>> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Never done that before. Sorry. I was challenged. Thanks everybody for coming. I don't think I will be using that gavel again. (Laughter.) But welcome to our -- this evening's meeting. Our board of directors, I will note that there is no public hearing scheduled. Does anyone have any general communications or announcements? I know that Eric will be coming a little bit late tonight. And Sue Gott was not able to join us tonight. Eli? >> ELI COOPER: I just want to make a general announcement, and expression of gratitude to Michael Ford and Michael Benham. We had a city council working session on Monday, and our staff did a wonderful job presenting information about the urban core process for the city council members. And also stood for questions that the council members had and I think it was part of what I would describe as an overall very successful event and their contribution helped to facilitate that wonderful event, so appreciate Michael and Michael as well. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Yes, thanks for bringing that up, Eli and I attended as well and would just note that there were also very interesting presentations from Amtrak, the State of Michigan's office that deals with rail, the Elizabeth Gerber from the RTA board, and Carmen Colunbo from the SEMCOG that has been helping to staff various efforts related to transportation, so very informative evening. Any other announcements? Gillian? >> GILLIAN REAM GAINSELY: So I attended the Ypsilanti's city council meeting on Tuesday, just to speak in favor of them supporting the city joining the authority, just really well received. People I think very enthusiastic about the fact that we are giving both of those communities an opportunity to have an example of a service that works really well together, so I think there is a lot of support there. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Certainly. Thanks. >> GILLIAN REAM GAINSELY: And thanks for dropping off the fliers at council so people could pick them up and learn about all the events. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Jack? >> JACK BERNARD: So I just ape tended the first of the five year plan discussions, and I know there are a bunch more, I think 11 or 12 more planned for the community, and Chris and Michael did a fantastic job talking with the first group of people. The presentation went smoothly. There were a number of questions. They were fielded very well, and it was -- really wonderful to see the interaction between the staff and the public. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Great. Anything else? All right. Let's move into public time. Is there anybody -- any members of the public that would like to address us at this time? Looks like there is one. Thanks, you got two minutes. >> Oh, I don't know if it is long -- I got a real lawn tree list accumulated over many years. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Try to do as good as you can. >> State your name. >> I am Bill Higgins. I am sort of -- I was a cab driver for about 25 years and I have ridden the buses probably for 40. At any rate, first cab -- (Feedback from mic). First of all the cab issues, the buses are more and more are squeezing us. Airport fares are $7 for example. I shouldn't be sitting around at Thanksgiving, Christmas time and holiday times watching, you know, hundreds of kids out in front of the dorms all taking these buses saying I can't do it, I am not getting anything. And ... I think if it went back to $12 or something like that, at least I got a chance. If I had a van full of kids for people, anybody, at that rate, I could go to the airport. Art fair is the same way. It is like four football Saturdays in a row and a lot of us just take vacations because we can't make any money because, you know, the bus is just doing its job, particularly in the daytime. Football games, same situation. Around the hotels seeing hundreds of people with vouchers to get on the buses and I am standing around, sitting around doing nothing for an hour and a half before the game. That is not right either. And I was thinking maybe we could -- if we could take the vouchers, like if they could give the vouchers to the bus or give the vouchers to me and I could go to you guys and get the money for it. And as I said earlier, at least one company to my knowledge has been put out of business by the airport runs, custom transit can no longer function against the AATA, and it is just -- you are talking about increasing your hours. It is going to keep putting the squeeze on people who are just -- we are just barely making enough money to live in Ann Arbor, maybe nine or $10 an hour is probably about the average. And like it goes down way below minimum wage in the summer and a lot of people don't realize this. And no benefits, et cetera, et cetera. No doubt, now a little more specific about the buses. Your fare, the fare taking machines are very slow. They must be slowing down tremendously. And I don't like the loud beeping from themmen constantly, the cards or the announcements or something. You know, they are too loud and too obnoxious. I know one driver who puts his hand down over the speaker because he gets all through the day, he can't feel the beep anymore and there is no way to mute them. Another thing that is eating into the cab-our cab business is the U of M, with their kids with their getting their free rides with the the U of M ID card and I think that was for security purposes or something like that, so they could get home at night but they are using it to go to Briarwood and stuff like that and I can't get -- again, those are significant amount of business I am losing on that. I am out of time now? >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Well, about time, yeah. Is there any last comments you would like to make? >> Well, yeah, but it really -- I can't be succinct about them. About hailing a bus and the policy on that situation, and I have had some problems with phone answers, but it is -- I think I am over time, I am pretty sure. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Well, may I just suggest that it seems like you have very valuable comments. I know our staff does listen to the comments, and we have various ways in which you can provide that to us in written form or otherwise. >> Okay. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: And I would really highly encourage you to do that, and then the board can get a report on any changes that might be recommended as a result of those. >> I will probably email from your site or something like that. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Yeah, yeah. Thank you very much for coming. >> Okay. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Is there anyone else? I don't see anyone. So let's move into item four, approval of last month's meeting minutes. Is there a motion to approve? >> JACK BERNARD: I move. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Jeak. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: And second, Eli. Any amendments or otherwise? Okay. All those in favor, indicate by raising your right hand. All those but Anya which I am guessing is abstain. Okay. Now let's move into board and staff reports starting with you, Michael. >> MICHAEL FORD: Thank you, Charles. I would like to follow up from our last board meeting. August 15th, the board meeting minutes were amended as approved by the board and posted on the website. Additional clarification of public time commentary from August public time comments is included in the September 26th, 2013 board meeting minutes in the packet. As a note of clarity regarding the comments from the last month at the PMER meeting, summaries were not included on the website. The meeting materials and summaries have been included in the recent versions of the board packet posted online. However, there was not a separate folder for the summaries. To improve and ease the finding of these documents, a separate folder was created. Another follow-up item had to do with the humanities at the new stop at the Briarwood Mall this was done and everything seems to be working. We will continue to follow up as staff. Keep our eye on the situation and ensure that the space is working very effectively for our customers. Action items that occurred this week, the new agenda now includes three items for your consideration tonight. Authorization to execute contracts for MDOT up to $1 million. Purchase of a vehicle, vehicles for van ride and authorization to execute an agreement with the city of Ypsilanti to formalize the pass through their transit millage. I just want to just note that I appreciate the work and support from the board committees and I will defer to them or those chairs for their report. Talk a little bit about the urban core. I know that Eli mentioned that in his opening remarks, but we participated on Monday in the city's regional transit forum sponsored as part of the work session in the Ann Arbor city council, presented on the urban core implementation program focusing on local improvements for Ann Arbor as part of the program the city of Ann Arbor will receive over the course of the service 33% increase. Presentation was well received by council. We invited city council to also take part in the public meetings and we just had our first meeting tonight prior to this meeting and we have got I believe another 12 until November 14th. Additional meetings are scheduled and, again, won't just be in Ann Arbor but they will be in Ypsi, Pittsfield as well and Ypsi township and you have a schedule of those meetings on the back of your agenda, so just want you to be aware of that. We continue to meet with community leaders, elected officials to gain their support and interest in this process. Just a little bit about the government shut down. Obviously that resulted -- resolved itself late last night or early this morning, but that has not had any effect on our operations so I just wanted to be clear about that. There had been some questions and I just wanted to reemphasize that. A little bit about the RTA, we had an open house for the RTA board and staff, at our main facility, earlier this month. It was well attended and well received vmentd a lot of of great comments, the RTA board hired John Hartel and we talked and committed to some ongoing meetings an core dating our response obviously a lot of important issues. The RTA board expanded the citizen's Advisory Committee and appointing six additional members from Washtenaw County, reaching out to interested individuals to see if they want to participate but, yeah, I just want to say I appreciate the work of staff planning and hosting the networking event providing logistic support for the RTA meetings and the tour that happened after the meeting. I think people were very well involved in that process and really appreciated the time and effort there. We also provided updates on the work plan projects at the committee meetings. Those are also included in your summaries, details of other meetings and events are included in my written report and I will be happy to take questions at question time. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Thanks, Michael. I think Eli, you are going to give the PDC report tonight. >> ELI COOPER: Yes, I can, we did have a meeting, there is a complete summary in the packet. The items we included -- discussed included discussion on the van pool program. I understand there have been some subsequent issues that have come up after the planning meeting and I want to again publicly thank staff for reaching out to members of the planning committee to assure that we were at least aware of the movement that has occurred since our meeting. Staff also walked us through the capitol and categorical grant program and this is multi year program for capital planning and programming. We were also informed that the processes being accelerated by just a month this year in order to meet the needs of the RTA that exists, so we have additional partner that we need to coordinate information with, so this information was introduced to the committee, and that will be taking action at a subsequent meeting. We had detailed presentation from a number of staff on the urban core program, and I think we are going to continue to hear more and more about that. And that is good. From the planning committee standpoint, staff reinforced for us all of the technical work and planning that they have done both in terms of the route configuration as well as the process to facilitate the public meeting, so we had to cien kind of look ahead at what the public can appreciate as they attend the meetings that have been scheduled. Received a number of updates of significance. I will just call the board's attention to the BTC update. Staff working with the -- I call it the project team, the contractors, have devised strategy to protect against the coming winter. The idea of sequencing things and the way that it was previously contemplated to come together with one building being completed, another building being torn down and with the coming winter, there was a need to protect ourselves against further delays by the onset of winter, which might have had some effect on the construction, so I think it was an innovative and creative strategy and although there is going to be a slight budget impact because of the strategy, it was within the identified contingencies for the project so we are continuing to move ahead. That concludes my brief report. If there are any questions, I would be happy to try to respond to them or look to staff to provide information for the board. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Great. Thanks, Eli. And Roger, how about the FMER committee? >> Thanks, we met yesterday and we have three action items we are bringing to the board for your review. And recommending approval of each of them. One is a resolution that we pass every year to give Michael the authority to exercise contracts with the state of under a million dollars and we have done this the past couple years with the stipulation that he reports on all of those once executed and that has worked pretty well so we recommend continuing that procedure. The second is to execute a formal agreement with the city of Ypsilanti, and now that they are full member of the authority, and this will essentially make permanent their revenue flow from their millage directly to us and formalize that and some other aspects to that, all those that was a good idea. Jack did raise the question of it doesn't seem from his review to be specifics on what if there is a breach, if the money doesn't arrive, do we have the right to therefore terminate service or if we terminate, would both parties be in breach. So he flagged that issue with the dedicated flow through fund that seems a very unlikely occurrence, so we are comfortable with the agreement as written which I think is in your packet -- is it in our packet somewhere? So folks can review if there is any additional questions on that, but thought that particular event tuality might need more attention in Ypsilanti Township agreement as that goes forward since there is not at this time a dedicated revenue stream. We were comfortable with the agreement as is which has been reviewed by the city of Ypsi in finalized form. If we do decide to change it, we need to go back and work it out with them. So we are forwarding that to the full board today for your review and approval. On van pools, I think the situation evolved between the PDC meeting and the PMER meeting. Using federal funds for that because the buy America provision, the preferred vehicle is really the Chrysler mini van which is assembled in Canada so does not meet the buy America requirements, there had been a quaiferrer from the transportation authority which expired and trying to get another waiver but the government shut down about impact that. I happen to know that a lot about this from the UAW, that is a vehicle made by union members in Canada. If you look at the UAW's website, it is promoted as one of the union made vehicles of people who care about that issue can purchase and it has a great deal of American content in it, so the resolution now states since we can't use federal funds, we will use local funds for that, and I understand there is sort of a trade-off between that and maintenance fund so the authority comes out revenue neutral, so to speak, and personally I own one of those vehicles, it does support jobs in Michigan and this region because I believe the engine and powertrain and many of the key components are made in the U.S. and trucked over to Windsor for final assembly so the recommendation is that we go ahead with that, that we use local funds to have flexibility. I pears that at some point we may get the federal waiver but because of van pool program which transitioned from Michivan to us is expanding and we have got demand, people waiting for vehicles, we don't want to wait a number of months for that to happen. So the recommendation is that we go ahead and use the local funds, adjust that as needed and it will not be a hit to the authority budget overall, so those are the three items that we have for our action tonight. On reports received the ifen shall report, the finances are in pretty good shape. Our revenues are like 4% lower than expected but our expenses are 6% lower than expected so the budget is balancing out and the actions by the state to return the money have helped in that quite a bit and Phil's more detailed report is in your packet. Chris, because it is the end of the year gave us a pretty detailed report on ridership. I will just point out to highlight that we again set a record. I think we are the a six -- six -- >> Just under 6.7 with all our services. >> ROGER KERSON: For total boardings, that is not individual riders, obviously people riding many times a year. The growth is slowing a bit. Kind of pretty significant increase trajectory coming out of the rescission when ridership dropped off because economic activity drops off so still growing a little more slowly than we had before. Also on performance report we looked at our standards, in pretty good shape on most of them. Probably not quite where we want to be on on time, our goal is 95% and we aren somewhat under that and that measures on do we hit each stop on time. Most of the buses catch up at the end of the route but obviously that is something that bears continued attention and is a significant impact on our customers. Michael reported to us on the contract that he executed. We set our meeting dates and looked at the work plan. We got an update on the BTC, which Eli has already covered. And we heard a report from Sarah and RTA, and we discussed the urban core in these meetings that started today and I think that about wraps it up. Oh, I am sorry, we also discussed the scenario with the Y lot, which logs impact, whatever goes there impacts us because we are next door neighbors and options there and I think that will come up on the agenda. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Thanks very much Roger. The-Local Advisory Council, I am told there is not going to be a verbal report but that is in your packet. But also would note that Jack has agreed to serve as that board liaison to that committee and so -- what -- would you like to say anything more about that? >> JACK BERNARD: Sure. I am going to attend my first meeting in November, and ideally I will be able to attend many, many more of those moat, but I am looking forward to it. Looks like a good group and at the PMER meeting we talked about making sure that we try to do a presentation of the proposed expansion and services to specifically that group ands with we think about these things in the future to actually include those riders who tend to participate in the LAC. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Great, thanks so much. All right. Question time? Anybody have any questions? I have a couple. So going to start off. And I don't know if you want to invite Terry or if you want to answer this eELi, but regarding the BTC, I wanted to get maybe a couple more details about the winter -- winterize plan and I read in the minutes that the, you know, part of the solution is to get a couple of trailers out there so that you can tear down the old building sooner and I wonder if we could just provide any more details on the time line at this point? >> What we are going to be moving forward with is we are actually going -- we are going to accelerate the process of taking the old building down. A little bit of concern at this point right now that if we wait to take -- wait to finish the existing, the new building before we move into it, and then tear the old building down, that winter could set in and if winter sets in we could have frost conditions in the ground and that could prevent are us from pouring concrete so in the process right now of getting portable trailers set up, for the customers, operators and the customer service aspect and have separate trailers for rest rooms, for the operators as well as the public to use. Our target date for that is October 28th, we will make the transition from the old building into the trailers. Then that week of the 28th, we will move out of the old building, get all of the services disconnected to it, and then Saturday, November 2nd, and the Sunday, the third, we will actually tear down the old building and that will give us the ability to start doing all of the site work that could be affected by winter. Winter was -- if it came in hard and severe quickly, it could really -- it could slow us down until spring at that point. So it is -- it is not going to save us a lot of time with the project in reality overall but what it will do is give us an opportunity to help minimize any impact that we could have with winter. All along our goal has been to keep that building open as long as we possibly could to minimize t impact to the customers and operators and to date we have done a really good job with with that but kind of at a breaking point right now that we want to make sure we protect ourselves and get the project done. >> MICHAEL FORD: If I could just add, this will be accessible to -- >> Yeah, fully ADA accessible. There will be a ramp going up into the trailer. It will be heated. You can actually look out the windows. You are not going to have a mountain landscape view, but you will be able to see the activity outside and see what is going on and stuff like that. It will be a transition period for us, and it is -- it is not going to be as good as we would like it, but it will work and we will make sure that we attend to the customer us and our operators during the period of time. >> MICHAEL FORD: And we will also be working on some strong communication to our public to educate them on this transition as well. >> ROGER KERSON: And how long a period is this going to be Terry? >> My guess at this point right now through the end of January, that is our target date for finishing the building, which is about six weeks off our original schedule. That is not -- overall that is actually pretty good, when you consider the magnitude of the project and that we were shut down for a month with frost laws an start looking at the coordination that you have with all the trades and stuff, but to date we have done really well with our time schedule. And this just for us this just gives us a little bit extra layer of protection in case, you know, winter comes in really hard. So ... >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Great. Thank you. Looks like it is coming along and enjoyed the opportunity to do a little walk around with -- when the RTA was here in town. >> It has changed a lot since that week. If you walk through it now, there is -- it has made a lot of progress. Arrange for another tour. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Yeah, maybe before the next board meeting for example would be a good time. All right. Any other questions for Michael or the committee chairs? I did have another question but bring it up within the item that it will come up on. All right. So let's move on down to new business. Starting with 8.1, resolution to authorize purchase of vehicles for the van pool program. Is there a motion? >> ROGER KERSON: I will move we accept that resolution. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: All right. >> ELI COOPER: Support. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Eli, support, thanks. Discussion? I think we heard -- very competent report from you, Michael. I trust that from your vantage point, Eli, that that satisfies -- the rationale for those changes makes sense but go ahead and comment if you would like. >> ELI COOPER: Yeah, I think it really starts with the base definition of what the program is. It is a van pool program. It is not the SUV crossover program. (Laughter.) And anybody who is familiar with the difference between the amount of customer space or I mean describe it as useable room inside a mini van compared to a small SUV, we are looking at the very base level vehicle that has a higher level of comfort and convenience for our customers. Take it from there, and understand or recognize that there is a cost differential between the Traverse contract per vehicle cost and the Chrysler mini van vehicle. The history of the van pool program is based on full sized vans and mini vans over the course of decades dating back into the 1970s, so it was a difficult issue with respect to having to look at vehicles that were on the surface of it don't even meet the definition of the program. They are not vans. They are the largest vehicle that could accommodate a seven passengers, but if you are anything older than ten years old, then try to get into the back rho row, the third row seating in a Traverse, it is really not the right way that I believe this authority wants to treat our customers. The hangup with the buy America provision, we have heard about in great detail the percent of the vehicle, the type of the vehicle, that is manufactured in America. There is one modest provision in terms of final assembly. And a quaifer has been requested and might have been forthcoming but we have vehicles we inherited a program from Michivan, vehicles are wearing out and need to be replaced so we didn't have the time for our friends on the Hill to resolve the crisis in government in order for this recommendation to come forward. So I will be supporting the recommendation because I believe that a van pool ought to be outfitted with van vehicles, not something less than it will in the long run provide additional flexibility, additional capacity, additional customer convenience, and I think it is just an all around good idea. And I am really glad that staff was creative enough to find a way to flex some funding in order for us to move forward now when the vehicles are needed. Thank you. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Thanks, Eli. As I understand the resolution, or as I read the resolution, though, it does -- staff is asking for the option of considering also the Ford Econoline full-sized van in case that is going to meet some customer's needs better, is that -- can you speak to that Mike. >> MICHAEL FORD: That is an option, we may have some customers that want a larger seating capacity and that vehicle would fit that bill and we just wanted to have an option to be able to provide if that issue came up. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Okay. Any other questions? All right. Well, thank you to both committees for doing our due diligence on this one and the staff for taking the time to get us to the right decision point. All those in favor, raise your right hand? Passes unanimously. So we will move on to resolution 8.2, to authorize our CEO to execute the grant contracts with the MDOT in fiscal year 2014. Is there a motion? Jack? Roger support. And do you Roger or someone might just sort of reintroduce this, this issue? >> ROGER KERSON: Yeah, again, again this was a procedure utilized for the past years, I think since I have been on the board, where it gives the CEO the ability to execute contracts in a timely manner that are less than a million dollars with MDOT. These are frequently matching moneys for other federal funds that need to be executed in order and not having to bring everyone to the board as they come up. Doesn't help our smooth operations. And the stipulation is that every contract that does execute then is reported to the committee and the board so were still monitoring those but it gives the CEO the ability to execute them and keeps the revenue flowing as we need. So looked at it as we have the past couple years and want to continue with that procedure. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Thank you. Any discussion, any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, raise your right hand? Passes unanimously again. Thank you. And now resolution 8.3, the proposed agreement with the city of Ypsilanti regarding their membership in the AAATA. Anybody like to move that one? Gillian, Roger, second. Any discussion on this one? >> ROGER KERSON: Well, again, I would just say that this formalizes the relationship that we have. It you puts in writing that the funds from Ypsilanti's transportation millage will flow through to AATA on an indefinite basis, prior to this that has been, I guess, subject to action by council on a year to year basis, that is no longer the case, those funds will automatically flow, so stabilizes our finances, enables our long-term planning and is a good way to continue the good faith relationship that we started with the city of Ypsi. So I will be supporting this resolution. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Thank you. Did you want to say something, Gillian? >> GILLIAN REAM GAINSELY: Yeah, I would just add to that that I think it was always the understanding that this would, you know, the dedicated transit millage would flow directly to the authority, so I think that the city and AATA, it is certainly in our best interest to have an agreement in line that spells out exactly how that is going to work so I appreciate staff having put it together very quickly and it seems like it is a very good agreement. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: The understanding I know is that should the Ann Arbor city council approve the membership for the Ypsilanti Township as well, that we would execute a similar agreement with them. >> MICHAEL FORD: That is correct. >> CHARLES GRIFFITH: Okay. Just wanted to make sure that is clear to everyone. Any other questions or discussions? All right. All those in favor? Left hand is okay, too. (Laughter.) Unanimous. Thank you. And welcome, Eric. You are just in time -- well, no. Actually, I take it back. You are just in time for public time. And so I don't see any members of the public here. So that will be pretty quick. And now there has been a request to -- for us to consider an executive session to consider the purchase or lease of real property. This requires a roll call vote of the board. So if there is no objection, I would entertain a motion to move into executive session. Eli. Eric support and we will start with Eli? To vote. >> ELI COOPER: Yes. >> Susan. >> Yes. >> I will vote yes. Jack. Gillian, Roger and Eric. Okay. So at this point, we will sequester for a little while, and discuss the matter at hand and we will be back to adjourn the meeting. Transmission Ended. The file does not include the part of the meeting after the closed session ended, when the board voted on a resolution to establish a subcommittee to engage whatever party is the successful bidder on the city-owned Y lot on the northwest corner of Fifth and William streets, next to the AAATA's Blake Transit Center in downtown Ann Arbor.