 Good morning, everyone. I'm Bruce McPherson, Chairman of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. Welcome to our meeting of December 3rd, 2020, at 9 a.m. We thank Community TV for broadcasting this. We appreciate that. Please, I will start my with a roll call. Mission alternate Lynn here. Commissioner Gonzalez here. Commissioner Botthorff here. Commissioner McPherson here. Commissioner Leopold here. Commission alternate Mulher here here. Commission alternate Schifrin here. Commissioner Caput here. Commissioner Kaufman Gomez present. Commissioner Johnson. I'm in his alternate for Commissioner Johnson today. Okay, Commission alternate Tim present. Commissioner Brown here and Commissioner Eats here. Very good. Thank you. It's nice to have everyone here. We'll go to item number two, oral communications. Any member of the public may address the commission on items that are not already on the agenda. We will have a limit of three minutes to speak. Is there anyone that would like to address this under oral communications on items that are not on the agenda? You don't have anyone? Sorry, Commissioner. I was on mute. We have Donna Murphy. We have quite a few hands up. Oh, excuse me. Okay, go ahead. Maybe how many do we have? So far, six. Okay, well, if we could limit that to two minutes, then that would be great. Thank you. Ms. Murphy. Donna Murphy. Good morning. This is not Donna Murphy. This is Mark from CD Miller, but I am using her account. Good morning, commissioners. I just wanted to take a moment to thank three members of the commission for whom this will be their last meeting. Commissioner Trina Coffman, Gomez, Commissioner John Leopold, and Commissioner Ed Valtroth. I just want to thank each of you for your years of outstanding service on behalf of our entire county and looking out for the transportation needs of everybody. And I wish you all well. The very best of luck to you. I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank the RTC staff, the Metro staff, and CalTrans staff who all jointly worked together so hard to put the Transit Corridor Alternative Analysis Regional Rail Network Integration Study out. And I really was impressed with the body of work. And thank you all for your hard work. I noticed that there were a number of benefits attributed to the locally preferred alternative, but three important ones were missing. One is that the rail will protect 100% of the existing right-of-way and allow completion of the rail trail ASAP. The second thing is that rail will generate 29% more permanent jobs and 22% more construction jobs than the BRT option. And finally, on average, rail will be about four times safer than bus on the corridor. So thank you all for your time and energy this morning. Thank you for the opportunity to address you. Sally Arnold. There, am I muted now? Yes. Okay, sorry. I'm Sally Arnold. I'm the board chair for Santa Cruz County, friends of the rail and trail. And I just want to draw your attention to the public comments that were received last month regarding the TCAA. Since the comments were only posted yesterday late afternoon, you may not have had a chance to read them yet. And honestly, in the few hours we've had them, we've really been zipping through them as fast as we can. But I have to say that our initial review found that over 250 people wrote to the RTC on the topic of the TCAA. And well over 80% of them were pro rail service. Only 1%. We can only find three people who spoke, who wrote in favor of bus service. And so I think it's very clear that the community strongly favors the staff recommended locally preferred alternative. And I urge you to spend a little time browsing the comments. Some of them were really quite moving and very specific about ways in which rail transit would have helped people with their commutes had they had it if it were available for them. So thank you very much. And I'm really looking forward to seeing this project move forward. And again, I want to echo Mark's comments about thanking the, thanking the outgoing commissioners for their fabulous work on not just the rail and trail, but many of the transit projects that our county needs. Thank you. Mr. St. Michael St. Good morning commissioners and staff. A few of us attended the California Transportation Commission meeting yesterday on the funding. Congratulations for that. I'd like to share with you my comments that I gave yesterday to the Transportation Commission. For the last four years, I've been advocating with my fellow advocates asking our regional transportation commission to pursue robust mass transit system for our county. This has fallen on deaf ears. The consistent opposition to changing course from single occupancy vehicles to mass transit is the imaginary view that voters want highway widening and that this will get Santa Cruz moving again by relieving congestion. This is a false assertion on two counts. First, the voters were fooled into voting for measure D because of a false treat pretense that highway widening will relieve congestion. Many experts and even members of the RTC know that widening the highway will fail in the long term. We will have spent nearly $250 million in taxpayers' money for nothing. Secondly, this measure D passed by approximately 2,500 votes out of 132,000 cast. This is in no way a voter mandate. Although it did pass, but only because of the other pieces of measure D had good options to help our county become safer and more greener. That is what passed measure D. I continually hear from our constituents that only voted for measure D because of those options I previously listed which were walking, biking, rail trail, pedestrian safety. At what point in time do we shift to more sustainable transportation system? Widening of highways does not work. If this Oxlame project is funded, we delay our mitigation efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle mile travels for decades. We feel that our regional transportation commission at Caltrans is failing us when it continues to fund projects for single occupancy vehicles. They both fail to recognize the urgency in mitigating the effects of climate change, the old school mentality of highway widening is actually contributing to global warming. We urge you to not fund this Oxlame project as planned. An alternate funding scenario of dedicated bus on shoulder would start us in the right direction of a much more sustainable transportation system. Thank you for your time. Happy holidays and also all my best to those commissioners that are going to be leaving us soon. Have a good day. Mr. Ben Furnasa. Okay. Can you hear me? Yes. You've got the material I sent everybody which is a deep dive into the ordinance. I want to tell you I think where we are, where you are is you're circling the drain meaning that in the future unless you decide whether you're going to have a train or a trail, you're going to be in this quagmire. So let's assume that you want the train. How do you do it? Well, first of all, you have to recite the findings necessity. And second of all, you have to get eight out of the 12 members to vote for the train. Otherwise you can't because the measure revenues do not include funding for any new train or rail service. And that's the only way you can amend it. Okay. Let's say you don't want the train. You want a trail. What can you do? At the next meeting, you can vote to stop supporting the research on a train. Let's say that's 4% of the 8% that goes and you can transfer that to the trail. So now the trail has set of 17%, 21%. At the same time, you can vote with a majority. You don't need two thirds. You just need a majority. You can vote to rail bank. And that, you know, that the train is only mentioned twice in the ordinance. Once no funding and second for to get a preserve the rail option. And what that means is rail banking. So in order to stop the drain from draining, you need a stopper to go in one direction. So you got to do one of those two things and you can do it in the next three months, not the next five years within five years into this. Thank you very much. Mr. Keith Otto. Yeah. And Ms. Barker, could you pull up the slides that I sent in and can everybody hear me? Okay. Quick sound check. Thank you. Great. And if you could go to the next slide with a reduced time. So Keith Otto, county resident, a couple comments with regards to the transit corridor alternatives analysis, the draft report. In particular, I'm going to talk about ridership. So ridership can be quoted as users or boardings, right? One commuter would be two boardings per day, a boarding to go to work, a second boarding to return home. So again, one user, two boardings. The unified corridor study was very clear on this 3,500 users, 7,000 boardings per day. It stated it just that way. It also referenced 100,000 users on highway one each day. So an incredibly small number of people would use a train. So what does the new TCAA report tell us? Are those ridership numbers users or boardings? In fact, you won't find the word boardings at all in the report. At least I couldn't find it. I asked staff and the number is in fact boardings, not users. So if we want to look at the number of users for the train, we divide those numbers by two. And that's what I show here. So the upper end of the ridership estimates for each of the train options is now even less than the small number or from the UCIS. And some of the options, it's much, much less. But that's not all. Next slide, please. The UCIS forecast year was for 2035 and the TCAA forecast year is 2040. So the new information is that if we look out even farther into the future, we're going to see very, very, very few riders. And then one more thing, if you could go to the next slide now, please, consider Sonoma Marin area rail transit. So Sonoma Marin have a population of almost three times Santa Cruz County. And they've never had a weekday ridership of even 2000 users. So what's the bottom line here? I and many support public transit, but a train in Santa Cruz County is not the way to go. It's not going to have a ridership for it to be a good investment. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your time this morning. Mr. Kerry, Pico. Please have the PowerPoint. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Can you see my PowerPoint? Give me one second. Everybody knows I love doing PowerPoints and I want everybody to pay attention to the numbers except for Mr. McPherson because I know his staff looks into the numbers very well. So this is just a plot of how each study reports the cost of the train over 30 years. The first study was 526. I've added in the operation costs. The next study went up by 350 million to 870 million. And the next one went up to $1.2 billion. And so it says that each new study brings it up by 350. Maybe we'll get to a realistic number, but realistically, the realistic number is closer to the 1.2 billion. So next slide, please. And so I've repeated this, but I've also showed the different kind of studies that were out there before the 2015 study, which quite honestly, in my opinion, did everything I could to underscore to make the cost look cheaper. This was my analysis using the 2015 study of all their comparable trains and I came to a $1.1 billion. The MPIS, which was done in 1998, was $1.0 billion. And then the last one at the TCAA is $1.2 billion. By the way, these are all inflation adjusted numbers. Next slide. And I'm sorry, I have to speed it up. I've got two minutes. So now let's talk about the trail. Well, the trail, we're trying to sell it as a cheap thing. So it came to $153 million by the first estimate. Then the second estimate brought it up to $301 million. And then my personal estimate, because the trail doesn't include the excavation that really will be realistically incurred when you go to places where the hills are undulating and difficult and need retaining walls. I put it closer to $400 million and actually maybe even up to $500 million. Next slide. I'm getting to the end, which is the RTC studies, once the corridor was owned, appeared to be unrealistically rosy, causing for public outcry for a new study, at least those who were skeptical of the results, which included me. And the result was the cost of the train doubled. By the way, what I didn't get to point out was each of those studies at the end, the cost was double the 2015 amount. I couldn't see it because somehow I have something blanked out on my screen. The cost of the trail doubled. The county faces. So if you want to build them both, you've got a $1.5 billion rail trail package that you can't afford. You'll have people saying, oh gee, where's SB1? We'll pay for it all. I want to point out that smart train itself only gets 38% if it's operating costs. And I guess you pulled the screen away, but the last thing I want to say is the RTC should step back, determine what it can afford on the corridor, understanding that $100 million limit in funds for the trail I should have put. And so my attitude is stop wasting public money. Let's get realistic and stop moving forward on things you can't afford. Thank you. Johanna Lighthill. There we go. Okay, can you hear me okay? Yes. Thank you. Thanks commissioners for considering my comments. I can see that over the next couple of months you'll be inundated with data and opinions about the TCAA. Today, I don't want to comment on what's in the TCAA, but rather than what is not in the TCAA. The study has been done before, at least one similar. As Mr. Pico just mentioned, the 1998 major transportation investment study was completed by the RTC. It too evaluated a list of transit alternatives on the corridor as well as Highway 1. And the study is mentioned in the TCAA on page one six, but its conclusions are not addressed. The MTIS consultants recommended a combined bikeway and a busway. In fact, the bus route in the MTIS is very similar to the BRT route in the TCAA. Also recommended in the MTIS, short term was weekend recreational rail service to test the market for future possibilities. And one that required minimal investment costs. In 2003, the RTC investigated recreational rail options and proposed the Village Cruiser, a weekend trolley to run between Capitola and Aptos. It is mentioned by the way that in 2002, staff and consultants discussed Prop 116 requirements with CTC. And it was stated that even a limited excursion service may be sufficient to access the Prop 116 funds. So I couldn't find a final EIR on the project. So I'm assuming that it didn't get that far, but the 2005 draft included suggestions for noise mitigating techniques such as providing nearby homes with dual pane windows and insulation. So I'm assuming it didn't wasn't received well. Of course, we see the project was never implemented nor was it discussed why in the TCAA. So finally, the bus was recommended but not implemented. Recreational rail was recommended but not implemented. We didn't get to test the rail market, but now the commission seems faced with an all-or-nothing project. I hope that you'll look back and consider past studies, public sentiment, and the strong desire for an adequate trail as you move forward and evaluate the data in the TCAA. And before or ultimately, you make your decision. Thank you for your consideration. Mr. Barry Scott. Yes, thank you. I want to first thank the commissioners who are terming out for their service. You'll be missed and your work is appreciated. I want to congratulate the RTC staff for the $107.2 million grant package that will fund improvements on really all three corridors, I think. And then I want to speak to the TCAA and point out that you know, we build infrastructure in advance of future needs, not past needs or even current needs. And all of the data relating to climate change indicates we need more active transportation and much more public transit. Robo cars and this kind of technological what are called improvements by an automobile sector are not really improvements at all. They don't come close to providing what public transit provides. And connecting to Watsonville is a paramount importance. What we need is to improve our metro, support our metro, we need our coastal rail trail. And all of us, and especially South County, deserve some kind of transit on a dedicated rail line. My neighbors who are concerned about costs conveniently use the worst case scenario price packages for large commuter rail or diesel multiple unit systems. They talk about the smart train, a 79 mile an hour really comparatively huge system that doesn't really, in my opinion, belong here. We have never yet received any kind of a proposal that might be for light battery electric street cars that you know, that enjoy high capacity and can connect to Watsonville. You know, it's not a either or trail or rail, and it's not an either or trail or bus. What we need to do is go for all of the above. We may not get everything that we ask for, but we should try. And again, congratulations to the RTC staff. And thanks to those commissioners who are leading it. Thank you. Commissioner MacPherson, that was the last comment. You're on mute. Yeah, got it. I'm back. Okay. We will go to item number three. Are there any additions or regulations to the consent or regular agendas by the commission? There is only replacement pages for item 21 and a handout for item 19. Okay. And I think we should everybody should have gotten those on the commission. We will move now to the consent agenda agenda that begins with the minutes on item number four through item number 16. Is there anybody who would like to pull any or comment on anything briefly on the consent agenda or pull it? Are there any comments from the public on any items that are on the consent agenda? We have two comments. Ms. Arnold? Sally Arnold again, Friends of the Rail and Trail. I just wanted to say that Friends of the Rail and Trail support both items six and seven on the consent agenda. The RTC and Federal Highways Administration Central Federal Lands Agreement and Amendment for the North Coast Trail Project. So of course, we're, you know, supportive of getting that North Coast Trail Project going as fast as we can. And number seven, Santa Cruz County Regional Conservation Investment Strategy Update and Amendment to the Agreements. We also, of course, support anything that's going to be moving those things along. So we wanted to thank you very much. And we hope that you will, of course, adopt both number six and seven on the consent agenda. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Brian Peoples? Yeah. Hi, this is Brian. Can you share my slide? Hi, this is Brian Peoples with Trail Now. The North Coast Rail Trail is an important recreational trail for our community. Recent cost increases are very concerning, especially when, because it could result in the loss of the federal grant funds. And the RTC needs to prevent this loss. Building the trail next to the tracks costs millions more than a simple trail building the trail along the tracks. This is millions more is a reason we may lose the federal grant that cost increases. The photo that you see here is Congressman Jimmy Panetta with the North Coast Farmers, where Jimmy and Farmers are located. They're on the hayride. And that's actually where the trail is supposed to go, the proposed trail. You can see the trail will destroy a significant amount of farmland. Meanwhile, on the right, you see the old tracks that are mostly buried and unused and being reserved for a commuter train. The cost of building a trail where the tracks are located is millions dollars less than building a trail through the farmland. The EIR report showed that there was no difference in the two options of the trail through the farmland or the trail where the tracks are. The difference actually, one of the things that the EIR called out was they called the track historical. Now, no historical society said that it was historical. And the EIR also said that that would not prevent the removal of the tracks. Removal of the tracks is very common. And sometimes what you find very often is a contamination of heavy metals and arsenic. So the cost of doing that site remediation actually would not be more expensive than building the trail next to the tracks. It's very common. And what's interesting is that we're building a trail. And if we truly do have arsenic and metal in the tracks, we should probably remove that. Panettis and the farmers clearly, it's illogical to be building a trail in the farmland rather than where the old tracks are. There's no reason to keep the old tracks. But now there is a reason to pull the tracks. So we don't lose the federal grant. We're going to lose the federal grant funds because the price continues to escalate. We're asking the RTC to change directions. We need to change the directions. Now nobody should claim that our design is already complete because when we do construction, when you do manufacturing of any sort, design is less than 1% of actual cost. So and also the project is delayed to 2025. So we absolutely need to move forward and change directions. And oh, by the way, I saw Jimmy, the other not too long ago, and Jimmy's response was he's watching this. Jimmy, of course, gets all of our newsletters and our emails. We know Jimmy, so that you're being watched. We're being watched. And we're asking you to blend with our funds. We don't need a commuter train to Davenport. Thank you. Those were the last of the comments, Commissioner. I would move the consent agenda. All right. They moved. Do I have a second? Seconded by Mr. Gonzalez. Please call the roll. I'll make one comment. And that is on the North Coast Rail Trail. The surest way to lose the federal grant is to change the project at this point. So I think it's clear and the commission's very aware of all the issues that it's been dealing with to get this far. And we're very close to going before the Coastal Commission to get a consistency determination. And this is the project that's been through the EIR and has been approved to change it at this point would be essentially to lose the federal money. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we have a motion second to approve the consent agenda. Please call the roll. Commissioner Brown. Aye. Commission alternate Tim. To get that aye. Commissioner Kaufman Gomez. Yes. Commissioner Caput. Aye. Commission alternate Schifrin. Aye. Commission alternate Mulherr. Aye. Commissioner Leopold. Aye. Commissioner McPherson. Aye. Commissioner Botthorff. Aye. Commissioner Gonzales. Aye. And Commission alternate Lynn. Aye. That's unanimous. That's unanimously. We will move on to the regular agenda. I'm number 17, Commissioner reports, any oral reports. And I just, we're going to hear from our executive director in just a moment and he'll get into more detail on the grant that was just awarded by the California Transportation Commission yesterday, which is phenomenal. And just there's going to be some nice words that deservedly so for the three retired commissioners. But any other oral commission reports, Mr. Mulherr. Thank you, chair. I don't want to steal any of Mr. Preston's thunder on the CTC grant, but I want to extend my highest praise to Guy and his team for securing this grant. And for really, I guess, converting on the promise of the UCIS. The reason I supported the UCIS was because having a corridor study in place made the RTC eligible for a new grant that was enacted under SB1. The solutions for congested corridors program is a huge pot of money. And we were one of the few agencies that were going to be eligible, but because we had a corridor study, he jumped right on top of that, organized his people, and went through the application process with CTC staff and delivered an incredible multimodal project that is going to provide all of the features that we look for in our transportation infrastructure development these days. It provides a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, vehicle miles traveled. It provides that important alternative to single occupancy vehicles with five miles of buffered or protected bike lanes on Soquel, two pedestrian bicycle over crossings over Highway 1. And then, of course, bus on shoulder, which is novel in California, where I think the only agency that's going to be delivering that sort of project in the state of California is just all around this stellar reckoning for the RTC. And I'm glad to see all of our work coming into fruition. I'm sorry. I also want to make the point that although it includes some highway work and road work and cars are going to benefit, the real benefactors of this project are going to be the beneficiaries, rather, of this project are going to be transit users, especially in South County. We're going to have dedicated bike bus on shoulder lanes. We're going to have transit signal priority at over 20 signals along Soquel. So the buses will have priority when they go through those intersections. It's just amazing. This is some 21st century infrastructure development. So thank you very much everyone for all of your work and getting this done. Any other commercial comments? Chair, would this be an appropriate time to say something or as some remarks about my tenure on there or is there going to be something later? Yeah, Mr. President is going to mention all three of the retirees, so to speak. Then I'll wait. Okay, thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to, well, I can't overemphasize the great work that our staff did that needs to be recognized. Mr. President will be soon talking about the grant, but what a phenomenal teamwork effort it was and to meet the objectives of this commission when we set out measure D and try to alleviate the traffic situations throughout Santa Cruz County. Very well said, Patrick. Are there any other oral reports from commissioners? I see none. We will move to item number 18 and that is the election of the 2020 RTC chair and vice chair. I will give this report. We had a subcommittee and we have recommended that I'll get right to the point that the vice chair of Rio Rodriguez of Watsonville, the Watsonville City Council be named the chair for 2021 and that Santa Cruz City Councilwoman Sandy Brown be the vice chair. Now this is a little different. We usually go city, county, city, county, but when it was, I think, Cynthia Chase left and it was Santa Cruz City's turn to be chair that was pushed over to be Mr. Bottorf last year. And so we think that the committee thought it was correct to have even though it's two city representatives to let Santa Cruz City have its representation on the chairmanship of the commission. And so we recommend that I really want Rodriguez be the chair. Excuse me. Did I say that again? I'm sorry. Thank you. I'll just say that I really will be chair and that Sandy Brown be vice chair and I would open it up to any other comments of people who might be interested in recommending someone else to one of those positions. Is there any other recommend? Yes. I'm ready to move for that before I retire out, but I'll wait for comment. Okay. Does anybody else have a comment? So we see none. Okay. I think Ms. Kaufman Gomez would like to make a motion to, well, you make the motion for Mr. Gonzalez and Ms. Brown, please. Yes. I saw move the chair to be Aurelio and the vice chair to be Sandy Brown. Thank you. Second. Second by Schifrin. We'll call the roll. Are there any community comments? Maybe we should have that on this as well. No. We don't have any comments. Commissioner. All right. Please call the roll. All right. I'll turn it Lynn. I Commissioner Gonzalez. Hi. Commissioner Botorf. Hi. Commissioner MacPherson. Hi. Commissioner Leopold. Hi. Commissioner alternate Mulher. Hi. Commission alternate Schifrin. Hi. Hi. Commissioner Caput. Commissioner Kaufman Gomez. Yes. Commission alternate Tim. Hi. Commissioner Brown. Hi. That passes unanimously. Thank you. And congratulations to each of you and have a great holiday season because 2021 is coming up on you. Thank you. Congratulations, Mr. Gonzalez, Ms. Brown. Now we will go to item number 19, the director's report from our executive director, Guy Preston. Thank you, Chair MacPherson and commissioners. I have a few announcements. Starting with RTC and the city of Santa Cruz will be hosting a virtual ribbon cutting for segment seven phase one of the coastal rail trail on December 10th from 1230 to one o'clock via Zoom. The city of Santa Cruz website has information on how to attend and I have a link on my director's report to that. My next announcement is regarding Highway 9. Supervisor Bruce MacPherson's office will host a virtual public meeting on Wednesday, December 16 from 5.30 to 7. Caltrans will update the public on two of the recently completed project initiation documents for PIDs, including their safety PID for bicycle and pedestrian access from Graham Hill Road to the San Lorenzo Valley school complex along Highway 9, as well as their highway striping PID for work throughout the San Lorenzo Valley. There will also be another meeting, I believe it's actually going to be in March 2021, to discuss Caltrans Highway 9 capital maintenance PID and the complete streets PID. Please visit RTC's website for more information on those meetings. There's a link on my director's report and it's on the Highway 9 page. And then the big announcement of the day of course is the Watsonville to Santa Cruz multimodal corridor project and this is for Highway 1 and Soquel Drive improvements and the grant recommendation is now a grant award on November 16, 2020. Yesterday late about 5.30 p.m., the California Transportation Commission staff or commission actually approved staff's recommendation for 107.2 million in funding for the RTC's 150.6 million Watsonville to Santa Cruz multimodal corridor program, the Cycle 2 project. The CTC adopted the recommendation on December 2nd, like I said last night and in attendance was Chair McPherson and also Supervisor Friend who spoke on behalf of the project and I want to thank both commissioners for their support. It was very much appreciated by Executive Director Mitch Weiss. He contacted me after the meeting and said we really did a good great job as a team and delivering our message to the commissioners. I also want to thank CTC Commissioner Carl Gardino who talked about Measure D and the passage of Measure D and how the program of projects that we submitted was very much consistent with our sales staff measure and the consensus that we build in passing that. The project itself integrates and improves infrastructure for transit after transportation and local roadway highway modes of travel. The project provides transportation options for everyone including our disadvantaged communities and will significantly benefit the region's economy. The project will decrease congestion with increased throughput while reducing vehicle miles traveled and creating a safer and more sustainable community. The project includes safety and operational improvements on Highway 1 including the first 5.75 miles of an ultimate seven and a half mile hybrid bus on shoulder auxiliary lane facility. Resets of auxiliary lanes will be constructed between Soquel Drive and State Park Drive and transit buses will be permitted to ride on the shoulders at intersection locations to bypass traffic. The project also includes two new active transportation bridges at Chanticleer Avenue and Marvista Drive as well as a bridge replacement at Capitola Avenue with sidewalks and bike lanes. And I want to mention that that replacement of the Capitola Avenue bridge is pretty important. You know those abutments currently block our shoulders and we don't have continuous shoulders which is why the interim idea of actually using our existing shoulders for buses will not work and we worked with Caltrans and CHP and Metro very closely and coming up with a hybrid approach which actually utilizes the auxiliary lanes which help draw traffic off of the local streets making them safer for bicycles and pedestrians. It does create a little bit more capacity on the highway and traffic will be diverted off of local streets onto that highway so that's diverted traffic not induced traffic. The project also includes complete street improvements for Soquel Avenue Drive between La Fonda Avenue near Harbor High School to State Park Drive and outposts. The roadway will receive a tape seal of the pavement for 5.6 miles and then will be reconfigured with over five miles of buffered and protected bike lanes, 46 green bike boxes for left turn movements, sidewalk gap closures, 100 ADA ramps, 96 crosswalk upgrades, and crosswalk warning devices at 10 mid-block locations. Adaptive signal control will be installed at 23 intersections with bus transit prioritization. RTC is working with Caltrans Santa Cruz Metro and the county to deliver the project improvements. The county is the lead agency in implementation of the Soquel Avenue Drive multimodal improvements. The Highway 1 improvements will be constructed by Caltrans with RTC implementing environmental clearance and final design. The ground of this magnitude demonstrates the power of Measure D in leveraging additional funding. It also validates years of effective planning especially with the inclusion of a sustainable community strategy within our regional transportation plan and the adoption of the unified corridor investment study which served as our required multimodal corridor plan and let me say it was very compelling to be able to make the argument that this plan was approved 12-0 by this board. It meant a lot to the commission and it showed that we had significant community input in developing the plan that we placed in front of them. SB 1 funding for construction was programmed in fiscal years 22 and 23 with 92.8 million coming from the solutions to congested corridor program and 14.4 million from the competitive local partnership program. Staff worked with this partner will be working with this partners to adjust the schedules to match programming. I anticipate that all components of the project will be under construction by 2023. Staff will provide regular updates on the delivery of this transformative project at subsequent meetings. I have one of those updates right now. The highway one improvement project state park to bay porter the release of the draft environmental impact report. We released that for public comment and the 45 day review period started on January 11th 2021. It started a while back and will be completed on January 11th 2021. A virtual public hearing will be held on December 8th from 5 to 6 30 to provide the public with the opportunity to learn more about the project and submit comments before a final design is selected. More information can be found on the RTC website and provided a link there. And then earlier this week by partisan group of members of Congress unveiled the framework for a 908 billion dollar emergency relief proposal designed to carry the U.S. through March 31st 2021. The text of the bill is still being finalized but the bipartisan coalition says it will include 45 billion dollars for transit airlines airports buses and Amtrak including 15 billion for mass transit 1 billion for Amtrak and 8 billion for buses and the motor coach industry. How the transit funds will be distributed has not been finalized. The transit industry has been requesting at least 32 billion in emergency relief as the combined impacts of the pandemic have left public transit systems across the United States struggling. The proposal also includes financial relief for states, local and tribal governments, students, small businesses, health care, low income and minority communities, the unemployed among others. The framework is retroactive to December 1st and will extend to March 31st which gives Congress a few weeks to nail down the details on the proposed legislation and potentially pass a piece of legislation. With that I'd like to remind the commissioners and the public you've already heard that there this is the last meeting for three of our commissioners and you know we are a family here at RTC and each of the commissioners mean a lot to us. I'd like to start actually with can you move down to Commissioner Trina Koffman Gomez. I'm going to go in the order of service. Trina Koffman Gomez we are going to give her recognition for her two years of outstanding dedication and public service with the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. Thank you for your support for the Unified Quarter Investment Study, the Transit Quarter Alternatives Analysis and your dedication to transportation in Santa Cruz County. Personally Trina and I have had a very close connection. She is very dedicated to the work she does here. She contacts me regularly regarding questions she has on our agenda packages and just when she sees a transportation issue of interest she makes sure she calls it to my attention. She's been absolutely wonderful to work with and a great commissioner to support all of the programs that we've been moving forward with. Now if we can move on to Commissioner Bautour. In recognition for your five years of outstanding dedication and public service with the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission you have built inclusive coalitions and garnered support to Pass Measure D. Your support for the Unified Quarter Investment Study and the Transit Quarter Alternatives Analysis as well as your leadership and guiding a strong partnership with the Santa Cruz Metro has been very important to this commission. For those of you who do not know Commissioner Bautour was my very first chair and so I spent quite a bit of time working with Ed and and he helped me immensely in learning the ins and outs of being an executive director for the commission and I really appreciate the time that Commissioner Bautour spent with me and finally but not last but not least Commissioner John Leopold. In recognition of 12 years of tireless dedication to improving transportation in Santa Cruz County as a commissioner and sometimes as the chair of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission demonstrated demonstrating focused leadership and the reshaping of the regional transportation plan to include the triple bottom line analysis of economy environment and equity superb advocacy with the California Transportation Commission to secure funding for the purchase of the Santa Cruz branch rail line and local repair throughout the county devoted engagement to help develop the coastal rail trials secure its funding and ensure its implementation resolute efforts to help craft measure D a 30 year transportation improvement package and build an inclusive community coalition to ensure its passage indeed a monumental achievement. For those of you who do not know John Leopold is the person who offered me my job so for all of those people who want to cast blame in the future reason why I am here is because John picked up the phone and called me and offered me this position. I know it wasn't a decision by all commissioners but it means a lot to me that John was the one who called me and offered me the position and saw the excitement in my voice when I accepted the position and I really thank John for the leadership he showed and and in the search for the new executive director and for the confidence that he placed in me. I know that many people many commissioners would like to make comments regarding the outgoing commissioners and this would be the time to do so. Thank you that concludes my report. Thank you Mr. Preston and I'll be the first one online to take the license as chair as outgoing chair as it is to say what a privilege it has been to work with these three commissioners throughout the years. Each of them have been really a delight to work with sometimes having different opinions and all and that's what we're all about it's a very controversial issue at times transportation is but I just to say a few comments about each with Trina Coffman Gomez she is just so detailed here analysis and the budgeting and what she does and she's always watching out for the whole system but really as can be expected for what has a substantial impact in the Watsonville area itself. I also have been able to serve at times with her over some time with her on Ambag that it is related with has a relation with transportation and housing issues in particular. She is just as ambitious and detailed and focused on issues there as she has been on the commission and I know that that holds true for her long term service on the Watsonville City Council. It has been a delight to be able to get to know her better and our trips over back to Monterey County to Ambag or to here on the to be on the commission and I truly appreciate the services that you have provided. Even with your granddaughter and arms and all that it is a delight to see that it gives us some nice levity at times. Mr. Bottorf has been well he preceded me as chair and stepped in when Cynthia Chase at Santa Cruz was unable to do so a couple years ago. She moved but I have there's a lot of really good memories that I have with him discussing the details of the agenda over the years at Jilda's for a long time on the Friday before sometimes the the meetings whether it be Metro or the RTC. But there's one thing that really was impressive to me. We made some trips have made some did not this year but I don't know when we will again to Washington DC to talk to our congressional representatives and senators and he was always at the front of the line and knew how to you know what what rang the bell show to speak of those legislators and helped us in getting some grants and just general attention that's ongoing in Washington DC as well as in Sacramento and very very distinguished spokesman for the Regional Transportation Commission and those events as been at our Commission meetings and John Leopold I've had the real pleasure of serving with him on the County Board of Supervisors of course. I don't know anybody who's ever worked harder for his district or for his cause but the one thing that I remember in particular is the measure D and we were for two years we discussed what should be as members of the campaign committee representing this commissioner of the county what needs to be done and the beauty of that was there was all inclusive. We had all modes of transportation and that's principally why we got the grant we was just announced today or yesterday by the California Transportation Commission. Believe me John was at the front of the line. I took a lot of time to get the right mix and match on measure D and that is going to be a 30 year measure that's going to be of benefit to all of us and we owe a great deal of gratitude to John Leopold on that and I'm just focusing on measure D and transportation but he did so much for his first district what in parks roads whatever the case may be but really a detailed person and a hard worker and it's been nice to work with him on the measure D campaign in particular and I know that some other members of the commission would like to have some comments please open up and who would like to make a real thank you chair. I just want to keep I'm going to keep it brief first want to thank you all for your service. It's a great privilege serving next to you folks especially Trina with all her details and City Council and the RTC and Metro. We had plenty of time in commuting together from Watsonville to the Metro meetings when we were in person so I got a lot of education and those trips so I thank you for that for that information that you've divulged with me and Ed and John I appreciate your service to the community and to the city of Watsonville and always looking out for everyone's interest in transportation and the need to improve it for within our county in our region and I thank you and I look forward to being the chair. It'll be a first for me so be patient with me. Thank you. Any other comments from commissioners? I know there's a lot each of you would like to say something you don't all have to say something. Sandy do you want to say something? Yeah Mr. Schifrin. Very briefly I don't want to repeat what other people have said but I want to thank Trina for all the questions and really looking into subjects and issues very deeply and you know responding in a way that was quite knowledgeable so I appreciated your work Trina on the commission. It's been a pleasure to work with Ed during his time. Always what I remember is the positive attitude that you had and the sense of humor that you brought to sometimes fairly humor humorless issues. Finally I want to talk about John. I've known John for decades. I was actually at his wedding many not that many but many years ago and the one issue that hasn't been mentioned that's transportation related is his work on the acquisition of the rail line. I don't think we would own the rail line now if it wasn't for John's perseverance hard work just really dedication to getting that line acquired. Now that we have we have all sorts of debates about what we should do with it but it was no fate it was not something to be taken for granted. Union Pacific was not an easy seller to deal with and I think the commission at times was ready to just throw up their hands and say forget about it. But John hung in there with them, hung in there with the commission, hung in there with the CTC and really advocated at the CTCs or John. I really want to thank you for that contribution. Any other commissioners would like to speak? Ms. Brown? I'll be quick. I agree with all of the comments that have been made about these three commissioners attention to detail, thoughtfulness, leadership, so I won't repeat those but I do want to say that when I came to the commission, this was my first foray into transportation related policy and budgeting and I learned so much from all of you and you know just really, really inspired and you know have a lot of respect for the work you've done and you know all of the things that others have said ditto and I wish you well and thank you for helping me get ready for moving into the co-chair role. Thank you. Anyone else would like to speak? I think it would be repetitive in a lot of ways but okay, I think we'll, no one else then? Okay. Ms. Kaufman, Gomez? Yes, thank you. You're right. Policy for transportation is very, very complex and it was a huge learning curve to just get to the position of us moving on the particular study that we did and then being included in the TCA which I really appreciated a lot more depth of knowledge to be able to share with our community because I know that our community has missed out quite a bit on that one. It's been a pleasure also to learn from you and the very, very articulate on better understanding for me when I'm reading your emails in response to many people who have questions about where we're going with things. Bruce not only ambag but we also with the CCA, I think that that was also significant. Aurelio, I wish you the best moving forward as the chair coming on and also a lot of our conversations that we've had while we've been in an hour and 20 commute coming from Watsonville to making sure that we're on time to a transportation committee meeting. It's been significant there and Donna, working with you up at the north end there with things that are going on and evolving in your community and I can go on with many of the other commissioners that have been here that have been very helpful. Sorry. Street's paper, it's a good thing right and I also want to say that I've had a lot of respect for the staff who've been very patient and helped in every way that I needed to have for those resources. Luis, you've been there when I've needled you with questions, when I've had the audience of people in trying to influence one way or the other on information and wanting to get it disseminated so that I can be very, very articulate and understanding and making sure that I'm making some wise questions out there that the community has to say. And again, so all of you thank you very much for allowing to be here as a service for representing Watsonville and to be able to have your attention on what the needs are for my community that I've come from. So again, thank you very much for allowing me to be here and to working with all of you as a nice team. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Bottor? Thank you, Chair. First of all, I want to thank all of you, all the people that have been chairing all these meetings with me and what a great group to work with. I love the banter. We go back and forth. I wish Randy wasn't here, so I could say goodbye to him. Derek, just to say, you know, Randy's always brought something to the table and I loved that we all came here. We were open. We were able to freely discuss and that's really valuable today. Next, I got to go to staff. You know, John had mentioned that he, you know, guy mentioned that John made the phone call to a point guy, but I was on that committee with Cynthia and John when we selected people. And I am so happy right now that we made this election for Guy Preston because the things that he said he was going to bring to this commission he has delivered on this latest grant is just, you know, I think the tip of the iceberg, and I think he's going to be a great asset for Santa Cruz County moving forward. The planners, so the planners as, you know, we have some of the best planners that just keep bringing projects. The hardest thing for them is that we're so divided sometimes on where we want to go that they don't get the true recognition because the project they have may not be one that people always agree with. But, you know, I think it's been a great job for everything they've done. I think the one thing that I want to, you know, maybe take a moment to clarify is there's been a lot of press lately, the last couple weeks, you know, the studies that we do, you know, the trail, the train measure D, I just want to make one final comment on a measure D. You know, it always upset me because, you know, when we come or we get a chance to speak, we have to be so articulate, we have to be so thoughtful, we have to be, as Trina would say, we have to be factual about what we say. And so many times people can come to the microphone and public comment and say anything they want. And we don't fact check it. It's not true. And I just encourage the public to not always believe everything that comes across and public comment. But with regards to measure D, my feeling is, is that measure D, you know, first of all, I give John Leopold credit, he was on that commission that bought the rail trail, the greatest single decision made for Santa Cruz County. And as Andy said, we don't know what we're going to do with it yet, but we'll figure it out. But with measure D, you know, if you didn't vote for measure D, it's like you almost didn't want to vote for a cure for the coronavirus because because measure D was something that was had something good for everybody. So it always bothered me when certain groups would take credit for how they passed measure D. For that concern, measure D should have been a hundred percent measure because it helped everybody. I've been a Metro rep for the whole time I've been on this commission. It was something good for everybody there and put your differences aside. Sometimes you have to take one for the team and do what's good for Santa Cruz County. So we just saw the fruits of that with this latest grant. And I'm excited about that moving forward. I do want to make one final comment because, you know, sometimes as commissioners, we don't get a chance to engage in conversation. It seems like most of our meetings are public comment and what people have to say to us, but rarely do we get to share. And, you know, I was on a committee that went back or a committee I actually went back with a guy you might remember his name was George Dandero. And we went back to Minnesota and trumped through the snow, which which I think George's knees still hurt from that trip. But in order to try to find somebody to run a train and I got to tell you, you know, we don't get to vote. And when this TCA commission came out, one of the recent letters that came out that said that the commission that was selected to analyze it that I said on was a biased committee. And I just want you to know that that I shared this with the guy Preston when I first came, you know, just for the fact, sometimes as you walk out the door, there's got to be disclosure. I've never been in favor of the train. I don't think it's a good idea. And I think the chair of McPherson came out last meeting and said something. So I want you to know that there are people that don't necessarily say something, but there's got to be an opportunity to voice that opinion. You just can't come out and say that. Well, other than Randy, Randy said at every meeting, but that's a different personality. So I want the public to know that this commission, this body evaluates everything and they look at everything and they see a lot more than you might see. And it's just not about a single issue. So I commend all of you moving forward when you make decisions about what to do with that quarter. And I applaud you for your service and wish you the best of luck, and especially you're really, you're going to be a great chair. Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Leopold. Thank you, chair. It's hard to put all the words together about how I feel about my service on the regional transportation commission, because when I came here 12 years ago, the policy discussions at the RGC were very different than they are today. I call it the era of no. There was one side who didn't want anything to happen to the highway and they were a very loud no. And there were the other side who wanted something happen to the highway and they made sure to say no on everything else. And as a result, we went through decades of not getting anything done. And it was bewildering to me when I got here and it started the change in 2011 when there was a series of votes about what was going to be our CTC request. And we've moved from focusing on one project to thinking about the entire transportation system. And we were successful then and then we also started doing work on building a community support for the purchase of the rail line. And as Andy mentioned, although the commission voted unanimously to support the acquisition of that rail line, after 20 years of discussion, we went to the CTC on the very last day that we could even acquire those funds. And they were suspicious about what we wanted because for so long, our commission had been in this era of no and had filled their minds with lots of things about what they wanted to do or didn't want to do or anything else. And when we could come with a unanimous decision, they saw that we had finally found some way to get an agreement. And we built a very strong coalition of labor, business, environmental groups, recreation, transportation groups to support that. And it'll be a chapter of my memoirs about just the story of acquisition of that line because it required going all over the state and fighting with Caltrans and then Supervisor Mark Stone and I had to do some battle with the Caltrans staff and leadership. But the acquisition of that line actually symbolized a new era for this commission because we said we weren't just committing to one thing, you know, previously just been the highway, and that we were looking at other ways to move people around. And through those discussions, it led us to having a good soul searching discussion with this commission about how we wanted to fund it. Those of you who are around, remember that in 2004, the RTC put a transportation measure on that failed to even get a majority, let alone two-thirds. And we worked very hard, this commission worked very hard, to put together a measure. And I was glad to be the chair during this period where we could put together a measure that looked at all the different modes of transportation. And it was near unanimous support to put it on. I think it was only Randy that voted against it, but he voted for it when it came to the Scotts Valley City Council. So I'll consider that unanimous support. And then we went out to the public and I want to thank Bruce for recognizing the work we did on the campaign. I, Bruce, and Don Lane, who was then a commissioner, played a leadership role on the campaign committee, and we had to raise an extraordinary amount of money. We had to work really hard. Everybody on the commission played a role in passing that. And I think we were successful, not only because we were presenting a multimodal package that I may not have been for the highway, but I wanted the trail or the pedestrian bike bridge, or someone else wanted roads, and someone else wanted the Highway 9 corridor, and someone else wanted some other mode of transportation. That worked. But I also think that we were presenting a positive set of programs about what we could do. It is so easy to organize around no, but it takes work to organize around yes, but the results are so much more positive. After that, you know, our success there, and for anybody who puts it down, or even claims responsibility for passing it, is probably wrong because it really was a community-wide effort. And we did the unified corridor study. Again, another big project, and our staff did a great job. And at the end of it, we were unanimous in talking about what we wanted to do with that. That is a direct result. I mean, that is a direct consequence of why we were successful getting the largest grant from the CTC we have ever received. And so, you know, we hear a lot of encouragement to vote no on things. And there is a lot of people, as my colleagues appointed, who may not be as well-informed, who tell us no on things. But when we say yes to things, we actually get things done. We are actually going to get things done on all of our major corridors because of this grant. We actually got the largest transmission funding measure for our multimodal plan in history. We actually acquired this rail line because we agreed. And so, I want to encourage you to not fall to the easy position in the future of saying no to something, but really doing the hard work to get to yes, because we get a lot more done when we do that. I want to thank my colleagues for the 12 years on this board. I've had a chance to work with many of you on lots of important projects. And for the newer members who I haven't had the same term with, I'm confident that of your ability to help our community move forward on transportation. I also want to acknowledge the staff of First George Jandero and now Guy Preston have done a great job in sometimes difficult circumstances, but have worked creatively to try to meet the very needs of this commission. Guy clearly was the right person for us to hire just a few short years ago. And he presented us in his interview with a plan of how we were going to leverage this thing that we just passed Measure D. And this grant award is a direct result of that plan. And so, I want to just acknowledge that hard work and what it takes to actually get that kind of stuff done. I also want to just recognize a couple of staff members. Rachel Marconi has been our amazing legislative liaison has provided us a great deal of information and support for us when we're in Sacramento or Washington for Ginger Dicar who obviously got the short straw in life to get both the Unified Corridor Study and the TCAA. She must have done something in a past life that gave her these two controversial projects. And I just admire her work in getting those things done. But Sarah Christensen who's inherited trying to move us from a planning agency to a operations, you know, delivery, product delivery agency. I really appreciate that grace and all the other people that make up the RTC staff. It takes a lot of work behind the scenes in order to move us forward. And our staff is really incredible. I'm very proud of the accomplishments that we've had over the last 12 years. And I'm confident that this commission will be successful in the future in helping us realize the projects of Measure D and in thinking about ways to effectively move us around in this county. There's a lot that we can do. And if we work together, we can accomplish a lot. And I just want to thank you for the kind comments. And I look forward to watching with a great interest as citizen leader. Very good. Well, thank you all for your comments. Very well received. And very, very much deeply meant by everybody who made those comments. I don't know. Chair, Chair, one last thing. I forgot to mention Luis Mendez. And I really apologize for that. He is the detailed person on this rail corridor. And we wouldn't, there are so many difficult questions that we've counted on Luis to figure out and wrestle with. And I don't know how we would have done all the work that we have on that corridor without his expertise. And I forgot to mention that. And he's been just a treasured member of our staff. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Mr. Compton, Mr. Gomez, Mr. Bob Dwarf and Mr. Leopold. It's just really been great to work with you on this commission. And I don't know that we need, we could be here a long time if we open up the public. I don't think we'll do that at this point. I know there are a lot of people would like to thank you. And I already have and they will in your respective retirement parties or whatever you might be doing. So I think we'll leave it at that and so we can move on. But thank you so much, each of you, for your services on this Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission. Very much appreciated. And people are going to enjoy and appreciate this for many, many years, decades to come, what you have done, and laid the groundwork for us to get around this county a little better than we might have anticipated. So thank you again for everything. And I think we will now move on to item, yes. I'm sorry, we do have one comment on the director's report from the public. Yeah, I'm sorry. That's okay. Go ahead, please. Mr. Brian Peoples. Hey, thanks a lot. Absolutely successful. Really happy about the highway, the grant, you know, guy came in, he's executing as he said he would do. So we're very happy. Really like it that Patrick pointed out the UCS execution of that was important for this grant. We actually did support it. We didn't approve. We didn't support the conclusion of it or the final conclusion. And really appreciate your comment taking you off my bad Christmas list now. Appreciate that. Then measure D, you know, I think you guys, a lot of you are saying that we claim the helping support, we supported it, but just to make sure the history's there, originally came out with $14 million for the Monterey County. We want to keep this to the actual report from the executive director, not none of the oral communications. Yeah, yeah, okay. In general, we supported measure D and we helped execute it. The last thing I want to mention is John Leopold, you know, yeah, thank you for your service. And I'll tell you, you really are exceptional politician in working it because you do something that I could do. You stand up, you have the public come up there and they give you guys a hard time, all of you guys do that. And it's a very difficult job. People don't understand how difficult it is, the role that you play. So I really appreciate what you did in the sense of taking the brunt of the public, because you're in a spot that I'll be honest with you, I couldn't do that. So I just wanted to say thank you. And I thought you did do that professionally as best as you could. So I just wanted to make sure you knew that, leaving that I thought that you, you know, you could do something that I personally couldn't do. I couldn't get in front of it and deal with that. So I appreciate that, Ed, and Dorita as well. Thank you very much. Over. Okay, thank you. Brian, I would say I couldn't do what you have done, which is engage in personal attacks and and an isomitic behavior. So thank you for your comments. Let's move on. We're going to move on to item number 20, the Caltrans report. Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the commission. Scott Eads here have a few edits to share with you. First, congratulations again to the staff and the commission for the funding recommendations for CTC. That is a really big deal. There is an enormous amount of work that goes into these funding applications and strategizing, you know, specifically which projects to include and how to support that information with the right mix of supporting information and all that that takes. So really shout out to the commission and the staff. It's a really big deal. I'm really testament to all your hard work. And along those lines, I just want to highlight there's a few other projects in District 5 that also receive the funding recommendation on the San Luis Vizpo 46 corridor. We received 7.3 million dollars to continue the progress there to allow us to continue the work that really serves freight movement that serves the central the central coast. And then more close to Santa Cruz, the 156 Castor Bill Boulevard interchange in Monterey County also received the funding recommendation. So both of those are important projects that are moving forward and we appreciate the commissions, the CTCs support for those funding to move those forward. Also want to highlight that we're all aware of the fact that we have a diminishing funding source in terms of the gas tax that supports SB1 and other funding programs. And so Caltrans right now is in the process of seeking volunteers to do research on a road user charge program. And so if you're interested or you have constituents that are interested, the participants are actually eligible to receive $100 in incentives for the time that they've they spent participating in the study and for the feedback they provide. It's a six month demonstration. It begins in January 2021 and it'll go for about six months. And if you're interested you can go to caroadcharge.com and that's the place where you can sign up. And then also just want to highlight that as you know the changes in realities of COVID as it continues, Caltrans is still issuing temporary permits for businesses to operate within the state highway right away. So you can work with our permits department on that. We're trying to do what we can to allow business uses to continue in this current situation we're in. And then finally I just wanted to highlight that the highway one in Santa Cruz will have intermittent ramp closures through the end of the year. It'll will primarily be from from 9am to 3pm. It needs to be done during the daylight hours because it has to do with paint and thermo striping that we're putting down and that has to have daytime conditions to adequately cure. And we will not be closing more than one ramp in a row. So we know it's disruptive but we need to get the work done and we appreciate everybody's ability to help us out by by dealing with a little bit of extra delay as we continue to complete those improvements. That's all I have today. Happy to take any questions. Thank you Mr. Aves. I want to say thank you to Caltrans for its cooperation. You can please pass those thanks on to Mr. Govins our Executive Director from our district that we appreciate his and yours and everybody else's work on Caltrans. I can tell you we're getting responses not only for the work within our counties and cities but on the state highways too. They just wanted to get it all done at one time. They wanted to do the highway paved and then they're striped at the same time and just I think 99% of the people understand and have patience about it but it gets there. Thank you very much because very much noticed and very much appreciated. And I just think for in general discussion if my recollection is Senate Bill 1 we're concerned about you know the the amount of revenue coming here as with Measure D as well but I think in 2019-20 and measuring our SB1 we got five and a half million dollars and Measure D 2.7 and I think that we're just about on the same track up to date or probably up to the middle of this fiscal year in getting that kind of revenue coming in but press to note more details on that than I do but it's so very very important to us and I think it gives me another good time and the biggest discussions that we've had just thank the voters for approving Measure D and for the legislature passing SB1. I know Mr. Preston is that's about right. We're on about the same track of funding resources from those SB1 and Measure D at this point. Yeah we haven't seen a significant hit as of yet so we're pretty close to being flat on our revenue generation. Yeah which in these circumstances I think flat is good so are there any questions from commissioners on the Caltrans report? Yeah this is Greg Caput. I'll make a comment. I want to thank you Caltrans the crosswalk pedestrian crosswalk by Watsonville High School is almost complete. We've been waiting for probably about three years to get it done so I want to thank you. It's 90% done. They have some electrical work still to do and then I guess if we can focus next on Highway 152 and Hula Hand and College Road. I think we have half of the funding for getting that project done and I don't know maybe I can talk to your office. We've applied for grants and we're trying to get it together about $900,000 to you know have enough for the complete the project so whether or not it's possible we can spend the money we have the half over half we do have and then get part of the project done so that in the future if we're still waiting for the additional money that we need the price doesn't go up for the whole project. Any other comments from commissioners? Any comments from the public? We have one comment Mr. St. Mr. St may not be here or muted I'm not sure we'll give a couple yeah we can't hear you Mr. St. Okay I think we'll just have to move on to item number 21 the Highway 141st Avenue Soquel right away environmental mitigation and the RTC milestone. I think Sheriff Christensen is going to be presenting on this. Can you hear me? All right thank you. Thanks Chairman Kirsten. Did you guys hear me okay? Yeah Mr. St finally tried to get on but I'll give one last chance. Mr. St would you have please for two minutes if you have a comment? Yeah can you hear me? Yes yeah I never got the unmute button but I found one in the corner here sorry about that. Just a very quick comment I didn't know when I should make it but through all the congratulations I think we got a little bit lost there. Just with Mr. Mulhern he mentioned that this funding that was approved yesterday and he mentioned the idea that it went to dedicated bus lanes I just wanted to correct him these are not dedicated bus lanes these are ox lanes with cars included with buses and that's my only comment make sure we get the grammar correct on that. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Okay now Ms. Christensen please again thank you for accepting the interruption there. Item number 21 the Highway 141st Avenue Soquel right away go ahead. Thank you Chair McPherson. Go ahead. Thank you. My name is Sarah Christensen project manager for the highway projects and I am here today to check a few things off of our list to achieve the ready to list milestone for this project. So the project is the auxiliary lanes to move us over a new bicycle and pedestrian over crossing action so I just do you guys excuse me just a second you're breaking up I don't know if everybody being maybe they all are on mute maybe we should go off the screen because it wasn't coming away across clearly it was for me was anybody else having a problem with that. Yes Sarah you should turn off your video maybe and hopefully this works better can you guys hear me we can hear you but we can see yeah there you go maybe this will help okay so you get to just look at me and my construction where back to back to the item so we are working towards achieving the ready to list milestone which is the RTL milestone which is basically to get the project construction ready and ready to list or advertise for construction bids and so there's two that are kind of combined into one for this item and that is the first to amend an agreement that we have with the county of Santa Cruz public works for the right of way support services and the second is for to get authorization for a new agreement with also with the county of Santa Cruz parks division to meet the mitigation needs for the project so the status of this project right now we're we're very close to hitting the RTL milestone we anticipate will be will be there within the next month or two so as you recall in 2018 we began the final design phase with the RTC as the implementing agency for the final design and right of way components of the project and Cal Trans responsible for oversight and the RTC had previous entered into an agreement with the county of Santa Cruz for a right way support services so that's all the work that's related to acquiring the right of way needs for the project all of the right of way needs for this project were as a result of the construction of the bicycle and pedestrian over crossing and that bicycle pedestrian over crossing will be owned by the county and therefore the underlying property will be owned by the county and so we made that decision to partner with the county to do the right of way acquisitions because for that reason because they're going to ultimately own the right of way so today I am requesting authorization to amend this agreement that we have and that this amendment will allow the exchange of funds for the right of way capital for the project so to actually purchase the easements that are required for construction and the the amendment value is five hundred ninety six thousand three hundred and ten and that includes the capital for a right of way so the not to exceed amount for this contract will be forty six thousand three hundred and ten dollars and there's a resolution for this item I'm going to move on to the next one so the the second box that I'd like to check off for RTL is to enter into a new agreement with the county and this time it's with county parks and the reason is because the widening of the project is going to result in the removal of seventy one trees of various species and so the mitigation requirements for the project are to replant those trees and there's different ratios of replanting required for different species and different sizes of trees but in summary we have to replant two hundred and fifty five trees and so many five percent of those must be coastal live oaks we we've been reaching far and wide throughout the county to try to find the best opportunity to replant two hundred and fifty five trees that's not an easy thing to do if you could imagine so we looked for the most cost effective and ecologically effective opportunity for the replantings and it came came down to being at the Iona Gene Cummings county park and that park is located up in Soquel kind of by the high school and so the contract which will be a new contract the value is five hundred and twenty nine thousand and eighty three dollars and that covers the will play the actual trees to purchase the trees for the county park staff to do the replanting and then also because it's required by the for the project there's some mitigation monitoring that's going to happen over five years after the trees are planted and so this contract talking about fiscal impacts of this item the right-of-way component of the project is funded by the state transportation improvement program or the SIP we have seven hundred fifty thousand dollars a portion of that is going to be covering the right-of-way support and right-of-way capital and then the remaining bit is going toward the offsite mitigation which is also considered part of the right-of-way component of the project and so obviously there's not enough leftover to fund both of these so my request is also to amend the five-year program of projects for the highway corridors program to add funds over the very fiscal years through fiscal year twenty four twenty five and so with that I will take any questions from commissioners thank you very much I appreciate it we did get to hear you loud and clear are there any questions from commissioners on this project they to amend the agreement for the right-of-way that the project that was mentioned is there any comments from commissioners um chair I have a question yes this comment um you know as all projects we look to leverage what we can um and since you have this this um environmental piece of it uh in Watsonville we have Watsonville wetlands watch and so they always contribute to you know what leverage we have on money we have to put together and their resources and whatnot do we have any opportunity for some of the leverage um to come in with money and the project in the time and effort um donations of some sort to help with um to facilitate what we've got going with the um the trees and the replanting because I know we're taking out was about 70 we're looking about 200 over 200 trees to go in so are we working with other local agencies that um really want to grab a shovel and help out and perhaps help with the funding in any sort any possible means so thank you for your question um we are so it would really be up to county parks um but they typically use volunteers regularly and so that um the contract value is a not to exceed amount and so if there's any savings uh due to volunteers uh participating in these replantings and the monitoring then that um would be realized by the project okay sir answer question is there any are there any questions okay uh this is an action item uh that we need to act on um you have questions from the public commissioner McPherson oh excuse me I'm sorry yeah yeah any kind questions or info from the public thank you uh mr benvernasa oh yes I I'm back on this issue of uh we're talking about the highway corridors and that includes your segment segment 12 uh that costs 40 to 50 million dollars a mile and is mainly there for the train there's no train you don't need it and it may not be necessary to widen at that point it's end of the commute and my suggestion is that you put put that off and in the next four years you have 14 million dollars budgeted for that project move it over to this project and get it finished earlier that's my suggestion thank you thank you mr people yes hi brian from trail now two things we want to continue to ask that you look for mitigation measures for when the highway one construction is occurring get the coastal corridor opened up as an active simple gravel trail at the minimum from Watsonville to Santa Cruz boardwalk it's a solution for our community giving the locals a alternative during this highway one construction period which is going to be overwhelmingly painful to our community secondly the other thing we are strongly advocating is um for the highway widening near Aptos village rather than having the rail corridor could um go into the village we're asking that rail corridor remain on the ocean side of the highway which would reduce the congestion within the village thank you for your time that was the last of our comments um commissioner McPherson thank you thank you um any other comments from the uh the commission itself saying none uh I don't approve all the recommended actions we have a question from mr butthorff mr butthorn yeah thank you chair i have a comment since this will be my last bite of the apple on on any uh vote here uh as a metro representative i just want to say that this concept of bus on shoulder is where metro needs to be you know there's a lot of places where people want to put metro this is the most preferred use for metro and this is a great project and i want to commend both guy and sarah uh for pushing this forward making this uh project that's going to happen but bus on shoulder is absolutely uh the place that that metro belongs amiss and uh i'm not sure if i'm cutting anybody off but i would sure like to make the motion to adopt staff recommendation on this you're going to have the second i think miss coppin roman has made the motion you have the second you know i i would like to just make a comment too about the cooperative efforts uh that have been very noticeable between the rtc and metro very much appreciated and i think it's going to result in better service transportation public transportation services for everyone uh okay i had a question yes um we got replacement pages i think for this item and i'm not sure those reflected in were reflected in the staff report just like a clarification on whether the motion includes those if i have if i'm understanding what happened correctly you're right there was a replacement page um the staff report was and the resolution was corrected and the reason for that was the work plan from the county was updated for the replanting so the term uh we were originally expecting it to be through 2025 but we went ahead and up to 2027 they're actually going to be most likely finished in early 2027 but we um we typically like to end our agreements at the end of the year so we changed it to december 31st 2027 and the reason for that is the five-year requirement is from the point that uh the plantings are complete and the plantings are going to happen over a period of time and so therefore the term of the agreement needs to extend through 2027 i didn't have a problem with that i just wanted to clarify that that was uh going that that was incorporated in uh motion yes so moved and that's in my second okay very well thank you for the explanation and for the question any other comments from commissioners uh we can call the role please commissioner brown hi commission alternate tim hi commissioner kaufman gomez yes commissioner cap it hi commission alternate shifrin hi commission alternate mulher hi commissioner leopold commissioner mcpherson hi commissioner botorf hi commissioner gonzalez hi commission alternate lin hi unanimous okay thank you uh we will go to item number 22 to review the items to be discussed in closed session now mr mattis uh were there be anything reportable or do yes mr chair mr chair person there may be reportable action on two of the three closed sessions today okay very good well we will move into closed session we'll take a it's now uh well let's say it's 10 minutes to 11 we'll we'll reconvene at 11 o'clock if that's okay and i think everybody should have the link for the closed session and i would like to announce at the next rtc meeting when we will have um a new chair uh mr domales will be on january 14th 2020 at 9 a.m and i'm sure that it's going to be by teleconference as well again so thank you for the public for joining us and um we will now move into closed session with the possibility of having an announcement at the completion of that so uh we will move into closed session at this point and be back at 11 o'clock in 10 minutes all right we um the commission men in closed session and we came out of our closed session with two reportable items which our council mr mattis will report on thank you mr chair we'll report on two items from the closed session um the two reportable items relate to items 24 and 26 in the closed session um the commission with regards to item 24 the executive director's evaluation the executive director's evaluation was completed and the um commission's evaluation met the requirements under section 3.3 of the executive director's contract for the executive director to receive the step c increase um that vote by the commission was 11 to 0 to complete the evaluation and to recognize the entitlement to the step c increase that is provided for in his contract the second item is with regards to item 26 the anticipated litigation initiation of litigation in that instance the commission voted 10 zero uh commissioner leopold was did not vote in that matter um and the commission authorized the initiation of litigation uh related to the um uh drainage damage repair uh near mile post 4.87 on the sancry's branch line and authorized the commission council to file litigation in that matter again that vote was 10 zero and with that mr chair that is all the reportable actions from closed session thank you very much okay that is all we need to report um this meeting uh well the meeting of november 3rd is adjourned officially then and uh the next one will be in january i don't have 14 january 14 january 14 uh 9 a.m and it'll be on teleconference happy holidays everyone and see you all right thank you take care