I'm going to go ahead and call to order the regional transportation commission meeting for Thursday, October 1st, and we'll begin with a roll call. I'm sorry, I just need to make an announcement. Oh, go ahead. Our Junior Police Academy is happening this week, and in about five minutes they're going to let off a flash bang, which is a very loud explosion. We just wanted to let everyone know that everything is fine and they're doing it as an example for the kids. We really appreciate that warning. I'm just going to now we can do a roll call. Commissioner Rodgen, Commissioner Gomez-Alles, Commissioner Bautorth, Commissioner Alternate Johnson, Commissioner Leopold, Commissioner Alternate Moerheirn, Commissioner Alternate Schiffrin, Commissioner Caput, Commissioner Kaufman-Gomez, Commissioner Randy Johnson, Commissioner Brown, Commissioner Bertrand, and Commissioner Lowell. This is time for oral communications. This is people when the public can come up for three minutes and talk on any item that is related to transportation as not on the agenda. Transportation. In the last few days, I've been reading the considerable amount of the history of this highway widening stuff that's been talked about. And it basically came to a couple of conclusions on that, which we've probably already had these conclusions, but it seems to be a battle between those who want to keep Santa Cruz a serene, beautiful, coastal town versus those that want growth in the financial benefits that come from that. Primarily, I came up with the second thing, and I noticed that also CalTrans never lets projects die. They just have failed twice, and they just continue to plan and plan and plan. I just want people to realize that these highway widening projects become a reality. In this county, you can't go back to the past as well as see what the present is today. In the future, when these widening projects fail, to provide congestion relief is what you promise. Our options get limited, but what will happen in the future when these things aren't working, maybe 10, 15 years down the road, you're going to have to once again try to widen and build out of the congestion problem. I'll end up right there. Basically, I do see that these books are being handed out to the commissioners. I brought those today, so instead of beating a dead horse with jeep, bring us gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled, whether it's about to give you these books. Basically, this was done in a presentation, and what it does actually is a favor to you because it'll save you all from me coming up here as often and discussing greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled. If you have questions, this book answers the 50 misconceptions about climate change and what people ask, and it answers a really layman's terms. It's easy reading, and it's an excellent book. I hope you'll read it with an open mind and an open heart. Use it as a guide to help you make more important decisions about projects that actually mitigate climate change and not enhance its detrimental effects on our planet. I want to thank you for giving me this time today, and also I'd recommend once you do read it, pass it along to others. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good morning, Sally Arnold, representing Friends of the Rail and Trail, and we just wanted to thank the commission of RTC for submitting a letter in support of State of the Seventy-Face II of the Rail and Trail that's going to the Coastal Commission this week. We appreciate the support for the project. We're talking about being in climate emissions. It's going to provide climate-free greenhouse gas emissions through the way for people to get to a beach area, and it's a really important project, so we just thank you very much for your support. Thank you. Good morning, commissioners. Rebecca Downing from the Sequel of Improvement Association. Here to remind you of our invitation to stroll to the Atlas Village Green with us on Saturday morning, August 3rd. Some of you have RSVP, and we are looking forward to seeing you there. Our goal this weekend is to raise pedestrian awareness and support Atlas Village merchants, including those who donated some very generous prizes for us to share with participants. We're also grateful to New Leaf Market, who donated 100 reusable shopping bags for attendees. As I mentioned at my initial invitation to you, the pedestrian roadside paths into and out of Atlas Village are not well marked, sometimes narrow or dangerous, and in some sections non-existent. Many residents have told us that they walk the railroad tracks to the village because it's the safest way for them to do so. Our focus on Saturday are the streets leading in and out of the village. We realize that transportation funding for pedestrian safety measures here are on the horizon, but in the meantime, we want drivers to respect those of us who choose to be one less car on the road. We're hoping for 100 people to walk or ride a bicycle on Saturday, freeing up the space of 100 cars, which is approximately the length of Atlas Village. At our welcome booth, we will be surveying participants about their pedestrian and cycling experience, which we will report to your commission and to the county department of Public Works. While this information is not being collected to address a particular project, such as the board or study or sustainable Santa Cruz, we hope that you will use it to make pedestrian funding decisions in the future. Thank you for your time. Good morning, commissioners. I'm Jennifer Lake from Ecology Action. I'm here. There it is. To you about the proposed RSTP funding, and Ecology Action is concerned that our organization and other community groups will be cut out of funding opportunities to meet the needs of the community, should the commission move ahead with the new proposed RSTP funding by formula for local jurisdictions only. We would request that the RTC consider another approach that includes community groups and other entities that rely on the funding source and delivery valuable projects to meet the needs of the local community. Thank you. Anyone else for all our communications? Seeing none, we'll close that. Is there any addition to your deletions to the agenda? Yes. Good morning, commissioners. We have replacement pages for items 9 and 19 and also a handout for item 17. And the legal closed session scheduled at the end of the meeting will not be necessary. It takes us to the consent agenda. These are items we can only deal with all in one vote. Is there any commissioners? I don't want to pull anything, but I did want to thank staff for relating to item number 7 for adding a letter having to do with support for segment 7 of the Grail Trail. I appreciate that that was done. And I also wanted to just emphasize how much additional letter D revenues the commission has received this in 2018-19 was 10% more than what was anticipated about $1.8 million, which will then be distributed by formula. I think that's going to be helpful to the various jurisdictions and various projects. Beyond that, I'd just like to look into the consent agenda. The motion and the second. Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak on any items on the consent agenda? Seeing none. Chair will make the motion and second. I move the motion. Schifrin and Bertrand with the second. Thank you. Okay, with that, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion carries unanimously. Okay, it takes us to our regular agenda. Any commissioners have anything to report on or they want to announce at this point? Thank you, Chair. Just on behalf of the citizens of Scotts Valley and also our city council, I want to welcome everybody to Scotts Valley. To the point that was just made on public hearing about ATCOS, I know that place pretty well having lived there and the constrictions of one lane or two lanes rather than four. And I'm happy to say that Scotts Valley Drive is one of those bull guards or drives that is very wide, very accommodating and we feel very fortunate of the health of the RTC many years ago to be able to build that drive and the health of the RTC is done with respect to ongoing benefits to Mount Hermann, Scotts Valley Drive and I think all in all the transportation projects in our city are slow. Has made most places but at the same time making headway. So again, just wanted to thank the RTC for that and also welcome both commissioners and the public to our city. Great. Thanks, those comments. Any other commissioners? Commissioner Caffer. I'll just mention that this weekend will be the Strawberry Festival in Watsonville and it's a great event. So anyway, I just want to get the information out if people want to go down to Watsonville for the Strawberry Festival. It'll be Saturday and Sunday. Hope to see you there. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay, we'll move on to the director's report. Good morning commissioners and unfortunately today you're going to be getting a deputy director's report. So, hi. And first I would like to inform you of something that I expect most of you already know. Your executive director not only talks the talk but he walks the walk and bikes the bike. And unfortunately this Sunday as a result of riding his bike home he was caused to have a serious fall on his bike. He suffered fractures to his left forearm requiring a surgery. His surgery went well and he's recovering. He is currently at home. Now he was discharged yesterday. He has been out this week mostly in the hospital. But even with his injuries your executive director continues to be engaged ensuring that the work of the RTC proceeds accordingly. And so we appreciate what he continues to do even while he is injured. Now the Longer Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail network as you are aware in the city of Santa Cruz has been moving forward on the implementation of segments of the trail in the city of Santa Cruz. Permits and approvals for phase two of segment seven were appealed to the Santa Cruz City Council. The appeals were denied by the city council at the June 11th meeting. As a result a lawsuit was filed against the city of Santa Cruz and the RTC has been named real party in interest. RTC staff will work with the legal council to ensure proper response from the RTC. In addition, as noted, and your consent agenda, there's a letter requesting that an appeal to the Coastal Commission not be granted. The Coastal Commission will be considering that appeal at their August 9th meeting in Eureka. And the letter that you just approved on the consent agenda will be sent to them right away so that they have that for their consideration. On the Highway 9 Southern Rental Valley Compete Streets Corridor Plan RTC staff met with Caltrans and Santa Cruz County Public Works in July to discuss implementation of the Highway 9 Compete Streets Corridor Plan. Since the last RTC meeting County Public Works has done some work that's very helpful. They've installed directional signage at the edge of the Highway 9 from right away, encouraging pedestrians to use alternate routes on Far Creek Road, Clearview Place and Cooper Street instead of walking on the shoulder of Highway 9 between schools and Rental Road. And then the crosswalk on Pelton Empire Road Connection, Connecting Gushy Street, and Cooper Street was also improved with strength and signage to increase the visibility of pedestrian using this alternate route. Now Caltrans is also drafted a cooperative agreement with the RTC to provide some measure of funding to Caltrans for development of a project initiation document to complete, to provide some of the upcoming potential improvements on Highway 9. And our Caltrans representative can say more about that during the Caltrans report. And I think some of you may know that Supervisor McPherson's office is also working with the School District RTC in the county to schedule a community meeting in late August around this project and the improvements that are needed. Now on community outreach and engagement that the RTC does, I think you all know that that continues to be a priority for the RTC. And one of the ways that your staff works to engage with the community is by attending community events to talk about RTC programs and projects and get valuable feedback from the community. By 18th, your staff had a table at the Watsonville Informational Fair hosted by Commissioner Aurelio Gonzalez as Council District 2 where RTC staff engage with community members about things like the Cruise 501 program, bicycle safety, and coastal rail fail. The RTC will also have a booth at the upcoming City of Santa Cruz Street Smart Family Bike Ride event on August 24th from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Tannery, along with the Bike Ride with Santa Cruz Mayor Martin Watkins, various agencies and community groups will have interactive booths to promote bicycle and pedestrian safety to kids and families. Now part of what RTC staff does at community engagement events is to inform committees, inform members of the community about participating with the RTC through membership in RTC committees. Currently, there are a number of vacancies in the already disabled transportation advisory committee, so staff is working to fill those vacancies and any suggestions or recommendations you may have would be useful. Last, I'd like to let you know something on the Federal Transportation Funding Re-authorization. The current Federal Transportation Funding Law is the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, or FAST Act. It was enacted in 2015 and is due to expire in September 2020. Now on Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works approved America's Transportation Infrastructure Act, a bill that would reauthorize Federal Transportation Policy and Funding once the FAST Act expires. RTC staff and the RTC's federal assistant capital edge are reviewing the bill and working with a statewide coalition to write input on the bill based on RTC's approved priorities. Any comments from the commissioner? Any other questions? I would like to out pass the commission to agree to send a get-well card to our executive director and wish him a very speedy recovery. I don't know if a motion would be in its own hands. If a motion and a second. Any other conversation on that? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Carries unanimously. We'll take care of that. Thank you. Any other comments? I just want to make a comment. I think this is a little follow-up on the center report but I think we all remember we had an emotional testimony at the last meeting with Highway 9 improvements and I think the fact that anything that's been done in such a quick way is appreciated by that community. With that, we have a public hearing at 9.30 but I think we have time to get in the CalChance report in as well so we're going to jump ahead to you. Sure. Thank you Mr. Chair. Good morning everyone. I would like to let you know that we have an interim director in Sacramento right now. Bob Franzoia has been a senior advisor at the California State Transportation Agency and he is now the interim director until a permanent director is named. This is of course the departure of Lori Garman, our most recent director. A following up on the Highway 9 activities, our engineering team and our interdisciplinary team rather is looking at all of the potential for improvements along the Highway 9 corridor. We look forward to getting the cooperative agreement together as your deputy director mentioned. The cooperative agreement is an arrangement between CalChance and the RTC for conducting work that will correspond to the limits of the complete streets corridor plan. We do have, CalChance has four projects now in the corridor where project initiation documents are getting underway. Two of them are safety projects and two of them are pavement preservation projects. So our hope is that in the evaluation of complete streets opportunities for the whole corridor we will do a couple of things. One is we will inform CalChance own shop projects, those four I just mentioned, to see what type of improvements will be incorporated to those projects. And then we will identify other projects that the RTC or the county may wish to proceed as separate standalone projects. Of course, the location around the high school is of particular interest and focus. The teams are working hard to identify both short term and long term solutions that can be implemented. Of course, we'll need to implement something as quickly as we can on one hand and then work toward a longer term solution that as you know, as you mentioned transition project state time so anything that would involve widening or say retaining walls and things like that that will take a little extra time. Meanwhile though, I think we're hopeful that we'll come up with good solutions together and otherwise I have the other information in the CalChance report is current for you. I know that we've our office heard from Supervisor Caput's office with a special interest in the ADA project on 152. That project is included in your report. In the back I believe it's project number 20 on your list. It says construct ADA pathway and that will be a bridge, a small pedestrian bridge that will parallel 152 in that location. That will reach construction in 2022. Any other questions? We'll start with Mr. Caput. I want to thank you and your staff for being very responsive and also giving information and everything. I'm just curious just a general view on the federal highway money that looks like it's going to be withheld from California and all the counties. Does that affect the CalChance quite a bit because it involves matching funds and trying to get projects with the federal money and then you have state money and of course county money. I'm afraid I'm not aware of the threat of withholding funds. The federal highway money we're talking about millions of dollars that normally go to all the states but I'm sorry to put you on the spot there. That's news to me. I'm sorry to say. That would be bad news. I think he's talking about the county of Santa Cruz is facing a $35 million threat. We've already lost $6 million because they're being rigid on the timelines. You're speaking of the emergency relief? Yes. Our director attended a meeting in Sacramento with the Division Administrator at FHWA back in May, I believe. May or June. They had a very productive conversation about the needs to provide for what could be extensions on certain projects that meet certain criteria. So there is a path. There is not a blanket withholding of money from the states but the federal emergency relief program has specific criteria to be met for timelines. I know that our district director was working hard to ensure that funding that could come to Santa Cruz would still come to Santa Cruz. I think the chairman of the Board of Supervisors is going to Washington DC. Yes, that's true. He's going to be meeting with a representative from Federal Highways to make the county's case. The irony of the denial seems to be that the county didn't meet the timelines mostly because of the late scores by Federal agencies. So he's hoping that by making that very clear it would be possible to get relief on campus. Thank you for that clarification. That was important. Mr. Johnson. Thank you Ms. Lowe and all your colleagues and the RTC staff for all the work you've done to come up with short, medium, long-term potential priorities for Highway 9. I know that Commissioner Person really appreciates it. We all appreciate it. It's so important that the public sees some tangible progress, but also be educated about what it takes to do projects. The signage has been really helpful just because it was tangible. It was helpful. Thank you for Capt. Cal Transfer allowing the county to install alternative route signs so we can direct the kids that go to that campus to pass other than Highway 9 to bike and walk. It's really helpful. Let's just hope we do it. We see the bad police resistance so it's still my goal on Highway 9. But all the progress you've made has been remarkable. I agree with the chair and I appreciate it. And I know that Mr. Richardson does as well. Thank you. Any other comments? I have a question on Project Number 11 on 18-3 which is the Highway 117-2 for M-Safety Improvements. It says construction time on the spring 2020. Is that when the project is going to be completed? What is that? That would be the construction season. That would be when construction was started. And will it be completed that season? I will have to look to see what the end date is. I don't know how many construction days would be in the contract. I'm not sure. So the construction is going to start on the spring? Because there seem to be some work going on now. Okay, well would you get that too last week? Yes, certainly. Any other questions from Ms. Will? Okay, thank you for that presentation. We'll move back to Item 17. This is our public hearing. This is a draft 2019 public participation plan. Good morning. Good morning commissioners, Shannon Mendes, communication specialist on your staff. So every four years a public participation plan is required to be updated and approved by Metropolitan Planning Organizations and Regional Transportation Planning agencies. With this in mind, a draft 2019 public participation plan was prepared by the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments in collaboration with the RTC, the Council of San Benito County Governments, and the Transportation Agency for Monterey County. The draft plan compiles with applicable federal and state legislation including the current Fixed in America's Surface Act, which was enacted in 2015. Additionally, under the California Transportation Commission 2017 Regional Transportation Plan Guidelines, a documented public involvement process should be prepared prior to each RTPA's development of its Regional Transportation Plan. So the purpose of this draft plan is to establish a process for the public to be able to participate in transportation planning, programming, and project implementation including the development of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Plan as well as the Metropolitan Transportation Plan Sustainable Community Stragony for the Ambay Region. The draft 2019 Public Participation Plan incorporates strategies to ensure that to the greatest extent possible interagency consultation and public participation are an integral part of the Regional Transportation Planning and decision making process. So once this plan is adopted by the RTC, it will meet all of the federal and state requirements and it will be the official public participation plan for this agency through 2023. We're currently in a required 45 day comment period to solicit input on the draft plan and are here today to receive input from you all and members of the public during today's schedule public hearing. So with that I'm happy to answer any questions you have on the plan or taking input. Any questions? Thank you Chair. I set you a list of stakeholders so I'll move on to that. They're just two areas in the actual plan one is a relatively minor change it's about the metro and the MAC committee that we have the riders it used to be appointed each board member appointed one to change that it was appointed by the board I'm pretty sure we made that change so that's just the way it was changed And that's in the metro section? That's in the metro section it can take exactly on page 21 about the advisory, transit citizen advisory agreement. The other question I had was about language assistance strategies and it has provided outreach material, larger funds for public outreach meetings Do we do that? To my knowledge we have not done that yet or since I've been here I can look into it for others to see if it's something we do if we get a request or if we can start doing that I'm not necessarily advocating because I'm saying it's in the plan and we're going to do that so that's a change in practice we have to prepare for that. Definitely. I'll look at that if I may add to that The idea is that we do have on the agendas for commission meetings and the meetings and so on that if anybody needs special or particular accommodations to participate in the meetings to let us know and we'll provide those so something like that if we don't provide it on a regular basis but if it's requested then we would Thank you Coming from Watsonville People in groups are really in emphasis because the workshops are not effective in terms of participation and I really want to make sure that we control and embed what we've got for our community to get that word out for Watsonville and making sure it's multilingual because we want to make sure that we're getting that voice heard and having six people show up or even more than that but most of them not even from our community what we need we really need to go past that so the emphasis probably will be more in the stakeholder groups where you can actually get a good segment of the population together to meet and then have presentations in those venues I think that would be more helpful than using the community room and not getting enough people there so I'm really hoping that we're getting more creative on that and I know there is somewhat of a barrier for Watsonville those that want to show up especially when they're dealing with traffic to get somewhere at 6 o'clock so I'm hoping that we're having some flexibility to make sure that those stakeholder groups are weighted heavier than a community room for at 6 o'clock at night yeah I agree in the Watsonville community we try to think of different ways because we know we can't always reach people with those meetings and they're not always effective and I would love to maybe reach out to the Watsonville commissioners and see if there are others that you think and maybe kind of brainstorm some better ways to get into that community because that is a real priority for us thank you so this is a plan we do every four years so obviously there was a prior plan how does this plan differentiate I have a couple of questions about it how does this plan differentiate from the prior plan and or are there any lessons we've learned from our public input around our outreach in the last few years that has approved the plan that's before us right now so we updated this plan based on we added new ways the ways we're engaging with the community is kind of always evolving we added a lot of different ways we're engaging with people I've only been here for a little over a year so I haven't been I wasn't involved in the last plan so I don't know all of the practices that have improved since then but we were continually looking at everything in different ways that we can engage with the community I believe Heather from INVAC is here and she may be able to add to that since INVAC is the lead agency on this plan and she's been involved the last time we had this time so she might be able to talk a little bit to that thank you Heather Adamson, money director INVAC yes so we do this every four years the last one was approved in 2015 and if you from an earlier comment the FAST Act was also approved in 2015 so this plan better incorporates the requirements of that we did beef up as Commissioner Leopold mentioned the seven guiding principles and we did a lot of work before we released the draft plan getting input from all the TAC members in all three counties your ITAC we went to the senior senior disabled advisory committee in all three counties and we did a lot of coordination ahead of time to make sure that we had updated stakeholders lists and looked at what other regions had done in the last four years I can to Commissioner Cochman-Goma's comment about the public workshops unfortunately that still is a requirement our federal and state requirement to hold those workshops but we are really trying to gear up how else we get the word out as our stakeholders at the technical level like ITAC but also to stakeholder groups and trying to get on their agendas and make presentations to get input regularly scheduled meetings in the community rather than just focusing on workshops because as we know we often don't get the wide spectrum of folks that we really want input to so those are some of the ways that we've tabled changes to this time of course we can always improve each of the three RTPAs of holding public hearings here today we'll be holding one at AMBAG in a couple weeks and then incorporating all the changes, additions and comments following that and then approval in I believe your approval in September or early October Thanks for the insight Kevin Commissioner Portran Heather, many good answers so I notice the plan is going to be on the AMBAG website what else is being planned to let the general public know about this particular way to participate We've sent out email blasts to our stakeholder list which if you've looked at one of the appendices which includes all the stakeholders we have emails for all the stakeholders so when the plan was released at our June meeting similar to your June meeting we sent out an email blast saying the plan is available take a look at it and then we'll be able to provide any comments or questions we've been going to committees as they come up over the next few months we expanded the public comment period from a minimum 45 days but we actually had closer to like a 90, 85 day comment period because it was over the summer so we wanted to make sure we were getting folks input and we've just been talking up as much as possible whenever we go and I think the two commissioners early comments really nailed it is to make sure that we have the best stakeholder list that we can that isn't just our regular folks that we've reached out to because that kind of tailors what we're going to do over the next three or four years as you develop your RTP we develop MTP SCS as well as other efforts and making sure we get all the parties involved so we're always continually expanding our stakeholder list and I think the stakeholder list is probably the most effective are the stakeholders responding in kind putting something on their website that indicates how they're going to be including participation and making that available to the public to their members that I'm not sure of I'd have to go back and follow up with some of them some of the key ones, a lot of them are very small stakeholder groups so they may not have a specific website related to their group so I'll go back and check and obviously we still have almost a month comments period closes at the end of August so if not I can encourage them to put it up on their website as well or at least links to RTCs or ANDAX website because it would increase the effectiveness of your work already yes and for the Santa Cruz County stakeholders that we've sent it to we have seen several events send it out through their newsletters their social media sites asking their members to comment and things like that so we have seen that happen for Santa Cruz specifically Any other questions? Mr. Ruckett We had an ad on the packet today when we'll see our former executive director who says she's not aware of the current practice so she's not complaining but she wants to make sure that the meeting packets as they appear online are fully accessible and allow them to correspond to each numbers and so forth so they can make appropriate comments and I don't know what to do here except to ask our staff on the dinosaur I can read myself in hard copy I don't know what's going on I don't know anything about it so basically I'd just like to refer this to our staff and make sure that we do that smaller than 12-point those kinds of things of course some charts have to be smaller than 12-point but the text a number of other points so I hope our staff will respond to our concerns and make sure that our panelists do go out of that way Yes, I did respond to her and Louisa and I spoke about it yesterday a lot of the things she asked are things that we could probably implement fairly easily and once we can't we'll look into ways but we are going to look into implementing some of the things that she brought up Thank you, that's it Any other questions? Okay, thank you for the presentation Maybe with that, we'll go ahead and open up excuse me, open the public hearing and have comments from the public if you'd like to give us on the participation plan Thank you I'm Sally Arnold, still with Friends of the Rail Trail so thanks for organizing this and of course we're going to be a whole new nation so we're interested I wanted to just carry on what Mr. Watkins was saying about when I was looking at the packet last night I was trying to see oh, a support on the public on the stakeholders list which I was pleased to see it was I had to hold my laptop like this and then try to figure out how to scroll like this so I could see it because it was anyway just that's an example of how it is difficult sometimes so yeah, I think those suggestions I saw in the letter were like, yeah, that would really help the and when I found Friends of the Rail on the takeover list and those that we were listed as a bicycle and pedestrian interest group since you are well aware that we are looking at a much broader view of transportation in the county than just bikes and peds, though we're all for that we'd like to be named as a transportation interest group if possible and it would be helpful I think to spell out our name as Friends of the Rail and Trail because unless you already know us that would not have any meaning to you if you were looking at that list and the last thing I would like to mention is I was recently appointed as an alternate the bicycle advisory committee which I'm really pleased with and joined and I was noticing how there are some people who are reporting hazards that there's a hotline or something to report hazards but it's not well known and that would be certainly a way to engage the public because the public is constantly like this sidewalk is making me trip or there's no way to get my bike over here though most of us are out in the community we notice those things all the time but we have no idea how to report that and apparently there's a way to report it but it's not well known and so that would be a way to increase engagement because everybody likes to complain and then once you have their email you can judge them so anyway thank you for working on this once again Michael St with CFST just some suggestions page 28 under involvement just briefly states that broad based involvement members of the community would be sought after also by reaching out to community groups to get a variety of perspectives to enhance the project a good way to do this is my opinion which I worked with for the last year and a half with the citizens advisory council at Monterey Bay Community Power I think the RTC should look into this it's made up of community groups and with a diversified group of citizens no elected officials or staff members not saying that that's a bad thing but it would work with them in conjunction and as an example here there are representatives sitting right here listening to this meeting and then they could go into their diversified groups and explain what went on and then many questions come up with that way it's been my experience attending these meetings that to interact with your peers my fellow citizens has a better way of getting more information out and you're not as much intimidated by the elected officials at these meetings page 34 number two community outreach events and strategies I would like to add electric vehicle shows to that we do that on a regular basis in all of the cities around the Santa Cruz area and presently on September 14th we want to get some exposure a large exposure from 12 to 5 we have the National Drive Electric Day on Cooper and Pacific we've been given another street for this we're also offering sponsorships and a booth or either tabling at that event and we'd also like to get an elected official to help kick that off on September 14th so that's something I think that ecology action might reach out to you see if we can get someone there for the public also page 36 which is marketing and visualization strategies I didn't see anything in academic it's a long stuff that we had to read last night I'm not sure if you have door to door soliciting on that and you know that goes back to the old school I have a little bit of my mic and my dinosaur also and that's pretty much how a lot of our advocacy stuff gets done and then also driving a county car to the up and down neighborhoods going door to door even if you had a car that said Santa Cruz Transportation Commission something to that effect neighbors would see that and talk to one another why was that car there and then you could go on and explain that they came to it so I think that would lend to a lot of good citizen output thank you for your time any other comments from public seeing none we'll go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back for any other comments by commissioners any other comments okay we're going to go ahead we'll approve that okay second we're just taking it but it doesn't need emotion this will come back in October for you so thank you for that presentation we're going to move on to item 19 this is the alternative analysis transit right away ginger morning commissioners ginger die car senior transportation planner on your staff my item today is to discuss the scope of work for the alternative analysis of high capacity public transit on the rail right away as a reminder the unified quarter of us is going to be as a reminder the unified quarter investment study was completed in January 2019 the outcome of the unified quarter study for the rail right away was to protect the rail right away for a high capacity public transit service next to a bicycle and pedestrian trail and continue to consider passenger rail service on the rail right away consistent with proposition 116 requirements also to work jointly with metro to develop a scope of work for additional analysis of high capacity public transit alternatives on the Santa Cruz branch rail line including their costs, operations and funding plans and a plan to protect metro's funding sources RTC staff has been working closely with metro staff to develop the scope of work for consultant services to perform the alternative analysis and develop a business plan for high capacity public transit on the rail right away the draft scope was brought to the RTC at the June 27 RTC meeting the motion was passed by this commission to revise the alternatives analysis scope of work to appropriate input received at the June 27 meeting including adding the requirement that the consultants utilize a triple bottom line sustainability framework in terms of equity environment and economy and developing the performance measures for this analysis the scope has been revised to include this triple bottom line sustainability as the framework for developing the performance measures the performance measures included in the scope were reorganized in terms of environment, economy and equity as can be seen on page 19-9 of the packet and I want to make sure it is clear that the final performance measures that will be evaluated in this study will be developed and brought back to the commission for approval as part of this project input on the performance measures will be saw from members of the public RTC advisory committees the RTC and Metro and input was also received at the June 27 meeting expressing concern on how input will be solicited for underrepresented communities there is a task for consultants to develop a public and stakeholder outreach plan for this project which includes direct solicitation to transportation disadvantaged communities and hard to reach groups the input from the Metro Board was also received on June 28 it was consistent with the input from the June 27 RTC meeting so the proposed timeline for the alternatives analysis is on August 5th that is Monday of next week to release the request for proposals for the alternatives analysis I have in the staff report September 2nd deadline to submit proposals but I was reminded that that is a holiday so that would be a move to September 3rd the deadline to submit proposals and October 3rd 2019 is the RTC meeting at this point we would come back and provide recommendation to the commission on a consultant contract and at that time the final scope of work that will be part of the contract will be provided to the commission for approval and we are also still striving to have the on January 2021 the alternatives analysis report finalized with that the RTC staff recommends that the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission review and provide input on the draft scope of work for the alternatives analysis as shown in attachment A to be released in the request for proposals for consultant services that would take questions and comments okay we need to review and provide input and questions thank you chair I want to thank the staff for taking a look at this including all the pieces in this RFP it was just in a letter what I thought was a good idea that when it comes to task 7.5 about the alternative analysis results the RTC and metro do a joint meeting probably better for staff but I think since there's so many members of the metro born here as well it would be great opportunity for the two organizations to work together and here and take that testimony that obviously isn't something that needs to be worked out for the RFP but I just want to share that in the hopes that we can plan that whenever the I don't know if I get what the timeline is that's somewhere down the road but it might be worthwhile to reach out to Metro now and try to see and find a date that works together to do that instead of doing two separate pieces thank you yes I wanted to also thank staff for responsiveness to the comments that were made in the previous meeting in terms of the changes to the RFP I want to make another suggestion following up on the last one from Commissioner Leopold my sense of the importance of this process in terms of the commission and the transit working together on this analysis and given its importance I think it would be worth considering and I'd like to propose that the commission set up a task force to work with the staff and the consultants throughout this process the task force being made up of members of the commission and members of the transit district there's a long standing there are long standing issues I think around the use of the RFP that have been problematic in my view between the commission and the transit at least at the staff level in terms of the use of that for I think the carrying out the alternatives analysis is an important step forward in terms of having the two agencies work together I think it would be worthwhile in terms of the outcome of the analysis to have rather than just a joint meeting which from my perspective is always hard to get things done at just a task force that could be put back to both bodies assuring that the process is moving forward smoothly and the operation between the various components is really working well so I would like to suggest that for the commission's consideration the commission agrees for the consideration by the transit district before I go to the question I think that's a great idea and I think because of the logistics that are happening right now as I'm chairing both those committees I think I'll take that under advisement and maybe we'll do what I suggest Clifford and Preston as we can create an ad how committed for both of those and at that point once we get that I will put it out that we're seeking members who would like to participate in those committees and I agree with your point that to get a small group of people possibly three from each and have that committee would save a lot of time and we could get some good direction so thank you for that comment Thank you very much I agree with different recommendations and your support and I totally would like to be part of that committee I'm sorry I missed the last meeting so on vacation with my daughter but I'm particularly encouraged by the fact that we're going to end up with a business plan to move forward and the idea that we'll have a performance based approach including the triple bottom line so basically we need to look at what's going to give us the benefit for the amount of money this community is going to pay to make sure that it comes about so having a performance based planning effort I'm totally for and the bottom line is is the committee going to benefit and are we going to be willing to pay for it Thank you Thanks Prusha Mohler Thank you It's $650,000 sufficient to complete this project That's what we have budgeted right now for the project I can tell you right now it will depend as you go through the process of preparing a consultant working through that there might be modifications to the scope that we'll bring to you for approval and we'll get cost estimates from the consultants based on the scope so we might get cost estimates that are higher than what we have budgeted so then we'll have to consider how to proceed with the work so at this point we don't know if that's exactly what it will cost Looking at the deliverables for the RFP there's a lot of work that's going to go into this and the actual work will be done over a series of holidays Is it a reasonable timeframe to expect this to be completed October to January based on your experience working with consultant groups do they have the necessary their engineering facets to this public policy analysis that they're going to have to do budgetary analysis that's going to have to happen I'm sure that the applicants will have the necessary resources available to them to complete the project but is this enough time for them to do this It's 21 I'm so sorry the year should be absolutely sufficient clarification is always good if I might add one a wrinkle to the deliverables under the under test 5 we were developing and evaluating the initial alternatives we have the consultant to list the specific sources of funding that they're looking at for each of the alternatives and the amount of funding that they're assuming will be allocated to that particular project because there are a lot of overlapping funding sources and obviously not all of the projects are going to qualify for all the funding sources so in UCI for example we got just a longer list of all the various funding programs that were looked at but they didn't identify which projects specifically they were going to or the amounts like show their work so their so task 4 is to assess funded funding through 2045 so they're going to be doing the work assessing all the funding sources I just want them to show the work this funding source is going to have this money allocated to this alternative yes we can do that awesome thank you it seems to me that there would be you might have overlapping sources that one pot of money might be able to fund a rail option or a bus option or something like that so you would be looking at a pot let's say cap and trade funds of a particular amount and it would be an estimate and then they can fall into two categories is what I'm saying yes yeah so I also want to thank the staff for coming back to us with this more fleshed out proposal related to the triple bottom line I think we got a lot of feedback from the community and hopefully this has addressed those concerns so in terms of task 2.4 I just wanted to highlight that because I think just following up on the conversation we have related to the public outreach plan item 17 the significance of stakeholder outreach is very clear I think the significance of trying to find non-traditional ways of ensuring public participation is very important so thank you to Commissioner Calvin Gomez for bringing that up to the last item it says here RTC and Metro Staff will develop a stakeholder list with assistance that includes the list which is great I'm just wondering if there's any way to clarify how members of the public and our members of the commission might make suggestions about who should ultimately be on that stakeholder list sounds like Commissioner Leibold's email directly to the staff it would be nice to be clear that we would like to have cast as fine as possible making those decisions maybe this is a point to remind the commission that this is just the scope of work to be released for the request for proposals obviously every step along the way in this project we're going to be coming back to the commission to seek input or approval on every single step so this public participation this public and stakeholder outreach plan will be brought to you for input approval whichever way you want the process to go that is the understanding for staff right now on the project team to come back to you on every step of the way to identify the details of what we're going to be working on in this study yes thank you and I appreciate that I'm just thinking in terms of ensuring that the consultants are kind of aware in terms of up front for them to indeed their proposals available but at the same time we can bring it up again absolutely well thank you I think it's important we have a broader presentation so thank you for those who have never tried it oh thank you so I thank you so um I am really supportive of the notion of having a task force I think that's a really good idea um and the first thing that popped into my mind was the suggestion from my friend is that it should be a brown act not an ad hoc but then as we're discussing this we're discussing the task 2.4 and the need and you said ginger that every single step of this process you're becoming back to this commission for input and so forth I'm not sure that you need to make the ad hoc or the task force um a brown act committee as long as there is there's a lot of nuts and bolts interfacing with the consultant and with staff that need to happen and the sausage making of all that the ad hoc committee as long as every step comes back to the commission for input so I'm going to stick with I think it's a great idea and it should be ad hoc and both metro and this commission should be represented on it um but I do want to say that one of the um the the biggest pieces of input that I have witnessed over the years is people feeling or community groups feeling like they haven't had enough time to review what are really complex um lists of criteria for example or to your point every step of this process will come back here and to Metro to say here's where we're at and here's what we've been working on and so forth um as much time as possible to publish um um measurement performance measures for example would be the perfect example so that members of the community who are interested in having input they can have they can digest it they can discuss it with their groups they can come back to the commission and the Metro Board their thoughts um I know that the minimum requirement is 72 hours for the Brown Act but often these things require more time so I would just encourage as much time as possible that's feasible for that kind of very important threshold framing performance measures um be given extra time thank you for that I'm going to go ahead and clarify Mr. Schiff I'm assuming that you were intending for an ad hoc to me just consistently thank you I'm glad to clarify that I think the ad hoc allows that committee to work more efficiently and not have the restrictions and everything will be presented back to this body at those times so I'm glad to clarify that thank you for that Mr. Chairman you just took a lot of words out of my mouth but that's fine um I think the commission here is very thankful to staff preparing this and you know you've put a real undergrounding principle here that we need to reach out to the public and provide ways for them to participate and I appreciate that and the other aspect that I appreciate is repeated updates to the commission here so that we are kept abreast of the process so that as things unfold we could more readily participate and direct things as we see fit so thank you very much to staff I appreciate it thank you thank you there's a couple comments one is can you talk a little bit more about the business plan and the components that you're looking to get from the consultant on that sure that came about as part of the proposition 116 funds that allowed us to purchase the rail line the California Transportation Commission has been interested in RTC developing a business plan for how we utilize the rail line away so obviously if we go rail or if we go bus rapid transit or some other high capacity public transit option will be a business plan in order to actually think about the steps that would be taken from the funding sources that would allow to move forward with transit on the rail line away thank you and I did have comment to ask that we look at the 7.4 workshop and the 8.2 to see if we can pull those in Watsonville if possible when it's time for those to be presented those are some recommendations that my staff have asked me to really so to have 7.4 to make sure that there's a workshop in Watsonville is what you're correct thank you if possible most definitely was planned to always include Watsonville in any of the workshops that we would be thank you for that any other comments? I just want to emphasize the importance of this business plan we're going to be spending millions of dollars hundreds of millions of dollars before we finish this process and actually have something operating that we're going to almost certainly come out and tell us we've got big visions but this can't work for this reason or that reason they might still disagree with the business plan I think it's not a good one but to have an actual plan of how this thing is going to actually financially operate and work it's kind of a critical thing we're going to go out there and suggest we spend hundreds of millions of dollars on public funding over a long period of time for the company that we're putting out for the consultants to tell us how they're going to construct that business plan and what kind of information we'll have from it because again, it needs to be concrete enough so that people, again, even if they disagree with it that you see there is a plan and this is how we think this is going to actually function so that's my comment thank you for the exclamation points can you share your report? I fully support the idea of doing meetings in Watsonville and I especially appreciate the suggestion from the city staff I would also ask the city to play a role in helping us get people to come to the meeting because in our last item we talked about how it was difficult to get people to Watsonville meetings so if we could get help from the city that might be we might have greater success thank you for your comments okay, Ginger thanks for that presentation I'll open up to the public right now and everybody from the public would like to comment on this item I know it's a little distinct CFST I wasn't going to comment on this but I wanted to make sure that I agree with Commissioner Brown on casting a wider net for the ad hoc committee may result submissions prior to you doing these presentations from the public and I don't need to rub people the wrong way here but I hope it doesn't turn into a result like the unified investment study where you had a lot of public input which was very appreciative in my opinion following the unified border study the most popular scenario there was B which was primarily mass transit less greenhouse gas emissions that was vehicle miles traveled and once that got back to staff it turned into a terrible scenario it went into cars once again and actually dropped some of the bus issues so I hope we're not just starting that all over again and I think by casting a wider net and having more public input and maybe even having some citizens participate with the experience maybe a transportation on that committee would be a very good idea thank you Hi it's Natalie Arnold friends of the rail and trail I just want to thank the staff and staff for going back and doing the extra work to really improve this alternatives analysis by including the scope of work for the alternatives analysis I think that by including the triple bottom line and by really it's improved, it's much improved and the I think when you ask the right question just robust questions you're going to get more quality answers at the end and I feel like this scope of work needs to be used in the right direction to ask the right questions and I think we're looking forward to participating in the process as this goes forward so I know it was a lot of extra work it was a little bit of delay but I think it was worth it and thank you for doing that Thank you Any other comments? Okay I would like to listen to that presentation for my instruction and we look forward to the press for proposal I think we need to make a motion to approve the staff recommendation Second but I'd like to add a direction that the chair and the staff of the trains and fish and the commission and we do with the proposal to oversee the process Second What's the second? Any other comments? All in favor? Aye Opposed? That motion carries unanimously Thank you Okay it takes us to item 20 It's a cruise 511 program update Amy Orondo Come on up here Amy Orondo, transportation planner for the RTC staff We're here today to provide a program update for cruise 511 and share some information about the exciting new initiative we're launching to modernize and improve our TVN services The primary objective of our program is to help travelers use the existing transportation system to get to where they're going and where they want to go and to get there safely and efficiently use the same transportation We call cruise511.org as our centralized go-to place for TVN services and all of these services are offered primarily on my website and they include an interactive traffic map with real-time traffic conditions travel speeds and incidents that are on the highway lane closures, construction alerts as well as carpool and manageable matching park and ride rod information personalized trip planning tips for using transit as well as referral services for accessible travel and county Staff also participate in various community events throughout the year to promote cruise 511 and our services including at local festivals business fairs, wellness fairs environmental fairs and so forth We also work with employers and schools and other organizations to help them set up their workplace community programs In the last year we've had 1700 participants currently as active participants looking for carpool matching and in the last couple of years we've had those numbers decline in the last since 2019 we've only had 31 individuals sign up for carpool matching so it shows an opportunity for us to re-gam those particular services and get people on board using new tools and that's one of the efforts we're working on just towards modernizing in particular carpool and gamble matching In addition the service that we use currently for ride matching is powered through the 511 program and they're graduating out that program and that database in search of new online tools and so we're also being forced to find our own solution for carpool and ride matching Staff have also been working with park and ride lap coordination and in the last year and a half or so we've had two park and ride laps that are permanently closed and that's taking away 65 parking spaces that are available for carpoolers and commuters to use Staff has spent a considerable amount of time in the last couple of months trying to identify alternative locations for existing vanpoolers that were impacted by the closure of the SoCal park and ride lot and they were able to come up with a temporary agreement with the capitol and mall to identify 20 spaces for existing vanpoolers As well we also expect another temporary park and ride lot closure coming up and sometime soon we don't know the exact details yet for the park and ride lot at Resurrection Church and if you can click on the next line I have on the map here you'll see where the red X's are, those are the lots that have been closed permanently and then the orange T is the temporary location for where we have the temporary lot that lot is available until the end of the summer and we're hoping that we can establish a permanent agreement with the property owner now The next item I want to talk about is cruise511.org so our website has experienced yearly year website traffic growth and it typically has about four times the annual traffic of the RTC website so we do get a lot of web traffic and the last year we've had 90,000 users who have come to our site for information they're coming to our site particularly during the afternoon and they're looking for information during the week there we've found that 85% of our traffic in our page views are specifically for traveler information so we know we're doing a great job at providing traveler information providing resources and tools that people are wanting and they're looking for this information at times that they want it which is when there's an incident on the highway when they're stuck in traffic when there's something happening that's impacting their travel and it gives them the opportunity to see what's happening in the world in real life conditions and it gives them the opportunity to make those smarter travel decisions so that they can alter their travel path their travel plans accordingly One of the other items we've found is that more than half of our users coming to cruise 5 are accessing the site on their mobile device that tells us a lot it tells us that that's where people are looking for their information that's where they're getting their information and that's where we should be providing that information so we're working with our website consultant to update our site to make continual improvements on the site as well as a mobile first design so that when people are coming for their phone they're getting the experience that they want getting the information that they need and then that will also allow us to work on efforts to get people once they use the travel information to then look at the other tools that we have the other tips and the other resources for different modes So with that being said I'll talk a little bit about how our website is growing traffic is growing, we have the tools we're improving the site and then the next direction we're going to update the TVN services to the next level to really modernize and include more technology and in January 2019 the commission received a presentation from previous cruise 5 and 1 staff about modernizing access to share mobility options and the commission approved a budget amendment to implement to your pilot agreement for a community or management online TVN tool and then during that time we issued a request for proposals and eventually we entered into an agreement with Ride Amigos to implement a community manager platform you can see on the map right here when we were looking through the proposals that we received for this online tool Ride Amigos is already being used throughout the central coast as well as in Northern California and that really creates an opportunity for us to integrate all of our ride sharing and getting people to get those matches whether they live in our county or outside of the county so long as they're traveling within our areas we can capture those commuters and start using these new tools go ahead and go next so one of the features that this tool does have is a unified trip planning tool so it has trip planning for carpools for existing manpools there is a ride matching within mid route so between your origin and your destination anyone who has a similar route within that particular trip can also potentially be paired for a carpool match so that you can create a carpool you can also do this for any major events that are happening in the county we can set them up and we can have those events set up so that when people are going they can also access tools for ride sharing to get to those particular events the other portion of the tool that's really exciting is the mode comparison for all travel so in the site in the tool the users will typically encounter you can go on to the next one please this is essentially a custom website that's win2cruise501.org and what users will do is simply enter in their home address their destination address and then you can you'll press let's go and then you'll be presented with various options click next please another strange example right here is you put in that information and then you can see right up front all of your different options so you can determine if your trip has any carpool matches you could then set up a carpool within the network and immediately connect with someone you can look at the various transit transit service that are happening at that particular time for your travel and you could look at the routes and then select the route that you want there's also walk options bike options and eventually we'll get those bike layers integrated that are based on the open map system so their user their user edit and then one of the the other features of this site is a it's an app, it's a mobile app and this is coming to the direction of where we know that our users are using a mobile app they're using their phone and they want to be able to use their phone for their tools and so what this app does it has predictive tracking which you can enable location services and their lot and then set up your your typical commute and then the application can generally make an assumption based on if you're traveling and then it can preload all of those trips into a custom trip plan or a trip love and then users can keep track of there's a scalable transportation mode that they can use so you go ahead and click the next slide so when users enter their trip information they enter their routes and they're constantly putting this information into the system us as administrators have the opportunity to really look at the impacts both for the individual users as well as for the system throughout and this is the information that I think is really helpful that will be of great use through the commission to try to identify what we're doing and how we're progressing we have the opportunity to look at alternative trips that have been logged using the system the alternative miles that have been traveled using sustainable modes versus driving alone as well as the amount of greenhouse gases that we would use in various modes and then for those travelers that are using the active transportation you also have how many calories that you burn or potential calories that you burn and how much money you save from driving along to using sustainable modes and go next and then one of the features that we really like is the modules that offer incentives offer rewards and offer challenges and this is what will allow users to enter their information but as well as to keep them coming back to keep them involved in the program to keep them excited about using the tools that we have available as well as to be able to have friendly competition both with their co-workers as well as other groups out in the county. In addition the online platform so I've mentioned there's quite a few tools that are in this platform and one of the other nice features about this is that it's available in Spanish using Google Translate Services so that you can write multiple languages with a high contrast view for users who are visually impaired so that they can still see all the information that's displayed on their site and then as well as the site is mobile responsive meaning that they can be viewed on a tablet, on a phone any size phone, any size monitor and everything is still going to be looking appropriate and the right size for users to view. Alright so while implementing this program we're starting it essentially as a public collaborative and a phased approach towards implementing this commit manager for the pilot program we're starting with our pre-launch in September and that really is just to get the bells and whistles fine tuned and to make sure that the groups that we're working with know how to use the system are familiar with the reporting tools can set up their challenges and so forth and then we'll move on to a soft launch in October and in October we'll then be working with our anchor groups that we've defined so Ecology Action the Student Santa Cruz and the University to get their employees on board enrolled in the program and start testing out the features. One of the critical elements of any successful rideshare and trip planning program is that you need a wide pool of potential users so that you can have the option to match those users and have options of matching and if a user is to come in early on and we find no matches they typically will fall off and they won't come back so it's one of our challenges and that's why we're going with this approach now to start off with some major employers who already have programs working that essentially is capturing the low hanging through and in between the soft launch and the full launch that we're doing in the spring of 2020 we'll be working with South County employers to try to get them on board as well and with employers in Watsonville and groups in Watsonville to get them on board to get them using the tool and then by spring 2020 in our full launch we'll start promoting this tool to the general public. So I think with that being said that's my presentation I'm happy to take any questions answer any providing clarity on the tools and thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation I'm glad this work is continuing when you look at the numbers of lots of people who are interacting with the cruise 5-1-1 website just two things the GO 831 what is that? I'm just not familiar with that sorry I forgot to explain that so the GO 831 is similar to the cruise 5-1-1 program in Santa Cruz County GO 831 is the program that the transportation agency Monterey County has so it's essentially it's our sister program and they've had the right of means to work for about a year now and they're going into their continual efforts to launch and promote their program and they're also partnering with the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership to really tap into their employer network and reach out and to encourage and participate and we'll be also working with them to have our own our own type of workshop with what MDAP is in Santa Cruz County to get those employers on go as well Is there any opportunity with the Riot Amigos program to link in with the data that's going to be coming on the metro buses about when they're coming? So you'll be able to look and say your ride your bus is going to show up in three minutes Yeah, so all of the data that's in the tool right now are all direct feeds coming from the different providers so long as metro has that data in an acceptable format which they tend to have that data currently now in a Google format that we can get that information as far as staff we don't have to continually manually update any of the route information I mean I know that's a big new feature that the metro is going to be offering this year and having this on this program will be really great. The last thing I'll say is I really want to extend my appreciation for the hard work the staff did to find alternative locations for the closure of their partner ride lot on the metro parking ride lot there were van pullers who were using that lot there were other problems with that lot and that's why Metro needed to close it but there were van pullers who would use that counted on that and we're really looking for something and I know the staff worked very hard to find something and I appreciate all the work that went into that I'm sure they did yes thank you can you elaborate a little bit more on parking cash out that was one of the hubs that was on the slides yeah that was just the general infographic but yeah typically parking cash outs we haven't worked with that in our program and haven't used that but it is an option for employers to use if they provide free parking in our workplace programs you can try to encourage them to either use parking cash out options or other options to convince their employees to avoid driving them off and the other question I have is I know that you had a CO2 evaluation of the reduction there when people go in do you indicate whether it's EV or not because that may make a difference on what your calculations are right we do have that option I'm not entirely sure as far as the CO2 CO2 metrics for the EV option but that is a layer that we are adding and that is the mode that we can include as far as the mode of travel that the user is using can this also indicate where the EV stations are yeah and we're working on that with that layer as well and the last question that I have here is of the collaborative partners I didn't see Cabrillo College we haven't created a partnership with him as of yet that is one of our goals is to get them on board and we're trying to do that between now and the full launch okay great, go to here thank you thank you chair so I also appreciate the hard work sounds like you're doing a lot of planning but it does beg the question in terms of programs like this when it sounds good and it looks good but does it do good and when you're spending the type of money that we're spending on programs like 511 it's a hard question that has to be answered because we're responsible to the taxpayers to make sure that the money is well spent I'm looking at the parking right situation Scott Valley Transit Center is responsible for 223 block capacity and I think we even have an overflow for another 20 or 30 cars that we have an agreement with the property that we own for our library that we've given we also have the Boys and Girls Club even though it isn't an official van pool sort of situation but tons of Google and other writers part maybe 50 or 60 cars of the Boys and Girls Club and they actually make some money on that I think so my first question is you know the Scott Valley Transit Center there was a lot of controversy for it was established in 1996 I think Mike Mike Rockin was the chair of the Transit Board then and to me one of my questions is why has it been so hard to find capacity for parking rides I mean over the years you know the resurrection church it seems like every church in this county might be amenable towards at least some sort of agreement where we would pay them for their off hours I mean for the most part unless they have severe date ample daycare capacity looking after kids excuse me they don't have the ability to accept people who park there for a full day during the week it just seems to me that we could at least do an outreach to every church in the county saying hey are you interested because this is a dirt of you know amount of people who can park and ride even if they wanted to so that's my first question has anybody really tried in earnest to contact churches and say hey can you help us out and we're willing to pay you yeah we I'm not sure I'm not really sure about the we're willing to pay you portion but we have looked around our staff has reached out to a number of different local businesses and one of the the primary issues or concerns tends to be with overnight parking and security and both security during the day for people who are parking as well as overnight security for example parking at these particular locations and that was one of the reasons why the Quaker Meeting House lot was closed was due to security concerns overnight parking I'm not sure if there was either a plan that was happening there overnight but they couldn't afford to hire security and overnight security and I don't think that was something that either we had the funds to do or I'm not sure we could probably speak a bit more of us yeah certainly it is a constant effort to try to both keep the park and ride lots green effect operating and then get additional parking by lots Amy did mention some of the concerns that have come up and yes we do work with all the various potential parking by lot partners and we do offer to pay for improvements that maybe needed a lot and so on or we maintenance, you pay me and so on and yes even the possibility of doing some sort of a rental release or something like that is always a possibility and we provide all the insurance that might be necessary etc but even with all of that there are concerns that have come up and Amy said that some crime has occurred by night and so security has been much more significantly greater need for security and a lot of places have decided that they need to basically close out their lots at a certain point in time which then makes it difficult for parking by lot users if they're closing to earlier or if you get bamboo arrangements where they do require to have overnight parking for their van without their meeting locations so it doesn't make it difficult to work constantly and part of the work great with the capitol mall is that they have security there 24 hours a day and so on and that really helps so that's been a good partnership with them and Amy said it's temporary for now but they're very cooperative and it looks like they will have all the permit agreement with them so that's very good and we continue to look for other potential places and we've reached out to a number of churches to commercial establishments and so on and with commercial establishments part of what we do is we're going to bring more people to your commercial area because that might benefit you because once they're here they might be shopping at your locations here and that's attractive to them but still even with that it has been a challenge so what you're saying though is that even though our intentions are good the outcome has not been so good it's certainly been a challenge we still have worked around lots and so that's really good and we continue to work to have additional lots so in the past ten years or so, community solutions I think we use that in terms of when we do our budget there's a line there for two full-time employees for community solutions, roughly paying someone in the neighborhood of $220,000 a year for employees it's not two full-time employees it's been maybe one to one and a quarter times and it varies depending on what is the work that's being done each year like for example Amy mentioned the closure of the parking right that took a lot of work from staff and you don't have that all the time so depending on what's happening there's a lot more staff work and there might be more staff work in particular year than there is in another Is that the budget line that covers the 511 or is it in addition to that? Yeah, cruise 511 and it is the overall umbrella for the amorphous information and TDM programs I know but are they commingle in terms of budget in other words through community solutions budget line commingle and you get a new budget It's all the same program So you've also mentioned I think on 20.4 about the right sharing local transit bike pooling walk and bike options the planner and when you say commute manager online platform that's what you talk about here it's a program that you repurchase for 65,000 plus 20,000 or 40,000 from San Frans 65,000 for the two year agreement it's 35,000 the first year to implement the program together all set up and then the 30,000 or the remaining for the second year and that's specifically for meetings Like I said I appreciate the report As you can probably tell I'm a little dubious about whether or not this is going to have a true effect on community in our area I mean all I have to do is just kind of look at the again the good intentions of trying to have quote commute solutions and then I just go at 230 on highway one to see what the effect is but I am open to the surprise I think Mr. Chairman I have a report too in the vein of trying to improve the options that you have As things unfold when kept all in I'd like to know more about it I do know of a couple of locations that might be useful for the program after them all is no longer a location Thank you very much for your efforts In a sense this does provide in terms of the alternate analysis and alternate and as much as it offers to the community more it's definitely more alternate Thank you Mr. Chairman So I'm going to start by apologizing for not coming to meet the staff before the meeting to ask some of these questions I'm on page 20-5 Do I understand correctly the cost of this program this year is roughly $190,000 plus the $65,000 we added to the community manager program Is that the budget cost for this item? That is correct I also understand from the report here that we have about a little under 2,000 people that are using the ride share function and about 90,000 people that are using the information aspects of this program Can you give me a I know you can't do it exactly but Randy made clear that it was kind of commingling to the program how much money goes the funding ends up to staff library materials or whatever else into the ride sharing program versus the information aspect of the program like a 50-50 or 90-10 I have no idea That's a great question I don't think I can tell you that and I don't know because we do a lot of a lot of outreach in various different ways and the averages for the overall program which includes everything so I don't know and it'd be hard to separate exactly what would go to one or the other So the question is fine by Randy's earlier question but I was just trying to do really rough numbers here looking at the cost divided by the people that benefit from it and asking would they be better served by having two bus routes which you could buy for the same amount of money and in order to try to understand that you need to know whether if most of the money is going into the ride share part of the program then it's like $200 a person that benefits from it if it's most of the works going into keeping the information on the internet and people having access to find out which roads are busy and all the other kinds of stuff that a lot of important information may do then you get a much better bank through the buck because it's like what the costs are so I'd like to get some information back at some point I'm not looking for a exact dollar figure I'm not going to cut the program in half I just want to understand what the benefit is I think people have a right to understand where we're getting out of this program and who's being served or how many people are being served so a word magnitude would be fine with me but I'd like to get that information back I'm not capable of it somebody hasn't explained it to me as a late person member of the board so one thing I can share is that typically with the traveler information a lot of that information is coming from our specific feeds so that data that's coming in is automated and the information that we put on the website for the most part it's automated except for the alerts that come in we'll put that data on that site we pay for website hosting for IT consultant for any places like that so there's those places and they're pretty small and the site tends to work itself what we find is that for rideshare in particular we're spending more of our staff time directly interacting with individuals directly interacting with employers and so in the past we've done those same activities we've worked with them we get to a point where you get all the tools that you need you're good to go go on your way and then it falls off and now we've spent three months with this particular employer and this group and then we have nothing to show we have no impact but we've had plenty of staff time so what we're trying to do is use these new tools to say well these are the resources that you have available this is what you can do and let's educate you so that you could use these tools on your own so staff can work with our other communities and really have boots on the ground and doing this information and doing this outreach and using the tools that we've learned from our previous pilot programs which is there are individuals who a lot can do everything on their own with the website and then there are the others who need that specific time holding and that's where our staff time is really going is getting those people involved so I would ask the program the new aspects of the program and I think it would be helpful for us to get some idea of how the time is being split and how we work because it's not trivial in that time to set up communication systems and information that's being updated and accessible because we want that to be completely accurate and it's not totally useless in fact it tells you that the road is busy and it's not because of your stuff so I think it would be helpful to try and capture some of those metrics as your development program that's it, thanks Commissioner Johnson thank you in a prior life it was a college reaction a great deal of experience with TDM programs processor back to work is and one of the things that we learned doing some of the more manual outreach programs as you described is that they're sort of like recycling programs you can go into a school and set them up but then if you don't go back every year on that site they sort of go away and a lot of assumptions about people just maintaining a TDM or recycling program like that's a no brainer if you're an environmentalist it's just, that doesn't look that way I think this is a really good direction and this is getting more automated and you're empowering local employers and for the amount of money we're spending I think it's a really big bang for the buck it doesn't seem to maybe be as apparent for some people in this room right now for that but I think once you have more automated usage even power does employers and you've got that data coming back to you I think the result's going to be it's very effective from the money we spend compared to other things but I did have one question about that was the comment but you said there was a question about you recruiting Cabrillo as an employer I would hope you also would do the same with the county to already provide free bus passes like charging stations for their employers guys well thank you for your work thank you very much when we initially considered this idea to improve our TVN platform I'd ask that our proposal include mobility as a service integration that would allow for a user to plan and pay for a trip across multiple platforms so I'm glad to see that the plus information could be integrated in there but I had also hoped that it would integrate platforms like jump, Uber and Lyft into the platform is that still an option? yes well we'll have bike sharing so the jump player will be added you will be able to see where the bike stations are located and the number of available bikes in that area we specifically focus on not having in-app payments so that our program is not responsible for any transactions and so all of those referrals will then be referred to those specific sites where the users can sign up and integrate their registration great I also maybe I misread the map but it looks like the ride amigo doesn't operate in Santa Clara county yes so the 511 program throughout the Bay Area is operated by their own consultant and they have their database that they've been using throughout those counties just I believe it was on Monday MPC issued an RFP for a very similar service that they're phasing out their bike share program and they're looking for an online platform that's a comprehensive tool that has the gamification that has the challenges and the ability to create networks for various levels of programs throughout the county, a region-wide program as well as private networks for specific employers so there might be an opportunity for our commuters to communicate to Silicon Valley to participate? yes we are definitely advocating for that and we hope that we could have the entire system connected so that users who are living in Santa Cruz county and can be over the hill can find those options as well it seems like a pretty clear information if I may answer that I believe that there already are employers in those counties that actually use ride amigo so they may not be the entire county as a whole but there are significant employers already in San Clara county and that's one of the parts of the San Francisco Bay Area that use ride amigo are part of the ride amigo system would it be helpful for us to write a letter encouraging them to the Bay Area well the Santa Clara county so maybe that might be a direction at the end of this is to direct the chair to write a letter encouraging them to participate with all the other counties I'm going to call them yes thank you thank you with 90,000 visits what are we doing to highest investment utilization to let them know about what RTC is doing do we have a link that they can link through let's use the resource of all those people visiting this it is a transportation hub let's make sure that we have the RTC part of it how will that look in terms of is it just going to be a link through are we going to be able to do that what information could we make available that way I'm not sure I quite understand your question so from cruise 511 or from the new tool to RTC if the tool is providing 90,000 visits and that's more than what our RTC site is doing how do we utilize that to get them to see what's going on with the RTC so in our home case we have a news section on there so any developments that are coming out of cruise 5 or out of RTC that are somewhat related we'll post on there and then we also have the cruise 511 sidebar module that's directly on the RTC home page and you bring up a good point to actually to essentially reverse that so that we also have that information just automatically coming in on the cruise 511 site yes there's so much PR I'm just going to stop there once they've gotten your name we're getting the email the text message kind of reminder that goes out and just the way the marketing tools work with a lot of these businesses once they've got it that you're hooked on getting at least a little bit occasionally and I'm sure that by doing 90,000 visits we have quite a few resources to get a hold on the 511 option of maybe some RTC reminders that we're able to use that channel that's been opened up for those users one of the features that we're looking at is just providing both the news articles that we have on there and the traffic alerts that come on the page so you really are referencing a lot of the content that's coming from CalChance about alerts also alerts that are coming from the county and then we have our Twitter feed that also has alerts that we're sharing that we're sharing in real time that also are coming from people out in the community providing that information Any other commissioner questions? I'm going to open up to the public anybody from the public like to speak on Cruise 511 If anybody's happy with the system okay bring it back first and action by the board I would Well I'd like to make a motion that we direct our chair to contact Santa Clara County Transportation Authority NTC NTC manages the whole Well the work with staff or the appropriate person to encourage the use of ride amigos to support our commuters we're traveling over the hill Chris there isn't just an information item I think it's great that you encouraged that county to participate Second Motion by L.A. Polis second by Schifrin and I just want to comment on this I think this is a I think we appreciate the presentation I think we brought this up probably five or six months ago and there was concern about how the RTC spending its funds and I think at the end of this conversation what we really needed was to be enlightened and I feel like it was a little bit more optimistic so it's about a little over $200,000 that we spend and some of that is got is received back to other grants and everything so at this time the potential of this program as was mentioned by many commissioners is great potential to be using to ride this out for a while and see how it goes so with that we have a motion for a letter all in favor and we'll see that that letter gets out to the county thank you okay our next item is a legal services contract and then Mr. Venders yes good morning commissioners as you know the regional transportation commission has been using the office of the Sancres County Council for the assets legal counsel as the RTC became a fully autonomous agency purchased the Sancres Ranch rail on the yadding mental instruction projects and became the authority for transportation sales tax measure D the legal services required by the ERC is significantly in addition as the RTC is not a property owner legal matters can have a reason for the RTC and the county of Sancres have adverse interests making it difficult for the county council's office to represent both parties simultaneously and Sancres County Council provided tremendous service to the RTC over its entire existence but based on these challenges that have come up the county council did recommend that the RTC hire a full service legal firm to provide all or most of its legal services and a full service legal firm can provide the required general legal counsel services that a public agency needs while also providing specialized legal services such as environmental law, labor, law, and transportation law so with the assistance of the county council's office the ERC did release a request for proposals and there was an evaluation and selection committee that was composed of your chair at Wattdorf Commissioner Ryan Coonerty Chief Assistant County Council Jason Heath Executive Director Preston and Executive Director Luis Mendez well qualified legal firms submitted proposals and the interview team decided to interview the top two firms and so after completing the interviews, the reference checks the evaluation and selection committee recommends hiring the firm Myers named Ryback Silver and Wilson attachment two is an excerpt from their proposal that shows the proposed legal team and provides a summary of their qualifications now Myers and I will propose Steve Mattis as the general counsel for RTC Mr. Mattis is here today so he can introduce himself when I done my report and you ask him questions if you like as well he currently serves as general counsel for Ventura County Transportation Commission and the Ventura County Transportation Commission has similarities to the RTC that it's a coastal county community it also has a couple of rail lines that purchased one that has service on it freight service and excursion service they're also working to have a bicycle pedestrian facility on the rail line so that offers a great similarity to what we have here in San Cruz County and they're also of course a transportation planning agency that we are they are not a sales tax authority but Myers now does represent other agencies that are sales tax authorities so they do have that expertise and experience and although the hourly rates charged by Myers and I the attorneys are greater than the hourly rate charged by the county council's office most of the RTC legal services currently are provided by outside firms that charge similar rates to what Myers now charges and so in evaluating the Myers and I the RTC staff as in terms of the proposed rates are fair and equitable for the quality of services that are to be provided and staff also believes that having a relationship with the full service legal firm will create a certain economy of usage and as the relationship with its general counsel will be managed concurrently with the usage of any specialized legal services. There is sufficient budget in the RTC budget for the contract as proposed the contract that you propose is for $900,000 over the three year period so we estimate there will be about $300,000 a year and in actuality how much the RTC-based legal service from the year can be spent significantly based on what's happening whether the RTC gets sued or one thing or another and so on but with the various additional dues that the RTC has been taking out in the past few years there is greater likelihood of having to have much more legal work done by the RTC including responding to lawsuits and defending the RTC in lawsuits. So as a result the evaluation and selection committee does recommend that the RTC approve the attached resolution to authorizing the executive record to execute a legal services contract with the firm of Myers Novak, Ryback, Silver and Wilson for comprehensive legal services for an amount not to exceed $900,000 for a three year term and the contract and scope are included here attached with your staff report so you've got a chance to take a look at it and to this point Mr. Mattis would you mind reducing yourself that would be great thank you Mr. Mattis before I bring it up I'm just going to make a quick comment I'm only getting to the floor I just want to throw a little disclaimer in here it was my privilege to serve on this committee with the other members that Mr. Minger has mentioned and the quality of the candidates was excellent but make no doubt that the firm that we selected was far superior from the others that we interviewed in this contract I think the point that Mr. Minger makes is that we all know we had a great relationship with the county and I think what happened was they lost one of their providers which was intimately tied to our decisions and basically I think our demands outgrew their needs to provide the services so that caused us to reach out for this our own attorney and as Mr. Minger has mentioned the cost that we incurred in addition to the base contract with the county with other agencies exceeded, you know would be a normal sum of what we extended and our happiness with this firm is that we felt in the board that Myers-Nabe would be able to provide and cover all the services that we have been exposed to under one roof so a lot of enthusiasm was to make this decision so with that Mr. Mattis please come up if you have any questions to the board we'll give them a little shout out to them Good morning everyone my name is Steve Mattis I'm principal at Myers-Nabe our team that we're proposing to work with the RTC includes four other attorneys Eric Casher would be the primary one of the primary assistants Eric's background is in public contracting in particular federal and state procurement issues Lindsay DeAndre is a longtime transportation area attorney and would be working with us on contracting issues as well as rail line issues Lindsay's work very closely with me on the rail line issues of BCTC that we've been dealing with since we took over there Claire Lye is another attorney that would work with us Claire is a has her focus really on again contracting issues basic transportation issues but Claire has also developed a high level of expertise in personally identifiable information issues which become very common with transportation agencies as they start to use technologies like fast track dynamic pricing any kind of fair mechanisms and any kinds of technologies that allow you to purchase clipper cars or various payment methodologies like that that's a very significant issue for any agency that does that now Jesse Latt is also a member of our team Jesse is a labor employment attorney and a labor negotiator as well too and then I would serve as general counsel as indicated by Mr. Mendes I have served as a general counsel of BCTC for a number of years I'm also the essentially the general counsel for the toll lanes for Alameda County Transportation Commission and then I'm also the general counsel for the Tri Valley Transportation Council which is actually a joint hours entity that administers a regional transportation impact piece of development impact so we bring that experience to the table I am mindful of the comments about the cost and the hourly rates I have managed as a general counsel in budgets for public agencies during my entire career I do understand the necessity of staying within budget we're part of the team and the team has to understand the financial constraints of an agency and so that's a point that I discussed with Mr. Preston when we were talking through the terms of the contract we welcome the opportunity to work with the RTC and I'm happy to answer any questions that the commissioners may have I have a question. Thank you chair welcome first of all I didn't see where your offices are located so I'm based out of Oakland I actually live on the peninsula and then we have offices in Oakland, Los Angeles San Diego and Sacramento okay is it my understanding then this will obviate the need for us to have any sort of resource from the county council yes that's the sorry, Jason Heath with county council's office yes that's the intention but there's going to be a transition period here where we're going to be slowing down our work while they're picking up their work and we're going to work cooperatively with Myers and Ave and our office is always going to be here in the background in case there's conflicts or there's problems folks can always pick up the phone and call us but the intention though is for the relationship to be severed thanks and so if I recall some of the scope of work then the legal services that you provide Mr. Mattis it includes collective bargaining labor matters hearings and meetings public bids and so forth so it's a whole spectrum of what an attorney and a law office will do that's correct the firm primarily represents public agencies throughout California and we do that in many instances as the general council so we do the full spectrum of services Mr. Ladd and I have just recently completed labor negotiations for a city in the Bay Area and so our attorneys have expertise in all areas that affect transportation agencies we have a real estate team we have a labor and employment team we have a public contracts team we have a conflicts team dealing with ethical issues and so what we found with all of the public agencies that we work with is really with the exception of workers compensation which we don't do and generally we don't do tort defense because practically most agencies get tort defense through a shared risk agency and generally at lower rates and so beyond those two we are able to practice in all other areas and the 300,000 really is a limit and it's not necessarily what you will charge per year but it's just on an hourly basis and a per meeting basis that you will charge that's correct there will be a fixed fee on the per meeting basis for these meetings for the commission meetings and everything else will be at an hourly rate and then we would monitor the costs of the RTC so that we can essentially make sure that we stay within the budget there are instances as recommended you know if an agency has an unusual amount of litigation or something like that then sometimes costs will go up but on the flip side the cost can go down my average cost at BCTC have fluctuated over the years when there's been more litigation the cost has been higher over the years when there's been less litigation costs substantially less than what the 300,000 we're talking about here well thank you there's a question I think it's been 20 years since the RTC started the process of moving out of the county building setting up its own agency and this is another step in that long divorce of hiring our own legal staff and you seem very well prepared to be able to meet the needs I think that with the support that we've gotten from the voters and the kind of work that we're going to get into it seems like a very good time for us to make this move and I've appreciated the support as I always do from our county council and I look forward to working with you and I think there's only one last thing that we have with the county after this which is the payroll system or not even the payroll system the fiscal system it's the last part of the partnership but welcome I look forward to working with you any other questions based on those comments I feel the same way when I first came as a commissioner it was why don't we have our own legal council and I'm pleased to see that we've got a very robust firm that can handle quite a few of the broad scope items that we would anticipate needing to specialize attorneys for so thank you for moving forward with this and the group that decided on which council to go with so I'm looking forward to making sure that we have that right expertise invested in our projects so again thank you other comments I just want to say that the resume is extremely impressive and you read through these and I think we made a wise choice here it was a part of that to be impressed when you read through your colleagues and your background and what you'll be reading through this work thank you I will share with the commission that we haven't seen those also just personally and professionally very much student transportation issues and so we you know we enjoy the work and we're doing in addition to just doing the work so we look forward to working with you great any other comments? alright thank you Mr. Mads anybody from the public want to comment seeing none I'll bring it back for recommended second I've got a motion by Indian Pole and a second by Schifrin and all in favor other comments I want to see if anybody from the public had anything to say but the commissioner was also very impressed with this he sat on the committee that did the interviews and would agree with the comments of the chair about feeling enthusiastic about the firm that's been so active thank you for adding that chair I did want to add on behalf of my office and my Boston McCrae a very special thanks to the commission we've enjoyed a really warm relationship with the commission over the years and we've done really good work together I'm sorry that Brooke Miller who was usually sitting in this chair is your longer time attorney was not able to be here for this last meeting but again thank you very much to the commission and the staff for good work over the years thank you Jason I've been using commissioner Leopold's words this was an amicope of divorce so we're all looking forward to this so with that all in favor opposed welcome to Santa Cruz County motion passed to the agenda okay that brings us to the end of the agenda I want to announce here we do not have any closed session so our next meeting will be Thursday September 5th at 9 o'clock at the county board of supervisors and a TPW meeting is scheduled for August 15th and with that for adjourn thank you