Transit Commission on 2026-08-12 4:30 PM

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[0:18] [>>]
[0:34] Speaker: Is that better?
[0:51] The crowd is so much lighter this time .
[0:59] A couple of quick announcements, the meeting
[1:02] is being held in person here and Is being recorded.
[1:07] Restrooms, I got completely lost in the labyrinth of offices
[1:13] back there so I'm going to punt that to Jake.
[1:26] Speaker: Just go to the people at the front desk
[1:28] and they will direct you to the closest bathrooms.
[1:37] Chair Mike Caldwell: Live public comment
[1:38] is available in person and through the Zoom
[1:40] link on the agenda.
[1:42] People must introduce themselves before they speak,
[1:44] and please speak loudly and into the mic.
[1:47] That will take us to number two, which
[1:49] is the Pledge of Allegiance, if you follow me.
[1:53] Please stand if you are able.
[1:55] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
[2:00] and to the Republic for which it stands
[2:05] one nation under God indivisible,
[2:08] with liberty and justice for all.
[2:14] Up next we have the safety first minute and Travis.
[2:25] Travis King: The time is finally come,
[2:28] every parent's dream has come true
[2:31] and every child's nightmare is coming true,
[2:33] and that's back to school.
[2:34] Just a reminder, Granite School District
[2:37] is actually in session today.
[2:41] Next week Canyon Salt Lake, Jordan Murray,
[2:45] alpine we'll all be in session.
[2:48] As a reminder, talk to your kids about safely
[2:51] traveling to and from school.
[2:54] Whether or not they are riding with you,
[2:56] whether they are riding the school
[2:57] bus come a walking, or using public transportation,
[3:01] have a plan, talk about public safety with them
[3:04] and how they can say safe getting to and from school.
[3:09] Staying behind the yellow line on the platforms,
[3:12] being smart, and just having that simple conversation
[3:16] can prevent a lot of accidents from happening.
[3:18] On the other side, for those of us
[3:20] that are commuting to and from work, please
[3:23] know that we are going to have some excited
[3:24] children out and about crossing the street in a hurry
[3:28] to get to and from school, so use extra caution
[3:30] as you are pulling out of your driveways
[3:33] going through the neighborhoods going to and from work.
[3:36] Please take those extra minutes to slow down and look
[3:40] for those children before going out into the street
[3:46] or crossing those intersections, and we can all
[3:49] make this a safer place and make this
[3:52] an exciting time for everybody as school starts back
[3:55] in session.
[4:02] Chair Mike Caldwell: That brings us
[4:03] to number four, which is public comment.
[4:06] We invite the public to comment in person,
[4:08] or you can do it by Zoom.
[4:12] Three minutes per commenter , public comments submitted
[4:19] by email and phone were distributed prior
[4:21] to the evening, and I didn't see any of those,
[4:23] so there won't be any of those.
[4:25] We are open to public comment.
[4:40] Michael Krull: Soon to be a homeowner in the city's
[4:43] first district, this will be my last mission meeting
[4:47] where my commute here will be a three block walk.
[4:51] I'd like to be able to make use of transit
[4:53] to access these meetings, but that
[4:55] can be impossible to do in a timely manner
[4:58] despite the trip from the Northwest side
[5:00] being only 2.5 miles.
[5:01] The best route to get here in the future
[5:04] will be a ten minute trip on the route one bus half a mile
[5:09] from the nearest bus stop here.
[5:11] The walk can be longer than anticipated having to cross
[5:18] train tracks .
[5:23] Both of which were actually blocked by a stopped
[5:26] train just ten minutes ago.
[5:30] My only solution is to add 15 minutes more
[5:36] onto my trip because of a two mile long transit desert.
[5:42] The only other north south route within that stretch
[5:47] is a front runner which I use by transferring from the route one
[5:52] bus, but the bridge necessary for both my bus
[5:57] doesn't stop there, it stops a quarter mile away
[6:03] from the station, if not further.
[6:05] There is a proposal to remedy the issue allowing the route two
[6:15] bus to extend to the Fair Park, backtracking to access
[6:20] the transit center .
[6:25] The route two bus extension was less an exploratory concept
[6:30] and even with the separation there
[6:32] is no promise a bus extension will happen.
[6:42] It will do little if anything to help me improve access,
[6:52] as the current bus stop locations at North Temple
[6:55] remain the same.
[6:57] With the weekend of study entering its final round
[7:01] of feedback, there need to be solutions
[7:03] of helping people get across the railroad tracks of the city.
[7:08] We need stations essential not only
[7:10] to those that live around it, but the routes that connect.
[7:13] We need headquarters to be easily
[7:17] accessible via the services they provide.
[7:21] The agency and the region are very much band aid solutions.
[7:27] Thank you.
[7:34] Chair Mike Caldwell: Thank you, appreciate that information.
[7:37] Seeing no movement, there is nothing else online,
[7:42] we will go ahead and close the public comment period.
[7:46] Number five, we have the consent items.
[7:52] First up, we have the approval of the July 15th 2026 Transit
[7:57] Commission meeting minutes.
[7:58] I looked at that and didn't have any recommended changes,
[8:02] I would move that we approve that if anybody has a second ?
[8:11] that is a vote by acclamation , that passes.
[8:21] Number six, we will start with the executive director's report.
[8:30] Jay Fox: I would like to invite Camille Glenn up .
[8:53] Camille Glenn: I am the general manager of operations.
[8:59] Jay Fox: We like to start by talking about how we work
[9:04] together collaboratively, today we want to talk about how we
[9:09] work as an agency to ensure operational readiness .
[9:23] That goes around three words, prepared, responsive,
[9:29] and resilient.
[9:30] Our teams not only manage our 12 month service
[9:34] and all the service we committed to,
[9:36] but we also manage major plan events,
[9:40] that would be the days of 47 parade, concerts, we've
[9:45] got three home games to start the season off
[9:48] with and at the same time navigating a seat of good repair
[9:53] work because we have what is known as planned disruptions.
[9:58] In addition to that, we respond to a myriad of unexpected
[10:05] incidents, most third party delays ,
[10:13] you may have seen in the papers recently there were some fires .
[10:23] We did not start the fire but it's still
[10:25] something we have to respond to when it's happening
[10:28] and it obviously has impact on the communities and people who
[10:33] suffer from that.
[10:34] Through all of that, we continue to develop our regular service
[10:38] and maintain sometimes even over 90% on time performance
[10:44] to our system, that's because we have strong contingency plans,
[10:48] we are prepared for unanticipated and unforeseen
[10:50] challenges all the time and have great front line leaders
[10:53] who are empowered to act with that authority on the spot
[10:59] when we do have anything unexpected.
[11:01] What I want to do is turn it over to Camille,
[11:04] talk about a few situations when we're
[11:08] talking about a major event and a planned disruption
[11:11] and just tell you a little bit about how she handles it
[11:14] from the operations perspective.
[11:25] Camille Glenn: We run a very dynamic operation.
[11:29] It takes coordination not just between one mode
[11:33] of transportation, we run transit, light rail, heavy rail,
[11:38] as well as our bus services.
[11:40] It is very important that we are ready ,
[11:47] and that we can not only respond to those things that we have
[11:52] planned, but those things that are not planned,
[11:54] which do happen more than you would think.
[11:57] Just a couple of recent examples,
[12:01] we recently as a matter of fact last Friday
[12:05] supported the Zach Bryan concert that was no small feat,
[12:11] I believe the ticket sales are around 35000 for the stadium.
[12:15] It's not the largest one we've had, but it was pretty large.
[12:19] Depending on the nature of the crowd, this one in particular
[12:23] we noticed there's a lot of customers
[12:25] that were from out of town, that can always
[12:29] pose various challenges with wayfinding
[12:31] for those participants.
[12:33] But just the initial planning of the event,
[12:36] our teams work hand in hand with each other from the service plan
[12:41] that's identified to all of the modes that are involved ,
[12:51] and our control centers as well as our police department.
[12:56] In addition we also have ambassador support.
[13:04] Jay Fox: We do have ambassadors from our team.
[13:07] To be out there to support operations
[13:10] while they are doing their work to help customers move, that's
[13:13] an agency wide effort that we are engaged
[13:16] in so that way our entire operating team can focus on what
[13:21] they are doing well they have the support for their work.
[13:30] Camille Glenn: At the beginning of the event,
[13:33] people tend to trickle in at their leisure.
[13:35] It's the end of the event that we really see the action
[13:38] happening , and when you have crowds of thousands of people
[13:44] on your platforms, literally, it can be quite daunting.
[13:48] But the coordination that happens
[13:50] between various modes of transportation between getting
[13:52] on tracks, and if that's not an option for them
[13:56] they don't want to quite wait, we
[13:57] have bus services available to them
[13:59] that can get them to their stations
[14:01] to connect to frontrunner.
[14:03] So that's just one example of recent, we had also supported --
[14:10] post Malone had been here the week before.
[14:15] Concerts are huge here, as Jay had alluded to,
[14:19] the University of Utah games are upon us
[14:21] and we'll be running our regular game service for those events.
[14:36] State of good repair -- we have a pretty aggressive capital plan
[14:41] that we've identified the repairs that are required
[14:43] throughout our system in order to maintain a safer and reliable
[14:49] system.
[14:52] There identified in advance, and through coordination
[14:56] from our capital teams to our planning teams
[14:58] to our operations team, identify what segment or what
[15:02] the actual projects are going to be,
[15:05] and then how are we going to maintain service
[15:07] during those disruptions.
[15:09] Again, it's a huge coordinated effort,
[15:13] it takes a lot of people's time and attention
[15:17] to not only what the customer experience is going to be
[15:23] but the impacts that is going to have on our employees,
[15:26] on their working conditions as well as our control
[15:29] centers navigating that work.
[15:33] We are actually getting ready to wrap up one on ninth Avenue this
[15:38] week , so we will be glad to have it over .
[15:51] Jay Fox: We've got three games coming up,
[15:53] if anyone is interested in seeing what the ambassador work
[15:56] is like and our operations, please let me know and we will
[16:02] make arrangements .
[16:06] It can be Thursday September 3rd, Saturday September 12th,
[16:10] and Saturday September 19th.
[16:34] We do work down there at BYU.
[16:51] I don't know if there was any questions about that, if not,
[16:55] I wanted to talk about -- we have some internal appointments
[17:00] for committees that are agency committees ,
[17:07] not former board or commission committees.
[17:10] The first is the Committee on Accessible Transportation, that
[17:14] is a committee where we work with members
[17:15] of the community who have challenges with accessing
[17:20] our system, so they might have a disability or some other need
[17:24] so that community is designed to work with them to make
[17:28] our system more accessible and essentially a way
[17:32] we engage with that community.
[17:34] We also have our pension committee,
[17:36] we have a dedicated pension here,
[17:39] we are not on the state's pension system.
[17:41] That committee meets, it's also the committee
[17:46] that engages with our labor force as well.
[17:49] Both of those community member, formerly the member who was
[17:55] on both of those committees was Commissioner Esterson ,
[18:00] so I've got to make that appointment.
[18:03] I am turning to you Commission members come I certainly
[18:06] would say Commissioner Esterson has
[18:08] a traditional amount of knowledge on the pension side
[18:13] and that would be important for us to maintain that
[18:17] as part of the pension work for the committee.
[18:21] I know he has an interest on being what's known as the cats
[18:27] committee as well.
[18:28] I turn to you for the discussion,
[18:30] I would be happy to make the appointment
[18:32] once this meeting is over.
[18:35] Chair Mike Caldwell: I have had a number of conversations,
[18:38] there are a couple of appointments
[18:39] we need to have more of a process
[18:41] for, we haven't really done that as a commission yet.
[18:43] I look forward to doing that, we've made a few just so we can
[18:48] be keeping the business going for a little while,
[18:51] but I do expect there will be some more dialog about that
[18:54] in the future, and I guess I would ask Jeff
[18:58] if he's willing to serve on the pension committee.
[19:11] Jeff Acerson: I'm happy to continue serving if it is deemed
[19:16] by the commissioners --
[19:19] I've been doing that for quite some time,
[19:21] the relationships are there, they are going well.
[19:24] I talked to someone in the cat committee
[19:28] and she is encouraging, she would be hopeful
[19:31] that I could continue there that support
[19:44] Jay Fox: It is the Committee on Accessible Transportation .
[19:55] I wanted to give you guys the opportunity to have
[19:57] a conversation about it before someone else is interested.
[20:07] Chair Mike Caldwell: I don't have any problem other
[20:09] than saying I think we should all
[20:10] expect to have a long conversation about that sometime
[20:12] in the future, but we need to keep the business going
[20:14] so we are doing that now.
[20:20] Speaker: I don't know if you guys can hear me,
[20:22] but I'm very supportive of Commissioner Asserson serving
[20:25] on that committee.
[20:31] Jay Fox: Upcoming Commissioner participation opportunities,
[20:34] we've given each of you a little card here.
[20:36] We have a save the date for the grand opening of the Northern
[20:41] Utah accounting on demand, something in the partnership
[20:47] Between UTA, UDOT and the county.
[20:59] I hope you can make that, if you want some more information
[21:02] on that we will get you in touch with Chandler Bueller who
[21:05] is our government relations person for local matters.
[21:11] Chair Mike Caldwell: Any questions or comments?
[21:17] that will take us to number seven, fare approvals.
[21:32] Monica Howe: Hello, today I am bringing to you a contract,
[21:40] this is with Salt Lake City School District, salt Lake City
[21:46] Foundation and Salt Lake City Corporation,
[21:48] so there are three parties to this contract.
[21:51] We have been working with them since 2022
[21:55] to provide transit to eligible students, faculty, staff,
[22:00] and also student guardians, so that
[22:03] would be one guardian pass per household.
[22:06] We are recommending approval of a new education pass agreement
[22:10] for the 2026 2027 school year, which would run through July
[22:15] 31st of 2027.
[22:18] This agreement, like I said, provides transit passes
[22:23] and the contract will be up to 5000 authorized users,
[22:28] say would not be able to exceed 50,000 users without coming back
[22:33] and discussing it with us.
[22:35] The total agreement is $544,913, and it's split three ways.
[22:42] The Salt Lake City School District is 216,265,
[22:47] the Salt Lake Education Foundation is $94,000,
[22:52] and Salt Lake City Corporation is $234,648.
[22:56] So, with your approval, we will move forward
[23:04] in renewing this agreement for the upcoming school year,
[23:08] and I am happy to answer any questions
[23:10] if you have some for me.
[23:13] Yes?
[23:16] Beth Holbrook: What is the ridership again?
[23:19] I know it's very successful, I just wasn't sure what that was.
[23:46] Chair Mike Caldwell: I have a question on how
[23:47] the fares worked in the past.
[23:50] Do you get an extra cent for inflation, is it a flat cost,
[23:58] is it exactly the same as it was last year even though gas
[24:02] is $3 or more for diesel?
[24:12] Monica Howe: We have a presentation coming up right
[24:14] after that we are going to share a little bit,
[24:16] but the short answer is we tie it back
[24:17] to the public fair rate, and usage.
[24:21] That's the two things we focus on.
[24:24] As our usage has increased over last year, the price has gone up
[24:29] and the public rate has stayed the same,
[24:32] so there's been no change on the rate which we are using
[24:35] to multiply against the usage.
[24:45] Speaker: We will be bringing a fare change
[24:47] proposal for next year's change day for 50 cent fare increase.
[24:52] I also have some people from community engagement
[24:57] in the room.
[25:00] We have our fare increase discussion
[25:02] out in the public realm right now,
[25:04] so we are receiving comments.
[25:06] You are right, we have not had a fare increase in 13 years now.
[25:11] The price of fuel continues to increase,
[25:13] and so does the price of everything else .
[25:27] Chair Mike Caldwell: It's open for discussion.
[25:30] Does anybody have any thoughts before I call for a vote?
[25:36] This sounds like we will get some more information
[25:39] in a little bit on that, I appreciate the work they're.
[25:43] I will go ahead to call for a motion to approve the education
[25:46] pass agreement with the Salt Lake School District, Salt Lake
[25:52] Education Foundation, and Salt Lake City Corporation.
[25:55] We've got a first and a second, it is unanimous.
[26:02] Thank you very much for that , I know it's a dynamic
[26:09] and frequently moving target, so thank you very much.
[26:15] Jay Fox: It also has the interest
[26:16] of a couple of other school districts
[26:18] that we are talking to.
[26:22] Chair Mike Caldwell: Next we have another discussion
[26:24] item, the past program operating process for fair contracts
[26:28] with institutional partners.
[26:44] Brian Reeves: As we were here the last meeting in July
[26:49] I gave you a primer on our institutional contracts
[26:52] and the types of contracts that we partner peer as promised,
[26:57] we'll give you some more information,
[27:00] talk about the past programs that we have
[27:02] and bring you into a little bit of the operations of how
[27:05] we execute those contracts and bring those to the fore.
[27:08] Today we are going to talk about sharing with you the Transit
[27:13] Commission and understanding the core responsibility of what you
[27:18] have the approval, just like what you did with the last one,
[27:21] but also to explore and consider some
[27:25] of the areas of operational efficiency in ways
[27:28] we can streamline.
[27:29] We will walk you through some of those we have achieved already,
[27:32] and also present the concept of looking
[27:35] at some of those opportunities.
[27:37] With that, we will look and see how the sausage is made.
[27:51] Our programs are uniquely structured to ensure
[27:56] that most organizations can participate in the program.
[28:00] We've got a lot of different variety of organizations that
[28:04] have different sizes, purpose, demographics,
[28:07] you can consider a large university of 30,000 students
[28:11] or even a group of ten employees being able to commute to work,
[28:17] we try to provide that kind of solution with the various
[28:20] products and contracts that we have.
[28:22] Being able to expand access in our transit,
[28:26] increased ridership, also facilitate
[28:30] community partnership.
[28:31] With these contracts we bring in the fiscal responsibility
[28:35] and accountability, and then the execution of the contract
[28:40] comes again to the Transit Commission of that approval
[28:43] process, whether we do it through a resolution parameter
[28:46] or through these individual contracts seeking your approval.
[28:54] Just like Salt Lake School District,
[28:57] following a similar path on how we approach.
[29:02] If you look in the bottom left hand corner,
[29:05] we start with an engaging new potential partner.
[29:09] We look at what is the design, what are they trying
[29:13] to accomplish for their constituency of people ,
[29:21] we have different pricing guidance that we look at all
[29:24] based on the fair rate for each one of those that is the base
[29:27] on all pricing.
[29:28] We look at the utilization or the flexibility
[29:33] for each of those products.
[29:36] That is actually set by the executive director.
[29:45] Once we share that program with the partner,
[29:50] we then work with our contracts and developments,
[29:53] that partnership is with the Attorney General's office
[29:58] and there's a review process we look at internally
[30:01] and then share those comments back with a potential partner.
[30:05] We then come to an agreement to present
[30:08] for approval, followed by execution
[30:13] and delivery of that service.
[30:15] So far we have done two contracts with you guys.
[30:18] Appreciate the success on that.
[30:22] Not to scare you, we have almost 280 contracts.
[30:27] Don't worry, I'm not going to bring all 280 contracts to you
[30:31] because we do have some streamlined process in place
[30:35] already.
[30:36] Those contracts cover across five different areas.
[30:40] You have your passes which target
[30:43] your students, institutional or eco, you
[30:48] can think of it like a commuter pass or a program
[30:52] for different types of employers,
[30:54] we have about 91 contracts there.
[30:58] Human services supports your low income individuals
[31:02] and provides a subsidized approach where
[31:04] we collect revenue on that.
[31:06] Both purchase, you can think of a ticket as fare.
[31:10] If you go into an event, you can present your ticket
[31:16] with a contract of that.
[31:20] By having these contracts, we've been
[31:23] able to streamline with those institutional eco
[31:26] and human services so that we have kind of a resolution
[31:30] approach so we are not bombarding you and overwhelming
[31:33] you with the lots of contract approval process.
[31:36] I will pause for any questions there.
[31:47] Chris Gamvroulas: Is it an administrative process
[31:50] for most of those contracts, what
[31:54] are the parameters around that?
[32:02] Brian Reeves: We have a standard issue contract
[32:04] that we present to you with standardized pricing,
[32:07] and that framework then is what is presented,
[32:11] and that's what we've been using with our eco passes
[32:15] and human Services passes.
[32:16] With that in that framework, we use that approval
[32:20] and we can enter the name and execute those contracts directly
[32:24] with those.
[32:33] Everybody loves a framework, our framework
[32:39] is the public Transit District Act,
[32:44] that provides the legal requirements as far as
[32:47] how we approve these contracts and fair agreements,
[32:51] and also gives that authority to the Transit Commission.
[32:55] Additionally we have our own fares policy
[32:58] that helps system and management and governance,
[33:02] and then with the execution of that
[33:05] we have the legal review which is again
[33:09] a partnership with the Attorney General's office
[33:11] and reporting and collecting of that fare revenue,
[33:15] we also look at effectiveness.
[33:17] When we look at a renewal, are we
[33:20] reaching the riders the partner intended,
[33:22] do they want to expand the program
[33:24] and be able to reach more riders or there
[33:28] could be budget constraints as well they're wanting to reduce.
[33:32] Being able to be flexible and responsive to that
[33:36] is the driving approach for that.
[33:42] I will pass it on to Monica.
[33:49] Monica Howe: Pricing strategy and program design
[33:52] is a key part of the process which
[33:58] is the second step in the slide you saw earlier with Brian.
[34:02] Our pricing framework offers flexible options
[34:06] that will meet the majority of our partner
[34:09] needs, we know the needs are not all the same
[34:11] but it is usage based fixed fee and product based models,
[34:16] and I have a little bit more on this slide after this
[34:20] but each option is supported by a consistent transparent
[34:23] methodology that ensures fairness, simplicity, and cost
[34:28] predictability so we are consistent and transparent
[34:31] in the pricing methodology and this has definitely
[34:34] improved year over year with an emphasis over the past few years
[34:37] on consistency.
[34:38] Gets a clear and repeatable calculation process,
[34:41] and we are fortunate to have a lot of data on the tap
[34:45] on tap off system, and also our automated counter system,
[34:49] we take all of that data and put a calculation process together
[34:54] and use that same one for every contract.
[34:58] It's easier for our partners to understand and validate
[35:02] our commuter program having four products to choose from.
[35:09] We could have 20, but then it really complicates things
[35:11] for partners to understand.
[35:14] We'd really like to keep simple, when we start out and apply
[35:19] the data to something, it's an element of the public fare
[35:22] structure whether it's a premium rate, a regular rate,
[35:26] whether it's a group pass rate .
[35:30] We make sure we are basing the pricing off
[35:32] of the fare structure, which is also
[35:35] important in fairness and simplicity
[35:39] pure predictable and sustainable partner costs,
[35:42] our partners definitely value for budgeting knowing how much
[35:45] they can expect to pay.
[35:48] There are estimates that are involved,
[35:50] and this allows them to be able to understand for a three year
[35:56] contract what they would expect to owe over time.
[36:06] Transit Commission approval The last column is important,
[36:22] the first column is different programs
[36:24] we've talked about with you.
[36:26] If they are approved individually,
[36:29] that's what we came here today to present
[36:31] to you was the program.
[36:33] If it's under resolution, then we
[36:38] have the framework within the resolution.
[36:40] For example, with our eco pass, what is approved
[36:44] is for standard programs.
[36:46] Gets fixed pricing, we offer that to all of our partners.
[36:50] We find a program that fits their needs,
[36:52] and that's the program they are on for a year.
[36:56] Under that is a pay per trip, meaning some partners
[37:01] have chosen to pay based on trips that are taken,
[37:03] and there's a discount in their.
[37:06] The eco resolution provides those guardrails
[37:08] and for example human service to your point earlier,
[37:11] we have two products.
[37:14] It's a day pass and a 30 day pass,
[37:16] and the fares resolution offers a 75% discount
[37:20] to those two products that are based on the public fare rate,
[37:24] provided the human service organization offers
[37:27] those for free.
[37:28] We have an application process, and we have a standard contract
[37:31] that everybody fills out, which is
[37:35] why the bulk of those contracts fall within eco
[37:37] and Human service, but it's simple to administer
[37:41] and we don't have a lot of one offs.
[37:45] Best case scenario is that we do streamline commission approval,
[37:49] and we get it as efficient as we can.
[37:53] There is room for improvement in here,
[37:56] but a resolution and guardrails support
[37:59] our operational internal controls, which is nice.
[38:04] We don't have to fill up your agenda month after month,
[38:08] it's definitely a win win for all of us.
[38:25] Brian Reeves: There's a lot of similarities,
[38:28] we've been working with the same pricing methodology.
[38:33] It's a lot easier to have a fair conversation
[38:35] when everybody's being given the same three options to choose
[38:38] from, that makes it much more straightforward and defensible,
[38:45] but the approach is meant to be that we are charging
[38:47] the fare for everybody who is writing
[38:49] to be charged appropriately.
[38:52] We've spent a lot of time working and going
[38:55] through that data to be able to get that,
[38:58] so one of the goals we do want to explore
[39:00] is figuring out how we get alignment on these past programs
[39:03] so we stay within the guidelines to make
[39:07] it easy for administrative use of it.
[39:16] Monica Howe: We do have a formula which we forecast usage
[39:19] based on prior year usage.
[39:23] Because usage has been increasing,
[39:26] that's what's changing the pricing of the contract,
[39:28] but we are using data to inform what ridership was
[39:32] and what we expect it to do, and in that instance
[39:35] it's a fixed contract price based on forecast use.
[39:49] Jay Fox: If we are looking for a tap
[39:51] based approach, which is one of the reasons we changed
[39:53] our approach using the automated passenger counts,
[39:57] that's made a big difference.
[40:00] Sometimes a little surprising to our partners,
[40:02] but at the same time, more reflective of actual uses.
[40:11] Monica Howe: There's a lot of little tricks
[40:13] that we are doing to come up with this forecast,
[40:15] but in my years worth of doing this,
[40:18] when we look back, a lot of times we've been very close,
[40:22] so that's encouraging.
[40:24] Anything else on this slide, any questions
[40:27] or anything else I can cover?
[40:36] Obviously the key is to balance oversight
[40:39] with timely administration of our contracts.
[40:42] To look for efficiency in doing our work,
[40:47] it's important our staff is able to provide
[40:49] daily support to our current partners
[40:51] and to also onboard new partners,
[40:54] but this table if we look at it just
[40:56] highlights a few of the challenges
[40:57] we face with individual contract approvals.
[41:01] For example, the first one schedule timing calendar
[41:05] requires a lot of advanced planning,
[41:08] this especially gets tricky in the fourth quarter
[41:11] when we are trying to juggle multiple contracts ending
[41:14] and trying to get on calendars and making
[41:17] our partners aware of the deadlines that we have.
[41:21] The second one, renewal timing risks.
[41:25] Schedules may not align with the commission meeting dates,
[41:28] and one more I would like to highlight
[41:31] is the administrative task number four.
[41:34] This brings more work and staff responsibility
[41:38] in preparing the agenda items, documentation, memo,
[41:42] having them go out for review.
[41:44] There's a lot of complexity and effort,
[41:46] but we would definitely like to streamline as much as we can
[41:49] in this process, and simplify where possible.
[41:54] Any questions on this slide?
[42:06] Chris Gamvroulas: If we go to a July to June fiscal year,
[42:10] does the fourth quarter being the end of the year
[42:12] resolve a lot of that backup?
[42:19] Monica Howe: No, only because our eco partners are on annual
[42:23] and a lot of the schools do start August 1st,
[42:25] so we have a mixed bag of both , but it would not help.
[42:43] Brian Reeves: Based on what you heard today,
[42:45] if you are open to it, we would like
[42:48] to explore this and think about how
[42:50] we could refine some of the individual contracts
[42:54] and fit within some parameters if you've
[42:57] been open to the discussion.
[42:59] We could come back and define where past programs were
[43:03] and share pricing methodology and product design.
[43:17] Chair Mike Caldwell: Yes
[43:25] Brian Reeves: We will be coming back
[43:36] to you to update that, Along with eco passes.
[43:57] Sheldon Killpack: The more you have the ability
[43:59] to operate autonomously within the parameters,
[44:06] as long as we have the ability to look at them
[44:09] and they are approved then you have the ability to do your job,
[44:12] I like the ability of understanding what that is
[44:16] and what it means financially in terms of efficiency,
[44:21] and just look at that on an annual basis
[44:24] within the different categories.
[44:45] Carlos Braceras: You're not adding
[44:47] costs, I think when we start resulting
[44:50] in running external bus trips or whatever,
[44:53] that's a cost that the commission needs to look at,
[44:57] but I think that's a point is this
[45:00] is creating more efficiency in the administrative process,
[45:10] and when you approve these contracts at your level,
[45:14] it's not going to add cost to the operation.
[45:22] Brian Reeves: The aim is to stick within parameters
[45:24] and guidelines, because that is a known area that you
[45:27] can execute.
[45:28] We can be responsive to that.
[45:31] If somebody pushes and wants to be beyond that ,
[45:37] time has a cost , that would be on a case by case basis then,
[45:45] but it would not be a cost additive,
[45:49] but more of an efficiency.
[45:57] Chair Mike Caldwell: I appreciate that approach ,
[46:02] keeps everybody out of a lot of trouble.
[46:16] Jeff Acerson: At some point we may reach capacity and then
[46:20] have to look at it a little bit differently,
[46:22] but efficiency is what we are after.
[46:28] Chair Mike Caldwell: Great information,
[46:29] I really appreciate what you guys do,
[46:31] that sounds like an exhausting process.
[46:33] I will say for the record really quick , Jeff joined us via Zoom.
[46:44] We appreciate Jeff taking the time
[46:46] to join us, thank you very much.
[46:50] That will move us to proposed bylaws and revisions.
[47:03] David Wilkins: Good afternoon .
[47:17] I am an assistant attorney general
[47:20] serving on the council for the Transit Authority.
[47:24] To recap the first meeting of the Transit Commission,
[47:27] you all enacted a basic set of bylaws
[47:31] that we had prepared from you.
[47:33] Since then we've gathered feedback from the commissioners
[47:39] , Zoom out even bigger, the district act empowers
[47:42] the commission to adopt bylaws not only for its agencies
[47:48] but for itself.
[47:49] We prepared a revised set of bylaws
[47:53] and we've identified the opportunities
[47:56] as an agency staff and legal counsel
[47:58] to make some minor consistency changes
[48:00] and edits to the document.
[48:03] There's actually one more that's kind of popped up,
[48:06] so that's what we are here to talk
[48:08] about today are those changes.
[48:10] Requested changes reflected in the revised document,
[48:13] we have Commissioner changes and additions,
[48:19] first is the process for commissioners and the city
[48:23] agenda.
[48:24] It requires three commissioners to make a request
[48:27] in writing through the chair, let me explain the thought
[48:33] process behind that because I kind of designed
[48:35] that a little bit.
[48:38] In the state of Utah, boards and commissions
[48:41] pretty much the chair has sole authority
[48:44] to put items on or off the agenda.
[48:47] That's true for state boards and commissions, that's
[48:51] true for county commissions, city councils,
[48:53] and in fact the former governance model here.
[49:00] If we'd left it like that, that would have left Commissioner
[49:04] Caldwell to be the sole arbiter of what
[49:06] goes on and off the agenda, we wanted
[49:08] to democratize a little bit but the other end of the pendulum
[49:13] swing is if you allow any commissioner to add
[49:16] any item at any time for any agenda,
[49:18] it could possibly lead to some kind of clog with your all's
[49:22] work, so I actually kind of thought about this a little bit,
[49:26] the best analogy I could think was the US Supreme Court
[49:31] because he's a recovering attorney.
[49:33] The US Supreme Court decides every case.
[49:37] They could hear no cases submitted to them,
[49:40] they could hear every case submitted to them,
[49:44] and rather than let the chief justices pick what cases they
[49:50] hear -- to have the Supreme Court to agree to a case,
[49:55] you have to have four justices agree to hear it.
[49:58] It's not a majority, but it's enough for them
[50:00] to decide it's an important issue.
[50:02] The way I thought of it in this issue was if it's an issue that
[50:06] the commissioners want to bring to put on the agenda,
[50:09] they can at least get two other commissioners to agree to do
[50:14] that .
[50:19] Also the 21 days is just the larger staffing suggestion.
[50:24] As we've encountered as we are relearning this process
[50:27] with the new governance model, staffing at the time
[50:31] make sure that ends up on the agenda
[50:33] and also to maybe work with the commissioners
[50:35] to flesh out the request, because if an agenda
[50:39] item requires agency staff to be present to make sure
[50:42] we can accommodate that request.
[50:44] The next changes the agenda items for the commissioners
[50:48] five calendar days before the meeting,
[50:51] quick statement no single commissioner can
[50:56] bind the commission.
[50:58] As commissioners, you all can really act here on the meeting
[51:03] but this just makes it clear, procedural removal of the vice
[51:11] chair method and also it's clarification
[51:17] of rights of decorum.
[51:20] We've made some staff requested changes
[51:23] for removing references to the Audit Committee
[51:27] and removing references to Commission policies.
[51:30] The only change audit with policies
[51:34] is that policy is kind of a charged word,
[51:37] the Commission made that process as operating procedures,
[51:42] but policies kind of confuse it with agency policy.
[51:51] Requested changes not reflected in revised document,
[51:57] there was a request to determine a particular set of rules
[52:01] for parliamentary procedure.
[52:02] My feeling on that was that it may not
[52:05] need to be added to the bylaws.
[52:08] Robert's rules was kind of pitched as an idea,
[52:12] in 2026 Robert's rules is considered a little too formal.
[52:17] Would actually add the meetings because we
[52:20] would have to call questions and vote to decide on it.
[52:27] While it doesn't have a name, it's
[52:30] my recommendation as agency council the commission
[52:32] use the current more informal parliamentary procedure
[52:37] and also we didn't have any rules regarding extension,
[52:44] mainly because I wanted to bring it to your all's discussion
[52:48] about that.
[52:49] The suggested change from commissioners over screening was
[52:54] an abstention Council is a no vote,
[52:57] we can kind of discuss that why I think it was a good idea .
[53:12] Any feedback at this meeting will be incorporated
[53:14] in a proposed final draft, there's potential renewal
[53:17] of the option at the September 23rd 2026 meeting.
[53:22] One additional staff change I'm going to make
[53:24] is right now it states the agency is also
[53:28] the internal auditor.
[53:29] We're going to take away that requirement,
[53:32] it doesn't mean there won't be an ethics
[53:34] officer or internal auditor, but we are just not
[53:37] handcuffing ourselves or the agency
[53:40] that they have to be the same person.
[53:42] Depending on how you hire, the agency may not be the best fit
[53:47] and it just seems kind of unnecessarily restrictive.
[53:51] September 23rd I won't be here , you will have an opportunity
[53:57] to look at hopefully a final draft ,
[54:03] and then you all can adopt those.
[54:05] If you all want more changes, we can kick it over but I think we
[54:11] will be in a good place by September 23rd.
[54:15] Any questions, comments, additions?
[54:25] Chris Gamvroulas: I did send out an email
[54:28] because I'd been thinking about this,
[54:30] I want to preface it by saying I didn't even know
[54:34] this job existed six weeks ago.
[54:36] It's been thinking about this over the last couple of weeks.
[54:44] I think there's going to be processes
[54:48] that will make sense and evolve and do those things.
[54:54] I also think the word of the day for me
[54:56] is grace, I think that because this is all the governance
[55:00] structure, because of the way the administration has been
[55:04] functioning, the new statute that we all just give grace
[55:09] to each other because we're all going to figure stuff out,
[55:13] that's my word.
[55:16] As I shared with you all in my email and notes
[55:21] on the public document, I do have concerns with the idea
[55:26] that the commissioner would be handcuffed
[55:28] outside of just talking to the commission chair
[55:32] and having to lobby other commissioners.
[55:36] The analog I would give other than the Supreme Court
[55:40] is that this is a weak form of government.
[55:45] If you all think about that for a second,
[55:47] you have a strong city manager who runs the administration,
[55:51] and that person is the day to day operations person.
[55:57] You've got a mayor who makes the agendas in conjunction
[56:02] with others, but no council member
[56:05] would ever tolerate having to lobby two other council members
[56:09] to get something on the agenda.
[56:11] If it's outside of the four corners of the statute
[56:15] and what the commission has authority
[56:17] for, and to the extent that it's appropriate,
[56:23] then I think the commissioners ought
[56:25] to be able to add items to an agenda
[56:29] without going through an informal lobbying
[56:32] procedure on the phone.
[56:33] I absolutely agree with the 21 day thing,
[56:36] I don't think we should be dropping bombs
[56:39] three days before a meeting, I don't think that's appropriate.
[56:45] I've got some other thoughts, just some notes --
[56:50] under attendance, it says attend all meetings.
[56:53] Does that really mean all meetings?
[56:58] grace, we are trying to figure this out,
[57:01] but what if you miss a meeting, are you now automatically
[57:07] disqualified as a commissioner?
[57:09] I did want to be able to explain in person in addition
[57:14] to my email that I do think the commission in order
[57:20] to properly have the oversight as contemplated
[57:25] by the current statute ought not to be constrained
[57:32] to have individual commissioners have the agenda items.
[57:43] Chair Mike Caldwell: I was the one that
[57:44] didn't want to be the gatekeeper for those requests
[57:46] and everything else, I didn't want
[57:48] those to be the organizations that made it really political
[57:53] and it didn't need to be.
[57:54] I was thinking through that, but I understand your point.
[57:58] I think the missing meetings, understanding
[58:02] we're all volunteers and we have robust lives outside
[58:05] of this, that needs to be addressed as well.
[58:24] David Wilkins: The Senate president
[58:25] can fire you for any reason, but there's nothing in the statute
[58:29] if you miss a meeting.
[58:30] We can set an expectation it's every meeting,
[58:32] but I tend to think in worst case scenario being an attorney,
[58:37] and I always look at the potential bad things that
[58:40] can happen.
[58:41] If we start saying you can attend eight of the 12 meetings,
[58:46] then there's quorum issues.
[58:48] We can add a weasel word in there, if you will,
[58:51] the expectation is you attend all the meetings,
[58:53] but I don't really want to start going down the path
[58:55] that you only need to show up at six in the meeting
[58:58] a year or something like that, because then it
[59:01] becomes a problem because we may not have quorum.
[59:21] Chris Gamvroulas: You need a quorum to act.
[59:25] It's not if we had four people and we had a quorum we could
[59:30] act, but you would still need all four votes to pass something
[59:36] , it wouldn't be three out of four.
[59:39] Is that clear, maybe we could clarify that?
[59:51] David Wilkins: You would need that, you would
[59:54] need the meeting under the public meetings, the four of you
[1:00:00] can't all meet at a steakhouse afterwards,
[1:00:02] or I advise you not to do that.
[1:00:10] Chris Gamvroulas: We're all pretty familiar with what
[1:00:13] that is, there are workarounds, you can meet in chance meetings,
[1:00:18] and social, but you are not acting, you can't act.
[1:00:23] I just mean in a meeting where there was just a quorum of four,
[1:00:28] you would still need four to vote to pass .
[1:00:39] Carlos Braceras: I didn't have the chance to see your email.
[1:00:47] I'm reacting, have grace, I haven't thought through this.
[1:00:52] I think the pathway to get something on the agenda,
[1:00:55] the easy way is a commissioner talking
[1:00:58] to the chair who's very reasonable,
[1:01:00] that's a very easy way to get it on.
[1:01:03] If it's something the chair didn't want to have on,
[1:01:06] then I think having the three member bar is reasonable.
[1:01:11] That's my reaction without really having much time to think
[1:01:14] about it, I will also make a point
[1:01:16] that I will probably be also the only non volunteer
[1:01:21] commissioner here seeing as I didn't have a choice.
[1:01:26] Giving best intent to the best of their ability
[1:01:30] to attend all commission meetings, good weasel words.
[1:01:45] Speaker: I appreciate Chris s remarks
[1:01:47] about giving each other grace, these rules are set down
[1:01:54] for the worst case scenario, which David mentioned,
[1:01:58] which we have to anticipate, and that is maybe
[1:02:02] one of us going rogue or maybe the commissioner in the future,
[1:02:05] but there's always the possibility
[1:02:07] for someone to be kind of the dog in the manger, if you will,
[1:02:15] Commissioner.
[1:02:16] I think in terms of putting something on the agenda,
[1:02:19] it needs to be more than one commissioner doing that
[1:02:22] or we can really get bogged down.
[1:02:24] In any really well functioning commission like this,
[1:02:26] the chairs are willing to listen to a single commissioner.
[1:02:30] They're probably going to put it on just
[1:02:32] out of the appointments of caution,
[1:02:34] in my other political career I did that.
[1:02:38] If a council member wanted something,
[1:02:40] we could talk about it.
[1:02:41] But you can run into situations where
[1:02:43] commissioners making repeated or unreasonable requests
[1:02:47] the chair will agree to, so one commissioner should
[1:02:50] be able to said something in the agenda by themselves
[1:02:53] if the chair doesn't want to do it,
[1:02:56] and there needs to be some kind of safety valve.
[1:03:00] If it's important enough, I'm okay with it.
[1:03:05] The other thing I'd like to say is especially
[1:03:11] agreeing with council about not having some kind of provision
[1:03:16] with our bylaws about something that says with authority so
[1:03:23] that we all know if there is a problem in the process,
[1:03:29] we all know what the rules are in terms
[1:03:32] of trying to address that.
[1:03:35] Robert's Rules is a long standing well recognized
[1:03:39] tool for that.
[1:03:41] Most bodies don't function strictly
[1:03:44] according to Robert's rules.
[1:03:47] A lot of us can't even remember Robert's rules
[1:03:49] when we're up there, but there needs to be something.
[1:03:52] If somebody makes a competing motion to a resolution
[1:03:57] or something we have, we need to have a process where
[1:04:00] we can figure that out.
[1:04:01] Robert's rules are for adopting, I just
[1:04:05] think we need to have something in case things
[1:04:09] really go badly so the commissioner doesn't
[1:04:13] feel like they are frustrated.
[1:04:15] What's going to happen in that situation
[1:04:16] is we're going to run to the governor and the president
[1:04:19] or the speaker, if we feel the process isn't right,
[1:04:24] it's going to look terrible to the public
[1:04:26] if we don't know what the rules are,
[1:04:28] so I think we need to adopt something like that.
[1:04:31] I also think some of the parliamentary rules cover this,
[1:04:36] if we have a couple commissioners abstaining,
[1:04:40] the question is what does that mean to the vote?
[1:04:46] I think we need to know what it means to abstain.
[1:04:48] Most bodies I've been involved in, and abstention is a no.
[1:04:52] Something can't pass unless it gets enough yes votes,
[1:04:56] if there are no votes or abstentions that count as no's,
[1:04:59] you have to get the yes votes.
[1:05:01] I think it sets us up for a problem later
[1:05:04] if we have an issue that's controversial,
[1:05:07] I can think of an issue that came
[1:05:09] before the regional council.
[1:05:11] If I could have abstained, I would have done that,
[1:05:15] because nobody wanted to stick their head out on the issue.
[1:05:19] I think it makes sense to have that clarified so that
[1:05:25] in the future --
[1:05:26] right now we have smooth sailing and are
[1:05:28] going to give each other grace, but if things don't work out,
[1:05:31] that's when we need rules like this.
[1:05:34] Anyway, that's my $0.02.
[1:05:36] I appreciate the revisions you've
[1:05:39] made, including the corrections that staff felt were necessary,
[1:05:45] and I agree with all of those.
[1:05:53] Carlos Braceras: Jeff, I can see a commissioner wanting
[1:05:57] to abstain if there's a possible or even perceived
[1:06:01] conflict of interest, which I hope would not be seen as a no.
[1:06:06] Could you see that situation possibly arising
[1:06:09] so not every abstention is considered a no?
[1:06:15] Jeff: A recusal is different from an abstention.
[1:06:18] If you are accusing yourself from a conflict of interest,
[1:06:21] that's different from an abstention.
[1:06:24] You're not voting at all, you would just
[1:06:25] say I abstain because I have a conflict.
[1:06:28] And the rules could cover that, in Utah law, it's kind of weird.
[1:06:34] We allow people to vote even when they
[1:06:38] declare a conflict of interest.
[1:06:39] I don't think that's necessarily a good idea.
[1:06:43] If someone has a conflict of interest
[1:06:45] I think they should be recusing themselves.
[1:07:02] David Wilkins: Utah law does not favor abstention or recusal
[1:07:05] in cases of conflict, Utah prefers you all to fairly
[1:07:10] and accurately fill out your conflict of interest forms ,
[1:07:15] and as a result I don't advise people to do that,
[1:07:19] although I can understand there situations.
[1:07:22] It's simply not contemplated in Utah law.
[1:07:27] Other states that have different ethics laws
[1:07:29] are considered differently, but much like our legislature,
[1:07:33] you fairly and openly declare what your conflicts are,
[1:07:36] and then everybody knows.
[1:07:42] Sheldon Killpack: In the legislature
[1:07:45] you would declare you had a conflict of interest
[1:07:47] and then vote yes or no.
[1:07:51] You still declare the conflict.
[1:07:55] It's a tough one, because you are putting people
[1:07:59] in a tough spot in terms of the vote.
[1:08:02] I was a little bit surprised with the questionnaire
[1:08:04] that I was asked my blood type, my height, my children's height.
[1:08:10] It was pretty thorough in terms of what it was asking you
[1:08:13] in terms of potential conflicts, especially for volunteer
[1:08:17] committee .
[1:08:23] It doesn't bother me to declare the conflict and to vote,
[1:08:28] I think sometimes you can have so many abstained that you
[1:08:32] hardly even do business.
[1:08:34] That one's a tough one for me.
[1:08:36] I get both sides, it's just if we've already
[1:08:39] declared what our conflicts are, it's already out there.
[1:08:47] Jeff: If people abstain, something shouldn't pass.
[1:08:57] David Wilkins: If more than three people abstain,
[1:09:00] it wouldn't pass .
[1:09:12] Beth Holbrook: As I understood it ,
[1:09:19] if you have quorum and let's say you have four people and you get
[1:09:24] a 3 to 1 vote, that's still considered a legal action.
[1:09:27] You don't have to have four people voting yes.
[1:09:31] Did I miss something?
[1:09:35] That's what I was understanding, I just
[1:09:41] wanted to clarify that piece first.
[1:09:49] David Wilkins: If you all want to have a majority --
[1:09:53] my recommendation is that you have four people .
[1:10:03] this falls into what do you all want to do territory.
[1:10:12] we could do it where it is, you would need four yes votes
[1:10:16] or it could just be simple majority.
[1:10:26] Jeff: The problem with requiring four votes for anything is that
[1:10:31] it restricts our voting business .
[1:10:37] The majority of the quorum is usually adequate.
[1:10:41] In terms of what we want to do, I think that's a much better
[1:10:46] policy than having us be hamstrung and not being able
[1:10:48] to take action because we don't have people attending .
[1:11:09] David Wilkins: I'm having to reconceptualize this
[1:11:11] because we are going from a three member body
[1:11:14] to a four member body.
[1:11:35] [No audio]
[1:11:38] Sheldon Killpack: That would be my only concern on that,
[1:11:41] if you have a pretty weighty issue
[1:11:43] and you've got half your commission here
[1:11:46] and it passes 2 to 1, I just don't
[1:11:53] know if that would be wise.
[1:11:59] Jeff: Three is not a quorum, it has to be four.
[1:12:03] A 3 to 1 vote , in order to get business done,
[1:12:11] we have to do that.
[1:12:12] I don't know if we want score marks on every register either.
[1:12:24] Chris Gamvroulas: That's why I've asked that question,
[1:12:29] it's for commissions and councils
[1:12:32] how I've seen them operate for the most part.
[1:12:36] Even if there's four people, that's a quorum,
[1:12:40] you need four votes.
[1:12:43] My opinion, this isn't something I will lay down,
[1:12:48] I will vote on the bylaws that we all agree on,
[1:12:51] but my position is I think you should
[1:12:53] be able to get four votes for anything to pass,
[1:12:58] and that's just from a process standpoint
[1:13:02] I think that's important to do that.
[1:13:07] Even though we are all volunteers,
[1:13:09] we all still said that we would do it,
[1:13:12] even if it's something small I think you should have
[1:13:15] four votes to pass something.
[1:13:20] I was just going to come back to my original point,
[1:13:25] I thought what Jeff said was interesting,
[1:13:29] and that would be maybe there's a bifurcation of getting
[1:13:33] something on the agenda so a commissioner could ask
[1:13:36] for something and if the chair denied it,
[1:13:39] then you could get three people to put it on
[1:13:43] and there would be a dual track or something like that.
[1:13:49] David Wilkins: There's nothing that prevents you
[1:13:50] from reaching out to Mike and saying
[1:13:52] I want to look at this eco pass agreements on the agenda,
[1:13:55] there's nothing that prevents you from doing that
[1:13:57] but it provides an alternate track but we can clarify that.
[1:14:13] Beth Holbrook: I have to say, I agree with Chris on that.
[1:14:20] I was actually going to bring that up as well .
[1:14:25] I do think there should be a delineation in a structure that
[1:14:29] allows that ability to navigate.
[1:14:31] What if you reach out to somebody and they never respond?
[1:14:40] I don't think that should go against what
[1:14:43] another commissioner would like to do conceptually.
[1:14:46] I do think that by delineating it as Chris outlined with it,
[1:14:51] I think that that seems like a better strategy,
[1:14:54] or I noticed that he said 2 or 3 in the commissioners notes.
[1:15:07] If it's two, you don't necessarily
[1:15:10] have to go to the chair first and then go back.
[1:15:12] If it's the other way, I think going to the chair
[1:15:16] and then not finding the ability to navigate
[1:15:19] and then going back and getting three,
[1:15:21] doing the 21 days, the whole thing,
[1:15:24] I think that there does have to be a way
[1:15:28] to navigate because of timing and everything else,
[1:15:33] it just seems a little bit more fluid to do it that way.
[1:15:40] Chair Mike Caldwell: I will let the commissioners know,
[1:15:43] I was mayor for 12 years, I felt like if I had to veto something
[1:15:48] then I failed to communicate and failed to work
[1:15:52] with the interested party.
[1:15:54] That's my approach, and everybody is always
[1:15:56] welcome to call me and we can talk through things.
[1:15:58] I just didn't want to be the person --
[1:16:09] and I do believe that this is a fluid document.
[1:16:15] As we address some of these things
[1:16:17] we will make tweaks and make sure that it fits.
[1:16:28] My last comment was I've been to a bunch of political conventions
[1:16:33] that follow strict Robert rules come I will never do that again.
[1:16:37] I will do a modified version of Robert's Rules,
[1:16:39] we are not going to be here for 12 or 14 hours
[1:16:43] before we cast votes.
[1:17:00] David Wilkins: There's an old episode of The Simpsons
[1:17:02] where they do a focus group about what they want
[1:17:05] to make as a cartoon for kids and they
[1:17:14] get feedback the opposite and accidentally make something
[1:17:18] that the kids like.
[1:17:20] We can test drive this for a few months
[1:17:21] and if we need to make some tweaks,
[1:17:23] hopefully we can revisit that.
[1:17:30] Chair Mike Caldwell: Up next, we have
[1:17:33] planning and external relations in the engagement process.
[1:17:54] Nichol Bourdeaux: I am the chief officer of planning
[1:17:56] and external Relations.
[1:17:57] Today, we are just going to give you
[1:18:00] a high level of some of the actions
[1:18:02] that will be coming to you.
[1:18:04] I want to introduce some of our staff.
[1:18:12] Jaron Robertson: Director of planning here, quickly, just
[1:18:17] responsible for planning functions, customer experience
[1:18:21] functions.
[1:18:26] Megan Waters: I am the Community engagement Director over public
[1:18:29] engagement process and hearing from our community .
[1:18:37] Nichol Bourdeaux: We wanted to give you
[1:18:39] a brief overview on some of the items
[1:18:41] we had a brief action or resolution or opportunities
[1:18:43] for engagement with stakeholders in the public.
[1:18:45] This is just high level, we will come back with more information
[1:18:49] as these items go through the process
[1:18:51] and hopefully we'll make it on the agenda
[1:18:54] so we can get these things adopted.
[1:18:56] We will be talking about the planning process
[1:18:59] and how service capital projects get through the process
[1:19:05] of getting in service.
[1:19:06] Our new long range transit plan and how
[1:19:12] we work with title VI of the Civil Rights Act
[1:19:16] and your role in that, also coming up
[1:19:19] with the budget and public engagement around those pieces.
[1:19:21] This is kind of our office relationship with our commission
[1:19:31] starting with the planning journey, many of you
[1:19:34] have worked with our regional transportation organizations,
[1:19:39] but this is just a linear line of what we do in planning,
[1:19:42] and some of the processes before change day, is our service.
[1:19:51] For regional transportation plans
[1:19:53] is where we get the project moving forward,
[1:19:58] the long range transit plan is the 5 to 30 year horizon.
[1:20:06] We are right in the middle of beginning one,
[1:20:09] we will talk a little bit about that right now,
[1:20:11] but that looks at local and regional service.
[1:20:14] And then you have our budget and our two year service plan
[1:20:20] where we can filter those down into operational costs,
[1:20:24] operationalizing these pieces, and then bringing
[1:20:27] that to our operations team beginning the budget
[1:20:32] process as you move forward.
[1:20:33] As you move into another aspect that we
[1:20:37] call our title six, and public engagement for resolution,
[1:20:43] and you all will see that further in the year,
[1:20:47] and then again changed a.
[1:20:49] That's just kind of how we move through putting in the service
[1:20:53] industry .
[1:20:58] Kicking off UTA moves 25, our strategic long range plan--
[1:21:15] UTA Moves 2055.
[1:21:18] you can see all of our modes up there,
[1:21:22] innovative mobility zones, we do on demand and that is what falls
[1:21:28] into that area as a mode .
[1:21:34] All that local connectivity in our regional service
[1:21:37] combined go in this plan.
[1:21:39] From there we look at our ten year capital plan,
[1:21:41] this is where you look at infrastructure,
[1:21:46] phase investment, how we get those capital projects built
[1:21:49] and the costing long term financial analysis
[1:21:53] and the capital investments that are needed.
[1:21:56] Part of this plan is to look at alignment
[1:22:01] with other regional transportation plans.
[1:22:07] I wouldn't forget the plans be aligned with,
[1:22:12] what that comes into is Utah Unified Transportation Plan
[1:22:16] where we have our information along with
[1:22:20] the other transportation agencies in the state
[1:22:22] and then we have other plans like the ten year capital plan,
[1:22:26] our vehicle plan, and other plans that help
[1:22:30] inform as well as vice versa.
[1:22:32] This drives our goals, this is what
[1:22:35] we communicate as our long vision to the public,
[1:22:39] and it builds that consistency among all the
[1:22:42] plans out there in the transportation world.
[1:22:47] We are right now in that planning process,
[1:22:50] part of that is the collaboration.
[1:22:54] We have eight workshops that will be coming,
[1:22:57] this is an avenue we would really like all of you
[1:23:00] to participate in, we are out there
[1:23:02] with the cities and our communities
[1:23:04] talking about what our big capital process is, along
[1:23:09] with our local service needs.
[1:23:12] We also have mag coming in the winter .
[1:23:23] It's looking at the end of this year and first quarter,
[1:23:28] and then outreach around the plan, we will be in coordination
[1:23:34] but moving to another phase in the spring of 2027.
[1:23:39] Just so you know, this is coming to you for adoption
[1:23:44] hopefully at the end of 2027.
[1:23:48] I'm going to move on, that is our long range and service
[1:23:52] planning piece that you all will participate and work with us
[1:23:57] and we will work with you on.
[1:23:58] Now we will move to title six of the Civil Rights Act,
[1:24:02] this is the federal rule we have to evaluate
[1:24:05] our service in the lens of the Civil Rights Act.
[1:24:09] We have attached two documents to your program today,
[1:24:15] one is the long range transit plan.
[1:24:18] Also, the title six program that was
[1:24:23] adopted in spring of this year.
[1:24:26] That's the program in which we put parameters
[1:24:29] on how we look at the service going forward
[1:24:32] to make sure that we take care of the protected classes.
[1:24:37] What happens is our major service changes are looked at,
[1:24:42] and we evaluate them in the lens of our program
[1:24:45] as well as any fare change.
[1:24:47] We're going to be talking about fare changes,
[1:24:51] then we will go through this analysis.
[1:24:52] Part of that is a public input process and public engagement.
[1:24:57] Right now we have public engagement on the fare increase
[1:25:14] After comment, we will come back and see
[1:25:17] if there's any modifications that need to be made
[1:25:19] and then we will come back to the Commission for adoption
[1:25:21] by resolution for that evaluation.
[1:25:24] Any questions?
[1:25:28] Budget, this is another area where we do community engagement
[1:25:31] and we work with our stakeholders.
[1:25:34] We will be out for public comment in September
[1:25:37] with the new stump budget, with the tentative budget coming out.
[1:25:42] We will put it out to the community.
[1:25:46] You all are looking at when the public hearing will be, TBD .
[1:25:55] We will have information from the Commission
[1:25:56] on what we've heard as you adopt the stump budget for 2027.
[1:26:04] Here's just a quick overview of what
[1:26:08] we are talking about where you're engaged,
[1:26:11] where you will consider and what comes to adoption to this body.
[1:26:17] We hope you will participate in the stakeholder
[1:26:21] meetings and workshops, as well as our workshops
[1:26:28] in the spring of next year.
[1:26:31] We will be considering the input for all of these processes
[1:26:35] as you make decisions on the title six resolution budget
[1:26:39] adoption, and then the adoption of the UTA plan
[1:26:41] at the end of the year.
[1:26:43] That was just an overview quickly,
[1:26:46] my team is here for any questions for the details
[1:26:50] that I don't know.
[1:26:59] You can give me 1 or 2, Commissioner.
[1:27:11] We try to give you an overview, but if you
[1:27:16] skim through the documents it will help.
[1:27:18] I think one is like 300 pages, but I
[1:27:22] think it's just a good idea to look at them high level so you
[1:27:25] at least know what they are, and then
[1:27:27] we will be coming back to you during this process
[1:27:29] to give you more information and not
[1:27:31] dump it all at the table for you, thank you.
[1:27:41] We will leave the current plans here
[1:27:44] for you to pick up if you are interested.
[1:27:53] Chair Mike Caldwell: We are running behind ,
[1:27:58] if you can keep that in mind, that would be great.
[1:28:07] Viola Miller: Chief financial officer,
[1:28:13] good afternoon commissioners.
[1:28:20] Jay Fox: The purpose of this financial information
[1:28:23] is we're going to bring the budget to you
[1:28:26] at the next meeting and it's to introduce
[1:28:28] how we are looking at our finances long term,
[1:28:30] because that affects a lot of our decisions
[1:28:34] and particularly the decisions around whether to add
[1:28:37] local service and how to engage with our communities.
[1:28:39] We had a lot of work last year with our previous board ,
[1:28:50] some sobering moments as part of that.
[1:28:52] You will see some of the work we did regarding our forecast,
[1:28:56] I want to thank Carlos as well as Andrew who worked part
[1:29:01] of the process of reviewing that material .
[1:29:07] You're going to find out what is the long range forecast, what
[1:29:10] does that look like currently quacks
[1:29:12] it's really more of a takeaway for you as opposed to a digging
[1:29:16] in.
[1:29:17] Our revenue history, which is really important,
[1:29:20] Senate Bill 136 in 2018 had a particular vision
[1:29:24] of where we were going financially
[1:29:26] on the capital service delivery, so I want to talk about that.
[1:29:31] How we've done what we've done, recently through the work
[1:29:37] I was talking about, and then you
[1:29:39] will hear a presentation ensuring
[1:29:45] the huge capital investment is going to be a success.
[1:29:53] Viola Miller: I will make this as quick as possible.
[1:29:57] This is our chart, it is our current forecast,
[1:30:01] looking at the next ten years starting in 2027.
[1:30:06] As we bring the stump budget to you next month,
[1:30:10] we will be talking about the first six months of the calendar
[1:30:13] year and then we will shift to the fiscal year that starts July
[1:30:18] 1st.
[1:30:18] This stays with the calendar year for now, what this mainly
[1:30:23] shows, I would like to point out,
[1:30:25] is that our last positive ending balance is in 2030,
[1:30:30] and we start to have negative results with an ending
[1:30:38] balance starting 2031.
[1:30:43] Jay Fox: We would have to address
[1:30:44] that beforehand, but just as we look at where we are.
[1:30:48] Also if you see at the top right,
[1:30:52] this includes service ads in Ogden 56 West,
[1:30:58] which is a project we've been working on.
[1:31:09] also front runner two X service, which continues to evolve.
[1:31:18] Viola Miller: What I want to point out here
[1:31:20] is when you look at the eye chart, a large part of it
[1:31:25] is we had a major sales tax forecast change in 2023,
[1:31:30] and it was a $730 million decrease over a 20 year period.
[1:31:39] We are starting to see that impact starting in 2026,
[1:31:45] you can see where the growth gap in the pink started to grow ,
[1:31:56] and that runs through 2026.
[1:31:58] If we are looking at this from the perspective of the ten
[1:32:01] years, we're going to have that decrease show up,
[1:32:07] and what I talked to Jay about is what if we had gotten
[1:32:13] the fifth fifth according to the original plans ?
[1:32:23] If the money had come as we had supposed it would,
[1:32:28] then we would have gotten $1.4 billion
[1:32:33] and we would have been able to offset the decrease
[1:32:36] from the sales tax revenue change,
[1:32:40] and we would be 640 million to the good instead
[1:32:44] of at the end of 2036, instead of 198 million in the negative.
[1:32:53] Again, this is just a forecast.
[1:33:04] Chris Gamvroulas: It seems like what
[1:33:07] I heard you say was that if we had gotten the money in 2019,
[1:33:12] but I don't know what that means.
[1:33:16] I didn't understand that sentence,
[1:33:20] so if you could help me.
[1:33:22] What happened in 2019 to change I
[1:33:30] would like just some clarification
[1:33:32] on what that meant.
[1:33:38] Jay Fox: In 2018, Senate Bill 136 created the authority
[1:33:43] for a county to post local options for transportation sales
[1:33:48] tax, the fifth fifth would have been
[1:33:53] additional money for service delivery and operations.
[1:33:57] At the same time, the transit Transportation Investment Fund
[1:34:02] was created with the idea of looking
[1:34:04] for this being a capital investment fund to grow transit.
[1:34:09] You need those service delivery funds
[1:34:13] because sometimes you're not adding a lot of capital
[1:34:16] from additional local, but you still need a service delivery
[1:34:19] cost taken care of.
[1:34:21] Both of those were authorized, the fifth fifth was 0.2%.
[1:34:26] When we look at, since that time, the only funding
[1:34:32] that we've ever gotten from this for the most part
[1:34:38] has been in Utah County, they implemented it
[1:34:42] fairly early and just recently for this event in Utah County,
[1:34:48] they funded out of those funds which they
[1:34:53] hold the additional service.
[1:34:55] Apart from that, we have not seen any funding from that
[1:35:01] anticipated source of revenue which was sponsored by Senator
[1:35:08] Harper and then representative Mike Schultz , again,
[1:35:14] looking forward and thinking long term about the transit
[1:35:18] needs.
[1:35:18] I hope that helps clarify.
[1:35:23] Viola Miller: The two were supposed to work in tandem,
[1:35:26] last month when I brought that example
[1:35:27] to you of how we have these projects that come off
[1:35:30] of the building of capital development,
[1:35:32] and then we go into operating and maintaining them,
[1:35:35] that's what these two funding streams were supposed to do.
[1:35:39] It's supposed to provide funding for the project
[1:35:43] to create, deliver, and then the fifth fifth
[1:35:47] was supposed to provide funding to operate.
[1:35:49] We have continued to do those projects,
[1:35:53] because it has created those projects which
[1:35:58] have been delivered and we've been running the services,
[1:36:00] but we still have not seen the funding that was supposed
[1:36:03] to support the operating.
[1:36:32] Chris Gamvroulas: Is it because money has been reallocated
[1:36:35] through the legislative process and he
[1:36:38] needs to take money out of that account so it's not going there?
[1:36:45] Viola Miller: It's not that the funds have been removed
[1:36:47] from the account, the funds have been directed
[1:36:50] so they're not coming to UTA.
[1:36:58] Jay Fox: Salt Lake County has not
[1:37:00] implemented that, following legislative changes,
[1:37:03] that money was moved early on to the county highway fund.
[1:37:08] There has been movement within what the fifth fifth was
[1:37:15] originally conceived as , away from the point two which was
[1:37:22] going to go to transit.
[1:37:28] Viola Miller: Just to clarify, there's still funds out there
[1:37:32] that are being used.
[1:37:37] Speaker: A quick point of clarification,
[1:37:39] on your slide you have point one in parentheses, did you mean .2?
[1:37:56] it is legislatively authorized the intent for the local option
[1:38:05] has more flexible uses than what was originally
[1:38:11] contemplated with the forecast of that money.
[1:38:33] Viola Miller: Talking about the progress
[1:38:40] that we made to get to our current forecast,
[1:38:43] we've had progress and challenges.
[1:38:50] We've increased our fair revenue by 20 million,
[1:38:56] decreased capital expense by 240 million,
[1:39:00] decreased debt service expense by 250 million,
[1:39:05] these are over the time periods but it's
[1:39:08] the work we did to refinance our debt and restructure it.
[1:39:14] Also, we've been the benefit of 280 million
[1:39:17] for investment revenue.
[1:39:19] Of course, that's been up and down in the last few years,
[1:39:23] but good overall progress here.
[1:39:25] Some of the challenges have been the $730 million
[1:39:29] reduction in the sales tax revenue forecast.
[1:39:33] We've increased our operating expenses by $120 million,
[1:39:38] and we have also received a decrease in our state
[1:39:42] and federal capital revenue .
[1:39:53] Jay Fox: A significant portion of those costs
[1:39:55] is adding a service.
[1:39:56] We work closely with the previous board
[1:39:59] on rolling back our many commitments regarding
[1:40:02] local service because we were going to fall
[1:40:06] into a much larger hole.
[1:40:12] Viola Miller: This slide shows the progress
[1:40:15] in the last forecast or financial plan we had,
[1:40:19] how much work we've done.
[1:40:23] The ending balance is currently what you saw,
[1:40:27] we are positive through 2030.
[1:40:31] But before that, back in July of last year,
[1:40:35] we were very very in the red.
[1:40:38] But we did a lot of work, as you can see from all the progress
[1:40:42] that we made in spite of the challenges,
[1:40:46] we really work through with our board
[1:40:48] to institute some new financial strategies,
[1:40:51] and again to work on the debt reduction and restructuring
[1:40:55] and refinancing of our debt.
[1:40:58] That ending balance Delta really just
[1:41:01] shows how much work was done, it's not where we ended up.
[1:41:04] Where we ended up is our current ending balance,
[1:41:07] but we were far worse off a little over a year ago.
[1:41:16] Jay Fox: It represents a more realistic vision
[1:41:18] of what local service we were able to make commitments to.
[1:41:24] Viola Miller: Last month, I told you a story about the birthday
[1:41:28] card, and try to give you a representation of how
[1:41:33] that works here at UTA.
[1:41:38] But I wanted to give you an example of what does
[1:41:42] it take to run a bus route?
[1:41:45] This one is similar to what we are doing for 56 West.
[1:41:49] It's a million miles, 100 zero zero zero,
[1:41:53] you should see capital construction .
[1:42:01] We have to purchase busses, we have to build bus stops,
[1:42:05] run operations, we have to pay our drivers, maintenance,
[1:42:10] security, training.
[1:42:11] Of course, security involves all the equipment
[1:42:14] we have to purchase to support that,
[1:42:17] and then there's a training program
[1:42:19] where we have to do mobilization,
[1:42:21] we can't just hire the people the same day the route starts,
[1:42:31] we have to train them and spend time invested first.
[1:42:37] Also there are overhauls and accessibility adds.
[1:42:48] Jay Fox: That mobilization happens the year
[1:42:50] before the route begins, so you're
[1:42:52] going to see some of that in the budget for service
[1:42:55] that's coming in.
[1:42:59] Viola Miller: If this gets to the tipping point
[1:43:02] where we need to add a facility, that's
[1:43:04] also not included in this.
[1:43:10] Jay Fox: The purpose is to give it
[1:43:14] just a framework as we go into the budget,
[1:43:16] as you do your work with your constituents
[1:43:18] understand where you were long term, what we need in terms
[1:43:22] of additional revenue and where we happen to be at as an agency.
[1:43:26] We've done a lot of work to get us
[1:43:28] to the balanced budget in 2030, a lot of work.
[1:43:32] This last 365 days between working with the board,
[1:43:35] working with finance and our various units,
[1:43:39] working with outside stakeholders,
[1:43:44] it's been very fruitful, but one of the things we really want
[1:43:51] to focus on is how do we improve that revenue side .
[1:44:15] Viola Miller: I have some follow up.
[1:44:23] Chair Mike Caldwell: Next we have the front runner two X
[1:44:26] program.
[1:44:45] Speaker: Thank you and good afternoon.
[1:44:47] I Udot's director of transit and trails,
[1:44:51] and I will do my best to get you back on schedule.
[1:44:57] A couple of slides...
[1:45:07] I think many of you heard last week
[1:45:11] we got some really exciting news about this project.
[1:45:14] The Federal Transit Administration
[1:45:16] progressed the project into the next phase,
[1:45:21] which is called entry into engineering.
[1:45:23] We actually submitted this application around Halloween,
[1:45:27] so it's about ten months to get approved,
[1:45:31] which is abnormally long .
[1:45:38] It was a really exciting day, I was actually driving back
[1:45:42] from the governor's Utah Summit, got the phone call
[1:45:47] and I definitely cheered out loud alone in a truck
[1:45:51] and then proceeded to pull over and talk
[1:45:55] on the phone for an hour and a half.
[1:45:58] While we got this, approvals going to the next phase,
[1:46:03] the big thing is the dollar value that was committed.
[1:46:11] FTA committed $1.28 billion to this project ,
[1:46:24] huge sums of money.
[1:46:28] [Applause] I think many of us were pretty excited when
[1:46:31] we heard that number, I will talk about the overall budget.
[1:46:35] It is less than we requested, full disclosure.
[1:46:40] The first thing I said is I got 1.28 billion reasons
[1:46:45] to be happy right now.
[1:46:47] Pretty exciting news, and this is really
[1:46:51] a huge step in getting that full funding grant agreement, which
[1:46:57] is basically authorization to go and they start reimbursing us up
[1:47:03] to that 1.28 billion.
[1:47:06] Quick overview of the project, obviously frontrunner
[1:47:09] has been hugely successful.
[1:47:12] In our peak hour, peak direction starting
[1:47:18] at the end of the day, the system over 90%
[1:47:24] exceeded capacity.
[1:47:26] When you look at Utah's projected population growth,
[1:47:32] we need to expand frontrunner.
[1:47:35] We need more seats, more service,
[1:47:39] I-15 can't handle all the growth we are expecting.
[1:47:43] We really need a holistic transportation system
[1:47:47] that looks at roads, transit, active transportation,
[1:47:52] really they are interdependent.
[1:47:55] Every car they take off the road provides benefit
[1:47:59] to freight which is good for our economy, air quality,
[1:48:03] we already know all of the reasons.
[1:48:05] The project purpose here is really
[1:48:07] to double the frequency of the trains.
[1:48:12] Right now in the peak, it's 30 minute service
[1:48:15] and in the off peak periods it is one hour service.
[1:48:19] With this project, it will go to 15 minute service in the peak
[1:48:23] and 30 minute off peak.
[1:48:26] 15 minutes is really like that magical number
[1:48:30] where you stop looking at your watch.
[1:48:32] 30 minutes, I still don't want to miss a train,
[1:48:35] 15 minutes, I can play connections and just
[1:48:41] wait for the next one, it doesn't bother me
[1:48:45] nearly as much.
[1:48:46] This will be great for the population,
[1:48:48] it's certainly not only going to support future growth
[1:48:53] but drive additional ridership because it's
[1:48:55] going to be so much easier for people to use frontrunner.
[1:49:08] I've missed the train and had the opportunity
[1:49:12] to go out to lunch.
[1:49:17] it will be a great benefit.
[1:49:21] the project actually created this fantastic video,
[1:49:26] it's less than three minutes long
[1:49:28] and it will allow me to go through all my slides
[1:49:31] much faster because this will say it much more eloquently.
[1:49:42] [Video plays]
[1:52:39] I just wanted to hit a couple of the other project benefits they
[1:52:42] don't talk about in the video.
[1:52:50] It's projected there will be a 3% increase in ridership
[1:52:56] by 2050.
[1:53:02] like I said we are at 90% right now.
[1:53:05] To get that, we need more trains, more frequency.
[1:53:10] I talked about we needed multimodal transportation.
[1:53:14] Front is projected to be 17% faster
[1:53:18] than taking your car in 2050.
[1:53:30] Nothing promotes transit like sitting
[1:53:34] in your car getting passed by a train or a bus or a light rail.
[1:53:39] Obviously you've seen all the promotional videos,
[1:53:43] it's much lower stress.
[1:53:53] I talked about supporting economic development.
[1:54:02] Jay Fox: As part of that increased ridership combo
[1:54:05] we have 15 minute service so just
[1:54:12] being able to pick up on all that additional ridership coming
[1:54:17] in every 15 minutes is going to be really important and huge
[1:54:24] for the entire rail system.
[1:54:33] Speaker: I wanted to point out the one new station in Bluffdale
[1:54:36] specifically at the point , A new development at the old
[1:54:45] prison site.
[1:54:48] Holmes, businesses, providing this station
[1:54:51] gives all of those residents and businesses
[1:54:55] the benefit of the frontrunner station right there.
[1:55:00] you saw the map, Right now it said frontrunner 83 miles long
[1:55:26] give or take 23% double track at this point.
[1:55:29] The additional 26 miles will take it to roughly 50%
[1:55:34] double track.
[1:55:35] To get it down to 15 minute all day service which is ultimately
[1:55:41] in the long range FrontRunner plan,
[1:55:43] we will need a couple more sections,
[1:55:46] but this is great progress, 26 more miles.
[1:56:00] Sunday service is easier to attain
[1:56:05] with this additional double tracking.
[1:56:07] A lot of the state of good repair work that is being done,
[1:56:13] the Sunday service is limited so the work can get done .
[1:56:21] It certainly helps it, but we aren't planning on it
[1:56:24] at this point.
[1:56:30] Jay Fox: The service delivery costs also
[1:56:32] increase when you have Sunday service, that's
[1:56:35] a really important consideration that we were just talking about.
[1:56:43] Speaker: Vehicles, you will notice
[1:56:45] these vehicles do not look like the current vehicles in shape
[1:56:49] or color.
[1:56:50] These are actually dart vehicles but we
[1:56:58] have made a notice of intent to award, wishes legal mumbo jumbo.
[1:57:04] We put out a request for proposals.
[1:57:08] Our local manufacturer put in a compliant bid,
[1:57:13] and we've entered the negotiation phase with them .
[1:57:21] Basically what was requested was a diesel unit,
[1:57:26] this is different than the front runners
[1:57:28] you see today with the locomotive up front or in back.
[1:57:31] This actually has the engine in the middle,
[1:57:34] and can easily be coupled and uncoupled.
[1:57:38] Smaller vehicle, lighter, much more agile,
[1:57:42] these will be hybrid so they have
[1:57:45] a little faster acceleration and deceleration time.
[1:57:49] Ultimately they have the ability to be converted
[1:57:53] to more battery powered, which aligns
[1:57:56] with the frontrunner for the plan over the long term as well.
[1:58:01] Project timeline, we are kind of in that
[1:58:04] dark blue box and the environmental study
[1:58:09] has been completed, we are doing a couple of re avowals
[1:58:14] just as the design has progressed.
[1:58:17] Final design is expected late this fall.
[1:58:21] We are in negotiations for the train station,
[1:58:25] we hope to have early construction package ,
[1:58:37] we hope to do some canal work starting this fall and then move
[1:58:43] forward with a larger construction package probably
[1:58:47] next summer, and then once the FFGA is awarded,
[1:58:59] there will be a lot of work going on in every section
[1:59:01] simultaneously.
[1:59:01] Right now we have front runner partners which is the joint
[1:59:07] venture for Stacy Winback and the construction of Ralph
[1:59:13] Wadsworth, they have an office right off of 53rd
[1:59:17] by the station.
[1:59:21] we are ready, honestly moving fast and pushing for the FFGA
[1:59:32] as soon as we can get it with an anticipated revenue service
[1:59:36] by 2030.
[1:59:43] okay, many people are aware of 3.2 billion total cost estimate,
[1:59:52] we have 845 committed state funds right now with 1.28
[1:59:58] of federal funds .
[2:00:06] Anytime there's a funding deficit, you have three options.
[2:00:10] Cut scope, you can reduce risk.
[2:00:14] Obviously we're always looking to reduce risk with the project,
[2:00:19] that's just the project management form .
[2:00:25] Looking at how the combination of those three options,
[2:00:28] we can hopefully deliver the full scope of this project.
[2:00:42] Viola Miller: I wanted to talk a little bit about the funding
[2:00:46] piece on the support for UTA.
[2:00:54] We've worked to support the application
[2:00:58] to make sure that what the federal government is
[2:01:02] interested in is how we are going to run this service.
[2:01:05] I just wanted to give small clarity
[2:01:08] to that in that what I presented today
[2:01:11] is our immediate forecast of what we'll be bringing forward
[2:01:16] for our tentative budget.
[2:01:18] It does not have the same revenue assumptions
[2:01:21] that we post in the project, and that is intentional.
[2:01:26] I just wanted to be clear on that ,
[2:01:33] so if you see the part of the front runner looks different
[2:01:35] than what I showed you today, there's a reason for that.
[2:01:42] Chair Mike Caldwell: Any comments or questions?
[2:01:44] Thank you very much, appreciate that.
[2:01:47] That will come into chair discussion items,
[2:01:50] because we are running late I will give you a quick overview.
[2:01:53] Commission work session, we all agree
[2:01:55] it would be nice to have a work session an hour
[2:01:59] before this regular one if we need to get together
[2:02:02] or if you guys want additional information on one you would
[2:02:04] like to cover some of those work sessions,
[2:02:06] if you would let us know we will get those planned
[2:02:09] and that will help us get to speed a little bit quicker.
[2:02:14] We have two appointments that we need to discuss really quick,
[2:02:20] Wasatch Front Regional Council appointments.
[2:02:23] There's no action needed, but I just
[2:02:27] wanted to get everyone's approval.
[2:02:52] Andrew Gerber: Representatives serve
[2:02:53] in a variety of different capacities,
[2:02:56] participate with the regional council on our council
[2:03:02] itself and our various committees.
[2:03:04] I believe the approach, this body
[2:03:07] has to make determinations in consultation with J
[2:03:10] about who and how UTA participates formally
[2:03:17] in our committees.
[2:03:19] A comparison to this now would be that representatives
[2:03:22] from the State Transportation Commission
[2:03:26] that serve on the Regional Growth
[2:03:29] Committee, which looks at the big picture over the long term.
[2:03:36] similarly on our Transportation Coordinating Committee,
[2:03:40] which looks at specific transportation projects
[2:03:44] over the next 4 to 6 years, those are the ones at least
[2:03:51] I know there's a desire to have representatives
[2:03:53] from this commission participate and some folks on the commission
[2:03:57] have expressed already to me an interest and a desire
[2:04:01] to be engaged.
[2:04:04] Perhaps I will stop there, unless there's other questions
[2:04:07] or you want me to say anything else, Mr. Chair.
[2:04:14] Chair Mike Caldwell: I'm very familiar with your organization,
[2:04:16] a little background on why it's important
[2:04:19] and why representation from the board was helpful,
[2:04:23] thank you very much.
[2:04:30] Andrew Gerber: Collaborating, working together,
[2:04:33] sharing information allows us to make better decisions
[2:04:36] and serve our communities as effectively as possible.
[2:04:41] Thank you.
[2:04:44] Chair Mike Caldwell: Next meeting is Wednesday September