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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-MATC-2019-06-24 MOBILITY, ACCESSIBILITY AND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION MINUTES PRESENT: Chair Lerner Commissioners (7) Parkes, Chang, Brouwer, Roberts, Lyczko, Powers, Barden OTHERS PRESENT: Common Council Liaisons – McGonigal and Nguyen Information Management Specialist - Myers EXCUSED: Commissioner Brylinsky Approval of the May 23, 2019 Mobility, Accessibility, and Transportation Commission Meeting Minutes- Resolution By Commissioner Powers: Seconded by Commissioner Roberts RESOLVED, That the minutes of the May 23, 2019 Mobility, Accessibility, and Transportation Commission meeting be approved as published. Carried Unanimously Statements From the Public: No one from the public appeared to address the Commission. Chair’s Report: Vice Chair for the month of July – Commissioner Barden City Budget & Budget Process Chief of Staff Cogan provided an overview of the process the City of Ithaca follows in order to establish its operating budget each year. The City of Ithaca budget for 2019 is $75.8 million. The budget is broken into the following categories: General fund - majority of funds Water Sewer Storm water Sidewalks Solid Waste Capital Projects are funded through the purchase of bonds and are intended for large investments/projects. The repayment of the bonds, which includes interest, is included in the budget as debt service, which is paid off little by little each year until paid. The City of Ithaca’s debt limit is set by New York State; and is currently at 70%. The higher the amount of debt service the higher the interest charges. Date: June 24, 2019 Time: 6:00 PM Location: Common Council Chambers, 3rd Floor, City Hall Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission Meeting Minutes June 24, 2019 2 CC Liaison Nguyen arrived at 6:18 p.m. Due to cuts in New York State funding, municipalities have had to resort to using capital project funds to pay for things typically paid for out of the general fund. The City has slowly been moving forward to put money back into the operating budget to pay for those things, and to pay off more debt each year than what is borrowed; however, this takes time. Currently, personnel costs are 72% of budget; followed by debt service at 13%, and Other costs at 15%. Most of budget is people, in order to cut down costs there would need to be cuts in staffing because healthcare costs and salaries rise each year. He further explained what the property tax cap is (which is governed by New York State), the tax levy, and tax exempt property. Currently, 55% of the City of Ithaca properties are tax exempt; this includes Cornell (87% of their properties are tax exempt), school districts, other governments, churches, nonprofits, and payment in lieu of property tax properties which are the new development projects. Each April as part of the budget process, departments are asked to submit their requests for different projects to be included in the capital project budget; their requests are then due back in May. During June and July the capital project committee reviews the requests and chooses which projects to fund, typically the most acute or mission critical projects. This year $26 million in requests were submitted; the City can fund $4 or $5 million. In August a recommended list of capital projects will be given to Common Council and staff. Each June, the Mayor issues guidelines for departments to follow as they prepare their annual departmental budget, which are due back to the Mayor by August 1st. During August and September, the Mayor will work with the City Controller, Chief of Staff, and department heads to put together his proposed budget. At the Common Council meeting in October, the Mayor’s proposed budget is released to Common Council and the public. During the month of October Common Council has 6 or so meetings to review the proposed budget with departments and consider changes they’d like to make. Typically, at the November Common Council meeting the budget and tax rate are adopted. In the Mayor’s guidelines for the 2020 budget he incorporated increases in staff costs for all departments and then gave a dollar amount (about a 1.5% increase over last year) to see what they would submit in their budget. In addition, departments can also submit over target budget requests for consideration. Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission Meeting Minutes June 24, 2019 3 He explained that ideally, if commissions have ideas or projects that require funding, they begin working with staff before May 1st to determine costs and create proposals to submit to the Mayor for possible inclusion in his budget. For the 2020 budget, commissions could make requests by resolution to Common Council to incorporate different items or projects into the over target budget requests for consideration. For the Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission, he would suggest that discussions for any budget related items begin in January since meetings are held just once a month. Commissioner Roberts stated that discussions have been occurring with staff and city leaders about the request for an ADA Coordinator for the City of Ithaca. He is hopeful that request will be included in the Mayor’s proposed budget. CC Liaison McGonigal arrived at 7:00 pm CC Liaison Report: CC Liaison Nguyen reported that Common Council, at their June meeting, approved the recommendation for a e-scooter pilot program pending New York State approval and provision of a memorandum of understanding from the Mayor for their approval. Common Council also approved a “Green New Deal” which is an aggressive set of target goals to meet to reduce greenhouse gases and pollution. This might have an impact for this commission related to different transportation options. They also gave conditional approval for the Carpenter Circle project which includes development of a new Greenstar Cooperative Market, Cayuga Medical Center offices, and residential. He further reported that TCAT will be removing its Zone 2 fare rate which means one flat rate for everyone. CC Liaison McGonigal reported that he was late today because he attended a neighborhood meeting presented by Sidewalk Project Manager, John Licitra related to new sidewalks on West and South Hills. He talked about what will be constructed this year and what will be bid this coming winter. The much needed sidewalk project on Hector Street is still at least a year away. The big sidewalk project for this year is the one on South Aurora Street which should completed by the end August. There is another project on W est Hill at the corner of Chestnut and Elm Streets that he feels is problematic in the way it's been designed so far; however, it makes it easier to walk to the Alternative Community School. There is also a proposal for either a sidewalk or stone dust trail on Giles Street between East State Street and the Mulholland Nature Preserve. Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission Meeting Minutes June 24, 2019 4 Pedestrian Snow Removal Public Input: Commissioner Brouwer reported that he and Commissioner Chang met last week and went over the really helpful comments and suggestions that had been provided related to the draft survey distributed at the May meeting. They did their best to incorporate all the comments and requested comments and input from various city departments, including City Clerk Holcomb and Public Information Specialist Faraday since they will be pulling the survey together online. He requested that comments on the most recent draft survey be submitted to them on or before Thursday, June 27 th. At the July meeting they will present a plan for publicizing the survey. DPW Parking Analysis: Commissioner Parkes reported that the selection committee met with the proposed consultant shortly after the last Matcom meeting to determine the scope of work and discuss the budget. The Consultant works with another group (subcontract?) who will do most of the outreach to stake holders and handles all the public relations. The consultant has already reached out to the selection committee, in survey form, to determine what they felt was going on with parking, parking issues, possible solutions, and to give them an idea of what type of stakeholders should be involved in the process. Commissioner Lyczko stated that there will be a phone interview with the subcontractor about who should be included in the stakeholder group. They will provide information about the stakeholder group that Matcom discussed. Matcom was mentioned as a stakeholder group so the subcontractor might provide questions for the commission that can be responded to, recorded and given back to them for review. Commission Lyczko stated that there was discussion about what drives costs for parking focusing specifically on Collegetown, Downtown, and the West End/W aterfront Areas. In terms of stakeholder input, there might be multiple approaches from each group. There will be a need for an internal cost and revenue study. That means the City has to think about what is the purpose of a parking system . In Ithaca it’s typically not revenue driven but to support other activities and services - what are those goals. The more data that the city can provide the consultant the less the cost to the city will be. What parking is available now, when is it used, cost of parking garages, whether or not to use surface lots and how organizations would use them during off hours. The whole transportation system and access to parking in the City will be studied. Do people perceive parking as easy and/or would you be willing to do this or that to have parking. Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission Meeting Minutes June 24, 2019 5 Commissioner Parkes stated that the City received a Transportation Demand Management Study grant to determine accessibility throughout the city. Economic Development Director Knipe is the point person and all the information they collect will be provided to the parking consultant to consider and be part of their scope of work. How can the City get people out of cars and keep things moving as far as accessibility. Chair Lerner noted that Matcom has not received a Commission Project Form from the City Administration Committee for this topic. The lesson that has been learned is that it is a good idea to have Common Council’s expectations in writing before proceeding further rather than after. He will put this request in writing to Commissioners Parkes, Lyczko, Director of Parking Messmer, and Chief of Staff Cogan. ADA Issues: Commissioner Roberts reported that the ADA Training was successful and thanked everyone for attending. There will be a meeting on July 1st of the group that is looking at an in-house ADA Coordinator to discuss what the position would look like. He encouraged all Matcom members to participate if they are interested. E-Scooters Follow -Up: Commissioner Barden reported that the Mayor e-mailed a number of people, including herself, to gauge interest in serving on the committee to develop the MOU with Lime for a pilot e-scooter program. The committee would involve the Department of Public Works, Engineering, City Attorney, Planning Department Staff, and Ithaca Police Department. She and Commissioner Powers would both like to participate in the meetings and that information will be shared with the Mayor. Meeting Wrap Up: The next meeting is Monday July 22nd at 6:00 p.m. Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 7:55 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah L. Myers, Information Management Specialist