The Transit Commission met 02/25/2025. There was not a lot that stood out as particularly interesting to the public but they did vote to approve a 6-month extension to Valley Transit’s contract with PR marketing firm Red Shoes. This was to facilitate advertising of things like Valley Transit’s new contactless fare system.
They also reviewed the 2024 4th quarter Key Performance Indicators report and briefly discussed whether cutbacks on federal funding were going to impact Valley Transit.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
APPROVAL OF PAYMENTS – The commission reviewed and voted to approve the payments for November, December, and January. Those payments included a number of items related to the Whitman Avenue remodeling project.
6 MONTH EXTENSION TO CONTRACT WITH RED SHOES INC – The commission approved a request to extend Valley Transit’s contract with PR and marketing firm Red Shoes Inc until 12/31/2025. The contract had been scheduled to terminate at the end of July, but Valley Transit is implementing a number of changes this year, most notably the introduction of its new fare collection system, and General Manager Ron McDonald was concerned that switching PR firms in the middle of those changes would negatively impact the advertising and awareness efforts of those changes. Red Shoes had agreed to keep their costs the same during that 6 month extension.
He said that at the end of the year, Valley Transit would issue a new Request For Proposal for marketing and PR services and would enter into a contract with whatever company won that RFP.
FINANCIAL REPORT – One question that was raised during the financial report was why was the regular salaries line item $40,000 higher in January 2025 than it was in January 2024 and overtime was only down by $375 even though Valley Transit had reduced its hours of operation in the middle of 2024. There was no definitive answer on why the numbers were what they were. The union did receive a pay raise every single year, and Valley Transit was still short of bus drivers so drivers were still working overtime even if the hours weren’t as long as they had been. However, beyond that, it was possible that, depending on how the payroll fell, there were some December payroll expenses that were paid in January and still needed to be accrued back to the year they belonged to. Assistant Manager Deb Ebben was going to look into that.
RIDERSHIP REPORT – Fixed route ridership numbers were down 7% overall for 2024 as compared to 2023. In November they were down 20% compared to the previous year and in December they were down 21%. In January they were down 13% compared to January 2024. ADA and ancillary services were down in November and December, but in January there was a 2% increase compared to January 2024.
2024 4TH QUARTER KPI REPORT – On-time performance was at 85%, slightly under the 90% target. Transit Operations Specialist David Vickman noted that the last detour associated with the 2024 construction season ended in December and that in January they had been above 90%. They were meeting or exceeding their targets in all other areas.
Mr. Vickman also noted that in 2025 they were going to be going through a transit development plan process and were working to get a vendor to help with that. One of the vendor’s tasks will be to review the KPI targets.
REQUEST FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS – Commissioner Rick Detienne asked for the commission to be given an update on the Transit Center and the Whitman Avenue projects as well as on how the current cutbacks on federal spending were going to impact the local transit system. General Manager McDonald said they would report that out, adding, “It’s underwhelming. There isn’t much change for us. But we’ll report out in detail.”
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1252073&GUID=B223B7EA-1D6B-4E22-B464-ADAB4DA0198B
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