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14 <br /> 1 Commissioner Price asked the Orange County staff if the County's credit rating will be <br /> 2 affected by all of the risks of LRT. <br /> 3 Gary Donaldson, Orange County Chief Financial Officer, said it depends on the <br /> 4 recourse, and he said it if is a contingent liability then it would impact the County's credit rating. <br /> 5 Commissioner Price said she is concerned about the finances, but is just as concerned <br /> 6 about social justice goals. She said she wonders how this plan is meeting the needs of those <br /> 7 with low income, and if this project takes so much of the County's time and money then the <br /> 8 social justice goals may as well be thrown away. <br /> 9 Commissioner Rich thanked the public for their patience. She said all involved are <br /> 10 working on the financials, and all are thinking this through. She said the public is welcome to <br /> 11 speak at any regular BOCC meeting, whether this item is on the agenda or not. <br /> 12 Commissioner McKee asked if there were 35,000 new bus hours in the original plan. <br /> 13 Jeff Mann said yes. <br /> 14 Commissioner McKee asked if the percentage of these hours, that have already been <br /> 15 implemented and/or committed, is known. <br /> 16 John Talmadge, GoTriangle Regional Services Development Director, said the hours <br /> 17 allotted to GoTriangle and the Orange Public Transportation (OPT) are fully committed. He <br /> 18 said the Town of Chapel Hill has most of the hours, and it has not fully committed its hours yet. <br /> 19 He said the Town has about 7,500 hours that it has not yet committed. <br /> 20 Commissioner McKee asked if the amount of hours remaining to be allocated from the <br /> 21 35,000 could be identified. <br /> 22 John Talmadge said he can get this information to the Board. <br /> 23 Commissioner McKee said he said he understands there are 35,000 hours throughout <br /> 24 the life of the plan. <br /> 25 John Talmadge said there are 35,000 annually. He said it starts at 200,000 hours, and <br /> 26 is supposed to increase to 235,000 in the first 3 to 5 years, and stay in this steady state until <br /> 27 2035. <br /> 28 Commissioner McKee said technically there are very few extra hours to allocate from <br /> 29 now to 2035. <br /> 30 John Talmadge said of the 35,000 there is about 1/3 left to allocate. He will put precise <br /> 31 numbers in writing. <br /> 32 John Talmadge said once the rail service is opened, there are choices to be made about <br /> 33 services that are parallel to the rail. <br /> 34 Commissioner Jacobs said he finds it difficult to organize numbers that are being flown <br /> 35 about. He suggested that the Board organize all its questions into categories, and submit them <br /> 36 to the Manager who can submit them to GoTriangle. <br /> 37 Commissioner McKee said he respected and endorsed Commissioner Jacobs' <br /> 38 suggestion, but noted that he submitted a list of questions to GoTriangle on December 13th and <br /> 39 did not receive answers. <br /> 40 Jeff Mann said he has provided information, and if there is anything outstanding that <br /> 41 GoTriangle can provide, it will be happy to do so. <br /> 42 Commissioner Rich suggested that the focus be on Orange County's costs. <br /> 43 Commissioner Jacobs said he agreed with Commissioner McKee, and asked him to <br /> 44 resubmit his questions through this process. <br /> 45 Chair Dorosin said to start with Commissioner McKee's questions, and the rest of the <br /> 46 Board could submit questions to be organized by the Manager. He reviewed the revised <br /> 47 timeline: <br /> 48 • March 17: new financial model available <br /> 49 • March 20: options on project cost sharing with Durham County <br /> 50 • April 4: Report from the Davenport Group <br />