken up and resolved By the california state legislature And as I launch into precisely what we received in terms of transit funding What I want to acknowledge is that as we started this year The level of funding that was provided to california transit agencies was not in any way pre-ordained The reality is that we entered a year with again 30 billion dollar budget deficit Governor Newsom let out with a january budget where you propose to make a two billion dollar Cut to the state's transit interstate to rail capital program Which would have had cascading impacts to regions and agencies across the state And what ultimately resulted in the success this year, which again i'll go over in just a moment Was the advocacy of california transit industry largely organized By the california transit association of which metro is a member And their direct engagement with the legislature On a daily basis to emphasize the importance of those investments moving forward So with regards to funding much of that is captured Which all of it is captured under ab 102 It's what we refer to in sacramento as a budget bill junior It's a bill that makes adjustments to the main budget bill And what it did was it restored against that again threat of a two billion dollar cut The two billion dollars for the transit interstate of rail capital program that restored that program's capacity at two year capacity To four billion dollars and that is also historic not only because of the funding levels But because it is the first time the state has actually committed state general fund dollars To supporting these types of major capital programs Here at the state level Now i'll note for you that the money for the ti rcp as i'll refer to because it's a bit more abbreviated than the Longer and hey Would flow out through a new structure normally ti rcp is a competitive grant program The four roughly 40 billion dollar million dollars that you received this year was from that competitive End of the ti rcp. This will be a formula distribution and it goes out to all regions based on population And it includes for the first time this also part of The store of the advocacy of the association Some flexibility to use that money general fund supported formula based For operations and so in instances where transit agencies have dire fiscal situations like sf bart You can flex that money toward resolving those issues As you also consider your capital program needs There was also then the addition of 1.1 billion dollars for the zero emission transit capital program These monies also flow through a formula basis moves through population and revenue And a structure of formula that is consistent with the state transit assistance program in its distribution This money too while it is ostensibly for zero emission transition vehicles and infrastructure can also be flexed for operational needs Now for this agency, I should say for this region The total level of investment will be about 35 million dollars over four years We'll note that there's a typo here. It should be scc rtc receiving of course that balance of funds and then making sub allocation decisions for the agencies in its region Now i'll highlight that with regards to this money. There was a structure for the investment I noted some agencies facing dire fiscal situations The state wanted to make sure that if you're an agency that is facing some very Strong headwinds not able to provide your operational services That you would be directing some of those monies toward operations before you really start to consider Your capital program your capital needs and so what they did is they established established under sp 125 An accountability framework and that has the regions the rtpa is working concert with the transit agencies To develop a series of financial plans and reports that stipulate to The needs in their region operations and capital And then also we'll we'll highlight the particular projects or services to be funded with the region's share of money state will be reviewing and then ultimately reviewing or intervening in certain cases to make sure that these investments are going to ends that ultimately drive agencies and the regions toward greater financial sustainability Greater ridership growth just recognizing that never mind if you're facing an operating operating deficit Many agencies are still operating at below pre-pandemic levels. Many of them have pre-pandemic Or rather lower than pre-pandemic ridership levels And within this base of this bill there were also a variety of other measures that were taken To extend statutory relief measures that were instituted in 2020 and 2021 out through fiscal year 2526 Those were pandemic related statutory relief measures Well, the pandemic from a public health perspective has largely subsided The long coattails of what it has meant for For example work from home has has meant that some of the underlying basis of reality of ridership isn't where it once was still obtained Hence the legislature extended that statutory relief through 2526 But on that note, I will mention that That extension was not a blank check And the state legislature said if we are going to extend that statutory relief for additional years Many of the statutory relief measures I'll touch on in a moment talk to the efficiency of the systems Did you want to see some longer term reforms? Developed ultimately implemented that will happen under a new transit transformation task force Which will have under its charter review and ultimately reform the transportation development act So to be precise with regards to statutory relief There are these two middle provisions suspension of the financial penalties For tda suspension of financial penalties for sta That's just acknowledgement that under current law If your agencies who are not meeting fair box recovery thresholds that are defined By where you are located in the state or the nature of your your system or if you are a system that is With a growth that outpaces Simple inflation adjustments for your expenditures You can be dinged and you could find that your level of funding decreases or has new limits on what it can be expended for And again recognizing inflationary pressures ridership declines Those were suspended further And then there was this whole harmless provision which speaks to allocation of sta dollars State of good repair and low carbon transit operations program dollars. I mentioned sta has as one component A review of the revenue base for the agencies To be candid there are some agencies for whom the revenue basis has not Found itself recovered As a result those agencies would see a massive real allocational way From them in terms of funding that would compound their financial Challenges and hence the state extended that relief the final one just provides some flexibility to use monies that are otherwise identified for state of good repair For operational purposes That would be state of good repair. So state transit system state of good repair dollars. They're Formula dollars, but limited in use And then finally as I conclude on the state budget the transit transformation task force It's one that will be convening in january of 2024 As I mentioned, it's going to be reviewing things like the transportation development act reform But it's also going to take a much broader and holistic review of public transit to see where the state can step in in terms of funding Or policy regulatory mechanisms to support agencies in the recovery So i'm going to Move through a bit of legislation just to highlight some of the things that have been on Metro's radar over the past year things that i've worked with Co tree and his staff to identify monitor and then engage on And i'm going to start with of course Metro sponsored legislation sp 862 By senator laird This is a bill that is as we've discussed and in brief note Authorizes metro to move forward with that transaction to use tax that exceeds that two percent combined tax rate in santa cruz county And that was necessary as as you well know because we had two cities within The county that were at the cap and in order to institute a new tax All jurisdictions within a county have to have the capacity to absorb that tax again To didn't enhance the need to increase that cap So the legislation does afford metro the ability to go after that That um half percent sales tax And then that does provide some flexibility Recognize the interest is to move in this next year But there is the ability to go back in future years because there is some flexibility to move that legislation or rather that Local measure forward through january 1 2035 Of course that was signed by government news Then there was a bill that we've been tracking because metro has taken such a an aggressive and in progressive stance on on housing particularly housing with natural nexus and proximity to public transit systems This is sp 747 by senator caballero And this bill would make some amendments to the surplus lands act towards all some of the issues that have long been A challenge for transit agencies in terms of their disposal of property And how it is that they can utilize that property for different ends And so this bill does create a series of changes to that body of law It creates a path for the transit agencies to develop parcels for commercial use All observe in the conversations that were had around operating deficits for the agency is the restoration of The state funds for capital One of the questions that often came up from legislators was why aren't you doing more commercial development at your Stations your stops Not acknowledging that they had put a prohibition From agencies actually doing that type of commercial development near their stations that has been lifted And then because there has been some some questions around Precisely the definition disposal The bill does create some clear definitions provides greater guidance to the state's department of housing community development on how they should administer That review and also does clarify what exactly constitutes an exempt parcel Just recognizing that you may be entering into lease agreements If you are entering into a lease agreement that is under 15 years that would be exempt as As a disposal because you're using it for a short term purpose And this too was signed by governor Newsom Now I want to highlight one bill that unfortunately was was held in the appropriations committee And this is a bill that would have addressed something that's become more of a concern for agencies across the state and that of course has natural Very recent Issue or challenge for for the agency here and this is a bill that would address Agencies access to electricity During natural disasters During rolling blackouts that could be instituted for example by PG&E under their psps program under current law A hospital Fire department a police department has what they call an essential use customer status That means that if there was an elective decision to turn off the power Those entities would see that they are last in the queue to have their power turned off And PG&E will make some decisions to redirect resources to make sure that those essential services Continue to operate because of their public safety their criticality to the public Public transit doesn't currently have that same Uh designation and of course that is going to be a challenge as agencies transition to zero emission technologies per state mandate We've acknowledged uh at the state level through the advocacy That not only is there that challenge because of that Transition to zero emission technologies, but it becomes more acute when you consider Things like the role that agencies play an emergency response Of course metro has played a pretty concerted role in emergency response in recent history And then finally as I conclude I've got just a few more bills that I want to highlight One is ab610 related to fair free transit You know that we had some conversation this morning About metro's fair free program This is a bill that would have created a new state program youth transit pass pilot program Would have driven agencies to form new partnerships with educational institutions k through 12 community colleges uc and csu by way of Providing new funding to the agencies If again, they enter into agreements with educational institutions And a lot of the structure here would be things that would naturally complement the work that Metro does with rio college the pc santa crews would be able to provide additional resources for One facilitating the fair free programs, but in instances where they exist already Allow for the agencies to actually use some of those monies to stand at better services to those educational institutions So not only is it free, but it's more frequent It's more reliable and that could in theory increase ridership further This bill was made into a two-year bill going back to my comment about fiscal cost pressures Intervention by Governor Newsom his administration had clearly outlined this program Despite its merits did not get funding in the state budget didn't have a line item associated with it And it would just only create a new cost pressure in a future year He suggested the author that they make it a two-year bill meaning We can continue to have conversations in the second year of the two-year session But don't send it to me because you do it would be beat out And then finally we'll close on measure aca one Which is notable because this is something that has been on the legislature's agenda for many years They've strong had a strong interest in reducing the vote thresholds from the current two-thirds requirement to 55 percent They were able to accomplish that this year albeit with limited parameters This Allowance provided is approved by the voters In november 2024 would reduce the vote threshold But only in instances where all of the monies from that measure Are being used for capital projects So things like affordable housing and public transit projects not for operations Now there was of course some interest in seeing that brought into operations But I will just reflect it was a very fragile Balance of legislators who ultimately Got to the point of saying yes on this measure And there wasn't really appetite from the author's office Making modifications to the measure In a way that could have jettisoned its success in the legislature for this year And so that concludes my presentation for today. I'm happy to take any questions or comments from directors Back to the bill that was stuck in the appropriations that qualifies the transit So Why was it stuck and what we'll get it out of there? Yeah, I I will say that this is one of the instances where Because the process is pretty Much a black box We will never know precisely what it is that got that bill bill held All that said the transit association which sponsored that bill is reconsidering introduction for next year It may be just a matter of the political relationships between legislators It could have just been the year in which it was introduced And so there may be another run at it And then finally we'll just note that there's also engagement on a regulatory and administrative level With the california public utilities commission who sets these designations To see if they can find an administrative path to offering it Was was this uh prompted by natural disasters in various counties and their representatives are pushing it? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so it was it was introduced at the behest of santa barbara mtd For many of the the reasons that are evident And was carried by assembly member hart whose events to strong interest in addressing natural disasters Particularly in in the areas of transportation services In um, I know that you can't tell us for sure, but in the holden Which is the free fares for youth? Um, what are its prospects in the second year? Um In other words, and maybe a part part of that question is what about agencies that are already providing that would they simply No longer have to foot that themselves and have it So what in the bill now would the state just take over that free fair program expense? So the the structure of the bill would have it so that if you have a Uh a program in place today You would be mandated to maintain that program In fact, the state wouldn't fund it. They just make us keep doing it The state wouldn't there would be a maintenance of effort requirement And the only thing that it would do here would be to allow you to expand into new educational institutions So if there was another school district, for example, you can find new partnership there But then to my earlier observation for the existing programs that that you have let's say uc santa cruising cabrillo college You could make other modifications that support But don't supplant the money that you're receiving and so again operational expenses Could be eligible. You can increase service levels. You can spend coverage to Those campuses, but there was a strong interest in making sure that the state didn't assume the responsibility Of what is often a local decision and it can come through things like fee assessments on students And and part of that observation was that this was intended to be a short-term program It was a five-year duration There was advocacy from in fact the transit agencies saying that if we were to be in a situation where State takes on the support for a few years What you might do is dissolve long-standing relationships for a short-term program And then after that program expires You may have no fair free program and have to go back to the educational institutions and try to hit reset with them And restarting a program with perhaps You know circumspect prospects I don't want to give you an impossible task, but could you suggest why we would want to support such a program? I'm sorry I don't want to put you in an impossible situation But could you explain why you think we would want to support such a program? Yeah, I think that the the interest there was in in seeing if there could be some further support in the services that are being provided It allows you to do some offset for those operational expenses And so it was there. I think that there was the interest in the support Thanks Thank you. Um in 2016 we passed a measure d Have sent sales tax for transit and we became a self-help county in the eyes of the state which In conjunction with senate bill one allowed us A better avenue to get more funding from the state. Does this Would if we passed a sales tax next year For the metro would that help us in getting state funding to become identified as a self-help county in that regard? Yeah, it would because as I understand that the local partnership program, which is I think the program you're referring to under sp1 right does configure the Investments from the state and the share that that individual regions get Based on the measures that they have in place the level of investment that they're providing You would see a higher level of investment for your Agency for your region and hence be able to capture a larger share Of course that means for everyone else because we're talking about a finite pot Everyone else gets a smaller sliver But you would get a large one in that process a good selling point for absolutely, right? Yeah. Thank you Other questions I have a question on this. Um hold in bill um What so what What incentives are there for educational institutions to support Transit districts in accomplishing this or is it just to help us out? Has the state put anything in place Has the state put in anything in place to support partnerships to incentivize educational institutions To make this happen They have not and this would be really the first time where there would be a new program that would be established that would create that form of New financial incentive albeit only for establishing new programs new programs not existing ones That's right. So there's there's nothing in this bill that would for example compel or Or support your existing partners partners to say we want to re up for another Five or ten years But if it were a matter of a wholly new partnership, there'd be that financial support that would be provided So our communities that have Been innovative and done this are they beings in some ways penalized? I mean it's I I think it depends on I guess the The viewpoint if if it's a matter of only thinking on precisely For example backing out student assessments at support then yes, but if you could also Consider that other aspect of the bill which would would be you could provide higher levels of service to that Community in a way. That's more than just baseline Then there would be that ability to provide some form of additional support Okay, and and what that would look like. I mean you mentioned other school districts But let's say we've already covered other school districts. So what what what else would it look like for us to have expanded services so that would be for the existing colleges that you are servicing if you have 30-minute headways you could reduce those to 15 And you'd be able to use the base of support from this program To provide that higher level of service Okay, and so it's not yeah expanding into new spaces, but you could redouble on Where you've got the partnership, but what I'll just reflect to the observation or question about prospects This is the fifth or sixth version of this bill It has not it has not been signed Over those five or six trials including last year where it was vetoed I think the prospects of this bill moving forward with any degree of buy-in From the administration Is very low. Okay. All right Yes Thank you Falling up on that. I know my first thought in in the north end of the county Our our schools don't provide buses. I mean there's Very strong financial Issues in the school districts that are not getting the funding equitable funding in The statewide in these areas because of the rating and So that was the first thought I I'm thinking they They're struggling to cover this fund the various programs they have So I I'm feeling the same is that you know, it's been really wonderful throughout our county to have their youth ride free But this bill seems Yeah, it does seems like it would penalize because it would be very hard to add to what we're already doing So I I was Concerned about the same thing that our chairs raised that I don't see a benefit and You know the strongest things that we're doing right now are already supporting cabrillo and ucsc that do have contracts so I yeah, it feels it feels like it's a penal penalizing those that are being innovative So yeah, and I'll just observe on on this front that the transit agency is writ large I'll put on another head and just observe by service the executive director of the California transit association The association and its members have not endorsed this bill Because they have realized that there are perhaps disparate benefits to agencies across the state We've been frankly in a position of Engaging to make a bill on a concept better We'll acknowledge that when this bill first was introduced of the last year in a different form The version of the bill that was introduced would have Taken away all state funds for agencies if they had not established a fair free program And so this is the middle ground And one other point the um, you know, I picked up on Asking metro to do more or not metro transit to do more for commercial and in the past we have um developed commercial As part of our metro stations and things and then the push has been the need has been housing So that's kind of feels like, you know whiplash on that is We're doing wonderful things for housing and then it's like what are you doing for commercial? That makes no sense to me as well. Yeah, I think the interest there And this is one of those areas where I would say that there was conflict in the legislative direction With regards to housing commercial development is that within the conversation on operating deficits of the agencies are facing Of course through the association There was the advocacy to have the state intervene and provide the support and the state was Very willing to say what have the agencies done to resolve their own issues And so there was a strong focus on have you instituted local option sales taxes many have There was a strong interest in have you found other forms of ancillary revenue to address or operating deficits? And it's said that the conversation turned to are you doing value capture based on commercial developments around your stations? We were able to say well, no We have not done that because our preclusions and state law that said say affordable housing has precedent over all other forms of development in our parcels hence walking back of surplus lands act the Uh Flexibility to consider commercial developments. That's not to say that affordable housing is no longer priority But here the transit association wanted to recognize that tension. You cannot tell agencies to develop And yet preclude the agencies from developing and then asking them why they haven't done that type of work I just wanted to add comments that echo what I said to chris earlier about his work at the federal level We've had a banner year and I know that you played a key role in making that happen We have again good local legislators, but it takes someone pulling that effort lobbying effort together And we you really do a good job for this agency. Thank you. Yeah, thank you And I'll echo those comments. Thank you so much for your work and thank you for being here today Appreciate the time. Thank you Okay We are on item 15 mr. Tree Sounds great Um, you know, I just wanted to acknowledge, uh, certainly um What washington did in regard to arches and providing that 1.2 billion dollars for arches and What that really means to metro metros a founding partner with arches and the goal of arches is really to produce Through infrastructure bringing people together green hydrogen, which was a key to us going down a hydrogen route We'd be doing our part by operating hydrogen buses with no tailpipe But the industry was needing to catch up with the production of green hydrogen And so this affords that opportunity the business plan with arches was to deliver to its members five dollars a kilogram for hydrogen And just to give you an idea right now if you were to secure a contract in the marketplace for hydrogen It'd be about nine dollars a kilogram So their goal cuts in half your fuel bill And so that's an important component moving forward with your zero emission plan and I uh, you know, I've been asking the question when right and the details and and they're not quite out yet They're not quite flushed out yet Arches actually asked for 1.5 billion. They were given 1.2 And so there's an ongoing negotiation right now with the CEO of arches and the federal government as to How to get their budget what that looks like at the 1.2 billion level But more information to come and that certainly was an extraordinary investment for california and for metro You might have seen the three articulated buses that are up in Up in the santa cruz area working and getting students on to the ucsc campus. They've got the big red San diego metro logo on them. It didn't say san diego metro But it's certainly flying their colors and those are getting wrapped this weekend and the wraps are Amazing and stunning. I won't even say what they are. I'll just let you see them as they're they're introduced next week If you get a chance to be out and about Three additional arctic buses are delivered will be delivered today So you'll have a total of six in really good condition They'll be wrapped soon and then an additional three articulated buses should be coming in the next week or two So that gives your articulated fleet nine from san diego And then there's two remaining buses that we had in our fleet of four articulated buses that are In good condition and that we're still operating So long story short, um, you know, although we're capturing When we leave students behind on these busy routes, uh, they have been much less frequent than last semester based on this the The buses that you're running based on the additional operators that you've been able to bring on board And uh, I see uh, anna marie Here as well as daniels erragosa. They're leading our operations right now And they're just doing a fantastic job of sensing when There's going to be a problem with students being left behind and immediately deploying extra buses to the route to To get them where they're going as quick as quickly as we can Um, I do want to uh, acknowledge that phase two is uh, the community gives us responses their comments to it It becomes baked and then delivered to you for consideration Would require an additional 12 buses 12 40 foot buses and riverside transit agency I think i've mentioned in the past is willing to provide us up to 15 40 foot uh buses for that purpose and these are buses that that are about at their midpoint in life So they'll be uh, easy to maintain or easier to maintain than something that certainly is ready to be retired So that's moving along well Over the last week you've taken delivery of seven para crews vans So you'll recall ford cancelled our order after waiting for like a year and a half for the vehicles and the board authorized a subsequent reorder And so those have been delivered and that'll be great for para crews and for your Disabled population that can't access that fixed route system Um, you've heard from aduardo and in the recruitment. I mean, uh The agency is just doing amazing things in regard to the recruitment and uh, aduardo has been a fantastic ambassador for the agency as he's been out and about And looking for underemployed and those uh with lots of talent to bring into the agency In regard to a ridership wise Just want to give you a couple of statistics to give you a feel for where your ridership is going on your fixed route Overall a year over year. It's up 15 percent this year over last year in same time period The students at ucsc. You have a 30 percent ridership increase The first week of the semester over the previous semester. So that's a really positive trend And uh, again the students cruise free is consistently up over 400 percent in the ridership with with that program So overall things are getting busier on metro and that's great I I get around and I see the operators and it's what they love to do is carry people And so I think there's a good positive You know vibe with the operators and what they're what they're doing I just had one last point to make and then and then I'll conclude my comments We recently received a phone call from ambag and I know that I think christin brown board member brown sits on ambag as well as director konig and also mayor montecino and they recently Notified us that the ambag board at their next meeting would be Considering and and hopefully approving its staff recommendation a two million dollar award for your housing project in watsonville And I know director konig in particular Paid a lot of attention to what was going on there with that project and with that funding opportunity. So lots of thanks to to him in his efforts towards that And so as as you get your ambag packet next time around there should be that two million dollar award Yeah, two million dollar award for for the watsonville housing project to To consider there. So Excitement in that project that brings that project to nearly 12 million dollars in metro money And that'll be complemented with midpen and their Financing of the project so that project could see a groundbreaking in the near future and then the only Other project although we're watching the capitol a project with the mall hoping that at some point that gets revived with some housing components You you definitely have a seat at the table with your transit center there but The other project obviously that we've been working on behind the scenes and i'll bring the information in the near future is Of course your project in the county at socal and highway one About 60 housing units in conjunction with a para cruise facility So That'll conclude the the comments so it would be happy to answer any questions you have Thank you so much questions or comments from directors Lots going on Yeah Yeah, when do you sleep michael? Thank you for those updates. Thank you so much for all the amazing work that you and everyone at the metro is doing It's it's shows. So we really appreciate it If there aren't other questions and comments, we will adjourn this meeting our next meeting is Friday, november 17th at 9 a.m. At the capitol city council chambers at 420 capitol avenue Okay, thank you