[0:03] Good morning. We'll call to order the Marine County Transit District Board of Directors. It's 9.30 a.m., and I'll ask the clerk to please call the roll. Thank you. I will now call roll. President Sackett. President Vice President Kasusa. Second Vice President Bushy. Director Colbert. Here. Director Molten Peters. Director Rodoni. Director Lucan. Here.

[0:30] Director Yoran's Gulati. Here. Thank you. We have a quorum. Thank you, Kate. We'll now open it

[0:37] up for public expression on items not on the district's agenda. Is there anyone wishing to make

[0:43] public comment? And you have two minutes. Excuse me, President Sackett. May I first read the

[0:49] instructions for participation? Yes, please do. Thank you. At today's meeting, in-person comments,

[0:54] will be heard before virtual comments. If you're joining us on Zimini, would like to comment,

[0:58] please use the raise hand icon located on your screen.

[1:02] If you're participating by phone call,

[1:04] please press star nine to raise your hand.

[1:07] When it is your turn to speak,

[1:08] your name will be called

[1:09] and you'll be prompted to unmute your device.

[1:11] You'll then have two minutes to speak.

[1:13] This concludes my instructions.

[1:14] Thank you.

[1:15] Thank you for the instructions.

[1:17] I'll now open it up for a public comment.

[1:19] Is there anyone in the chambers?

[1:21] I'm not seeing any.

[1:22] Is there anyone on Zoom?

[1:24] Was she to make public comment on non-agenda items?

[1:27] No hands on line.

[1:29] Okay.

[1:30] We will close public comment and move on to Board of Directors matters.

[1:33] Are there any directors wishing to make any announcements or updates?

[1:39] I'm not seeing any.

[1:40] We'll move on to item three, the General Manager's report.

[1:44] Okay.

[1:44] Good morning, President Sackett, Board of Directors.

[1:47] Happy Monday.

[1:48] I'm going to start my General Manager's report by introducing the newest member of our team,

[1:53] Mandy Kellogg. Mandy, say hi. Mandy is our new director of finance and started the role on August 31st.

[2:02] Mandy joins the district after spending the last 17 years with the city of St. Alina

[2:06] in Napa County. During her time there she held a number of roles with progressive responsibilities,

[2:13] including the administrative services manager, finance manager, and administrative services director.

[2:19] and her role as administrative services director,

[2:24] Mandy oversaw all municipal finance functions,

[2:27] including budgeting, accounting, payroll, purchasing grants,

[2:31] and financial reporting.

[2:32] So please join me in welcoming Mandy to the team.

[2:37] Okay.

[2:39] So jumping into my General Manager's report,

[2:42] yesterday was the first day of our September sign-up.

[2:46] So we did a minor schedule change starting yesterday.

[2:49] Today the change did include six of our routes, and it was largely in response to some of

[2:54] the changes we implemented as part of the mascots effort, as well as some of the ever-changing

[2:59] traffic patterns.

[3:01] And the goal of the change was really to improve on time performance and service reliability.

[3:06] We've been messaging that to our writers over the last month or so, and more information

[3:11] is available on our website.

[3:13] Right. We also developed a social media video that shared the changes with our writers

[3:20] featuring our lead scheduler, Abby Smith. So if you haven't seen that post, go online

[3:26] and check out our new video.

[3:30] This summer, we had the opportunity to partner with a couple

[3:34] different local organizations. The first one was with the county's emergency operation

[3:41] Management Center. Late in July, there was a plan power shut off in southern Marin around the Mill Valley area, and we work to support the mobility needs for those that needed accessible service and vehicles to get to some of the cooling stations around the county.

[3:58] We've also been partnering with an organization called Streets to Creaks, and this was an opportunity to build and raise awareness around watersheds and the impact of trash and pollutants that enter the storm drains.

[4:13] And they requested to come out and develop some signage for some of our bus stops that we've posted across the county.

[4:19] the picture here shows one of those bus stops that we developed in Marin City.

[4:27] September is transit month, and this is our opportunity to join with other transit agencies in the region to raise awareness about the benefits of public transportation.

[4:41] There's a number of key events that have been scheduled during the month of September.

[4:45] last Friday I participated in the CEO ride along. This was an opportunity for CEOs

[4:52] and for transit advocates and riders to come out and collectively ride

[4:57] service around the Bay Area. I think they're over.

[5:00] 200 participants. And that event last week. The 15th is all aboard transit day. There's a number of promotional events going on around the Bay Area. And all month long, there's different ride contests that are encouraging riders to log their trips and use transit around the Bay Area. And more information on that can be found at ca.transitmonth.org.

[5:26] A number of local events that the transit district is participating in here

[5:31] this month. So this Wednesday is the Marin County Senior Fair. This is a great

[5:36] opportunity for our staff to engage with not only our writers but potential

[5:42] writers to educate them on mobility offerings for older adults here in Marin

[5:46] County. There's an opportunity at the Senior Fair to actually sign up and become

[5:50] eligible for our different programs. On the 24th we'll be hosting one of our

[5:56] virtual information sessions. You'll hear more about what we're doing with

[6:00] informational sessions as part of our outreach presentation, but this is an opportunity for

[6:05] writers to go online into a Zoom environment and to ask staff questions, and the focus of

[6:12] this informational event will be Clipper. And then on the 26th Saturday, the 26th will be participating

[6:19] in the Canal Community Fair, hosted by Canal Alliance. This will be at the Pickleweed Center in the

[6:24] canal, and this is another great opportunity for us to get out in front of our writers and help

[6:29] educate them on some of our current promotional efforts and specifically Clipper.

[6:36] You're going to hear a lot about Clipper today. So, there's a bit of a theme there.

[6:40] We've also been doing ongoing outreach with our various marketing and outreach teams at transit hubs and bus stops again promoting Clipper.

[6:51] That started earlier this month and that'll continue for most of the fall.

[6:55] We have two upcoming fair free days on October 7th will offer free transit as part of Clean Air Day and November 3rd election day will also be offering free transit countywide.

[7:10] So coming back to Clipper and just a quick reminder Clipper is the future fair payment system on Marin Transit.

[7:18] We are putting a lot of marketing and outreach efforts toward that system and the messaging here is really around the ability for Clipper to save riders money.

[7:26] There's a lot of embedded discounts and other types of frequent writer programs that

[7:34] are offered through the Clipper program.

[7:37] And, again, we are out in the community right now doing outreach and writer education

[7:42] around Clipper.

[7:46] We have partnered with both Canal Alliance and MTC to leverage their expertise to help us

[7:52] go out into the field and do outreach.

[7:55] We are focusing on our major transit hubs and bus stops around the county.

[7:59] We also partnered to do an event up at the North Marin Community Services District Office as part of their food pantry to again just spread the word on the benefits of Clipper and to pass out applications and Clipper cards to get that fair media in our writers hands.

[8:16] The other thing we're going to be doing as part of our Clipper Outreach and Marketing

[8:20] efforts is to track what we're calling our Clipper Adoption Rates.

[8:25] So Clipper Adoption is the percent of our riders that are using Clipper as their fair

[8:30] payment option.

[8:32] We've pulled data back to July of 2025, and to be honest, if you look at data even before

[8:39] July of 2025, we've always had about a 10 percent Clipper Adoption Rate, which means that

[8:44] of about 10% of our riders use Clipper.

[8:47] The other 90% pay in a variety of different means,

[8:50] including cash and passes.

[8:53] And as you can see that our Clipper adoption

[8:56] is starting to trend up in December of last year,

[9:00] December of 25, that was the launch

[9:02] of the next generation Clipper system.

[9:04] And then January was the first time

[9:06] that we offered our monthly passes on the Clipper system.

[9:10] So you can start to see in the chart here,

[9:12] the dark green is basically our e-cash, our trips that are paying on a trip by trip basis.

[9:19] And now the lighter green represents the percent of our riders using clipper monthly pass options.

[9:27] And as of August, we were just below about 30 percent clipper adoption rate.

[9:32] We are expecting to see a big jump in that adoption rate because of all the outreach we're doing

[9:37] as well as transitioning our K-12 youth pass

[9:40] and our College of Marin pass right now

[9:42] into the Clipper environment.

[9:45] And then the next chart here basically shows

[9:47] our month over month total Clipper usage.

[9:51] And this breaks it down by rider type.

[9:54] So the dark green is our adult passengers.

[9:57] The lighter green are our senior riders.

[10:00] The light blue is youth. The dark blue is access or are writers that have a disability. And

[10:10] then the orange is our clipper start or our low income program that's offered through clipper.

[10:15] And as you can see, again, we're seeing generally increasing and usage on clipper. We did

[10:21] see some kind of plateauing over the summer. Most of that was largely due to the fact that

[10:26] we were fare free for youth.

[10:28] And then in July, we went almost a full week

[10:30] as fare free for everyone

[10:32] as part of the Marin County Fair promotion.

[10:34] So those total numbers didn't quite track

[10:37] with the rest of the trend.

[10:39] But again, in September,

[10:40] we're expecting to see those numbers continue to go up.

[10:45] And also included in your packet

[10:48] or monthly ridership or monthly monitoring reports,

[10:52] we included both May and June

[10:53] because we did not have a meeting in August.

[10:56] May showed pretty steady ridership.

[11:00] In fact, it was down about 1% compared to last year,

[11:03] but it was still up 9% compared to pre-COVID.

[11:07] June was up 2% and up 15% compared to pre-COVID.

[11:12] That was on the fixed route on our marine access services.

[11:15] We continue to see general declines in ridership.

[11:20] May was down 5% compared to last year and June was down 12%.

[11:25] So, with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

[11:30] Thank you very much for the report.

[11:32] I'll look to fellow directors for questions, Dr. Lohan-Screw-Matti.

[11:36] Thank you very much and thank you for the report.

[11:39] I really want to appreciate Maureen Transit for being, I was at a meeting with the hospital

[11:45] at the author of the deal Maureen and regarding the 101-580 and I know that we have one of

[11:51] our representatives there.

[11:53] So, this actually came up, the concern of people paying with cash, so I really appreciate

[12:01] the outreach.

[12:02] The food pantry, I think, is a great idea and I know that there are some with canal

[12:05] alliance, which is a great partner as well.

[12:08] So more than a question is, I guess it's like in the outreach, is there's going to be anything

[12:16] around that?

[12:18] Around food pantry specifically?

[12:20] A food pantry or community clinics, any other place where people are going because there

[12:25] is still that concern about people who don't have a bank account, credit cards, APMs

[12:33] that to be able to still pay for it.

[12:36] Yeah.

[12:37] Thank you.

[12:38] Yeah.

[12:38] The focus of our outreach has really been targeting existing riders and riders that are

[12:42] using the services today.

[12:44] So that's why we are stationed primarily at transit stops.

[12:47] the Transit Center will be doing outreach at the canal stops and actually be on board the vehicle

[12:52] in the months to come. So that's been the focus. We do have other events like the upcoming

[12:58] canal community event that we'll be at as well as our virtual information sessions.

[13:06] And Joanna's going to give a more comprehensive update on all of our outreach efforts in item six

[13:11] today, so thank you. Other Director, questions or comments? I'm not seeing any. Welcome,

[13:20] Mandy. We're glad to have you. Thanks for joining the team and it's great to have you on board.

[13:28] With that, we will close the General Manager's item and look for public comment on the General

[13:34] manager's report. Is there anyone in the chambers? I'm not seeing any. And I'm not seeing

[13:41] any hands raised on Zoom on the General Manager's report. So we'll close public comment, move

[13:47] on to or close comment, move on to the consent calendar. Do any directors wish to pull anything

[13:52] from the consent calendar? Not seeing any? We'll open it up for public comment on the consent

[13:59] I have a motion on the consent calendar, no one in the chambers,

[14:05] no hands raised on Zoom, may I have a motion on the consent calendar?

[14:10] So moved.

[14:12] As second.

[14:13] We have a motion by Lucan, a second by Lorenz Gladi, all those in favor?

[14:19] Aye.

[14:20] Any opposed?

[14:22] Seeing none, the consent calendar is adopted.

[14:24] it. We'll now move on to agenda item 5, a public hearing for fair policy. This agenda

[14:31] item includes a public hearing to give members of the public an opportunity to comment

[14:35] on the proposed changes to more in transit's fair policy. Staff will bring a final recommendation

[14:40] that incorporates feedback from the public to our next meeting on October 5th, 2026. Before

[14:46] I turn the meeting over to Robert Betts for the presentation, I'd like to check that our

[14:51] Interpretation team is ready to go and that everyone in the chambers who needs headsets has a headset.

[15:00] Okay, and the chambers as the interpretation team online? Great. Okay, I will now turn it over to our general manager for the presentation. Okay, thank you, President Sackett. And if we could bring up the slide with the instructions for interpretation or closed captioning, I'll just leave that up there for a minute for those online that need that instruction. While we're bringing that up, I'll just read the recommendation here.

[15:27] So the recommendation again on item number five is to receive public comment and close the public comment period on the proposed changes to marine transit's fair policy.

[15:37] I'm going to just interrupt you real quick. Is the hand raised on Zoom for public comment? Do we know or is it somebody looking for interpretation services?

[15:48] I believe the hand went up after public comment. Would you like to check with the participant?

[15:56] Yes, we could ask the caller ending in 1402 if you're calling to make comment on this item.

[16:05] Yes, public comment on the substance and not interpretation.

[16:11] Okay, thank you. We'll get to that. Sorry for the interruption. Go ahead, Robert.

[16:16] So again, the recommended action here is to receive public comment and close the public comment period on the proposed changes to public comment.

[16:26] in transit's fair policy, including one discontinuation of free transfers for cash

[16:32] paying writers, and two, discontinuation of the paid youth pass product. I do want to

[16:38] clarify that's the paid youth pass, not the free youth pass as part of the action today.

[16:45] So on the screen, in front of you are instructions for interpretation for those participating online,

[16:52] and also instructions for closed captioning if so needed.

[16:58] Okay, I am gonna go over a brief presentation.

[17:01] I know your board has heard this item a number of times,

[17:04] but just as a reminder, the recommendation before you stems

[17:09] from a fair collection study that we adopted in 2024.

[17:14] There were three primary findings and recommendations related

[17:17] to that study.

[17:18] One was to transition our ridership counting

[17:21] into a system called automatic passenger counters.

[17:25] We implemented that system about a year and a half

[17:28] and we've been using that successfully since that time.

[17:31] The other two were related to our fair collection technologies.

[17:37] And the first was to adopt and to move forward

[17:40] with the next generation Clipper system

[17:42] as our primary fair collection payment.

[17:46] And the second one was to remove and not replace

[17:50] are current validating fair boxes with what we call drop fair box systems. These are simple

[17:55] mechanical fair boxes that just collect cash, but they do not issue transfers, and they also do

[18:01] not print and read change cards.

[18:09] So the two changes to the fair policy, as I mentioned earlier,

[18:12] one is to discontinue free transfers for cash paying riders, and the second one is to discontinue

[18:18] the paid youth pass program.

[18:21] I do want to note that we are not changing the base fares of any of our, for any of

[18:27] our writer types as part of this faer policy change.

[18:30] I should also mention that we did conduct a Title VI analysis that was included as part

[18:35] of the board item in July when you said the public hearing and we also reattached it to

[18:41] this board item.

[18:42] The team did education and outreach on the proposal through a number of our digital

[18:50] platforms, including social media on our website and our e-newsletters.

[18:56] We did publish the notice in the Marin IJ and we also posted the notice at our high

[19:01] ridership stops countywide.

[19:04] Riders could go online and use our online comment form.

[19:07] They could call into the office or they could submit comments via mail.

[19:13] At the time of developing this board item we had received 17 comments. I should note that for additional comments came in since last Wednesday those were provided to your board as part of the supplemental.

[19:26] So a total of 21 comments we heard.

[19:30] The majority of the those that that responded did use Marin transit services a little bit over over half of the comments.

[19:40] And generally the comments that we heard for the most part did indicate concerns with equity

[19:49] for writers with income barriers, primarily those who are unbanked and writers without internet access.

[19:57] Yes, there were a number of signals.

[20:00] As part of the public comment process, including expanding the Clipper Retail Network to make Clipper more accessible, expanding hours of operation at the Clipper Customer Service Center, and really engaging in marketing and outreach campaign to distribute Clipper cards.

[20:23] So as part of the public hearing today, we are simultaneously interpreting and broadcasting this public hearing in Spanish.

[20:33] In-person comments will be heard before virtual comments if we have any in the room and then we'll open it up for two minutes to speak.

[20:43] So with that, President Sackett, I'll turn it back over to you.

[20:46] Thank you. So I'll look to any directors for any questions or comments before we proceed with the public hearing.

[20:52] I'm not seeing any Robert can you just talk about the so the free youth pass is going away and that had very.

[21:01] It wasn't a very big percentage of folks can you just talk through the difference between that and the other youth pass yeah so to clarify the paid youth

[21:11] pass is going away that so okay historically we had one youth pass program and students that qualified for free or reduced lunch program received that pass for free.

[21:22] And about 95 to 98% of all of our riders receiving that pass were receiving it for free.

[21:30] There were a small number of riders that did pay for that pass on an annual basis.

[21:35] The price of that pass was $325 per year.

[21:41] And there were definitely some challenges in administering that pass program between the

[21:49] school sites and our team and because of the very small numbers of students that were using

[21:54] that, we're making the recommendation to discontinue that paid pass.

[21:58] We also did the math on it and, you know, to really make value of that $325, you have

[22:05] to ride almost every day to and from school.

[22:07] And now that we do offer the free summer youth campaign program for the three months over

[22:12] the summer, financially, it was almost equal to just pay on a per-trip basis.

[22:18] than it was to sell the $325 pass through the Clipper program. So that piece is going away. We will

[22:26] retain the free youth pass program. The teams have been actively doing outreach with the schools

[22:33] today trying to assist with that transition process. But our plan is by the end of October to transition

[22:40] all of our free youth pass students into the Clipper environment. Great. Thank you.

[22:48] Not seeing any other director questions or comments.

[22:52] We, the public hearing on the proposed changes to marine transit sphere policy is now open.

[22:58] As a reminder, comments are simultaneously interpreted.

[23:02] Community members are welcome to comment in both English and Spanish.

[23:06] Is there anyone in the room wishing to make comment on this item?

[23:10] I'm not seeing any.

[23:12] We'll go online.

[23:17] Colin, user ending in 1402.

[23:20] You may now unmute.

[23:21] Thank you.

[23:30] Can you hear me?

[23:32] Yes, we can.

[23:33] Yeah.

[23:33] James Holmes, large spur, primarily, 22, user and transfer there.

[23:38] I think that discontinuing free transfers would be very inequitable.

[23:45] It would most severely impact seniors like myself and low income, particularly lack of

[23:55] and low-income people who are most likely to use coins.

[24:00] So the impact of this proposal is literally greatest on the most vulnerable.

[24:05] It is county policy to consider things from a quote.

[24:10] Equity lens unquote, all staff reports require an equity impact.

[24:15] And again, this literally is the hardest on the most vulnerable.

[24:21] can be extremely hard to

[24:30] computer skills or credit cards or regularly access places

[24:35] where they can be charged. When I commuted into the city, I would add fair at the world greens

[24:46] but around here. And it's significant that the, or the Clipper uptake is relatively low.

[24:58] So the head 10%.

[25:00] So, if anything, this is certainly premature. This proposal comes on top of the changes, which

[25:08] reduced ride options, and especially, and most drastically for me, eliminated highway boardings for the 22.

[25:18] So, eliminating cash fairs would literally add insult to injury or vice versa.

[25:32] No more hands online.

[25:34] Okay. Thank you. I'll turn it back to Robert for any response to the comment that we heard and

[25:44] sort of the other, the 21 public comments that we heard today or that we received over last

[25:50] week. Yes. Thank you. So yes, I think what the team is focused on right now is education and outreach

[25:59] and actually going out and getting clipper cards in the hands of our riders to help at least reduce

[26:04] the barrier of access to the Clipper program. A couple things that were noted in the call and also

[26:10] noted in the comments. Some of the challenges are related to getting the Clipper card with the

[26:15] discount program. So, you know, there are retail outlets, you can go to smart stations, you can go to

[26:21] the transit center, you can go to the ferry terminal, you can buy an adult Clipper card relatively

[26:25] easily in Marin County. The challenge becomes if you qualify as a senior or for the Clipper Access Program or for the youth program.

[26:35] That's where some of the eligibility and the application challenges come in.

[26:39] And that's again, some of the focus of our targeted outreach is to make sure that we're assisting with that application process.

[26:47] I do want to also note that there are a number of safety net fair programs we offer at the district.

[26:54] We have partnerships with social service agencies that offer free ride tickets on a trip

[27:02] by trip basis.

[27:03] We've worked individually with those programs to understand that monthly passes or even

[27:09] annual passes on Clipper aren't necessarily the best approach.

[27:12] We'll continue to work with those programs and offer those single ride tickets.

[27:16] We also have the MOFA program, which is our low-income senior program, and seniors that qualify

[27:25] get unlimited free rides annually. That program has already been transitioned over to the

[27:31] Clipper program, and again, riders can become eligible by calling our armor and access line.

[27:37] We complete that application and actually send it out in the mail as part of the enrollment process.

[27:44] us. We talked about the Youth Clipper program, the K-12. So there are definitely a number

[27:51] of safety net programs that we offer for our low income riders, and then Clipper also

[27:57] has the Clipper Start program, and that offers 50% offer adult fares. So there are a number

[28:03] of options, and again, part of our job, again, if your board decides to move forward with

[28:09] this action is to really get out in the community and to help market and do the outreach

[28:14] around those elements.

[28:17] Thank you.

[28:18] At Wednesday's, senior fair, will there be folks there helping people enroll in Clipper

[28:23] and do this transition?

[28:26] Okay.

[28:26] I think that was helpful last year of just actually being there to do it then, not to give

[28:32] you a form, but to do it right there.

[28:34] So I appreciate it.

[28:35] Director Bushy.

[28:36] A quick question.

[28:38] Can you walk us through the rider experience that's going to start on January 1st?

[28:47] So what happens if you're a regular cash-paying rider, you're used to getting your free transfer?

[28:56] What is going to happen to that rider is they get on the bus and what will be their options

[29:02] when that occurs? Yeah, great question. And our hope is a lot of this happens before that period,

[29:10] right? So hopefully if we're successful, we're on the bus well ahead of time, educating those

[29:15] riders, talking to those riders. So it isn't a day one experience of, oh, I don't understand, I don't

[29:22] get my free transfer. You know, we will probably work to develop some form of policy to give those

[29:32] riders some grace period. I mean, again, I think there's there's going to be a physical change

[29:37] in the fair box that will happen. That'll be a clear indicator that something's different with

[29:43] the cash collection system. So I think I think there's probably a period of time where we'll

[29:49] continue the education process but not necessarily penalize riders and then be there with

[29:55] With Clipper Cards with applications whatever it takes to help that run.

[30:19] I think we're going to need a much more specific plan for the person who's trying to get on the bus and trying to get to work and is standing there. They paid their dollar. It's gone down in the nice new one.

[30:30] I mean, they say, where's my transfer?

[30:33] What is the driver going to say?

[30:36] Specific, what is the answer going to be?

[30:39] Oh, here's your pamphlet about the new changes,

[30:42] and here's your one time transfer.

[30:45] Please apply for the Clipper Carter,

[30:47] something along those lines.

[30:49] But I think we need a specific plan

[30:52] because everyone gets educated through the process

[30:57] is going to be all set.

[30:58] It's just that handful of people that are going to be in the moment and on their way some place important and they're going to need a readily understandable means to get on that next bus and to get them to where they want to go.

[31:17] So, yeah, we'll go back and look at the timeline for implementation of those fair boxes and we can bring back a more detailed plan in October as part of our final action on this that'll really spell out what that that experience looks like.

[31:30] How we're going to get those patrons to their destination.

[31:33] Right. Thank you.

[31:34] Any other director questions or comments? I'm not seeing any.

[31:40] We will close the public hearing and this item will come back to us at the October 5th, 2026 meeting for final adoption.

[31:53] Thank you very much. Okay. We'll now move on to agenda item 6 and update on community engagement.

[32:02] Okay, and Joanna Hewitt is going to present item number six.

[32:12] Good morning, President Sackett and Board of Directors.

[32:14] Joanna Hewitt, Program and Policy Manager.

[32:16] Item six in your packet is an update on the district's community engagement efforts.

[32:22] And I'm going to give it a second to have the slides come up on the screen.

[32:34] So as part of this presentation, I will provide an overview of the district's public engagement efforts.

[32:39] This provided brief recap of our efforts last fiscal year, including lessons learned,

[32:44] and then share what we have planned for the current fiscal year.

[32:47] Please note there is a typo on this slide.

[32:49] There are no recommendations or action associated with this item.

[32:55] So, Marin Transit takes an expansive approach to public engagement and seeks to engage with

[33:00] and address the needs of a wide range of community members and community partners across the county.

[33:06] Our goals for public engagement are outlined in the public participation plan and are aimed

[33:10] it amplifying the voices that have been historically underrepresented or left out of

[33:15] the decision-making process. As shown on the slide on the screen, our goals for public

[33:20] engagement are the four E's. They're to educate and inform, encourage broad participation,

[33:27] ensure engagement activities are inclusive and accessible for all, and evaluate the effectiveness

[33:33] and impact of our activities. The concerns, issues, ideas and needs of the community gathered

[33:39] through the public participation process

[33:41] inform our projects and plans.

[33:47] Engaging writers, particularly our loyal writers and the transit dependent,

[33:51] is of utmost importance to the district.

[33:53] We use a variety of strategies to communicate with,

[33:57] educate, and collect feedback from writers in the community.

[34:00] Since many community members may not attend or regularly participate

[34:03] in traditional public meetings and board hearings,

[34:06] we employ a broad range of strategies,

[34:08] including direct writer engagement at stops

[34:10] and Transit Hubs, digital communication via our website, e-newsletter and social media,

[34:17] virtual drop-in meetings or info sessions, and distribution of printed and digital writer

[34:22] educational materials directly to community members or distributed via our community partners.

[34:28] These strategies enable us to reach a broader audience and ensure inclusive participation

[34:34] from the community. The images on this slide show photos or collateral from events we hosted last

[34:40] fiscal year. The top image shows a community event related to mascots that we held at the

[34:45] Marin City Library. The lower left photo shows a graphic use to encourage participation

[34:52] in a virtual community conversation we organized. And the lower right image shows a photo from

[34:58] and the what about age transfer to people.

[35:04] So, Marin Transit is committed to engaging and collecting input from a wide range of stakeholders and community members. We engage with the general public including both existing and potential writers. Some examples of groups warranting special attention are shown on this slide. These groups may have specialized needs or provide specific input into our programs and services. We also engage with community-based organizations, our peer agencies and local governments to identify shared

[35:32] interest and allow for service coordination. Growing our relationships with community partners

[35:37] and leaders has really allowed us to reach a broader audience and collaborate on strategies

[35:41] and campaigns.

[35:45] This slide shows a recap of our engagement efforts last fiscal year, staff organized

[35:50] or participated in a total of 75 events. These included group navigating transit presentations

[35:56] where we share general information about marine transit and marine access programs and services

[36:01] and support people to enroll in our programs and Clipper.

[36:06] We also hosted resource tables and where we provided information about our programs and services

[36:12] at prescheduled satellite hours events or at other community events that either we organized or we partnered

[36:19] with local agencies on.

[36:22] We also held virtual drop-in info sessions where we can share information about specific topics

[36:29] like Marin Access Service Changes that occurred last year, we held compensated focus groups

[36:37] in writer interviews where we collected really specific writer input and then finally in person

[36:42] outreach at the San Rafael Transit Center and other locations across the county. These events

[36:47] enabled us to engage nearly, engaged with nearly 6,000 community members through the course of the last

[36:53] year.

[36:56] Throughout the course of the year, the team documented community engagement efforts and reflected

[37:00] did on best practices and lessons learned.

[37:03] I'll go through the items that you see on this slide here.

[37:06] So first, we found that offering flexible options for writers to engage with us is

[37:12] incredibly important.

[37:14] We've offered virtual drop-in info sessions that allow staff to give targeted information

[37:19] to interested community members.

[37:22] And generally, attendance at these types of events is low, but it does provide an opportunity

[37:27] you for us to engage with riders in small groups or one-on-one, where we can answer a

[37:32] variety of questions and really provide that one-on-one support. These efforts ultimately

[37:37] reduce the burden on our call center and customer service staff and to help our riders

[37:41] get the support they need.

[37:44] Second, we found that utilizing people-centered

[37:47] campaign arcs on social media is an effective method of engaging riders collecting feedback

[37:52] and enticing them to engage with us. Analytics about these types of posts demonstrate that they

[37:57] result in more engagement than simple posts with text and an image.

[38:01] The image on the right-hand side of the slide shows the cover graphic to a series we did

[38:06] earlier this year on social media detailing how various members of our team use transit

[38:12] to get to work and throughout their work day.

[38:14] If you follow our social media channels, you'll soon see the start of a series of posts.

[38:19] We're really excited about the profile writers and their stories of using our service.

[38:24] Third, on the list here, partnerships and collaborations are key to expanding our reach.

[38:31] These allow staff to leverage the knowledge, community trust, and reach of partner organizations

[38:36] to better educate and inform writers.

[38:39] The two images on the screen show some examples of successful partnership efforts.

[38:45] The top image shows members of the Vosistil Canal Group and Dr. Huerta on one of our buses

[38:50] is learning about marine transit and the transit planning process.

[38:54] You guys heard more about that last spring, but this effort was done as part of the capacity

[38:59] building series where we partnered with Dr. Horta and Canal Alliance.

[39:05] The bottom image shows attendees of the what about age transportation fare.

[39:09] We organized this in partnership with the what about age team and transit and transportation

[39:14] providers in the county.

[39:15] And this really allowed us to meet people that were new to Marin Transit and Marin Access

[39:21] and give them an opportunity to learn about the range of their options all in one place.

[39:25] We do expect to host similar events in the future.

[39:29] Finally, we have found that satellite hours are not really an effective method for rider engagement.

[39:35] We've done these throughout the past several years.

[39:38] And while they are a useful tool for meeting people where they're at, we've found that

[39:41] This often, you know, if we tag on to an existing event, we end up seeing the same people

[39:46] and doesn't generate a lot of new interest in our services.

[39:50] And our goal is really to reach new community members.

[39:55] So we plan to discontinue satellite hours in favor of focusing our efforts on planning.

[40:00] And more broadly promoted events that locations across the county.

[40:08] To guide our work, we develop an annual campaign plan. This is a living document that we continually update and adjust to reflect new or emerging needs. This also allows us to coordinate the timing and activities of each campaign. This slide shows the campaign slated for the current fiscal year on the left side of the table. Each campaign is shown there in the middle of the table.

[40:33] they're linked to a campaign category. We use this to easily track our efforts throughout the year

[40:38] and then on the right-hand side you'll see the campaign time frame. We identify these to help

[40:44] the team manage the workload throughout the year. As an example, the fifth row down identifies a

[40:51] campaign for September 2026 service changes. This falls under the service changes category and

[40:57] occurred throughout the summer and culminates. We'll be culminating this week as the service changes

[41:02] were implemented yesterday. So, under this campaign, we employ a variety of strategies,

[41:08] including printed material at transit hubs and stops, a variety of social media posts,

[41:13] the video Robert mentioned earlier, and then information posted to our website and e-news letters.

[41:19] And again, all efforts are tracked so that we monitor efforts and adjust our tactics as needed.

[41:23] So, as you can see, we have a lot planned for the remainder of this year, including educating

[41:30] writers in the community about fair promotions, service changes, and most notably the benefits

[41:34] of next-generation clipper and upcoming changes to fair collection.

[41:40] That concludes my presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

[41:44] Thank you very much, Joanna, for the detailed report.

[41:46] Are there any director, questions, or comments?

[41:50] Not seeing any, anyone wishing to make public comment on the community engagement?

[41:56] Not seeing anyone in the chambers?

[41:59] Not seeing any hands raised on Zoom.

[42:01] This is a discussion item, no actions, so thank you very much, Joanna.

[42:06] And with that, we are adjourned.

Marin Transit Board

Transcript