I have meeting of the Sacramento Regional Transit Board of Directors.

Tabitha, would you please do the roll call?

Director Brewer.

Present.

Director Budge.

Here.

Director Dickinson.

Director Hume.

Here.

Director Kennedy.

Director Maple is absent.

Director Rorba is absent.

Director Schaefer.

Here.

Director Serna.

Director Serna is here.

And Director Jennings is absent.

and cheers singh allen here okay with that we have a quorum of eight votes and this meeting

of the sacramento regional transit district is recorded with closed captioning the recording

will be cable cast on metro cable channel 14 the local government affairs channel on the comcast

and direct tv uverse cable systems the recording will also be video streamed at metro 14 live.sac

county.gov. Today's meeting replays Thursday, December 11th at 9 a.m. and Sunday, December 14th

at 1130 a.m. on Metro Cable Channel 14. Once posted, the recording of this meeting can be

viewed on demand at youtube.com forward slash Metro Cable 14. Members of the audience wishing

to address the board should fill out a speaker card located at the rear of the room and provide

it to myself or Adam. Once the item has been called, additional speaker cards will not be

accepted. The time allowed for public comment is at the chair's discretion. The timer will chime

when you have 20 seconds and then again when your time is up. There were three written public

comments received and provided to the board. One from Rick Hodgkins on item 2.13 in support of the

streetcar project and on item 6.1 regarding real-time signage and audible announcements.

Barbara Stanton, Writership for the Masses, item 3.1, fully endorsing dogfight real-time

mobility device test results as summarized in the board letter and video and a comment from k crumb

strong sack town item four regarding the street car project which staff

is going to be providing a response to

all right thank you for that we do have a request to change the order of the agenda to hear the

closed session item 11.1 first and that item of course is

conference with real estate negotiator pursuant to government code section 54 9 56.8

with a series of properties uh the and the apn are listed here on the agenda can i ask who who

requested this

for the item to come first

okay so it's a staff request i just want it for the record okay very good um can i get a motion

to move this first so moved second all those in favor please say aye aye aye all right so we will

be taking our closed session item but i will go ahead and accept public comments prior

to going into closed session. Do we have any comments on this item?

There's no comments on the ice.

Okay, apparently I skipped the pledge, which we should probably do.

Let's go ahead and do that.

And can I get Director Patrick Kennedy to help lead us this evening?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

Thank you.

Y'all may be seated.

Now I will accept the comments.

Are there any further item?

There's no public comment.

All right.

Then we will be in closed session.

Is there a place for folks to gather?

That's not...

I'm sorry.

So the board is going to go down the executive conference room.

Well, that would be good to know.

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all right good evening everyone we have returned um let's see i would like to announce that there

is no report out from the closed session which moves us right along to our consent calendar

items 2.1 through 2.15 any questions from directors yes director dickinson i just had a question

on 2.15 so you want to take that now you want to prove everything else what do you want let's do it

it now okay who's got who's got that 2.15 there you are okay thanks what's going on here

well nothing is necessarily going on we have a couple of i didn't mean it pejoratively

trying to understand what what what's happening with with this because um you're asking for a

retroactive authorization for the issuance of a of a purchase order there's apparently an evergreen

provision that that was uncovered and you've got two sets of of technologies the cloud and

and uh on on site and so i'm i was trying to put these pieces together and figure out exactly

what all is happening okay so so i can i can speak to that since my team worked with sandy's team

Um, so what occurred was that when the original purchase order was issued, it, it didn't go

through legal and, um, nobody caught that there is an automatic renewal in there.

And so that triggered, basically it was signed, but it had a provision in there that exceeded

the general manager's authority.

And so it was caught once it came back to legal.

And so now we're trying to get the board to ratify that action, the general manager's action of signing a purchase order.

Actually, I think it was below the general manager.

I think it was signed by the head of procurement.

So they could ratify it and basically say, okay, it's fine that you guys did that.

And now we're correcting it.

And the contract moving forward will be approved by the board.

Are there two elements to this? One is seeking to remove the evergreen provision, and the second is recognizing that the amount now exceeds the general manager's authority and has to come to the board.

Correct. Those are the two pieces of it.

Okay. And then is there any expectation that the party we're contracting with, which I guess I gather is iBridge, iBridge Cloud, is going to object to our seeking to remove the evergreen provision?

I don't know the answer to that, but...

They have no objection.

They have no objection. Okay. Okay. All right. I think that makes it a little more clear. Okay. Thank you.

you thank you for those questions director any other questions looking to the right

looking to the left seeing none public comments yes we have several public comments so i'll read

a few names so you can be ready when your turn is up first we have glenn mandelkern on 2.2

and then helen o'connell on 2.4 and helen on 2.7 and helen on 2.9 and helen on 2.10

Okay, this is for item 2.2. I wanted to voice my support for what Tabitha is proposing here

for several reasons. Number one, I think this will result in more reliable scheduling, which

will result in more commitment from both board members and interested parties. I also like

how the dates are kind of varied as far as placement of the month because

sometimes the first half of the month is more convenient and then other times the

second half is more convenient in light of that I would like to request that

prior to adjourning the meeting to please state what the next time next day

will meet will be because we won't have a pattern to follow like we do now. And also, I would like

to pose a question to you, especially in the spirit of the line here that says, allowing members

of the public to better plan their attendance at board meetings. So my question to you is,

would this be a reasonable time for you to consider reinstituting your virtual option?

You've had this in the past.

It was convenient.

It welcomed input.

And different agencies, like some of the ones that you listed in this agenda item, they suspended for a while.

Now they've brought it back.

And you yourselves have also had it in your latest offerings, like at the transit ID exchanges, you've had both virtual and in person.

and in your COA, comprehensive operational analysis,

you've also had virtual and in-person.

Therefore, it's now a good time to consider

now that we're going to start a new year

to do virtual again.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Next comment.

Helen O'Connell on 2.4.

Hello, board.

This is Helen O'Connell.

I am not sure if this item addresses the inequality of the health care and welfare benefits inequality between the big bus, the train and the RT GO divisions of RT.

um in my point of view is that if you're all working for the same company

and they are doing their jobs okay you've got the worker bees they should all have

the same type of benefits okay RTGO does not have um retirement and their health

healthcare is different from the rest of the company.

I understand that different levels of participation,

like the people that are in the executive branch get more benefits,

but the worker bees all should be paying and getting compensation

and consideration across the board equally.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next comment.

And Helen on 2.7.

I believe this is the one about the getting permission to get to the restrooms facilities.

That is a very important issue.

We don't only need it at one place.

Okay.

If drivers can't find, or if you don't have a contract with a certain company, a gas station,

fast food restaurants, places that could have availability for our drivers, whichever drivers

they are, to use the facilities, that would be a really good idea.

everyone can go four hours and wait for a break to go to the bathroom. So that's my comment.

And Helen 2.9.

I have been informed that this particular issue is an extension of the contract for the supplemental paratransit service with USERF

to bridge the time between the end of their current contract

and the implementation of a new contract.

This is a good idea.

However, we need to be able to make sure that the new contracts

don't fall short in certain areas that you serve

where it's not very complementary.

and inconsistent. I would prefer that all the people that are going to put in the MLUs all have the same guidelines and make sure that once they sign that they perform their duties as assigned in the contract.

Therefore, we need to make sure that the contract is comprehensive. Thank you.

Helen 2.10.

Okay, I did not get a chance to read the staff report on this item.

As far as I am ascertaining the automatic train protection system and communications based train control

is a much needed piece of equipment

because a lot of times we don't know

what's coming around the corner.

If the train is having an issue,

the train behind it has more of an issue

because it can't go anywhere.

So we need to make sure if there's an issue on the tracks

that it be communicated with everyone.

And if need be, maybe a bus bridge until the first train is cleared from the tracks or whatever issues hindering it from proceeding would be a good idea.

Thank you.

And Jeffrey Tardeguia for 2.11.

And then we have Faramars Nabavi on 2.13.

Jeff Tardeguia.

The basic question was wanting to understand how many contracts for workman's comp and what their expectations were and what their priorities were.

Some of the questions have been answered.

Some, should we say, is unclear just exactly how many workman contracts you would have ongoing.

That was just the question about with having that many in there divided up for the workman's comp load of legal services.

And then Farrah Mars, and I have a 2.13 and a 2.

Thank you. I'll just consolidate them into one comment.

Thank you, members of the board.

I'm here this evening to recognize the prompt action that staff took on the downtown streetcar with the notice from the Federal Transit Administration that there is a possibility that they might discontinue allowing SACRT to draw upon federal funds for the project.

I'd also like to invite the board in its role as the watchdog for the citizens of Sacramento County and your member jurisdictions to consider whether we should proceed with this at this point.

the downtown streetcar it's a it's a small project but one with substantial cost not just

construction costs but also operating costs and that's something that is going to last even if

we get all the money from state and federal sources to build it and on top of that there's

the staff bandwidth issue, that staff are working very diligently right now to make sure that SACRT

does not lose access to these funds. But there's an opportunity cost. If staff are focused on this,

are they going to be focused on fixing Folsom 15? Are they going to be working on getting light

rail to Elk Grove? We need to think about what are the opportunity costs of having staff trying

to save this. So I'd like to urge the board to take this item off the consent calendar and to

debate it, to discuss it, to see whether it makes sense to move forward with this, given that we have

a significant risk of not even being able to move forward with it if we do not meet the deadline.

Thank you. Thank you. Any more public comments? And then we have Bassam Ibrahim,

for 2.13 and then glenn mandelkern for 2.15 uh this thing on okay uh hello i'm basam from strong

sack town and i would also like to talk about um this uh streetcar project it's very small but

expensive and i feel like these funds could be better they could be put to use better in

increasing our transit services like our frequency uh night service stuff like that

because that's why people ride sack rt no one rides sack rt to take the light rail about

how long is this even like not not very long they they ride it because it's frequent and they can

just hop on it to get where they want to go and i mean i just i just don't see the streetcar really

offering that much to our riders so um yeah i mean thank you for letting me speak on this matter

And Glenn Mandelkern, 2.15.

One second.

Yeah, before we take the next public comment, Director Kennedy.

Thank you, Chair.

Henry, can we have some of the last gentleman that was just up talk to him?

He's been up here before, and he makes very valid, good points.

But if somebody can talk to him to explain how unfungible, you know, FDA funding is,

and, you know, you can't pull from one, put it at another.

And just it's, you know, the funding formula is not as simple as that.

If somebody could, so that the gentleman doesn't have to get up every time.

Absolutely.

We actually already wrote something, you know, tried to send it back.

And I asked Chris to say if we can set up a meeting with the organization.

Okay.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you.

All right.

We can continue.

Next public comment.

Glenn Mandelkern, 2.15.

All right.

So this concerns some hiccups and spasms that I've seen happening with some of the bus tracker in SACRT.

And at first I thought they were passing things, so I didn't pay much attention.

However, when I read today's item, specifically the line that says, tight-targeted improvements, the underlying facility limitations, including adequate cooling capacity, insufficient water intrusion protection, and a lack of system resiliency continue to pose substantial risk to, and this is the part that I was concerned about, system reliability, availability, and business continuity.

So I then noticed that repeatedly here we see the word collocation.

And after seeing it so many times, I actually brought another word that sounds similar.

And that word is colonoscopy.

And so what I've been engaged in is I've been looking deep in the bowels of the SAC-RT system

because I have noticed three incidents.

Like, when did you start to notice this?

When did you start to feel this way?

Well, I can remember that on November 29th, when I used your 414 system, I got for the first time in my life an 828 timeout, meaning we can't handle your request at this time.

Another incident was when I wanted to find out about Budstop 1556.

This is at Fair Oaks and Gibbons.

And I was told that that bus stop doesn't exist.

Well, it's actually a very strategic bus stop because there riders of 23 and 25 can decide what they take.

I also have noticed that on some bus stops, we're getting the same stop named immediately on the LED and voice system.

So that leads me to believe that maybe part of your databases have been corrupted, maybe through water damage or, heaven forbid, cyber attacks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any more public comments?

That's all the public comment.

All right.

Any follow-up director comments?

Looking to the right, any comments?

Anything?

Looking to the left, any comments?

All right.

With that, I will look for a motion on our consent calendar.

I'll move consent.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Abstain?

Nope.

All right.

Thank you.

We will move on to our next item, which is 3.1, customer service response to feedback

and comments.

Lisa Hines, you have the floor.

Chair Singh Allen, members of the board, I'm Lisa Hines, VP of Security, Safety, and Customer Satisfaction.

I am presenting customer satisfaction strategies and responses to public concerns and comments.

The first public comment, are there customer service representatives that speak languages other than English and Spanish?

SACRT understands how important it is for our people to be multilingual and to support communities when they need assistance.

While several of our customer service representatives speak additional languages, such as American Sign Language and others,

our team communicates in English only and is trained to quickly recognize when interpretation is needed.

How we do that is we immediately connect callers with AvantPage.

It's a 24-7 language interpretation service that supports more than 150 languages.

The connection usually takes less than 30 seconds, providing quick response and seamless communication.

Our Title VI language assistance plan is current and fully meets all Title VI requirements.

All right, the next public comment.

A group was riding a train together, and the train doors did not open when they were changing cars.

Unfortunately, we did not receive a report at the time of the incident, so we do not have enough information to fully look into what happened.

We always encourage passengers to report issues right away so that we can look into them promptly, review video and vehicle data as needed.

The dwell time for the train is roughly 20 seconds, and we understand that the door and ramp operations can be confusing within that window.

When the ramp is prioritized, there can be a slight delay to the door function for safety reasons.

We've added decals near the doors to help explain this, and we're also testing a software update

to improve how the doors respond during ramp usage. The update is being tested now on two trains

and is expected to roll out fleet-wide at the end of December.

SACRTE has created a series of videos to help riders navigate our system,

which are available at our SACRT website. I'll now play a short clip from one of those videos.

For riders using mobility devices, boarding high floor trains, use the mini high ramps to board

the first car. On the new low floor trains, push the blue wheelchair accessible button

once to deploy ramps featured at the two center doors of each train car. Once the button is pushed,

make sure to move back to make room for the extending ramp. It takes about six seconds for

for the ramp to deploy before the door opens, so you don't need to keep pushing the button.

Low floor train buttons also have braille for persons with visual impairments.

Once the doors open, please wait for passengers to exit the train before boarding.

All right, the next public comment. Why is equipment purchased before the MAC approves it,

such as the new bus barriers? Due to the rise in operator assaults, the board declared an

emergency earlier this year, allowing SAC-RT to purchase and install bus barriers to protect

frontline staff. These barriers are now installed on 77 buses, and any design change would involve

cost, contractor work, ATU discussions, and a review of operator safety and comfort,

since visibility and space varied based upon the operator's size. When the barrier was brought to

the MAC after installation, we observed a concern involving one mobility device that is larger than

what ADA standards require buses to accommodate. The rider was able to board the bus, but needed

to lower the chair to clear the joystick. We recorded a video during that interview, and

although we cannot play it here, it is available if you call customer satisfaction. We will provide

you with the link. The bus barrier meets ADA regulatory requirements, and our measurements

remain compliant. The issue appears to be related to the size and configuration of the device

rather than a barrier design issue. We also want to note that this is a national issue.

Transit agencies across the country are experiencing a rise in operator assaults,

and Congress is currently considering the Bipartisan Bus Operator Safety and Security Act,

which would require federally funded buses to include fully enclosed operator workstations.

The National ATU has been advocating for and supporting this legislation.

This broader context reinforces why the board's emergency declaration and the installation of bus barriers were necessary steps to protect our frontline staff.

SACRT is one of many agencies that have installed bus barriers, and we plan to install barriers on our full fixed route fleet.

All right, our next public comment.

Regarding the Caps Lantern Festival at Power End Station, the large vacant parcel next door appears ideal for TOD.

Could you please provide information on that parcel?

Earlier this year, SACRT's Real Estate Ad Hoc Committee met to discuss our efforts to transition our fleet zero emission.

SACRT is not able to deploy ZEB from our current Midtown Bus Maintenance Facility due to state rules.

As such, SACRT Facilities Transition Plan calls for SACRT to build up new bus maintenance facilities to accommodate over 250 big buses and 200 shuttles.

Based on size, utilities, zoning, and proximity to fixed route, the power end site was identified as a potential site for a future facility.

The ad hoc committee recommended holding the property while SACRT progressed bus maintenance facilities at the McClellan and the South Area location.

As we get more clarity on those two facilities in the coming years, SACRT will be in a better position to determine the future use of that 13-acre parcel.

We do see that there's an opportunity to reduce the size of our operations at this site to about half of what we have shown here, so we can accommodate TOD on about five to six acres.

And that concludes my presentation.

All right. Excellent presentation.

questions looking to the left any questions looking to the right seeing none public comments

we have helen o'connell and then dan allison and then farah mars nabavi

one more time board um just because something is ada compliant it does not mean that is it is ada

usable to make it access independent access on a public transportation form, which RT is.

I referenced the low floor car ramp.

When it was in production, we were told that the ramp was going to be 30 inches wide.

I then proceeded to inform people that they needed to measure my wheelchair, which is a bariatric sized wheelchair.

This wheelchair measures 34 and a half inches.

Consequently, anybody that had a bariatric wheelchair, which is still considered ADA compliant size, would not be able to board the train.

Yes, it was ADA compliant at 30 inches, but nobody my size or had this size of a wheelchair would have been able to board.

Because I put the actual factual numbers right in front of the people that were saying 30 inches is sufficient, it is ADA compliant,

they reaccented and said, obviously, we need a 36-inch ramp.

I was very grateful that I was there to provide pertinent information in a timely manner.

This is one of the reasons why the MAC board should be consulted.

Thank you.

And Dan Allison.

Dan Allison speaking on behalf of Sacramento Transit Advocates and Writers, STAR.

STAR supports Helen and the others that have expressed a concern about accessibility to the buses due to the driver security barriers.

But our biggest concern is this is part of a pattern with SACRT about not looking into things before they make purchases, before they make decisions.

ADA compliance and accessibility, not simply legal compliance, but accessibility, is not a new science.

SACRT could be checking these things ahead of time.

They are choosing not to.

A lot of these things shouldn't even need to come to the MAC.

They should be problems that are solved at the staff level by looking at infrastructure and operations.

SACRT is not doing that.

The S700 low-floor railcars are a travail of incidents of ADA accessibility problems again and again and again.

Why is SACRT failing to check things ahead of time?

I don't know.

They're not fulfilling its responsibility to the public.

Thank you.

Okay.

And Farrah Mars removed his comment.

All right.

Any follow-up comments from directors?

Looking to the right.

Seeing none.

Left, none.

All right.

we will move on to our next agenda item, which is our, let's see, public address is board on

matters not on the agenda. Okay, we have Jeffrey Tardeguia and then Helen O'Connell, Maddie Parfit.

And there's about 13 just. Oh, excellent.

well board um i'm going to talk about the matters that hopefully next year will get brought up and

addressed by this board one is dealing with on the what's called paratransit service

And that is the, should we say, drop off and pick up times, particularly dealing with doctor's appointments and dialysis.

I hope that that matter can be brought up in a timely manner and addressed and resolved.

There are some opportunities there that need to happen.

uh patrick last year suggested that that rick jennings should indeed have a further understanding

dealing with our light rail new low floor vehicles um haven't seen yet that that matter is resolved

and fixed you still have uncurring problems related to your low floor vehicles i unfortunately

this last week had where I ended up going off of the ramp and had to have dispatch,

should we say, the conductor and supervisor come in there to get me back in there because the

front wheel of this wheelchair went off of the ramp through there. So getting it in that position

with the angle that it's at, it took other people involved to bring me back in there

so that I could get out of the low floor vehicle.

I've also found, well, it looks like my time is about up,

is that there are a number of other issues

that it just simply seems like for dealing with the scheduling

and everything else that it has not yet been resolved.

Please, board, work on this next year.

That's my public comment.

Okay, next is Helen and then Maddie and then Michael Bevins.

Board, I am going to bring up something that is ancient history.

to bring out the point that some of RT's procurement people

have had a history of not checking the details before they purchased something.

As I recollect, RT purchased light rail vehicles from another company

from another city, and when they got here,

they didn't fit our tracks.

The gauge was improper,

costing RT a lot of money.

Then they decided that they would just use them for parts.

This is just to back up what Dan Allison just said.

When it comes to

the people getting picked up one, two, or three hours after dialysis,

that could cause a major health crisis.

These things are scheduled at a regular routine time.

Most people go to dialysis at the same time on the same days of the week.

And if someone is coming out of dialysis, they need to eat, they need to use the facilities, they need to hydrate.

And when that is interrupted by several hours, that could cause a major health crisis.

This needs to be prioritized. Thank you.

Maddie Parfit and then Michael Bevins and then Glenn Mandelkorn.

Hi, thank you. My name is Maddie Parfit, and I'm a member of Strong Sacktown. And like many people, I don't own a car and I depend on regional transit every single day. And that includes Sundays.

For years, passengers have been asking to have more regular, more frequent Sunday service, and that doesn't seem to be happening.

And it's extremely frustrating, especially in cold weather at night when it rains, that people have to sit or stand and wait 45 minutes to an hour just to take a bus on Sunday.

If a bus can run at 15 to 30 minute frequencies during the week, it should be able to run at 15 minute to 30 minute frequencies on Sunday as well.

And that's all I have. Thank you very much.

And Michael Bevins.

Hello, Michael Bevins, a member citizen or district two of the city.

why I don't use transit regularly.

Despite our motto,

the system doesn't take me where I want to go

when I want to get there.

And I'm kind of on the extremes.

So I get up early in the morning.

So all that is understandable.

I live in or work in a place

that isn't very populated with lots of people.

So I understand that too.

But I am in between two major places.

Elk Grove and the power and light rail station. And whenever I go home, that roadway is packed,

packed, packed with people. And I was wondering, why can't a bus go there and maybe give them

people an option of taking a bus where the very high frequency is? And it would help people like

me work in this area in between these population centers so I can just get closer to work. So

that's one reason i don't take it um i have a feeling that we need to have like a two-tier

system one for just all the major roads just connecting just long-term regional and then

another system of local neighborhood routes that collect people and take them to these new

bigger long-running bus routes that would get more ridership give more people more options

um the example i have well i've been to be i've mentioned this before my father lives in orange

vale i wanted to go there visit him i'm gonna try to transit let's see how i can do it that

was back when smart ride was here and i couldn't do it then because smart ride didn't work on the

weekends i don't know if flex is working on weekends now either but it's just all right i

can't do it so coverage is more important but not that much important more important than frequency

We need to cover, it's a regional district. We need to give people options nearby major roads. Thank you.

Next comment.

Glenn Mandelkern, and then we have Aaron Pickett, Bassan, Abraham, Troy Wilkinson.

Okay, so my last visit here was on September 8th, and I had told you at that point that I had taken major interest, as have many others, in the subjects of stress and anxiety.

because of how this has affected all ages and many generations,

and I brought up the subject of uncertainty,

and I tied it specifically to transit,

and I brought up the issues of routers not transmitting on buses,

and then the confusion regarding are buses scheduled or canceled.

I wanted to say then that during this time,

I developed more interest in the subject of how to handle stress and anxiety.

In the first meeting we had about the subject, I told you to name the causes and how that helps.

My reason for coming back today and telling you is that during my time away, I discovered a major remedy.

And that remedy is gratitude.

So that if you're in a period of stress and anxiety, what can you be grateful for?

And therefore, I wanted to come here today and express my appreciation.

And I know I speak for other writers as well because I talk to them about these subjects.

I would first like to express my thanks, our thanks, to Lisa Hines, who on October 27th addressed the issues of the faulty routers and what your plans, our actions, and timeframes are to fix those.

I'd also like to thank Blanca Aravo, who on November 10th further expanded on the subject of bus trip cancellations, gave a very detailed account on bus 81, Route 81, and also explained that this is not something you take lightly, that you have a symptom to do it.

And when you do it, you make sure it doesn't affect the rest of the system.

The benefit of this in this part of December is that it brings us comfort and joy.

Happy holidays.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Next comment.

Aaron Pickett.

Kersing Allen and members of the board.

My name is Aaron Pickett.

I'm a member of Strong SAC Town and a Sacramento State student.

One of the reasons I don't take SACRT more often is, again, the lack of frequency, particularly in the evenings, getting out of a night class, particularly the grad classes.

It really reduces any of the benefits when you get out at 647 and the bus left at 645.

You're stuck on campus for an extra hour.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next comment.

Basan Ibrahim and then Troy Wilkinson and then Jeshua Holmes.

Hello again.

It's me, Basan.

I'm a member of Strong Sacktown, and one of the reasons I don't take SackRT as often as I would is just the fact that, I mean, the service has a lot of improvement that's needed.

um headways can be very long like especially on weekends it can be up to like an hour at least

basically not good headways and then even worse than long headways are delays delays

one one instance i was waiting at a light rail station for up to like 45 minutes before i chose

to bike away. 45 minutes. I once wanted to get to my classes. I arrived at the light rail station

to go there, but the train didn't come until, well, a bit later. And then, yeah, there was a

guy who was also with me. He had to arrive at work at a certain time, and I think he was late.

But the problem with these delays is they're a serious issue. If you can't rely on SAC-RT to get to where you need to go on time, why would you take SAC-RT? That's a question I have. But yeah, thank you for letting me speak and have a good day.

Troy Wilkinson.

Hello, board and chair. Thank you for listening. Yeah, a lot of us are here. Well, yeah, my name is Troy Wilkinson. A lot of us are here from Strong SAC Town, the transit team that's been growing over the past year. And we're here to share essentially, yeah, reasons why we feel like SAC RT isn't always useful to us, even though we really want to take it as much as possible.

I'll echo previous comments about evening frequency a lot of times I want to go out I

want to have a good time or I pick up groceries do errands and then yeah you just miss it by a

minute oops you got to wait an hour you know and so these are the moments where you know we got to

spend extra cash because we were prepared to not have to use a car so we have to pay an excessive

Uber or Lyft fee, which typically doesn't fit well in our budgets. Other than that, I just want

to sort of echo previous comments about, you know, staff time being important to ensure we're

purchasing the correct gauge, ensure we're purchasing ADA compliant and ADA just accessible,

very accessible equipment and making those decisions with time and scrutiny and a wise,

healthy workflow and how that with the SAC streetcar might impact that kind of system

happening over the next year.

so yeah essentially frequency in the evenings is why i don't ride transit thank you all for

listening you'll likely hear quite a few more comments about that joshua holmes and then we

have katherine casiris and then julian hernandez uh good evening board my name is joshua holmes

i'm also with sacks strong sack town and i wanted to begin by thanking y'all for um taking time

every evening to be here. And also, I just wanted to give a moment to appreciate what the board has

been up to. I appreciate the million dollar fiscal commitment to safety measures, the Dos Rios

project, which I go by every day on the way to the rock climbing gym. And also just the fact that we

do have a strong transit system foundation in this city when other cities are size, like Austin,

are just fighting for the framework of a light rail system. So I want to say thank you. That

being said, I do kind of want to talk about the reasons that as someone who's used the system for

the past 10 years, I don't continue to use it. It has been echoed over and over again that a 30 to

60 minute headway for most bus routes is extremely challenging to build your daily lives around.

And when I live in a suburb like Fair Oaks, which does have a decent population, albeit decentralized,

but a very limited number of bus routes and those which do go through kind of just

barely cut through the area. It is really hard for someone who, like me, who does want to support

SACRT and prop up. So I previously worked in transit administration before. I understand

that federal funds are specifically programmed for specific or earmarked for specific projects,

and you can't simply just reallocate them. But as SACRT looks at projects that may be pursuing

or current fiscal commitments, I'd like to encourage you to perhaps look at the more bread

and butter, working class centric framework of how we can get more Sacramentans on board,

no pun intended, which would be just a simple increase of headways and bus routes available.

Thank you.

Katherine Kaceres.

Hello, my name is Katie Kaceres.

I'm a member of Strong Sac Towns.

I'm a person without a car or working bike, and I really would love to take SacRT more

than I do.

Um, but some of the bus lines are way too infrequent and the light rail is confusing

to take and pay for it, even though I really want to pay for it.

Uh, and it's all really super intimidating.

I recently needed to get to a specific hospital, uh, but there was a deeply, it was a very

deeply confusing experience, uh, cause the light rail label was unclear.

It was like only on the front, not on the sides of the car.

Um, and I was like, oh my God, is this the right one?

Um, and what should have been in either 18 minute drive or an estimated 48 minute direct

light rail slash bus route became an hour and 34 minutes. And if you know anything about trying to

get to a hospital appointment, that's bad. That's really bad. And the only reason I made it on time

is because I was super paranoid and built in a bunch of extra time. But that was because the

buses were really inconsistently like and widely spaced out. And then when it did come, it blew

straight past my stop and stopped 100 feet away from where I was at. And I had to go sprint to

catch it, which is not a nice thing to make somebody who's trying to get to a hospital

do. So the whole experience was super confusing and stressful. And I'm really, really glad that

it existed at all so that I was able to get to the hospital appointment. But I would really love

for buses to be more consistent and more frequent because I would love to take them because I have

no alternatives. So thank you so much for what you do. And I hope it improves.

Thank you. Next comment. Julian Hernandez. And then we have Kay Crum and then Anthony Graves.

Hi, my name is Julian Hernandez. I'm also here with the Sac Strong Towns transit team.

And a lot of my friends have talked about on-time performance. And I wanted to emphasize the need

for GTFS real time on light rail. I know you guys already have that on the buses and it's really

useful to be able to actually see when the bus is actually going to arrive, not when it's scheduled

to arrive. We'd love to have the service on the light rail as well. Sometimes it gets delayed,

It runs behind, and it's a lot easier if you can actually see where the light rail is and

when it's coming so you can time that better.

Also, I want to say that the state is providing free services to procure that technology through

CalITP, but that is only available through the end of this year.

So if we can kind of work on that and get that done over 2026, that would be a great

way to use those free state funds for procuring those services.

Thank you all very much.

Thank you.

Kay Crum.

Hi, I'm Kay Crum. I'm from Strong Sacktown. I'm going to keep this brief. I would love to use

SACRT more if it went out to things like all the runs around Sacramento. I wanted to take the bus

to run to feed the hungry, but there wasn't anything that I could take. So thank you for your

time. Anthony Graves and then Kathleen and then Farah Mars Nabavi. Oh, he did. Okay.

I thank you for hearing my comment and thank you for your undivided attention. I'm Kathleen.

I'm also a member of Strong Sacktown and I love taking transit. I love reducing my car use,

but I choose not to take it because it's unreliable. The times are terrible,

especially on the weekend. And that's pretty much it. But thank you for hearing my comment.

Good evening. My name is Farah Meyers Nabevi, and I'm a participant in Strong Sactown, and I'd like to echo the comments made by the earlier speakers and tie together a few key points.

For me, the increase in frequency is important. As another person said, increase in coverage is also important.

coverage can mean geographic coverage. It can mean night coverage, meaning later service or

more frequency at night. And it also could mean more frequency on Sundays. As many people pointed

out, there are lines that only come every 60 minutes on Sundays that are every 30 minutes

on weekdays. And for those who are in Elk Grove, there's no bus service at all on Sundays. And now

that Elk Grove has been integrated into SACRT, it makes sense to have Elk Grove residents be able to

take the bus on Sundays. Another gentleman here mentioned that there's an opportunity

to get funding from CalITP to have the real-time information on light rail.

And that's also very important, given the disruptions to light rail service

and some of the challenges faced there.

And that goes back to my earlier comment about the bandwidth of staff time.

I mentioned the word opportunity cost, and I appreciate Director Kennedy's point

about not being able to reprogram some FTA funding.

What I mean by opportunity costs is the bandwidth of staff time. And so I'd like to encourage the board to prioritize a greater frequency and greater coverage of bus service. This is something that many speakers have pointed out is a necessity for increased ridership. Thank you.

Thank you. Any more public comments?

That's all a public comment.

All right. Well, I want to thank all of our public commenters, a lot of new faces today. So thank you for your civic participation. We will move on to our next item. 5.1. Receive and file the annual comprehensive financial report and designate the operating surplus and working capital reserve for fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025.

Good evening, Chair St. Allen and members of the board, Jason Johnson, VP of Finance, CFO.

I'm pleased to present the annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025.

The goal of the independent audit is to provide reasonable assurance that financial statements are free of material misstatements and conform with generally accepted accounting principles.

SACRT has contracted with Crow LLP, an independent certified public accountant firm, to perform

the audit of the financial statements.

The auditors have issued an unqualified or clean report or opinion on the financial statements.

This means that the financial statements are free of any material misstatements.

This is the sixth consecutive year the SACRT has received no audit findings.

Operating results for fiscal year 25 have revenues exceeding expenditures by $950,000.

The surplus amount will be added to the existing operating reserve, which will bring our reserve to a balance of $40 million.

This fulfills our operating reserve requirement and provides the district with sufficient funds to cover approximately 60 days of operating expenditures.

While this strengthens our financial position, staff has previously noted that operating funding challenges are projected for the foreseeable future.

Staff continues to work closely with SACOG to ensure SECRT receives its rightful allocation

of all available funding to not only close projected funding gaps, but to free up discretionary

money such as federal 5307 funds to address priority capital needs.

Staff will be providing the board with an updated long-term fiscal forecast early next

year as a supplement to our annual budget process.

I would like to thank the board directors for their exceptional direction on fiscal

strategy.

Henry, Shelley, and the executive management team for their strong leadership, and the financial

team for their hard work throughout the year, and in completing the audit and annual financial

report. This concludes my comments. I'd be happy to answer any questions. We also have Brad Schell

with Crow LLP in the room for questions as well. Thank you. All right. Thank you for that. I will

open up for director questions. Looking to the right, any questions? None here. Looking to the

left? None. Public comments? There's no public comment. Great. Any follow-up? All right. Well,

that was just an information item, so we will move on to our next item, which is 5.2,

and that is intent motion to select the chair and vice chair of the Sacramento Regional Transit

board of directors for 2026.

Will there be any presentation on this?

There's no presentation.

All right.

Well, I will open it up for director questions or motions.

Madam Chair, I would nominate that you would ascend into the chairmanship.

Chairwoman-ship is the case where this would be.

Second.

Second. Okay, we do have a motion in a second. Yes, Director Kennedy.

I just want, of course I support the motion, but I just want clarification because we did go

to where we allow for two-year terms, and did Mr. Jennings already serve his second term?

He's just served one term. He's only served one term.

I just just so that I can throw something that makes us all really squeamish and uncomfortable.

I think he may be having an understanding that he was going to serve two terms.

I can't speak to Director Jennings intent.

I mean, because he was vice chair when I was chair.

And that was any clarity for me.

Clearly his understanding.

The precedence for two year chairperson role.

Since he's not here, I just felt so.

So by statute, we have to select a new chair every year.

The bylaws that were adopted or the administrative code that applies to the board that the board adopted does allow for somebody to serve two consecutive terms.

It doesn't require it.

So it's...

What's the background on that?

Why did we do...

I wasn't on the board.

So I believe there was a chair who felt like they hadn't completed what they wanted to complete.

So they wanted to serve a second term, which was not our practice at all.

It was a new chair every year.

And so that's where it came from.

Somebody wanted to serve two consecutive terms.

And they asked if we could modify the administrative code, and we did to allow for it.

But it's not required.

So that's just the background.

I have no preference.

How's that on where we go with this?

So there was precedence.

Was it during COVID?

There was a new leadership at the time?

No.

How many of you have been doing this practice?

We've only done it twice.

Yeah, I think we've done it twice.

This is not something with a long history.

No, our previous history was every year.

Go back to Joe.

Joe just served a year.

Joe.

Joe?

Joe.

Director Serna?

Phil. Oh, Phil.

We'll open up for discussion.

I'd love to hear more before taking a vote on the active motion and second.

I'm in favor of the motion.

Yeah, I'll second the motion.

We do have a motion and a second.

I'll just chime in here.

I appreciate Supervisor Kennedy looking out for Mr. Jennings.

We did only do a two-year chair position twice, once with Director Chenier,

because we were in a kind of a state of turmoil from a funding perspective and some different

things and then we extended the courtesy to uh director kennedy um i think that this is such a

large board with so many regional representatives that you could potentially serve on the board and

never get the opportunity to chair if everybody takes a two year exactly yeah so i made the motion

I did with the intention of it being yes please um well I just want to say the new chair would take

uh that position in January correct I mean in deference to Mr Jennings could we we could

talk to him at least and let him know that he that we intend to change chairs I'll leave that

the ceo should i just came back to the board so i appreciate what you've said uh director hume i

just you know i sort of hate to have him yeah so are you suggesting i mean i imagine if he's not

watching i can't believe he's not watching this everybody watches this i'd like to make a substitute

motion that we continue it to the next meeting at which time we can have an opportunity to figure

this thing out. I would second that. So we'll take the substitute motion first

to continue this to the next regularly scheduled SACRT meeting. Yes.

Well, here's the thing. By statute, you have to pick your new board member in January.

I mean, your new chair in January.

January?

By statute.

This is in December.

But we don't have another board meeting until the end of January.

Hence the...

It's the end of January.

It's the end of January.

I understand.

I mean...

Well, because we always do an intent motion because then it sets everything up so that we are properly, you know, set to go in January.

Okay.

We have some who would like to speak to the substitute.

Yeah, I appreciate the thought.

I'm sure that Rick knew that this was going to be on the agenda tonight.

I'm sure he's thought through it a little bit.

So I don't think this is out of, I don't believe it would be out of the blue.

I think for staff's time, I think to Pat Hume's comment for continuation, I think the first motion is the way to go to move forward.

I think waiting another month and a half would be a little difficult and just delaying probably the inevitable.

So.

Anybody else who would like to speak on this?

We also need a motion for vice chair.

All right.

Well, we'll take that one separately.

Okay.

So we're going to go back then to the motion.

Yes.

No, the substitute.

The substitute.

Yeah.

So we have the substitute from Director Kennedy and the second from Director Dickinson.

So we'll do a roll call, please.

To continue?

Yeah.

That was the motion.

That was a substitute.

Okay, because we had Hume and Budge.

That was the original.

Okay, and then there was Arorba and Serna.

No, no, no.

Director Kennedy and Dickinson.

Okay, that was to continue the item.

Correct.

Okay.

Yes.

So we're going to have a roll call.

You should do a roll call.

Can you call the roll with all the roster, please?

Sure.

Director Brewer?

No.

Director Budge?

No.

Director Dickinson?

Aye.

Director Hume?

No.

Director Kennedy.

Aye.

Director Maple is absent.

Director Rorba.

No.

Director Schaefer.

No.

Director Cerna.

Director Jennings is absent.

And Chair Singh Allen.

I will abstain.

Okay.

And the motion fails.

So we're now back to the original motion,

which was made by Director Hume with a second from Director Budge.

Roll call, please.

Okay.

Director Brewer.

Yes.

Director Budge.

Yes.

Director Dickinson.

Director Hume.

Aye.

Director Kennedy.

Aye.

Director Maples absent.

Director Rorba.

Yes.

Director Schaefer.

Aye.

Director Serna.

Director Jennings is absent and Chair Singh Allen.

I'm going to abstain on it as well.

Okay.

It's self-serving.

Back into the motion, I think it wasn't Bud.

The original we both did.

That was what was done at the same time.

I think I heard. Yeah, they did it initially and then you guys did the same motion. I mean,

a second one with it. I have Roaba and Serna. No. So no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

The motion was made by Director Hume. And then the second that I heard for the record was with

Director Budge. Yes. For having Director Singh Allen, me, move up to the chair position. Then

And the substitute motion was made by Director Kennedy with a second from Director Dickinson,

which failed the vote.

Correct.

All right.

I will say in the meantime, Director Cerna kind of re-seconded it.

Yes.

That is my recollection.

So now we have the role of vice chair and there is precedence that for it to be a county

representative correct?

Yes.

Yes, by.

Okay.

So since we have director Serna who has served and director Kennedy, I would like to make

the motion for director Hume to fill the vice chair.

I'll second that.

We have a motion in a second.

Any discussion on this?

all right all those before we take yeah yeah all anybody else okay all those in favor please say aye

any abstain you voted for yourself good for you

it's because he's wearing his happy he's wearing the happy sweater

i just can i make a comment because he's in here i just i don't know if this is the right time i

don't know what normally happens here since but i just want to thank rick jennings for being the

chair when I first came on service, especially at cab to cap and at different events. He makes it

very easy to be involved and was a great, great person to have as a chair for the first year that

I was involved. So I just want to thank him. And also thank you, Bobby, for being vice chair as

well and taking the next role. Thank you. I will save a lot of my comments for when Director

Jennings is present, but he's done a fantastic job serving SACRT's best interests, not only

with the role as a city council member,

but most importantly, being a regional voice.

We've done a lot of great work together

and he's going to continue doing that great work

on this great body.

So do thank him for that.

All right.

Public comments on this?

There was no public comment.

There's no, okay, yeah, I didn't think so.

Next up is our general manager's report.

Good evening, Madam Chair, the board and the public. Welcome to our last meeting of 2025.

And I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving holiday and great holiday season. And I first

really wanted to say thanks to the wonderful suggestions from our public, especially

coverage and frequency.

These two words are the most used

words in the industry.

And

there are lots of stuff behind

that. I'd really like to have

an opportunity to sit down with

our

different organizations,

especially the

strong SACTown team.

And you guys are wonderful. I just want to

as your director

um um sorry the candidate you know uh ask it you know direct me to you know uh to to to have a more

direct conversation with you guys and explaining a couple major you know uh topics i'd love to you

sit down with you guys very soon.

The first item I'd like to share with the public and the board

is our emergency exercise drill.

Since safety is our number one priority,

we recently conducted a full-scale emergency exercise

to test our readiness and strengthen coordination

across all teams internally and externally.

Two real-life scenarios were simulated.

Scenario one, a bus displayed emergency call 911 on its head sign.

Then bus operations, security operations center,

security police services along with other law enforcements and quickly identified and locate

the bus using the onboard cameras and GPS technologies. So that's one scenario. The

scenario two is two trespassers were reported inside the security's light rail facility.

and using thermal imaging cameras and our new AI drone technology.

As I mentioned, the last board meeting, I think,

we got the permission from FAA to allow us to use AI drone technology.

And we probably was the first agency to use that,

the non-police force enforcement agency.

long were the only were the first one to use the ai drone technology so our police services and

operation library operations quickly look at one subject in a building and safely removed

the second one from the online rail vehicle these annual drills are required by the california

public utilities commission and are essential to ensuring our teams are prepared to respond

swiftly and effectively in real emergencies uh next uh report that like you know we we try to

really share with this with uh share this with the public you know a couple years ago you know

So about a decade ago, we started a Psychiatry Mystery Rider program.

Again, that was when Director Sura was the chair.

And then we did that program.

Then in COVID, this program temporarily suspended.

Then Director Sura asked us to do that again.

So we did that again two years ago.

And this year, up to September, we had 159 evaluations.

Each month about 25.

The score is about 91.57%, which is consistent with our annual performance scorecard.

And there's some good observations because they are the private mystery operators or

evaluators.

They're not us, they're somebody else.

They did that totally in an anonymous way.

So the reliability, validity of this data is quite high.

And then there's some trends or points on there.

I'm not going to spend time to read that.

Then next one.

You know, last board meeting, I spoke about the annual full conference for California

Transit Association.

And the APTA conference, which was held in Boston earlier than the CTA meeting, you know,

I didn't get a chance to really update the board,

but I want to thank Director Hume and Schaefer,

along with Debra Flamme's staff,

for representing SAC-RT very well.

The conference, close to 10,000 people,

is the flagship event for public transportation professionals

to engage in workshops, experience technical tours,

and a network with thousands of colleagues.

And a lot of things in Boston,

our delegation represents Sacramento region

to cheer for the ace baseball game.

It's quite an exciting event.

And they showed our strong support for our own sports team.

Thank you for doing that.

um the next one um okay the lolo grants uh so last year you know november we received about 77

million dollars uh federal lolo grants and uh which is the third largest grant uh grant you

you know, amount across the nation.

And the last, late last month,

SACAT was awarded $39.7 million grant

from the federal government.

Again, the same category.

This funding will replace 49 aging buses

with new modern ones.

And the grant is the third largest in California

and the lion's largest in the nation.

and only less than 2% of transit agencies

receive this type of grants.

We feel grateful for FTA's support,

but staff believe that it is truly

due to the excellent meetings we had,

our board members and staff had in Washington

early this year,

we showcased

our board members did a

remarkable job

to showcase the incredible things

happening at SAC-IT

and certainly staff did

a wonderful job on applications

too.

Then, speaking of the grants,

later this week,

the

Strategic Growth Council

of the state will

meet and consider staff

recommendations for the affordable housing sustainable communities grant program or ace

program the ace grant program which provides about 800 million dollars annually to fund

partnerships between affordable housing projects and transportation improvements

So this year, the region submitted a whole bunch of grants, the total awards for the three projects we submitted.

It's a secretary, work with house development organizations.

And we are kind of like, it's not the main application.

However, we've been teaming up with others actually made huge differences.

And among the $126 million state funding to our region,

and out of 800, that is about 15% or something,

our population is about 4% of the whole, based on percentage, 4 or 5%.

So we cannot get more than what we should get if used to population base.

Among $126 million, SACAD received $25.8 million in funding.

So four applications and three applications we get an award.

this demonstrates

the strong partnership

SACAD has been enjoying

with our business partners

especially the house

development

firms

that being said

that concludes my GM report

back to you Madam Chair

thank you

thank you Henry for your excellent report

Any questions from our directors looking to the right?

Any questions?

Nope.

To the left, seeing none, public comment.

We have Jeffrey Tardeguia and then Helen O'Connell.

Jeffrey Tardeguia.

I'm here because of the monthly social work report.

And because this is the last meeting of this year.

and because the next board meeting will be taking place after the point in time count,

I just encourage for both the board of supervisors and for city council

that they get involved with the point in time count

because last time it was done, it had some problems.

So please let us find out what we know in the city and in the county,

what we count for homeless people.

That's my comment about.

And Helen O'Connell.

Hello, board.

I noticed that we had an emergency drill.

I just have a question.

How many people with any kind of disabilities

were included in that drill?

because people with hearing impairments, people with physical disabilities,

people with wheelchairs, electrical required equipment like oxygenators,

all of those things need to be taken into account if RT is going to help evacuate

or relocate people during an emergency.

This is just something I thought I should bring up.

I didn't hear any reference to any of that.

And for me personally, if I don't have electricity, I don't go anywhere.

And if I can't get out of my house because the streets are flooded, then I can't go anywhere.

And I can't go anywhere.

I can't eat.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's all the public comment.

any follow-up quest uh comments from directors seeing none thank you thank you henry uh let's

see our final item reports ideas questions from directors and communication there's anybody want

to report out director dickinson or schaefer the capital corridor joint powers authority meeting

thanks uh i'm chair uh i would just mention that the capital corridors have now restored uh

There are, I believe it's 16 round trips a day between Sacramento and the Bay Area, which is equivalent to what existed before the height of the pandemic.

So I think that, in fact, took effect today.

So it's great to see that service restored.

And the ridership is not quite back to pre-pandemic levels, but I believe it's about 80% or so.

It's now back over a million riders a year.

So it's headed in the right direction.

I did see a lot of media coverage.

Great report.

As it relates to the Mobility Advisory Council meeting summary, any report out?

Nothing?

And for the JPI wave report, nothing?

monumental. So with that, just before I adjourn, I want to thank everyone for your,

the community, especially. Yes, sir. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. On the same one.

So it wasn't about that. I just wanted to, our mayor signed up for, for RT flex,

and it was a phenomenal experience for her. Good. She had struggled a little bit with the app,

but she was able to make a phone call and the drivers were very professional and,

and she just wanted me to pass that along to the board.

That really is a phenomenal service, and she appreciated that.

People using that.

Any other directors?

Any comments, public comments on this?

No public comment.

All right.

I want to thank everyone for your continued service on this very important regional board,

and thank you, the public, for keeping us well-informed from your point of view,

helping us all do our job better.

With that, happy holidays.

Everyone be safe.

Thank you.

Thank you.