CHAPEL HILL TRANSIT Town of Chapel Hill 6900 Millhouse Road Chapel Hill, NC 27514-2401 phone (919) 969-4900 fax (919) 968-2840 www.townofchapelhill.org/transit CHAPEL HILL TRANSIT PUBLIC TRANSIT COMMITTEE NOTICE OF COMMITTEE MEETING AND AGENDA MAY 1, 2018 – 11:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. CHAPEL HILL TRANSIT – FIRST FLOOR CONFERENCE ROOM PAGE # 1. Approval of March 27, 2018 Meeting Summary 1 2. Employee Recognition A. Regional and State Bus and LTV Roadeo Contestants 3. Consent Items A. March Financial Report 3 4. Discussion Items A. FY2018-19 Budget Development 5 i. Orange County Transit Plan Funds B. Future Meeting Schedule – July 2018 to June 2019 8 5. Information Items A. Short Range Transit Plan Update on Next Steps 9 B. Project and Grant Funding Update 10 C. North South Corridor Bus Rapid Transit Update 13 D. Demand Response Customer Information Packet Update 14 6. Departmental Monthly Reports A. Operations 25 B. Community Outreach 28 C. Director 45 7. Future Meeting Items 46 8. Next Meeting – May 29, 2018 (11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. at Chapel Hill Transit) 9. Adjourn Chapel Hill Transit – Serving Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill MEETING SUMMARY OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE PUBLIC TRANSIT COMMITTEE CHAPEL HILL PUBLIC LIBRARY, MEETING ROOM B Tuesday, March 27, 2018 at 11:00 AM Present: Michael Parker, Chapel Hill Town Council Nancy Oates, Chapel Hill Town Council Bethany Chaney, Carrboro Alderman Cheryl Stout, UNC Transportation Parking Damon Seils, Carrboro Alderman Than Austin, UNC Transportation & Parking Brad Ives, UNC Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus Enterprises Absent: Donna Bell, Chapel Hill Town Council, Julie Eckenrode, Assistant to Carrboro Town Manager Staff present: Brian Litchfield, Transit Director, Nick Pittman, Transit Planning Coordinator, Rick Shreve, Budget Manager, Tim Schwarzauer, Grants Coordinator, Flo Miller, Deputy Town Manager, Kayla Seibel, Long Range and Transportation Planner, Bergen Watterson, Transportation Planning Manager, Zachary Hallock, Carrboro Transportation Planner, Tina Moon, Carrboro Planning, Ken Pennoyer, Business Management Director, Matt Brinkley, Budget Manager Guests: Christina Barone, Nelson Nygaard, Fred Lampe, Molly DeMarco 1. The Meeting Summary of February 27, 2018 was received and approved. 2. Employee Recognition – None. 3. Consent Items A. February Financial Report – The Partners received this information. 4. Discussion Items A. FY 2018-2019 Budget Development Orange County Transit Plan Funds – Rick reviewed the report including Partner contributions, federal and State assistance over recent years. He also reviewed the bus replacement schedule from FY 16-18. Good progress has been made and fewer buses have been debt financed than originally thought. He presented the estimated Partner contributions for FY 19. The early forecast is that the unrestricted fund balance will be less than $1 million. It will no longer be available to balance the budget and reduce Partner contributions. Nick reviewed the service consideration for the Partners FY19 priorities. He presented options for 3,000 new annual hours for FY 19. Staff is suggesting using a 1 portion of these hours this year and banking up to 1500 hours. These hours could be used on different routes, possibly splitting them up. Options include: the J bus, Saturday expansion and on the D bus routes. This would help those who need the bus to be able to get to work. The Partners requested a report from staff, using 1,000 hours, for the next meeting. Brian said that staff will send the requested information to the Partners via email in the next 10 days. Nick also reviewed the upcoming service adjustments for August. Short Range Transit Plan Update – Nick reviewed the update and introduced Christina Barone from Nelson Nygaard. Christina reviewed the results of the survey and 3 scenarios presented in the survey. She reviewed next steps. Partners asked how the BRT project would fit into the Short Range Transit Plan. Further information will be forthcoming. 5. Information Items A. Demand Response Survey Update – Provided for information. B. Project and Grant Funding Update – Provided for information. C. North South Corridor Bus Rapid Transit Update - Provided for information. 6. Departmental Monthly Reports A. Operations – This item was provided for the Partners information. B. Community Outreach – This item was provided for the Partners information. C. Director – Brian highlighted some items from his report including: Federal funding, TIGER grants, and the FTA budget. He also reported on the Regional Bus Roadeo and the State Roadeo in April. He announced that Mila’s position has been filled by Matt Cecil. He noted that the Electric Bus IFB has gone to BMD for approval and staff is hoping to release it in early April. 7. Future Meeting Items 8. Partner Items 9. Next Meeting – May 1, 2018 at Chapel Hill Transit – Transit Training Room 10. Adjourn The Partners set a next meeting date for May 1, 2018 2 Consent Item May 1, 2018 3A. March Financial Report Prepared by: Rick Shreve, Budget Manager March 2018 . Expenses for the month of March were $1,990,291. Along with the encumbrances, which are heavily weighted towards the beginning of the fiscal year, approximately 68.97% of our budget has been expended or reserved for designated purchase (e.g. purchase orders created for vehicle maintenance inventory supplies encumber those funds, and show them as unavailable for other uses). Highlights . This aggregation of expenses and encumbrances for this month of the fiscal year is consistent with years past, and is perfectly in line with what we would expect at this point in the year. The attached data exhibits the financial information by division within CHT, and should be a useful tool in monitoring our patterns as the year progresses, and is a high-level representation of the data used by our division heads. o It is worth noting that the “Special Events” line is mostly comprised of Tar Heel Express expenses, and the line labeled “Other” is comprised primarily of special grant-funded expense lines that are not permanent fixtures in the division budgets. 3 Transit 640 Fund Budget to Actual at end of March 2018 % USED OR ACTUAL ENCUMBERED ORIGINAL REVISED MONTH ACTUAL YTD CURRENT BALANCE March = BUDGET BUDGET EXPENSES EXPENSES ENCUMBRANCES AVAILABLE 66.67% Total Advertising $ 98,715 $ 98,715 $ 1,345 $ 30,838 $ - $ 67,877 31.24% Total Admin 1,759,247 1,787,997 154,086 1,241,040 20,825 526,132 70.57% Total Fixed Route 11,834,442 11,799,879 1,147,392 7,651,113 58,086 4,090,680 65.33% Total Demand Response 2,231,080 2,232,232 253,117 1,574,538 4,374 653,320 70.73% Total Special Events (THX) 333,958 333,958 13,113 271,758 9,422 52,778 84.20% Total Fleet Maintenance 4,519,098 4,563,876 338,659 2,480,583 706,652 1,376,641 69.84% Total Building Maintenance 865,012 917,759 49,547 372,925 160,474 384,360 58.12% Total Other 1,234,440 3,967,874 33,033 721,654 2,422,003 824,216 79.23% TOTAL EXPENDITURES $ 22,875,992 $ 25,702,290 $ 1,990,291 $ 14,344,449 $ 3,381,836 $ 7,976,005 68.97% CHT March 2018 YTD Expenses as % of Budget CHT Total YTD Expenses - 100.00% Previous Years Comparison 90.00% 80.00% $16,000,000 70.00% 60.00% $14,000,000 50.00% 40.00% $12,000,000 30.00% 20.00% $10,000,000 10.00% % ENCUMBERED 0.00% $8,000,000 % USED $6,000,000 $4,000,000 $2,000,000 $- March 2016 March 2017 March 2018 4 DISCUSSION ITEM May 1, 2018 4A. FY2018-19 Chapel Hill Transit Budget Development Action: 1. Receive information and provide staff with feedback. Staff Resource: Rick Shreve, Budget Manager Nick Pittman, Transit Planning Coordinator Brian Litchfield, Director Overview Chapel Hill Transit staff continue to work internally and with the Town’s Business Management Department (BMD) towards finalizing our FY2018-19 budget. The Town Manager will submit his Recommended Budget to Council on May 1, 2018. The budget that the Manager will recommend to Council reflects the same Partner contributions for next year as relayed in the March Partners’ meeting, as follows: Approx. Total Share per FY 18-19 FY 17-18 Contribution FY 18-19 Change Partner Contribution Chapel Hill $5,356,750 $4,388,052 $968,698 UNC $8,573655 $7,213,468 $1,360,187 Carrboro $1,808,945 $1,481,821 $327,124 Total Local Funding $15,739,350 $13,083,341 $2,656,009 Orange County Transit Plan Summary of Available Funds - FY19 FY19 Available Bus Operating Revenue from GoTriangle $2,093,778* Maximum Amount Eligible for Increased Cost of Existing Service (ICES) $778,006* Services added FY'13-18 $976,772 $ Available for new services in FY'19 $339,000 New Annual Hours Available for Service Expansion 3,000 * Updated numbers provided by GoTriangle staff. 5 Service Recommendations - FY19 The Orange County Transit Plan includes $339,000 (3,000 service hours) for new service for Chapel Hill Transit. Based on guidance from the Partners staff developed potential service improvements for FY19, consistent with the guidelines established by the Partners for Transit Plan Funds: • Implement service improvements such as evening/nighttime and weekend service, that would provide improved access to jobs with nontraditional work hours • Expand access to retail, medical, recreational and educational destinations in Chapel Hill and Carrboro for lower-income and transit dependent residents • Identified areas of interest including better serving Rogers Road community and other lower-income populations • Meet peak-hour service demands (e.g. overcrowding, lack of service, etc.) • Cover cost of existing services The Partners approved the following service improvements to be included in the FY19 recommended transit budget (~1,933 hours): CW Route — Designed to relieve overcrowding in the afternoon and evening peak, this improvement will provide 20 minute service from 3:20 PM to 6:00 PM each weekday and match the AM service funded in FY18.