1 2 3 4 5 FY 2003-04 and 2004-05 FEDERAL TRANSIT 6 ADMINISTRATION SECTION 5307 and 5309 FIXED 7 GUIDEWAY (FG) PROGRAM and FY 2003-04 FEDERAL 8 TRANSIT ADMINISTRATION'S PROGRAM OF 9 planning/TIP AMENDMENT 03-16 10 11 12 13 ---oOo--- 14 15 16 17 Taken before CYNTHIA T. WALLIS 18 Certified Shorthand Reporter 19 State of California 20 CSR No. 12369 21 March 3, 2004 22 23 24 25 EMERICK AND FINCH (925)831-9029 1 1 A P P E A R A N C E S 2 3 Metropolitan Transportation Commissioners: 4 Dorene M. Goacopini, U.S. Department of Transportation 5 Sheila Young, Cities of Alameda County 6 Scott Haggerty, Alameda County 7 John McLemore, Cities of Santa Clara County 8 Michael D. Nevin, San Mateo County 9 Sharon Wright, Sonoma County and Cities 10 Pamela Torliatt, Association of Bay Area Governments 11 John Rubin, San Francisco's Mayor Appointee 12 13 Metroplolitan Transportation Commission Staff: 14 Therese W. McMillian, Deputy Director/Operations 15 Ann Flemer, Deputy Director/Policy 16 Steve Heminger, Executive Director 17 Francis Chin, General Counsel 18 Brenda Germany, Secretary 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 EMERICK AND FINCH (925)831-9029 2 1 (Proceedings started at 10:19 a.m.) 2 3 R E C O R D O F P R O C E E D I N G S 4 5 COMMISSIONER HAGGERTY: The public hearing 6 today will be on Fy 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 Federal 7 Transit Administration Section 5307 and 5309 Fixed 8 Guideway Program and FY 2003-2004 Federal Transit 9 Administration's Program of planning/TIP Amendment 03-16. 10 The programming and Allocations Committee would 11 like to conduct a public hearing at this time on MTC's 12 2004, 2005 FTA Program of Projects and projects listed in 13 the TIP amendment 03-16. Please note that the purpose of 14 this hearing is to receive public comment only. Formal 15 action on this item is scheduled for today's Committee 16 meeting and then for -- and then to the full Commission 17 later this month on March 24th, 2004. If you would like 18 to speak during the public hearing, you may fill out a 19 blue comment card and give to the Committee staff. 20 I would now like to introduce Kate Miller, 21 a MTC staff member who has prepared the FTA Program 22 of Projects. 23 MS. MILLER: Thank you, Commissioner. 24 COMMISSIONER HAGGERTY: Your welcome. 25 MS. MILLER: My name is Kate Miller, and I'm on EMERICK AND FINCH (925)831-9029 3 1 the Programming and Allocations staff. 2 Before I begin, I would like to point out that 3 there is a court reporter here to transcribe today's 4 proceedings. 5 There are two elements that form the subject 6 of today's public hearing: The 2004 and 2005 Federal 7 Transit Administration Section 5307 and 5309 Fixed 8 Guideway Programs included as MTC Resolution No. 3616, 9 and the FTA Program of Projects annual TIP amendment 10 03-16, which is a revision to MTC Resolution 3500. 11 As the designated recipient of the FTA formula 12 funds for grantees in the region's 12 urbanized areas 13 which covers transit operators in all nine Bay Area 14 counties, MTC is responsible for programming the FTA 15 formula grant funds in the transportation improvement 16 program or TIP. MTC Resolution 3616 is the proposed 17 program for these funds in the fiscal year 2004 and 18 2005 and recommends programming almost $600 million 19 to fund regional transit capital and operating needs. 20 Attachments A and B to MTC Resolution 3616 list the 21 individual projects by operator and urbanized area. 22 The proposed program is a culmination of many 23 discussions among members of the Bay Area Partnership, 24 which includes representatives from the region's 25 transit agencies, counties, cities, federal and state EMERICK AND FINCH (925)831-9029 4 1 transportation agencies. MTC's planning process for 2 programming these funds meets with the federal 3 requirements outlined in Title 49, Chapter 53. 4 MTC programs to revenue estimates. Each 5 year when the federal budget is passed and the formula 6 apportionments are released, MTC constrains the FTA 7 formula programs to the amount of the apportionment for 8 each urbaznized area. The FY 2004 apportionments were 9 released on February 11th, therefore the 2004 program is 10 constrained to the actual apportionment levels. However, 11 the FY 2005 budget -- sorry, the 2005 program will be 12 adjusted next year when Congress passes the 2005 budget 13 and the apportionments are known. 14 Resolution 3500 is the 2003 Transportation 15 Improvement Program. The federally required TIP is a 16 comprehensive listing of all Bay Area transportation 17 projects that have federal funds or are regionally 18 significant to require a federal action. TIP amendment 19 03-16 is the annual "all transit" TIP amendment which 20 is comprised of three parts. Attachment 1 lists the 21 projects that have been amended into the TIP or have been 22 revised and includes the 2004 and 2005 FTA programs which 23 are in MTC Resolution 3616. Attachment 2 lists projects 24 that for various reasons cannot be amended into the TIP 25 at this time, but are the subject of today's public EMERICK AND FINCH (925)831-9029 5 1 hearing. Attachment 3 is a list of public comments 2 received since February 20th, the beginning of the public 3 comment period. This attachment will be updated at the 4 end of the public comment period on March 22nd in 5 preparation for March 24th when the Commission is 6 scheduled to take action on this amendment. Projects 7 included in the FTA program of projects are funded with 8 Federal Transit Administration Sections 5307, 5309, 5310, 9 5311, and Job Access and Reverse Commute Funds, and 10 Federal Highway Administration flexible funds. 11 The FTA requires that prior to granting 12 approval of funds for a particular grantee, the 13 grantee affords the public an opportunity to comment 14 on the program of projects it plans to undertake during 15 the federal fiscal year. FTA considers that a grantee 16 has met the public participation requirement associated 17 with the annual development of the program of projects 18 when the grantee follows the public involvement process 19 outlined in the FHWA and the FTA planning regulations for 20 the development of the TIP and any subsequent amendments. 21 FTA Region IX has stated that MTC is in compliance with 22 this requirement by using locally adopted public 23 involvement process for the TIP. 24 All projects in the TIP amendment 03-16 are 25 fully funded, and the revisions will not affect the air EMERICK AND FINCH (925)831-9029 6 1 quality conformity or financial constraint requirements 2 of the TIP. 3 MTC published a public hearing notice for the 4 2004 and 2005 FTA Programs and TIP amendment 03-16 in 5 12 Bay Area newspapers. These materials were also sent 6 to city and county libraries, interested individuals 7 and interested agencies. It was distributed for public 8 review on February 20th. Public comments on the TIP 9 amendment are solicited and will be received until close 10 of business on March 22nd. 11 MTC has already received several comments since 12 the TIP amendment was distributed for public review. 13 These comments are included on Attachment 3, which you 14 should have before you. They're also available on the 15 adjacent table. This list includes all public comments 16 received by MTC as of this morning. 17 These comments will be considered, along 18 with any other comments received by close of business on 19 March 22nd, for incorporation into the FTA Program of 20 Projects and TIP Amendment 03-16, as appropriate. TIP 21 amendment 03-16, along with the public comments and 22 respective staff recommended action, will be presented 23 to the Commission at the regularly scheduled meeting on 24 March 24th. 25 That includes my statement. Thank you. EMERICK AND FINCH (925)831-9029 7 1 MS. MILLER: Thank you, Ms. Miller. B. 2 COMMISSIONER HAGGERTY: Before I conduct this 3 public hearing, are there questions? 4 I have a few speaker cards. 5 David Schonbrunn. 6 MR. SCHONBRUNN: David Schonbrunn, TRANSDEF. 7 First, I would like to report that last night 8 your Chair, Steve Kinsey, was re-elected to a new 9 four-year term with 54 percent of the vote against 10 two challengers. So he does not have to campaign 11 in November, and he'll have more time for Commission 12 activities. 13 I want to thank the Committee for placing this 14 hearing -- 15 COMMISSIONER HAGGERTY: I was '99 percent of 16 the vote. 17 MR. SCHONBRUNN: Congratulations. I hadn't 18 heard. 19 COMMISSIONER HAGGERTY: We're currently -- 20 we're currently reassessing the taxes. 21 MR. SCHONBRUNN: I would like to thank you for 22 placing this hearing on your Committee's agenda. That is 23 the appropriate place for it, and we appreciate that. 24 I have some comments having to do with 25 generating capacity for making your PAC documents more EMERICK AND FINCH (925)831-9029 8 1 accessible to the public. They are quite arcane and 2 that's in some ways a function of the difficulty of the 3 subject matter, but I believe that it is possible for 4 them to be translated into English so that Committee 5 members and members of the public can actually review 6 them and really what it is that's going on. 7 And so there are definitions that are needed, 8 there's explanatory language, there's framing language 9 that would be very helpful if -- if they were provided 10 to a company to document. Also within the document 11 are a series of discretionary decisions that are not 12 transparent, and I'll just throw out two that came to 13 mind. One is the amount of money going to TransLink 14 at this point in time, and the decision to proceed with 15 retrofit or with a new ferry for Golden Gate. I kind 16 of wonder how these come to the top in terms of regional 17 priorities, and I think that having a description of the 18 process whereby these decisions were made would, again, 19 assist in transparency. 20 Finally, your organization has a very important 21 oversight for it's recipient agencies, and I want to call 22 to your attention to decisions that are being made right 23 now by one of them. VTA, in terms of going into debt 24 to fund preliminary engineering for the San Jose BART 25 extension, when the project has no funding outlined to EMERICK AND FINCH (925)831-9029 9 1 make it actually succeed, what's happening is your TIP 2 amendment today is providing them with preventive 3 maintenance funds, which is entirely appropriate, but 4 given the intense financial problems of that agency, 5 they're essentially digging themselves in deeper into 6 a hole by going into debt to fund P.E. with no sources 7 identified to provide debt service. 8 And so given your oversight responsibilities, 9 TRANSDEF thinks it's very important that your agency pull 10 their preliminary engineering projects out of the TIP, 11 because this is not appropriate for an agency that is 12 on -- that is in the process of going over the cliff. 13 Our question -- our question to you is, are you going 14 to stand by and watch them go over the cliff, or are you 15 going to take affirmative action to reign them in and 16 make them be fiscally responsible, because MTC will take 17 a hit. 18 COMMISSIONER HAGGERTY: Mr. Nevelyn. 19 MR. SCHONBRUNN: Thank you very much. 20 COMMISSIONER HAGGERTY: Thank you. 21 Mr. Nevelyn. 22 MR. NEVELYN: Richard Nevelyn, Commissioners, 23 frequent transit rider and observer. 24 Public hearings like this are important and 25 public outreach is critical, but the MTC, like so many EMERICK AND FINCH (925)831-9029 10 1 other groups, once a public hearing is over, seems to 2 turn it's head away. 3 Continuing listening and monitoring of public 4 acceptance of the projects and feedback to the public. 5 is critical. That -- I have gone through AC Transit 6 documents the middle of last year and customer complaints 7 come in and little is done, and people want feedback or 8 some comment about what is being done about their 9 complaint. So in 600 people -- when I looked, 600 people 10 wanted some feedback. 49 responses were made, but what 11 happened with the other 500 or so people? They just 12 dropped through the cracks. I believe that closing the 13 loop is critical to finding public acceptance for public 14 transit and that MTC should make some performance figures 15 and some monitoring part of the programs that they 16 develop for the near future. 17 Thank you. 18 COMMISSIONER HAGGERTY: Thank you. 19 With that, I have no other speakers. So I 20 assume that I would need a motion to close the public 21 hearing and also move to the full Commission; is that 22 correct? 23 COMMISSIONER WRIGHT: Moved. 24 COMMISSIONER McLEMORE: So moved. 25 COMMISSIONER HAGGERTY: Moved by Write; EMERICK AND FINCH (925)831-9029 11 1 seconded by McLemore. 2 Is there any objection or motion? 3 Motion will pass without objection. 4 (Proceedings were concluded at 10:33 a.m.) 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 EMERICK AND FINCH (925)831-9029 12 1 CERTIFICATE OF REPORTER 2 3 I, CYNTHIA T. WALLIS, hereby certify that said 4 proceedings were taken in shorthand by me, a Certified 5 Shorthand Reporter of the State of California, and were 6 thereafter transcribed by computer-aided transcription, 7 and that the foregoing transcript constitutes a full, 8 true and correct report of said proceedings which took 9 place. 10 11 That I am a disinterested person in the said action. 12 13 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 14 on date ___________________________. 15 16 17 18 19 ______________________ CYNTHIA T. WALLIS 20 CSR No. 12369 21 22 23 24 25 EMERICK AND FINCH (925)831-9029 13