The Transportation and Airport Committee met on August 27, 2026, at 10:00 A.M. to discuss and vote on several items including a resolution to support permanent fare-free transit for youth, an update from the Ground Transportation Bureau, a presentation on e-bike safety, and a status update on the Connecting New Orleans East project. Public comment was heard on GTB operations, illegal pedicabs and golf carts, e-bike safety, and the Opportunity Pass program. The committee approved the minutes from June 10, 2026, and passed Resolution R-26-356.
Good morning, everyone. I want to thank everyone for being here on time and for the benefit of the thousands who are watching, Councilmember Harris online. We're going to call this meeting to order. We actually now have a quorum. So I'll ask Anita for roll call. Roll call. Councilmember Green. Present. Councilmember Willard. Councilmember Harris, Councilmember King, Councilmember Hughes. We have three members. We have a quorum. We actually do have a quorum. We do have one voting item. However, we're going to. Oh, okay. And um I will move for approval of the minutes from the June 10th meeting, which was in your package earlier. Motion. Seconded. I moved and it's been seconded by Councilmember Harris. All in favor of approval of the minutes. Signify by saying aye. Aye. All three of three A's and no naive. We're going to go out of order a little bit. I want to thank everybody for coming. And um we're going to go out of order with just one issue because the ground transportation bureau has another obligation following this meeting. So we're going to move to item five. Before we come back to item three, I'm going to ask Mr. Steven Nelson, the Director of Public Works, and Alicia Creighton, Ground Transportation Bureau Administrator to come forward, representing the Department of Public Works. Thank you all very much for the flexibility and my apologies for the change in schedule for uh yourselves and everyone here. Uh we will try to be brief and succinct while answering as many questions as humanly possible. Please, of course, feel free to interrupt at any point during during this presentation. I am Steve Nelson, Director of Public Works, Deputy CAO for Infrastructure. Good morning. I'm Delicia Creighton, Ground Transportation Bureau Administrator. Good morning. I'm Yolanda Brownfield, Assistant Administrator, Ground Transportation Bureau. Thank you very much. And let's make sure I can drive the presentation. So what I wanted to talk through today is around Ground Transportation Bureau, what it is a little bit that we do, the personnel that we have involved, some of our needs, and ways that we're working to reduce some wait time. So there has been change around uh GTB this year. Prior to May, I believe, uh Ground Transportation Bureau, including parking enforcement, all was was all under the purview of the Department of Public Works. Since May, uh parking enforcement and towing has moved to NOPD, but the components of GTB, the CPNC reviews, approvals, and renewals remains with the Department of Public Works for the moment. Looking at some year-to-date activity, and I want to start with thanking uh the ladies to my right and the limited staff that they have. They do a yeoman's effort uh putting together reviews, inspections, approvals, uh, and managing this department, and they have done a lot of work, uh, many of them under furlough, uh, some of them recently off, but many of them under furlough for for the better part of the year. Thus far, year to date, uh, over 3,200 uh permits issued or renewed, over 2,000 driver and tour guide permits issued or renewed, uh, a handful of special events permits that have been issued, and then uh three to four thousand inspections that have been completed, as well as seventy-one tour guide tests taking place this year. Um with that said, my understanding is is we have essentially worked through most of the backlogs. So there should not be a significant delay in CPNC renewals at this time. If uh any of you receive questions, comments, or concerns about that, uh I would ask that uh anyone email GTB at NOLA.gov.