There, is that better?

Okay.

Bob, would you please uh do the rule call for the board, please?

Moon directors can please indicate your attendance when I call your name.

Um, I I would usually start with Director Smith, but I think we've already uh been informed he will not be here today.

Um director slash present, director quick present, director Fagan, Director Wilson present and director Hahn.

Present.

I do not see um chair Gardner, but we do have a quorum.

I think he's on the word.

Okay.

We do have a quorum, Mr.

Kierr.

Okay.

Uh next our awards and accommodations.

And our president and CEO Jennifer Pearce will present those awards.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Um, president and CEO Jennifer Pearce here.

Uh, we'll start out like we always do with safe drivers list.

So this is the list of folks who in January of twenty twenty-six um completed their or are awarded recognition for their safe driving record.

Um they all received a NAF National Safety Council patch pin and certificate for their great driving in January.

Um, I'll highlight the first person on this list, Mr.

James Wilson, who is a coach operator on our fixed route service.

He's been with us for forty-seven years.

Yes.

Um, the person nominating him told me that Mr.

Houston continues to use life's challenges as motivation, setting an example of excellence in public transit service for his peers and our passengers.

His positive influence encourages other operators to carry themselves with a reassuring manner and a sense of style that truly refreshes the spirit.

So congratulations to Mr.

Floyd Houston.

Um it is a redesign that was a brainchild of Jack Trieber, one of our teammates in the service planning group.

Um, from an accessibility standpoint, the text and the route labels are larger, and each route stands out with a with a white buffer around it.

So some of the features that went into this map that are different from what we've had out there before from an accessibility standpoint, the text and the route labels are larger, and each route stands out with a white buffer around it, where symbolizing the route frequency, not just by the color, but there's also different line weights to help us identify frequency, which makes it more accessible to viewers with color vision deficiencies.

And the text in the title and legend has Spanish translations.

So those are new features.

We've also added trails as transportation.

We know that trails are an integral integral part of a lot of our residents' commutes, including as a way to get to and from our stops.

And so Jack added trails and protected bike lanes to our system map to help make sure people had an easy way to get around.

He's also added night service information.

So a standard bus network map only shows weekday peak alignments and schedules, which is when the largest number of trips are made and when we have the best service, but it doesn't tell the full story.

So here Jack included a moon icon next to any route that has service after 9 30 p.m.

with the same frequency color symbology as the routes.

And then finally, there's a all sorts of other little Easter eggs in there.

One of them is new shading on the map that indicates things like parks, hospitals, and special land uses.

So we're super excited about this update.

And I want to thank Jack once again for his leadership and seeing something that could be improved.

That looks great.

And along those same lines, I also want to highlight an innovation that our staff put together back in operations.

So we have a number of low clearance bridges around the city, and they present a significant operational and financial risk, particularly when buses are detoured or operating outside of their normal routes.

A single bridge strike, which, like this one in the photo, can cost more than 100,000 in repairs and it can remove a vehicle from service for several months.

It directly affects not only our reliability but our fleet availability.

So the team had explored solutions with multiple bus manufacturers, but was not receiving a viable option.

And so in response, uh they developed an in-house solution that's practical, cost effective, and focused on prevention.

The approach strengthens safety, protects our capital assets, and reduces exposure to avoidable service disruptions.

A strong example of internal innovation mitigating enterprise risk.

So on the right hand side, that little machine was printed with a 3D printer.

And as a bus approaches a low bridge, um, it has been geo-fenced to alert the driver that they are approaching a low bridge.

Um and so they don't have to rely on signs, which are pretty easy to just kind of ignore once you've been through a million times, um, or you know, some of these other kind of low-tech ways, but this actually starts flashing and sends an alert.

So next slide shows the innovators that put this together, um, led under our director of maintenance, Chair Nobalde with Will Bolton, high voltage technician, and Andrew Duncan, also high voltage technician.

So kudos to the three of them again for finding an opportunity and coming up with a solution.

And then lastly, I want to welcome um Justin Burkope to the executive team in the role of interim chief financial officer.

Um Justin's been with us a while, but for those of you that don't know him, he comes with nearly a decade of indigo experience with progressive leadership roles across budgeting and financial management within our finance department.

As our budget director, he's led our annual agency-wide budget development and ongoing budget management for the last four years, working closely with departments to ensure strong fiscal discipline and alignment with our strategic priorities.

He has been a consistent trusted lead in our board facing financial work and in shaping long-term fiscal sustainability as we deliver our major major capital programs.

So we're glad to have Justin on the team.

That is all I have.

If I may, Mr.

Chair, I'd just like to note for the record that Director Gardner arrived just after the roll call.

Thank you.

Uh next will be uh item number three and that's the committee reports.

And uh without objection, we will enter into the record the service committee report for its meeting on February the 12th, 2026.

Mr.

Chairman, I'm not gonna object, but I would like to ask Matt, could I possibly get a copy of the red line after traffic study?

The report.

I appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Oh, absolutely.

Is there any objections to uh entering the uh service committee report into the record?

Okay, let the record show there's no objection, and it will be entered into the record.

Uh next is our we move to our regular agenda, and uh we will begin with action item A1, consideration and approval of the board minute meetings from January 15th, 2026.

Are there any questions or comments from the board members uh concerning the minutes?

Okay, can I get a motion for consideration approval of the January 15th 2026 board meeting minutes?

Second.

There being a motion of second, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed.

Let the record show there was no opposed vote, so uh unanimous uh approval.

Next is action item A2, consideration approval of slate of nominees for the 2026 board officer positions, and our chief legal officer uh Bob Fry will present.

Good afternoon, directors.

Um is recommended that the board approve the following slate of nominees for the positions uh for the the various board positions um uh officer positions, excuse me, president Gregory Hahn, Vice President, Adarius Gardner, Treasurer, Richard Wilson Jr., Secretary Mary Ann Fagan.

If this slate is approved, each nominee will serve in their respective board officer positions from uh February 2026 through January 2027 when we hold the next election or until their successor is duly elected.

Um, as I reported to you at your meeting last month uh when we did nominations, uh effectively each person that I've read out was uh nominated for that position, so we don't really have to have a true election, just an approval of the slate.

So with that, Mr.

Chair, you can you can just have a motion, second, and vote, and we'll be good to go.

Bob, uh, do we have any comments or questions on the nominations?

Okay, and then if not, can I get a motion for consideration approval the slate of nominees for the two 2026 uh board officer positions?

So moved.

Okay, there being a motion and second, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, nay.

Let the record show the unanimous vote of ayes.

Thank you.

Next is action item A3, consideration approval of contract for fractional executive support.

President and CEO Jennifer Purrz will present.

Good afternoon again.

Jennifer Pierce, President CEO.

Uh, we are recommending that the board of directors authorize myself to execute a contract with human zone biz for fractional executive support and an amount not to exceed 200,000 for a period of up to six months.

So we are um working through a leadership transition in the Department of People and wanted to preserve capacity as we go um through this and make sure that we can maintain the very vital service that that group provides.

Um we um are happy to have Claudia Williams from Human Zone Biz, an executive coach uh and leadership leadership expert with experience in labor relations and HR leadership and employment compliance, um, who is willing to jump in and help us through this transition.

Um, we will use her only as long as um it takes to get a new person in that role.

So we could be um under this time and and under this total amount, but she is planning to help us not only um provide the support to our team through this transition, um, but also support me in the search for a new chief people officer and actually help us transition that person in so that we can have some uh sort of seamless transition and and uh keep things running.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Any questions comments from the board members?

Okay.

Seeing none, can I get a motion for consideration approval of contract for fractional executive support?

So move.

Second.

Okay, there being a motion and second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay.

Let the record show there's no nays, unanimous vote to pass.

Next, I action item A4, consideration approval of new indigo foundation board member.

Uh foundation executive director Emily Mew will present.

Good afternoon, directors.

Emily Mo, executive director of the Indigo Foundation here to request approval of a new board member.

Um, this individual is named Mark Young.

I believe he might be on the call today in case you have questions for him.

But as a reminder of why I'm here and why you'll see me probably more this year for this.

The bylaws of the Indigo Foundation require your approval for our new board members.

One small correction.

And our bylaws allow us to go up to 19 members.

So there's plenty of room to welcome Mark.

And at our last board meeting in January, the foundation board approved him or approved recommending him to Indigo board for your final approval.

So happy to answer any questions you may have about Mr.

Young.

Any questions or comments from the board?

If not, can I get a motion for consideration approval?

The new Indigo Board Foundation member, Mr.

Mark Young.

So moved.

Second.

There being a motion in a second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

All those opposed, nay.

Let the record reflect there are no nay votes, so it's a unanimous approval.

Thank you, Laura.

Thanks, Emily.

Next is action item A5, consideration approval of the 2026 Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan.

And manager risk and safety director, Kevin Newman will make that presentation.

On and directors, uh, my name is Kevin Newman.

I'm the manager for risk and safety.

I'm here today for consideration and approval of our 2026 Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan, or PTASP, as it's called.

It's recommended that the board of directors approve updates and revisions to the Indigo Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan.

The Federal Transit Administration requires each transit agency to have a PTASP plan, which is a formal top-down organization-wide approach to managing safety and risk and assuring the effectiveness of transit agency safety practices and culture.

The plan aims to enhance transit safety by establishing a framework for agencies to manage safety risks and continuously improve their safety performance targets.

The plan defines safety accountability at all levels throughout the agency.

The federal regulations require that PTASP be audited and revised annually, uh, updated requirements, data analysis, all our safety key performance indicators.

This goes through our safety and security committee.

They vote and approve all of our risk uh functions.

They did so on January 28th with a 10 to zero vote for approval.

Uh no fiscal impact, and there's no DBE or XBE declarations.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Is that it?

That's it.

All right.

Thanks, Kellen.

Um there any questions or comments from the board for Kevin?

Okay.

Seeing none can uh get a motion for consideration and approval of the 2026 Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan.

So moved.

Second.

All right.

There being a motion and second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay.

Chair does not hear any nays, so it's approved unanimously.

Thanks, Kevin.

Thank you.

Next, item A6.

Consideration approval of AVL technologies renewal.

And our chief information officer, Marcus Burnside will make that presentation.

Good afternoon, directors.

Um, Chief Information Officer, Marcus Barnes.

I'm here to present my first action item.

All right.

Um action item A6, uh, consideration approval of Veil Technologies contract.

Um it is recommended recommended that the board of directors authorize the president and CEO to uh approve a five-year contract with the Veil Technologies for Cloud Hosting, equipment maintenance and vehicle location management and an amount not to exceed 2,146,637.

IBTC has been using available technology since 2018 for dispatching software GPS location, uh displaying information to N vehicle peripherals, yard management, and cloud hosting, which was added in December of 2022.

Um the Veil Technologies CAD AVO contract continues through February 28, 2026.

A full fleet replacement with another CAD AVO vendor uh will cost an estimated 10 to 12 million dollars based on current market pricing and operational requirements.

Therefore, IPTC has opted to enter into a new contract with available technologies.

Just want to note that any new feature of developed over the contract term will be included in the in our license, which avoids the need for task orders or addendums during the contract term.

The fiscal impact, this project will be funded from the information technology operating budget.

The cost for available technology products and services is listed for each year and increments uh not quite that much each year.

So 446 406,891 dollars for 2026, 417,778 for 2027, 428,999 for 2028, 440,541 dollars for 2029.

And finally, 452,437 for 2030, um, all totaling 2,146,637.

Um for XB declaration, uh, there is no XB participation for this experiment because there is uh there are no certified farms, for firms, or subtract subcontracting opportunities.

I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

My ignorance on AI stuff, but does AI come into play with any of this as we go down the road?

Uh right now they're currently developing some type of um some form of AI technology within their actual back office and cloud hosting um product.

Um there we've been told that they're going to be implementing AI in future features.

Um they just want to make sure that it's it's not just some broad stroke use of AI, but it's going to be applicable to the platform.

And would that be part of this contract?

Yes, anything that they come out with new features, we automatically get it as far as the contract is concerned.

So, like for instance, if we were trying to get a new feature on the previous contract, we would say, okay, it's costs $350,000 for that.

We would have to do a separate task order, get the contract uh, you know, amended and so forth.

With this license, all that will be like included.

We won't have to pay any extra.

Just look to looking over the what is included in this technology agreement.

From everything that you read, it just sounded like a lot of this is going to be coordinated and could come under AI, which would hopefully you know improve our communications uh in this entire area.

Right.

Like uh, for instance, the Avail 360 and the high density AVL, yes, exactly.

They will actually be incorporating some some type of AI mechanism.

Um obviously they won't just disclose what what whether they're going to put it at because it's proprietary information, but um, I've been told that they're going to be incorporating that as they have developed new features for their platform.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

Go ahead.

Marcus, have we engaged with their uh have we done like the annual system health visits from their subject matter experts and have we found those productive in the past?

Yes.

Um when they come on site, they work with uh operations in my group and they do like training, um, but it's usually by request and not necessarily something scheduled.

Um with this agreement, it's going to put um it's going to put that um annual, could be semi-annual too.

So maybe not just one.

I think they just committed to be required to have one, but under this agreement, we can ask for additional ones, as long as it's not excessive, right?

Um, that for the uh training of their product to come on site to do that.

They like to do that just to see if I appreciate vendors that try to attempt to do like you know, how their customers actually doing on site, not through a call per se.

Um, so this will be a good opportunity uh for them to do that.

They've come on site and they're very impressed with uh um the way that we handle their product.

A lot of agencies don't have like um we're not that they're not structured the way we're structured with the SME and with a group that just particularly um that like the specifically handled their product in the way.

So a lot of times when we go to their conferences, which is included in the actual license, um, is free, free conference free uh for us.

Umly thing we pay is travel, obviously.

Um, they like to have us come up there and speak um as part of their platform or whatever you want to call it, their um part of their agenda as just like less is learned or like white paper type things for success for their product with their uh with their customers.

Well, you answered my second question because I'm very glad to know that we're not just limited to one of those visits.

No, no, no.

Thank you.

Yeah, obviously, if they're like let's say there's something major, they're gonna do some third, you know.

That plat, they're actually doing like an additional um on site visit for that.

Um, but if they're going to be like let's say with nothing going on, they're going to be committed to actually coming on site to do at least once a year.

Yes, sir.

Martin, help me understand something.

So in your experience, I mean I know the software stuff.

I have questions about it every year when these three renewals come around, but yep.

So I just do some quick back of the napkin math here.

And this contract over the course of the five years goes up around 45,000 10K one year, then it goes up another 11K, then it goes up 12K, and then it goes up 12K again.

Is is that kind of annual increase in your experience normal?

What do we get it?

I mean, what are we getting for are clearly that's above the rate of inflation?

So I mean, right.

What are we getting for our 45,000 dollars?

So a lot of the things that they've included in this list are is included in that incremental um pricing, and they also have a technology roadmap over the next five years.

So they have an expected cost of like a return on investment, so to speak, on delivering that product um based off of a licensing to us and do an expected cost adjustment to that.

Also, um, the price of this includes hardware too.

So the price of hardware is gonna increase depending on tariffs or supply, like right now, hard drives are going to go up.

Memories uh was it uh similar, yeah, memory is gonna go up because of sort of shortages.

So we're seeing like right now for our desktop refresh, we're like, okay, we need to order now before that that price hike hits us, like in Q4, Q3 or two or three.

So it all that's built in into the contract um for the five years.

So again, it includes hardware costs too, like for our spares for replacing uh defective unit units to have RMAs and have those units in place while we're getting that um actual um hardware being um treated and fixed.

So yes, I expect that the next action item when we talk about Microsoft Office, and then next month when I talk about D365, you'll see that everyone is doing some type of incremental increase um as we um use their products over the years.

So um so do we have a way that we can determine the value proposition for indigo?

I mean, I understand this AVL company needs to get an ROI on their investment, but what's the value proposition for us if we just keep jumping money into this thing?

I mean, I understand there's not a lot of options, but well, there we have some kind of leverage to say, you know, come on, guys, really?

So look, so we compared this uh proposition to the recent proposition that Louisville had um with their CAT ABL user um vendor, and this was uh each year was like a quarter of a million dollars less than that competitor.

So everyone in this field is very competitive.

Well, we found that um for a value proposition, not only getting the full license, but the vendor relationship, we're able to leverage better pricing than our competitors.

Okay.

We're we're a larger comp, we're one of their larger companies, so that we actually have a better say in what type of pricing could because the initial pricing was more than this.

Okay.

All right.

Well, great.

Hey, thanks.

Appreciate it, Mark.

Thanks, Rick.

Anybody else got any questions or comments?

Okay.

Can I get a motion for consideration approval of AVL renewal?

So move.

Motion and second, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, say nay.

Uh let the record that is unanimous.

Uh I vote.

And this Marcus, you indicated you will be up here.

So next we're gonna do the uh Microsoft 365 annual renewal.

Yep.

Uh Chief Information Officer Marcus Brown side again.

Um it is recommended that the board of directors authorize the president and CEO to enter into a purchase agreement to renew our annual Microsoft 365 licensing with Dell Marketing LLC and amount not to exceed 124,579.

Um IBTC utilizes Microsoft products, including Microsoft Office SharePoint, Office 365 Cloud Email, Cloud Based Email, um Windows Server and Microsoft Azure Cloud Um hosting services.

Um in February of 2025, it says 2026.

It should have been 2025.

Um IBT center entered into a purchase agreement with Dell Marketing LLC through Omnia Partners contract for Microsoft licensing.

And for those you know, um don't know Omnia Partners is a cooperative that hosts a vast number of state QPAs and agreements that public agencies can leverage.

For instance, the city of Indianapolis uses um Omnia partners, specifically um ISA and a department of public works for some of their purchases.

Um the project for this is being funded out of an information technology operating budget.

Uh Microsoft Office 365 licensing cost, uh 168,095 in 2023.

And as you can see, it keeps incrementing so slightly with 119,690 in 2024, 124,809 in 2025, and for this year it's 124,005 originally.

So yesterday, it was either this or a Tuesday, um, we asked for a revised quote with reduced licensing based off of the last um subscription we renewed, and we're expecting this cost to go down about 18,000.

So um, but this is just an amount to exceed not to exceed.

Um, unfortunately, that this is a software licensing renewal, and it was completed using local funds and special recruitment procurement requests, therefore XBE participation is not available for this procurement.

And so with Microsoft licensing, it's annually renewed.

You try to leverage the cost and fight Microsoft against obsolescence and what their new licenses are going to be.

Um it's ever changing.

Um next year is going to be a different story, and everybody's filling that from Microsoft when it comes to the licensing.

Next month, again, like I mentioned before, D365.

We're fought we fought that battle and it did not raise as much as we expect it to raise.

It actually about, I would say uh initially about 12,000 more than it was last year.

But that's normalizing.

If in next month you'll see how we increment it up.

We started below 100,000 and now it's like over 200,000.

But that's the way Microsoft works sometimes.

Um, and then what you want to do if you're going to leverage pricing.

Um, you want to deal with the vendor that has large volume because they get large volume discounts, um, the partnerships if they're a Microsoft Go partner, that type of stuff.

So you can try to get as as low a cost as possible on when they start changing the product around so they can actually help their PL per se.

I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

I'm sorry.

I can well I can I guess I got the same question from last time.

I mean, I know we have to have this stuff.

But at some point, does the value it brings?

I mean, the the cost of the product bring any value to us.

I mean, I mean, we do the same thing with Microsoft 365 every day, right?

It's an enterprise system, right?

So at some point, you keep jacking up the price, jacking up the price, jacking up the price.

We're not getting any more value out of it.

We're just paying more for it every every year.

Yeah.

Is that is that accurate?

Is that an accurate statement?

If you make if you maintain the course, what I mean by that, you're not asking for more licensing, and you're not asking for any type of a variation.

So, like for one year, we didn't have Power BI Pro.

And then we got a request for 100 BI pro licenses because of D365.

Those licenses are not cheap per se from a licensing standpoint.

So that includ that that inflates the price.

So it all depends on what we're asking, what what the agency is asking for Microsoft to provide for them.

So like I said earlier, um, this is initial cost for 120 24 579.

We reviewed the agreement, removed some licenses that we no longer needed, and reduced it down to 18,000.

Every every agency that uses Microsoft goes through this, is just basically it's based off of your your need.

And what we try to do is make sure that when people request things, we say, okay, we go through a string.

And then you know what?

I don't want to take up any more time.

Um depending on where people's time.

I'll just keep how this works, but I'm still not getting it.

I think Rick was asking a question that was very close to maybe the one that a couple other of us had.

So do we have a regular um audit process to understand what's actually being used, what's not being used, and um which pieces, because I understand that each tool in the toolbox costs a little bit more money, even though they advertise them collectively so that you can be efficient.

Right.

Um, so yes, we audit the license usage.

So, like by the end when it comes up to uh time to renew the subscription, we look at the license usage over the year.

Um, but we actually manage the licenses month per month.

Okay.

Um, and so what we find out we try to trim down to like for instance, um, all the admin staff need a certain license to order to get the full value of Microsoft Office.

So what we do during the budget season is ask, are there going to be any new employees?

Or, you know, so it's when someone has a contract, for instance, and all of a sudden they ask, well, everybody in this con everybody we committed to actually give everybody Microsoft license, and no, you didn't.

I mean, because you didn't talk to me during the budget season, you're not going to get any licensing for that contract.

But those type of things we monitor, and they, you know, people tell us that you know we committed indigo committed to this, and then we adjust the the um actual subscription for the following renewal.

Um, so we asked to answer your question.

Yes, we audit very stringently, like the license uses now.

That's why we we did an additional audit and found out that there were some licenses we did not need, and we removed them and to reduce the cost for this year.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Okay, I got one more.

So will this change any when with the blue line, and we're adding all those new buses and bus stops and no, the only thing this will only uh this will only affect if we have additional needs for um the uh software platforms that people use, not necessarily the uh the buses or any assignments or anything like that.

Um that is the avail is taking that in account too.

So as we increase our bus count, the it's in is reflected in the cost per year.

Um so but as far as Microsoft concerned, it's purely for administrative work only.

Okay, all right.

Thank you very much, Marcus.

So more quick one.

So Marcus, am I understanding that so that that that 10 or 11, 12k increase year over year is contemplating the blue line going into revenue service?

Or is that uh as far as the available technology, yeah.

So if as long if we increase, so we are licensed per bus.

Is it the number of buses that we keep in service increases the costs for that contract?

I guess that's what I'm asking.

So is that is that 10, 11, 12,000 annual increase in over the five years?

Is that reflecting the additional uh blue line assets of rolling stock and stuff going on?

Or are we gonna get a another, you know, we're gonna have to pay more when those buses go on?

No, this is fixed, and it and what we did when we talked to them, we actually um mapped out the actual fleet size because it's it's it's contingent.

The lice the pricing is contingent on the fleet size.

Um, we're not gonna be penalized necessarily if we go over that number, but that projection was already talked about over the next five years.

Okay, so it's important to fix it.

Right.

So it's important for us to not over have an abundance of fleet because it affects the actual um contract itself.

Okay, thank you.

Okay.

Okay.

That's what I was trying to ask as well.

So thanks.

Excuse me.

Uh any other questions, comments?

Okay.

Can I get a motion for consideration and approval of Microsoft 365 uh annual renewal?

So move.

There being a motion and second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, say nay.

I just want one more thing.

We used to come to committee meetings and discuss departments' contracts.

We used to do that.

Um, I'm open to discussing any upcoming contracts within within the finance and service committee meetings so that uh you have a better understanding of exactly what we're going to be trending towards.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

And we did not have any nay votes, so let the record reflect it.

And uh we did not have any nay votes, so let the record reflect it was uh unanimous and uh those were approved.

Thanks, Marcus.

Next is uh action item A8 consideration approval of e-builder construction management software renewal and our senior project manager of capital facilities projects, Sarah Stins.

It's another software one.

Uh thanks.

Uh C Sarah Sten's senior project manager for capital facilities projects.

Um, it is recommended that the board of directors offer authorize the president and CEO to execute a one-year renewal contract with eBuilder for the continued use of their construction and project management software in an amount not to exceed 220,500.

Um back in 2017, Indigo selected eBuilder as their project management software uh for the construction of the red line.

Um, ever since then, we have continued to use the software to be able to manage our BRT projects.

Um, in addition, over the past nine years, we've leveraged the program to be used on all of our road projects as well as all of our capital facilities projects.

In addition, we've also found some additional uses for the program.

We use uh the program with security to help run for contractor badging, as well as using it uh the past three or four years to execute our capital um uh plan for our budget.

So um we've utilized the program for a lot of different things year over year.

Uh, this is another good example of a software program that continues to be more expensive every single year that I bring it to you all.

Um for a couple of reasons.

Um, there's uh a bigger jump this year than you might have expected.

So last year um the fee was 150,000.

Uh about two years ago, Trimble purchased eBuilder.

Uh Trimble is a pretty large company that runs software programs um and surveying equipment.

Uh, the new program is called Unity Construct.

With this uh purchase of the program, the way that we are given pricing year over year has changed.

Uh, instead of having a set in stone um value increase, the program is based off of your capital spend.

So the expectation for what your capital program will be for the year is kind of how they determine what the value and the cost of the program is going to be.

So last year, when we asked for the renewal, the blue line wasn't officially in our capital plan yet.

So this year we're seeing that increase because we're managing all of those hundreds of thousands and also millions of dollars through the program.

Um, the expectation is that um we'll continue to see a value similar to this year over year, but there is no promise as our capital budget fluctuates, the cost for the program will also fluctuate year over year.

Um, this past year we've had conversation to try to um mitigate some of that risk and also future plan for the day that eBuilder is no long um of use and purpose to IndieGo.

We recognize that likely at the tail end of the blue line construction or the new East Campus garage, that the program will uh likely not be utilized to the extreme that it is today, and we would be looking to offload um from the program and moving to a different platform or a different option and opportunity for how we manage our construction projects.

Um I think I've covered most of it, but I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have in regards to the program.

So, Mr.

Chairman, you have go right in not a software license fee question.

Um, but do we own the data?

That's so yes and no.

Um, we own the information that we put on the server, but we don't own any physical entity that has us like being able to just hand you like a disk that says here's your data back.

So one of the one of the tasks will be figuring out how to offload that information off of the server into Indigo's own um server or wherever we would want to keep that information.

Okay, thanks.

My question, Rick was about the the data and kind of the future, what happens future say interesting because if if I understood you correctly, Sarah, and please correct me if I'm wrong.

So as our capital needs diminish, right?

Our capital spend rather diminishes, the cost of this program should diminish with it.

Should.

And then at the end of the at the end of the day, we don't need it anymore.

And we jettison, then what happens?

How do we collect that database?

Right.

And that's kind of where we're at right now.

It's these early kind of conversations because we have several years to work with still of how exactly that looks.

Um from conversations with folks.

Um I I can't say Trimble is really interested in making it easy for you to get the information because it's easiest for them to continue to pay for a service, right?

So we would have to, my understanding is we would have to, or we would have to pay a consultant to be able to move that information and store it elsewhere.

So there's not a service or a courtesy that happens at the end of the life of the contract.

We would have to have a plan for how we want to collect that information back.

Okay, thank you, Sarah.

We'll be interested in seeing that plan.

Yes.

Thank you.

So move second.

Thank you.

To define the terms for coordination uh between IPTC's Blue Line Project and DPW's West Washington Street project.

And that includes a contribution of six million dollars.

The blue line was originally planned uh on the Washington Street portion to go all the way on the west end to high school road and on the east end, the town of Cumberland.

The east end has not changed, still terminates in the town of Cumberland near Meyer.

Uh the West End changed uh as the project progressed, plans and cost estimates were developed.

It was decided to move the blue line off of Washington Street at Holt Road and then utilize I-70 to get to the airport at that point.

Uh the city agreed to pick up the infrastructure part of that of what was going to be in the blue line project west of Holt Road.

So that includes pavement restoration, uh storm sewer work, sidewalks, lots of infrastructure in that part of the project that the city agreed to do.

So that the two projects are generally separate.

Um and they uh pick up or match at Holt Road, uh, with the exception of the stormwater trunk line and outfall that overlaps with the blue line between Holt Road and uh Eagle Creek to the east.

And there's a on the second page of uh this action item, there's a figure that shows where uh that overlap area.

So to maximize the construction and schedule efficiencies, uh it was decided that the blue lines package a contractor should take the trunk line uh from the outfall to Holt Road.

That's within the blue line construction limits, and so the contribution um would be would first go towards that infrastructure on the project, and then whatever's remaining would go towards the city's West Washington Street project for transit supportive elements, such as sidewalks, um curb ramps, crosswalks, because there will still be local route service that Indigo will provide west of uh Holt Road on Washington Street.

It's anticipated that this trunk line work will start this year, and then uh the city's West Washington Street project would pick up in 2027.

This is funded through the local funds uh on the blue line contingency budget.

Uh the contribution to the city's project does not have uh DBE uh or XPE commitment.

Um, but the package A work that's being added uh does have a 10%, 10 and a half percent uh excuse me, DBE participation, and that will not change.

Happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Any questions for me?

Go ahead, Rick.

Hey Matt, so I I just so I'm clear.

You can pick oh you we've got the map up, great.

So where the where the green line, which is the the sewer trunk line, right?

Correct.

And the blue line diverge.

Are you saying that we're gonna pick up the the all the way to the to the yellow star?

Is it gonna be our responsibility?

That is correct.

So from Holt Road all the way to the east to the creek is where the blue line contractor will do that work, and the that's where it outfalls to the Eagle Creek and um that includes the so it goes through private property that the the city acquired, um, and they have that in hand.

Uh, and we cleared this with the FTA and went through environmental um assessment as well.

All right, and so when you say our contractor, the guy that's the the firm that is doing the actual blue line work will also be responsible for doing this work from Holt Road to the outflow.

That's correct, right?

And so what the six million dollars to the city goes for the Holt Road to High School Road.

So to be clear, uh a portion of of that work.

So we're expecting that to be in the three to four million dollar range, the trunk line and the outfall, and whatever is left over uh would go towards the city's project.

And I don't think I described it well enough what uh the the contribution goes towards, but or what what's in the agreement, but um the the costs uh the indigo is allocating uh to the city project includes design and inspection services that Indigo incurs for the trunk line and outfall itself.

So there's uh designer costs and inspection costs to oversee that work because our contractors doing it, um, and those costs will be included in that agreement uh included in that six million dollar amount.

Oh, okay, okay, as well.

All right, if that makes sense.

So three to four million goes towards the trunk line and outfall and whatever is remaining, and we're not gonna uh tally up those costs until it's completed.

So there could be change orders that are associated with it, and uh in the agreement, there's language to account for those costs to get allocated there.

Okay, I I got it now.

Thanks.

Thanks for clarifying.

Any other questions or comments?

I have one.

Was uh Mr.

Fry involved in negotiating this?

I think you know the answer to that question.

Yes, yes, he was, yes.

He's a pro at that, so all right, good.

So putting final touches on the agreement.

Okay.

Thanks a lot, Matt.

Um I get a motion for consideration approval of West Washington Street Agreement with the city of Indianapolis.

I'll move.

Second.

There being a motion and second, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say nay.

Approved.

Thanks.

Uh next is action item A10, and this is consideration and adoption of resolution number 2026-03, approving and ratifying the updated IPTC cafeteria plan.

Director of Compensation and Benefits, Christine Secrist will present.

Good afternoon.

Um again, Kirsten Secrets, Director of Compensation and Benefits for the Department of People.

Sorry, I'm short.

Well, that's I do it all the time.

I'm actually um here today, like you said, to discuss the consideration and adoption of resolution number two zero two six-03, approving and ratifying the updated IPTC cafeteria plan.

Um, so it's recommended that IPTC staff and the board of directors adopt resolution number two zero two six-03, approving and ratifying the updates to the corporation's cafeteria plan effective January the 1st of 2026.

Uh for some background, effective January 1 of 2020, IPTC established the um Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation doing business as indigo cafeteria plan pursuant to section 125 of the IRS code of the 1986 of 1986 to allow IPTC employees to choose among different types of benefits based on their own particular goals, desires, and needs.

Pursuant to the plan, employees may contribute uh to flexible spending accounts and dependent care flexible spending accounts from their paycheck on a pretax basis to pay for items such as prescription medicines and child care costs.

The plan is required by law to be updated on a periodic basis as well as whenever needed to reflect the current IRS regulations and changes in law.

Uh, for a discussion standpoint, IPTC needs to amend the plan to reflect changes to the employee contribution limits to the flexible spending accounts allowed by the IRS effective January 1 of 2026.

The amended and updated plan must be approved by the board by resolution.

The amended plan and the summary plan description are attached to the proposed resolution number 2026-03 as exhibits A and B, there too, respectively.

From a fiscal impact, the changes to the plan do not affect IPTC's cost and any cost associated with offering and maintaining the plan are included in the budget by the Department of People.

Currently there are no DBE or XBE participation because there are no subcontracting opportunities.

So I welcome any questions about that.

Any questions or comments from the board?

Well, just comment, Mr.

Chairman.

I you know, I got the the exhibits that you attached, and that was a long read.

But it was very thorough, very comprehensive.

I just have one, I guess I do have one question.

Sure.

Do you have people on your staff that can could help an employee?

I read through that thing, and most of it was like Ancient Creek.

Is there is there are there people that can help our employees kind of navigate this and see what's kind of in the best interest of them and their family?

We can um so to provide a little insight.

Um, the flexible spending account plan is only available to employees that were hired before a certain time because of being grandfathered into the PPO plans.

That's what that works through.

So if an employee were to come to our office and have questions about the plan, myself or someone on my staff would be able to sit down and discuss what the options are.

Oh, so this isn't this is not something we're offering.

This is this is people that have been with us for a while, then already had it, they're already enrolled.

The problem they all probably know what they're doing, all right, because they've been doing it for a while.

They do.

I mean, what they know is that they can go to their doctor and use the card for copays, they can go to Walgreens and pick up prescriptions so they understand it to work that way, and then if using it for dependent care, then they understand that daycare um after school program fees can be used with that card as well if they have it.

Oh, okay.

Well, Kristen, will this eventually I mean will this eventually will go away then when those when those people that are on the plan that were grandfathered onto the plan retire or a trip, otherwise a trip.

That's correct.

So when those people if they have the option at any time to come off of that and go to a high deductible health plan if they want to, right?

So they can do that.

If they retire, um, they will also come off of that plan, and then eventually when there is no one left, then all we offer is the high deductible health plan.

We currently have two.

I understand now.

Thank you very much.

Well, yeah, it was a uh a hefty read, by the way.

Um but it was actually really informative for me, and I'm not gonna toss a bunch of questions at you, Kirsten.

But I did think that it was probably a good opportunity at some point for us, maybe even in service committee or finance or somewhere for just to be able to do a little bit of a deep dive into this.

I was kind of curious to Rick's point, like you know, how many people do we still have on this and you know what are the ratios looking like?

So just at some point it might be nice to do kind of an information session on this topic.

Sure, and if you want that information, I can send it over to you.

We have a report that shows how many people currently have that plan.

I would enjoy that.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Just one more, just one more question.

Uh, related to um, if I understood you correctly, this is available to those who were hired before a certain date.

So do they currently need to be on the plan or if they were hired before that date, they still have an opportunity to join the plan simply because they were hired before a certain date, no matter if they're currently on the plan or not.

Great question.

So anyone that was hired, I believe it to have been before 2020, they are eligible for that plan.

So let's say, for example, um, he or she is currently on a spouse's plan, and they decide for whatever the reason to come to our plan because they were already enrolled or already hired before that date, they are eligible to receive that plan.

So someone like myself hired in 2024, I'm not.

But for anyone that was hired, if we know their effective date is before 2020, they are eligible for that plan.

Thank you.

Okay, any other questions, comments?

If not, can we get a uh motion uh for consideration and adoption of resolution number 2026-03, approving and ratifying the updated Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation cafeteria plan?

Summit second.

Okay.

This matter uh being adopted of a resolution or by laws, uh, requires a rule called vote.

And Bob, will you do the rule call, please?

Yes, uh directors on the present motion, please indicate your vote when I call your name.

Director Slash.

Aye, director quick, director Fagan, Director Wilson, aye, director Gardner.

Aye.

Uh Director Han.

Aye.

Resolution is adopted unanimously.

Very much.

Thanks a lot.

That was very, very informative.

Okay.

Next, uh, under five information items.

And the item uh I one is a finance report presented by our interim chief financial officer, Justin Burkle.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mr.

Chair, members of the board.

Justin Burkope, interim chief financial officer for Indigo.

And tonight I'm going to walk you through our December month end financials and provide a summary of our year-end position.

For the month of December, revenue came in 1.4 million dollars under budget.

Uh, but this variance is largely timing related as we received most of our federal uh assistance reimbursements earlier in 2025.

So that reduced what we normally would have uh recognized in December on a straight line budget basis.

Uh despite the December shortfall, total revenue for the year exceeded budget by 5.3 million dollars.

Uh, under operating expenses for December, personal services expenses were under budget 1.25 million dollars, and for the full year under budget by 8.3 million.

Uh the primary driver of this variance continues to be staffing vacancies and attrition.

Um, so that has resulted directly uh in underspending and salaries and benefits under other services and charges.

You'll see that uh that category was over budget by approximately 2.5 million dollars.

Again, this is also something that was expected, and it's largely attributable to several routine uh year-end factors.

The first being that in December, our accounting team works really hard to backdate invoices for 2025 services that are received in January.

And so in some cases, we record two invoices in the same month.

Um, this is particularly common with several of our large contracted service providers, but it ensures that our expenses are properly matched to the uh appropriate fiscal year.

We also paid several large software renewals in December, which are under um other services and charges.

And then I'm sure you all recall that we had a large snow event in December.

Uh, and so uh um when that expense is concentrated in a single month, it can create a bit of a variance in the monthly uh report for for that category.

Uh you'll also notice that uh materials and expenses were approximately, I'm sorry, miscellaneous expenses were approximately 80% under budget for the month.

Uh and that's because at the direction of uh Director Wilson, we conducted a detailed review of this category, and based on that analysis, it was recommended and agreed that certain larger recurring expenses uh specifically related to cell phone service be reclassified to a more appropriate reporting category.

Uh and but for the year, other services and charges were 10 million dollars under budget, and this is largely due to underspending in uh some of these contracted services, as well as our ability to utilize rollover appropriations from 2024.

Uh materials and supplies were under budget for the month by 271,000 and 3.1 million for the year.

The primary driver here uh was the extremely favorable pricing on our diesel fuel contract compared to what was built into the budget uh at the time and before the procurement overall year to date we came in 21.4 million dollars under budget, uh, which is enough in savings to cover what we had originally anticipated funding the operating budget with through our fund balance.

Um so that's good news for our uh obviously fund balance and um sustainability going forward.

Uh that concludes my report, and I'm happy to answer any questions the board may have if there's no questions, Mr.

Chairman.

I'd just like to take the board's temperature on something.

So I've been talking with Justin.

We have been going over numbers and going over how we report this information to the board.

And I note um do we have this in the package?

Yes.

Can you go to the next frame, Pamika?

Next next one.

Okay, that's the one I'm gonna look at.

Thanks.

So the colleagues, you know, this this document is like totally redundant to that document.

That document shows everything in one place.

And so my thought, and uh discussed this with the finance committee earlier today, is that we just have Justin provide this report, and then he can in his narrative, he can talk through the things that that we think it would and in full transparency.

Justin and I meet ahead of the board meeting and ahead of the finance committee meeting and kind of go through all the stuff.

And I um you know, I point out the things that I think I'd like him to highlight, he points out things that you'd like to think.

So we kind of come to a meeting of the minds.

Um and I think it'd be A, easier for us to look at and see everything all in one place, and B, it's it just it's time consuming for for Justin and his people to do a redundant report that is kind of not necessary.

But if you guys feel strongly that you want to have this document, then we'll continue to do so.

You can put us on the spot like that.

Yeah, exactly.

See, this is what's called this is what's called leveraging my position.

For tonight, um, if you guys want to think about it and uh let me know, uh let me know your pleasure, then Justin and I can work on that for next time.

Okay.

Appreciate the clarity on that.

I would say as chairman of finance that you would have the prerogative to do that.

But what if unless somebody's got a big I want to make sure I want to make sure that our colleagues you know are comfortable, you know, not ever not everybody likes to look at Excel spreadsheet.

So um uh but so if they find it helpful, then we'll continue to do it.

But if we don't need that redundant um uh effort, then I you know it seemed like to me we can we can free up some more of their time to do other good things.

Okay, Mary Ann, anything to add?

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments from the board members?

Justin.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Next, we've got item uh one I2.

And that's the Indigo Foundation quarterly report presented by Emily Mo.

Still Emily Mo, still the executive director of Indigo Foundation here for our first uh quarterly report to you all of 2026.

I wanted to start off with our a recap of our transit equity day celebration that happened um just a couple weeks ago on February 4th.

Um, so again, Trans Equity Day is this is now probably our fourth year celebrating that.

Um, it's held on Rosa Park's birthday um to draw awareness to equity issues related to transportation and how we can all be part of uh making transportation more accessible.

So this year we had a wonderful sponsorship from One America Financial Foundation.

They supported the event in addition to many other sponsors, and um enabled us to have fare-free on that day.

And so more than 15,500 rides happened on that day that includes paratransit as well.

Um, and then in the afternoon, we had a celebration at the Idol George Museum.

We had about 200 people there in attendance.

I was really happy um with the turnout that we had.

Thank you to Director Quick was able to be there, as well as a lot of Indigo teammates.

Um, we also had leadership from the City County Council, CICF One America, Indianapolis Foundation, um, Lily, Indie Chamber.

It was really a great room um to hear our messaging for that day.

And the theme of this year was transit funding.

Um, so for we can go to the next slide.

For those that weren't able to join, I just wanted to highlight some of the key messaging from that day.

Um, we also did a recap email to our whole database in this last week.

So hopefully you all got that.

If you did it, let me know, because that means you're not on our list.

Um uh highlighting a quote from the dean of the founders college at Butler University.

She said, when you hear about students with some college credit and no degree, it's not because they're not smart, it's because life got in the way.

And for 57% of students, it's transportation is the reason that gets in the way for them.

So we had some really great panelists.

Um, this panel was led by Ted Grain on our board and with Eskenazi Health, Ahmed Young from Indianapolis Foundation, Shannon Jenkins from United Way, um Matt Mindram from Indy Chamber, and Ben Grandy from Glick Philanthropies was on that panel.

On the next page, um, some more quotes for you from Jenny, who um who's presented, and then also Rachel and I presented.

Um Rachel gave a great presentation on what we've learned of the last five years working with our nonprofit partners.

So all of our nonprofit grantees were given a free ticket for this event.

Um, and so about half the room was made up of them.

And so it was great to have them all there intermixing with our um with our donors.

But some of the takeaway messaging that you heard over and over was that transportation is a basic need, and we continue to see that on surveys and all different ways, it shows up as being really important, but it's not funded the same as housing or food or other basic needs.

And the pool of funding for transportation is important.

Yes, it's self-serving because we need that funding, but also all of our nonprofit partners need it to be able to purchase fare.

And there's just not enough grants out there available or funders that understand transit in the way that we need them to.

Next page, I'll give an analogy that I've been workshopping and sharing in different rooms.

But when you think about food access, um, nobody says a person is food secure when you give them a meal or one week of meals.

But for some reason, with bus passes, the thought is different.

I mean, they're they're thought of um as well.

If we give you transportation to this service, you're good, or that's at least how it's funded.

And that's not how it works.

I mean, bus passes are the same as meals.

You need them every day.

Um, and we're starting to shift how we think, or how we're sharing with our funders and challenging the funding community to think about this differently, in that the bus passes are great, and we know our nonprofits need these grants, um, but they're band-aids essentially, they're meals.

Um, so they're important, but they're not helping to create a solution for mobility security.

Um, and so the takeaway message from that day was to really get to the root causes of this.

We need everyone in the room.

Um, we need all levels of you know, government, business, philanthropic sector to help us move this forward.

So, any questions about Trans Equity Day or Director Quick, I didn't know if you wanted to mention anything from the spot.

No, no, no problem at all.

That was my first time attending Transit Equity Day, and uh I agree it was a phenomenal turnout, and uh the presenters on the panel uh did an excellent job and provided some good information as well as you you and your team.

So thank you for your work on it.

Thank you.

Um we're already starting to look towards next year.

I think this was a proof of concept for us this year of turning this into more of a fundraiser event.

And so next year we're looking at a facility that can hold more like 500 people and have a stage where we can have speakers up there.

We'd like to be able to give the nonprofits more than one free pass to come because um we often work with two or three people within organizations.

Um and then we want to also be able to sell tables to sponsors because that's how people are thinking of it.

I mean, like Director Han, you were saying you're like, I'm gonna fill my table.

Like, let's just do that.

Let's sell this as a you know, a thousand dollars a table and make this into a fundraiser so that I know you all and our board have expressed concern for our golf outing, the future of it after the blue line is completed.

Are we still gonna get those construction companies um supporting us in the same level?

So we want to increase um Transit Equity Day so that we're not as dependent on that golf outing.

Okay, next up, um, we still have our indigo swag store.

Um, the 50th anniversary items are leaving this month.

Um, so you have another week or two to get those items.

Um but I wanted to share on here some of the winter products that are out, some really cute things on the store, if I do say so myself.

And um, thank you to the Indigo's public affairs team for helping to keep this store fresh.

Um, they've been a big help this year, just keeping quarterly, I think is what we're aiming for to have some new items come out to give people reasons to keep coming back to it.

And so you'll be seeing some new items at some point in the spring.

Next is a deeper dive than usual in our finance and fundraising.

I know you all have been asking for more information on that, so I wanted to give that to you.

Um, some of these are things you've seen before.

So, first off is thank you for getting us to that 100% participation for both boards this year, or I guess that was in 2025.

The fun thing about fundraising is we start at zero again the next year.

So I have to ask you again to give your support.

Um, and we are talking to the boards about considering just monthly donations.

I know that's what I do, that's what um director Wilson does.

Then you don't have to think about it, and it's done and helps us with more reliable income.

Um but next is our the chart that I usually show you all for our number of donors.

Last year we ended slightly behind where we were in 2024 in terms of the number of donors.

You may remember in 2024 we had that um what was it, SB 52 that drew drove a lot of new donors in that year.

And so we were able to recapture some of those, but not all of them.

And I think that's part of the difference there.

And I'll mention later one of our measurable outcomes or goals for this year is looking at that renewal rate to make sure we're keeping people going.

So this is your deep dive into how we got our fundraising goal or really like the revenue side of our budget for the year.

And so I wanted to walk you all through how we got to this and how we're approaching fundraising differently in 2026.

So our fundraising team now has four individuals that are part of it.

I wouldn't say there's four of us working full time on it.

I'm part of that.

I have other things to do too.

But it consists of me, Yvonne, Kalama on our team as our grant writer.

Hannah on our team is responsible for events and communications and also doing some of this annual giving things, like the mass communications to donors.

And we also added a consultant in the fall to help focus on corporate solicitations.

So a game changer that I'm noticing already this year is that our staff has been on the team for at least a year.

I mean, next week is Anna's one Hannah's one year anniversary.

Usually at this time of year, we're training a new director of development or offboarding one, or in the retention of staff, even though we haven't had a director of development since June, has really changed our approach and is enabling us to use fundraising best practices.

So as I go through this, the same team that's working on this today is the same team that put together the budget numbers in the fall that we're working towards.

And we, I don't think I've had that so far.

So I'm feeling really optimistic for 2026.

Um we also, as this team, we work, we meet weekly.

Um so a lesson learned in the past is that we have so much on our plates that we'll have our assignments, but oftentimes they can slip, and then before we know it, oops, it's June.

And now what are we going to do?

So I wanted to be sure that that doesn't happen this year.

Um we can't let that happen because we have a very aggressive goal for this year.

So that group of four is meeting every Thursday morning for a couple hours, going through donor by donor, making sure we're all on the same page and committing to each other what we're gonna do by the next meeting.

So back to the chart that you see in front of you.

So this is the revenue side of our 2026 budget.

The fundraising team is focused on those highlighted areas, so the individual corporate and foundation giving.

Um, and so our magic number for contributions this year is 1,700 $7,04.

I love round numbers, and this is just killing me that it's not beautifully round, but anyway, it's close enough.

70% of that million needs to be unrestricted for general operations or special, and that can come through things like the golf outing.

So the next page, sorry, kick.

Emily, is that that million seven thousand four um number?

Is that when you say contributions?

Is that all is that that foundations, grants?

Everything foundations, corporate, and individual.

Okay.

So it doesn't include government or the swag store or in-kind or bus pass sales.

It's just those top three lines.

Okay, thank you.

Um, but yes, grants are considered part of foundations or corporate.

Um, so in the fall, we created a list of prospects with our expected amounts or goal amounts for 2026.

We classified what fund we think that's going to come in, like this donor typically gives to the nonprofit mobility access fund grants.

That's a certain fund, or they usually give to the golf outing.

We'll categorize it there and even put in what month we expect those that money to come in.

Um and so that's what fed into the revenue side of our budget.

So I'm in my sixth year now of fundraising for Indigo Foundation.

Um, and every year when you make budgets or projections at any organization, the more years of information you have, the better.

And so every year we're getting a little bit better at this.

Um, it's always some guesswork because you know, donor donor priorities can change or contacts can change, but every year we're just getting a bit better at refining our process.

And I wanted to thank um Rachel Moss, our director of programs and operations for continually improving this process and challenging me to grow every year of making a little bit better.

Um, so obviously, I I mean, I for this purpose I blocked out the donor names, but under entity, there's donor names there.

Um so I wanted you all to know that there's a line item for every donor in this totals with that uh million dollars there.

Next up, um I then created a spreadsheet to figure out our fundable projects.

Um, what are we going to focus on this year?

Because as I think I've shared with you all before, in the past, it's been like, oh, there's a grant for that, let's go for it, or whatever we can apply for, we do.

And with our aggressive fundraising goals, we have to stay focused on what we spend our time on.

Um, and so in this spreadsheet, I have all the fundable projects, then our annual amount, our target we're gonna try to get for that project, and then using our operating agreement, the 6535 split we have.

Um, I worked out like how much of that would end up going to Indigo if this is a sponsorship and how much of that is coming to the foundation, or if it's a free fair day, we have to be sure we're covering what Indigo's um lost revenue would be from that day.

So making sure we're factoring all those things in as we're planning for the year.

So if we were to raise or secure everything on this spreadsheet, all these projects, and it keeps going much longer than this, we would exceed our contributions goal.

So we have more than enough things to ask for money for.

Um, you may notice I do have the paratransit fare increase delay on here.

Might want to hold your applause, but um, we have spent time seeking funding for that and have been considering it.

I mean, I think it was July, August when you first asked us to be looking at that.

Unfortunately, I don't have a funder lined up for this amount.

Um, 2025 was the most competitive I've ever seen, especially post-COVID with funding.

I think you'll hear that from any nonprofit you're working with.

It shifted how money is working, and it's becoming more and more important for relationships to relationships matter even more than they did.

They've always mattered.

But um, so I would say this paratransit fare increase, it's not off the table.

We're always have our ears and eyes open.

Um, but I would say it's highly unlikely at this point we'll be able to find secure that 250,000 by June.

And a challenge with this um particular line item, when I'm raising money for veteran-free rides, 10,000, 50,000 is helping.

You can use that, right?

Like it's it's still helpful even if I'm not getting you the full 2 million you need.

But for this project in particular, I know we needed to get that at least 250,000 to be able to like you know, flip the switch and say, yes, we can do this.

And so um, while we may have been able to get pieces of it, um, we don't have the donor base that's giving at that level right now.

So I'm sorry, but I'll keep trying.

Don't take it off the list.

I'm I'm not, it's still there.

It's still very important too.

I mean, all these things are important, and we um feel the value of it.

But back to our transit equity day messaging.

Um, we have just realized how much room we have to go in getting the community to understand why this stuff is important too.

Okay, great.

If you have ideas, if anyone has ideas, I'm always welcome to hear those.

Okay, um, so our main fundraising focus area.

So this is on the next slide, um, are the ADA accessibility improvements.

Uh, that's the Far East side.

There's a group of, I believe it's 54 stops and six um traffic crosswalk kind of things.

I'm not using the right terms, um, but on the Far East side, and so we're it's a big project of over three million dollars.

And so we're trying to fill some of those or sponsor some of those stops, like we did for the near east side.

Fair assistance, um, that includes the free and discounted fare for nonprofits as well as fair assistance for groups that indigo is not required by law to provide.

So that's veterans and students, and then also free fair days fall under that fair assistance category.

And then third is our operations.

Um, we, you know, I know both boards would like us to be more independent from IndieGo, and so we have to focus on our operations and getting that general support to be able to do that.

Next, um, so after, so we have our prospect list and we have um the projects of what we want, and then we have our database, which is Razor's Edge.

We've had that for two years now.

So each fundraiser um creates action steps in Raisers Edge for their donors in their portfolio.

Um, in our weekly fundraising team meetings, this is what we're reviewing.

Um, we're reviewing what prospects have if there's a grant application coming up, or hey, we want that person for the golf founding, we should probably reach out to them now.

Um so this is what we're reviewing, and so those four individuals of the fundraising team all have their own portfolio with assigned people and gifts um in Razor's Edge.

So we're using this is why we got Razor's Edge a couple years ago, and this is the first year we're I would say effectively using it for what it's supposed to be used for.

So our 2026 fundraising performance metrics.

I'm almost done.

Um we are we want to average eight donor meetings per month.

Um I mentioned about it being more competitive, and so something we're doing this year is we don't want to apply for a grant unless we've had a meeting with them because that highly increases our chance likelihood of be able to get that grant.

Um in our first six weeks of the year, I think we're at around a dozen meetings that have either happened or are scheduled in the next week.

Um we want to increase our renewal rate to 45% overall, the national average hangs around 43% renewal rate for donors.

And I think last year we were closer to 35 or 38.

Um, so that's something that we're looking at of the touch points with donors and how to get people to to keep giving.

Um, and then when you see that number again of the uh 1 million 7,000 to raise from individuals and corporations.

So that is my deep dive, and then you can see how this factors into the whole budget.

And so those are the top three lines.

The individual corporate foundation is the million that I talked about, and how what I just walked through is our plan for how to how to get all those.

But um we this is where you all come in and where everyone comes in.

I mean, we it takes a village to raise this.

Um, and so we welcome your support in this area.

Um, I have on the next slide just ideas for how to help.

First off, is making your personal pledge or set up setting up a monthly gift early now.

Um, the more we get our board and kind of inner circle committed at the beginning of the year, the less staff time we have to spend on that, and then the more we can focus on other things.

Um, if there's people that are in your circles that you feel like I need to meet or need to be introduced to the Indigo Foundation, let me know and let's uh go meet with them.

And then um with the golf outing, we're gonna start putting that on sale or start promoting that early this year.

So we're starting hopefully next week to get that registration set up so we can start having that coming in because by right after the golf outing, you're gonna start hearing us talk about Transit Equity Day to get now.

We have two events that we're selling, so we have to time them out so that people can budget for it appropriately.

And that's a QR code to give, just if you're motivated today.

But that is all that concludes my report to you all.

Any questions?

Thank you, Emily.

So any questions from the board?

Can you stick around for a second?

I got a question.

Yes.

Yep.

Okay.

Um that concludes our formal meeting this evening.

I think Jennifer, you wanted to say a couple words in closing.

Sure, I would be happy to.

Um, this is Jennifer Pierce, president and CEO.

And um, I wanted to just take an opportunity on behalf of the Indigo staff to um say a quick goodbye to Bart Brown.

So after seven years of service to Indigo, um, his tenure ended as CFO a couple weeks ago.

And although he preferred a quiet transition, I wanted to share a couple of the things he accomplished uh while he was here.

So a couple important milestones.

Um he was our chief financial officer during COVID, um, a time obviously of great uncertainty financially, in addition to so many other ways.

Um he was able to bring in over 115 million dollars in federal funds to support our recovery efforts during that time.

He also led the way in securing funding for our large-scale capital projects during those seven years that he was here, including most recently overseeing the issuance of 125 million dollars in bonds to fund the blue line and established and maintained strong internal fiscal controls, reducing risk and resulting in an excellent AA credit rating for the agency.

So I just wanted to share um my sincere appreciation for the work that he did for his leadership over the last seven years.

Um, and we wish him the very best in his next chapter.

Thanks, Jennifer.

And on behalf of the board, I'd like to also echo uh your statements and uh thanks to Borg.

Uh we all worked with him very hard, Rick more than anyone, and I don't know if you want to say anything or not.

Well, at the risk of uh uh getting a little emotional.

I've known Bart for over 30 years.

I've worked with him in many capacities over those years, and I I think I can um I can say this without fear of contradiction.

He's probably one of the best government finance guys I've ever worked with, and I wish him all the best.

Um, and I'm sure that he's going to be doing something good for somebody somewhere.

And uh we look forward to seeing you in March at our next meeting.

We're now adjourned.