Capital District May 22, 2006

Transportation Committee

REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION COORDINATION COMMITTEE

RECORD OF MEETING

DATE/TIME: Wednesday April 12, 2006, 9:30 am – 11:30

ATTENDANCE: Luis Acosta—CDTA; Tammy Brooks—Catholic Charities of Schenectady County; Vince Colonno—Albany County Department for the Aging; Carol Croak—Project HIRE; Linda Doyle—Albany County Department of Social Services; Paul Germain--Albany County Department of Social Services; Rocky Ferraro—CDRPC; Kathy Fletcher—Clearview Center; Jim Liston--NYSDOT; Carmel Patrick—Senior Services of Albany; Jeanette Raynor—NYSDOL; Deb Stacey—CDTC Staff; Maryellen Casey Usis—CDTA; Kristina Younger—CDTA

STUDY DISCUSSION SUMMARY: After introductions, Deb Stacey from CDTC and Kristina Younger from CDTA described the purpose creating the Regional Transportation Coordination Committee. Subsequent to that discussion, the outline was followed for additional discussion items:

Safetea-Lu Requirements:

a. Interim Guidance—The March 15^th Federal Register contains the Interim Guidance with respect to the coordination of the JARC, New Freedom and Section 5310 programs. CDTA and CDTC staffs have some concerns regarding the guidance and will be drafting letters to voice these concerns. The public comment period ends May 20th. The comment letters will be shared with the RTCC. Very generally, CDTC and CDTA have questions regarding the role of the designated recipient, the solvency of the JARC program, the expectations of the coordinated plan and the distribution of the New Freedom money allocated to Saratoga Springs.

b. Designated Recipient—CDTA is the designated recipient for JARC funds. CDTA created a four county JARC Planning Committee that has helped program the funds for a variety of innovative transit projects. The interim guidance does not explicitly provide for transit agencies to be the designated recipient of New Freedom funds, but mentions that perhaps the MPO could take over this function. CDTC has no interest in assuming this role but has offered to take over the “JARC” committee, expand it and manage the expanded coordination committee (RTCC).

c. Coordinated Plan—The guidance indicates that recipients of JARC, New Freedom and 5310 funds must certify that projects selected were derived from a “locally developed, coordinated public transit-human services transportation plan”. It further states that the “plan” must be derived from a process that includes representatives of public and non-profit transportation human service providers, participation by the public and participation from those representing the needs of welfare recipients and eligible low-income individuals. CDTC proposes to take charge of this item.

d. Proposed Approach--The proposed process would be to expand the JARC committee (into the RTCC), document all coordination activities that have taken place in the Capital District over the last decade or so (1989 Human Service Agency Survey, JARC, United We Ride, STAR, 5310 input, etc) and identify, with the RTCC where the gaps are. The plan of action will be a natural outcome of this process.

Access to Jobs:

a. CST Funding Update—CST funds were cut from the Governor’s budget, but are part of a legislative line item—the future of CST funding is still very much up in the air. CST monies have been used to pay for the transit pass program, which provides passes to the county DSS offices for distribution to people within 200% of poverty income that need transportation to get to work. In order to make ends meet, the DSS’s are currently providing passes only to those that are TANF eligible. The CST monies will run out within six months at the current rate of distribution (to TANF recipients). CDTA is prepared to sell transit passes to the DSS’s at a “super discounted” rate if the CST program ends, and to start this rate earlier for those counties that agree to convert to corporate customers when CST funding runs out as a way to stretch CST funding further. So far, only Albany County has signed an agreement to continue the pass provision as a corporate customer (at the discounted rate). CDTA has also worked with Albany County to assess and convert when appropriate the client population that is eligible to the half-fare card, which provides savings above and beyond the corporate program. The other three counties are strongly encouraged to develop a pass provision plan in cooperation with CDTA for when CST funding is depleted.

b. JARC Funding Update—JARC funding has become a formula based appropriation, and is no longer distributed as a competitive discretionary program. This means that CDTA will see their JARC funding cut in half from previous allotments. The current grant allocation will continue the program as is (3 trip planners and brokered taxi rides for safety net situations) through calander year 2007.

DDPC Funding Opportunity:

a. Albany County DSS, CDTA and CDTC will work together to put together a grant application for the NYS Developmental Disabilities Planning Council’s Funding Opportunity for demonstration projects that address transportation barriers to employment. Luis Acosta, Linda Doyle, Deb Stacey, and Kristina Younger will meet shortly to discuss project ideas. The letter of intent is due May 22^nd. Final grant applications are due June 5^th.

Other:

a. United We Ride—The next meeting of the United We Ride group is scheduled for Wednesday May 17^th. Two stakeholder group meetings were held in April and May and were very well attended. A working group was formed to explore options for a third entity to provide maintenance services, loaner vehicles, technical assistance or even take over their whole transportation operations.

NEXT MEETING:

The next meeting of the Regional Transportation Coordination Committee is scheduled for Wednesday June 14, 2006 at 10:00 am at CDTC’s offices. The meeting subsequent to this date is penciled in for Wednesday September 13, 2006.