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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 05.08.2012 CC-WThe City Council of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met in Regular Session on the above date with Mayor George Garver presiding. Council Present: Council Absent: Patty Eason, Danny Meigs, Bill Sattler, Pat All Council Present Berryman, Tommy Gonzalez, Troy Hellmann, Rachael Jonrowe Staff Present: Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Bridget Chapman, Acting City Attorney; Jessica Brettle, City Secretary; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Susan Morgan, Finance Director; Laurie Brewer, Deputy City Manager; Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager; Ed Polasek, Transportation Director Minutes I I Igt -1 4-1--- ♦ s 1 i# Tt A Update on potential impacts to transit options, for the City of Georgetown, based on the designation of the City as part of the Austin Urbanized Area -- Ed Polasek, Transportation Director Berryman absent. Polasek said, when this process started a year and a half ago with the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) and Capiral Area Rural Transit System (CARTS), the City knew the Urban Area designations would be coming out. He said they knew Georgetown would be more than 50,000 in terms of developed property and associated population. He said TXDOT worked with TTI to fund a study to look at the impact of this study on the local transportation options and thought the City would be designated a small urban area district. He said the Census Bureau has some rules and procedures to classify the city. He said they classified the city as being part of the Austin Urbanized Area by using a jump property. He said their definition of jump property is anything that appears as impervious cover. He said any of this type of property, including the quarry, is considered urbanized. He said the City started working with TTI on a work plan and proposal to bring back options for Council on how to move forward. He said one of those steps would be to get in contact with Representative Carter's office for a bill that could attach rules on this subject. He said they are working on that legislation. He briefly described some other options and introduced Meredith Hysmith with TTI to the City Council. With a Powerpoint Presentation Hysmith ran through briefly the impacts of this designation and transportation options. She said they are doing to talk about the outcome of the census, transportation planning and options for Georgetown. She spoke about the census outcomes and the urban area determination. She said it is important to note the determination is based on analytical measures of size and density. She said the designations are implemented on a uniform set of rules. She noted there was some criteria applicable to the City that, at the time of the first projections, they did not anticipate it would connect the City through the smaller roads such as 1460 and Teravista Parkway. She said they use the census tract to define initial urban core. She said some of the criteria includes the use of impervious cover. She spoke about exactly how Georgetown was linked to the Austin large urban area. She said they made no distinction for quarries in the impervious cover. She said the limit for jumps is 2.5 miles. She said the City was connected through two "jumps", FM 1460 and Teravista Parkway. She showed Council a map of the Georgetown urban area district showing the "jumps" to City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 1 of 3 Pages the Austin Urbanized Area (UZA). Hysmith spoke about the impact of this designation on transit funding and what that means. She said CARTS will no longer be able to continue to provide service in Georgetown using rural transit funds. She said CARTS will no longer have access to State transit funds for areas now part of the Austin UZA. She said the federal urban transit funds can be allocated for transit in Georgetown through a designated recipient such as Capital Metro. She listed some of the options for the City and said there are four basic options. She said the first option is to opt out of the funding entirely and go with no service. She said, with this option, there will be no demand response transit within Georgetown. She noted some CARTS services will continue with this option such as out of area regional connections, inter -urban services and medical transportation. She said CARTS and Arrow Trailways will continue to operate out of Georgetown station. She said option two is for the City to administer its own transportation services. She said this option incurs financial accountability, grants administration, regional and local planning and starting from the ground up. Mayor reviewed some of the related discussions being held by CAMPO. Berryman arrived at the dais. Hysmith said, right now, we are looking for ways to have creative funding mechanisms to be able to help Georgetown continue service. She said there is an obvious desire for transit services in Georgetown. She said, in addition to the discussions with CAMPO, there has been discussion with Capital Metro on how to make this work. She said the third option is to go with Capital Metro administered services. She said, under this option Georgetown can establish an Interlocal Agreement with Capital Metro for services. She said service may be provided as outlined in the Capital Metro Service Expansion Plan. She said, in turn, Capital Metro can still contract with CARTS for service. She noted the City would be eligible to apply for federal urban transit funds for capital and some of the operating expenses. She said, because Georgetown is not part of the UZA, there are no state funds for local share and Georgetown would need to provide part of the local share of funds. She said some other considerations for this plan would be that the City could begin with demand response transportation and then increase service through a five year growth plan. She said the alternative is to directly implement the transportation plan and the costs associated with that. She said, in the past, the City did have a transportation plan that was designed to connect customers with local businesses, employment and educational facilities. She showed Council the transportation map that was designed at that time. She said the last option is the potential to join Capital Metro. She said this would require a general referendum to approve joining Capital Metro and approval of 1 percent local sales tax dedicated to transit. She said Georgetown would begin receiving services based on need and population density. She noted there is no room at this time for something of that nature since Georgetown already dedicates 2% of its tax on transportation. Hysmith looked back at option number three regarding completing an interlocal with Capital Metro. She spoke about the financial planning for that option. She listed some assumptions for option three. She said some of the service assumptions is demand response for general population with growth and capital for purchase of vehicles in 2014 and 2015. She said this would assume Georgetown will be eligible to use funds for 50% operating potentially. Berryman asked and Hysmith clarified the hope is potentially Georgetown can work with Capital Metro on funding. Berryman spoke about how it works in CAMPO and asked if the City would be cashing in all of its chips for transportation. Hysmith said no and noted this would be coming out of a completely different fund than funds for other types of projects. Berryman asked and Hysmith said, for the 5307, the designated administrator is Capital Metro. Hellmann asked and Hysmith said the amounts provided to Council are the amounts the City would be eligible for under this option. Hysmith said those amounts are a little difficult to determine as the amounts are based on demand as well as population density. She showed Council the financial planning for option three, based on the assumptions that the City is working with Capital Metro through an interlocal agreement. She said, in terms of local funds, it goes from $88,700 in 2013 through $124,600 in 2017. She continued to describe the funding for the Council. She said all of these amounts are subject to change based on the interlocal agreement. Mayor said Round Rock went through something similar to this recently. She said Round Rock was blind sided by the -transition to UZA in 2000. She continued to give a summary of these changes and how they responded. She said CARTS, over the years, has tried to continue to work with Round Rock through Capital Metro but noted they said they can not continue to do that since Round Rock has been urbanized for 10 years now. Hellmann asked and Hysmith said the schedule was based on demand response. Hellmann asked and Hysmith noted the regular schedule is different than medical. Sattler asked and Hysmith spoke about medical response. There were many questions regarding the difference in demand response and medical transportation response. Gonzalez asked and Polasek said the demand visits are $2 per ride, which is the standard CARTS fee. Polasek said the demand service is usually scheduled 24 hours in advance. Berryman said the number of trips does not determine the people who actually use the service. Sattler asked and Hysmith spoke about how the medical trips are only for medical purposes. Sattler asked and Hymsith said they do not have to be within the City of Georgetown to receive CARTS service. Berryman spoke about her experience with CARTS. Meigs asked and Hysmith said the medical transportation is under a completely different contract and is funded with a completely City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 2 of 3 Pages different funding stream. She said it is funded by Medicaid and is for those individuals who qualify. She said demand response is more of a flexible bus route service. Meigs asked and Hysmith said she does not know how difficult it is to qualify for the medical transportation. Hysmith spoke about the next steps in the process. She said they are seeking approval from council to pursue a selected option. She said a decision needs to be made by May 31, 2012 for planning for the fiscal year 2012/2013 budget. She noted they would plan for this to be implemented in the fiscal year 2013 budget. She said staff will move forward with this option and will then develop a plan to bridge existing service until federal urban transit funds become available. Eason said it seems people who do not qualify for Medicaid but would like to use the on demand service can certainly do so. Sattler asked about the donut hole where a person can use the on demand service to get to a doctor's office and may need assistance with oxygen or a wheel chair yet do not qualify for Medicaid. Hysmith said this gets a little tricky and noted this is not a door through door service. She said it is only a curb to curb service. Sattler asked if it is getting to the point where the City is going to be isolation a group of people who do not qualify but have these needs and issues. Hysmith said all of the vehicles are ADA compliant. Hysmith said in the plan, the people using the service would be the same. Hellmann asked and Hysmith said the City would do an interlocal with Capital Metro and, in turn, Cap Metro will contract with CARTS. She said the service would be seamless. Jonrowe said she thinks the donut hole analogy is a good one and added the City needs to make sure it is an all inclusive community. Mayor asked and Hysmith confirmed the City will have to find the money out of its own budget to help fund this. Mayor asked and Brandenburg said the City would have to contribute about $88,000 the first year and it will go up to $124,600 in 2017. Jonrowe asked and Brandenburg confirmed the amount is assuming the legislation with Congressman Carter is passed. Gonzalez said these amounts are based on a lot of assumptions and asked about the worst case scenario. Brandenburg said the worst case would be $185,000. Mayor spoke about how the City could handle this issue in the future. Brandenburg said staff will need to look at a calendar to determine when decisions need to be made. He said it has been a tight timeline and added Council needs to make a decision by the end of the month. He noted, if Council wants a Board to look at this, they would need to have a special meeting. He said tonight was just an update to report the findings and receive feedback from the Council on how to proceed. He noted staff will come back once more on this issue for a vote. Berryman spoke about the liability concerns of the City. She noted she likes the idea of the on demand service and noted it seems like that would be a more logical approach versus a route system. She noted, for people that need rides, they can not get to a bus line. Berryman said no one is moving here for a rail or bus service but noted people are looking for on demand services. Hellmann asked about what makes up the $180,000 amount. Eason said her understanding of this item is that there is no vote tonight and this is for information purposes only. Polasek said the staff will be bringing back on the 22nd of May a fleshed out option three with all of the details, including gap funding, proposed budget and a draft interlocal with Capital Metro. Gonzalez asked and Polasek confirmed the first option of not doing anything is also a possibility. Berryman said she would like to see the costs for option two as well. Hysmith said the cost for the city to run its own service is about $100 per service hour. Mayor asked and Hysmith said Capital Metro receives federal funding based on the growth of the urbanized area. Berryman said she thinks it would be only fair to see how option two would work. She added she wants for Council to see the the numbers for all options and questioned why only option three was fleshed out. Brandenburg stated there was already a preliminary staff review of the options. Mayor noted this will come back to Council for further review at the next City Council meeting. There was much discussion. Meeting recessed to Executive Session under Sections 551.071 and 551.074 of the local Government Code -- 5:03 PM Meeting returned to Open Session and adjourned -- 6:08 PM App rov Mayor Ge ge darver City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 3 of 3 Pages Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 06:08 PM.