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DTC, Board of Directors
Speaker 1
If everyone could turn on the mic in front of you good 1234 Okay, we have four mics on and I think we're ready to go.
Unknown Speaker
So call me into order. ability you
Rajeev Shah
want to do a roll call.
Unknown Speaker
There's been done as well will present Michael Staley present commissioner
Unknown Speaker
and domainers.
Unknown Speaker
We have a quorum. Thank you.
Speaker 2
So first order of business would be to approve the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? So move sport Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. All opposed That motion passes. Next item is your recommendation on the payroll and HR is Cisco minutes. Oh, minutes. Okay. So approval of minutes from our February 20 meeting. Is there a motion to approve that good? Let's move to support it. All in favor, aye. That will Japan passes. Now we're on to item number three, which is the payroll and HR is system. Yes.
Speaker 1
Okay. For this item, we're asking for a board authorization to enter into a five year service agreement for payroll and HRIS system services are recommended vendor based on the evaluation committee process is paycor. We did have this if you remember from previous meetings, we rebid this project, you can kind of fine tune our approach a bit. rebid the project we did get five bidders or five responses. And after careful consideration and the convening of the committee, we settled on paycor as the best response, price and other scoring. So that's our recommendation to the board. It's 42,000 and change per year. And again, this is for a five year
Speaker 2
yeah, and I run it ahead of time. My one question is, and I'm guessing it is but I just want to ask, is this as a cloud based service? I mean, you know, or do they install it on? I mean, we don't have a separate server here that how does the software do it? Yes,
Speaker 3
this will be based upon a cloud based service, so to speak. So it doesn't, you know, infringer on servers at this point.
Speaker 2
Gotcha. Yeah, let's certainly we all know that. One of the real benefits of that is that it's always gonna stay current. They'll be up up updates as there's new payroll laws change all the tasks
Unknown Speaker
correctly and helping with the tariffs
Unknown Speaker
as I say that their servers are lovely.
Speaker 2
Gotcha. Okay. Well, thank you. Yeah. And I thought the costume quite reasonable for what you're getting. So any other questions or any concerns about transition from current system to this? No,
Speaker 3
I don't think so. Not at this time. As I understand, you know, from Leah server itself, this is something for which you can kind of make a very good transition from an over to
Speaker 2
I guess that's brings to mind another question. Then when when would you start?
Speaker 3
Yeah, the center is not here at the time to kind of confirm that we have you know exactly where to start.
Speaker 4
So it was sort of up in the air simply because we didn't have a plan. But it was adjusted simply because we went back out to bid. We have not finalized the day but during the discussions and interviews with the the first set of vendors we did figure out that the time our choices, they were able to meet them. So we either are doing end of the year calendar year, or mid year, which is fiscal year end. And they wouldn't be able to meet. Okay, yeah, and
Speaker 2
thank you probably guess where I was heading. I was looking at Rajiv and, you know, knowing that we're going to talk about the audit. And so I was hoping the answer wasn't we're going to try to do before June 30 and make the audit more complicated. So June 30. That the easiest and then from having installed payroll systems before one reason people like calendar year Coteaux versus then your W twos are good for the whole year and important information. Okay, so with that said, Is there a motion to 77 had been moved in supported All in favor, aye. No opposed That motion passes. Next is the overhead door replacement at the honeys PlayStation.
Speaker 1
Very good. So for this item, we're asking the Board to approve a not to exceed amount of 54,221 90 cents for Mid American group. In this case, we have a current old item it's original or not, but it's an old overhead door that's at Huntington. We've been investing to repair it along the way and it's got to the point where it cannot reasonably be repaired. So it is mostly shut but it is a it is a pretty serious concern for us to get this dress right away. For that reason we're treating this as an emergency. And this is the the one bid we were able to get quickly but based on previous work we've had for the doors to be fair the field that is a fair price. And Mid American is ready is able to move forward with this quickly. Basically right now it's 130 foot door. That would be almost impossible to remove and replace. So they're actually going to move the door you're going to get to smaller doors that are separate by a column that's already there. And then basically, class or at least metaphorically speaking plaster over the old door and just it will be buried there for the rest of time. So that's this item.
Speaker 2
Second move to improve sported All in favor, aye. That motion passes. Next is the contracts for employment procurement, labor and other legal
Speaker 1
Okay, so for this this is a need that was identified for having outside counsel support on call with some specific additional bandwidth and experience related to labor and employment services and also contracting for procurement support. We put out an RFP process here. We got four vendors, we conducted interviews and had an evaluation committee and settled on recommending awarding work or entering into an agreement with three of those firms, which would be butts along Dickinson Wright, and Miller Canfield. Each of them had a different strength to bring to that group of services that we need and the way we've covered this is it'll be the three vendors. Our authorization we're asking for is basically $50,000 a year so the first three years will be 150 total, and then 50 Each for these option years. That'll be spread across the three firms as the work arises. So on yours when we're having new labor agreements, obviously, we're going to spend probably a little bit more with, especially with the labor side of this, which butzel Long is kind of the strong suit out of these three for that. And then as we're updating contract language, there'll be times along the way where we're using these services to help us support and also things like if we have a major national or international contractor or vendor, they could help us negotiate some of those more complicated and time intensive terms as well. So that's our approach and what we're asking the Board to authorize.
Speaker 2
So as I looked at this ahead of time, the question was, so you know, since it's an annual amounts of over three, the contracts won't have dollars in them specifically, just establish what the hourly rates are for the various types of attorneys and
Speaker 1
you're authorizing us to spend up to this amount across them. If you were gonna go over that we come back
Speaker 2
to the board. Okay, yeah. And I personally chose to work with lawyers a lot. No, no, all three firms and they're all fine firms. So with that said, Is there a motion to approve? Motion? Supports then moved in supported All in favor? Aye. No, one opposed That motion passes. Next is the AE service contract extension.
Speaker 1
This one's pretty simple. And we have not. We're not where I'd like to be but it's my fault on this one. As far as getting a new contract solicitation out for architectural engineering services, that's still in process. This extension just allows us not to add any money to the project, but basically to extend the time that that our agreement with WSOP is active through the end of June. And we're optimistic that that will give us enough time to solicit and select a new firm. If we need more time, we'll come back to the board. But the goal still is to solicit and select one or more ad service vendors for full contract in the future. But this is to keep us going as they support us on all of our critical projects.
Speaker 2
To seven okay, it's only supported All in favor, aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Hearing none That motion passes. Next item is the unspecified support for the NFL Draft.
Speaker 1
Okay, so this item is very similar to item that was approved by this board. Back in. In March of last year, heading into the NFL no and heading into the Grand Prix. Yeah. In that case, we had a specific escalator that we needed their support on site for to be able to operate. In this case. It's a combination of ongoing work we'll need their on site support for the city to allow us to operate all of the escalators in the system. But also because there's going to be such a high volume of people are anticipating is basically there'll be available for a quick response to any escalator or elevator issue. The elevator the escalators obviously have been an ongoing repair project. The elevators are what make our stations fully ADA accessible. And so both of those components will be important for high volume crowds but also to make sure we can keep all the stations open you're
Speaker 1
you're still not zeroed in on the actual or the precise. This I think he muted himself okay. 55,000 is our maximum authorization we'll be fine tuning the schedule. We are running 24 hour service and so it's likely that we will use the 24 hour team shifts but we will zero that in when we get closer to the draft.
Unknown Speaker
And going into the draft, it's everything functional now.
Speaker 1
It's on track to be functional. Yep.
Speaker 2
For Approval, second, moved and properly supported. All in favor, aye. No one opposed That motion passes as well. Next is the control center videowall readiness plan
Speaker 1
Okay, so this is another one that is related to the draft, but provide some long term value as well. So we the video wall is basically what displays all of the cameras in the control center so we were just nearing the end of the station technology upgrade project, which means we're doing higher definition and more camera views. And the video wall is functioning but it feels like it's struggling a little bit with the weight of this new information it's receiving. And so we want to make sure we're in a good position to make to keep that view there. If the video goes down, it doesn't necessarily mean we have to stop service but it means that at least our policy is that we would have active eyes and ears on each platform. So if we're if we lose camera, certainly if one station goes out, for example, we'll make sure that there's some combination of staff that is there with the radio that if something happened, they'd be able to act as the eyes and ears. Again, our policy I'll say from an editorial perspective, our policy is a much higher threshold than most rail systems. So most rail systems like they have the cameras and they work. But our policy is a pretty high bar of we basically will close the station down if we don't have some combination of either cameras or humans that are able to have eyes on the platform. And I don't think that's a bad approach but it is definitely a high standard to me. Anyway, so this project, one of the components that could affect the video wall is the workstations that process all of the cameras and so we will have to up upgrade those anyway moving forward. So what we're proposing here for the $39,000 is that we believe that includes a contingency is that we will replace the four workstations that process all these camera feeds in with new workstations and kind of stand them up parallel. So now we will have a duplicate set of workstations. The new ones will be better handled able to handle the video feed. And then what happens after the workstations is then it goes into a processor that splits it up into all these TV screens that we have on the wall. By having the new workstations we would be able to skip that step. So now we're we're isolating the workstations have a redundancy. And now the wall if for some reason that wall the screens or the process or went down for the wall, we'd be able to directly connect the four workstations to portable monitors that are part of this project as well. So not only are we improving the the technology that will then support a new a new, permanent proof video on the future. It also gives us a almost instantaneous backup that if for some reason the screen wall goes down. We can roll out these portable screens and maintain full visibility to the system. So it was a long story. But it's one of those things where some of the little hiccups along the way implementing the new system brought up problems that we hadn't thought about in a little while. And so this is a response and really kudos to the whole team control of maintenance and administration. As we have these things come up. We're brainstorming solutions and redundant systems and this is a great example of one that we think is a good good investment.
Speaker 2
So one question related to this as I don't know how many of you have ever been over to Detroit Public Safety's headquarters where they have real time crime center and they monitor not only Greenlight Project Greenlight cameras but they have DDOT traffic cams they have license plate readers so if there's an incident going on in the city, their analysts can access all these different sources. Is there any Detroit police access to our video if they need it? Or how would they obtain it?
Speaker 1
In a real time sense, yes, there is a there is a one way feed that they are able to tap into and actually we're working to repair and upgrade that in partnership with them right now. But there is a connection that gives them a view of the cameras that we can see.
Speaker 2
Yeah, because again, it's a tour. If you haven't been there, it's a tour. It's a tour with seeing because it's kind of cool how all these systems are available. So then there's analysts that sit in cubicles so that you know if there's a chase where you know you've heard now, departments try not to chase unless they absolutely have to. They can have cameras, they can, you know, put it on alert on looking for that license plate and just like watching it on TV, you can see where the person was gone. Yep.
Speaker 1
Okay, great question. Alright, so, I'm sorry, once approved, how long will it take to make this fully operation? It'll be it'll be in place before the draft. Okay.
Speaker 2
Second, it's moved to support it all in favor, aye. No one opposed That motion passes. Next is our good friends at you, Ellen young to do our audit presentation. So you know, and so I know member Staley needs to leave you asked, we're going to do a motion to what except the audit subject to the presentation. Yes.
Unknown Speaker
Okay. So vote on.
Unknown Speaker
Favor. Me, mate. Okay.
Speaker 2
So it's been moved in support it all in favor? Yeah. And so, you know, Mr. Stanley has to leave. I you know, so the board knows, you know, as part of the audit. I've been really I wasn't really involved last year with with Karen and with with Rajiv. So it's kind of old home week because we all worked on this, you know, so hard, Robert included to get us to the finish line so anxious to hear a little presentation. Karen
Speaker 1
can take all the credit for that. Appreciate that, sir. Okay, so Rajiv, are you going to share your screen or do you want me to pull up the presentation? You're muted.
Unknown Speaker
Either way, whatever you want. I can do that.
Speaker 1
If you could pull it up. That would be good. And then I'm going to also try to make your voice louder on our speakers while you do that.
Speaker 4
Good 
afternoon, everyone. First of all, I want to thank the respected board for giving us the opportunity to present the financial results of the corporation for the year ended June 30 2023. My name is Rajiv, I am one of the audit principal at Allen's young associate. I will be going over the audit results of the corporation with us this afternoon. Our presentation is divided into five different sections. First I will introduce the audit team leaders then audit overview then required communications financial statements overview as well as the single audit overview. As you can see on slide number three audit partner is Mr. Reality and myself. I am the principal on the job there were two audit managers on the job Swapna the baker and Swati ugly and we had two additional audit staff which helped us during the audit during the year. This slide covers the audit overview as you can see, the financial statements are the responsibility of the corporation's management which means that the financial statements are prepared by DTC and we as an auditor we have a responsibility to express an opinion on these financial statements based upon our audit. We have issued our opinion on the financial statement is unmodified, which means that this is the highest level of opinion that an organization can receive so we have issued a clean opinion on the financial statements. So congratulations again for getting it in opinion for the current year. From slide number six onwards, we will go over the required communications which we are required from the AICPA to go over like there was no change in the engagement letter complete cooperation was given to us throughout the audit. But from everyone from the corporation. And as Western magnetic just mentioned that like the city of Detroit team worked really closely with us during the audit as well as like Robert Caron, and literally, everyone at the DTC team like played a key an instrumental role in making sure that the reports are finished on time and we get what we are supposed to get. So thank you very much for all your support during the audit. All the purchase significant adjustments which came out through the audit we discussed with the liquid DTC and everything was posted to the during the year DTC implemented Gatsby 96 which was related to subscription based information 
technology arraignments, but there was no material impact on DTC financial statements after the adoption of the standard. There was no disagreements with the management or any financial reporting matter and to best of our knowledge management has no consultation with any other accountants regarding accounting or auditing matters. There are a couple of like the most important significant disclosure which is there in the audit report is number seven, which talks about the pension liability, which is recorded due to like adoption of Gatsby at 68. The total estimated pension liability was $2.7 million at the end of June 30 2023. Other two estimates which are made by the management which are accrued employee benefit, including sick and vacation, as well as the useful life of the depreciable capital assets as you can see on slide number nine, there is a comparison of like total assets and total liabilities of the corporation. The total assets were $40.1 million, as compared to $41.1 million. For 2022 there was a decrease of $1 million which we will cover in slide number 11. Liabilities also went down from $17.8 million to $13.6 million, which is a decrease of approximately $4.4 million. The total 
net 10 position in laymen terms, this is the cumulative profit of DTC which increased from $23.3 million to $26.8 million, which is an increase of $3.4 million from the previous year. The total revenue of the corporation increased $6 million from $13.7 million to $19.7 million as there was an increase in the expenditures also from $13.8 million to $16.2 million, which is an increase of $2.4 million for the current year. As you can see the net change in the net position was $3.4 million as compared to what deficit of 147,000 in the previous.
+2
afternoon, everyone. First of all, I want to thank the respected board for giving us the opportunity to present the financial results of the corporation for the year ended June 30 2023. My name is Rajiv, I am one of the audit principal at Allen's young associate. I will be going over the audit results of the corporation with us this afternoon. Our presentation is divided into five different sections. First I will introduce the audit team leaders then audit overview then required communications financial statements overview as well as the single audit overview. As you can see on slide number three audit partner is Mr. Reality and myself. I am the principal on the job there were two audit managers on the job Swapna the baker and Swati ugly and we had two additional audit staff which helped us during the audit during the year. This slide covers the audit overview as you can see, the financial statements are the responsibility of the corporation's management which means that the financial statements are prepared by DTC and we as an auditor we have a responsibility to express an opinion on these financial statements based upon our audit. We have issued our opinion on the financial statement is unmodified, which means that this is the highest level of opinion that an organization can receive so we have issued a clean opinion on the financial statements. So congratulations again for getting it in opinion for the current year. From slide number six onwards, we will go over the required communications which we are required from the AICPA to go over like there was no change in the engagement letter complete cooperation was given to us throughout the audit. But from everyone from the corporation. And as Western magnetic just mentioned that like the city of Detroit team worked really closely with us during the audit as well as like Robert Caron, and literally, everyone at the DTC team like played a key an instrumental role in making sure that the reports are finished on time and we get what we are supposed to get. So thank you very much for all your support during the audit. All the purchase significant adjustments which came out through the audit we discussed with the liquid DTC and everything was posted to the during the year DTC implemented Gatsby 96 which was related to subscription based information +1
technology arraignments, but there was no material impact on DTC financial statements after the adoption of the standard. There was no disagreements with the management or any financial reporting matter and to best of our knowledge management has no consultation with any other accountants regarding accounting or auditing matters. There are a couple of like the most important significant disclosure which is there in the audit report is number seven, which talks about the pension liability, which is recorded due to like adoption of Gatsby at 68. The total estimated pension liability was $2.7 million at the end of June 30 2023. Other two estimates which are made by the management which are accrued employee benefit, including sick and vacation, as well as the useful life of the depreciable capital assets as you can see on slide number nine, there is a comparison of like total assets and total liabilities of the corporation. The total assets were $40.1 million, as compared to $41.1 million. For 2022 there was a decrease of $1 million which we will cover in slide number 11. Liabilities also went down from $17.8 million to $13.6 million, which is a decrease of approximately $4.4 million. The total +1
net 10 position in laymen terms, this is the cumulative profit of DTC which increased from $23.3 million to $26.8 million, which is an increase of $3.4 million from the previous year. The total revenue of the corporation increased $6 million from $13.7 million to $19.7 million as there was an increase in the expenditures also from $13.8 million to $16.2 million, which is an increase of $2.4 million for the current year. As you can see the net change in the net position was $3.4 million as compared to what deficit of 147,000 in the previous. Speaker 4
Slide number 11 is basically going to show us the comparison of the total assets of the corporation for year ended June 30 2022 and 2023. As I mentioned earlier, the total decrease was $1 million. I will just go over and touch base the highlights of like what were the major reasons for this decrease. As you can see, the cash and cash equivalent was $1.1 million for 2022 as compared to only $78,000 for 2023. So the cash decreased proximately $1 million during 2023. However, with the corresponding there is an increase in the inter COC government of receivable. The inter governmental receivable was $2.3 million for 2022 as compared to $4.2 million as at the end of 2023. The increase was approximately $1.8 million and this was due from city of Detroit from for the city subsidy as well as the transit plus. Rest all the assets were in lines with what were there in the previous year. As you can see the restricted investment were $4.4 million as compared to $4.1 million capital assets were $23.3 million were as compared to $23.3 million for both the years. Slide number 12 is the comparison of all the liabilities which DTC owes to the outside parties. As you can see, that also decreased from $17.8 million to $13.6 million, which is a decrease of approximately $4.4 million the accounts payable as you can see what $987,000 For year ended 2022 as compared to $1.1 million, which is in very small increase but this increase is due to just the timing of the payments. net pension liability net pension liability had seemed like a big drop from $7.6 million to $2.7 million, which is a drop of approximately $4.9 million. As well as the deferred inflow there is an increase of one mil $1.7 million for from 4 billion to $5.7 million. These liabilities and deferred inflows change are based upon the actuarial calculation and based upon the actuarial calculation we get the accurate report so these numbers are adjusted accordingly. Other payables see a decrease of like approximately $1.6 million from $4.5 million to $2.9 million. This predominantly relates to the payables to M dot which was like a major amount was paid during the year to reduce their liability. Because the liabilities were in line with the previous year salaries, accrued salaries 416 versus 884,000 accrued compensation was 338,000 versus 435,000. In the current year.
Speaker 4
The revenues of DTC increased approximately $6 million from $13.7 million to $19.7 million in 2022. Majority of the year the operations were not there because of the COVID 19. The trains were not working. So that's why you don't see any ticket sales lead for 2022. But in 2023 there was ticket sales so 226,000 was attributable from the ticket sales. federal revenue decreased 600,000 from $5.9 million to $5.3 million. state revenue increased $200,000 from $3.7 million to $3.9 million. However, the major increase in the revenue for DTC was related to other local transit revenue from $3.7 million to $9.7 million, which is an increase of approximately $6 million from the previous year. And this is due to city subsidy received during the year which was not there in 2022.
Speaker 4
With a increase of revenue like there was an increase of the expenses also, the expenses were $13.8 billion for year ended 2022 as compared to $16.2 million for 2020 2023. The major increase in payroll and fringe benefits as you can see the payroll and fringe benefit if you total for 2022 versus 2023 were $7.2 million in 2022 versus $8.1 million in the current year, so there is an increase of approximately $900,000 during the year. materials and supplies also increased by half a million dollar from 254,000 to $978,000. Insurance expenses increased $581,000 As you can see on the screen, the insurance was 1,048,500 55,000 for 2022 as compared to $1.6 million dollars for 2023. Depreciation Expense did decrease from previous year it was 2.1 million $2.01 million for 2022 as compared to $1.8 million. This is due to like move some of the assets are fully depreciated. In 2022 as compared to 2023. Rest all the expenses were in lines with the previous use. Single order like from slide number 15 We will talk about the single audit look at why has issued a clean opinion on the DTC is financial year 2023 federal program audit also select congratulations again for getting a clean opinion for your federal awards to for comparison purposes, you can see that like the total federal expenditures for 2023 were $5.3 million compared to $8 million for 2022. This for this thing, there was like increase FTA funding for 22 COVID and 2022 as compared to 2023. So that's why you see a decrease of expenses in the current year. Good thing to report like in 2022 there were six total six findings which has reduced to only three findings during the year. So like there is like 100% decrease in the like findings for the current year. So I congratulate the whole management to look on this thing. And all the details of these findings can be found in the single audit report as a supplemental information, and we did issue some comments which were there in the separate letter once again. Thank you for the opportunity to serve as an auditor for DTC. Excuse me This concludes my presentation I will open the floor for any questions if anyone has.
Speaker 2
Questions from you that we appreciate this regime, you know, obviously we're only three months away from the next fiscal year closing and one of the things we want to do before we get there along with it and you know, one of my key deputies at the city is that needed, Edgar. Talk about before we get to June 30 The plan and what we learned from you know, the pain of this one done. You know, I think here, DTC the folks have all been here now for the whole new year. And let's examine that should make things easier and our general manager has, you know, found a good way to not have us have to rely on ticket sales and all the problems that came along with collecting that minor amount of money. So that'll be one thing that's you know, removed from any kind of audit risk as well. So that's good for more than one reason.
Speaker 4
Absolutely. Absolutely. And as you can see that the the findings have decreased also from six to three. So that is always a positive sign that like the corporation is moving in the right direction. There are certain things which needs to be done and I'm pretty sure like Karen and Robert will make sure that like all the things are in order so that we once we come back in the field, we're not having the same issues. And then once again, thanks for everyone for giving us like this, like support, especially from the city side. John, you played a very significant role to ensure that we are on track then and from DTC side giving us the information. So we were able to make sure that let me issue the report on time. So thanks again.
Speaker 2
Yeah, I think thank you very much. Yeah, and just for you know others you know, knowledge. You know, it's very hard and complicated organizations that we all run to get no findings, but we obviously all take them seriously and try to improve and reduce. We've got a project at the city called F cap audit finding corrective action plan where soon as the audits done, we start working on what can we do to make sure we're not going to have repeat findings and decrease them. So the support and then when we meet with the mayor, you know, he's spent around audits for a long time he holds us accountable and you know, why do you still have this finding, you know, you know, one year later and, and, you know, as our auditors you know, there's this just Detroit thing or you know, you audit Oakland County and, you know, Wayne County as well. Do they have findings? Yes, sir. They do. You know, so findings are kind of evidence that the auditor auditing firm and Ellen Young is a super great firm, they're, they're doing their job, they're, they're not just coming in and sand whatever we say is right, they're digging in and when they got findings, they're reporting them and, you know, as a CPA myself, this is you know, one of the most important things our profession does is give us independent assurance that the financial statements are are fair, fairly stated. So as Rajiv indicated, there are financial statements but what they're providing is that opinion and you know, every CPA I know that does audits, takes that opinions SuperSearch seriously, or they're not auditors for very long so with that said, thanks for GE we really appreciate it. Big
Unknown Speaker
thank you so much.
Speaker 2
Thank you. Okay. You for the general manager's record, though. Yep. And I'll
Speaker 1
try to keep it pretty brief as to share my screen, okay. So as was maybe mentioned, maybe there was before the meeting, DTC participate in our city council budget hearing last week, which was a good opportunity for us to interact with city council. DTC has an independent board, but obviously our all of our local funding comes through an appropriation at the city budget process. And so that that process is very important, not only for the council to better understand our operations and make sure that we're conducting our business with the goals and objectives and values of the city in mind, but also to make sure that they're certain that we're doing a good job and being good stewards of the taxpayer dollars. So it's a process that I appreciate and maybe in a weird way enjoy. But we were able to go before them and answer those questions. We've also got some some written questions that we're addressing separately. That's all part of the process. But overall, it was a good opportunity to talk about all the good things we're doing here at DTC. The city is also considering a funding agreement that would provide one time funding for to support our efforts to incorporate the TTC train cars and parts into our system. And so we've been working to to get that funding agreement drafted. It's something that the council will be considering at some point in the next several weeks, I believe, but we don't have any more details on that but it is something that's in process for their consideration. We have our triennial safety review. So for rail systems, unlike both systems, we have two trials. One is related to our safety and security and the other one is related more on the Transit Administration and compliance side. This is the one related to safety. And it's actually I believe the way to put this is it's it's the FTA Triennial Review of the Michigan State Safety Office that is in charge of ensuring that we comply with the federal safety and security stuff. So there's a few layers there, but they will be here talking to DTC and also to q line. Next week, I believe, to make sure that we're following the rules but also that the State Safety Office is also being supportive and and keeping watch over us as well. I'll, in a second year, I'll go over some project updates and ridership and service updates. And the NFL Draft
Speaker 2
over the only I watched your budget hearing the only thing that I you know and then listen to the council questions. One of them that concerned me at the end was Council one of the council members was asking about buying fare equipment that would be more modern fare equipment that would be more seamless. You know, of course, we all know you're passionate about free fairs and finding a sponsor to be able to continue to do that. I just was a little concerned that maybe counsel didn't understand that. The intention here is to continue to find sponsorship and not spend the millions of dollars that it would take but do you have any different thoughts on that?
Speaker 1
Well, I mean, the board approved doing this as a pilot program and so obviously we want to keep all of our options open. Our best napkin number is about $5 million as the investment it would take for us to basically replace all of the fare collection equipment and really feel that if we were going to collect fares again, we would have to do that maybe not right away, but it would have to be like in the offer. Because as the council pointed out, if we're collecting fares it needs to be seamless. There needs to be every way that anyone could ever want to pay for something they should be able to pay for fers. But with all that being said, it is definitely our intention. And that's something obviously we'll we'll make our case and present this to the board probably in July. As far as how it's going. But the the interest we had in the sponsorship program and actually the the agreement we have worked out with Priority also refers to the fact of if we're if everyone's still on board, there's an escalator that would increase the fee again, if both parties are interested based on ridership, and right now we're at 100% increase in ridership. So we're already thinking to the future and that would be that is certainly my intent is to make sure that that we can continue to have the free fares free. And then if anything to use the success to increase the amount of revenue not just to cover the fare we lost from let's say ridership goes up 100% That means we could have gotten 100% More fares in theory if everything has been the same. I want to I would rather be able to say well, not only are we covering the increase, but this is also generating additional revenue as well and really make it a no brainer from a business perspective. So that was kind of a long answer. But yeah, no thanks. I just heard those comments. But yeah, that our intent is to do anything we can to not only keep fares free but maybe even use the success to generate additional revenue. That's great. Yeah. Okay, the project updates. So, and this is not an exhaustive list, but these are kind of the top on our our mind. projects that are done are nearing substantial completion, the station technology screens, kiosks, PA system and cameras are all almost all installed. The systems are up and running. We're working on kind of implement mentation and training. We are hoping without over promising we're hoping to have the system mostly we're going to have all the screens and kiosks that are installed fully functional for opening day which is next Friday. So that will include you know, the changing screens, the the kiosk, again, we're kind of pushing into the last minute to have that be our soft launch. And certainly by the draft time all of that equipment will be fully functional. mentioned a little bit earlier the elevator and escalator repairs are ongoing. We did a campaign that the board approved a number of months ago for station painting. This is focused on metal doors and railings. So if you've been riding the system lately, we've seen almost all of the stations have fresh coat of paint, in some cases, different colors at some of the stations related to some of the adjacent artwork. And then we're working on kind of wrapping up the column lighting projects. We've got some lights, equipment that has been installed on learned and we'll be continuing to finish that and do some calibration and testing for that as well. Again, aiming toward the draft we're doing this is kind of a surprise element. Since we didn't bring this to the board and didn't didn't need to but we are we are pressing the self destruct button on our website and we're you're replacing it with a simple brand new website, which hopefully will be up and running by the end of next week. So very excited about that. It'll be very basic, but in mostly in good ways. And certainly in the future we could could get more fancy with it, but it'll be very responsive and I think a breath of fresh air on the web. We have started the board awarded a contract for our station powerwashing. And this contract included for the first time exterior station washing so we've begun with that process. Michigan Avenue Station as the first one we did the outside washing it is very noticeably cleaner which is fantastic. All of the stations will have one cleaning by the time we get to the draft. You may also notice that two of the three trains we have in service have NFL themed train wraps are very excited. About those and there's the fourth train is is slotted to also have some sort of host committee themed rap as well. That train which may be a single car train or a double car train should be out before the draft. We are trying to line up a station domination package is what we call it which basically means that advertisers can wrap our cover a whole slew of surfaces around one particular station. Our goal is to have a station nomination package for every station by the draft. We may get there we may not. Some of those will be commercial domination wraps that will be fully paid and in other cases we're working with nonprofits and other community groups that basically would just pay for the cost of the production and installation, but not pay us for a fee. We think that's a great opportunity to give more attention and visibility for some great causes. And working to kind of perfect our social media program which is going to include a new round of influencers that will help us kind of get the story told about how people move whereas a great way to get around in the draft and then other events moving forward. So that's quite a bit what's very exciting. This is just a quick graph. For me, this makes perfect sense. Before we post this all the time, we'll have it a little more fine tuned. But basically the story we're trying to tell here is that the blue line which is the one that's the lower line, that says 2023 was our ridership by month for 2023. When we launched the free or free fare program, our goal was to increase our ridership. by at least 50%. And so that's the dotted blue line. The green line which says 2024 is our actual ridership for January, February and it is our ridership so far for March and why it's very exciting but before I get to the next slide, these two gray lines that are above it are 2019 which is our highest year after the delusory closed and 2015 is our highest year in recent memory before that but also included a boost from Joe Louis Arena. Also both of us had the Auto Show in January which is why the line isn't even is off the chart for 2015. The red circle here shows that there was a pretty low month in those two years in April relative to the others and with the draft. I am hopeful and optimistic that our ridership this year will actually surpass 2015 based on opening day and the draft being in April. So that's at least for all of us here very exciting. A little more granular in the numbers. So January we were at 96% increase over last year February was 114% increase and then in March so far with two weekdays and two weekend days left we're at 109% increase. If you extrapolate just a bit with simple math. We're on track to exceed last year's ridership by 130% which is much more than 50 Last time I checked so we're really excited about that our service hours today right now and moving forward three trains almost all of the time, five minute frequencies is what that means we're still planning to have a fourth train available for the draft, especially at peak times. When you get to the fourth train. The difference between five minutes and four minutes is not that big of a difference. They're both great frequencies. It really is more about a capacity issue. More trains, you have more people you can move and so that's still a goal. And as has been published publicized quite a bit. We are running 24 hour service from 7am on Thursday through midnight on Sunday. And in addition to making sure that we're available as a lot of the NFL staff that are in town, media support staff personalities need to get around. So that's one reason but the real reason why we're running 24 our services so that we can support transit transfers. between the east and west sides of downtown for DDOT who of course has 24 hour routes and are basically breaking their system in half. Given the the barriers of getting across downtown especially for those days. So that's the 24 hour service. We'll be running one or two trains in the in the wee hours overnight, but it will still be quality service security will be out there the screens will be telling people when the trains are coming. So excited about that. And then the last item here is
Speaker 1
mentioned a couple times that net promoter scores or rating where we get feedback from riders. They can give us a one through 10 rating of will they recommend us to a friend or relative and then you use the Net Promoter Score math, and it gives you a score between negative 100 and positive 100. And based on our tracking and board member Polson has kind of needled us on this in previous meetings and we're on the same page to increase the number of responses but February we had 35 responses on a net promoter score was 79, which is a fantastic net promoter score. So again, these are just little things that we're trying to track to keep us on pace for the meeting. Or for the for our service quality. Last thing would be for the draft operations. So this map kind of shows we've been developing something to help summarize what's going on downtown. This map shows the Peoplemover system, the draft footprint, the three entry points are these yellow trapezoids and then the green highlights are all of the the activations that are planned outside of the footprint itself. So you can see that our system is very well positioned not only to provide like a 32nd walk to two of the three entry points but also kind of gets people around as they're experiencing if they aren't interested or can't get inside the footprint itself. They'll be able to get between parking and all these other great activations in addition to connecting to all the transit options, the airport bus and Arbor smart DDOT all that stuff. We're well positioned to do that above all of the the chaos and road closures below. So really excited about that as well. I think that yes, that that was my last slide. So that concludes my report.
Speaker 2
Okay, well thank you for that. Um, so can you tell us what's going on at millander center man, I know it's not the people mover that is doing all that work outside the hotel, but it looks like they've done doing a huge redo of their entry portico and had it all blocked off to the winner. And I know our station is above that. I'm just wondering, you know what it looks like when it's done. Yeah,
Speaker 1
all of the work that's being done is is the courtyard is the hotel that's there. So that's their lobby and entrance basically. So it's all a matter of rebuilding their entrance. The lobby that has the escalators and the entrances for the people mover is kind of insulated there's a door that can get you between the two but basically our area has been mostly separated from that and just the train track goes over. But when it's done it's just going to be the new hotel lobby.
Speaker 2
And will and we will still have our escalators running up to that station or
Speaker 1
it will they're they're the millander centers escalators which is so we can't fix them. And so we're trying to work closely with them to make sure that they can continue to repair them. But yes, those escalators that are in place you're talking about are unaffected by the entrance work.
Unknown Speaker
But do they fix it before the draft?
Speaker 1
We're hopeful? Yeah, they do have the good news is that there? There are two or three elevators that are in at least two three, okay, there's three elevators that are in that same lobby with escalators. Their high capacity elevators are pretty quick. So it's actually that's one where there's pretty good elevator capacity as well. But obviously the escalators are always something that should be running. But yeah.
Unknown Speaker
Okay, so with that, why don't we go to public participation. Are there any members of the public here that would like to address the board?
Speaker 1
Anyone here in person? If you want to grab, you can grab the mic and stand or you can sit down. It's up to you. Does that microphone on? Can I see the use it use a different one.
Unknown Speaker
This on but Oh, it's here.
Unknown Speaker
Okay, very good.
Speaker 5
Thank you. Yep. I can hear it. Yes, yes. Good. My name is Verizon. And I am a co founder of a start Detroit based startup were incubated at Michigan central in new lab. And our startup is we are innovating at the intersection of FinTech and the transit, specifically powering payments and everything else associated with public transit. So very excited to be joining the board meeting here and just really understanding the plan is with the people mover I am also a board member with the master key transportation riders united. I just got elected a few months ago. Kudos to you rather than being tied to on the work that you've done that actually brought on the people mover prior to coming to the board meeting and it was really nice to see all the work that's being done, the monitor the monitor that you mentioned, etc. You know, obviously, riding on it for free was actually a nice perk. I'm quite curious to find out from you. Two items. So 5 million is a hefty fee. And I know that you would ask about your thoughts on Do you still continue to have it as a three payment system or 5 million and what is the plans for that? So I'm quite keen to hear. If you're going to continue on as free. Then what will happen to the 5 million upgrade that he will teach and how do you plan on raising that? And then the second item is really great to see the graph that you presented with the ridership or with it's going up. I'm wondering how are you collecting the data of the riders because I think that would be a really a nice information. To provide to the people that would be interested in in advertising, or taking over the trends of I'm quite keen to know probably collecting and what type of data and what mechanism are you doing to data thank you so much. Okay.
Speaker 1
Take a moment to address those points. So the first one was the 5 million so the 5 million is a is a estimate. So it's not part of the fiscally contract constraint capital program. And so if we were going to collect fares, we would have to basically prioritize our capital program to to to find the $5 million and we could apply for discretionary grants, but those are few and far between for a project that's that small relative to hundreds of millions of dollars projects that usually get those so that's a certainly a big incentive to try to continue the free fair program. Because it's not just a matter of offsetting the revenue of the fair but the fact that in order to collect the revenue that is offset we would have to put that kind of investment in place. And unfortunately, are the reason why it is that allowed is that basically the the entire fair gates would have to be replaced. We were looking at before the free fair program. Could we add some gadgets or widgets on that could do that and we feel in the short term probably could get away with that. But our maintenance, frustrations and costs and efforts continue to go up exponentially to keep those machines running. And so if we don't have to collect fares, the mechanism that lets people through that part is fine. As long as you don't have to do coin slots, magstripe readers and all the other parts that are inside. So the second question, first part was the fair gates is how we collect our ridership currently, so basically, every time you're going through, it's counting one. There are some annoying vulnerabilities there, which is that if you walk through the handicap gate, it is counting how many times you open it and it's not counting how many people go through it. So that's there's some education that we tried to do to encourage people to walk through the turnstiles so that we can get a better account that way. In the in the longer term. We don't have cameras on board the trains, we've never had them on board. But there's some other communications equipment on the train that needs to be upgraded. And the upgrade systems that we're looking at often include things like Wi Fi and camera systems and information screens kind of like thrown in almost that's like the easy part. So our midterm goal, I'll call it is to change the way that we collect the ridership data to be onboard camera based rather than fair gate. And that gives you rather than knowing how many people walk through a fair gate every day at a particular station and nothing else. You will know how many people get on and off at each station down to the second every day, which gives you just a much more robust set of data for not only just ridership but also trips and origin destination stuff. That's fantastic. So that's what we're hoping to do in the midterm. It's increased the data right now. It's just a daily count. What did the Congress say yesterday What does it say today put it on a spreadsheet and that's what generates our ridership. Think that covered. Okay. Well,
Speaker 2
thanks so much. Is there anyone on the phone that would like to address the board? See good
Speaker 1
in person, so Okay. Yes. See, Mr. Polaski?
Speaker 6
Yes, go ahead, Robert. Can everyone hear me? Yep, loud and clear. Perfect. Great. Well, good afternoon to members of the public staff and members of the board. But those of you that don't know me, my name is Robert Pulaski. I'm a longtime transit activist, and I'm the Vice Chair for the Regional Transit Authority Citizens Advisory Committee. So I kind of just want to make my comments brief regarding the new sponsor that we have for the people mover I'm very happy to see that priority waste is happily taken on to be the sponsor for the people mover. It's going to not just increase ridership but tourism in the city. Because with the money that we have and the sponsor to be able to provide us the resources that we need, we can finally invest in tourism here in the city. As you all know, the deck service has just been rolled out just this past week. What's not just it's going to bring tourism but more people to visit the city and have that direct connection. More so the people mover is that internal direct connection in downtown. And not to mention the fact that the people mover is not just Detroit's history, it's old history. History. That brings me back to when my mom told me that the people mover was always a unique part of Detroit every time you get on the Peoplemover and once that chime goes off for the doors to shut it just shows you that you're not just getting the discharge of Detroit but it's also a great investment. It's giving you memories but it's also shows you how much the city has pain all across years to come. I want to ask the board more so with Detroit's history being salvaged into having more sponsorships to invest in more ridership. We also need to look at more sponsors. And I know Robert, that's something you stated earlier than meeting but I want to see more sponsors like locally here in Detroit. Priority waste is one of them, but maybe take after smarts footsteps, maybe a partnership with smart partnership with Chicken Shack or even local Detroit businesses, even Fago General Motors. They're all great partnerships that we can look at in the near future. But if we want to really continuously keep this pilot going of having free fares investing in the ridership besting in the service altogether with sponsorships look at more big brand name businesses that would really help us carry on that continuous ridership and investing more in tourism. Again, priority waste is you know, just a starter and, you know, I'm glad that they were able to take us on because they're a wonderful company. They serve the citizens of Michigan very well within the regions they do service. But long term. I want to try to keep that partnership going within main businesses that put Detroit right on the map or even transportation, smart or the cue line to be able to help us out in terms of partnerships because main goal out of this, especially with the NFL draft is ridership and sponsorship, but also that engagement with riders on what their version of public transportation is this is an idea to get them on transportation. But it also it goes a long way for we have to start making more investments to get more people out. Prime example free fares. We've officially started that and it's been a hit. I'm very excited to not have to put quarters into the machine. We just need to really start thinking towards the future. And I know my comment is kind of, you know, more focused on the sponsorships. But I really want to see some investment with other companies to be able to grow the Peoplemover Roets ridership continuously keep fares free on the service, but also partnering with local events to be able to provide service even partnering with local parking garages like Metropolis to be able to get more ridership out on this, you know, the street cars even the queue line, for example. But again, I want to commend the board especially Robert for all the amazing work you did to get this partnership going to be able to grow the people movers name and to find a way that we can spend our dollars more useful on services to be able to invest in tourism and work with other local leaders, local partnerships, municipalities, and also transportation agencies to be able to provide the service that we need, not just for the draft but future events to come. Here in the city. Wonderful job looking forward to more partnerships sponsorships with other companies and seeing the people move or grow towards the future as we approach 2025 and all the amazing stuff we have coming up after the presidential election. Thank you so much for your time and if anyone has any questions, feel free Thank you.
Speaker 2
Thank you, Mr. Polaski. Are there any other members of the public that would like to address the board?
Speaker 1
You came in? Did you want to make a comment? Are you okay, let's try to make sir. Looks like no other hands erase.
Unknown Speaker
Okay, so with that said, Is there a motion to adjourn? Motion is adjourned thank you. Alright, thank you.