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Agenda Item # 10

BOARD MEMORANDUM

Recommendation:

Review and recommend that the VTA Board of Directors approve a revised scope and grant amount for the City of San Jose’s Auto Repair Assistance Program (ARAP) in the amount of $75,000 and issue a new Call-For-Projects (CFP) for the Lifeline Transportation Program.

Background:

In 2005, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) established the Lifeline Transportation Program to fund projects that result in improved mobility for low-income residents of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. Federal Congestion Management and Air Quality (CMAQ), Job Access & Reverse Commute (JARC), and State Transit Assistance (STA) grants fund the Lifeline Transportation Program. Funding of $3.956 million was available for projects in Santa Clara County from FY05/06 through FY07/08. In Santa Clara County, VTA and the County of Santa Clara jointly administer the program through the Joint Lifeline Transportation Committee (JLTC).

In June 2006, the VTA Board of Directors and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved six projects to receive funding through the Lifeline Transportation Program. The current status of these projects is shown in Attachment A.

Discussion:

At the time that the six projects were approved, both VTA and MTC staff believed that transit pass subsidy projects would be eligible. However in the fall, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) proposed new guidelines that clearly prohibit using the Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC) funding included in the Lifeline program to subsidize passes (Federal Register, Vo. 71, no 172, at p. 52614). In addition, MTC's legal counsel has opined that the Public Utilities Code that governs the State Transit Assistance (STA) funds included in the program prevents them from being used to subsidy transit passes either. This change affects three projects:  (1) Outreach's Family Transportation Program, (2) San Jose's Housing Services Partnership and (3) VTA's Community Partnership Transportation Project.

Outreach was able to reorganize the Family Transportation Services project so that the relatively small transit component would be funded with non-Lifeline Program funds. No additional changes are required. The other two projects, were unable to do so, and were left without a funding source.

The City of San Jose’s Housing Services Partnership contained both a Transportation Assistance/transit pass subsidy component and an Auto Repair Assistance Program (ARAP) component. The City of San Jose was originally awarded $180,000. Now that transit passes have been determined to be ineligible for Lifeline funding, the City has proposed revising the project scope to eliminate the transit pass subsidy component, increase the level of ARAP services, and reduce the grant request to $75,000.  This would make $105,000 available for reprogramming.

The VTA Community Partnership Transportation project, which was entirely dedicated to subsidizing transit passes, has been withdrawn from the program. This makes $1,000,000 available for reprogramming.

On February 7, 2007, the Joint Lifeline Transportation Committee (JLTC) met and reviewed the program status and the revised City of San Jose proposal.   The JLTC recommends that the Board approve both the revised proposal and issuing a new call for projects for the total of $1,105,487 in unprogrammed Lifeline funds that will now be available.

If the Board approves, the procedure will be similar to last year's project selection process. VTA and County Staff will issue a countywide reprogramming call for projects to all potential sponsors who can be identified. This will include all VTA Member Agencies, social service agencies and non-profits involved in providing assistance to low-income county residents. VTA and County staff will conduct a workshop for all interested parties.

The project proposals will be reviewed by the JLTC, which will in turn provide recommendations to the VTA Board of Directors and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. After both Boards approve the projects, the program will then be sent to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission for review and approval. Assuming the boards approve the new projects in August, MTC staff expects that MTC approval could take place in October 2007. Below is a tentative schedule for the 2007 Call for Projects:

Lifeline Transportation 2007 Call For Projects Schedule

(Dates subject to change)

April 6, 2007: Issue Call for Projects

May 14, 2007: Workshop for Applicants: 333 West Julian Street at 9:30 AM

June 25, 2007: Application Deadline: 333 West Julian Street at 5:00 PM

July 9, 2007: JLTC Reviews Projects

July 11, 2007: "Final Recommendation" letter to bidders

August 2007: Program of Projects Approved by VTA BOD and County BOS

August 30, 2007: VTA/County submit recommended projects to MTC

October 2007: MTC approves projects [tentative]

Alternatives:

The VTA Board may deny the requested change to San Jose's ARAP project and request other programming alternatives. Any change in programming alternatives requires the County Board of Supervisors to also approve the alternatives.

FISCAL IMPACT:

VTA Board action will make $75,000 available to the City of San Jose for its ARAP program. The new call for projects will allow the use of the approximately $1,105,487 still available to Lifeline Transportation projects in Santa Clara County. No funding from the VTA Transit Enterprise Fund will be used for this work.

Table of Projects

Project: Family Transportation

Sponsor: Outreach

Grant Amount: $1,200,000

MTC Approved: Yes

Funding Type: JARC STA

Current Status: Project approved in Federal Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). ·

Awaiting execution of funding agreement between Outreach and MTC

Project: Senior Transportation

Sponsor: Outreach

Grant Amount: $750,000

MTC Approved: Yes

Funding Type: STA

Current Status: Project approved in Federal Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). ·

Awaiting execution of funding agreement between Outreach and VTA

Project: Ways-to-Work

Sponsor: Family & Children's Services

Grant Amount: $503,063

MTC Approved: Yes

Funding Type: JARC STA

Current Status: Project approved in Federal Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). ·

Awaiting execution of funding agreement between Family & Children's Services and MTC

Project: Gilroy Pedestrian Enhancement

Sponsor: City of Gilroy

Grant Amount: $322,937

MTC Approved: Yes

Funding Type: CMAQ

Current Status: Project approved in Federal Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). ·

City of Gilroy is working with Caltrans to obligate funds.

Project: Housing Services Partnership

Sponsor: City of San Jose

Grant Amount: $180,000

MTC Approved: No

Funding Type: N.A.

Current Status: Project ineligible for funding sources. ·

Scope change proposed.

Project: Community Transportation

Sponsor: VTA

Grant Amount: $1,000,000

MTC Approved: No

Funding Type: N.A.

Current Status: Project ineligible for funding sources. ·

Project canceled

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