Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the July 20th general purpose meeting of the Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council.

Glad everybody is here and especially the folks online.

Um this meeting is now called to order.

And Councilmember DeVinny, would you lead us in the pledge, please?

To the black of the U.S.

America and one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Um Madam Burke, can we have the roll call, please?

Councilmember Devini.

I'm here.

Councilmember Davis, excused council member Feebig.

Present.

Councilmember Mota, excuse Council Member Thomas.

President.

Council Vice Chair Moore.

Rosen.

Chair Mulgrew.

Present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

Do we have any anyone in the room or online who would like to offer public comment on the call to order, the pledge of allegiance, and our roll call.

We have no comments for those items.

Close public comment on this issue and move on to public comment in general.

This is chance for the community to speak for three minutes on items that are not on tonight's agenda.

So if you have something you want to speak about that is not uh related to the car show council member introductions or AC Transit, please um fill out a speaker card and provide it to Madam Clerk, and you have three minutes to speak.

Is there anyone here?

We have we have Ken.

Oops.

Can we turn?

It's not on, yeah.

There it is.

I see the light.

Okay.

Um I'm here to speak about the business licensing process for Alameda County.

Um it is well, first let me introduce myself.

My name's Jim Silva.

I'm a general contractor here in Castro Valley.

And being a general contractor, I'm required to pull a business license in every city that I work in.

And most cities, it's over the counter, same day, same minute.

You pay your money, you fill out the form, they hand you a business license.

Alameda County is uh it's at least 10 times more difficult.

It's the most difficult business license I've ever had to get.

Sorry.

Sure.

Oh, yeah.

I'm I tried early.

Oh, there it is.

I didn't push hard enough.

Okay, thank you.

Um my biggest complaint is that they require tax returns to renew your license.

So they're collecting sensitive information from every businessman and woman in the county.

Um if this information is accessed by the wrong person, it's gonna be big trouble for the county.

Um there's I mean, a well-known businessman just recently sued the federal government for 10 billion dollars because his tax returns were released.

The um sorry just ask that you use your influence to try to streamline the business licensing process and eliminate the tax return requirement.

The county is the only place that's I've ever dealt with that requires tax returns, and I'm not sure what they're how they're stored, if the what the county's encryption is like, you know, that's it's it would be nice to eliminate that.

That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Can Garboni?

Yeah.

Good evening, council members.

Um, so I have two items here real quick.

One of them um is regarding the trash containers on Castro Boulevard.

Over the past five years, we've been hearing about a replacement of all of our public trash enclosures going down the boulevard.

Um, and it never seems I know they were purchased and they were purchased from um our sanitary district.

Not sure what's going on.

If you guys could look into it, I was told they've been installed.

I did they install one?

I have no idea, but we need to get some clarification on this or get some replacement cans or something, but something's got to be done with it.

The garbage is on the boulevard and the cans are really um in bad shape.

Number two.

Uh Jim had spoke on the um business license.

We are into that probably what, five, seven years of getting them to try to resolve this.

It's an absolute embarrassment for our community to try to have a business come into our community and say you got to go get a business license when you get dragged through the mud.

It's absolutely the most ridiculous thing.

CDA is trying to be open for business.

They're trying to promote business.

And basically, as soon as you get to the business license part of it, you get cut off at the knees.

They're fully aware of what they're doing.

They've been brought here multiple times.

They absolutely are not listening.

There is no other city that we can find that um ask for tax returns or takes a week or a month to be able to get a business license.

It makes no sense.

Um, and you wonder why people don't want to get a business license and they just go without.

So we need to do something about this.

The tax returns, he's 100% correct.

They're fully aware of what they're doing.

They are one of the only county departments that I can find that request tax returns over an email.

It's absolutely unsecure.

The safety of your information, they should not be having it.

Um, it's ridiculous.

So I know it's going to be another round of meetings, but um, let's see if we can get something done.

Thanks.

Thank you, Ken.

Sorry, real quick, Chair.

Can I just respond to the trash cans?

I have confirmed with public works that the trash cans from CVSAN were installed and there were no trash cans removed without replacement.

And Ken, I will call you to rehab that conversation.

Officer Pabst.

Thank you, Ashley.

I'm just too tall.

All right.

Good evening.

I hope you are having a great summer and you're staying cool.

I know the weather's been a bit unusual.

So hopefully you're drinking plenty of water.

Uh CHP, we've been very proactive during the summer months here in June in the Castro Valley area without uh counting the contacts on the freeway.

We issued 285 traffic citations, arrested five DUI drivers.

We had three misdemeanor arrests and nine injury crashes and 35 non-injury crashes.

Looking at the stats from the previous months, those numbers are actually down.

Uh vehicle storages, we towed 26 vehicles, and we did not recover any stolen vehicles.

As far as some past events, we had our holiday enforcement period over the 4th of July weekend, and we did not have any fatal crashes and our office led the Golden Gate division and enforcement contacts, which is what we attribute to having no fatal crashes in our area.

Uh some ongoing enforcement I wanted to touch on.

Uh we're always doing our regional side show enforcement task force where we try to combat street racing within the neighborhood.

But most recently I had a traffic complaint up on Parsons, and I know uh uh quite a few community members came in and spoke on that issue.

We had officers respond out to Parsons and conduct enforcement.

Uh they did not see a lot of speeding vehicles.

And they did do more stop sign enforcement on Seven Hills, which I know has been an issue for quite a long time.

So as of right now, they're going to continue to patrol the area, probably focusing more on stop sign violations and making sure that people are obeying all the traffic laws and not necessarily just primarily focusing on speed complaints.

Some upcoming events.

We're going to be out at national night out.

So if you have a neighborhood or you're a part of a neighborhood and would like the CHP to stop by, please send me an email at jennifer.paps at chp.ca.gov.

And we'll also be out uh with a booth on Castro Valley Cruise Night on August 22nd.

So come by and say hi.

I don't know how well we'll be able to talk because we're usually next to the speaker, but um, I would love to see your face.

Uh let's see.

Education, we have uh start smart at CHP Hayward on July 30th at six o'clock.

You can sign up online or call our office.

And then we have an agewall drive smart for our senior drivers on August 20th at 1230 p.m.

here at the Castor Valley Library.

You can sign up through the Castor Valley Library.

Uh July is vehicle theft prevention month, the summer season, unfortunately, can lay claim to most vehicle thefts.

So make sure you're locking your cars, setting alarms, and not leaving your vehicle running while unattended.

And as always, I'm taking traffic complaints at 345 reckless driving at chp.ca.gov, or contact our office during normal business hours at 510 489 1500.

Thank you.

Have a good meeting.

Thanks, Officer Pabst.

Much appreciated.

We'll see you in the national night out.

Aaron Panfelio.

Good evening.

Aaron Pentilio from Alameda County Fire, just here to report out some calls.

Um we're tracking incidents monthly.

Our system has changed over.

Started July 1.

So I don't have current data.

The last data I have is from May of 2026.

So total calls of services in Castro Valley was 606.

28 of those were fire related.

356 were EMS or medical services.

Four were non-fire, such as a gas leak.

15 service calls, such as a water leak or smoke removal.

108 good intent calls.

Some of those included canceled in route.

That means we got dispatched, but we did not make it on scene.

16 false alarms, such as a fire alarm or malicious alarm and 79 other types of calls, such as power lines down or lift assists.

And then just a small update about the fire today.

If you heard about that, I just wanted to let you know that that is contained 100% and was um last at 6.2 acres.

So yeah, we're constantly vigilant.

Uh just want to remind everybody.

Um just the roadways and access are probably one of our biggest challenges.

So just keeping those open.

We're always working with our law partners on that.

But um we always recommend if you have something like a small smell of smoke or smoke in the area, just try to give a defined address or mile marker.

That was all I had.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And today's fire was located where the exact location or the it was right at Norris in Crow Canyon was the given location.

Yeah.

Thank you very much for being here and thank you for keeping us safe.

All right, thank you.

Chair, can I make a councilman comment now?

Uh while this gentleman is still in the room that talks about today's response.

If it's brief, yes.

It'll be very brief.

The uh fire was uh just two doors down from my place.

Uh started fast with a huge plume of of black smoke, and the response was phenomenal.

Alameda County fire was out there, cow fire was out there, East Bay Regional Park uh was out there, uh camp.

Um what's the federal place out in Dublin?

Uh Camp Parks uh uh was out there.

The personnel, the apparatus, uh two helicopters, three fixed uh wing aircraft all doing surveillance.

They didn't need to use them to fight the fire.

Uh two bulldozers roll in and are and are offloaded.

All this happened in minutes.

I'm watching the whole thing.

It was amazing.

It it it just it looked like a practice drill where everything went perfect.

So so hats off.

Uh and the coordination between all of those departments.

Fantastic.

Nobody lifting their legs saying this is my area.

Everybody responded.

So two doors down from me.

Thank you.

Yeah, thanks for the support.

Thank you, council member, and thank you.

All right.

Do we have anyone online, madam clerk?

We have no additional speakers for public comment.

Do we have anyone in the room who would like to comment at this point?

All right.

We'll close public comments and move on to approval of the minutes.

Has everyone had a chance to browse and take in.

Um I have a hard time approving the minutes.

There was a lot of conversation.

And uh currently under the scrutiny of the Brown Act and making sure that uh we're recapturing uh what went on in these meetings.

I'm a little concerned that um that these minutes um uh don't reflect um what went on at the meeting.

So um I would I have a hard time accepting them.

Okay, thank you.

I um I agree that um I would like to see um names of people who speak during public comment and uh very brief summary of of what they spoke on.

Um and this seems as if there was more discussion on item seven, uh the Office of Unincorporated Communities than is captured here.

I'd hope to see that beefed up a little bit.

So there are any other thoughts or comments.

If not, we'll accept the motion.

I'll make a motion to continue uh the minutes to another meeting when they are brought back with a uh better description of what went on at the meeting.

So um thank you.

Do we have a second?

I could second that motion.

Any additional discussion?

Madam Clerk, can we have the roll call, please?

To continue the May 18th minutes.

Councilmember Devini.

Councilmember Davis, excuse council member feebig.

I council member Moda, excused councilmember Thomas.

I uh Vice Chair Moore.

Hi.

Chair Mulkoron.

I Minutes for May 18th continued to a future meeting.

Okay.

Do we have any public comment on the item of the minutes for May 18th, 2026?

Anyone in the room wish to comment?

Do we have anyone online, Madam Clerk?

No online speakers for the approval of the minutes.

We will close public comment on that item, move into the regular calendar.

Item number one is um is here because we're in the just the beginning of a brand new uh council or council county fiscal year, and we have a new new chair, new vice chair, and some newer members.

And I was just hoping that we could get the community a little bit more familiar with who we are as MAC members and community members, and um just do some brief introductions.

So uh that being said, um Councilmember Davin, do you want to kick us off?

Uh sure.

Uh Chair brief mean uh less than 30 minutes.

Yeah, less than three would be good.

All right.

Well, I like Pina Colatas and uh no.

Um Dan DeVinny, uh I think I have uh the distinction of uh having the longest residency.

Uh I'm not the oldest member on the on the board, but the longest residency uh here in Castor Valley.

I moved here in 1961 as a three-month-old, was able to talk my parents into that.

Uh lived up on top of Redwood Road uh upon graduating high school, moved to Oakland for a year, St.

for six years, and then right back to Castor Valley.

So I've always had a presence in Castor Valley and family in Castor Valley.

Um bought a home up in Columbia and then moved down to James Avenue and now live out on Crow Canyon, have a ranch out there.

Um so Castor Valley is pretty much I've always had like I said, had a had a continual 65-year presence one way or the other with uh uh with our little town.

Um professionally, uh I started my career as uh as a garbage man, worked four years for Oakland Scavenger, and then took the logical progression from garbage man to become a CPA uh with one of the big uh eight accounting firms and uh uh did that for about five years.

Uh went into banking and investing.

Uh I actually had an office uh here in Castor Valley above Luca Delicatessa for about five years.

Now I didn't get involved in any community activities at that point because we were buying bonds and mortgages and and doing real estate deals.

We didn't do anything in Castor Valley, just a convenient location because I lived here in my kids' school, uh uh was close enough to walk to it, but I I did enjoy uh hanging out there.

Um my main claim to to civic uh engagement has been through coaching.

Uh when I had to put together a resume uh to apply for this position, I counted up the number of teams, and I had 32 youth teams under my belt over the years that I had uh coached in all variety of sports.

Uh still coaching uh today uh at a another three with my grandkids.

Um I have uh four children, two of them that still live here in Castor Valley, and four grandkids that all live here in Castor Valley.

Um and I joined the MAC to help prevent screw-ups.

Um and I'm not sure if I'm gonna be good at that.

It's my greatest fear is that I uh approve an application or a new program that turns out to be detrimental to Castor Valley, or equally as bad as I deny uh an application or a new program that would be beneficial to Castor Valley.

So I try to come to these meetings very well prepared uh so that I don't uh end up with either one of those uh two extremes.

So that's me.

Thank you, Dan.

Uh Councilmember Feebig.

Who are you?

Okay.

Well thank you.

I appreciate that, Chair.

I grew up in Oakland, was a resident there, went to school there, graduated from Skyline High.

After that, I went into the trades and worked trades for a while.

I was in a trade where I worked three or four months and then got laid off for a month or two, which was okay with me because I would buy cars in the meantime.

And then when I got laid off, I would just fix them up and flip them.

And that was probably as much fun as my my work, which I like my work too.

Later on, I got into the real estate brokerage business, became a Castor Valley resident, have been here for over 40 years, have been in real estate for over 40 years, and have helped over a thousand people here locally buy or and or sell real estate.

So I love my job.

It's the best thing ever.

I work as the fee big team, uh brokered by EXP.

Uh I was with REMAX for over 25 years.

I actually owned a franchise locally.

I was the number one broker internationally in the system.

I was on a committee of the top 100 brokers internationally, and uh we would get together and talk about advertising and TV commercials and different things, and we would do that from Denver.

It was a great experience for me.

I've moved on from that.

Um, I really like helping the community.

I've been involved with a lot of different things.

I was uh sponsor of teams, I was a Cub Scout leader, loved that when my kids were younger, all the the sports and the different things that we did.

I've given away tens of thousands of tomato plants, which is kind of an odd thing to do, but I started 40 plus years doing doing that to communities that I sold real estate in, and people remember I still get people all the time.

Oh, I got my tomato plants, and you know, things like that.

Um Red Ribbon week giving out a lot of red ribbons, uh car shows.

You know, Ken uh I've helped Ken in the car shows almost from inception, and that's been quite a great experience as well.

And what else?

I just I just think being here is part of the Mac.

You know, I take this very I feel very responsible to to do my best job.

I like being here.

I've learned more about it after becoming involved that this is really something that helps the community, and I like that a lot.

So I'm here.

I hope I make the right decisions to help the community move forward and do the best things, and I appreciate the the few minutes that I got to bring you up today.

Thanks, Tim.

Council member Senator Thomas.

Well, thank you, Chair.

Oh, somebody corrected me and said, Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

All right.

Um, myself, I came to the country as an immigrant uh in 1992 with my parents.

I was in Concord.

Um, went took small jobs, worked night school, uh, went to night school at Dablo Valley College, got my bachelor's degree in criminal justice from uh Sacramento State.

Um then I became a deputy probation deputy probation officer with Alameda County, did that for about 24 years.

Um then I was placed in the MAC in uh July of 2020, has been when I was writing this up.

That's when I figured out it's been six years.

Uh time flew by.

Um I know my background is in safety, so uh I've been involved uh Castro Valley Sport Sports Foundation.

I'm a board member.

I've been a PTA vice president because all three of my kids, uh, one of them is still going, went to Castro Valley schools.

Um I'm proud to be a resident of Castor Valley.

And then um, yeah, uh my background is in safety, so I didn't, I wasn't good with this uh planning stuff.

I had to learn and I appreciate Ken at the chair at that time.

I appreciate Bill and uh Chuck.

You know, I call, ask questions, always been helpful.

Um and also Mark Crawford, also I also used to call him too.

Uh may his soul rest in peace.

Um I and this Mac appointment, you know, we disagree with stuff, but we're all friends when we leave this meeting.

We agree to disagree.

There's a lot of disagreements, a lot of agreements.

A lot of stuff comes up to us, a lot of emotional stuff, you know, you know, feelings, but we try to make the best.

We're all human beings.

We try to make the best decisions for Castor Valley.

That's why I'm here.

Do the best for Castro Valley.

Uh, and I appreciate you all.

Um, we're all trying to uh try to do the best stuff here.

Um I'm proud to be a part of the Castro Valley Mac.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tojo.

Mr.

Moore.

Thank you, Chair.

Um I'm the oldest guy here, so probably gonna take a minute.

Um I started out in Hayward.

Uh I went to Tennyson High School, uh, graduated from there, went over to Chabot for a couple years and went to later on.

Lucky stores put me through a food industry management program at JFK.

Um I was with Lucky Stores for 19 years.

Matter of fact, I managed at one time that Lucky Store over here.

Uh most of my career was spent in Oakland in a variety of different stores.

And I started out there as a bagger, and my outside work experience teacher got me the job in the grocery store.

So I feel very strongly about the education program in here in Castor Valley.

Um I was there 19 years, it prepared me for another career, and I joined uh grocery outlet um with roughly 35 stores.

When I left there, we had 135.

At Grocery Outlet, I served as a uh vice president of logistics for about 10 years, and I moved on to I opened up 19 stores in Texas for a year and a half, and uh my wife and I lived in Texas and in and also retained our home in Danville.

Um I came back from Texas and became vice president of operations for the company and ran uh I think uh seven western states and uh 135 grocery stores at that time.

I was I left Lucky uh grocery outlet in 2008 after being there 19 years.

Um and um started a company with a partner of mine called Pacific Coast Well and Pump.

So drilling water wells that wanted to work outside, not be indoors.

Um also right around that time.

My wife and I moved back to Castro Valley and acquired Graceland Equestrian Center.

It wasn't Graceland then because we built it what it is today.

Um at that time it was an 89-acre ranch where we raised and bred horses for three-day venting, had several horses ridden by Olympic riders, and um we're pretty successful at doing that.

Um currently I still operate Pacific Coast Well and Pump, and my wife and I operate Gresland Equestrian Center.

Um Peggy and I separated, I was celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary last Friday.

So um we've been together a long time, so you probably know I'm a pretty committed guy to something.

Um in 2012, um, I was uh appointed to the uh advisory board for the county.

Um I feel pretty passionate about agriculture in the area, and uh felt like it was um uh particularly in our Castro Valley area, it's a huge piece of property, you know, is uh unincorporated.

And uh really felt that the ag folks were really underrepresented.

Um at that point in time, I volunteered to be on the fair board, and I currently still serve on the fair board.

I'm past president, and I chair the executive committee for the fair board.

We have a great Alameda County Fair.

Um just finished it up um last on the 16th, I think it was.

And um, and I'm currently on the uh Mac here.

I've been past president, and uh currently the vice, or I was currently the chair and now the uh currently the vice chair.

Um my hobbies, um uh my married my wife.

Uh our first date was to the drag races.

There's a car races, and um, and it hasn't changed.

And my second date was horseback riding.

That hasn't changed.

So she knew the baggage I had, and I knew the baggage she had, and we made it work for 50 years.

I have a daughter who's now living in Arizona and two grandchildren.

And um that's about the history of Chuck Moore.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chuck.

All right.

Um I get to be Ray Davis for a few minutes here.

Councilmember Davis is uh traveling for business, but he left me a little some notes.

Um Ray Davis has lived in Castro Valley for over seven years and has been on the Mac contributing member of the Mac for two years.

He's got 45 years of professional engineering experience in traffic and transportation engineering.

Uh he's been both in public works and um at the city level.

And he is a retired public works director and city traffic engineer.

Ray is a lecturer for UC Berkeley's tech transfer program, which provides traffic safety and complete streets training to local public agencies.

Yes.

Guest lecturer at uh Cal Berkeley.

Um when he's not on the Mac or consulting on traffic issues, he enjoys pickleball, loves to do fused glass art in his studio.

He collects classic British cars and wine.

And he's on the steering committee for the incorporate or for the uh incorporation of the town of Castro Valley.

And he really wanted to be here tonight, but he's working.

All right.

Saving the least for last.

Uh Bill Mulgrew.

I'm another Oakland transplant.

I've uh called Castro Valley home for since 1984.

Uh, my wife Patty is a native.

Um she's got you beat by a year, I think, Dan.

Um before I'm retired now, uh, spent 17 years in marketing and sales for Pacific Bell back when they existed.

Um, left out to do some international consulting for Anderson Consulting.

Um after that, uh, became a licensed and certified stock broker, and after that, um a licensed general contractor.

Um I've been a member of the Chamber of Commerce here in Castro Valley since 1996 and continuous member.

Um when my predecessor Roberta Revae passed away.

Um I thought this would it would be the most wonderful cool job in the world to run the Chamber of Commerce here and uh uh was chosen to do that.

And after after that, um matriculated on to be the executive director of the Rental Housing Association of Alameda County.

Uh that was where I retired from.

And uh right now I'm working on wood projects, uh, doing some writing and trying to keep vice chair more out of trouble.

Uh that's a full-time job.

Um the chamber got me really bought into community service, and I'm just blessed to be a part of this this council.

It's a great council.

Um these are folks who walk the talk of community service, not just um give it lip service.

And every as you've heard, everybody here uh has a different background and combined, I believe the strength is very, very, very powerful.

Um, and I'm I'm lucky and blessed to be a part of it.

Uh Castro Valley's home.

Um, it's important to me, and whatever I can do to keep it and make it a wonderful place.

Um, that's what I'd like to do.

So thanks everybody.

And at this juncture, we will open it up.

Is there any public comment on council introductions, either in the room or in person?

I have no speakers for this item.

Nobody in the room, bless you.

All right, close public comment and move on to item number two.

Uh, Mr.

Semmelmeyer, Craig Semmelmeyer is gonna tell us about the car show.

Thank you, Craig Well, thank you, uh, Mac members for um for having me.

My name's Craig Summelmeyer.

I have the privilege of being the here to represent you uh of the 66 uh Rotarians that are in the Castor Valley Rotary Club this year.

Um the Rotary Club's been involved with the car show for about seven years.

Uh the car show has been taking place for 19 years.

This coming year will be the 19th year of the car show.

And the car show has evolved and grown.

It started in the parking lot where Starbucks is today, and um grew beyond that over to the BART station and then onto Castro Valley Boulevard.

Uh to put this event on uh required 120 volunteers.

So we are using and tapping that Rotarian base, but everyone from our community partners, the California High Patrol, the Sheriff's Office, the Alameda County Fire Department, the Boy Scouts.

Without the incredible support of all these community members, we would not be able to produce this amazing car show.

This last year I would say I've been to six car shows, not 19, but I think each year the car show has improved and gotten better and better.

And this last year, this last year's car show was absolutely tremendous.

I'm just thrilled to report to you that the event is stronger, more popular, and truly in enduring special event here in Castro Valley.

Um we have big plans for the car show to continue to grow and thrive.

And that event raises money for what is the Castor Valley Endowment Fund.

And the endowment fund is a rotary sponsored fund that's primary purposes, the scholarships to the Castor Valley High School students.

The endowment fund has given over 150,000 towards those scholarships.

And with we continue to grow the car show, we expect that we'll be able to grow those scholarships as well.

Um the car show is one of four of the rotary fundraisers that we do throughout the year.

Um and this year's fundraisers of our core four fundraisers will raise approximately 100,000 for projects from scholarships to other community projects in uh in Castro Valley.

Um those events include what will be the Taste of Castor Valley here coming up on August 12th, to the whiskey tasting event in February, then to the Barbecue Axe and Brew event in May, and then back to the car show event in June, the Saturday before Father's Day.

And so when you look at Rotary and you look at those four signature events and what is happening with them, um it is a 365-day a year constant working project.

So we had a car show meeting in July.

We have another car show meeting in August, and it just goes all year long and all these events, and we're looking to make them seamlessly.

So those events help us pay for our community events, such as the movie night in the park, the Easter egg hunt we did last year, the concerts in the park, uh, the senior dinners that we put on for the Hayward and Castro Valley Senior Citizens uh events, and we're just um thrilled.

It's an incredible reward to be a Rotarian.

It's particularly a great reward to be a Rotarian in Castor Valley.

The club has a great heritage culture of giving back to the community and want to thank the Mac and you all as individual community members for the support of the community and of the rotary's work in the community.

Be happy to answer any questions if you have any.

Thank you, Craig.

Much appreciated.

Um we'll go to public comment first, and then maybe you can step back up to the podium if the council has any questions for you.

Thanks.

Do we have anyone in the room?

Do we have any speakers on this item, Madam Clerk?

I have no speakers on item two.

All right.

We'll close public comment on this item and start uh council comments or questions with council member Thomas.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, I was there at the car show.

I walked around a couple of times.

It was great.

It was a great show.

And always enjoyed every year, enjoyed.

Um, but I just had a can you please come up, just had a quick question.

Uh, with the street vendors, are we enforcing any license fees or can they just walk through um that's a um a particular area of uh tremendous frustration.

Um at this year's car show, we requested that the Alameda County Health Department and Code Enforcement be present at the car show specifically to deal with that issue.

And um I know for myself and and and the dozens of folks that actually engage the vendors and ask them to to leave.

Um the thing that would have been most helpful is to have had more support in that regard.

Um we um um we you know it'd be great to see our downtown businesses, the people that show up and pay fees, be able to be to be able to be the exclusive vendors and not have people come in and encroach.

Sorry, excuse me, Craig.

Uh they're having trouble hearing you online if you could just speak into the mic.

Sure.

So um we would love to work with Alameda County Code Enforcement Health Department, the sheriff's office to develop a more aggressive uh campaign to be able to um not have those street vendors.

When we have 20,000 people show up, the word gets out and uh the word's out that uh and and we need uh to to get support so that that can be enforced.

Otherwise, we ask them to leave and they go down the street and they come back in again.

See, my uh my issue with the you know, myself, I know they're not they're not there without a license or a permit.

For the people walking through, like the 20,000 people you talked about, they don't know if they're legal or not, right?

They could walk up to them.

They are, you know, if I wasn't involved in the county, I wouldn't know.

I just walked them by it's cheaper than what they're selling in the stores.

So that's where my issue comes in.

You know, um, if they're gonna do it, that's fine, but make sure they have a permit or a fees, they pay something so they can be legal and sell their stuff.

So that's all I have.

Thank you.

A great show.

Appreciate you.

Um, hopefully we'll do it better next year.

So thank you.

Councilmember um Phoebig.

Well, I I'm actually a little part of the car show because I get to hang out with you guys and go to some of the planning things, and you guys do the whole downtown, but I'm up at the church doing the staging part of it.

So um, you know, I have a little insight of what goes on, but I'd like to ask you a question just so maybe you could explain to the Mac board as well.

How do you pull it all together?

Because it's such a complex thing to put together with 120 some odd volunteers, I think you said, and it turns out to be this tremendous thing with smiles and people just enjoying themselves for the day.

How do you manage all that?

I I think um one I want to give first a uh a credit where credit is due, and that is uh Ken Carboni started the car show.

This will be the next coming one be the 19th one.

There's a little COVID break in there, but um there were a whole bunch of things that got in his way before I ever got involved, and he basically just wouldn't say no.

He kept coming and coming and coming and solved every problem.

And he just brought a group of people that were totally passionate about the event.

And one of those people is you, Tim.

They brought that, and you want to come back year after year.

And and it's those volunteers that have a loyalty to Castro Valley and doing something great for the community, and they just want to continue to do it.

Thank you.

No further questions.

Thank you.

Councilmember DeVinny, got anything.

I sure do.

I am sorry that I had to miss this year's uh car show.

Uh I had a personal issue that came up the day before.

So uh I did go the year before, and I just just knocked my socks off.

Um, is uh to follow up on uh councilmember Thomas's comment on the sidewalk vending.

Um the the Rao Ranch Rodeo Parade had much greater success this year um in fighting off that very issue, and they did have meetings prior uh to the event uh with code enforcement and with environmental health.

Uh and they were really open to the meetings.

They would much rather coordinate these things beforehand rather than have us drone on in these public meetings.

It's not very productive.

So I would recommend perhaps next year uh you attempt to do that.

Uh I won't say that they had perfect success at the Rao Ranch Rodeo Parade, but it was significantly better than the prior year.

Um Metal Speed can probably give you some feedback on that.

Uh and and again, the the chairs were, you know, at Ed Labayag, uh the head of code enforcement and uh environmental health were very willing to meet and come up with strategies.

Um they didn't like all the ideas, but they did what they could.

So and it's going to be the sidewalk vending is an evolving thing.

The state of California changed laws, so it's it's gonna take a while to work through how we deal with our public events uh and uh and working with them, I think would uh would help you.

Um you said that uh I'm just curious, the accountant in me um uh wants to know that the your budget, what what's your major expense?

Is that is that the uh uh enforcement the street enforcement closing down the the street traffic enforcement that is one of the major expenses, yeah.

Um our our major expenses um um you know it's a printing of various brochures and and and marketing material and that printing is a substantial part of our budget as well.

Uh but everything from port of potties, it's funny how as an accountant you'll go through and say, you know, it it's you know a thousand here and three thousand there and five thousand here, and pretty soon you have a budget of 45,000, and that's that's really what it takes to put on the car show today.

Uh uh budgeted expense of about 45,000.

How do you make up 45,000 worth of revenue?

That that can't be a moneymaker for you.

Um well, this year, Dan, we sold peanut coladas.

Good.

Okay.

So you know, fortunately, you know, through through efforts, um, we were we've grown and with a good attendance.

We have a a growing beverage program there.

Our beverage sales were approximately 15,000.

Um, so that's just one item of uh profit.

We have some tremendous sponsors, and then um, of course, the car show revenue from the sponsorship tickets and all of that.

So uh the car show has um generated over the last three years uh will be a net of about 20,000 a year towards the community foundation.

Last year we didn't net as well because we had um some one-time expenses uh for marketing.

But uh my hope is that we grow that revenue substantially uh over the years and really make it worthwhile for the community and the and the scholarship program.

Well, it's worthwhile for the community, whether it breaks even loses money or makes money.

It's it's we have five major public events uh in this town, and it really helps uh solidify our our identity, uh reconnect with our neighbors and friends, uh, give us a sense of purpose.

So uh the 120 volunteers, uh, I don't know what your personal time budget is for this, but I would imagine it's extreme.

Uh uh, you know, you and Mr.

Carbon.

Um so thank you for that, because again, um this helps make Castor Valley what Castor Valley is all about.

So uh I very much appreciate that.

Um any ideas on how the Mac could help.

You know, I I would say one of those the the biggest thing that we could do help-wise is to work on that vendor challenge and problem because I wouldn't, you know, as we you know, bright lights attract uh bugs, as I hate to, you know, that's that's the expression.

And uh the uh the vendors that are coming out here know they're not supposed to be there, uh, that when asked to leave will return even after being asked to leave by code enforcement.

Um it will take unfortunately um a sheriff's officer to enforce the the the um warning notice that's been provided to them.

And without that willingness to to actually enforce the problem is gonna get worse.

So your support there to get enforcement uh is is it be a big improvement for us.

Yeah, and I I failed to mention that that uh the uh the sheriff department actually attended the pre-meetings to the the uh you know the historic Rao Ranch Rodeo Parade as well, and I think that that uh that was helpful.

Uh so with that that concludes my comments, and again, uh really a heartfelt thank you.

I'm sorry that I missed it, but I know what a what a cool event it is.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Moore.

Thank you.

Um, since you you pay I I'm not familiar with how the car show works.

Um every time you're doing it, I'm at a race somewhere.

So um I would like to know what the dates might be next year, so that I can you know be around to participate.

The car show is easy, just always stay home for Father's Day weekend because it's always the Saturday before Father's Day.

And that's that's our deal.

So just look up but look up and go, you know, I want to make sure I'm I'm home for Father's Day, and I'm going to go to the car show the day before.

Um obviously there's a fee for showing the car.

Um, and there's um a benefit that goes to a sounds like a nonprofit.

Yes.

So is it a 501c that you're collecting money for?

Or the Castor Valley Endowment Fund is a 501c3 nonprofit.

Okay.

So that's great.

Good to know.

Um and then um where do you what does it start from and end?

I'm sorry, Chuck.

Where does it start and end at forest uh geographically?

Um the event um staging is at uh three crosses church, and that's kind of this island separating.

The event on Castro Valley Boulevard is from San Miguel to Redwood Road.

Okay, and it closes down completely for that in your street vendors and everything.

Yes.

And you have permitted signs that would put on the street vendor so that uh people that are knowing that they're supporting a permitted vendor.

Yes, we have signs up that that's great that there are no street vendors.

That's great.

Um, do you have any data as far as from the businesses that are in that area on how it's affected them?

I mean, do they pick up or are they down or um do you have any comment from any of that?

You know, I I think that whenever you close the boulevard down, there are some businesses that are going to benefit from a large crowd that day, and those that are not going to, it's not as easy.

Uh, we've developed uh what we call the Castro Valley Car Show Challenge, and that is a program where the um individual businesses on the street have an opportunity to participate.

And so what this does is they are given a challenge to go on to visit stops, and those stops include going inside the businesses along Castro Valley Boulevard.

By doing that, we're getting if they don't make a purchase that day, they're at least walking in the store and saying, I I saw that store and getting exposure to it.

Um the restaurant businesses on the street, I think have really banner days uh because we don't do a lot of food in the street.

Um we are trying to restrict the amount of food because we want to grow the business taking place on the street.

That's that's great.

Um, I was just wondering if there's any dollar numbers we could associate with it.

It would maybe encourage other businesses to be a lot more supportive if they knew.

Um it was certainly encourage, I would hope that other businesses come to our community when they see the things like you're doing.

Yeah, I I had um uh worked with two restaurants that are next door to each other on Castro Valley Boulevard, and I'm not gonna share their names, but one of them told me this year, they said the car show is always our best day of the year.

And the next door neighbor said the car show ruins my business.

Yeah, that's a well, I think that's the picture of just generally uh a um uh a downtown business scene.

Um but it is uh it is a tremendous opportunity for people to get and gain exposure, and we work programs to try to get that crowd of people into the businesses to improve their sales for that day so that they look forward to the event instead of dreading it.

That's great.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Chuck.

Uh just a couple of questions, Craig.

First, I want to say thank you to you and Ken, the Rotary Club, and the rest of the 120 volunteers that brought another signature event to Castro Valley.

Um, it's great.

It's wonderful.

Did I understand that there was a waiting list this year for folks to display their cars?

There is a there was a waiting list this year of approximately 400 cars.

400 cars.

So double the car show sold out in less than 24 hours.

So one of the we will be working, we're making adjustments and changes to the program to create more of an invitational step one so that we can um I want to say encourage those people that have participated for years uh or have a special car to make sure we get those people included before we do what we'll call general um uh general admittance.

Uh this last year we just sold the cars out a lot faster.

It was a little bit like uh I felt like they were Swifties on us.

Wow.

Um, given given that incredible demand, uh any thought or possibility to geographic expansion either way down the boulevard or on to side streets or private parking or anything like that.

We we've had uh more cars at the car show by going down some side streets, and what it led to was very unhappy participants because they were in a second-tier position.

Uh, that the secret to the car show isn't necessarily one more car, it's it's creating a walkable space.

Uh the car show is about as long as it can be in a walkable form.

And when we work within the San Miguel Treadwood Road, it minimizes what would happen if we said let's go a couple more blocks.

It it really works a lot better for Castro Valley as a as a whole by keeping it at the size, and then what we want to do is just improve the quality of the presentation.

Understand.

Thank you so much for being here.

And again, thank you for your good work on behalf of the community.

And uh any other thoughts or comments for Craig and the car show?

No.

All righty.

Have a good evening.

Thank you.

Register early.

Vote early and often.

Yeah.

All right.

We are on to item three on our agenda, uh an AC transit budget and services update.

And we have Director Murphy McKalley, Diane Castleberry, and is Owen Christofferson here tonight.

Good.

All right.

Good evening.

How's everyone doing tonight?

Can you guys hear me?

Am I yeah, Craig had the same problem because the height problem.

Uh again, uh, well, thank you for having us here tonight.

Uh, and first off, before we get started, I want to thank you guys for the service that you do for the community.

I mean, it's uh it's a pretty involved job, and I know that uh you know you take probably a lot of a lot of heat in one way or the other, regardless of what decisions you make, but uh appreciate the you hanging in there and trying to make the community a better place.

Uh my name is Murphy McCauley.

Uh I serve on the AC Transit Board.

I've served since uh since April of 2022.

Uh I was elected to the board uh in November of 2022.

Uh I'm a 30-year resident of Castro Valley.

Uh I too, Bay Area native, uh graduated from Oakland High, lived away for a lot of time, a long time, and ultimately came back and moved into Castro Valley.

I've been here for 30 years now.

So uh so I can I appreciate everything about Castro Valley.

So as the as a currently as a board member, uh I represent Ward 4, which covers Castro Valley, Fairview, Cheryland and Ashland, San Lorenzo, and a portion of San Leandro.

So what we want to do tonight is that we we've been going around actually meeting with all the various entities that we serve and come in contact with AC Transit, that is.

Uh, and just to update you on where we are financially, where things what things are going on with the with the agency, uh, we've got some some some you know some issues coming up in the future, uh, and we just want to put everybody uh on notice of sort of where we are.

So as you mentioned, I'm here tonight with uh uh Diane Castleberry, uh who's gonna we've divided this presentation up into three parts.

I'm gonna provide an introduction and background on AC Transit.

Uh Diana's gonna talk about some of the financial situations that we we currently are are or faced with, and Owen is going to talk about our contingency plan for uh hoping to try to address the that situation.

Okay, so let's move to the slide two, please.

So those that may or may not know, uh AC Transit is a uh is a special district.

We have a fully elected board, uh, and that's a very unusual situation.

There's only three such agencies in the country that actually have an elected board, transit agencies rather that actually have an elected board, AC Transit Bart and Denver RTD.

Uh we're the largest uh public bus only system in California.

And in 2023, we we are received an award from the American Public Transit Association as the outstanding transit system uh in the country.

Uh we have a service area of 364 miles.

We currently serve about three million riders monthly.

Uh we connect to 16 other transit systems within the Bay Area.

We serve 13 cities, eight unincorporated communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, and 65% of our riders are low income, and 75% of them are uh people of color.

Uh we have six facilities located throughout the the region.

Uh three in Oakland, two one in Emoryville, one in Hayward.

And uh we we've been serving the Bay Area since 1960.

We took over from the old key system, and for those of you who may have been around when the key system was in place.

Uh we have a currently have an operating budget of 606 million dollars.

Uh transit is is is uh highly uh uh uh labor intensive uh between maintenance and the operations and what have you.

Uh so we've got a pretty large budget that we have to try to manage every year.

And we have basically about two 25 2200 employees that work for AC Transit.

And I and I might add too, when we when we talk about the just briefly, when we talk about our low-income riders, we discovered through through uh COVID that many of those are essential workers.

Uh because we we were able to carry many folks that uh that had to get to their jobs uh during the COVID uh situation.

So uh while they might you know be on the lower end in terms of the income, uh they have some pretty important jobs that we found out.

Okay, slide number two.

Okay, let's talk about ridership.

We we're currently at about 85% of our riders that we riders that we used to carry before COVID.

Uh as a result of COVID, and that which is one of the issues that we have with our with our with our funding situation.

Um people working from home, it really detracted a lot from uh from our ridership.

But currently we've been we've been building it back up.

We're at about 85% of our riders prior to prior to uh to COVID.

So we're carrying about 141,000 uh passengers on the weekday, and actually, strangely enough, we're carrying 162,000 on Saturdays and Sundays.

So we're carrying a lot of people on the weekends, and which uh we again we think was was an outcropping of uh of uh outgrowth rather of uh of COVID.

Uh we carry 9,000 passengers roughly uh weekly on the Trans Bay, and that's the service that goes from uh uh the East Bay over to San Francisco.

Uh that service is down significantly from where it was uh pre-COVID.

We were carrying about 16,000 passengers.

Uh but at that time, if you guys may recall, uh BART was carrying uh what their trains were at capacity going to San Francisco.

So we provided uh uh overflow service, if you will, for getting over to San Francisco.

But since uh since after COVID, uh BARTS has the capacity to carry more people uh across the Bay.

So we had to reduce our we so as a result we reduced our level of service that we provide that goes across the the Bay Bridge or yeah, across the bridge.

The the the fourth category that uh we're real proud of, and and in fact we see this as a real growth area is what we do for students.

We carry about 30,000 students uh uh every day during the school school year.

Uh and that's you know, just good all the school districts you can imagine, uh Hayward, San Leandro, uh Oakland, Castro Valley.

So we we we're really proud of that, and that's actually one of the areas we really are looking to try to grow as as much as possible.

Uh next slide, please.

Okay.

Um sometimes people or sometimes even we forget about the what kind of economic impact that we have as a uh in a community.

Uh with a 600 million dollar budget that we have uh and the number of employees we have, we also support about 5100 jobs in the in the Bay Area.

Uh and that's through through our you know investments in services, maintenance, and and capital projects that we offer uh throughout.

Uh we believe we generate about 604 million dollars in local wages through uh in to to the region as well.

And last but not least, uh what we think we contribute somewhere in the neighborhood of a billion dollars to the GDP of uh of the of the Bay Area.

Next slide, please.

Uh these are some of the these are some of the things that we're we're proudest of.

Uh trying to think this was the late 90s, uh 1990s to early 2000s, we were given the mandate to uh to basically become zero uh zero emission uh in our with our bus fleet.

And uh so we've been moving forward with that with uh with a great deal of zeal.

Uh we're probably I I would say, and again, not just bragging, but we're probably at the forefront of uh for clean energy transit throughout the country.

Uh we were one of the first systems to get in pla to uh to adopt uh zero emissions uh uh program and we currently have 58 zero emission buses, and in the next year or so we are looking to probably have close to 120 or 125 uh zero emission buses, and that's a combination of of battery electric and uh uh and hydrogen uh fuel sale.

Uh we one of the things we're really proud of is uh we we've started actually we'll be we'll be breaking ground for what we call ZebU, Zero Zero Emission Bus University.

It's located in Hayward at our training center in Hayward, where we will need to develop our workforce to uh for the modern age of uh zero emission uh equipment.

Uh we've formed a partnership with uh with our our union ATU as well as Chibo College, where individuals that go through our program will also get college credits towards a college degree.

And so uh we we're excited about that.

We hope to break ground on that.

We had a 40 million dollar grant we got from the feds to upgrade our training system, uh training uh uh uh facility, and we hope to break ground on that in the next couple of weeks or so, a few couple months actually.

So, with that, I'll turn it over to uh Diane Calserber to talk about sort of where we are fiscally.

A little bit shorter.

Good evening, council members.

Um, as mentioned, my name is Diane Castleberry.

Um, so yes, so on this slide, you know.

So we're we're um making efforts to make transit more affordable, faster, and safer.

And you can see just kind of at a glance some of the different programs we have to provide deep discounts for participating employers, colleges and communities that's known as EasyPass.

There's clipper start that the Alameda CTC gives for um income eligible adults to get half off on their rides.

And then um in August of 2025, we redesigned about 104 bus lines last summer under the realign network.

Um, and then also you see in the upper right hand corner, we now have AI powered cameras mounted inside the buses.

And the intention of this is to help keep bus lanes and bus stops clear, improving safety and reliability.

Next slide, please.

So AC Transit riders, um uh, as mentioned earlier, represent about two-thirds are low income, and more than half earn the less than 50,000 a year, and that's below the federal poverty level, and in one of the nation's most expensive regions.

Um 65% of our riders are transit dependent.

Service cuts would not be an inconvenience, they would upend the lives of those who rely mostly on uh rely the most on AC transit.

Next slide, please.

So you often hear the phrase good stewards of public dollars.

Simply put, it means making every tax dollar count.

Um this month um we launched the multilingual fare required uh fair compliance campaign.

Also, a comprehensive California State Auditor Review found that AC Transit syncs service well with other East Bay bus agencies.

So our collective real challenges are sustainable funding, not mismanagement.

What's more, an independent review confirmed average annual savings of 33 million dollars since 2020.

This commitment to making every taxpayer dollar count is why we have a top-tier double A plus credit rating.

Next slide, please.

The cost of running our bus network is rising faster than revenue supporting it.

The result is a fiscal cliff, which is what we are facing.

So what's behind it?

So federal pandemic relief funding is gone, regional sales tax revenue has flattened, and fair revenue growth has slowed.

Our fuel costs are up 28%.

Bus maintenance parts have increased 14%.

The cost of buying new buses has surged 35%.

So as you can see, it's a bit lopsided and it's not sustainable.

Next slide, please.

So we're taking action.

Um in the last fiscal year alone, we tightened our belt by $9 million.

Um we did this by hiring only for positions that directly support service.

We scaled back temporary staffing, saving roughly $2 million annually.

We brought outside professional services in-house.

We're partnering with other agencies such as the state of California and MTC to purchase goods and services for less.

We even temporarily restructured um some payments to um our pension plan.

Um we're making every taxpayer dollar count.

Um, next slide, please.

So AC Transit faces a projected 200 million dollar deficit over the next four years that translates to an annual funding gap of at least 50 million dollars beginning in 2027.

That's July 1, roughly late June of 2027.

So without a long-term sustainable funding, service reductions of up to 16% become unavoidable.

And so would the human impact, potential layoffs affecting as many as 300 employees.

So as you can see, we are facing a um service, workforce, and community crisis.

Next slide, please.

We've been thrown a lifeline, but it's not a permanent solution.

It's a state bridge loan, and it's exactly that a loan, not a bailout, and it must be repaid with interest.

So AC transit's share would be 55 million dollars enough to close this year's budget gap, um, which has helped us to avoid service cuts today.

Um but next summer, the loan is gone, reserves are exhausted, and the funding challenge returns.

That's why hope now rests with the regional transit measure, formerly known as Connect Bay Area Act.

Earlier this year on June 4th, Senate Bill 830 that was authored by Senators Wiener and Araguin amended the election provisions of SB63, which some of you may be familiar with.

It now mandates that the revenue measure authorized by SB63 will be referred to as the regional transit measure in all election materials across the five affected counties.

This places the measure prominently on the ballot immediately after statewide measures.

The measure would ask voters in five Bay or counties to approve a 14-year half cent sales tax, one cent in San Francisco.

If approved, it would generate an estimated $980 million annually for Bay Area buses, trains, and ferries.

AC Transit would receive approximately 52 million each year, helping protect existing bus service and pro to prevent layoffs.

So without long-term funding, our bus network remains at risk.

And I would now like to invite Owen Christopher Christopherson, our transportation planner to talk about the proposed contingency service plan.

Good evening, Council.

My name is Owen Christofferson.

I'm a transportation planner, uh transit planner here at AC Transit.

So you've heard from uh board director McCulley about the really the local and regional importance of AC Transit as an industry, as well as from Ms.

Castleberry about these uh very serious financial challenges that the agency has faced.

So for us, for us planners, you know, the the overall strategy is kind of um, you know, plan for the worst, uh, but hope for the best, right?

So uh we are we have developed a plan, um, but we of course are hoping uh that we will not need to use the plan.

Um so of course, you know, we want to make sure that we're protecting the investments of the agency, um, you know, continue to use tax dollars wisely.

So this is kind of why we're going through this planning process right now.

Um so yeah, and also just quickly talk about some of the kind of the overall principles uh of the plan.

So uh Diane mentioned uh that we we did a large uh kind of service realignment uh called realign.

So we really wanted to work as hard as we could to maintain that network since that was a real important multi-year process that we went through as an agency.

Uh we wanted to try to miminize complete service eliminations.

Um in order to do that, what what that meant was instead focusing on uh frequency and hours of service reductions uh for our existing lines.

Um and uh, you know, uh, yeah, so I'll talk a little bit about next slide, please.

Uh talk about the primary route network.

Uh this is kind of the uh the backbone of the service.

This includes kind of those trunk lines um around here, you know, you have the nine and the 97, which follow the you know, kind of mission boulevard East 14 to Spirian, these these major corridors.

Uh and we we really uh you know kind of set out to protect many of these lines.

Uh so like that line nine will be preserved at 15 minutes or or better on weekdays.

Um, you know, with without this, um, you know, and like I said, we we we just have to protect uh these these lines that are not just uh our highest ridership or our highest productivity lines, but also lines that uh go through uh, you know, what are called equity priority communities um and lines that also serve uh you know the more uh vulnerable residents in our community.

Next slide, please.

So for Castro Valley, um you've got we've got three kind of main lines here, the the um the 28, the 35, the 93, and these, you know, of course, kind of connect Castro Valley to the both the region and um, you know, kind of the regional BART stations as well.

Uh, you know, San Lorenzo, Cherry Land, Ashland, um, as well as up uh to Foothills Square.

So uh these are uh 40 minute buses right now on weekdays, uh, and under this plan, the buses would become 60 minute buses on uh weekdays.

Uh these buses are already 60 minutes on weekends and would remain 60 minute buses on weekends.

Uh so unfortunately we are going to see some frequency reductions on those lines.

Uh, and as you can see on the screen here, there will also be some uh hours of service reductions.

Um, 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

on the 28.

Uh, and sorry, 7 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

on the 35 as well as the 93.

So again, instead of meminizing whole lines or you know, just kind of chucking out large segments of our network, we're really applying many of these kind of, I don't want to say small, of course, because no service cut is small, but but relatively uh small uh, you know, kind of decreases in hours of operation and frequency of service.

Uh, I'll also say a very quick part about BART.

Um, of course, uh, we are AC Transit can't speak for BART themselves.

Um, but there has been some indications in BART's uh, you know, recent board meetings and documents that the Castro Valley station may be on the list of uh station closures.

Uh if no new funding is identified, you know, BART will be in a similar situation to AC Transit in the fall.

Um and this did kind of factor into our planning process here.

All three of these lines uh connect uh Castro Valley to stations that would not uh be affected, potentially, you know, or at least aren't named in the current moment as stations that would close um if uh no new funding is identified for BART uh as well in this you know, kind of current situations.

So these lines also serve the Bay Fair uh and San Leandro BART stations.

Next slide, please.

So just give a little bit of a road ahead here.

Uh so on August 12th, uh the AC Transit Board of Directors is expected to set a public hearing, which would uh take effect on October uh 14th, 2026.

This would be accompanied by an open house at the AC Transit General Office in downtown Oakland.

Uh as we all know, uh the there'd be a general election on November 3rd, uh 2026.

And if needed, uh the board uh would uh you know can consider, make any final changes and then formally on the uh November 18th meeting uh to the plan, formally approved the plan on December 9th, 2026 for an implementation date of June 13th, 2027.

So again, if uh no new funding is identified uh with the ballot measure in November, uh we would expect to see cuts, service cuts happen uh in June, June of 2027.

Next slide, please.

Uh and with that, I'll invite back up uh board director McCullough.

Thanks, Owen.

So that that concludes our presentation.

I just want to add a couple of clarifications for uh uh that Owen touched on in the with in with the contingency plan.

Uh he talked about the the some of the local service in Castor Valley, like the 28 would uh the the headways would would increase to to uh an hour every 60 minutes rather.

And uh that's what existed prior to realign.

Uh as part of the realign program, we were able to reduce that headway down to 40 minutes.

So we were able to improve the service under the realign program.

However, under the contingency plan, we would go back up to an hour, uh 60 minutes.

So just want to give you some context uh in some of those change, some of those changes.

Um but what we really would like to see is is would like to ask is that um um that you know, this community speak up and and basically offer up what they'd like to see.

Uh here's an opportunity for, you know, we we need your feedback and we're we're looking for feedback.

And so uh and again, uh don't don't, you know, you're not gonna break our heart by you know you know saying being tough on what you want to see, but but you know what I'm saying is if you don't ask for it, you don't get it.

And so I would just implore you guys to to help us get the word out to to the community and and for those who uh again, we're we really don't want to, we didn't impact uh this the students.

I mean, that's an area of growth area that we really want to do.

So we're not changing anything with the student transportation, but but it could be better.

So with that, we'd be happy to ask any answer any questions you have.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, all three of you for your presentations.

And we'll hear from public comment and then uh come to the council and hear what we have to say and ask.

So, Madam Clerk, do we have anybody online that wishes to speak?

I have no speakers on item three.

And nobody in the room.

Okay.

Then we'll close public comment and start.

Councilmember DeVinny with your questions and thoughts for AC Transit.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Uh uh Murphy, Diane, and Owen, if I can refer to you by your first names.

Uh, thank you very much for the presentation.

Uh I I learned a lot.

Uh it's the system is 65 years old, so it's the same age as me.

Uh I I used the system uh for just two years of my life, and it was back in high school.

Um, I I uh lived in Castro Valley as you heard earlier up on the top of Redwood Road.

Uh, but I went to school about six and a half miles away uh for high school.

And my parents were willing to pay for tuition, but they sure as heck were not gonna be a taxi for seven of us kids.

So we had to figure out our own way.

So for two years, I I rode uh uh the bus system, and uh which means that the bus is at the oldest, uh it was about 14, 15 years old.

They sure seemed like they were older than then.

And just for historical purposes, the fare was 15 cents.

And that included a transfer.

Uh so it took two buses to uh get me from Cash Rally to my school down on Mission Boulevard in uh in in Hayward.

Um and uh uh very very useful portion of the transportation.

The the biggest observation that I have, and that and the concern that I have is looking at the numbers involved, a 600 million dollar budget with 40 million annual rides is 15 bucks a ride.

Um that's just factual.

I mean, the the 600 million is real, you're spending it.

The 40 million, I'm assuming is is is actual.

So that's a $15 ride.

Um, and I know the vast majority of that is paid through taxes.

I looked through your financial statements, paid through property taxes, sales taxes, local taxes, the local tax is the biggest component of that being an add on to the sales tax.

Uh so your your actual fares, I believe are covering about seven percent.

Um, and it clearly your fares can't cover 100% uh uh of your operating costs.

So I I just uh it it concerns me um that the the ride is so expensive.

Um and uh uh Murphy, you said that you're at 85% of pre-COVID levels.

So that's that's close to to what you're doing.

How does that compare?

And if you if you don't mind uh into the into the uh how does that compare to pre-COVID?

Has ridership in general been declining prior to COVID, which affected everybody?

Um do you know the number and and perhaps the easiest metrics would just be the uh the number of passengers per year, starting with 40 million now?

I just I don't have that number.

I I I came underboard in 2022, so this was sort of tail end of COVID.

What's that?

50 it was about 53 million annually before COVID.

Oh okay.

So it went from 53 million uh uh it had at a drop down, I mean uh at 85 percent.

It so pre-COVID, it was uh uh at the beginning of COVID, maybe 45 million.

So ridership was in decline prior to COVID hitting uh and then has now gone from 45 down to down to 40.

Okay, that's uh uh that's a concern.

Because again, I'm just looking at it in context of our overall uh transportation systems.

Um you talked about the the the uh entity prior to AC transit was the key system, uh which was a series of trolleys and and and street cars, so fixed rail transportation all through Oakland, Emoryville, Berkeley, Sanley, Andrew.

I don't think we had any in Castor Valley Um that ran out here.

Uh so that's a dinosaur.

That's gone away.

And so I guess in the back of my mind, I'm thinking our bus is becoming a dinosaur with with Uber Um with the with the potential future.

So just just uh uh a thought on that.

I it seems to me that that with the with the cost structure um being so high on a per ride basis, it seems like that's almost uh unsustainable.

Um let me just kind of background information.

Um the three Castor Valley uh uh areas in an effort to to control costs, you cut down on the hours of operation, but the hours of operation are still pretty doggone generous.

What did you cut them from?

I mean, on route number 28, it's going from 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

What was it before the cut?

I I don't did we we didn't cut did we cut the hours Director McCauley?

I'm gonna ask you to take the microphone if you would please and carokie at your at your whim.

So so the proposal that you have, um we haven't cut any hours yet.

It's like in the worst case scenario, if we have to in June of 2027, the proposal is to reduce the hours of operations and their frequency, meaning how often the bus comes from 40 minutes uh frequency to a 60 minute frequency, and then the hours will be reduced in some cases 7 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

or 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

And Owen is looking that up right now to see what the current um service is.

Yeah, thank you for a question.

And and I apologize.

This was a little unclear on the slide, so I'm glad you're clarifying it.

Um the technically the the 28 had slightly um the 28 is about the same.

That's 6 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

That is kind of what we're running currently right now, give or take 15 minutes or so.

Um so the main hours of operation uh reductions are in those other lines.

Uh the uh 35 and 93.

And if I can just scroll down on my spreadsheet, um I can tell you what they are currently.

Uh the 35 currently runs uh 6 a.m.

to 11 p.m.

and uh yes on weekdays.

Uh and the 93.

Uh let me just scroll down here.

93 also runs uh 6 a.m.

to 11 p.m.

on weekdays.

So that it would be 6 a.m.

11 p.m.

to 7 to 7.

Do any of the three of you have an idea as to uh what percentage of capacity you're at right now, or are buses running at if you if you if you will, occupancy.

Are they running at 10% occupancy, 20% occupancy uh throughout throughout the hours of operation?

Any any idea what that is?

I don't think we I don't think we have that number because it varies by route and and time of day.

Uh for instance, uh the 60 that goes up to top state East Bay, uh, there's times in the morning where this matter of fact, we had to add a bus because it was overcrowded.

Uh the buses were were packed.

Uh but again, probably other times during the day when they would not be packed.

So it just depends on the time of day and the route.

We can also provide that information and send it through the um clerk.

And again, it just speaks to the viability of the uh of the program to run the big buses and and you know, the perhaps again from my days back in 1974 and 75, they were at capacity and they were they were standing room only.

Well, uh, I was gonna say a lot of our school service are that way now.

I mean, it's so yeah, I rode the bus as well in in school, and and most of those buses were packed, but it comes school time.

Yeah, and this is very antidotal, but but what I see now is mostly empty buses for whatever that means.

Maybe I'm seeing just a small percentage.

Maybe Castor Valley isn't the biggest market.

I I don't I don't know what our occupancy or use of our three lines are compared to the the the rest of the East Bank.

Well, we can get you some numbers because uh what we call our trunk lines, and those are the lines that served on the major corridors like uh International Boulevard, San Pablo, uh Broadway, Telegraph.

I mean, those buses are pretty full.

Uh again, because we're serving the a lot of college kids going up to Cal Berkeley, uh, they ride our system pretty significantly.

And so we those are pretty packed.

We don't have the density.

That's why we don't have as much service here in our area, because we just don't have the density.

And that's where transit tends to work the best, obviously, is when it's a very like in San Francisco, where's where you have that density.

And I'll talk a little bit about uh operating costs as well, because I know you mentioned that.

So, you know, firstly, kind of on the on the on the issue of the buses.

I mean, um, there's a couple things.

You know, first of all, when you look at the kind of per reven hour, per excuse me, per revenue hour uh, you know, kind of costs, um, large proportion of that is labor, uh, which would not uh you know uh change based on the size of the vehicle.

Um, you know, the other thing is that we want to sometimes, you know, we'll run these buses.

There may not be very many people on them.

We might get a group of kids or a school group or something, all of a sudden there's gonna be 20 people, 30 people on the bus, um, even if it's there just for a couple stops.

We want to be able to show make sure that we can accommodate that.

And the other thing around smaller vehicles is that you know, we as an agency as large as I see transit, we really have a healthy kind of economy of scale with our standard Gillig 40 foot buses.

Um, you know, we have hundreds of them uh that we can maintain with the same parts and all of that.

Um so that's also a little bit of uh a way that we can save money.

Um you know, if you're interested in uh kind of comparing costs, um one thing that you can do is you can look up the national transit database.

Uh this is a um national database uh maintained by the Federal Transit Administration that all transit agencies are required to report to uh every year and monthly.

Uh and you know, you can see uh that not saying uh, you know, you know understanding your concerns about you know the kind of what we call the passenger subsidy, right?

Which is the amount uh that we subsidize minus fares.

Um, but you'll see that we are really we're we're where our peers are um when you look at what other agencies uh costs are, operating costs, operating cost per passenger.

We're right around here.

And I think you also kind of identified or touched on something uh, you know, kind of thinking about the AC transit, you know, maybe that you rode versus the AC transit uh of today, and and Diane touched on this a little bit when talking about the kind of shifting rider demographics.

Um really there has been a you know years-long decline in the Bay Area of what we call kind of choice riders, people who are choosing to ride transit who also have other means.

And we've really seen post-pandemic uh a very significant shift in that regard, where AC transit is becoming you know, really a lifeline service for a lot of people.

And again, that's why I wanted to maintain those 60-minute buses.

We know a 60-minute bus is not competitive with a vehicle, it's not um very attractive to to folks who have other means, but also we know that there is a really important community need for transportation that we're trying to maintain there.

So the frequency of service is is perhaps uh is important or maybe even more important than the total hours of operation.

Yeah, that makes sense to me.

No question about it.

We it's a huge determinant.

It's gonna be a huge determinant determinant frequency.

So if you can get a bus uh that runs every 10 to 15 minutes, your ridership typically corresponds in the upward direction.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um I I noticed that your increase in cost, one of them was uh 35% increase in the in the cost of your of your buses.

I noticed that there's a move to electric.

Um I'm I'm wondering if a thorough, and I'm not going to ask you to explain tonight because there's some science behind this, and I don't think you you have the answer, but I I wonder if there's both a fiscal consideration and uh a carbon footprint consideration, because the electric vehicles, there's so many studies that are out there that are suggesting that perhaps the carbon footprint is much bigger than we think.

Um and although it's a woo-woo product and and and we don't want to clamor around it, uh, it clearly costing you more for your buses, your 35% increase, significantly more for the buses.

Uh and it should uh maybe the the woo-woo factor uh wouldn't necessarily work, particularly if it proves that it doesn't have a beneficial carbon footprint with the all in uh uh you know manufacturing and and service into those.

Um I think there was one more question that I had, but I'm gonna wait and let the other council members uh go and perhaps come back.

Thank you.

Can I just respond?

Yeah, please do.

You know, the the capital cost for the vehicles.

Uh we've seen in the last several years the the cost increasing even for a diesel bus significantly.

Uh and a couple of things have gone on.

Uh 10 years ago, the we used to have 12 or 13 bus manufacturers in the United States.

Today we only have two.

Gillick, which used to be in Hayward, now they're in Livermore, and New Flyer, on the only two bus manufacturers in the country.

So that's sort of what we faced with.

Yeah.

And and when you start buying Tesla trucks or Tesla buses, I can't imagine what the cost is going to be.

Yeah, and I'll also just mention, you know, that a lot of those requirements for zero emission came from or come and continue to come from the California Air Resources Air Resources Board, Carb.

Uh, and although of course I can't speak for them, um, you know, because of these very looming financial challenges, there is a possibility that um, you know, given the kind of financial uh outcomes and future, uh, that they may kind of delay or put on hold some of these things because it have been very challenging for the agencies to meet.

Well, then I stand corrected because I know that California dictates are always the best, particularly when it relates to housing policies.

So all right, that's it for me.

Thank you.

Councilmember Feebig, please.

Thank you for your presentation tonight.

Appreciate that.

If you were to do a reduction, how many students or disabled residents or or people in as a whole would be disrupted or or uh affected.

What do you want to say?

Uh excuse me.

Uh yeah, you know, I don't we don't have kind of specific numbers, right?

Um those, you know, what I can tell you is that uh especially compared to uh some of our pure, you know, like agent agency like BART, uh AC Transit does uh serve and carry uh many of those uh folks that you mentioned.

Um and again, this is kind of why we we tried to not eliminate whole lines.

Um and even if we knew it was gonna, we were gonna have to reduce those frequencies and reduce the hours, just keep them there for folks that we knew really rely on the service.

Another reason that that's important um is because uh, you know, I'm sure you all are familiar with paratransit, which is you know a service for for folks with disabilities, uh, that eligibility is based off of proximity to uh bus stops.

So as long as we're keeping that bus stop there, even if we're uh the service isn't um you know as frequent or as um you know better as ours as as it is, at least people will still have that uh paratransit access, um which is really important.

So there will be a small paratransit uh impact uh when we do our presentation to the board in uh August, we will kind of have a lot of those numbers and those will be system-wide numbers about the you know, the folks who uh folks with disabilities who will lose access to paratransit because of these.

But what I can tell you is that it is a very small proportion, thankfully.

Um so you know, again, I don't have uh exact numbers, but um, I can tell you that that was really the uh one of the biggest things that went into our planning process.

Yeah, the whole the whole uh uh reduction in service uh was done very surgically, and so for that very reason in mind.

And in fact, I want to say that that we're required by law, federal law that uh when we're making these reductions that we have to have public hearings, that we have to do a study to determine what the impacts would be for the elderly and and uh and the handicapped.

So you know, we'll be fine.

And and just kind of another word on that in terms of kind of the engagement process, right?

Like we've uh we we are absolutely open and willing to make changes to this draft plan.

Um the thing is, I mean, the the money has to come from somewhere, right?

So if we say, oh, we want to go back to 40 minutes on the 93, or you know, we have to figure out uh what corresponding service is gonna take away from that to add to that.

It's all this kind of um, yeah, exactly zero sum financial situation.

Have you thought that maybe the trend with buses is tending to go away with two manufacturers only now creating buses and the ridership being at the level it is, and it costs $15 for a ride, but you only receive 7% of that in fares.

Is this is this something a dying breed?

I mean, I think you're seeing when you're looking at transit ridership in the Bay Area, including AC Transit Ridership, uh, like Diane talked about, you know, we are still bouncing out of the pandemic.

It has been, you know, there have been permanent shifts in travel patterns.

Um, and nowhere has seen this more so than the Bay Area, really.

Um, and and I think you can look at BART, which is a system that was originally designed to bring kind of white collar workers into downtown San Francisco and is hurting so much right now as uh kind of an example of that.

Um, you know, nevertheless, we're we're still carrying hundreds of thousands of people.

Um, and we we still have uh a very important and essential service.

And I think also what um, you know, we were trying to, you know, or really trying to bring to this discussion is beyond ridership, beyond some of those numbers, how we're positively impacting the community in terms of economic uh development in terms of putting that money back in in terms of providing good jobs to the bus operators uh and so on.

So um, you know, I think the you are right in that.

I mean, the travel patterns are changing a lot, um, particularly post pandemic that has not been favorable to to public transit.

Um and so we are we are grappling with that, but we also know we are an essential service that many, many people in this area rely on, and we we do have to do our best to meet that demand.

Now I'm I'm a little confused.

Could you back to paratransit?

Um I I thought paratransit picked you up and dropped you off wherever you wanted, like it'd pick you up at your house and take you to maybe the senior citizen type thing.

Yeah, why would we need a bus stop for that?

Well, in order to be eligible for paratransit, um you must uh reside within three quarters of a mile of a bus stop.

And if we were to say uh, you know, completely eliminate a line, um, all of those people along that bus route who would qualify for paratransit would then no longer qualify.

Yeah, just we're required by federal law to provide paratransit service within three quarters of bus stop that we can get out.

Yeah.

Oh, so you you cover that paratransmitted part.

You have to cover, yeah, exactly.

Okay, required to provide that.

Okay.

So that would affect a lot of seniors.

If if that yeah, if that would happen, yeah.

Yeah, but stop.

Okay.

Yeah.

That was I was going to another question, and part of that would be affecting seniors quite a bit.

But the question was, why wouldn't you eliminate places like you know, like in my Dan said this, when I see buses in Caster Valley, there's like two people and the whole bus is empty.

I've seen double buses, like with two people in it.

And why wouldn't you like eliminate routes that have very low ridership and then just you know, pump up the routes that have a lot of ridership, you know, where half the bus is full or people are standing up and there's not a seat to sit down, that sort of thing.

Yeah, no, I I completely agree.

I mean, that's why, you know, when I talked about that primary route network, that's kind of what we did was that those are you know the highest ridership, the highest productivity lines.

Um, and we knew that if we were to make huge cuts to those lines, you know, what would we even be as an agency?

Um, because these are either the lines, some of them have operated for decades, um, you know, uh, and are are very productive relatively.

So this is why we're able to maintain some minimum standards, like those 30 minutes and those 15 minutes, uh, and that we are making these cuts like here in Castro Valley, where the lines are, you know, less productive, uh less busy from something like 40 minutes to 60 minutes.

Yeah.

Okay.

If if I can just add the the other thing is through the radio line um kind of process, um, the public engagement, which was almost two years, um, and meeting with the school districts, particularly Castro Valley, San Lorenzo Unified, and some others, um, and then also just the community themselves, going back to those riders who are transit dependent, um, they just don't have other options.

And so we opted to balance with kind of like an equity lens to make sure that we don't um like abandon those riders who need the service.

And so um, there's still an effort to kind of really, you know, really kind of focus and try to maintain as much of a robust kind of core corridor where we have lots of riders.

There's sometimes it's hard to get on like the tempo bus on International Boulevard, like in certain segments, you may not, you may have to wait till the next bus because there's no room on the bus.

Um, so there's definitely places where we just have a lot of people.

And I think Board Director Macaulay had mentioned earlier, like in Hayward, Cal State East Bay, they have an Easy Pass program with us.

And we discovered early in the school year that we're leaving about 70, 85 students per ride.

So we had to start having a trailing bus.

And then we were able to work with the city and the school or university to bring in our articulated buses that can hold like about a hundred people.

And then you know, have longer uh bus stops and those kind of things.

And so there's definitely a need, um, but it's it's a delicate balance, and we're just, you know, we're we're kind of stuck in a hard place right now.

And but this is a proposal that you know, if we don't have the funding, we will have to implement in June of next year.

But there is a public process where there might be some opportunities from some tweaking.

There's not a whole lot unless you're there's gonna have to be some trade-offs in terms of how you make those decisions.

Okay, thank you.

Um also council Miner, a member Davini mentioned you know, smaller buses or things like that, right sizing perhaps, or that that came to the mind for me too.

I mean, I know you said labor is the problem, but a smaller bus would take up less um probably maintenance, less gas, less fuel, less um electricity, that sort of thing.

So, and in addition to that thought, what other agencies and other cities, because they must be having the same problem.

What have they done differently that you haven't done yet that would help you?

Can we can we learn from examples of other agencies and other cities?

Uh uh of course.

There's always, you know, uh, you know, folks out there that we can we can operate we can learn from.

Um, but I think that as an industry, uh everyone's kind of faced with the same same set of problems.

I mean, if you think about it, I mean um, like I said, the the fixed cost to operate a bus is the same, whether it's a 65 foot bus or or 20 foot bus.

It doesn't the fixed cost is doesn't change.

Yes, you save a little bit on fuel, probably a little bit on maintenance, but the overall cost is doesn't really you know make that big a difference per se.

Uh and I think other agencies have found the same thing.

One of the things that that some agencies have might kind of cut me out uh key that they go towards is is what's called microtransmit.

Oh, the flex system.

It was called a flex system.

So it's sort of a hybrid between a fixed route system and uh an Uber, I'll say, you know, and so uh, but again, those services are or were cost more than uh 40 foot bus.

I mean, those are much more expensive service, even though it's uh the appearance uh granted looks better because you know you got a smaller bus with with more people on it uh because it's smaller.

Uh, but uh the cost is is almost astronomical.

I mean, it's like I don't know, three three or four times that of a of a operating 40 foot bus.

Okay, thank you.

I just you know, I know most people complain about the taxes now, you know, the the percentage or the what we pay already, and they keep hitting them with more.

I'm not sure you're gonna get that vote.

Maybe you will, you know.

I mean, it sounds like you need it, but um, you know, thank you for coming and participating, filling us in on the details.

Uh I I think maybe if you could reach out to other agencies that have accomplished the goal, or maybe they're in the same boat, but you know, put all your heads together and come up with some some ideas, yeah, might be helpful.

But that's all I have.

Well, I was just uh just want to add to you.

So one of the reasons that we do provide service in Castle Valley is the fact that that Capsworth Valley does contribute to funding AC Transit.

Uh there's a parcel tax, as you well aware of.

I think it's $96, $94.

It's a partial tax, and you pay into this half-cent sales tax as well that that's collected in Alameda County.

So you uh we deserve some level of bus service as a result of you know what we what we pay into.

So it may not be the most efficient bus service, but you know, you we deserve you know something for our tax dollars.

Yes.

Correct.

Thank you so much.

That that's all the questions I have.

Thank you, council member and Senator Thomas.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, the first question, um, last time you were here.

Um, I remember, you know, you were we're talking about taking off some of the routes or uh funding issues.

Did you guys take any cancel any routes or uh is everything is too long?

I don't know.

So as that was part of the realign project.

So we had proposed to remove a route because we were trying to gain more frequency.

We were actually trying to get service here to at least 30 minutes.

But there were some challenges with removing that line where community says we can't figure out how we can get to the San Langro Bart to get to work, or we can't figure out how to get our child to school.

And so at the end of the day, we preserved the routes.

And we just were able to read increase the frequency to 40 minutes versus hourly service.

The one thing that did change that didn't affect Castro Valley per se is the line 99 and 10 that were kind of duplicating service.

We consolidated that line into the line nine.

We um truncated or shortened it at Union City, and then it became a different line moving towards um Fremont so that you can gain some efficiencies with the service and it runs every 20 minutes along Mission Boulevard.

Got it.

Thank you.

Um the bus, you know, uh when you take a BART, I mean when you come out, um, when I used to ride BART, um there was uh a transfer pass where you can get into the bus and it was a discounted rate.

It was for uh for myself that helped out, you know, and I know it will help out the low income riders.

Is that still happening or uh yeah?

So um there's a clipper if you're gonna the clipper system, which is a system that works um throughout all the agencies here.

They've recently upgraded to what they call Clipper 2.0.

Uh and part of that includes what we call open loop uh fare payment, which is you can just tap.

If you have tap to pay on your debit or credit card, you can just tap.

And with that new system, they've introduced what they're calling an interagency transfer discount of up to $2.65.

So if you've tapped in and out of BART and then you tap on to an AC transit bus, you'll get that um 265 discount, which uh I think pretty much covers the fare.

Yeah.

The tap system means our own debit card or a credit card that we have a tab, and then it will pick it up itself.

Exactly.

Okay.

And then um the buses, you know, I know some of the buses usually like five, 10 people, but those 10 people need the bus, right?

So I um I understand that some of the buses are kind of empty, but I see people waiting for the bus the same time.

They need it, and they're a low income and they need that bus to go to BART and do their stuff.

So when you cut the routes, you know, I feel bad because you know those 10 people need the bus.

So I don't know how you're gonna pull it off, but I just wanted to mention that I know a few people just wait for the 805 bus come into this, you know.

But the bus is not full.

I see that too.

So just wanted to make that comment.

Are we going all electric or uh is that in the plans or no?

We're going uh I think the plan would be system working.

No, it's not working.

I think the plan uh we initially we were looking at what 50-50 buses, I mean, excuse me, electric uh battery electric versus um fuel cell.

Uh and I think uh given some of the issues that we have been encountering with respect to the the battery side of things, uh we're looking more towards uh the the hydrogen fuel sales.

Uh so we're probably more like 70, 70, 30 in terms of the the mix of alternative fuel.

Okay.

And on this annual clipper card, I read it on the is there a big discount if you get an annual card.

How much of a discount do we get?

You do get a discount, but we just don't know how much it is.

All good.

So we do get a discount on that if you get it annually.

Got it.

And last thing, um, safety concerns.

Any issues from the riders that you know uh the crime is up or down, or uh is it the remaining the same?

You know, sometimes people had issues, they don't ride the bus because they feel like it's not safe.

So uh is it got better or well?

It just depends.

I mean, transit is a microcosm of the the the larger community, basically.

So some routes that go through some difficult neighborhoods, obviously there's gonna be issues with crime.

Uh if you go through neighborhoods where it's not as much crime, those are you know you feel safer in those on those routes.

So it really just sort of depends.

But we've we've seen our crime rate go down and if we know they see up if I recall the last uh security report.

We actually contract with the with the uh Alameda County Sheriffs, uh and they provide our our law enforcement services for our bus system.

Uh and so uh they report to us, is it it's not monthly, but I think quarterly they give us a report on you know statistics and last if I recall uh the overall crime rates are down, but but that's a very high concern for us is is safety.

Safety and reliability are sort of the two things that we really focus on, not only just for our passengers, but for our bus operators as well.

Uh, you know, we we've gone to the point where we actually have to have screens up for the bus drivers just because oftentimes they they you know are at threats for being uh attacked uh by by unruly passengers.

So it's something we we we watch very closely.

Thank you.

And also with the new camera system and all the new technology, I know it helps out a lot.

Yep.

Appreciate you being here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Thomas.

Vice Chair Moore, please.

Thank you, sir.

Um I I don't ride AC Transit, I haven't ridden a bus, and I can't tell you how long.

So when I look at this presentation, I look at it from a taxpayer as an investor.

What's my return on my investment?

And are the this presentation giving me a comfort level that I should make an investment because I think the reason why you're here is because you need money to keep operating.

Correct.

Yeah, well, right.

So I'm looking at it um from a ridership percentage.

What is Castro Valley in relationship to the percentage of riders?

You talk about overall ridership?

Yeah, oh your system.

What what percent are we?

Yeah, we'd have to get I don't think we have that calculation.

I'm just asking that because I'm only for for my biggest is I'm interested in Castro Valley.

So I want to know what percentage, although I do care about the rest of the community, but Castro Valley is my focus.

Um so I'd like to know what the percentage is and um in our ward or is as we call it.

So you want to just to be clear, so you want to know what the percentage of of Castro Valley riders versus the our total ridership.

Or total riders.

Okay.

And in what percentages our ward versus our ward that would be okay.

Because there's two different ones, a bigger we could we can get that number for you.

Yeah, and then I'd kind of like to know um what's the uh average number of riders on a bus in our area.

Okay, we can these buses 40 passenger buses and have 10 riders, or are they 40 passenger buses with 35 riders?

And far as bus manufacturers, uh there are still quite a few around.

I mean, Gillig's still around, right?

And they moved out to Livermore, but I mean other Prevo, even though there are Canadian bus are still around, MCI is still around.

Uh matter of fact, I think MCI is out there off of industrial parkway as a big service center.

Prevo just put one in Hayward.

Um so anyway, um I and I look at this um and as I work through it on page five.

It what is the Z E B U Workforce Partnership?

That's the Zeb Zeb University.

That's a zero emission bus university.

So ZEB is zero emission bus.

Okay.

That's the nomenclature that's used in the industry.

So we have some kind of a relationship with Shabot College and the ATU local 192.

That's correct.

What is that?

Well, ATU is uh is the union that represents the drivers uh and mechanics, and so uh again, under this program, individuals that go through 200 hours of training will also get college credits, and so that they can now get a degree at some point if they choose to uh supported by the training that they got at AC Transit for working on electrical buses.

Well, that's pretty cool.

It's a much again, obviously it's it's a different animal working on a battery-powered bus versus uh a diesel powered bus.

Yeah.

You know, and and which brings up my next question.

On page number nine, you talk about 28% of the cost is fuel.

Over what period of time would that 28% go away?

I mean, is it because I'm looking at the other graph, and we're going out to 30 2031.

Does this 28% go away in five years, two years, or well, I mean, that's a pretty substantial number.

Your guess is as good as ours, but uh, but the the bottom line is I think that 28% we're talking about is over the last year or or so uh that uh diesel fuel prices have shot up.

So, you know, if we get to straight up he'll moose open, maybe we uh you know we'll see those come back down.

Yeah, I think what would be helpful for me as an investor is to look at it and say, okay, these are I mean, I would have I'm a big investor in capital.

You need some capital to go buy buses, I would probably sign up pretty quickly.

But if you need capital to take care of unfunded liability because we haven't managed our workforce or a variety of different things, or we've fallen behind and riders and haven't caught up with the right equipment, I have a hard time with that.

But if you tell me that this 28% is going to go away is increases because we won't have any more, or um I'm just that that concerns me.

Um, and when you look at bus parts at 14 and then cost of buses up 35%, um I would share with you that all of us in this room are experienced in a very similar situation.

And my fuel to get here tonight, um my food on the table, and when you start asking for an increase, then um it's been tougher if you've noticed a ballot box and get increases.

There's not a lot of support for it.

And um the presentation that that I see tonight is very much about information about why, but really I'm looking at it saying I'm an investor, and I'm saying, why should I invest?

Well, and another quick question is on your graph here on page 11.

Um has the transportation system ever been without federal or state funding?

Ever been without federal fund?

Well, we is it ever stood on its own?

No, but there's not a there's not a public transit system in North America that funds itself.

No, I get it.

No, no, I'm just getting it.

No, you're right.

I don't know thing I'm saying is as a organization or anything, should we consider alternatives to this type of transportation?

Because if it's not ever been sustainable where it stands on its own, and we're continually um increasing our tax dollars for it, or I mean, uh I was in Arizona a couple months ago, and they got this doggone driverless taxis running everywhere.

I mean, everywhere.

Nobody driving them, so you don't have any um liability for um labor.

And and I don't know what it's like here, but I know in the grocery business my controllable expenses were uh about 70% of it was labor.

So I don't know what you guys are.

It's it's 70%.

70% of our cost is labor.

Yeah, yeah.

So you start thinking about hmm, should we be looking at giving vouchers to income uh earners that are less than 50,000 to take Uber or something?

Or you know, I I don't know.

I'm thinking about on a global thing here.

How do we look at this differently?

Because um when you look at it 2031, that red line keeps getting bigger.

And I don't think we're gonna go back to the ballot box and keep asking for another nickel because it's gonna be tough as everybody in this room or all of us have experienced tighter incomes, you know.

Um I mean, I got a bump in Social Security, but it wasn't enough to make a difference.

Well, I feel your pain.

I'm I'm I'm I'm a retired individual as well on a fixed income.

So I I feel your pain.

Yeah, I'm still working because of it.

Um, so I and I'm looking at this, and so I'm kind of questioning um uh what are we gonna do with that?

Um I mean uh well necessity is the mother of invention, and there's no question that if the measure doesn't pass, and we see the the this the significant cuts that uh barred in AC transit, then we'll have to you know look at some different alternatives.

I mean, that's that's kind of just the reality.

And right because we're required by law to have a balanced budget.

We cannot run a deficit budget.

Wouldn't you uh as a special district?

That 500 maybe 590 million dollar loan.

Uh do we have to pay that back?

Oh, absolutely.

The 50 the 52 million, uh 50 million dollar loan.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it's a 14-year uh it's a uh two year, well, so 14-year uh amortization.

Uh uh actually two excuse me, a 12-year amortization, two years, the first two years of interest only, and then it amortizes uh the uh for the balance for 12 years.

So we need the Fed to lower the interest rate then.

What's that?

So we need the Fed to step up and help us with an interest rate lower.

Well, we're already at a pretty good interest rate.

I mean, it's the it's it's tied to the to the rate that the state uh uh currently earns on its uh surplus funds.

Um when you look at this, and we're the largest uh bus transit company.

Um I've heard rumors.

Are there any considerations of mergers to um other counties and to become uh a larger organization with less overhead in management because you don't need as many CEOs when you're one three counties or four counties?

You know what I mean?

I'm just trying to figure out, you know, maybe there's a centralized bus repair center.

I mean, is there some thinking like that down the road?

Uh well, I mean, I think those are options that we'll all have to look at.

I mean, it has been some discussion about you know, uh um trying to consolidate to some extent uh the transit because in the Bay Area, what do we have?

28 transit agencies in the Bay Area?

Uh and there's been some discussion off and on all for the last 25 years about potentially doing some level of consolidation.

Uh it just gets tricky trying to try to do that when you're trying to merge that many agencies over such a large geographic area.

You know, they did this in LA.

They they did a consolidation in LA.

Uh and uh, you know, I I don't I don't know what the what the if it's if it's actually end up being cheaper or not uh by consolidating, but it it was a pretty major undertaking.

Well, I can imagine.

Um but corporations do it all the time.

You mentioned bus companies, there's only a couple around here.

Well, there's been a lot of consolidation.

And I I'm just wondering if um uh as a government semi quasi government agency, it's kind of when you start about um mergers, they wonder like, whoa, you know, um that's kind of not the kind of thinking we think about.

But I'm just saying that we need to get outside the box here.

Oh, if we're gonna survive with this.

Um and that's just a couple of thoughts I have on it.

Well, give me let me give you an example just quickly.

Uh when we talk about the the Zeb U, the the zero emission bus uh uh university that we want to establish.

We want to do that not just for ourselves, but also to for the other transit agencies within the region.

So again, so instead of them each creating their own uh training program, they can now come to to to our facility and and we would train their people as well.

And so there's opportunities to do things like that.

Procurement is another example where we could piggyback with with each other agencies to to do procurements.

So there's some areas that that clearly we'll have to look at that once uh you know if if the inevitable happens.

Yeah, I just uh was uh looking at this and I was trying to think of um it from a standpoint of I'm an investor and how do I what would it make me excited about investing in this program?

And I will be perfectly honest with you.

The information in this document doesn't quite give me that feeling.

It gives me a picture of the problem, but it doesn't give me any comfort level.

There's solutions are on the road or on the way.

And um, so I mean that's just my thoughts on it.

Thank you for your presentation.

It was well received by me.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

I um just before I sorry, I don't need to take this one.

Um I did pull up some ridership information, so I just wanted to share that with you uh about the lines that are here in Castro Valley.

Uh there are a few different metrics that we use in the industry.

One of them is uh obviously kind of the biggest one is is average daily passengers.

Um and this is a uh weekday, uh, you know, we have we uh you know weekday weekend uh numbers.

So these are numbers for the weekday, about six months old, so not um super new, but but still relevant.

Um the lines, the three lines uh carry in between uh 791 and 923 uh people per day.

Um so collectively, you know, that's around um 2400 or so.

I understand, but is that per bus?

Uh that is in that is in total out of all the all the buses and all the trips.

Oh, all day so 19 per day.

Uh these are these are three lines.

Uh each each line uh every day carries about uh about 800 people.

So 800 times three, two thousand four hundred.

The those are the average daily passengers of the bus routes uh here in Castro Valley.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Um and my computer just froze on me.

So let me just pull up some of this uh other information here.

Uh we have other kind of productivity metrics.

And I do think it's important to go through with them because you know, we've been talking a lot about numbers uh today and why we are where we are.

So another metric that we use is what we call passengers per revenue hour, right?

That's the amount of people that we pick up per hour that that bus is in service.

And uh for this area, they range between uh about 12 and 16.

Um so for every for every hour, um, that's the range of kind of average passengers that we that we pick up.

Um and you also mentioned per trip, uh, right?

This is you know, kind of how many people uh on when a bus goes from you know it's its origin start of the line to its end of the line, uh, does that bus pick up?

Uh and again, we're also around uh 15 and a half to 17.

So and what I will say from the industry, these are these are these are typical numbers, I would say, of what we would see for an area, you know, with the kind of the density in the population of Castro Valley.

Um and these aren't bad performers.

Again, it's it's just a numbers game, right?

So you know, uh Director McCaulay mentioned microtransit or on-demand services, those services uh cannot come anywhere near that level of productivity uh per revenue hour.

Um, you know, you see them kind of cap out at five, six uh percent.

It's it's really just a kind of an equation of you know, the longer you have to drive in to get someone and then kind of you know bring them and and all of that.

So um, yeah, I mean, just just kind of for reference.

I mean, I think because I think it's goods, right?

So um and you know, we provide about 50 50 one-way trips, uh, each of these lines uh every weekday.

I was gonna say, no, to give it some context.

Uh how does that compare to our to our our most productive routes in terms of revenue per hour, uh passenger per revenue?

Yeah, that's a good question.

Uh, you know, we see we see passengers per revenue hour up in the 20s, uh, and I think maybe even the 30s.

Um, but we also see on you know, there's like a line that I'm thinking of in the city of Alameda that is under 10, right?

Um, so these are not by any means the worst performing lines.

They're they're you know, they're kind of in the middle, which is again what what would be expected for uh an area uh like Castro Valley.

Yeah, it seems like with that 16 to 12 to 16 that the buses would be significantly smaller.

Uh again, that's I mean that's total that's total boardings, right?

That could be 16 people get on at one station for one bus.

And that's of course an average out of all of those 50 buses per day.

So you're gonna get less and you're gonna get more.

Right.

That's the reason why I was thinking that a smaller bus.

You know, I I don't know if buses are like cars, but small cars cost a lot of money, a lot less money than big cars.

And I would hope that, you know.

I I'm just yeah, I'm just trying to figure out.

And it's not my job.

I'm just looking at this and saying, okay, I'm gonna put some money in this program.

Why am I gonna do it?

Well, there's you've got you've got that's you know, you've got 2400 people a day in Castro Valley that are that are patronizing our services that are depending on it for uh, you know, their essential services, grocery doctor's appointments, all of that.

Um, so uh that's uh you know, school, right?

That's that's the investment.

Right.

What I'm just what I'm trying to get at is there a better way to deliver that transportation service?

Or we think because this is the box we're in.

Can we get outside that box?

Is there anywhere in the world that's different that's doing something that is successful, more successful because I gotta tell you uh keep asking for more money isn't gonna it's gonna end up cutting service to a point where it really hurts the needy, and if we gotta figure out a way to help the people that need the help and do it economically feasible for the people that don't need the help that are paying the bills, too.

You know what I mean?

Absolutely.

I'm all I'm all ears, you know.

We we we do look at this stuff.

Um, and like I said, you know, these these on-demand services, all of that, they just can't match the productivity of a good old-fashioned bus.

All right.

Thank you, Mr.

Vice Chair, and uh my thanks to all of you for being here and for fielding the questions.

Um I've got uh a few clarification questions and some thoughts along the lines of our vice chair.

Um slide two says you have 226 employees, and slide four says you're responsible for 5100 jobs.

What's the what's the difference between those two numbers?

The the the 2200 are the direct employees that we have.

The 5100 number are the people or the jobs that we support through uh the various programs that we offer, whether it's capital programs, whether it's uh consultants that we use, uh so we support you know uh jobs outside of our uh uh of our footprint, if you will.

Okay.

Uh so it's contractors, contract correct contractors, anybody you pay.

Exactly.

Okay, thank you.

Um thank you.

Um busy hour at your peak hour.

How many buses are on the road system wide?

Well, we got 600 620 buses or something like that.

I'm not sure we can get back to you in terms of how many buses are operating during the peak.

Okay.

Okay.

Please.

Um what I'm looking for there is the percentage of your fleet operating fleet at peak time uh compared to your zero uh emissions units.

So are all the 50 50 odd zero emissions units on the street every day.

I mean, I would say all of them, but but uh all of our zero emission uh vehicles are are blended in with our existing fleet, so they just operate on lines good like any any other bus.

Thank you.

Um you mentioned the realign program, and it's been in effect for a couple of years now.

Just coming up on one year.

One year, okay.

I think what impact has it had economically the ridership has increased.

I mean, we we the last three yeah, about five thousand riders or additional riders that we've in the last month.

So we we've seen ridership increase as a result of the realign.

Really?

Yeah, yeah.

Because what we did was in a one way to put it, we we basically had to write size our our uh transit network based on the commuter pattern that it changed pattern that it changed as a result of COVID.

Okay.

So we so we change tweaked a lot of the routes to, and and again, most of the routes that the AC transit provides are local local routes, right?

So we we tweaked those, and that's what what made the the service a little more efficient.

Okay, we were able to create some headways, uh, which again makes always attracts more riders when you got a frequent more frequent uh headways.

Very good.

Thank you.

I'm surprised.

Um curious question what's the current range of fares for AC transit for a ride on AC Transit?

Well, the base fare is 250, right?

Yeah, base fare is 250.

Okay.

So that's the cash fare that you would pay.

But when you buy the various passes, whether it's clipper, whether it's easy pass, whether it's a day pass or whatever, there's usually a discounted uh equation associated with that.

But the base fare if you were going to pay cash would be 250.

Yeah.

And what's um what's uh uh range for um a loaded loaded rate loaded costs for a driver, uh meaning, you know, salary benefits, what what's the annual cost for a driver?

Yeah.

Don't have that information off the top of our heads.

Um, you know, again, if you're interested in these numbers, uh, the national transit database is a great resource because uh they will actually spell out all of that, uh, and you can look at profiles of different agencies.

Um, but we can get that to you on my my home transit agency is referring me to the national.

Yeah.

We'll get you that.

Yeah, we we have that we have that data.

We we just don't know it off the top right.

I understand.

Yeah, we have to track uh uh what our um operating costs is, and so we have that number somewhere.

I think we don't have it.

Um slide eight, SB63 financial efficiency review.

Um confirmed average annual savings of 33 million dollars since fiscal year 2020.

So that means if I'm reading that correctly, in fiscal year 2020, your operating budget was 150 million dollars higher than it is today.

No, I don't yeah, I don't know.

Well, help me understand average annual savings.

Where did the savings come from?

Well, part of it came from the reduced service because we're again we're operating at 85% of the service pre COVID.

So 15% of service was reduced as a result of COVID.

Okay.

So that's probably the biggest share of the savings came from uh reduced service.

Okay.

Um if I'm looking then at the history on here.

Um I'd like to see if possible um slide 11 that goes back to fiscal year 2020.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

And the other thing I uh we can get to is the if you're interested, is the the actual final report.

That was a report that was put out as a result of this uh SB63 study that was done, which looked at uh what agencies had done leading up to uh introducing this this transit measure that's that's uh on the ballot coming in November, uh, which talked about the 33 million, and then it broke down this provides some detail as to how to get to that number.

I'd love to see it.

Okay.

Thank you.

And I did just uh find some of those uh operating numbers, uh labor numbers for you.

Um so for fiscal year uh 24, so that was um it's July 2023 to June 2024.

Uh we had a AC transit had a 564 million four hundred and forty-three thousand dollar uh operating budget.

Uh and of that, uh 68.9% was labor, which for that year worked out to 388,000 uh excuse me, 388,980,000.

Thank you.

Okay.

Appreciate it.

Um that's all the the informational questions I have.

And I I just I I kind of want to piggyback on what my colleagues have said, and that is um, you know, we're you we're not gonna get to fiscal health by counting paper clips and copy paper and restricting business lunches.

That there has to be um step function change in uh you know I I've I've heard tonight uh we're all ears open for suggestions, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Um if AC transit ceased to exist, failed, and I'm not I got please don't.

Um, but if that were to happen, what would replace you?

What would fill the need?

The automobile.

The automobile?

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, traffic would if you think it's bad now.

Just can you imagine uh if BART goes away, what the traffic would look like on a freeways?

Sure.

Yep.

I mean, I and AC transit doesn't see um a public mass recognizing that mass can be different sizes.

AC transit doesn't see um a substitute that could step in to fill that gap if AC transit didn't exist.

I uh you know Chuck talked about giving um Uber passes to the truly needy.

Um okay, we know from your experience that uh small buses under your current system are not cost effective.

What I'm wanting to hear is that someone in your organization is really looking at what Chuck said outside the box.

You know, what are the alternatives that are being considered to meet the public transit needs of folks who need um inexpensive, reliable, clean um environmentally good transportation.

And the story that's told here is oh we're we're in deep do-do and we need a bailout.

Um what I hope that the community would hear is we're in deep duty, we're hoping for a bailout.

If that doesn't happen, this is what we're gonna do, and it doesn't necessarily translate into we're gonna you know send a bus to Castro Valley every three days, if you know what I'm saying.

Um so you know, for future maybe a little bit of, you know, we're on this.

Um we're working on things that don't look like 40 person buses.

We're working on things that will meet the needs of low-income ridership and students, and um will be reliable, clean, environmentally safe, et cetera.

That's that's what I want to hear.

Um I I I think to that point, um, it's important to note that just regionally, those conversations are happening.

Um the general managers of all of the agencies in the Bay Area, they're having regular conversations since even before the pandemic and then more so after the pandemic started, probably starting about 2021.

Um, those conversations have started um with state and federal legislators, um, as well as kind of regional bodies, they may meeting regularly to try to figure out different things.

And so you're right.

So what you're seeing also popping up, there are places where um like an Uber ride is you know, for where there's like you know, um lower density places where some cities are offering that.

Um we are having lots of conversations about what is in the toolkit that we can use, some of it outside the box, some of it within the box.

Um, what are some of the options there?

So it's just that um we don't have all of it to share right now.

And there's but there's I mean we had a conversation that our general manager and one of our board directors sat in on, and they talked about you know what might happen with you know the whole autonomous vehicle kind of aspect.

So so there's conversations happening, there's studies, you know, um, through the transit associations on a national level, the American Public Transportation Association, the California Transit Association, there's different conversations that are happening kind of together, and then also independently as AC Transit, there's conversations happening.

And so, I mean, on a practical level, yes, we're doing some belt tightening, but we're also looking outside the box, even within our agency.

Um, since we had our general manager, I think with the board's blessing, um, there has been uh two restructurings already within our agency um to gain efficiency to kind of um consolidate some of the functions.

So then that way we're gaining efficiencies, you know, where we can, and that that effort is continuing.

So um so to answer your question, we don't have all the answers tonight, unfortunately.

But yes, those things are happening.

There's lots of conversations, but a lot of it is kind of industry-wide.

Um, and you know, and unfortunately in this this country, we're not like you know, Paris or Italy or Japan or South Korea, where they're having where there's system, you know, the bus is like bus or train is coming every five or 10 minutes.

Um, you know, and I think in New York City, they're trying to do some things, and you're seeing just kind of pivoting to some of the things that you're talking about out of the box.

You're seeing a change in the way ridership is done and the way the funding is happening.

And so, yeah, we're we're looking at that, but we're um we don't have all of those answers right now.

I understand.

And I appreciate that.

And I'm uh I'm hoping that future uh presentations, context with the public would highlight that so that there's some hope and positivity.

Um because you do a great job.

I mean I'd like Dan.

I I wrote uh I wrote AC Transit from Oakland Award for high school years, and um made a big difference.

Um have you looked at or thought about uh, you know, Chuck talked about um partnerships, mergers, combinations.

Um have you looked at condensate condensing, um, meaning AC, Alameda County Contra Costa?

What if it was just A?

Um, you thought about that?

Is that I I don't know what the efficiencies would be, what the economics would be if you were geographically um constraint uh constricted a little bit, but has that been looked up?

Well, she was just reminding me that one of the things that that the region has undertaken is the the Clipper program, which is a perfect example of how you can sort of homogenize all the different transit systems through the one card.

So that's just an example.

Uh I know that's all and that's really been that spirited by MTC, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

Uh, but there's more effort that that uh that they can undertake that uh to help to consolidate uh some of the functions, if you will.

Uh like you said, we one of the things they've been kicking around is procurement.

You know, how can we, you know, you know, coordinate our our procurement so that we don't have to each have a procurement department, if you will.

Uh those are things that you know we're we're talking about that kinds of stuff.

Okay, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um last question.

What you know, you're a vital service.

What can we do to assist?

Well, I think doing just what you're doing.

I mean, in terms of providing us that kind of uh feedback.

That's the kind of stuff that's what we need to hear from the public in terms of what they'd like to see.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions, any follow-up?

Council vice chair more.

I just I just go back to usually when you see growth in an a successful organization, you see shrinkage in expenses.

And I see so many organizations that are some quasi government funded that don't do that.

And if you were in independent business today, you would be filing chapter 13 or 11 or you know what I mean?

And I think we need to start thinking about how we're looking more like a business would be.

And when 70% of your expenses are controllable with labor, that would be one of the first places I'd be looking.

Is are we controlling it or is it growing?

And um but that's just the No I'm smiling because you're preaching to the choir.

Uh these guys know I'm I'm on the board.

I I have a financial background, and that's the first thing I tell every time it comes up.

It's that 70% of our cost is labor.

If we aren't managing our labor, we're not doing anything.

And you see it every day and every other business.

I mean, plumbing with the plastic pipe because plumbers cost a lot of money doing copper.

I mean, you this it goes on the efficiencies that are created in the world today.

And I just you know, I'm sorry, I don't want to take every more time.

But thank you for your presentation.

All righty, Chair.

I have one one more observation if I can.

Just want to take a second.

Uh I I was surprised oh, at your numbers of 2400 Castor Valley uh trips a day.

Uh that's passengers.

Passengers.

Yeah, and those are unlinked trips for those you know, the the duration of those routes, which of course extend outside of Castor Valley, but presumably at least you know, half of that is like a trip, right?

We're a population of about 60,000.

So as a percentage of our population, that's only four percent.

It's rather meager, but it's 2400 trips.

Those are students and seniors and workers and shoppers and people uh of that percentage, some of them have other alternatives, but I can tell you a lot of people that are riding the bus, that's not their only alternative.

I don't know.

Two years of ridership, it was my only alternative.

So I am surprised uh that the numbers are that high, to be honest with you.

And I told you that when I look at the empty buses, it's very antidotal because I only see the few buses that I happen to see.

But obviously, there's there's a a demand and and a use for this, right?

Even though it's a small percentage of a population.

Oh, of course.

And I think as you've heard here, you guys are in a situation where the industry is completely changing, and your challenge is going to be managing decline.

Managing decline.

All the video rental stores manage decline.

Okay, they didn't just go out on day one, they managed to climb.

So and and maybe that'll reverse.

I don't know.

Okay, thank you.

It was great presentation.

Thank you for the the uh your example you just gave.

Uh the reason student population for you go to the Cal State uh East Bay increased was because the Cal State East Bay stopped their shuttle service.

So those folks now riding AC transit to get up to to Count State East Bay.

So Hayward State couldn't pay for it, so thank you.

So you guys are bailing them out, got it.

Much appreciate your time and expertise, uh willingness to answer questions, and uh please come back and see us November.

Thank you.

Okay.

On to the chair's report, council and staff comments.

Uh give staff the chance to speak up first.

Anything from Ashley Tisa, Tona?

We do have uh the Healthy Living Festival coming up September 24th at the Oakland Zoo.

Um information for that is on Eventbrite.

If you just look up uh the Healthy Living Festival, September 24th.

Thank you.

Anything else?

Nothing from me, Bill.

Thank you.

You betcha.

Uh council comments, thoughts, ideas, anything?

No.

Okay.

All I've got is just a chamber mixer this coming Thursday, the 23rd.

Uh, it's the chili cook off at the Sequoians.

Um clothing is is this is a clothed event, I am told.

Um good thing when there's chili involved.

Um 5:30 to 7:30, and they have in the past uh done just a fantastic job with their with their mixers.

So if you're so inclined, we'll see you there.

Um nothing else.

We are adjourned at 831.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

We're unadjourned at 8 31 and a half.

Um we have to take public comment on the chair's report, council and staff comments.

Do we have anybody in the room that wishes to comment on those items?

No.

Anybody online?

No.

Public comments closed.

Meeting adjourned.