Public transit agencies face significant financial sustainability challenges requiring strategic planning, community engagement, and transparent communication. The GCRTA Board of Trustees meeting on June 16, 2026, addressed these challenges through presentations on financial projections, safety initiatives, and community perception research. The agency must balance service quality with fiscal responsibility while building public support for potential funding increases. Key considerations include maintaining service levels during budget constraints, addressing community concerns about safety and cleanliness, and developing compelling narratives about transit's value to the community. Successful transit agencies require ongoing dialogue with stakeholders, data-driven decision-making, and the ability to communicate their mission effectively to diverse community members.
Board Meeting - 2026-06-16
Added:Um, I'd like to call to order uh the committee of the whole meeting for Tuesday, June 16th, 2026. Roll call, please. [clears throat] >> Mayor Kumar, >> here.
>> Miss Pachetti, >> here.
>> Miss Elder, >> here.
>> Mayor Gallo.
>> Miss Harper, >> here.
>> Mr. Love, >> here. Miss McFersonson >> here.
>> Mr. Slesman >> here.
>> Mayor Weiss, Miss Wigum.
>> We have a quorum.
>> Thank you so much. Item two, approval of the minutes for June 2nd, 2026.
Uh, those were in your packet. Um, if there are no edits, do I have a motion and a second?
>> Motion Pachetti.
>> Second, Harper.
>> All in favor?
>> I opposed. Those minutes are approved.
Uh next we have an executive session requested um with the um to review the results of the 2025 fiscal year financial statement and single audit with the auditor um of the state of Ohio. Uh do I have a motion and a second for that?
>> So move Petty second Wigum.
>> Roll call, please.
>> Mayor Kumar, >> yes.
>> Miss Pachetti, >> yes.
>> Miss Elder, >> yes.
>> Miss Harper, >> yes.
>> Mr. Love.
>> Yes.
>> Miss McFersonson.
>> Yes.
>> Mr. Slesman.
>> Yes.
>> Miss Wigum.
>> Yes.
>> Motion carries.
>> Thank you very much. I think Are we holding that session in here?
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. We're going to hold that session in here. So, I'll turn it over to management of who can remain.
>> Yes.
time which can be achieved.
>> Brett, are we all set in the back?
>> Yes.
Uh, I would like to make uh a motion to adjourn executive session. There is a a second.
>> Second. Pachetti.
>> Roll call, please.
>> Mayor Kumar.
>> Yes.
>> Miss Pachetti.
>> Yes.
>> Miss Elder.
>> Yes.
>> Miss Harper.
>> Yes.
>> Uh, Mr. L.
>> Mr. Love.
>> Uh, Miss M. McFerson.
>> Yes.
>> Mr. Slesman.
>> Yes. Uh, swigum.
Motion carries.
>> Thank you very much. Um, there are four or five resolutions we need to adopt and we have a long meeting. I did not get the event we lose someone on the tail end. I wanted to make sure because we have some folks on vacation. We're going to just move up and try and move with some purpose through the board of trustees meeting and get that done and then jump back into the committee to the whole. Um, that way we can catch those resolutions up front. Um, so I'm going to make a motion to suspend the committee the whole meeting and um enter into the board of trustees meeting. Uh, I'll make that motion. Is there a second?
>> Second. Pachetti.
>> All in favor?
>> I.
>> Okay, great. Um, you're now um in [snorts] the board of trustees meeting. I'd like to call that to order.
Um, roll call, please.
>> Mayor Kumar.
>> Yes.
>> Mr. Cheddy.
>> Yes.
>> Miss Elder.
>> Yes.
>> Mayor Gallow.
>> Yes.
>> Miss Harper.
>> Here. Yes.
>> Mr. Love. [laughter] >> Yes.
>> Uh, Miss McFersonson.
>> Yes.
>> Mr. Slesman.
>> Mayor Weiss. Miss Wigum.
>> Present.
>> Thank you. Item number three, certification regarding notice of meeting.
>> Mr. President, I advise that notice of this meeting has been posted more than 24 hours in advance and that all usual notification has been given to the media and other interested persons. All requirements of the Ohio Revised Code and rules and bylaws of this board regarding notice of meeting have been complied with.
>> Thank you very much. Uh next we have uh public comment. Um we try and limit that to two minutes on agenda and non-aggenda items. Do we have anyone in person? if you can just state your name and city of residence.
>> Yes, ma'am. We'll bring the microphone to you.
>> Microphone.
>> This is the microphone.
>> Um, Uclid, Ohio.
Um, I would like to address a couple of concerns regarding my experiences with pair transit.
And um a couple of like uh weeks ago, it was like on uh between like um June 3rd through the the two June 2nd through like the 4th.
Uh on the 2nd, I got picked up um late.
I'm going to getting um getting back from Garfield, which is on on Granger Road. And I got uh as I had a window between 12:30 to 1:00 and I got picked up around um almost a quarter to two and on the it was on the on the 4th which is a Thursday. I supposed to got picked up um between 7:15 to like 7:45 going to the site center and I and I and I get back picked up around 8 around 8:30 and it was it it was too it was too late and then around 3:15 I got picked up from the site center and I and I got um picked picked up and I and I and the the driver the contractor drove me all the way from um Warrenville Heights to drop um some some um [snorts] get a do did a drop off and and um in Mayfield Heights and picked up a lady and and got uh and picked up a picked up um an picked dropped the customer saw at at self Uklid at Walmart itself Uclid and I did not get home until like um um 5:15 and I I felt like it's these um these the the scheduling it's really un not not um accurate and I'm I'm and I'm really um concerned.
>> Thank you very much. I don't see Nick here is >> uh in the Joel will handle it for service. Uh if you want to follow up with the young lady, thank you for your commentary. Our director of service management will make sure that we contact uh make contact with you before you leave today.
>> Okay.
>> Is there anyone else in person that would like to make comment? Yes, sir.
Good morning everyone. My name is Kevin Higo. I'm a longtime resident I stated before and longtime uh writer ary to me.
This is about the uh the bus stop located at Superior Avenue 86 street.
They need to put a poster sign if the bus stops out of work due to the construction of building and they have a temporary stop in front of the Cleveland public library. A lot of times the uh the buses blow right by there and the cameras are trying to get off. Can someone please post a sign at the bus stop if it's out of order like they'll stop a lot of confusion there. That's all I want to say. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you.
>> Is there anyone else in person? Yes ma'am.
>> Good morning everybody.
>> Morning.
>> Uh right now everybody is so concerned about uh the quality of our service and it has lots of the things have been improved. Uh thank you for all the effort but there are certain things I still want to make sure that the writers will not be blamed for it. Uh recently I have been sending photos whenever I got a ride I if I see there's anything inside of our uh service vehicle damaged or broken.
Um yesterday morning I also sent in one of the documents like that. However, the response I saw, I was very surprised that uh our administrative uh department thinks that we should have our GCRTA transit police involved to investigate if these damages are vandalism.
However, I would like to remind everybody some of the things are broken.
It may not be an intentional vandalism.
For example, I'm short all my life. So on the bus, if I even I'm standing there, I can be hit by other riders backpack.
So now uh for from last year this year lots of the of incidents I sent in they are maybe you know the stop request button install on the polls.
The position they are mostly installed actually could be a place that yeah easy for you to press the button also easil easily to be hit by somebody's heavy backpack because when they turn they did not see it.
Uh so their backpack hits the button which is an aftermarket situation you installed extra not built in in the pole so it can be hit. So if this happens very often, believe me, some of the people their backpacks when they get hit, I can feel the pain for really a while. So these things happens. Also another thing is also I have no way to reach is the the road the strings people can pull. I'm short sometimes if people already sitting on the seat. I have no way to reach them. However, I have seen situation throughout the years many times when people trying to stand up and pull they are from the seat. But for some reason the traffic condition which will make the a vehicle either all of a sudden you have a driver had to slam a brake or something. So this person is pulling the pole but this person is also being dragged by the force of the movements of the vehicle. So in that case the force on that pole could be even harder than originally intended.
So these things can cause damage. That's why I have been trying to address the issue that when we purchase new vehicles lots of the things right now we you we use in the vehicles maybe we should consider them as a part of the standard make them as a builtin instead of later we install them. they become the targets of damage even nobody or not everybody is trying to vandalize them. that will actually help our uh service department mechanics uh uh the cleaning crew to actually uh also decrease their workload on these repeated small things because some of these broken parts you may not see them when they are in the garage to be cleaned or to be checked. Sometimes they do showed up their problems when the vehicle is moving. That was the reason why I sent in those things because my concern is every every rider's safety.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
Anyone else in person that would like to make a comment?
Okay. If not, uh do we have anyone on the phones? Brent Do we have callers?
>> Am I on now?
>> Yes.
>> Am I on now?
>> Yes, you are.
>> Okay. This is Eric Stewart. I'm calling at 440276-4600.
There was a time a little less than a couple years ago, I could listen to the entirety of whatever the people in the public in the U person could listen to through this phone call. At some point, the service was reduced. There was no explanation as to why the service was reduced. And every time I've inquired about it, there's no explanation being given. I repeatedly have asked what was the cost to run the service before, what the cost to run the service now, and what is the reason other than you could go on YouTube after you've made your comment that I can't just listen to everything that people in person can listen to. You don't tell the people in person after you've made your comment, get out and go listen to it on you or watch it on YouTube. So, this service should have some explanation as to why it's been reduced. When I call 216-621-9500, and this is not just my experience I'm about to describe. If I want to know where a bus stop is, often they can't answer the question or they refuse to answer the question, including not in giving what the bus stop numbers would be. Now, I could walk out to the street and see a bus stop number myself just going to look at the bus. But I don't want somebody at customer service telling me, "Well, go out there and look for it." And I'm out here. I'm on the phone trying to get you to tell me where it is, what the bus stop number is so I could go through your automated system to get it. There should be some explanation as to why that is. Do they not have the network on on 100% operation? And if so, they should be telling you that telling people that.
And then in reference to the web form that I submitted today, and I want everybody to be able to listen to this web form, so please read it out loud.
There was something left out. When I'm referencing the suggested 15A, 48A, and 50 bus, I'm s I want you to know that these buses should run 16 hours a day, Monday through Friday, and 14 hours a day minimal um Saturdays and Sundays.
And I would like an explanation as to why no one has given me any feedback from the board of trustees or the community advisory committee as to why those services are not being provided other than just saying we don't feel like it because there's clear evidence of what I'm describing on the web form that the 50 is more efficient starting at Mry Mount and still going to the same location at 93rd and will not disrupt the um 30 minute service if you drop the 48 down to 1 hour service. Bring back in the 48A so that the 30 minute service is still not disrupted on the north north of 131st in miles and you get more people to be riding. You haven't addressed the multiple businesses at Pinerest and Shaker Square that would get one one bus service for a large population of the ridership at all. There's been no response to that as to why you won't give that service and you won't give and I've repeatedly asked about this cost on on things that could be readjusted. How do you expect the public to give healthy input to the efficient service of RTA if you only respond to the public when you feel like it on matters of importance?
explain that question first because you have driven the public into a state of apathy which is why there are so few people that participate in these public comments and this public hearing that you have every month because you have driven them into a state of apathy without explanation other than you just don't feel like responding.
>> Mr. Stewart, uh your time is up. Thank you for your comments. Um I know relative to the 15A um that has been reviewed by the staff. Um when new board members come on I know they have met with Joel to review that and understand the reasons for the system nextgen and the redesign and how um those routes between mountain university circle um serve more people and more frequency and I know you disagree with that. Um, but we have listened, we have reviewed it, and I think the the authority is going through a strategic plan, and I'm sure if there's an update to be made in any of the routes as we finish that strategic plan, um, those will be taken under consideration. So, thank you for your comments.
>> We have no other callers in the queue.
>> All right. anything uh web- based?
>> Uh there were a few uh web form comments. Um Eric Stewart also submitted a web form comment with uh similar comments to the ones he voiced over the phone. Uh Adam Rossi of Cleveland Heights uh wrote that um if GCRTA intends to uh issue tax levy ballot measure that it should u not just uh keep status quo add and to state what would be added.
Uh Larry Rodriguez of Cleveland uh writes that he is a paratransit rider and is on the autism spectrum and that the vehicles are loud for his comfort.
There's one more comment from Isaac Shimsky Agusto of Cleveland who states that it would be helpful for RTA to have better signage uh regarding the replacement buses on the blue and green lines. Um all these web form comments will be posted in full in the minutes.
>> Thank you very much.
Uh, next we have the committee reports.
Um, does anyone have a update on their committees?
Okay. If not, since we're trying to move with some purpose today, we're going to move to introduction of new employees and announcements of promotions.
Ida Marshall, senior manager of talent acquisition. Welcome back.
>> Thank you. Good morning. Board President Kumar, uh, general manager, CEO, India Birdong, Terry entire board. It is my pleasure to announce the June new hires that are part-time operators. We'll start off with Bridget Thurman, Torrance McCoy, Senior, Leticia Lindsay, Elliot Sanders, Christian Orac, Jasmine Dye, Lexus Lester, Daniel Bailey, and last but not least, Richard Duga Kecki.
They're all in training. Yeah, thank you. They're all in training, and we wish them well. And thank you. All right, that's it.
>> Thank you so much.
>> Appreciate you.
>> All right, we're going to move through some resolutions. Uh 202639, >> repealing chapter 1087, transit oriented development of the codified rules and regulations of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, and enacting new chapter 1087, transit oriented and joint development.
>> Thank you. You've heard that resolution.
Do I have a motion and a second? Move to approve. Sleepman.
>> Second.
>> Second. Harper. [laughter] >> All in favor?
>> Opposed? That is passed. [snorts] 202640.
Authorizing contract number 2026-34 with NRG Business Marketing LLC for furnishing the authorities's full requirements of natural gas supply for a period of three years in an amount not to exceed $8,580,000 with two one-year options in an amount not to exceed $2,860,000 per option year for a total contract amount not to exceed $14,300,000 for the 5-year period.
>> Great. Uh you've heard that resolution as well. Motion in a second.
>> Yeah. Just a just a point of clarification. Uh thank you. Now that we know the the numbers because I know in the committee meeting we we didn't have the numbers. I'm just curious from a cost standpoint comparison. Is this a significant or is it similar to the previous contract amount?
if anyone could provide that previous contract amount and was it for a three-year period.
>> Sorry, I didn't hear the question.
>> So, what was the previous contract amount for the natural gas supplier?
>> Because I think this was the first time we saw the the number. I know we're under a deadline to >> I don't have that information with you, but I'll get it quickly. Okay.
>> Okay.
>> So, Yeah. And I'll just say um I appreciate we did um discuss this in committee and and this is something that has come together fairly recently. So um we appreciate the cooperation of the staff to just uh fill in those gaps.
Thanks. Um any other questions or concerns on this one? I know this was part of my committee.
Okay, I'm going to go ahead and move to approve um the motion to approve.
[snorts] >> I think the question is probably just the relative rate for the I'm going to guess you're quoted in CCFs and I'm going to guess it has increased slightly from the last contract.
>> You know, I apologize. I'm filling in and I'm caught off guard a little bit because I wasn't at rehearsal yesterday.
somebody else was. So, I'm caught off guard a little bit.
>> So, I' I'd recommend um at the pleasure of the board either move forward or perhaps we even continue with the roster and then come back to it um to be able to give a little bit of time. We do have our uh director of procurement who's out today. So, Sharon is filling in and was not on this particular item, but we can find that information for you and get it to you before the conclusion of the meeting. Okay, great.
>> You guys want to vote on that? You want to hold it until you get that information?
>> Hold it.
>> Okay. Great. All right. So, we're going to hold on that. Um, we're going to go down to 202641.
Brett >> authorizing contract number 2025-36 with Eskills Corporation to provide a learning management and employee performance management system in an amount not to exceed $472,717.94 for a period of three years with two one-year options in amounts not to exceed $120,742.92 and $126,176.33 respectively for total contract amount not to exceed $719,637.19 [snorts] for a 5-year period.
>> Great. You've heard that. Do I have a motion and a second?
>> First, Smith Wiggum. Second, Elder.
>> All in favor?
>> I post that passes. 202642.
>> Authorizing contract number 2026-7 with Ross and White, Inc. for Hayden and Triscuit garage bus wash system replacement in an amount not to exceed $2,825,000.
>> Thank you. You've heard that. There was a presentation on that in committee. Do I have a motion and a second?
>> Move to approve. Sleepman >> second. Harper.
>> All in favor?
>> I opposed. That passes as well. And we're going to just keep moving right now for a quick update from Raj Gotham, deputy GM over finance. Raj, Mayor Kumar, members of the board, uh good morning. Uh my name is Raj Gautam.
I am the DGM of finance and the board secretary treasurer. Uh here with a somewhat uh truncated report in interest of time of the other presentations that we have on today's agenda. Uh as of this uh I was going right into the sales tax first which came this morning. uh wrership data uh through May of 2026 uh 2.2 million writers writership was 1.4% higher uh than May 2025 um on on a year-to- date basis or rather a comparison to precoid numbers that you see on the right hand side we are 3.5 million rides lower or roughly 26%.
passenger fairs um May passenger fair revenue was 1.7% higher than May 2025 on a year-to- date basis we are 4.5% below 2025 levels a quick comparison with the precoid numbers that you see the numbers on the right hand side of the slide uh we're down 4.2 2 million or roughly 26.7%.
Sales and use tax as I stated a little while ago uh for June came in this morning. Uh it is 2.6% higher when compared to June of 2025.
On a year-to-ate basis, we are 4.3% higher when compared to the 2025 total receipts. So when we when we look at the components of the what makes up the sales tax base online sales were 11.7% higher motor vehicles and watercraft were 0.95% higher and regular and statewide sales were 4.48% higher select data um this is included in your monthly board package. So this is just an overview, a snapshot that the total longterm debt outstanding as of the end of 2025 was at 13.9 million. Average investment yield is at 3.67%.
Total cash and investments uh ended up with 332.2 million of which 25.8 million uh is an unrestricted general fund. It is slightly below the monthly one-mon operating reserve and this resulted largely because of a payment that got posted a day earlier than expected. Uh and that was a bill for OPERS. Uh so had it not taken place we would have been total compliance with the policy.
[clears throat] Questions, comments?
>> Thank you so much.
>> All right. My pleasure. Next we'll have the general manager report from India Berzong Terry GM and chief CEO.
All right, good morning everyone. And just as information, they are uh trying to track down that number. As luck would have it, our energy manager is also on vacation today. So we will try our best to be able to get that to you. But I'm going to go ahead with the presentation to buy a little time.
All right. So, we wanted to be able to give a word of congratulations. I believe he's behind the poll. Yes.
Joseph Schaefer, uh, who is our director of engineering, was recently honored by Crane's Cleveland Business. So, we wanted to be able to say congratulations to him. [applause] Joe, if I could embarrass you a little bit, if you could stand up or at least wave your hand so they know who you are.
Uh, [laughter] and uh, of course, you're welcome if you had any comments. I know would you want to take the mic for a minute or so? It's my job to embarrass our employees that are exceptional. Um, before [laughter] before Joe takes the mic just for a moment. Um, he has been here 35 years going on 36 in August is what I'm told.
All right. I wanted to make sure I got that that number is correct. That's an amazing feat. Um, a lot of times you hear from uh Mike Shipper. Uh, who is that is not Mike Shipper, that is Brian Timming, just so you know, [laughter] we're doing a little Jenga today. Um, Brian is stepping in for for Mike, but a lot of times you'll hear Mike talk about engineering um, and what we're doing in the DGM role. Um, Joe is kind of that silent force behind uh the the push of these projects. And so Joe's been working diligently for over three decades to really be able to get a lot of these projects completed. um he was instrumental in the original BRT project uh for example and so all of our processes going through he's very uh well advised on that and and is a gem for our community. So Joe if you have a couple comments.
>> Sure. Thank you India. Um as I thought about as time has passed I thought of three things and the number one thing was the projects that I've done as an engineer. That's a big thing is doing projects. this place has an incredible variety of them and uh there's always something to work on.
I've never been bored. The other the other thing is that uh I've had the opportunity to work with some incredible people and hire some of them as well.
And uh I don't know if I worked somewhere else if I would have met the variety of people, the different walks of life and the different roles in the community. And finally, working for RTA, I think, is a calling in that we're involved with the greater community. We often help pe give people rides that maybe wouldn't have any way to get a ride otherwise. So, I think we fulfill an important function in the community as well. And I think it's been a privilege to work here.
[applause] >> Thank you.
>> So, Joe, we appreciate you. And also uh he's one of 43 honores uh in the June 2026 issue. So if you have a chance, please check it out.
All right. Also, you guys should know about this. If you don't, shame on you and shame on me as well. Um [laughter] we just rolled out, this is a 30-day look back. So we just rolled out the fair capping initiative, the accountbased ticketing. Just wanted to be able to recap that. You can read at your leisure, but we have a pretty good adoption rate in the beginning for the first day. And really this is um uh just a celebratory kind of involvement getting out into the community at three key stations. Uh we really got a lot of good receptive feedback from folks. They really like the the fair equity that's involved in that program and we'll continue to update you on progress. All right, First Energy, we always like to let you know where we are and what kind of partnerships that we're um uh creating and and strengthening. So First Energy Ohio, it was a meet and greet we had out in Akran. um myself along with several members of our operational and governmental affairs folks uh and power and way folks met with the leadership team at First Energy. This is really important because when the system goes down, we were just talking about redundancy a couple minutes ago. Um this is really important to make sure that our transportation system is fortified uh by First Energy. Uh we are one of or the largest partner they have uh in the area. We our rail system has effectively 20 substations which are powered by First Energy. Um so we're important to them. All customers are important to them. We're at the top of that list and we've got to make sure that we have an uh a quick line, a beline to be able to talk to their account managers, their uh operations folks and the like to make sure that when something happens uh natural disaster wise, we've got a way to turn it back on. And so we really are being able to fortify that um conversation. They have a newish president in Torrance Hinton. He's been there just under two years. So, it's a great opportunity to be able to talk through how we can kind of audit and review our substations to make sure that they're at top-notch uh efficiency and productivity.
All right. Also, just wanted to give you a quick update. Pride parade and then of course we have a world soccer match, Brazil versus Egypt. Uh this resulted in over 20,000 passenger trips on the rail system. Um, we wanted to tout that because this is easily becoming one of our larger um, customer service days if you think about it that way. Usually there's e either a duality or a trifecta of an event going on around the pride parade. Um, so we're continually being able to uh handle this without issue. We always have the small bus delays on the on the bus side. We know that we get caught in traffic like everybody else.
Uh, that's a that's a key for BRT. Hint hint. Um, we want to make sure that we can get through the through the traffic.
Um but we do get slowed in that amount amount. Uh but if you look at the numbers there, you can see how many fans attended both events and we're talking about thousands upon thousands of people. So we were able to move them through without issue. Also, Port of Cleveland, another touch point. Um I was able to present in front of their board of trustees. So this is a great uh step in the right direction as far as uh not just presentation, but this has been a long time coming. been talking with the port for probably the better part of the year and uh was asked to present which is great to reintroduce who we are and also looking at ways to be able to work through toward together. Um we all know that the port is kind of a silent partner in some of the finan financial backing and bonding and some of the tod uh arena and so we'd like to be able to figure out how we can collaborate to that effect and we have a lot of interest. Also, the rail cars are a great opportunity to be able to think of how to bring things through the port uh with their collaboration. So, that's been uh in the works as well, and we're working with them to figure out how we can uh utilize our new rail cars coming in to that effect. So, we'll keep you updated on that as well. Strategic plan.
We were at the Kyhoga County Planning Commission meeting uh last week and were able to talk through our strategic plan.
You guys were a part of that. We appreciate it. Uh being able to talk about visions and goals for RTA. So, this is again part of getting out into the community. This was uh a testament to the longtime work that we've been doing with the uh the planning uh authority on that side and uh Mary Serby and her team have been fantastic. Just want to give them a quick shout out.
Mary Beck Mary Beth Fe on our team uh and also Noya Walker Miner uh plethora of other folks in the planning division have really been working on how to be able to work collectively. So, we were able to give that presentation was very well received as well. I believe we have Annie P's in the audience. There we go.
Behind the poll. Everybody's behind the poll. Um and was there as well. So, we appreciate the the partnership on that.
Uh Barrens, this is happening today. Uh this is a dedication to their uh their new service that is coming out in the Brook Park area. So, uh a few of us will be going out that way. If you have time, please uh stop out there and be able to celebrate the new service that's being added. Uh this is adjacent to our Brook Park station. If you think about it, it's within a few walkable um a new t a new terminal that retains Barons and Greyhound uh service into greater Cleveland. So, we appreciate them and this is just this quick snapshot of what it looks like for service.
Oh, that is my last slide. Any questions? I'd be happy to take it.
Otherwise, we can keep rolling.
>> No questions. I just have a a quick comment. Um, I did have a chance to go to the uh the Brazil uh versus Egypt game with my parents and uh of course they took the rabbit uh they took the red line from uh Triscuit downtown and they were very pleased. They told me staff were really great. Um they said this service is very smooth. Um and they, you know, we hung out afterwards and they were able to jump back on the train um a little later on. And so I just want to share and give you all kudos.
>> We will take it. We appreciate that.
>> All right. Um, uh, quickly, I'll I'll echo that because I was at the game, too. Um, also experienced, uh, really generous, kind staff, and, um, generally quick service, but there were a lot of people, so that was hard. Um, I also wanted to give kudos for the storm just that happened in the last 48 hours or a day and a half ago. We still don't have power at my house, but my kids were um just watching out the window and they saw a tree fall on the tracks. And they're like, "Mom, mom, you got to call your friends at RTA." Uh and um I was I would have, you know, said something, but as soon as I checked my phone, you guys had already replaced the rail with um the bus service. And so I just wanted to give kudos to you and your team for not only addressing the issue but also quickly communicating with the public which we know is very important. Um so thank you.
>> Thank you. We appreciate the comments.
Um I will say I'm getting the nod that we do have the answer for you for that procurement item so that we can wrap up the resolution. So uh John uh if you want to go ahead and provide the update.
>> Uh sorry for the delay director or board member. I'd love uh a couple things. Uh first of all, Direct Energy. Uh this contract is with NRG, Direct Energy.
They change the name to NRG. So if you're looking at who was our last vendor, it was the same. Uh this is approximately $300,000 better than estimate. Uh however, uh well, two things. It is below the um the rate that we got from NRG is uh the basis rate is lower than the other vendors interviewed. But to compare it contract to contract is hard to do because the former contract had less CNG buses in our system than it does now. So apples to oranges when it comes to that. But the basis rate is different is better than our the other vendors and it is $300,000 better than the estimates.
Great. Well, we're back to 202640. We had a motion uh for that to be approved.
Do we have a second?
>> Second, Leeman.
>> All in favor?
>> I posted.
>> Uh 40 passes as well. Um no report. I don't believe there's any new or old business. We'll just get back to the committee of the whole as soon as possible. The next regular board meeting is scheduled for July 21st, 2026 um here at 9:00 a.m. in this same boardroom. Um I'm going to make a motion to adjourn the board of trustees meeting. Do I have a second?
>> Second. Petti.
>> All in favor?
>> I opposed. Meeting is adjourned. I'm going to come back to the committee whole and have a motion to go back into um the committee as a whole. Um is there a second?
Second, Smith Wigum.
>> All in favor? I. Okay, we're back in the committee of the whole. Um, and next I believe we have a safety and security update from Chief Jones and uh maybe uh Dr. Caver.
There we go. Chairman Kumar, board members, CEO Bird Song Terry, and to the audience and those that are online, good morning.
>> Good morning.
>> Morning.
>> Thank you. I am Dra Jones, Chief of Transit Police. With me today is Ronald Darden, commander of the Bureau of Special Operations, and Robert Tleski, one of our patrol lieutenants. Today, the Transit Police Department will provide an overview of the 2026 safety and security summer initiative.
We will also provide a brief overview of new strategies designed to increase the safety and security of riders and employees while waiting and riding on the system.
Good morning. Good morning, Mayor Kumar, members of the board, >> CEO, India Bird Song Terry, and members of the public. Like the chief mentioned, my name is Ron Darden. I am the commander over the Bureau of Special Operations. And before we get started with the chief's summer initiative, I just wanted to tell you who transit police is and what we do, some of the capabilities we offer. Um um you've already met the chief. She's at the top.
Um followed by the deputy chief and then three commanders report to the deputy chief. Um commander of field operations.
That's where the bulk of our officers reside. Um as well as our dispatch unit and ancillary units such as our honor guard. Um the command, excuse me, administrative um operations. That's um where our crisis intervention specialists and our transit ambassadors reside as well as our training department. And then last but not least, the best unit of them all, my unit. Um I'm a little biased, but I have the microphone right now. So, [laughter] but my unit um it's always refreshing.
Um we we have an event here today um later on. It's a transit police information session and I'm always refreshed when I get to when we get to talk about our capabilities and then the questions start flowing. Um when I get to tell them that I'm in charge of the detective bureau, our homeland security unit which houses our K9 unit um and our system security specialist if you don't want to go the law enforcement side.
They take care of the vast amount of cameras that we have here at the authority as well as access control. Um so getting to talk about us and people realizing what we do. Um we also have an emergency services team which is um an equivalent of a SWAT team and other municipalities. So as a whole we work to make sure the public, the employees and everyone has a safe transit experience.
That's a perfect segue into our next stat, which is our part one crimes. Um, that's not an RTA term. That's um federal term. It's for any serious um crimes of um felony offenses. Um this is a three-year look back from May mid year. We did have one sexual assault which was um that suspect was quickly apprehended. Um we had a we're seeing a rise in theft offenses. theft offenses are usually um lesser offenses um unattended um cell phones, bikes left unsecured. Um we still take every um crime seriously, but um those we we have seen a slight uptick in those. Um unfortunately though, we have seen a significant de decrease in our felonious assaults, our autothefts, and arson.
Moving on to quality of life crimes.
These are our lesser offenses, our misdemeanor crimes. Um uh we we've seen a huge uptick in misconduct on public transportation citations and as well as trespassing. I attribute that to our high visibility campaign where we're out there, we're jumping on and off buses, we're checking trains, we're at the stations, and when we see um things occurring, we um react to them and respond to that situation.
Next, I'll turn it over to Lieutenant Tedki for patrol initiatives.
>> Thanks, Commander. Good morning, Mayor Kumar, other members of the board. Miss Bird Tong Terry and members of the public. My name is Bob Tleski. I'm one of the lieutenants in charge of our patrol operations. As uh Commander Darden mentioned, is the best unit in our department here. Uh so I just want to give some brief overview of some of the highlights of our initiative this summer here. Our patrol division has been focused on ensuring that our personnel are deployed in a way that maximizes our visibility, improves safety, and allows us to respond to changing conditions throughout our transit system. One area of focus has been increasing our visibility in key locations such as Public Square and on Ontario Street just to the south. These locations [clears throat] are important not only because of activity there, but because they serve as major gathering points for our riders, visitors, employees, students, and members of the public. Major part of that effort has been working closely with our partners, including the Cleveland Division of Police, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, and Downtown Cleveland Incorporated, as well as other community stakeholders. By sharing information together, coordinating resources, and maintaining a common focus on public safety, we're able to address these concerns that affect not only the transit system, but also the surrounding community. As a result of these efforts, activity levels during periods that have historically generated a higher volume of calls and higher amounts of criminal activity and complaints have been noticeably lower uh than what we would typically expect around this time. While we continue to evaluate these trends and study the data and make adjustments, the early results have been encouraging.
We also adjusted some of our weekend rail enforcement efforts by moving our activities from Windemir on the east end of our rail to Tower City in the center.
This allows us to concentrate some of our personnel at a central location, improve coordination, and use our staffing a bit more efficiently. In addition, our patrol division has been implementing a geographic saturation strategy in selected areas of our system. The goal here is to project a highly visible police presence in certain locations while making the best use of limited staffing levels. This allows us to continue to remain flexible and responsive as conditions change uh throughout the day. What I'm most proud of throughout these past few months is the professionalism, the flexibility, and the commitment of our patrol officers and our sergeants. Every day they're out there responding to calls for service, assisting riders, assisting employees, addressing quality of life concerns, and maintaining a visible presence across our system. Our goal here isn't simply to be busy. Our goal is to be effective. Our mission for that remains simple. Provide a safe system, maintain a visible presence, and support the riders and employees who depend on RTA services every day. Thank you. And I'd like to bring back Chief Jones.
>> Thank you.
Our summer initiative has a multi-pronged approach. Uh one of the things that we are conducting are wellness and non-destination rider details. What that involves is uniform and civilian transit police personnel.
uh which include not only our TP officers but our transit ambassadors and our crisis intervention co-responder teams. We assist our non- destination writers and people in crisis by uh referring them to social service agencies for for necessary resources. We also see this as an alternative to arrest instead of arresting for minor or low-level crimes. We also offer those links to social services and one of the things that we have done with our destination non-destination writer details and our wellness details is to deter fair evasion. So we have uh officers who are set up at fair paid stations. Uh we direct people who do not have fair to the TVMS or the the pay stations. Uh and we see this as an effective community engagement tool because we although we cannot be everywhere on the system. The goal is to engage our riders. The goal is to engage our employees um so that they have a safe and responsible ride. I think we skipped a slide. I may have Yes. The other part of the multi-prong approach is uh is what we call gimba and that is where uh me I and other members of our command staff uh post at stations ride buses and trains and the idea is to get the perspective of the writer and even our employees. It does increase our visibility on the system because not only do they see officers, not only do they see uh transit ambassadors or co-responder teams, they also see the chief and her command staff out there engaging people. Uh I want to talk real quick about the rider employee safety, our camera systems. Uh we have 1384 cameras on fixed posts at stations and 3,400 mobile cameras on buses, trains, and paratransit vehicles. That means it's about at least nine cameras on each vehicle with 360 degree review with 360 degree views. With the fixed camera uh systems, uh it allows us to also track any kind of activity that is at not only at the station but is around our stations. Uh we have arrested suspects.
We have identified suspects based just on some of these camera systems that are just posted and fixed. Uh we also have enhanced our camera technology by installing cameras that view bus and train activity in real time. So as it happens, what happens is our officers are able to also uh get into those systems when they're responding to a call just like our dispatchers and they can keep us updated on what is happening on those vehicles.
So, with the code of conduct, RTA uh and transit police have worked together to update the GCRTA code of conduct that was last updated uh about 11 years ago.
It is still in progress. Uh it is anticipated to roll out June 22nd. Uh the signage will be installed throughout our system uh not just on our buses and our trains, but also on our stations.
We're also working with marketing to get uh some other um notices out there like maybe in the way of hot cards so that when people purchase uh passes at at Tower City, they're also given a copy of the code of conduct and also uh possibly the exclusion policy which I'll go into next. Um, the code of conduct will list expected standards of behavior on our system.
Yeah.
>> Good morning, Lieutenant Towki. Again, um, with that being said, I we did want to make a comment here. Um, one thing we've learned from our data, all right, studying this is that while RTA provides millions of rides each year, the overwhelming majority of our riders use our system appropriately and never come into contact with transit police. What we often see though is that a relatively small number of individuals are repeatedly involved in incidents that impact riders, employees, and public resources. So, we've begun to look at our data a little bit differently, uh, identifying patterns of repeated behavior over time rather than reviewing incidents in isolation and individually.
This helps us better understand where resources can have the greatest impact and supports initiatives like what the chief will talk about here in a second, which is intended to address repeated disruptive behavior while helping maintain a welcoming environment for everyone else who uses our system responsibly.
Thank you, Lieutenant. So, we are also working with the legal department to create and implement an exclusion suspension procedure. Um, this will now cover noncriminal as well as criminally prohibited conduct and it will restrict access to those repeat offenders based on the nature of their offenses. Uh, that will be anywhere from 24 hours to possibly a year depending on the offenses. There will be citations issued uh by transit police and any violation of the suspension may result in criminal trespass citation. Uh violations of the suspension may also result in arrest for aggravated uh criminal trespass. Uh it it all depends on the nature of the offense. Paratransit uh as you know already if you don't know they already have an exclusion or suspension procedure. It will continue as is. There will also be a notice and appeal process for those who do receive exclusion or suspension citations.
>> Thank you, Chief. Um before we get into the rest of her summer initiative, the chief summer initiative, um just wanted to touch on data analytics. Um in law enforcement and safety and security as a whole, um you never want to be the person sitting there scratching your head saying, "I didn't think that could happen." um that's a failure. Um we believe that's a failure. This is why we're consistently training. We're consistently checking our policies and procedures, stress testing them to make sure we're getting the results that we want. Um Tfki, Lieutenant Tfki touched on it. Um but I'll reiterate, we transport over a million people annually and a very small portion create um cause most of the crime on our um on our system. Um we're looking into a database um data analytics to use data analytics to identify those people, correct that behavior and hold those um parties accountable. Um we believe that's paramount um to make the riding public safe and um a good experience for everybody else.
Um this segus into our Ontario camera system. We have noticed um we worked with our internal partners. We had an issue um we would meet with um downtown Cleveland, Inc. and other businesses in the area and we would get complaints that there's trespassers loitering in our shelters. So we worked um internally with our depart with our department to remove we had several shelters there to remove some of those shelters. Um we saw a decrease however we still were having loiters in shelter. Um, we then went back to our facilities team and um, there's always going to be a give and take with this the the comfort of the rider versus people doing using a system for its purpose. So, we looked at this um, and we decided to move remove the benches and replace them with standing post or leaning post. Um that way people the the riding public can get still get out of the elements and lean up against a leaning post in the shelter. Um it did deter a lot of the trespassing where people were laying down and sleeping in our shelters and um it also deterred um people from going to that convenience store which is across the street um grabbing that cold beverage going over to our shelters sitting and loitering and um using it for its purpose. Since we've installed those lean tools as well as the Ontario cameras, which I'll touch on, we'll we've seen a significant decrease in loitering and trespassing incidents. Um, but we didn't want to stop there. Um, we saw that we still wanted to be able to look in live and see what was happening real time on Ontario to make sure it doesn't get out of control again. So, we installed we spoke with the city of Cleveland who had cameras on the pole there and work with them to get a an RTA camera where we can sit and review that area. Um, our dispatchers do conduct spot checks of the area and dispatch cars when we see um criminal activity of foot.
Um, [snorts] next we'll go into, and I believe this is the last slide, um, safety tips for riders. Um, we have a program called 575 eyes, 575ES or 3937.
This is a text um a text app or a text number that goes directly to our transit police. Um if you're on a bus or train or anywhere um traversing our system and you see something that makes you uncomfortable, something somebody's committing a crime and you don't want to get on your phone and be singled out that you're the person calling the police, you can discreetly text that number. It goes directly to our dispatch center. um you explain what's going on, tell them your location, what mode of transport you're on, and they'll dispatch a car to your area to deal with that situation. Um also, if you have your phones out, please save this number for TP Dispatch is our direct line to our transit police dispatch. 2165665163.
Um that's the quickest way to get direct contact to our dispatch. If you dial 911, there's going to be a reroute and then it's finally going to get dis um transferred to our dispatch. If you call that number, it'll be a direct um link to our dispatch.
>> One question on the text on that. I've had a question from writers before if they can remain anonymous or whether they need to provide their their information.
>> No, you can remain anonymous. We just need information to know where to meet you. Um where you are. Yes.
>> Thank you.
um things you need to provide. Um like just to touch on your point, mayor, um know your train number, your bus number.
Um be aware um also for safety tips, be aware of your surroundings. Avoid sleeping on GTRTA vehicles. Maintain control over your personal belongings while waiting and riding. And if you ever feel uncomfortable, um move to another seat, engage the operator, or text that number that I just gave you, the 575 eyes. Um, at this time we'll take any questions you may have.
>> I'm gonna jump in. Um, I have a number of questions, so bear with me. Um, I'll try to go quickly. Um, and maybe I'll start going backwards um, from the most recent things. So, um, regarding the safety tips, the the 575's number, um, does that go into dispatch too or is that to another?
>> It goes directly to our dispatch. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear yet.
>> No, no, it's fine.
>> Directly to our dispatch.
>> Okay, perfect. Um and then one question um on the um the Ontario portion of the presentation um understanding uh that we've removed benches to deter you know certain you know activities that's not becoming of the system or really good for the community um has there I guess one question I have is had we considered keeping the shelter part even if we remove um benches Yeah, we we the we did maintain the shelters so the riding public can get out of the element. So yeah, the shelters are there. The the flat benches have been removed and replaced with um leaning poles.
>> The leaning poles. Okay. Um and then um there's been a lot of mention in the presentation regarding data analytics.
um it's not clear to me if these are in you know charts or you know how we might maintain some of this information but um I will speak for myself but maybe my colleagues here may be interested in also um seeing what some of that data um is spitting out um in a more detailed and specific way um when it comes to the kinds of you know crimes we're seeing the the rates that they're happening you know any trends um that that you know you may be noticing that may either lead to you current changes or may lead to changes in the future, those kinds of thing. I I'd just be interested um to know what some of that looks like. So, to the extent um you can share that with us, that would be great.
>> Absolutely.
>> Um Public Square, I got really excited to hear about um working with our partners to make sure that um public square is a a place where all of us want to um engage in crossroads. Um, I think one thing that is most annoying to me personally as someone who's on the system is, you know, when people are parking um on public screen, I can't get off the trolley or it's blocking traffic. And I mean, it's something that happens every single day. And so I am um and I'm not, you know, and it's happening in front of our stops, right?
So it's not just just the public area where maybe CPD would be over, but sometimes it's happening at the stop. So I am interested to know um uh to the to the extent we have something in place or will how we might address that issue.
>> Yes, >> if that's even within our warehouse. And I also understand we have to work with our partners to get most of this stuff done. But >> go ahead. [snorts] >> Yes, that is that is one of the um we do have a traffic unit um that's um designed to address those issues. Um people blocking the bus stops um the transit routes etc. Um right now we're um negotiating or yeah that's the term to use negotiating with the city of Cleveland um on what that looks like going forward. Um I believe legal is working with um legal at Cleveland and we should have something um when we have something I'll report out to the group.
>> Perfect. Um and that was more of a softball. I just want to hear that [laughter] out loud. Um and then um you had mentioned um earlier in the presentation um working with our non- destination writers which has been something of a you know it's been an ongoing concern. This isn't anything new. Um I think one thing that one of you all had mentioned um was um you know to the extent we can direct them to some of our community partners um we will in fact do so. Um I do we currently know whether we have community partners who have you know the ability to help our help move people necessarily.
And what I'm really getting at is that, you know, I think there are a handful of non-destination writers who are also a part of our unhoused um communities, right? And so to direct someone to, you know, a shelter across town uh is is a really heavy maybe sometimes impossible feat. And I also understand that that's not, you know, it's not necessarily just an RTA problem of trying to get someone from point A to point B or, you know, relying on one other organization to get someone from point A to point B. But I I'm just wondering, is there anything that we're aware of currently where we can help people get from our system to a place that would be more appropriate for them?
>> Yes.
>> Under the circumstances.
>> Yes. And and you're you're absolutely right. is is not just an RTA problem, but um it it falls in our lap a lot. Um so we are crisis inter excuse me, crisis intervention specialists. Um they're they're really good at their job.
They're really good at communicating with um the the individuals in need and um getting them to open up about what exactly is it is that they need um and then directing them to those services that can help best.
>> Okay. One of the things if I can if I can add um in my travels at gim doing gima when I'm at Windemir or at the airport or even at tower city we have come across individuals who are we already know are in need. Uh a lot of them are our repeat people. So our crisis intervention teams get to know these people on a firstname basis and engage them. I will say with uh our unhoused population uh you have to build those trust relationships first. So you can engage a person 19 times and it won't be until the 20th time that they actually accept the service, but the services are always offered. And just to give you one quick example, and I know we're pressed for time, uh we had a situation with a uh male who was visually impaired at Tower City. And our transit ambassadors and our officers actually engaged this male, determined that this male was unhoused. Uh we were actually they called uh our crisis intervention co-responder team who reached out to the Cleveland site center and the Cleveland site center came down assisted this male and gave him all the wraparound services that he needed. So we are always on the ball. We have a small group but I can tell you that when when we see something whether it's me doing gimba or officers or our transit ambassadors our co-responder teams are always ready to just respond at a moment's notice.
>> Thank you. And I'm I'm so glad to hear that and that's what I had in mind, right? Making sure that we have partners who are willing to step in um and help fill in the gap because a lot of the issues that we see are not um an a transit issue. It's a community issue.
Um so I'm really glad to hear that. Um so thank you. And my last question um is with respect to the procedure um uh related to um you know upcoming efforts to um ban from the system um when people are engaging in misconduct. Um, [snorts] and I'm not sure this is even ironed out quite yet, but um, understanding that we will be giving citations. Um, does the citation is that is that like warning citation?
Is it um, you know, criminal behavior cit? What kind of citations are we talking?
>> Sure. The the first citation that would be uh given to uh an offender would be one to say you are excluded from writing the system based on the offense. It could be something low-level. they may say this it depending on what it is and we're still working that out with our legal department. It may be a 24-hour exclusion. Um if there is a crime committed then not only would there be an exclusion uh but based on the crime it could actually lead to an arrest. Um, again, if that person then if if the person is excluded from the system, let's say for 30 days, they return to the system before that 30-day exclusion period is over, then they can be cited for criminal for criminal trespass. Uh, if the person is returns to the system before that 30 days and commits a crime or an egregious offense on the system, then they can actually be arrested for aggravated trespass.
>> Understood. And the appeal process for that is that something that will be handled by the department or >> Yes, that's still something that we are we're still in the process of working all the the uh wording with legal the language.
>> Perfect. Thank you and thank you for bearing with me.
>> You're welcome.
>> I'll I'll step in uh for Mayor Kumar for a moment while he returns. Um Miss Wigum.
>> Yep. I'll be quick here. First, I want to say thank you, Chief, and your staff and the team for um not only doing this work, but doing this work with compassion and consideration and letting trust be the path for us to get there.
And so, thank you for your leadership.
Um you mentioned uh educating our writers on the new policy. I was wondering if you can enlighten us on education for our operators, but also to our community partners who um also may need to come alongside of us to educate the writers in the community about the new policy.
Thank you. That's actually a great question. I'm glad you mentioned it because I meant to talk about it briefly. Uh what we are doing, one of the things that we are doing is we're going to be working with our um co-responder teams to reach out to the social service agencies to give them a heads up and educate them on the code of conduct policy and the um suspension policy once that has or suspension uh procedures once those have been implemented. Um so I I I want to be clear with that. The other thing is meeting with downtown partners. Uh we are also um informing them. they're aware that there is pending uh changes with the code of conduct, also with the exclusion procedures. Uh so we are trying to inform as many people as we can. As I stated before, we're working with marketing to try to put together some kind of information campaign that touches everybody in the community. Um not just our writers, but also our uh our employees, our operators, janitorial services, you name it. Uh the idea is to get everybody uh as informed as possible before this final roll out.
>> Thank you, Chief.
>> Thank you. [clears throat] >> I'm I'm getting the nod from our our commander here to my commander, not not yours. [laughter] >> No, for sure.
>> So, I'm going to take advantage of that uh that nod. I I just wanted to say this is really important work and so I appreciate the support of the board. Um the board asked for this presentation.
Um, we were on the agenda I think a few months later and they asked for us to move it up and I'm glad that we did that. Um, we also appreciate media interest. I think um, for the reporters that are in the room, thank you for being here and making sure that you kind of get help us get the word out. Um, there's a lot of work to be done. We are nowhere near finished. We are nowhere near completion, but we're we have a good base and we wanted to show that just really quickly and then let's go ahead and wrap it. Um, we mentioned before that we're a small but mighty team, but I just want to make sure for the record. Um, George, you may have to Sorry. Um, confirm how how small or large that number is for TP and and feel free, Chief, if you'd like to just kind of say how many officers that you've got as well as just the general overall um team, how many folks you're looking at.
>> Sure. Um, we are budgeted for 101 patrol officers. Uh and when you include supervisors, command staff, that comes to about 127. Uh but we also have civilian personnel. So it's a total I believe ofund close to 160 people with transit police. We are short um of course personnel just like every other major police department in this country.
Uh but we are hiring year round and so if you know anybody that may be interested, please have them reach out to us.
>> That that was very smooth. I appreciate the the hiring [laughter] plug.
Um so just wanted to mention that right because small but mighty it it is a pretty large number for the system that we have and we appreciate that not everybody has a transit police system.
Um a lot of our counterparts do not have that. Um so we we wanted to mention that. And then also I'll just leave it on this note. Um a lot of other agencies uh our counterparts throughout the nation if not the world honestly have a code of conduct. They also have a suspension procedure. Um so that we are not alone in this. Um we will continue to move forward with this work. We wanted to provide update. There is no um item on the table for voting. Um so this is purely information for you um if we've gone through this process. It's been a long time coming. So wanted to be able to kind of button it up here and then uh just kind of sit back and watch us work. Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Great. Thank you so much for that presentation. Uh next we have strategic financial and capital planning overview and research. And I'm going to turn that over to our CEO While we're getting ready for that one, if we can um mic check uh maybe Notoria Brent check in the back if you can make sure we have Mike Shipper on the line as well as LJR just to make sure we've got everybody dialed in that we need. If not, we can pinch hit.
>> Jennifer Johnson from LJR is here.
>> Thank you very much. Appreciate that.
Mike, are you on the line as well?
>> I am on the line. Okay, good deal. Thank you.
All right. Still still morning. Uh good morning everyone. India Birdong Terry, general manager CEO for RTA. Um I will be your quasi moderator for this uh presentation. I do have a few slides, but I'm going to hand it over to the team to be able to go into more detail.
Uh we have dubbed this presentation, it's a joint presentation. You'll hear from staff first to provide an overall history, education, high level uh to bring us to where we are now. And then we will have uh partners, you'll hear a couple folks chime in on the line. Um just for awareness, we have Michael Shipper, who's our deputy general manager for engineering to uh review a couple slides here. He is looking at rail cars in Sacramento. So, you know, that's always a great thing making sure that we're staying on time for that. And then we also have uh uh Miss Jennifer Johnson. She's on the line as well, and she is a contractor. You hear from her after Burgess as well to go through some of the survey information. Um so, a lot of this work that we will be doing. I'll go through the agenda really quickly. We're going to start with the five pillar studies. Um we're not going to go too far into it, but there's a reason why I'm going to hand it over to Fon Caver.
As you know, uh, Fon is the deputy general manager for operations. However, before my time here in September of 2019, he served as the interim CEO for about a year and a few months and really was uh, instrumental in being able to push through those pillar studies and then I kind of took the baton and uh, finished that process out. But it served as a pulse point with the community to understand where we were as far as things that we should do, how to inform our strategic plan. And one of those, and he'll go into it, but one of our uh pillars was actually the economics of the agency. Uh that was really spearheaded uh in partnership with GCP, the Greater Cleveland Partnership. And uh part of that recommendation was actually going to the ballot. And so we are at that inflection point. So hold on to your seats, hold on to your hats.
We're at that inflection point. We've really checked the the boxes on every other recommendation. And now we're at the the difficult part of talking about the finances and the longevity of our our agency and where we uh find ourselves to be able to ask for community support. Uh we'll also go through the strategic plan. Uh Mike, I will chime in on that one and then Mike will talk through some of the infrastructure investment also known as the IGA. Of course, COVID happened throughout all of this and then Raj will really harp in on the financial and capital outcomes. That's where we are now in the budget and financial outlook where we find ourselves. Um and then also revenue options and that's where we get into a little bit more information that Burgess and Burgess is going to help us. We have Chris Cavender and we have Vanessa Tay AOSU. All right, look at that. uh to be able to help us through some of the perception uh analysis that's going on within the stakeholder realm uh within the greater Cleveland area on what the temperature is for folks as far as RTA and if they find that uh we're a viable entity to be able to kind of uh pick their pocketbook a little bit. So I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to Fon to get us rolling on the five pillar studies.
>> Thank you, Miss Terry, Mayor Kumar, members of the board, members of the public. I'm Fe Caver, the deputy general manager of operations here at the Greater Cleveland RTA. And as Miss Terry stated, uh, in 2018, uh, I had the opportunity of leading the organization through a set of studies that we deemed the pillar studies. At that time, the board and our community asked us to take on an endeavor to look at several studies that would inform the future of our organization. And these were critical items at that time. And these are the items that inform the 2020 to 2030 strategic plan. The first of those studies was the CSU Cleveland State University economic impact study and that study had a major conclusion that RTA had a sign a significant regional economic impact. That study was completed and we are now with a uh underway with a refresh. The second of those was a large question which was the rail car replacement study. The question was what should we do with the rail cars and how should we move forward with that study that pillar study the major conclusion and recommendation was that the authority needed to purchase new rail cars and we are currently in the implementation of that. Our first rail cars are expected here this fall 2026.
The third study was the system redesign study. In that study, we were asked, you know, where do people want to go and how what type of route should we get there?
We engaged uh a pree uh preeminent leader in uh in planning and the major conclusion of that study was that we needed to implement the redesign network and I'll talk about that a little later.
That study was completed. We also had a question at the time was which was are our fairs equitable? That was the fair equity study. Among other items, the major conclusion and recommendation for that was to implement fair capping and you all recognize that on June 1st we implemented fair capping. The last of those studies was conducted by the uh GCP and it was a financial analysis and economic forecast. Uh and what that study major re major recommendation and conclusion found was that RTA would need new revenue sources in order to take care of our operating operations and maintenance and capital needs and so we should consider a sales tax or property tax levy and we're here for board review uh over the next month or so to provide just a little bit of uh depth and I'm going to move through these quickly. The economic impact study was completed. Uh it was uh and it is currently under refresh.
The rail car replacement study, the first cars will arrive in September of 2026. We were able to get a common rail car that will serve all of our rail services. And this common car, if we receive additional funds, will enable major service improvements u to our system. The system redesign study was implemented in June 21 and it aligns with community priorities expressed through extensive outreach during that redesign period and largely we have 7-day service and all day convenience.
We improved access to jobs, education and healthcare and increased service frequency on many major thoroughares.
the fair equity study. Um the major item was the fair capping technology has gotten to the place where we were able to implement that. But it had other items that we were implemented immediately. One of them was to reduce the all day pass to $5, the equivalent of two one-way fairs and to sell trips tickets in smaller increments than we had before to make it more accessible for individuals who did not have a major cash outlay availability at the time.
The last of those was the GCP study. our chamber of commerce and that analysis said that uh it recommended that we consider a sales of property tax so that we can uh uh have the funds necessary for the capital and operating maintenance and we're here for in consideration for this in June and July of this year. Thank you.
So at this time we have a little bit of information on the strategic plan. Uh Mike, if you're online, I'm going to go ahead and uh narrate a little bit and then punt it to you if you have additional uh insights that you would like to provide. So our strategic plan initiative is a framework for the future. Um it really is the five pillar studies as Fon mentioned. It really harps on improving customer experience.
That's our first and foremost. We hear about that all the time. It's what we do. It's what we breathe. It's what we we live. Modernizing the infrastructure is second to none behind that. The way that you feel on our system is important. It's hard for you to feel comfortable. If you've got an aging infrastructure in need of replacement.
So, we have really been working on modernization. You heard technology a lot weaving woven through today. And also the capital infrastructure um changes that you will hear and you'll hear a little bit more about that as we talk about the IIG IGA funding.
Enhancing mobility is important as well.
the patterns of ridership have changed and they've changed dramatically not just because of COVID just because of the economics of the city and the surrounding regions. Uh as far as the suburban and the urban you'll hear about that as well as we start start to talk through how people feel about RTA. This is a reflection of where we go. Um we are essentially being asked to provide transportation for 2026 with 1970s funding. That is something that let that sink in for a moment. When it comes to the inflation, when it comes to tariffs, when it comes to overall cost of use and living over the last 51 years plus, we have to be able to think about ways to sustain the organization, but really to grow it. And so, this is where we have to start to be creative and we'll talk about the financial sustainability and that's what that that means. The current status of our strategic plan is 2026 to 2030 plus. The reason why we say 2030 plus is because we're at that midlife overhaul. I know that's a vehicle term, but you you get it right. We're at that midlife inflection point because our original strategic plan was 2020 to 2030. So, we want to be able to take our time right now to think about what do the next five years look like and we don't want to lose any time. So, that's why we have the 2030 plus. We're really looking at 20 267 to 2032.
Um, this is the refresh. Um I'm I'm going to go ahead. Mike, if you are online and you want to talk about the process of where we are as far as uh reaching out to the board and external advisory, go right ahead.
>> Sure. Uh Mike Sheper Shipper, deputy general manager, engineering and project management. Um you know, the board the board involvement, we had involvement at the retreat uh briefing earlier this month. There will be some further involvement as the plan develops uh later in the year. Um, internally we have an executive committee of key staff within RTA that we've been briefed and giving input to the plan. And as mentioned earlier in the board meeting, uh there's an external component of this. So for instance, the the outreach to Kyhoga County that was discussed at the board meeting, we have a number of external outreach activities that will really kick off in July and August uh which will then be enveloped into the plan uh when we bring it back to the board uh later this year.
>> Thanks Mike. I appreciate that. And I want to just harp on the last point that Mike made. Coming back to the external advisor external advisory uh meetings is really an important inflection point as well as we continue to think about ballot box. You got to keep that in mind as you're hearing all of this. Um we have to start somewhere. Um I think you will hear without uh stealing anyone's thunder. What does the vision for the authority look like? What does service look like over time? Uh there are a lot of opinions on what it should look like um from A to Z. And I we have to start somewhere as the subject matter experts to be able to provide that base and the strategic plan does that. Um but we also have to go back to the community to find out does this still resonate? Does this still match with what your needs are and that's that process. So we're at the perfect inflection point to be able to be at the midlife overhaul for the strategic plan because it's built into our process. So over the next six months we're going to really be um kind of harping on that last item to be able to go back to the stakeholders and say, "Hey, does this j drive with what your needs are?" All right. At this point, I'm going to hand it over to Raj to go over the CO 19 response and recovery.
And again, this is really just an educational point and it'll dovetail in more of the grant management and finance.
>> Thank you, India. Uh good morning again, uh Mayor Kumar, members of the board. My name is Raj Khan. Um one of the historians at the organization it seems.
Um I want to go back to the only open pillar study that we have remaining which is the GCP financial analysis and the financial outlook.
The report that was issued by GCP was in October 2019 and while we were still digesting the results and the recommendations uh and there were a few others in addition to the looking for the levy suggestion.
We rolled into February and March of 2020 uh and endured the pandemic that we were in. Um there were three iterations of federal funding stimulus funds that were granted to us via grants uh to to which only operating items could be charged. No capital items. This was only for operations to keep transit systems continue. The total of those amounts amounted to a little over 315 million.
And obviously with that in our bank accounts um discussions on any sort of a levy uh were put on hold u for obvious reasons when we had that kind of money. Um and this resulted essentially from the sales tax revenue and the passenger fairs that we were able to save since the grant monies were used to pay for the operations.
We felt the pressure uh that we wanted to make sure that we utilized these funds effectively to not just stabilize the budget but make a a long-term impact. Uh we wanted to make sure that this action extended our financial uh stability through at least 2026. At times we thought it was going to go a little longer maybe 27 or 28 but 26 was the goal and that's what we had delivered and planned. So with the with the relief funds and wanting to make an impact, we structured our approach in several manners that would assist the operating as well as the capital needs of the organization. Uh we did the debt defeasence. We created uh in the a revenue stabilization fund to support the operations made additional capital investments and reduced unfunded capital projects that existed at that time. Once again the goal was stability through 2026.
This slide uh many of you have seen this previously. Uh this shows basically the decrease in long-term debt from 2020 to 2021 is the focus of this presentation when we went from 106 to 47 million and that's where the debt defense occurred.
It also provides obviously a very very good historical perspective as to how high the debt levels were uh going back to 2012.
We created the revenue stabilization fund in 2021 with an initial transfer of 85 million.
We later added another 50 million bringing the total to 135 million. This essentially has been the savings account that has helped us for at least the last two or maybe 3 years. I think the first of the draw downs occurred in 2024. Uh and this is what we are keeping an eye on as we look into the future as to when this would be depleted.
And I will turn it over to uh Mike uh Mike where at the IIGJ slides. I can advance them at your request.
>> Okay. Uh yeah, go ahead. The infrastructure investment and jobs act uh was enacted in November of 2021 and it was a it covers five fiscal years and will be expiring on September 30th of 2026.
Uh the benefits of the IIGJA were an increase to the formula funding which is the basis of our capital improvement program and then it created and expanded some competitive grant opportunities that were very favorable favorable for RTA. So it helped us accelerate a number of capital investments.
That's on the formula side. Uh it increased our formula funding by approximately 13 million annually for a total of 65 million. Um this helped us reduce our capital backlog and it helped us complete projects that had been partially funded in the program and were we were able to fully fund. So for instance, the completion of the waterfront line bridge rehabilitation, the construction at the Tower City East portal, which will be finishing at the end of June, and the Warrenville Van Aken station and track work that's ongoing at the end of the blue line.
Those were out of that formula fund package. From the competitive side, we've even been more successful. So to date, we've been awarded $184 million of competitive grants, and we still have some grants that are pending. So that's almost three times what we had on the formula fund increase. The big projects involved in the competitive grants are obviously the rail car replacement program, the East79th Street station uh on the um blue and green lines on the light rail which will be finishing this year. Eight additional ADA upgrades on the blue line and a number of buses funded a number of buses for our bus replacement program all through the competitive grants that we were able to win.
Uh next uh as Raj mentioned when you add the co and the IGA both of those items helped us um you know push our financial help us financially both on the operating side and on the capital side. So the debt reduction uh through the defecence, the savings of $126 million of eliminating debt service and improving our unfunded capital program which had been around 400 a little over 400 million. We actually got it down to 235, but we're looking about 285 now is is what we presented in May for our unfunded capital backlog.
uh but a tremendous influx helping us both on the operating and on the capital side of our budgets.
>> Thank you Mike. Um so when we started looking at the budget stabilization fund and our uh multi-year projections etc we began some expense reductions in 2025 and have continued them in 2026 to extend the stability through 2028 which will give us more time uh to evaluate additional and alternate sources of revenue.
These are slides that have previously been shared in other presentations. We implemented certain recommendations in 2025 that resulted in about 17.8 million in savings.
We further added some recommendations for 2026, most of which have been implemented. I'll draw your attention to the second line item which was to reduce the transfer from general fund to capital from 10 to 5% on a temporary basis which will result in about 42 million in savings. Uh there are certain additional items that remain in process uh and we will continue to update the board uh when action on those items have has been completed.
Additional recommendations that were made was to begin evaluating a sales tax levy uh for a 0.25% or a 0.5% level uh which is uh up to the authority provided to us by the uh by state law. Um those amount those percentages will generate approximately 70 million at the 0.25% level or 140 million per year at the 0.5% level. We also recommended the issuance of of debt to mitigate the reduced transfers to the capital program from reducing the transfers from 10% to 5%. Uh just a quick reminder, the board did approve that action uh in May. And as far as the issuance of the debt, that is currently in process and we'll update the board hopefully within the next few weeks as to where we stand. Uh we are committed to continue looking for efficiencies and consolidations.
We're also committed to minimize service reductions to the extent possible. Uh we will consider obviously an increase in fairs although that may not address the funding gap that we are looking at but that remains to be decided.
This is an excerpt, a kind of reproduction of the 2026 budget in the two years that we had forecast back in December of 2025. The amounts in red represent the result of the recommendations that have been made and reflected in these numbers. And if we just scroll forward, the second last line at the bottom of the slide, which shows projected ending balances, it says that once all of these recommendations have been implemented, we will end 2028 with a with an ending balance of 26.9, which is very close to the board mandated policy of one month of operating reserve.
From a financial management standpoint, my my team and I certainly have been engaged in in in providing as much oversight and in a transparent manner.
Uh we've we are the recipients of several GFOA awards as far as the audits that we undergo as well as the budgets and the and the additional reporting that we produce uh for the board as well as for the public. uh credit ratings uh issued by S&P and Moody's uh are also a reflection of those efforts. S&P has us rated or our debt rated at AAA which is the highest ranking. Moody's is the second highest rating that they issue but it is still considered investment grade. Uh I am happy to report that Moody's as we're undergoing uh the debt issuance process and talking to the debt rating agencies. Moody's affirmed its AA1 rating this morning. Uh and that applies to not only the new debt that will be issued but also to the existing debt that currently remains on the books.
We'll go into the revenue options.
[clears throat] Uh many of you know that I'm not a big fan of the cliff word. Um but we are going to be facing that if we do not take any action. Uh so the cliff really begins in 2029. Uh which is approximately 30 million. Um and to make up for that difference, we will have to uh make some adjustments on the costs and expenses if no additional revenue is found. Um, a reminder that the 30 million is a large enough number that we cannot wait until 2029 to make those adjustments in one year.
uh and a combination of service and expense reductions of 10 million will be needed each January for the next 3 years as we continue to evaluate what the next step should be.
The alternatives and the options that that we wanted to highlight over here that no new revenue means no additional revenue would be coming in. We will have to look at service and expense reductions on an ongoing basis with the cliff at 2029.
A 0.25 levy which will generate approximately 70 million a year. Um we would obviously look to increase the service level on an increment basis on an incremental basis with the goal of hitting 15 million in new service by 2032.
And with that under that that scenario the cliff would be 2039 with a half a percent levy which will generate estimated uh on an estimated basis 140 million uh the service levels we would look to increase once again on an incremental basis uh as we add buses and operators etc. uh that by 2032 uh the service would be $25 million higher than it currently is. Under that scenario, the sustainability gets extended beyond 2064.
>> What?
>> Thank you.
>> All right. So, now we get to the next steps. Um we will continue with these conversations. Again, this information is meant to be able to provide the board with as much information as possible.
We'll continue to do that um as you start to think about conclusions and next steps as far as action for the staff to take um in future um very near future. Um you'll see the June 23rd uh will be our next present presentation date to the board. Um there essentially are about three financial scenarios as Raj mentioned that we're looking at. One is the this is a recap is the no new revenue option and that's basically decrease in expenses as well as decrease in service over time. This would be the option if no uh ballot box initiative is uh proceeded upon. Your second option to keep into consideration would be a quarter of percent sales tax levy that's estimated at an annual uh increase of $70 million for the authority to be able to sustain and expand service. Um, and then your third option to keep into consideration would be a half a percent sales tax levy initiative and that's estimated at 140 million for the same purpose to be able to sustain and expand service. Um, we will additionally have a June 30th uh additional presentation to the board. Those are both Tuesdays um for your convenience as well as ours to try to keep this moving uh so that hopefully we can get to a conclusion by the board and have marching orders to move forward in whatever option uh is determined. And then also I wanted to bring your attention to the third bullet and again this is the recap slide before we hear from Burgess and Burgess and also LJR on surveying uh and just perception. Uh until additional revenue is identified I'm going to read this just because I want to make sure I get it correct. A combination of service and expense reductions of $10 million is needed each January in 2027, 2028, and 2029. That is a cumulative 30 million that Roz just mentioned. I want to be able to bring to your attention as well is that this also includes potential service reductions. Uh we do have a process. We've gone through it uh on a slightly different timeline for the service reductions that are uh pending for this August. We have to be able to come to the community. we have to come before you uh months in advance of that implementation date. So understand that each January when that 10 million is necessary that means you can pretty much think five to six months in a rears of that we will be coming to you again in August to be able to prepare for that December um service cut reduction or or reduction generally so that we can realize the savings come January. So we will be in conversations again with this within another couple months to be able to prepare for 27. As we continue to go through the options, it does get progressively worse as we continue with the financial analysis. So we do need to have a decision made uh within the next uh 30 to 60 days to be able to know the path to take. This is meant for educational purposes only so that you have all of the options in front of you and then you will hear from Burgess in a few minutes. So, at this time, I'm going to ask that we switch the presentation over and then I'm going to go ahead and introduce Burgess and Burgess. [laughter] Sorry. All right. While they're doing that, we're going to pull up a separate presentation. There we go. Thank you.
So, as we mentioned, we've got We can go back to the first one. Thank you, Vanessa Teayosu and Chris Cavender. I just like saying your name, Vanessa.
It's kind of fun.
>> [laughter] >> um we are uh have have worked with them and have really uh contracted with them to be able to understand what is what is the perception of RTA in the community so we have a good base to be able to move forward with conclusion by the board when ready. Um I'm going to hand it over to Vanessa who serves as the lead of that organization and we appreciate their work. Uh and I'm my assumption is you'll introduce LGR when appropriate. Thank you.
>> Is somebody advancing me or am I advancing myself?
Somebody took the clicker.
>> Oh, there we go. There we go.
>> It's still good morning. Um, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today and share the work that we've been doing for the past few months. A few months ago, uh, when we met at TRIC, I talked a little bit about our process.
Um, all of you were there except for one of you. So, I'm just going to do a quick overview about our purpose. Our purpose is to provide this community input, hold a mirror up to your community to really um understand their perceptions, their values, how they prioritize not just RTA services but also uh potential funding.
Um when we do this process with entities across the state, we build a custom process. So that is what this is. It combines both qualitative and quantitative research and we worked with you to develop each of those items. So I am about us. We've been doing this um since 1983 working with uh transit agencies, public entities, school districts, libraries, community colleges all across the state and also in West Virginia and North Carolina. Uh one of the things I do want to point out is um this process is meant to provide you additional piece of information. you have a lot of data that you've been processing for years and years and years and then today we just saw a very quick recap of all types of things that you have to consider. This is one input. I just want to point that out because I understand that as we share this information, it does not exist in a vacuum. So, I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the qualitative research process. Um, and this is meant to again gauge these broad perceptions, the broad range of thoughts, and to understand what your community leaders know. We start by talking to members of the board. We spoke with 90% of you using an open-ended discussion guide.
not meant to change anybody's opinions or get you to a conclusion, but it's meant to understand what you know right now, what you believe right now, how you communicate to your peers, how you communicate to uh those of your constituents and um and how information could potentially change those outputs.
Um then we did the same thing with community leaders. So as part of this process, we assure that everyone has strict confidentiality. We promise anonymity. We provide and will provide a written report um of all of this in a document that includes all of the thoughts and as I said um no names will be attributed to the individual perceptions. We started with a list of 160 community leaders and you helped provide input into allowing us how to tier those the people that you absolutely wanted to hear from those who were your partners and then we tiered the rest of them based on their spheres of influence.
All of that data that we gathered from you and from your community leaders um was informing a quantitative research process that our partner LJR is going to present on shortly and that was to uh survey Kyhoga County residents and provide again a little bit of quant qual quantity to our quality process.
Okay. The people that we talk to, the community leaders provide um an example of a cross-section of the community.
This list is a list of the organizations that they represent. There's 45 organizations here. Um as I mentioned, we started with a list of 160 people.
Our goal was to complete 45 interviews.
That would be a good sample for a community this size. We ended up completing 55 interviews. Um, what's interesting about this group is that you'll see that they kind of spread nonprofit, government, and elected, civic organizations, education, major business entities, community orgs, parks and wreck, arts and culture, organized labor, right? So, we we tried to cast a wide net. A data point for us is how quickly and how many people respond. So to start with a goal of 45 and to end with a goal with a complete of 55 really does show you that people wanted to talk about transit and that was important for us to understand. Um because typically when we do this process we have to call people a lot to get them to respond. Um that was not the case here. Um and I'm going to very quickly go over the board key findings because this is not new information to you. I want to get into the community leader findings and then turn it over to LJR because that's really where the rubber meets the road.
And from you, I heard confidence in leadership and executive leadership and the management. I heard a little bit of uncertainty when it came to the long-term strategic goal of the organization or multiple strategic goals of the organization. And while you were really excited about the um railc car replacement project and the priority transit corridors, we saw that there was a little bit of concern about again what else is the community seeing and how are they going to understand this this um tension between the service reductions you were about to implement while potentially asking for additional funding. You know, how is the community going to perceive that? Um there was a existing concern about the um perception of safety and cleanliness of the buses and the shelters and that perhaps the rest of the community wasn't absorbing the message that transit isn't just a social service or a good that people rely on but also a driver of economic growth. So there was concern among this group that people weren't really getting that um and that some of that information needs to really saturate before you could go to the community and and make an ask. That's what I heard from you and and obviously that's me general generalizing all of your thoughts and and multiple and multiple pages of data and hours and hours. Yeah.
Six hours of conversations.
Now from the community leader findings, this is also where again we see that the those who are transit riders had a slightly different perception than those who were not transit riders. However, there was universal agreement that RTA is absolutely essential to the local economy to those who depend on it. Um but again because they didn't necessarily regularly use the system, they were speaking anecdotally about the value of transit. Um, like many of you, they were unsure of what the vision, the long range vision of a well-funded, robust transit system would look like, but they did not have agreement themselves on what that could be. They talked about examples from all over the world um, in terms of, you know, point-to-point contact, but then they were also talking about things like on demand services. there was absolutely no common thread that I could say this is the system that the community leaders in Kyhoga County want to see. Um generally they were not aware of your funding challenges, your funding model, but when we talked to them specifically that you've not asked for an increase in over 50 years um to the sales tax, that revenue, sales tax revenue is relatively flat over the last 10 years and that parransit is a mandated service that is not funded. People were shocked to learn that. They were very surprised that that had not been um updated yet. it did not necessarily change how they would recommend you moving forward when it comes to increasing funding. Um, they also had safety and cleanliness perception issues. Um, primarily those who are not RTA users. Um, I I wish that everyone could see the presentation we just saw on safety from your transit police because I think it would really um adjust some perceptions because obviously there's reality to deal with, but then the the perception usually takes a lot longer than the reality does to change. Um, but there were some other items that we saw that there were gaps in. For instance, what do the outer ring suburbs receive in value? what's the value proposition from RTA for those parts of the community that might not receive transit service or as robust of a transit service as the core does. Um, and they also noted that the business community was not sufficiently engaged yet with RTA and that they weren't necessarily that there was not necessarily a plan to get them there.
Um, they asked for and wanted to see more information, more outreach, more direct collaboration.
So, all of that leads us to some items that we believe will help position you in a way that you'll receive uh larger community support from these leaders.
And I just want to be clear that what I'm talking about right now are these grasshops folks that have their own circles of influence uh versus the greater community. When I turn it over to LJR, she's going to talk more about the greater community's findings. And I think that is where um the the next steps for for how to engage the greater community will come from. Okay. So for next steps here for community leaders, they really need to understand the safety and cleanliness priorities, the narratives as best as possible. What you're working on now, an a bridged version of what we just heard, I think would be extremely powerful. Um but to do that, you do have to directly engage these folks. It can't be presentations that we expect them to come to. These are one and one- on-one conversations and starting with the core of folks that we spoke to is a really good audience because we they were already interested enough to talk to us right away. So, I would close the loop with those folks.
Um, and make sure that whatever you decide moving forward that they don't have to hear about it from the news that they that they get a a direct call, some direct um conversation so that they feel as part of your collaborative group. Um there also needs to be an additional expansion on the vision of transit. So this that you're talking about over the next six months, the strategic plan once you've as content matter experts once you've put this together, they need to see it, they need to hear it, they need to feel it, they need to see their own input um reflected in it as well because especially the build the business community wants a seat at the table when it comes to creating that vision and what the the long-term value proposition is. Um, they also really want to understand what the potential revenue could get them. What's the difference?
Similar to the feedback that you heard from GCP in 2019, it cannot just be a revenue increase to keep things the same. Um, the status quo isn't seen as uh providing enough to the community in terms of value throughout. you do need to additional you do need to have additional conversations not just with the county administration and regional leaders when it comes to what you're asking for or when you'll ask for it but how this system can help solve other people's problems and by other people I mean other entities. Um so the big question I know remains is when and how does community support look like? And that is when I'll turn it over to LJR, Jennifer Johnson.
Her presentation is next and then I'll be here to answer questions.
>> Thank you, Vanessa. I appreciate that.
Um I'll I don't know if my presentation is on the screen yet, but if someone wants to just get us uh to chart one, I will talk about um the methodology and a couple of of things that I want to tee up before we dig into the individual charts. And of course, I want to thank you all for the opportunity to do this work. Um we've partnered with Burgess and Burgess for over a decade on projects such as this and of course it's great to work with them on this as well.
Um, and like Vanessa, I will be here for questions after we walk through all of this. So, real quickly before we get into uh the findings um and and the individual charts of data, I just want to mention one thing. Um, we're going to talk about two groups as we move through these charts. One is entitled all voters and one is entitled primary voters. Um, and that is information that we take from the sample that we use to call people. And the reason that we have those two segments, and I'm going to primarily be pointing out how similar they are, is that the the all group tends to be people who are only paying attention to community happenings when there's a lot going on. And the primary voter group tend to be people who are more civically minded and engaged on what is happening all the time. And so those two buckets of people um we want to kind of keep our finger on the pulse of both of them as we look through these individual data points. So I'm going to share some key findings and then some charts that that underscore those um and we will we will walk through this. So the first key finding is really that the overall landscape right now is challenging. So what does that mean? Um, in chart one, we asked a very straightforward question asking people to tell us whether they think Kyhoga County is moving in the right direction or the wrong direction. Well, 58% of the people we talked to wouldn't choose either of those options. They volunteered to us that things are mixed.
We had 25% who say things are moving in the right direction and 17% who say things are moving in the wrong direction.
So only a quarter of the people that we spoke to, only a quarter of the community thinks that things are moving in the right direction right now. We really need more people than that um to feel positive about the outlook of a community before we try to convince them to provide support for community organizations and institutions.
Chart two, please.
We asked an issue concerns question and you can see here in chart two that overall crime and drugs is the top concern of both of our uh both of our groups here. This is noteworthy because we also did hear concerns about safety of RTA later in the survey and I could not agree more uh with Vanessa about um pulling many of the items that I also heard when I first joined um in the report to share with people. I think that will be um extremely positive and have quite an impact.
The other concern here in chart um chart two is that taxes is the second highest concern and it is the same among the all and primary groups. And again this is one of the first examples of how little the data differs between these two groups but both are highly concerned about taxes. And then the third thing that we need to note here in chart 2 is that roads and transportation is the top concern of only 13% of all respondents and 14% of primary respondents. So third from the bottom in terms of focusing specifically on issues that would relate to RTA.
Next chart.
So here we see ratings for two community organizations. One of them being RTA, the other being the Kyhoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities who may seek community support this year. As you can see, they receive an overwhelming positive rating of 81% positive to 0% negative. RTA receives a 55% positive to 8% negative score. Also quite good, but there is a gap here. And that gap is noteworthy. I think we all understand right now that people are facing tight budgets and having to choose carefully where to spend more. And this gap does indicate that there is a favorability advantage for the board of developmental disabilities.
Next chart, please.
With regard to overall importance, RTA is nearly on par with Kyhoga County Health and Human Services, local school districts, and there we ask people to rate quote your local school district and with TRIC C. When we note intensity, RTA does lag just a little bit. And that's the darker part of the bar there.
So just to give you those numbers, 53% say health and human services is very important, 49% say their local school district is very important, 47% say TRIRC is very important, and 35% say RTA is very important.
So the next section of charts underscores a kind of a a mixed sense of rating for RTA. So let's go to chart five.
So, this is a closer look at that 55% to 8% rating we just saw a little bit ago.
Just to give you another piece of data, 26% express a neutral sentiment toward RTA and the organization's overall recognition is 89% which is that number down the left side of the page there in parenthesis.
So obviously we cannot overlook or dismiss the very good news that there are virtually no negative ratings in any of these subgroups um and across the board overall. So that is that is a really positive thing that we see here in chart. We do have a little bit of concern that the positive ratings from households who use RTA regularly is only 39%.
Um, of course we know, you know, people who experience things, you know, one one small glitch can can send them in a certain direction and they have more data upon which to base this. But nonetheless, we need to be mindful of of the fact that those ratings are significantly lower than those who use RTA occasionally or even seldom or never. The other thing I want to note here is that there is a notable difference by income and we're going to see that as we move through. And in this case, the most positive subgroups in really incredibly positive subgroups toward RTA are the income bracket of 50,0001 to 75,000 and income over 75,000 per year.
Next chart, please.
So, this is a closer look at the importance chart that we saw a moment ago. And just a reminder, RTA's overall importance when we combine very important and important is very high.
But we did see that lag in the very important percentages versus other community organizations.
This shows the percentage of subgroups who say RTA is very important. Again, we see a drop among the regular user households. In this case, 14% of them saying RTA is very important. Again, we see higher income households saying RTA is very important more than lower income households. And again we see that the data among this primary voter group is the same as overall.
Next chart.
RTA's nearly equal excellent good to only fair poor only fair/core performance rating does provide some concern about having an adequate foundation right now upon which to seek community support. We have 43% who say RTA's overall performance is excellent or good. and 38% who say it is only fair or poor. A substantial 19% don't know.
And just to give you the breakdown, 9% say excellent, 34% say good, 33% say only fair, and 5% very few actually say poor.
Regular user households offer a more troubling 34% excellent good to 61% only fair poor assessment. Occasional user households are more positive and once again ratings are nearly the same when we look at our primary voter group.
Next chart please.
So what we see here in chart 8 is that there is a foundation of support for requesting more funding but there's also work to do to build support to expand and enhance service. Let me explain these these headings of these columns and what we see here. So, we asked a question asking how respondents feel about funding to RTA.
39% say it makes sense for RTA to request more funding to protect and continue current service and roots. 23% say it makes sense for RTA to request more funding, but only if it means they can expand and enhance service.
11% say RTA should not request more funding, even if it means significant reductions to bus services, including eliminating redoots roots and reducing the frequency of bus service. And 28% couldn't answer. They're undecided.
Also, given the nature of this question, we need to keep in mind that it is possible that many residents think this additional funding would come from sources other than tax revenue.
In addition, it is not safe to assume that everyone who wants to preserve service would also support expanding and enhancing it. So, how does this all play out? Any successful effort to secure more funding in the future would require solidifying support from both the more funding keep the same group and the more funding exam more funding expand group.
But we also have to expect that some of that keep the same group might fall away. that would require persuading some of the undecideds to also support um a funding request for community investment in the future. Those undecideds right now are quite negative about the direction of the county and toward RTA.
So, there's work to do in order to take these data and and build a group that would be open to supporting an investment in the future.
Next chart, please.
We found in this survey a great number of RTA offerings and priorities that raise RTA's favorability and many of these tick and tie with what Vanessa was sharing a few minutes ago. So on uh chart N there are two ways that RTA uses funding that are extremely important to the community. They are excuse me providing bus service so people can travel to healthcare appointments and providing paratransit for people with disabilities who cannot use standard fixed route buses. There is also importance accorded to offering service to get people to their jobs, transporting K through2 students to CMSD schools and coordinating with local colleges and universities to provide transportation to and from campus. And you can see that all of these are important among both of the groups that we've been focusing on. Chart 10, please.
Two statements in this question 28 to 40 series make nearly all respondents more favorable toward RTA and one of them is with particularly high intensity. So, first 52% say the establishment of the health line for workers and patients makes them much more favorable toward RTA and 38% say it makes them more favorable. Just want to say that again.
The ratio of much more favorable to more favorable for that group has a majority of the people we talked to in the much more favorable column. That is very compelling data. In addition, 90% overall are also more favorable after hearing about RTA's collaboration to create and invest in priority corridor corridors. And in that case, 22% are in the much more column. Vanessa also mentioned that the the um people that Burgess spoke to were very interested in the priority corridors. So to see the same messages really rise to the top here um makes sense. And it also will be helpful when you're developing um you know talking points uh to share with all different groups throughout the community. In addition um with regard to priority corridors, respondents are also favorable at a 79% level after learning that new funding will allow for more of these priority corridors throughout the community.
In addition, there is a general belief that funding RTA is about investing in the future of the community and that the funding will result in overall improvement in how the streets function.
And that's particularly important since we don't have a lot of respondents in our panel who live in households that ride regularly.
Other good news here is that 77% voice a favorable response to the transit app for real-time tracking and fair collection. And then finally reminding the public that inflation makes it harder for RTA to keep up and sharing information about the increasing volume of paratransit rides without any specific funding for this service also have a positive impact. And again, Vanessa mentioned mentioned the latter of those as well. If you can turn to the second page of chart 10.
While none of the items on this chart elicit really any negative response, we would recommend focusing on those that make over 60% of respondents more favorable toward RTA. In other words, the the talking points and statements that were on the first page of chart 10.
I also want to note that many of the items toward the bottom of this this list, so on the the second page of chart 10, talk specifically about finances rather than service. Focusing on the services RTA provides first seems to be critically critically important and better received among the respondent panel that we spoke to. And once again, if you just look at the numbers on both pages of chart 10, you can see how how identical they are with the two groups that we spoke to.
Chart 11, please.
Here in this chart, respondents echo their belief that investing in RTA is investing in the community. In this case, 75% agree that it is good for economic development and job creation.
A false far smaller 41% agree that RTA makes good use of tax dollars. And in additional data on that element, 20% disagree, but a substantial 37% don't know. The 37% of those people that we spoke to cannot tell us whether or not RTA makes good use of tax dollars.
Education is needed on that front.
Next chart, please.
This chart highlights some concerns about RTA. Um and unfortunately the other two statements that garner the highest agreement con uh express concerns about cleanliness and safety on RTA.
Other concerns here in this chart are that a majority of 54% say they would like to support additional funding in the future but can't afford it. As a reminder, you know, we conducted this poll quite recently. gas prices are at their highest. So hopefully time may be on our side um in terms of this data point, but nonetheless having a majority who voice concerns about affordability is is something to to keep in mind. 50% agree RTA should have enough money now.
30% say that you do not and 21% don't know. And 48% agree there are more important uses of funding. 30% disagree and 22% don't know.
So things here that will need to be addressed. Um again the report uh that we heard when we joined the call when I joined the call um certainly gives you a a tremendous um amount of of things to share with regard to safety um and cleanliness as well. If we can flip to the second page of chart 12.
Agreement with the remaining potentially negative items that we see here is much lower and really good news in the sense it indicates there's not as much concern about city versus suburban service, low ridership or a call to raise fairs to cover costs.
We could go to chart 13 please.
So what happens at the end of our survey? Well, we found that people are not yet ready to shift towards supporting community investment in RTA.
At the end of the survey, after respondents heard all of the the things that we just talked about in this presentation, we again asked them to share their feelings toward more funding for RTA moving forward. 38% which is a 1% drop say it makes sense to request more funding and keep current services and roots. 24% which is a 1% increase say it makes sense to request more funding only if RTA can expand and enhance service. There's a 3% uptick in those who say RTA should not request more funding even if it means significant reduction to service including eliminating roots or reducing frequency and 24% are are undecided at the end of the survey. So the lack of movement coupled with that small uptick in opposition to an ask for more funding shows us that there is a ways to go before considering a request for more funding to expand services.
Next chart, please.
What this chart shows us is that taking more time to share RTA's strengths and address the concerns we talked about will improve the perception of RTA in the community. The similarities between these two pie charts is noteworthy. And this is our all group and our primary group and their reaction to that final um final question that we asked at question 53.
Although more respondents are undecided in the chart on the right, those supporting more funding for an expansion is 25% and opposition is only 12%. And these results really coupled with the luxury of more time to do all of the things we've been talking about argues for using a longer runway to do so. So let's look at a couple of strategic recommendations and then we can open it up for questions. If we could just go to the the next chart.
So how do we pull all this together? I would recommend creating a talking points document around the key attributes of RTA that are most compelling to the public. Again, start by focusing a little bit more on service and less on financials and include the themes listed below. Of course, use the standard language that RTA typically uses to talk about these things, but the LJ our words for these are an investment in RTA betters the community and is good for economic development. It helps people access health care specifically via the health line and provides paratransit to those who cannot use fixed route bus service despite not having specific funding for paratransit.
RTA gets people to work and education.
RTA has created priority corridors that improve street function and more of this work could be done with more funding.
And RTA has a transit app for real-time tracking and fair collection.
Work to improve. This might be on the next page. work to improve RTA's performance rating and highlight efforts to address the community's specific focus areas of safety and cleanliness. I think the new rail cars fit under this umbrella. Um as well as again um pulling a number of the really compelling elements from the safety presentation that we heard.
Third, seek ways to convey that RTA does not have enough money now and offer evidence of how RTA makes good use of the tax dollars it currently receives.
And then finally, likely the best news in this survey is that the more time you spend sharing RTA strengths and addressing concerns will not only benefit the organization's overall image, but also provide keyformational context to residents who want a clearer understanding of RTA's vision for the future as you work to build a case for community support. So, I thank you all for listening. Um, I wish I could be there in person, but I appreciate you allowing me to join by phone. And um now we can open up the floor for questions of Vanessa, Chris, or me. Thank you again.
>> Questions from trustees.
>> I don't necessarily have questions, but I do have some quick reflections and thank you all for the sobering presentation for me. And as I look at this work in this in this opportunity, I'm going to say opportunity.
This is a narrative opportunity to tell the good work that RTA is doing in our community and with our community and especially the work around the corridors and transit oriented development. It was very clear to me in what we received in both Vanessa's report but also the the report we just heard from is that we had that opportunity to tell our story because when you don't tell your story, others will tell it. And so for me that is a critical point of of urgency as we decide and we make this decision as a board a go or no go right um and I would look to RTA leadership to share with us you know as you hear this as you heard what we've heard um how do we move forward on telling that story of the future of the work that RTA has done until now, but also the future of this work and what it means to Cleveland's future, to Kyhoga County's future. We just had this conference last week about big bets.
>> You can't have a big bet if you don't have public transportation.
>> And so, we need to be a part of that conversation and tell that story about what it means for our economy to grow.
Our economy can't grow if RTA doesn't grow.
If I were on camera, I would be thumbs uping all of that. [laughter] >> I'm nodding hard for you, Jennifer.
>> You have more summary comments?
>> I just want to say one thing.
>> I think we'll probably have more questions, but >> yeah, if you have more questions, please interrupt. But I just want to make one contextual statement and that is that um there are other questions that the survey could have asked if it was funded by a political action committee. Because this is a publicly funded document, we could only go so far as to gauge the community's thoughts and perceptions. We couldn't test a ballot issue, you know, what it would look like if it was to to be on the ballot. So that is a a limitation of the work so far. However, I just want to point out that all of the data up until then still leads me to the same conclusion, and that is that we just we need more time to make that narrative case that um board member Wiggum mentioned because um the community leadership isn't there and your electorate isn't there. And the time it takes to do that varies. I can't say we can get there in three months, we can get there in nine months because people are hearing a lot of messages right now from all over the world and we're about to enter the most expensive gubanatorial and Senate race in Ohio's history and that's going to eat up a lot of oxygen and a lot of money. So, being able to cut through the clutter and making sure that our message is getting to the folks that we need to hear it, it it takes time. It takes varied audience um various um ambassadors, spokespeople and other validators and and one of the challenges in the um survey that LJR pointed out is that our frequent riders were more critical of our service than our than our occasional riders. So that is something that we have to um consider as we find our spokespeople and our validators.
So, I know when we we had the um Vice President Pachetti and I had the opportunity to talk with both of you and and CEO Birdong um last week and um it was a great conversation. I know you highlighted a lot of this um so we're we're hearing it for the second time. Um I know in terms of that runway, you know, looking out, we had a a brief conversation. There's no magic number, but it was clear to me that from your conversations and what you've told management that the earliest we should look at going would be May or November of 27. And I just want to get that on the record from where we are because the timeline to a November election this year is just way too short, especially for the corporate engagement. And I know we had a conversation a little bit of um I think in that sample there were five five corporate entities that you reached out to for for input. But talk about gauging their support and and relative to the potential quarter versus half percent ballot and and getting their support as we move towards that decision. Yeah. they're on our side >> because we didn't test the specific issue, what it could look like, what the sales tax, what a sales tax increase could potentially look like because that would violate rules. Um, we talked about it conceptually and we know that there is an upper [clears throat] limit to what a county can leverage as a um can levy as a sales tax. And that is where you'll have a lot of resistance from the corporate community. Clearly um the higher that number goes, the less likely they are to be supportive. And in our experience, we have seen the corporate community in Cleveland oppose tax issues and and organize opposition against tax issues in the past. So that is an uh an entity that you really need to build that long-term relationship with again demonstrate value, build a collaborative vision with them so that when you get to the point where you're making the ask, it is because it's solving a problem for them. It's meeting a need for them as well.
But yeah, I think there's an upper limit on how much you ask for when it comes to corporate support.
>> If I can if I can just ask for um a point of clarification for the time uh the times that are available to support Mayor Kumar um May, August, and November or what are the our options?
>> Yeah, the August um you do have the ability to go on the ballot with a special August election. Yes. So for 2027, not this. Yeah, this August would not give you enough time, but but you have you have three attempts in 2027 to go to the voters. If you were to go on in 2027 for an August issue, um you would pay the entire cost of the board of elections, um their actual cost to run the election, renting tables, renting chairs, hiring staff because that is not a normal election cycle for them.
>> That's not inexpensive.
It's about $20 and some thousand dollars roughly.
>> Yeah.
>> Um what were the five Did you say there were five corporate or andor business entities?
>> Um let's see if we can if if I don't have the slide in front of us, but we talked to um well I have to look here.
Bedrock GCP um >> downtown Cleveland Inc.
I can't see without my glasses. Village Capital Corp.
>> Yep.
>> There's one more. Northwater Productions.
>> What was the last one?
>> Northwater Productions. They're in Hingtown.
>> And I I just have a maybe a followup there. Um, thank you for giving those names.
>> Um, sorry.
um you had mentioned us having to, you know, really have uh um an ask or to really meet the needs of these corporations in order for them to give support. Have they articulated what needs they have that they would like to see us fill the gap in for?
>> See, this this is the issue and this is what I alluded to earlier. There was no central vision of what a really good transit system. There were 45 different opinions. I I shouldn't say that. was probably more like 35. But, you know, the the there were things like it should this like the outcome was making sure that it was well-run, that it was clean, that it was safe, that could get people to work in school, and that it was reliable, and there was regular transit service. It was those types of outcomes that like clearly that's what everyone wants, right? But it wasn't necessarily in a in a design.
>> Understood. And I'm I'm curious um you know at the top of the presentation and I have so many notes um you know we were looking at you know what the all what is it all voters and um primary voters. Do we know what category these corporate uh are these five may fall into more or less?
>> So they would reflect high information primary voters. So they would I yes they're going to vote in midterms because that's you know that's the middle line for them. The high information voters are people that vote in nearly every election and that would represent a lot of the folks that we spoke to. The community leaders that we spoke to are going to be people that vote in three out of the four last elections, possibly four out of four. Do we have any sense? And I'm not going to get too far into the weeds cuz um do we have any sense of whether um there would be a differ a differing opinion when posing these questions to leadership versus the employees that actually work for them.
>> Yeah. And that's what the LJR survey does, right? So we talk to these grasshops leaders who have a lot of information who probably have competing interests. um you know six about of six of those entities have their own tax issues on the ballot. Um so when we do that broad community leader input process that is meant to help us ask the right questions so that when LJR does their survey of voters that's more reflective of the employees of the workers of the people that represent our actual voters.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Yeah. So so mine is up here hers is everywhere else. And that's really important context >> and and the reason the community leader information is important or >> all of it's important but why it's significant is because that is where leadership would come from to develop the political action committee that would then advocate for the issue. So unless that support exists at high levels then the pack cannot form.
So that's why the leadership is so important.
The pack cannot form nor can it be funded and supported. Let's just plain, >> right? Especially because we know that the people who fund these packs are typically the corporate leaders.
>> Yes.
>> Yeah. Thank Thank you for the presentation. And I guess with two questions, the the first being we're going to receive this deck or report right shortly. I guess the second is just like building on um Trusty Smith Wigam's comment like at the highest level do you see the challenge being that effectively there isn't a universal value proposition maybe one but but two is that there probably needs to be not only a universal value proposition but a set of value propositions yeah >> that speak to different >> Yeah. It's always a little bit of the what's in it for me. So >> absolutely.
>> Yeah. and and as Jennifer pointed out, you'll see that there's a little bit of variance between, you know, different income levels, different parts of the community. So, yeah, somebody they have to be able to see how it impacts them or how it improves their life. Um, you said something that triggered something else that I wanted to mention, and that is, >> yeah, the final memo and report will be available at the end of this week. We were still processing some data, so we'll get that all over to you revised by Friday at the latest.
Yeah. Um, thank you so much for this presentation. Um, it was full of a lot of information that I think is actionable. Um, and it grounds us in what the community is thinking and feeling, which is always so important.
Um I just wanted to make the point or build on the points that were made by some of my colleagues um about this being a nice opportunity for us to propose a compelling vision. I think between the strategic plan refresh, our financial situation, all the work we've been doing on safety and um to priority corridors, I think it's on us to build and communicate that vision.
And I'm glad that a lot of the people you spoke with don't have this vision of what RTA should be because I think I think we should lead that conversation.
Um exactly.
>> And so that that gives me a lot of hope that um you know it gives us a nice charge over the next you know 6 to 12 months or whatever the timeline is to really think internally and externally with our partners about what that vision looks like. And I just I think it's it's good timing. Um so that's all I just uh this whole idea of set of value propositions goes right in line with just building out what that vision is and what a great uh public transit system looks like 10 or 20 years down the line.
>> Yeah, I hate to use the pun and I know Chris is going to snort the minute I say it, but it is time to take the show on the road. like we saw all of this today and if you could condense that and package that and just really take it everywhere it is a good opportunity and again to you know centralize a vision because once you propose it um because you're the content matter experts it is going to be much better than what people have now and then you've created that value for so many other entities and I don't want to you know understate that we understand that these decisions are difficult and delaying a decision means that there are changes to services that riders are going to have to experience and that is you know difficult and I don't envy your position as you um try to work through that. So again um we appreciate the opportunity to do this work and you know happy to be a resource throughout.
>> I I've never tried to do anything like this so I'll point out that find like I accept the agree the the arguments to wait until next year. I also I think these are pretty decent numbers for not having done anything in terms of a pack or you know asking for money or anything like that. Uh and this this November is going to be an impactful election. Uh, and we have costs and risks to waiting. Um, including those service cuts, as marginal as they are, and I know we worked really hard, staff, I didn't, you guys worked really hard to make those marginal.
Uh, to the extent that people have opinions about that and that they form opinions on RTA based on those service cuts, they will be more they will have they will have been longer in place by then and that may have that may affect how people answer these questions right here. Um, so you know, if it's not even possible to do this November, I'll I'll take it. But if it is, I would challenge us that these numbers are pretty decent. And if it's doable, even if it's a crunch, this November, I think looks pretty darn good. And and we have uh more value to deliver sooner if we if that works out. So that's I guess my two cents on it.
If if I may, this I'm Anna Lavix um senior counsel. I'm covering for Janet Bernie today along with Tracy X. And I just wanted to point out that um Vanessa, thank you so much for your presentation and and Jennifer from LJR.
The uh work that they've done uh was for education. It was for finding out what the public perceptions are. Um, in no way was this work or this presentation today intended to advise the board one way or another regarding whether to go forward with the levy amendment or the timing to do that. But it was to give you the information and this is one the first of three intended meetings so that we can make sure you have all the information that you will need to to make the ultimate decision.
>> I I will um support Anna's commentary. I also want to make sure that um the board is free to have their opinion at the deis and to discuss. So I don't want you to translate that into thwarting your >> your voice, right?
>> We as staff can advise you and that's what I think we want to make sure everybody's nodding their head at the same time. Um so um we can't advise of when we think is appropriate. We can advise you of what the options are. So you'll continually hear us say that. um whether that's 26, whether that's 27, whether that's something beyond 27. Um so that you are aware of what the consequences are for every action and what the pros and cons could be, right?
Because it's all a it we're hoping and guessing and projecting for all of it.
But I just want to make sure the board hears us to say we are not um stifling your voice to to discuss and all of that. But the the direction for timing um will have to come from the board at the direction for the staff to execute.
As general manager and CEO, I will offer this for you to consider as we continue to have these these conversations over the next few weeks. Um considering that runway has come up multiple times. Absolutely agree. we have to have the appropriate runway to be able to get the messaging out there, whatever that runway timewise and length is. We'll continue to do that and we're committed to understanding that that's the charge regardless of what time at the ballot box is um is considered by the board. But please understand that I will continue to press this issue for consideration and agreement and consensus by the board so that my team has the timeline set and we are requesting that timeline to be set. Um I relatively soon because I'll mention this and correct me legal Burgess the ballot box uh due date or or or is 90 days prior to the election. So, November 5th, that means August 5th would be our deadline to submit. Understanding and hearing that we're having a lot of conversations between what year, what month, I my ask is that our team is aware of what the consensus from the board is prior to that August 5th so that we know if 26 is off the table, that's fine. We'll focus on 27. of 27 that kind of thing so that we can start the runway because I want to make sure that we have enough time to do what's appropriate to uh to move forward.
And Vanessa, just one thing it was really helpful on our call um is you talked a little bit more about um that runway and you know getting someone to lead individuals to lead the campaign to fund the campaign to do those things like that. Um I'm sort of a work backwards type of guy to say what needs to be done. What does management need to do with a corporate um community to go out and engage them and understand what potential amount might be palatable and that where they would support that? Is that something Burgess and Burgess can help us with with the bullet points of the things that need to be executed having since RTA hasn't been on the ballot for 50 years and listing all those out because I think getting that corporate support and engagement understanding where they stand on this is one consideration for me as a board member and the trustee slemen you know we look at this I did talk with mayor um Gallow and Weiss because we've all been on the ballot before And you know, we don't decide till January. Early voting starts in 70 days. Um that for folks that have gone through this before um doesn't seem feasible whatsoever to me.
And I'm not going to speak for the rest of the board, but um to do all the things you've told us we need to do given summer vacation schedules and setting up things and getting that financial support that Trusty Winghams mentioned that that is really a a high bar from my perspective.
>> So my own vote >> two tracks. So the first part of it is our final recommendation memo that we're uh working to put together right now. So it'll be by the end of the week will include um actionable steps for outreach and for messaging um and incorporating both LJR's feedback and our research. So that will be in a final memo this week.
Um the other part about um standing up a political action committee all has to be done separately without um we could not work on that as we're working with RTA.
We would have to be engaged by the pack.
The political action committee would have to be created, would have to be started and would have to engage us to do the part about building capacity for the political action committee.
>> Right. I was just the steps that need to be done not in the meantime. Yes.
>> Taking part in it. I would understand you'd have to be engaged separately on that.
>> Yep.
>> But yes, the other stuff we would absolutely include as part of our final report.
[snorts] >> Questions going once, going twice.
Thank you again.
>> Thank you so much for the overview.
>> Thank you all.
>> Thank again. Thank you for being online.
>> My pleasure.
>> Any other notes?
>> Okay, I'm going to make a motion tojourn. Is there a second?
>> Second. Pretty in >> favor I meeting is journed.
>> [snorts] >> I'm gonna say very ish. [laughter]
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