contemporary and modern scheduling system up and running for their paratransit. And that has been really difficult for them to figure out from a business perspective. They're used to kind of this kind of like software that works in a certain way and that they fund in a certain way and we pay for trips in a certain way. And things that have newer technologies don't necessarily fit their business model very well. So I know they're trying to kind of figure out how best to do this. So I don't have to get back with their transit manager to figure out what their next timing is debate video.
I guess is what I'm trying to lean towards. And communications
then all these channels. He
then already touched upon some of the things kind of queued up what I would like to just highlight what we've been working on. We have been been the over these past couple months, just really letting the community know that yes, our TA is still here. We have not gone away. We are still busy. We are still doing work. So we have been really involved in several different areas just really wrapping up our name and our image. So I want the highlights. We have been attending events really aggressively on social media, joining multiple business organizations, sponsorships and waves reevaluating our website pacing so D to A to you've heard a lot of comments about GTA to that is our rapid bus service directly from Detroit to Ann Arbor. And I will reiterate once again that we have surpassed 5000 riders for the month which is just awesome. We have been in partnership with Empire marketing which has been really taking the lead on ad placement of our website and then our social media facing so some of them could be attributed to back to school some it could be attributed to football season but overall 5000 riders in a month. So we're just looking to grow and expand the D to
A to service social media
following following our followers, what do our battlers like we noticed and we've really been tracking that our TA followers like Twitter and they like Facebook. So we are looking to also maybe do a little more on Instagram once we start to get out in the community more and take more photos or pictures because Instagram has more pictures, whereas we do notice on Twitter the information that we share on Twitter is shared amongst are those that follow us on Twitter. So really checking what we're doing on our social profiles and Facebook, we are up to over 5000 friends on Facebook. So we're just really growing our presence on our social media avenues. We've done two major public facing events we participated in Wayne State University warrior Wednesday's where we have a table in the student center where we talked about the two a two and then on the other side of the two a two we made sure that we had faced again, the Ann Arbor community and then we went and participated with Ann Arbor spark and had a table at their mobility row. And therefore we were able to get both sides of service touching the Detroit side with the students and then touching the anniver side with the University of Michigan, which is the lives you know, the largest employer in Washington so there's a lot of opportunity to continue the positive trend of growing D to A to pass 5000 ridership. We've attended conferences I attended the national actor conference in Seattle and Khalil attended the Detroit economic Young Leaders Conference. So once again getting our name and I'm finishing an image out there on both the national level and then on the local level as well. We are members of Chamber of Commerce, to make sure we are engaged in our business community. So we have joined the Detroit Economic Club we have joined the Detroit Economic Club Young Leaders Association. We have joined the Macomb Chamber of Commerce, the Ann Arbor, MC Chamber of Commerce, the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, and we have joined console which is the Council of minority tracks and officials. So what's next for the month of December? Really excited we are doing I have been invited to deliver a keynote address or the southern Wayne County Chamber. So we will be the featured speaker for their launch in December. And talking about chorus transit and focusing on the south east portion of Wayne County. And then as Ben already alluded to, we are having our first in person CAC meeting. I think it is very important for engagement. There's been a long session around the table about engagement, get people off of zoom and back in person so they can see each other once again have conversations amongst themselves so they can talk about how they would like to engage in CAC and they're really looking to have more in person events with CAC, which I do believe is going to drive more interest in the console. And then we'll be able to really talk with individuals and what they would like to do how they would like to to grow the CAC and hopefully looking to have a kickoff membership drive really within the first quarter of 2020. So that is it from our team. Thank
you all for us. Thank you either questions and comments that
I would, I would assume that you're using a lot of talking points, but then find some talking points that are related to supporting RTA use you're
really working to define how to talk about the IoT AI. I always like to say we are an umbrella organization that encompasses our major transportation agencies in Southeast Michigan. And that's why we really wanted to take an approach especially with joining our chambers of commerce and making sure that we are targeting each specific community that the RTA falls under. So we're in Ann Arbor. We are in both Detroit and Wayne County. We are in Oakland County. Looking to grow probably more so in Oakland County. I would like that's what I would like to do next is to have them grow into more probably business associations and more Chambers of Commerce or Oakland County and then of course Macomb as well. So yes.
I guess what I was leaning toward is if we're all on the same page, saying the same things. I did a strong message and it's just, it's insane. If you repeat it enough times, people start to understand it and believe it but I'm not sure I know what all was what the page that we're on, although I'm talking about. I mean, I can come up with my own, but there's not necessarily consistent with what the overall message that
I agree 100%
bat or VSB we all should be able to say the same message
yes,
that though I've said what I said was, you know, really when people ask what the RTA is talking about us being an umbrella organization that encompasses all of our major transit providers
and being able to get to them. We are
already spent working with our communications firm and we've already talked about she's already talked with them about early right after the holidays, getting together and really refocusing and making those talking points, almost bullet points so exactly what you're asking for. These are the things we do we do D to A to we do, you know technical assistance we are working, getting to a place where we can do br t's on some of the major corridors, you know, have those types of things for you to be able to share and to have the conversations about is that who are we are and what we want to be. I think we need to but yes, that is our intention is for us internally to refine that and then to be able to give you
a one pager that you can use and
you can look for harmony tomorrow on WX y z to discuss our mobility project with direct bus service from downtown Detroit
to the airport. Alright, what I heard is there'll be talking points for the replay what our TA means regions which are still allowed to be able to give talking points that you want to get with board members and what it means for example for Dan in Macomb County. Yes. It would be great to have some generic and county by county. Why why is our TA in court and to the city.
We can absolutely agree
any other questions Thank you. Okay, we go to the staff report and then you have your report. The first item in your report, and it would be good to leave with your reflections. But the spark village looks mean for us. It's early enough to even think about it.
Okay, so clearly we had a major victory last week. There is funding to provide coverage in areas that have never had in areas that are going to benefit locally and reasonably. And it's a we're not just for Oakland County, I want to make sure to say is for the region. So hugely, hugely important. I do think it calls into question what our next steps are as an RTA visa vie the village or regional village and I do want to ask the board members to go back to their planning officials and talk to them about what they want to see next from the RTA used to be a village. If you think it's an important conversation to have very quickly, it's a question that we're getting on a consistent basis. And I want to make sure that it's something that I have some uniformity from the board in terms of how they want me to respond to that question. I don't necessarily think it's bad or good, but I think it's important that we're on the same page with that question. But another major change that we've seen is a uniformity in our state legislative and executive branch.
That does not happen very often.
So we do have some opportunity potentially, to make some of the legislative changes that we've talked about to have some more flexibility with what the RTS taxing authority looks like. So we do do have a window here that there isn't this desire to make some of those changes that we've all talked about. I think we have a time to be able to make a push to make those changes.
And
I reflect on this as a huge again huge win.
I also reflect on
there's an urgency for us to continue to move forward with the original millage. I do think that is the right
way to go. But
I don't necessarily want us to take this steps in the short term. If we can reconstruct things for a longer term submission. So if it is that the RTA has to stand back for a little bit and let some other things play out for we get some structural changes made already a few years from now with with a taxing authority that makes more sense. You know, isn't that exactly what I want? But I want us to be very purposeful about that. So again, and I also want to just note, I think we said that I want to say directly you know we stand ready to help Oakland County and smart and implement this program because ultimately the early implementation success that we see here is going to be what we're judged on regionally and locally. And we are actively in conversations with Oakland County to see how we can support them
to implement this program. So I'll just reinforce that and fast, large board and for newer board members, why is it important to talk to those who appointed you?
Following the 2016 fee of our millage request. The leaders came together and said we want to go to landscape and give RTA more flexibility we want to change and the statute is that what individual leaders are thinking is that what they're collectively talking about, you know, I think we really need to have open honest conversations with those who have appointed a board about how they're thinking RTA going forward can support transparency. Is it a millage increase that they want to come together and is it a millage increase with some changes in our ability to ask for a millage increase another change in statute? Are they even thinking about this but but I think at some point we're going to have to seek their support for putting something on the ballot and we need to get them thinking about it early. They haven't started thinking about it already. So these conversations I think are really really important.
Other Other sites, you were all interested in the elections and what was going on and what did you hear about transit in the course of your conversations free elections? Very young there was no opposition there just as a follow up there, folks I know you're in the middle.
Okay, I'm just one of the appointees for Oakland County speaking out. It was an interesting village because what happened all the options
actually kind of adapted deductions.
So
he acted like
it always tested
then you see, then you had then you had the new opt out communities. And what I found so amazing was how many Yes, folks there were in those communities and communities like Noe Valley and Rochester Hills, where the elected leaders kept saying no no, no. And the people are saying yes, yes, yes. Well, they came out and they clearly showed us what they wanted. My concern going forward and I know that present legislation of RTA allows for other forms of funding you know, fees on cars and things like that, that have never really been explored. I know that the inner ring suburbs of which I use to represent our millage to death, because they don't have the development. You know, our structure of how we fund our cities is been broken for years, the revenue coming in. So I'm hoping that we're going to have a legislature that will look at some of these harder questions, and people can be elected longer, you know, more institutional knowledge to tackle municipal financing, because that impacts additional villages. I personally and wood we have a very low state tax and I'm not looking to promote taxes. But would it be good to have a seven per and additional percent tax that goes through toward roads, mobility, infrastructure, some other things that we could be spending, and it's distributed differently. So there's a lot of conversations that we're spinning around there, too. I'm all for regional transit, but I'm scared about a millage too. So now to know for Oakland County Yeah, you just you just gave me this and now you're gonna ask me again for additional one. And so we really need to do our homework.
Thank you, Jeanette. You want to add an open county perspective
as the newest member on the board and also open County and as a individual, this will be more honestly my protocol as an individual who lives who has lived in an opt out County, including a county that is not in the mix at this point, even for service. I can tell you that my community that I'm in would not want an addition that which we I mean, to be honest, they turned out our millage for our school. So as we talk about this, we have to keep in mind at least I know for our conversations, that there are going to be you know, let's let's work with what we have. And let's see what we can do and not get too ahead of ourselves specifically for communities. That while I would have to say we do have support,
but we are
village and there is that momentum. Like I said personally mine, they wouldn't be renewable village schools. So I'm very cautious to have that conversation. Right now. Especially in a time of year.
Yeah, and to that, what I backbends request to have conversations. It's not I don't think you're advocating at this point. It's really asking questions about what do you see the role of RPA to be in the next few years given given the change? It's incredibly smart and fleshed out in our area transit and Detroit.
Yeah. That's why I sort of run lean toward the messages. You know, what, what are the messages that we want to deliver? The last, the last have a contact. The last Martin village has like 30 ankles. I mean, it was 36 the night or weekend, eight and it added three so 39 votes, and now 65% So apparently the message out there resonated with the people who were the electorate so if we're going to do anything we have to figure out
what are missing. What is the question
Hi, everybody, and I apologize for not being there in person. Can you hear me? Yes, yes. I had I had to have a medical thing going on. So but I feel pretty strongly about this that you know, we're the board of the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan. And I feel that our charge is to advocate for the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan. Not for bigger County's interest, not for smart DDOT or triple ATA the people move or anybody else, but for regional transit and for the Regional Transit Authority.
If not us, nobody will.
And I understand that we, you know, just ask pay people to pass a millage for transit and they largely did by pretty decent margins, even in places we didn't think that was going to happen. But we didn't ask them to pass one for regional transit. And, you know, the reality is as a region, we still pay far, far, far, far, far less in, in taxes for transit than in almost anyplace else in the country. And as a result, we have far far less in regional transit than almost anywhere else in the country. If I'd had one more minute, I would have put up the slide that shows that we're right there with San Juan, Puerto Rico, way at one end of the category, while places like Austin and Salt Lake City and Seattle unique fill in the blank Denver are way over on the other end. And those places are very successful, and we are not. And there is a direct correlation there. So I think we need rather quickly as a board to decide if we're going to be advocating for regional transit and I'm not saying how we fund it or how much or exactly what we're not. Because what we heard earlier this year, when when you know Ben and I and others went to Lansing to say, hey, well, you know, we have we're sitting on billions of dollars of federal money. How can we funnel some of this back towards the regional transit? What we heard loud and clear was because there isn't a leader there. There isn't a strong central voice saying this is what we need. And I believe that that's why we were appointed to this position was to advocate for that and for regional transit, as as controlled and advocated for and coordinated by the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan. And if we don't do it, we're going to go another generation without our community having it and we're going to continue to fall further behind. But that's just my opinion. And you know, I understand that there's a lot of politics in play, but my opinion is that our job was to advocate for regional transit and the politicians job was to balance regional transit against the other things that they need to do. That's why they get paid the big bucks and why we don't get paid for this. But our job is to advocate for more regional transit and you know, the best we can and let the the politicians you know, do the trade offs.
Sorry, Mary comments that I guess I would say talking points should be about the value we bring today to the region with transit as an RTA but the gaps that remain even after millage is passed. But I still think we're going to have to do a lot of listening to the politicians about their appetite for a very urgent question. Do we start planning for 2024 village?
Not understanding
from a timing perspective. So
the millage obviously was on a ballot in Oakland County this year. What's
how are we thinking about do we call coordinating the timing of these initiatives? This house is connected to an RTA I'm just trying to understand so openly pass a millage,
right? For their accounting. And then we're
coming back in 2024 and putting a millage on a ballot for
all of the region correctly. And that's the rub.
So is there any type of conversation or coordination around like the timing of these so
that they're there? It doesn't
present this type of tension or is this just have a car so I this is really my education? I don't know.
Well, that that gets into is there an interest in in that having more flexibility under the statute, Elena suggested other sources of revenue other than that life would be it's a more flexibility beyond the registration fees. We could do under current law. We can only go to the ballot at a general election every two years. So it's a more flexibility and when you could go to the ballot, for example, which would require a change in statute,
meaning so all the county with this, right then use the ballot this year.
For theoretical knowledge. I'm just wondering what's the coordination from the timing of when other counties go in the RTA
we certainly one reason we didn't go this year or even think about it was because of the millage renewals or increased requests that are going out in Washtenaw County and was smart. But the transit providers today have flexibility to go. I believe in the primary election or the general election. I don't know if they can have other dates and it's just to whenever you want, because the providers aren't going it's the county. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So it's users. We need to coordinate we obviously the patches of those requests, and explain genetic suggestion. We really need to sort out what the success you know come out at the five year millage Google and what it all means in terms of that how we fit into revenue increases. So
I do know that there was discussion among the counties, you know, Oakland County instead of just going through
our renewal plan for the transit,
and they intentionally went for a longer period so that you better planning. You can go for grants, we have a longer period of time.
But I know that Oakland County
was trying to communicate with other counties so that they could have similar lengths, read your ballot
labels, and so forth. It didn't you know, it would have been
nice but um, changed by years versus four. A didn't. And Wayne was discussion about getting the Board of Commissioners are the ones that put ballot language and gentlemen,
Wayne has a whole different process. Correct? Yes, obviously the Wayne County Executive in Mission Valley find if I can start to kind of comment on this discussion as a whole
expert on this. But I think that a lot of the political aspects of the vote was really tied to the political winds as a whole. I don't know that. That's terribly important. But the messaging on Fox transit is I think there's just a lot that went along with general philosophies on voting thinking. So right, right. So I mean, I think that's kind of the political reality. That's my opinion. I'm not an expert. But I would say that to the question of what we're doing, is we're not that our role is one of advocacy. But I also think that we can all agree that we are, we are in pre trained optional state and this conditioning unit that created us, right. So I think that it was about getting input from the left leadership of our respective units. And I'll just say just from a common sense approach. It is not just about the message or the finances or the tax it is. I think it's about what is the vision that supports that request. Right. And I think that what we have in terms of a plan is something that's reflective of what our current resources are, with maybe a little bit extra, but I think that the value proposition has to be what is the vision with X request, whatever that may be. And so that has to necessarily involve significant input from elected leadership. How would that think last time around? Separately, Mr. Chair and director but yeah, but that was involved with us to maybe kind of have with the specific appointed board members, kind of like a mom knob and conversation with the respective leadership and kind of identify the issues are I didn't think we had responsibility for proposing a vision or proposing ideas, some policy questions, alternatives, elected officials think about it. past history is an indicator. I would assume that at some point, elected leadership is going to want to have conversations about what direction they want to go in. And then I'm sure that we will overcome some sort of consensus The starting point is to have our individual meetings with our appointed officials, along with chair and director and start from there have a conversation but I can't catch us going but what do you want to do? That's important with this is the lay of land this will be taken as this is what we believe makes sense based on what we have. And I will also add that, like, I just want my experience at this period. I think it's going to be important to understand what key staff members, the elected officials are going to be relying on Manage issues for them. There have been changes in staff I think, at all levels. And so understanding No, they didn't make a specific request that elected officials appointing someone within their administrations to be a lead in working with us kind of on a grander level. I think will be helpful and by some moment. But
I'm going to concur with June and that I think our responsibility is to a region we have a coordination function for the existing providers. And we have added value to transit in the region with that coordinating function. I know we have struggled with discussions on changes amendments to the statute. It would be advantageous to the RTA if we had different options for raising problems but other statutory changes that we've discussed in the past I've really worked against and that's creating new opt out regions within the region so that we get a more favorable tax pain. I think what this vote demonstrated was that solid outreach lots of aggressive work on behalf of true and other advocates really work to help people understand what smart was asking for the importance of it to the community and to individuals who don't have access to cars and the more expensive means of getting around the region. So as we work to resolve the issue, I think the most critical one for us is the funding source. We get that worked out we're long patch.
Together
I want to go on record that I agree with Matt and everybody else that I am here
because I care about regional transit. But
now knowing that we need having and I think we should also are in and
or we might have some more flexibility as well. Yeah, other
thoughts? They'll have homework assignments. But again, I do think going back to Dan's request, it would be good would be helpful to the letter board. Instead they have these conversations, to have a summary of how we add value to the region today. What more needs to be done. Yeah, we'll
we'll take as our takeaway, juggler.
Sorry, Don has been talked about the importance of being able to go back and say just remote responses over transit what are we bringing to the table and for regional me about the individual patents for Spark. Thank God for bringing some definition to this but it's also bigger picture. Identify conversation that gives you a cheat and yeah, I think
we can take as a take as the takeaway, putting together some talking points and some kind of key questions. You know, things that can provoke some thought and give us a little bit of direction for for the board members and certainly of course, coordinating meetings, not attending the meetings and all those things. So we'll we'll take that as a starting point.
Are there other parts of your report?
Yeah, so two quick things. One, as we are continuing to explore office space options we're running out of shared space with the people mover trade transportation Corporation is looking at moving their office space we've been talking about potentially sharing space to the gym. So then that will be for some time, probably until the spring but just let you know we are looking at dedicated potential offices
to do the grunt work.
Okay, I get to talk about the fun stuff the money we already have, which is great. And one of the things that adds value in the public side is when you're running actual programs, and they can see that because we love planning but they don't. The public doesn't always appreciate as much as we do where they see people giving transportation. So that being said Ben already talked about the AARP and our plan that over the coming year to make funds available to the providers to to demonstrate some regional programs and what that might look like and how they can partner with each other or with nonprofit organizations to address some of the gaps in service. So we hope that we get some great ideas from the providers for that for that program. We oversee that 53 can program and to just in case you're not familiar with 50 378 is the street my family that comes from FTA to support programs for the disabled people with disabilities and older adults. So it's specific to that population. And we find several programs one of them is my ride to which is a program that helps coordinate transportation for people that call and say they need to get somewhere and can they they've worked through it with them and helped to identify what the resources are in people and that it has been a really great program and is actually growing. They've seen a huge growth in numbers over the since the pandemic. So one of the things we'll be doing as grants managers of that project will be working with them to continue to get those metrics be able to share them with you. Just work with our 5310 sub recipients to make sure that they're reporting back to us and that we can then share the great things that are happening through the funding that we're giving them. And then just to like things, we did receive a $2.5 million carbon reduction funding grant. That was a new stream of money through the bipartisan infrastructure law that was given to some cog and when they conducted a grant process, we will be developing it's very infant stages. We just learned that we were getting the money last week. So we have shared it with the public because we want them to know that the RTA is doing things and active and create a regional connections. But we'll be working over the next year to more clearly define exactly what that's going to look like but we will be increasing transportation options from downtown Detroit to the airport which is something that the region has
said again and again.
And then finally, but I've talked about it a couple of times. We have a lie or 1.1 million from and that for them their mobility wallet challenge and that project really speaks to the concept of how to make it easier for people to pay their fares, to ride a transit throughout the community. So what would it look like if there was some mechanism where people could put money whether it be cash or credit cards, or a third party that is paying for the bus fare for somebody can put it in this pan of wallet, this mobility wallet and then that person will have access to it and it really helps to promote equity for riders. And so we're hopeful that we'll get that and that will allow us to get back into that technical space and do a lot of work and understand how the actual operations of something like that would work and who would benefit from it. Questions
like this one say one more time I gained almost 1000 arrives in DC
we have any new business? Yes, ma'am. Thank you for the great conversation. We are adjourned without objection
