[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] So everyone is aware we are live on the web.
[0:07] All right. Good morning to all attending the RTA's virtual meeting of the Board of Directors. The hour of nine has arrived and I will call us to order. Please turn off or close your computer cameras for the board that allows you to see our screen and presentation. Governor Pritzberg's emergency declaration remains enforced during the current COVID-19
[0:34] pandemic. My pursuant to his executive orders declaring a public health emergency and recent
[0:40] amendments to the Open Meeting Act, we continue to operate under the permission to conduct our
[0:46] meeting without physical attendance requirements. As the head of this public body, I find that
[0:53] declared it is not prudent or practical to hold an in-person meeting or to have staff or any
[0:59] member of the board at our headquarters during this meeting.
[1:03] I want to review the guidelines for our meeting today.
[1:07] First, keep your audio on mute as much as possible in order to minimize background noise,
[1:13] which may impair the recording.
[1:15] Again, as the secretary and the general counsel just told us,
[1:20] we are over the internet as well.
[1:23] When you have a question or comment, please raise your virtual hand.
[1:27] Audrey will call on board members who have raised their hands one at a time when the secretary
[1:33] calls on you, state your name before beginning so that your comments can be attributed to
[1:38] you in the record.
[1:40] When we get voting or get to a vote, please raise your hand to make a motion or a second.
[1:47] I'll prompt you, but the Audrey, the secretary will identify who's making the motion and
[1:53] the second for our record.
[1:54] Are there any questions at this time?
[2:02] Thank you.
[2:03] Super.
[2:05] Thank you.
[2:06] Secretary.
[2:07] With that said, I will now call this meeting as I did earlier to officially to order.
[2:13] And we will now recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
[2:16] Keep yourselves muted.
[2:17] Please.
[2:18] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.
[2:25] One nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
[2:39] Before we get into the regular agenda, I'd like to just say a couple of words about the photo that you see on your screen.
[2:47] It was inserted, in fact it was the largest photo in Sunday's tribute or remembrance of Governor Jim Thompson in the Chicago Tribune.
[2:59] As some of you may recall, especially depending on your age, Governor Thompson was in office in 1983 and signed the RTA reform legislation which paved the way for the modern day RTA as we know it.
[3:15] This includes the formation of metro and case to run consolidated rail and suburban bus
[3:23] operations. Historically, prior to the formation of this modern-day RTA system, private transit
[3:30] operators faced numerous financial issues over the years, which resulted in bankruptcies
[3:36] and complicating transit service in this region. But the structure of design in 1983 with
[3:44] governor Thompson at the helm and it's largely been able to stand the test of time, it's been
[3:50] remarkable how well it's worked, it has literally helped move billions of people to their offices,
[3:58] to school, to health appointments, and every other thing that we use transit for including tourism.
[4:06] And the 1983 Act has kept the trains, buses, and economy of this region moving,
[4:12] and then even COVID would stop that.
[4:16] So it was my honor to have worked for Governor Thompson.
[4:20] I was there in 1983, fresh out of law school
[4:24] as its legislative director.
[4:27] And, you know, we have lost several giants that recently,
[4:32] but Big Jim was literally a giant of a man literally
[4:38] and figuratively.
[4:39] And I think it's appropriate that every trans writer and all of us tip our hats to him as he was
[4:48] a visionary for creating the system that has worked so well through our region over the last
[4:56] 40 or 50 years. With that, Madam Secretary, would you please call the roll? Certainly.
[5:11] Director
[5:12] Director Canton,
[5:17] Director Kerry, Director Colson, Director
[5:29] Fraga, Director
[5:33] Fuentes, Director Gaving, Director Grulvin, Director Holt, Director Cotel,
[5:45] Here. Director Lewis.
[5:51] Director Melvin. Here. Director Peng. Here. Director Ross.
[6:01] Here.
[6:03] Director Sagar.
[6:09] Here.
[6:14] Someone to claim mute if you're not called on Chairman
[6:20] Thank you.
[6:23] Great. Thank you, everybody, for as always, your excellent and outstanding attendance.
[6:31] Item 3A is the approval of the minutes from the meeting held on July 16th, 2020.
[6:38] Are there any comments or corrections that we need to make?
[6:45] No comments.
[6:47] If not, I will ask for a motion in a second to approve these minutes as submitted.
[6:53] Please remember to raise your virtual hand so Audrey can identify who is making the motion in the second.
[7:03] Director Kanti has moved and Director Groven has seconded.
[7:07] You can lower your hands please.
[7:11] Thank you.
[7:12] Madam Secretary, will you please take the role?
[7:16] Certainly.
[7:17] director and all feel director
[7:26] canty director
[7:33] canty can you unmute
[7:34] director
[7:43] canty can you hear me I can hear you you can't hear me I said yeah okay
[7:52] thank you director Kerry I director Colson I director Fraga director
[8:07] Director Fuentes.
[8:08] All right.
[8:09] Director Gavin.
[8:11] Yeah.
[8:12] Director Groven.
[8:13] Aye.
[8:15] Director Holt.
[8:17] Aye.
[8:18] Director Cotell.
[8:20] Aye.
[8:21] Director Lewis.
[8:23] Yes.
[8:25] Director Melvin.
[8:27] Yes.
[8:28] Director Payne.
[8:36] Director Payne.
[8:45] Director Payne, please.
[8:51] I have lost Director Payne's audio.
[8:54] phone, director Sagar.
[9:01] You forgot me, Audrey, J.D. Ross?
[9:08] Oh, I'm sorry, director Ross.
[9:11] Yes. Okay. Chairman Dillard. Yes.
[9:17] Director Payne, are you there?
[9:23] On the minutes, we have 15 eyes and one absence.
[9:25] Thank you. And that will be so recorded. Next is item 4. That's the public comment segment
[9:34] of the meeting. We've asked the public to submit comments via electronic mail. Any comments
[9:41] that we will, we have received will not be read into the record by the board secretary.
[9:47] Audrey, do we have any comments for today? Mr. Chairman, we have no comments received.
[9:52] Okay. Thank you. Next is item five. That's the Executive Directors Report.
[9:59] So, Lee and Rick, good morning. Good morning, everybody. Good to be with you again.
[10:06] In last month's meeting, Chairman Dillard echoed comments raised by Director Peng and Holt.
[10:14] Regarding the importance of communicating clearly about our region's response to COVID
[10:18] the effects on transit. And those comments are quite similar to what we're hearing as we work with
[10:25] business leaders, including the Greater Chicago and Chamber of Commerce. They tell us that economic
[10:30] recovery will depend on public transportation, yet they fear that the pandemic's financial toll on
[10:36] our transit system could stymie that the economy's ability to rebound. So my ED report this morning
[10:43] and large portions of today's agenda are really framed by that feedback that we received.
[10:50] So next slide, please.
[10:55] Despite so many unknowns about the pandemic, data analysis really must drive the responses as always.
[11:03] And as you'll hear in detail today, RTA staff have developed several data-driven scenarios that will be shared with stakeholders
[11:10] for anticipating potential economic outcomes
[11:14] and their impacts on transit.
[11:17] So, as you know, the RTA COVID Transit Dashboard
[11:21] available front and center on our website
[11:24] is updated continually to show the ongoing impacts
[11:27] of operations and revenues.
[11:30] Next slide, please.
[11:33] So, working jointly with transit agencies
[11:36] the City of Chicago and other stakeholders, the Chamber surveyed nearly 500 businesses
[11:44] that employ about 98,000 residents of our region.
[11:48] And the survey sent out in June, and I'm just going to give you kind of some highlights
[11:52] from the survey results from the business community.
[11:55] The survey found that prior to COVID-19, about 60% of business employees commuted by public
[12:03] transportation.
[12:03] many businesses were not sure at that time if and how they would bring back the majority of their workforces to their offices.
[12:15] We also found that less than half of all responding business plans to bring their employees back before 2021.
[12:25] Only one third of large businesses, so that's employing more than 500 people,
[12:30] plan to bring them back before 2021.
[12:34] And about 60% of companies plan to have staff alternate days in the office.
[12:41] And about 40% of companies plan to ship working hours,
[12:45] extend working hours, and shifting them to either earlier or later work in its start and end time.
[12:52] So please note that this is just a snapshot in time and it was done a little bit more than a month ago.
[12:57] and the numbers are extremely fluid due to the shifting factors of both sort of the health
[13:03] and the virus impacts as well as the economy. The need for masks and social distancing
[13:10] continue to be paramount, and writers also know that their health, writers also want to
[13:17] know that their health is being protected. A CTA and pace officials are here today, and
[13:23] and they will attest that their trained
[13:25] and vases have never been cleaner.
[13:28] Next slide, please.
[13:33] So on July 6th, WTGW Chicago tonight
[13:38] had my fellow transit executives and me
[13:41] as a panel to discuss COVID effects and recovery.
[13:46] This was a chance for all of us
[13:48] to describe the heroic efforts by transit workers
[13:51] who kept the system running
[13:53] so other essential workers could carry on.
[13:56] It is also a chance to describe the extensive cleaning and other safety measures by CTA
[14:01] Metro and PACE.
[14:03] And we talked about how the 1.4 billion of relief from the Federal Care Act has enabled
[14:10] operations to continue uninterrupted during 2020.
[14:15] We're going to try to run a short clip, which is a bit of an experiment running it through
[14:19] these multiple versions of technology. Please note that you will not see or hear it if you're
[14:26] participating by cell phones. So please mute your microphone and the video should last about two minutes.
[14:55] Well, as the other three ladies just indicated, we can get through.
[15:03] This is a broader issue in the tires more directly to when the economy comes back, and when people are back at work, people are back at school.
[15:10] We are very much prepared for this next round of relief money for the federal government.
[15:18] I can go ahead and ask you for that support. How much company specifically for all the Toronto agencies?
[15:24] Well, at this point, it's really hard to estimate exactly where we're spending for 2020,
[15:29] where we're showing about $900 million, not of a sort of crystal bowl, it's really difficult
[15:35] to predict, but I can tell you that there's numbers not pretty alarming, the CARES Act is
[15:39] filling the hole in the short term, but as we look to 2021, they're going to be really difficult
[15:45] decisions to be made, but it's also complicated by the fact that we don't have that crystal,
[15:50] we don't know how quickly the economy is going to turn around.
[15:52] So we really need to be kind of being physically responsible, which these guys are doing very well at and continue to do.
[16:01] So, Dorville Cardi, you made a point to say that, you know, most of the service has been in play, especially like that night owl service for people that work late night jobs.
[16:09] Will that have to be on the chopping block if you don't get more money from the federal government?
[16:15] I think like Leanne said, I don't know what will be on the chopping block at this point
[16:19] in time, but I do know this, that absent any additional funding from some other source,
[16:26] I only have two levers that I can use to address any budget deficit that I have to face,
[16:30] that either increase fares or reduce service, and so as everyone here is saying, it's critical
[16:35] for us that we get additional funding to help us get through this because the last thing
[16:40] that this economy needs right now is reduction in public transit.
[16:59] All right, sorry. I was muted and talking. Sorry about that.
[17:03] You can see the full video on our website and available for you if you so choose.
[17:13] So regarding further federal relief, today the RTA,
[17:18] a CTA Metro and PACE executive director's issued a joint statement that reinforces the
[17:24] need for an additional 32 billion for transit nationwide in the next federal COVID package.
[17:31] But that legislation is stored because Senate Republicans and House Democrats disagree on
[17:39] large portions of that is specifically related to the size and the scope.
[17:44] While the heroes, the House Heroes Act proposed approximately $15 billion in additional funding for transit.
[17:52] Senate Republicans, COVID relief proposal contains at this point no additional money for transit or for any other state or local government for that matter.
[18:02] So we'll continue to pursue that, work with our delegation and say actively engaged and hopefully we will see something positive come from those continued negotiations.
[18:15] So next slide please.
[18:18] I'd now like to take a few minutes to have the three service boards speak to you specifically about some of their activities around responding to the COVID pandemic.
[18:34] And first I'd like to introduce Metro CEO and executive director Jim Dewinsky.
[18:39] He is joining us and he will be able to give you a few comments. Jim,
[18:54] we bring up Jim's slide as well.
[18:56] Jim, are you muted?
[18:58] Have you, oh, can you unmute if you are?
[20:13] Jim, I'm not sure, Audrey, are you able to hear Jim?
[20:21] No, I'm not.
[20:23] I am reaching out to his assistant
[20:25] to see if she can somehow reach him to let him know.
[20:45] Maybe in the interim, could we maybe just cue this slide
[20:49] for Rocky and Rocky don't know who
[20:51] from Executive Director of PACE?
[20:55] Oh, hang on, I'll just leave that to you.
[20:58] No, Leanne. This is right. I'm just unmuted thinking you were going to be sorry.
[21:04] That's fine. Rocky, what are we doing with you? And we'll work on reconnecting back with Jim.
[21:09] Thanks.
[21:10] Okay. Well, thank you, Leanne. Good morning, everybody. I'd like to start out first
[21:15] by thanking Chairman Dildard in the RTA Board as well as Leanne and the entire RTA staff
[21:22] for their leadership and your leadership during these unprecedented times.
[21:28] And I'd also like to thank my colleagues at our peer agencies
[21:30] for their hard work in keeping Illinoisans moving safely.
[21:36] Paces three key focuses during this moment of crisis have been safety, transparency,
[21:42] and the critical need we serve.
[21:46] I'm sure as you'll hear from my colleagues that we're all taking this very seriously
[21:52] and very safe operations and safe business practices and I'll be brief to also hear from
[22:00] our fellow transit leaders as well as answering questions you may have. We've stepped up our daily
[22:07] vehicle cleaning regimen as well as our cleaning practices and our facilities, our offices, our
[22:14] vehicles. We've cleaned like we've never cleaned before. We've enhanced our sanitation and
[22:21] The peak distribution early on at the peak of this pandemic, we were spending about $20,000
[22:28] a day.
[22:29] I give kudos to our procurement departments who were scouring everything to buying
[22:35] chlorox wipes and masks and rubber gloves and hand sanitizers when these were at limited
[22:42] supply.
[22:42] We were never out of them at any of our facilities for our 1,500 drivers, maintenance
[22:47] in skies frontline employees.
[22:51] We temporarily changed our fair collection practices.
[22:55] We installed protective barriers around our operators
[22:58] and removed seats to keep passengers
[23:02] the ability to social distance.
[23:05] We modified service on some of our always performing routes
[23:08] so we could free up additional vehicles
[23:11] and also to allow social distancing
[23:14] and some of our more crowded trips in our area.
[23:19] As you might expect, ridership dropped as a result of the pandemic.
[23:23] But we get routes going to places like UPS, Amazon, and FedEx
[23:28] where not only were they full, these companies were hiring
[23:32] and more people were showing up to ride the service.
[23:35] So we were able to strategically deploy equipment
[23:38] to accommodate those loads with extra vehicles.
[23:42] We moved all our ADA pair transit trips to single rides and this goes against everything
[23:48] we believe in transit about being efficient and sharing rides but we had to out of the
[23:53] safety for not only our passengers for the operators.
[23:57] Our ADA vehicles are much smaller.
[23:59] You cannot have social distance when you're in a sedan.
[24:03] The riders of ADA are generally some of our most vulnerable passengers and our system.
[24:08] their generally elderly and their disability may also present underlying issues so we felt
[24:15] it best to make all of those trips to the single ride. We waved fairs on our taxi access program
[24:22] in the city of Chicago to help relieve pressure on the ADA system and maybe move some of those trips
[24:29] to taxi services which is actually cheaper to operate the service but also to ensure we were able
[24:37] that have individual trips.
[24:39] We had to change a number of policies for employees,
[24:41] our operators to minimize interaction with passengers.
[24:46] We're currently putting large containers
[24:48] of hand sanitizer aboard all of our fixed rail buses.
[24:53] And this will allow our passengers
[24:56] to be able to sanitize.
[24:58] We core-ox our operators when they're in their breaks
[25:01] go down and I say core-ox wide pipe touch areas,
[25:05] the handrails, the back of seats where people are touching.
[25:10] And not only is COVID presented operational challenges,
[25:13] kind of seen the pile line as we've navigated several instances
[25:17] of civil unrest in the past few months.
[25:20] And for the first time in the history of case
[25:23] and Chairman Diller talked about Governor Thompson signing the legislation in 1983-1984.
[25:31] So 35, 36 years,
[25:33] We have to shut our entire system down for three consecutive nights.
[25:38] That's the first time we've ever had to do that in the history of our agency to shut down system-wide.
[25:45] Coming from an external relations background, I'm a strong believer in properly communicating
[25:50] is a key tactic in keeping our system safe.
[25:55] We've created a new website and this website allows us to have faster, more efficient communication.
[26:01] When we update things on our website it automatically sends out text and email messages to passengers all in one step.
[26:09] In the interest of transparency, we have a page on our website where the public can go see everybody, every patient,
[26:17] employee that is tested positive for COVID-19.
[26:21] We do not provide personal information, names or anything that would identify who that individual is.
[26:27] but you can see a driver at North Division,
[26:31] a operator at a pair of transit contract writer,
[26:35] and we do extensive employee kind of tracing,
[26:39] when someone tests positive that they left the region.
[26:44] Before they leave the region, they're to tell us they're leading.
[26:48] We take passengers on our passengers.
[26:50] I'm sorry, our employees' temperatures every day
[26:53] before they report to work.
[26:54] They fill out a 17-question there every day about how are they feeling?
[27:02] Are they having headaches?
[27:04] Again, for contact tracing purposes and to ensure the safety of all of us is very
[27:17] dizzy.
[27:18] And we've had to keep staff fully staffed and those two areas to address our rider's concerns and questions.
[27:28] We've created audio messages as well as what we call card cards as you know the posters
[27:35] inside the bus is communicating the importance of wearing a mask and social distancing
[27:40] and we're all in this together and you need to do your part.
[27:44] And bus operators push this button that replays the message on masks continually throughout
[27:51] the day.
[27:52] We're currently working with the governor's office offering them paces to add channels
[27:57] for their it only works if you wear it campaign because again as I said we're all in this together
[28:02] and it does only work if we all wear it. In these measures and I'm going to tell you that we're
[28:09] not easy nor were they cheap to implement but I'm convinced our system is safe for our employees
[28:14] and passengers for the things we have done.
[28:19] Around the country ridership is plunged but 50 percent
[28:23] of our writers are still taking pace. And that shows me how vital we are to this region's economy
[28:29] and to those essential workers who rely on us. Even at the peak of this crisis, almost the
[28:35] third of our passengers were still riding the bus. And that just goes to show how many of our writers
[28:40] simply do not have other ways to get to pharmacies, grocery stores, or essential jobs.
[28:47] We had a temporarily cut service on 99 routes.
[28:52] Many of these routes are not running at all right now.
[28:56] And while the overall impact for the ridership of these cuts was low,
[29:02] anytime we cut a route, it results in jobs or prescriptions being unfilled.
[29:08] And we take these decisions extremely seriously, and we do whatever we can to avoid them
[29:14] and we'll do whatever we can to make them permanent.
[29:17] However, as you heard earlier, from Leanne,
[29:20] our budget is really going to dictate our success
[29:22] in keeping our full system running.
[29:25] Right now, we're anticipating an $80 million shortfall
[29:28] in 2021.
[29:30] If that comes to fruition, it'll necessitate the permanent staff
[29:34] and service reductions that I mentioned earlier.
[29:38] In 2020, we've been fortunate in using CARES Act funding
[29:42] to keep us afloat. We also are estimating well implemented about 19 million dollars in cost savings
[29:49] in 2020. Most of this is from service reductions and administrative actions we've taken, but this will
[29:56] all that be enough without additional federal funding.
[30:00] Suburban transit service in northeast Illinois will face dire consequences. Our projected 80 million
[30:06] deficit will lead to more service cuts, which will lead the further ridership declines.
[30:12] Its trip times increase and transit doesn't become a viable option. Ridership declines will
[30:19] obviously lead to further revenue reduction. And cuts to our fixed drought service may also
[30:25] increase burdens on our ADD paratransit system, while also reducing the geographical coverage
[30:31] of that service. And an already delicate employment situation, as well as an existing issues
[30:37] of food security, access to healthcare, may worsen as mobility decreases for Illinois
[30:44] and hardest tip by this economic crisis. On behalf of PACE, our agency and our board,
[30:51] Again, I want to thank the RTA for your leadership and support these hard times, and most importantly,
[30:58] I look forward to working with you to solve our financial challenge and be able to emerge from this
[31:03] difficult period stronger than ever, and I'll be happy to answer any questions that any of you may have.
[31:19] I'm not asking any questions.
[31:28] Thank you, Chairman.
[31:30] Thank you, Rocky.
[31:31] I appreciate you joining in. Sorry, Audrey, I talked over you there. I believe that Jim
[31:39] Duinsky has been able to join by phone before we pull the slides up. Jim, are you able
[31:46] to be there? Are you there? Yeah, can you hear me now? We can hear you now. Yay! Good.
[31:53] I will turn it over to you, Jim, to give a couple of comments to the board.
[32:00] Thank you very much Leanne and sorry, thank you very much Leanne, what's that Audrey?
[32:10] If you have, as you go through your slides please ask for the next slide so our staff can advance them for you.
[32:18] All right, thank you Audrey, you can advance already then.
[32:21] Yeah, he can just advance it now, that's good.
[32:25] I will thank you. Thank you Chairman and board. It's a pleasure to be here today through a cellular connection. I look forward to the day that we can see each other in person again and start really moving forward to a place of normalcy.
[32:39] As COVID hit ridership on metro took a completely different turn than some of the other agencies.
[32:45] we saw ourselves fall down to a 97.7% decline from the pre-COVID numbers, our low-point being April 16th.
[32:56] A lot of our riders very much appear to be the discretionary type riders that have the ability to work from home.
[33:04] We've seen a steady growth back up to about 10% currently right now on all of our lines and certainly through the heart of the pandemic.
[33:13] Our core mission was continuing to keep all 11 lines open, all 242 stations, and providing
[33:20] services for those essential workers, including our workers as well.
[33:26] One of the things we were able to do instantaneously, we had a pre-posted, what we call alternate
[33:32] schedule.
[33:33] Schedule was designed specifically for major snowstorm events, such as that.
[33:40] and so we already had it posted. It runs about 55% of our pre-COVID daily trains. We were running
[33:48] 692 trains a day, then it dropped. Since then we've adjusted and added some trains back.
[33:55] And here it is quarter, Southwest Service, Rock Island, and BNSF. Our Metro Electric
[34:01] action is riding at a higher percentage because of the PTC testing that we've been ongoing.
[34:06] but the ridership, once again, has come back to about 10% and right now, even though we're in phase four, it really appears to plateaued at the level that we're seeing.
[34:17] We see a little bump here and there, but nothing dramatic yet.
[34:19] We certainly hear callings from passengers wanting the greater flexibility that the free COVID schedule offers, but right now, the justification for running those extra trains with the limited funds is really going to hit us hard.
[34:33] So we're going to sit right now and make adjustments based on ridership demand.
[34:39] At most agencies, when COVID hit, the supply chain was decimated.
[34:44] Similar to what paced it, we immediately grabbed up everything we could in a disinfectant
[34:48] and lights off type environment and started hitting the high touch areas where passengers and employees would touch.
[34:55] Today, we're a well stocked cleaning supplies for our employees and PPE, and we're starting
[35:02] to use fodders on the trains.
[35:04] We've got a good shipment of those in.
[35:07] They apply a fogging mist overall to the poultry and it gets underneath, and it really
[35:12] does a phenomenal job.
[35:14] It took us several, several months to get that part of the supply chain moving, and it's
[35:18] a new tool that we're using that really does a way different job than just wiping the
[35:24] seat down or hitting the high-touch areas. We do that once a day on the train
[35:28] cars. We also use that in the office buildings. Any time we have meetings we
[35:32] bond. During this pandemic we certainly started looking at technology and where
[35:38] we could take technology into a world that makes the train car that
[35:43] environment a much safer place with the current conditions. We experimented with
[35:48] UV lighting. UV lighting that's used in hospital operating rooms. We
[35:54] We've also been looking at putting UV lighting in the air circulation system, along right
[35:59] now with some electrostatic type of filtration system in there that basically zaps any particles
[36:06] coming through.
[36:07] We're currently looking at piloting some of that technology so that, truthfully, the air
[36:12] inside the train car will be cleaner than the air outside the train car.
[36:16] We decleaned the cars as Rocky decleaned the buses and Leanne pointed out to the point
[36:21] of, it was just dramatic.
[36:23] And I was so very proud of our workforce, our workforce are the ones that actually brought
[36:27] in power washers from home and having the availability of the cars because they weren't
[36:32] needed for service.
[36:33] They actually would come in and try things that we've never tried before because we've
[36:38] never had the opportunity with such a small spare ratio.
[36:41] So this pandemic has given us the opportunity to clean the cars and now we've actually molded
[36:46] into the system a natural cleaning process so that every six months the cars get to really
[36:53] a showroom kind of clean. And that's really been paying off dividends. The people that are
[36:58] writing the train, they clearly point out to us, they notice the distance. In our stations and
[37:04] in our cars, we're loaded with signage all over the place about the masks, the social distancing.
[37:10] We did not go to the efforts of actually putting the access on the ground because the train spotting
[37:15] is sometimes varied. But we have seen some positive comments from people writing the trains about
[37:22] all the efforts we're putting in place. This also includes on-board announcements, three
[37:27] times for trip, and station announcements fired at people getting on the train. They are
[37:32] currently installing touchless hand sanitizer units on both ends of every single train car,
[37:39] our supply chain caught up on that and we were able to procure enough to do the entire fleet.
[37:45] We anticipate having that particular enhancement done by Labor Day.
[37:50] The beginning of the crisis, when we made the decision to stop collecting fares, it was
[37:58] really because we had so much uncertainty in the protection of our employees.
[38:03] PPE just wasn't available as it is now today.
[38:07] We actually went two months as some of the other agencies did without collecting fares.
[38:11] So, ensure that the person-to-person contact between our employee and the passenger didn't
[38:17] occur.
[38:17] on June 3rd we actually opened up back the normal fair collection on almost all of our lines and we
[38:24] introduced what we call the $10 all day app or all day pass we offered on our app and in a hard
[38:31] copy and that $10 app right now we're going to continue through October 31st as we understand people
[38:38] may start the experimenting with coming back down to the central business district and using the service
[38:44] It's not in the traditional five days a week,
[38:47] but maybe one or two days a week.
[38:49] And we believe that's also a way
[38:50] that helps economically out some people
[38:53] that have really seen some problems
[38:54] during uncertain times.
[38:57] One of the things we've done more recently in announce
[38:59] is put a dashboard up that writers can go and look
[39:03] at pre-writership numbers on the train
[39:05] that they're looking at writing.
[39:07] And that gives them some certainty on seating.
[39:10] We have ample room on our trains
[39:13] with that ample room on our trains we've also got the ability to add more
[39:17] train cars if in fact trains get to a point where they look like they're
[39:21] getting crowded. Pre-COVID our heaviest train was 1700 people on a very heavy
[39:27] day. Currently today our heaviest train is 340 so that can give you some
[39:32] idea of about the ability with the ample spacing we have to make sure that
[39:37] physical distance things not a problem. We did a similar to pace open up a
[39:42] COVID page on our website, both for our employees and passengers so they can understand all the
[39:47] efforts we're doing. It's loaded with tons of videos of the foggers and the coach cleaners
[39:52] doing the work and all the other enhancements that we've done to the system.
[39:57] In March, we quickly implemented for our workforce a work from home policy. Metra has never had a
[40:03] work from home policy before and we continue to conduct the business of Metra successfully. However,
[40:08] I still look forward to the day as we get back into face-to-face type meetings as that's the way
[40:14] you truly build the culture of any company, any agency. Through April and August, through April through
[40:21] August, we just like this board meeting being conducted, our boards conducted its meetings in the
[40:26] business of Metro virtually and we've been continuing to move forward with many of the initiatives that we
[40:32] had. Metro was recipient of $479.2 million of cash money and as Leon points out it's
[40:39] really not going to be enough. Yesterday our CFO, Tom Farmer, revised his projections
[40:45] with a decrease in ridership projection, offset a little bit by a positive tax projection,
[40:52] but through the end of 21, we're looking at a little over $200 million shortfall right
[40:57] right now, even with the 479.2, so we're certainly looking for additional help from federal
[41:06] government and we support not only the APDA and the RTA letters, but we clearly are on
[41:12] the phone talking with the delegation, making sure that they understand that this entire
[41:16] region and the economy of this region is tied to transit.
[41:21] We continue to monitor and discuss with all of our sister agencies, not only in this country,
[41:26] But we're even looking outside this country about some of the things and efforts and strategies that they're using and we continue to try to experiment and deploy as we have to basically adjust ourselves to be a different metro as we come out.
[41:39] Post COVID we understand completely that we're not the only company that works from home our core writer is from the suburb into the city and many businesses will be making great business decisions in the upcoming years.
[41:52] how they will structure their business,
[41:54] and that will definitely affect
[41:56] master's ridership in the long run.
[41:59] With the passing of the COVID-FMLA and ESPLA laws,
[42:02] we could quickly enact it for all employees,
[42:05] the protections that were reported to them.
[42:07] At our height, we saw a 20% usage or absenteeism rate.
[42:13] But during the crisis, we have never failed
[42:15] to deliver a start of a train due to personnel shortage.
[42:18] This includes our critical areas
[42:19] of dispatching and crew calling. With the lower trained volumes, we've been able to accelerate track
[42:25] work, ties, grade crossings, and we're currently working on several stations and parking lots due
[42:31] to the low ridership gives us a grand opportunity to get in there and actually accelerate these projects
[42:37] thus becoming more efficient. We continue to work on the capital project deliveries of our program.
[42:44] We look forward to delivering the program and a lot of stations that we've been, we've
[42:50] promised a legislator in investing back in Illinois as we rebuild here.
[42:56] Writer's ship will take, I believe, a lot longer to recover on commuter than it does
[43:02] at BTA and or PACE because of the great shift in the uncertain landscape of the Central
[43:10] business district. We are starting for the first time since the late 90s. Most likely in
[43:17] September you'll start seeing it a much more aggressive advertising campaign. Talking
[43:24] our non-writers, our writers, potential writers and people moving into the suburbs,
[43:29] there seems to be a great push right now, people moving into the suburbs about how clean and safe
[43:34] Metro is, how it's an option for the future, how it actually reduces the emissions footprint
[43:41] and we'll start using some of those advertising dollars like I said in the very near future in many different areas.
[43:48] As I ride the roads and a lot of you probably do too, you know the roads are starting to get congested.
[43:53] Downtown parking's gone up about 25%. There will be a point in time where people are going to start making decisions about the motor transportation.
[44:02] They're going to take to get to their place of work.
[44:05] So again, I thank you for your leadership at the RTA.
[44:08] I look forward to the day again.
[44:09] I can see all of you and I look forward to any questions
[44:12] that you may have at this time.
[44:20] Thank you, Jim.
[44:22] Are there any questions of Jim?
[44:26] I see no hand raised for questions.
[44:31] Great.
[44:32] Thank you, Mr. DeWinsky.
[44:34] We really appreciate it.
[44:36] Appreciate your cooperation, as always.
[44:39] Leanne, you're still on.
[44:40] Thank you.
[44:42] Thank you, Chairman.
[44:43] Thank you.
[44:46] Thanks Jim. So if we can bring up the slide for CTA, I should say. So we'll just complete
[44:53] it. We have to jump around a little bit here. Great. Oh, yeah, go back just that and say
[44:59] Everyone.
[45:00] Second. So, um, and double-cutter cannot join us today. He is actually taking probably a well-needed vacation a few days off this week. But, um, so Nora, listen, uh, chief of staff, a match, uh, and generally find who's the CFO for CTA will be available to provide us some comments. So if you want to pull up the next slide, I will first call on. I assume Nora, you'll kick off.
[45:29] Yes, Leanne. Hi. Good morning. Thanks everyone. As Leanne stated, my name is Nora Leerson.
[45:36] I'm chief of staff at the Chicago Transit Authority. Thanks for having me here this morning to discuss
[45:41] CTA efforts during this very unprecedented time. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,
[45:48] CTA has remained steadfast in delivering safe and reliable service across the region 24 hours.
[45:56] We coordinate with local public health officials on our ongoing response to the pandemic, and
[46:02] we continue to closely follow local, state, and federal public health guidance as it relates
[46:07] to cleaning practices, social distancing, direct aid requirements, work location protocols,
[46:14] and personal protective equipment for our employees.
[46:18] First, to our all-important cleaning efforts.
[46:21] Prior to the pandemic, CTA already had one of the most rigorous and extensive cleaning
[46:26] schedules in the transit industry, and now we're doing even more.
[46:31] In response to the pandemic, we have tripled the workforce resources dedicated to cleaning
[46:36] vehicles and increased by twofold the cleaning frequency of our train stations.
[46:41] Our rail cars, buses, stations, and work facilities are cleaned and disinfected throughout
[46:47] each day and receive regular deep cleaning.
[46:50] All of this is done using cleaning products that have been reviewed and approved by the
[46:56] used during the COVID-19 outbreak. This increased cleaning means that every
[47:02] rail car and bus is cleaned before heading out into service, including wiping
[47:06] down seats, stanchions, and grout handles with disinfectant, and then again
[47:11] while in service, including the cleaning of high-touch surfaces of rail cars at
[47:16] all terminals. This is in addition to the 300 vehicles that are deep cleaned each
[47:21] night from floor to ceiling. We're using new electrostatic sprayers which are a
[47:26] tool to create an intensive misting that gets into every crack and crevice in our vehicles
[47:31] to further enhance our cleaning regimen. Frequently touched surfaces at our stations
[47:36] are cleaned four times a day. In addition to new mobile cleaning slot teams that are deployed
[47:43] to power wash our stations, covering over a third of our system every week. We're also staying
[47:49] abreast of new cleaning technologies to ensure we have the best and most effective cleaning
[47:54] resume we can.
[47:56] With regard to our efforts around social distancing between riders, since the start of the pandemic,
[48:02] we've run as much service as possible despite reduced ridership, which allows our riders
[48:07] to practice social distancing from one another and from our operators.
[48:12] Even in the deepest parts of the state, home waters, CTA was still carrying 250,000 riders
[48:18] a day, which is more than many transit agencies across the country carry on a normal day before
[48:23] the COVID pandemic. Currently we're up to close to 450,000 riders today, which gives you a sense of
[48:30] the magnitude of riders that we see on our system and that we are seeing some coming back even
[48:35] amidst this current COVID situation.
[48:40] There are several targeted initiatives that we've taken to
[48:43] promote proper riding of CTA. In conjunction with the Chicago Department of Public Health, we've set
[48:50] passenger capacity limits on our buses and trains.
[48:53] CTAV vehicle passenger standards are now approximately 15 riders on standard 40-foot buses, and about 22 riders on our 60-foot larger articulated buses and on rail cars.
[49:06] CTA bus operators are authorized to limit the number of riders aboard the bus and run drop-off only for periods in order to properly maintain capacity on their buses.
[49:15] We closely monitored our ridership levels and about an extra buses and longer buses to address occasional crowding on certain routes.
[49:24] Recently we introduced an ADA accessible rider information dashboard to help our riders safely plan their trips by avoiding traveling during heavier ridership periods and to help promote social distancing.
[49:37] The first component of this new tool is the updated bus crowding dashboard, which uses
[49:42] a color coding system to depict possible space availability for each bus route based
[49:48] on the average historic ridership during COVID-19 compared with our established capacity elements.
[49:54] We've instituted a real-time camera monitoring initiative in which CTA employees actively monitor
[49:59] certain rail stations to identify crowding.
[50:02] When this is observed, audio announcements are made over station speakers to remind riders
[50:07] to spread out and maintain a healthy distance from one another.
[50:10] Since the start of the pandemic, we have saturated our system with sign-in, regarding social
[50:15] distancing as well as the requirements to our face covering.
[50:19] In total, so far, CTA has installed over 70,000 new signs across our system regarding these
[50:25] topics, all of which display messages in those English and Spanish.
[50:29] In addition, writers here remind us about these protocols through audio announcements that
[50:33] to play on all vehicles and at rail stations
[50:36] it'd been response to possible crowding.
[50:39] As part of this signage,
[50:40] we placed new circular floor decals
[50:42] on all of our 145 station platforms and elevators
[50:46] that urge social distancing.
[50:48] The new decals say, be safe, make a space,
[50:52] and they're evenly spaced along all the platforms
[50:54] and have been placed throughout the station houses
[50:56] near venture machines and in elevators.
[51:00] Importantly, CTA has mandated
[51:02] that riders wear facial coverings while on CTA vehicles and property. Specifically,
[51:07] in accordance with the executive orders from the State of Illinois and the Chicago Department
[51:11] of Public Health, as well as CTA's own newly added rule of conduct, we require that riders
[51:17] wear a facial covering or face mask at all times while on CTA service. There's nowhere on
[51:23] CTA that a rider can go without being reminded of this requirement, which also applies to our own
[51:28] employees. We've also offered several giveaways to riders to further promote healthy riding.
[51:35] In June as part of our ongoing efforts to welcome riders back, we began distributing three
[51:40] travel healthy kits, which contained a reusable cloth mask, a two-ounce bottle hand sanitizer,
[51:46] and a healthy riding tips guide. To date, we've distributed nearly 12,000 of the travel healthy
[51:52] kids to riders, and then they've been given a very positive reception.
[51:57] To encourage the use of contact with payment, we've distributed 5,000 three venture cards
[52:02] this summer to our riders in order to promote this type of payment method.
[52:09] All of these efforts have been promoted via our website, www.transitchicabra.com-flashgrownivirus,
[52:15] as well as via all of our social media channels on a daily basis and through videos that play
[52:20] throughout our system on our digital screen.
[52:22] We are an ongoing discussion with the business
[52:25] and university communities to continue to spread the word
[52:28] about all that CTA has done in response to COVID-19.
[52:32] Of course, none of this would be possible
[52:34] without the absolutely heroic efforts of our workforce,
[52:37] whoever remained unwaveringly committed
[52:39] to serving our riders throughout this time.
[52:42] Their health and safety has remained our top priority.
[52:45] In terms of personal protective equipment,
[52:48] CTA has provided all frontline employees
[52:50] with face covering, gloves, hand sanitizer, face shields, or goggles, and individual cleaning products.
[52:57] And we've distributed extensive information to our work locations about COVID-19
[53:01] and the best practices recommended by city, state, and national health experts.
[53:07] With regards to their work environment, while operating on our trains, our rail operators are
[53:11] an entirely enclosed operating cap at the front of the train. For our bus operators, we've
[53:17] Ensured that all of the buses that are out on the street during this time are the ones
[53:22] that are equipped with a protective shield that create a barrier between the operator and
[53:26] the riders.
[53:27] For a rail station attendant, they're conducting their work out of an enclosed kiosk in
[53:32] our station.
[53:34] Whenever it's possible to do without limiting access to our ADA accessible seats on buses,
[53:40] we've roped off seats near the operator to provide a proper distance between operators
[53:44] and riders.
[53:45] Likewise, CTA requires social distancing at all of our work facilities, and this is
[53:50] implemented by adjusting the environment in common areas, imposing occupancy limits on
[53:55] workrooms and facilities, and posting signage and areas where employees often gather.
[54:01] Additionally, CTA was one of the first trans agencies in the country to begin routinely
[54:05] checking the temperatures of employees when they report to work.
[54:09] And this effort has resulted in over 15,000 temperature checks so far.
[54:13] We also have in place the unique partnership with Rush University Medical Center,
[54:17] which that allows for CTA employees with symptoms to receive free priority COVID-19 testing.
[54:24] The COVID-19 pandemic has made more clear than ever to all of us that transit is a vital component
[54:31] to keeping our communities moving and driving. This time has presented unprecedented situations
[54:36] operationally as well as financially. Amidst all the uncertainty that COVID-19 has brought,
[54:42] but one thing has remained glaringly clear
[54:45] as all of us are mentioning this morning.
[54:47] It's critically important that public transit
[54:49] receive additional federal funding
[54:51] in order for us to be able to continue
[54:53] to carry this region through this period.
[54:56] Thank you.
[55:03] Are we just going to be,
[55:04] are you speaking or is Jeremy going to make some comments too?
[55:08] Nope, that concludes our comment.
[55:10] Okay, thanks, Nora.
[55:11] Sorry, Mr. Chairman, I'll turn it back to you.
[55:13] That's okay, Nora.
[55:15] Thank you very much.
[55:17] Leanne and I and our staff talk readily with Dorval and all of you and we appreciate your
[55:24] cooperation.
[55:26] I cannot imagine the stress that is on Dorval and you and everyone at the CTA, the same
[55:35] goes with Jim for Jim DeWinsky and Metro as well as Rocky at pace and you mentioned your
[55:42] staff and all your employees know about I can't thank you all enough you know this has been an
[55:50] extremely difficult time and you know your issues at the CTA have been even more than COVID
[55:59] this summer and you've done a spectacular job so I can't thank you enough and pass on my thanks to
[56:08] adorable as well.
[56:10] I certainly will.
[56:11] Thank you, Chairman.
[56:13] Director Sagar has a question.
[56:17] Dr. Good question.
[56:21] I'm mute.
[56:28] Is it appropriate, Chairman, at this point for me
[56:30] just to make a response?
[56:32] Sure, please go ahead, Dr.
[56:36] Yeah, thank you.
[56:37] I just cannot begin to say how grateful and frankly impressed I am
[56:42] by the presentations and by the incredible work that has been done.
[56:46] and I'm so thankful for Roscoe's and Jim's and Nora's reports today.
[56:51] You know, the response of our service agencies and my opinion has just been absolutely outstanding
[56:59] and I want to say sincere thanks for the incredible immediate response
[57:04] to address and provide additional protective sanitation for the equipment and for our commuters.
[57:13] also for the additional focused and truly proactive communication via websites and media
[57:21] and postings to advise employees and the public at large about the efforts that are taken
[57:27] in response to the COVID-19.
[57:29] To make sure there were all at safe as possible while simultaneously providing a continued service,
[57:36] I think it's been remarkable.
[57:38] Well, I also want to just express sincere appreciation
[57:40] for the financial oversight.
[57:42] And while this is an incredibly challenging time for all,
[57:47] I am grateful for the fact that the service agencies
[57:50] and the RTA general is truly looking very proactively
[57:55] at how we are going to respond and plan
[57:59] for the future finances of the entire P of the system.
[58:04] And so I want to just reiterate
[58:06] that I'm just really truly impressed and incredibly grateful to our service agencies.
[58:12] I think they've done a remarkable job and this type of oversight and response is exactly
[58:18] what we would expect from a truly professional transit system.
[58:22] You've done a yoga job and please know that we appreciate it.
[58:26] Thank you.
[58:28] Thank you, Dr. One thing I want to point out is that the CTA has continued to run 24 hours
[58:36] seven. As they always have, many large transit systems worldwide do not run 24 hours a day.
[58:45] And I think, you know, Mayor Lightfoot early on said the CTA would continue to get essential
[58:53] workers and the population of the Chicago land area to and from their daily lives. But
[59:02] But literally, many, many essential workers, health care workers, whether it's Rosalind Hospital
[59:09] or Mount Sinai, or our teaching hospitals, they rely and ride on the CTA to get to and from
[59:19] work.
[59:19] And we run 24-7, and that every major transit system can say that.
[59:29] Leon, thank you.
[59:32] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[59:33] And I want to thank the service boards for carving out some time to come and talk to you today.
[59:42] I do think it's important that they keep directly from you and we'll continue to work closely as we go forward.
[59:51] And I really think that the important takeaway from some of this is that together we've created a culture of COVID-19.
[1:00:00] And while our system has met the challenges of this year, there's many more challenges lying ahead of us. The four transit agencies are committed to working closely together with us on this year's budget process, which will be shaped by the new regional framework for transit investments, which is public comment period ends next week, and we talked about that with the board last month. And we'll be bringing it plan to bring that back to the board for adoption in September.
[1:00:28] And there's no mistaking that hard times have come upon us, operationally the service
[1:00:36] boards will continue to innovate while protecting their rights and staff.
[1:00:40] On the finances side, I think the biggest challenge will be planning our future and making
[1:00:47] sure that we are transparently setting clear priorities based on the best available data.
[1:00:54] and you'll see a bit more a presentation on some of that later on in the board meeting.
[1:01:00] So we take the board in advance for your support as we take on some of these very difficult issues
[1:01:09] and facing very difficult choices ahead of us.
[1:01:12] And I really think by working together our transit system can more than survive
[1:01:17] but it can eventually thrive in our post-pandemic economy.
[1:01:21] So, next slide please.
[1:01:24] Excuse me.
[1:01:25] Director Payne has a question.
[1:01:27] And Director Sagar, could you put yourself on mute?
[1:01:41] Director Payne, your hand is raised.
[1:01:51] I'm sorry, I'm having trouble on my phone.
[1:01:55] So, I thank you very much for, I had my hand up and I didn't have my microphone on, so that doesn't really work.
[1:02:03] But thank you very much for what you are doing to keep the city running and getting essential
[1:02:10] workers to work including all of you and I just want to ask you a question that I know
[1:02:17] each one of the service board has a very unique set of circumstances to keep the writers
[1:02:26] and the staff safe. I think a lot of when we get back to work and when we get kids back
[1:02:36] on CTA to go to school will be about communications about how safe it is. And I wondered if the
[1:02:45] three service boards are talking and at all together about how that communication could be as simple
[1:02:54] as possible and as connected, and particularly because Metro and CTA share writers and just wanted
[1:03:02] your thoughts about that or to keep it tap of mind as you move forward.
[1:03:11] I'm not sure if we, I know we, I believe we lost Jim because he had another
[1:03:17] high commitment that he had to be at this morning. I didn't know if we still have Nora
[1:03:22] and or Rocky on if they, I can let them comment first and then I could just
[1:03:27] All right. Hi, Leanne. This is Rack. You know, I'm still here and director
[1:03:32] Thank you for paying. Thank you. It's a great question.
[1:03:35] I'm close to Leanne and her team, the service boards myself.
[1:03:41] I'm always speaking for pace, but I meet with CTA, RTA,
[1:03:47] Matra, we meet weekly in one of the conversations that constantly comes up
[1:03:52] is ensuring communication not amongst their service boards, but consistent communication
[1:03:57] to our passengers.
[1:03:59] leaders, as both CTA and Metro stated about what they're doing and how they compare nationally,
[1:04:09] we also are working with APTA as a region after the National Organization for Public Transit
[1:04:16] and this messaging of safety is dire and mean and so pace is doing our part of what we can
[1:04:27] do within our own system, but we also understand the importance of being able to communicate
[1:04:33] and work together, because 50% of our passengers actually transfer every data CTA. So, in
[1:04:40] tell you, we work very closely with Dorival and Nora and her team on decisions, but to
[1:04:47] your point specifically, I want to commend Leanne because one of the issues that she brings
[1:04:54] of constantly at our weekly meetings is well in this together and we have to have a, you know,
[1:05:00] message. This is Nora from CTA. I'll echo what, what Rocky saying. We're in constant communication
[1:05:09] about these topics as well as having a consistent and clear message to our writers about what we're
[1:05:16] doing. And all of us recognize this is really, this is a marathon, not a sprint. I think this is,
[1:05:22] This is going to go on for a long time as the reality, so we need to keep our messaging
[1:05:27] fresh and clear and direct with regards to what we're doing to keep everyone's attention
[1:05:33] and to get the message across something, and Rocky mentioned this, the larger industry.
[1:05:42] American Public Transit Association has done a lot of work in this area as well with regards
[1:05:47] to the industry as a whole because as you can imagine the message is becoming kind of consistent
[1:05:53] that all transit agencies need to speak to cleaning, distancing, and mask wearing as important
[1:06:01] components. So there is a unified message that the industry is also building and I know President
[1:06:07] Carter works closely with APDA to help build that and contribute and engage with that. So that's
[1:06:12] also going to be helpful as we move forward. That's really helpful. Thank you so much and thanks again
[1:06:18] for what you're doing to keep us running.
[1:06:24] Thank you.
[1:06:24] Thank you.
[1:06:25] You could lower your hand, please.
[1:06:29] I just have, if we can pull up the next slide and just a couple of quick things just to wrap
[1:06:35] up here.
[1:06:38] So for the most part, you know, that was the bulk of my EDU report, but I thought we still should
[1:06:43] touch base on the couple of the usual things that I connect with you on. First, an update
[1:06:51] on the stated link quickly figures for this month, and through the end of July, the state
[1:06:55] owes the RTA $214.5 million in the combination of debt service reimbursement and sales tax
[1:07:06] match. The state is about 13 months behind on one portion of the debt service reimbursement.
[1:07:14] There are about 12 months behind on the other portion of the debt service reimbursement
[1:07:18] and about the equivalent behind a equivalent of about three months behind on the public trade
[1:07:24] transportation fund, which is the match to the sale tax. And the year-to-date cost to the RTA
[1:07:30] for us to cover that those delays is in short term debt cost is about 3.2 million and just one
[1:07:41] final slide next slide please. And finally you will hear under item 7a the ordinance amending the
[1:07:51] 2020 regional service board budgets that the 2020 pace ADA power transit funding has been hard hit
[1:07:59] by COVID-19 creating a shortfall that we did not foresee when budget revision process began
[1:08:06] back in May. Rocky touched on this a little bit in his comments. Staff will describe a two-step approach
[1:08:14] and essentially today we will ask that you act on the first portion of that which is the approval
[1:08:20] of 18 million more than the May estimate and it will likely and at a further 13 million
[1:08:28] will be requested for addition in September. In both cases the source will be the ADA
[1:08:35] Paratransit Reserve Fund which the RTA holds. So we're lucky to actually have that fund so
[1:08:41] we can fill that gap. So we'll be using that reserve fund rather than the current sales tax
[1:08:47] revenues. So that's just a point of clarification on that upcoming item. One final thing I will note
[1:08:55] that because there was a lot of discussion here, a lot of information both by the EDs as well as
[1:09:02] further stuff coming on the board, all this information as well as the recordings and video and audio
[1:09:07] will be available on our websites for viewing at any point. And with that, this concludes my ED report.
[1:09:15] this marathon report. Thank
[1:09:21] you, Leon. Marathon, but important. Again, thanks to Nora, Jim
[1:09:26] and Rocky for joining us today and as always. Item 6A is the presentation of the quarterly
[1:09:35] performance report, the second quarter for 2020 and Juleleary. Do you want to brief us please?
[1:09:42] Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, I don't know if Director Payne's had another question, but her hand
[1:09:48] is up.
[1:09:53] I don't have another question, but my hand is not up on my side, so I've been clicking
[1:09:58] it, and maybe I'll turn it off and go back on, so no, I don't have another question.
[1:10:04] Okay.
[1:10:05] Let's recover it.
[1:10:07] Thank you.
[1:10:07] Thanks, Director.
[1:10:09] So, anyway, Jill Leary on the quarterly performance report.
[1:10:13] Jill.
[1:10:13] Thank you, and good morning, Chairman Deller and Board members.
[1:10:17] I'm here to present the quarterly performance to the second quarter of 2020.
[1:10:21] Next slide.
[1:10:26] Next slide, please.
[1:10:30] As a reminder, we are using the three goals from Invest in Transit,
[1:10:33] a regional transit strategic plan to structure our quarterly reports.
[1:10:37] In a moment, I'll walk through each of these goals and tell you how we performed for the first half of 2020.
[1:10:43] First, I do want to note that this quarterly report covers the first half of 2020.
[1:10:48] 2020, so it includes two and a half, two and a half, quote, unquote, normal months and
[1:10:53] three and a half of COVID impacted months.
[1:10:56] Next slide.
[1:10:59] The first strategic goal, deliver value on our investment focuses on two key questions.
[1:11:05] Did we get more funding into are we efficient stewards of that, the funds that we have?
[1:11:10] Next slide.
[1:11:13] We monitor progress on this goal for the first half of 2020 by tracking capital and operating
[1:11:19] funding and expenditures and comparing performance to the first half of 2019.
[1:11:24] Looking at year-to-date, quarter two results annual capital funding was 190% higher compared to 2019.
[1:11:33] The quarter two 2020 capital program is a lot higher than we reported in the first quarter.
[1:11:38] This is the result of rebuild Illinois bond funds getting shifted from the out years 2021 to 2024
[1:11:46] to this year, 2020, which increased the annual funding by 58% or just over $1 billion.
[1:11:54] Capital expenditures were roughly equal to 2019, although 2020's second quarter spending
[1:12:00] was nearly 19% higher compared to first quarter of 2020.
[1:12:04] This is because the service boards continued with their construction schedules
[1:12:07] throughout the pandemic.
[1:12:10] Shifting to operating stats, the system-wide operating cost per passenger trip was 83.6% at the end of the second quarter after being adjusted for inflation.
[1:12:22] We've had a 1.3% decrease in operating costs through the first half of 2020, but the year-to-date, but the year-to-date 46% decrease in ridership drives the metric unsavorably higher.
[1:12:36] Fair Revenue for passenger trip, also known as the average fair paid was down 7.5% to $1.67.
[1:12:44] Overall, fair revenues were down roughly 50%, and they were spread over 46% fewer trips.
[1:12:51] Next slide, please.
[1:12:55] For the first goal spotlight, I'd like to give you an update on
[1:12:58] Capital Program Progress overall. Progress continues to be made with the Capital Program
[1:13:03] and capital construction at each of the agencies as was evident in the stats a moment ago.
[1:13:09] Later in the meeting, the board will consider a capital program amendment to cover some of the
[1:13:12] administrative elements of keeping the work going.
[1:13:16] The biggest change since our last quarterly report is that the rebuild Illinois bond funds
[1:13:20] are now in signed grant agreements.
[1:13:23] This required significant coordination with the I-DOT and the service boards.
[1:13:27] And the RTA has also applied to the 2020 Pego funding and we are waiting the grant approval for I-DOT.
[1:13:33] Last but not least, work continues on the new investment framework for transit capital
[1:13:37] as Leigh Ann mentioned earlier.
[1:13:39] Comments on that document are open until August 28th, and we will be presenting a final document
[1:13:46] for your approval in September.
[1:13:48] Next slide, please.
[1:13:53] Moving on, the second goal of investing transit is build on the strengths of our network,
[1:13:57] where we ask the questions, did the region become more transit-friendly?
[1:14:01] And are we focusing our limited resources wisely?
[1:14:03] Next slide.
[1:14:08] For this goal, we have been measuring vehicle revenue miles or the amount of service
[1:14:12] available to our riders over the past 10 years. Before the pandemic, the trend had been generally
[1:14:17] upward over the last decade. However, measure and pace have had reduced service plans in place
[1:14:24] since March in order to maintain operations for essential service providers. Limit exposure for
[1:14:29] for our frontline workers and to reflect decreased demand on the system.
[1:14:35] So vehicle revenue miles for the first half of 2020, which 15% lower than the first half
[1:14:41] of 2019.
[1:14:43] Next slide.
[1:14:46] For the second goal spotlight, we're going to look at how our service reductions, compared
[1:14:50] to our peer regions across the country.
[1:14:53] As you can see, the Chicago region kept a significant portion of its service intact and
[1:14:58] We reduced service to a left.
[1:15:00] Councilor extant than our peers. Compared to the first half of 2019, in 2020, over this time period,
[1:15:07] CTA reduced its service hours by 6.5%, primarily driven by the shutdowns of CTA service during
[1:15:13] the social unrest events in early June. Metro reduced its service hours by 24% as a significant
[1:15:20] portions of its riders had the ability to tell a commute. Case suburban services were reduced
[1:15:26] by 19% affecting 100 of its routes.
[1:15:30] In the ADA, paratransit service hours were down 33%
[1:15:33] as shared rides were significantly reduced.
[1:15:37] Next slide.
[1:15:41] The third goal is state competitive,
[1:15:43] which asks, are we providing the kind of services
[1:15:45] that people want to ride,
[1:15:47] and are the people satisfied with it when they do?
[1:15:50] Next slide.
[1:15:53] For this goal, we've been tracking ridership
[1:15:54] as well as metrics related to speed and reliability
[1:15:57] which influence whether people use transit.
[1:15:59] system-wide ridership for the first half of the year was $145 million a decrease as I said of 46
[1:16:06] percent compared to 2019. The system-wide average speed was 14.6 miles per hour down 2.5 percent
[1:16:15] from 14.9 miles per hour in 2019. CTA's on-time performance averaged 84 percent for bus in the
[1:16:23] first half of 2020. Rail stats are not available at this time. Measures on-time performance averaged
[1:16:30] 96.7% over the first half of 2020, exceeding their target of 95%. Paces on-time performance
[1:16:39] through the second quarter was 84% less than 1% lower compared to 2019. Next slide.
[1:16:49] For this
[1:16:49] quarterly spotlight, I'd like to talk to you about what is happening with ridership at the
[1:16:53] agencies in the United States. This chart shows the change in year-to-date
[1:16:57] ridership data for the RTA system in nine peer regions used in our annual
[1:17:01] peer performance reports as compared to ridership through June 19, 2019. The
[1:17:07] Chicago Regions ridership's loss of 46% as staggering as it is with somewhat
[1:17:12] better compared to the older systems in the more densely populated city such as
[1:17:17] New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. The lowest ridership losses in Houston and
[1:17:21] reflect the decision by the Texas governor to end their shutdown significantly
[1:17:25] earlier than other regions. Next slide.
[1:17:31] In summary, the first half of 2020 shows the impacts of COVID-19.
[1:17:36] Capital work has continued, but operations have been affected. In the next presentation,
[1:17:42] we will talk more about what the future might hold. Thank you and I'm happy to try to answer any questions.
[1:17:58] I see no hands raised for questions. Any questions?
[1:18:01] All
[1:18:07] right, let's move on to 6B and overview of the Strategic COVID-19 Recovery Planning for the RTA. Jessica, you're going to brief the board.
[1:18:19] Good morning. Thanks, Chairman Dillard, and members for the opportunity to be here with you today.
[1:18:25] I am Jessica Hector, Sue, I'm the Director of Planning and Market Development at RTA.
[1:18:29] And I'm going to be talking with you about the future.
[1:18:33] As you've been hearing throughout the meeting, this is an extraordinarily challenging time
[1:18:37] for transit.
[1:18:38] And we unfortunately don't know what the next few years are going to hold.
[1:18:43] We hope that things will return to normal soon.
[1:18:46] The transit use will rebound on its own without any interventions.
[1:18:50] But we also know that transit's very important to the region,
[1:18:52] and we want to be prepared for what might be ahead.
[1:18:55] We have unfortunately seen our peers in New York and in San Francisco and in other areas
[1:19:00] really struggle through some financial crises, and we want to avoid that.
[1:19:05] So that is the purpose of our discussion today.
[1:19:08] Next slide, please.
[1:19:13] Our key approach to recovery planning has been very multifaceted as you've been hearing
[1:19:17] throughout the meeting.
[1:19:18] We are hoping for the best, but planning for the worst.
[1:19:21] We continue to remind everybody about our existing strategic goals and vision, because we think
[1:19:28] That's really important at a time like this.
[1:19:30] We are also monitoring the status of transit overall
[1:19:33] and doing our best to communicate about the impacts
[1:19:35] through the dashboard that you've seen
[1:19:37] and through emails and other communications.
[1:19:39] We're also participating in and coordinating
[1:19:41] with several other recovery efforts
[1:19:43] that others are leading.
[1:19:45] The city of Chicago has a couple of efforts
[1:19:47] they're working towards.
[1:19:49] The county board chair has been having conversations
[1:19:51] and we're a part of all of those.
[1:19:54] They're very valuable to us,
[1:19:55] but we also thought it would be valuable
[1:19:57] to have a very focused conversation about transit as well.
[1:20:01] So we've opted to do what we're calling a scenario planning
[1:20:04] project.
[1:20:05] And in this project, we are really thinking
[1:20:07] about what could be coming in the future
[1:20:09] for mobility in general and for transit specifically.
[1:20:12] And we're looking a bit beyond where we are right now.
[1:20:15] I know it's hard to think about that, but say one to two years
[1:20:18] out, because it's a little bit tricky
[1:20:20] to put a timeline on recovery.
[1:20:22] We don't really know how long the virus impacts will last.
[1:20:25] We don't know when a safe vaccine will be widely available.
[1:20:29] We don't know when regular life will resume,
[1:20:31] and transit is very dependent upon all of this.
[1:20:34] So in our scenario planning work,
[1:20:36] we're not trying to predict the timeline.
[1:20:38] So much is to start talking about the fact
[1:20:40] that change will probably be necessary,
[1:20:42] and that RTA might want to take the lead
[1:20:44] in that discussion as the funding and the planning agency
[1:20:46] for the three operators.
[1:20:49] We're also looking at a range of possibilities
[1:20:51] rather than just one, because we want to be prepared
[1:20:54] and we want to be adaptable and hedge our bets a bit.
[1:20:57] We're also choosing to engage stakeholders,
[1:21:00] which I'll talk a little bit more about in a minute,
[1:21:02] but we want to get input from those
[1:21:04] with whom we interact regularly.
[1:21:06] So today I'm going to give you an overview of the work
[1:21:08] with a specific focus, again, on this scenario planning exercise.
[1:21:11] Next slide, please.
[1:21:15] We're going to be reminding stakeholders,
[1:21:16] as I mentioned about the strategic plans.
[1:21:18] They'll already reminded you about it,
[1:21:20] but many of you were on the board
[1:21:21] when we adopted it two years ago.
[1:21:23] And this was a collective effort
[1:21:24] between RTA and the service board and it's definitely guided our work since then.
[1:21:29] Next slide please.
[1:21:32] The plan has a very bold vision for transit as the core of the region's mobility
[1:21:36] network. It also talked about the need for long-term sustainable capital funding which we made progress
[1:21:43] toward with the passage of rebuildel in my last year. Next slide.
[1:21:49] The plan also has got three goals
[1:21:51] which we reviewed during our quarterly reports every quarter and you just heard one of them.
[1:21:56] The first goal delivered value on our investment relates to financial stewardship and funding.
[1:22:02] The second goal builds on the strengths of our network focuses on improvements to the existing transit system that we have.
[1:22:09] And the third goal state competitive focuses on innovation.
[1:22:13] So we started 2020 and sending to focus on these goals and to be focusing on capital investments but next slide.
[1:22:21] and March everything changed.
[1:22:24] The State Home Order was issued in Illinois on March 21,
[1:22:27] and very quickly we saw changes in our economy,
[1:22:31] and movements, and perceptions of public health,
[1:22:33] and trend it was very much impacted, as was said next slide.
[1:22:40] As we've already mentioned several times throughout this meeting,
[1:22:42] transit use changed significantly.
[1:22:44] You've seen this chart from our dashboard,
[1:22:46] and March, transit use shifted to meeting the needs of essential workers.
[1:22:51] and most non-essential workers stopped riding as soon as the state homeowner was in place and
[1:22:56] ridership plummeted. There has been a slow increase throughout the summer, but as of early
[1:23:01] August ridership across all of our systems is still down about 66%. Next slide please.
[1:23:09] The transit agencies also had to change their focuses in March to manage the public health crisis and
[1:23:14] the new demands that came with it. They already popped at length about this, so I'm not going to
[1:23:21] Part of, frankly, not part of the original plan for 2020, next slide.
[1:23:27] Each of the service boards also tailored its level of service to me.
[1:23:31] It's right at Ryder's knees.
[1:23:32] They already talked about this as well, but here we're showing it on a map.
[1:23:35] So on the left, you see all CTA Matron paste services before the pandemic and darker lines.
[1:23:42] And on the right, we've lightened all of the services that have been reduced or suspended.
[1:23:46] So you see right there how much these changes have affected our regional transit footprint.
[1:23:52] Next slide.
[1:23:55] Project funding has also been impacted.
[1:23:57] Two key sources of our funding, sales tax revenue and Fairbox revenue, were on par with previous years in January and February.
[1:24:06] But by March and April, both of those had dropped significantly.
[1:24:10] Fortunately, the CARES Act funding will be available to us to cover unexpected costs
[1:24:16] and those operating deficits, but it's unclear whether there will be any other additional
[1:24:21] federal packages.
[1:24:22] So, we're advocating for it, but we're also under pressure to make it last.
[1:24:27] Next slide, please.
[1:24:30] Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, we are not alone in this transit agency that crossed
[1:24:36] the world as an impacted Jill shared a bit about transit agencies in the US.
[1:24:40] This chart shows transit agencies across the world from UITP, which is sort of an app to the world.
[1:24:47] You can see here that no worldwide system has fully recovered yet. This is showing over in the number of weeks
[1:24:53] after their lockdowns were lifted, where their ridership is relatively normal. No one has recovered anywhere in the world.
[1:25:00] So in more towards the bottom, where the red lines were the bottom of the screen along with New York and some other U.S. cities.
[1:25:05] So on this basis, we know that there are challenges ahead, and that the timing and the sense of recovery is very uncertain.
[1:25:13] Next slide, please.
[1:25:16] Next slide, please.
[1:25:19] So that brings us to our scenario planning project.
[1:25:22] We started this project by developing several different scenarios.
[1:25:28] They each represent a different vision of the world and what the world's doing.
[1:25:31] and they explore changes to the transit system based on the economy overall and how transit
[1:25:37] funding will be impacted in time.
[1:25:40] Commuting and how transit volumes will be affected if more people are indeed working
[1:25:45] from home and transit motorists, how much transit use will change based on people's perception
[1:25:51] of transit.
[1:25:53] So we developed two analytical tools to estimate the impact of each scenario on funding
[1:25:59] relative to 2019. We focus on funding because that helps us see how much fine power we have in each
[1:26:06] scenario and how much mobility we can provide in the region in turn. Next slide, please.
[1:26:13] It's not really, it's not about getting the right answer in the sector size. We have other spheres
[1:26:18] in which we know that we need to do that, but the sector size is really about exploring different
[1:26:22] features and thinking about how they would impact transit and having a conversation about how we
[1:26:28] need to be prepared for action.
[1:26:29] It's not used to manage the current crisis.
[1:26:32] You heard the service boards they're doing that very well.
[1:26:34] It's not even about predicting the likelihood
[1:26:37] of any of these occurring or talking
[1:26:40] about what we think people will be doing,
[1:26:41] but more again, a structure for some conversations.
[1:26:45] So next slide, please.
[1:26:48] We developed six different scenarios.
[1:26:51] They range from a solid economy in which people aren't working
[1:26:55] or traveling at all on one extreme.
[1:26:57] to a more positive feature in which sustainable shared travel bounces back on the other extreme.
[1:27:04] It's important to note that we don't have any scenario in which we think that things would return
[1:27:09] exactly to the way they were in 2019. All of the scenarios assume some higher level of teleworking
[1:27:16] and other shifts in industry and behavior. None of them do assume we'll return to 2019. Next slide, please.
[1:27:26] Today, we're just going to focus on three of them and talk about them in a little bit more detail.
[1:27:30] So, from left to right, these include the Stalled Economy scenario, the congested recovery scenario,
[1:27:37] and we're calling a regional remix scenario.
[1:27:40] And these three represent the book ends of the scenarios on each extreme and then one in the middle.
[1:27:46] They're all different, but they're all possible futures that again help frame a good discussion about what the future of trends
[1:27:51] And it would look like if we ended up in one of these scenarios.
[1:27:55] So now I'll walk through each of them individually in a bit more detail.
[1:27:58] Next slide, please.
[1:28:02] Next slide, please.
[1:28:04] Thank you.
[1:28:04] The first scenario is this stalled economy scenario.
[1:28:07] So just to orient you to this slide, on the right, we have three sliders representing those
[1:28:13] impact lovers.
[1:28:14] I mentioned a minute ago, the economy commuting and transit mode share.
[1:28:18] And we're using the circles to show how these three lovers and this scenario change relative
[1:28:22] to 2019.
[1:28:23] So a circle above the line means that this lever is performing better than 2019, a circle
[1:28:29] below the line means that it's performing less or worse than 2019.
[1:28:33] And on the left, we have a narrative that describes this scenario in terms of what's going
[1:28:39] on overall, when this scenario could reasonably occur because they're all a little bit different
[1:28:45] in terms of their timeline, and how well the regional transit system is prepared to navigate
[1:28:51] the scenario if it does occur.
[1:28:55] So going through this, all the economy scenario, the narrative here is that the U.S. plunges
[1:29:00] into an economic depression, in which unemployment is high and travel is depressed overall.
[1:29:07] So the economy, commuting, and the transit mode share are all lower worse than 2019.
[1:29:14] In terms of when this would happen, this could happen anytime, or in the near term, without
[1:29:19] any kind of intervention.
[1:29:20] And if it does occur, we really don't have policies in place that help us navigate that.
[1:29:28] We would need to do something to deal with the fact that we have less funding available
[1:29:34] to us and something major would need to change.
[1:29:36] Next slide, please.
[1:29:40] The second scenario we have is called a congested recovery scenario.
[1:29:44] And in this scenario, we're actually looking at a rebounding economy.
[1:29:49] The economy goes back to 2019 levels, but more people are telecommuting and I'm meeting
[1:29:55] overall a little bit down, and the people who do can you choose to drive.
[1:30:00] They don't want to take transit, because they're afraid or it doesn't work for them. They're driving. Like the previous scenario, this could happen anytime. One might argue that we're starting to see this happen a little bit, as people go back to their cars, congestion starting to rise again. Again, the policy that we have in place, both for transportation in general and even transit to a degree, don't really help us navigate.
[1:30:34] The congestion from becoming so extreme that it actually stymies economic development and actually
[1:30:38] who prevents us from fully recovering,
[1:30:40] particularly in downtown Chicago.
[1:30:45] Next slide, please.
[1:30:51] In the third scenario that we'll talk about today,
[1:30:53] this one is called the Regional Remix scenario.
[1:30:55] So in this scenario, the economy fully revounds
[1:30:58] and actually exceeds 2019 levels.
[1:31:01] More people are still telecommuting,
[1:31:04] so commuting's down, but the people who are traveling
[1:31:06] and even non-commuters are choosing to take transit more often.
[1:31:10] This reality is the kind of reality
[1:31:12] that urban planners envision.
[1:31:14] and then we talk about in some of our regional plans, but unlike previous scenarios, this
[1:31:19] one is unlikely to occur in the near term. It's unlikely to occur on its own at all. It
[1:31:24] would definitely require some interventions, policy interventions on our part, to make sure
[1:31:30] that this kind of reality, this kind of scenario could become reality. So these three slides really
[1:31:35] represent the inputs to our estimation tools and the thought processes going into the scenarios.
[1:31:41] The next slide, if you go to the next slide, actually shows the output of that analysis.
[1:31:48] So to orient you to this slide, we have three bars, each representing the funding we
[1:31:53] estimate that would be available in each scenario relative to 2019.
[1:31:57] So the light gray, each bar, there is one bar for each scenario, and the light gray portion
[1:32:03] is a public revenue, so that's our sales tax and other forms of public funding.
[1:32:08] The dark grape cart is the system revenue, which is mostly fairs.
[1:32:13] Together they comprise all of our funding.
[1:32:16] The blue line at the top is the 2019 baseline.
[1:32:20] You can see that we've estimated that in a stall economy scenario, like the one I described,
[1:32:26] we would have 45% left funding.
[1:32:28] We're transit buying power than in 2019.
[1:32:31] The economy is not doing well and travels down, so all of our sources are funding,
[1:32:35] funding are not doing well. The middle one that congested a recovery scenario is
[1:32:41] estimated to provide about 20% less fine power than we had in 2019. In this one
[1:32:47] it was a little bit different and that public revenue in this scenario is
[1:32:50] actually doing well because the economy has recovered and sales tax levels are
[1:32:55] high but system revenue is still very low because people are not riding, they're
[1:33:01] driving, they're not riding transit. So overall the impact of that is 20% less.
[1:33:06] The third scenario on the right, the regional remix one is the only scenario of all six
[1:33:11] that we looked at in which we would yield, but there would be a little bit more buying
[1:33:15] power than in 2019.
[1:33:17] And here we're saying we could have something like maybe five percent more than we had in
[1:33:21] 2019 if this scenario were to become reality.
[1:33:24] And in this case, both public revenue and system revenue are very healthy.
[1:33:29] But that one, again, that one is unlikely to occur without some significant policy interventions
[1:33:34] where the other two could happen on their own with really no action on our part.
[1:33:39] So moving on to the next slide.
[1:33:42] This is how these scenarios look alongside 2020.
[1:33:47] This is a projection for all of the whole year of 2020 and what we think this year will look like.
[1:33:54] So we think we'll have 25% less revenue.
[1:33:56] Again, CARES Act funding is being used to make up that deficit this year,
[1:34:01] but time will tell whether more funding will be available, so moving on to the next slide.
[1:34:09] So with this work initially completed now, and some idea about these scenarios and what their impacts would be,
[1:34:16] we are now planning to use them to structure a discussion with stakeholders over the next couple of weeks.
[1:34:23] We will be having two virtual sessions, one in August 24th, one in August 31st,
[1:34:28] in which we will share this information with stakeholders
[1:34:31] and ask them about the kinds of actions that we should take
[1:34:35] to continue to pursue invest in transit goals
[1:34:38] in what might be very different environments.
[1:34:41] We will take what we learned from those sessions
[1:34:45] rather and share it back with you in the fall
[1:34:47] so that you can keep likewise here from our stakeholders
[1:34:50] and we will use the information that we need
[1:34:53] to help guide our work going forward.
[1:34:56] Next slide.
[1:34:57] So that concludes the information that I've prepared to share with you.
[1:35:03] I'm going to pause here now and ask for your info or your thoughts on what COVID impacts
[1:35:09] you're concerned about and how we might use these scenarios to capture feedback from our
[1:35:15] stakeholders.
[1:35:17] I will pause it now and have Audrey let me know if anyone has questions.
[1:35:26] Director Holt has a question.
[1:35:28] You can lower your hand and unmute.
[1:35:32] Thank you Audrey and thank you Jessica.
[1:35:34] I actually got a couple of comments and questions, so certainly if there's another member of the board that has questions, please feel free to interrupt me.
[1:35:44] Jessica, just starting with three scenarios, could you talk a little bit about why you picked the regional remix?
[1:35:51] I see the first two scenarios, actually all the other scenarios in the list as scenarios that we have to respond to, but in contrast the regional remix scenario is one that we would have to make happen.
[1:36:03] and I think it's a slightly different approach
[1:36:07] and I'm interested in hearing your thoughts about that.
[1:36:11] Thanks, that's a great question.
[1:36:13] So we, as I mentioned, initially looked at six different scenarios
[1:36:18] but that is a lot to go over a lot to think about.
[1:36:22] And so when we were thinking about talking with you all
[1:36:25] and talking with our stakeholders, we thought,
[1:36:27] let's choose fewer of them.
[1:36:29] But let's make sure that one of the scenarios is a scenario that we can aim toward.
[1:36:35] You know, this is not a fun conversation to be having.
[1:36:38] None of us want to be having any of the conversation.
[1:36:40] We've been having all morning, frankly, right?
[1:36:42] So a lot of our scenarios exist in that reality that there are going to happen that we don't
[1:36:49] want to see.
[1:36:50] That scenario that the remix scenario looks at, what do we want to happen?
[1:36:56] Okay.
[1:36:57] Thank you.
[1:36:57] You know, just a comment on that.
[1:36:59] I mean, it seems that there were in a situation now where we certainly should have a conversation
[1:37:06] about what we want to see happen.
[1:37:09] But there's also a reality.
[1:37:10] There's the possible realities that we're facing, right, which are more reflective of the other scenarios that you all have presented.
[1:37:17] And it seems to me that in this conversation that it probably, it isn't just about feedback or socialization,
[1:37:25] we're getting information, but also a conversation that we need to have about what changes do we have to make in response.
[1:37:32] And how are we going to deal with these scenarios, what changes do we need to see whether we're talking about service levels,
[1:37:40] how we support people who don't have options other than transit, how we think about the footprint of our system,
[1:37:46] how we think about what the public support for transit needs to look like going forward.
[1:37:52] And so I think, as I said, I think we've got to expand the conversation beyond just information
[1:38:01] and just what people would like to see.
[1:38:08] We appreciate that.
[1:38:09] And then one other comment or question I have for you is, you know, I know you were talking
[1:38:16] about this as being sort of looking forward to the future and not to the immediate term.
[1:38:20] but it does seem to me that the scenarios that we're facing that they really do have an immediate impact and that they are something that that's information that we actually have to take forward into the upcoming budget conversations because if we're facing say you're, you know, worst case scenario or even any of the scenarios that we're looking at, those are going to have to inform and drive our decisions for the FYI and the service force decisions for the FY21 budget.
[1:38:50] and I'd be interested in hearing a little bit of slide on that from you all.
[1:38:56] Sure, yes.
[1:38:57] So, yes, this project gives focus beyond where we are right now, intentionally,
[1:39:02] knowing that we are having budget conversations.
[1:39:05] Our internal team includes people from our finance team and institutions, government affairs
[1:39:11] and others who are having those same conversations alongside this.
[1:39:15] So we're definitely staying coordinated within our TA.
[1:39:18] And we're going to use the information we've learned from this to inform the budget process.
[1:39:23] Would anyone, and would you like to add anything to that?
[1:39:32] And, and I think of sharing this information with the service boards, making this available.
[1:39:37] We did do a briefing for them last week.
[1:39:40] And, and our hope is as we sort of take this from sort of some baseline scenario.
[1:39:45] As we're looking at both the.
[1:39:48] 2021 budget, but even sort of end beyond having service boards further engage in this conversation
[1:39:56] because I think it's a good way to start those framing questions and really having the
[1:40:03] difficult conversations that I fundamentally think we're going to be having over the next,
[1:40:06] not just for 2021 budget, but beyond.
[1:40:12] No, I agree. Liam, and that's I think part of my overall,
[1:40:17] I guess part of my overall comment and concern is to use this as an opportunity to think about
[1:40:21] what those difficult conversations need to be like.
[1:40:23] What need to be, you know, having a robust transit in the region is really critical as
[1:40:29] we all know to the economy of the region, but we are faced with a situation that may require
[1:40:34] us to have some difficult conversations and potentially make difficult choices.
[1:40:39] And so thinking about that in the context of what's coming up, not just in FY21, but in
[1:40:44] by 22 and bringing that conversation forward to the extent that the can seems to meet
[1:40:49] it. It's very important. But thank you all very much.
[1:40:55] Director Kerry has a question. Please lower your hand and unmute.
[1:41:06] Unmute?
[1:41:10] Sorry, Audrey. Took me a second. There to find.
[1:41:13] I want to echo some of the comments, Director Holt made.
[1:41:19] Let me start with where you just were ending I think which is we'll have very difficult
[1:41:24] conversations to make I think coming up. I mean if we're fortunate to get more money out of
[1:41:29] the federal government and I would hope we would to carry us perhaps through 2021. I mean at some
[1:41:35] point and one of the slides you showed said that 2020 we will be 25 percent below what we would
[1:41:44] have hoped to be in terms of funding but that included the cares money. You take the cares money out
[1:41:50] and we're way, way below. So we will have very difficult conversations, and I think as we look at where
[1:41:57] we're going to go and how we might recover from this, we've had an opportunity to say when push
[1:42:03] comes to shove who needs public transportation, and we've seen that a lot of the folks such as myself
[1:42:12] and others that live in the suburbs and take matters downtown were able to work from home to a large
[1:42:17] extent we're able to get in a car if you really had to go somewhere, but there's a huge population
[1:42:24] across the Metro Chicago area that perhaps doesn't even have a car. And the only way to get to work,
[1:42:31] get to shop, to do anything is to have public transportation. So I think that's one thing I wanted
[1:42:38] to stress is that if we were starting from scratch to build a system, we would look at who needs
[1:42:45] to the most, where we really need to provide critical services.
[1:42:51] The other point I want to make is that before COVID happened, and I've only been on the
[1:42:56] board just about a year, a little over a year, but before COVID happened, there were a lot
[1:43:02] of discussions about amongst all the different boards, PACE, CTA, et cetera, innovative services
[1:43:09] are looking at, in particular, pays perhaps on advanced service, looking at micro transit.
[1:43:18] How do we, a suburb, the suburb, the suburb to suburb, provision of transportation, public transit?
[1:43:29] So I think as we look forward, we're kind of at opportunity to perhaps not start from scratch,
[1:43:36] that's because we're having these conversations
[1:43:38] and we have a great system in place,
[1:43:41] but we really need to look at who needs the service,
[1:43:46] where do we need it, how do we provide it?
[1:43:49] I guess what I, the bottom line is,
[1:43:51] we don't wanna just go back to where we were in February or March
[1:43:55] because we were looking beyond that to begin with.
[1:43:59] So, and we need to take this opportunity,
[1:44:03] I think to kind of rise out of the ashes
[1:44:05] a little bit, and come on a little bit better, different though, very different, and I think
[1:44:11] we will have extremely difficult conversations in terms of the financial impact.
[1:44:17] So that's, it wasn't so much a question, it was my comments.
[1:44:20] Thank you.
[1:44:23] Thank you, you're welcome to carry.
[1:44:25] Director, Director Canty has a question.
[1:44:28] Please lower your hand and unmute.
[1:44:36] Unmute?
[1:44:36] Director, can you hear me?
[1:44:39] Yes.
[1:44:39] Thank you.
[1:44:40] fantastic. I wanted to echo some of the comments made by director's holes and director
[1:44:46] Kerry and thank you all for this presentation and I want to seize on something that I heard
[1:44:53] director Kerry say that this is an opportunity for us. I know we've been talking about how
[1:45:00] So we get to where we were and how do we bring these revenues back up. But I think what we're seeing is a real opportunity to create some change and develop the transit system that we want to see to a certain extent. And I do say that will involve challenging conversations and I hesitate to use their difficult conversations because when I hear that, I think we're all trained to think of difficult conversations as we're going to have to stop doing things and we're not going to be able to
[1:45:30] and what I want to think of them as challenging conversations because we're changing the way that people view transit
[1:45:37] and what we do for those who need it and those, you know, to direct a carry point.
[1:45:42] There's a large lot of the suburbs that, you know, workers were able to find ways to telecommute and work from home,
[1:45:49] so perhaps in writing Metro as much, but this is an opportunity to provide some of that suburbs to suburb service
[1:45:57] that we don't get as much out here at least in the northern suburbs, and I assume it's
[1:46:02] a challenge for the southern suburbs as well. So I'm excited about that opportunity,
[1:46:07] and I really like to keep it up in that way, as facing on an opportunity in what is a challenging
[1:46:14] time for the region and state and nation, but looking at this as a way for us to start building up
[1:46:20] a system that we can get excited about and be proud about that offers everything that our
[1:46:25] that our riders need on all the different service boards
[1:46:28] and really find a way to bring them into this fold
[1:46:31] and have those conversations with our legislators.
[1:46:33] So thank you.
[1:46:36] Thank you, Dr. Surah.
[1:46:39] Director Grohlvin has a question.
[1:46:40] If you would lower your hand and unmute.
[1:46:46] Thanks, Audrey.
[1:46:48] And thank you, Jessica.
[1:46:48] I think this is great to see that we're doing this
[1:46:51] really important work.
[1:46:52] I think we really need to be coming up with some responses
[1:46:57] in plans that are going to be robust across multiple potential features, so I think this
[1:47:03] approach is a great one. So thank you for that. I'll probably just take a second to just
[1:47:08] reinforce what Director Saugher said so eloquently before. I had safety on my mind as a concern
[1:47:16] here, but after hearing the great efforts and focus and dedication of the service boards and the
[1:47:22] space of safety for our customers and our staff.
[1:47:26] I just, again, reinforcing Dr. Saugher's words,
[1:47:29] very, very eloquently, put how grateful and impressed
[1:47:32] we should be.
[1:47:33] I agree with the previous director's comments
[1:47:36] about considering the near term too.
[1:47:39] I think it would be helpful for us to consider at least
[1:47:42] three periods as we're doing this kind of work.
[1:47:45] The recovery, well, actually right now, the fact
[1:47:48] that we're still in the pandemic, maybe a period around
[1:47:51] what does a recovery look like and how my response to be different than and then clearly the new
[1:47:55] the new normal so I think you're you're focused on the long term which is which is appropriate I think
[1:48:02] considering these kind of other two periods as well and how our how our responses might be different
[1:48:07] in those periods I think would also be helpful and then the last thing I guess is a question
[1:48:13] Jessica you referenced you were going to meet with stakeholders can you give us some some idea
[1:48:17] of who the stakeholders are that you will be seeking input from.
[1:48:21] Thank you.
[1:48:23] Yes, thank you, Director.
[1:48:24] Both for that feedback and for the question.
[1:48:27] Yes, so we have invited a sort of wide range of stakeholders
[1:48:32] with whom we interact regularly.
[1:48:35] So RTA planning specifically interacts regularly.
[1:48:38] So we've invited many other transportation agencies
[1:48:42] with whom we worked.
[1:48:43] We've invited advocacy groups who interact with us
[1:48:47] and theoretically send letters to you as a board and talk with us about our work.
[1:48:52] We've invited the service boards to participate so they can hear as well.
[1:48:56] And we're hoping we're catching some business representatives as well.
[1:48:59] I should say some private sector entities because we're hoping that we get
[1:49:03] a good variety of conversation and we hear from a variety of different sectors
[1:49:07] and can get a pulse on what the regions needs are and what people think we need to talk about in terms of change.
[1:49:18] Jessica, can I just jump in real quick just to add and correct me from wrong but my understanding is we've also invited
[1:49:26] transportation and staff from the counties
[1:49:30] and the planning liaison to represent the council of the man around the region. Is that correct?
[1:49:36] Yes, yes, indeed. We've also included local and county government to be a part of the conversation as well. Thanks for that reminder.
[1:49:45] Director Sagar has a question.
[1:49:48] You can lower your hand and unmute.
[1:49:53] Yes, thank you.
[1:49:54] I appreciate it.
[1:49:55] Can you hear me all right?
[1:50:00] Yes.
[1:50:02] Well, I'm incredibly pleased and really appreciate the comments that have been made to buy our
[1:50:09] colleagues on the board, and I absolutely agree with many of the comments that have been
[1:50:13] made.
[1:50:14] You know, at this type of time, it's very, very common for businesses and services, I think,
[1:50:21] to just say, well, we just have to hang in there.
[1:50:25] We just have to hold on by our fingernails and our toenails
[1:50:27] and hope to goodness that we're going to survive this.
[1:50:31] Another approach that is great going to be taken
[1:50:33] is to do what we all have referred to as retrenching.
[1:50:36] We want to just go back and retrench,
[1:50:38] which just basically means we want to defend
[1:50:40] what we have always done in the past
[1:50:42] and we want to make sure that we come out of this surviving,
[1:50:46] but we come out of it surviving strong
[1:50:48] and then we can kind of keep doing what we do.
[1:50:51] I think the fact of the matter is that we at this time,
[1:50:54] and business in general at this time,
[1:50:57] really need to seek bold innovation.
[1:51:00] And I'm going to emphasize that we're bold.
[1:51:03] I think we have to be bold enough to redefine ourselves.
[1:51:06] I think we have to be bold enough to redirect ourselves.
[1:51:09] And I think we have to be bold enough to reinvent and reinvest.
[1:51:15] You know, the big question really is, and the question that we have to ask ourselves,
[1:51:20] frankly, is if we are prepared for dramatic change.
[1:51:25] But I think that that's what we have the opportunity to do, and I appreciate the challenge
[1:51:32] context, and I also appreciate the opportunity context, because to me, this is really an opportunity
[1:51:39] for us to redefine ourselves as a transit system in Northeastern Illinois and to be able
[1:51:47] to serve our community and our communities and our public in a way that we have never
[1:51:54] truly attempted to address before.
[1:51:56] Because it's typical, it's typical for us to kind of maintain the status quo or continue
[1:52:02] to go in the directions and I'm not faulting our staffs, I think the staffs are just exceptionally
[1:52:06] and done a beautiful job of trying to look to the future.
[1:52:10] But I think that this calls for a very bold action.
[1:52:15] I appreciated the commentary that was made with the three alternatives.
[1:52:19] I think the fact is that we're going to have to accept the challenge which is to combine.
[1:52:26] And we're going to have to look at combining a congested recovery, if you will,
[1:52:30] which is a near term type of opportunity with that regional remix,
[1:52:35] which is more of a long term. So the concern is always going to be how do we finance both
[1:52:42] of those types of things? How do we marry that near-term approach which we're going to have
[1:52:47] to be taking with that longer-term growth redevelopment innovation type of approach? But truly
[1:52:56] in my mind the only way that we're going to be able to look back on this period in time and
[1:53:02] say that we have successfully, not just simply maneuvered, but we have successfully
[1:53:08] grasped the opportunity which is before us is to truly be innovative in our approaches.
[1:53:15] And I say that very, very broadly and with the commitment as a director to support that
[1:53:21] type of effort.
[1:53:22] Thank you.
[1:53:25] Thank you, Dr. Sanger.
[1:53:27] Thanks for that encouragement.
[1:53:31] Okay.
[1:53:32] I see no more hands raised.
[1:53:37] Okay.
[1:53:37] There are other questions. Thank you again for your time and we look forward to sharing with you what we learn later in the fall. Thank you.
[1:53:45] Thank you, Chairman.
[1:53:47] Thanks, Jessica and the members of the board for their comments.
[1:53:53] Item 7 is our next action item for today. We're going to move on and we're going to hear from the staff on these items and we'll both on each of these individually following the staff from arts and questions.
[1:54:06] but item 7 are our action items for the day.
[1:54:11] The first is 7A, which is the ordinance
[1:54:13] amending the 2020 regional and service board budgets
[1:54:17] and Bill, I believe this is yours.
[1:54:25] Yes, it is.
[1:54:25] Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[1:54:27] Thank you.
[1:54:28] Good morning, members of the board.
[1:54:31] This morning we are asking you to consider
[1:54:33] and ordinance amending the 2020 operating budget
[1:54:37] of the service boards and the RTA agency.
[1:54:41] Before I continue my presentation,
[1:54:43] I would very much like to thank the RTA budget staff,
[1:54:47] Doug Anderson, Nora Buia, and Sarah Rubino
[1:54:50] for their diligent work on the revisions
[1:54:53] to both the RTA 2020 regional budget
[1:54:56] and the RTA 2020 agency budget.
[1:55:00] They met very tight deadlines
[1:55:01] amidst other pressing RTA priorities
[1:55:04] and, of course, the pandemic.
[1:55:10] Next slide, please.
[1:55:16] Provide service board and RTA budgets
[1:55:18] were required by the May funding amendment,
[1:55:21] which decreased RTA regional funding
[1:55:24] by an estimated $543 million due to the expected impact
[1:55:30] of COVID-19 on sales tax collections.
[1:55:35] The May ordinance also allocated
[1:55:38] an authorized CARES Act funding to count towards recovery ratio requirements and the temporary
[1:55:45] response to plummeting fair revenue.
[1:55:50] The revised 2020 service board budgets who received
[1:55:53] in early August from the service boards and vetted by RTA staff. While each service board
[1:56:00] approached their revised budget a little differently, the proposed budgets are balanced and meet each of
[1:56:08] the RTA Act criteria for adoption.
[1:56:12] One thing we will reiterate during this presentation
[1:56:15] is that three months have passed since the May funding
[1:56:18] amendment.
[1:56:19] Enough time for actual results to vary significantly
[1:56:23] from our projections back then.
[1:56:27] For example, actual sales tax receipts
[1:56:30] from March, April, and May have been higher than expected.
[1:56:34] They should lead to a better result than the proposed budgets would suggest, particularly
[1:56:40] with respect to longevity of care that are funding.
[1:56:45] Next slide, please.
[1:56:50] The proposed budgets proceed system ridership of about 240 million rides per year, somewhat
[1:56:58] worse than estimates of around 300 million that we made back in April.
[1:57:05] CTAs did reflect a late adjustment to their fall ridership levels due to the Chicago Public
[1:57:11] School's decision on remote learning, and the individual service boards anticipate ridership
[1:57:18] declines of between 47 and 60 percent. Overall, regional ridership is expected to decline by more
[1:57:28] than 50% resulting in corresponding losses to fair revenue.
[1:57:35] Next slide, please.
[1:57:39] The May funding amendment left the decision about 2020 service
[1:57:44] and expense levels to the individual service boards.
[1:57:49] As I mentioned earlier, each service board took a slightly different approach to budgeting.
[1:57:56] While the CTA recognized year-to-date savings of $11.8 million through June, their full year
[1:58:04] expenses have increased by $21.6 million or $1.4%. Metro recognized $32.2 million of year-to-date
[1:58:15] savings through May and held their June through December expenses at the originally budgeted level.
[1:58:22] For a total expense decrease of 3.9%, PACE chose to leave their original budgeted levels
[1:58:32] in place for the full year, so total budgeted expenses are unchanged.
[1:58:40] Both PACE and Metro continue to operate reduced service levels which should lead to favorable
[1:58:46] results versus budget for the balance of the year.
[1:58:49] CTA continues to operate a full schedule.
[1:58:56] ADA power transit is one area where much has changed in three months.
[1:59:01] The ADA expense budget under your consideration today is almost $42 million lower than the
[1:59:09] original budget.
[1:59:11] But as the addict mentioned earlier, the ADA funding requirement continues to revolve and
[1:59:18] and I'll explain that on the next slide.
[1:59:21] Next slide, please.
[1:59:26] The May funding amendment
[1:59:27] pulled ADA funding down by about 30% to $129 million.
[1:59:34] This was essentially our best guess
[1:59:36] based on the ridership drop-off,
[1:59:40] but the impact of COVID-19 on ADA operations
[1:59:44] was better understood.
[1:59:48] Before the impact of COVID-19 on ADA operations,
[1:59:52] was better understood.
[1:59:54] Pay staff subsequently informed the RTA staff that the $129 million
[2:00:21] In short, years of hard-earned productivity gains in 88 paratrans operations were essential
[2:00:29] undone overnight by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Paces Revived ADA budget under
[2:00:38] York Consideration Today, COVID-19 mitigation efforts were
[2:00:43] anticipated through second quarter. Subject to the approval of the RTA for,
[2:00:49] PACE has proposed the use of $18.4 million from the ADA Parachands Reserve in
[2:00:56] In addition to the $129 million provided by the May Funding Amendment,
[2:01:04] in the meantime,
[2:01:06] Paces determine that the need to extend COVID-19 mitigation efforts will require an additional
[2:01:12] $13 million of 2020 funding. For a total of $31.4 million more than the May Funding Amendment.
[2:01:23] Staff recommends addressing that additional need next month with a second 2020 funding
[2:01:29] amendment for ADA parent transit,
[2:01:34] but for today the RT Board is being asked to approve
[2:01:38] only the additional 18.4 million dollars.
[2:01:42] Staff recommends sourcing all incremental ADA funding from reserve funds in order to maximize
[2:01:49] the amount of current year-style tax flowing to the mainline service force, including
[2:01:55] Pace the Bourbon Service.
[2:01:59] Next slide, please.
[2:02:04] Moving on to recovery ratios.
[2:02:07] The include unit of almost $650 million of projected CARES Act funding in operating revenue
[2:02:14] has restored each of the mainline service force proposed recovery ratios.
[2:02:20] to meet or exceed the original 2020 requirements.
[2:02:27] The proposed regional recovery ratio has actually risen
[2:02:30] from the original budget to about 51%,
[2:02:34] exceeding the statutory requirement of 50%.
[2:02:39] Also, to achieve the required 10% recovery ratio
[2:02:43] for ADA pirate transit,
[2:02:46] in the absence of CARES Act funding,
[2:02:48] ACES Incorporated a Security Expense Exclusion, reflecting the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on
[2:02:58] productivity.
[2:03:01] Next slide, please.
[2:03:05] The May Funding Amendment also sharply reduced RTA's
[2:03:09] sales tax allocation by $36 million. Action needed to be taken to keep the RTAB in balance with
[2:03:20] the projected sales tax and available CARES Act funding.
[2:03:26] 3.5 million of savings have been identified
[2:03:29] in the RTA agency budget of $35.1 million,
[2:03:34] production of 10%, due to lower interest rates,
[2:03:39] projections of short and long-term debt service
[2:03:42] were reduced to provide the balance
[2:03:44] of the $7.7 million of required reductions.
[2:03:50] Next slide, please.
[2:03:54] On this final slide, please note the statement directly below the title.
[2:04:00] As I mentioned earlier, assumptions have changed in the last three months.
[2:04:05] And the budgets in hand are based on the gloomy sales tax projections we made back in May.
[2:04:12] Based on those projections, this slide summarizes the amount of CARES Act funding
[2:04:17] anticipated to be consumed in 2020.
[2:04:21] And in turn, the amount expected to be left over for 2021.
[2:04:30] Adding the third and fourth
[2:04:31] columns together suggests that over $1 billion of the total $1.4 billion of CARES Act funding
[2:04:39] will be required for 2020. However, due to better than previously expected
[2:04:45] self-tax and PTF results up to 200 million of additional public funding should reduce the
[2:04:52] CARES Act burn rate for all of the region's transit agencies, including the RTA, as we move
[2:05:00] through the remainder of the year. We plan to quantify the expected improvement next month,
[2:05:07] so stay tuned. Accordingly, staff requests for adoption of the ordinance amending the 2020
[2:05:15] operating budgets of the service boards and the RTA agency.
[2:05:21] That concludes my presentation and we happy to address any questions.
[2:05:26] Thank you.
[2:05:30] Thanks, Bill. Any questions or comments from the board?
[2:05:35] I see no hands. Sorry, Director Holt has a question. If you lower your hand and on mute.
[2:05:42] Thank you.
[2:05:43] So could you go back to the point you made about the exception that PACE made for the PACE
[2:05:51] ADA is part of the, to make sure they had a balanced budget for this year and in light
[2:05:57] of the increased costs, not sure I understood what that exception was?
[2:06:01] So, the reason for the increase in the cost is because the productivity gains that
[2:06:12] patients have made over the last decade in combining trips of two or more
[2:06:21] individuals. I think Rocky explains earlier that they have had to go to single
[2:06:31] Right, but you noted that they have made a specific exception to one of their cost lines
[2:06:38] to bring down, to accommodate the increase in cost.
[2:06:42] I understand that they have, and to go to simple rides during this particular period,
[2:06:45] I'm interested in the mechanisms that you referred to, the budget change behind the scenes.
[2:06:51] So, that is how the recovery ratio calculation is being calculated, that we're now including
[2:07:02] an expanded exclusion, basically it's a security exclusion to secure the health of the
[2:07:11] riders and drivers due to this loss of productivity.
[2:07:15] Okay, thank you.
[2:07:21] There are no other questions.
[2:07:27] Can I have a motion and a second that we approve.
[2:07:31] This ordinance is submitted, please.
[2:07:36] Director and all feel moves and director hold seconds.
[2:07:44] Thank you.
[2:07:45] Audrey, I believe we need to take a roll call.
[2:07:49] It's required here.
[2:07:51] Do you take the roll call, madam secretary?
[2:07:52] Director.
[2:07:53] Certainly.
[2:07:55] Director.
[2:07:55] And all feel?
[2:07:57] Aye.
[2:07:58] Director.
[2:07:59] Canty.
[2:08:00] Aye.
[2:08:02] Director.
[2:08:03] Carrie.
[2:08:04] Aye.
[2:08:07] Director.
[2:08:07] Colson.
[2:08:09] Yes.
[2:08:12] Director.
[2:08:13] Craig.
[2:08:13] Yes.
[2:08:16] Director.
[2:08:17] Craig.
[2:08:17] Flentay.
[2:08:17] Aye.
[2:08:20] Director.
[2:08:21] Gavin.
[2:08:21] Yes.
[2:08:27] Director.
[2:08:28] Aye. Director Cotell. Aye. Director Lewis. Yes. Director Melvin. Yes. Director
[2:08:41] Payne. Yes. Director Ross. Yes. Director Sagger. Yes. Chairman Dillard. Yes. 16
[2:08:57] Thank you, and that will be so recorded.
[2:09:01] Let's move on to 7B, which are resolutions
[2:09:03] buying the financial results for the second quarter of 2020.
[2:09:08] Be good morning.
[2:09:10] Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
[2:09:13] This is Be Marina Hickey, Chief Financial Officer with the RTA.
[2:09:17] Today I am presenting the year-to-day financial results for the second quarter of 2020,
[2:09:22] 20 which are subject to your certification.
[2:09:25] Keep in mind that the results are now being compared
[2:09:28] to the amended 2020 budget which recognizes the inclusion
[2:09:32] of federal CARES Act funding as well as the amended
[2:09:36] RTA funding levels established in May.
[2:09:39] Because the service boards mostly incorporated
[2:09:42] actual results for the first half of the year
[2:09:44] into the revised budgets, many of the variances
[2:09:48] from budget for year-to-date are zero or close to zero.
[2:09:51] At the end of the presentation, I will be recommending that the Board certify that the
[2:09:56] results of operations of each service board and the region as a whole are in substantial
[2:10:01] accordance with the just adopted 2020 budget.
[2:10:05] Next slide, please.
[2:10:10] System ridership through June was 46.5 percent below prior year and 0.1 percent and
[2:10:23] 0.1 percent
[2:10:24] an unfavorable to the amended budget,
[2:10:27] as shown by the orange bars on the chart.
[2:10:29] April, our first full month of COVID-related impact
[2:10:33] reduced the lowest ridership result
[2:10:35] down more than 80% from prior year.
[2:10:38] On a positive note, ridership increased slightly in May
[2:10:41] and June as the state and city progress
[2:10:44] through their phase reopening plans.
[2:10:46] We can also see from the data line
[2:10:48] that the revised service board budgets
[2:10:50] assume ridership recovering to only about 35
[2:10:53] have to 40% of normal levels by the end of the year.
[2:10:57] Next slide, please.
[2:11:00] Looking at the total operating revenue of $538.5 million,
[2:11:05] it was $4.5 million or 0.8% unfavorable
[2:11:10] to the budget through the second quarter.
[2:11:13] With the exception of Metro, each service board
[2:11:17] reported operating revenue equal to their amended budgets.
[2:11:20] Mention's revised budget contained actual results through May, so their June results is producing
[2:11:27] the 2.4% unsavorable variance shown.
[2:11:31] The service boards included in their operating budget 225 million of CARES-X funding requisition
[2:11:38] for fair revenue losses through June as authorized by the May funding amendment.
[2:11:44] Next, please.
[2:11:45] Next, we have public funding results.
[2:11:48] Continuing the trend we saw in April, May sales tax is projected to come in at about
[2:11:54] 24% below prior year, significantly better than the 50% drop we had initially estimated.
[2:12:00] This is benefiting each of the service boards.
[2:12:03] The real estate transfer tax or the rat also outperform the amended budget by 15.5% through
[2:12:11] the second quarter, which contributed to CTA's positive budget variance of 7.1%.
[2:12:17] 88-paratransit was adjusted to the level contained in the May funding amendment beginning with June's payment to pay, resulting in the zero variance.
[2:12:27] Total regional public funding through June is expected to surpass budget by 35.9 million or 4.8% highlighted in light blue.
[2:12:37] Next slide, please.
[2:12:38] So, now looking at operating expenses, system-wide operating expenses through June, or 24.1 million,
[2:12:46] or 1.8% favorable to budget. The service boards have continued to manage their overall
[2:12:52] expenditures well, despite increased costs related to the pandemic. Because PACE's revised
[2:12:59] budget left expenses at original budgeted levels, their year-to-date results reflect a significant
[2:13:05] in 13% favorable variance. Metro also reported favorable to budget results associated with
[2:13:12] their June performance. Each service board benefited from favorable fuel prices resulting
[2:13:18] in a combined savings of $4.3 million, amplified by ongoing reductions in service levels of
[2:13:24] Metro and pace. Next slide, please. Better than expected sales tax and real estate transfer
[2:13:31] tax receipts at CTA produced a positive net result variance of 28.6 million through June.
[2:13:39] Cost savings and federal favorable public funding results more than offset an operating revenue
[2:13:46] shortfall and metronpaste keeping their net results favorable to budget. The system net
[2:13:51] result through the second quarter was 55.5 million favorable to budget as highlighted in light blue.
[2:13:58] Now, let's look at the recovery ratios.
[2:14:01] Next slide, please.
[2:14:02] I am happy to report that due to the inclusion
[2:14:04] of CARES Act funding, the regional recovery ratio
[2:14:07] has improved to 48.9% through June.
[2:14:11] Now 0.6 percentage points above budget.
[2:14:14] As you can see on the left side of the table,
[2:14:17] in the absence of the 225.8 million CARES Act funding,
[2:14:21] the service boards have recognized
[2:14:23] as fair revenue replacement on a year-to-day basis.
[2:14:26] revenue recovery ratios would be around 30 percent or less.
[2:14:31] With the CARES Act funding included, CTN Metro recovery ratios, which were flat to budget,
[2:14:37] while pace of solid expense performance brought the recovery ratio into the light blue.
[2:14:43] The ADA parent transit recovery ratio finished slightly below budget,
[2:14:47] but is expected to improve in the coming months.
[2:14:50] Next slide, please.
[2:14:53] Looking at the operating deficit, focusing on the certification of year-to-day financial
[2:14:58] results through the second quarter.
[2:15:00] This slide displays the variances of each service board operating deficit from budget. Pace the
[2:15:06] bourbon service had a favorable variance of 16.5 percent, while CTA and ADA transit were
[2:15:13] at budget, and that was operating deficit finished 2 percent favorable. We combined regional
[2:15:20] recovery, regional operating deficit was 19.6 million or 2.4 percent favorable to budget.
[2:15:28] Accordingly, we recommend that the results of the operations of each service board and
[2:15:33] the region taken as a whole be found in substantial courtes with the amended budget through
[2:15:37] a second quarter.
[2:15:39] I said earlier that 225 million of CARESAC funding for a fare of a new replacement had been
[2:15:45] included in the service board's June results.
[2:15:48] When you add an additional 85 million of CARESAC funding, requisition for public funding replacement
[2:15:54] by the CTA Metro PACE and RTA, the region has requisitioned the total of 310 million of
[2:16:01] CARES Act money or about 22 percent of the total 1.4 billion available.
[2:16:07] So that funding is flowing and is also being reported by CTA Metro PACE to restore the
[2:16:12] regional recovery ratio to 48.9 percent, an acceptable level for this time of the year.
[2:16:18] That concludes my remarks.
[2:16:20] I'll try to like us to answer any questions.
[2:16:23] Back to you, Mr. Chairman.
[2:16:26] Thank you.
[2:16:26] Are there any questions?
[2:16:30] I'm not seeing any hands raised at this time.
[2:16:35] So can I entertain a motion in a second, please?
[2:16:43] Director Cotell moves and director paying seconds.
[2:16:49] Great.
[2:16:49] Thank you.
[2:16:50] Madam Secretary, take the role.
[2:16:52] And please.
[2:16:53] Director and I'll feel.
[2:16:55] Aye.
[2:16:57] Director Canty, aye.
[2:17:03] Director Carey, aye. Director Colson, aye.
[2:17:13] Director
[2:17:13] Fraga, aye. Director Fuentes, aye. Director Gabbing, yeah.
[2:17:30] Director
[2:17:32] Director Lewis.
[2:17:35] Director Melvin. Yes. Director Payne. Yes. Director Ross. Yes.
[2:17:44] Director Sagar. Yes. Chairman Dillard. Yes. Sixteen eyes.
[2:17:55] Thank you and that will be so
[2:17:56] reported and it is approved. Seven C is the ordinance authorizing the amendment to the
[2:18:03] in 2024 program, and amending our ICE funded projects.
[2:18:09] Jill Liri, I think this one is yours.
[2:18:12] It is. Good morning again and thank you, Chairman Dullard.
[2:18:16] I'm requesting approval of two ordinances.
[2:18:18] First, we are requesting your authorization for an amendment
[2:18:21] to the 2020-2024 capital programming program,
[2:18:26] incorporating changes in program revenues and expenses
[2:18:28] for CTA metro and pace.
[2:18:30] Second is the time extension for CTA Metra in Paces, Innovation, Coordination and Enhancement
[2:18:37] or ICE funded projects.
[2:18:39] Let me walk you through the changes we are recommending in this ordinance.
[2:18:43] This quarter we are asking you to approve a net funding increase to the 5-year capital program
[2:18:48] of $16.4 million that affects both current and out years.
[2:18:53] The total net increase is $8.63 million for CTA, $7.8 million for Metra,
[2:18:59] and net zero for pace.
[2:19:01] The CTA 8.63 million increase consists of a shift of funds for debt repayment that
[2:19:08] will result in a decrease of almost $36 million, an increase of just less than $100,000
[2:19:14] in federal discretionary funds, and a decrease of $20 million in CTA bond issuances.
[2:19:20] For Metro, the $7.8 million increase consists of a 12 and a half million increase in federal
[2:19:29] discretionary funds, a little over 100,000 increase in reprogrammed or carryover funds,
[2:19:35] and just under five and just under a $5 million decrease in service board funds.
[2:19:41] Paces adjusting its 2020 program funding allocation to accommodate a few projects, including
[2:19:47] including a couple of COVID-related initiatives for vehicles and facilities.
[2:19:53] The project and budget changes in the capital program are included in the memo of your board
[2:19:57] materials and in schedules 2A and 2B attached to the ordinance.
[2:20:02] The second ordinance for which we are requesting your approval is the 12-month extension for
[2:20:06] ICE projects.
[2:20:07] There is one CTA, five Metro and three PACE projects requiring extensions as outlined in
[2:20:13] your board memo.
[2:20:14] RTA staff has reviewed these requests and found them to be justified as outlined in the
[2:20:19] ordinance request memo. I'm happy to answer any questions, otherwise we are seeking
[2:20:23] your approval of these two ordinances. Thank you.
[2:20:28] Thank you, Jill. Any questions from the board on these two ordinances?
[2:20:34] I am not seeing any hands with questions.
[2:20:38] If not, how about a motion in a second?
[2:20:45] Director Kerry moves.
[2:20:47] and director Rolvin seconds.
[2:20:52] Great thank you. Madame Secretary please take
[2:20:54] the role on 7C but two ordinances please. Certainly director and Alcio.
[2:21:01] Yes.
[2:21:05] Director Canty. Aye. Director Kerry. Aye. Director Colson.
[2:21:15] Yes.
[2:21:23] Director
[2:21:24] you're getting? Yeah. Director Groven? Yes. Director Holt? Yes.
[2:21:37] Director Holt? Yes.
[2:21:42] Director Kotel? Aye. Director Lewis?
[2:21:48] Dr. Melvin?
[2:21:50] Yes.
[2:21:52] Dr. Peng?
[2:21:54] Yes.
[2:21:55] Dr. Ross?
[2:21:57] Yes.
[2:21:58] Dr. Sager?
[2:22:00] Yes.
[2:22:02] Chairman Dillard?
[2:22:06] Sixty-Nies?
[2:22:09] Thank you.
[2:22:10] That will be so approved.
[2:22:12] Let's go on to 7D, the ordinance approving the FTA's federally mandated Title VI plan for the period of time.
[2:22:18] 2020-20-20-23. Our General Council Navy will brief us. Navy in the home.
[2:22:26] Good morning again directors. The ordinance before you today approves an
[2:22:31] AdospiRTA Title 6 plan for the period from 2020 to 2023. This is a compliance
[2:22:38] matter. As a Director Scipian of Federal Fund, the RTA is required by the STA to
[2:22:43] file a plan demonstrating our compliance with Title 6 of the Civil Rights Act of
[2:22:47] of 1964. The FTA requires that our governing body approve the plan prior to submission
[2:22:52] for its review. Our existing plan expires on November 30, 2020 and is due to the FTA
[2:22:58] at the end of September. So now that we've got the logistics out of the way, let's talk
[2:23:02] a little bit about Title VI itself and its significance. Title VI is a little known provision
[2:23:07] of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Relative to the more well-known provisions such as Title VII,
[2:23:14] It isn't utilized much by those that's meant to protect, but to quote, title 6 provides
[2:23:19] no person in the United States shall on the ground of race, color, or national origin
[2:23:25] be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination
[2:23:32] under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
[2:23:37] And that's basically it.
[2:23:38] It's only 40 words to say a lot, but the federal government has decided that any program funded
[2:23:43] by the public's tax dollars, should be accessible to people regardless of color, national origin
[2:23:48] or race.
[2:23:49] In addition to accessibility to our programs, title sticks requires that our work not
[2:23:53] pulls a disproportionate burden upon certain populations or discriminate against them.
[2:23:59] So we're all fairly familiar with race, but it can sometimes be confusing to determine
[2:24:04] what discrimination on the basis of national origin or color might be.
[2:24:08] So discrimination based on national origin is usually based in language and accessibility
[2:24:14] to information or services.
[2:24:17] This is the basis for the requirements that all federal aid recipients have a limited
[2:24:20] English proficiency plan or LEP plan.
[2:24:25] Compliance with the law is really about the various ways and the degree of which we, the
[2:24:30] RTA, interact with the public.
[2:24:32] Relative to the service boards and not surprisingly, the RTA has very little direct
[2:24:37] contact with the public. As laid out in the plan, that's been submitted for your consideration.
[2:24:42] Our mobility services department, which administers the travel information call center,
[2:24:48] 88 pair transit certification, ride free and reduced fare programs, provides the lion's
[2:24:53] share of services experienced directly by the public through the RTA.
[2:24:59] The plan lays out the many ways that we make sure information is available to anyone who needs or
[2:25:03] wants it and how we ensure full engagement of people's color, low income populations,
[2:25:08] and those would limited English proficiency.
[2:25:12] In it, we discuss how our constituents can obtain translation services, our requirements
[2:25:17] and sub-recipients, the type of information on our website, the issues we bring to public hearings
[2:25:23] and the diversity of our board.
[2:25:25] Our plan includes all eight of the elements required by the FTA Circular that sets out the requirements
[2:25:31] for Title VI compliance.
[2:25:33] Thankfully, we've had no complaints filed against the RTA based on Title VI since the plan
[2:25:38] was last submitted or for that matter since I joined the RTA eight years ago.
[2:25:43] And with that, I ask the board to adopt the proposed plan.
[2:25:46] I'm happy to take any questions or suggestions you might have with regard to the plan.
[2:25:51] Thank you.
[2:25:54] Great.
[2:25:54] Thank you.
[2:25:55] Maybe you and Allison do a great job of ensuring that the programs and required federal
[2:26:04] law are complied by the RTA, but the service board is very well, so thank you. Any questions
[2:26:12] or comments?
[2:26:16] I see no hand raised. Great, thank you. If you've seen from recent activity
[2:26:24] in American life, this becomes more and more important than ever. So with that, a roll
[2:26:32] call is required. I have a motion in a second and this is pretty cool of this ordinance.
[2:26:39] Director Canty moves and Director Fuente seconds.
[2:26:48] I'm meant to take the role please. Director and I'll feel.
[2:26:53] Aye.
[2:27:00] Director and I'll feel.
[2:27:04] Director Canty.
[2:27:06] Aye. Director Kerry. Director Colson.
[2:27:13] Dr. Fraga,
[2:27:18] Dr. Funties.
[2:27:20] All right.
[2:27:21] Dr. Gabbings.
[2:27:23] Yeah.
[2:27:25] Dr. Groven.
[2:27:26] Yes.
[2:27:28] Dr. Holt.
[2:27:30] Yes.
[2:27:31] Dr. Coltell.
[2:27:33] All right.
[2:27:34] Dr. Louis.
[2:27:36] Yes.
[2:27:37] Dr. Melvin.
[2:27:39] Yes.
[2:27:40] Dr. Payne.
[2:27:42] Yes. Director Ross. Yes. Director Sagar. Yes. Chairman Dillers. Hi. 16Is. Director
[2:27:55] Canter, you can lower your hand. Thank you.
[2:28:02] Madam Secretary and all. 7E is our
[2:28:06] next item and that is the ordinance authorizing contracts for state consulting
[2:28:11] services, our governmental affairs director, Jeremy LeMarch, it's all yours.
[2:28:18] Thank you.
[2:28:18] Thanks.
[2:28:19] Good morning, Mr. Chairman and directors.
[2:28:21] This is an ordinance to approve our annual state legislative consulting
[2:28:24] contracts.
[2:28:25] These firms will provide the RTA with additional resources and expertise as we
[2:28:30] continue to navigate the state's legislative process.
[2:28:33] For new board members, these are contracts we've continuously sought
[2:28:36] board approval for on an ongoing annual basis.
[2:28:40] We've partnered with all these consulting firms in the past and the majority of the firms
[2:28:43] have been under contract with the RTA for over nine years.
[2:28:46] So they're very familiar with all of our legislative and regulatory issues that we face on
[2:28:51] a daily basis.
[2:28:52] Due to the current fiscal constraints, this ordinance does propose to scale back the total
[2:28:56] expenditure on these contracts over the previous year, so there is cost savings involved.
[2:29:02] That concludes my remarks and happy to answer your questions.
[2:29:05] Thanks.
[2:29:06] Great.
[2:29:06] Thank you.
[2:29:07] I mean, Jeremy and I were, and we're probably hoping that we can scale these even back more
[2:29:12] of what worked as you can see from our budget reports earlier, our three of our work continued
[2:29:20] to cut out for us and with the capital plan, which is a good dose from the state.
[2:29:25] We've consulting services are continuing to be needed, but this is scaled back, which will make
[2:29:31] Director Colson, happy. I thank you. Any questions or comments on those?
[2:29:37] Yes, Ms. Chairman, I'm always happy.
[2:29:40] I know you're welcome. Bill, thank you very much. Can I have a motion and a second?
[2:29:46] I see no other questions.
[2:29:48] Great. Thanks, Audrey. I need a motion and a second.
[2:29:54] A motion by Director and I'll see you all in a second by Director Colson.
[2:30:01] Can you take the roll call, please, Audrey? Certainly, director and all-seal. Yes. Director
[2:30:08] Kante. Yes. Director Kerry. Director Colson. Yes. Director Fraga.
[2:30:21] Director Fuentes.
[2:30:24] Dr. Gavin,
[2:30:27] Dr. Golden, Dr. Holt,
[2:30:33] Dr. Cotel, Dr. Lewis, Dr. Melvin, Dr. Paine, Dr.
[2:30:46] Ross, Dr. Sider, Chairman Dillard, Dr.
[2:30:53] Yes.
[2:30:56] Thank
[2:31:00] you.
[2:31:01] And that will be so reported.
[2:31:03] The next item of business is 7F, which are expense reimbursement is required by law and our rules.
[2:31:13] Any questions or comments on that?
[2:31:17] It's been submitted in your packet.
[2:31:22] I see no questions.
[2:31:23] Seeing no questions can have a motion or a second to approve the expense of reimbursement
[2:31:30] is submitted in the packet.
[2:31:32] Director Kostal moves.
[2:31:35] Director Frega seconds.
[2:31:39] Will you take the role on that, Madam Secretary?
[2:31:43] Director and I'll feel.
[2:31:45] Yes.
[2:31:47] Director Canty.
[2:31:49] Yes.
[2:31:51] Director Carey.
[2:31:54] Aye.
[2:31:54] Director Colson. Yes.
[2:31:59] Director Frega. Yes. Director Flentays. Aye. Director
[2:32:06] Gavin. Yeah. Director Groven. Yes. Director Holt. Yes. Director Cotell. Aye.
[2:32:16] Director Lewis. Yes. Director Melvin. Yes. Director Pang. Yes. Director Ross.
[2:32:25] Yes. Director Sagar.
[2:32:32] Director Sagar. Yes. Chairman Dillard. Yes.
[2:32:39] 16 eyes.
[2:32:43] Thank you and 7F is approved. Item 8 is new business and any issue raised under this
[2:32:50] item would be for discussion only. Is there any new business to come before the board today?
[2:32:58] Director Fuente's has his hand up.
[2:33:01] Do you want to lower it on me?
[2:33:03] Okay.
[2:33:04] I just like to don't buy the board that even though we have issues with the ADA transportation.
[2:33:10] We have the coordinating committee meeting on August 5th.
[2:33:15] And I can assure you that all the service boards are still committed in improving access for our ADA clients,
[2:33:22] especially using mainline services.
[2:33:25] So even though the budget doesn't look well, I think the process of improving mainline
[2:33:32] services is one of the keys to ensure that our ADA clients get the best service possible.
[2:33:38] So I just want to let you know that the service boards did an outstanding job.
[2:33:42] Thank you.
[2:33:44] Thank you, Phil.
[2:33:45] And, you know, ADA and that service is so critical.
[2:33:49] And it's one of the things we just approved, the contracts for our consultants, which you're
[2:33:55] me and myself, B and Lian, are constantly reminding the legislature that they need to keep
[2:34:03] intact and hopefully increase, but at least keep in track and act, and that's how many
[2:34:10] further are ADA paratransit services, and I'm not sure the legislature is always aware
[2:34:16] year that they have eight parts in this. So we try to remind them, but Bill, I really
[2:34:24] appreciate you area.
[2:34:28] Thanks for that update.
[2:34:32] Any other new business? If not, as a reminder,
[2:34:38] the next scheduled meeting take for the RTA board is Thursday, September 10th. Thursday,
[2:34:43] September 10th. It's hard to believe it'll be after Labor Day, beginning at 9 a.m. This
[2:34:50] This is earlier than our normally scheduled third Thursday due to a statutory requirement.
[2:34:56] The past budget marks by September 15th.
[2:35:00] So it's up a lot of week in our schedules and importantly, we'll advise you of the
[2:35:07] virtual nature or location of this meeting as we get closer and the status of COVID-19 is updated,
[2:35:15] especially in coordination as we do all the time with Governor Pritzker's office.
[2:35:22] Until then, I hope everybody stays safe and healthy. Thanks to the staff and our IT staff
[2:35:28] and Audrey and Nadine for putting this together virtually. I know it's a stressful task,
[2:35:35] and we deeply appreciate it. And with that, if there's no further business to come before the
[2:35:41] public session of the Board of Directors. I entertain a motion and a second to adjourn.
[2:35:48] Director Payne. Director Payne moves and director Saugher seconds.
[2:35:54] Thank you. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[2:36:01] Any opposed? If not, thank you. Super. Thank you. If not, we stand adjourned again. Thank
[2:36:10] Thank you for your perfect attendance with shows.
[2:36:13] We deeply deeply appreciate it.
[2:36:14] Thanks everybody.