Good afternoon, everyone.

The Indigo Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, October 16th, 2025, is called to order.

Our deputy chief legal officer, Latasha Higgins, will call role.

Latasha, would you please call role?

Good afternoon, directors.

Please indicate your attendance when I call your name.

Director Smith.

Present.

Director Quick.

Present.

Director Fagan.

Director Wilson.

Director Gardner.

Present.

Chair Hahn.

Present.

We have a quorum.

Please know for the record that we do have two board members participating virtually today.

So each vote must be done by roll call vote.

Thank you, Latasha.

Next is item number two, awards and accommodations.

President and CEO Jennifer Pierce will present any awards and accommodations we have for October.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you so much.

We will start out as we always do with our safe drivers.

We're going to put up a list of our uh September safe drivers, as always.

These operators were recognized for their safe driving for the month of September with a National Safety Council patch, pin, and certificate.

So congratulations to everyone.

I will highlight on the next slide, Mr.

Stephen Thine today.

He has been working with us for 37 years and has 33 years of safe driving.

So congratulations, Steven.

Next is our September Operations Employee of the Month, Arvinder Sing, coach operator on Fixed Route.

The person nominating him wrote to me that Arvinder consistently demonstrates exceptional customer service and a proactive approach throughout his daily operations.

He engages with passengers in a friendly and professional manner, ensuring their needs are met.

When he encounters questions from passengers that he cannot address on the spot, he promptly reaches out over the radio for assistance, ensuring he can provide accurate and helpful information.

His dedication to resolving concerns not only enhances the passenger experience, but also reflects his commitment to excellence in his position.

Arvinder's unwavering unwavering initiative and capability make him a true asset to the team.

Congratulations, Mr.

Singh.

Next we have a couple retirements.

And I'm not sure who all is in the audience, but we're going to start out with Mr.

Dexter Davis.

I know he was trying to make it.

Dexter, are you here?

All right.

Well, we're going to talk about Dexter for a second.

He um recently retired after 30 years of service.

He started at Indigo in December of 1995.

At the time, he simply needed a job.

And a friend told him that back then we were Metro, that Metro was hiring.

He was not anticipating that this would become a career.

People like Sam Garrison were mentors to Mr.

Dexter Dexter, and they helped him grow.

He looks at Metro slash Indigo, not just as a job now, but as his family.

During his career with us, Dex, as we call him, worked as professional coach operator.

He also helped train as a sub in operator cadet and reported back that he absolutely loved his passengers.

He was asked which one of the routes was his favorite, and he said, all of them.

He said he built relationships with his passengers on every route he's driven.

He's a people person, which he said has made his job easier and more fun.

After retiring, Dex stated he's going into real estate and will be traveling.

Dexter is proud of where he is and his relationship with his co-workers and passengers.

When asked to describe describe Dexter in three words, Mr.

Jeff Hayes said, loyal, dependable, and a comedian.

We will miss his jokes, stories, and presence.

Please join us in congratulating Mr.

Dexter Davis on his well-earned retirement and in thanking him for 30 years of outstanding service to Indigo.

We wish him all the best.

Another retirement, Mr.

Rodriguez McGuire, 25 years of dedicated service.

Mr.

McGuire started at Indigo in his early 40s.

Like Mr.

Dexter Davis, he said he really hadn't planned on getting more than a job and um was not anticipating it would be a career.

He said he hadn't really grown up yet, even at 40 when he took this job, and he didn't have plans on staying much longer than a year.

But people like Sam Garrison, Ed Birdsong, Dexter Davis, and Jerry Poindexer were mentors to him.

They helped him grow and helped him become the operator that he became.

Their guidance helped him look at this job differently, that it really is a career.

He thinks of IndieGo and his co-workers as his family.

He was born in Evansville and raised in Chicago, so he didn't have anyone here to call his family.

And he says IndieGo and his mentors filled that void.

During his career at Indigo, Rod, as we call him, has worked in the maintenance area.

He helped train, and he was one of the operators who helped start the mentoring program.

He helped bring new operators, excuse me, helping new operators brings joy to Rod.

While mentoring, he coaches the new operators on how to do things the Indigo way so they too can change their thoughts of just having a quote unquote job into thoughts of making this a career.

After retiring, Rod stated he's going to rest and travel.

He's considering starting his own business, but stated he honestly would like to return and work for Indigo part-time.

So congratulations to Rod.

We will miss his jokes, stories, and I'm told his world famous family barbecue.

Congratulations, Mr.

McGuire on your well-earned retirement.

Thank you for your service.

I don't think Rod is here either, right?

We do have awards and bus stop signs that a lot of their colleagues have signed.

So we'll make sure that these get out to our retirees.

Lastly, we have Mr.

Daryl Watts, who's retiring after 46 years of service.

We would like to recognize him for his many years of being dedicated to us.

He began his career in August 13th, 1979.

Throughout his career, he's been a valued and hardworking member of our team.

He began as an outside maintenance technician and retired as a general laborer.

He's always taken great pride in his work, particularly in maintaining and cleaning the track areas and the grounds surrounding our facilities.

Mr.

Watts expressed how much he's enjoyed his time at IndieGo and the friendships he's built over the years.

His commitment, reliability, and positive spirit have left left a lasting impact on all who have had the pleasure of working with him.

So congratulations to Mr.

Daryl Watts on your retirement.

Do I have one of our retirees that just joined us?

Do you want to come up and we'll take a picture and give you your award?

You don't want this model.

I think both of them.

Sure.

Perfect.

Lovely.

And I'll get to a scientific one.

All right.

Thank you.

I'm glad you could make it, Rod.

Lastly, we have a new board member, Mr.

Stan Smith started with us in our service committee, but we wanted to recognize him here at our board meeting.

Thrilled to have Mr.

Stan Smith joining us on the board of directors.

Stan brings over three decades of leadership experience across the public and private sectors, including executive roles at IBM, Bentley Systems, WSP, Level 5 Engineering, and others.

He currently works as the owner of SCS Associates, where he is a business consultant, focused primarily on the Indiana Transportation and Infrastructure Marketplace.

He previously served as commissioner of the Indiana Department of Transportation, where he led a 5,000-person organization focused on employee development, customer satisfaction, and continuous quality improvement.

His career reflects a strong commitment to infrastructure innovation, strategic growth, and community engagement.

Mr.

Smith's commitment to the community has been recognized through numerous honors, including the Parsons Brinkerhoff Diversity Leadership Award, Mayor of Indianapolis Diversity Award, IPS Human Rights Award, and Sagamore of the Wabash Award presented by Governor Evan Bye.

Stan is an active member of Faith Hope and Love International.

He's also served on the Diversity Committee of the IndyConnect Transit Initiative, was a past chair of the Indy Chambers Transportation Infrastructure and Environment Committee and chaired the Circle City Classic Coronation Scholarship Committee.

Several of us have longstanding uh work relationships with Mr.

Smith and are thrilled to have your leadership and direction on our board.

So welcome.

That is all I have.

Thank you for allowing me the time.

Thank you, Jennifer.

And welcome, Stan, and just a huge shout out to all those who are retiring.

I think it was a collective 106 years that they dedicated to Indico, and that should be uh that should be acknowledged.

Um moving on to item three committee reports.

Without objection, we will enter into the record the service committee report for it's for our meeting on October 9th.

Um hearing no objections, we'll do that.

Uh next is item number four, the regular agenda.

We will begin with action item A1 consideration and approval of the board meeting minutes from September 18th.

Are there any questions or comments from board members?

Hearing none, can I get a motion for approval of the September 18th board meeting minutes?

Move we approve.

Perfect.

Uh there being a motion and a second board counsel.

Will you please uh call for the roll?

Directors, please indicate your vote on the present motion when I call your name.

Director Smith.

Director Slash.

Aye.

Aye.

Director Wilson.

Aye.

Director Gardner.

Aye.

Chair Hahn.

Aye.

The motion carries.

Thank you.

Next up is action item A2, uh, introduction of ordinance 2025-02 authorizing the acquisition of real property.

Chief Development Officer Brooke Thomas will present this action item.

Good evening, Brooke Thomas, Chief Development Officer.

You get me instead of Bob tonight on this one.

Um, this might feel a little like deja vu for some of you because we've actually already uh approved ordinances similar to this.

Um, as it was said, uh, this is an introduction tonight.

Um, we'll be back in November to actually take you ask you to take action on this item.

Um, this is a two-step process.

We have some things that are a two-step process, and this is one of them.

Um, at that time, we'll ask that the board of directors approve and adopt proposed ordinance number 202502 authorizing IPTC to acquire certain real property interests necessary for local bus stop improvement projects and for the Blue Line Bus Rapid Transit Project.

Um, those previously adopted ordinances allowed us to move forward and purchase some additional land for bus stops.

We are back because those projects have some additional need for some additional property acquisitions.

Um, there are among our local bus stop improvements that we're making.

We're asking for the ability to purchase 14 more parcels or parts of 14 more parcels for those projects.

And then there are a handful of there's still local bus stop improvements along the blue line.

Um, but those are for those connecting routes.

Similar to the blue line project as a whole, um, and what we typically try to do.

There are no complete takings as part of this.

This is Slivers of Land, either temporarily or permanently.

Um, all permanent rights of way will be uh transferred to the City of Indianapolis Department of Public Works and made part of the entire public ride of way.

Um, as Bob would say, if he was here, we use eminent domain as an absolute last resort, um, but hence the need for the approval of the ordinance.

Um, should we need to do that?

Um, there will be a public hearing on November 20th.

Um we'll hear testimony testimony about the ordinance and uh what it means to exercise eminent domain.

These property acquisitions are covered by either the annual capital budget appropriation for local bus stop improvements or the blue line project budget itself.

And there are no uh DBE XBE goals because those are not part of real estate acquisitions.

With that, I will do my very best to answer any questions you may have.

Brooke.

Any you said it's just slivers of land.

What's the largest sliver?

Um it'll often be to get, you know, like additional three feet to have like a full eight-foot boarding pad, right?

So if your typical sidewalk width and a little bit of grass is five feet, can sometimes be like three more feet.

Okay, just where that pad is needed.

Okay.

Any other questions or comments for Brooke?

Um I get a yeah.

With the DBE goals.

Uh, that doesn't mean it's uh you cannot select the DBE from it's just that there is no requirement for the property acquisitions themselves.

You're correct.

Um, for the projects, the construction work, those do get DBE goals.

Okay, correct.

Yep.

Thank you for clarifying.

All right.

Can I get a motion for approval of professional services workplace utilization study?

That's my next one.

Oh, sorry.

I don't think yeah, I don't think we need action.

No action on this one.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Okay.

I am ready with you.

All right.

Um thank you.

All right.

Next up is action item A3, consideration and approval of the professional services workplace utilization study.

I'm sorry, I got off in my notes.

Uh and we'll hear again from Chief Development Officer Brooke Thomas.

Thank you.

Chief Development Officer Brooke Thomas.

Um, it is recommended that the board of directors authorize the president and CEO to execute a contract with Doris in an amount not to exceed 150,000 to conduct a workplace utilization study.

Um, by way of background, um, this team really prides itself on evidence-based decision making.

Um, so this follows along in those lines.

Um we feel a need to kind of look at our current real estate footprint and future real estate needs, um, and to do so in a way that um we can back up with some data.

So um we'd like to use some human ecologists who study kind of those complex relationships between people, and in our case, this is our employees and their environment.

And in our case, would be an administrative workspace to conduct some research, figure out how people use their spaces, how they don't, and then develop some practical solutions, if you will.

Um, we want to inform the ongoing fiscal sustainability study with this work, and we want to inform next year's 2026 capital program budget update.

Um, the sustainability study.

Um, we're looking to save costs, we're looking to avoid cost, um, and if at all possible possible or where possible, uh, generate revenue.

I don't know how likely this is, but I want to give a tangible example of what generate revenue might look like.

The training academy was originally envisioned to be such that we could use it to train our CDL drivers.

You remember this, right?

But that maybe there would be other entities that could also use the track and the classroom in the space to train their CDL drivers.

So that's what I mean by revenue generation when it comes to the sustainability study.

And then when it comes to the 2026 capital program budget, you may um recall that um the board took action for us to lease the IMI property, and I always get turned around and hear next door for mobility solutions.

So now we've got this question about what to do about Michigan.

Um so we've been sitting on a plan to improve the pro the parking lot at Michigan Street for a while now, but we want to know the fate of all of that before we make any capital investments.

So again, uh, this will be to look mostly at our administrative workspaces.

Um, it is one thing to ask my our colleagues like, how do you use your space?

Do you need this conference room?

Do you need this breakout room?

And they would say yes, right?

People tend to hoard spaces and say we absolutely need this.

Don't take it away from us.

But these folks will come in and they will observe.

They will be like, Brooke, we know you told us that you are at your desk 90% of the time.

That's actually not true.

Or you told us that you need this conference room, but would you believe that that wasn't used the entire time we were here?

So that's some of the work that they'll do.

They'll interview staff.

Um, it the way that it's done is less of an audit and more of a tell us how you use your space, tell us how your team works.

So with that, I will do my best to answer the questions you may have.

Are there questions for Brooke?

I feel like there's always questions for Brooke.

This this is director quick.

Um, I don't have questions for Brooke, but I would just like to say I I appreciate uh you and the team taking the time to initiate the study so that um the any funding or any planning could be done to the best of uh the team's ability.

Uh that's much appreciated.

Thank you.

So, Mr.

Chairman, if I can take just a minute, uh kind of help out some of our newer members.

This is all of these moving pieces.

There are several moving pieces.

We got the the uh uh updates to the MOU with the foundation.

We have this study.

We have Brooke's got more stuff on her plate than most people can imagine.

Um, but it all at the end of the day, this is all gonna fit together to help us make the case for driving revenue, making sure that our expenses are in line that we're doing everything that we can possibly do to make this the most efficient fiscally responsible agency in government.

And I just take a moment to you know congratulate Brooke on the work that she's done so far and the amount of work that has hit her desk is just tremendous.

So I appreciate you, Brooke, and all that you're doing.

And members, I encourage you if if you'd like to take a much deeper dive into this to sit down with Brooke, and she's got I did it last what Wednesday, Tuesday.

Uh we spent an hour and a half together, and it's just absolutely amazing what she's um been able to do.

So thanks, Brooke.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

I think I got time coming up with you, Brooke.

Um also I I assume that uh a part of the study will also kind of at at least a high level identify any risk associated with any recommendations that may be coming out of this in terms of uh yeah.

My guy Brian over there.

I'd be happy to yeah, dig into any and all of that with you.

Absolutely.

Yep.

Perfect.

Very much a discovery effort.

Okay.

Thank you, Brooke.

Um there any other questions or comments?

Hearing none, I'm asking the appropriate one this time.

Can I get a motion for approval of professional services workplace utilization study?

So moved.

Can I get a second?

Second.

Thank you.

There being a motion and a second.

Uh would you please call roll?

Directors, please indicate your vote on the present motion when I call your name.

Director Smith.

Director slash director quick.

Aye.

Director Gardner, aye.

Chair Hahn.

Oh, I fold we are a client of uh closed public affairs group.

So noted, thank you.

The motion carries.

Yep.

Just to be clear, that was a recusal of this vote.

Yes.

Right.

Yep.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is action item A4, consideration and approval of the 2026 board and committee meeting dates.

President and CEO, Jennifer Pierce will present.

Good afternoon.

Again, this is Jennifer Pierce.

Uh, yes, action item A4 is to recommend the meeting dates for next year.

Um, we are generally keeping the same cadence that we had last year, which for the board meetings is 4 p.m.

on the third Thursday of every month.

Um, so we've outlined what those specific dates are here.

A reminder that in July we have two meeting dates.

One is to introduce the budget, and the second is for a public hearing on the budget.

Um, so those are those dates.

And then for the um finance committee, we're continuing with just three finance committee meetings a year.

Um, February for the um start of the year, which ends up being the close of the books from the previous year, um, July for the budget and December to talk about rollover generally.

Those are going to be moved from a morning to an afternoon.

They're gonna be held immediately before the board meetings in those months of February, July, and December.

And then service committee meetings will remain on the second Thursday of every month at 8:30 in the morning.

And those will remain on the even numbered months.

So starting in February.

And then finally, the governance and audit committee meetings.

Those will be held on the first month of each quarter as we have this year.

They will be at 10 a.m.

Um the even months, they will be held immediately after the service committee meetings.

And it's a little bit complicated, but we laid out every single date there for your consideration.

Happy to answer any questions or make any changes if necessary.

Thank you, Jennifer.

Are there any questions or comments from board members?

Hearing none, can I get a motion for approval of the 2026 board and committee meeting dates?

Motion and a second.

Latasha, would you please call roll?

Directors, please indicate your vote on the present motion when I call your name.

Director Smith.

Director slash.

Director Quick.

Aye.

Director Gardner.

Aye.

Chair Hahn.

Hi.

The motion carries.

Thank you, Latasha.

Next up is action item A5, consideration and approval of the 2024 Annual Financial External Audit Report.

Director of Governance and Audit, Brian Atkinson and Emily Ballbach will uh with Forbes.

Mazar will present.

Sorry for that fumble, guys.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Chairman, members of the board and uh staff.

My name is Brian Atkinson, Director of Governance and Audit here in Indigo.

Um it is recommended that the Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation Board of Directors receive the 2024 annual financial external audit report.

A little bit of background on this.

That is required by the Indiana State Board of Accounts.

And so Forvus Mazar's LLP certified public accountants is the firm contracted by Indigo to complete the annual financial audit and the single uh federal grant audit.

That then is in turn is produced and presented to the Indiana State Board of Accounts for acceptance.

The action item A5 currently represents the 2024 audit report of IPTC's financial statements and compliance as prepared by Forbes Mazar's LLP.

And representing Forbus Mazar's LLP is director of nonprofit and public sector, Emily Ballback.

And I am privileged to introduce her.

And she has a summary of the audit report.

We have the complete audit report in your board packet, but she has a summary to provide this evening and it's in a PowerPoint format.

And staff has that ready to go.

So at this time I'd like to introduce Emily.

Thank you.

Hello, everyone.

Thank you for having me here today.

As Brian mentioned, my name is Emily Ballbach, and I'm a director with Forvus Mazars.

Andy Rinzel is also here as well, too.

He's a partner with Forbes Mazars, and we both work on the Indigo audit engagement.

So as Brian mentioned, we performed our audit procedures earlier this year in April and May, and then we issued those deliverables back at the end of June.

We have three main deliverables that we issue.

The first is going to be that annual comprehensive financial report, which includes your balance sheet, your true financial statements and notes.

We'll also have your single audit report, which is your audit of your federal expenditures.

And then last will be our required communication, which really kind of goes over the results of the audit procedures and is really what I'm going to kind of focus on high level on during this presentation.

If you guys do have any questions as I'm going through, please don't hesitate to interrupt me.

I'm more than happy to answer questions as we go through.

But I think what you'll see in these results, it was a really clean audit results again here as well.

So if we move into the next slide, um, as far as responsibility for the audit, it's gonna be management's response responsibility to prepare the financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the US.

They're also gonna be responsible for designing and implementing internal controls as well as maintaining those internal controls.

It's gonna be our responsibility to express an opinion over those financial statements.

And then we're gonna conduct our audit in accordance with the standards that are listed out here on the bottom.

All of those are standards with which we've conducted your audit in the past.

I will highlight on that third one there relating to uniform guidance.

That is going to be the guidance that really governs the audit of your federal expenditures, or what sometimes we like to call your single audit.

We look at the next page.

That means we're gonna assess the risk of material misstatement.

We're really gonna focus on those high dollar or high risk value areas within the financial statements and design our procedures around focusing on those areas.

Looking at the next slide as far as the scope of the audit, so you'll see here just the different parts of that annual comprehensive financial report that Indigo issues.

Um we do provide an opinion on the statements, really the core statements as well as the notes and the schedule of federal expenditures.

Um, since you guys prepare an annual comprehensive financial report, that means there's additional information included within that document.

So you guys prepare a management discussion analysis.

Um, there's some required supplementary information that we do not provide an opinion on, but we do review to make sure it does not contradict anything else within the financial statements.

Um you guys also include an introductory section, which is written by management as well as a statistical section, which includes various metrics for indigo throughout the year.

So again, those are not subject to our audit procedures, but we do review them as part of the audit process.

When we look at government auditing standards, um, again, here we're also going to look at your internal controls and assess those as well as perform certain tests of compliance as it relates to laws or regulations or grant agreements and make sure that there's no noncompliance there.

Looking on slide seven, I would say this is probably one of the more important slides of the presentation and looks at the audit results for 2024.

So we issued clean or unmodified opinions, which is what you want to see and what you should really expect to see in your audit results.

Um, I also want to highlight if we look at kind of government auditing standards as well as uniform guidance, which is that audit of your federal expenditures.

We had no reportable findings included in those deliverables.

We also had no material instances of noncompliance.

So again, very clean the results kind of that you want to see, no reportable findings that had to be included in those deliverables.

The next couple slides are really summarizing that required communication deliverable that I talked about.

Um, so if you wanted additional information about these later, you could definitely go to that deliverable to see some additional dialogue, but just to quickly kind of go through these, um, your significant accounting policies are gonna be highlighted in note one of the financial statements.

No real significant changes there.

You guys were required to adopt a new GASB standard this year, GASBE statement 101 related to compensated absences.

There was no material change though in your financial statements.

It just required some additional analysis of that compensated absences balance to make sure that there was no impact on Indigo.

We look at the top of slide nine.

As far as management judgments and accounting estimates, we'll go to the next slide, please.

Thank you.

Um, these are gonna be areas within the financial statements that are gonna incorporate an element of uncertainty or unknown into the calculation to determine those amounts.

You'll see each of those areas where Indigo uses estimates within their financial statements, these are all going to be consistent with where you've had estimates in the past.

So no new amounts in the financial statements there.

If we look at the financial statement disclosures, I always like to say if you only have five, 10 minutes to look at the financial statements, these might be the ones that I'd point your attention to, the footnotes, um, due to either the size of the balances or those estimates that are used in the determination of those amounts.

We look at the next page.

As far as audit adjustments, we did have one proposed audit adjustment that was recorded in the financial statements this year.

Um it related to an accounts payable invoice that needed to be accrued within the financial statements and was around 1.4 million dollars.

So that was reflected in the financial statements that were issued.

We did have one proposed audit adjustment that was not recorded relating to investment income accrual.

Um, so we have a low threshold that's at kind of the very bottom that we have to look at any issue that we find above that threshold.

This adjustment was above that lowest level threshold, but was not considered material enough to post within the financial statements or reflect within the financial statement numbers.

So it's just included on a proposed past adjustment schedule that's attached to the management management letter or that required communication.

And then lastly, within that required communication, there's also going to be a management representation letter that's signed by management at the end of the audit engagement that basically attests that management has provided us everything, that nothing has been withheld throughout the audit process.

We look at the next slide, slide 11.

As it look as it relates to internal control findings.

So just a quick refresher for the board on the different levels of internal control findings.

So there's three levels of findings.

The highest two are going to be material weakness and significant deficiency.

If we had either of those two, those would be considered reportable findings and have to be included in that uniform guidance or single audit report written up there and included in that deliverable.

Happy to report, as I mentioned earlier, no reportable findings, so no material weaknesses, no significant deficiencies.

We did have one deficiency, which again is the lowest level of finding and is only included in that required communication.

And that just relates to the audit adjustment that I talked about on the previous slide.

So anytime we have an audit adjustment, we have to evaluate that as an internal control finding.

Again, we don't believe this is indicative of any significant issues.

So that's why it's only sitting as a deficiency within that required communication.

The bottom of this slide just talks about other matters that are coming up.

So some of the new standards that are going to be issued that will be applicable to Indigo in the future, as well as the Office of Management and Budget has issued some updated uniform guidance guidelines, which is really just increasing the threshold for what requires a single audit.

You guys always receive well above this threshold.

So you will will always be subject to a single audit.

But again, it could be material in determining which programs need to be audited in the future.

Have a just a couple slides on financial.

Before you move on from that, just help educate me.

What so we had that one deficiency, which isn't a big deal, but what kind of bumps it up in your processes?

Yes.

So a lot of times what's gonna bump it up to be a higher is the dollar amount.

So that's gonna be the biggest driver of kind of bumping it up maybe to that next level.

Um also it's gonna be if we found a number of errors.

So this was only one invoice that we found.

If there were 10 invoices that we found, or I mean, again, I'm just giving a hypothetical number, it could be more or less, it just depends on the number of invoices as well as the size of that.

So that would be where we might think it's a really true issue in the process that you guys have in determining those accruals.

So it would rise maybe above that deficiency.

Gotcha level.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Um, looking at the financial highlights here, this is just gonna look at your your net position balance.

So over the past five years, and really the thing that I just wanna highlight here is you'll continue to see that increase over the past five years.

Um, and that's really due to that significant investment in the capital projects.

I mean, the the red, the purple, and starting the blue line, all of those have added a significant amount to your balance sheet and continue to kind of show that increase over the years, as well as that additional COVID funding that you guys received over the past couple of years that's helped to reimburse some of those operating expenses, has helped kind of drive that that balance up over the years.

Um, the biggest bucket of your net position is gonna be that net investment in capital assets.

And if we compare year over year to 2024 was around 57% of your total net position compared to that 54% in 2023.

Um, and then the other maybe thing that I point your attention to is that unrestricted or the the dark blue bar at the top.

Um, that was around 34% of your net position total compared to around 38% of your net position total in the previous year.

The next slide is gonna look at your total federal expenditures.

Really, again, what I want to highlight here is you'll see those past four years, you had that additional COVID operating grant funding.

Um, 2024 was the first year where you no longer had any of that.

So it was just back to your traditional kind of capital-related federal federal grants that are coming through, as well as some OM grants.

So your your total federal expenditures for the year were around just under 45.5 million dollars for 2024.

And then the last slide that I have just covers that the single audit or that audit of your federal expenditures.

So you guys were considered a low risk audit this year.

Um, however, there were two major programs that were audited this year.

So normally in the past, we've just had the federal transit cluster audited due to the size of that program being so significant and some of your other federal programs being below that $750,000 threshold that was previously applicable.

This year, though, you your transit services program cluster rose above that $750,000 threshold.

So we were subject to audit both those programs, just given the size.

So you'll see the total amount of expenditures that we tested was $44.7 million this year, which really makes up around 98% of your schedule of federal expenditures.

But again, as I mentioned earlier, no compliance findings within those both those federal programs that we tested and no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies, which is it's really great, especially because we have never I don't believe we've audited that transit services program cluster at least in the last five years.

So it's been a while since that has potentially been subject to to audit, if ever.

So with that, that's all I had.

Um again, just want to say uh really appreciate all the Indigo team's time.

I know BART, Cesar and their team, they put in a lot of work um to get the audit done.

I know it's a lot of a lot of additional time on top of what they already have to do each day.

So I think these results really speak to uh a clean audit and really all the hard work that the finance team is putting in into it.

So thank you.

Thank you, Emily.

You said our favorite word, clean audit.

So again, Mr.

Chairman Brian Atkinson, director of governance and audit.

It is recommended that the board directors receive the 2024 annual financial external audit report with this action item.

Thank you, Brian.

Are there any questions?

Just before we get to the vote.

Um, Brian, any chance I can get a hard copy of the actual audit.

Yes, it's in your board packet, but I can get a physical priority.

Sure, when I can write and make it.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Mr.

Chair, if I if I have one minute.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for letting me speak.

Barper on CFO.

I just want to thank first of all of us.

Um a lot of folks want to hear audit, they think I'm an adversarial relationship, but I'll tell you this is a partnership.

Um, they are there for us all year, not just during the audit to help us out.

Um, and that that's a big reason why you see these clean audits because of their help.

And also Cesar, he lives and breezes audit and he, you know, he takes offense to think if anybody thinks he uh posted something wrong and he makes sure that it's right.

So about his leadership and the accounting side, yeah, I don't think we would even have anything near a clean audit.

So thank you, Cesar and your team.

Thanks for those comments, Barr.

Any other questions or comments from board members?

Hearing none, can I get a motion for approval of the 2024 annual financial external audit report?

So move.

There being a motion and a second.

Board counsel, will you please call roll for vote?

Please indicate your vote on the present motion when I call your name.

Director Smith.

Director Slash.

Director Quick.

Aye.

Chair Hahn.

Aye.

The motion carries.

Thank you, Latasha.

Thank you.

Thank you, Brian.

Next up is action item A6.

Uh consideration and approval of the Swiftly contract for fleet tracking data.

Chief Operating Officer Annette Darrow will present.

Good afternoon.

Uh Annette Darrow, Chief Operations Officer and Digo.

And I'm want to make the recommendation for the is recommended that the board of directors authorize the president and chief executive officer to enter into a three-year contract with two one-year extensions with Swiftly for fleet tracking and transit signal priority data services.

The total cost for the three-year contract shall not exceed $1,318,833.

If both option years are exercised, the total contract amount shall not exceed $2,493,490 $62.

So a little background about Swiftly is that we've been using it since 2019, but we're bringing this forth as a new contract.

The original contract we had been doing year to year.

So this year we want to bring a multi-year contract forth.

It's a service that's cloud-based and how hardware agnostic.

So it can take our information that we get from our bus tracking system through a veil.

And it takes all of that data and it makes predictions about real time that we use at all of our BRT stations, any Google trips.

It has a strong back end, so we can mine it for data for many different things, especially for the runtimes of the buses.

So then we can make adjustments to the schedules every three times a year when we need to.

Um, we also uh it would have an operator performance module where we can actually instead of having to spend a lot of time digging and hunting for data on performance.

We can look in and see how they're doing and then provide coaching to operators like hey, slow down or you know, um, just see how they're doing out there.

Um, it also has um writer alerts for our customers as well as um the translation transit signal priority.

Um so when we launched the purple line, we launched it with uh a new TSP system as well as using Swiftly.

So um it's it's what the that transit signal priority system uses.

That data coming out of Swiftly is how it you know can move the buses faster through the corridors.

And another uh important part of Swiftly is the for the customers, the phone IVR system.

So when they call in to the main number, you can choose to just bypass an agent and you can directly just get your bus route information or your stop information if you know it, and I'll take tell you the next few buses and that are coming at that stop.

We also have um SMS texting.

So whether you have a smartphone or not, you can get a text.

So uh we see that um that's a feature that is used as well.

So uh we're trying to meet all of our riders at uh where they can, but then we're also trying to harness this information because we collect so much of it, but it's really hard unless we have a platform that's user-friendly and it's um very popular across the operations division and other parts of um Indigo.

So um, we're asking for your approval of that contract.

So if there's any questions, I'd be glad to answer them.

Thank you, Annette.

This is a uh I get really excited about this one because it's something I hear a lot of feedback about from our writers and just us being able to improve on some of these different aspects.

So uh with that, are there any questions or comments for Annette regarding this action item?

Yeah, Mr.

Chairman, just one quick and that.

Um I I note that the the revenue vehicles obviously increase over the course of this contract.

Um, but when we get to when we get to year three, we're up to 226 revenue vehicles.

We have a half a million dollar price tag.

Option year one goes up to about six uh five hundred and sixty thousand, and then in option year two, it goes up to six hundred and fifteen thousand in change for the same number of buses.

Can you explain to me why what the I mean?

I thought with with these multi X year contracts, we're looking to lock in prices.

So Swiftly does their pricing based on number of vehicles you have.

So we already have more than the 148, so they're giving us a price break.

So on those first years, but then they add those other as we go.

So there we're getting a break in the front end.

So we're making it up.

They're they're making up the discount on the front end.

Okay, all right.

Thanks.

Other questions for Annette.

I have just one Annette.

Um this is just for our our which service.

Fixed route.

Fixed route, perfect.

So all BRT, all local routes, because and eventually um we will be deploying some transit signal priority on local routes, so that'll also be working through this as well.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Um hearing no other questions at this point.

Can I get a motion for approval of the Swiftly contract for fleet tracking data?

Excellent.

Can I get a second?

Second.

There being a motion and a second.

Board counsel, will you please call roll for vote?

Directors, please indicate your vote on the present motion when I call your name.

Director Smith.

Director's lab.

Hi.

Gardner.

Aye.

The motion carries.

Thank you, Latasha.

Next is action item A7, consideration and approval of a far east side bus stop improvement design services test order.

Project manager Kristen Ambro.

Sorry, Kristen.

Cameron, yeah, you can very close.

Yeah, no worries.

We'll present.

Thank you.

Um, yeah, I'm taking the place of um project manager Rachel Wilson today.

So project manager Christian Cambron.

Um I'm gonna read all the way through this since this is Rachel's uh item, and then I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Is recommended that the board of directors authorize the president and CEO to execute supplement number two to the existing contract with Kinley Horn and Associates for design and engineering services related to the Far Eastside Bus Stop Improvements Project in an amount not to exceed 234,233.

If approved, the total design cost for this task order will be $889,180.

For some background, um IPTC has a long-range plan to enhance accessibility at local bus stops citywide.

Um some of you heard from Rachel last week during the service committee meeting about that very topic.

This is a small piece of that larger plan.

The Far East Side Bus Stop Improvements Project represents the next phase of improvements scheduled for construction in 2026 and 27.

Back in July of 2023, IPTC issued an RFQ for on-call architectural and engineering services.

An agreement was executed between IPTC and Kimley Horn and Associates for street design and civil engineering services.

These include surveying, plan preparation, Americans with disabilities act compliance, cost estimating, land acquisition services, bidding support, and construction support for improvements to 55 local bus stops.

The initial costs was $623,914.

There was one supplement before this one for $31,000 for additional geotechnical services.

Um and just as a reminder, I'm here today to get approval for an additional $234,233.

If approved, this supplement would expand the scope of work to include rear alighting concrete pads at 36 of 55 bus stop locations and the addition of two new pedestrian traffic signals for the benefit of everyone here.

Alighting means getting off the bus.

Um this expanded scope requires additional survey work, geotechnical work, and land acquisition services.

This expenditure is already budgeted.

We will not be requesting any more funding for this.

Um as for the XPE, Kimley Horn's proposal for this task order includes 43.3% commitment from a combination of JQOL and resolution group, who we've worked with before for this type of work.

Um the original fee was funded through an FTA areas of persistent poverty grant and included a DVE commitment of 47.7%.

It's a lot of information.

I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Christian.

Uh are there any questions or comments from board members?

Did I hear you say something online, Greg?

No.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Can I get a motion for approval of the Far East Side Bus Stop Improvement Design Service Test Order?

Summer.

Can I get a second?

Second.

Got a second.

There being a motion and a second.

Board counsel, will you please call roll for vote?

Directors, please indicate your vote on the present motion when I call your name.

Director Smith.

Director Slash.

Director Quick.

Aye.

Director Gardner.

Aye.

And Chair Hahn.

Aye.

The motion carries.

Thank you.

Next up, action item A8, uh consideration and approval of business process mapping and procurement services for payroll and human resources.

Chief Financial Officer Bart Brown will present.

Thank you, Mr.

Acting Chair.

Bart Brown, CFO, here at Indigo.

It is recommended that the board of directors authorize the President Chief Executive Officer to execute a one-year contract with NetLogics for business process mapping procurement services and the amount up exceed $24,000.

Currently, here at Indigo, uh, we use a system called ADP automatic data processing, and it handles both our payroll and HR systems.

If you talk to our HR folks like we have, the um HR side of things is adequate, but it's not the industry best out there.

Um because it's packaged with our payroll system, which is a good payroll system.

Um we do get realize some savings um because of the packaging.

However, ADP recently uh informed us that they're gonna do a major system upgrade, which won't necessarily raise the price, but it will uh take a lot of new training to learn the system.

So we thought at this point, since we do spend about 350,000 a year uh on these systems, it would be a good idea to go out to the market to see if there's anything better that will one uh provide HR with the tools they need, and two, maybe find some savings.

But we don't have a business process map to put out there to do the RFI.

So before we can do an RFI to see what's out there, we we we have to uh provide documentation exactly how we do business so that we can get some good responses.

That's where that logic comes in.

They're local company here, and and one thing they do excel at is procurement.

Um the so first they'll come in and um they will um document both the a uh payroll processing and the HR.

In addition to that, um ASTIS, which we use for our scheduling, uh tracks all the hours of our operators, and that data is then transferred over to ADP.

So anything that we look at has to make sure it doesn't um uh um get in the way of our ability to seamlessly take that data over to our payroll.

We will be using some sort of IT system for our payroll system and perpetratority.

So we thought if we're going to spend millions of dollars, this would be the time to take a look.

And this again is in line with what the sustainability study is asking for to make sure that we're getting the best um buck or best um um or the best cost uh for our any systems that we are investing in.

So with that, um we are asking to uh approve the net logics and it should conclude within a year.

It's 100% local funds.

And this uh we do have the XBE we uh goals for NetLogics is a registered 100% WBE business with the C Maples.

Um with that, I'd like to uh entertain any questions that the board may have.

Thanks, Bard.

You said it will conclude it'll be complete before the end of the year.

No, it will take approximately six months, so we'll it won't go into next year.

So you will see this on the uh rollover next year.

Next perfect.

Any other questions or comments for BAR?

Yeah.

Uh yes.

Uh have you looked at any other agencies to see what they're doing as a result of uh that that will be part of the process.

So we will get uh uh uh the industry standards of what other transit agencies do you and that's what we hope the F RFI will also provide.

Oh, okay.

Hearing no other questions or comments, uh can I get a motion for approval of the business process mapping and procurement services for payroll and human resources?

So move.

Second.

I heard a motion and a second.

Board counsel, will you please call the roll for vote?

Directors, please indicate your vote on the present motion when I call your name.

Director Smith.

Aye, director slash Director Quick.

Aye.

Aye.

Director Garner.

Aye.

And Chair Hahn.

I I got a question.

Is that the same company that uh I recused my cell phone earlier?

No.

No different one.

Okay, it sounded I couldn't quite hear it sounded similar.

I just wanted to make sure.

Okay.

Okay, I'm fine.

Okay.

Uh yes.

Thank you.

The motion carries.

Thank you.

Next up is action item A9, uh, consideration and approval of commit commitment for 2026 annual diesel supply.

Will present.

Hey, good afternoon, board.

My name is Devin Smith.

I am the director of fleet services.

So is my recommendation today that the board of directors authorize the president and chief executive offer officer to offer a commitment with the pre-qualified low bidder for a maximum of 1.7 million gallons of premium ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel to be delivered over a 12-month period starting January 1st, 2026 through December 31st, 2026.

Um, a little bit about this on October 24th, we will be receiving bids from our two qualified vendors that will be offering the pricing for the next um calendar year.

We expect to be using that 1.7 million gallons of fuel over the next year.

We have two qualified previously qualified suppliers.

That's gonna be Gresham, Petroleum, and Keystone Cooperative, who is currently supplying our diesel fuel.

Uh so the reason why we would like to do it in this manner is that because of the market rates fluctuate at that time by on October 24th, when they present a bids will be based off that day's market rates.

That allows us in the procurement target to lock in those pricing.

And so that those whichever vendor is selected, they can go out and buy that year's worth of fuel, lock in the pricing, and then on the next November board, we will come back with the the official pricing and we'll present that to the board.

Um the funding through the sources through all local operating, and because there are no qualified um XBE vendors involved in this, um, there are no and there are also no subcontracting opportunities.

So if there are any questions, I'll be more than happy to entertain them at this time.

Thank you, Devin.

Are there any questions or comments from board members?

All right.

We do pass it every year.

Uh hearing no questions or comments.

Can I get a motion for approval of commitment for a 2026 annual diesel supply?

Second.

There being a motion and a second.

Board counsel, will you please call roll for vote?

Directors, please indicate your vote on the present motion when I call your name.

Director Smith.

Director slash director quick.

Aye.

Director Wilson.

Aye.

Director Gardner.

Chair Hahn.

Thank you.

The motion carries.

Thank you.

Devin, good luck on getting that at a really low price.

All right.

This brings us to agenda items or information items.

Uh first up, agenda item five information.

This is reading a little wrong.

This brings us to agenda item number five information items.

Item I won, the finance report presented by Bart Brown.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Again, Bart Brown CFO.

This is the September 2025 financial summary.

Under revenue, uh, our federal assistance revenue was over budget for the month.

Shocking for most people.

I'm sure we got more money from the federal government.

How about that?

105,390.

I will say that with the shutdown, we did draw everything we could right prior to October 1st.

They shut us down for 10 days anyway, the first of the year.

Yeah.

So we are keeping our eye on it.

We'll also keep an eye on a cash flow.

Uh, we do have sufficient reserves in the event that it's a long shutdown.

Um, but uh we will update the board uh next month on if we did have to dip into those reserves.

And I'd say our director Wilson has a question.

So um how long?

I mean, what's the what's the horizon uh before we start to start worrying about this?

We have enough reserves for the operating to last all of 2026.

It's the blue line payments in addition to that.

Um, so that's why if we had to do both, we probably could get by for the first six months of 2026 if we paid for the blue line in operations.

Okay, and the the reimbursement schedule, what is it?

Do they do they how does that how does that reimbursement schedule work when the government reopens?

Do you know it as long as the government is open, we can submit everything that we have paid for first for the blue line that's reimbursable.

Okay, and it takes a what says our day?

How much when we submit or Justin?

Three days.

So yeah.

Okay, so but but but we can once the government reopens we everything that we had spent while it was closed, we can then um request reimbursement before immediately then.

Okay, that's correct.

Right.

And our team is like ready to do that as soon as it opens it.

Okay, thanks.

And then uh other operating revenue was under budget under 41,000 eight forty-nine uh eight ninety-seven.

And again, that's just uh uh due to interest uh that we had to forego because uh we were um again paying for um some of the grants um out of our reserves, but we're catching up on that, and we're under budget for the year 655,000.

We did see passenger service revenue over budget by 33,287.

Um there's a story behind that.

We got an order from the city of Anneapolis for 60,000 worth of 31 day passes, and they typically only buy maybe 2,000 a month.

What we believe may happen, and we're gonna keep an eye on is as we get closer to the fare increase.

There might be some folks trying to buy passes at our current rates and use those.

So we are going to monitor that, and we will make sure that um unless the board um directs us otherwise, we will limit the amount based upon the history of purchases.

So if we we tend to see that we'll make sure we report back to you.

Local income taxes on budget for the month and the year.

And then service reimbursement program was on budget for the month.

And we are under budget by $3 for the year.

So total revenue for the agency is under budget $3,220 for the month or September, but we're over budget $1,340,000 for the year.

Then quickly going through expenditures, personnel services, fringe benefits under budget $430, $434,115 for the month and $3.9 million for the year.

Overtime expenditures, we're over budget, $196,751.

And for the year, we're over budget $1,581,000.

September salary expenditures were under budget, $294,965 for the month.

And for the year, $4,128,000.

Personnel services category was under budget $532,329 for the month.

It is under budget for year $6.5 million.

Other services and charges claims are over budget by $654,690.

And that was due to one payment we made out.

And then for the year, the category is under budget $1,127,000.

For the month of September, this expense category was under budget $75,305.

Under budget for the year, $337,964.

Purchase transportation category was over budget $7,749.

And for the year, it is over budget $486,000.

For the month, the services expense categories under budget $759,000.

And for the year, it is under budget $11,021,000.

And again, that was a mostly due to the carryover from last year.

And then utility expenditures are over budget $65,719.

This is the first time it was over budget in the last four months, I believe.

For the year, though, it's under budget $81,555.

And then for all services and charges, we were under budget for the month, $106,965.

And year to date, we're under budget $12,082,000.

Then final materials and supplies, flute fuel and lubricant category under budget under $48,014.

And for year to date, $1.3 million under budget.

And then for for the month, maintenance materials category is under budget $111,030.

And for the year, it is under budget by $154,000, $50, $54,049.

Other materials and supplies category under budget $80,001 for the month.

And for the year under budget, $708,224.

Tires and Tubes category, it's under budget in September by $17,146.

And for the year, it's under budget $274,754.

All total materials and supplies category under budget for the month, $356,204.

And for the year is under budget $2,506,709.

And then for all expenditures, we came in under budget for the month, $995,499.

And year to date, we are under budget $21,108,879.

And there were no non-budgeted requests for last month.

And Mr.

Chair, that concludes my report.

Happy to answer any questions the board may have.

Thank you, Bard.

Are there any questions or comments regarding the finance report?

Yes, sir.

The over budget for bus drivers, is that a normal year-to-day kind of thing?

Was it the overtime?

Yeah.

It is because we're not at the uh the numbers of drivers operators that we budgeted for.

Yeah.

And it's offset by the salaries that we're spending.

I will tell you though, um, it was trending around 400,000 a year.

And and for all last year, this year it's trending 200,000.

So we are seeing that go down, and we're seeing salary expenditures go up in the right directions.

Thanks, Bart.

Any other questions or comments?

Hearing none, uh we've come to the end of our meeting.

Just want to give a huge shout out to the fever who had an incredible playoff run.

Uh and we'll also say go Colts because they're doing really well this season.

Um with that, we can be adjourned.

Thanks, everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.