Capital District                                                                                               October 12, 2007

Transportation Committee      

 

 

REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION COORDINATION COMMITTEE

RECORD OF MEETING

 

DATE/TIME: September 27, 2007 1:30 pm3:00 pm

 

ATTENDANCE: Luis Acosta—CDTA; Tammy Brooks—Catholic Charities of Schenectady County;  Pat Design—Saratoga County DSS; Ed Dugrenier—CDPC/Sch’dy Vocational Services; Rocky Ferraro—CDRPC; Paul Germain—Albany County DSS; Matthew Haas—NYSDOT; Gloria Hessell—OTDA; Chuck Rapazzo—NYSDOT; Jane Schramm—Senior services of Albany; Deb Stacey—CDTC Staff;

 

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

 

RTCC Activities: 

a.   JARC Funding Application —CDTC staff solicited for JARC projects using Legal Notices in the four area newspapers.  Project applications were due on September 5th.  CDTA was the only organization that submitted an application.  CDTA requested funding for trip planners and for the Safety Net Brokerage program.  Representatives from CDRPC, Catholic Charities and CDTC reviewed and evaluated CDTA’s application.  The reviewers gave CDTA an average score of 94 (out of 100) on their application.  The reviewers liked CDTA’s plan to add an additional trip planner in Saratoga, assign a staff person as the “mobility manager” and to purchase a hybrid-electric vehicle for use by the trip planners.  CDTA received a few negatives with regard to the information provided on program evaluation and because Schenectady County did not submit a letter of support.  The RTCC concurred that it is desirable to fund CDTA’s application in full.

b.     Next Steps—CDTA must wait for NYSDOT to officially designate the authority as the “designated recipient” before CDTA can submit to FTA for the release of the JARC funds.  The RTCC asked about the status of the designated recipient issue.  NYSDOT responded that the governor needs to write a letter to FTA appointing the NYSDOT commissioner as the designee.  The RTCC recommended that a letter be drafted to the governor expressing concern that there might be a funding gap if the designated recipient issue does not get resolved.

 

Access to Jobs:

a.     CST Funding Update—$1.9 M in CST funds have been approved for 2007/08 for the entire state.  Gloria Hessell’s office received 39 applications; 35 projects were funded.  Letters announcing award amounts will be distributed later this week.  CDTA will receive monies to continue the pass program for Albany, Rensselaer and Schenectady counties.

 

 

 

 

United We Ride/Albany County DSS:

a.     Working Group Activities—Elizabeth Martin left her position at the Albany County Department of Social ; no further work on this initiative has occurred since her departure.

New Freedom Program:

a.      Draft Solicitation—The RTCC was emailed a copy of the draft solicitation for the New Freedom program prior to this meeting.  The RTCC suggested that the application be modified to stress the reporting requirements of a sub-recipient.  Clarification regarding the 10% administrative line item was also requested.

b.      Next Steps--CDTC staff will modify the application based on the comments received from the RTCC.  Once the draft application is finalized, the funding solicitation will be advertised using Legal Notices.  A one page informational sheet with a cover letter will also be drafted for distribution to area human service agencies.  NYSDOT will provide contact names and mailing addresses for human service agencies that have received Section 5310 funds over the past few years. The funding solicitation will also be posted on CDTC’s website.

   

NEXT MEETING:

 

The next meeting of the Regional Transportation Coordination Committee is scheduled for Thursday January 10, 2008 at 1:30 pm at CDTC’s offices.