Started.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm Jeff Weirs, Chair of the Transportation Committee, and it is Monday, March 16th at 6:30 uh p.m.

Um, introduce the uh committee members that are on the call.

We have Terry Adams, uh Stephen Shore, Candice Weathers, John Politia, Dan Sanford, and Ryan Hughes.

I think we're missing one, but we do have a quorum.

So let's uh go ahead and get started.

Uh we also have uh on here, Luke Buttonweiser with uh transportation, senior transportation uh planner for the uh for the city and John Harness, corporate counsel.

I miss anybody.

I think we've got it.

And Sheila Hughes.

So we do have uh one item on the agenda.

Um it's uh it's an ordinance, item T32.003.

The ordinances to dissolve the Stanford Transit District for section 59.

Um is that 8 or B?

Eight of the code of ordinances.

Um this was submitted by uh Director Kenonis.

Um I'm gonna hand this over to Luke.

Um Luke, I think is gonna share his screen and um go through the details on this.

Thank you, Luke.

Thank you.

Um Chairwis, do you have to formally take up the item or I forget the rules?

Are you guys?

Um yes, we do.

I'm sorry.

Um so I'd like to move the item on to the agenda.

We have a second.

Second.

Second.

Second.

And um, I guess we need approval.

Do we need a do we need a vote on approval?

Yeah, you would take a vote to take up the item.

So you take a vote um by voice vote.

All um okay to take the item, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

And any abstentions.

Um, I also like to recognize uh representative Gilbride, uh, who has joined the call.

Thank you.

All right.

Um great.

So uh good evening, everyone.

My name is Luke Buttonweiser.

I'm the uh senior transportation planner in the transportation department.

So um administration put forth a uh ordinance to dissolve the Stanford Transit District.

Um that may be an entity many of you may not even be aware of.

Um before we get into that, though, I just want to give a quick um interactive uh presentation about um basically uh bus stops in Stanford because I think they'll provide some helpful context and background.

Um let me just make sure this works.

Everyone can see my screen.

All right, great.

Um item T32.003 dissolution of the Stanford Transit District.

So we're gonna talk about the anatomy of a bus stop.

So this is a um bus stop on Newfield Avenue right by the Newfield Green Shopping Center on the uh 333 line.

Um so we'll see this is a good photo.

I like it.

Uh this is credit to the CT examiner where the photo's taken from.

Um that really kind of articulates and shows all the different components of a normal bus stop, sheltered bus stop here in Stanford.

So um first, this is the bus.

Does anybody know who is in charge of the bus in Stanford?

Raise your hand and what agency.

Uh I saw uh representative shore.

Uh sorry, Chair Wears if I'm allowed to call on people.

Or if you want to go.

Yes, uh, sure.

Representative shore.

CT Transit.

Bingo and CT Transit a state agency or city agency.

State agency.

Very good.

All right.

Next, the sidewalk.

This is on Newfield Avenue.

Does anyone want to guess who is in charge of owning and kind of maintaining um the sidewalk on Newfield Avenue?

Uh Representative Adams.

I guess it would be the city.

That's correct.

Now, if this was on a state road like East Main Street, West Main Street, High Ridge, or Longridge, who would be in charge of the sidewalk.

Still the city, man.

I've never seen the state clean clean sidewalk.

Very good, Representative Adams.

Even though it's on a state road, the city of Stanford is responsible for ownership and maintenance of the sidewalks on state roads.

So even if it's on a um in uh state road, sidewalk is still the city.

The road, Newfield Avenue.

Who's in charge of the road?

Uh representative weathers.

Oh, I had my hand up for state roads.

Like Main Street.

I'm not too sure about Newfield.

I don't know if that's a state road.

If it was, then the state would be responsible for it.

Like um State Avenue on the side of 95.

Yeah.

I would say so.

Newfield Avenue is a city street.

So the city of Stanford's responsible for ownership and maintenance.

If it was like uh, you know, Route 1, West Main, East Main, Tressor, Washington Boulevard, that would be a state uh DOT responsibility.

All right, so road, city.

How about the sign?

Who's in charge and ownership of the sign?

I'm gonna call on someone.

Representative Gilbright.

City or signs.

City or signs.

On City Roads.

CT Transit.

Oh, man.

CT Transit is in charge of the sign.

Um and it's actually some cases where the metal pole is owned by the city is owned by the state, or it's owned by CT Transit.

So in this case, all the signs for CT, uh all bus stop signs are owned by uh CT Transit.

They have a guy who really covers all like Waterbury, New Haven, and Stanford that does all the sign work for the state.

I would say if you submit to fix at Stanford and select a bus stop sign that does automatically actually go to the guy who works for the state.

It does not go to our people.

So just a fun fact.

So um what about the concrete um like the piece of concrete sidewalk or shelter uh pad that the shelter sits on?

Representative weathers.

CT transit.

So that is actually the city is in charge of that.

What about the shelter itself?

Who's in charge of the shelter?

Okay, they're in charge of that.

Who?

CT Transit.

Any other guesses?

Uh Representative Politia, I'm gonna call on you.

Any other guesses?

Representative Hughes.

Uh I'd say either CT D O T or Transit, CT Transit.

Any other guesses?

Representative Sanford.

I I just called Luke.

That's the that's not a bad answer.

That's the right answer, right, Lou?

Yeah, exactly.

Um I'll do one last time before I before I reveal the answer.

All right, so the ownership of shelters is the Stanford Transit District.

Now raise your hand and let me know if you ever even heard of the Stanford Transit District before this meeting.

So that's just a fun little thing because there's a lot of different components that go into a bus stop.

And we might get um you know, questions or complaints from uh residents about um the sidewalk in front of a bus stop or the path that it's on, or the shelter itself, or the side's not working, or the bus that doesn't come um on time.

So it's a lot of different entities that actually oversee and deal with um busing and bus stops in Stanford.

And there's kind of one outlier, if you didn't really notice that, is the transit district.

So the Stanford Stanford Transit District, for I understand, was created um and is embodied in chapter 59 of the Stanford Code of Ordinances.

Um late 90s, if I'm not mistaken.

Um, transit districts are uh have power through a state statute um that basically uh allows uh municipalities to create transit district to operate uh transit system.

So for instance, Norwalk, um, their transit district operates all their buses.

Um they own the buses, they uh the bus stops, the bus signs, the bus shelters, they fully do all the transit um kind of as a sub-municipal agency.

You think of it as like the WPCA almost, right?

It has its own separate board, its own separate budget.

It doesn't go through the normal city um board approval process or um budget or budget process, different things like that.

So Bridgeport does that similarly.

It's a greater greater Bridgeport Transit um district.

So that's kind of what some other municipalities have decided to do.

Um here in Stanford, right?

CET Transit operates um as an agency of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, operates our buses.

Uh CT Transit works in Hartford, in uh like Mariden, um, New Haven, Waterbury, and Stanford.

So the reason that we are before you tonight, and if you remember from last month's meeting, uh we created the new Stanford Transportation Department, which is really meant to enhance efficiency for our traveling uh residents and traveling public, whether that's our capital projects, our pothole filling, our road paving, um, our parking enforcement, different things like that.

Three million, over three million rides a year occur on CT transit um within Stanford alone, which is a significant number, and I think a lot more than people realize.

And we're really working on ways to enhance uh transit in Stanford.

This is something that came out of the comp plan um that we recently did, really ways to enhance transit, both to um as an affordability metric, right, to improve uh mobility for people who take the bus.

It's a good environmental sustainability item.

Um the state's currently working on building um providing all electric buses here in Stanford.

And then actually just as part of our last capital budget submission, um, which you will you will all be reviewing.

Uh we're putting in 250,000 in the capital budget for uh upgrading our transit stops, which basically the city-owned portion, so like the sidewalk, um updating the um adding shelters, benches, the sidewalk pads, making ADA compliant more comfortable for people who are taking the bus.

So we found um it's kind of part of that review, the transit district, which I'm admittedly the staff to um meets every month.

Uh there's supposed to be four members, they're currently two members of that board.

Um it can kind of just be a little bit of a um um, I don't want to say log jam, but can kind of just be an extra step and maybe make it a little bit more confusing for our residents and even for you know everyone here tonight that there's this kind of separate quasi-city agency that just oversees the shelters.

Um so we feel like that eliminating the shelters and then having the ownership and maintenance of the shelters rest more with the city and the transportation department will make it more transparent, make it also faster for um things to get fixed, right?

So, for instance, if a resident reports that a piece of glass is broken or a bench is missing, um, for action to be taken, we have to wait until the next transit district meeting, which is the second Wednesday of each month.

Transit district board has to approve um the contractor to go out and get a quote to fix that item.

And the contractor comes back in the next month with the quote.

The transit district then has to approve that quote to something get fixed, and then the contractor is finally able to go out and uh effectuate that repair.

So basically it can be a two to three month process to do some basic um upgrades or just for maintenance upgrades to our shelters.

And we really think that's a disservice to our um, you know, the residents of Stanford who use the bus and use shelters.

We'll point out uh maintenance of shelters.

We do have a vendor um that maintains our shelters, such as a thing as snow removal, um cleaning, graffiti removal, trash removal.

They are paid out of advertisements that come that are on the ad that are on the shelters.

Um so they manage the advertising for the shelters, and there's a uh cut of revenue basically that they take out of that for maintenance opportunities.

So um the shelter provider cleans all the shelters every month.

They shovel out snow from the shelters every large snowstorm.

Even actually in the last blizzard we had, we had them go out and in addition to all the shelters, they cleared out the top hundred busiest bus stops in Stanford.

Um, so we know that that was a kind of an area that we were lacking that first big snowstorm um we had this year.

So we want them to go out and really shovel out all the snow from our uh from the top 100 uh bus stops, exclude including also the uh bus shelters.

The state is working on upgrading um actually starting in two weeks, 10 new bus shelters in Stanford.

We'll get another 20 or so in the summer.

And we just feel like there's ways to enhance um the operations and maintenance of these shelters.

And it's also important to notice uh note that the contractor, uh Transat Inc.

that actually does the maintenance of the shelters and um does the advertising for the shelters, that contract's actually with the city and not with the transit district.

So it's like I'm technically oversee that contract, but the transit district still has to review and oversee everything.

So long story short, um the ordinance uh chapter 59 provides um uh clause that allows for the dissolution of the transit district.

And we we felt like that at this time, really to enhance uh transit operations in the city and enhance um you know increase efficiencies and responsiveness to the public that dissolving the transit district um and basically having all the shelters be owned by the city and maintenance fully owned and operated by the city is in the best interest of the traveling public.

Um so I think that's kind of my spiel.

Thank you for uh bearing with me with my little uh uh academic exercise of uh picking out the anatomy of a bus stop.

Um, but I'm happy to take any questions at this time.

And also um attorney harness from corporations council office is here to answer some more illegally's questions.

So thank you.

Great.

Thank you very much, Luke.

So who has questions?

Uh Representative Weathers is here, hand up.

Yes, hi Luke.

Um there is a bus stop on West Maine that is across from the Wendy's and CVS.

Um I put in a fixit ticket for it.

And um when you was when you select the tabs, it appeared as if it was saying, hey, like this is a state road, so this is not going to be local.

This is gonna actually be um a CT transit matter.

So as a regular, if I were a regular resident, it would have been confusing for me as you're saying this evening about well, who's actually responsible for this bus stop?

And then it's like you feel a little deterred because it's like, okay, now this is gonna have to go through a lot of red tape.

And it's gonna take a really long time.

If it's CT transit, they probably have a zillion bus stops that need to be addressed.

And God forbid, because this is on West Main, which I think is what, Route 20 or 22?

One, yeah.

I'm sorry.

Route one.

Yeah.

Route one.

Then it's really gonna take a long time to get repaired if this is a state road and that the state is you know responsible for it.

So it was a little bit discouraging.

So now I I under I definitely understand what you're talking about.

Yeah, is what I'm trying to say.

And uh, we did get that request, and we are working on fixing it, by the way.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh Representative uh Gilbride.

Thank you.

Um Luke, could you please tell me why the transit district was created?

Um, my understanding, um, and this is from the member who was an original member who is still a member of the transit district, is I guess it's actually made to work on dissolving it, or he was at least appointed back in the early 2000s and 90s to dissolve um the transit district, but I guess they just never got around to it.

Um I believe it may have been, I think there might have been trolleys, uh like trolley buses back in the day that were run by the transit district.

Um, but I uh other than that, this is really just to your say representative Gilbrad, I can't give you more of a definitive answer.

Um I just I know it was created in 1993, way before my time.

But you are you saying that we had trolleys in 1993?

Um it was like the buses that look like trolleys, I think.

I found some old records about that.

It was not like trolleys in the ground, like trolley train like San Francisco.

Got it, got it.

Okay.

I'm just wondering if they it was it created for an actual reason that you know, I don't know.

Maybe CC Transit funnels money that way to the city.

I want to make sure there's no legal reason, and I guess we could refer the question to the lawyer on the call of you know whether any legal implications of dissolving.

I'm assuming no, but yeah, I mean the uh transit district only works on shelters in Stanford, and the state has a program to upgrade a bunch of bus shelters, and the city and myself have really been the primary point of contact um for all that.

So we're getting a bunch of new shelters from the state.

So um, you know, it has been with the city, so it's you know, having the transit district dissolved, I don't think would be an issue related to that.

Okay.

Uh Representative Shore.

Luke, who who sits on the transit district?

Uh there are two current members.

Um so technically there are three.

Um it is John Gallup, uh Andrew Krill, and Robert Figueroa.

Um, all of their terms are expired, and frankly, uh represent um member Figueroa has not been on in 18 months, but he's still technically, I think a board member.

There's supposed to be four members of the district.

Are there other responsibilities?

Um other than the shelters.

Correct.

Uh no.

Okay.

Yeah.

So I mean, other municipalities, their transit districts do like operate the buses, um, operate, you know, own the stops, but in Stanford, it's literally just the ownership and maintenance of the shelters.

And that maintenance, that vendor is with the city, too.

So there's a little oversight of the shelters, but that's about it.

Thank you, Luke.

Yep.

Does anyone else have any questions?

Uh Representative Police Yeah.

Go ahead.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Um, yeah, so kind of just in terms of uh and you kind of sort of answered it already, but um most grants can be awarded through to the city directly, doesn't have to go through like a transit district or anything like that in the future.

I'm I'm thinking if there's any CT dot micro-transit pilots or anything like that, or well, the microtransit pilot was actually gone through the city anyway, it wasn't even through the transit district.

So um to answer your question, yeah.

I mean, we're a political subdivision of the state of Connecticut, um, so we're able to receive grants from West Cock from the state directly, and even depending on the structure uh federal grants directly as well.

Okay, perfect.

Um that was that was all the questions I had.

Thank you.

Representative Weathers, I see your hand up again.

So Luke, you were saying that the persons that advertise at the booth themselves are compensated financially for their their support of the shelter by them picking up the lid and and doing the show snow removal in exchange for their advertisement for free.

Is it like a so am I mistaken?

Yeah, so it's a company called TransAd Um Inc., which they are our maintenance vendor, so they're the ones who will clean your graffiti or move trash, install a new bench, shovel the snow.

Um they sell ads, right?

So we have ads out for Breeze Airlines was one of them.

Um Joe Gannam's brother is an attorney, and he has a um uh uh you know a few ads at so uh they collect revenue from those ads, and that revenue um is what goes back into the shelters, and then the city um gets a direct cut um that she goes, just kind of stays, and that allows us to buy new shelters um as well.

Okay, thank you for that clarification.

I understand it now.

Thank you.

And that's not going away.

That's still gonna adds are still gonna be there.

That the the vendor will still be there doing their job.

Not none of that's changing.

Correct.

No, that's changed.

That contract's actually with the city, um, not even with the transit district, so by dissolving the transit district, it makes no impact on the um on the vendor or the operations of the vendor.

Okay.

That vendor also I believe serves like Norwalk and Hartford and Bridgeport as well, too.

So they're pretty experienced.

Do they serve anything other than the shelters?

Do they um in the in Stanford?

Is it just the shelters?

Um, so uh currently uh our contract is the shelters.

I believe the state has a separate contract for the sides of the buses themselves.

Um I know in other municipalities like in Norwalk, I think they do it for the buses because that's transit district owns the buses there, but for us it's really just the shelters.

Okay.

Yeah.

Does anyone else have any questions?

Okay.

Seeing none, I think we can uh take this item to vote.

Does anyone uh could can we have a motion to motion to approve?

Okay, representative Adams.

Second second was Stanford.

Uh Dan uh representative of Sanford, I believe.

Um I think we'll just do this by a voice code, voice vote.

Um all those um who uh are looking to approve this say aye.

Aye.

Anyone anyone opposed?

Any abstentions?

I'm gonna abstain.

Anyone else?

Okay, so we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

I have eight zero one, and it passes.

Uh that being the final item that we have on the agenda, do we have a motion to adjourn?

Chair Weirs, if I quick question.

Um, and this may be John.

This is I assume this probably has to go for public hearing.

Or is it just yet approved at the next full board?

Yeah, I'm not entirely certain of that.

This uh despite the fact that I'm working on a variety of large matters for the city.

This is one of my first ordinance projects.

And so I'm not uh entirely sure of the next step in the procedure.

I think it goes for a public hearing.

Yeah.

I'd imagine something of the scale probably would warrant or go towards a public hearing.

Yeah.

That this can be uh uh investigative before it goes on the agenda, I think.

Yeah.

Okay.

Do we have a motion to adjourn?

Motion to adjourn.

Second.

All right.

Well, thank you, everyone.

Thank you, Luke.

Thank you.

Well, I will um attach that presentation to the item.

Oh, thank you.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.

The activity was really cool.

I liked it.

Yeah.

Spice up a transportation committee meeting.

Thanks.