Public Transportation Stakeholders Advisory Board
Monthly Meeting Minutes
October 14, 2008
Courthouse Community Meeting Room
(4:03) Meeting called to order.
Members Present: Chairman Chris Budeski, City Commissioner Eric Bryson, Carol Shannon, Patty Gunderson and Suzanne Winchester.
Members Not Present: Colleen Lindner, Gus Pfaehler and Commissioner Murdock were excused.
Others Present: Lisa Ballard, WTI; Lee Hazelbaker, HRDC/Galavan/Streamline; Jarvis Brown, Transit Now!; Michel Tucker, Belgrade News; and Recording Secretary Crystal Turner.
Public Comment: There was no public comment.
Approval of Minutes from July 8, 2008: Chris Budeski asked if there were any comments or corrections to the minutes. There were none. Minutes stand approved as submitted.
Approval of Minutes from September 16, 2008: Chris asked if there were any comments or corrections. Lee Hazelbaker corrected that Streamline has not reached 8,000 riders a day as stated in the minutes, but did reach 800. Commissioner Bryson made a motion to approve the minutes as corrected. Patty Gunderson seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.
(4:07)Update on Bus System:
Lee Hazelbaker informed the board that Streamline did have a 989-rider day! The average for September was 790 rides per day (daytime only). Group discussed new riders in general. Late night service averages 62 riders/night. This has slowed through the summer. They believe it will increase again now that college is back in session. On Thursday night (October 9th) Lee picked up a "new" yellow bustle-back bus from Yellowstone National Park's generous donation of two buses for use through June 2009. This bus is being used on the Livingston route and could be used in town too. We cannot do permanent logos since these buses are loaned to us (they need to be returned in the same condition they were delivered). The second bus is currently being serviced.
Livingston route began on Monday the 13th with nine riders. All riders were headed to MSU. Today there were fourteen riders. The pick-up time is 6:45 a.m. and the return time leaves Bozeman at 5:35 p.m. Discussion regarding another Livingston run during the day. Lee said that roughly $30,000 would be needed to have an additional run to get the operational costs paid through the end of the [fiscal] year.
Carol Shannon complimented the drivers on their improvement of stop locations. Discussion regarding pull-cord and general feeling of safety for the riders.
(4:18 Agenda Adjustment) Charlotte Mills, Election Administrator re: ballot issues
Charlotte discussed petition options, including an example West Yellowstone did of a mail out "question" and contact information/signature area that are serving as their "petition." Discussion regarding taxing people who are not being service currently (and may not ever be). Chris has issue with taxing anyone who is not currently being serviced.
Charlotte said that the easiest way to implement a boundary is by using a current city boundary. The Election Department's database has all that mapped, all the registered voters within the district already input and this would take the minimal amount of time to create a "new" district. Elections could create labels and mail a petition out similar to West Yellowstone's but they do charge for their time (only Charlotte's-as the elected official-time is free). Labels are five cents each and mailings are the same one would do it themselves at 42 cents. The size of both the cities would cost roughly $10,000. Discussion among the board members, including Charlotte, regarding bypassing the legislative boundaries and drawing a new UTD boundary. Charlotte said this it creates much more work because she
would have to take this board's suggested boundary and have her GIS technician actually find each address within that boundary-then they would eliminate the non-registered voters within that boundary. This would take many hours to complete. Someone asked if Belgrade and Bozeman would be looked at as two separate districts. Charlotte didn't know and suggested we ask the County Attorney (Crystal will forward the question to Jecyn Bremer and invite her to the next meeting).
Charlotte informed the board that there is a "clean up committee" in the legislature that was formed last session, who's responsibility will be to streamline the petition percentages between all these various districts (fire, UTD, legislative, etc…). She urged the board to contact the legislature and find out who was on the committee to inform them that we would like this part of the law also streamlined. Possibly the need for a petition could even be deleted. Chris Budeski stated he would contact Mike Harris or the Legislative Offices in Helena to learn the committee member's contact information.
(4:38)Urban Transit District Discussion
Chris Budeski recapped on the homework Brian Close did regarding the petition language in the first draft of the UTD law. Jarvis Brown added that and Brian Close met and chatted about this and both agree that they misunderstood the law before.
Other Discussion Items:
Carol Shannon asked for an update on the signage removing/moving status. Lee said that he has talked with John Vanderlinder (City of Bozeman Streets Department) and did stress the priorities. Some signs are still posted where stops no longer exist. Eric Bryson stated that he would try to follow up on getting that complete.
Next Meeting
November's meeting falls on a holiday, so we will reschedule for November 18th @ 4PM. This meeting will be held back at City Hall (new building-121 N. Rouse Avenue).
Agenda Items for Next Meeting
" Election of Vice Chair
" UTD board merger w/ Streamline & Galavan board
(5:00) Meeting adjourned
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