Orange County NC Website
4 <br /> Attachment 1 <br /> Durham-Orange Transit Governance Study <br /> Orange County BOCC ILA Memo of Transmittal—November 1,2022 <br /> Coordination across multiple agencies,jurisdictions, and stakeholders to achieve a specific goal requires clear <br /> direction and guidance. In 2021,through a partnership between Orange and Durham Counties, a need was <br /> identified for new Interlocal Agreements and supporting policies& procedures to be developed that reflected <br /> the priorities of updated transit plans. These sets of documents are to consider new or refined roles and <br /> responsibilities among the partners through a joint process.The primary partners include the County, DCHC <br /> MPO and GoTriangle.This study kicked off in August 2021 and aligns with each County's transit plan update <br /> schedule for adoption of a new ILA and subsequent approval of supporting policies and procedures. <br /> Project Goals <br /> Goals were identified early on through a joint conversation between County representatives. Travis Myren & <br /> Tom Altieri participate for Orange County; Ellen Beckmann participates for Durham County. Critical aspects for <br /> this study to accomplish were identified to be: <br /> • To create a clear, operationally efficient governance structure that ensures that Durham and Orange <br /> Counties' priorities are funded and implemented with the County transit taxes and fees. <br /> • To form new levels of accountability, that includes development of an equitable set of processes <br /> which seek to gain community trust. <br /> To achieve the identified needs and goals,the Counties, DCHC MPO and GoTriangle selected Atkins to conduct <br /> this study. Atkins also partnered with Fountainworks during the first 10 months of the study to help facilitate <br /> joint stakeholder dialogues. <br /> State Enabling Legislation <br /> There are key State Statutes that inform the purposes of this governance study: <br /> • N.C.G.S Chapter 160A defines how a government body exists.A portion of this chapter(Article 26— <br /> 'Regional Public Transportation Authority Act') defines how such a body functions to support public <br /> transportation services. <br /> • N.C.G.S Chapter 105 defines how a government body is enabled to raise and provide revenue for <br /> necessary uses and purposes. A portion of this chapter(Article 43—'Local Government Public <br /> Transportation Sales Tax Act') defines how such revenues can be raised for the specific purpose of <br /> public transportation services and associated governance oversight. <br /> • N.C.G.S. Chapter 153A defines enumerated powers and responsibilities for County's, but also defines <br /> the County role with levying revenue sources to support public transportation services (property tax <br /> assessment only). <br /> Study Process <br /> After the study kickoff,the process included two parallel tracks.The first is to review existing governance <br /> structures with respect to transit plan implementation/administration, both within the counties, as well as <br /> peer organizations (i.e., Wake County).The second is to develop a policies and procedures manual, which will <br /> be a set of support documents to guide detailed elements of each county's transit plan implementation <br /> efforts.The process to date has included the following major actions: <br />