1 Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority + + +
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
1 WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREA TRANSIT AUTHORITY + + + + + METRO BOARD OF DIRECTORS + + + + + PUBLIC HEARING + + + + + MONDAY JANUARY 30, 2017 + + + + + The hearing commenced in the Board Room, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Headquarters, 600 5th Street, Washington, D.C., at 5:00 p.m., Jack Evans, Metro Board Chair, presiding. PRESENT JACK EVANS, Metro Board Chair MALCOLM AUGUSTINE, Maryland JIM CORCORAN, Virginia LEIF DORMSJO, District of Columbia MICHAEL GOLDMAN, Maryland CATHY HUDGINS, Virginia KATHY PORTER, Maryland ALSO PRESENT DENNIS ANOSIKE, CFO of WMATA JENNIFER GREEN ELLISON, WMATA Board Corporate Secretary DANISE PENA, WMATA Staff PAUL WIEDEFELD, WMATA General Manager Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 2 MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC JULIA ABRAHAMS BROOKS ALLEN CHRISTINE ANDERSON KARYN BELYAYEVA LYNETTE BOOKER AUSTIN BOROSHOK DARNISE BUSH TIM CALLIS CARROLL CARTER, Senior Vice President, SyncPark GEORGE CLARK, Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland JONATHAN COHN MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM-COOK MICHAEL DEMINICO ED DER BRIAN DOLAN RACHEL DUBIN PETER ESPENSCHIED SANDRA FAULK YVETTE GIBSON ANA GINYOVSZKY ED GITTERMAN SIETSE GOFFARD MICHAEL GOLASH REBECCA GOLD SHANNON GRANVILLE KONRAD HERLING, Council Member, Greenbelt MALCOLM HORTON MIGNETTE HUMPHREY MIKE IELMINI OSAMA IQAB RAYMOND JACKSON, Second Vice President, ATU, Local 689 DAVID KAPLAN ANDREW JENKINS JACOB JANSEN JACKIE JETER, President, Amalgamated Transit Unit Local 689 Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 3 CHAUNIECE JONES, Project Retail QUINCEY JONES, Executive Board Member, Local 689 LAURA KOSCHNY JUSTIN LINI, ANC Commissioner, Paradise and Parkside JAY LOUIS DERRICK MALLARD, Local 689 NATHANIEL MARTIN GREGORY MATHIS, Fort Washington Forest Neighborhood Association SERENA MAYER SHARON MCBRIDE DAVID MCPHERSON LINDA MERCER, WMATA Bus Operator NICOLE MILLER ANN MLADINOV, ANC 3B01 Glover Park/Cathedral Heights JEAN MOORMAN RODNEY NEELY BERYL NEUMANN BILL ORLEANS BRANDON PAULIN, Mayor of Indian Head, Maryland KAY PEFFLEY PIERRE PELMONT NICKY PIRES, Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland OLSON RICHARDSON DENISE RUSH, MetroAccess Subcommittee ERIN SCHUMACHER DAVID SCHWARTZMAN, DC Statehood Green Party PAUL SEMELFORT, Accessibility Advisory Committee LORRAINE SILVA RON SMITH DAVID SNYDER, Falls Church City Council GEORGE SPITALSKY ERIC STARIN, Chief Steward, Local 2 BRENDA THOMAS, Recording Secretary, Local 689 VICTORIA TYSON KHEMISE WALTON FRANCINE WHITE, National Harbor Chapter, National Federation of the Blind PENELOPE WILLIAMS Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 4 ANTHONY WILSON MARQUITTA WINSTON WIZ WINDHAM PATRICK WOJAHN, Mayor of College Park, Maryland LINDA WOOD JAMES ZIPADELLI Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Welcome Jack Evans . 6 Docket B17-01: Proposed FY2018 Operating Budget Dennis Anosike . .11 Testimony of Elected Public Officials Konrad Herling . .19 Patrick Wojahn . .23 Brandon Paulin . .26 Public Comments/Testimony. Chairman Evans Closing Statement . 185 Adjourn. Privately Dictated Statements. Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 6 1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 5:04 p.m. 3 MR. EVANS: Okay, good evening 4 everyone. We can do better than that! Good 5 evening! All right, thank you. 6 Welcome to Metro. My name is Jack 7 Evans. I am Chairman of the Board of Metro and I 8 represent the District of Columbia on the Board. 9 With me are fellow Board Members from the 10 District of Columbia, Leif Dormsjo from Maryland. 11 We have Michael Goldman and Kathy Porter 12 representing Montgomery County and Malcolm 13 Augustine representing Prince George's County. 14 And from Virginia we have Cathy Hudgins from 15 Fairfax County and Jim Corcoran who represents 16 the -- how about now? Is that better? Can you 17 hear me now? All right, I will just even yell 18 louder. 19 So I said we have Michael Goldman and 20 Kathy Porter representing Montgomery County, 21 Malcolm Augustine from Prince George's County, 22 Cathy Hudgins from Fairfax County and Jim Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 7 1 Corcoran who represents the Commonwealth of 2 Virginia and the Governor. 3 This hearing is convened by the Metro 4 Board of Directors to gather public comments on 5 two dockets: Docket B17-01 on Metro's proposed 6 FY2018 Operating Budget and Docket B17-02 on 7 Metro's proposed FY2018 Capital Improvement 8 Program and Federal FY2017 Grant Applications. 9 Notice of the hearing was made by 10 publication in the Washington Post and ads were 11 placed in the Washington Hispanic, the El Tiempo 12 Latino, the Korean Times, the Epoch Times, The 13 Afro-American Newspaper, Atref, and Doi Nay. 14 It was also sent to area libraries for 15 viewing and posted at WMATA.com. Signs were 16 placed in buses, rail stations, and MetroAccess 17 vehicles. 18 Briefly, I will cover the procedures 19 that we will follow during the hearing. In this 20 room, we will hear from those of you who have 21 signed up to give testimony. Please see the 22 staff at the registration table if you wish to Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 8 1 speak tonight and have not already put your name 2 on the list of speakers. Speaker Registration 3 closes at 9:00 p.m., four hours from now. So you 4 have plenty of time to sign up. 5 Elected public officials will be 6 allowed five minutes and everyone else will be 7 allowed three minutes each. Extra time will be 8 given for translation, if necessary. 9 If you have copies of your testimony 10 to distribute, please hand them to the Board 11 Corporate Secretary next to me here. His hand is 12 raised. 13 I will call speakers up three names at 14 a time. You can start making your way towards 15 the podium once your name is called. However, if 16 you need a microphone brought to you, please 17 waive your hand when your name is called so we 18 can see you and we will bring one to you. 19 There is a timer here that will count 20 down how much time you have left to speak. It 21 will give you a warning beep when you 20 seconds 22 left and will beep continuously when your time is Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 9 1 up. 2 The timer is important because we have 3 a lot of folks who want to speak today. And so I 4 want to stress this. When I run hearings at the 5 City Council, any of you who have been down 6 there, I do the same thing, I strictly enforce 7 the time. And I don't like doing that. So when 8 your time is up, you have to stop; otherwise, I 9 have to stop you and I don't like doing that. 10 So please, as you are waiting, look 11 through your presentation and limit it to three 12 minutes and there is a reason for that. It's not 13 that I like cutting people off. It is because 14 you are holding up the people behind you. And 15 the longer you talk then they have to wait longer 16 and that is not fair. So three minutes, please. 17 Three minutes, look at your speech and make sure 18 it stays within three minutes. But I will cut 19 people off because it is not fair to the people 20 behind you. 21 Okay. I want to take a moment to 22 recognize that this is where we listen to you and Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 10 1 I mean that. This is where the Board and the 2 staff of Metro listens to the public, whom we 3 serve, our riders, or employees, everyone. This 4 is an enormous opportunity and this is your 5 opportunity to comment on the proposals and we 6 are here to listen. We will not be able to 7 answer questions, though, during your testimony. 8 If you have questions our staff are at the open 9 house until 6:30, which is across the hall, who 10 are happy to help you. 11 Before you begin your remarks, please 12 state your name and the organization, if any, 13 that you represent. Please note that all 14 statements, including any personal information 15 such as your name, email address, address, 16 telephone number you provide in this statement 17 are releasable to the public upon request and may 18 be posted on WMATA's website without change, 19 including any personal information provided. 20 Further testimony may be submitted and 21 must be received by 9:00 a.m. on Monday, February 22 6th. So 9:00 a.m., Monday, February 6th is the Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc. (202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com 11 1 deadline for any submissions that aren't made 2 today. This testimony may be mailed to the 3 Office of the Secretary at WMATA, which is 600 4 5th Street, Northwest, this building, Washington, 5 D.C. 20001 or it can be submitted within a free 6 form comment box in the online survey about the 7 proposal that we will be available to take until 8 9:00 a.m. on Monday, February 6th. This is in 9 addition to all your other options to provide 10 input.