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RTA Citizens Advisory Committee

Detroit Documenters1h 5min

Speaker 1

00:26

Hello everyone my agenda here, I'll get started. It's like we got a good

Unknown Speaker

00:53

that's gonna help Hi Eric, I just made you host

Unknown Speaker

01:15

Okay, thank you excuse my daughter in the background there's still a few folks joining I'm gonna try to take attendance here. Hazel Big Data big All right

Speaker 1

02:26

keep trying to add folks to the list here but go ahead and get started is on thanks everyone for joining last one of the year and that CAC meeting in the air. Pretty killer set of folks here. Can you even watch TV 24 folks on the call that might actually be enough for a chorus first time ever. So I sent the agenda and the meeting minutes around last week was there any changes or comments to either of those?

Unknown Speaker

03:21

I'd like to make a motion to approve the minutes for last meeting.

Unknown Speaker

03:25

I'll second that.

Unknown Speaker

03:27

Motion. Okay All in favor?

Unknown Speaker

03:37

Aye.

Unknown Speaker

03:39

Aye. Aye. Aye. I think it's probably easier on Zoom to see any of those

Speaker 1

03:52

All right, that passes. Meeting Minutes. Is there a motion to approve the meeting minutes from last meeting

Unknown Speaker

03:59

to make a motion to approve those minutes from last meeting?

Unknown Speaker

04:04

I'll second that.

Unknown Speaker

04:06

All right. All in favor. Hi. I will assume that there's nobody not in favor. Aye. Great. So any members of the public here that would like to make a comment?

Speaker 2

04:41

Mr. Chair, if you don't mind, I have a comment to make sure. So just to give a brief update on our last meeting. Since then, the three counties of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne have met. They had their annual Tri County summit on November 18. I had the pleasure to attend in person at the Detroit Zoo. One of the conversations was water and broadband but there were some conversations on infrastructure. We had some cods director, excuse me, some cogs director come in and speak to us with all the county commissioners and board officials and staff and just to give them a brief update on what they want to do on transportation in the coming months. So keep your eyes peeled from some cog and all the three counties in the coming months especially next year on what can we expect going forward. Thank you.

Speaker 1

05:30

Great, thanks for that update. Good glad someone was able to attend that. Anyone else? Want to make a like a comment? Alright. I will turn it over to Ben. I think he's on here for a little update from the RTA

Speaker 3

05:55

Hey. Okay, so let's see our TA LAN are my notes here. Okay. In the more boring news, we did complete all of our updates to procedures that we needed to based on our FTA reviews. We've been kind of working on those throughout the summer and early fall, but those are all completed and submitted. So that's a good piece of business behind us and sets us up well for future federal funding, which is great. I think the main thing I wanted to share is that we have three calls for projects where there's RTA funding that's going to be available for transit providers, some local governments and others in 2023 and we can have a more detailed conversation about this maybe early in the 2023 meetings, but I just wanted to put these three on the CAC radar. The first one is what we call our 5310 or SR and people with disabilities funding source. So that'll be about 11 to $12 million dollar call for projects focused on services, mainly community led services for seniors and people with disabilities. So that'll be a big piece of business for the RTA here and the first quarter of 2023 first three months of 2023 in the second and third quarters, some kind of spring this spring, summer time we will do the actual programming and project selection for American rescue plan funds. So that was $25 million that we set aside for regional projects. We had the RTA board approved a a process for doing that which will basically have the RTA taking on some of the funding to advance some key regional priorities but also looking for the transit providers to put together coordinated applications for that funding source. So we're looking for them to you know, find things that they can work together on that advance the regional agenda, pilot projects, capital projects, operations could, you know, kind of gave them a fairly broad scope of things that we're looking for. But really the key is that we want them to be able to work together and to advance some of some of the priorities. So that'll be kind of spring, summer. And then later in the fall winter timeframe, we're going to be doing our first access to transit grant program. So we received a $2 million grant CMAT grant to do a grant program that is going to look at funding, biking and pedestrian improvements and other kinds of mobility improvements around major regional transit stops. So this comes out of the RTA is mobility oriented development study that we did in 2020. Smart also did a kind of a park and ride study that's got some interesting pieces that we'll be working on. That kind of help identify some key potential interventions. So that is that'll be later like I said, it'll probably honestly it'll probably be around this time next year, like about a year from now by the time that gets all kind of sorted. It's all these are complex, all the funding sources have their own rules and other things but those are really the the three big pieces of business the RTA is doing in 2023. Two other quick things I think I may have said this before one we did submit a grant for the mobility Wallet project. Sorry, hold on. I'm so sorry. Someone's knocking at the door. Hold on one second. Good. All right. We're good. All right. So I that was an MDOT grant program. A mobility wallet is a technology to essentially manage the back end of fare payments for multiple types of mobility providers, so not just transit, but all kinds of other mobility services. We had a group of about a dozen different mobility partners and some workforce agencies. We applied to that grant program through mdot. So we should hear back on that in February. So fingers crossed, that'll be a very interesting project if that comes together. And then in a good piece of news, we did receive a grant to finally finally try and pilot a Delta Detroit to airport service. It will take some time to get that grant together because of bureaucracy and other rules that have probably be three to six months before we even have access to the funding and kind of get all the way through that process and another three or four months for us to really figuring out what exactly that service is going to look like. So as that starts to come together, there'll be public hearings and engagement and other things, but that probably won't be till the end of the summer just knowing how the federal and state planning processes work. It just kind of gets bogged down a little bit. So I'm gonna go to my notes real quick.

Unknown Speaker

11:06

As a standard,

Speaker 3

11:13

only other piece of update DTA to hit 5000 riders in the month of October so we've increased 1000 riders every month in the last three months. So seeing really good growth on that. We will be looking at doing some one on one secondary. We'll be doing some engagement with riders and stakeholders early and 2023. Just to get a perspective on kind of a little bit more information about what riders are using the service for their demographics. Their needs, some of the other major stakeholders just to see if there's any tweaks we need to make in terms of schedule marketing other things. So folks who are using VTA to be on the lookout and we might ask for some a little assistance with with that early in 23

Speaker 1

11:57

I think that's it. All right, thanks. Any questions from the group?

Speaker 2

12:04

Great report then I'm glad to see DTH is picking up on ridership and anything that we can do with the CAC to help that'd be great.

Speaker 4

12:15

Ben, this is Frank Kolinsky what? So now that the dust is settled after the election? I mean, do you have any thoughts? You know that a little time has passed on this and you know, what's, what's kind of be happening for Oakland County? Yeah,

Speaker 3

12:34

we just started talking to Oakland County last last week. So we're still we're starting to get engaged with them and figure out what their needs are. I think I've said to this group very openly before you know we weren't we weren't really engaged in the run up to this in terms of the technical pieces. So now we're, we're there to provide them that support and kind of help them figure out, you know, maybe maybe what the mid and long term looks like a little bit more. So we're in access conversations. I don't know exactly what's going to look like from an RTA perspective. Yet, but we're certainly having those conversations.

Speaker 5

13:15

Any discussions with the legislature or about what you might like push for with the legislature given the changes in the leadership and all that, that might be coming in that that might open up some new opportunities that weren't going anywhere with the old legislature?

Speaker 3

13:34

We've had some initial discussions with our our kind of strategic consultants in Lansing just just dusting off some stuff that we've done before. Just trying to kind of get a sense of where where we can go with it, what the what the story is, as to why we want to go for these changes. Now beyond that, I think we all know it's potentially a friendly legislature, but is there another another story so we're starting to knock the dust off that and figure out what that strategy might look like? Very very active conversation?

Speaker 5

14:06

Because I know like, yeah, there's like all this stuff about Macomb and Oakland and triple APA passed the new millage but that still leaves no areas like yeah, Wayne still has the top outs and like funding stuff and Wayne and Washington are beyond the current borders and long term funding for like D two a two and perhaps more local services in that way in Washington. I gap.

Speaker 3

14:33

Yeah, no, that's totally, totally agree with your point. And we are having some conversations about that for folks who may not be totally aware one of the one of the long standing conversations that we've had back and forth with the legislation is can we make essentially the our TAs taxing authority more flexible? So can we create different types of districts and be a little bit more strategic and surgical about how we approach instead of doing what we can do now, which is one big ask for the whole chunk? So that we did have some legislation drafted a long time ago and frankly, I've been reading it again and trying to just sometimes reading legislations like reading another language. So just trying to kind of remember what we were all trying to get out there. And trying to see if that's the right approach. So we're just starting to kind of dust that off and figure out what's our what our approach is going to be but Tim, the that that is firmly within our sights in terms of the need to continue to exist in the region, in terms of current, you know, still existing gaps.

Speaker 6

15:36

Right, Thomas? Yes. I have a question for you, Ben. Is the public going to have any say or input on the priorities of the American rescue plan? funding? We haven't really heard much about this. I don't think until now. So I'm just wondering how much of that the general the public can can influence or give feedback on? Sure. So

Speaker 3

16:07

we we've presented the American rescue plan funding concept in front of the RTA board, three times, I think at least three times. And we will be getting to all projects and we want to work with the CAC to figure out how best to kind of integrate your viewpoints into looking at what the providers put together. So I don't have like a perfect, perfect answer. But we do want to we do want to work with the CAC. It is a very technically complex funding source. So I don't want to open it up too wide and give people the wrong impression about what can be done with that funding. Sure. So we do have to be fairly surgical, but that's, that's my hope.

Speaker 6

16:50

And you'll be keeping us in the CAC updated about it. Okay.

Speaker 3

16:54

Yeah, yeah, I mean, everything will be done at the edge at the board level, and I want to work with the CAC to figure out but certainly, you know, I've pretty much everything I've ever done. Since I've been kind of running the RTA and I, I go very slow, and I take one step at a time. So I present a concept, a draft, a final, all those are presented public meetings. You know, people are welcome to comment on them before, during and after. That's why I do them like in stages. So it's pretty clear like what we're trying to get at, but we're gonna do once we do get into the selection, we'll do we'll, we'll work something out with the CAC. Again, I don't totally know exactly what it's gonna look like. But, you know, that's definitely my intention.

Unknown Speaker

17:37

Thank you Parnell. You had

Speaker 7

17:39

your hand up. Yeah. Would would like a feasibility study for regional transit be within the scope for the ARP funding.

Unknown Speaker

17:53

So that's it would be but

Speaker 3

17:57

we probably would take a slightly different tack for that. So I a feasibility study for regional transit, where we, I mean, we've done a regional master transit plan already. So what we've done is take some of the funding that the RTA has for its operations and actually set aside a separate Trump is outside of this, this other funding sources, totally separate chunk, about $500,000 that is available to us if you know it's kind of everything lines up and it looks like a ballot initiative. Timing is kind of coming together. We've kept some what we say some powder dry, to be able to use that to do I call it an expenditure plan. Some people call it a feasibility, whatever you want to call it, but basically we want to get into like the nuts and bolts of what another investment look would look like in detail. We set aside funding from another separate pot to be able to see.

Speaker 7

18:54

Okay, but the idea would be to not use AARP funding for this as well for like if there's like a bigger initiative at a regional level.

Speaker 3

19:07

Yeah, I mean, the other funding we have set aside is technically also AARP funding. So okay, so we basically we took the ERP funding and we slice it into two segments. One was kind of administrative for the RTA and one is for this competitive regional funding pot. So I just instead of us putting that into this pot over here I'm putting I put it in the administrative type, just to just to make it clean, it all kind of fits together. Does that make sense? Okay,

Speaker 7

19:36

okay. Yeah. And then just another quick thing. Are the board meetings open to the public? Are those

Speaker 3

19:42

Yes? Oh, no, no, it's totally open to the public and we do hybrid. So there you know, people can participate through zoom. They're every third Thursday, and of course, you know, and we've been doing them all at the Wayne County Community College downtown district. We are starting to talk about moving them around and doing them at some different times. We haven't completely gelled that yet. But that was our intention before the pandemic hit in 2020 or 2020. Year was actually planned to do move them around, do them in different places at different times, make them more accessible, and then that all blew to smithereens. So we're trying to like, pull that all back together and figure out how we can better better get out into the community with that, but they are all hybrid, so people can participate through zoom.

Unknown Speaker

20:32

Okay, cool. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker

20:34

Robert, your hand up.

Speaker 2

20:37

Yeah. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just one question regarding the funds. So I know you guys are receiving the you know, ARPA funds. But just the one question I have. Are you guys receiving anything from the infrastructure bill? How like, What's the ETA on that so far?

Speaker 3

20:50

Yeah. So the infrastructure bill, the best way to break down any any funding federal funding is formula and what I call discretionary competitive. So formula wise, there was additional funding in the last fiscal year and will continue to be additional funding that goes through the standard kind of formulas that we see every year. So that came directly from the infrastructure bill that goes you know, goes through the RTA process. We have not we have not applied for any.

Unknown Speaker

21:23

Well, hold on

Speaker 3

21:25

the carbon reduction grants that we got for the airport service. That was something from the infrastructure bill, trying to remember. That was a brand new funding source. But some of the other ones we have not applied for some partners in the mobility space I've have applied for some of them. So we're kind of supporting folks. We supported a raise grant that MDOT did for a transit corridor project. So we're kind of trying to find the right right ones to support and move forward. But that I forgot that carbon reduction program was was from the infrastructure analysis.

Speaker 2

21:57

Okay. And one more question that kind of somewhat goes into it. What's the status on the state funding so far? The state grants that we've the RTA has been talking about over the past year.

Speaker 3

22:07

Yeah. So this is the competitive seat grant that we just applied for we should know about in probably February, for the mobility Wallet project. The other funding we have is kind of standard, standard funding that happens every year. We usually do that. In the February March timeframe. And then we're still having conversations with the Hamdard about potential matches for BRTs. That'll be that'll be a long term conversation, trust, trust me. It's an ongoing conversation, trying to figure out what that's going to look like and I think we'll have a bit of a friendlier audience not that we were having nice conversations, but we need to move it to the next level. I'm sorry, in this regard. I would also just put out there for the CDC to keep their eye out for Gratiot is going to go through going into a big corridor planning process and start off probably January. It'll probably be a couple of months before he gets out to public engagement. That'll be interesting and transit will be a huge part of that. And then Washtenaw, at least from us, 23 to Ipsy. So like half the Washington corridor is maybe three months in front of that of of Gratiot. And we'll be I'm assuming trans is going to be a big part of that, as well. So yeah, Eric. Eric knows well. And there's some conversations about Woodward coming back online. So a lot of the major transit corridors. Looks like there's some conversations about getting those up and running again and trying to figure out what we can best do on those corridors, but a lot of it is coming through and that's leadership, which can maybe be a little bit slow but is important, because they are the road owners. So ultimately, the if they're positive about the the changes in the alternatives, we have a better overall chance of moving them forward. And that's, you know, people often ask what, you know, what, what are some of the things that make it more difficult to do things here in Michigan or metro Detroit? That's one of the things that's a little different is that a lot of our major corridors are under state jurisdiction. That's not like a common, a super common thing that you see on major BRT projects. So but we're having good conversations with them. We're going to keep doing that participating in their studies and seeing what we can do to move those projects forward.

Speaker 2

24:31

Is Michigan go under a corridor study is Michigan going to receive though, is the innovation that's going on with the city?

Speaker 3

24:39

Yeah, that's a great question. So I have a meet. I actually have a meeting with MDOT later this week to see where this ended up. But they, I think, I think put forward a grant asked to extend this corridor. Study on Michigan. So from courtown to, I believe all the way to et Cie was the last conversation I was in I don't know if they ended up I'm assuming they ended up putting that grant together. That was for one of the infrastructure grant program, infrastructure program. So I will know later this week if they actually did that, but the plan was to put planning money into that. And that's something that frankly, if they wanted to and the transit providers were were gamed to do it, we could figure out the right way that maybe that American rescue plan funding we have could potentially fund something like that. So that's, I know people are kind of trying to figure figure out how best to get that one moving as well.

Unknown Speaker

25:33

Yeah, perfect. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker

25:35

All right, Mitch, agenda.

Speaker 8

25:38

Hey, can you hear me? Yes. Great. Yeah, just a really just quick question about that. Sort of bike and pedestrian improvements study. That we're talking about maybe q4 Next year, what what sort of would be encompassed by that? Is that just looking at what we can do with the stops themselves, and you know, the area around them that's owned by the, you know, the providers, or would that maybe include also, you know, changes to the right of way, and roads, infrastructure, bike lanes sort of thing, anything like that.

Speaker 3

26:11

Yeah. So the intention there is I want to be clear, this is actually going to be an implementation grant. So design or construction. So this isn't planning. This is actually we'll be able to fund some projects with this, which is great. The hope is that we would be able to look at the bike and pedestrian infrastructure, at least at the intersection level. We might we may not be able to afford miles and miles of bike lanes, but you know, we needed better, better bike parking crossings, a blocker to have an extended bike lane, maybe additional protection in a bike lane. Certainly scooter parking, bike sharing all kinds of manner of kind of how do we create more mobility hubs and make them really safer for bikes and pedestrian. People who are walking and biking to the stops. That's really the intention. And folks if for folks who are interested. I've said this before I blatantly stole this program from Chicago RTA. It's called access to transit. I call it the exact same thing. I completely sold it from them. It's a great idea. So you can you can actually look at like if you go to their website and look at it, you can see all the pictures and they they find a variety of different things. And I also want to say and I've said this to Eric and the CDC, if he Sue's you guys want you just let me know like I can go through and I can do a whole presentation on what this exactly looks like but that's the that's the idea. Is that it would really be bike and pedestrian infrastructure kind of at an intersection level with with transit stops as well. Oh, John, that's great. Thank

Speaker 9

27:49

you. Yeah, it's got unmuted so here in bed with all this upcoming year, focused on funding and looking at projects coming up. This is a real good time, even though it's extremely labor intense to get committee members to sit on these review teams so input can be put in before we start the process and looking at review, reviewing and evaluating a lot of different programs. Yeah,

Speaker 3

28:16

I totally agree. And that's something we've we've generally when we've done calls for projects, we have had CAC liaison participation in the actual scoring so I think that that's absolutely something we can do. I think we also need to talk about are there some things we can do more broadly in discussions with the committee or subcommittees or however we want to structure it as we're putting the calls and priorities together before they get out? You know, as a first cut or even just doing a presentation and getting some feedback? You know, before we put something out and saying hey, these are kind of the priorities these are these are the things we can fund not fun. What do you guys think? You know, I again, don't have like a great perfect, you know, this is exactly what we should do, but I I want to make sure we hit both both of those things. So I will say that the scoring part can can be kind of labor intensive. So I want to be respectful of people's time and their abilities to participate in the process. So I think we can put a little structure around that and figure out how to do it but I think there's kind of entry point into the process and actually seeing the applications or two good points or good times for CAC inputs.

Speaker 9

29:30

I'm just really excited about this amount of funding to get into transit and making sure that this becomes our focus of how do we utilize what we're doing and move forward. So thank you, Ben.

Unknown Speaker

29:40

Yeah, thank you, John. Megan, I see you I know Eric may have froze, but okay. Oh, there he is. Okay, sorry, Eric. I can hear everything you're saying just yeah, you would very contemplative there.

Speaker 10

29:59

Thank you. As much as I'm super excited about all of the new funding coming in and making sure it's it's well spent, and it seems like the biggest ongoing problem for riders is the driver shortage and the fact that even if we have funding if you don't have drivers to operate the buses, many people are continually getting left on the side of the road. And I know that, at least, Spartan DDOT have have put a lot of efforts into it over the last year or two, a lot more promotion and some temporary bonuses and things like that. Has there been any discussion at an RTA level? And he's sort of at the I don't know to what extent the providers are still regularly meeting as to what, what would it take to truly solve that crisis? It's again, it's not an RTA problem explicitly, but it's the biggest thing facing trans that the biggest barrier to transit success right now.

Speaker 3

31:10

Yeah, we've had some we've had on and off conversations, I would say, you know, other things have kind of cropped up and you know, happened and the providers have dealt with things in different ways and leadership has changed. So what what we've said is part of the ARP funding that we put out there, one of the things we put out there as a potential and kind of second to be systematic salver. I mean, I think at the end of the day, you know, looking at overall wages is something that probably needs to happen. But, you know, that gets into very strange territory for us. But we do have, we did say one of the eligible expenses and priorities of that work of the ERP funding was workforce development programs, and that can take a lot of different types of forms. It could, you know, be continuing bonus pools, it could be marketing and communications, but really, our hope is that and I know this, it's really difficult, you know, the Spartan DDOT compete, which is, is what it is, but if we could get away for them to kind of work together and find the solutions, and we can make some investment with that ARP money to I don't think it's a full solve. But yeah, continue to like, build on what they're doing. That that's that's kind of where we're at so that's

Speaker 10

32:25

makes sense. Yeah, yeah, I'm it's definitely something trues digging into and trying to understand what what has worked in other communities and yeah, obviously the fact that in arbors got a starting wage of $28 an hour and doesn't have a driver shortage is definitely one of the major factors but But yeah, just trying to make sure we're staying on top of all of the discussions and opportunities that are there. So thanks for for keeping that in mind because obviously ongoing service is, is huge. So thanks. Absolutely,

Unknown Speaker

33:06

yep. Frank.

Speaker 4

33:10

Thanks. You know, really good point, Megan. And I think one of the things you see with you know, with the airlines and the rail and things it's like it's not always just the monetary how much you got to pay somebody but you know, I think one of the biggest problems is there's no place to park these buses unless we buy property or you know, our long term lease to fight to get these things off the street and and provide, you know, a rest place for the for the drivers a safe rest area, you know, you go out there to that Gratiot line out there at 23 and Gratiot. I haven't driven that line for a long time. But I mean, that was, you know, in out there in Baltimore on a Sunday night, you know, Michigan Avenue, you look at some of these routes that smart had, and DDOT has got some of the same problems. You know, they get out to the end of the line and there's nothing for the driver, you know, they just like well, driver, you know, maybe though Wendy's might be open, maybe it's not. And you know, these are the kinds of things that you know, when you're you know, working in an office or a factory, I mean, you have access to these, you know, basic human needs for elimination and to wash your hands. I mean, they're down the hall, you know, and if you're working out of your house or whatever, you got a refrigerator there I mean, but you know, these issues about, you know, working Sundays and holidays, you know, as you you know, when you first come out because of the, you know, being a union shop, you know, the low low guys on the on the totem pole are, you know, they got to work the worst shifts, and it takes years sometimes to get off of that. So, I mean, it's, it's not just, you know, how much you know how much do you got to pay somebody to overcome that, you know, that's a lot of money and I think the money much better. spent, you know, getting facilities for drivers and also when you you know, budgeting money for, you know, more time off for especially the, you know, the younger drivers coming in, we don't you know, I was like I was in the last contract to get a pension. And that was a huge thing. What attracted drivers to these jobs? Do I think does DLT still offer a pension? I'm not sure if they did or not smart does not you know, they have some sort of

Speaker 3

35:24

moral I definitely know smart doesn't say that he actually, I can't remember.

Speaker 4

35:30

But I mean, you know, there's other there's other issues and, and you know, and Megan makes you know, the point, no matter how much money you spend, if you don't have drivers, it's just not going to happen. Autonomous vehicles, you know, are, you know, if they ever can do some work like that, you know, that's years and years generations in the future. So, you know, waiting around for autonomous vehicles, it's not an answer. So I mean, I would I would really start with proving that, you know, the drivers conditions, you know, working conditions.

Speaker 1

36:07

I can say that. One of the things that we looked at for the smart parking rights study was including facilities for drivers, the layover and snack room, things like that. So, certainly something to thinking thinking about, but it's probably a larger problem than just the three lines that we looked at. I want to make sure we're staying on schedule. We got some other things to talk about. I think if you guys have other questions, just email banner i and we can chat about it offline. Where he questions good discussion. Thank you, everybody. Anyway, we'll continue on. Next on the agenda is kind of things to talk about do and 2023 and I think some of it has kind of come up in the last in our last discussion there.

Speaker 1

37:08

I know that it's something that we haven't really been too much of a part of. But it sounds like Ben and others want to get us kind of pulled into that. So Ben or Cory, do you want to expand on any of those things we had, we had talked about the grant review thing, or some of the pieces within the social media presence and CAC section in the newsletter, all kinds of around trying to boost the voice a little bit of the CAC.

Speaker 11

37:46

Hi, sorry, I needed to come off mute for you all. Um, well, Ben spoke a lot about the kafir projects that's coming up in the early part of 2023. And really being able to utilize the CAC to review those applications. So that's something that you know, definitely look forward to seeing more develop. But just tonight, we want to introduce the concept to you all, to have you start becoming more familiar with how the process actually goes and runs we'll be able to bring you more update probably at the next CAC meeting, which should be in February. So stay tuned for that. And then I see Khalil has come on to screen. I'm going to actually pass the baton to him to have him talk about how we can utilize the CAC to be more engaged with our social media platforms.

Speaker 12

38:49

Good evening, everybody. Give me like two minutes, three minutes to pull this PRC my screen Yep. All right. So as Cory was mentioning, we have been doing social media campaigns over the last few months, but we would like a little bit more engagement from the CAC starting off with hashtag Hey, RTA if you're using transit within the metro Detroit area, hashtag Arca to tell people how you actually navigating throughout the region. Also tech and like the provider that you're using as well like, smart Mogo but it just gets the conversation going on like social media to get more a positive message around transportation um, the next thing will be x RTA. If you have questions about, like, anything that's going on within the media or anything that's like trans related or how to access the bus from downtown Detroit to let's say Ferndale, or something like that use hashtag XR TA. Now this is something that we can also try me and like if you know the answer to it, it was something that just navigating through a metro Detroit feel free to like answer those questions, but it was just a hard EA internal question. We want to redirect those questions back into the RCA stuff myself quarry ban or harmony. Then the last thing will be the RTA newsletter. We would like to have CAC to have their own corner within the newsletter saying things that's going on within the CAC a membership spotlight. I know we have done it in the past well maybe we should bring that back up because people are in seeing what is the CAC doing and I think that's pretty much it on my hand. Do we have any questions about the three points that

Unknown Speaker

40:42

were discussed? For Frank?

Speaker 4

40:48

Yeah, thank you. Is this one of these artificial, intelligent, self learning type of things? We just got one here in Lavonia where as people ask questions, and you know, they want people to pile in with questions and then the Michigan has like some sort of machine learning thing in it. And and as the more questions they ask, the better the answer is, the better the knowledge base, but it's what it's some sort of machine learning type of thing. Is this something

Speaker 12

41:19

that no, this is more organic base, so if you have a question related to transit, nine times out of 10, somebody else will have a cylinder Coulson as well. So we probably will put that in the FAQ, but mostly, I'm sorry about our background, but mostly it's just to get people to get more engaged with my transmitter get more knowledgeable about the transit use within Metro Detroit. That answer your question. Cool. Any other questions, comments or concerns?

Speaker 2

41:58

I have one question for you, Khalil. What's going to be the process? What's the expected date to roll this out in front of the public?

Speaker 12

42:07

Well, actually, this has been rolled out over the last year stuff back in January, but it kind of fell off your gauge man but we will be picking this back up again, let's say within the next two weeks right before Christmas timeframe. So if you're using regional transit within the next two weeks, feel free to use hashtag. Hey, RTA, before I ask the question part go we would like to pick that back up. Around January. Then later part of you are interested in and kind of having your own paragraph or blog part of the newsletter. I do normally send it out within the second or third Tuesday of every month. So I think we can talk to Eric about if you have something to put in there and send it over to Eric make sure he fishes restore it, see his thoughts about it and just send it over to me.

Speaker 2

43:02

Thank you coil. So I encourage all true members on their Instagram page to use these tags when it starts rolling out. I figured I'd put that out for the group.

Speaker 1

43:13

There's a question from Matt. Is the RTA doing any social media ads or targeted boosted post or just trying to gain traction through the hashtags?

Speaker 11

43:24

We do currently have a ad campaign going on and we do a lot of target marketing and target social media centered around D to A two okay?

Speaker 1

43:38

Any other questions for Khalil or Cory? See, thanks everyone.

Unknown Speaker

43:52

Thank you.

Unknown Speaker

43:55

Thank you, Cory. Thank you Khalil for that.

Speaker 1

43:58

Alright. See here. Last or next thing on the agenda is Executive Committee.

Unknown Speaker

44:12

I'm going to be stepping down have gotten a few requests, I guess. Or people who are interested. don't quite have a full set of folks. So if anybody is willing to be interested who has not emailed me yet, or Cory or Ben,

Speaker 1

44:38

please think about it and get back to us as soon as possible. Like to kind of have a have a group together for the next CAC meeting. It basically need a couple of folks to kind of move the process through. So I'll stop there. We have a

Speaker 13

45:17

Yeah. Can we take this off? I'm not the host anymore. Sam Smith, please.

Speaker 11

45:24

It appears we've been hacked. Yeah. pool members Sam Smith is

Unknown Speaker

45:34

sick. We've got a bunch of random people here. I'm going to boot. The the admin should be able to slide Yeah, yeah. Thank you oops, okay. That sounds

Unknown Speaker

46:03

um,

Speaker 1

46:04

so Megan just asked two people like the idea of doing some CAC meetings in person. We were going to try to do this but given kind of the short notice. didn't quite work out. So

Unknown Speaker

46:21

Eric froze again.

Speaker 10

46:30

Yeah, I do like I guess I should. I don't know. Hopefully Eric will be back in a sec. But I did want to say I liked the idea of trying to get together in person. Pre COVID. We did have some we would do some breakout meeting breakouts and have some good in person discussions, tried to get committees going and such. It's been harder to do virtually. I think if we can, again, give people a good six weeks notice or something like that. Maybe plan three or four in person. Meetings next year, even if the regular monthly meetings remain virtual. I think that's something that would be would be great to do. Unless there's substantial objection from this from the team.

Speaker 5

47:23

One thing I might say is that doing the meetings a little later might make them easier to attend in person for people who are coming from not downtown Detroit.

Unknown Speaker

47:37

Yes, good point.

Speaker 10

47:37

Great point. And it's I think, I mean, to some extent, the timing was more when we were doing them in person and doing them at at some cog offices. There were limits on how late we could stay but if we do them elsewhere then we can do all timing. We also

Speaker 6

48:01

rotate like, like I think the board meetings like we're planning to be rotated. Maybe we could do something similar at these meetings so that you know, it Megan, if I'm understanding you want these on top of the scheduled CAC meeting is like an addition

Speaker 10

48:21

or replacing I mean, if if March June and September we met in person but then the other months, we met virtually or something like that.

Speaker 6

48:34

It may be that maybe that's the question we do ask is should we rotate to better hit different areas of the region? Because I know a lot of some of us are are from different places, or do we want to stick to a consistent place and maybe that's a decision to me,

Speaker 10

48:50

I guess if folks have strong opinions, then they should consider joining the executive team because it'll be the new CAC, president and exec team who will figure out what that schedule will look like and we'll need to do some a lot of the logistics to make it happen.

Speaker 9

49:13

Megan chan watermen one of the concerns we have is accessibility and routes will will we be reaching out to providers to help with ADA, driving and ways to get to the different meetings. I know in the very beginning when we started, like the right and different providers, were making sure that individuals could get to our meeting and stay the whole time. A lot of times we don't individuals can't come because of the system.

Speaker 2

49:51

This is Robert Pulaski. I want to be able to chime in on Megan's point a little bit regarding the meetings. I don't object to that. I think that we need to have an in person meeting at some point next year. But one of the things I've been really working on with a couple of my close friends that own a couple businesses here in Wayne County, is if we could flip around between Wayne, Oakland and Macomb to really give people in certain folks because I know there's some a column folks that are on this committee. There's a lot of Oakland folks on this committee and there's some Wayne folks on this committee, maybe doing some in person meetings. Sorry, Washington. Thanks, Thomas for putting that in. But even washing off, there's plenty of opportunities to take a hold of a conference room. I have some people I know that be willing to lend their conference room over to us to have our meeting, at least whenever we want here in Wayne County. So just to throw that on the table. I mean, I think it's time that we step out of our zone and really use the some cog offices when we need to but really flipped around if as much as we can.

Speaker 5

50:55

The challenge with that might be getting to some places like people from Mosh nog trying to get to Macomb if they don't drive.

Speaker 2

51:04

Yeah, that's where I was like, I don't know, because what we don't really have besides you Tim, we don't have a lot of folks from Washtenaw. But, you know, I'm open to any suggestions that people might have to really figure this one out. If we can't really use the same colleague offices any much longer.

Speaker 13

51:22

Also, excuse me because of the meetings and how they're set up and different. You need to maybe figure out how you can keep these hybrid as well for those people that aren't able to attend so they have to be technically equipped to be able to do that.

Speaker 1

51:40

Yeah, before the pandemic we used to do and personnel like you could still call into the meeting. So understanding that not everyone can make every single meeting in person is still needs to be part of it. Something that just to consider.

Speaker 2

51:59

Megan did put on a point that she's willing to help out with tech town as well possibly do some stuff down in tech town so I wanted to shed some light on that.

Speaker 14

52:10

Yeah, this is Corey. That's what I was going to say as well. Just making sure that if we do have any meetings that are in person, they're not only in person, just for the fact of better accessibility for the public and making sure that those who either can't or don't want to meet in person can still participate. So, like in my case, I usually am not available to make an in person meeting between five and seven o'clock. So just from making sure all the members of the CSC console be here, and that it's easy to get to participate in.

Speaker 3

52:38

Right. Hey, sorry, I just wanted to chime in real quick on John's point, in terms of you know, we definitely used to be used to work with SM mainly smart to make sure people who needed paratransit services to attend the meetings, you know, were able to get those or get, you know, get those types of trips. So it just it's something we certainly can keep working on. It's a little bit more complicated if we move around the region of course. But the key for us is really just knowing the locations and the dates and the times and then we can kind of make those you know, and they're all people who know how to use the services but just making those extra make sure it's for people who have disability disabilities that need specialized services and get to the meetings certainly having a hybrid option is also nice. I just wanted to put that out there as well.

Speaker 1

53:27

Thanks, Ben. All right. Well, I think we have a few others interested in executive committee.

Speaker 2

53:52

Mr. Chair, you cut out a little bit you froze for a few seconds there.

Speaker 1

53:58

Sorry. Maybe it'll be better if I turn my video off. Given the fact that my internet is not cooperating. I'm going to drop off. Feel free to keep chatting. If you have, I think we have a few more folks who are interested in in the executive committee. I'll be reaching out to you guys here in the next couple days. See what we can do. Who wants to do what? But we'll get that set up and then I think our next meeting is going to be sometime in February and we'll have a shot. I don't know if

Unknown Speaker

54:32

it's February 28.

Unknown Speaker

54:35

Or 28th. There you go. Thank you.

Speaker 2

54:39

Could I make a point before we adjourn the meeting? So I hope you know now since we have openings for chair. You know I encourage people to really look into this and actually put your thoughts and what you want to see in the CAC so if anyone's interested in share, please do that. So I'm kind of passing the torch along please. You know, interested if you want to make a difference in the CAC but in terms of going into next year, I have high hopes for the CAC and hopefully we can partner with true to really do some public engagement going forward. I know Megan had to hop off for a second but I'm pretty sure Thomas could chime into this. True is doing some surveys with bus riders. I'm not sure where in particular I'm not going to really get into that but what they are doing surveys and they are looking for all true volunteers that are part of it to possibly help in and do some public feedback and get some engagement from the citizens on buses, coaches and transfer points. If anyone's interested, I'm actually going to be doing that myself here in Wayne County. So hopefully to do some local municipalities. Steve, I would like to partner with you on that. But anyone either in Macomb, Oakland and potentially watching up if you're interested please help us out. We would love to get your input and see some more writers get their information on the system. But hope everyone has a great thanks to Christmas and has a wonderful new year has a good holiday and look forward to talking with you guys in February. And by the way, is there potentially we can get new security measures measures in this meeting. After what just happened because I'm a little disturbed, to say the least. So

Unknown Speaker

56:30

glad my internet cut out I guess I didn't see anything.

Speaker 2

56:33

I wouldn't be able to put that point out there before we go to our February meeting because I think the I think we need those measures

Speaker 13

56:41

Well, the way Zoom is either you have to have a you have to have a sign in or do you just invite all mean in the waiting room? So I think that's how that happened.

Speaker 2

56:55

I think there's a sign in I know DDOT does the same thing with all their public members. So potentially if we could have something similar to DDOT where they have their information, they sign in and then they only have access to raise hand during public comment and all CAC members have the controls

Unknown Speaker

57:13

and they will certainly check into

Unknown Speaker

57:15

that. Thank you got a question.

Speaker 4

57:21

Yeah, I have two things. And you know, one of the things that I've always been concerned about is connecting Washtenaw County to Western Wayne County, on Michigan Avenue as a first kind of a crude step to you know, to make that connection. And I just think you know, with the success of the A to D to or you know with the ridership is that it's it's really showing that there's a lot of people that want to move from Wayne County to Washtenaw and we could I can certainly see make a rational argument that we could spend money on a bus that would actually run a surface, you know, out Michigan Avenue and run over Canton and not have any stops there. Just the same way that the bus runs from downtown all the way to the airport and not have any surface stops. So I mean, it's it's a crude step, but you know, it's just something I think is really important that we get somehow get regular bus service connection to Washington Aw. You know, and again, I mean, you know, maybe it's more like a demonstration type of thing because it's going to have to happen to be truly a regional we talked about how people can't go from Washington auto in meetings using the bus system and that would be you know, that that happens a lot I think in in that part of the state. And then so I you know, I mean I know you know, we have Ben's got a lot of money to throw around now. So maybe he can come up with something for that some some way to provide rationale for that. And then the other thing is I am moving to Livingston County early next winter so I will not be part of the CAC any longer and gosh, it's been great, you know, and working with everybody and a lot of people have really good place in their hearts for for this effort. So, appreciate it. And so thank you very much.

Speaker 2

59:23

Thank you, Frank. For all the wonderful work you've done. I know it's kind of been short lived with most of the members here but you know, everybody has a story on this committee and that's why we joined that's why we you know, put our facts out that's why we put our input in because you know, we are the frontline, you know, writers and we are the ones that get the information. So appreciate you Frank and one of the points you put out was Washington Wayne, that's a conversation I'm continuously having with Chairwoman Alicia bell at the Wayne County Commission to potentially do something with the RTA so Ben expect an email hopefully in the coming months we already have a pilot. You already have a pilot.

Speaker 3

01:00:01

Yeah. So let's talk about it. They people's Express actually just just started a pilot. It doesn't go all the way to Detroit. But it's basically Easter it's basically Ipsy to shoot down tournament where they ended up just like basically Wayne city of Wayne area. So just in the western side, like literally, it literally just started like a week ago. So this was funded through a previous round of funding so we do have at least something to hang. Hang these ideas on and think about because I couldn't agree more frank, that that's the next step of this conversation. So so I'll I'll get a little more info about that. And maybe at the next meeting, we can go through that a little bit are provided but we do have we do have something. It is very preliminary but it's something

Speaker 2

01:00:53

you stole my thunder there for a second, but you know, we're gonna keep the conversation going. I'm talking with commissioners amongst the county wide Oakland County millage continuously keeping that conversation going in Oakland and throwing it across wayne county commissioners in you know, what their take is on it and what they want to see going forward. So that's the conversation. I'll be working on a project. Hopefully that's going to be coming into the works in the coming coming months. One of the people that's been very supportive of the millage is district 15. County Commissioner Joseph Powell Mara, so he's very interested in what we can do. In terms of a county wide level for transit. Hopefully I can get Commissioner Raymond bash, to look into this and other commissioners, Commissioner Baker McCormack to get their take, but if anyone has any questions, really just hopefully put those out at the next meeting. I'm hoping to give a report some updates going forward on what their plan is going forward, but it's good to see that pilot coming into place because now we finally have something extra to get into in arbor.

Speaker 13

01:01:58

Just real quick, Frank, I wanted to say thank you so much for your dedication to public transit and CAC. We will definitely miss you.

Unknown Speaker

01:02:06

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker

01:02:07

Thank you, Frank. It's great.

Speaker 13

01:02:11

Eric, real quick. I'm not sure you went in and out. Can you go over what actually positions are available on the executive committee?

Unknown Speaker

01:02:21

We haven't made there's hasn't really

Speaker 2

01:02:32

Shawn or Cory or anyone on staff, would you be able to do that? Potentially. I think he's having issues.

Unknown Speaker

01:02:42

I didn't hear the question.

Speaker 13

01:02:44

What positions will be available on the executive committee?

Speaker 11

01:02:49

Still going out what's going to be can you just put it in the chat shot if you don't mind? What?

Unknown Speaker

01:02:55

What positions are open for the executive committee?

Speaker 11

01:02:59

Oh, the entire executive committee is open from chair on down. Okay.

Speaker 2

01:03:10

All righty. Do we have anyone for Vice Chair to adjourn this meeting?

Unknown Speaker

01:03:32

Courier Ben, can you adjourn the meeting?

Speaker 11

01:03:35

I will step into that ex facto role and the meeting is officially adjourned at 6:04pm.

Speaker 2

01:03:43

Thank you. Do we need a motion to do that? Are we okay?

Unknown Speaker

01:03:50

I make a motion to adjourn. The meeting. I second.

Speaker 11

01:03:55

It has been motioned and second. The meeting is now officially adjourned still at 6:04pm Have a good evening everyone and a happy holiday to each of you.

Speaker 2

01:04:08

This year. Happy holidays. Good to see everybody look forward to talking to you guys in February and thank you, Cory for stepping in really appreciate it.

Unknown Speaker

01:04:15

Thank you have a good one.

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