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16 <br /> 1 Danny Rogers said the schedule must be held to, and that date is correct. He said the <br /> 2 draft plans should be ready prior to that date. He said these contracts are not all or nothing and <br /> 3 there would be the opportunity to stop, if necessary. <br /> 4 Commissioner Burroughs said the draft plan should be available prior to the April 26th <br /> 5 date, and then there will be a required comment period, but the Board of County <br /> 6 Commissioners and MPO will be looking at the draft plan prior to April 26th <br /> 7 Danny Rogers said the draft county transit plans will be available ahead of April 18th, <br /> 8 and on that date GoTriangle will share with the BOCC that it is ready to go to its own Board of <br /> 9 Directors (BOD)for approval. <br /> 10 Commissioner Burroughs said she will have a very hard time signaling positively about <br /> 11 going forward with the engineering, having only seen the draft plan for such a short period of <br /> 12 time. She asked if more detail could be given as to why it must be April 26th, and why the <br /> 13 engineering decision cannot be lined up with the final plan being considered in June and July. <br /> 14 Danny Rogers said the FTA schedule for New Starts is on a calendar year schedule, <br /> 15 and if a deadline is missed by a month, it may be missed by a year. He said deadlines have <br /> 16 been pushed as far as possible to reduce exposure. He said if this is approved April, there is <br /> 17 still room to pull out in June. He said if the plan is not approved in April, the FTA may be <br /> 18 missed, and the whole cost of building the project would be delayed a year, resulting in inflation <br /> 19 being added, the cost of administration would increase, etc. He said it is a much bigger risk to <br /> 20 not approve the contracts, than it is to approve them. <br /> 21 Commissioner Burroughs said the project would not be knocked out of New Starts, but a <br /> 22 year would be lost resulting in increased costs. <br /> 23 Danny Rogers said there would be increased costs from project administration for the <br /> 24 delay and increased costs from inflation. He said as the project moves forward into <br /> 25 engineering, hopefully in the next few weeks, the budget is set on year of expenditure. He said <br /> 26 if the project is delayed a year, the inflation does not get adjusted in the budget, and would be a <br /> 27 true cost increase. He said this puts more on local ability to pay for the project, as the budget <br /> 28 does not get adjusted from the FTA's perspective. <br /> 29 Commissioner Burroughs said she would like to see this played out from a money <br /> 30 perspective as there is a real due diligence issue here with the timing, and she would like to <br /> 31 know exactly how much it will cost to delay a year, versus what would be paid in the first few <br /> 32 months of the engineering contracts. <br /> 33 Commissioner Jacobs agreed with Commissioner Burroughs, and said it would be <br /> 34 helpful to have a timetable of all items and costs, and as the cost is discussed. He said he is <br /> 35 interested in GoTriangle's cost and/or Orange County's exposure based on the cost. <br /> 36 Danny Rogers said this information can be put together. <br /> 37 Commissioner McKee asked if the expectations of the Board of County Commissioners <br /> 38 in June could be specifically outlined, and if it is a go-no-go decision on the BOCC's part. <br /> 39 Danny Rogers said June is the update of the transit plan, and in April they would be <br /> 40 committing to a higher level of expenditure to advance the design. He said if the BOCC is not <br /> 41 comfortable in April, it can direct the BOCC representative on the GoTriangle BOD to vote <br /> 42 against approving the contracts. He said in June the BOCC will be asked to approve the <br /> 43 County Transit Plans, which would include the DOL-RT and all the other parts of that which <br /> 44 would be necessary for continuing to move forward. <br /> 45 Commissioner McKee asked if there is a reason that preparations have not been made <br /> 46 to bring it to the Board of County Commissioners in April. He said it seems to be getting the <br /> 47 cart before the horse, and it looks as if the BOCC will need to approve contracts before seeing <br /> 48 the revised County Transit Plan. <br /> 49 Danny Rogers said the plan has been adjusted due to the statewide participation, and <br /> 50 financial models have been updated. He said GoTriangle is in the process of finalizing all the <br />