Minutes 12-05-2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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33 Finance staff said she would have to review the numbers to have an informed answer. She said the $27 million does not include bus services. Commissioner McKee said the thought that this MOU is not a commitment is false. He said he votes for the MOU, it would be a commitment that he will need to follow through with, thus he will vote against it. Commissioner McKee asked if there is a plan if the State provides no funding. Jeff Mann said clearly this is a risk, but GoTriangle will work hard with value engineering over the coming months in order to seek cost savings for the project, in the event that the State does not provide funding. Commissioner McKee said this project could be value engineered into the ground. Jeff Mann said it is believed that this project will score highly in STI. He said adding the NCCU stop will only increase the score. Commissioner McKee said he asked the County's CFO what were the growth rates for sales tax, and he said 3.6% in the original plan. He said the original document was 3.6%, but GoTriangle used 4.1% in recent presentations. He said this is a material change, and he thought material changes would come back to the partners. Jeff Mann said the New Starts application was based on the Dr. Walden 2014 forecast. Commissioner McKee said these were not the figures given to this Board. Commissioner McKee said they talked about commitment, and April 2017 being a hard stop; but he does not see a vote happening during any of this time. He asked if there is a hard vote to say yea or nay to this project. Jeff Mann said funds would have to be committed in 2018, and the opportunity in 2017 is to approve the BRT update. Commissioner McKee said this does not give the Board a hard stop. Jeff Mann said if the Board does not approve the Orange County Bus and Rail Investment plan in April, then it does not go into the plan. Commissioner McKee said the expansion if the cost has been discussed as it has grown. He asked if the costs will ultimately reach $3 billion. Jeff Mann said this is not anticipated to happen, and there have been two independent cost reviews. He said the increases seen tonight reflect the addition of the NCCU stop, and inflating to 2016 dollars, and year of expenditure dollars. Commissioner McKee said he is glad 2016 dollars are being discussed, because taxes are paid in 2016 dollars. Commissioner Marcoplos said he is satisfied that this is a non-binding MOU. He did spend some time with the planning staff last week, and there are some troubling figures. He is willing to move forward tonight. He agreed with Commissioner Jacobs' proposed language amendment. Commissioner Price said her views are close to Commissioner McKee, but also agrees with some of Commissioner Jacobs' comments. She said the MOU implies that Orange County is supportive of this since it supported the sales tax before, but that vote was intended to include the buses and the Amtrak station. She said the MOU does not even mention NCCU. Chair Dorosin said he could support the MOU, with Commissioner Jacobs' amendment. He said he does not feel this is a financially or morally binding document. A motion was made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Marcoplos for the Board to adopt his statement of intent.