Technical Advisory Committee

CALL TO ORDER

The Regular Meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) was called to order at 1:34 p.m. by Chairperson McNeely in Conference Room B-104, Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), 3331 North First Street, San Jose, California.

ROLL CALL

Members Present                                 Members Present

John Curtis                                              Gayle Likens

Geoff Goodfellow                                    Mike McNeely

Robert Jeffrey                                          Michael Murdter

Joan Jenkins                                           Jim Porter

Robert Kass                                             Ben Tripousis

Jim Lightbody                

Members Absent                                  Members Absent

David Bischoff                                        Ralph Qualls

Mintze Cheng                                         Marvin Rose

John Cherbone                                       Rick Smelser

A quorum was present.

PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS

There were no Public Presentations.

Minutes of March 13, 2003

M/S/C (Witthaus/Tripousis) to approve the Minutes of March 13, 2003.

NOTE:  M/S/C MEANS MOTION SECONDED AND CARRIED AND, UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED, THE MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

Committee Staff Report

Michael P. Evanhoe, Chief Development Officer, provided a brief report noting: 1) VTA Board of Directors Workshop Meeting scheduled for Friday, April 25, 2003, and 2) California Transportation Commission (CTC) regarding State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) project funding allocations of $600 million this funding cycle.

Members Lightbody and Likens took their seats at 1:42 p.m.

Member Curtis took his seat at 1:45 p.m.

Chairpersons Report

There was no Chairpersons Report.

Mr. Evanhoe requested that Agenda Item # 8., Discuss proposed transit and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) paratransit fare modifications for implementation August 1, 2003, be taken out of order.

The Agenda was taken out of order.

Fare Modifications for FY 2003 - 2004

Scott Buhrer, Chief Financial Officer, provided a brief overview on the Fare Modifications for FY 2003 - 2004.  Mr. Buhrer noted that the A & F Committee Members originally recommended a fare increase be implemented as soon as feasible at the November 21, 2002 A & F Committee Meeting.  Mr. Buhrer commented on the recommendations from VTA Board of Directors requesting that the Business Review Team (BRT) analyze VTAs operation efficiency and to develop a sustainable financial path for VTA.  Mr. Buhrer noted that BRT recommended that VTA should increase fare-box recovery ratio and added that Ad-Hoc Consultants also recommended an increase to the fare-box recovery ratio.  Mr. Buhrer noted that VTAs fare-box recovery ratio is the lowest in the country.   Mr. Buhrer added that VTA has a fare-box recovery ratio of 12 percent, while other transit agencies fare-box recovery ratio ranges from 20 to 25 percent.  Mr. Buhrer noted the extensive amounts of discounts to the following fare categories: Youth, Senior/Disabled and Monthly Passes.  Mr. Buhrer noted that the goal is to bring multiples in line with comparable transit agencies.  Mr. Buhrer noted that the majority of public comments received from the public meetings were from the senior/disabled community noting the price increase is too great.  Mr. Buhrer noted that the proposed increase in the Adult Fare Category from $1.50 to $1.75 would affect the paratransit pricing and premium fares, which are indexed against the Adult Fare Category.  Mr. Buhrer noted the modified staff proposal in the Adult Fare Category of $2 for Adult Day Pass and $20 for Adult Monthly Pass.

On order of Chairperson McNeely, there being no objection, the Fare Modifications for FY 2003 - 2004 was received and filed.

FY 2003/04 Transportation Fund for Clean Air Program Manager Fund (TFCA 40%) Project Allocations

Erin Chao, Transportation Planner III, provided a brief overview on the FY 2003 2004 Transportation Fund for Clean Air Program Manager Fund TFCA 40%) Project Allocations.  Ms. Chao noted that staff has not received the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) modifications to the FY 2003 - 2004 Cost Effective Modeling Worksheets.  Ms. Chao noted that the modified BAAQMD Modeling Worksheets scoring criteria may make project scoring results worse; therefore, recommendations may be impacted and need to be revised to reflect the modifications.  Ms. Chao noted that the BAAQMD Modeling Worksheets will not be available until mid-April. 

M/S/C (Murdter/Curtis) to recommend that the Board of Directors approve programming $2.7 million in Transportation Fund for Clean Air Program Manager (TFCA 40%) funds to the Competitive Projects and to the Tier 1 Bicycle Projects in the FY 2003/04 cycle.

FY 2003 2004 Congestion Management Program Work Program, Budget and Member Agency Fees to Member Agencies for review and comment

Mr. Evanhoe provided a brief overview on the Draft FY 03 04 Congestion Management Program (CMP) Work Program, Budget and Member Agency Fees.  Mr. Evanhoe commented on fiscal challenges currently being faced by Member Agencies and noted staffs proposal in the draft FY 2003 2004 CMP Work Program, Budget and Member Agency Fees to defer the 7 percent increase scheduled for FY 2003 2004 one year.  The result of this is that Members Agency fees would remain at the same amount as the current fiscal year.  Mr. Evanhoe noted Committee Members request for staff to revisit the draft Work Program and Budget to identify non-mandated tasks to defer or eliminate in order to further reduce FY 2003 - 2004 Member Agency fees.  Mr. Evanhoe noted that CMP now faces the likely deferred receipt or potential loss of SB 45 State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) Project Monitoring funds due to the states budget crisis.  The draft FY 03 04 CMP Budget contained $561,000 in revenue from this source.  Mr. Evanhoe noted that staff comprehensively reviewed and aggressively evaluated the Work Program and Budget to achieve the requested reduction in Member Agency Fees for FY 03 04 and to offset the potential loss of STIP Programmed Project Monitoring funds. 

Carolyn Gonot, Congestion Management Program Deputy Director, provided a brief overview on the most significant modifications proposed to the draft FY 2003 2004 CMP Work Program, Budget and Member Agency Fees: 1) eliminate annual CMP System Monitoring for FY 03 04, the elimination for this year will require Board action, 2) defer development of the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Expenditure Plan two years, until FY 05 06,
3) eliminate development of the Santa Clara Valley Deficiency Plan, this change would result in local jurisdictions being responsible for preparation of deficiency plans for non-conforming within their boundaries, 4) reduce Programmed Project Monitoring revenue from $561,000 to $0, 5) reduce consultant engineering services for Programmed Project Monitoring, and 6) eliminate consultant and contracted services, where feasible and replacing them with CMP staff.   

Member Lightbody left his seat at 2:20 p.m.

Member Lightbody took his seat at 2:25 p.m.

Committee Members requested that Santa Clara Valley Deficiency Plan be placed back into the Modified FY 2003 2004 CMP Work Program, Budget and Member Agency Fees.

M/S/C (Tripousis/Murdter) to recommend that the Board of Directors approve the Draft FY 03 04 Congestion Management Program Work Program, Budget and Member Agency Fees to Member Agencies with the recommendation to add item # 9., Santa Clara Valley Deficiency Plan back into the Modified FY 2003 2004 CMP Work Program, Budget and Member Agency Fees.

Programmed Projects Quarterly Monitoring Report for
January March 2003

Amin Surani, Senior Transportation Engineer, provided a brief overview on the Programmed Projects Quarterly Monitoring Report for January March 2003. Mr. Surani noted that the project summary sheet identifies projects in three categories: 1) Red Projects at the risk of losing funds due to delivery difficulties, 2) Yellow Projects that may need extra attention or will risk running into difficulties and 3) Green Project is progressing smoothly.  Mr. Surani noted that staff is working with project sponsors with projects in the Yellow category.  Mr. Surani added that the next Programmed Projects Quarterly Monitoring Report will be prepared for the quarter ending June 2003.

On order of Chairperson McNeely, there being no objection, the Programmed Projects Quarterly Monitoring Report for January March 2003 was received and filed.

Proactive Congestion Management Program (CMP) Reviewed and Approved Projects Monthly Status Report

On order of Chairperson McNeely, there being no objection, the Proactive Congestion Management Program (CMP) Reviewed and Approved Projects Monthly Status Report was received and filed.

Announcements

There were no Announcements.

ADJOURNMENT               

On order of Chairperson McNeely, there being no objection, the Committee adjourned at 2:30 p.m.