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To the smart board of directors meetings of February 21st, 2024. I'm David Rabbit. I am not the chair. I am not the vice chair, but I am the chair.

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Designate today because we are without our, yeah, emeritus, we are without our chair and vice chair. So I've been asked to run the meeting. Hopefully that's okay with my colleagues.

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Do you want to call the meeting to order? And the first item on our meeting is a roll call, please. Cassandra, thank you for stepping in today.

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Of course.

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Director Collin.

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Present.

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Director Corsi.

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Here.

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Director Farrak.

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Absent.

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Director Fudge.

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Here.

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Director Garabarino.

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Good, good.

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Yep, here.

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Director Parr.

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Director Fulton.

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Here.

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Director Rabbit.

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Here.

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Director Rogers.

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Here.

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Director Sackett.

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Here.

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Vice Chair Bagby.

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Absent.

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Chair Lucan.

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Absent.

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Thank you.

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Great. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Moving on to our approval of the January 7th, 17th, 2024 board meeting minutes.

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So I'll look to my colleagues for any questions, comments, or concerns. And if none, can I get a motion to approve?

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So moved.

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So we have a motion and a second.

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And we can do a, we don't have to do a roll call, but correct, Tom.

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So on the motion and the second on the board meeting minutes of January 17th, all those in favor please say aye.

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Aye.

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Anyone opposed?

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That just passed unanimously with all present.

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So thank you for that.

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Board member announcements.

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I'll look to my colleagues if there's any board member announcements.

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Seeing no hands raised we'll move on to the general managers report.

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Eddie.

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Good afternoon board of directors.

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I have six items today.

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Today I'll go over contracts and procurements over $100,000, talk a little bit about ridership.

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I wanted to take a moment today and highlight our engineering team and share with you some

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of the projects they're working on and kind of provide a little bit of an update on some

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of the projects.

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I wanted to talk about a partial system closure we'll have coming up with some

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of the work we have going on.

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I also wanted to provide an update on some of the community meetings I've been

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to over the past three or four weeks and then provide an update on our 2024

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strategic plan development and then of course the end I'll open it up for

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questions. Starting out with contracts and procurements over a hundred

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thousand dollars this first is the only one I have today and this purchase

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order is with winner Chevrolet for the purchase of three Chevrolet Silverado

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1500 four-wheel drive trucks. We will be utilizing the state of California

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a contract and these trucks will replace three current trucks in the operations department

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and the purchase order amount is $148,057.

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Turning our attention to ridership, we finished the month of January with 65,990 riders.

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That was 43% above January 23, but 9% under January 2020.

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It's been a long time since we've finished a month under our pre-COVID ridership.

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And I think there's a couple of things happening here.

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Number one, in January 2020, Larkspur in Nevada downtown opened, and both in January

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and February of 2020, SMART had really, really high ridership.

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But there's something else going on here, too, and it's the rain.

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rain. I reported to the board several times that rain absolutely has a negative impact

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on ridership. So I went back and looked at what was going on in 2020. According to some

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things I found on the internet, there were three days of precipitation in January 2020

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and we had 10 days of precipitation in January 24. So that definitely had a negative impact

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on us. What we were seeing is on days that it was nice, we were seeing somewhere between 2,800

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and 3,000 riders a day, and on days that it rained, we were somewhere between 2,300 and 2,500,

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so a significant difference between those days.

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I think, you know, looking at, you know, we've

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all been experiencing the weather, I think the same trend is going to continue through

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February, I anticipate, based on some of the information I'm about to show you,

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I think we'll probably finish February less than where we were at in February 2020.

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But when this rain stops, what we are seeing on rainy days is I anticipate that our ridership

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is going to jump up about 2,900 to 3,000 a day on average. So I'm ready for some sunshine.

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Let's see. Okay, January average weekday ridership was 2589. That was 38% higher than January of 2023, and our February average weekday ridership to date is a little bit less at 2527, but that's still 19% higher than where we were at this time last year.

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Weekend ridership continues to be strong. This graph shows Saturday Sunday ridership compared to 2019.

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And you can see that January weekend boardings were up 10% over FY19. So weekend ridership remains strong.

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Pathway counts. In the month of January we had 46,424 users. Again, I think this is also impacted by rain.

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but this number was still 8.5% higher than it was in 2023.

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So as the board knows, we are very busy right now.

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There is a lot of stuff going on.

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Team Smart is doing great things every day,

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and I wanted to take a minute just to highlight our engineering team.

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When you consider Petaluma North, Windsor, Hildsburg,

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and pathway projects along with other day-to-day work,

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This team is doing extraordinarily well and deserves to be recognized.

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Just a little background, our engineering team consists of six engineers.

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Key functions include managing smarts capital projects, managing FRA mandated bridge management program,

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coordinating with local municipalities for projects,

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supporting operations and maintenance on some of their smaller projects,

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projects, supporting freight with infrastructure repairs and replacements, preparing capital

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plans, cost projections and supporting grant submissions.

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So here are just a few highlights and I have quite a few slides and pictures and videos

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actually that I wanted to show of just kind of what our engineering team is working

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on right now and some of the things that they're accomplishing.

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Starting with Petaluma North Station, project team has continued to mobilize this project.

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just some of the activities are they've ordered long lead materials such as

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rail switch machines and signal equipment, planning for the upcoming track

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shutdown that I'll talk about later in the presentation, setting up project

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site with job site trailer, temporary fencing and equipment, conducting

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site work to include excavation for the station platform and potholing to

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locate buried utilities and we have received 30 tons of rail for a platform

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track and for the McDowell crossing reconstruction.

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So just a few pictures

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this is excavation in soils subgrade preparation for the Petaluma North

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platform foundation. If you ever wondered how much wire and cable goes

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into the ground on these projects. This is it. So this is just a picture of all the cable that

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has been brought in that we will be putting underground. And this is the contractor excavating

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for the underground conduit at the Petaluma North Station.

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Of this, I thought the board would find this interesting in the public,

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But this is a video of our contractor welding together some of the segments of rail at Petaluma

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North.

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If you ever wondered how that happens and how they weld all the rails together, this

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is it.

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Okay.

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Moving on and talking about Windsor, progress is also continuing on our Windsor extension

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field work as everyone knows resumed in December of 2023.

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Some of the things that we're working on right now is placing concrete bridge decks for the railroad bridges, installing and completing drainage pipes, and excavation for the Windsor station platform.

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Just a few pictures on your left, you can see we're setting the bridge decks at Windsor Creek.

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And then over on the right hand side, you can see the framework and rebar install for the platform there in Windsor.

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Another video that I thought may be of interest.

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I'll skip through on this because it's a pretty long video, but this is setting the bridge decks over Windsor Creek.

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It fits.

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But think about the precision here, right? Is there dropping this right down on the bolts?

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This gets kind of boring so I'm going to advance just a little bit.

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Oh I can't do it. I guess that's on

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my computer I was able to do this. I guess I

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can't do it on here.

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Okay apologize for that. But anyway really cool. And at the

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end of the video you hear a voice say beautiful as it slips into place.

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So

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work is also continuing on the pathway. The team currently has 10 pathway segments in design

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and they are in the permitting process for three additional segments.

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The bridge inspection program, as I mentioned early, is also a top priority for us

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and this team has inspected several bridges on the smart main line over the past few months.

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So I'm very proud of what this team has been able to accomplish and when you think about

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the amount of work that's going on, the amount of oversight that's required, the amount of just

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day-to-day work that's happening. I'm extremely proud of this team and would just like to give

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them a round of applause.

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Okay, so speaking of all of this work, obviously that leads us to

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some level of disruption. Petaluma North Station construction requires a weekend service closure

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from airport to Qatadi station. Right now we're looking at March 23rd and 24th

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and SMART will operate the weekend schedule from Petaluma downtown to

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Larkspur. So from airport to Qatadi will be closed during that time. Now

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obviously you know everything's got to come in, weather's got to be right, all

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those things have to happen. So this is subject to change but for planning

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purposes right now. We're looking at March 23rd and 24th and the reason we're doing this is the

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section of track will be removed and replaced with a switch and a gauntlet track. Just to provide

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a little bit of information and background on the gauntlet tracks. SMART uses gauntlet tracks

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at stations to allow wider freight trains to pass and narrower passenger trains to pull

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into the station. All stations north of the Ignacio Y were constructed with gauntlet tracks to

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accommodate freight trains and you can see down on the bottom you can see how that kind of works

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where you can see the the red lines show the for the freight rail and then the blue lines would

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be for passengers.

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Additionally a second closure a second closure is a plan for April for the

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at McDowell Boulevard.

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April 13th and 14th is what we're planning right now.

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And during this time,

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SMART will again operate the weekend schedule

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from Petaluma downtown to Larkspur.

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To ensure we mitigate this disruption

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to the greatest extent possible,

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we will conduct extensive outreach for both closures,

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including ferry transfers at Larkspur.

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Our marketing and outreach team

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is currently working on an info card

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to help spread the word.

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This is just, I know you can't read them up there,

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but just to kind of give you an idea of what we're looking at.

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The info cards will be printed both in English and Spanish,

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and you can see the red section shows the closure

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and then what will be opened down on the bottom.

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So, I've had the opportunity to attend many community meetings over the last month. Two, I wanted to highlight here tonight.

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The first one was a few weeks ago. Heather and I went to the Sonoma Valley Community Advisory Committee.

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We presented on freight storage opportunities that were probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 50, 40 to 50, 40 to 50 attendees at that meeting.

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And the majority of those attendees and all the commissioners spoke in opposition of LPG storage.

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That's a tough one because this board knows we got a funding gap we have to figure out.

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And staff right now is currently looking at other alternatives to close that gap.

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We are working with Caltrain. We're getting very close on an agreement there to store their freight locomotives and some of their gallery cars in support of their electrification project.

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We're also working with a storage broker regarding storage of non-hazardous vegetable tanker cars.

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They reached out to us and asked us to kind of submit a proposal and a sample agreement.

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So we're working through that.

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It would be interesting to see, you know, what kind of revenue that will be able to bring in for us.

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But in conversations that we had, there is a market there in our area for both filled vegetable tankers as well as empty.

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So we'll continue to explore these alternatives.

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The

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next one was the Hillsburg City Council meeting. I was there last night with Bill

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Gamelin and Joanne Parker. We discussed Hillsburg Station location. We're looking at two options

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there. We have the original depot location and also the downtown site. I estimate that

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there were probably 25 to 30 attendees there last night. Smart advocated for downtown

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location you know from a transit perspective that is what we thought would work best. However the

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majority of the attendees that were there last night spoke in favor of the depot location

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and ultimately the council determined that they felt the depot location better met the needs

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of the community. As I said last night SMART's in the business of supporting the communities

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we serve and so you know based on last night's meeting you know we'll focus our attention

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on that depot site as we move forward.

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I also wanted to provide an update

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on our strategic plan development.

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Workshops are underway.

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We've had good attendance so far.

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We've already completed two workshops.

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We did a SWOT analysis.

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We had 61 people show up to that meeting

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on January 31st and then on February 7th.

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We had a session on ridership

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and we had 33 attendees at that one.

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On upcoming workshops, February 28th we'll be talking pathways, March 14th will be extensions

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and then on March 27th we'll be talking about freight.

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So a lot of good work has happened here and I feel like the feedback that we're getting

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from the community has been really good and I think it's going to go a long way in

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making a good 2024 strategic plan.

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We used something that was kind of interesting.

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we used Minty where people could vote on their cell phones or on their computers and so we went

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through and documented the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, had a lot of conversation

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but you can see on strengths things like clean, bike-friendly, infrastructure, staff,

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pleasant experience, all of those types of things made it into the strengths column.

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Over on weaknesses, things like frequency, understaffed, pathway gaps, headways, single

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track system, things of that nature made it into the weakness category.

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And of course there's a lot of different words up there that kind of mean the same thing.

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So in a future slide I will show you where we kind of boiled that down to determine

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really what we were hearing.

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Under opportunities, tourism was at the top of the list along with more frequency,

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a bar car, free days and extensions.

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Over on threats, you can see funding, sales tax, sales tax renewal, those are the types

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of things that come to the top of the list in regards to threats.

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One of the questions we ask is what strategies should smart use to increase our ridership

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similar to some of the strengths and the weaknesses and the opportunities identified.

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improved first and last mile, more trained service, last mile connections,

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covered bicycle parking, better connections, and target large user groups

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for just some of the things that popped up.

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So as we went through this and kind of condensed everything down and, you know,

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to really understand what we were hearing, some of the things that we heard in regards to strategy

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were greater non-peak service hours and train frequency,

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Improving first and last mile connections and connections to other transportation options

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including the pathway.

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Increased public awareness and perception through advertising and personal testimonials.

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Targeted in marketing to larger user groups and non-commute travelers.

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More onboard amenities.

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Travis service to special events and host events on the train at our stations.

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Ease trip planning and trip making.

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Improved parking.

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There's also some mention of free reduced and promotional fares and expanding the system.

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We asked the question, how should SMART prioritize these strategy areas?

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At the top of the list, first and last mile connections, followed by local transit connections,

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train schedule, system completion, marketing and outreach, service reliability, stationary

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amenities and parking, reasonable fares, system safety, and on-board amenities,

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come in at number 10. And so with that I would be happy to answer any questions

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the board may have. Thank you very much appreciate that and echo your comments

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regarding the engineering crew. Thank you Bill and everyone in engineering for

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all the work. I think it reminds us once again that not only are we a

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transit agency but we're also a construction agency as well and doing

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dual roles is very much appreciative with the amount of folks that you have.

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So thank you's and kudos to everyone. I'll look to my colleagues for any questions of the general on the general manager's report

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director Fetch. I

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Had one that goes back to the very beginning. Is it possible that we can replace some of our trucks with electric trucks?

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Yeah, I think in the future right now

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There's not a lot on the market that meets our needs right now. That's just a the f-150 lightning that's out there

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And so yeah, that's definitely on our radar

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are right now with what we need and what our requirements are that did meet our needs.

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But that is something that we are focused on for the future.

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Director Ferrer.

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Thank you very much for the presentation.

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Just curious, what was the reasoning behind the community support for the depot?

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Was there like a trend or it was just?

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Choose words wisely.

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You know, the people that showed up there last night really felt that, you know, a lot

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of things that we, I'll just tell you, some of the things that we heard, they didn't,

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they don't like the idea of the train going through the roundabout, you know, and I mentioned

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that as we continue to go to Cloverdale, we're probably going through that roundabout

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anyway, so that disruption will happen, but that was definitely on people's mind.

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As we looked at the footprint that would be needed for the station, we felt like

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we would need to take 50 to 80 parking stalls

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because right now in that downtown area

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there are several parking stalls

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that are parked in our right away, in Sparks right away.

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So we would need to take some of those out.

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So the loss of 80 parking stalls

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was really a challenge to some folks.

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There was just a historical desire

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of feeling like the depot areas

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where the train station is just supposed to be.

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And so like I said, there were a few people

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that came and spoke on behalf of downtown, but to be honest the majority were there speaking

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on behalf of the depot.

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Director Rogers.

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I don't think we need to get too far into it, but does the change of the site from downtown

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00:24:02,610 --> 00:24:07,890
to the depot mean that the speed of the train going through the roundabout is going

294
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to be different?

295
00:24:08,770 --> 00:24:12,670
I don't think it's going to be much different because it will either be slowing down

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or just getting up to speed.

297
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So I don't think...

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So long impact stop times?

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00:24:18,990 --> 00:24:20,170
No, I don't anticipate.

300
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I think that we estimated that gate arms

301
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would be down through the roundabout

302
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somewhere between 60 and 90 seconds.

303
00:24:26,890 --> 00:24:28,810
But folks did worry about the backup

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that would happen, you know, during their peak times.

305
00:24:31,610 --> 00:24:32,470
Okay, thank you.

306
00:24:33,530 --> 00:24:34,410
Director Corsi.

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00:24:35,950 --> 00:24:36,430
Thanks.

308
00:24:37,410 --> 00:24:39,590
You know, I heard from some of the folks

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in Healdsburg yesterday they were trying to organize,

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00:24:41,970 --> 00:24:47,990
I guess they did they did but you know there was there was discussion about how

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00:24:47,990 --> 00:24:52,170
far the downtown station is from a lot of the new housing construction that's

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00:24:52,170 --> 00:24:58,190
going on there but I'm wondering actually how far it is from say the new

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00:24:58,190 --> 00:25:03,070
housing that's along Ellsburg Avenue to the depot station because you can't

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00:25:03,070 --> 00:25:08,350
go straight across the tracks there it's it's a ways around and very much

315
00:25:08,350 --> 00:25:15,470
like Gernvill Road and Jennings and I'm guessing that it's about an equal

316
00:25:15,470 --> 00:25:20,790
distance to either the depot or the Dow Dow. I think it's relatively close. I

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00:25:20,790 --> 00:25:24,010
mean I'll have those numbers off the top of my head as to what they are. You

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know kind of the way we were looking at it was what assuming that you know the

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00:25:31,550 --> 00:25:36,050
majority of people would be heading into downtown Hillsburg right. So from the

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To get to the town square there was point one miles from the downtown location

321
00:25:41,390 --> 00:25:47,610
It's point four miles from the from the depot location and I'm gonna be honest

322
00:25:47,610 --> 00:25:52,810
And I said this last night, you know that it's rarely a day goes by that

323
00:25:52,810 --> 00:25:55,370
I don't get an email from somebody about Larkspur

324
00:25:55,370 --> 00:26:00,610
Right they want to ride the they want to connect to the ferry and it's just too far of a walk

325
00:26:00,610 --> 00:26:02,710
Or it's a challenge or whatever it is

326
00:26:02,710 --> 00:26:09,890
And that was my biggest concern last night is trying to express that this is a real challenge.

327
00:26:10,030 --> 00:26:12,610
First and last mile is a real challenge for people.

328
00:26:13,470 --> 00:26:18,410
And the closer you can build a station from a transit perspective, the closer you can

329
00:26:18,410 --> 00:26:22,130
build a station to where people want to go, the more it's going to be ridden.

330
00:26:22,590 --> 00:26:27,330
The other thing that didn't land well with the community last night is that I said

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I think Hillsburg is going to be a destination station.

332
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And I truly believe that.

333
00:26:31,410 --> 00:26:36,430
I think there's going to be more people going into Hillsburg than is going to be going out.

334
00:26:37,390 --> 00:26:43,010
We have some numbers. There's about 1,150 workers that work in the downtown area.

335
00:26:44,290 --> 00:26:48,130
The records that we have show that 85% of them commute in.

336
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I felt like, and I said this last night to the council and to the public,

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00:26:54,970 --> 00:26:59,790
if just 80 of those workers ride the train in, you no longer have a parking problem.

338
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and I see smart as a parking solution not a parking problem so I think it would

339
00:27:05,930 --> 00:27:08,930
even if it were in the downtown area I think you would see a net gain and it

340
00:27:08,930 --> 00:27:14,670
would actually improve parking in the area rather than being a challenge. The

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00:27:14,670 --> 00:27:19,050
80 parking places that are in are right-of-way is that a revenue

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00:27:19,050 --> 00:27:22,810
opportunity? I guess it potentially could be.

343
00:27:25,270 --> 00:27:25,870
Thank you.

344
00:27:29,360 --> 00:27:30,080
Anyone else have

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00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:31,400
What do you think for the general manager?

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00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:32,880
Director Garbruda.

347
00:27:33,140 --> 00:27:33,420
Thank you.

348
00:27:33,500 --> 00:27:34,760
I just wanted to thank Rachel

349
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:36,620
for asking that question about Healdsburg

350
00:27:36,620 --> 00:27:37,900
and this was a great dialogue.

351
00:27:38,140 --> 00:27:39,240
I don't live near there.

352
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:41,180
So I'm glad for the education.

353
00:27:41,820 --> 00:27:45,120
The SWAT analysis, it looks like you're really satisfied

354
00:27:45,120 --> 00:27:45,760
with that.

355
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:47,680
I was interested, I forgot the name of it

356
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:51,040
and I get to make a report with Barb and David tomorrow

357
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:54,240
at the other board on this board's meeting.

358
00:27:55,320 --> 00:27:57,940
And the phone use, there's a way

359
00:27:57,940 --> 00:28:02,660
that it doesn't become Chicago politics and you get to vote more than once. Forgive me if

360
00:28:02,660 --> 00:28:05,380
anybody's from Chicago. But how do you do that?

361
00:28:05,620 --> 00:28:10,760
So it gives you spaces for somewhere between three to five things to type in. So if we were

362
00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:14,380
talking about strengths, using that as an example, you could type in five strengths.

363
00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:19,180
Once you hit submit, you're done. It takes you and it just takes you to like a blank

364
00:28:19,180 --> 00:28:22,900
screen and then when the next question pops up, it loads to your phone and you

365
00:28:22,900 --> 00:28:25,160
can do that. So you can't just vote over and over and over again.

366
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:25,940
I see.

367
00:28:26,260 --> 00:28:26,380
Okay.

368
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:27,140
That's a good thing.

369
00:28:27,300 --> 00:28:33,300
And the guy who came out on top here under weaknesses about reverse commute, that one

370
00:28:33,300 --> 00:28:35,300
could go to the bottom, I think.

371
00:28:35,820 --> 00:28:36,980
That was an interesting comment.

372
00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:40,540
It doesn't even make sense, but I'm glad that you're happy with it.

373
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:41,020
Yeah.

374
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:42,620
I think it's a good start.

375
00:28:42,740 --> 00:28:47,640
Obviously, we're going to have to sift through these things and align it with other things

376
00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:48,760
that we need to accomplish.

377
00:28:49,020 --> 00:28:53,000
But the reason I'm happy with it is because I think it's engaged in the public.

378
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:58,560
I think it's getting their input into what we're doing and how we're doing it and how

379
00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:03,600
we move forward and I think that that's something that we're doing better than we've done in

380
00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:04,000
the past.

381
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:07,600
And I think the public really appreciated it.

382
00:29:07,880 --> 00:29:09,220
I think they enjoyed being a part of it.

383
00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:09,500
Good.

384
00:29:09,940 --> 00:29:11,300
And what was the name of it again?

385
00:29:11,980 --> 00:29:12,480
Minty.

386
00:29:12,660 --> 00:29:13,160
Minty.

387
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:14,400
It's minty.com.

388
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:15,860
Wow.

389
00:29:16,220 --> 00:29:16,500
Okay.

390
00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:18,500
Thank you.

391
00:29:19,060 --> 00:29:19,400
Welcome.

392
00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:20,540
Great.

393
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:21,000
Anyone else?

394
00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:28,360
I just can't help myself at making mention, especially on the SWAT analysis, the first

395
00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:35,140
and last mile being one of the major pieces but then listening to the Healdsburg discussion

396
00:29:35,140 --> 00:29:42,400
quite honestly and not knowing, not to say that Healdsburg doesn't know where the station

397
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:49,040
with a town of 11,000, is it a destination or a spot or is it going to be picking up

398
00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:53,960
more passengers to extrapolate the 11,000 versus the amount of people that would be going downtown.

399
00:29:54,500 --> 00:29:58,160
I think it would be interesting to really kind of come to grips with that because we could

400
00:29:58,160 --> 00:29:59,880
be adding to that minty list.

401
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:06,820
With another first last mile, that is a .4 miles from where perhaps the majority of people want to go.

402
00:30:07,940 --> 00:30:10,640
So I think it's something that we need to continue to follow.

403
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:18,000
And then I thank you for facing the fire on the bad choice of words on the LPG cars.

404
00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:22,400
You know, for me personally, I do think that I understand.

405
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:41,400
But if you really step back, to me this is an equity issue that we expect to have all these services here in our own county but not have a place to put the things that make that work, including in this case the cars that take the propane to fuel our own cars here.

406
00:30:42,380 --> 00:30:49,400
And I think we need to kind of continue to work on that as leaders in the community to really truly want to be self-sustaining. We have a little ways to go.

407
00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:56,240
So thank you for attending those meetings and listening to the community and that dialogue hopefully will continue.

408
00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:02,240
With that, we'll move on then to public comment on non-agenda items.

409
00:31:03,340 --> 00:31:04,920
And thank you everyone for being here.

410
00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:09,140
If you want to speak to this body, now is your choice on the non-agenda items.

411
00:31:10,940 --> 00:31:11,900
Seeing no one rise.

412
00:31:12,340 --> 00:31:12,980
And thank you for that.

413
00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:16,700
Mr. Chair, we do have some folks on Zoom.

414
00:31:16,700 --> 00:31:20,840
Okay. Can you lead us through that, please? Because I can't really see them.

415
00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:23,260
Absolutely. First up, we have Eris Weaver.

416
00:31:27,470 --> 00:31:30,550
Hi, Eris Weaver. It's from County Bicycle Coalition.

417
00:31:31,970 --> 00:31:37,430
I attended both of those meetings, and I was very impressed with how they were run.

418
00:31:37,990 --> 00:31:41,490
I really liked that mentee platform. I had not worked with it before,

419
00:31:41,670 --> 00:31:46,130
and I'm now investigating it to use for some of my own events and stuff.

420
00:31:46,130 --> 00:31:53,670
and that was great. But I do have to offer Mr. Cummins that there actually is a way to get around

421
00:31:53,670 --> 00:31:59,290
the only you get five answers thing because after you hit submit if you then refresh your browser

422
00:31:59,290 --> 00:32:04,790
window you could start all over again. So I discovered that little hack when I was on the

423
00:32:04,790 --> 00:32:09,290
meeting so just thought I'd let you know. So all of the bicycle mandala about Sonoma County

424
00:32:09,290 --> 00:32:12,310
I should probably take into consideration is that what I'm hearing?

425
00:32:16,130 --> 00:32:22,130
Anyway, my other comment is I do have to say that I am also a little disappointed about

426
00:32:22,130 --> 00:32:28,510
Healdsburg's decision about where to put the train station and we did sign on a letter

427
00:32:28,510 --> 00:32:37,970
from him and some other advocate groups because I agree, if the point is to be able

428
00:32:37,970 --> 00:32:43,130
get more different ways of connecting, whether it's on foot or on bike or on train or on bus,

429
00:32:43,670 --> 00:32:50,830
that the downtown location just made so much more sense to me as well. Thank you.

430
00:32:54,550 --> 00:32:56,970
Next up for public comment is Kristin Lange.

431
00:33:00,780 --> 00:33:02,920
Good afternoon. My name is Kirsten Lange.

432
00:33:03,460 --> 00:33:06,600
I'm president of the Santa Rosa Sonoma County branch of the NAACP.

433
00:33:07,540 --> 00:33:11,700
Listening into your meeting, excited that you're excited about all of your goals,

434
00:33:11,700 --> 00:33:14,000
but want to impart a couple of

435
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:15,620
things that have come to our

436
00:33:15,620 --> 00:33:18,060
branch's attention that you all

437
00:33:18,060 --> 00:33:19,260
should consider as you're moving

438
00:33:19,260 --> 00:33:20,200
forward with your strategic

439
00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:21,280
initiatives and community

440
00:33:21,280 --> 00:33:22,860
engagement and planning moving

441
00:33:22,860 --> 00:33:23,280
forward.

442
00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:26,300
On the trains, everything is in

443
00:33:26,300 --> 00:33:28,160
English, so writers who are not

444
00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:29,940
English speakers are not able

445
00:33:29,940 --> 00:33:31,160
to fully understand and

446
00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:32,260
comprehend where they have

447
00:33:32,260 --> 00:33:33,120
landed and where they are

448
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:34,720
going and folks have brought

449
00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:36,020
forward that they've witnessed

450
00:33:36,020 --> 00:33:37,760
folks stepping out of the train

451
00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:39,560
uncertain of when it's going

452
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:40,980
to move again in order to

453
00:33:40,980 --> 00:33:44,280
look for surrounding scenery to understand where they are.

454
00:33:44,700 --> 00:33:48,740
Now while language access and language justice may not have caught your attention, I'm bringing

455
00:33:48,740 --> 00:33:53,960
it forward to you now as it could potentially be a huge safety issue for members of our

456
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:56,780
community and those who are visiting from the greater Bay Area.

457
00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:03,600
Second item I'd like to bring to your attention for future consideration is SMART staff

458
00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:08,460
and agreed to help market Transit Equity Day

459
00:34:08,900 --> 00:34:12,100
for February 4th, which was the celebration of Rosa Parks

460
00:34:12,100 --> 00:34:14,800
and Black History Month, and that did not happen.

461
00:34:15,180 --> 00:34:17,340
So I want to ask for you all to review

462
00:34:17,340 --> 00:34:19,960
what your commitment to diversity, equity,

463
00:34:20,100 --> 00:34:22,180
and inclusion looks like and participating

464
00:34:22,180 --> 00:34:24,240
in community partnerships and programming

465
00:34:24,900 --> 00:34:27,760
as a movement forward, as you're considering

466
00:34:28,100 --> 00:34:31,500
that our county communities and region is so diverse

467
00:34:31,500 --> 00:34:35,400
and what a missed opportunity to model your commitment to the people who live here.

468
00:34:35,660 --> 00:34:36,060
Thank you.

469
00:34:39,370 --> 00:34:41,990
Next up for public comment is Rick Lutman.

470
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:49,360
Go ahead, Rick.

471
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:50,760
Thank you.

472
00:34:52,060 --> 00:34:56,680
I see that the Jennings crossing issue is on your agenda today, but it's in closed session.

473
00:34:57,380 --> 00:35:02,580
When would it be appropriate to make comments about that now or are you going to have time later?

474
00:35:05,340 --> 00:35:06,720
You're online. You can make it now.

475
00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:08,060
Be efficient.

476
00:35:08,620 --> 00:35:13,440
Well, I really hope that you'll do the right thing and build that crossing, authorize it,

477
00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:18,480
because it's been going on now for way too long.

478
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:23,260
What you've accomplished so far is offending a lot of the people who live in Santa Rosa,

479
00:35:23,780 --> 00:35:25,080
the biggest city on your route.

480
00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:30,320
You can't afford to lose support from the voters of Santa Rosa.

481
00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:40,280
And I have never heard any argument made that the Jennings crossing is somehow more dangerous than other crossings.

482
00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:45,360
There's always a risk when trains are involved at crossing.

483
00:35:46,240 --> 00:35:51,240
You can find your trains hitting cars, they can hit people, they can even kill people.

484
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:57,260
It's just a given with running big machines like that.

485
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:03,620
There is no argument that I've ever seen that Jennings crossing is any different or any more dangerous than the others.

486
00:36:03,960 --> 00:36:05,820
So please, let's get it over with.

487
00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:09,520
That's all.

488
00:36:15,390 --> 00:36:17,370
At this time, there are no more hands raised for public comment.

489
00:36:18,490 --> 00:36:23,390
Great. I'll bring it back to the board and say thank you very much for those who made those comments.

490
00:36:24,030 --> 00:36:27,190
Moving on to the Consent Calendar, three items on the Consent Calendar today.

491
00:36:27,190 --> 00:36:34,410
the monthly ridership report, the financial report, and the fuel contract with Nick Barbieri,

492
00:36:34,970 --> 00:36:39,050
parking LLC, Redwood Coast fuels. And I'll look to my colleagues for any questions, comments,

493
00:36:39,170 --> 00:36:41,270
or concerns on the consent calendar.

494
00:36:43,410 --> 00:36:45,570
And I'll take a motion to approve.

495
00:36:46,770 --> 00:36:47,190
Second.

496
00:36:47,470 --> 00:36:50,490
So we have a motion in a second. Before we take that vote, I'll look and see if there's

497
00:36:50,490 --> 00:36:54,450
anyone from here in the Chamber or online who'd like to speak on this particular item.

498
00:36:56,690 --> 00:36:58,710
I do see the hand up. And if you can...

499
00:36:58,710 --> 00:37:01,630
First up for public comment is Richard Brandt.

500
00:37:04,350 --> 00:37:07,390
Yes, good afternoon, directors. Good to see everybody again.

501
00:37:07,510 --> 00:37:10,290
I actually had a comment about the general manager's

502
00:37:10,290 --> 00:37:13,970
thing because that's an agenda item. So that's why I waited.

503
00:37:14,410 --> 00:37:18,830
If I may, I'd like to make a couple of comments because I was in Healdsburg last

504
00:37:18,830 --> 00:37:22,250
night and I think it's an interesting comment. So if I may,

505
00:37:22,750 --> 00:37:26,650
first of all, you've got a wonderful advocate and spokesperson and Eddie.

506
00:37:27,210 --> 00:37:29,850
He did a lot of things and then there was a lot of excitement in the

507
00:37:29,850 --> 00:37:36,770
audience about smart arriving in Healdsburg. I have customers up there. I'm in the wine

508
00:37:36,770 --> 00:37:42,470
growing business and wineries that have tasting rooms in there are really anxious to have that

509
00:37:42,470 --> 00:37:50,750
access from the Bay Area getting up to Healdsburg. And I would say, Eddie, we talked a little

510
00:37:50,750 --> 00:37:56,370
bit last night, but your destination issue is different Larkspur than it is in Healdsburg.

511
00:37:57,030 --> 00:38:01,230
Larkspur is a single point destination getting off the train.

512
00:38:01,630 --> 00:38:05,270
People are going, 95% of them at least, are going to the ferry.

513
00:38:05,910 --> 00:38:11,950
In this case you've got a diverse location for passengers getting off the train,

514
00:38:12,030 --> 00:38:18,170
including going to the river and the summertime activities there.

515
00:38:18,350 --> 00:38:22,890
So I think you got a lot of that sense from the residents.

516
00:38:22,890 --> 00:38:30,910
I thought it was a good cost current of people living there and not so much just other items.

517
00:38:31,290 --> 00:38:41,830
So I would say that overall I would tell the board I think you've got 67% of people now to vote yes

518
00:38:41,830 --> 00:38:48,370
because Healdsburg is on board and of course Windsor will be voting I think in favor

519
00:38:48,370 --> 00:38:50,690
because they'll have the access from the train.

520
00:38:50,690 --> 00:38:57,630
The other thing I'm going to say, revenue-wise, have you looked at the fiber-optic transmission

521
00:38:57,630 --> 00:38:59,970
cable that runs along the tracks?

522
00:39:00,430 --> 00:39:02,910
Hopefully you're getting paid for that usage.

523
00:39:03,590 --> 00:39:08,910
That's a revenue source, potentially assuming it's not under a contract where you don't

524
00:39:08,910 --> 00:39:09,350
get paid.

525
00:39:09,770 --> 00:39:12,890
That can provide there's a lot of megabits going through there.

526
00:39:13,230 --> 00:39:15,390
So I just point that out as an issue.

527
00:39:15,550 --> 00:39:15,970
Thank you.

528
00:39:17,850 --> 00:39:18,290
At

529
00:39:21,460 --> 00:39:23,660
this time, there are no more hands raised for public comment.

530
00:39:23,980 --> 00:39:24,520
Okay, great.

531
00:39:24,660 --> 00:39:25,660
Back to the consent calendar.

532
00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:27,020
We do have a motion and a second.

533
00:39:27,220 --> 00:39:29,660
And we have no further public comment on the consent.

534
00:39:29,940 --> 00:39:30,820
I'll look to my colleagues.

535
00:39:31,440 --> 00:39:34,340
All those in favor of the consent calendar, please say aye.

536
00:39:34,820 --> 00:39:35,020
Aye.

537
00:39:36,100 --> 00:39:36,820
Is there anyone opposed?

538
00:39:38,020 --> 00:39:41,300
The consent calendar 6A through 6C does pass unanimously.

539
00:39:41,580 --> 00:39:42,560
Thank you all very much.

540
00:39:43,200 --> 00:39:45,060
Moving on to the regular calendar.

541
00:39:45,460 --> 00:39:49,720
We do have item 7 as an update on the Santa Feil Transit Center relocation project.

542
00:39:50,140 --> 00:39:56,380
We have Bill Gamblin here, and I just want to make mention of Ron Downing from the Golden Gate Bridge Highway Transportation District.

543
00:39:57,040 --> 00:39:59,960
Ron is our director of planning, and I think we'll spend the next three days together.

544
00:40:00,220 --> 00:40:04,220
So, Bill, thank you for being here, Ron, and Bill, please take it away.

545
00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:05,940
Good afternoon, Chair Rabbit and directors.

546
00:40:06,180 --> 00:40:07,000
Just a quick introduction.

547
00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:16,160
The guests here from Golden Gate Transit will be providing an update on the relocation of the downtown Transit Center in San Rafael.

548
00:40:16,700 --> 00:40:25,180
It's a location we worked closely with the Bridge District on both in reconstructing the tracks through the existing Transit Center when we built the Larkspur extension

549
00:40:25,180 --> 00:40:32,740
and then participating in many of their technical advisory groups as they sifted through various options for their new Transit Center.

550
00:40:32,740 --> 00:40:37,940
So, I'm going to turn it over to Ron Dowling and Ray Santiago from the Bridge District,

551
00:40:38,140 --> 00:40:41,040
and I believe they'll introduce their consultant who will give us an update.

552
00:40:41,940 --> 00:40:46,760
Thank you, Bill. Good afternoon, Chair Designee Rabbit, members of the Board,

553
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:49,800
Chamber Manager Cummins. It's a real pleasure to be here today.

554
00:40:50,540 --> 00:40:57,320
This is another meeting in our series of taking our update to our various partner agencies

555
00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:00,040
that connect with our system in San Rafael.

556
00:41:01,100 --> 00:41:03,000
There's a lot of work been done to date.

557
00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:05,140
There's a lot of work to be done in the future.

558
00:41:05,860 --> 00:41:10,280
This project went to our board of directors in December of 2022

559
00:41:10,280 --> 00:41:15,540
to certify a CEQA analysis that identified a preferred alternative

560
00:41:15,540 --> 00:41:19,440
that would move the San Rafael Transit Center to one block north

561
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:24,020
between 3rd and 4th streets, immediately adjacent to

562
00:41:24,020 --> 00:41:29,160
and on both sides of the current smart station. For those of you who've been down to San Rafael

563
00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:36,540
over the years, it's a very terrifying moment when the train may be a minute or two late

564
00:41:37,070 --> 00:41:44,500
and people see their bus across the block about to leave and they run or bike across the street.

565
00:41:45,120 --> 00:41:51,160
I've seen it personally. This relocation of the transit center would put all of the transit

566
00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:57,920
it on one block together. So that pedestrian safety issue will be immediately improved.

567
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:04,740
So we're very excited about moving that part of the project forward. We're going to give

568
00:42:04,740 --> 00:42:10,420
you a little bit of context for where we are today. We have just concluded a community

569
00:42:10,420 --> 00:42:16,560
design advisory process where we have engaged members of the San Rafael community in what

570
00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:20,020
what they would like to see on the look and feel of the new transit center.

571
00:42:20,820 --> 00:42:23,700
And in particular, we did a deep dive with the riders.

572
00:42:24,700 --> 00:42:31,520
The busiest route in the entire Marine transit system links the canal district of San Rafael,

573
00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:35,220
which is immediately to the southwest with the transit center.

574
00:42:35,820 --> 00:42:42,100
And it is a community that is heavily non-English speaking, low income and minority.

575
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:44,820
We engage that community.

576
00:42:44,820 --> 00:42:51,020
We had not only members from that community on our community design advisory group.

577
00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:56,160
We did Facebook live meetings that were hosted by the Canal Alliance.

578
00:42:57,400 --> 00:42:59,820
The community is behind us on this project.

579
00:43:00,680 --> 00:43:09,100
And so moving forward, you will see some design concepts that have been embraced that will inform our preliminary engineering phase that will come next.

580
00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:12,500
We have been engaging all of our partner agencies.

581
00:43:13,060 --> 00:43:21,340
We met with your staff three weeks ago down at the San Rafael Transit Center location to talk to the CPUC about some of these upcoming changes.

582
00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:28,980
We've met extensively with Marin Transit. We have extensive and ongoing meetings with City of San Rafael staff.

583
00:43:29,900 --> 00:43:36,220
Like I said, there's a lot of work still to be done, but we wanted to give you an update as to where we are right now.

584
00:43:37,500 --> 00:43:42,800
This same presentation in form is going to a number of different agency boards.

585
00:43:43,140 --> 00:43:45,860
We took it to Marin Transit several weeks ago.

586
00:43:46,340 --> 00:43:50,300
We will be going to Transportation Authority of Marin tomorrow night.

587
00:43:51,280 --> 00:44:02,300
And of course we will be going to the Center for City Council on March 4th with a little bit more deeper dive on our interactions to happen and to date with City of San Rafael staff.

588
00:44:02,300 --> 00:44:07,800
So Ray Santiago is my day-to-day project manager in the Planning Department.

589
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:14,460
Giving the presentation today will be Adam Dankberg, who is our project manager from Kimley Horn Consultants,

590
00:44:14,540 --> 00:44:19,620
which is a nationally recognized firm in the areas of transportation, planning, and engineering.

591
00:44:20,560 --> 00:44:27,620
And with him today is Mara Baum, who has been our design consultant in this Community Design Advisory Group process.

592
00:44:29,580 --> 00:44:34,020
She is from an international firm that knows how to do this kind of stuff.

593
00:44:34,340 --> 00:44:36,720
And she's going to share with you our findings to date.

594
00:44:37,300 --> 00:44:41,260
And then if you'd like, we can entertain some questions and answers afterwards.

595
00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:43,140
So Adam and Mara, please proceed.

596
00:44:53,640 --> 00:44:55,180
All right. Thank you, members of the board.

597
00:44:55,600 --> 00:44:56,100
Pleasure to be here.

598
00:44:56,200 --> 00:44:57,060
My name is Adam Dankberg.

599
00:44:57,260 --> 00:44:59,420
I'm the project manager for the consultant team.

600
00:44:59,420 --> 00:44:59,860
That was

601
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:02,720
Retained by the bridge district to advance this project.

602
00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:09,280
Today I'll be providing a quick background on the project in case you haven't been in one

603
00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:11,860
of my presentations over the past several years on this.

604
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:14,620
And then we'll talk about some of the progress that we've made more recently.

605
00:45:15,900 --> 00:45:20,800
So the transit center in downtown San Rafael is extremely heavily used.

606
00:45:21,240 --> 00:45:25,400
We got a lot of questions over the last few years about the effects of COVID pandemic

607
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:27,640
and transit ridership in general on the transit center.

608
00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:31,360
And one of the interesting takeaways from our investigation

609
00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:33,640
of that is that there's actually more bus transit

610
00:45:33,640 --> 00:45:35,320
trips through the transit center today

611
00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:36,840
than there was even before the pandemic.

612
00:45:37,300 --> 00:45:39,340
Marin Transit altered their service

613
00:45:39,340 --> 00:45:42,160
to better serve local riders, and that actually increased

614
00:45:42,160 --> 00:45:42,840
the number of trips.

615
00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:45,800
And so the transit center is still alive and vibrant

616
00:45:45,800 --> 00:45:48,020
and a lot of activity through there today.

617
00:45:48,800 --> 00:45:51,280
Over 9,000 daily boardings and lightings

618
00:45:51,280 --> 00:45:52,140
at the transit center.

619
00:45:52,620 --> 00:45:55,800
And the interesting sort of data point to supplement that

620
00:45:55,800 --> 00:45:59,400
is there's a rough half split between people are using the transit center to

621
00:45:59,400 --> 00:46:03,080
get from one transit service to another and people who are going to downtown

622
00:46:03,080 --> 00:46:06,600
Santa Fowler coming from downtown Santa Fowl. So it's serving both as that

623
00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:11,200
local connection point is also a critical transfer point in the overall

624
00:46:11,200 --> 00:46:15,680
transit network for the North Bay. We wanted to highlight really the role

625
00:46:15,680 --> 00:46:19,160
of the transit center in serving the commute and transportation needs of

626
00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:24,220
disadvantaged residents. You can see in the chart in lower right almost half

627
00:46:24,220 --> 00:46:25,160
of the riders.

628
00:46:25,900 --> 00:46:35,160
Using the transit center are low income and a strong majority or minority and that compared

629
00:46:35,160 --> 00:46:39,720
to the overall population for the city of Santa Fe and the county as a whole shows how important

630
00:46:39,720 --> 00:46:45,340
the transit center is in meeting the basic needs for disadvantaged residents.

631
00:46:47,280 --> 00:46:50,260
In terms of why the new transit center is needed, the current transit center is

632
00:46:50,260 --> 00:46:53,680
located across from third street from the smart station.

633
00:46:54,260 --> 00:46:57,460
Ron talked about some of the challenges regarding transfers

634
00:46:57,460 --> 00:47:00,040
between smart and existing bus bays.

635
00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:04,580
The transit center prior to the extension of smart phase two

636
00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:09,140
had additional flexibility for the site.

637
00:47:09,580 --> 00:47:11,300
The rail tracks were built right through the middle

638
00:47:11,300 --> 00:47:13,660
of the transit center, which broke some of the key linkages

639
00:47:13,660 --> 00:47:15,920
within the site and made some of the vehicle turning

640
00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:17,780
movements trickier for buses.

641
00:47:18,340 --> 00:47:31,660
In addition to some of the sort of inherent surrounding issues such as the very high traffic volumes and collision histories, including facilities at the Heatherton and Third Intersection, it's just a really challenging site.

642
00:47:32,060 --> 00:47:34,740
The current one is to access for pedestrians.

643
00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:44,840
And so there's a lot of good reasons for why a new transit center is needed and especially with the opportunity to be able to merge all the bus services with the smart services on the same block.

644
00:47:44,840 --> 00:47:45,880
In

645
00:47:49,560 --> 00:47:58,460
terms of where we are in the overall project, this phase of effort commenced a few years ago, back in 2018 or so.

646
00:47:58,720 --> 00:48:08,460
At the time, we did this kind of fresh undertaking of what are the potential site locations for the new transit center, laid out some concepts, began environmental analysis.

647
00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:17,000
We conducted that environmental analysis, and as Ron mentioned, the board approved the CEQA Environmental Impact Report in December of 2022.

648
00:48:17,500 --> 00:48:24,120
Since that time, we've been engaging with the community and advancing preliminary design, which we hope to wrap up over the course of 2024.

649
00:48:24,760 --> 00:48:30,420
That'll then launch the project into final design, construction, and completion, ideally around 2027.

650
00:48:32,140 --> 00:48:36,720
In terms of recent progress, as I mentioned, the final EIR was adopted in December 2022.

651
00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:42,860
We convened the community design advisory group and had some public meetings, which we'll talk about over the course of 2023.

652
00:48:43,420 --> 00:48:48,080
We are currently working with the Federal Transit Administration to advance NEPA, the

653
00:48:48,080 --> 00:48:49,320
Federal Environmental Clearance.

654
00:48:49,900 --> 00:48:55,340
And we are continuing to advance preliminary engineering and in particular working with

655
00:48:55,340 --> 00:48:56,060
the City of Santa Fe.

656
00:48:56,200 --> 00:49:00,340
We're in transit, smart and other stakeholders to address some of the key design questions

657
00:49:00,340 --> 00:49:02,460
and solutions as part of that effort.

658
00:49:03,520 --> 00:49:05,120
And with that, I'll hand it over to Mara.

659
00:49:07,810 --> 00:49:08,710
Thank you, everyone.

660
00:49:08,950 --> 00:49:09,650
Good afternoon.

661
00:49:09,850 --> 00:49:10,730
My name is Mara Baum.

662
00:49:10,730 --> 00:49:15,530
I'm an architect and urban designer with dialogue, the international firm that apparently knows

663
00:49:15,530 --> 00:49:18,110
what we're doing with these things. Thank you for that wonderful introduction.

664
00:49:19,770 --> 00:49:26,790
So we facilitated a number of the engagement events between June and December of this past year.

665
00:49:27,350 --> 00:49:33,830
There were two parallel streams to those, a community design advisory group that was focused

666
00:49:34,400 --> 00:49:39,450
as well as public events that were open to everyone, both public open houses that were

667
00:49:39,450 --> 00:49:43,730
bilingual English and Spanish as well as parallel events with the canal

668
00:49:43,730 --> 00:49:49,090
alliance that were entirely in Spanish. Early on in June we started from you know

669
00:49:49,090 --> 00:49:54,250
really big picture ideas strategies thinking at a very high level what

670
00:49:54,250 --> 00:49:58,450
people liked and didn't like around the existing transit center and what the

671
00:49:58,450 --> 00:50:02,350
vision was for the future and over the course of the six those six months

672
00:50:02,350 --> 00:50:07,190
we narrowed farther and farther in until we reached kind of a conceptual

673
00:50:07,190 --> 00:50:10,150
design approach, which I'll be sharing with you today.

674
00:50:11,870 --> 00:50:13,950
But first, a little bit more on the engagement.

675
00:50:14,710 --> 00:50:19,270
There were a series of two community open houses, one in

676
00:50:19,270 --> 00:50:23,610
August and then one in December in which we solicited a wide range of

677
00:50:23,610 --> 00:50:26,690
types of questions and ideas from the community members.

678
00:50:27,070 --> 00:50:29,550
We were quite pleased with attendance at both of those.

679
00:50:29,690 --> 00:50:32,270
I see some familiar faces, so thank you for those of you who

680
00:50:32,810 --> 00:50:35,410
joined us at one or both of those events.

681
00:50:35,410 --> 00:50:43,810
We got over 50 attendees at both received well over 100 individual handwritten comments from those.

682
00:50:44,170 --> 00:50:51,470
We also received survey responses separately that we issued in tandem with the first of the two meetings

683
00:50:51,470 --> 00:50:57,630
and have published a what we heard document that's available on the project's website.

684
00:50:59,190 --> 00:51:04,510
At the same time as we were doing the open houses shortly before each of the two open houses,

685
00:51:04,510 --> 00:51:09,150
We also hosted the two Facebook live events that Ron mentioned earlier.

686
00:51:09,690 --> 00:51:18,510
Our team was heavily loaded with Spanish speakers, including a number of people who are relatively recent immigrants from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries

687
00:51:18,510 --> 00:51:22,190
who facilitated those events in Spanish with the Canal Alliance.

688
00:51:23,010 --> 00:51:33,270
We now joke that the project is Internet-famous in the Canal District because both of those two events received over a thousand views on Facebook.

689
00:51:33,270 --> 00:51:39,010
some initially live, but most of them came afterwards in the form of recordings.

690
00:51:39,370 --> 00:51:41,710
So, we were quite pleased with that.

691
00:51:41,930 --> 00:51:48,070
And then in parallel, there were also in-person promotoras who went out and walked the transit station

692
00:51:48,070 --> 00:51:53,670
and spoke with people directly, handed out palm cards around the open house and other events

693
00:51:54,030 --> 00:51:56,110
as a means of soliciting additional feedback.

694
00:51:56,110 --> 00:52:03,250
back. And then that leads to the second parallel track of engagement related to the community

695
00:52:03,250 --> 00:52:09,710
design advisory group. This was a really special group that came together to meet over four

696
00:52:09,710 --> 00:52:15,990
times throughout that six-month period that was intended to bring a diverse group of faces

697
00:52:15,990 --> 00:52:21,570
and voices that represented different perspectives and ways of thinking about the transit center

698
00:52:21,570 --> 00:52:28,190
together so that they could all hear each other and share their opinions and ideas and come

699
00:52:28,190 --> 00:52:30,990
to consensus on key directions for the project.

700
00:52:31,750 --> 00:52:36,710
From my perspective, this was one of the most meaningful activities that we undertook

701
00:52:36,710 --> 00:52:41,950
because frequently when we have these types of groups or the open house events, we often

702
00:52:41,950 --> 00:52:48,470
have the people who are already feeling entitled to hearing their voice, to sharing their

703
00:52:48,470 --> 00:52:53,990
voice and to putting forward some of their ideas, but we don't necessarily have the same

704
00:52:53,990 --> 00:52:59,450
level of direct engagement between those individuals, and in this case the users of the transit

705
00:52:59,450 --> 00:53:00,250
station themselves.

706
00:53:00,970 --> 00:53:05,450
So there was a very diverse set of voices that came together and really reached quite

707
00:53:05,450 --> 00:53:10,510
a compelling consensus on the direction for the project that we have then been taking

708
00:53:10,510 --> 00:53:11,750
forward since that time.

709
00:53:13,910 --> 00:53:17,750
So I'll share with you a little bit of an overview, not going into the weeds on

710
00:53:17,750 --> 00:53:22,850
many of the design in detail here, but first to orient those of you who aren't as intimately

711
00:53:22,850 --> 00:53:30,270
familiar with this particular site location. In this picture here, west to the Pacific

712
00:53:30,270 --> 00:53:34,850
Ocean is at the top of the slide, so you can imagine yourself standing at the very

713
00:53:34,850 --> 00:53:39,470
bottom of the slide. You'd be standing on top of Highway 101, looking out over the

714
00:53:39,470 --> 00:53:44,970
site and out beyond to the mountains in the ocean. In the lower portion of the

715
00:53:44,970 --> 00:53:50,050
site is currently a very underutilized city bank building with large parking lot.

716
00:53:50,770 --> 00:53:54,910
Straight through the middle and moving in the north-south direction on the slide left

717
00:53:54,910 --> 00:53:59,870
to right, but in real life north to south, is the Smart Tracks and the Santa Rafael

718
00:53:59,870 --> 00:54:00,730
Smart Station.

719
00:54:01,890 --> 00:54:07,950
Just north, or excuse me, just west of that, planned north, is Temelopius Avenue, which

720
00:54:07,950 --> 00:54:13,690
is a part of this project will be shifted so that it's directly adjacent to the Smart

721
00:54:13,690 --> 00:54:20,750
station itself and then past that applausa with a new customer service building. One important

722
00:54:20,750 --> 00:54:27,390
thing to note is where that sidewalk and road are shown in this plan today is the whistle

723
00:54:27,390 --> 00:54:33,870
stop building. So originally in 1929 there was the Northwestern Pacific Railroad depot building

724
00:54:33,870 --> 00:54:40,610
that was added onto quite a bit over the last 50 or so years after the railroads era that

725
00:54:40,610 --> 00:54:46,130
that will be relocated in part to that customer service building.

726
00:54:46,850 --> 00:54:50,130
So I'll show you a little bit of how that may work.

727
00:54:50,410 --> 00:54:56,690
This is the original or one of the early iterations of the whistle stop building in the image

728
00:54:56,690 --> 00:54:57,990
at the top of the slide there.

729
00:54:58,470 --> 00:55:02,470
As you can see, it looks a little bit different from that yellowish building that many

730
00:55:02,470 --> 00:55:03,530
of you know from today.

731
00:55:04,190 --> 00:55:08,110
One of the things that we consistently heard from community feedback was that there

732
00:55:08,110 --> 00:55:14,430
was an interest in never return to some of that original railroad era in that time in

733
00:55:14,430 --> 00:55:14,810
history.

734
00:55:15,370 --> 00:55:20,830
And so we have looked very closely at historical record as well as building evaluation of the

735
00:55:20,830 --> 00:55:24,770
portions of that building that are still intact today, which unfortunately isn't

736
00:55:24,770 --> 00:55:27,330
very much of it, but certainly is some.

737
00:55:27,810 --> 00:55:34,990
And as you can see from this diagram, individual portions of that 1929 through early 1950s

738
00:55:34,990 --> 00:55:42,610
railroad-era building are going to be relocated to the new site across the street where they'll

739
00:55:42,610 --> 00:55:48,130
become the new customer service building, the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation

740
00:55:48,130 --> 00:55:48,770
District.

741
00:55:49,650 --> 00:55:54,550
And so we've spent quite a bit of time speaking with community members, doing the research,

742
00:55:54,750 --> 00:56:00,910
understanding the criteria around the right approach to that reuse in a sensitive and

743
00:56:00,910 --> 00:56:07,450
historically appropriate way that aligns with the U.S. Department of Interior criteria around

744
00:56:07,450 --> 00:56:12,910
historic preservation. It's not easy because there's so little remaining of that railroad

745
00:56:12,910 --> 00:56:19,550
era work, but we are very committed to making that happen and making that a really integral

746
00:56:19,550 --> 00:56:25,210
part of the new customer service building. Creating this transportation district with

747
00:56:25,210 --> 00:56:31,190
with pieces of the building that was once the hub of, you know, the original transportation

748
00:56:31,190 --> 00:56:38,430
line in Santa Rafael is really one of the most important kind of space-making goals that

749
00:56:38,430 --> 00:56:39,730
we have as a part of the project.

750
00:56:41,450 --> 00:56:44,150
I'm going to flip through a few of the images.

751
00:56:45,280 --> 00:56:49,150
This one here is showing part of the relocated façade.

752
00:56:49,150 --> 00:56:57,110
originally, this was an arcade. It was a partially enclosed but still open-air space

753
00:56:57,110 --> 00:57:03,270
that was a part of the original railroad depot. You can see that in the shadowy parts of the

754
00:57:03,270 --> 00:57:09,510
building there. Recognizing that shadowy parts may not be as desirable in today's era, opening

755
00:57:09,510 --> 00:57:15,650
that up into a courtyard is our way of transitioning into a current use for this and

756
00:57:15,650 --> 00:57:18,190
looking out onto some of the bus stops beyond.

757
00:57:20,210 --> 00:57:23,010
Here's a preliminary view of the plaza with

758
00:57:23,010 --> 00:57:29,050
the customer service building in the background, standing at 4th Street looking south. And then

759
00:57:29,050 --> 00:57:35,010
here is standing at 4th Street looking south and southwest at the other side.

760
00:57:36,890 --> 00:57:43,590
Then at the portion of the site that is east of the smart tracks, there is a much larger

761
00:57:43,590 --> 00:57:50,070
bus canopy. We heard a lot of direction from the community engagement process around really wanting

762
00:57:50,660 --> 00:57:58,830
kind of a more substantial architectural structure that was kind of a gateway to San Rafael. This

763
00:57:58,830 --> 00:58:04,030
is often the first thing that people would see as they leave the highway. And so instead of just

764
00:58:04,030 --> 00:58:09,290
seeing a big pool of buses offering kind of an architectural element that creates a new place

765
00:58:09,290 --> 00:58:13,230
was really desirable to the community design advisory group

766
00:58:13,230 --> 00:58:16,150
and many other community members that we spoke with.

767
00:58:17,610 --> 00:58:24,370
So the sweeping design with wood was emblematic of the history of Marin County.

768
00:58:25,070 --> 00:58:28,810
A lot of the other ideas that are embedded into these images

769
00:58:28,810 --> 00:58:31,990
really came directly from that community engagement process.

770
00:58:36,680 --> 00:58:39,140
All right. I'll take it home here at the last couple of slides.

771
00:58:39,140 --> 00:58:47,880
So these just highlight a few of the key topics from the design standpoint that we're focusing on before we wrap up this phase of the preliminary engineering.

772
00:58:48,640 --> 00:58:55,040
There's a few key topics that we're working with city staff on, including the configuration of the bicycle facilities and the roadways,

773
00:58:55,780 --> 00:58:59,320
making sure that the city feels engaged through the design review process.

774
00:59:00,120 --> 00:59:08,760
As Ron mentioned earlier, we've had some initial meetings with the California Public Utilities Commission because we will need to make some minor modifications to the rail crossings of the roadways.

775
00:59:09,340 --> 00:59:11,940
Working with Marin Transit in terms of bus bay configuration.

776
00:59:12,980 --> 00:59:19,520
And as I mentioned earlier, trying to get our federal environmental clearance with a particular focus on the cultural resources analysis.

777
00:59:20,740 --> 00:59:25,180
So in terms of next steps, we're doing a little bit of a road show here in terms of presentations.

778
00:59:25,180 --> 00:59:30,160
One more tomorrow night at TAM and then Santa Fe City Council to come.

779
00:59:30,660 --> 00:59:38,360
We also will be going to the Santa Fe feedback as well to get some specific technical feedback on some of the bicycle and pedestrian solutions.

780
00:59:38,840 --> 00:59:44,840
This is supporting the ongoing preliminary engineering efforts as well as the ongoing NEPA clearance efforts.

781
00:59:45,500 --> 00:59:54,060
Right away procurement or acquisition of the property needed to build the project is still to come that would initiate after the NEPA clearance is secured.

782
00:59:54,060 --> 00:59:58,880
And then final design is to come once we have some of these interim steps completed.

783
00:59:59,460 --> 00:59:59,960
So with that...

784
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:02,000
Happy to answer any questions that you have. Thank you.

785
01:00:03,180 --> 01:00:06,620
Well, great. Thank you very much. Appreciate you all being here and appreciate the presentation.

786
01:00:06,840 --> 01:00:10,340
I know that many of us have dealt with this in different ways along the path,

787
01:00:10,460 --> 01:00:15,240
but it's great to get an update. I look to my colleagues for any questions, comments, concerns.

788
01:00:18,410 --> 01:00:18,990
Director Collin.

789
01:00:19,550 --> 01:00:24,310
Thank you. I appreciate the roadshow. I think it's important to connect with all the agencies.

790
01:00:25,330 --> 01:00:28,970
And I'm not going to drill down really deep because I'll get to opportunity in March.

791
01:00:28,970 --> 01:00:36,670
One thing I would like to hear when you do come in March, we talk a lot about getting feedback from the community and from the writers.

792
01:00:36,990 --> 01:00:41,770
And I heard Mara say that, too. What I will look for in March is I want specific examples.

793
01:00:42,090 --> 01:00:45,250
I find sometimes as agencies we say that and we show them, we're like, hey, how is this?

794
01:00:45,330 --> 01:00:52,630
People are like, okay, that's great. But I actually really want to hear how your original design changed from that input.

795
01:00:52,810 --> 01:00:55,050
So that's just for future. You don't need to answer that now.

796
01:00:55,050 --> 01:00:57,530
And then second, just to clarify for the board,

797
01:00:58,050 --> 01:01:01,350
who all is involved in the final approvals of this project?

798
01:01:01,470 --> 01:01:04,570
Because this is truly everybody in the kitchen sink type of thing.

799
01:01:04,710 --> 01:01:05,790
So if you could just speak to that.

800
01:01:07,510 --> 01:01:09,270
Yeah, now I'll just briefly touch on the first one,

801
01:01:09,270 --> 01:01:11,210
since there may be others here who won't be at City Council.

802
01:01:11,610 --> 01:01:15,950
One of the things that I remember from my participation in the CDAC

803
01:01:15,950 --> 01:01:18,310
was hearing from the riders a lot of concern about weather.

804
01:01:19,070 --> 01:01:23,250
Sun, it gets hot, direct sun, rain, particularly when it's windy

805
01:01:23,250 --> 01:01:27,250
and rainy and really thinking about how high up is the canopy. We don't want it too low because

806
01:01:27,250 --> 01:01:31,410
you don't want to feel claustrophobic and stuffy, but if it's too high, then it's not

807
01:01:31,410 --> 01:01:35,610
going to shield from the weather and the rain. So that was a lot of it was charged to Mara of

808
01:01:35,610 --> 01:01:39,510
like how do we, you know, in thinking about this canopy, let's make sure that really covers

809
01:01:40,490 --> 01:01:45,930
the rider needs. And we heard a lot from members of the CDAC, a lot of interest in trees and

810
01:01:45,930 --> 01:01:50,630
landscaping and, you know, that place making aspect, which we agree is very important,

811
01:01:50,630 --> 01:01:55,410
But we sort of heard the counterpoint from the riders of this really has to work for me to wait for the bus

812
01:01:55,410 --> 01:01:58,370
And this has to be a comfortable environment where I can wait for the bus

813
01:01:58,370 --> 01:01:59,250
So let's have trees

814
01:01:59,250 --> 01:02:04,070
But let's also make sure we have nice benches that are in a convenient location that we have that weather shelter

815
01:02:04,070 --> 01:02:09,210
And so I think we're really taking that into account and making sure we're kind of tempering some of that landscape element

816
01:02:09,210 --> 01:02:12,230
To also think about how it's working for the everyday rider

817
01:02:13,690 --> 01:02:19,470
Hopefully I channeled my architecture of it. Okay, and then you know in terms of approvals

818
01:02:19,470 --> 01:02:24,550
Yeah, I might defer to Ron if he has any further thoughts on that.

819
01:02:29,490 --> 01:02:31,570
Mayor Kate, we're all in this together.

820
01:02:32,990 --> 01:02:38,850
And so going to your council on March 4th is a critical step in bringing all those approvals forward.

821
01:02:39,330 --> 01:02:40,650
You haven't seen the last of us.

822
01:02:41,050 --> 01:02:44,210
There's going to be a lot more meetings as things evolve.

823
01:02:44,530 --> 01:02:49,790
We'll be back here to Marin Transit to the City Council with updates as we go forward.

824
01:02:49,790 --> 01:02:57,930
And so as that information gels and comes together, that would be the basis for endorsements of the project.

825
01:02:58,570 --> 01:03:04,870
We're all in this together because of the Regional Measure 3 allocation that comes to this project for funding it.

826
01:03:05,350 --> 01:03:09,490
And there's an MOU that was signed by all of our partner agencies as part of that.

827
01:03:09,930 --> 01:03:14,810
And so, again, that will be a cornerstone of moving forward together with those approvals.

828
01:03:15,870 --> 01:03:20,630
Thank you. And I also want to say thank you for the additional outreach into the community.

829
01:03:21,010 --> 01:03:25,570
So you were very responsive. The city was a little concerned just in the beginning.

830
01:03:25,870 --> 01:03:31,250
But boy, you really reconfigured the community outreach and went deep.

831
01:03:31,350 --> 01:03:32,370
And we really appreciate that.

832
01:03:32,550 --> 01:03:36,730
I think it really is the projects in a much better place because of your deep engagement.

833
01:03:36,950 --> 01:03:37,310
So thank you.

834
01:03:37,570 --> 01:03:38,350
Thank you, Mancayte.

835
01:03:39,690 --> 01:03:40,630
Great. Thank you. Anyone else?

836
01:03:41,290 --> 01:03:41,930
Director Garbruno.

837
01:03:42,150 --> 01:03:42,790
Thank you. Yes.

838
01:03:42,990 --> 01:03:44,070
I would like to echo that.

839
01:03:44,070 --> 01:03:49,630
I had the opportunity with Dennis Mulligan to attend the meeting. It was a couple of years ago

840
01:03:49,630 --> 01:03:53,650
now. I know maybe it was about a year and a half ago, right, when I adopted two crazy dogs.

841
01:03:53,830 --> 01:03:59,010
I remember thinking, I got to get home. But it was a great presentation. And I had a subsequent

842
01:03:59,010 --> 01:04:06,370
conversation with Omar Carreras of the Canal Alliance. And he was very appreciative to the

843
01:04:06,370 --> 01:04:11,130
inclusion that you brought forward. And they will be practically a new neighbor with their

844
01:04:11,130 --> 01:04:14,570
new location as well. So thank you for all of that.

845
01:04:16,510 --> 01:04:20,550
Director Paulson. Thank you. This may have been covered before,

846
01:04:20,810 --> 01:04:26,570
but just as a matter of efficiency, I think the depot is serving about 500 buses. Has

847
01:04:26,570 --> 01:04:32,450
there been any design that shows increased throughput? And then also any talk about

848
01:04:32,450 --> 01:04:36,570
future proofing, you know, as transportation is changing, electrification, all that.

849
01:04:36,570 --> 01:04:41,910
I appreciate the historical elements, but what about, you know, looking ahead 10 or 20 years?

850
01:04:42,570 --> 01:04:50,630
So one of the beauties of the design that's before you today is from an environmental analysis perspective,

851
01:04:50,890 --> 01:04:55,890
we did not increase the number of bus bays or positions within the new transit center,

852
01:04:56,370 --> 01:04:59,870
but they can operate much more effectively in terms of throughput.

853
01:04:59,870 --> 01:05:06,570
The current footprint that we have right now, the buses have to arrive and depart like clockwork.

854
01:05:07,130 --> 01:05:09,310
There cannot be a delay due to traffic.

855
01:05:09,810 --> 01:05:15,430
There cannot be a delay due to having to board or de-board a person with disabilities in a wheelchair.

856
01:05:16,250 --> 01:05:20,350
Everything has to happen exactly the way it's scheduled and planned.

857
01:05:21,510 --> 01:05:28,470
The new facility will allow buses to pull around a bus that has to be delayed for that sort of purpose.

858
01:05:29,350 --> 01:05:36,790
We will be able to get more buses per hour through those 17 bays if there is a need to increase service.

859
01:05:37,270 --> 01:05:45,350
And that is one of the beauties of this new design is we can plan for the future if there is a need for more ridership to add service.

860
01:05:46,410 --> 01:05:52,530
The new facility allows any size bus to board at the different positions.

861
01:05:52,530 --> 01:06:03,850
Right now, we have to have smaller marine transit shuttle-sized buses over on Platform D against the lower part of Tamil Pais Avenue.

862
01:06:04,470 --> 01:06:06,190
So right now, we're very constrained.

863
01:06:07,630 --> 01:06:19,310
Groom transportation, your Sonoma Airport Express operator from up here, is pretty much limited to not having more than one of their coach-sized buses on Platform D.

864
01:06:19,310 --> 01:06:24,270
And typically right now they are using the shuttle size vans to go to Oakland Airport.

865
01:06:24,570 --> 01:06:31,330
So there's another constraint that they're living under right now that will be addressed by the new facility giving them more elbow room.

866
01:06:31,770 --> 01:06:43,070
So again, we have been cognizant of that moving forward and the new facility will have the opportunity to accommodate increased service that reflects increased ridership in the future if that happens.

867
01:06:45,730 --> 01:06:46,930
Thank you.

868
01:06:46,930 --> 01:06:52,310
so much. So I've had the opportunity to see this and I'll see it again tomorrow which I appreciate

869
01:06:52,310 --> 01:06:57,150
because I learned something new each time. I appreciate your comment that we're all in this

870
01:06:57,150 --> 01:07:02,210
together and I think, you know, one of the discussions we had at Marin Transit were real

871
01:07:02,210 --> 01:07:08,710
concerns on circulation on the surface streets and an incredibly congested area that I know

872
01:07:08,710 --> 01:07:15,010
Eddie gets emails and phone calls about gates, you know, of signal times. We get a lot of

873
01:07:15,010 --> 01:07:22,130
that and just how the buses get through this area is of utmost importance and I, you know,

874
01:07:22,570 --> 01:07:27,710
I'm committed and I think many of colleagues on different transportation boards are committed

875
01:07:27,710 --> 01:07:32,530
to working all of this together to look at the bigger picture, not just the circulation

876
01:07:32,530 --> 01:07:38,990
from, you know, bays to bay, but how we're getting on and off the freeway and on and

877
01:07:38,990 --> 01:07:41,150
off the surface streets in that area.

878
01:07:41,150 --> 01:07:47,490
Yeah, we can't make that worse and I hope that we can make it better, so I'm glad to

879
01:07:47,490 --> 01:07:49,110
hear we're in it together on that.

880
01:07:51,290 --> 01:07:57,590
I think, you know, having been at the community meeting, one of the community meetings in

881
01:07:57,590 --> 01:08:04,850
August and watching some of the other ones, I think we also always need to think about

882
01:08:04,850 --> 01:08:11,870
future writers and I do think we have a different generation of young people who

883
01:08:11,870 --> 01:08:16,990
are interested in not having cars and so making sure that we're including you

884
01:08:16,990 --> 01:08:21,450
know not only existing transit writers which are incredibly important but

885
01:08:21,450 --> 01:08:27,290
also what making sure we're asking the 18 to 20 year olds what do you want to

886
01:08:27,290 --> 01:08:31,070
see in a transit center and really ensuring that we are creating something

887
01:08:31,070 --> 01:08:32,510
to attract new writers.

888
01:08:33,130 --> 01:08:34,910
I think that's all of our ultimate goal.

889
01:08:35,590 --> 01:08:38,050
And then having seen this more in transit,

890
01:08:38,270 --> 01:08:40,110
I am disappointed that the elevation

891
01:08:40,110 --> 01:08:44,210
of the smart platforms aren't in the schematics.

892
01:08:44,690 --> 01:08:46,190
So it really shows as though,

893
01:08:46,850 --> 01:08:49,690
but I think where the smart platforms are elevated

894
01:08:49,690 --> 01:08:52,890
for on and off really do cut up this design

895
01:08:52,890 --> 01:08:54,950
in a different way and it's not reflected

896
01:08:54,950 --> 01:08:56,250
in those schematics.

897
01:08:57,370 --> 01:08:58,650
I kind of understand why,

898
01:08:58,650 --> 01:09:03,790
but I do think it limits how we can visualize it from these designs. Thanks.

899
01:09:04,150 --> 01:09:08,630
That will come out more in the preliminary engineering. What you're really seeing today in

900
01:09:08,630 --> 01:09:14,670
these slides is a bird's eye view of just what it would look like from several hundred feet above.

901
01:09:18,710 --> 01:09:19,310
Director Park.

902
01:09:19,750 --> 01:09:25,770
Right. Good afternoon, Ron. I just have to say thank you. I like Mayor Kate.

903
01:09:26,730 --> 01:09:36,350
We've been involved in this for a long time and it's significantly different both in feeling and in product than what we started with.

904
01:09:36,550 --> 01:09:40,750
And I credit that to all of the organizations and also to the consultants.

905
01:09:41,310 --> 01:09:44,990
Your ears must burn sometimes with all the listening that you've done.

906
01:09:45,230 --> 01:09:50,130
But I think you always get a better product the more people that you involve and the more you listen.

907
01:09:50,330 --> 01:09:51,410
So thank you very much.

908
01:09:53,980 --> 01:09:59,540
I just want to echo that and say thank you very much for the great community output outreach that you've done.

909
01:09:59,780 --> 01:10:09,660
And I do think that we have an opportunity for an incredible piece of infrastructure for transit into the future appropriately with a nod to the past,

910
01:10:09,780 --> 01:10:16,140
but really a state-of-the-art facility with the efficiencies, like you mentioned, Ron, to really grow and accommodate.

911
01:10:16,140 --> 01:10:23,940
And to do so in a very, hopefully, an asset to the city of San Rafael, the county of Marin,

912
01:10:24,140 --> 01:10:27,560
but really entire North Bay as an important transit hub.

913
01:10:27,660 --> 01:10:29,240
So thank you for that. I appreciate that.

914
01:10:29,940 --> 01:10:35,180
And I think, again, unless you want to wrap it up, we just want to say thank you.

915
01:10:35,640 --> 01:10:37,160
There's a lot more information to come.

916
01:10:37,160 --> 01:10:50,820
I know there's things from an alternative fuels perspective that we'll be working on regarding bus electrification and can we charge those buses while they're waiting at the transit center between arrival and departure.

917
01:10:51,860 --> 01:10:56,380
There will be a lot of discussion about LED certification of the new facility.

918
01:10:57,280 --> 01:11:04,880
There's a lot more to come. And we just wanted to give you a heads up of where we are and sort of a nod to where we're going to be going in the future with this.

919
01:11:04,880 --> 01:11:08,160
So thank you all for having us here today. Really appreciate it.

920
01:11:08,440 --> 01:11:10,000
Great. Thank you. Thank you all.

921
01:11:12,740 --> 01:11:15,980
I will open it up for public comment. I want to make sure we...

922
01:11:15,980 --> 01:11:18,600
If there's anyone here from the public who'd like to speak on this particular item.

923
01:11:20,460 --> 01:11:22,560
Seeing no one rise and just checking online.

924
01:11:23,060 --> 01:11:25,020
At this time, first up for public comment.

925
01:11:25,480 --> 01:11:27,980
Oh, it looked like he lowered his hand, so I guess never mind.

926
01:11:28,400 --> 01:11:30,840
All right. That's okay.

927
01:11:31,340 --> 01:11:40,960
Moving on then to item number eight, which is to adopt a resolution amending resolution number 2023-23, the fiscal year 24 adopted budget.

928
01:11:41,500 --> 01:11:50,740
And you should have in front of you a revised item that has a small correction that Heather made.

929
01:11:51,140 --> 01:11:57,260
And for those in the public here, I think it is available outside and I know it's available online.

930
01:11:57,260 --> 01:12:01,040
So just that's what we're going to be actually voting on today.

931
01:12:01,520 --> 01:12:03,940
And I'm going to turn it over to Heather for the presentation.

932
01:12:04,300 --> 01:12:04,360
Heather.

933
01:12:04,700 --> 01:12:05,780
Thank you very much.

934
01:12:06,580 --> 01:12:08,860
So thank you.

935
01:12:09,380 --> 01:12:16,000
So on the presentation today, we're going to be talking about the sixth amendment to the budget.

936
01:12:16,720 --> 01:12:26,020
This is normally our time that we do the mid-year budget review, although we've been quite active in amending the budget so far.

937
01:12:26,020 --> 01:12:31,000
So this is number six, but this is the time where we look at where we've been through December

938
01:12:31,000 --> 01:12:40,140
and we look at any changes that we may need. We look at any projects status and if we need to move money around either bring it forward

939
01:12:40,140 --> 01:12:47,800
or push it back. So all of that has been taken into consideration and that's what we're presenting today for your consideration and adoption.

940
01:12:48,560 --> 01:12:49,020
Next.

941
01:12:49,020 --> 01:12:49,120
Next.

942
01:12:50,280 --> 01:12:55,140
So we have it broken into two areas, the passenger rail and pathway and the freight and we're

943
01:12:55,140 --> 01:12:59,100
going to talk a little bit about our fund balance where we are with both of those, our

944
01:12:59,100 --> 01:13:00,460
revenues and expenditures.

945
01:13:01,160 --> 01:13:05,360
And then we've updated the position allocation, which I'll discuss at the end.

946
01:13:06,240 --> 01:13:06,480
Next.

947
01:13:07,620 --> 01:13:09,260
I don't expect you to read this.

948
01:13:09,340 --> 01:13:14,740
I just want to point out that this is in your packet and it is on page 43.

949
01:13:15,440 --> 01:13:18,320
So you can see that more detail there.

950
01:13:18,320 --> 01:13:23,700
I'm going to be just walking through the changes that we're going to be presenting today.

951
01:13:23,800 --> 01:13:27,840
So if you want to look at that in your packet, that's probably a better place, but I just

952
01:13:27,840 --> 01:13:30,620
wanted to share that with the public also.

953
01:13:31,360 --> 01:13:34,520
And this PowerPoint will be available online after the meeting.

954
01:13:36,300 --> 01:13:38,340
So a little about the changes in it.

955
01:13:39,080 --> 01:13:43,100
We are expecting that they, or we know that they're beginning fund balance for

956
01:13:43,100 --> 01:13:46,200
fiscal year 24 increased by 51.5 million.

957
01:13:46,200 --> 01:13:48,040
We have been expecting that.

958
01:13:48,160 --> 01:13:50,140
We've been updating that over time.

959
01:13:50,740 --> 01:13:55,780
And in the monthly reports, we show that balance combined with our expected fund balance.

960
01:13:56,240 --> 01:14:01,860
And that is also presented, and I will point that out as we discuss where we're going to be,

961
01:14:02,160 --> 01:14:04,440
or where projected to be at the end of the fiscal year.

962
01:14:05,360 --> 01:14:07,780
I did need to make a change to the sales tax.

963
01:14:08,100 --> 01:14:13,880
Our sales tax forecast is down slightly than where we had estimated it to be.

964
01:14:13,880 --> 01:14:17,100
It's slightly higher than last

965
01:14:17,100 --> 01:14:18,580
year, but about a million

966
01:14:18,580 --> 01:14:19,620
dollars less than our

967
01:14:19,620 --> 01:14:20,060
projection.

968
01:14:20,420 --> 01:14:21,560
So we're expecting that to

969
01:14:21,560 --> 01:14:23,320
continue to be flat for the

970
01:14:23,320 --> 01:14:24,640
rest of this year and into

971
01:14:24,640 --> 01:14:27,060
next year, but we needed to

972
01:14:27,060 --> 01:14:29,680
make that a change at this

973
01:14:29,680 --> 01:14:30,660
point in time in the year.

974
01:14:30,960 --> 01:14:32,680
Federal funds, we're really

975
01:14:32,680 --> 01:14:34,300
just debudgeting and moving

976
01:14:34,300 --> 01:14:35,840
those federal funds out to

977
01:14:35,840 --> 01:14:36,500
next year.

978
01:14:37,080 --> 01:14:39,040
We have better information

979
01:14:39,040 --> 01:14:41,040
regarding the preliminary

980
01:14:41,040 --> 01:14:43,300
design work and on the

981
01:14:43,300 --> 01:14:49,360
Hillsburg extension and the McGinnis to Smith Ranch road project, and we'll be re-budgeting

982
01:14:49,360 --> 01:14:51,840
those funds next year in fiscal year 25.

983
01:14:52,300 --> 01:14:57,360
So it's not a savings, it's more of just a deferment based on the schedule for construction

984
01:14:57,360 --> 01:14:58,180
and design.

985
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:09,120
On state funds, we've itemized lines 16, 20, and 29. The amount of $5.3 million will not be spent in fiscal year 24.

986
01:15:09,780 --> 01:15:15,020
And these, again, include funds for construction of the SOCO pathway as well as the Hilsberg extension.

987
01:15:16,080 --> 01:15:22,680
Not that we're not doing these projects, just the money is being re-looked at as to when we can actually spend it.

988
01:15:22,680 --> 01:15:26,280
So we're not carrying additional funds this year that will be spent next year.

989
01:15:27,160 --> 01:15:31,520
I also want to point out, not listed on here, but also in your board packet,

990
01:15:32,160 --> 01:15:38,660
on line 27 we'll be adding $500,000 for the shuttle service.

991
01:15:39,180 --> 01:15:41,720
This was a state grant that we received.

992
01:15:42,180 --> 01:15:51,560
We're getting $500,000 per year over a three-year period to assist us with the shuttle service at Sonoma County Airport.

993
01:15:52,340 --> 01:15:54,550
So we are budgeting that $500,000.

994
01:15:54,550 --> 01:16:07,010
The additional, the money we had budgeted in there already is going to stay in there because we're exploring additional improvements on shuttle service potentially in other parts of the region.

995
01:16:07,530 --> 01:16:14,430
And so we wanted to have that money available in case we decided to move forward with that between now and June 30th.

996
01:16:14,930 --> 01:16:15,250
Next.

997
01:16:16,610 --> 01:16:20,310
Again, on the expenditure side that is in your packet on page 43.

998
01:16:21,110 --> 01:16:21,490
Next.

999
01:16:21,490 --> 01:16:26,610
First, start with walking down that expenditure side.

1000
01:16:26,810 --> 01:16:29,530
We're looking at a reduction in salaries charged to projects.

1001
01:16:29,930 --> 01:16:35,030
As I previously mentioned, we are moving some project money out to fiscal year 25.

1002
01:16:35,450 --> 01:16:39,890
And so when we move that project money out, we're not expecting to charge as much to

1003
01:16:39,890 --> 01:16:40,630
those projects.

1004
01:16:40,770 --> 01:16:47,610
Therefore, the reduction in salaries that's going to projects will be going down.

1005
01:16:48,410 --> 01:16:53,390
We are also looking at a reduction in our administrative costs that we allocate to freight.

1006
01:16:54,230 --> 01:17:02,530
Our overall spending has been less than projected this fiscal year, and so the allocation that goes to freight is expected to go down.

1007
01:17:03,110 --> 01:17:09,330
And you'll also see that when I talk about it on the freight side, that allocation there, they won't incur that expense.

1008
01:17:10,210 --> 01:17:21,490
Under services and supplies, we're increasing due to budgeting for expenditures related to the state grant for a shuttle service, as I mentioned previously, on the revenue side.

1009
01:17:22,190 --> 01:17:27,370
IT maintenance costs and shift of maintenance of way tracks are resurfacing from projects.

1010
01:17:28,110 --> 01:17:38,010
And on the environmental piece of it, we're deferring the riparian mediation projects to future years related to difficulty obtaining permits and planting windows.

1011
01:17:38,010 --> 01:17:42,790
So again, that work will be done. It will just be done in fiscal year 25.

1012
01:17:43,710 --> 01:17:43,770
Next.

1013
01:17:46,510 --> 01:17:49,150
On this one, hold on.

1014
01:17:50,770 --> 01:17:54,470
On this one is also in your packet on page 43.

1015
01:17:54,830 --> 01:17:59,050
I'd like to talk about the state of good repair in the capital projects.

1016
01:17:59,850 --> 01:18:06,810
Online 64 under DMU. We have additional funding required for our auxiliary power supply units,

1017
01:18:06,810 --> 01:18:11,250
maintenance on those, and so we're budgeting some additional funds there.

1018
01:18:11,750 --> 01:18:17,630
Under information technology, which is line six to seven, we're increasing expenses related

1019
01:18:17,630 --> 01:18:21,150
to projects to aggregate switches and firewalls.

1020
01:18:21,690 --> 01:18:27,070
And then on non-revenue vehicles, you saw earlier that we were purchasing non-revenue

1021
01:18:27,070 --> 01:18:27,710
vehicles.

1022
01:18:28,230 --> 01:18:34,750
We had accelerated some vehicles into fiscal year 24 from fiscal year 25 due to the long

1023
01:18:34,750 --> 01:18:35,390
lead times.

1024
01:18:35,390 --> 01:18:35,570
times.

1025
01:18:35,930 --> 01:18:40,910
Well, we've discovered that those lead times are now getting shorter and shorter.

1026
01:18:41,690 --> 01:18:47,510
And so we're going to move some of those vehicles back into fiscal year 25 because they don't

1027
01:18:47,510 --> 01:18:49,470
need to be replaced at this point in time.

1028
01:18:49,650 --> 01:18:54,030
So it would be premature to replace them now that we are having lead times that are

1029
01:18:54,030 --> 01:18:58,470
closer to normal rather than the year and a half it was taking us to get vehicles

1030
01:18:58,470 --> 01:18:58,950
before.

1031
01:19:00,430 --> 01:19:06,950
On line 71, for track maintenance and facilities, we have costs related to the maintenance of

1032
01:19:06,950 --> 01:19:11,150
way track resurfacing, which were transferred to the service and supplies budget, which

1033
01:19:11,150 --> 01:19:12,130
is line 49.

1034
01:19:12,810 --> 01:19:18,150
So this was just a reclassification of a capital item that's really going to be expensed.

1035
01:19:18,450 --> 01:19:21,070
So it was just moved from one line to another.

1036
01:19:21,790 --> 01:19:25,830
And then we have the network switch project, which is going to be budgeted in a future

1037
01:19:25,830 --> 01:19:26,230
year.

1038
01:19:26,230 --> 01:19:29,350
So, it's being deferred from this year into the future.

1039
01:19:31,230 --> 01:19:31,670
Next.

1040
01:19:33,110 --> 01:19:33,930
On the capital.

1041
01:19:35,110 --> 01:19:37,350
Oh, I missed a page in there.

1042
01:19:39,930 --> 01:19:40,990
I'm missing something.

1043
01:19:41,250 --> 01:19:45,150
So, I will go ahead and go through it, though,

1044
01:19:45,650 --> 01:19:47,590
before you move on to freight revenues.

1045
01:19:48,110 --> 01:19:49,950
Let me just talk about the capital projects.

1046
01:19:50,230 --> 01:19:52,650
On the expansion and pathways, we're shifting design,

1047
01:19:52,650 --> 01:19:58,610
permitting and constructions cost to fiscal year 25. We're going to be moving most of

1048
01:19:58,610 --> 01:20:03,990
the budget for the Healdsburg extension out of 24 to fiscal year 25, but we're going to

1049
01:20:03,990 --> 01:20:09,170
leave just enough money for some design work and staff time to start initiating that project.

1050
01:20:10,030 --> 01:20:14,550
And then on the design and permitting and we're going to continue that on the pathway line,

1051
01:20:14,790 --> 01:20:19,970
but we're working some of the moving some of the work into fiscal year 25 for that.

1052
01:20:19,970 --> 01:20:27,010
So those are reflected under the capital portion of that chart on page 43 of your packet.

1053
01:20:27,730 --> 01:20:33,470
So that's on the pathway and passenger side of the budget.

1054
01:20:33,750 --> 01:20:35,930
So now we're going to talk a little bit about freight.

1055
01:20:36,570 --> 01:20:43,330
And I had to make some pretty major changes as it comes to revenues on the freight side.

1056
01:20:43,330 --> 01:20:48,830
We had been anticipating that we could spend some grant money under the

1057
01:20:48,830 --> 01:20:54,990
short-line grant, which is on line four, for some salaries and more maintenance

1058
01:20:54,990 --> 01:21:00,350
type work. And it turned out we were not able to do that, but we found that out

1059
01:21:00,350 --> 01:21:04,590
after the budget had already been adopted. So now we're trying to true

1060
01:21:04,590 --> 01:21:10,610
up those costs with the actual revenues that we're expecting. So on the

1061
01:21:10,610 --> 01:21:17,710
revenue side, next slide. On the revenue side, we're going to have to decrease the fund balance,

1062
01:21:19,150 --> 01:21:21,130
I'm sorry, we increase the fund balance.

1063
01:21:23,350 --> 01:21:26,510
Slides keep changing. We increased the fund balance by

1064
01:21:26,510 --> 01:21:32,710
$400,000 and that was due to, at the end of the year, we had slightly more money than we

1065
01:21:32,710 --> 01:21:45,290
were expecting. There we go. So that was good news that we had $400,000 more. But on the

1066
01:21:45,290 --> 01:21:50,250
state funds, we're actually going to have to use $1.4 million of the state grant. And

1067
01:21:50,250 --> 01:21:55,030
we weren't expecting to have to use that money this fiscal year. We were hoping to

1068
01:21:55,030 --> 01:22:00,270
be able to save that for fiscal year 25. But we're going to have to use that. The

1069
01:22:00,270 --> 01:22:04,450
state short-line grant, we're reducing due to the lack of private matching funds.

1070
01:22:05,070 --> 01:22:10,190
Again, we can only use that for capital activities and we currently do not have

1071
01:22:10,190 --> 01:22:16,090
enough matching funds to match that grant and move those capital

1072
01:22:16,090 --> 01:22:21,710
projects forward. In this particular grant, it's required that we have a 50%

1073
01:22:21,710 --> 01:22:26,290
match and that match cannot be other state funds. So it has to be the

1074
01:22:26,290 --> 01:22:31,210
freight movement fees or the storage fees or the tax credit and right now we

1075
01:22:31,210 --> 01:22:36,710
don't have sufficient funds there to be able to match that grant. On the freight

1076
01:22:36,710 --> 01:22:41,450
movement fees we're actually decreasing that based on our observed year-to-date

1077
01:22:41,450 --> 01:22:46,890
fees. So we're moving from the budgeted amount of a million dollars down to

1078
01:22:46,890 --> 01:22:52,010
800,000. 800,000 is right around where we landed last year at the end of

1079
01:22:52,010 --> 01:22:55,170
the year, so we think that's more realistic than a million dollars.

1080
01:22:56,590 --> 01:23:02,130
On the leases, we actually had to decrease it based on actual collections.

1081
01:23:03,190 --> 01:23:07,650
That was actually an error that I made when I was putting the budget together.

1082
01:23:07,930 --> 01:23:12,610
We had a one-time lease payment that I was not aware of when we were doing the projections,

1083
01:23:13,190 --> 01:23:18,510
and that one-time payment is not going to occur again, so we had to decrease the

1084
01:23:18,510 --> 01:23:19,650
lease budget for that.

1085
01:23:19,650 --> 01:23:29,250
Now, one bit of bright news here is that we're actually increasing our storage fees as Eddie mentioned previously.

1086
01:23:30,030 --> 01:23:34,930
We have budgeted for a new storage customer, which is Caltrain.

1087
01:23:35,110 --> 01:23:38,290
They will be storing some of their vehicles with us.

1088
01:23:38,710 --> 01:23:44,870
We assume that we'll be getting those into storage sometime in the March timeframe.

1089
01:23:44,870 --> 01:23:52,190
And so I've calculated that we will be getting about a total of $24,000 between now and the

1090
01:23:52,190 --> 01:23:54,850
end of the fiscal year based on their storage.

1091
01:23:55,730 --> 01:24:02,090
And then our 45G tax credit, we did receive a higher amount for that credit this year

1092
01:24:02,090 --> 01:24:03,110
than we were expecting.

1093
01:24:03,450 --> 01:24:08,310
So the market provided a slightly higher amount, about $13,000.

1094
01:24:09,090 --> 01:24:10,450
So that was good news also.

1095
01:24:12,030 --> 01:24:12,410
Next.

1096
01:24:12,410 --> 01:24:21,370
On the expenditure side, next slide after this, we have identified some savings opportunities

1097
01:24:21,370 --> 01:24:27,130
under services and supplies to be able to debudget that.

1098
01:24:27,270 --> 01:24:33,750
One of the things I mentioned previously as we allocate administrative costs from our

1099
01:24:33,750 --> 01:24:40,290
passenger budget to, I mean our passenger expenditures to our freight for

1100
01:24:40,290 --> 01:24:44,550
administrative activities. Those expenditures are coming in less than

1101
01:24:44,550 --> 01:24:51,030
projected, so that's less of an impact than to the freight budget. We are

1102
01:24:51,030 --> 01:24:58,750
deferring a phase two construction of bridges to a later date. Those were

1103
01:24:58,750 --> 01:25:04,550
plan to be done this fiscal year. However, because of that matching issue, we're having

1104
01:25:04,550 --> 01:25:11,430
to defer something and at this time we are deferring the bridge repairs. Now we are going

1105
01:25:11,430 --> 01:25:18,050
to keep enough funds in there to do the design work as well as purchase the timbers. That's

1106
01:25:18,050 --> 01:25:24,250
a total of $95,000 for those two things. So that will be prepared to be able to move

1107
01:25:24,250 --> 01:25:26,630
forward with the construction of

1108
01:25:26,630 --> 01:25:29,450
these bridge repairs as soon as

1109
01:25:29,450 --> 01:25:30,490
funding is available.

1110
01:25:32,030 --> 01:25:32,270
Next.

1111
01:25:33,870 --> 01:25:36,250
So just a few changes that I

1112
01:25:36,250 --> 01:25:38,290
mentioned that are in that hand

1113
01:25:38,290 --> 01:25:40,770
out that I gave you that we

1114
01:25:40,770 --> 01:25:43,790
came across in the last, well

1115
01:25:43,790 --> 01:25:46,250
just on Friday after the packet

1116
01:25:46,250 --> 01:25:46,810
was ready.

1117
01:25:48,010 --> 01:25:51,190
On the bridge timber project,

1118
01:25:51,310 --> 01:25:52,790
I mentioned we were buying the

1119
01:25:52,790 --> 01:25:58,630
timbers for the bridges. We had a bid that came in slightly over that we what

1120
01:25:58,630 --> 01:26:04,970
we had budgeted by about $20,000. So we needed to increase the state short line

1121
01:26:04,970 --> 01:26:10,410
grant by 20,000 or by 10,000 which is half of that and the other 10,000 with

1122
01:26:10,410 --> 01:26:14,750
the state grant line above that. So lines three and four there you can see

1123
01:26:14,750 --> 01:26:22,430
are highlighted. I also needed then to decrease the amount of money that we

1124
01:26:22,430 --> 01:26:27,130
we were moving out of the BRASA's Branch Phase 2 project, which is on line 22.

1125
01:26:28,290 --> 01:26:38,930
And then that change reduced the fund balance available for next year to 258, almost 259,000.

1126
01:26:39,070 --> 01:26:43,150
So right around 300,000 we'll be ending the year with.

1127
01:26:43,990 --> 01:26:51,330
I wanted to point out that 300,000 because our goal was to really have at least $580,000

1128
01:26:51,330 --> 01:27:01,470
remaining at the end of the year going into next year. That is what we estimate we will need to be able to operate all of next year.

1129
01:27:01,710 --> 01:27:11,470
So we do have a shortfall going into next year and we'll be looking for opportunities to be decreasing expenditures as we can

1130
01:27:11,470 --> 01:27:19,090
and still providing the maintenance and repairs that we need to do on that line so that we don't have any safety issues.

1131
01:27:19,850 --> 01:27:35,310
And in addition, as Eddie mentioned, we are hoping that we get some state grants to continue to fund freight to get us through a period of time until we can generate enough revenue to function independently.

1132
01:27:36,490 --> 01:27:40,190
Those are the changes on the freight budget that I'd like to have incorporated.

1133
01:27:40,190 --> 01:27:41,890
And then on the next page,

1134
01:27:44,430 --> 01:27:53,470
on the position authorization included in your packet under Appendix C, we have made 17 title changes to positions.

1135
01:27:54,510 --> 01:28:05,750
As we mentioned last month in the classification and comp study, we were going to come back to you and implement the classification changes that did not result in any financial impacts.

1136
01:28:05,750 --> 01:28:08,650
So those are presented in your packet.

1137
01:28:08,870 --> 01:28:13,690
You can see what the current name of the position or title of the position is,

1138
01:28:13,790 --> 01:28:19,210
and the next to it are the classification changes and the title changes.

1139
01:28:21,230 --> 01:28:27,730
Any reclassifications and financial impacts are going to be included in the fiscal year 25 budget.

1140
01:28:27,730 --> 01:28:35,330
So we'll be talking about those as we move through the fiscal year 25 budget process over the next couple months.

1141
01:28:35,930 --> 01:28:43,230
And then we've added one limited term position that will be used for recruitment purposes.

1142
01:28:43,790 --> 01:28:49,850
And then once the recruitment and the filling of the position is done, that limited term position will go away.

1143
01:28:49,990 --> 01:28:53,590
And we'd come back to the board with a change to the position authorization.

1144
01:28:54,570 --> 01:28:54,930
Next.

1145
01:28:56,530 --> 01:29:17,770
So the last change we have that needs to be updated from what's in your board packet, if you look at the memo in your board packet, it said that we're asking for a reduction in spending authority of $14.1 million from $134.9 million down to $120.7.

1146
01:29:17,770 --> 01:29:32,170
that was actually an error. The number should be reduced the spending authority by 11.3 million from 134.9 down to 123.6 or 123.5.

1147
01:29:33,190 --> 01:29:38,910
I have included that in the packet is on the first page of the packet that was handed out to you.

1148
01:29:39,470 --> 01:29:50,070
So with that, I'd be glad to take any questions, and I would ask for adoption of amendment number 6 with the changes that are presented in the additional information that was handed out.

1149
01:29:51,050 --> 01:29:55,470
Great. Thank you very much, Heather. Appreciate all the work. There's lots behind it.

1150
01:29:55,470 --> 01:29:59,830
I think just noting on the freight, obviously.

1151
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:06,100
That's our challenge in this next fiscal year or prior to to really figure out a way

1152
01:30:06,100 --> 01:30:12,280
forward. It would be a shame to have the consequences of losing rate for a variety of reasons. So,

1153
01:30:13,020 --> 01:30:18,860
General Manager, were you going to say something? No, I just, we understand that. That highlights

1154
01:30:18,860 --> 01:30:23,820
the reasoning for doing everything we can to try to leverage our storage track and try to

1155
01:30:23,820 --> 01:30:29,560
you know make a profit there but our challenge is a real we're working hard

1156
01:30:29,560 --> 01:30:35,200
to fill that gap but as this board knows it's not easy yeah no and again

1157
01:30:35,200 --> 01:30:38,960
appreciate very much the adjustments to the budget to take into account all

1158
01:30:38,960 --> 01:30:42,260
these the realities of what we're dealing with and so on and so forth so

1159
01:30:42,260 --> 01:30:48,560
thank you I'll look to my colleagues director Corsi yeah just a little more

1160
01:30:48,560 --> 01:30:59,120
about freight and storage. You touched on the Caltrain storage contract. Is there more

1161
01:30:59,120 --> 01:31:06,240
of that possible in the future and a little more about the vegetable oil?

1162
01:31:07,490 --> 01:31:16,080
So with Caltrain, initially, they would be bringing in 36 cars and I think three locomotives,

1163
01:31:16,080 --> 01:31:18,360
so it would be a total of 39 to start,

1164
01:31:18,960 --> 01:31:21,900
and then there would be another 75 or 80

1165
01:31:21,900 --> 01:31:23,420
coming in at a later time.

1166
01:31:23,980 --> 01:31:25,980
It really depends on how quick

1167
01:31:26,730 --> 01:31:28,540
they're able to turn those cars.

1168
01:31:28,780 --> 01:31:30,420
They're going to be putting them up for sale.

1169
01:31:31,120 --> 01:31:33,800
And so it really is just dependent upon

1170
01:31:33,800 --> 01:31:36,820
how long that process takes.

1171
01:31:37,420 --> 01:31:40,420
Like I told them, I don't care how long it takes.

1172
01:31:40,760 --> 01:31:41,460
They can stay there.

1173
01:31:43,280 --> 01:31:53,920
But they wanted to sign up for an agreement through June of 25, and so that would have some, you know, steady source of revenue for a period of time.

1174
01:31:54,400 --> 01:32:00,460
But really, it's just dependent upon how quick those cars go and how many we will have there at any one time.

1175
01:32:00,580 --> 01:32:07,000
So if they bring in the original 36 cars and they're gone in a couple of months, then, you know, more would come in behind them.

1176
01:32:07,680 --> 01:32:11,460
But if they have, you know, some challenges getting rid of them or getting, you know,

1177
01:32:11,480 --> 01:32:15,040
then moved out, then we could collect on them for a longer period of time.

1178
01:32:16,340 --> 01:32:22,640
Vegetable oil, the vendor reached out to us, it's a storage broker, reached out to us

1179
01:32:22,640 --> 01:32:25,900
to see if we had any interest in that, you know, pointing out that they were not

1180
01:32:25,900 --> 01:32:31,060
in hazardous, you know, we looked into it, we shot them an estimate

1181
01:32:31,060 --> 01:32:35,520
of what we would charge per day, they seemed interested in that and followed

1182
01:32:35,520 --> 01:32:41,720
up with, okay, what about empties? And we said, well, we have some other things that we have to do here.

1183
01:32:41,820 --> 01:32:47,020
We sent it back to them and they were open to it. So we haven't heard anything back. I don't have any

1184
01:32:47,020 --> 01:32:54,420
additional information at this time. But John, our freight manager did reach out to them to kind

1185
01:32:54,420 --> 01:32:58,860
of get an idea of, you know, what's possible. And they said there is relatively large market

1186
01:32:58,860 --> 01:33:04,320
here. They would get back to us with the number of cars that they anticipated in the future.

1187
01:33:04,320 --> 01:33:12,040
So we're just gonna have to wait and see what that number is and what we can do there, but you know, there's there's definitely opportunity there is

1188
01:33:14,200 --> 01:33:21,000
This is a tough question particularly on a cal training one because it's you know, we don't know how long it is or actually how many

1189
01:33:21,000 --> 01:33:22,880
But is the opportunity?

1190
01:33:24,520 --> 01:33:29,320
Potentially equal to the $300,000 deficit. Okay. I just

1191
01:33:30,500 --> 01:33:30,980
LPG

1192
01:33:32,060 --> 01:33:38,040
Jay, to the deficit that we're looking at and in our budget, we've got about $300,000

1193
01:33:39,280 --> 01:33:39,760
balance.

1194
01:33:40,060 --> 01:33:41,920
We were hoping to have almost $600,000.

1195
01:33:41,940 --> 01:33:44,700
No, I don't know if Heather made this clear or not.

1196
01:33:44,920 --> 01:33:48,280
I didn't hear it, but she added in money.

1197
01:33:48,960 --> 01:33:50,360
You did say it.

1198
01:33:50,940 --> 01:33:56,860
She's added in some money for April, May, and June for anticipating that we will

1199
01:33:56,860 --> 01:33:59,960
get some level of revenue from Caltrain.

1200
01:33:59,960 --> 01:34:03,980
So I think what was it 25,000 yeah about 25,000 dollars

1201
01:34:06,160 --> 01:34:14,980
That's not gonna fix us so yeah, it's it's it's it's something though, so it's helpful. I appreciate the effort. Yeah, thanks

1202
01:34:16,940 --> 01:34:23,640
Director Park sure. Thank you. I assume from the conversation that different types of cars generate different income

1203
01:34:23,640 --> 01:34:26,940
Do you have a handle on that one? Yeah?

1204
01:34:29,920 --> 01:34:34,320
Depending on what type of car it is, if it comes to a different rate, there may be some

1205
01:34:34,320 --> 01:34:40,240
cars that would be $6 a day, others would be $8, some would be $10, and it goes all the

1206
01:34:40,240 --> 01:34:42,060
way up to about $15 a day.

1207
01:34:43,780 --> 01:34:47,040
$12 to $15 a day is the LPG tankers.

1208
01:34:50,760 --> 01:34:51,500
Director Fudge.

1209
01:34:51,500 --> 01:34:59,280
It looks like the salary schedule as a result of the comp study has been delayed from approval

1210
01:34:59,280 --> 01:35:01,400
today until July 1st.

1211
01:35:01,540 --> 01:35:02,600
No, that was never delayed.

1212
01:35:02,780 --> 01:35:06,760
That's what we reported last month is that we would do this in two phases.

1213
01:35:07,140 --> 01:35:13,360
The first phase would be the reclassification piece, you know, change in duty titles, things

1214
01:35:13,360 --> 01:35:13,960
of that nature.

1215
01:35:14,440 --> 01:35:18,140
And then the funding piece of it would be done through the budget.

1216
01:35:18,140 --> 01:35:21,140
it, the comp side of it would be done through the budgeting process.

1217
01:35:21,960 --> 01:35:26,980
So there's still meetings and explanations going on with employees and that gives time

1218
01:35:26,980 --> 01:35:28,260
until July for that to happen.

1219
01:35:28,280 --> 01:35:28,880
That is correct.

1220
01:35:29,200 --> 01:35:29,520
Thank you.

1221
01:35:32,700 --> 01:35:36,120
Anyone else have any questions of staff on this particular item?

1222
01:35:37,420 --> 01:35:42,400
Before we take a motion to approve, I'll look to those in the public here today if

1223
01:35:42,400 --> 01:35:43,820
they'd like to speak on this particular item,

1224
01:35:46,640 --> 01:35:48,020
seeing no one rise, looking online,

1225
01:35:48,440 --> 01:35:49,300
seeing no one there.

1226
01:35:49,300 --> 01:35:55,260
So what's in front of us today is the revised sheet that was placed at the

1227
01:35:55,260 --> 01:36:04,860
dais and to brief resolution 24-03 amending a previous resolution for

1228
01:36:04,860 --> 01:36:10,660
the fiscal year 24 of the Sixth Amendment to the budget overall. Thank you.

1229
01:36:10,860 --> 01:36:16,400
In a second. Bye. So we have a motion in a second. All those in favor please say

1230
01:36:16,400 --> 01:36:16,640
Hi.

1231
01:36:18,060 --> 01:36:18,880
Anyone opposed?

1232
01:36:20,480 --> 01:36:22,460
That does pass unanimously with all present.

1233
01:36:22,860 --> 01:36:24,340
So, again, thank you for all the work, Heather.

1234
01:36:24,740 --> 01:36:25,040
Appreciate it.

1235
01:36:25,140 --> 01:36:29,680
And we'll continue forward figuring out what we need to do.

1236
01:36:31,830 --> 01:36:33,730
With that, we move on to our closed session.

1237
01:36:33,890 --> 01:36:35,410
Tom, do you want to take us into closed session or?

1238
01:36:35,870 --> 01:36:36,090
Sure.

1239
01:36:37,350 --> 01:36:42,030
It's item nine, closed session, conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation.

1240
01:36:43,290 --> 01:36:45,750
And it's a number of cases are three.

1241
01:36:45,750 --> 01:36:50,450
Great. And I will take public comment on closed session items.

1242
01:36:51,130 --> 01:36:51,830
Sorry, Director Rogers.

1243
01:36:52,510 --> 01:36:56,350
Yeah, and just as has been customary on these items,

1244
01:36:56,630 --> 01:36:58,690
I've already seen them in closed session from my council.

1245
01:36:59,090 --> 01:37:02,450
We'll be recusing myself from the closed session discussion for the smart board.

1246
01:37:03,070 --> 01:37:04,930
Appreciate you making that public. Thank you.

1247
01:37:05,270 --> 01:37:08,530
So I will ask if there's any public comment on the closed session items today.

1248
01:37:09,210 --> 01:37:09,810
Steve, please.

1249
01:37:18,040 --> 01:37:24,520
Okay. Steve Bertelbaugh with the Transportation and Land Use Coalition. I want to commend the

1250
01:37:24,520 --> 01:37:32,460
staff for moving this forward. There is a March 1st deadline that we need to meet in order to

1251
01:37:33,040 --> 01:37:41,520
make sure this project moves forward. The city seems to be moving with it and it looks like

1252
01:37:42,240 --> 01:37:48,860
things are positive, I do want to talk about one issue and that is the risk that we have

1253
01:37:48,860 --> 01:37:57,380
if this gets delayed because every eight months or so somebody has an accident working either

1254
01:37:57,380 --> 01:38:05,720
walking or bicycling on either Gernvill Road or College Avenue and the more that SMART

1255
01:38:05,720 --> 01:38:10,560
doesn't proceed with this, the more risk there is that somebody is going to say this

1256
01:38:10,560 --> 01:38:17,500
actually wouldn't have happened if we had had the Jennings bicycle boulevard in

1257
01:38:17,500 --> 01:38:23,440
place. So moving that forward is everybody's advantage. Thank you much.

1258
01:38:24,200 --> 01:38:31,500
Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone online on this one? No. So we will adjourn now to

1259
01:38:31,500 --> 01:38:35,540
closed session. If you are with us just real briefly, we'll come out and

1260
01:38:35,540 --> 01:38:39,420
report out a closed session afterwards and just if you're not here for that

1261
01:38:39,980 --> 01:38:46,700
report out. Our next board meeting will be on March 20, 2024, 1.30, right here in

1262
01:38:46,700 --> 01:38:48,880
this room, and with that we'll move into closed session.