The Transit Commission met 06/24/2025. They had two action items on the agenda, one of which was a routine approval of monthly payments, and one of which was a request to approve a full fleet CAD/AVL system hardware upgrade and then extend the software subscription associated with that. Both of those items were unanimously recommended for approval.
Ironically, the meeting could have been over in 8 minutes but ended up lasting 18 minutes because they had a 10-minute discussion about ways in which they could increase the efficiency of dealing with agenda items. The irony was recognized by the commission members.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
APPROVAL OF MAY PAYMENTS – The May payments were fairly straightforward, but Valley Transit Enterprise Account Manager Kristin Stohl did highlight a few items. Those were:
- $58,360 to Milwaukee Transport (page 4) – this was the second payment for the validators for the WisGo fare collection system.
- $2,160.00 to Bob and Dave’s (page 5) – this was for snow removal and salting of sidewalks at the Transit Center on 03/31/2025.
- $20,690 to Kueny Architects (page 5) – this was for Phase One of the Whitman Avenue transit facility remodel project.
- $12,990 to Lutheran Social Services (page 6) – this was for their Make the Ride Happen program which helps older adults and people with disabilities access transportation services.
The commission voted unanimously to recommend the item be approved.
AWARD RECOMMENDATION FOR FULL FLEET CAD/AVL SYSTEM HARDWARE UPGRADE AND SOFTWARE SUBSCRIPTION EXTENSION – The agenda packet included a fairly extensive memo detailing this request. The existing tablets Valley Transit uses to support their Computer-Aided Dispatch/Automatic Vehicle Location system are outdated and no longer supported by the manufacture. The hardware upgrade would have a one-time cost of $296,996. A 10% contingency would bring the total to $328,896. Additionally, there is an associated annual software fee to run the program which would be $38,853 annually for the next 5 years. Existing federal grants would cover 80% of the cost of installing the hardware, and the annual software fee would be included in Valley Transit’s annual budget.
Valley Transit General Manager Ron McDonald noted that the memo indicated the 5-year software subscription extension ran through 2032, but that was incorrect; it actually ran through 2033.
The commission voted unanimously to recommend the item be approved.
FINANCIAL REPORT MAY 2025 – This information item was reviewed briefly. At this time of the year, they should have brought in about 41% of the expected budgeted-for revenue. As of the end of May, they had only brought in around in around 28% of what they had budgeted for, but that discrepancy was due to a delay in some of the May deposits being posted to the general ledger.
Operating expenses were on track at about 33% of the budget thus far. They were over budget in overtime, but under budget in salary and fringe benefits. Additionally, there were some items that, on paper, appeared to be overbudget, such as software support, but that was because they paid the full annual amount for that up front at the beginning of the year.
RIDERSHIP REPORT MAY 2025 – This item was reviewed briefly and nothing was verbally added to the report that was not in the printed report.
FOX CITIES TRANSIT COMMISSION AGENDA DISCUSSION – During the previous meeting, Commissioner Michael Brown had wondered if it would improve efficiency if they moved to a consent agenda in which action items were all consolidated and only separated out for individual discussion and votes if commission members felt that they warranted special attention.
During this meeting, the commission discussed that proposal. The consensus ended up being that such a change was not warranted. Transit Commission meetings already tended to be short, typically lasting no more than 30 minutes. A case in point was this meeting itself which would have been over in 8 minutes had it not been for the discussion on ways to shorten the agenda.
They felt that there was benefit to going through the various reports and discussing the items individually because, as Commissioner Maiyoua Thao pointed out it helped the commissioners know exactly what was happening and also it allowed members of the public to hear what was being talked about.
It was discussed that the chairperson of the commission had a lot of latitude in running the meeting and when there were many repetitive items on the agenda or a lot of items that did not warrant being discussed individually, he did have the power to ask for them all to be voted on in one group.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1302705&GUID=3CF6EBE7-824A-4926-8183-F9C711B617FF
Be the first to reply