Public Transportation Stakeholders Advisory Board
Monthly Meeting Minutes
June 10, 2008
City Commission Meeting Room
(4:10) Meeting called to order.
Members Present: City Commissioner Eric Bryson, Chairman Chris Budeski, Colleen Lindner County Commissioner Bill Murdock and Carol Shannon.
Members Excused: Suzanne Winchester, Patty Gunderson and Gus Pfaehler were excused.
Others Present: Lee Hazelbaker, HRDC/Galavan/Streamline; Janet Kennedy, public; Dana Piper, First Group; Jecyn Bremer, Deputy County Attorney; and Recording Secretary Crystal Turner.
There was no public comment.
Approval of Minutes from May 13, 2008
Carol Shannon noted that her name was misspelled in the "Members Present" section of the 5/13/08 minutes. Crystal Turner will correct the minutes. Colleen Lindner made a motion to approve the minutes, as amended. Eric Bryson seconded the motion. Motion passed 4:0. Commissioner Murdock abstained since he did not attend the 5/13 meeting.
Update on Bus System
Lisa Ballard provided an update that Streamline received the FTA nomination for rural transportation. She read a letter from Senator Baucas, which congratulated Streamline on a job well done. She will email it out to the group so everyone can have a copy (included in FTA 2008 submittal pdf document attached).
Carol Shannon asked questions of Lee Hazelbaker regarding a cleaning schedule for the inside of the buses. Lee stated that they had not contacted the Detention Center work force yet, but he will. (Crystal will email him the contact information.)
Lisa continued her verbal presentation: the Eagle Scouts will be building some bus stop benches as a project. The City of Bozeman has stated to Streamline that it would like to see the bus system move forward to a municipal system, non-profit or UTD by the end of October. Lisa stated that by her estimates Streamline's ridership has increased by 49% this year. We generate about $1 million ($.933 million in revenue: grants, etc…) but costs $.948 million to operate. We will continue to be short roughly $15,000 this year as well. MDT has increased the money it gives to run Streamline by about 18% each year. However, since Streamline's creation many other counties and municipalities have also started a transportation system, which dips into the funds we used to see. Lisa added that Chris Kukulski
(City Manager of Bozeman) asked what the maximum ridership number is. This is a good question, and something we need to plan for, but we do not know that answer right now.
List of Priorities (decided upon by the Transportation Advisory Committee {TAC})
" Keep existing services ($15,000)
" Add weekend service ($49,000)
" Add Sunday service ($49,000)
" Add a 5th route ($137,000)
" Extend hours of operation ($100,000)
" Higher frequency, peak hours ($120,000)
" Add airport service ($103,000)
Janet Kennedy explained the responsibilities of TAC and what information they use to form their decisions. They also take into consideration the needs of Reach, Headstart and Galavan. Group discussion regarding getting information from TAC and MDT to the elected officials so that they could discuss it with their respective commissions. Lisa added, from her individual perspective, that if this board is going to form a UTD, to do it right: include Belgrade and Four Corners. Carol suggested that prior to going to public for a vote on a UTD, routes need to be fine-tuned, signs need to be correctly posted, etc… Everything needs to be in place and working correctly so that the public does not have a reason not to vote yes. Lisa thanked Carol for her comments.
Bill Murdock suggested a subcommittee with Carol, Suzanne, Patty and maybe an ASMSU representative (Colleen or Deepu) to provide input and a recommendation to Lisa.
Commissioner Murdock moved that we approve an operations committee with Carol, sue and Patty to provide Lisa a recommendation of combining/joining with current HRDC operational committee.
Chris Budeski seconded the motion.
Motion passed unanimously.
Lisa reminded the board that June 19th is "Dump the Pump" day. We are trying to get Colleen on the radio to celebrate and talk about "Dump the Pump" day this upcoming weekend.
Bill mentioned "donation boxes" as opposed to fare boxes. Board discussion regarding placement of any collection box on/near the buses. Chris asked Lisa is anything is planned for the Sweet Pea festival, like a staffed booth for Streamline. Lisa and Suzanne are the only ones who have donated their time in the past and both have enough meetings this year already. If someone else would like to staff a booth, feel free. Chris offered to staff a booth at the summer fair and/or the Farmer's Market.
(4:43) UTD Discussion
Chris said that it's well known that this board won't be going to a vote of the people to form a UTD by the November ballot. Lisa and Janet said now is the time to go to a vote. Discussion regarding promise to County Commission not to have this issue on a ballot before the new detention center issue comes before the people. Carol reiterated that until we get all the bus shelters installed, signs posted and our "ducks in a row" we can't go to the public because it won't be well known that it is an organized system.
Jecyn Bremer recapped what happened at the last meeting for Commission Murdock's benefits and to clarify questions from the board. Regarding the question: Can the County Commission determine a mill amount-Section 7-14-231, MCA, provides that the Commission shall fix and levy the mills sufficient to operate the district and taking into account the amount requested by the Board. However, Title 7, Chapter 14 does not provide particular guidance regarding the amount of discretion the County Commission has with regard to allocating the funding. Jecyn is still gathering information regarding a UTD board make-up. It seems reasonable to have continued Galavan representation on the UTD board.
Regarding the mill dilution from County and Cities of Bozeman and Belgrade: Eric said that it's a county issue. If you are dividing up a county area, you would have to take the average of a Belgrade mill, Bozeman mill and County mill and that is what the residents inside the UTD would pay.
To-Do list for Public Transit Stakeholder's board:
" Meet with City of Bozeman to determine if they will be recommending adoption of the UTD board and boundary to the County Commission.
" County to initiate ballot to create UTD boundary and board. (See question below for Jecyn.)
" Once board created-UTD board puts together a budget and recommends adoption of that budget to the County Commission.
" County Commission puts budgeted amount, in the form of mills, to a vote of the people.
" Gets created or does not get created.
Questions for Jecyn:
" Do UTD boundaries have to be contiguous?
" What/Who shall the board be made up of?
Discussion regarding charging for rides: it costs money to collect fees; costs money to install collection bins, costs money because you lose federal funding dollar for dollar for each fare dollar you collect.
Next Meeting
July 8, 2008
(Colleen will not be able to attend the July meeting.)
Agenda Items for Next Meeting
Status update if City is on board for UTD and what boundaries
Mill levy: what would one look like that's diluted?
Quick update on ridership
(5:15) Meeting adjourned
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