Ladies and gentlemen.

I now declare the Plano City Councils convened in the special called session that all council members are present.

I

don't have a gavel, so I apologize.

We'll begin the meeting with a presentation from Andrew Fortune, Director of Policy and Government Relations.

Andrew

Fortune, Director of Policy and Government Relations.

This evening we're here to talk about uh transit in Plano.

Um a few facts uh both for both you and the community.

From its inception in uh to 2025, Plano has contributed over 2.2 billion to DART.

Plano's sales tax contribution to DART is now uh but well over 120 million a year, more than Plano spends on police and economic development combined.

Tonight, council were will consider empowering Plano citizens to answer the question should DART continue as Plano's transit partner.

Now I should emphasize you know, Plano has a long history of being committed to transit.

Um Plano City Council has identified serious concerns related to service, safety, reliability, transparency, and financial management.

We've highlighted those in previous legislative sessions and efforts, and we've attempted reforms.

Um now, in terms of Plano's engagement, while I realize many among uh the council are aware of the different proposals we put forward, we wanted to make sure the community knew where Plano has engaged and and how we have in terms of proposals over the years.

And so prior to this last legislative session, um Plano actually met with DART leadership after identifying that there were some concerns uh related to inequity of funding to negotiate a general mobility program, uh term I think most are familiar with at this point, the idea that uh funding could be returned back for general transportation purposes.

Now that was considered there were concerns from the Dart Board that was time bound because we were looking at a legislative session that was about to start, um, and ultimately uh there was no action taken by the DART board um prior to the bill filing.

Um and so we moved forward.

Um we we had a 25% general mobility program.

We we sought to advance again to look at changing and reforming the 42-year-old system.

Um during the legislative session, as often happens, we were asked to come to the table by legislators and the House uh transportation chair to offer a compromise.

Plano did so.

Uh we offered a phased in glide path uh to reach that 25 percent.

Um unfortunately that was not accepted.

Um, and so as we moved forward, um you know we've continued to see the inequity.

We've we've not seen progress from a staff perspective that we're comfortable with yet.

Um, as of Monday, uh the mayor, myself, and the city manager met with uh Chair Bryant and we proposed a rail-only solution with a 50 percent uh general mobility program.

So, you know, it's important to note that we do remain engaged regardless of what the outcome is this evening.

Um so we are at the table currently with DART and all the other 13 member cities with the North Texas Commission and the Council of Governments looking for a way to reform the current system.

Again, consistent with what we've been doing up to this point.

Um, in terms of withdrawal elections, uh, for those who are not familiar with that process, um, should you move forward this evening?

Council does have up until 45 days before May to rescind the call.

Um, and so uh should that be the will of the council this evening, um we we move forward to add that to the ballot, and DART comes forward with a proposal that that fixes the concerns of safety, reliability, transparency, financial inequity.

That is an option that is available to you as a body.

So, real quick, again, as I mentioned, we have been working with Dart and trying to understand our investment and looking to reform the system for a number of years.

And so the timeline there for both you and the community shows you the initial return on investment requests.

You know, we're putting in a significant amount of tax dollars.

What are we getting in return?

That was made in 2020.

Um, in the first legislative session where this issue came up, um, there was an attempt to compel that, um, like many data and audit reporting uh requirements.

That was pulled down during that session uh with the promises that Plano would receive the information that we had asked

for.

Um, unfortunately, in 2022, we received what we largely believed uh largely believed to be a qualitative analysis on really the benefits of transit.

It didn't get to the heart of the question on where are the dollars being spent that we've invested in Plano.

Um, another study was done.

Uh again, it was using some methodology that that we we and legislators had questions about.

And so we moved forward in the 88th Texas legislative session and filed a Senate Bill of 1370.

Once again, to try and compel information about a return on investment to better understand.

Again, that while that passed the Senate, it did die in the House with the instruction to go home and work it out here locally.

And so the city advanced conversations with other cities about looking at transit as a region with transit 2.0 in the COG.

But more specifically, DART did engage in an inner independent study through Ernst and Young.

So EY, a world-renowned firm, conducted a study looking at 2023.

The results are there on the screen, as probably not new to many of you.

But that study, while independently commissioned, it was conducted without DART staff or board members' input.

It did highlight significant disparities.

And so you see there, Plano being one of the largest, where we put in 109.6 million in 2023, and only 44.6 million was spent in the city of Plano, not even 50 cents on the dollar.

And we realize it's not always a dollar in, dollar out kind of system, but to be the second largest payer and to see that gross of an inequity was rightfully so a cause for alarm.

So

back to the journey.