The leadership group for the Task Force on Sustainable Revenues for Supportive Housing Services to End Homelessness made a presentation at the board’s May 22, 2014 working session. Their recommendations include the goal of building a $50 million endowment over 20 years. Payouts from the endowment would fund supportive services – such as treatment for mental illness and substance abuse – with the intent of addressing the root causes of homelessness. The concept is called permanent supportive housing, and is part of the community’s broader  Blueprint to End Homelessness, which was created in 2004 and is being updated.

A possible millage – recommended at 0.25 mills, for no more than 20 years – would help fund supportive services while the endowment is built. County commissioners are being asked to consider putting such a millage on the ballot, possibly in 2015.

Several steps have already been taken to achieve these goals. An endowment was established in 2011, with $2.1 million in commitments so far. That amount includes a $1 million gift from the St. Joseph Mercy Health System to create the endowment, which is called the Sister Yvonne Gellise Fund for Supportive Services for Housing. Gellise is the former CEO of St. Joe’s. She served on the task force and is a founding board member of the Washtenaw Housing Alliance. Another $1 million commitment comes from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation (AAACF), where the endowment is housed. AAACF CEO Cheryl Elliott is another task force member. In addition, an anonymous donor has contributed $100,000.

The first fund distribution – of $26,100 – will be made this fall in a competitive grant process. AAACF’s distribution committee – an all-volunteer group – will be responsible for making grant recommendations.

AAACF is also helping provide a three-year, part-time development job to support fundraising for this endowment. Funding for the position will come from the Washtenaw Housing Alliance ($25,000), the AAACF ($5,000) and an anonymous donor ($10,000).

The foundation posted the position earlier this summer, with the intent of making a hire as soon as possible. The position would be in place until at least mid-2017. The employee will report to AAACF’s vice president for development and donor services, and to the Sister Yvonne Gellise Fund development committee. Members of that committee are the same people who’ve served on the leadership team of the task force, Elliott said. In addition to herself, members include Bob Chapman, Sister Yvonne Gellise, Bob Guenzel, Norm Herbert and Dave Lutton.

This brief was filed from the county administration building at 220 N. Main. in Ann Arbor. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

Former Washtenaw County administrator Bob Guenzel and Mary Jo Callan, director of the county’s office community & economic development, talk with former University of Michigan treasurer Norm Herbert before the start of the May 22, 2014 county board working session. Guenzel and Herbert are members of a task force on supportive housing. (Photos by the writer.)

The leadership team of the Task Force on Sustainable Revenues for Supportive Housing Services briefed commissioners on their recommendations, including the goal of building a $50 million endowment over 20 years. Payouts from the endowment would fund supportive services – such as treatment for mental illness and substance abuse – with the intent of addressing the root causes of homelessness. The concept is called permanent supportive housing, and is part of the community’s broader Blueprint to End Homelessness, which was created in 2004 and is being updated.

A possible millage – recommended at 0.25 mills, for no more than 20 years – would help fund supportive services while the endowment is built. County commissioners are being asked to consider putting such a millage on the ballot, possibly in 2015.

Former county administrator Bob Guenzel, a task force member, told commissioners that the task force believes this approach “is absolutely the right thing to do, to end homelessness and keep people housed. We feel very strongly about that. It’s a moral issue.” There’s also a strong business case for this approach when looking at the cost of emergency services and the criminal justice system, compared to the cost of permanent supportive housing, he said.

Several steps have already been taken to achieve these goals. An endowment was established in 2011, with $2.1 million in commitments so far. That amount includes a $1 million gift from the St. Joseph Mercy Health System to create the endowment, which is called the Sister Yvonne Gellise Fund for Supportive Services for Housing. Gellise is the former CEO of St. Joe’s. She’s on the task force and is a founding board member of the Washtenaw Housing Alliance. Another $1 million commitment comes from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation (AAACF), where the endowment is housed. AAACF Cheryl Elliott is another task force member. In addition, an anonymous donor has contributed $100,000.

The first fund distribution – of $26,100 – will be made this fall in a competitive grant process. AAACF’s distribution committee – an all-volunteer group – will be responsible for making grant recommendations.

AAACF is also helping provide a three-year, part-time development job to support fundraising for this endowment. Funding for the position will come from the Washtenaw Housing Alliance ($25,000), the AAACF ($5,000) and an anonymous donor ($10,000).

The foundation will post this position in early June, Elliott reported, with the intent of making a hire as soon as possible. The position would be in place until at least mid-2017. The employee will report to AAACF’s vice president for development and donor services, and to the Sister Yvonne Gellise Fund development committee. Members of that committee are the same people who’ve served on the leadership team of the task force, Elliott said. In addition to herself, members are Bob Chapman, Sister Yvonne Gellise, Bob Guenzel, Norm Herbert and Dave Lutton. They hope to get an additional two or three members, she said.

The next steps in this process include a request to the county board to sunset the task force at the June 4 board meeting. The board will also be asked to consider the task force’s recommendation for a millage. “Please use this year and into 2015 to set a millage strategy,” Elliott said.

The task force also stressed the importance of a public outreach and education effort, to help build awareness and support for the endowment.

The task force presentation was attended by five of the county’s nine commissioners. During their discussion, Conan Smith (D-District 9) expressed interest in having the county bond for this initiative – either for the full $50 million, or some portion of that amount. The county now has a triple-A bond rating, Smith noted. [That news had been announced earlier in the day. In general, higher ratings allow organizations to secure better terms for borrowing funds.] “This gives us an opportunity… to actually have some real impact in the community,” Smith said.

Task force members indicated that they hadn’t considered the option of bonding, and Elliott had some concerns about whether it would be legal to use taxpayer dollars for an endowment. They plan to explore the possibility, including consultation with legal counsel.

Background

By way of brief background, Washtenaw County and several other community partners developed the Blueprint to End Homelessness in 2004. Washtenaw Housing Alliance – a consortium of housing and shelter providers, social service agencies, and other groups that provide support services – was given the task of implementing the blueprint.

As part of the implementation efforts, in 2007 the county board created the Task Force on Sustainable Revenues for Supportive Housing Services. Its charge was this: “Explore locally viable long-term revenue sources for the creation and sustainability of supportive housing units and related services.”

The following year, the task force delivered a report and set of recommendations, which the county board adopted on Oct. 2, 2008. [.pdf of 2008 report and recommendations] As summarized in the report, the recommendations are:

Promote Supportive Housing in Washtenaw County: Mobilize new supportive housing service funding for 500 units at an average cost of $5,000/unit/year.

Charter an Implementation Process: Charter a “Phase II” planning and implementation process (via action of the Washtenaw County board of commissioners) to provide continuing leadership and coordination in advancing achievement of the recommendations articulated in this report of the Task Force on Sustainable Revenues for Supportive Housing Services.

Educate the Public: Design and launch a public education campaign focused on the nature and value of supportive services with an aim of raising community support and resources for supportive housing initiatives and the 500‐Unit Plan.

Secure Bridge Funding: Mobilize multi‐systems commitments of up to $1.2 million/year in public‐private resources as “bridge funding,” to support at least 200 units of supportive housing, based on the model being implemented through the Joint Integrated Funding Pilot Project in 2008‐2010. This gap funding will be replaced by new revenue sources, as described within this report.

Re‐allocate Mainstream Services Funding: Advocate with mainstream service systems to mobilize supplemental commitments of up to $500,000 per year in mainstream systems resources [e.g. Community Support & Treatment Services (CSTS), Employment Training & Community Services (ETCS), Head Start) to help address inflation in services costs and expand impact of new community investment in supportive housing services.

Establish User Fees: Establish a strategy to recruit appropriate consumer service contributions (user fees) toward supportive services costs in new units created through the 500‐Unit Plan.ƒ

Explore Millage Funding: Explore the development of a millage strategy that will generate the needed amount of dedicated and sustainable revenue over a period of time not to exceed twenty years.

Raise Endowment Funding: Raise $10‐20 million in new private/corporate/foundation funding to create a Supportive Housing Services Endowment (by 2014), sufficient to generate significant continuing revenues dedicated toward the total of ongoing services costs required for 500 new units of housing.

A leadership team was formed to work on the second phase of this effort, and workgroups were established in three areas: (1) public education; (2) millage strategy; and (3) private endowment.

The results of this effort were presented to county commissioners on May 22.

Task Force Presentation

Bob Chapman – the task force chair, CEO of United Bank & Trust, and chair of the Washtenaw Community College Foundation – introduced other members of the task force leadership team, who all attended the May 22 working session:

• Cheryl Elliott, president of the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation.
• Sister Yvonne Gellise, retired CEO of the Saint Joseph Mercy Health System.
• Bob Guenzel, retired Washtenaw County administrator.
• Norm Herbert, retired University of Michigan treasurer and associate vice president.
• Dave Lutton, president of the Charles Reinhart Company.

Their intent, Chapman said, was to give the county board some background about the Blueprint to End Homelessness and its plan for adding 500 units of permanent supportive housing, as well as the history of the task force. They would also introduce a plan for creating an endowment for supportive services, and would ask that the board formally dissolve the task force at its June 4 meeting.

Task force members Dave Lutton (standing) and Bob Guenzel.

Bob Guenzel told commissioners that this work goes back over 10 years. [It began when Guenzel was still county administrator. He retired in 2010.] The Blueprint to End Homelessness, which was developed in 2004, included major priorities that the community planned to focus on: (1) homeless prevention, to help keep people secure in their homes; and (2) housing with supportive services.

Regarding housing with services, Guenzel noted that the most difficult people to house are those who need services to help them find housing and to stay housed. The idea is to form a system of care and to engage the community to do that, he said. Dave Lutton chaired the committee on this topic, to develop realistic goals and to articulate why it’s important to provide supportive services.

Lutton spoke next, noting that there are currently about 350 units of permanent supportive housing in the county, so they haven’t met the target of 500 yet. People in these units earn below 30% of the area median income (AMI). The blueprint had called for 250 units for families and 250 units for individuals, with a goal of breaking the cycle of poverty and homelessness, “which is very challenging,” Lutton said.

Permanent supportive housing combines housing with services that people need, Lutton explained. The theory is that if housing is stabilized, there’s a better chance of addressing the underlying needs and challenges that contribute to homelessness, such as substance abuse and mental illness.

The agencies that form the Washtenaw Housing Alliance in reality are dealing with people who are earning about 15% AMI, Lutton said, so these are people who are extremely poor.

Contributing factors to homelessness are many and varied, Lutton said. Factors include lack of employment, drug and alcohol dependencies, physical disabilities, and mental illness – as well as a lack of support systems for the mentally ill, compared to a few decades ago. If people are housed, it’s much easier to tackle these other challenges, he said.

Someone living in permanent supportive housing pays no more than 30% of their income for rent. There are government vouchers and other subsidies that help offset the gap between that amount and the actual cost of housing, Lutton noted. The key factor is that the tenant holds the lease and it’s not limited by a length of tenancy. That’s another way to encourage housing stability, he said.

Permanent supportive housing requires property management, Lutton said, as well as a greater level of cooperation, coordination and communication with the landlord and support service providers. Participating landlords are “admirable, and know that they’re taking on a more challenging population than the mainstream public,” Lutton added, so it’s important to have a safety net – a quick, effective response – when a problem occurs.

Carole McCabe, executive director of Avalon Housing.

The whole system of supportive services is voluntary, Lutton explained. That is, it’s not thrust upon a family or individual. They agree to be open to the services. Services are customized according to each tenant’s needs, he noted, and include case management, crisis intervention, and assistance with all kinds of basic needs, including food and health care. When it’s done well, Lutton said, the tenant begins to feel like part of a community, and becomes connected to other tenants. “That again reinforces permanency,” he said. Lutton noted that tenants of the nonprofit Avalon Housing, which provides permanent supportive housing, stay an average of seven or eight years. A lot of what Avalon does is to create a sense of community for its tenants, he said.

Guenzel told commissioners that the task force believes this approach “is absolutely the right thing to do, to end homelessness and keep people housed. We feel very strongly about that. It’s a moral issue.”

More convincing to some people, Guenzel added, is that there’s a tremendous business case for this approach. Homelessness is very costly for taxpayers, he said. Studies – including research by the Corporation for Supportive Housing – have shown that emergency room and hospital in-patient days decreases by 50% for people who are in permanent supportive housing. Use of emergency detox services decreases by 80%. And earned income – which helps people get back on their feet, Guenzel noted – increases by 50%. So there’s a strong business case for this approach when looking at the cost of emergency systems compared to the cost of permanent supportive housing, he said.

Other community costs are also impacted, Guenzel noted. The average cost for permanent supportive housing is about $40 a day. That compares to the average daily cost of the state prison ($94), county jail ($129), and emergency shelter ($66). That’s a tremendous savings to taxpayers, he said, compared to the costs of the criminal justice system and homeless shelters.

In the past 10 years, new units of permanent supportive housing have come on line, Guenzel said. When the YMCA closed its downtown location, the city lost 100 units of low-income housing, he noted. Other units have come on line, but not all of them include support services. There are currently an estimated 350 units of permanent supportive housing, including about 75% that are managed by the nonprofit Avalon Housing. Most recently, Avalon opened a complex on Pauline Boulevard.

Guenzel noted that single-site complexes like the one on Pauline are more cost effective to offer supportive services, compared to housing at scattered sites with private landlords. But to meet the needs of the community, all types are necessary, he said.

Chapman spoke next, reminding commissioners that in 2007 the county board created the task force. Its charge was to “explore locally viable long-term revenue sources for the creation and sustainability of supportive housing units and related services.” In 2008, the task force delivered a report with recommendations, which was approved by the board.

From left: Norm Herbert, Cheryl Elliott, and Bob Chapman.

Those recommendations included starting a second phase of this effort, Chapman said. They created a leadership team and established workgroups in three areas: (1) public education; (2) millage strategy; and (3) private endowment.

Regarding public education, the real intent is to raise the public’s awareness and support for resources that would be needed to sustain supportive housing services. That was necessary, Chapman noted, because the task force’s main recommendation back in 2008 was to seek a voter-approved millage. The millage would provide dedicated revenue for a period not to exceed 20 years.

At the same time, the third initiative was to build a private endowment, Chapman explained. So at the end of a 20-year millage, there would be money available to replace those tax revenues.

However, starting in last 2008 there was a significant change, Chapman noted: “We went through the Great Recession.” That period included a reduction in state and federal funding sources, and “no appetite for a millage,” he said.

Norm Herbert picked up the presentation, noting that fundraising slowed down considerably in 2008 as well. So the task force decided to shift the priority away from a millage and toward building an endowment. They set an initial goal of $17 million. That amount was largely influenced by the amount it would take to fund supportive services for 136 units, Herbert said. They were using an annual cost of $5,000 per unit to provide the services.

The value of an endowment is that it’s permanent, and provides an annual payout in good and bad economic times, Herbert noted. “It’s a reliable source of revenue, and should provide the same or greater purchasing power over the time that these needed supportive services can be provided,” he said.

Given the challenges of building an endowment, it was important to determine “community readiness” for such an initiative, Herbert explained. The firm Hammond & Associates LLC was hired in 2013 to conduct that assessment. They held 21 one-on-one confidential interviews, as well as two group interviews. “We learned through that process that more community education was needed, both on the complexities of homelessness, and secondly, on the workings of an endowment fund and of how that would provide the ongoing needed support,” he said.

Sister Yvonne Gellise.

They also learned that professional expertise would be needed to assist with building the endowment. “It wasn’t just a matter of going out and asking for support, as we do with annual fund drives,” Herbert said. “This took on a different level of complexity, because people need to understand how an endowment works.”

Herbert reported that the task force has achieved some success so far. They established an endowment in 2011 and raised $2.1 million in commitments. That amount includes a $1 million gift from the St. Joseph Mercy Health System to create the endowment, which is called the Sister Yvonne Gellise Fund for Supportive Services for Housing. Gellise is the former CEO of St. Joe’s, and is a founding board member of the Washtenaw Housing Alliance.

Another $1 million commitment comes from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation (AAACF), where the endowment is housed. In addition, an anonymous donor has contributed $100,000.

Cheryl Elliot, the AAACF’s CEO, reported that the fund will disburse revenue annually using a process set up by AAACF with input from the Washtenaw Housing Alliance, the county’s office of community & economic development, and the coordinated funding partners. The first fund distribution, of $26,100, will be made this fall in a competitive grant process, she said.

The AAACF’s distribution committee – an all-volunteer group – will be responsible for making grant recommendations, Elliott said. She added that it looks like an additional $24,500 will be available for grants in 2015.

Regarding staff to help build the endowment, in March of 2014 the AAACF board agreed to contract a three-year part-time development position at the foundation solely to support the fund development efforts for this endowment. Up to $40,000 will be needed annually for this job, Elliott said, and will come from the Washtenaw Housing Alliance ($25,000), the AAACF ($5,000) and an anonymous donor ($10,000).

Felicia Brabec (D-District 4) was a member of the task force on sustainable revenues for supportive housing services.

The foundation will post this position in early June, Elliott reported, with the intent of making a hire as soon as possible. The position would be in place until at least mid-2017. The employee will report to AAACF’s vice president for development and donor services and the Sister Yvonne Gellise Fund development committee. Members of that committee are the same people who’ve served on the leadership team of the task force, Elliott said. In addition to herself, members are Bob Chapman, Sister Yvonne Gellise, Bob Guenzel, Norm Herbert and Dave Lutton. They hope to get an additional two or three members, she said.

The goals for the endowment itself are large but achievable, Elliot told commissioners. Over the next five years, the goal is to raise $5 million in gifts and pledges. For the seven to ten years after that, the goal is to raise $17 million. The long-term goal is to raise $50 million in 20 years – a combination of gifts, pledges and return on investments.

Elliott outlined next steps in the process, which includes asking the county board to sunset the task force at the June 4 board meeting. The board will also be asked to consider the task force’s recommendation for a millage. “Please use this year and into 2015 to set a millage strategy,” she said.

Gellise wrapped up the presentation, joking that “I’m getting a little tired of hearing my name – but at least it’s in connection with something good.” She hoped that commissioners saw the connection between having a home and improving the health of this community – referring to a presentation earlier in the working session by the county’s health officer, Ellen Rabinowitz.

Providing supportive services for housing is not only successful in keeping people housed, Gellise said, but is also cost-effective, with a good return on resources invested. “The bottom line – and I am a bottom-line person: It is the right thing to do. We need to do it,” she said.

Gellise thanked commissioners for their support, and asked them to “keep a millage on your radar screen.”

Board Discussion

Several of the five commissioners who attended the working session thanked the task force for their service.

Conan Smith (D-District 9) asked for clarification about the amount needed per unit to provide housing and supportive services. The $5,000 per unit annually is the cost to provide supportive services, to eventually be covered by the endowment. The $40 per day per unit is estimated rent – to be covered by both the tenant and any available subsidy.

Conan Smith (D-District 9).

Smith elicited from Cheryl Elliott the fact that the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation currently manages about $76 million in total assets. Elliott said the goal is to get an 8% return on investments to allow for a 5% spending policy and 3% inflation. The goal is to preserve the inter-generational equity or purchasing power of a gift or a fund, she said. So if someone set up a $10,000 endowment 50 years ago, “that fund had better be more than $10,000 today and have been paying out grant dollars every year,” Elliott said. AAACF staff and volunteers pay serious attention to that, she added.

Responding to additional queries from Smith, Elliott reported that AAACF was founded in 1963 and over those years the return on investments has varied. The way that funds are invested has also changed, she noted. Today the portfolio is very diverse, everything from traditional U.S. stocks to emerging markets and alternative investments – hedge funds, private equity, and real assets. Elliott noted that Norman Herbert sits on the foundation’s finance and investment committee.

Herbert said that over the last 20 years, AAACF has hit its target of an 8% return. In 2008, the portfolio lost 30.8% of its value, Elliott added, but the value was recouped two years after that. However, because the payout policy is based on a 16-quarter rolling average, AAACF was able to continue making grant payouts during that time, she noted.

Smith said he asked these questions to recognize that the AAACF has been doing this work for a long time, and has been quite successful.

Board Discussion: Bond vs. Millage

Conan Smith asked Bob Guenzel whether the task force had considered bonding as an option, rather than a millage. What if the county bonded for $50 million toward this initiative?

Andy LaBarre (D-District 7), one of the commissioners representing Ann Arbor, is chair of the board’s working sessions.

Guenzel replied that there would still need to be a revenue stream to pay off those bonds. Smith indicated that if the county borrows at a 2% interest rate and invests the money, getting a return of 8%, then bonds could be leveraged to pay off the debt. “It seems to me like we might be able to achieve the greater community goal in a less costly way, perhaps, in a partnership like that,” Smith said. Guenzel said they’d certainly be willing to consider it.

Smith reported that he and Mary Jo Callan – director of the county’s office of community & economic development – have been exploring the concept of “social impact” bonds as a mechanism for financing social programs. He said it would be worth taking time to look at the potential of bonding. It seemed to him like bonding would require a substantially lower revenue stream to pay it off.

The county now has a triple-A bond rating, Smith noted. [That news had been announced earlier in the day. In general, higher ratings allow organizations to secure better terms for borrowing funds.] “This gives us an opportunity, if we’re going to do projects that scale, to actually have some real impact in the community,” Smith said.

Herbert said there might be some arbitrage issues coming into play that could be a concern, so they’d need to look at that. He indicated that the possibility could be explored.

Smith then asked if the county is currently contributing to this initiative. Amanda Carlisle, executive director of the Washtenaw Housing Alliance, replied that the county provides support through its participation in coordinated funding. Avalon Housing, for example, is getting $85,000 from the county this year through coordinated funding. Carole McCabe, Avalon’s executive director, noted that the amount is a decrease from last year.

Guenzel described funding for housing and supportive services as a “hodge-podge,” including federal grants as well as the local coordinated funding.

Smith asked if the county’s contribution to Avalon Housing would be diminished, if the endowment were fully capitalized. Is that the intent? Guenzel replied that it might be the outcome, if the endowment is large enough. But “that’s a very long way off,” he added.

County administrator Verna McDaniel.

“I’m not so sure it is,” Smith responded. For the sake of argument, Smith said, let’s assume the county is making a $100,000 annual investment in supportive housing now. If the county wants to ensure that same amount is provided in perpetuity, adjusted for inflation, then they’d need to give the endowment $2 million, he said. Herbert clarified that Smith’s calculation assumes a 5% distribution rate, and that 4% would probably be more reasonable to assume.

Smith suggested that the county give the endowment $2 million, and also somehow ensure that its current grantees – like Avalon Housing – would be held harmless in terms of support from the county, until the remainder of the endowment is built.

Cheryl Elliott told Smith that in Michigan, it’s not legal to put public taxpayer dollars into an endowment like this. Herbert noted that these are issues that would need to be researched.

Dave Lutton reported that the task force has been working on the understanding that a 0.25 mill tax would fund 500 units of permanent supportive housing. “We don’t think that 500 units is all that’s needed in Washtenaw County in terms of housing or permanent supportive housing, but it’s a great leap from where we’ve been,” he said. So that’s the first target of this plan.

Elliott added that the idea of a millage stems from looking at what other communities are doing, and at what would work best for Washtenaw County – a permanent endowment. Herbert noted that the intent is to build the endowment so that after a period of time, the millage is no longer needed. The goal of $50 million would support 500 units, which was part of the original Blueprint to End Homelessness.

Smith ventured that there are some “interesting financial opportunities for the county to be a partner in this strategy going forward.” That might include a millage, bonding, or potentially using county funds in an endowment-type effort, he said. This is a public good and a public responsibility, Smith added, and it’s something that taxpayers should want to be a part of.

Yousef Rabhi (D-District 8).

Andy LaBarre (D-District 7) noted that an advisory committee will be looking at the use of the county-owned Platt Road property, a 13.5-acre site at 2260 and 2270 Platt Road. He thought there was an opportunity for affordable housing solutions at that location, and he asked the task force leadership team to consider advocating for that.

Related to the possible funding options, LaBarre asked how seriously should the county look at the possibility of bonding – assuming that a millage isn’t politically viable. Would the county’s upgraded credit rating have any kind of effect on that decision?

Herbert replied that legal counsel should be involved in helping to determine whether bonding is an option.

LaBarre then asked what the fallback plan would be, if a millage isn’t pursued or if voters reject it. Herbert responded: Under that scenario, the only real option would be to build the endowment through private donations. That’s an important part of the education initiative that the task force outlined, he said.

LaBarre wondered if there was any hope of support from the state or federal governments. “Not currently,” Herbert replied.

Felicia Brabec (D-District 4), who was part of the task force, thanked the leadership team for their work. She was amazed at their ingenuity, passion and dedication.

Yousef Rabhi (D-District 8) also thanked the task force. A lot of things that the county is celebrating now are due to work that’s happened in the past, he said. Former county administrator Bob Guenzel had laid a lot of groundwork for this, Rabhi added. There are a lot of challenges, he noted, but the community now understands what the problem is and is seriously tackling it.

There are a lot of creative ideas, Rabhi said. He agreed with LaBarre that there’s a great opportunity at the Platt Road site. It might not result in a cash contribution from the county, but the site could be used for supportive housing, affordable housing or even mixed-income housing, he said. The 13.5 acres might be more valuable if used for housing – more so than if it were sold, he noted.

Rabhi thought there was a role for commissioners to play, even as individual community members helping to raise awareness of this initiative and to help build the endowment. “We can and should certainly play an advocacy role in helping to lead the community movement toward making that endowment a reality.”

Present: Felicia Brabec, Andy LaBarre, Yousef Rabhi, Conan Smith, Dan Smith.

Absent: Kent Martinez-Kratz, Ronnie Peterson, Alicia Ping, Rolland Sizemore Jr.

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The farm parcels consist of property on either side of Vreeland Road, which is currently in agriculture production. Additional properties under the same ownership, adjacent to the farmland parcels, are also being considered for inclusion in the city’s greenbelt program, and the Vreeland Road properties are near other properties already protected as part of the greenbelt – the Meyer Preserve, the Jack R. Smiley Preserve and the Schultz conservation easement. Cherry Hill Nature Preserve is located just north of the property. [.jpg of greenbelt properties as of May 2014]

Here’s a dynamic map of properties outside the city already protected under the city’s greenbelt program. A 30-year open space and parkland preservation millage, which voters approved in 2003, funds both the greenbelt program as well as land acquisition for city parks. The border indicates the area where greenbelt funds can be spent to protect properties.

This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall located at 301 E. Huron.

It’s a Chronicle tradition to spend Election Day on two-wheeled transportation – a bicycle and a scooter – visiting as many precincts as possible and logging vignettes from the polls and points in between.

An Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority bus loading near Blake Transit Center.

But today’s vote – in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township – includes way more geographic territory than we’re accustomed to covering.

Instead of trying to visit as many polling places as possible, we’re going to settle for visiting a couple in each jurisdiction. And to cover the distance, we’re going to tap the resources of the organization that’s putting the millage on the ballot – the AAATA fixed route bus system.

So updates today will be light on polling places and heavy on the points in between. We hope readers will help fill in the gaps by leaving comments on this article with their own vignettes from the polls.

Whatever your view on the millage, we hope you’ll mark a ballot today.

7:00 a.m. Ward 5, Precinct 2 (Bach Elementary School, 600 W. Jefferson St., Ann Arbor). We’re voters 1 and 2 here. When we point out the irony of showing a driver’s license to vote on a public transit proposal, poll workers seem to like the joke. Poll worker with American flag sweater worked this precinct at the Nov. 5, 2013 election as well.

7:15 a.m. Fleetwood Diner. Getting coffee for the road, we ask if any of the staff is planning to vote. The waitress indicates that she will, but it’s sure where her polling place is located. For anyone who needs to find out that information, it’s available on the Michigan Votes website.

7:25 a.m. Blake Transit Center. Lobby doesn’t open until 7:30 a.m. With the sun beaming down, the five-minute wait outside in 32 F degree temperature is not too bad. Across Fifth Avenue outside the Ann Arbor District Library polling location there is a Yes sign, a No sign and a sign for mayoral candidate Sally Petersen. You can’t vote for Petersen today, as the transit millage is the only question on the ballot. Wonder if any other candidates will have the same strategy for getting their names in front of voters for the August primary.

8:06 a.m. Blake Transit Center. Bus #427 departs with a total of 6 passengers. A sign gives instructions: No smoking, no eating, no drinking, no loud music. no profanity. We comply.

8:14 a.m. Packard & Stadium. An automated message, delivered by a female voice, tells us “Vote May 6. Important public transit decisions are being made. Vote May 6.”

8:20 a.m. Stone School & Packard. Former Georgetown Mall site is level dirt. Ward 4 councilmember Margie Teall asked at last night’s council meeting for a status report on the Packard Square development that’s supposed to go in there. Potholes are rattling the bus pretty good.

8:25 a.m. Ellsworth & Platt. Noticed a dead deer on the side of the road. City council action last night included a resolution directing the development of a collaborative effort to manage the deer herd.

8:30 a.m. Carpenter & Packard. Course correction. Boarded the wrong variant of Route #5 to get to Polo Fields, an Ypsi Township polling location. So we’re off the bus, and around the corner to the stop on Packard, and we’re picking up the Route #5A.

9:00 a.m. Ypsi Township Precincts 2 & 3 (Polo Fields, 2955 Packard). Poll worker small talk includes speculation that today’s high temperature will hit 62 F.

9:02 a.m. Ypsi Township Precincts 2 & 3 (Polo Fields, 2955 Packard). Poll worker tells voter: “You’re voter #30. That’s your lottery number for today!” Another man walks in the door. When directed toward the voting station, he clarifies: “Oh, I’m not here to vote – I’m looking for the restroom.”

9:20 a.m. Ypsi Township Precincts 2 & 3 (Polo Fields, 2955 Packard). Scott Martin, an Ypsilanti Township trustee, comes in to vote. He chats with poll workers and thanks them for their service. Though it’s by no means busy, a consistent flow of voters are passing through – 43 people so far.

9:50 a.m. Packard & Rice. Picking up the bus again, heading to Precinct 1. There’s no sidewalk on the south side of Packard along this stretch – but lots of dandelions.

10:05 a.m. Ypsi Township Precinct 1 (Free Methodist Church, 1800 Packard). Only 14 voters so far. The election chair thinks they’ll be lucky to get 10% turnout.

10:14 a.m. Ypsi Township Precinct 1 (Free Methodist Church, 1800 Packard). A voter arrives using AAATA’s A-Ride service. “It’s a party of one!” she jokes. She expresses surprise that there’s only one item on the ballot. The van driver isn’t voting here – he heads to the restroom.

10:26 a.m. Ypsi Township Precinct 1 (Free Methodist Church, 1800 Packard). A voter reminisces with poll workers about the November 2012 election, when lines were long. Poll workers recall they didn’t get out of here until 2 a.m. Apparently someone who’d been given a ballot got tired of waiting in line, and left – taking that ballot with him. It took a while to figure out what happened.

11:20 a.m. Ypsi City Ward 3, Precincts 1 & 3 (Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 201 N. River) Yes sign placed two inches in front of No sign, but not shoved as deep into the ground, leaving the stop sign graphic from the No sign visible as an odd lower panel for the Yes message.  ”Are the numbers still matching?” is the question from one precinct worker to another. “Yes,” comes the reply. So far there’ve been 88 voters. Voters are being asked for a photo ID, not a driver’s license, but driver’s license is what is produced. Basement of church has shuffleboard court marked on the tile.

Little tyke with dad is confused about what this outing is for – thinking they’re going “boating” today. “Where is the boat? Where is it? Where is it? Where is it? Where is it?”

12:19 p.m. Sidetrack Bar and Grill. Lunch is fish tacos. And it is delicious.

12:45 p.m. Ypsilanti Transit Center. Route #6 pulls out headed to Ann Arbor. Young man boards at State and Research Park Drive, asks us how to get to Arrowwood. Not sure but this bus goes to downtown Ann Arbor and from there it’s probably the #1 – if not, you can catch whatever bus it is from there. Briarwood stop fills with half dozen passengers who scramble off just before we pull out, once they realize this is headed to Ann Arbor not Ypsi.

2:10 p.m. Back in Ann Arbor. Naps could be indicated.

6:15 p.m. Ward 1, Precinct 4 (Ann Arbor Community Center, 625 N. Main St.) Poll workers report a higher-than-expected turnout – 185 voters, when they expected closer to 60. As we’re talking, a “surge” of about six voters come in. One woman is pushing a stroller, and reports that her child was excited by the Community Center’s purple bus that’s parked outside. It turns out she’s also excited by the “I Voted” sticker.

That wraps it up for us.

Election results from the Washtenaw County clerk’s office will be available on the clerk’s May 6, 2014 election results webpage.

If you’d like to collect early results from the voting machine tapes, visit your precinct just before 8 p.m. and wait respectfully out of the way of the poll workers – the same people who opened the polls 13 hours before. It would be welcome if you logged the yes/no total in a comment on this article. We’ll compile them in a shared spreadsheet that everyone can view: [shared Google Spreadsheet].

The Chronicle could not survive without regular voluntary subscriptions to support our coverage of public bodies like the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority. Click this link for details: Subscribe to The Chronicle. And if you’re already on board The Chronicle bus, please encourage your friends, neighbors and colleagues to help support The Chronicle, too!

Michael Ford, CEO of the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority, just before the start of the Feb. 20, 2014 AAATA board meeting. (Photos by the writer.)

That main item was a board vote to place a millage request before voters on May 6, 2014. The request – on a 0.7 mill tax that would be levied to pay for additional services over the next five years – would need a majority of votes across the city of Ann Arbor, the city of Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township to be approved.

The millage is supposed to pay for a set of service improvements over a period of five years. Those improvements include increased frequency during peak hours, extended service in the evenings, and additional service on weekends. Some looped routes are being replaced with out-and-back type route configurations. The plan does not include operation of rail-based services.

The AAATA has calculated that the improvements in service add up to 90,000 additional service hours per year, compared to the current service levels, which is a 44% increase.

The board’s vote to put the question on a May 6 ballot was unanimous, and came after more than a dozen people spoke during public commentary at the start of the meeting, urging the board to take the step of making a funding request of voters.

Elected officials as well as leaders of the faith, labor and disability communities all spoke in favor of making the request of voters to fund the service expansion, citing arguments based on economic and social justice. They pointed to the long period of planning that had begun about three years ago with a much more ambitious effort to expand service countywide. The current, more limited approach – focused just on the “urban core” area of the city of Ann Arbor and the two Ypsilanti jurisdictions – was a way to meet urgent transportation needs, they said.

After the board’s vote, during public commentary at the end of the meeting, one Ypsilanti resident recalled her own history marching with Rosa Parks down Woodward Avenue in Detroit. Although she’s been involved in activism for many years, she told the board, she could not think of anything that she was in the room to witness that was this important to her personally and to the city in which she lives.

Compared to typical AAATA board meetings, the atmosphere was relatively boisterous, as supporters at times chanted, “More buses, more places, more often!” But one speaker at the end of the meeting cautioned against the celebratory mood, saying there was now a lot of work to do. A counterpoint to the solid support the board heard from most of the speakers had been offered by the very first speaker of the evening. He asked the board to delay the election until November, arguing that it would save the roughly $80,000-$100,000 cost of holding the May election, and result in broader participation in the vote. Another point raised by that speaker was concern that everyone pay an equitable share for the additional transportation.

Although the main event was the resolution that placed the millage question on the ballot, the board’s agenda featured nine other items, many of which were at least tangentially related to the millage question.

For example, in other action the board approved a change to its budget to allow for up to $100,000 to be spent on the cost of holding the special election. The board also approved a funding agreement with Ypsilanti Township, to make explicit what will happen to the township’s existing purchase of service agreement (POSA) if the millage is approved. And as part of the board’s routine annual business, it approved a funding request to the state of Michigan – but did not factor in an increased level of service in the budget submitted to the state. That was done on the instruction of the Michigan Dept. of Transportation. That request can be amended if the millage succeeds.

Also at the Feb. 20 meeting, the board approved changes to its bylaws. Those changes were prompted by a change in governance to the AAATA last year – the addition of the two Ypsilanti jurisdictions. With the increase from seven to 10 members, the definition for the number of board members constituting a quorum or a majority needed to be modified. Out of that review of the bylaws came a decision to increase public speaking turns from a two-minute time limit to three minutes.

In other business, the board approved the hiring of a consultant to help the AAATA with a planned upgrade to its computer-aided dispatch and vehicle locating software. The board also approved the recently completed audit report for the 2013 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 2013.

Another item approved by the board was a new contract for unarmed security services. And finally, the board authorized a contract for an insurance broker.

Among the various operational updates received by the board was the announcement that the newly constructed Blake Transit Center in downtown Ann Arbor would be open by March 17, 2014.

Ballot Question

Several items on the Feb. 20 agenda related to putting a 0.7 mill tax proposal on the May 6, 2014 ballot.

Ballot Question: Public Commentary – Meeting Start

Brian introduced himself as a 10-year Ann Arbor resident. He asked that the board delay the placement of the millage question on the ballot until the November 2014 general election. Given a multi-million dollar investment, a delay of six months would not be that significant. He felt there was no real reason not to talk to “the majority of citizens who want into this, or potentially not into this.” He pointed to the additional $80,000-$100,000 the AAATA would need to spend to hold a special election in May instead of waiting until November.

He also asked that all communities pay an equal millage rate. [The millage to be levied by the AAATA, on which voters will decide on May 6, will have an equal rate across all three jurisdictions. The point being raised was that the city of Ann Arbor and the city of Ypsilanti already levy city millages that are dedicated to transit and are passed through to the AAATA.] Ann Arbor property owners have paid a millage for many years, he pointed out, and that has bought a lot of capital, infrastructure and equipment to support the transportation system. Ann Arbor residents have fronted a lot of the cost to the AAATA, so it would be fair for everyone to pay equally into the system. He concluded by thanking the board for their time and service to the community.

State representative Jeff Irwin (D-53), an Ann Arbor resident, thanked the AAATA for the excellent service that is provided in his community. He reported that he’d had the opportunity to use the service many times. It was wonderful that a small Midwestern like Ann Arbor can have a bus service as great as the AAATA.

State representative Jeff Irwin (D-53).

He supported the AAATA’s effort to continue to examine and propose to the public a plan to really expand that service – to increase the amount of service in the evenings or on Sundays. But he also encouraged the exploration of expanding service in a more thorough way outside the boundaries of the city of Ann Arbor. That would respect the economic reality of the region we live in, Irwin said. It’s important to do a better job of serving Pittsfield Township and Ypsilanti Township and the city of Ypsilanti.

This is a great idea, Irwin said, because when you connect people and places, then great things happen. That’s because people have an opportunity to get to the doctor or get to church or get to the store. Businesses and people also connect, he said. He asked the AAATA board to continue the effort to propose new options for citizens, so that the transportation network in Ann Arbor can expand in a complete way to include all of Ann Arbor’s neighbors “in a way that our citizens deserve.” He hoped he had a chance as a citizen to vote on this issue – because we’ve been talking about this for a long time. “The community is ready for expansion, I believe, and I’m certainly ready for expansion.”

Mark Coryell introduced himself as president of the American Federation of Government Employees, Local 3907, which represents employees of the Environmental Protection Agency lab in Ann Arbor. He was also speaking on behalf of WeROC – the Washtenaw Regional Organizing Coalition. He asked those who were there to support the board’s vote to stand – and around 30 people rose from their seats. He called the analysis that the AAATA had put into the question “really quite impressive.” He called Irwin’s comments on point, and told the AAATA it was a national leader. What WeROC sees is a good community investment in the future, at a time when other communities are disinvesting in the things that would bring them a future – future jobs, future growth and future quality of life. WeROC represents a lot of labor and faith-based organizations, he said.

And the people WeROC represents and ministers to would be using these services, Coryell said. He added that we shouldn’t take for granted that everyone owns a motor vehicle. When you arrive in southeast Michigan from a major metropolitan area in another part of the country, it’s amazing how dependent Michigan is on the motor vehicle, he said. “We are behind the times in adjusting to the new future of sharing our transportation systems,” he said. When the snow melts, people will be reluctant to drive on the roads, and he ventured that a lot of people would want to take the bus to work. So WeROC sees a lot of benefit to those people that the organization represents.

Ypsilanti mayor pro tem Lois Richardson told the board she was speaking with her political hat.

For workers, it would help get them back and forth between a job, he said, and public transportation makes it cheaper for them. WeROC supports the millage, Coryell concluded, and would like to see the board vote affirmatively.

Lois Richardson introduced herself as mayor pro tem of the city of Ypsilanti.

It’s been a real pleasure to work with the AAATA’s CEO, Michael Ford, over the last year or two to bring more service into Ypsilanti, she said. She’s looking forward to the expansion and she would support it. She’s a member of WeROC, she noted, but right now, she was speaking with her “political hat.” She appreciated the bus service in Ypsilanti.

She had moved away from the area for a while, and when she first moved back, she was a regular transit customer and always got good service. Now, she reported, she’s an occasional transit customer. And the service she gets is good. She thanked Ann Arbor for the years it has supported the bus service. She was looking forward to expanded service in Ypsilanti. Richardson congratulated Ford for doing a good job bringing the effort to this point: “You need my help? Call me.”

Dave Hendricks introduced himself as pastor at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Ypsilanti.

He wanted to look at the issue from a religious perspective. His congregation serves a population in Ypsilanti that is sometimes forgotten, he said. They provide food pantry options, clothing and a hot meal during the week. The folks who need those services, he said, are the people who need bus services.

Pastor Dave Hendricks of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Ypsilanti.

Just from a theological perspective, he and his congregation feel that the transportation expansion is an opportunity to serve people who are sometimes marginalized. He hoped the AAATA would continue its efforts.

Roderick Casey introduced himself as an elected Democratic delegate for Ypsilanti Township, and also a member of WeROC. He told the board, they were doing a great job. In the 36 years he’s lived here the population has boomed, he said. But he was now very concerned about a phenomenon that has come to Ypsilanti: insurance redlining. It’s really hurting a lot of people in the city of Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township – because it causes the price of insurance to go up. So right now transportation expansion is needed. He asked the board to continue to support expansion of service.

Jim McAsey introduced himself as an organizer with the Graduate Employees Organization, also a member of WeROC. “Is WeROC in the house?” he asked, and that drew applause and cheers. “We believe passionately that public transportation is a social justice issue,” he said. There are many people in the community who don’t own cars who still need to get around. GEO members don’t make a lot of money and cars are very expensive, he said. So a lot of GEO members depend on buses – because rent is expensive in Ann Arbor and they need to get back and forth. Many GEO members live in Ypsilanti and they have trouble getting back and forth on the weekends or late at night. GEO members need better public transportation, he said. “The bus system here is fabulous, but let’s make it even better,” he told the board. GEO supports the millage. “Let’s get it done. We’ll help you get it done,” he concluded.

Lionel Swan introduced himself as an employee of the Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD). He works in the young adult program – which is for 18-26 year-olds. The WISD tries to teach skills like being able to get to their jobs. These are kids with cognitive disabilities, he said. The bus system is “absolutely essential in our program,” he told the board. He agreed with everyone who spoke in favor of expansion. He allowed there were some routes he would like to see extend a little farther. He told the board he rode the bus about four times a week – and he was always impressed by the timeliness and cleanliness of the buses and the friendliness of the drivers toward a very needy group of folks.

The proceedings were documented by several people in the audience using smartphones.

Sam Facus introduced himself as a graduating senior at the University of Michigan. He’s very dependent on the bus service in Ann Arbor, he said. As a graduating senior who’d like to stay in the community and not own a car, it’s very enticing to him to have better public transit options to get where he needs to go and to live a sustainable life.

Joel Batterman told the board he now lives in Detroit, but he’s an Ann Arbor native, so he feels a close connection with his hometown. Since he was a high school senior at Huron High School, he’s been interested in how to improve transit – in the area and in the wider Detroit region. He now works with MOSES, which does congregation-based community organizing in Detroit. WeROC is the Washtenaw County affiliate. Better public transit is a key pillar to a prosperous region, he said.

He’d heard some concerns about the multi-jurisdictional nature of the millage. It’s a new and different thing for this community, but it’s urgently needed, he contended. Growing up in Ann Arbor, he didn’t get over to Ypsilanti that often. But he’s come to understand that the communities – in the county and in the region – are really intertwined. “We can’t allow the boundaries that Thomas Jefferson’s surveyors drew 200 years ago to get in the way of providing transportation … wherever people need to go.” Batterman concluded his remarks by saying he was looking forward to extended hours on Route #2 and Route #4 whenever he’s home.

Martha Valadez, an organizer with Partners for Transit, told the board she was happy and pleased to see the turnout at the board meeting in support of the expansion. She told the board the attendance at the board meeting by residents of all three jurisdictions was evidence that they really are adamant about the need for more transit now.

Her group was happy to see that the planning and development committee had recommended the 0.7 mill tax be placed on the ballot. It’s important that additional services be put in place this year, she said. Last week, Partners for Transit held a coalition meeting with over 35 organizations that are really passionate about transit. After the board’s decision, she said, she hoped they would be able to move forward by getting the word out about the importance of transit expansion.

Susan Borey [unconfirmed spelling] introduced herself as a former member of the Washtenaw County committee for disability issues. At that time she was employed and mostly used taxicabs. Now she’s unemployed and a senior, and she relies on the buses. She called the AAATA bus drivers the “finest ladies and gentlemen I have ever known,” which drew immediate applause.

Ian Robinson, president of the Huron Valley Central Labor Council.

She was very concerned about maintaining the quality of service in Ann Arbor as the AAATA expands. For example, seniors need bus shelters and benches. There’s no longer a shelter along Huron Street near Lurie Terrace, she said. She pointed out that there’s not good public transportation that lets you off directly at the Quality 16 theater on Jackson Road, in Scio Township. She also described how the bus service is wonderful in this town – but bus stops are not cleared of snow. The curbs are absolutely and positively treacherous, she said. She couldn’t imagine how people with disabilities manage with wheelchairs and scooters.

Ian Robinson introduced himself as a University of Michigan faculty member and the newly elected president of the Huron Valley Central Labor Council.

The council will be discussing endorsing the millage to support the expansion of transit at its next meeting – the first Tuesday in March. He plans to argue in favor of it on two grounds: (1) regional development; and (2) social justice.

It’s critical to have sound regional infrastructure, Robinson said. It’s critical that people can still get transportation to work. Good public infrastructure is a core principle of sound economic development, he said. As far as social justice goes, he added, the labor council stands for all working people.

Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living (CIL) director of advocacy and education Carolyn Grawi addressed the board. She told the board that if there were better transit across the state, she could have arrived 25 minutes earlier.

Carolyn Grawi, Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living (CIL) director of advocacy and education.

She’d just come from Lansing. She then led supporters in a chant: “More buses, more places, more often!” We need services everywhere, she said. Some community members across all three areas of the urban core do not have service today: “We need services to get where we need to go.”

The services from AAATA have been outstanding for many years, but improvement in necessary, Grawi said. We need to make sure that anyone who wants to ride the bus or wants to board a paratransit vehicle can get to where they need to go, as often as it’s necessary.

Right now there are people who are missing medical appointments and who can’t get jobs because of a lack of transportation. The AAATA gets lots of people where they need to go on a timely basis, she said. But there are a lot who are still waiting to get there.

Grawi concluded by telling the board that Ann Arbor CIL has endorsed the millage proposal. The Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition (WBWC) also endorsed the millage, as did Partners for Transit.

She concluded with another round of chants: “More buses, more places, more often!”

Ballot Question: CEO’s Remarks

About the millage request, CEO Michael Ford called the vote “the big ask that’s on the agenda.” He called the vote to put the millage on the ballot one of the most important actions taken by the AAATA in the last decade or so. The board had demonstrated its commitment to the vision last month when it approved the five-year program. The next commitment was to take a step toward approving the funding component of that program, Ford said. He believed that the AAATA had sufficient support, saying “I’ve heard a lot tonight.” He pointed to grass-roots organizations, businesses, community leaders, employees who had participated in the planning process – as well as bus riders.

Ford said that to get to this point, the AAATA had engaged citizens, business leaders, elected officials in pursuit of a plan to provide improved public transportation service. The AAATA had heard over and over again about the unmet service demands. The leaders of the urban core communities had supported the effort. Ford then ticked through the names of those who’d participated: Ann Arbor mayor John Hieftje; Ann Arbor city councilmembers Sabra Briere, Sally Petersen, Stephen Kunselman and Chuck Warpehoski; Ypsilanti mayor Paul Schreiber; Ypsilanti city councilmember Pete Murdock; Ypsilanti city manager Ralph Lange; Ypsilanti Township supervisor Brenda Stumbo; and Ypsilanti Township clerk Karen Lovejoy Roe.

Supported by that leadership, Ford said the AAATA had developed the five-year service plan. Based on input from the community, riders and others, adjustments had been made to the service plan. The final component is the funding proposal, Ford said.

Ford stated that the funding proposal had been fully supported by a financial task force led by former Washtenaw County administrator Bob Guenzel. Ford invited Guenzel to the podium to summarize the task force’s report.

Ballot Question: Financial Task Force

Guenzel began by congratulating Ford and the board for bringing the process to this point. He put the current financial task force in the context of the original task force that dated back to 2011, when the now-demised countywide initiative was underway.

From left: former Washtenaw County administrator Bob Guenzel and AAATA outside legal counsel Jerry Lax.

The AAATA had asked some people to come together to test that countywide plan, to see whether it was accurate in its assumptions about services, and also about the amount of money it would take to fund that plan.

A sub-group had been established to work closely with AAATA staff and issued a report saying the countywide plan was well prepared, complete and reasonable, he said.

Now, a couple of years later, Guenzel continued, we’re at a very different point. The group was asked to conduct the same kind of review for the five-year urban core transit plan.

The group had met in December, January and February, Guenzel reported. That resulted in a consensus finding that the AAATA’s methods and assumptions related to that plan were reasonable.

He read aloud from the document produced by his work group [.pdf of Feb. 5, 2014 financial task force finding]:

Findings and Recommendations. The FTF recognizes the accomplishments of the Service Review Sub-Group, as follows:

• The Service Review Sub-Group was charged with examining a Five Year Transit Improvement Program budget containing a list of proposed services for the Urban Core communities of Washtenaw County. As the result of the deliberations, analysis, and effort, the Service Review Sub-Group determined that the funding analysis (Appendix 1) is reasonable.
• The Service Review Sub-Group reviewed the development of the service program that includes later night service on weekdays, more hours of service on weekends, new service for both the east and west sides of the service areas, and more service for seniors and people with disabilities. The Service Review Sub-Group found no material issues with the method used in calculating the service hours and the proposed schedules. (Appendix 2)
• The Service Review Sub-Group discussed the assumptions made for the ridership level estimates identified in the program. Staff shared the estimates of Steer Davies Gleave (SDG) estimates and increases seen on Route 4 serving Washtenaw Avenue combined with the general system growth over the past ten years, as data supporting assumptions regarding ridership growth. SDG estimates were interpolated by Authority to arrive at annual growth rate assumptions. (Appendix 3)
• The Service Review Sub-Group further discussed revenue vulnerabilities related to ridership forecasts and 2012 legislation repealing the personal property tax beginning in 2014. The Service Review Sub-Group requested a ‘what-if’ analysis of two questions:
  1. What is the financial risk of a 25% shortfall in projected ridership growth, and therefore passenger revenues?, and
  2. What is the financial risk of an uncompensated shortfall in the personal property tax revenues? (The 2012 legislation will exempt personal property from taxation by local jurisdictions by 2023, but a referendum scheduled for August 2014, if successful could make up at least some fraction of the revenue shortfall.)

About the personal property tax question, Guenzel summed up the financial task force view as: “Who knows for sure?” It might affect the AAATA by a maximum of about $300,000, Guenzel said. There’s enough flexibility in the long-term plan to take care of that, he added. A shortfall in ridership projections could also be absorbed by the plan, Guenzel said. So the task force felt confident in the soundness of the planning work the AAATA had done.

Guenzel summed up by recommending that the financial task force be allowed to continue to meet from time to time. More importantly, he continued, the funding level is complete and they found it to be reasonable. So the task force found the AAATA’s assumptions to be reasonable – concerning the level of services and that a 0.7 mill tax, combined with the rest of the revenue, would support that program over five years.

After Guenzel concluded his remarks, Ford wrapped up by saying, “Tonight it’s up to you, the board, to take the next step, to make this plan a reality.”

Ballot Question: Issue Analysis

AAATA strategic planner Michael Benham gave a presentation to the board on the issue analysis. From the board’s information packet, here are the pro-con arguments listed for making a funding request.

Arguments in favor of TheRide placing a property tax levy on the ballot:

• The need for improved transit service is immediate as evidenced by the many requests for service that TheRide has received during the planning period and on a day-to-day basis, and TheRide has worked with the community to propose a specific program of services that responds to that need.
• Millage funding will allow TheRide to leverage State and Federal dollars that would not otherwise come to the region. It is estimated that each new local millage dollar will attract 2 additional dollars of State and Federal money.
• TheRide’s funding sources have been relatively fixed for many years, while demand for service in all areas has increased. TheRide provided a record setting 6.6 million trips in 2013 for example. The unmet need for transit services will only be satisfied by additional service, which must be paid for with new funding sources.
• In the particular case of Ypsilanti City, their general revenue millage has reached its cap and an Authority millage is the only way to pay for additional transit services.
• As TheRide system becomes increasingly regional – with many routes crossing jurisdictional boundaries – it makes sense to begin the transition to a more regionally funded system.
• Community surveys conducted in 2011 and 2013 indicate that support for transit is extremely high, that TheRide is regarded as a very well-run organization, and that there is significant willingness on the part of voters to support a millage for transit.
• TheRide’s reputation as a very well-run organization is reinforced by comparisons to other transit agencies, as evidenced by the findings of our recent Peer Comparison.
• The recent Annual Audit and the findings of the Financial Task Force also reinforce TheRide’s reputation as financially sound and well-managed.

Risks / Issues related to placing a property tax levy on the ballot:

• The most obvious risk is that a majority of the people will not vote for the millage and it will not be approved. However, if this was the outcome, TheRide would continue to provide service, making minor improvements within existing budget constraints, as it has for many years. Existing service would continue and unmet needs for transportation would remain unmet.
• Passage of an Authority millage will create a new level of accountability for TheRide, requiring the Authority to ‘prove’ the value of its services every five years (and this might be considered an advantage by some). TheRide’s Continuous Improvement Program will need to expand to track new services and make any needed adjustments.
• The emergence of a 4-county Regional Transportation Authority has raised a concern that a separate millage might be sought by that organization. The State Law that created the RTA provides for additional regional taxing mechanisms that might be more closely aligned with and acceptable for funding regional transportation services than local property tax millages. There is no Regional funding request planned currently. It could be years before the RTA identifies its preferred funding level and approach. Most importantly, the RTA is primarily concerned with regional (4-county) transit issues while TheRide’s program is focused strictly on meeting local transportation needs with local services.
• Many of the proposed services in the program are during off-peak travel times like evenings and weekends when fewer people are traveling. Ridership can take years to build to expected levels. TheRide will have to carefully manage expectations so that evolving services are given a chance to develop.
• TheRide’s funding model is not well understood by some, which has led to questions as to whether the funding model is ‘fair’. The 5YTIP has been designed to ensure that each community pays for the service they get, either via a millage or through a Purchase of Service Agreement. Ann Arbor will pay more for service because Ann Arbor will receive more service.  The other communities pay less for service because they get less service. POSA communities pay for their services based on fully allocated costs. A particular concern voiced by several individuals is that the transit millage should be ‘flat’, that is, levied at the same rate throughout TheRide’s jurisdiction. The recommendation for funding is a flat 0.7 mil levy across the entire jurisdiction of the Authority.
• A question has been raised about the role of passenger fares in paying for the services proposed in the 5YTIP. Passenger fares currently account for about 20% of operating costs, which is typical for a transit organization of TheRide’s size. The funding proposal for proposed new services is expected to maintain that ratio over the long run. TheRide’s last fare increase was implemented in two phases, with an increase from $1 to 1.25 in May of 2009 and an increase from $1.25 to $1.50 in May 2010. There were corresponding increases in reduced fares for special users at the same time. Fares for advanced reservations on A-Ride (services for seniors and individuals with a disability) also increased during the same time period from $2.00 to $2.50 to $3.00. TheRide’s fares are in line with those seen in the industry as a whole. It is believed that another fare increase so soon after the 50% increase during 2009- 2010 would be excessive and detrimental to ridership. Staff recommends consideration of a fare increase during the implementation period of the 5YTIP, but not to include it as a foregone conclusion.

Ballot Question: Survey Results

Reporting out from the planning and development committee, board member Eric Mahler summarized a presentation from Hugh Clark of CJI Research that was given to the committee at its Feb. 11 meeting. [For earlier Chronicle coverage of those survey results, see: "Survey: Majority Favorable on Transit Tax"]

The survey of 842 registered voters in the three-member jurisdictions of AAATA was conducted by CJI in late 2013 to gauge support for public transit and possibly a future millage. It found that 63% of those surveyed would probably or definitely support a transit millage.

AAATA board member Eric Mahler.

Mahler highlighted some of the other results of the survey: about 54% think that changes in the area are taking us in the right direction; and 59% think that in general, development improves things, while 21% think that development hinders the area. That’s counter to national trends, Mahler said. People here are feeling good about the direction the area is taking and about where they live, he said.

Of those polled, 57% reported that they’d used the AAATA in the last year, Mahler said. [The survey question asked if the respondent or anyone in the household had used the AAATA in the last year.] Of those surveyed, 79% had a favorable opinion of the ride, Mahler said. Only 6% had an unfavorable opinion, he said.

On the millage question, Mahler noted that for a survey question asking if respondents had heard anything about the proposed expansion of the AAATA’s member jurisdictions, 49% said they had not. About 45% said they’d heard something. Of those who use the AAATA at least once a month, 53% said they were likely to use the new service, Mahler said.

Mahler also noted for the survey question on additional services for seniors, 45% said they’d be in favor of more taxes to support additional services for seniors, while 40% said they would not. Mahler said that even without the educational effort that’s still to come, those numbers are good news for the AAATA.

When asked what priorities public transit should have, the top response was that public transportation supports seniors and those with disabilities – with 93% saying that is an important aspect of public transportation. Attracting jobs came in at 85%, and 83% said that it gets more people to more jobs. That’s what the message has to be, Mahler concluded.

It was clear that there’s an opportunity and a need to educate for this effort, Mahler said. It’s also clear that the AAATA has credibility and trust with the public that it’s willing to listen.

Ballot Question: Board Discussion – Ballot Language

When the board reached the item on its agenda, board chair Charles Griffith said it was a historic move for the AAATA, so the board did not take it lightly.

From the audience, Carolyn Grawi asked that the resolution be read aloud. Griffith then read aloud the entire resolution.

The specific ballot language that Griffith read aloud  differed from the language drafted and included in the original board packet. The approved language explicitly highlights the capture of a portion of the millage by TIF (tax increment finance) authorities. The approved language also swaps in “seniors” for “the elderly”:

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT MILLAGE

To improve public bus, van, and paratransit services – including expanded service hours, routes, destinations, and services for seniors and people who have disabilities – shall the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority levy a new annual tax of 0.7 mills ($0.70 per $1000 of taxable value) on all taxable property within the City of Ann Arbor, the City of Ypsilanti, and the Charter Township of Ypsilanti for the years 2014-2018 inclusive? The estimate of revenue if this millage is approved is $ 4,368,847.00 for 2014. This revenue will be disbursed to the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority and, as required by law, a portion may be subject to capture by the downtown development authorities of the Cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, the Washtenaw County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, and the local development finance authority of the Charter Township of Ypsilanti.

The ballot language is subject to requirements in Michigan’s General Property Tax Act.

Earlier in the meeting, reporting out from the performance monitoring and external relations committee, Roger Kerson said the committee had talked about the ballot language “a lot, a lot, a lot.”

AAATA board member Roger Kerson.

They thought it had been finalized, but then it had to be tweaked, he said, describing a couple of cycles of finalization and further tweaking. They’d worked very hard to be compliant with all the laws that apply when you make an ask from voters. It must be clear what the money is to be used for.

The proposed language will be used for buses, vans and paratransit, he said, not airplanes, helicopters or trains. After much analysis, Kerson continued, there’s a requirement that it be noted in the ballot language that some of the new tax would be captured by tax increment finance authorities (TIFAs) like downtown development authorities and brownfield authorities.

Kerson said that the “huge majority” of the funding, 97-98%, would go to the AAATA, but that the remainder could be captured by TIFAs. The PMER committee concluded that this is “the right move at the right time.”

Ballot Question: Board Commentary

Larry Krieg led off comments by saying it’s a historic event for the AAATA. It’s important to take a moment to think about it and say why it’s important, he said. He was a teacher at Washtenaw Community College for 25 years, he said. Something he noticed when he taught there was “when a student’s car failed, they would be very likely to fail my class.” Many of his students lived in Ypsilanti Township or other parts of the county that are not served by the AAATA. That’s important because “education of our people is going to be the root of our future prosperity.”

He also saw WCC grads who were looking for jobs, who did not own cars. Even though they were qualified for certain jobs, they were sometimes not able to accept available jobs, because they could not get to those jobs. By having better transportation, job seekers will have the ability to reach other parts of Ypsilanti township and city.

Krieg said he was impressed by the careful work that AAATA staff had done in preparing the proposal. Some people might wonder why the board did not vote on this last month, he said. The reason is that there needs to be careful analysis of the likelihood of success and exactly what the money is going for. He’s now convinced that the analysis has been done and the AAATA has an excellent chance of going forward with this.

Responding to the issues of fairness that had been raised, Krieg noted that the millage rate is flat. But he allowed that Ann Arbor residents will be paying more – through an existing millage. Ann Arbor also gets more transportation services, he noted. He had checked with the staff and gone over the figures and had determined that what AAATA strategic planner Michael Benham had said in his presentation was true: People will get what they pay for. About Ypsilanti Township, which he represents on the board, Krieg said: “We are paying less, and we are getting less.”

One thing a lot of people don’t realize, Krieg said, is that a gas pump works two ways: it pumps gas into your car and money out of the state and out of the local economy. On the other hand, when you pay a few cents for a transit tax, the vast majority stays in our community, he said. Michigan is a donor state as far as money that leaves the state and goes through the rest of the county.

Roger Kerson observed that when the AAATA board had started the conversation about expanding transit, he thought there were only three current board members serving on the board at the time. [Charles Griffith and Anya Dale were also serving at the time.] At that time, the AAATA had a more expansive [countywide] vision, he said. The nature of the AAATA board is to be collaborative and transparent, he said, so that expansive plan was adjusted based on feedback from constituents and others.

What the AAATA is doing now is downscaled compared to the original vision of a countywide authority. The current plan “is the right plan and it’s the right time,” he said. It’s been an educational process, and he was glad the AAATA went through it. He felt the right lens through which to view the issue is “needs.” People need to get around, he said. He also stated that this is a “pay to play” financing mechanism.

Board chair Charles Griffith offered a final comment of his own. He told the people who came out to the meeting that the board appreciated hearing from them. Over the years, many people had asked the AAATA for this or that additional service. When those had been small requests, the AAATA had sometimes been able to meet the request. But for other larger requests, he noted, the answer had always been the same: Unless a new source of revenue can be found, a new service can’t be added without taking away some other service. Now the AAATA can finally say: If the voters agree, the AAATA can provide you with that additional service.

Griffith’s remarks prompted a standing ovation from the audience.

Outcome: The board voted unanimously to place a 0.7 mill transit tax on the May 6, 2014 ballot.

Ballot Question: Public Commentary – End of Meeting

Harvey Summers told the board that he was a member of WeROC. He thanked board members for their vote and looked forward to supporting the millage with his vote.

Carolyn Grawi spoke on behalf of CIL, WBWC and Partners for Transit. She thanked the board for their vote and the AAATA staff for their hard work.

John Waterman thanked the board for their work. [Waterman was one of five finalists for the initial appointment to the board of the southeast Michigan regional transit authority. He founded the nonprofit Programs to Educate All Cyclists (PEAC).] A good plan has been laid out, but the “game is on,” and he cautioned that there is a lot of work to be done. He also cautioned against the celebratory mood. He would put efforts of his staff and students to help pass the millage.

Michelle Barney.

On the topic of paratransit service, Waterman stressed the need to train as many people with disabilities as possible to use the fixed-route service, which is more cost efficient and leads to greater independence. It also opens up paratransit service for those who cannot do without it, he said.

Michelle Barney told the board that she wanted to thank them for their vote, saying, “I was almost on the verge of tears when you voted,” because it meant that much to her personally.

She told the board that the community was losing University of Michigan grads who are moving away due to a lack of transit. There’s a real sea change going on, she said, with many young people opting not to try to own cars, because they’re sick of them. It also provides service to people of different racial groups.

She recalled her own history as a bus organizer in 1959 for a youth march for integrated schools started from Cass Tech in Detroit to Washington D.C. She also recalled marching down Woodward Avenue with Rosa Parks in 1964-65.

She’s been involved in activism for many years, Barney told the board, and she could not think of anything that she was in the room to witness that was this important to her personally and to the city in which she lives.

Funding Agreement with Ypsilanti Township

By way of background, the 0.7 mill tax, if approved on May 6, 2014, would be the first ever levied by the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority. Existing dedicated transportation taxes, levied by the two cities and passed through to the AAATA, would remain in place.

For Ann Arbor, the rate for the existing tax is 2.056 mills, which is expected to generate a little over $10 million by 2019, the fifth year of the AAATA’s transportation improvement plan. For the city of Ypsilanti, the rate for the existing transit millage is 0.9789, which is expected to generate about $314,000 in 2019.

For the owner of an Ann Arbor house with a market value of $200,000 and taxable value of $100,000, a 0.7 mill tax translates into $70 annually, which would be paid in addition to the existing transit millage. If the millage were to pass, the total Ann Arbor transit tax paid on a taxable value of $100,000 would be about $270 a year.

If it’s approved by voters, the total amount of revenue expected to be generated by the 0.7 mill tax in 2014 is $4,368,847.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of how the roughly $4.3 million generated by the new AAATA millage would fit into the overall funding picture for AAATA services:

Revenue Source     Amount
State              $12,910,884
Federal            $4,507,490
Fares              $8,801,200
A2: 2.056          $10,980,259
A2: 0.70           $3,387,910
Ypsi C: 0.9789     $313,798
Ypsi C: 0.70       $202,730
Ypsi TWP: 0.70     $778,207
POSA               $1,087,344
Third Party        $1,204,196
Advertising        $375,000
TOTAL              $42,969,822

-

Here’s how that breakdown shapes up as a pie chart:

Pie chart of revenue sources for AAATA five-year transit improvements. (Data from AAATA, chart by The Chronicle. )

In Ypsilanti Township, the AAATA calculates the 0.7 mill levy to be commensurate with the level of service the township would receive as a result of transportation improvements. But the 0.7 mill levy would generate about twice as much as the amount paid by the township in its current purchase of service agreement (POSA). So Ypsilanti Township’s POSA amount would not be paid in addition to revenue from the 0.7 mill tax.

The board considered an additional item at its Feb. 20 meeting – a funding agreement with Ypsilanti Township governing that POSA. The agreement makes clear that if the 0.7 mill tax passes, then the township’s service, which would increase under the transportation improvement plan, would be paid by the 0.7 mill tax. [.pdf of AAATA agreement with Ypsilanti Township]

Reporting out from the performance monitoring and external relations committee, Roger Kerson described the funding agreement with Ypsilanti Township.

From left: AAATA board members Eli Cooper and Larry Krieg.

On joining the AAATA, the township had pledged to continue to provide the same amount that it’s currently paying through its POSA, Kerson explained. If the millage passes, it will generate more than twice what the POSA amount is – $800,000 compared to about $325,000, Kerson said.

That’s the amount of service Ypsilanti Township will get, he said. So as far as fairness goes, everybody gets the service they pay for, he said. That’s why the committee recommended the agreement to the full board.

When the board reached the item on its agenda, Larry Krieg – the Ypsilanti Township representative to the AAATA board – asked the board to support the resolution on the funding agreement with the township, saying that without this agreement, the rest of the five-year plan wouldn’t work.

Outcome: The board voted to approve the funding agreement with Ypsilanti Township.

Budget Change to Cover Cost of May Election

Reporting out from the performance monitoring and external relations committee, Roger Kerson noted that because the AAATA millage would be the only item on the ballot, the AAATA would need to pay the cost of administering the election. That would be between $80,000 and $100,000, Kerson said. So the board would need to amend the budget to do that. He pointed out that in this scenario, the millage would generate $4.3 million, which would be matched about 2:1 by federal and state revenues. So if the millage proposal passes, that would equate to $12 million annually, against a $100,000 one-time expense.

Those remarks came as an indirect response to public commentary that had called for a delay until November 2014 to hold the election in order to save the cost to the AAATA of holding the millage vote.

Given the views that had been expressed during public commentary about the need for rapid implementation, Kerson said, the committee concurred that the AAATA should go ahead with that cost.

When the board reached the item on its agenda, there was no further discussion.

Outcome: The board voted unanimously to approve the budget change to pay for the cost of the May 6, 2014 election.

Bylaws

The board considered approval of several changes to its bylaws. One change gives speakers during public commentary an extra minute per turn to address the board. The time limits per speaker for each of two slots on the agenda are increased from two to three minutes as part of the bylaws changes. So someone could address the board for a total of six minutes at a meeting.

That additional change to the bylaws comes as AAATA board members reviewed their rules and revised them to reflect the addition of two new member jurisdictions in addition to the city of Ann Arbor: the city of Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township. It was last year, under separate processes, that the two Ypsilanti jurisdictions were admitted into the AAATA. The authority also changed its name at the time to include the word “area.” [.pdf of AAATA bylaws changes]

The bylaws changes considered by the board included some straightforward consequences of the increase from seven to 10 board members, such as: changing the definition of a quorum from four to six members; and raising the majority approval threshold from four to six members – for items like adopting a labor contract or approving a financial transaction in excess of 5% of the annual budget.

A change that was independent of the board size was also considered for some other voting items: relaxing the requirement from “a majority of the Board duly appointed and confirmed” to “a majority vote of board members present.” That means some types of resolutions could win approval with support from as few as four board members at a meeting.

In a separate board action, before the bylaws change the board considered a resolution to waive a condition in the bylaws that requires written notice be given to board members two weeks before a vote on a bylaws change. The resolution was prompted by additional amendments that had been made within the two-week window. One of the bylaws changes considered on Feb. 20 was to relax the requirement of notice to just one week in advance of a vote.

Reporting out from the performance monitoring and external relations committee, Roger Kerson noted that as some later amendments were made, the board had not provided the full period of notice to board members to take action that night – under the bylaws. The bylaws have a provision for waiving that notice, which the board would be using that evening.

Bylaws: Board Discussion

When the board reached the item on the agenda, Eli Cooper asked if there had been any follow-up on the voting provisions in the bylaws – about how other entities handled similar issues.

AAATA board member Jack Bernard.

AAATA financial analyst and planner Bill De Groot responded to Cooper, saying staff had looked into the question of voting power with respect to the possibility that a minority of the board could count as a majority for a vote. For important business, he said, there was the greater requirement of majority already in the bylaws and that was increased consistent with the added members of the board.

Jack Bernard said he wanted to mention for the record that the newly revised bylaws include a specific time reference, related to the terms of appointments for individual board members. ["The term of office of a Board member shall be five years other than for members of the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority Board as of June 15, 2013, who shall serve for the remainder of their terms, as provided by the Articles."]

The next time the bylaws are changed, Bernard said, the time reference should be removed.

Outcome: On separate votes, the board unanimously approved the waiver of the notice requirement and the changes to the bylaws.

State Funding Request

The AAATA has to apply every year to the state of Michigan for its state operating assistance. According to staff memos in the board’s information packet, the Michigan Dept. of Transportation instructed AAATA not to include assumptions of the five-year service improvement plan in this year’s application.

So this year’s application to the state for the AAATA’s portion of Act 51 money will include a budget as follows: estimated federal funds of $5,348,338, estimated state funds of $9,905,017, estimated local funds of $11,241,134, estimated fare box of $6,184,503, and estimated other funds of $647,288 – with total estimated expenses of $33,326,000.

That application for state operating assistance could be amended, if the millage vote on May 6 succeeds.

Reporting from the planning and development committee, Eric Mahler said the committee had heard a review from AAATA manager of service development, Chris White, on the AAATA’s application for state operating assistance. That includes both capital and operating funds. Because the millage has not yet passed, MDOT had requested that the AAATA not include expansion of services in the request. Mahler ventured that the request from the state could be amended when the millage passes, which White indicated was the case.

Outcome: The board voted unanimously to approve the application for state funding assistance.

CAD/AVL Consulting

The board considered awarding a $168,000 consulting contract to TransSystems of Boston, Mass. to assist the AAATA in making an upgrade in its computer-aided dispatch and vehicle-locating software (CAD/AVL).

As part of a planned upgrade for this type of software for its regular fixed-route buses, the AAATA is also looking to bring in-house the reservation and booking of paratransit rides. That’s currently part of its contracted paratransit service provider’s scope of work. That service provider is SelectRide. The switch to in-house paratransit bookings is planned for May 1, 2015, the day after the AAATA’s current contract with SelectRide ends. That contract was recently extended through April 30, 2015 in action taken by the AAATA board at its Dec. 19, 2013 meeting.

By implementing the paratransit part of the project, the AAATA wants to get some experience with the upgraded software before moving forward with its regular fixed-route buses.

According to staff memos in the board’s informational packet for the Feb. 20 meeting, the type of CAD/AVL system that the AAATA is upgrading allows dispatchers to locate, track and manage fixed-route bus operations. It also provides information on real-time adherence to the bus schedule. Further, it monitors and reports the status of engine components and on-board systems, such as the wheelchair ramp.

Reporting out from the planning and development committee, Eric Mahler noted that the consultant is important to make the most of the opportunity to upgrade the technology in a cost-effective way. Without the consultant, it’s felt that the AAATA might miss important opportunities to improve the service and to save money. Mahler said the urgency of hiring the consultant had been well established, saying that it’s important that the project get started right away because the upgrade to the AAATA’s systems depends on it.

When the board reached the item on its agenda, Eli Cooper noted that Ann Arbor is a place where networked automobiles are being piloted. He would willingly support keeping transit in the high-tech game.

Jack Bernard noted that the advanced system is critical for better paratransit service – so that a rider can, for example, have as much notice as possible that a ride won’t be arriving until the end of a scheduled window. He urged the board to support the resolution.

Larry Krieg wanted people to understand that the system the AAATA will be replacing was cutting edge 15 years ago. Equating one software year to 10 human years resulted in a system that was 150 years old, he said. Some of the problems that the AAATA has had with locating buses for interactive maps relates to the way the “elderly” system is trying to get information out.

Outcome: The board voted unanimously to approve the contract with TransSystems.

CAD/AVL Consulting: Public Commentary

During public commentary at the end of the meeting, Carolyn Grawi spoke on behalf of the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living. And she responded indirectly to some of the remarks on accessibility.

“As you know, I have high expectations,” she said. The mobile app is great, but she wanted to note that about one-third of the population or more can’t use it. It’s important that when a new feature is launched, it’s launched to be accessible from the start. The print size for the mobile app is too small and does not change in size. She was excited to see the board moving ahead with the AVL/CAD consulting, which will lead to a software upgrade. Scheduling is a nightmare right now, she said. She also told the board that the AAATA doesn’t have enough paratransit vehicles on the road.

FY 2013 Audit

The board was asked to consider a resolution accepting the audit report for the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, 2013 (FY 2013). [.pdf of FY 2013 audit report]

FY 2013 Audit: Presentation from Auditor

David Helisek and Josh Yde of Plante Moran gave the board a presentation on its FY 2013 audit. The AAATA fiscal year runs from October through September, so the FY 2013 audit was for the year ending on Sept. 30, 2013. Two documents were presented: the financial statements, including the federal programs audit; and the required communications to those charged with governance.

From left: Dave Helisek of Plante Moran and AAATA controller Phil Webb.

Helisek reported that the presentation had been made in greater detail to the AAATA’s performance monitoring and external relations (PMER) committee earlier in the week.
Helisek noted that the bulk of the first document is the AAATA’s document – the financial statements. The only part of that contributed by Plante Moran are the first two pages, which includes the independent auditor’s report.

Helisek told the board that the report showed an “unmodified opinion,” which is the highest level of assurance that an auditor can give a set of financial statements, he said. That means that the statements fairly reflect the position of the authority as of Sept. 30, 2013 as well as the changes in that position. That’s the opinion that the AAATA strives to achieve on an annual basis, and it’s the one that Plante Moran has given for the third year in a row, he said.

Josh Yde highlighted some details from the balance sheet. He first noted that GASB 63 standards had changed the wording from “net assets” to “net position.” The total assets are now up to $66.2 million, he noted, which is up by about $12 million compared to FY 2012. Most of that is due to the increase in capital assets with the construction of the Blake Transit Center. Equipment is also up about $6.8 million, he noted, mostly due to new bus purchases in the current year.

Liabilities increased from about $2.9 million to $4.4 million. Most of that is due to accounts payable – related to the Blake Transit Center as well as other outstanding expenses. Finally, the net position increased to about $62 million, up from about $51 million last year. Most of that is due to the investment in capital assets, he said.

The unrestricted net position is up about $400,000 this year, Yde said. That means the current revenues are covering the cost of AAATA’s current costs of providing services. He noted, however, that of the $14.7 million, about $7.5 million relates to property tax revenue that will need to be used for operations in FY 2014.

The statement of revenues, expenses and changes in net position shows that operating revenues increased about $3.2 million. The largest portion of that is due to the increase in the depreciation in all the new assets, as the infrastructure continues to grow. Operating revenues are up about $240,000. Most of that is due to AirRide revenues, which was in operation for the full fiscal year.

The non-operating revenue is all up, Yde continued. Local non-operating revenue is up about $1.4 million. And most that is due to property tax revenue as well as purchase of service agreements  (POSAs).

Before capital contributions, Yde said, all that leads to a change in net position of about negative $4.7 million. After the capital contributions of $15 million, that results in a change in net position of positive $10.4 million.

Helisek picked up the presentation from there. He reviewed the federal compliance portion of the audit. If you spend more than $500,000 of federal money, then a federal compliance audit is required, he explained.

The amount of federal funds spent by the AAATA in the FY 2013 was just under $17 million. Helisek told the board that they tested the federal transit cluster of about $14 million. So about 83% of the funds that came to the AAATA were tested. He said that they’d come across no issues of non-compliance as it relates to deficiencies or weaknesses.

Helisek noted that there was one finding on the last page: related to a depreciation expense calculation. As part of the audit, they did some testing and noted there needed to be some adjustments to some specific assets related to depreciation. That was brought to the attention of AAATA financial staff and they agreed with Plante Moran’s view, and they made the adjustment. He told the board that while it was an adjustment, it was a “non-cash adjustment.” It did not affect the budget over the year. However, auditing standards do require that the issue be communicated to the board.

As far as the letter to those charged with governance, Helisek noted that the first section is pretty much boilerplate. What you’re looking for are problems, he said, adding that there’s no communication on problems. The audit went very well and there were no disagreements with management on standards or the application of auditing standards.

The second section of the letter is more focused on legislative issues and informational items – things that might be “hot in Lansing,” he said. The one item that has been hot for the last 18 months is the state’s personal property tax, and the election that’s coming up in August. That could change how property taxes are collected, and would affect any entity that relies on property taxes. [The Aug. 5, 2014 ballot measure would mitigate against loss of personal property tax revenues by replacing part of the state use tax with a local tax administered to the benefit of metropolitan areas in Michigan.]

FY 2013 Audit: Board Discussion

Reporting out from the performance monitoring and external relations committee, Roger Kerson noted that on page 8 of the audit report, the amount the AAATA had spent on administration had gone down [$7,258,563 in FY 2013 compared to $7,277,201 in FY 2012] but money spent on operations went up [$24,811,414 in FY 2013 compared to $21,635,160 in FY 2012]. That showed the AAATA was putting its resources into “putting buses on the street,” he said, calling it a good sign.

When the board reached the item on its agenda, there was no discussion.

Outcome: The board voted unanimously to accept the FY 2013 audit report.

Insurance Broker

The board considered awarding a new five-year contract to Marsh USA Inc. of Grand Rapids, Mich. – the same insurance broker that’s consulted for the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority for the last 10 years. The contract is for up to $270,000 of consulting work.

Marsh USA will provide insurance brokerage services for general, automobile, workers’ compensation, property and public officials/employee liability insurances.

Reporting out from the performance monitoring and external relations committee, Roger Kerson noted that the AAATA purchases about $1 million worth of insurance every year, which is necessary given that the AAATA is driving buses around. So the AAATA uses a broker to help get the best price, Kerson said.

Outcome: The board voted unanimously to approve the contract with Marsh USA.

Unarmed Security

The board considered awarding a contract for unarmed security guard services to DK Security. The contract covers three properties: AAATA headquarters at 2700 S. Industrial Hwy., the Blake Transit Center at 328 S. Fifth Ave. in Ann Arbor, and the Ypsilanti Transit Center at 220 Pearl St.

The contract was for one year, with an option to extend the contract for four one-year periods.

The contract conforms with AAATA’s living wage policy, which mirrors that of the city of Ann Arbor. The policy currently requires vendors to pay a minimum wage of $13.96 per hour without providing health care benefits and $12.52 per hour when providing health care benefits.

The amount of the contract is not to exceed $270,400, which provides up to 14,299 hours (holidays included) of security coverage at a fixed-hourly rate.

The previous vendor, Advance Security, was one of 15 bidders for the work, but was not selected.

Reporting out from the performance monitoring and external relations committee, Roger Kerson noted that the bids that came back for the unarmed security work were a little bit lower than the incumbent vendor had bid, so the AAATA would be saving a little money on that. He noted that the new vendor still complied with the AAATA’s living wage policy.

Outcome: The board voted unanimously to approve the unarmed security contract with DK Security.

Communications, Committees, CEO, Commentary

At its Feb. 20 meeting, the board entertained various communications, including its usual reports from the performance monitoring and external relations committee, the planning and development committee, as well as from CEO Michael Ford. The board also heard commentary from the public. Here are some highlights.

Comm/Comm: Ridership

Reporting out from the performance monitoring and external relations committee, Roger Kerson updated the board on ridership. Ridership is down due to the weather, he said, which would probably affect the yearly total because the drop was fairly significant in January.

Comm/Comm: Blake Transit Center

As part of his report to the board, CEO Michael Ford noted that the AAATA had received a temporary certificate of occupancy for the new Blake Transit Center last Friday (Feb. 14, 2014) and the move into the facility is scheduled for the week of March 10. The building will be open by March 17, which is St. Patrick’s Day, Ford pointed out. There’s still more work to do, but Ford wanted to thank AAATA maintenance manager Terry Black and anyone who had anything to do with supporting that project.

Ford also thanked the bus riders and the drivers for “hanging in there” during the transition. It’s been a struggle, given the weather conditions.

Comm/Comm: Blake Transit Center Art

Reporting out from the performance monitoring and external relations committee, Roger Kerson said the committee had previewed the public art component for the BTC, saying it “looks really cools.” It’s a tile mosaic of figures representing the diversity of the community, he said. It’s less than $100,000 so the board does not need to approve it, Kerson noted, but it the board will be kept in the loop.

Present: Charles Griffith, Eric Mahler, Susan Baskett, Eli Cooper, Roger Kerson, Anya Dale, Gillian Ream Gainsley, Jack Bernard, Larry Krieg.

Absent: Sue Gott.

Next regular meeting: Thursday, March 20, 2014 at 6:30 p.m. at the Ann Arbor District Library, 343 S. Fifth Ave., Ann Arbor [Check Chronicle event listings to confirm date]

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The committee, which is called “Better Transit Now,” filed its paperwork the day after the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority board voted to place the tax on the May 6, 2014 ballot. Listed on the paperwork as the treasurer of the group is Libby Hunter. The filing paperwork indicates that the group intends to seek a reporting waiver, which is for groups that don’t expect to spend more than $1,000.

Deciding the issue will be voters in the AAATA’s three-jurisdictional area: the city of Ann Arbor, the city of Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township. [For Chronicle coverage, see: "Transit Vote for A2 and Ypsi: May 6, 2014"]

The 0.7 mill tax, which would be levied by the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority, is meant to fund a five-year plan of improvements to transportation service. The millage will appear on the May 6, 2014 ballot. One mill is $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value of property.

On Feb. 11, 2014, AAATA strategic planner Michael Benham presented the board’s planning and development committee with an analysis of the millage question. The committee recommended the full board take up the question at its Feb. 20 meeting, and that resulted in a unanimous vote to put a 0.7 mill tax on the May 6 ballot for voter approval. (Photo by the writer.)

The AAATA board voted unanimously at its Feb. 20, 2014 meeting to place the question on the ballot for voters to decide. The board’s vote had been anticipated for a few months.

It was preceded by public commentary from more than a dozen people in support of the decision, including state representative Jeff Irwin (D-53) and Ypsilanti mayor pro tem Lois Richardson. Representatives from Partners for Transit, which is a coalition coordinated by the Ecology Center, and the Washtenaw Regional Organizing Coalition (WeROC) spoke. Carolyn Grawi of the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living led supporters in a chant of, “More buses, more places, more often!”

One speaker offered a counterpoint at the start of public commentary, asking the board to place the request on the November ballot instead of May. He stressed the fact that Ann Arbor voters have supported the AAATA up to this point, funding much of the capital investments.

If approved on May 6, the 0.7 mill tax would be levied for five years, from 2014 through 2018. Under Michigan’s Act 55 of 1963, that’s the longest period the AAATA could levy a millage, without asking voters again to renew it.

In his written report to the board in advance of the meeting, CEO Michael Ford called the vote to put the question before voters “one of the most important business decisions for the [AAATA] in decades.”

If approved, the millage would be the first ever levied by the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority. Existing dedicated transportation taxes, levied by the two cities and passed through to the AAATA, would remain in place. In Ypsilanti Township, the AAATA calculates the 0.7 mill levy to be commensurate with the level of service the township would receive as a result of transportation improvements. But the 0.7 mill levy would generate about twice as much as the amount paid by the township in its current purchase of service agreement (POSA). So Ypsilanti Township’s POSA amount would not be paid in addition to revenue from the 0.7 mill tax.

In separate action taken on Feb. 20, the AAATA board authorized a funding agreement with Ypsilanti Township governing that POSA. The agreement makes clear that if the 0.7 mill tax passes, then the township’s service, which would increase under the transportation improvement plan, would be paid by the 0.7 mill tax. [.pdf of AAATA agreement with Ypsilanti Township]

If approved by voters on May 6, the millage is supposed to pay for a set of service improvements over a period of five years. Those improvements include increased frequency during peak hours, extended service in the evenings, and additional service on weekends. Some looped routes are being replaced with out-and-back type route configurations. The plan does not include operation of rail-based services. The AAATA has calculated that the improvements in service add up to 90,000 additional service hours per year, compared to the current service levels, which is a 44% increase.

If a millage is approved on May 6, those improvements that involve extending the hours of service later in the evening and the weekend could begin to be implemented by late 2014. However, increases in frequency along routes, which would require acquisition of additional buses, would take longer.

For Ann Arbor, the rate for the existing tax is 2.056 mills, which is expected to generate a little over $10 million by 2019, the fifth year of the transportation improvement plan. For the city of Ypsilanti, the rate for the existing transit millage is 0.9789, which is expected to generate about $314,000 in 2019. For the owner of an Ann Arbor house with a market value of $200,000 and taxable value of $100,000, a 0.7 mill tax translates into $70 annually, which would be paid in addition to the existing transit millage. If the millage were to pass, the total Ann Arbor transit tax paid on a taxable value of $100,000 would be about $270 a year.

If it’s approved by voters, the total amount of revenue expected to be generated by the 0.7 mill tax in 2014 is $4,368,847.

The recommendation to place the ballot authorization question on the board’s Feb. 20 agenda came in action taken by the planning and development committee at its Feb. 11 meeting. Voting unanimously at that meeting to recommend the ballot question to the full board on Feb. 20 were: Sue Gott, Larry Krieg, Eli Cooper and Eric Mahler.

The planning and development committee made its recommendation after receiving a presentation of results from a survey of registered voters in late 2013. The survey results show that 63% of those surveyed would definitely or probably support a millage.

The board also received input from a financial task force, which found that the 0.7 mill tax was adequate to fund the improvements. [.pdf of Feb. 5, 2014 financial task force finding] Members of that task force included Bob Guenzel (former Washtenaw County administrator), Mary Jo Callan (director of the Washtenaw County office of community and economic development), Norman Herbert (former treasurer of the University of Michigan), Paul Krutko (CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK), and Mark Perry (director of real estate services, Masco Corp.). Guenzel was invited to address the board at the Feb. 20 meeting, and he summarized some of the background of the task force’s work.

That task force finding was that the ridership estimates were reasonable. The finding cautioned that some uncertainty existed about the future of the personal property tax. The task force finding also recommends against the capture of a portion of the new millage by TIF (tax increment financing) authorities, like the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority (DDA) and Ann Arbor’s local development finance authority (LDFA). It’s not clear whether it’s a legal option for the DDA not to capture a portion of that new tax. The AAATA estimates that annually about $119,000 of the new millage would be captured by the Ann Arbor DDA.

To be approved, a majority of voters in the city of Ann Arbor, the city of Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township would need to vote for the AAATA’s millage proposal. Those are the three jurisdictions that are members of the AAATA.

The city of Ann Arbor (pop. ~116,000), the city of Ypsilanti (pop. ~19,500) and Ypsilanti Township (pop. ~53,000) make up a bit more than half the population of Washtenaw County (pop. ~351,000).

In a separate resolution approved by the board at its Feb. 20 meeting, the board authorized CEO Michael Ford to spend up to $100,000 to cover the cost of holding the May election.

The ballot language the AAATA approved at its Feb. 20 meeting – which will be submitted to the Washtenaw County clerk’s office – differs from the language drafted and included in the board packet. The approved language explicitly highlights the capture of a portion of the millage by TIF authorities. The approved language also swaps in “seniors” for “the elderly”:

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT MILLAGE

To improve public bus, van, and paratransit services – including expanded service hours, routes, destinations, and services for seniors and people who have disabilities – shall the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority levy a new annual tax of 0.7 mills ($0.70 per $1000 of taxable value) on all taxable property within the City of Ann Arbor, the City of Ypsilanti, and the Charter Township of Ypsilanti for the years 2014-2018 inclusive? The estimate of revenue if this millage is approved is $ 4,368,847.00 for 2014. This revenue will be disbursed to the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority and, as required by law, a portion may be subject to capture by the downtown development authorities of the Cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, the Washtenaw County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, and the local development finance authority of the Charter Township of Ypsilanti.

The ballot language is subject to requirements in Michigan’s General Property Tax Act.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of how the roughly $4.3 million generated by the new AAATA millage would fit into the overall funding picture for AAATA services:

Revenue Source     Amount
State              $12,910,884
Federal            $4,507,490
Fares              $8,801,200
A2: 2.056          $10,980,259
A2: 0.70           $3,387,910
Ypsi C: 0.9789     $313,798
Ypsi C: 0.70       $202,730
Ypsi TWP: 0.70     $778,207
POSA               $1,087,344
Third Party        $1,204,196
Advertising        $375,000
TOTAL              $42,969,822

-

Here’s how that breakdown shapes up as a pie chart:

Pie chart of revenue sources for AAATA five-year transit improvements. (Data from AAATA, chart by The Chronicle. )

A significant portion of the added cost of providing service under the five-year improvement plan is planned to come from additional state operating assistance. While federal funding is expected to increase from about $4.1 million to about $4.5 million, state operating assistance is expected to increase from $8.5 million to $12.9 million.

Related to state operating assistance, an additional AAATA board action taken at its Feb. 20 meeting was approval of the annual resolution requesting state operating assistance. According to staff memos in the board’s information packet, the Michigan Dept. of Transportation instructed AAATA not to include assumptions of the five-year service improvement plan in this year’s application.

So this year’s application to the state for the AAATA’s portion of Act 51 money will include a budget as follows: estimated federal funds of $5,348,338, estimated state funds of $9,905,017, estimated local funds of $11,241,134, estimated fare box of $6,184,503, and estimated other funds of $647,288 – with total estimated expenses of $33,326,000. That application for state operating assistance could be amended, if the millage vote on May 6 succeeds.

The board of Michigan’s regional transit authority (RTA) voted on Feb. 17 not to ask voters for funding until 2016, which eliminates the possibility of two different transit millages on the ballot in the same year.

Information on the millage is available from the AAATA on a new website: therideyourway.org

This report was filed from the downtown location of the Ann Arbor District Library at 343 S. Fifth Ave., where the AAATA board holds its meetings. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

The recommendation to place the item on the board’s agenda came in action taken by the planning and development committee at its Feb. 11 meeting. Voting unanimously at the meeting to recommend the ballot question to the full board on Feb. 20 were: Sue Gott, Larry Krieg, Eli Cooper and Eric Mahler.

The millage would pay for a set of service improvements over a period of five years. Those improvements include increased frequency during peak hours, extended service in the evenings, and additional service on weekends. Some looped routes are being replaced with out-and-back type route configurations. The plan does not include operation of rail-based services. The AAATA has calculated that the improvements in service add up to 90,000 additional service hours per year, compared to the current service levels, which is a 44% increase.

If a millage were approved in May, those improvements that involve extending the hours of service later in the evening and the weekend could begin to be implemented by late 2014. However, increases in frequency along routes, which would require acquisition of additional buses, would take longer.

The planning and development committee took its action after receiving a presentation of results from a survey of registered voters in late 2013. The survey results show that 63% of those surveyed would definitely or probably support a millage.

If the board votes on Feb. 20 to put the question on the ballot, a majority of voters in the city of Ann Arbor, the city of Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township would need to approve it. Those three jurisdictions are members of the AAATA.

The city of Ann Arbor (pop. ~116,000), the city of Ypsilanti (pop. ~19,500) and Ypsilanti Township (pop. ~53,000) make up a bit more than half the population of Washtenaw County (pop. ~351,000).

The Feb. 20 meeting, like all AAATA board meetings, will be held at the downtown location of the Ann Arbor District Library, 343 S. Fifth Ave., in the fourth floor boardroom. Meetings start at 6:30 p.m. and offer two-minute time slots for public commentary at the start of the meeting. Meetings are not broadcast live on the Community Television Network, but are recorded and rebroadcast later. The meetings are also available online through CTN’s video on demand service.

Updated: The AAATA board packet, released Feb. 14, 2014 includes the proposed ballot language as well as the issue analysis by staff. [.pdf of ballot question material for Feb. 20 board packet] The proposed ballot language in the packet is:

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT MILLAGE

For the purpose of making improvements to public transportation, using buses, van pools and paratransit services, for the elderly, the disabled, and the general population of the City of Ann Arbor, the City of Ypsilanti, and the Charter Township of Ypsilanti, including increasing service hours, routes, and destinations, shall the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority impose a new annual tax of 0.7 mills ($0.70 per $1000 of taxable value) on all taxable property within those municipalities for the years 2014-2018 inclusive, with the revenue to be disbursed to the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority? The estimate of revenue if this millage is approved is $4,368,847.00 for 2014.

The existing taxes levied by the cities of Ann Arbor and would stay in place if voters in the AAATA’s three-jurisdiction area approved a new 0.7 mill tax, levied by the AAATA. For Ann Arbor, the rate for the existing millage is 2.056 mills, which is expected to generate a little over $10 million by 2019, the fifth year of the transportation improvement plan. For the city of Ypsilanti, the rate for the existing transit millage is 0.9789, which is expected to generate about $314,000 in 2019. For the owner of an Ann Arbor house with a market value of $200,000 and taxable value of $100,000, a 0.7 mill tax translates into $70 annually, which would be paid in addition to the existing transit millage. If the millage were to pass the total Ann Arbor transit tax paid on a taxable value of $100,000 would be about $270 a year.

Chart 1: AAATA Millage Vote Survey. Of the 841 registered voters surveyed, 63% said they would definitely or probably vote for an additional transit tax, while 31% said they definitely or probably would vote against an additional transit tax. Half the respondents were asked about a tax at the rate of 0.5 mills while the other half were asked about a 0.9 mill tax. There was not a significant difference in the two groups. The amount of the potential millage request in 2014 is 0.7 mills.

The AAATA’s release of partial survey results on Feb. 7 comes about two weeks before the next monthly meeting of its board of directors, on Feb. 20. At that meeting, the board will almost certainly consider whether to place a millage on the ballot – either for May 6 or later in the fall of this year.

The purpose of the potential millage – which would be the first one ever levied by the AAATA – would be to fund a 5-year plan of service improvements, approved by the AAATA board at its Jan. 16, 2014 meeting. The millage itself would last for five years.

Generally, those improvements include increased frequency during peak hours, extended service in the evenings, and additional service on weekends. Some looped routes are being replaced with out-and-back type route configurations. The plan does not include operation of rail-based services. The AAATA has calculated that the improvements in service add up to 90,000 additional service hours per year, compared to the current service levels, which is a 44% increase.

If a millage were approved in May, those improvements that involve extending the hours of service later in the evening and the weekend could begin to be implemented by late 2014. However, increases in frequency along routes, which would require acquisition of additional buses, would take longer.

The AAATA refers to the plan in its communications as the 5YTIP. The AAATA has calculated that the additional tax required to fund the 5YTIP is 0.7 mills. A draft five-year plan was presented to the public in a series of 13 meetings in the fall of 2013. Changes to the five-year plan made in response to public feedback were included in the board’s information packet for the Jan. 16 meeting. [.pdf of memo and 5-year improvement plan] [.pdf of presentation made to the board on Jan. 16]

The dedicated transit tax already paid by property owners in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti is levied by each city and passed through to the AAATA. Those taxes would stay in place if voters in the AAATA’s three-jurisdiction area approved a 0.7 mill tax. For Ann Arbor, the rate for the existing millage is 2.056 mills, which is expected to generate a little over $10 million by 2019, the fifth year of the transportation improvement plan. For the city of Ypsilanti, the rate for the existing transit millage is 0.9789, which is expected to generate about $314,000 in 2019. For the owner of an Ann Arbor house with a market value of $200,000 and taxable value of $100,000, a 0.7 mill tax translates into $70 annually, which would be paid in addition to the existing transit millage. The total Ann Arbor transit tax paid on a taxable value of $100,000 would be about $270 a year.

The transit improvement program also calls for an additional $1,087,344 to come from purchase-of-service agreements (POSAs), based on increased service hours in Pittsfield, Saline, and Superior townships.

A subset of a financial task force that had formed during an effort in 2012 to expand the AAATA to a countywide authority has concluded that the 0.7 mill would be adequate to fund the planned additional services. At the most recent meeting of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, on Feb. 5, DDA board member Bob Guenzel stated that he had continued to participate on that task force, and reported that the group had forwarded its finding on the currently contemplated 0.7 millage to the AAATA.

Besides Guenzel, who is former Washtenaw County administrator, the current configuration of that group includes Mary Jo Callan (director of the Washtenaw County office of community and economic development), Norman Herbert (former treasurer of the University of Michigan), Paul Krutko (CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK), and Mark Perry (director of real estate services, Masco Corp.) and Steve Manchester.

The survey on voter attitudes toward a millage was conducted for the AAATA by CJI Research with a mixed methodology – of telephone contacts, and a mail invitation to respond online – during October and November of 2013. The sample of respondents was divided into two groups – those who were asked about their attitudes toward an additional 0.5-mill tax and those who were asked about their attitudes toward an additional 0.9-mill tax. According to CJI, the groups showed virtually no difference in the distribution of responses.

Of the 841 registered voters surveyed, 63% said they would definitely or probably vote for an additional transit tax, while 31% said they definitely or probably would vote against an additional transit tax.

The Feb. 7, 2014 press release issued by the AAATA highlighted three of its conclusions from the survey results: (1) that the AAATA is highly regarded by voters in the three member jurisdictions; (2) residents in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township are supportive of transit service expansion even if it means a new tax; and (3) among survey respondents, the best reasons to support a transit expansion are to help retain and attract jobs, generate economic activity by taking customers and workers to area retailers and other employers, and to improve service for seniors and the disabled. The margin of error for the survey was no more than 3.4%, according to the press release.

At the Jan. 16 AAATA board meeting, board chair Charles Griffith indicated that he felt the board would be taking the next step on implementing the program very soon. That indicates a probable vote on the millage question at the next board meeting, on Feb. 20. If the board voted then to put a millage question on the ballot, that would be in time to meet the Feb. 25 deadline for a millage request to be placed on the May 6, 2014 ballot.

A new millage would be decided by a majority vote of all three member jurisdictions of the AAATA. The two Ypsilanti jurisdictions were added as members of the AAATA just last year. The Ann Arbor city council voted to approve changes to the AAATA’s articles of incorporation – to admit the city and the township of Ypsilanti as members – at its June 3, 2013 and Nov. 18, 2013 meetings, respectively.

This most recent survey conducted by CJI is the third biennial study the AAATA has commissioned, starting in 2009. The 63% positive attitude in this most recent survey – confined to just the three member jurisdictions of the AAATA – is somewhat stronger than the support measured among residents countywide in 2009 and 2011. Results from all survey years are shown in Chart 1 and Chart 2 below:

Chart 1: AAATA Millage Vote Survey. Of the 841 registered voters surveyed in the cities of Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti Township, 63% said they would definitely or probably vote for an additional transit tax, while 31% said they definitely or probably would vote against an additional transit tax.

Chart 2: Millage Vote 2009 and 2011 Surveys. Asked early in the survey if they would support a 1 mill tax for countywide transit, 54% of survey respondents countywide said they definitely or probably would. Asked later in the survey, a combined 59% of voters said they’d probably or definitely vote for a 1 mill transit tax.

The geographic distribution of support for the most recent survey showed strongest support in the city of Ann Arbor (66% definitely/probably yes), followed closely by the city of Ypsilanti (65% definitely/probably yes), followed by Ypsilanti Township (57% definitely/probably yes). Opposition was flipped from support, with 28% of city of Ann Arbor voters saying they’d definitely/probably vote no, 31% of city of Ypsilanti voters definitely/probably voting no, and 36% of Ypsilanti Township voters definitely/probably voting no. The city of Ypsilanti had the fewest number of undecided voters: 4%. Those results are shown in Chart 3:

Chart 3: Millage Vote Geographic Distribution 2013 Stacked bars indicate by geographic location those who said they’d definitely or probably vote yes on  a transit tax (blue), definitely or probably vote no (red) or didn’t know (yellow). (Data from the AAATA, chart by The Chronicle)

That’s similar to the support measured in those same specific areas two years ago. In 2011, support for a transit tax was strongest within the city of Ann Arbor, with 24% saying they would definitely vote yes and another 44% saying they’d probably vote yes, for a total of 68%. In that year, the two Ypsilanti-area jurisdictions were grouped with Pittsfield Township. About 56% of Ypsilanti-area plus Pittsfield said they would definitely or probably support a millage. Those results from past years are shown in Chart 4:

Chart 4: Millage Vote Geographic Distribution 2011. The light and dark green areas reflecting definite or probable yes votes on a transit tax diminish the further away that respondents were from Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.

All the surveys attempted to measure how effective respondents think arguments are – for and against a transit tax. This year’s survey results were in at least some ways consistent with previous years’ surveys: Additional service for seniors and those with disabilities is seen as a persuasive argument to support a transit tax. Those results are presented in Chart 5 and Chart 6 below.

Chart 5: Arguments for Public Transit – Fall 2013 Survey. Perceived as the best argument for supporting a transit tax was the importance of transit service for seniors and those with disabilities. Perceived as less persuasive arguments were the ideas that the member jurisdictions need a faster way to get places and that transit is important to protect the environment.

Chart 6: Arguments for Public Transit – 2011 Survey. The idea that “If the tax is defeated, there will be no funding for door-to-door service for the disabled” was not one that survey respondents felt was a good argument to vote for a transit tax. It comes across negatively and people react negatively to it.

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