Agenda 12-02-19 Item 8-a - Minutes

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25 1 Orange County has high taxes and fees, and threw away millions of dollars on the ill-fated light 2 rail system. He said there must be someone in charge, who is responsible to the taxpayers for 3 these expenditures. 4 Commissioner McKee asked for clarification on further light rail studies, as he is not 5 aware of any. 6 Travis Myren said a total of$14 million was allocated to the Chapel Hill north-south 7 BRT, and the Board added $8 million to its current obligation several months ago. 8 Commissioner McKee asked for clarification on what the County is receiving for the 9 $500,000 it is spending on consultant costs. He said he ran in 2010 based on the cost of 10 consultants. He said some consultants are invaluable, and asked if this $500,000 could be 11 broken down into the benefits received. 12 Travis Myren said $500,000 is the placeholder in the transit plan for potential consultant 13 services. He said the current scope is more limited, so it should cost less. He said the Board 14 will have a chance to approve the contract at a later time. 15 Commissioner Bedford referred to slide 16, item #4, and asked if the working staff is 16 also the MPO Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). 17 Travis Myren said this is different than the MPO Technical Advisory Committee. He said 18 the staff working group was created to make recommend changes to the transit plan, which is 19 related to the TAC, but not the same. 20 Commissioner Bedford asked if the towns' planners were involved. 21 Travis Myren said the towns have representatives, and the by-laws contained a voting 22 rubric, which had the voting members as Orange County, Go Triangle, and the DCHC-MPO. 23 He said inclusion of the towns needs to be revisited, as some may be interested in being voting 24 members. 25 Commissioner Bedford asked if this will be reviewed, as a part of this plan, and the 26 towns could possibly be included. 27 Travis Myren said all towns participate in the dialogue, and there have been no major 28 votes as yet. 29 Commissioner Bedford referred to page 2 of the abstract agenda, and said she liked 30 that there will be a 20-year finance horizon, depending on the recommendations. She said 31 there might also be other ways to ensure representation. 32 Chair Rich said there may end up being two members from Chapel Hill and Carrboro, 33 and only one from Hillsborough and Mebane, which could shift the weighting of the steering 34 committee. 35 36 A motion was made by Commissioner Greene, seconded by Commissioner Price for 37 the Board to: 38 1) Approve the planning framework for updating the Orange County Transit Plan; and 39 2) Authorize staff to proceed with implementing the planning framework and issuing 40 request for qualifications for consulting services as outlined in this abstract. 41 42 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 43 44 Commissioner Dorosin referred to recommendation #3, and proposed putting the Chair 45 on the Committee, as well as Commissioner Marcoplos, since he has been the Board's point 46 person on transportation. 47 Commissioner McKee said he would prefer the Board not consolidate its transportation 48 group representation to one or two people, and would rather see it spread across the Board. 49 He said this would allow different perspectives to be involved.