Capital District                                                                                               June 15, 2006

Transportation Committee      

 

 

REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION COORDINATION COMMITTEE

RECORD OF MEETING

 

DATE/TIME: Wednesday June 14, 2006, 10:00 am – 11:30 am

 

ATTENDANCE: Luis Acosta—CDTA; Tammy Brooks—Catholic Charities of Schenectady County; Carol Croak—Project HIRE; Linda Doyle—Albany County Department of Social Services; Rocky Ferraro—CDRPC; Denise Figueroa—Independent Living Center of the Hudson Valley; Kathy Fletcher—Clearview Center; Paul Germain--Albany County Department of Social Services; Gloria Hessell—NYSDOL Office of Temporary & Disability Assistance (OTDA); Jim Liston--NYSDOT; Bob Smith—Schenectady County Department of Social Services; Deb Stacey—CDTC Staff; Kristina Younger—CDTA

                                                                                                     

STUDY DISCUSSION SUMMARY: After introductions, the items on the agenda were discussed in sequence:

 

DDPC Funding Opportunity:

a.     Grant Proposal—Albany County DSS, CDTA and CDTC staffs met to discuss the work elements that would be submitted under the proposal for NYS Developmental Disabilities Planning Council’s Funding.  CDTA staff drafted the proposal and CDTC staff and Albany County DSS staff reviewed the drafts for consistency and accuracy.  Essentially, the proposal requests funding for a fourth trip planner, with expertise and training in mobility issues for the disabled population.  The trip planner would be housed at the Albany One Stop.  Although housed at the One-Stop in Albany, this trip planner will provide service throughout the Capital Region workforce area.  The proposal also requests funding for a second initiative that will involve hiring a disability training consultant to transform the survey data (that will be collected under the SAFETEA-LU and United We Ride planning efforts) into both a printed directory and an ADA-compliant on-line, searchable directory.

b.     Time Frame—The grant proposal was due on June 6th.  CDTA hopes to be notified by this fall.

RTCC Activities: 

a.   Response to March 15th Interim Guidelines--CDTA and CDTC each prepared a response to the interim guidelines published in the March 15th Federal Register regarding coordination of the JARC, New Freedom and Section 5310 programs. Copies of the letters were distributed at the meeting.  Very generally, as discussed at the April RTCC meeting, CDTC and CDTA questioned 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.     “Coordinated Plan” Development—CDTC staff began reviewing files that they have kept since the late 1980’s regarding coordination issues. CDTC conducted a survey of human service agencies in both the late 1970’ and 1980’s.  During the early 1990’s, staff convened, with CDTA, a group of service providers from the four counties to discuss the potential of coordination services.  The group met 7 times.  Their work culminated in drafting a list of barriers to coordination with attendant recommended solutions.  This list was forwarded to NYSDOT.  NYSDOT reacted only to the item regarding the section 16(b)(2) program (which is now called section 5310).  The list of barriers was distributed to the RTCC.

During the mid 1990’s, the Ballston Spa Central School District convened another group for the purpose of discussing the potential of coordination in Saratoga County.  This group met several times and conducted a small scale survey of the group members in an attempt to identify areas where coordination could begin to happen.  One idea emerged—the creation of a substitute driver pool that all agencies could draw from.  This group did not get much further than formulating the idea on paper.  The SCOTS program (Statewide Coordinated Transportation Study) began about this time, and efforts veered toward producing proposals for SCOTS funding.  Seven proposals were received from Human Service Agencies located in all four counties of the Capital Region.

In 1993, CDTC undertook a major effort to draft a comprehensive “New Visions” Regional Transportation Plan.  This effort involved a lot of public outreach, and created 11 task forces to delve into a variety of transportation issues.  One task force, “Special Transportation Needs” developed recommendations for transportation improvements that would improve coordination and improve conditions for the elderly and mobility disabled.  These principles and recommendations are still part of the current New Visions regional transportation plan.

CDTC staff feels that this “history”, including CDTA’s efforts using JARC and CST funds, and the United We Ride Effort should be summarized to provide background for the ”coordinated plan”.  CDTC staff will begin to summarize these efforts over the next few months and will share the draft summary report with the RTCC.

CDTC has also committed to a re-survey of the Human Service Agencies in the Capital District.  Albany County, under the United We Ride effort, plans to survey agencies located in Albany County.  CDTC plans to coordinate with the UWR effort, using the same survey instrument, and survey agencies located in Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties.  CDRPC staff will help define the survey mailing lists.  CDTC staff will summarize the data collected from Human Service Agencies located in the entire region (all four counties)

 

Access to Jobs:

a.     CST Funding Update—It is predicted that the CST monies will run out this July 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 “super” 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—The current grant allocation will continue the program as is (3 trip planners and brokered taxi rides for safety net situations) through calendar year 2007.  CDTA will submit for additional JARC funds in the 2007 Federal Fiscal Year.

 

United We Ride

a.     Working Group Activities—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. This group will meet in July.  This group hopes to conduct forums on insurance, maintenance and NYSDOT inspections, among other subject areas.

b.     Status of Funding—Albany County has about $25,000 left from Phase 1 and has submitted for an additional $25,000 under Phase 2 of the United We Ride effort.  NYSDOT is working on extending the time limits for the Phase 1 funding and is working on securing the Phase 2 funding.  The Albany County DSS would like to combine the funds to do something meaningful in the implementation phase.  The DSS and CDTC staff (with the aid of CDRPC) will be conducting a survey of human service agencies to determine transportation needs and issues.  Staff from these agencies will meet in June to start work on the survey design and mailing lists.

 

NEXT MEETING:

 

The next meeting of the Regional Transportation Coordination Committee is scheduled for Wednesday September 20, 2006 at 10:00 am at CDTC’s offices.  The meeting subsequent to this date is penciled in for Wednesday November 15, 2006.