Although the bulk of the 06/22/2021 Transit Commission meeting was taken up with the 2020 Audit report, there were some other items on the agenda.
The only action item was the approval of the May 2021 payments.
Deb Ebben, Valley Transit’s Administrative Services Manager, reported that the year to date cost of diesel is $2.16 per/gallon while Valley Transit has budgeted for $3, and the year to date cost of gas was at $2 per/gallon while Valley Transit had budgeted for $2.50.
Alderperson Maiyoua Thao (District 7) asked how the overtime incentive program was working. [Note: she was referring to changes aimed at making volunteering for overtime more desirable that were brought before the Human Resources And Information Technology Committee on June 3.]
Valley Transit General Manager Ron McDonald said they are short drivers, but the incentives they started offering to sign up for overtime had resulted in some senior drivers volunteering which meant they weren’t having to force newer drivers to take that overtime when they might need some time off.
The May payments were approved unanimously.
They then moved on to the information items. As noted, the 2020 Audit Report presentation took up the bulk of the meeting time, but after that was completed they have a few more items to cover.
Deb Ebben presented the May financial report.
The end of May should bring them to 41.6% of their annual budget. Fare revenues continued to be underbudget because of Covid and the loss of ridership. Their expenses, mostly salary and fringe benefits, were also underbudget overall even though they were overbudget in overtime. That was due to their vacant driver positions. They were underbudget in all the other categories except for repair and maintenance where the overbudget was driven by the software support line item, which as she had explained during the May meeting, they pay upfront at the beginning of the year for the full 12 months.
She then moved into the Ridership and Revenue report.
Their fix route ridership continues to be lower than normal, only 44,200 compared to a normal 85,808. But May of 2021 was higher than May of 2020 by 16,000 rides. Their Year To Date ridership was below that of 2020’s by approximately 70,000 rides, but as illustrated by the second page, ridership is picking up in all the fare categories. The Year To Date fare revenue was less than last year’s, but the gap is closing. Cash revenue were up slightly compared to last year and she said that made sense because their ridership was up compared to last year.
The final page covered Valley Transit’s ADA and ancillary services. Those increased compared to last year, but they are still less than a typical year. Total year to date ridership showed a decrease of approximately 69,000 rides compares to 2020.
Commission Chair George Dearborn said there were some positives there which was good. Things seemed to be improving and it was good to hear.
Ron McDonald then gave the Covid-19 report. He said there wasn’t a lot to report on that because things have been winding down. The biggest thing they still have going on is that masks are still required on transit buses and inside the transit center. About two weeks prior to the meeting, the CDC put out a notice that they didn’t believe masks should be required outdoors at transportation conveyances anymore. They did not take any action to change the regulations, but they said the ywould not enforce face masks outdoors at public transportation conveyances anymore. The National Railroad immediately put out a statement that they were going to follow the CDC’s recommendation and not enforce masks outside. Per Ron the Federal Transport Administration, however, has remained relatively silent on masks outside. He said Valley Transit was following the CDC and not enforcing mask wearing outdoors at the transit center. They are still requiring them indoors and on the buses, and that seems to be about what everybody else in the country is doing.
He thought it would be appropriate to remove the Covid Update as a regular item on the agenda. If something came up they could put it back on, but things are winding down and the Common Council had removed it from their agenda. There were no objections to that.
Ron then moved on to the Transit Commission’s transition back to City Hall. He reviewed the changes the Common Council had enacted regarding remote participation at meetings and said that his interpretation of those rules was that commission members should endeavor to appear in person when possible. If they can’t make it they should notify them at least 24 hours in advance to make sure there is a link set up and available for them to participate remotely. If Chairman Dearborn was unavailable, he would need to contact the vice-chair so that the vice-chair could be in attendance to run to the meeting. Or if neither the chair or the vice-chair were available they would need to designate someone else in advance to run the meeting.
Chairman Dearborn thought those changes were really nice and was glad they could continue to allow remote participation in situations where it was appropriate.
As per usual, they did not have enough business to warrant two July meetings, so they cancelled the July 13 meeting and planned to meet only for the July 27 meeting.
View full meeting details here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=859393&GUID=08DFC888-BC3B-4C25-A946-1FD700AD4F5C&Options=info|&Search=
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