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81 <br /> Chapter 5:Organizational Options <br /> Planning and administrative functions that need to be addressed include: <br /> • Operational planning (near-term—up to one year) <br /> • Short-term planning (1-5 years) <br /> • Long-term planning (5-25 years) <br /> • Funding grant identification, application, reporting to NCDOT, FTA and funding <br /> agencies <br /> • Policy planning and development, including support to policy bodies <br /> • Representation/liaison with regional planning bodies <br /> • Compliance monitoring—maintaining policies, records <br /> • Public involvement <br /> • Public information and marketing <br /> • Coordination with transit agencies in the region on services, information, marketing and <br /> fares <br /> Some of these tasks are administrative, but there are significant planning functions particularly <br /> in Orange County,which is now included in two Metropolitan Planning Organizations <br /> (MPO's) and a Rural Planning Organization (RPO). There are significant transit planning <br /> functions in addition to many other activities that are needed to support the broader <br /> transportation planning needs of the county, including all other modes. <br /> ORGANIZATIONAL OPTIONS FOR ORANGE COUNTY <br /> Chapter i of this report includes a description of the organizational structure of OPT at the <br /> current time. The staffing of the program is changing as this study progresses, so a recap of the <br /> current structure is in order. Figure 5-1 presents the current overall Orange County <br /> organizational structure and Figure 5-2 presents the staff structure of the Transportation <br /> Division of Planning and Inspections (OPT), along with the link to the Comprehensive Planner <br /> II position that supports OPT. The OPT staffing levels that are shown reflect the near-term <br /> changes that are planned, including the redefinition of the Administrative Assistant I position <br /> to a scheduler dispatcher, and the addition of three full-time and three part-time drivers to <br /> cover the expanded fixed route services that are being implemented. There are as OPT staff <br /> members who are not planners and are not doing planning but who are performing <br /> administrative, operating and customer service functions. <br /> This suggests that although the transit system needs the support of a transportation planner, <br /> most of the staff could be considered as providing a service function to the public, rather than a <br /> regulatory or planning function. It opens up the question of moving the transit program out of <br /> planning, and if so where? Should the transit program's planning function move with it?The <br /> recent changes in the overall county governmental structure are designed to combine units in <br /> functional groups to facilitate cooperation and coordination, which suggests that some options <br /> KFH <br /> NCDOT Orange County 65 <br /> Transit Assessment Study <br />