Another example of a request is the reasonable modifications we want to educate our riders on. An example is if there's something obstructing the bus stop, or preventing the bus driver to pull closer to the curb, it can be requested that the driver pulled to an area closer to the bus stop that allows passengers to safely access or board the bus or allows the driver to go closer to that curve. We have sent out an internal memo to all of our DDOT employees reminding them of our priority setting policy that did that drivers must ask individuals sitting in the priority seating area or wheelchair securement area to relocate and feel and free those seats for or that area for the ADA rider the drivers cannot force that but they must make that request. So those are some things that we've been working on within the Office of Compliance as it pertains to our ADA. At this time. We're going to turn the meeting back over to Mr. Brian for the business section of the meeting.
Thank you Miss Sheffield okay all right now all business there is no business but we do have new business for the nomination of lac Secretary I need someone to nominate Miss office sector and each each member each member to stay yes or no. And yes,
this is Tamar parent I nominate Miss Anita Owens for Secretary okay, this is this is facial. I second the motion. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Miss Owens, has been elected as new Elysee secretary. Congratulation that someone
was on the line with this go ahead. No, go ahead.
I think she had a challenge. I had given her the number, but then I received the idea. The new ID number late, so I wasn't able to get back with her.
So she may not be
audible right now.
Okay, okay. And if she's not, I'll get back with her later. She says she's not able to, you know, be with us on this meeting.
Okay, next on the agenda. Is the adoption of the amended lac bylaws. I need a motion for approval.
Motion for approval. Okay, who's this?
Tammy Blackburn District.
Thanks. And thanks, Tammy. You're welcome. Okay. Okay. The second motion.
Sabrina right second.
Thanks, Sabrina. And the motion now has been adopted. Okay, missed
Mr. Bryant. I'm sorry to interrupt the whole need to make sure that all is in favor.
Okay. All in favor, say aye. Abstain okay. Any opposition's
tambor parent abstains?
Okay. Okay. Motion carried. And the LEC bylaws have been amended and will be posted on the LSC webpage.
Okay. At this time, we will be going into our public comments. We want to remind everyone that you have two minutes and that you may be muted when your time is up. Before we recognize any hands. Fletcher Do we have any questions? Comments placed in the chat
just like Kenya, this is a Leisha Miller, we have a number of people in a different meeting. So I'm going to try to get off this meeting and go over there and give them the right of meeting ID. We don't want to leave anybody or exclude anybody from having an opportunity to speak during this time. Okay.
Okay, while we are waiting for Mr. Miller to pull over other participants, is there anyone that is present that has anything that any comments at this time?
I'm a riot. person. I have a question for Mr. Staley. Actually, I have a couple of questions. What I like to get the status of the New Freedom Project.
Up Yes, Mr. Bryan. So DDOT applied for new funding. Through the through the RTA, and we were, we were awarded a two year grant from the RTA for Forest Service. My understanding is ever after having met with Capital Projects Manager here at DDOT. Funds will be available after october first. So we're in the process right now, finalizing our plans, we have two options on the table. One option is a restoration of the old New Freedom Program, which allow individuals to book trips to go up to 25 miles outside the ATA service area. And the second option is for same day service. Quite honestly, in the discussions that the executive director and I have had, since probably September of 2022. Going forward, overwhelmingly people were indicating that their preference was for same day service. The other thing that we looked at as it related to new freedom, the old New Freedom Program. And same day service is two things. Number one, we ran the numbers for 2022. And there were approximately 8700 trips that were delivered under new freedom in 2022. That represented about 30 a day, same day service, we believe we can we can offer up to 100 trips a day. The second thing is about
the old New Freedom Program. It was a very inefficient program. Because it was difficult to link trips, once you got 25 miles outside of the service area based on the day and based on the time, more than likely it was going to be one person on the vehicle going out beyond the ADA service area. And that vehicle having to deadhead back into the ADA service area.
So again, there's still two options on the table. We are we will finalize those options in September so that we're ready come October 1 to issue requests for proposals for service that will be funded under 5310 funding that we were that DDOT was awarded under the RTA. So I welcome anybody's input comments between now and October 1. But quite honestly, of the two options, same day service both because of what we heard from individuals for almost a year now and secondly, the fact that we believe that we can we can offer up to three times the amount of service on a same day basis. Right now the same day services is getting even more consideration than restoring the old knew free to program 25 miles outside the service area.
Okay, my home Oh, my second question is when I meet with the providers with the Indiana with ADA training, will I have to pay for the pay for my pay for my fair will that will that will I get no fair clause since that is official business that would be that
yes. I mean, the policy the policy is at DDOT is at any Elysee member on official business will not be charged a fare. So when when when we're able to start that that training there will be no charge for the ride.
Okay. Okay. Well, thank you Mr. Staley.
Okay, follow on Mr. Brian. I see a hand up forever. Narc. Sabrina
looking, I have a follow up question to Mike Staleys information about the freedom to
Okay, can we get to your question after Mr. Renard speaks? Yes. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for allowing me to speak to this body. My name is Bernard miszewski. I'm a District Six resident of Detroit, and also an organizer with Detroit people's platform, transit justice team. One I just want to commend the department on its improved progress with paratransit. And I think that should be noted and committed to spoke to. And I want to thank all the people who have organized to create this new structure and the department also working with that. And I do hope that the department also reaches out to members of the disability or MDA community to as experts to invite for training for drivers that are both fixed line and also on paratransit. Warriors of wills have such expertise in this field, that they train Michigan State Police and other police departments on disability and sensitivity training. So we don't have to go outside of our city or outside of our state to get the expertise needed to have people be able to accommodate and politely and, you know, legally, provide a service for folks that are disabled with courteous service. I don't think that's that difficult. Also, I won't say any issue about the communication is natural. But a lot of folks were locked down in the city for about 40 minutes, because of the incorrect link that was posted. So with this meeting being quarterly, which I think we should bring back to monthly meetings, that was really worrying, you know, for a lot of people that may have missed information. So hopefully this is recorded. And lastly, I just want to reiterate my point that again, this is really good improvement with paratransit, we just need the same improvement with fixed line services as well too, and especially training on how they deliver service for those that are disabled. And I'm seeing so many drivers passing up people in wheelchairs. And I think it's not a capacity issue is a matter of telling people just to get up out of their seat, step back and let you lift the seat and let this person on the bus and things of that sort. So that's what I wanted to bring up and I reserve the yield the rest of my time.
Michelle field, this is Michael Staley, if you don't mind, if I could just do an update. I'm glad the ADA training was brought up. Can I do a quick update on that? Yes. As everybody knows her, most people should know that when the transitive contract was voted down in November 2022. One of the things that that went away was Transdev, providing training to the to their subcontractors. And I know that that that issue was very controversial, both the type and the quality of the training. So one of the things that DDOT made a commitment to was that we would stand in the shoes of trans Dev and provide to a couple of things. Number one, have a standardized training course created. And secondly, also put out a request for proposal for what we were calling supplemental training.
Can I am I can anybody hear me? Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. It looked like I was frozen. My apologies.
So the the second part of that was, was supplemental training. So a couple of things needed to take place. First. One is we needed to, we needed to secure a, we needed to put out a RFP for a comprehensive operator training program. That's been done that's been awarded that's been approved by city council. The second step then was to hire in house trainers, who would be employees at DDOT. That would be able to provide training to the service provider drivers for this for this comprehensive driver training program. We're in the process right now that those positions have been posted. We should begin the interview process shortly. We hope to have trainers hired in place, or shortly after Labor Day, and then begin to do the training on the operator the paratransit bus operator training program in September. I know this has taken a while I apologize. But it's it's it's had to follow kind of the sequencing. But what we will be doing is putting out another RFP for supplemental training, particularly in the areas of disability awareness, sensitivity training, and passenger assistance techniques. It's our hope and expectation that various disability groups, or a consortium of groups would bid on that contract. And the end goal of that contract would be that we would begin to have a driver certification program that we would hope to have every driver who's operating paratransit service under contract to DDOT. Every drivers certified within six to 12 months, particularly in the areas of disability awareness, sensitivity training, and passenger assistance technique. So I just wanted to provide that update. So that everybody was aware of the fact that DDOT recognized that we were going to have to do not only a standardized operator training program, but in particular supplemental training in the three critical areas that I mentioned.
Okay, thank you Mr. Staley. Thank you, Mr. Renard, for your comments. We're going to go back to miss Sabrina Rice who had a follow up question for Mr Staley?
Miss rice, are you still on?
I'm sorry, I wasn't off a mute. Two questions. The first question is you said that we were awarded a grant. How much was that grant? And then the second question, as a follow up is you said you reached out to consumers in regards to if they would prefer same day or if they would prefer trips outside of the city of 25 miles. I want to know how many consumers Did you contact? And upon contacting them? What was the percentage of people who lean towards same day versus the 25 miles? And part of the reason why I asked that question is that I have used new freedom, but start didn't use it. You call it that there were 8700 trips in 2022. I personally stopped having to use them freedom because the service wasn't so friendly to going 25 miles outside of the city. I had a client in Pontiac, and it will take me more than a half a day to service that client. And so my question is, can there be new freedom that takes you outside of the city? But can that service be improved? Same Day Service. I know that it may be needed sometimes. But I think more people may actually need the 25 miles outside of the city with doctor's appointments and things like that. Thank you.
So to answer your first question, the grant is for approximately $2 million over over a two year period of time. I don't have the exact numbers on for you on how many individual consumers, but I can tell you that in, in speaking with more years on wheels and speaking with the National Federation for the Blind, in the monthly community input meetings, when the topic of new freedom and the topic of Same Day Service came up pardon me, it was approximately five to one of people asking why they had to book on an advanced day basis. Rather than being able to book a book in same day trip. The funding that we have, if I if I can just finish up place, the funding that we have will allow us to do one or the other. And what, what makes sense is offering 30 trips a day or offering 100 trips a day, and giving people the flexibility of being able to wake up on any given morning and decide that even though they hadn't booked in advance a reservation, they were interested in being able to travel that same day. So again, just running the numbers, looking at the historical data from 2020 to today, versus looking at the possibility the potential of offering 100 trips a day. It seems to make sense that same day service. In addition to that, there is an existing system that's in place that allows for transfers between DDOT, paratransit, and smart. So there is still the ability to transfer outside the ADA area. But just like you would on a fixed route service, you would have to transfer between DDOT paratransit and smart paratransit. So it isn't as if we're leaving people completely in the lurch with with an ability to transfer outside of the DDOT at a service area.
Mr. Stanley, I'll definitely give you a call offline because I can rebuttal that there's some theory for a village that's eight miles from my house and it takes me three hours to get there on a transfer. So we can discuss this offline. Thank you for your response. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
You're welcome. Mr. Rice. Thank you, Mr. Staley. We're gonna go to the next hand that we see. We have Mr. Cunningham.
Hello to hear me. We can hear you. Oh, I got flyers in the main office, as they provide flyers for the input meeting and for the LA 40 flyer 40 flyers are passed out and I put my number along with it. I got 10 phone calls today because the ID that was on the flyer was totally different than this flyer. Thank you. We're normal sinskey for giving me the actual meeting ID number and I'm wondering was done intentionally the numbers of people out of this meeting in wheelchairs or disabled have some kinds of difficulty but I gave them the information I showed them how to do it. But they couldn't get in because the meeting ID that was on the flyer is 81025789524 and there was text messages sent out with that information that's on the flyer. Don't really should do a good reader this meeting. Hopefully to record this meeting is just not right. I'm not gonna sugarcoat nobody got me on purpose strange. That was wrong because all get out just wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wherever the charges meeting. What y'all did was wrong. That flyer says provided by DDOT and I passed off 40 flyers 810-257-8924 that they're calling in 3126 to 66799. Mr. Makovski got a hold to the proper and I gotta get but all those people that pass out flyers to they couldn't get again. That's not right. New folks have the right to join the meeting. You know, it's just not right. Period. You're wrong. Just wrong. I don't know Sheffield as Joe Staley as a young adult who thought to grow, doesn't grow to dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty room. I waited 45 minutes to get into me I could not And then I got the actual meeting ID number. I can show you the flyers. I passed out 40 Plus buyers, and I showed some of them how to do it. But y'all gave me the wrong I think number on the flyer. You're wrong.
Mr. Cunningham. This is Tamar Perrin on the LIC and we also receive the same information. And it is unfortunate I don't know whether it was a technical difficult T or what happened. Some things only I guess the ADA coordinator can respond to but from the LIC aspects, I do apologize because the LAC members were blocked as well. And we had difficulty getting on. So I don't know how we're going to handle that moving forward.
