Mr. Rao and welcome to the April 5th meeting of the Santa Cruz County regional transportation Commission could we start with a roll call? Commissioner Rodkin Commissioner Bautour here Commissioner Virginia Johnson here Commissioner Leopold here mission Mulherr Here commissioner Schifrin here mission or cap it here Commissioner Kauffman Gomez President Commissioner Johnson here Commissioner Brown here Commissioner Bertrand here and Commissioner Lowe here Alrighty before we start today's meeting. I want to Just recognize a longtime member of our Bicycle Commission who recently passed Cam a call was a live oak resident who served on our Bicycle Committee May be close to 20 years He served both in district one and district four. He was he was a longtime advocate For cyclists. He was never shy about sharing his point of view He was he was tireless though in his advocacy for sports recreational opportunities and for good bicycle planning He he he really Cared to make sure these opportunities were available not only for people like him And he was a triathlete, but also to make sure it was available for everyone in the community So if you just join me in a moment of silence for a chem a call who recently passed away Thank you So now we'll start with oral communications This is an opportunity to address the board about issues under the purview of the regional transportation Commission But not on today's agenda You'll have three minutes a yellow light will come on when you have one minute left and then that read To stop Good morning. Good morning. My name is Jack Carol. This is the first time I've spoken to the RTC I like to complement your website. It's easy to navigate and has all the information needed Accessible. Thank you The one our community debates Whether rails should be part of the rail trail corridor The traffic congestion on highway one is inevitably part of the conversation The 2015 rail feasibility study Had some statistics about Daily boardings, I think the maximum was 6,800 it's hard for me to Correlate that with a reduction in highway one peak traffic congestion does that number represent a 50% reduction in Highway traffic or just a 5% reduction or some other number the I think there's a great importance as to just how much of a reduction in highway one traffic the Rail component of the plan would generate it's a was a major item in the 2015 online Survey the public was very interested in that and the feasibility study talks about spending as much as 500 million dollars over a 20-year period To provide the rail portion of this so I ask you Is there any statistic or any estimate as to how much Highway one peak traffic congestion is going to be reduced if we spend 500 million dollars This adoring oral communication is your chance to address the Commission. It's not a chance for dialogue. It's This item is not on the agenda tonight, so you can share your your perspective on it, but we won't be We won't be engaging in a dialogue about it, so okay Brown Act requires you not to take action, but it doesn't supersede your First Amendment right to speak to me But that's your personal choices Just let me say that the corridor study that's coming up or to address or to or to address the Traffic reduction that we can expect because I don't think anybody in this room thinks that 100% The traffic is going to be eliminated and we should know what the benefits of the 500 million dollar investment is to the people that won't actually be getting on a train So thank you very much. Thank you Good morning Becky Steinbruner isn't a Vaptas and I just want to make it clear what the gentleman just said the Brown Act does allow your Commission to have brief dialogue with members of the public to encourage public input and There are three actions that your Commission can take when there is public input not on the agenda Items and one is to have brief discussion with the member of the public for clarification You can refer them to staff to get answers or help or a member of your Commission can put the item on a future Agenda for public discussion So under the Brown Act you can respond and that is done to encourage public input. I Am here this morning to to discuss with you recent encroachment within the Rail right-of-way in the Aptos village area Construction trailer of test door of construction was moved into the rail right-of-way Just inches away from the track and parked I did contact miss Christensen from the RTC and asked about it She assured me there was a right of entry agreement with the apta with mr. Testorf not other developers But when I asked for a copy of the document, I've still not received it I've filed a public Records Act request to receive it and have been told by miss Isenia para that I will not be able to see it until May 31st I have a lot of concern about this and I also want to know about the impending parade street crossing Over the railroad tracks in this area Supervisor friend has in writing accused me of Stating I'm taking legal action against this that is not true. I am not taking legal action But there could be legal action regarding the matter from the owners of the Bayview Hotel and Trout Gulch crossing who owned the Property under the tracks in the area in front of their businesses and The plan to accommodate the Aptos Village project developers for the new parade street crossing is to close The private at Greg crossing in front of the Bayview Hotel Trout Gulch businesses This is Illegal it is inverse condemnation Not the county not the developers are talking with these property owners about compensation For closure of their Their private crossing the effects on their commercial value to lose their street front access to the public No one is talking so I am not talking about legal action But there is discussion about legal action and I encourage you all to look into it. I Also want to say that the phase one Project of the Aptos Village traffic improvements, which your Commission has funded with $1.4 million may be more I'm being told that the three minutes is up. I guess our light. Oh, there's no timer here So I don't know I apologize This is not a you are although I sit here regularly the staff from the RTC doesn't you sit here regularly so I'm sorry Apologize do I have to stop is that what you just want to conclude your remarks? Okay? Thank you Thank you very much for the warning and if you can put the timer on that would be helpful I just want to say the phase one is nearly complete. It's been over a year to take that There is no public notice for any of that work that caused one-hour delays going through the village Last Friday. There are not markings for face burner. I just wanted you to Okay, markings for phase two are on the road There's absolutely no public notice at all and your your commission funded that part $1.9 million. Thank you, and I apologize for the for the clock not being on Okay, we will try to give a better warning when you're getting closer to three minutes All right, hello, my name is Diana Panawa, and I am a student from Watsonville high school So for this year as a senior art We had to do a cat project which is a community action project and we decided to team up with the friends of the rail trail I didn't know there was going to be a train Transporting from Watsonville all the way up to Santa Cruz and hopefully to Davenport and after doing a lot of research We've come to learn that we may be connected a Monterey and maybe even one day go all the way to San Francisco Being a teenager. We don't have that much freedom in Watsonville because you were just stuck there So I want you guys to know that for the youth and the future of our youth Please have this train happen We need something that connects us to Santa Cruz something that connects us to Aptals And I myself has have taken the bus takes an hour and 30 minutes to get to Santa Cruz without traffic It's a very long time. I don't think anyone has a time for that And I want you guys to know that the youth needs this train and we need it for Just us for the youth. So don't forget the youth. Thank you. Thank you Good morning Morning. Good. Good morning commissioners. Just a general overall statements Michael St with campaign for sustainable transportation, and I'm stuck in Aptals basically she's stuck in Watsonville Basically also wanted to talk us a little frustration going on with my personal Outlook on a lot of these policies throughout all our counties seems to be a disconnect between what we're trying to do We have environmental needs versus economics, and then we have the politics on top of that The best thing going on so far as Monterey Bay Community power and they basically has gone 100 percent greenhouse emission free greenhouse gases Which is awesome. And thanks to Jenny and mr. McPherson for starting all of that Then we get down to the regional transportation commission And we're throwing out a project on widening the highway, which is going to increase increase greenhouse gas emissions And then I just attended the board of supervisors meeting in Monterey In that county and that was kind of somewhat depressing They just overturned an appeal or the appeal by trio petroleum to put for exploratory wells in So I see some people doing good I see some people counteracting that and eventually this trio petroleum if they do find oil their objective is To basically start another San Ardo or San Ardo oil field down there So there goes the greenhouse gas things that Monterey Bay community powers trying to prevent Um frustrating and we also talk about sustainability in a lot of areas I just want to leave you with one definition And this is by the female prime minister ex-prime minister of Norway And I don't know if you've heard of her Grill Harlan Brenton and she was basically the mother of sustainable development And as we go through all those processes maybe keep in mind that her definition of Sustainable development is meeting the demands of the present generation left. Thank you While preserving the rights of future generations to meet their own needs So as we go through all these little Three-minute drills and also the policies that would be something good to keep in mind and I'll see you on item 22 Thank you. Thank you Hi, Gail McNulty Greenway. Um, first of all, I would like to just quickly commend all of you for your Endurance, I know that these meetings are often quite long and we never know exactly how long they'll be with that in mind I know that the closed session topic is later But just in case anyone is here in the audience today that has concerns about progressive rail I'd like them to just raise their hands now in case because we might lose some people by the end of the meeting So yeah, thank you. No, I appreciate that but not good. I know we're not going into that now They and I would like to just piggyback on what Mike just said About meeting the needs of the current generation and I'd also like to commend the Watsonville High School students that are here today To speak out for young people and specifically young people in South County Who are needing and expecting change now when we passed measure D? It might have been a lot of things. Yes, it is to fix potholes Yes, it is all of those things but the ad campaign was get people moving, right? It was get Santa Cruz County moving and it had these beautiful images of active transportation in all of the advertising It's disingenuous to sit here and allow the public to think that we are going to make changes when those changes aren't going to happen for 20 or 30 years, so I would just like to recommend Realistic solutions. We'll go into more later. Thank you. Thank you All right, we will we will I will let you know when you have one minute left great Morning commissioners the Sentinel was good enough to print my letter to you, so I'll just go ahead and read it Our last rail operator pulled out because they couldn't make ends meet Applicant progressive rail will try something different excuse me if you're going to talk about progressive rail This is on the agenda and there will be times I'll talk about the closed session items at the end of the agenda before closed session Okay, and so that be around 1030 the sooner we get done with our communications as soon as we will get to the rest of the agenda. All right. Thank you So if you're here to speak about progressive rail that is on the closed session agenda You'll get a cheap chance to speak to us before we go into closed session Morning, everybody. My name is Matthew Zender. This is the first time I've spoken here I just wanted to share my opinion on the rail trail and the Greenway and I'm a Resident here at Santa Cruz. I was born here and both my parents live here and their teachers I do live on Portola right across the street from Jade Street Park, and I'm just have a concern about where the actual loading Or the boarding I guess you could say of the trail proposed rail trail would be and I can just remember When we did have a train that went through Capitola and the Pledge of Point area with the San Lorenzo lumber stop And I just remembered how close that was in proximity to the houses with the train One of my friends lived off 38th and Portola, and it was like extremely close and I just wanted to share my thoughts on the Greenway and Just how awesome it could be potentially to have a place for people to ride their bike and walk in a peaceful beautiful trail But I hopefully look forward to seeing how Thank you. Thank you Good morning. I'm Barry Scott. I live in Aptos and Just a couple of things it's interesting that a lot of folks talk about traffic congestion on highway one and and then for to the 2015 feasibility study I I I don't know that reduction in highway traffic and congestion is even possible much less the objective of Alternatives to it is the goal of rail transportation to decrease traffic on on highway one I don't know I think I think the goal of rail transit or alternatives to transit active Transportation sidewalks bike lanes and so forth is to just be out of the traffic to give people a choice not to be in it at all So I'd like to I'd like to point that out when we hear Claims about reductions in traffic and in fact when we hear any claims about they go back to the 2015 study That is already a dated document with old information. There was no Pajaro station On the you know about to be built at that time. There weren't electric trains available that could run on batteries I want to share That I spoke with Monterey Bay community power yesterday to make sure that the renewable energy component would apply to Customers who are commercial industrial and agricultural and it would and what I'm saying is that These electric trains that we might be able to deploy would be 100% renewably powered and finally in our 2018 Caltrans State rail plan if things work out there they're explicit about shifting from highway to railway They're talking about multiplying the mode share for rail by a factor of 20 From I think it's a point three zero point three four percent of trips on on trains to 6.8 that's a multiple of 20. That's all. Thanks. Thank you Good morning My name is Kathy Marino. I'd like to thank you for your due diligence that you've been Applying to finding out the right way to use the rail trail I'd like to urge you to preserve the rail Because it's an invaluable easement and about valuable quarter that we are gonna find out that we'll have If we give it up now We may not even be able to build a trail. Let's put it that way if we don't have Rail service on it and we don't have the rails some of the land will be returned to the original parcels that deeded the easement and Let's see. There's no reason we can't do the rail trail I'm sorry. I'm nervous and and build a trail and and keep the possibility of rail my family's been here since 1860 we're still scattered throughout the county I worked for 25 years as a senior electric estimating engineer for a large utility Relocating utilities I know how much it's gonna cost if we have to widen the highway if we're gonna have to widen the major thoroughfares And I think we would be throwing away a lot of taxpayer money by giving up the rail I think we should keep it for future option and thank you. Thank you Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for the work you do. It's very difficult My name is Jeremy. I'm one of your local emergency physicians I think it's fair to say that everybody in the room is deeply concerned and Troubled by the traffic on highway one that seems to be the main focus. Certainly. I've driven it lately and it's Frankly unbearable When I when I go past the trail and I think about the possibility of us using it both for bicycle and the possibility of rail in the future I think that's a brilliant idea. And I think very few people are opposed to that But it seems that we have the possibility right now to turn it into a bicycle friendly a more usable daily trail While keeping in mind the long-term possibilities eventually adding rail to it And I just want to encourage the Commission to think about that possibly that within a year or two logistically speaking We could have that as a possibility using on a day-to-day basis While simultaneously undertaking the upgrades and the advancements necessary to do rail there in the future However for the shorter-term possibility, I think it's unlikely considering all the logistics we have to undertake here with The upgrades necessary with the money necessary with the amount of time This is actually going to take for us to delay the project only until it's rail Why not use it in the meantime for shorter purposes? And if somebody can show me a plan we're five years from now ten years from now We can have logistically speaking an actual rare process then let's move forward when the meantime every time I go over those tracks And I think about the ability to bike on it with my kids and it's just sitting there not getting utilized I could literally get on a bike and aptos and bike to Santa Cruz safely cleanly efficiently Why can't we have that within the next year or two? And I appreciate the consideration for for the future. Thank you Yeah, using the suggestion from a member of the public. We will start construction on the trail In the city of Santa Cruz later this year Watsonville the year after and on the north coast Maybe the year after that so we will have under construction or constructed the next five years 25% of the length of the of the trail Good morning. I'm Brett Garrett. I'll be very quick I often speak in favor of personal rapid transit Which I see as the way to meet the request from the transit side of the community and from the trail side of the community to To just reach the best of both worlds for everyone I just want to encourage you to please keep an eye on clear water, Florida there's been a couple of news reports this week about beach Tran and beach Tran is Building a they're hoping to build a personal rapid transit system. It will be all funded by private investors So there's no cost to the county in Florida to build this system Santa Cruz County could do something similar where we got private investors to build this system We could have a wonderful transit system with no cost to the community and there could be some kind of agreement where it Transitions into public ownership later. I'm not aware of them doing that in Florida But I mean I always think public transit should be public, but there's an advantage to getting it built however We can do it. Thank you very much keep an eye on beach Tran Good morning. Good morning. I'm Karina McFarland. I live in live oak I just want to say that we cycle everywhere. We're totally intrepid urban cyclists. I know some of you are We have a quadriplegic friend who's coming for an extended stay and I'm right now building Manual wheelchair bicycle tandem so that we will not have to go into car and she agrees with me The whole time that she's here That's not the easiest thing to do if you've got a heavier person And so we're also doing a go fund me for a battery-assisted tandem wheelchair bicycle, which is Very expensive like 9,000 bucks The point I want to make is I've never been battery-assisted and we avoid the escarpment on the steepest places We live in live oak. We go over our inner Gulch when I've got kids on my bicycle I'll go around on the trestle over San Lorenzo River to avoid the steepest so I'm really for rail banking and keeping That as a transit corridor for bicycles and new transit I'd love to see the IBM Watson local motors Oli Running from Watsonville to aptos on and off the tracks and all the way all around everywhere fast way faster than a metro bus Thank you. Thank you Good morning. Morning Gary Lindstrom from aptos I also agree that I Think that the rail trail in combination is a great idea I'm a person that likes to think out of the box and try to come up with new ways to move people around I do watch a lot of programs on PBS and things about transportation problems around the world and I think that What we need to do on this? Rail part of the rail trail is Is truly think outside of the box. I know that we are required Because of the millions of dollars that have been given to us To develop this system that we have to be able to carry freight But nobody says that the freight has to be at the weight that it is now it can be transported smaller quantities of weight and I'm proposing that We think about monorail Electric rail the elevated they do through elevation with electric or a gondola type Transportation system the gondolas could be very low slung They'd be able to transport any number of people the gondola decides the number of people that go on it it's totally quiet it can be run solar and If you need to run Transportation then let's come up and design a car for the system that can take smaller loads of whatever it is that we have to transport It may be a little more time-consuming, but we would meet the the requirements of the federal government I live along the tracks. I do not want to hear those tracks going hour after hour We didn't mind it for years. I've lived in Aptos for 53 years and for 43 years of that. I've lived along the Railroad tracks So you know going by once in the morning and then once in the afternoon was great We could run all the kids out there and they could wave and have a good time But that noise going back and forth back and forth whether it's electric or Diesel or whatever system they're gonna use You've got metal against metal and it's gonna make a lot of noise It's very heavy and I just think that we really need to think outside of the box Santa Cruz has always been Open to new ideas and trying to be creative and I just think that's something like a monorail or an elevation system or The gondola gondola is being used in Portland now So it's it's a very easy system to work and very very inexpensive to operate Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Tom. Hey, I live in live oak area I've come to several of these meetings, and I know you've heard just about everything. I can imagine your position So I go my god. Here's another guy. Well, here's the deal I live in a senior park. There's a hundred and 20 residents there and we discussed this subject about how to use that corridor and And How's the money going to be spent in town and the folks there? You know as you get older Maybe you don't want to drive anymore. It's harder to get around setra We'd really like to see more smaller a bus system like a rubber wheels You know like smaller system that can come by closer to where you actually live So be easier to get around that way and a lot of people in the park are now using uber and they use lift Things like that because they're cheaper you get to work just right to where you want to go now also We also see a vision for the future of having that corridor having it a very wide trail used by You know children going back and forth to school a way for them to get downtown or all of this all everybody but we're thinking about kids a lot Because They're going to be the ones they're going to use that trail who's going to use that and how are they going to use it? Well, they're very active and outdoor sort of sporty community here And we think of that kind of like what's ecologically the best thing to do here And we would like to be able to see that path. We can ride people can ride bikes There's a lot of electric bikes now We see that that could be a real tourist attraction Where people would come from all over to use that trail to get through Santa Cruz the Davenport even down even down to Monterey If you see across the country different trails different rails have been changed over to a trail They become very popular tourist attractions I can see having electric bike rentals along that trail You know coffee shops food places But this way you can just hop off that any any intersection you want on your bike Whereas the train you can't do that You're stuck in that car and that's it. You're stuck. What are you doing there? You can hardly see the town you kind of whizz by you know Fences behind people's homes. So we're hoping that we can Make a safe alternative what we have now which is Congested streets where you really don't want to get on a bicycle to go out there We have a real high rate of accidents out there We want our kids off the streets On a safe corridor where we feel good about them being out there. It's their future We're all gonna be probably out of here by then and so we need to give them what they'll want in the future stay healthy get outside and You know, I think it's a picture, right? Okay. Thank you. Thank you Got something to address you on that is not progressive rail Okay Mono Koenig Santa Cruz first I wanted to address Mr. Leopold's point that we're building 25% of the trail in the next year or two It's not a complete trail unless it's a complete trail, right? I mean I think about the greenway as an opportunity very much like the highway All right So I commuted for many years from Coralitos and I thought about my commute like this 10 minutes to get out of the Redwoods 10 minutes to get to the freeway and 10 minutes on the freeway 15 to 20 with traffic and so I think about the greenway very much the same if I can get my bike to the greenway within 10 minutes Then I can probably get anywhere else in the county within another 15 if I have an electric bike And so Alta study actually recently did a Alta recently did a study that showed if we have an intermittent trail It will be treated as numerous small trails not a continuous one so It we and we could expect a decrease in ridership of at least 43 percent So unless we're talking about the right plan, which is a continuous bike trail that uses every single bridge Then we're not talking about the same thing. You can't have both It's not the same trail unless you use the entire right of way I Also wanted to address mr. Scott's point that the numbers from the 2015 rail transit feasibility study are somehow obsolete I reread that study the other night is incredible You know the amount of work that went into that looking at origin destination data from ambag from all over the county Counting for the fact that we have students in this county that we have tourists And that that would somehow increase the transportation or the use of the train even beyond what we see on Bart How is this somehow all of a sudden irrelevant? You know I've done a lot of outreach in Watsonville and I ask people every time I asked them to sign the Greenway petition could you take a train and Many of them say yeah, no, I can't Okay, because they're taking a truck Right to either do deliveries or because they're doing service work there You know whether it's construction or landscaping a lot of this service to a lot of them have jobs within Watsonville itself Or a lot of them are going beyond Watsonville to San Jose or maybe they're going south and so once again I think that was probably captured in the origin destination data So I don't think it's irrelevant at all and I think if you go talk to constituents, you'll see it proved out One last thing. Yes, the highway is broken But that doesn't mean we should give up on it and that we can't fix it if you look at London If you look at Singapore if you look at Milan, they've all implemented something called congestion pricing It costly actually 10 pounds to get into central London during peak hours It costs you three euros to get into central Stockholm during peak hours now The idea of toll lanes is abhorrent But it could fund transit and it would encourage people to carpal better than any carpal system we could devise. Thank you Is there anyone else who wants to address us during oral communication seeing none return to our agenda? Are there any additions or deletions to the today's agenda? Yes, mr. Chairman, we have a replacement page for item 13 and we have some additional Correspondents for the closed session item number 26 Okay, thank you very much. So now we move on to the consent agenda I look to my colleagues if there's any items they like to pool or comment on on today's consent agenda Ms. Gomez No, we don't we don't we don't we don't swear people in here Yeah, you're appointed you're appointed we got the letter Is there anyone in the audience who would like to comment or pull an item off the consent agenda I just had a clarification for the minutes, and I'm sorry. I Is this the time to do that? Okay in the minutes it states that I had Concerns about the impacts of freight travel with progressive in the county That's not actually what I said. I said I wondered what Customers progressive rail Said they were courting already for freight traffic in the area I was at the presentation and they said that and my what I said at the meeting last time Was that I had concerns about what type of freight? They might bring you into the county considering their quote gem of Project in the Midwest has to do with fracking supplies. That's what I said, and I'd like it corrected. Thank you All right Good morning. Good morning. I don't want to see no representative plus operators For Santa Cruz Metro and a pair of transit folks Just wanted to just highlight one a one a letter of support for senator Monning's bill that as SB 1236 and just want to report that Currently at Santa Cruz Metro. We already go above and beyond that so you know great great and supporting that. Thank you Thank you, and thank you for your ongoing work to move people around the community Second Wording in the minutes to say type of concerned about the type of rail of freight service rather than saying about freight Say there's a motion on the table. Is there a second? I seconded it. Okay motion by rockin seconded by shifrin mr. Bertrand To the Agenda March the third of the Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission budget administration Commission meeting I mean it's in comments there that weren't captured in the meeting minutes and the comments I made I don't know you're talking about please. This is on the consent, right? Well number there isn't the March 3rd That there's a March 8th meeting draft minutes. Yeah, six one Yeah, yeah, I mean it's in comments to put on future agendas to review the amount of money We put in special funds for emergencies Okay, so I just want that captured that's all I'm just trying to figure out where that was in the minutes So we can get a clear direction so we can Have that refractory So it's item six one and it's the budget committee. I know but on that on that agenda, you know was there we were discussing the Budget approval and you know, I was noting the amount of money that we actually put for emergency funds and you know based on experience in Capitola, we revised that to increase that and We're very glad we did and so I brought that up George concurred that there would be a good idea to have that review And I just want that captured This is item 6 I think maybe if I was looking at the The minutes is that item 7 amendments to the fiscal year 17-18 budget work on sorry. Yes, okay Or the more the number 8 which is the 2018-19 proposed budget I think he's talking you're talking about item number 6, which were the minutes of the budget and administration committee meeting No, no that yeah that and that's you're saying the minutes don't accurately reflect all of you were sitting next to me You would like the minutes. Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out what part of the minutes that what item on I know it's item 6 on today's agenda But within the that minutes is there a particular would be item 8 for the next year's agenda Oh, um, I just pointed out to Edges pointing out to me. I did miss that and it's actually an item 8. Yeah, I missed that so my my apology says here that It says that the RTC That the RTC directs staff to conduct a study the appropriate percentage of RTC reserves is that not Yes, that is I I did skip over that sentence Okay, so there's not it's not a change not a change. Okay. It's been captured. So we have a mode we have a So we have a motion on the floor from from Commissioner Rock and seconded by Schifrin to Accept the consent agenda with the one change in the minute by miss miss Steinburner to accurately reflect her remarks Is there any more discussion? Seeing none all in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed motion carries unanimously and with that we move To the regular agenda our first item on the regular agenda is commissioner reports. This is the chance for commissioners To report on items Mr. Potter off Yeah, I just want to inform the public that During the month of March myself and Commissioner Dondaro went back to Lakeville, Minnesota for four days the week of the 18th to the 21st to Interview and meet with progressive railway During that time period we Went to three states in three days and viewed three different operations Progressive owns approximately seven short track railways We visited progressive rail in Lakeville, Minnesota Wisconsin Northern Railroad in normal Wisconsin and Iowa traction railway in Mason City, Iowa And the purpose of this visit and tour was for us to do our due diligence and interview this operator Use some criteria to judge, you know Their effectiveness of performance and evaluate their company and it was I would say a successful Trip on our part although it was 17 degrees and a little different than what we're used to here in California, but We did a very concise evaluation of what they did. They showed us all assets of their business and Had us meet with their banker that we met with the mayor of Lakeville. We met with some economic development people in different counties Clients customers of progressive railway and pretty much three days of a broad spectrum of How progressive runs their business their impact on the community and what they would be like to be a potential Operator in this county Thank you. I'm sure they'll be helpful for us. Is there any other commissioner reports? Commissioner Johnson, so on that subject. Did you meet with any of the people who were opposed to progressive rail? Who talked about some of the adverse effects that they had on their community? I would say not I did the biggest perspective We had is when we met with the mayor of Lakeville who obviously had had public hearings about people that came and he shared some of the concerns that had been brought up by the members of the community but as far as actually talking to members we did not I thought that would have been useful to kind of get a perspective of Of What some of the problems were there and to get a firsthand is that a second hand say from a mayor? Yeah, I will add I will add that when we did talk to the mayor there was a I believe a either a tweet or a Program in Lakeville with someone had created and it was actually a neighbor in a residential track where the mayor lived and he Brought up those tweets and we looked at the comments from the individual and we asked about you know, how long ago was this? And are these still active concerns and complaints and he did share with us that although there were some concerns initially that was down to where one person one or two comments and not an ongoing situation that the mayor was very candid about You know the information you shared with us. Thank you Seeing no other Comments our commissioner reports move on to our executive director miss done mr. Donnero good morning Good morning commissioners Have a quick report on progress on the unified corridor study our Consultant has a sub consultant Working on the economic piece of this project The sub consultant is strategic economics from the Bay Area They have been meeting with RTC staff and with the economic development and planning folks from Departments in Watsonville capitol city of Santa Cruz and County of Santa Cruz to gather information Looking at existing and potential future Economic activity within the project area was discussed And The information they collected will be used to determine potential relative economic benefits associated with the transportation Projects and various different scenarios that are being evaluated in step two of the scenario analysis so and The other item I won't repeat any of what commissioner Bator said, but I would say that the the trip to Minnesota was Look at I think we got a very good look at progressive rail and their impacts on the community and I think We got to see that they're a very dynamic Company, I think they deliver what they promise we saw evidence of that wherever we went and that they invest in communities that they serve helping local businesses Flourish so and we also met with some of their employees, and they all seem very happy It seems like their employees are treated well, and they have a Profit-sharing plan for all their employees. So just to add those things great. That's all I have. Thank you very much Then we'll move on to item 20, which is the Caltrans report. Good morning. Ms. Lowe Good morning, mr. Chair commissioners Well, April is the month when we put a special spotlight on safety and one of the things that we do is we honor the 188 Caltrans workers who have been killed on the job On April 26th, there will be memorials Honoring those folks on the west steps of the capital We also hold a similar worker memorial at our offices in district 5 Safety is our top priority and we're always looking at the Innovations and new equipment available to our highway workers safe But we also of course ask and rely on all of all of us users of the system to take special care when we're driving through work zones or in the proximity of maintenance work areas I Would just say that normally we don't have anything going on above us on the top floor here the county building But they are putting solar panels and other installations on top of us So that's a good thing, but today it might make some noise. I apologize for that. That's progress. All right With the departure of our director Malcolm Docherty earlier this year, you may have heard that after seven years He's moved on to Opportunities in the private sector and he's with a working with a firm on their strategic management Laurie Berman who came from district 11 is now our director She comes with about 30 years of experience with Caltrans and a variety of responsibilities and is highly respected She'll do a great job leading our organization in the meantime She has asked our our district 5 director Tim Govans to hold the fort while they Permanently fill the position down there in district 12. He will be back. He has told us he'll be back But in the and but then of course these dominoes in the meantime now Richard Rosales Otherwise the deputy director for our Project program management is our acting district director. So you may see him from time to time We're expecting all of these things to be in place sometime this summer. Hopefully early summer is the hope and then also In this time of change We're getting ready and working hard to deliver on the commitments and all the new investments that SB 1 provides And we are also hiring and I know you you might think if you're driving around you think Caltrans is lots of people in orange shirts And and hard hats, that's true. We have a very large maintenance force We're always looking to add people to our maintenance forces, but we also have careers in engineering of course environmental planning Transportation planning legal services administration Equipment operators in IT information technology and last but not least right-of-way and surveys and we're looking to fill a myriad of positions in all of those professions, so as you Advise friends family Folks around Caltrans is a great place to work. So please consider that and there's a lot of information available online Thank you very much. Are there questions for our representative from Caltrans? Oh Commissioner cap it Thank you for your report and on page Dash for item number nine and ten They are they pretty much shovel ready there. I know that it's the spring. It says of 2018 so is there any update on how the bidding is going and whether or not they're actually going to start This is a this is about as shovel ready as we get. I don't have the Information available here. It looks like we're still getting ready to advertise number nine And I don't know that we've advertised number ten yet Okay, we will be sure we keep you informed on on that progress And the funding for safe routes to schools and everything that there's still funds and we're ready to go on certain projects certain projects have safe routes to schools funding that that's largely County projects local projects In the kind of moving forward the safe routes to school funding has been rolled into the active transportation program and The CTC will be announcing another cycle of ATP coming up in May But all of the projects that we've spoke of previously With those funding that those are represented here if you're speaking directly of that the Watsonville projects But more opportunities will be forthcoming So when somebody makes a An appeal to have actual funding near a specific school What's the timeline? Basically on what when it's actually decided to either Go ahead and do the project or not do the project Well Commissioner Caput it really depends on the project But funding allocations under the active transportation program are very strict. I believe there's a there a four-year cycle for those Okay, thank you Are there other questions for our CalTran's representative? I would just offer my thanks to you for a small safety project that we talked about last time With some with some new paint people feel a lot safer on highway 17. So thank you for doing that Next we'll move on to our next item Please come forward Thank you, Becky Steinbrunner resident of Aptos. I have questions about Because it is safety awareness the Aptos Creek Bridge On Soquel Drive and Spreckles was last year inspected routinely by CalTran's civil engineer, Mr. Zulke and it took a while for me to get that report. I just got it last week and This is a 90 year old historic bridge It is showing severe cracking on the barrier walls and that was noted in the report, but there is no Recommendation for any repair or remediation I had asked previously for a load limit to be placed on this bridge and The report refers to 1979 load summaries that were not Actually addressed in the report, but they're available and I've had to file a public records act request to get them That material is on its way. Thankfully to mr. Shivers he's great to work with So my concern for safety is the Aptos Creek Bridge and I appreciate that CalTran's inspects it routinely every two years The RTC did a traffic study at that point Spreckles and Soquel and determined in 2016 the traffic count was 16,600 cars a day with 10% Truck traffic that percent of truck traffic has vastly increased with the Aptos Village project construction and Associated road repairs on Valencia and Soquel Drive in the area I have seen some days concrete trucks and loaded Double tractor trailers of soil go over that bridge every 10 minutes all day long So I'm concerned about the safety of the Aptos Creek Bridge And I want to thank you again for inspecting it and would urge CalTran's to make some recommendations to the county the second thing that I would like to ask you about that I have referred to in previous meetings is the safety aspects of the State Park Drive Highway 1 interchange Commissioner friend has told me that the dangerous condition near that at Sea Ridge and State Park is a CalTran's issue There are many people that live in that area, and it is very hazardous crossing I would really like to see a center turn lane put in that area to improve the safety of the State Park Highway 1 Interchange for residents in the C Cliff area Thank you very much Thank you Next we'll move on to item number 21, which is the on-call engineering services for the Santa Cruz branch rail corridor Good morning, Ms. Christensen Good morning. I'm Sarah Christensen senior transportation engineer RTC staff So today I'm here to Request approval of a list of on-call engineers. This is the first time that the RTC has had on-call engineers It's really exciting. We have a lot of work to do on our right of way And also for authorization for the first set of task orders in February we released a request for qualifications for experienced and qualified engineering consultants To submit statements of qualifications for three categories civil engineering structural engineering and inspections and construction management The purpose of having on-call engineers is to support the RTC staff With inspections of the infrastructure and the various improvements that are needed along the rail corridor a Total of 11 statements of qualifications were received Three for civil engineering three for structural engineering and five for construction management The selection committee reviewed the the statements of qualifications The selection committee consisted of three senior engineers one from the county of Santa Cruz one from the city of Santa Cruz and myself Attachment one of my staff report includes the list of the selected consultants for the three categories and Just to note the specific scopes of work Will be negotiated on a task order basis So this is just a list of qualified consultants that we could then negotiate specific task orders with It does not guarantee a specific dollar amount to be contracted with any of the consultants and The contract period for the on-call Consultants will be 36 months The first basically the initial effort For the on-call engineers will be to help us with inspections of the bridges and the infrastructure Which we're asking for authorization for five hundred thousand dollars to help with that effort We have sufficient funds in the Santa Cruz branch rail line budget under the railroad structures inspections analysis and rehabilitation task So with that, I'm here to answer any questions that you guys have. Thank you other questions. Mr. Johnson. Thank you chair So help me understand rail pros. What do they do? Rail pros they are railroad specific Engineering firm they do a vast a lot of different types of work including structures construction management civil engineering and we included them because They were one of the only ones who really did specifically rail type of work and so we feel that you know We might need their expertise in the future So I'm so with the unified corridor study coming forward and and Everything kind of being Excuse me put off until that study is completed Is it wise to put in dollars before that study is completed with respect to all these Engineering studies that might go on to help promote a rail system So just to clarify the majority is going towards Structure inspection and regardless of what the use of the structures are we still need to maintain those bridges and Make sure that they're structurally sound So that would so you'll study the structures you the the trestles do a And this is more or less a capitol a question, I guess and I'll leave it up to Commissioner Bert betron to ask it But they have a trestle that is in distress. Would that be the type of thing that this? Lists of engineers would study. Yes, so they'll be inspecting every bridge within the rail right of way And there's 32 of them and they'll also be doing load rating analysis For that as well for each bridge. All right. Thank you Sure other questions mr. Bertron Okay, so a commissioner and Johnson, thank you for bringing up capitals concerns So kept toes had several meetings with your staff on this issue George and Louise and We're very concerned about the fact that the capital structure goes over an area where people live It was also noted in some of those meetings that the inspection was actually in arrears It should have been done last year a fall time frame was suggested, but wasn't actually defined so this inspection has Been waiting So my concern is of the people chosen as experts It was mentioned in one of our meetings that The RTC would like to keep the same inspectors because they have a record with this particular facility In probably all the other trestles in the world corridor. So was that? inspector facility or company chosen So big scar Dosa was one of the structural Engineering consultants that was selected and they've a lot of familiarity with our line because they did inspections in the past So yes, did they do the one in capital? Give me go ahead I get after that commission Bertrand Indeed yes in 2005 Big scar Rosa did do inspections of all the bridges on the Sanctuary Sprint rallying between the capital of the bridge Now I think in means that we had we did express that there are some Positive aspects of hiring an engineer or an engineering firm that has done already some work on this line It has some familiarity with it as well. There might be some positive aspects to hiring a different one So, I mean in the end right now. We can't tell you which one will get hired so the next step in the process is that Your senior engineer has already You know requested Scopes and Budgets and Cost estimates and so on for the work that's going to be necessary and based on those that are submitted from the from the List of potential engineering firms and the engineering firm that will actually the work will be selected So at this point we don't know exactly which won't be selected. Okay, I appreciate that Yeah, because we brought up that issue We weren't certain that having someone who's been doing it all along is the best So I noted from earlier public comment letter to this commission Someone who was a structural engineer mentioned that the last study did not address The actual foundations in the creek and I read that study the last one and that's true It did not address that it just addressed the the structure itself. So Take consideration of that. I think that was a well-placed comment from the public. So I'd like to bring that up I don't know if that person's listening So my next comment or a question is what's the priority for the inspection and capitol for that trestle? the priority Yeah, because it's been a rears now since last year and there should be as George told us a certain time frame That you know according to a statute you have to keep Inspections on a certain time frame and the RGC has not kept that time frame So I want to know the priority for the trust on capitol So the inspections Are done annually? as a requirement of FRA and that's done by then the operator and We are doing this. I guess on as an extra level of Inspection for our own peace of mind to know if there's any work needed on our bridges and so I don't know if you want to add anything to that Louise. Yeah, I'd like to add to that So indeed the river administration does require regular inspections of the of the bridges and they're considered They're called 540 day inspections. So every 540 days inspect Full inspection the bridges are is required. So it's a little over a year about that and It is the operator. This is the one responsible to do some searches not the RTC Also, the FRA does not require inspectors and bridges that are not being used Railroad operations and as you know that the capitol bridge and number of bridges on the rail on have not been used for operations for over a year now So and that's primarily because of the storm damage that that has occurred. So That's so no, I recognize the line is inoperable But according to statute we do have that wiggle room. Is that what you're saying? it's the railroad operator according to statute that's required to do those inspections and From what we've been told by the FRA all the inspections that have been required of them have been done Like that when bridges are not being used For railroad operations the inspections are not required. Okay, so that's a wiggle room. Okay. Thank you very much Miss Kaufman Gomez This may be more of a financial Question if we're getting about one and a quarter million that's going from measure D That's going for the the rail corridor and this is half a million Where is a funding source for this otherwise? We're using half of it just for the maintenance purposes on this particular Contract, where are we getting the money on this? I'm trying to get up to speed I think somebody mentioned fire hose in terms of getting started here So it would help me know to understand better where the money is actually being coming from for the allocation here Yeah, the funding for the actual work being Proposed to you is is for measure D And you're right. There's more than 500,000. It's being raised per year for measure D for railroad Infrastructure type of work Some of that the commission has already approved to go towards the unified corridor study because it sits doing the study that was required in the measure D for the analysis of the real corridor and Got my head on me around all the other categories, but that's one of the more significant ones other than this And you had about half a million dollars also going towards the corridor study So there's nothing left after the end of the day when it comes to measure D on the the quarter For that first year, you're right pretty much all the funds already the Commission has already approved for different things. Yes, okay. Thank you Other question. Yeah, John In your response, I forgot I didn't get the answer to my question. When is the Inspection due for the capital Tressel? So as Louise mentioned I requested scope of work fee estimate and schedule from the three on-call engineers on the list and I'm supposed to receive their proposals tomorrow, so I'll have a better idea at the next meeting if you'd like an update but but schedule is definitely a Very important factor in the selection if if one firm is more available that's going to weigh heavily on On their selection because we want to you're right We are late on this and we want to get these going as soon as we possibly can Okay, no, I appreciate your awareness that you are late RTC is late and we do have the concern because people live below the Tressel and as a public comment pointed out There was not an inspection of the actual Foundation portions of the Tressel, which is pretty important Please communicate the schedule to our mayor in the city of capital when that is available and I'd like to be copied Sure, miss Johnson. Thank you very much Thank you very much The focus is structural inspection and load reading analysis so That's great. I appreciate your sense of urgency, but didn't the Didn't the potential rail operator progressive do inspections on all these and do engineering reports on our bridges Can you repeat that? I'm sorry Okay, I can respond to that if you'd like Sarah so indeed the one of the Proposers for rail service on the rail line progress of rail did hire an inspection firm to go out there and inspect The bridges along the rail line. I didn't expect the entire rail line that inspection is not as As comprehensive as what we are proposing to do now that was more just an observation You know going through out pretty quickly What the which can give the inspectors, you know a fairly a fairly good idea of the situation But to do the load ratings as Sarah mentioned you need a more detailed inspection of the structures and actually measuring individual components of a bridge and so on to make sure that you have all the information you need to do those load rating calculations And then in terms of the the foundation it's because it's come up a couple of times During the last inspections. I mean that was included Included also in the inspections and what the engineers say well We'll take a look at the at the foundation if we see any need to do a detailed analysis of the foundations We will do that, but they've basically said no need Based on their observations of doing any detailed analysis of the foundations of any of the structures because they did talk about the possibility of having to you know do some digging to be able to do that or Higher scuba divers to go in the water and do all of that and so on But they said you know based on what they saw that was not necessary for the foundations And just to add one more thing If the operator were to do inspections and they recommended repairs Before we want before we would invest funds into the repairs we want we would want to have our own inspection done just to confirm and Really get a handle on what the repairs needed are so So I just want to connect the dots here for myself and for members of the public and I just want to make sure I understand it correctly so in the past staff has informed this commission that It's our goal as a commission to get out the entire line up to at least a class one if we can a class two Rating so that if and when a rail operator is under contract this commission can hand over a Relatively clean slate so to speak to that operator and say would you please? Maintain the line on this level and hold them accountable Which I think is a terrific goal and that makes a lot of sense. So that's correct. Correct. That's your goal That's what you're thinking. Okay, great, so I'm just trying to connect the dots here And in order to know what kind of repairs are necessary You need to do those calculations. Do you not whether it's the RTC or a rail operator You need to know and have a more robust as you point out Report an engineering report to know what actually the design of any upgrades and repairs would be yeah, okay great So I just my last question is because of course the only part of the rail line right now That's usable is the three miles down in Watsonville and the rest of it Hasn't been usable for quite a while because these repairs are necessary in the storm damage So what is our time frame as a commission to get these repairs done to at least up to the class one level? What would you estimate? well That's a really question. Sorry. It really is It depends it really depends on what this initial effort Recommends so once we get engineers out there and we inspect the bridges and the walls and all the infrastructure out there We'll have a way better handle on what we have ahead of us But there's a lot of unknowns right now, so I don't want to give you a schedule and then Disappoint you later So I'll ask another question. So that's understood. You can't really understand what construction is going to take because you Don't even know what it is Sure, so for the design the calculate the inspections the design the calculations and the suggestions from the engineers Do you have a ideal goal as to when they would be done with that level of work? Yeah? Um, I would like to have it done by the end of the summer. It's a lot of work. It's 32 bridges. Yeah, September Yeah, okay, and then the process from that point forward would be to put it to ask the commission to go out to bid For the construction get those bids go under contract So maybe a few months a couple months two or three or whatever depending on rain and whatever, okay? And depending on what the improvements would be to okay, and then lastly, I just last question. Sorry. Thank you for your Patience How do these engineering reports that we anticipate will be done? How will they relate to what's required by the surface transportation board to actually use the line? You know that there's a requirement for a certain level of engineering report So that we can either ourselves or rail operator use the line So how would these reports relate to that requirement? This I think you mean the Federal Railroad Administration that's service. Okay, sorry Yeah, the service transportation board just governs, you know, who's who's the operator and so on it but the but the actual requirements for How operations should be done and what level things should be and so that's the Federal Railroad Administration and that that has those requirements and so Yeah, whatever ins inspections need to be done They need to meet the requirements of the Federal Administration. So that's that's and these would yeah, and these what that's one of our basic requirements for the for the Consultants are gonna be hired that they make sure they inspect them to meet Federal Railroad Administration requirements And just to be clear the prior engineering reports that came out from the progressive inspection did not meet those requirements What that I could not tell you I would expect that they would Because you all didn't see those right you haven't seen them. Yeah, the progressive rail just Said they did them.  That's the proposed operator Yeah, they did inspection to I think to get an idea of the condition of the line that they might be taken over Then they know they have to meet Federal Railroad Administration requirements I would imagine that was that was part of their analysis I would expect but you all didn't see but I have we have not seen those Okay, thanks a lot appreciate it Now I'll see if there's members of the public who would like to comment Gal Mcmilty Santa Cruz County Greenway. I am particularly troubled by Ms. Johnson's remarks that have a tone and an assumption that there will be rail on This corridor in as a citizen who's hoping for fairness in the unified corridor study I know I'm a very aware of the fact that the more time and energy and money that goes into repairing the rail Infrastructure the less likely we are to have a non rail option And as you know, we are studying more than one non rail option in the unified corridor study until the end of this year I would please ask that we Table those types of decisions until later In addition to that Santa Cruz County Greenway would like to formally ask that RRM Consulting be removed from this list of consultants and discontinued from further consideration by the RTC for Future projects due to their lack of thoroughness and the poor quality of work in the Monterey Bay sanctuary scenic trail plan the Significant inaccuracies and omissions in this plan although we understand it is a conceptual document are in many ways Responsible for the place. We've arrived in this conversation Examples the north coast part of the plan the trail they designed and proposed was not even in the right of way This is nothing to do with the item that's before no it is the RRM Consulting is one of the plant one of the people being three minutes I want to I want to respect that she gets and it is part of what we're discussing They are one of the firms being discussed Segment seven vastly underestimated the cost We know that phase two what we've turned into phase two had a major Retaining well project that was not included in the plan and Santa Cruz County Greenway and many other members of the public can tell you that That's gonna come up again and again and again their cost estimates are nowhere near accurate RRM ignores environmental damage that will come up. We understand there will be EIRs, but You know at what point are these studies valuable? We spend a lot of money on them We spend a lot of money and staff time and staff salaries on these studies and in some ways They just confuse the conversation more than helping, you know We need to be careful about these studies and I realize this at this level. They're only being asked as consultants We do not agree with the quality of their work Again looking into ownership easements properties problems that might come up This agency needs to be spending our money wisely. We need to be careful about who we hire We need to be careful about the quality of work if we've had Experiences with them in the past that have led to problems that we're facing right now Let's not work with them again. Let's just be careful about how we spend our money on any studies going forward. Thank you Thank you Is there anyone else? Briefly, I just want to say thank you for all the hard work you're doing. It's an active rail line It's got freight customers It's in two of the four that that will have passenger and or freight transit on this on this rail line is in two of the four Scenarios for the rail corridor and and it's your responsibility. I think you know that to take care of this asset. Good grief So thank you. All right seeing no one else. I'll bring it back to our commission for action I've moved the staff recommendation Motion by shifrin is seconded by rockin Mr. Johnson just so very quickly. I think in general I favor anything that in the words of mr. Scott Benefit this asset that we have but I just think it's premature right now until the unified corridor study is completed. We've kind of Place a lot of emphasis on that study And so when other things are brought forward of why we can't do this and why we can't do that It's always used as a default that we can't act until that study is completed And so five hundred thousand dollars going into something that I think is premature I like the intent but at the timing for me is just off. So I'll be be voting no commissioner shifrin Yes, I want to compliment compliment staff for the work on this issue and for moving forward I think a staff has mentioned the knowledge about the Status of the Facilities the infrastructure on the rail line is very important to know irrespective of what happens in the future It's also very important to know in order to remove to take care of storm damage the commission gets blasted for not moving forward on responding to maintenance and You know Pre-uration issues and now it's being criticized for moving forward on those issues I think staff has done a good job of Identifying consultants who will be able to work in the short term and in the long term to deal with the problems that we have now and Deal with the problems that we're probably going to have in the future based on the nature and its ability to Create those kinds of problems. So I again I compliment staff for the work that's been done on this on this issue And I'm glad it's before us Miss Kauffman Gomez and then mr. Rocket. Thank you My understanding here is it's the funds to be set aside in the event that the Items need to be addressed on the financial side of things and you don't know what you don't know And you need to be able to have access to the funds with this approval in the event that at least the Physical inspection needs to have action regardless of whatever the future of this line is going to be So we're only at this point with this particular vote is giving you the Availability of the use of the funds in the event some things occurred I know that we'll also be seeing some reports come back as a result of anything That's going to be done here before other further actions going to be taken is my understanding half a million dollars Isn't going to be enough for us to do any of the repairs but at least keeping the inspections going Is is practical for us to go ahead and approve for the funding on this The five hundred thousand dollars you're putting today is to actually use those funds for the inspections that are needed and other things Not not just set them aside for it right but in terms of repairs repairs. That's right. We won't based on that That'll come later I guess my fear is if we don't do these inspections and we come forward with Recommendations from the unified quarter study that tell us for example that one of the rail options is feasible I would expect to hear from the public that we don't know anything about that state of the rail line and the cost to fix it So if we don't do this study, how would we compare these things fairly or understand whether the recommendations implementable or not? So that's why I'm going to support the motion Mr. Bertrand back to Mr. Schiff just a side issue these trestles and Overcrossings are used in many ways right now So I'd kind of like to get an idea of their condition and as already pointed out. I'm sorry We'd like to know what it's going to be used for later Can we depend on a good structure right now if we're going to use it for later something else? Mr. Schiff friend. Yeah, I Hesitating a little bit, but I can't let the attack on RRM go forward without responding to it They have worked for the commission in preparing the plan the commission the overall Rail trail plan and the commission is ultimately responsible for it. We oversaw the work We provided the limited budget that made it necessary for it to be a more conceptual plan. I don't know Most of these sort of general plans that get done don't even have an economic component They just tell you what they think you should do and then you find out how much it's going to cost Afterwards and so at the level of generality that they were required to work the fact that there's inaccuracies in there in the projections in the plan is Not surprising they were coming up with ballpark estimates They didn't do detailed engineering studies that are now being done as those of us with who Work with public agencies all the time. No, it is not unusual for prices to go up sad but true going from a more general level about a general idea about a project and Coming down to actually what it's going to cost to do it when you get ready to carry it out so I mean my sense is they're a Responsible competent firm and I the commission has also not only hired them to do the The overall rail trail plan, but they are now the EIR consultants on the north coast the north coast rail trail component of that plan and I think it's important for the to be on the record that they are They are they have and they're continuing to do a very capable job as far as I'm concerned Okay, we'll seeing no more comments There was a motion by shifrin seconded by rockin all in favor signify by saying aye. Hi, and he opposed Mr. Johnson is registered as a no vote Next we'll move on to item number 22, which is the final draft 2040 Santa Cruz County regional transportation plan This die car. Good morning Good morning commissioners my item on the agenda today is to discuss the final draft 2040 Santa Cruz County regional transportation plan The RTC staff works very closely with the Association of Monterey Bay Area governments or ambac who was responsible for developing the metropolitan transportation plan sustainable community strategy for the three County region of Santa Cruz County Monterey and San Benito in order to do their work to finalize and our work to finalize the Santa Cruz County regional transportation plan and the Ambag region metropolitan transportation plan sustainable community strategy and the associated environmental impact report the final project list and financial Information is required by ambag to make the final run of the travel demand model and make the final revisions to these documents Staff recommendation today for you is to to provide input and provide the final draft 2040 and to approve the final draft 2040 Santa Cruz County regional transportation plan There has been input solicited from this commission the RTC committees partner agencies project sponsors and the public Has been solicited key milestones during the RTP development process This includes the policy element the financial element and the action element which defines the financially constrained project list the last round of outreach efforts began with the release of the draft 2040 regional transportation plan on December 8th it ended on February 5th, which was a 59-day comment period The staff sought input on the draft document from the RTC committees project sponsors partner agencies and resource agencies Stakeholders interested public and public interest groups were also notified a release of the draft plan and the public comment period via email Distributions and social media and the public was also notified of the draft plan and the public comment period Both online and in printed newspapers both in North and South County Input was also thought sought through from the public from the public hearing that was held in January 18th At the RTC meeting and that was advertised in newspapers Countywide as well The comments received represent a diverse mix of interests for transportation in our county as I'm sure you Are very aware of and the 2040 RTP does provide a balance of projects for the diversity of interest in Santa Cruz County The main areas that we revised from the draft to this final draft were Changes to the revenues that are based on the more recent Senate bill one revenue estimates Senate bill one estimates are currently estimated to provide approximately 24 and a half million Dollars per year to Santa Cruz County. This includes the shop funds that go directly to Caltrans, but they are for Santa Cruz County There were changes to the project list based on these revision based on revisions from project sponsors that included removing projects that have Already been completed updating costs and project descriptions to reflect more recent information The project costs and descriptions in the project list were also updated based on the projects that this commission recently proposed for funding from the California Transportation Commission and The third major revision was the definition of transportation disadvantaged communities was revised in order to incorporate the definition from assembly bill 1550 that defines low-income individuals a little differently from the ambag definition We've previously followed the ambag definition of transportation disadvantaged communities But wanted to also include this other definition from assembly bill 1550 the reason for this is when project sponsors in our community apply for grant funding for transportation projects Funding agencies may evaluate projects based on the ability to provide for transportation disadvantaged communities And so this will be helpful for project sponsors If this definition is specified in our regional transportation plan So once again ambag will be using the final draft constraint project list to develop the final environmental impact report and to run the The travel demand model on the final project list so your input today on any changes to the regional transportation plan will be incorporated into this work And just a little more detail on the environmental impact report ambag is the lead agency for the environmental impact report that serves the Metropolitan transportation plan sustainable community strategy as well as the regional transportation plans of Santa Cruz County Monterey and San Benito Ambag released this draft EIR on December 4th and received comments During the comma period that ended on February 5th. It was greater than a 60-day comma period Though a public hearing was held in Santa Cruz County on January 30th to receive comments on the draft environmental impact report and The final EIR will include responses to comments received ambag is scheduled to certify the environmental impact report on June 13th Once that occurs the RTC will consider adoption of the EIR findings in June 2018 along with adoption of this regional transportation plan With that no, I said recommendation is that the RTC provide input and approve the final drafts 2040 Santa Cruz County regional transportation plan. I'm happy to take any questions or comments. Thank you for the presentation Are there questions commissioner Schifrin? Are we really approving a plan here? I mean I Given that it has to go to ambag the EIR has to be certified and they are you know Then it's going to come back to us aren't we really just accepting it and making changes to it I'm a little concerned about the word approval because that implies a final action and this really as I understand what you're just saying This isn't really a final action. This is to say this is as far as we're concerned, but we'd like the plan to say But we're not going to be able to adopt it until the final EIR is out And it's that EIR has been reviewed and certified then the final adoption so it changes could be made based on what's in that Document is that not correct? That's correct. Thank you for pointing that out commissioner Schifrin And perhaps we need to change what the recommendation is to have an acceptance. This is for the final draft This is not the final the final will occur in June 2018. Thank you I'll be looking for the appropriate motion at the Time other questions that people have about this to miss die-car I just had one question. I I'm glad that we updated this we have the SB one numbers here It does get us closer to our our actual need You know what you estimate at seven billion dollars the 2040. This is about gets us halfway there the SB one is potentially threatened and How much will we lose if we If SB one were to go away I Cannot say I'm an expert on that Rachel Morricone is really the one that's been tracking that and she is not here today But I know that I I did add up the in our financial estimates for any SB one funds It's twenty four point five million to our county every year from those fundings 25 million dollars a year That's that's what they call real money So you did remember the numbers. That's who you're gonna share with her. You don't have to use your phone a friend Well, I just want I want to point that out that 25 million dollars will Be for great projects here. It supports not only our roadway our bicycle system and our bus system And people will have a chance to say whether they want to make those investments or not It's it's it's a wise use of gas tax revenues to to support our transportation infrastructure. So Thank you for the work on this report Let's see if there are members of the public who would like to provide testimony To us about the 2040 RTP regional transportation plan Morning. Good morning once again Just want to get through this really quickly a lot here It's quite apparent a lot of work went into this document Michael st. By the way And very well done by ginger and the staff really appreciate it I'd like to touch on just a few areas of the section one in the 2040 RTP Under congestion, which is page one dash six it states the region must find ways to operate and utilize existing highway and transit networks more efficiently and Sustainably over the long term. I looked up the division definition of efficiency It's achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense Efficiency to me under that definition would be to basically move more people and not single occupancy vehicles Number two under environmental and public health page one dash seven It states to help lower greenhouse gas emissions It lists improvements in vehicle technology Creating greater fuel efficiency Well, most of this these newer tax cars will be financially out of the reach of our most of our drivers in this county and other counties Also our amount of time we keep cars Has increased 40 percent since 2006 Cars on roads over 12 are basically over 12 years old continue to grow and as it's suggested that it will increase 15 percent by 2020 So instead of having more efficient vehicles, we're gonna have less efficient vehicles basic reason for this is the cost of technology and Not enough money to go out and buy a new car Number three under energy page 110. It stays major energy consuming nations Announced new measures for improving energy efficiencies in the automobile Including the fuel economy of the US Well, if anybody's been listening to the news That will suit soon change due to our EPA Scott Pruitt's announcement on April 2nd 2018 to roll back our miles per gallon goal set by the Obama administration Effective those will be effective in 2022 just about the same time will either be working on or starting to widen a freeway All efforts need to go to focus on congestion relief and lowering greenhouse gas emissions Now made more difficult by the Trump administration and more older cars on the highways I say we focus on mass transit. Thank you. Thank you Good morning. Good morning. Gail McNulty and Greenway and I would like to echo mr. Sain's Commendations of step further work on this plan. It is it's an important plan, you know We really do need to give our community empower our community to act locally and if mr Nelson we're here. He would remind us how important our transportation picture is in terms of the climate I would like to read a quote from appendix F of the plan Unfortunately, even with this recent infusion of funding, there are considerable challenges associated with operating maintaining and investing in the future transportation system Projected revenues still only generate about half of what would be needed to fund all of the projects that have been identified Through 2040 so just a reminder. It's super important to be thinking about this and to be looking at this another level of this Conversation is focusing in on what we can actually do. We need to think about the money We have I know all of you in the county and in your various municipalities are facing budget shortfalls We know this we know that we have a lot of things that we need to fund that we don't know how we're going to do it And as we think about transportation We need to remember the people that are stuck in gridlock on the highway every day And we need to be thinking about realistic things. They may be small think minimal Think what we can actually achieve with the money we expect to have in hand and let's focus on achievable solutions Thank you. Thank you Is there anyone else? Good morning Barry Scott apt us just just a couple of things the I want to remind the commission and any listening that the Capitola crossing it in March 15th at the TPW meeting Potential for rebuilding or or modifying that bridge using Measured funds to leverage other funds was described a way to keep that trestle or replace that trestle but integrate The the bike and pedestrian path and that we find that an amazing Opportunity and the other thing I want to want to want to point out because Opponents to rail transit often talk about the high cost and we can't afford it and so forth and and again There's a hundred thirty six point eight billion Described by truck Caltrans over the next twenty two years in the state rail plan and if that's not defeated That's a huge amount of money. We did the math the population weighted Proportion of that is some seven hundred and forty eight million dollars over twenty two years and and while Funds aren't dispersed based on population That is the chunk of change in a dedicated rail pot of money that we'll be putting into Now if we don't spend it guess what that money still goes in there from our pockets And it gets spent by those counties that do apply for it So it comes up often is there money for a train and and I always point to the Caltrans Caltrans State rail fund our population weighted share and the fact that if we don't spend it someone else will Thanks. Thank you Seeing no one else I'll bring it back to our Commission for Action Commissioner Schifrin I've moved the staff recommendation with the change in the word approved to accept and so that the Commission Recommend would review and and accept the final draft 2040 Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Plan Motion by Schifrin checking it seconded by Rockin and I just want to make sure that it's clear what the motion is Commissioner Rockin I Want to commend staff on this piece of work. I spent three hours reading this lesson. I'm a speed reader I read stuff really quickly three hours to take that you can't speed through some of it You have to look at the numbers and take time to think about what they imply and what's going on The fact that we have an idea of where half of our money would come from an idea It's not you maybe may not work out, but that it's not just a guess or a wild Notion is amazing I mean when the city of Santa Cruz looks at our wish list of things that we need to have we need to have done that Desperately causing us problems. We have about 10% of our wish list funded This is 50% potentially neither, you know reasonable Estimate of where the funding could come from. I think that's actually quite impressive And there's no way to know what in the next you know between now in 2040 what additional sources of funding will happen? God We I'll speak for myself. I hope we have a different Federal administration that actually cares about public transit that can make a big difference. I would think Instead of cutting the funding they actually might increase it. We start to think about people waking up and thinking about rational Ideas about what's important to us and how important transportation is I would assume that the Climate change issue will become more and more real to more and more people who will start to think we ought to actually spend money to do something about it rather than just Ignore it or feel bad about it or something So I think this is a very optimistic plan actually and I was quite impressed with the work that went into it and Again, it's very difficult to project what you're going to do it between now and 2040 but I think the plan does a really good job and I thought it was incredibly educational to me And I'm well well educated about this issue in the county had been I was in public office for 26 years I have a you know been involved longer than that So I really want to thank our staff for this work and the people that anybody that put work into it It's quite an impressive plan and I've read many plans before that sort of just vaguely look all right and stuff And you read through them and you kind of go well, but what does it really say? Does it give us any direction? This thing gives a lot of very clear direction about where we need to be moving and what? What kinds of things need to change and so forth? So I just found it very practical very useful and For me educational, but I think it's a really good as good as you can do as far as getting towards what you're going to do You know again between now and 2040 you you can't get more concrete than this and not expect to be off wildly or something So I thought it was an excellent job and I want to commend staff for it Just want to acknowledge Rachel or a Coney of our staff. She's not here today, but she is the Brainpower behind the financial information and she worked very closely with Ambag Ambag was also very much involved with the financial estimate information well this commission made some big changes back in 2014 as to how we look at our regional transportation plan and so these kind of updates actually help sharpen that work, which is was the first time looking at sustainability which was Trying to figure out ways that we can measure our success That that through that work it laid the groundwork for a successful Sales tax campaign which will provides According to this document about 20 million dollars a year We were able to we'll be able to leverage that with the 25 million dollars a year that we're getting from the state to really make a difference in the transportation infrastructure in our county and Plans that we have for how to move people around. So I Want to offer also my appreciation To the work of the staff now the staff in the past and the Commission who saw the vision in trying to create a document that was actually a Lot more significant than than our past regional transportation plans Is Kauffman Gomez? Yes, I'm probably coming from way over on the other end when it comes to taking a look at this Right out the shoot for my first meeting here I think it's quite an intense project for me to try and grasp as much of this information as possible However, just as we are with our households. There's a wish list. There's a bucket list There's always things that are endlessly that need to have done this provides a nice layout of and what we anticipate that this county needs in the different modalities of transportation and It takes a lot of forethought on that a lot of the different agencies a lot of experiences to come together Formulate this and put it in something that hopefully does not sit on a shelf in dust I think that that's what's really significant about this is we need to keep this as a refresher on On top of our desks to go back and look at this and see how we're achieving some of these goals And I and I do feel that the whole When it comes to the The water issues that we're going to be having in the future I know that that will be maybe another layer that comes into here in terms of a chapter of What what's going on here with our shorelines and things like that that will affect our transportation modes So it's a very good document to have I can't say that I'm fluent completely with us It'll still take me some more time to digest through this material, but it's a very good piece of work that I will be Continuing to to go back and relay on. Thank you Okay, so there's a motion by shifrin seconded by rockin All in favor signify by saying aye. All right any opposed motion carries unanimously. Thank you Thank you for your work Next we'll move on to item number 23, which is fiscal year 2018 19 proposed budget Mr. Mendez. Yes. Good morning commissioners Yes, you know at the beginning of each calendar your staff does prepare a budget For the upcoming fiscal year of this agency and we work with the budget administration personnel committee on them presented to them the budget administration Personnel committee did take a look at the proposed fiscal year 1819 Budget at their March 9th meeting and does recommend your approval the committee also expressed some concerns with the RTC reserves and Also the fact that we don't have complete congestion Data for highway 17 made some recommendations regarding that as you know one of the main sources of Revenue for transport transportation in Sankrish County is TDA that's been the case from for many years Fortunately now we also have measure D Which helps helps a lot the overall picture of a transportation in the county and SB1 which was passed by the state? Unfortunately, the federal government has not Resolved the issues with the insolvency of the highway trust fund and they don't seem to really Be able to do anything with regards to improving transportation Funding furthermore. There are efforts to try to repeal the SB1 Through a statewide proposition in November 2018, which you know could change things drastically, but the fact that you know measure D is in place and the SB1 Got approved definitely allows This agency to help the county more fully meet the transportation needs of this community in this budget Does reflect that And for the transportation development act portion every year This staff does get estimates from the Arctic control the county every controller in terms of what's going to be Available for the following fiscal year And their estimate for fiscal year 1819 is about four four point six percent above what their estimate was fiscal year 1718 and as a result all the distributions to all the recipients of those revenues I go up by about four and a half percent after taking into account the need to put some money into the TDA reserve to meet the RTC established goal of eight percent for those TDA reserves now the Amounts and increases for the cities in the county are not quite exactly the same as everyone else because we also do update the Population figures that the distribution is based on so those those will vary slightly Now I will not go through everything in the budget But I will just highlight a couple of things one of those is the free service patrol program We are very very lucky that SB1 also included free service patrol and pretty much double the amount of state funds for the free service patrol program So the RTC will be getting more more funding for that It won't all be distributed according to the established statewide formula for for FSP So the new funds 50 about 50% of that will be using that formula Some of it will go to the CHP for their support of FSP services and then some of it will be distributed by competition so the RTC will also Work with CalTrans to see what sort of you know additional FSP service we can implement that will compete well for some of those competition Funds as I mentioned earlier the budget information personnel committee did Express some concern over the fact that we don't have complete Congestion information of highway 17, which is one of the variables that impacts the amount of money the RTC gets for the free service patrol program We haven't worked with CalTrans in the past and the committee did recommend that the RTC direct staff to Communicate with CalTrans and get information on how that we can improve that situation to have better congestion data for highway 17, so we've already communicated With CalTrans regarding that As you know the Highway 1 Court improvement project continues at this environmental document and the plan is to complete that to your environmental document by the end of this calendar year At that time that we will be able to move into the design phase of the next Agility Lanes project We're the which are the Agility Lanes from 41st Avenue to Soquel Drive with the bicycle pressure overcrossing at shanty clear So those funds that the RTC program in the past for that design work now are Incorporated into this budget And then of course we have the measure D funds incorporated into the budget We did update the Some of the numbers for the 30-year projections for measure D. The underlying Rational assumptions are still the same But what we did is included the actual revenues that were received by the Regional Transportation Commission in 2016 17 Which was actually in one month of payment, which we didn't know whether that would be the case or not But that happened so that we did include that and also Did update the underlying Information that determines the distribution to the cities and the county for the neighborhood portion of the funds as you know the measure D Formula includes three variables for that include population. They include lane miles of roadway and also site where Measure D tax is is generated And so that information was updated to what's the latest Information available for those for those variables and so that vary the distribution slide now That's significantly, but it you know and that's to be expected just as it happens with the TDA revenues when we update the population figures that Those distributions are very slightly, but not terribly significantly in terms of staff resources. There's no change no additional staffing is being proposed in this budget and Also for the RTC reserves as I Mentioned earlier. There was a there was a concern the budget administration personnel committee that perhaps the the 30% That the RTC Determined should be the RTC reserves 30% of the operating portion of the RTC should be what the reserve You know Would be for the for the RTC and then the RTC has been working to get to that goal. We haven't yet Got into that goal currently it's about 25.3% with this proposed budget, but the budget personnel committee did Recommend that the RTC direct staff Let there be a study of the RTC reserves done to see whether that's an adequate level of reserves for the RTC or not And so those those recommendations are here for your considerations We do recommend and the budget personnel committee does recommend that you approve this budget is presented to you here and also direct staff to work with Caltrans on the congestion information 5-17 and Also do a study of the RTC reserve target to make sure that's adequate for the RTC needs Okay, thank you for the report. Are there questions? Ms. Kaufman Gomez sorry, thank you You have an increase of about 2.4 on the revenue projected over time But are you doing anything in terms of any economical trends that may occur in terms of our economy itself? I mean, I don't think that our trajectory of all of our economy is going to be 2.4 from here on out Are you trying to do an overall blended average for that for what you're doing here? But you know, obviously we hopefully we don't have another oh eight happen But your budget is not looking like there's going to be any change except for just a slow steady growth I think you're referring probably to the a measure D 22.4 on that page 22.4, oh, that's actually part of the previous item, okay, that's the RTP. I think that's the I'm trying to get my numbers lined up here with the way the agenda is but It's That was one of the concerns or that I showed here on my notes And the other is 25% of what is that you've said 30% is what your goal is of the operating and you've got 25% this year allocating what is the total figure that we're looking at here that you're for your 30% operating reserves Yeah, it's it's what's the the operating portion of the RTC Which has to be a little over three million dollars or so is that I remember up top my head. So thank you Other questions Then I'll open up see if there's any comments from the public Good morning Again staff. Thank you for your work on this. We recognize that It's not an easy project balancing these numbers And I would just like to add one more echo of that the just reminder of the general climate and thank you To commissioner Gomez for pointing out that we don't know what our future economy will look like and also just in terms of a Lens when we look at any of these things just please think in terms of what we can accomplish in The short term for the people who are currently suffering. What changes can we make? Measure D. I'm glad that we finally have I'm glad that we have put into place the or we are working on forming and I'm at an oversight committee I Wish as a citizen that that committee would have some input on expenditures prior you want to stick the budget I will be done, but again just if we could look at everything in that lens What's realistic? What's doable? What's achievable? Thank you. Is there anyone else? I? Would say that a budget is a reflection of what you think is doable and achievable That's what we were actually put down this year is what we think we can do and what we have money for so That's what we're voting on for our proposed budget is what we think we can achieve with the money we have I'm going to move that we approve the recommendations from staff and Which includes? adopting the resolution that supports this budget directing staff to initiate a study of RTC reserves and Direct staff to request information from Caltrans on how to improve congestion data for highway 17 I'll wait for a second to make a comment. I'll second the motion So my comment is I look at these budgets of the RTC with a concern for years now Both when I've been on it and when not that the RTC is not basically Taking money from the bus system from transit and moving it into other projects Which might be exciting and you know small little projects little one here a little one there But that ultimately don't move as many people around as the bus system actually does and this budget doesn't do that this budget actually is if anything improves the situation of the transit district and its funding and and to the I'm particularly appreciative of the reserve policy that we have here I mean if SB 1 gets put taken back by the voters, which one hopes doesn't happen, but could happen You need reserves I mean otherwise you face an incident will fall off a cliff and a crash and stuff So the idea for our things that we operate as the RTC to have some backup So that we don't have to like we have a little time to figure out what can we do to fix it or recover it Or like side the hard decisions about what we're not gonna fund in future years. I think it's critical So I think I appreciate the reserve policy we have here and I think that it's a at this point the The idea of studying them a little further to be clear about how quickly we should move instantly to the amount Or whether what we have now is sufficient is worth doing But I think we're in the right ballpark here And a lot of times people are concerned that you're taking money You should be spending right now and putting it in reserves It I think you have to be physically responsible and I think the agency is doing that It's very briefly I just want to say that the budget was worked over by the budget and administration personnel committee and comes with their our full support recommendation Mr. Bertron As Rockin said with SB 1 that is a scary thing in terms of the reserves But also the scary thing is our winners on the last one was horrible Who knows how much more we're going to be able to sustain in this county seeing no one else I'll there was a motion by Rockin seconded by Kaufman Gomez all in favor signify by saying aye. All right Any opposed motion carries unanimously and so now we move to review of items to be discussed in closed session Do you want to say something? Yes? Commissioners there are two items for you to consider during during closed session this morning one is regarding labor negotiations with your bargaining unions that represent your all the employees of the RTC and also An item for a conference of real proper negotiators regarding the Sacher's branch rail line Do we expect any reports out from this closed session? I'd expect that okay So this will be a time if you've been waiting to talk about something that is on our closed session agenda to come Share it with us Hello again, Gail McNulty. I would just like to I did get this letter to everybody But I'm afraid it didn't get to you until two o'clock yesterday So in case anyone missed it I would like to take an opportunity To read a letter that I sent to the commissioners to the Watsonville City Council into some of our members of the local press yesterday With just a new development on what community members are learning about progressive rail The evidence that progressive rail is a profiteering company that puts their business interests above the well-being of the communities in which they operate Continues to mount please protect our county and bring an end to negotiations with this company Tomorrow or actually today in Wisconsin the Office of Railroad Commissioner will take public comment on progressive rails petition To advance their interest by closing 95th Avenue in the town of Eagle Point, Wisconsin The community is concerned that the closing of this avenue will increase local traffic and take away a needed emergency route Progressive rail plans to assemble a 140 you 140 car unit trains of silica sand for distribution to the hydraulic hydraulic fracturing companies the unit train is a type of commodity Which increases? It maximizes profits for the company However, they require extra-long lines of track that railroads often use preemption and eminent domain to build in 2015 progressive rail attempted to solve this Unicar plan by taking agricultural land and transforming it rezoning it into heavy industrial they caught They caught some flux from the farmers and that plan has been put on hold. This is in attempt to do something different In contrary to Craig Mackenzie's statements in the letter that he wrote in January to the Watsonville City Council Greenway's concern is not with the proposed or not only much larger than the proposed propane distribution terminal in Watsonville We're concerned about progressive rails track record in other communities and the motives that they have for Establishing railroad operations in Santa Cruz County. Those of you that visited the communities where they do business Sure, you spoke to economic development folks and absolutely progressive rail does know how to make money They we can basically divide our short lane rail operators into two categories right now Those like Iowa Pacific who are failing and those who have figured out a way to latch on to the oil and gas industry Progressive rail fits in the ladder. Is that something we want for our county where we've worked so hard to? Combat Oshar drilling where we've worked so hard on clean energy where we've done many other things too that are in line with our community values I don't think so and many other people in this community don't think so either This is a growing conversation and I will let you know that any choices you made will be weighed in the aftermath and This is this is not a company that is in line with our community and more and more people are realizing this The conversation is growing not listening. Thank you Thank you Is there anyone else you'd like to comment on the closed session items? Please come forward now. It's your chance Good afternoon. My name is Mark Lee. I'm from District 5 North County. I just want to Quickly support the comments of the last speaker. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate your brevity I'll try to match that I Trust the the your staff who are professionals in this matter and I hope that you won't Won't be afraid of the rail line and understand There's the crew's not being shipped anywhere around here and it the crew's not, you know You need a refiner to be somewhere nearby. It's just a scare tactic and I'm I'm just so sad to see The sorry the fear mongering that's used by the groups that would that would have a say no to the potential for Modern clean good grief electric transit. So Take what you hear with a grain of salt and I know you'll make the right decision with the Rail carrier. It's a temporary rail carrier to keep us in compliance and to serve our freight passenger Freight testers. It's not the big deal that it's made out to be. Thank you. Thank you Please come forward Okay, I'll be breached to thanks again for doing your due diligence and personally going and visiting States and communities that progressive rail serves. Thank you for looking at actual facts and not just rhetoric And Barry's point that it's a temporary rail operator Would make it really not worth progressives money to Come in and try to do all this stuff because they're gonna be gone eventually anyway. So thank you. Thank you Good morning Michael K and I just wanted to state my opposition to progressive My opposition is actually to rail in general and even the notion that if we have enough money I mean, it's all about if there's money we should grab on to it and build a railroad I think that the trail itself could be much better served by Active transportation. I go down to Monterey all the time to ride on that trail I was down there this weekend. There were thousands of happy people biking up and down the trail and I think that having a railroad alongside this such a narrow space Really makes it railroad or trail. I don't see the two of them coexisting Together and I also wanted to say that I think progressive feels very much like a Trojan horse in terms of operating a tourist train which has proven to be unsuccessful in the past and the the The preemptive right that that they bring with them really scares the hell out of me. So That's it. Thank you Is there anyone else who'd like to address us? Seeing none. We will adjourn to closed session We may be having a TPW we definitely will be having a TPW meeting. Yes on April 19th. Yes, so please keep it on your calendar In Scotts Valley, no less Scotts Valley. All right. See you all then