Minutes 03-17-2015 - Laserfiche WebLink

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c. 2015 Oranqe Public Transportation Title VI Plan The Board considered: 1) Adopting a resolution approving and authorizing the draft of the 2015 Orange Public Transportation Title VI Plan/Program, and 2) Authorize the Orange County Transportation Planning staff to submit the plan to the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Federal Transit Administration. Bret Martin said the Title VI plan is a federal requirement for Orange Public Transportation (OPT) to remain eligible for federal transit funding. He said the federal guidelines lay out the requirements of the plan, including specific information that must be disseminated to the public related to their rights; complaint procedures and forms; public outreach plans to engage minority and non-English speaking populations; plan for assistance to those populations; and a racial breakdown of the OUTBoard members. He said the NC DOT has given OPT a deadline of the end of March to submit the plan. Commissioner porosin asked who is identified as the Title VI coordinator in Orange County. Bret Martin said Peter Murphy is the coordinator. Commissioner porosin said Title VI is an anti—discrimination provision. He said this is a comprehensive report, but he did not see much about the demographic of the ridership. He would like to see this information if it is available, and if not, he would like to see a plan for gathering it. Bret Martin said there are no plans in place, but it is possible to get this information. He said the Title VI requirements are more difficult as transportation systems get larger, and this demographic requirement is in place for systems that operate more than 50 vehicles in a fixed route service. He said OPT is not doing this, but it can be done. Craig Benedict said socioeconomic data was looked at during the creation of the 5 year plan, especially in the Efland Cheeks area, which was one of the highest transit dependent populations. He said the ridership data will be looked at more once the service is in place. Commissioner porosin said Title VI does not include socioeconomic status as a protected class. He said the Family Success Alliance has been doing some census mapping, and there may be an opportunity for some synergy there. He said there is a lot of information in this plan regarding access to interpreters for passengers with limited English proficiency, but he did not see anything about providing language training for drivers to become bi-lingual. He said this might be something worth incentivizing for folks who will be on the front lines. Chair McKee said he has heard a request for more information on the demographics and a request to look into the possibility of bilingual training. He said it seems like it is the consensus of the Board to endorse these requests. Commissioner Pelissier asked if there are already documents available that have been translated into other languages for their ridership. If not, she would like to suggest this. Commissioner Price echoed this suggestion. Commissioner Price referred to page 6, and asked if complaints can be submitted by email. She asked Bret Martin to look into this. Commissioner Price asked if letters will be sent by certified mail. Bret Martin said all correspondence regarding complaints will be handled by certified mail. Bonnie Hammersley said with the expansion of this service this summer, the system will grow, and the size will require staff to look at these issues more diligently. She said staff is committed to putting more systems in place to track information and reporting this information back to the Board.