Transit Board Members Committee - Minutes of March 2012 Meeting

AMERICAN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATION

TRANSIT BOARD MEMBERS COMMITTEE

J.W. Marriott • Washington, DC • Salon F

Sunday, March 11, 2012 • 3:30–4:45 p.m.

Draft 7/9/12

MINUTES OF MEETING

Welcome

Crystal Lyons, Chair of APTAs Transit Board Members Committee (TBMC) welcomed everyone.

APTA Chair’s Remarks

APTA Chair Gary C. Thomas spoke about recent bills introduced and Congressional actions. He said, “What we thought we knew changed daily…more than once a day. How quickly the positions and thoughts changed.” He said that the board members have a good opportunity to speak with their delegations this week. He urged board members to discuss how their public transportation services are getting to work and describe who the riders are. He said we are all aware of what we’re asking for in a long term authorization bill, and importantly, that the transit account be left intact. The elected officials knew that and we reinforced it, he said. Transit was speaking with one voice with stakeholders as well as members – both agency and business members. Riders were contacting their Congressional representatives about what was important, why it is important, and what want to do about it. There are different opinions on how to approach authorization. He said, “You have a huge voice with representatives from your district.”

APTA President & CEO’s Discussion

Michael P. Melaniphy, APTA President & CEO thanked the board members for their actions that were critical and key in the past few weeks, praising them for how quickly members worked. “I absolutely appreciate it.” When I visit The Hill, it saves 10 minutes of discussion when you have already talked with the representative. He also thanked the board members for having staff come to the APTA events in addition to the CEOs. For example in the activities related to workforce development, the younger generation is giving us advice on working with them and other groups.

Melaniphy announced that the recent National Journal survey of brands inside the beltway included elected officials and staff, people in media and the Administration. The questions were on which brands have the most value. APTA’s brand and logo was in the top 15 most highly regarded and best brands with a voice on The Hill. He said this is the value of speaking as an association with one voice, one message. He appreciated that, “When APTA reaches out and says, “Mobilize,” you do it. Let’s go storm The Hill on Monday and Tuesday.”

APTA Vice Chair’s Remarks

APTA’s Vice Chair, Flora M. Castillo CHIE, chairs the task force on workforce development. She said that the task force will develop a set of recommendations on how we can create succession planning and prepare the next generation of leaders for our industry. She urged board members to support their staff members in attending these meetings.

Recognition, Alison A. Hewitt, Immediate Past Chair

Alison Hewitt was honored for her work in chairing the TBM committee the past year. Her chair’s initiative was the successful webinar series for transit CEOs and TBMs (November 2011 through June 2012) on economic sustainability. In early March, Hewitt she was not reappointed to her board by the Florida Governor, she joined APTA as a business member. She thanked everyone.

Conversations with Board Chairs

TBM Committee Vice Chair Fred Daniels, Jr. chaired the rest of the meeting as Lyons was called to attend a meeting of APTA’s Executive Committee (an emergency meeting that was scheduled following the morning Legislative Committee meeting.)

Honorable Catherine M. Hudgins, WMATA Chair

Daniels introduced the Honorable Catherine M. Hudgins, chair, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to discuss Metro’s 2011 Board Changes & Retreat.

Hudgins said that WMATA’s 16-memberboard has representatives from Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and the Federal government. She said that if you believe that change is how you continue to live and breathe, a couple of years ago Federal members were added to the board and the board now has nine members. This year, beginning in January, Virginia changed its participation. She said, “This has been an exceptional year for us. The reorganization allowed us a chance to step back and review the success. We began with new orientation program, as way to build relationships and for others to populate the conversation as they became more familiar. We completed a retreat this year.” WMATA did not have a governance committee and last year created one which did exceptional work. It restructured the bylaws and procedures including those that can be recurring and those that can be changing. It made sure that the authority given to the general manger is appropriate. The board stepped back and said, “What are we going to do?” It worked on a vision and goals. “Our future rides on Metro. The mission is a safe and reliable transit system. We said, ‘What are the organization’s goals, the GM’s goals, and the board’s goals’ and we wanted to align them.”

Hudgins said that WMATA is fortunate to have Richard Sarles as its GM and CEO. Our work in the strategic plan is much better focused.” The board focuses on 17 jurisdictions. Its guideline is ‘Region Forward,’ spelling out how the jurisdictions work together, recognizing integration and development of the transit system. Transit is #1 to us so that transit is the convenor, facilitator, and leader as tis region builds for the future. We worked through goals. Now we are going out, talking to our stakeholders and partners, sharing the discussions that were part of our retreat. Their feedback is very important to us. Last week, we met with the FTA Administrator to better understand what our relationship is with Federal government. Most importantly, we want feedback and want to be engaged. As the organization moves forward, we have the opportunity to measure our performance. We have a vital sign report to measure the performance of the organization and board. One focus is on what questions the board should ask of staff.

WMATA completed an evaluation of its GM that the board felt was very successful. The board also completed its first-ever evaluation of the board itself, “It gives us a baseline of how we’ll continue working forward. For 2012, we have tools in place for board to operate in very successful manner. We believe APTA’s work in supporting the boards has been successful.”

Questions and comments for Hudgins included …

· Give more detail on the board’s evaluation evaluation process. She said that they wanted to find out the participation of the board members. There are different criteria for members to come on to the board. Things they asked were if the members use transit and whether they were prepared to participate. “Other measures included what makes us good at working…it was a self-evaluation on what works.”

· Tell me more about the vital signs. These were developed by staff, based on the CEO’s goals for the organization and safety issues. Included for bus, rail, paratransit are factors of service such as crime in the system, bus operation, and time-performance. The document is available on Metro’s web site, available to everyone and used by the board.

· Does WMATA has a rider advisory group and how does it provides advice? There is a group that speaks once a month at board meetings and another group to advise in the area of accessibility for people with disabilities. Their input and analysis is included in process. We don’t act without hearing from them. When we take action, the groups have already provided advice.

Frederick L. Daniels, Jr., MARTA Chairman

Frederick L. Daniels, Jr., chairman of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, spoke about the one cent sales tax election in 13 Georgia counties, scheduled for July 2012.

He discussed the Transportation Investment Act of 2010 (TIA.) He said that since 2000, Georgia has been the third-fastest growing state and that funding has not kept pace with population growth. This means that Georgia is losing its edge in attracting business, jobs, and growth. This is a focus especially in the Atlanta area, he said. Atlanta has traffic congestion. There are four operators in five counties. There is a 1 percent sales tax in DeKalb and Fulton Counties and the City of Atlanta. He said, MARTA has a 50-50 split of budget dollars going for operations and capital needs. It tends to tie the board’s hands. Now MARTA is getting a little relief in being able to move $163M from the capital to the operating budget. Rely on property taxes and business license fees – the other providers.

The TIA allowed funding projects through a 1 percent sales tax levied in all 13 counties plus a special tax levied in the whole state (11 other districts), each of which would control their own projects. It created a regional authority in each district, e.g., Savannah or Augusta. 15 percent of the funds in the Atlanta region go to projects as the region sees fit; in other regions, it is 25 percent which can be bicycle lanes or whatever, and the funds are controlled locally. The rest of the funds go primarily for roads - Georgia DOT and other roads, and GRTA transportation. A five-member citizen review panel is appointed by state officials. On July 31, 2012, we’ll make sure that the TIA passes. If it doesn’t pass, we wait two years to go again. We must put together a new plan if the referendum fails. It means $8B over a 10-year period. This has five to six times the economic impact of the Olympics on the Atlanta area, so it’s really a game-changer.

Regarding the impact of the TIA for MARTA, Daniels said MARTA cannot use the funds for its core operations. There is $600M for state-of-good-repair. MARTA can re-purpose funds for some proportion of its operations to make sure that its 30-year-old equipment is brought up to a state of good repair. The TIA will bring permanent relief of our 50-50 operations-capital allocation mandate. There will be $925M for expansion projects including heavy rail to the Clifton area, Emory university, research projects, and other development in the Stone Crest area. The Atlanta Regional Commission (our metropolitan planning organization) identified a 4:1 return on investment and $9.2B in travel time savings. The improvement in air quality will be the equivalent of 72,000 vehicles removed from the roads.

Daniels said that MARTA can’t tell people how to vote but can educate people. An unanswered question is who governs the new system. There were three bills introduced in this legislative session but none have crossed over from one house to the other, so we won’t have this before July, he said. But we have the right momentum to work through all the bodies locally, and are committed to economic development in terms of jobs, making Atlanta more competitive, and improving the ability to move efficiently through the region.

Questions for Daniels included …

· What if some areas pass the TIA and others don’t? They must wait two years, so there will be gaps within the 12 regions based on population. Each region has to vote yes. If not, no tax will be collected for the projects outlined for their region.

· What is your sales tax cap? The transportation local tax is one cent on top of what each county has in place. There is a 4 percent cap for the state. The City of Atlanta will have highest at 9 percent; one county will be at 8 percent; and others around 7 percent. In Texas, it is 6¼ percent plus a local 2 percent, so they are capped at 8¼ percent. There is no cap in Georgia. Each county listed their projects; there were $25B-$30B worth of projects on the wish list and needs. This amount was pared down to $6.4B, so there was a lot of push-pull.

Legislative Subcommittee Report, Randall Chrisman, Chair

· AC Transit (Oakland, CA) and MARTA (Atlanta, GA) provided resolutions in the face of actions by the U.S. House of Representatives.

· The Senate is discussing a two-year bill. It may have 25-30 more amendments.

· There isn’t a bill (good news and bad news)

· The increased transit pretax benefit has expired. An increase had been part of the stimulus package (a two-year yr bill.) Now there is an allowed subsidy of $230-240 for parking.

· A bill regarding liquid natural gas expired at end of the year.

· Regarding positive (or automated) train control (PTC), no one can afford it. There are spectrum and bandwidth issues. Agencies need time to implement PTC. It was an unfunded mandate just as agencies are cutting services.

· Regarding surface transportation authorization, there was a discussion about insurance in a multi-year arrangement under the topic of safety so there is a system of redundance (multiple systems to assure safety.)

· State of Good Repair is an important Federal initiative. It is positive and must be balanced with New Starts. Most earmarks were eliminated.

· The Legislature is tasked with cutting spending with a trillion-dollar deficit. The differential bbetween spending and investment must be emphasized. Public transportation is an investment with long-term viability. It is an investment in America with immediate and long-term public benefits. APTA members support the positions included in the authorization booklet that APTA published three years ago in preparation for the creation of new surface transportation legislation.