City Council Special Called Joint Meeting with Capital Metro Transcript – 07/27/2020 Title: City of Austin Channel: 6 - COAUS Recorded On: 7/27/2020 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 7/27/2020 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [2:11:55 PM] >> Mayor Adler: The vice-chair on capital metro if you can do that we can at least start with speakers and move forward. We'll call to order the meeting of the city council's participation meeting here on the joint meeting with capital metro board of directors, Monday July 27th, 2020. It is 12:11. We have a quorum present and this is a meeting being held virtually. Did the someone want to convene meeting on the cap metro side? >> Sure. I don't have a script but this is vice-chair Delia Garza. I'll call the cap metro board meeting to order. We have a quorum and it is 2:12, meeting virtually. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Thank you. Let's go ahead and call the speakers and then when we're done with the speakers then we'll move to the presentation. >> Mayor, it's wade cooper, can you hear me now. >> Mayor Adler: Yes, I can hear you. >> Glad to be here. [Echo on the line]. >> Mayor Adler: It's good [2:12:57 PM] to have you herement the meeting is called to order, both capital metro and the city. Your vice-chair convened. I think you're at the place to recognize the 18 speakers that have called in before we do the program. >> Thank you so much, mayor and vice-chair and mayor pro tem. Before we get started, everybody, a couple of logistical items. I know we're all pros at this now, everybody but me, it appears. Just to remind everyone on the meeting room today, keep your microphone on mute unless you're speaking and then remember to mute yourself after you've finished. When we're voting on items we may need to ask board members and councilmembers for a vote of yay or nay. Our first item of business is public comment. I understand we have a number of individuals who have signed up to speak and some have joined us by phone. For those of you on the line, you will have three minutes to speak. A reminder we'll not be taking general public comments at today's meeting. We'll only be taking comments on topics that are posted on our agenda. [2:14:06 PM] Now our first public speaker -- I don't have names. Ed or someone perhaps you can help. >> I'm happy to call names. Mona mitty. >> Yes. I'm ready to go. >> Great. We're ready to go. >> Great. I'm going to start with reading from the draft document for project connect, just a small section. I agree with it as it's being a very valuable addition. It says here it's aim is to improve the environment and better connect people so that everyone in our community can thrive. And I want to kind of emphasize that everyone in our community because I see these transit corridors as a resource for not only [2:15:09 PM] transportation but support many other aspects of people's lives. And I would like to suggest that this resource be equitably available to all income groups including those lower income residents who may live currently in the areas of these proposed corridors such that they are not forced to move away, but rather can be accommodated as part of the mixed group of income levels right in the immediate vicinity of the transit corridor. So you guys have mentioned $100 million for transit supportive displacement mitigation. I'm not sure what that means exactly, but I would like to advocate for the percent Ami [2:16:11 PM] categories of people who may not sit in some of the higher percent Ami development that is being at least part of what is being proposed. I'm all for middle income, but I'm also for the lower income being accommodated and having actual access to these transit corridors. So in terms of how to address -- how to accommodate them, that could be working with your -- your working with the different developers in terms of new housing. Maybe it's going to be remodeling using some of the project connect one monies to remodel older housing as a way to accommodate these people. Or alternatively to use the monies for lower percentage built Ami, I'm thinking 30%, because I'm thinking many, many individuals in our city [2:17:11 PM] are in that category and I want them to share this resource. So that's one point. And perhaps you need to be some from 100 million. Perhaps it needs to be a bigger chunk in order to give this broad access that I'm advocating for. My second comment is going to be very quick, project connect corridor -- [buzzer sounds] Is dependent on connector buses and I surely urge you to try to make the capital metro remap system more equitable. Thank you. I'll stop given the bell. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Our next speaker. >> Joseph Reynolds. >> Thank you, Mr. Reynolds. >> Yeah, council and mayor, I'm Joe Reynolds, I live on 49th street. You're being asked today to fiscally commit to a fairy [2:18:13 PM] tale project government to the project connect website and it shows an imaginary city with imaginary transit, not like Austin as a setting for the fairy tale. The funds you're being asked to commit are not imaginary, but the project is based on fairy tale cost estimate. Numbers showing a cost per mile, no consideration for having to condemn right-of-way or build bridges or replace utilities. The details of routing are imaginary. It shows routes crossing lady bird lake, but how, on new bridges, an underwater tunnel. They're drawn separate from the existing bridges. Lamar corridor projects have done imagining for those thoroughfares, but project connect conflicts with those designs and there was no coordination. Project connect proposes a downtown tunnel system, but with no consideration for any reality. In so many words, the justification given is we were able to build a waller creek drainage tunnel so we can build this one. The massive cost overrun and [2:19:16 PM] is justification? Why didn't they use the mopac tunnel cost and schedule? That's just as cautionary. Simple things like the allowed grade for the tunnel were not even considered. A grade applying with Ada could easily be sketched on a map and it shows a tunnel ending at Trinity and 13th street would leave a giant difficult blocking 13th street and block access to the capital. Or end on 12th street and block 11th street. It would block access to the governor's mansion or the courthouse. There are lots of choices. There is a disruption that the fourth street leg would have on utilities at frost bank, a hotel and number of 20 story apartment lots. The fourth street tunnel will also conflict with the massive storm water picture under downtown. You need to go back and remember that the Harry ransom library was built they wanted a basement and the churches across Guadalupe had basements. [2:20:16 PM] They didn't check with the bureau of economic geology that would have given the news that a segment of the balcones fault runs down Guadalupe and the east and west sides of the street have very different geology. Finally, project connect uses fairy tale population numbers. The poll said four million, but your water forward task force is predicting likely severe drought, lake Travis and the Colorado river being inadequate for existing population. They're looking for aquifers that they can pump water into when it rains and draw out when it doesn't. In closing, I'll ask you to remember that some fairy tales are grim. Thank you. >> The next speaker is Carolyn Reynolds. >> Good afternoon. This is Caroline Reynolds. I live over on 49th street near shoal creek. And good afternoon, council. [2:21:18 PM] Councilmembers and mayor. Cap metro says this is the design-build plan. But it only has sketchy details regarding the topography, the geology, the equipment specifications and special issues like springs and seeping water. The maps indicate either tunnels under the river or more bridges over the river. Yet given the vehicle specifications, tunnels are unlikely under the river and probably impossible given Austin's topography and geology. I've spent my engineering career writing proposals and performing projects on time and on budget. Since 1978 I've -- I'm wondering why cap metro distributed such a speech, confusing description and specifications for the tunnels and the bat cave. I feel like cap metro staff [2:22:19 PM] is confuse and hasn't looked at information that's readily available from the bureau of economic geology, the mopac tunnel through incident visible limestone, the chilled water tunnel projects, and the waller tunnel project. Both of the water tunnel projects went more than six times over budget and took nearly a decade, not a couple of years to complete. And yet neither was as large and complex as what cap is proposing here. The excavation of the tunnels and the bat cave will interrupt Trinity and Guadalupe and fourth street up to 10 years and not digging the hole, but having trucks driving around downtown 24/7 full of dirt. Handing such a sketchy picture to engineering firms to to solidify and fill out [2:23:19 PM] is for the engineering firms to add due dads and geegaws and add ons and change orders and cost overruns. I have a friend here in town who is a retired city engineer. His estimate says that realistically this is going to cost $15 billion with good project management and tight specifications. I'm wondering is cap metro trying to confuse me, the taxpayer? [Buzzer sounds] If so, shame on cap metro. We're in the middle of a pandemic and don't have funds to do that sort of thing, thank you. >> The next speaker is Zenobia Joseph. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members. I'm Zenobia Joseph. My comments are specifically [2:24:20 PM] related to title six of the civil rights act of 1964 as they always have been. Which prohibits discrimination based on race, color and national origin. I want to call your attention to page 47 of the backup materials as it relates to the resolution, language, better connects people so everyone in our community can thrive. I wanted to call to your attention you eliminated northeast west connectivity, we cannot thrive northeast of 183. The the one million dollars that have have allocated or have for the city manager to consider for fy2020-2021, could be used to restore these routes immediately. I want you to understand that it was less than a million dollars for people to get to St. David's autos north and so you could use $945,000 to get individuals [2:25:22 PM] there. I want to speak to mayor Adler's July 13th comment about institutional racism. I want you to understand this is Randy's racist regional remap. One of the things that's problematic is you're actually saying on page 21 about the Orange line extension north that you want to improve pedestrian crossings and bridges and things of that sort and while that sounds nice December 17th, 2018, your plan actually started south of north Lamar. And it has no timeline specifically on page 23 as it relates to txdot's right- of-way. It says the initial investment system's consequence plan would be reduced down to eight to nine years, but on March 9th it was 24 to 34 years. I believe the March 9th slide because in 2012 the voters approved a bond for north Lamar corridor and burnet road and there were no pedestrian hybrid beacons placed on north Lamar. So on may 22nd, 2019, [2:26:24 PM] David Medrano was killed mid block. I want you to understand at Fairfield station that there is still not a safe crossing there. So we are not going to believe that anything is coming our way. I've asked you to take the propaganda off of kazi, the black radio station that says that these frequent buses are coming. Respectfully, fm 969, craigwood, is where black people live. That's the only location along with colony park where the buses run every 60 minutes. You have buried your head in the sand and you voted to approve these-- this resolution the day after George Floyd was buried. You didn't skip a beat. I want you to understand that as it relates to people who live north of U.S. 183, we will not benefit as it relates to the blue line, Riverside development, I want you to understand that for the last two weeks Travis county commissioners' court deferred a project because the new affordable housing is called innovative affordable housing for people who make 120% of the [2:27:28 PM] area median family become. That's 80 and $90,000. Mr. Chairman, I would ask you lastly January 28th, 2018, when you acknowledged that the people in the eastern crescent were disadvantaged by cap remap to please just go and do the right thing. Thank you so much. And if you have any comments, I'll gladly answer them at this time. >> The next speaker is Mr. Anthony walker. >> Yes, thank y'all for allowing me the opportunity to be a part of the conversation. I first wanted to congratulate Delia Garza, and I told her to put her name on the ballot that she was going to win. So let me get to the topic of what I want to talk about because it's still like the day I get to talk to city council and the cap metro board, so until recess is [2:28:30 PM] over, class is in session. There is a time and place for everything. I want to talk to y'all today about time. Tile is really what dictates agenda. If you don't know what time it is, you might be doing the right thingty wrong time and not get the right results. So what time is not [indiscernible] Time but financial and hardship time that people are having. I'm for project connect, but I want you to put it on pause for two years until 2022 when you have a better chance of passing. I think you're -- more likely it will pass in 2022, rather than right now when people are struggling, having a a hard time paying their bills. That's going to be embarrassing. It's going to suck. I think for seven billion dollars it's something you should think twice about. What you're doing is you're just rolling the dice. You hope it pass. The [indiscernible] Is not just there. So I know you have to make a decision you don't want to make. You have to do things you don't want to do, but I'm telling you what you need to hear. [2:29:30 PM] Don't be afraid of going against the grain. In two years, which is going to come quick, I'm confident that this project connect will probably pass, new 2020 when people are going through this you will have to put it on pause. I went to the city advisory committee in 2008. I told hem at that time do not put urban rail on the referendum because it's not going to pass, but they did it anyway and I knew that vote at the time, we didn't know about the money for the rail line, that was for pay back and revenge, the people of Austin got mad because the metro rail was non-profit producing what it was supposed to do. So I'm telling you to look at that. I'm telling you today if you put that on the ballot there is a good chance in 2020 that it won't pass. In 2022 it will pass. I'm confident right now we're having a time difficult. You have to make these decisions for the best interests of the people. It's a business decision, not a personal decision. So I ask you to put it on pause. Not to get rid of it or cancel it, just for two [2:30:30 PM] years. I'm confident that it will pass then. Right now you can have a lot of opposition going to come out the next few months on this here. Right now let's wait, put it on pause. Let's get it through the right way. If you're not going to do it right, don't do it at all. Put it on pause so we can get more support, get more footwork and people can be working, economy will be back up, jobs created and I think the best opportunity is 2022 and not 2020. Thanks for taking my call. >> The next speaker is Hayden walker. >> Hello. This is Hayden black walker. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. I just wanted to say quickly that I served as a steno the pecan and the mac before that over I think the last four years so I've watched [2:31:32 PM] this plan evolve overtime. I've seen great questions asked and research done and I think that the project connect is very good. I've seen lots of national data coming out showing that many of our central workers rely on transit as a lifeline to get to their jobs and I would like to improve transit in Austin so we can provide services for those central workers. I think this is the right time to build a future transit system we need. Back when I was commuting downtown before I started working from home I was riding the 803 daily and I definitely support more of that kind of trait. I'm a proponent of a safer and more walkable Austin. Walking and rolling trips connect people to transit and while we continue to build out the complaint sidewalks by ghoul lanes, urban trails and connected networks that support transit. I think it's exciting that this is the 30th anniversary of the Americans with [2:32:33 PM] disabilities act, the Ada, and it seems like a really good time to be supporting building more transit as well as safe streets for all austinites. I encourage you to vote for high capacity transit and also high capacity, high quality -- not high quality connected active transportation that work together. To help us reach the goals of the Austin strategic mobility plan. Thank you very much. >> The next speaker is bay Scoggin. >> Hello, everyone. My name is bay, I'm the director of the Texas public interest research group and I live also on shoal creek, but at 39th and a half. I'm here to give a full throated adopt for all of the citizens for transit all supportive of project connect. I just want to be really clear about the problems that we're trying to solve [2:33:33 PM] because make no mistake, project connect is an effort to make our city better. The problem we're trying to solve is that transportation is the leading cause of greenhouse gases in our city, state and nation and that's precisely because our city and state is car dependent. Everyone has to have their own car to get around. If we gave people more transportation options we could reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that we ourselves are causing. Further, mobile source emissions contribute to dirty air in our city, which action sass certify baits problems like asthma for kids in school and lung cancer and other respiratory issues at a time when we need healthy air and clean air to be breathing. Third, it's congested right now. The description that people are speaking to that's nothing to disrupt. It's all packed and anything who has tried to get across [2:34:35 PM] the river downtown on a Wednesday afternoon will tell you there's nothing to disrupt right now. There's barely any movement. Finally our essential workers as Hayden mentioned, they need more options to get around town. The average cost of car ownership is $20,000 a year. We're talking about essential workers with median incomes ranging from 30 to 50 which means that the car ownership costs alone ranges from 40 to 60% of people's budgets. So it's really clear it's clean, it's green, and it helps move our central workers around town. Lastly, the cost isn't prohibitive. Other cities like los Angeles, just as an example, just invested more than $150 billion in year. We have a chance to do this right the first time. We have a chance to invest in a generational transformation of transit that will change the face of our city and give people [2:35:35 PM] more options to get around town, to go downtown and to enjoy our great city. This program must pass. And the last thing I need to say is cap metro and the city both have done an historic job at community outreach. In all my times organizing I have never seen as many people, as many events as they have put on. I know they've spoken to more than 50,000 austinites about this and that is a massive undertaking. The planning for this project has been years in the making, years in the making. And they've done an excellent job working with both the general public and transit advocates like myself. So for myself, from students for transit, I urge you to go big on this project and support it moving forward. Thank you T. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is David Sullivan L Sullivan? >> Hi. [2:36:37 PM] My name is Dave Sullivan. I've served on city boards, commissions and a few most of the boards over the past few he decades. I'm a part of the project connect ambassador and a member of the Austin transit alliance. I'm a very privileged person, born in the right zip code at the right time meaning I am very lucky. I've also been a mass transit user as a small child as my mom did not drive as she would take us downtown back and forth on the bus. I rode mass transit in college in boss to be and later in Austin on shuttle buses in the early 1980s and from 1994 to present commuting from my central Austin home to my workplace in north Austin. My wife and I share one car. And thus have saved tens of thousands of dollars over past year. As bay Scoggin mentioned earlier the cost of a car can be more than 10,000 a year. If we saved $5,000 a year [2:37:39 PM] for the last quarter century, that's over $100,000 that we've saved by being a one car family. I am a rider by choice, but many, likely most of my fellow bus riding companions have more of a need to use this lower cost form of transportation. I support project connect, not for my own sake, but for the sake of hundreds of thousands of folks who need to lower expenses to get by in our increasingly expensive central Texas region. And who could save money by using mass transit. Maybe not everyday, but when it's convenient. Another point is there's said that it can make land more valuable and thus lead to displacement of residents. Project connect has resources to slow down displacement and the mayor I heard last week suggest [2:38:39 PM] doubling the amount that is right now allocated. I believe that by extending rail and bus service around the city and providing resources for affordable housing near stations, project will help make Austin a more affordable place to live. And lastly, I have heard a lot of concern about this ballot item during the pandemic. I believe we should keep in mind that America was in a much deeper hole after the terrible results of the 1918 flu pandemic, but came back with the roaring 20s. We can do it again. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Sullivan. Our next speaker is Scott Dukett. >> This is Scott. I live at 11501 century oaks terrace in Austin. I've been in Austin well over 20 years. I've been here for the past votes on this [indiscernible]. [2:39:39 PM] >> May I ask you to speak up or get a little bit closer? You're starting to get muffled. >> Okay. Is that better? >> Yes, sir. >> I have been in Austin for over 20 years and through the other votes on this issue I've had some concerns about them. I felt mostly that the money would be better spent on addressing all of the roadway needs that he it at the time and still had many of them for interconnectivity and direct connect and managed lanes. I think in the last several years through the efforts of txdot and [indiscernible] And campo and others we've made a lot of progress on some of those needs and we've gotten to the point where if we were going to spend our money on roads, at this point there's not a lot much more [indiscernible] And I think we're ready for this proposal, we're ready for this project. There's always -- procs are always going to cost too [2:40:39 PM] much. There's always going to be risks. There's always going to be huge disruption for construction. There are always lots of reasons not to do things, but there will never be a better time or cheaper time to do it than right now. I hear a lot of people talking about how Austin's going to double in 20 or 25 years and this is going to be -- we've got to deal with those people. This kind of plan is actually more for 100 years. What we're doing today is something for the 100 year vision. And I think it's time and I appreciate the effort to put this in place. And thank you very much. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is Danielle Skidmore. >> Good afternoon, chair cooper, members of the board of capital metro, mayor and council. I'm a resident of district 9, a civil engineer and also a part of movability, our city's transportation demand [2:41:41 PM] management association. Today I'm speaking on behalf of myself and I guess on my son Peter to express our strong support for project connect. Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the signing into law of the ADA and I had the chance to spend some time with the amazing advocates from adapt in front of city hall in commemoration of that momentous day. Capital metro has long been a leader in access and public transportation, including the first fully accessible bus fleet in the nation so many years ago. Peter and I thank you. Frequent, robust and comprehensive public transportation are keys to accessibility and mobility for every great city. The accessibility is not just physical, but also economic opportunities. As much as I love our city, the lack of meaningful transportation options for so many of us has held us back for far too long. Here in 2020 we have an opportunity to begin the transformation to a truly multi-modal city and region. The project connect plan and [2:42:41 PM] the initial investment scenario is a practical and prudent start to this journey. Looking out my window at I-35, and I see congestion building at mid afternoon on a Monday during a pandemic, it's worth noting that roadway-only solutions in the city will never solve congestion or meaningfully improve mobility. In contrast, project connect will be a key part of improving everyone's mobility thank you the city, not simply transit users, but bicyclists and pedestrians who can benefit from improved connection and facilities. And finally motorists who will benefit as well if we free space on the roadway system so each money it able to make that mode shift. We're going to look back at 2020 and recognize that it is the right time to begin this investment. Just as during the new deal was the right time to invest in the Tom Miller dam, which made this possible. [2:43:45 PM] Project connect will DEFINE AUSTIN IN THE 21ST CENTURY. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR PUBLIC SERVICE AND I URGE YOUR SUPPORT FOR THIS EFFORT. >> THANK YOU.OUR NEXT SPEAKER IS GREG ANDERSON.>> GOOD AFTERNOON, BOARD MEMBERS, COUNCILMEMBERS.I DO WANT TO START OFF BY RECOGNIZING THESE CHALLENGING TIMES THAT WE'RE GOING THROUGH. IT IS PRETTY AWESOME TO BE ABLE TO HAVE SOMETHING TO BE EXCITED ABOUT TO SPEAK POSITIVELY ABOUT. QUICK CONFESSION, THE LAST TIME I DID NOT VOTE WAS THE YEAR 2000. I WAS A 19 OR 20 YEAR OLD LIVING IN SOUTH AUSTIN, ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE WE WERE ABOUT TO PASS THIS TERRIFIC RAIL LINE. IT BLEW MY MIND THAT WE DIDN'T. HERE WE ARE, YOU GUYS HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY RIGHT NOW, AUSTIN HAS THE OPPORTUNITY TO REALLY CATCH UP AND MAKE UP FOR LOST TIME. THIS IS GOING TO GIVE US THE PREMIUM SERVICE THAT AUSTIN DESERVES, AND WHERE WE CAN TRAVEL THE WORLD AND AMERICAN CITIES [2:44:41 PM] AND ALL AROUND THE WORLD AND THERE'S THIS GREAT SERVICE THAT'S PROVIDED, AND THIS IS GOING TO GET US THERE. THIS IS GOING TO ALLOW YOUR RIDERSHIP TO JUST SKYROCKET, THE TUNNEL, THIS PLAN IS TERRIFIC. IT'S GOOD TO REMEMBER THE TRUE COST OF HOUSING, IT'S HOUSING PLUS TRANSPORTATION, PLUS UTILITIES, GIVING PEOPLE MORE PEOPLE THE ABILITY TO LIVE WITHOUT A CAR, WHETHER IT'S BECAUSE THEY WANT TO BE MORE SUSTAINABLE OR TO SAVE MONEY OR BECAUSE THEY'RE JUST NOT ABLE TO DRIVE A CAR. GLOBAL WARMING IS GOING TO BE WORSE THAN COVID. SO MANY TIMES WORSE. THERE'S NOT GOING TO BE A VACCINE THAT'S GOING TO SHOW UP AND GET US OUT OF GLOBAL WARMING. AND I THINK THAT'S THE IMPORTANCE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, AND A GOOD CHANCE OF THE REASON A LOT OF YOU SERVE THE POSITIONS YOU'RE SERVING IN, BECAUSE YOU GUYS HAVE THAT ABILITY TO MAKE REAL IMPACTS ON THE FUTURE, AND THIS IS PROBABLY THE SINGLE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY YOU'RE EVER GOING TO HAVE, WITH THE ONE MINOR EXCEPTION MAYBE OF LAND USE REFORM, [2:45:45 PM] BUT THAT'S ANOTHER CONVERSATION. SERIOUY, THOUGH, FUTURE GENERATIONS ARE GOING TO THANK YOU AS MUCH FOR THIS. THANK YOU FOR GIVING US ONE MORE AMAZING THING TO VOTE ON THIS NOVEMBER. THANK YOU. BYE BYE. >> THANK YOU, MR. ANDERSON. OUR NEXT SPEAKER IS JOSH LEVINE. MR. LEVINE? >> CHAIR COOPER, YOUR NEXT SPEAKER THAT IS ACTUALLY ON THE CALL WILL BE OOSHA >> I'M SORRY, SAY THAT ONE MORE TIME? >> THE NEXT SPEAKER THAT'S ACTUALLY ON THE CALL IS OOSHA BODAPOO. >> OH, OKAY. BODAPOO? WELCOME. >> THANK YOU. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY. MY NAME'S OOSHA BODAPOO. I HAVE LIVED IN AUSTIN, TEXAS OVER 23 YEARS. STARTED MY CAREER AS WORKING IN CITY OF AUSTIN AS A CONSULTANT AND SERVING ON THE CITY OF AUSTIN ADVISORY BOARD. I'VE SEEN A DRASTIC CHANGE IN THE TRAFFIC, AND I AM SUPPORTING PROJECT CONNECT BECAUSE I SEE THE FRUSTRATION OF THE TRAFFIC. AND WHENEVER I DO A LOT OF COMING TO AUSTIN DOWNTOWN, I SEE THERE THEY SPEND SO MUCH TIME, HOURS AND HOURS OF TIME, AND THE TIME HAS COME AFTER 23 YEARS, AND AUSTIN LAGS B [2:46:41 PM] HIND OTHER METROPOLITAN AREAS OF SIMILAR SIZE AND WEALTH. I DO UNDERSTAND COVID 19 HAS A DRAMATIC IMPACT ON CAPITAL METRO'S INCOME, AND NOT ONLY CAPITAL METRO BUT MOST CITIES HAVE SIMILAR STRUGGLES WITH INCOMES. I FEEL LIKE THE RIGHT SIZE APPROACH TO TRANSIT IMPROVEMENTS AT THIS TIME IS BOTH PRUDENT AND EXPECTED AT THIS TIME OF UNCERTAINTY. AT THIS TIME IS CRITICAL. DOWNSIZING THE SCOPE OF THIS [INDISCERNIBLE]. I RECALL ON PROJECT CONNECT'S WEBSITE, SOON IT WILL BE TIME TO ADDRESS OTHER CHALLENGES OUR CITY FACES, SUCH AS TRANSIT AND TRAFFIC CONGESTION. SO PROJECT CONNECT HAS MADE SIGNIFICANT STRIDES SOLIDIFYING THE COMMUNITY AND CANNOT AFFORD TO LOSE THE GOODWILL AT A TIME THEY NEED TO RECOGNIZE PEOPLE ARE SOMEWHAT SCARED ABOUT THE FUTURE. SO I WOULD START FOCUSING ON BUS TECHNOLOGY IN PART. PARK & RIDES MIGHT BE A GOOD TIME AT THIS TIME. [2:47:45 PM] [INDISCERNIBLE] HAVE BEEN EVALUATED IN LIGHT OF PHYSICAL RESOURCES. AND STAYING POSITIVE, I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT AS A PERSON WHO LIVED IN AUSTIN FOR 23 YEARS, I WANT TO SUPPORT MY CITY, BEAUTIFUL CITY, IN GOOD TIMES AS WELL AS NOT SO GOOD TIMES. LOOKING AT THE 2040 VISION AUSTIN HAS TO MOVE FORWARD WITH PROJECT CONNECT, LOOKING AT THE VERY FORTUNATE DURING THIS COVID 19 TIME, WE ARE HEARING POSITIVE NEWS, GOOD NEWS THAT TESLA IS COMING IN AND WE ARE EXPECTING 15,000 JOBS. AND THIS PROJECT CONNECT IS GOING TO GET US ANOTHER 9,400 JOBS, SO OVERALL, WE'RE EXPECTING 25 TO 30,000 JOBS. WITHOUT HAVING AN INFRASTRUCTURE IN PLACE, I DON'T THINK THIS IS POSSIBLE, AND WE WILL BE FACING MORE AND MORE CHALLENGES AND FRUSTRATION, CHALLENGES, AND CRASHES. AND RECENTLY, I HAD A NEW NEIGHBOR MOVE INTO MY NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR, AND I WAS EXPECTING THAT THEY ARE GOING TO CALL ME FOR A HOUSEWARMING, BUT I HAVE TO GO SEE THE 16 YEAR OLD [INDISCERNIBLE], A HANDSOME BOY, A MEMORIAL, WHICH WAS SAD. [BUZZER SOUNDING] WE WANT TO STABILIZE OUR FUTURE GENERATION AND THIS IS AN INVESTMENT IN OUR FUTURE OF AUSTIN. THANK YOU SO MUCH. [2:48:41 PM] >> Thank you. Our next speaker is John, likely to mispronounce this, baboof. >> Yes, I'm here. >> Go ahead, please. >> My name is John. I'm a global warming solutions [indiscernible]. And also a student at the university of Texas Austin. I'm a proponent of project connect. Because Austin is -- our traffic is notorious in the city, being more consistently bad and emotionally draining than most other major cities in Texas. And with that comes tons of carbon emissions and toxic pollutants from the thousands of cars on the road everyday. The effects of global warming are becomingly increasingly apparent throughout the world, especially in Texas, near [2:50:00 PM] the coast and in our hot climate and the situation will only worsen as the population around Austin increases and more people are contributing to the emissions. Given the terrible state of pollution from cars there Austin, any [indiscernible] To our system should really be welcomed by our citizens and project connect offers that. We really need to start taking preparations for the future more seriously and that means investing in public safety that doesn't contaminate our environment or endanger our citizens. Light rail and buses offer ways for people to get to work and school without contributing to the number of vehicles on our streets. It also really would save them money by not having to invest in car maintenance and vehicles and fuel. Carbon emissions from vehicles would be reduced and new modes of [indiscernible] Will be [2:51:24 PM] sustainable forms of energy rather than guzzling fossil fuels. If we want Austin to continue being a city of progress and innovation, transforming our modes of transportation and reducing our carbon footprint should be among our top priorities. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Baboof. David king is our next speaker. Mr. King. >> Yes, can you hear me? >> Yes, thank you. Go ahead. >> Thank you. Thank you, board and councilmembers. Data produced by the city's innovation office shows that almost 233 households in Austin are at significant risk of involuntary displacement. Thousands of low income families, businesses and communities of color located on or adjacent to corridors in project connect are at risk of involuntary displacement. The covid-19 pandemic has pushed them even closer to the brink of databasement and homelessness. [2:52:24 PM] The disment in low income communities and people of color is racist. Will project connect gentrify the communities and force them out of their homes and businesses or will it help sustain, strengthen and empower them. The proposed $100 million for transit related mitigation is not enough. Mitigation is defined as the action of reducing the seriousliness or painfulness of something. Prevention is defined as stopping something from happening. We need both displacement prevention and displacement mitigation funding in project connect. Displacement prevention should be prioritized and helped to sustain low income families, local businesses and communities of color. Please include at least $225 million in project connect bond proposals designated solely for displacement prevention, cash assistance payments to low income families and small local businesses located on or adjacent to transit corridors in project [2:53:27 PM] connect. Please prohibit the use of any mitigation funds for mixed use market rate development. Ample evidence shows that this developments produce very few housing units that are affordable to families earning at or below 60% median family income. Even as they facilitate intoll vary displacement of low income families and small businesses. Please unsure that all transit related displacement prevention and auto eyes requirements that are equitable to low income families of color in Austin. The median family income for black and Latino families in Austin is about $45,000, which is less than half of the median family income for Austin. A family earning $57,540 annually could qualify for an income restricted housing program based on 60% of the median family income, but even 60% median family income is still over $12,500 above the median income for black and Latino families. That means that the low income black and Latino [2:54:27 PM] families are systematically disadvantaged when applying for subsidized housing and housing assistance programs based on median family income levels above 50%. Therefore at least 90% of the bond funding for displacement prevention and displacement mitigation should be dedicated to programs that serve low income families earning at or below 50% median family income. Thank you for listening to my comments and for your service. >> Thank you M king. Our next speaker is Scott Morris. >> Thank you, chair, councilmembers, mayor Adler. This is Scott Morris with the Austin coalition for transit. This is a challenging moment in our city's history. With a rare opportunity to claim a positive outcome and secure a future of mobiliy for generations to come. Austin has a strong plan, an infrastructure project ready to provide jobs, a project [2:55:27 PM] created by its wonderful people. Defined with the strongest of purpose and intelligently aligned with its values. The project connect system will connect people to each other and to the economic opportunity. It will restore the usability of this city for those who choose to ride it and even for those who don't. People from all walks of life will have a way to move across Austin again, to work, eat and play without fighting traffic. The Austin coalition for transit is pleased to offer its enthusiastic endorsement for the project connect initial investment scenario presented on July 22nd. We support a tax rate election measure this November, satisfying the Texan status on rail elections and creating the Austin transit partnership. Act supports the consideration of additional funding to prevent [2:56:27 PM] displacement in transit oriented districts. Act pledges to educate the community about this ballot measure and to serve as a public resource for its implementation in the years ahead. We recommend the contract with the voters include direction on phasing to ensure that an initial minimum operable segment include the highest performing spine of the system. And that that not be deferred for lines quicker or easier to build. Let's also maintain the focus needed to pass a complex transit referendum in November and avoid combining it with other projects. The responsibility of the Austin transit partnership is project delivery and not policy making. Question feel there should be no elected officials on the atp board. We need to professionalize and depoliticallize that body. Finally light rail operations and maintenance needs to be decentralized, a multi-site, multi-use [2:57:28 PM] approach ensures equality, offers the resilience of operational redundancy while lowering daily operational costs and reduces deadhead mileage to and from a single remote storage facility. A list of alternatives and opportunities for sites on the Orange line has been provided to the agency and to your offices. We stand with you and thank you for the courage and leadership of facing these greatest challenges with the greatest project ever conceived for our city. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Morris. Our next speaker is Donna Beth Mccormick. Ms. Mccormick? >> Ms. Mccormick, are you there? >> I think we may have lost her if you want to move on [2:58:28 PM] to the next person. >> If she comes back let me know. The final speaker is Janis wingen. >> Yes. Can you hear me? >> Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> If you are there, go ahead. >> Thank you for the time to address the city council and the capital metro board. This is a terrible time to ask voters to approve this titanic transportation project. Residents of Austin are coping with layoffs and difficulty paying debts. Now is not time to be asking for approval of more taxes. We don't have the benefit of 2020 census figures so we don't know the evidence of population increase and shifting of movement of various population sectors. [2:59:29 PM] Sales tax and hotel and motel taxes are down. The need for this project is overstated. It is based on an in facilitated population figure of 4 milk the -- 4 million. However, the demographer's only analysis projected the 2040 population in 2019s being 1,500,000. It is not clear how this project could be funded if the anticipated federal grants of 4.5 billion do not come through or the project be curtailed or would Austin taxpayers be asked for more money? Funds are necessary for Austin street maintenance and Austin needs improved water and sewer line infrastructure badly much more than we need an underground tunnel downtown. The primary cost of this project will be borne by [3:00:29 PM] Austin's residential and commercial property tax payers with some supplements from a 1% sales tax. Be aware cap metro has no authority to levy a property tax and the property tax that the city would levy at 11 cents per hundred would be on top of the 3.5% tax increase for the regular city budget. It's not clear that the capital metro service area members have committed to help fund this project even though it is presented as a regional project. The project itself is already outmoded because we are dealing with increase in electric powered vehicles, we have more people willing and able to work remotely. The plan doesn't offer effective solutions for many users such as women and parents who often make several other stops while going to and from work. It does not address the needs of persons with disabilities who need to go to other destinations other than the transit dropoff [3:01:31 PM] stations. We could purchase additional buses electric or otherwise without needing to issue general obligation bonds for this project. Even though the taxpayers in Austin will be funding at least -- [buzzer sounding] -- Of the proposed project, the scope includes regional transit of which no contributions have been promised from other entities. Please vote no. >> Thank you. I think we have Ms. Mccormack back on. If you are there. >> Yes. Can you hear me? >> Yes, ma'am, welcome, go ahead. >> I'm sorry my other phone died. >> Well, go ahead. We hear you loud and clear. [Indiscernible] Okay? >> Yes, ma'am, go ahead. >> Okay, I'm Donna Beth Mccormack, I'm a former president of allendale neighborhood board and past member of the board and I'm also on a commission. [3:02:35 PM] My major concern is that we might have 30 million -- I mean a 30-year something on the ballot. And everybody in the mobility, capital metro and the city needs to start thinking out of the same song book. Things have changed greatly with the virus over the last six months. We don't need higher tax rates because people are also staying at home to work, there's less traffic, there's going to be less office space downtown. We do not know how the virus, how long it's going to last, what the economy is going to be like. We need a really detailed plan and it does not need to be on the November 3rd ballot. Allendale is a prime example of anything that the city wants to do as an experiment, do it in allendale. [3:03:35 PM] From [inaudible] Boulevard to burnet road to 2222, but my main thing is sing out of the same song book. Get together all of you mobility people, get together and check out your plan. I've been in Austin since 1955. I've lived in Houston, Dallas and Washington, D.C. But I like to drive because I haul. I'm not going to be riding the bus. I'm an old lady. So we have to accommodate everybody. Even those of us that drive, those that want to walk and those that want to ride a bicycle. There must be a way to get together and compromise. So that's really all I have. Thank you, gang. >> All right. Thank you, Ms. Mccormack. Glad you were able to equity can. That concludes our public comments. We'll move on in just a second to our discussion items today which will include an update on project [3:04:37 PM] connect, community engagement and review and review the third-party economic analysis, a discussion of project investment scenarios and then a presentation on the Austin transit partnership. After that I think council will have a discussion about a resolution and then cap metro board will as well. Before we get to our discussion items, mayor, I would like to ask if you have any comments before we move ahead with our other presentations. Mayor, you are muted. Technical prowess. >> How is that working now? >> Good. >> We have a lot to get through so I'll be brief. This is an exciting day to be taking a step forward. You know, we live in a time when people are fighting for their health. We have others out of work, but we also have regions of people standing in our [3:05:38 PM] streets and we have so many involved in conversations that we've never been able to have so widely before. This is both a scary time filled with uncertainties and a time that is filled with hope as we are on the verge of real transformative change. You know, some day we're going to emerge from this present health and economic crisis and this virus, and when we do, we have to promise ourselves and our community that will emerge and look forward as a better, more fair, more just city. We need to move forward to be the Austin of our aspirations and our dreams. I believe we can do this by fearlessly reaching for the big ideas that will make for generational change. Project connect is such a big idea. I think it's now more than ever we have to begin stepping into our future. [3:06:40 PM] I'm proud to have been serving in this process working together with the board of cap metro. The number of meetings we've had together culminating here today, working together, our staffs working together in ways that we also have never been able to achieve before. So I just urge that today we take that next step to realizing this incredible opportunity. I believe that now is the moment, not despite the fact this is such a challenging time but precisely because we are in such challenging times. I believe it is now more than ever to set our city on the course we want to arrive on. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. >> Thank you, mayor, very much. And now with our presentation, nurenberg, [3:07:43 PM] would you like to get us started today? Jackie, are you with us? >> She will be joining us in one second. >> I got it. There we go. Hi, everybody. Good afternoon, mayor, councilmembers, chairman cooper, board members and CEO Clarke, also members of our community. My name is Jackie nurenberg and I'm community engagement manager for capital metro. Today's agenda, if we can pull it up on the screen, first slide, we'll be going through our engagements, past present and future. Next slide, please. Thank you. We'll be looking at economic opportunities, an analysis that has just been recently completed, and we will also be exploring the project [3:08:46 PM] connect investment scenarios and the Austin transit partnership, and then talk about some action items and move on to next steps. So a little about our engagement. Next slide, please. From the beginning of our planning process for project connect, our goal was to bring our community along in this process touching base and asking for feedback every step of the way in our programs of evolution. That's why we decided to host another community meeting this month, in fact just last week, so we could price the community of the scenarios we're considering and getting some feedback and answer questions. And in fact we had over 240 people attend that zoom event, and it has now been viewed over 10,000 times, which is fantastic because our goal is to have our community aware and understand what it is that project connect is all about and the benefits it offers. We've touched over 60,000 [3:09:47 PM] community members in this engagement process. Next slide, please. And while that's a lot of people, we still have a lot of work to do, and I want to emphasize to our community that we will continue to listen. That just because we are arriving at an important milestone in the process doesn't mean that the dialogue is over, it is continuing and we encourage our community members to reach out to us via feedback at project connect.com or feedback at cap metro.org or by calling the goal lean and asking for me or anybody else on the project connect team, and we'll answer your questions and log your feedback and consider it as well. Throughout this process we've engaged the community in a lot of ways, through public meetings, for example. We had our virtual community meetings in may that went really well. We had to pivot from [3:10:47 PM] in-person meetings that were planned in April and had to be canceled. We also had a virtual open house that went live on may 7th and was open for comment and participation through may 31st. We did a Spanish language version of our virtual community meetings on univision and their live town hall Facebook event. It had over 20,000 views. Through the process we've engaged stakeholder groups, we have a technical advisory committee that has met monthly for the better part of three and a half years. Also our project connect ambassador network which is over 150 members strong representing perspectives from all over the community from neighborhood groups to civic organizations and social justice organizations. We've also had to coordinate very carefully with our partners at the city of Austin, txdot, central Texas [3:11:48 PM] regional mobility authority, all of the agencies which we have to coordinate with closely to make this a success and one of those programs, of course, was the city's corridor program office. This is the eighth of nine city council and cap metro joint work sessions or meetings. And the next one will be scheduled for August 7th. Next slide, please. I mentioned we had a virtual open house in may that ran from the 7th to the 31st , and in that we asked our community to weigh in on their level of agreement on all of the components of the recommended system plan, and we went through each of those and wanted to point out some of the responses we got because they were pretty much in line with what we were planning to do with this system plan. 90% of the respondents agreed with the recommended [3:12:50 PM] system plan, 92% agreed with the Orange line plan, 90% with blue line and gold line, 87% with new metro rapid routes, 84% with the enhancements no the red line and the proposal for the green line, 88% agreement with adding new metro express rides and park and rides, and 92% agreement with our plans for a zero emissions fleet. Results of that were quite encouraging. Next slide, please. One of the biggest concerns we've heard from our community is about the risk of displacemen and indeed we've heard from speakers today about that very concern. A project like project connect, that large in scale does run the risk of having some negative impacts and we want to assure our community that we heard you loud and clear and we recognize the need to conduct a full assessment of those potential impacts. Develop plans and actions to [3:13:50 PM] mitigate them and to ensure that we're providing equitable transportation options for all. We also heard direction from the Austin strategic mobility plan which was adopted by city council last year instructing the city to consider-utilize tools to support current neighborhood residents and businesses and stopping or limiting displays many. Last month in city council, councilmember kitchen proposed a resolution directing staff to provide recommendations on services, programs and resources already in place at the city and to propose tools to prevent transportation investment-related displacement. And so to that we would like to respond with the following. Next slide, please. [3:14:55 PM] [Inaudible] In itself is a system that improves equitable access to quality transit service and a couple of slides ahead I will show you some of the measures that were used to determine that for each of our routes. There are current anti-displacement efforts being taken including land banking on transit corridors for future affordable housing, subsidizing new affordable housing housing in station areas and planning for affordable housing and anti-displacement programs. Next slide, please. So capital metro and the city recognize that project connect is a program that will monumentally shift how we move there our city. Our current current transportation challenges prevent people in our community from accessing jobs, education, healthy food, medical facilities and activity and destinations. [3:15:55 PM] So we propose direct funding for anti-displacement programs, an equity score card to evaluate displacement risks, creating an interagency team between cap metro and the city of Austin to develop displacement mitigation strategies, substantial funding for equitable transit oriented development or tod to leverage federal funding opportunities, and to identify the disparate impacts on our citizens and on our residents with an environmental justice review part of the Nepa process. Next slide. Going into how we evaluate the equitable opportunity provided by each of the projects in project connect, starting with the metro rapids, some of the variables and measures we [3:16:56 PM] looked at were total jobs that these projects would connect residents to, the percent of minority population along the routes of each of these projects, average median income along those routes, population below poverty level, the percentage of the population below poverty level, zero car households, the number of affordable units along the route, number of educational facilities along that route, and accessible health facilities. And just to take an example, if you look at the pleasant valley proposed metro rapid route, 81% of the residents who live along that corridor are minority populations. They also have a household income, an average household income of about 48,000. [3:17:57 PM] And a 19% -- excuse me. I lost my way. Sorry about that. 19% live below the poverty level. 11% of the households along the pleasant valley corridor are zero car households. So we know that those residents are going to benefit tremendously from that metro rapid route. Next slide, please. And here's the same - - using the same measures for our rail lines, and as you can see the Orange line and the blue line both had 54% of the population living along both of those lines are minority populations with 21% for the Orange line living below poverty level and 23% for the blue line living below poverty level. And 8% and 9% respectively zero car households. [3:19:00 PM] And each of the lines are evaluated in this manner. Next slide, please. So moving forward, we're going to continue with our engagement for educating our community. Our goal is that the community should understand what project connect is offering and be able to make an educated choice about it. We will be launching a project connect speakers bureau. We need our community to step up and help us educate your neighbors, your friends, your colleagues by being able to speak about it, and we will be offering trainings for anyone who would like to participate to do just that. And this can be at a book club meeting, it could be at a virtual happy hour, it can be a neighborhood group. It really doesn't matter, two people, 200 people, but we need our community's help to spread the word and so we'll be counting on you to sign up for some trainings for our speakers bureau [3:20:00 PM] starting next month. We'll continue to give updates to city boards and commissions, also, of course, our advisory committees, also our board advisory committees, customer satisfaction advisory committee, and our access advisory committee. And next month we'll be holding a special virtual event called accelerate and the purpose of that event is to show how transit projects create economic opportunity for Austin. We invite all businesses to join us, hosted by the Austin chamber of commerce. There will also be a discussion of dbe opportunities for minority women, veteran owned businesses. We hope the community will tune in for that. And then post-november engagement, there will be so much work to do on place making, construction mitigation and other partnership opportunities. On top of that we are involved in an environmental assessment, the Nepa [3:21:01 PM] process, which will have us delve deeply into each of these corridors and coordinate with folks living along the corridors and working along those corridors to make sure their voices are heard and needs are incorporated into the plan moving forward. And now I'm going to hand it off to John who will talk about an economic impact analysis. >> Great. Am I in the meeting at this point? >> You are, go ahead. >> Next slide, please. And the next slide after that. All right. So we actually have just recently completed doing some analytical work around all of this, and this is a very simplified regs of what we were doing -- version. One of the first things once [3:22:03 PM] you undertake a project of this magnitude you are injecting a substantial amount of money into the local economy. So what we did in this equation was to take the total project connect budget, break it down a little bit by its component parts. Assume that the purchase of the vehicles likely would happen outside the Austin area. I'm not aware of anybody making transportation vehicles in the Austin area, so that's going to leak out of the local economy, but the balance of the spending would actually happen in the Austin economy. And what that basically says is for every billion dollars invested, you have a ripple effect, creates around an additional $400 million or so in secondary activity spreads through the entire Austin economy, if we, for example, did the full system plan at 9.8 billion, that translate into an injection of just under 14 million locally. Perhaps just as importantly, it creates almost 100,000 [3:23:04 PM] jobs in the community not just actually working on the project but due to the ripple effects as well for the life of the project itself. Paying an average of around $45,000 a job. So at a time obviously of pandemic, of recession, of concern, you know, hopefully we will be coming out of it by the time this actually kicks off, but nevertheless it's a stimulus to the local economy. However, that's just -- that would be true of any sort of major capital investment that could be made. The interesting question then becomes what are the economic implications of this over the longer term, as you take a look at all this. So traditionally people talk about economic benefits associated with transit in a couple different ways. One, of course, is that it's a pretty well known fact, and you had speakers reference this earlier during the community participation portion of the meeting. It's quite a bit more expensive to own and operate your car than it is to take transit. That's pretty well known. [3:24:05 PM] That creates cost savings for people who are able to use transit in lieu of or at least partially in lieu of using automobiles. There are obviously cost savings associated with that. There are also at least put forward the idea that there are congestion relief benefits and I'll talk more about that in a minute. The theory is also there is some business productivity benefits associated with this. Mostly related to saving people hassles on congestion, making it easier to get around town, that in theory enhances business productivity. That's what people talk about when we talk about economic benefits associated with transit. There are others clearly as well. And this is I think really shot through the entire project connect plan is access, is mobility and access. Access to jobs, access to housing, access to medical care, access to entertainment, access to recreation, access to community facilities, all the different things that we [3:25:07 PM] are increasingly focused on. And that's especially important right now as I think he be knows had a fairly important event recently that's going to stimulate development in eastern Travis county. As we begin to see the pattern of job creation hopefully in the Austin area spread throughout the region, particularly to the east, access becomes ever more important along that. Second of that many speakers talked about environmental quality. It's again fairly well understood automobiles are one of the -- I believe the single largest source of emissions, pollution in the United States to the extent we can take automobiles off the roadways, that obviously benefits. There are public safety implications around this as and then not the least, at least from my point of view is when you have these kinds of fixed transportation investment, it tends to guide real estate investment, that tends to keep tax base in Travis county and it also tends to [3:26:08 PM] reduce some of the cost of public service provisions such as police, fire, horizontal utilities and all that because you have a more compact style of development and more compact development tends to be more cost effective. Those are all kind of the traditional community benefits. But the interesting question becomes can you take it a level deeper, go further in analysis and see additional benefits in the equation. Could you go to the next slide, please. So does it have an effect on the overall economy? And the answer is yes. So one of the things I did was pull together data from a variety of different sources, the national transit data base, American community survey, bureau of economic analysis, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, looking at measures like gdp per capita, growth in gdp per capita, emissions per capita, auto fatalities per [3:27:09 PM] capita, and examining a correlation relationship looking for positive or negative correlations between those measures of the economy and/or sort of public well-being, and how transit intensity a community is in general, and then particularly around fixed guide way transportation which has to do with dedicated right-of-way and time certainty, can be rapid bus, can be light rail, can be heavy rail. Common quality is it's typically in dedicated right-of-way and so that there is an expectation you'll get there in the time you are supposed to get there. We saw positive correlations actually all the way across the economic measures. So communities that have a greater level of gdp per capital also tend to be more transit intensive in general, fixed transit in particular. Communities that are growing [3:28:10 PM] the fastest as measured by per capita gdp both the last five years and the last 15 years, same thing. Positive relationship. Statistically significant positive relationship between that, transit intensity in general, fixed guide way intensity in particular, and fewer fatalities, which is a public safety again between both transit and general fixed in particular and environmental quality. So what it tells us is that these kinds of investments creating this kind of an infrastructure backbone positions communities over time to realize economic benefits that go beyond the short-term stimulus, beyond just enhanced mobility for the citizens, but actually are infrastructure investments that enable the overall growth and prosperity of a region when you start looking out multiple years at a immaterial too. It's a pretty interesting finding. So with that, that's all I have. [3:29:14 PM] Next slide. I think that was it. Summarize my own conclusions. No, that's it. Thanks. >> Thank you. Next up we have -- and councilmembers and board members, we'll pause after these presentations for cross-examination or comment. Next up section 3 to discuss project connect investment scenarios, we have our all star team of Dave couch, reinet marneweck and Greg canally. Dave? Dave, are you with us? >> Can you hear me now? >> Yes, sir, go ahead. >> Can you hear me now? >> Yes, you are good to do. >> Okay. Thank you, chairman cooper. I'd like to go ahead and thank John for doing the section that he did ahead of me. I'm Dave couch, I'm the [3:30:15 PM] program officer with cap metro for project connect. I'm going to start going through this process that basically I'll give some of the technical details of what the different alternatives are, what the investments can be, then we'll transition into the financial investment options that will come later in the presentation that reinet and Greg will go ahead and cover. Next slide. On June 10th of this past year, the overall system plan was adopted by the capital metro board and endorsed by the city council. It basically is a long-term, multi-year investment strategy that will result in the complete buildout of the entire system over time. One of the important things to point out is John was talking a few minutes ago about the number of jocks that are there and the number of jobs that are [3:31:16 PM] created during the construction and buildout cycle. We can't lose track of the fact there are over 700 permanent jobs that will be there once the light rail system is built, once the buses are in place and operating and it will be from an operation standpoint, it will be for maintenance, all of those components that it takes to successfully operate and maintain an overall transit system. Most of those will be non-degreed jobs, so it gives a series of alternatives for those in the local market to be able to go ahead and get permanent, long-term jobs. One of the [inaudible] There is also progression ladders. To give people opportunities as time goes by. To move up within the organization. The other thing I would like to point out is an extensive dbe program. When you are utilizing federal funding that we anticipate getting from fta, there is an extensive program that is created to go ahead and take care of [3:32:19 PM] the pieces of the program that can be done with the dbes. It can be anything from the things that are construction, it might involve utilities, it could be civil work, it might be material with supply of reinforcing steel or concrete. It could be equipment supply. Things like cameras that will be in stations, electronic components, electrical components. A whole series of things that will be tens of millions of dollars that will be incorporated and required to be utilized under that dbe program which will very much assist and aid with the local dbe market. Next slide. With the overall system plan investment, the components that are there are the three light rail lines, the blue, the Orange and the gold. Seven new metro rail -- metro bus rapid lines. [3:33:21 PM] Green line extension and build up out to colony park. Enhancements to the red line to provide additional capacity, change the frequency to get down to a 15-minute frequency. Connections at the Orange line at crestview. Circulator increase, those have been very successful to date and the expectation to go ahead and continue and multiply those as we go to the future. Also a new fare system, something that will be contactless, something on the station platforms so you are able to go ahead and tap your fare and then be able to board. It decreases the amount of time the vehicles are in the station and provides more efficiency. All of those basically comes to a program that would be some $10 billion and of that $10 billion, 4.5 with a 45% expectancy from the federal transit administration would be the amount that would come in. That's based upon different amounts that have been there [3:34:22 PM] recently for other projects that have gone forward. What that results in is a $5.5 billion investment for the community for the local match. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. There will be an overall sequence plan to deliver the program and to deliver the program on schedule and within budget. The two that would start concurrently would be the Orange and blue line, the two light rail lines, with projection of going through to environment willal and being completed nine years out from the start. Behind it would be the goal line. Really when you saw what Jackie was doing in terms of the contents and the neighborhoods and what the different areas are, the gold line fits in exactly in [3:35:23 PM] this point. And then the future extensions on both the Orange and the blue. Over time those would be included, those will be built out. From what currently would be metro rapid into full lrt. A series of metro rapid lines. The first three in a first phase that would be expo line, pleasant valley and the extension of the current 803, the manchaca, and also two oaks. Along with that is more work that would be there for park and rides, for metro express, and with it again the components that would be there for technology that really takes you to the fare system, with the focus, as Jackie described, on the transit supportive investments. Next slide, please. This one will come up a little later in the program. We've shifted these around slightly. So this will come up as we go ahead and go through the [3:36:24 PM] financial aspects in the future. Next slide, please. The initial investment to start the system would be something that would be possible to do the Orange line as light rail. It would start out with a section that would be from the north Lamar transit center to stassney. That could be the phase of the Orange line. And at that point in time we would continue to have enhanced metro rapid service at the end. The blue line would be built out for the corridor and one of the key components is the downtown tunnel. The downtown tunnel provides a very, very effective, efficient and safe area to be able to operate in a very congested section of town. The metro rapid would start out with basically the expo, pleasant valley and tensions to the 803, and as a [3:37:25 PM] starting line the gold line would also be metro rapid. As we move through the future and go through the environmental project. The Nepa for full conversion to lrt for the gold line would be included. We would do that from one end to the other. With it comes the green line. Expansion of work that would be there on the red line, and then all of the other components down through park and rides, express service, the customer technology improvements, and the last but certainly not the least, it's very, very important, is the transit supported I have investments. That would total $7 billion and again anticipating a 45% federal share of 3.15 billion, it would result in a local commitment of a package of $3.85 billion. Next slide, please. I want to pay particular [3:38:25 PM] attention to the ends of the Orange line. At the north end where we would initially build if this was adopted, where we would initially build to the north Lamar transit center for the lrt, we would still be able to have and would continue to operate the metro rapid 801 service, but it gives us an opportunity to go ahead and increase the frequency so that we could get down to a five-minute frequency as needed. Along with that are additions and relocations of some of the bus stops, enhancements to those bus stops. Also a plan that is being developed under the corridors program for a pedestrian bridge to provide better access that would get to the Lamar transit center. Three improvements on various intersections, and all this takes a tremendous amount of coordination with txdot and with the city. Looking at what can be done to go ahead and over the short term improve the operation and efficiency of [3:39:28 PM] 801. As we work through the different items that we have to tackle to get the area that would go from north Lamar transit center to tech ridge coordinated with txdot and the city to be able to in the future when funding is available move forward with that portion of the line. Next slide, please. Similarly on the south, the initial light rail would go as far as stassney. And then with the continuation of metro rapid from stassney down to slaughter. In this case as the same as would be for the north, we could go up to a [inaudible] We would go ahead and have potential intersection improvements that would very much improve efficiency and the ability to go ahead at a much quicker pace by being able to go ahead and work [3:40:31 PM] also with the intersections, be able to go ahead with traffic signals. Again, in coordination with the city and also with txdot as we work through the concerns and issues to be able to ultimately be able to turn the section from stassney to slaughter into light rail in the future when funding becomes availae. Next slide, please. This would be the investment sequence for the initial investment. The Orange and the blue lines would be built concurrently, and the area that would be metro rail early start on the red line, to go ahead and do the improvements there. The green line coming out and starting out in the future. It would be one phase of the metro rapid which would be the three that Jackie highlighted, expo, pleasant valley and the south end of 803 down to manchaca. [3:41:31 PM] And also start with the gold line as the metro rapid, mindful of we would go with the full Nepa process which would allow in the future for the gold line to have been covered and be able to switch over to lrt. Other components and schedules within here would be metro express, park and rides, improvements to metro bus, metro access, the fare system that I have mentioned previously, and also the transit supportive development. Next slide. What I would like to do now is to go ahead and turn the presentation over to reinet. >> Good afternoon, chair cooper. Can you hear me? >> Yes, go ahead, please, [3:42:31 PM] reinet. >> Good afternoon, everyone. I'm reinet marneweck, chief financial officer of capital metro. And looking at the slide, you will remember from the June joint session did a presentation on the integrated financial model. Pfm is the nation's leading independent financial advisor for the government sector and is top ranked in the transportation and mass transit San Francisco. Pfm is also financial advisor to both the city and cap metro. They developed an integrated financial plan and funding model to evaluate long-term financing alternatives for project connect. This model was a collaborative effort between the city, capital metro, and the lead engineering firm hdr, who is the program manager and owner representative for project [3:43:33 PM] connect. The cost even puts developed by the three top engineering firms that are engaged as consultants for the project connect program. These cost estimates were developed with input and oversight from capital metro you might also recall the favorable feedback from the [inaudible] Earlier this year and presented in February. National experts evaluated the ridership and cost assumptions and pronounced that the method methodologies were sound, reasonable and in line with industry norms. This provides us with another level of assurance. The model evaluates the cash flow for the entire project connect program. It takes into account all the revenue sources including city of Austin [3:44:34 PM] property taxes, capital metro funds, and federal grant revenues and then also the timing thereof. Pfm analysis support a 45% federal participation based on full funding grant agreements with funding that was approved in the fiscal years 2019 to 2020. The local funding required a [inaudible] Property tax revenue would meet the requirements of a stable, committed funding source for the capital, the operating and maintenance costs, as well as the state of the repair costs. The fta will stress test the financial plan to handle additional cost contingencies for both capital and O and M. Initial large outlays of [3:45:35 PM] capital expenditures are funded with the revenue streams, revenue bonds and federal loans during construction. Operating and maintenance costs begin in 2023 and scale up as projects are completed. The model also includes cost for state of good repair like future vehicle replacement and it also includes debt service on revenue bonds. The model is designed to be compliant with the federal transit agency's requirements and can be utilized as part of the application of a full funding grant agreement from the fta. Next page. Capital metro has funded the project connect planning and community engagement effort in the recent years, and we are programming 73 million in the fiscal 2021 budget [3:46:37 PM] mostly from the capital expansion fund that we have accumulated since 2018. This will ensure that we can continue with the development of the program in November and December of this year and in 2021 until the Austin transit partnership LLC is formed. On the first row you can see that capital metro will contribute to the preliminary design and Nepa costs in fiscal 2021 and fiscal 22 with 13 and 10.4 million respectively. The red line phase 1 improvements are planned to start ahead of the creation of Austin transit partnership and will be funded from the capital expansion fund. Hewe can start early with project development of the three metro rapid lines with a combined 6.5 million funding from the project -- from the capital expansion [3:47:39 PM] fund. A fiscal 2021 balance of the capital expansion fund of 38.5 million will be transferred to Austin transit partnership for startup and development costs. And in the financial model also include continued ongoing revenue contributions from capital metro. With this I'll hand it over to Greg canally who will introduce himself, if we can please move to the next slide. >> Thank you, reinet. Good afternoon, mayor Adler, chair cooper, cap metro board members. I'm Greg canally and pleased to be with you to walk you through some of the remaining pieces of our presentation today around the investment of both cap metro and the city of Austin in project connect. I really appreciate reinet [3:48:39 PM] going through the integrated financial model. That has been a key component of the approach and going back in the fall when the city council adopted a resolution asking city staff to collaborate with capital metro, and I will say the collaboration has been fantastic. We've worked day in and day out together. To look at some funding choices and funding models that can accomplish a significant large investment in Austin's transit. As we've looked at on I think this is the next slide, and this is a version of the initial investment where we are looking at the $7 billion cost estimate, although I want to -- and we want to show to you the impact of the tax rate election piece of that, but to reiterate an integrated financial model, the financing is coming from capital metro, as reinet [3:49:40 PM] just went over, 45% federal grants. I think both the cap metro revenue as well as the federal grant assumption come out of the work that public financial management do an independent verification of the both the capital metro assumptions will revenue as well as a federal grant. And on the city tax rate election as well, their recommendation is to look at that as the dedicated source of revenue for the investment from the city of Austin to contribute to the Austin transit partnership. Just a note to make about the tax rate election, as reinet said, the fact it's very dedicated, similar to how other agencies around the country invest, dedicated sales tax revenue. In fact, looking at a dedicated property tax revenue, it gives us a leg up from sustainability and resiliency. The tax rate election we know as reinet talked about the use of not only the revenue bonds but being able [3:50:41 PM] to use pay go or the cash that is coming in as part of the tax rate election. The overall model, all of these funding sources have been optimized over time to solve for the exact things reinet laid out. Not only the capital build, the cash funding of that capital build and the debt associated, and other debt, but operations and state of good repair. By looking at a integrate model, all the funding sources together, the tax rate election by able to use cash minimizes, helps us to lower debt costs and lower debt service costs which in the long term is the best outcome for taxpayers to make sure that the more -- the less debt we have to issue, less debt service, lower tax impact for our residents in Austin. So this scenario here, this is the $7 billion investment that Dave went over, requires eight and a half cents impact and we wanted to show you what that impact [3:51:43 PM] looks like on different home taxable home values after the exemptions from 250,000, the median taxable value is 325,000. So we're looking at about a $276 per year increase in this first year. Which is roughly about a 3.9% impact to a tax bill to the average homeowner that's paying a tax bill not only all the taxing entities that it pays a bill each year, about a 3.9%. Next slide, please. We wanted to show you the -- again, as I mentioned, Austin is one of five taxing jurisdictions, so as you are a property owner paying property taxes to fund services in the community, I just wanted to remind folks [3:52:43 PM] about the share of everything. Certainly Austin is one of one of the taxing jurisdictions. Currently if you look at the city's tax rate, we represent about 20% of the overall tax bill, so when we look at adding an additional dedicated piece of the city of Austin tax rate, and again the dedicated piece is integral to the funding approach, that's about an additional 3.9%, as I mentioned for these different home values. Just to show some context this investment as it relates to the overall tax burden for austinites. Next slide, please. So with that I'm going to just touch again on a conversation and some information that we've now shared with you I believe over the last several joint work sessions that the city council and the capital metro board have had related to the governance. [3:53:44 PM] Specifically the Austin transit partnership. Next slide, please. As we have been discussing since -- really since January, the idea of the financing and the funding of this initiative of project connect goes hand in hand with governance on how -- looking at how you eventually take all the fantastic work that's been done from the planning perspective and project connect and the community engagement, lifting all of those elements off the map and implementing and getting it done. We know with the formation with Austin partnership is integral into ensuring what gets voted on can get done both from a project oversight perspective, but most importantly and critically from a financial perspective to ensure that the tools and resources that [3:54:44 PM] the Austin transit partnership would have under state law would be able to execute the investment that voters would be looking at in November. Next slide, please. So just as reminder when we look at the overall Austin transit partnership, we've talked about this, what it does build upon is what I think the community has seen over these last now seven or now eight joint work sessions that city council and the capital metro board have had as well as all of the processes that have gone on in the community and the relationship between the city of Austin and capital metro, basically bringing them together in a formalized new way under the Austin transit partnership along with capital metro as the federal grantee bringing along federal funds. As you heard from Dave, that is one of the key components [3:55:46 PM] when we built our integrated financial model so we could maximize federal funds throughout the program. The Austin transit partnership would be a new transparent board focused on governance, financing and implementation and they would be the single entity with the authority and resources to construct and implement project connection as adopted by city council and the capital metro board and then ultimately taken to the voters. City council and capital metro as creators of the Austin transit partnership would continue to provide oversight to the partnership as it works over the years to implement project connect. Ultimately as we've talked about in the operation side of the funding, the operations of the -- any of the assets that would be built by the transit partnership would then be back to capital metro for operations. Again, a key component that [3:56:47 PM] we continue to have a single operator of our transit network in Austin. Next slide, please. One of the topics we did want to cover today in a little more detail than in the past is to talk about the Austin transit partnership board. This is not an action item for today, but we thought it would be important to advance the conversation. I think at the last June 10th meeting and prior you've heard some information from Boston consultant group about some national looks they've done at different makeup of similar styled boards and implementation boards. They went through a process of conversations to look at different makeups and what might be the right fit for us in Austin. Again, this is not an action item for you today, but we did want to put it out there as you are looking at the big picture of moving project connect forward. [3:57:49 PM] We look at a board composition of a member of the city of Austin city council, a member of the capital metro board, and then we would look at three community experts, one would be finance, one would be engineering and construction, and one would be community and planning and sustainability with also addressing issues with a skill set around looking at ways of housing and a displacement issues and ideas that Jackie discussed earlier in the presentation. So how would we get to so how would we get to that board? As Boston consulting group has pout the table, there would be a process where there's a nominating committee comprised of the city of Austin representation from the audit and finance committee. Of the -- also similar from the mobility committee and on the capital metro side from their committees on finance and audit. And the committee on [3:58:50 PM] operations and planning and safety. For that joint nominating committee to put forward a slate of three candidates for joint approval by the city council and the capital metro board so that the board would be up and running by January 1st. I think as you've seen Dave walk through and reinet walk through, certainly a lot of work post-election to get moving on implementation, and the board, the creation of the board would be critical to kick starting that effort. Next slide, please. So here we are at today's action. We are now -- in looking forward to moving head on project connect. We're here on July 27th at the work session. Each body has a resolution in front them to direct for the city of Austin that is [3:59:51 PM] directing staff to include the project connect in a tax rate and prepare all the necessary documents that we would require to put a referendum in front of the voters. If you approve that -- and similar on the capital metro side to direct the president and CEO of capital metro to put in place a community package, the commitment package on capital metro finances that reinet walked through. This week city council will be adopting its maximum tax rate. And then I think as Jackie mentioned, what will be I believe the 9th joint work session scheduled for next Friday the 7th where we will in front of both bodies will be information around the creation of the Austin transit partnership and the formation of an inner local agreement, again a key part of the financing and governance together, those two pieces fitting together. And also information in advance of setting a ballot around contract with the voters. Which is a similar tool we [4:00:52 PM] use in other large investments. And then capital metro would also be making a funding commitment resolution, a community funding commitment resolution. And then the following week when the city council meets to adopt its budget, both adopting the operating budget, the tax rate and at the same time ordering an election. So there are actions that are out there for now. Next slide, please. So we are excited after an over two-year process, community given process, eight joint work sessions, lots of community discussions, we as staff, the joint staff of capital metro and the city of Austin are excited to put before you today, both bodies today, a recommendation for an initial investment that you can take forward to the voters. [4:01:53 PM] Dave went over this initial investment looking at seven billion dollar investment that we would receive a 45% federal match for. And it includes a lot of elements that this community has been talking about for years. As Dave mentioned, two new light rail lines, various metro rapid lines throughout the community, a downtown tunnel. I think very key one just to stress again is a green line, a commuter rail, a new commuter rail line in Austin all the way out to colony park as that area continues to look at ways to invest in colony park area and other areas out there, as well as improvements to red line and metro express and all the elements that Dave talked about. I think this investment will begin as well include -- again as well include the transit supported investments that Dave laid out. Again we're excited to lay this recommendation out for you today. Next slide. [4:02:58 PM] So what about this initial investment scenario? I think key as we came to this recommendation that at the core of it is a commitment to fully -- to the full already approved project connect system plan. As Dave talked about what it does, it allows us to leverage future opportunities as we build out this initial investment to bring other partners in to build out remaining pieces of the overall system than plan that has already been adopted. These funding partners and I think Austin has done that well in other areas. We want to make sure that we can leverage not only the city of Austin tax dollars, but leverage them against other investment opportunities. And that could range from federal, state, regional and all the way down to public-private partnership opportunities. The example I think on the Orange line are opportunities in the future to coordinate with txdot, on the gold line with the university of Texas and on the green line beyond colony park with Travis county and some of our other community cities in manor and Elgin. [4:03:58 PM] So we're excited that this initial investment also gives us a springboard for other future investments and partnerships. Next slide. So with our recommendation what we have in front of both bodies today is the determination of the investment package for the Austin -- for the city of Austin that would be providing direction to the city manager on the am 8.5 cents tax rate especially politiciantation and the -- implementation and the work to get it ready for voter approval. And a similar direction for the capital metro board that would existing and future funding for this investment implementation. So with that I think chair cooper, I will turn it back over to you and to mayor Adler. [4:05:00 PM] >> Greg, thanks so much and to Dave, reinet, Jon and Jackie for those presentations. I know that staff has been working nonstop over the last several weeks, probably several months. And we're very grateful for all the hard work bringing it to this day. At this time councilmembers and board members, you've been very patient legitimate us get these presentations O I wonder if there are questions for any of our presenters? Councilmember alter. >> Alter: Thank you. I was just wondering if while we were having questions if I could get a copy of what capital metro is voting on today? That wasn't in our packet. And I couldn't find it online on the capital metro site if somebody could email that. >> Perhaps, Ed, you could take care of that. Other request questions for -- other questions for our presenters or comments or about the presentations? [4:06:05 PM] I'm not seeing any. Mayor pro tem Garza? Thank you. I wanted to understand -- we're talking about 8.5 now and if we added additional or more displacement prevention, what -- at 8.75 I believe was talked about on our council message board, mayor, thank you for asking me to be part of the message on kind of where we are as -- it feels like we are on a consensus for many of us that have been working on this for a long time. But I think as a city we took an historic move in the 250-million-dollar affordable bond and we actually had started a lot higher. We were concerned about what could pass and when we saw [4:07:05 PM] what did pass, I know many of us were thinking we should have asked for more. So I think we have an opportunity to triple possibly what we're asking for in displacement prevention from what I understand right now, the 8.5 option includes 100 million or maybe 200 million actually. And then going up to 8.75 would -- the original recommendation I thought was just 100 million and so now we're at 200 million. And then adding another quarter would get us to tripling what the -- and I really truly believe -- I'm so proud of our voters in so many ways lately, but especially with the historic bond that passed and knowing that from that place we should have -- we could have passed more. We weren't sure and we wanted to make sure something passed so we have this opportunity now to add [4:08:10 PM] more for that displacement. So I wanted to confirm that going to 8.75 does get us to 300 million for anti- displacement prevention, is that correct? >> Mayor pro tem, this is Greg canally. Thank you for that question. Yes. We had an opportunity to-- we were aware of that question that had been posed and we were going to work with the financial advisor, capital metro and work under the guise of the integrated financial model that we laid out that again is trying to solve for fta compliance. We believe that is critical. We're able to look at that and if it was the desire of the city council to look at going above our recommendation by a quarter cent to 8.75, that would generate an additional $100 million, coupled with the potentially $200 million that we have in there for transit investments that would be for displacement [4:09:10 PM] for a total of $300 million. So we feel comfortable with that. We're trying to shown that are when we sit down with fta that we have a compliant model and that we can make sure we're maximizing federal share. So we believe that that that we can do that with that 100 million -- quarter cent to get additional $100 million. >> Garza: Is there anybody that can speak to what those projects would look like? That's fine if not, but wondering if there's anything that could speak to what those would look like. One more comment and then I'd be done. >> Kitchen: I'd like to do that. So I think, mayor pro tem, first off, thank you very much for your statements about going to the 8.75 and 300 million. I couldn't agree more so thank you for bringing that up. I think one of the key [4:10:10 PM] things that Jackie spoke to earlier, but perhaps we've also considered as we talk about that is the importance of co-creating at a unique neighborhood level different types of displacement strategies. So those could include, for example, purchasing land, investing in affordable housing, but they also can include the whole range of displacement mitigation strategies that we as a council have talked about before as part of the uprooted report, things like home repairs, targeted rental assistance, right to return policies, investment in economic mobility and wealth along these corridors. But I think that these need to be unique to the neighborhoods along these corridors, they need to be co-created with the community and they need to be planned ahead of [4:11:11 PM] construction. So I'm very excited about it. I think there is a lot of opportunity and I think what we're talking about is broad enough language to allow for the full range of displacement strategies. >> Thank you T councilmember. >> Garza: Sorry, I had one more comment and then I was done. >> Go ahead. >> She was answering my question. >> It's all good, all good. >> Thank you, commissioner Travillion. >> I want to also say thank you to councilmember kitchen. She lead on the resolution to make sure that we were addressing displacement early in this process. And I'm sure many will speak to this but mayor maybe we can add that to the base motion of adding the -- tripling the investment in displacement representation and then just say that as part of -- being able to wear both hats on the council and as a board member, I'm grateful to have [4:12:11 PM] been able to take some of these trips that we were able to take and it was interesting going into other communities and we were in a place then when listening to them say how they were able to be successful with the message of job creation and economic stimulus, how that had made their project successful. You know, I would have never thought that we would be now in a very similar position because going to those communities at that time Austin was in a position where we would hear, well, it brings more jobs and it does all this, and we were in such a good place. But now we are in a very different place. So looking at this through that lens this really is an amazing opportunity for our community. I would have supported an investment in our transit because it's something that I have been passionate about since becoming a councilmember, but now I believe that there are so many pros. And of course we can't do everything that we want to do, but we need to make this [4:13:12 PM] initial investment. And I'm excited about this opportunity, and especially about making sure that we are considering equity and displacement and I -- I can't see any other option to go to the 8-point 75, but thank you to all the staff and all your amazing work for getting to this approximate this point. >> Thank you, mayor pro tem. I have commissioner Travillion next. >> Okay. First I want to commend city council for making such a large commitment to displacement funding. I think that this is going to be a critical issue as we move forward. Because of of what history tells us. You know, we have seen the 78702 corridor, which when I moved here was a very poor corridor, it had the highest number of health care disparities of any community [4:14:13 PM] and we as a city, we as a region, took several strategies, at that time we did infill spending, we made significant land purchases, the city owned property, and initially we talked about that it was going to be property for affordable housing. We have seen after several years that our goals were not met and I think maybe it was because we didn't have to do the comprehensive planning for this. And first of all, that's not this council, but we did not do the significant planning before the investments were made. I think that we have an opportunity as a county, you all have an opportunity as a city, maybe several school districts have an opportunity as well to do some land banking to purchase property at what will be lower prices now [4:15:13 PM] because we know that a lot of those corridors, 78724, 78725, because of investment out there, those operations and values of of that property will go up. I think that it is important that we work together and build the principles that are necessary to make sure that we are addressing those issues of displacement because we know that a lot of people that cannot afford to live in the city anymore, not being pushed out in those areas, and we have to make sure that we plan comprehensively to make sure that we don't know what happened in 78702 happen in 78 '24 and survey 725. And I think the commitment to displacement dollars is a huge move in that direction. At the commissioners' court we have been talking about how we put land that the county owns into trust, how we make sure that we give [4:16:15 PM] ourselves the best opportunity to make sure that as that area improves that it doesn't become unaffordable for the people who currently live there. So I just want to make sure that we think with an equity lens. I think this is a huge first step, but I want to make sure that we are also bringing in the best minds and looking at the effective best practices that are happening around the country so that we make sure that this turns out to be what we want it to be, that our community develops well and that as it develops, all of us have access to transit. So thank you for the commitment that you have made and I look forward to working together as we go forward. >> Thank you, commissioner. If there are other questions for our presenters, this may be the right time to do that and then I'll ask the mayor maybe to take over the program so that city council [4:17:17 PM] can deal with its motion. >> Mayor Adler: Right. And in that regard, just so you have a little bit longer view of the horizon, I think it's great that people have a chance, opportunity now to be able to ask questions. It would be my intent and the answer to your question, mayor pro tem, is to give everybody on the council the ability to have a chance to talk and to say what they are thinking. My sense is that if there are multiple people that would like to be able to make the motion, I'm going to invite everybody on council that wants to to join in that motion, join in making that motion. And my hope is that after people talk we'll have a sense of what that motion is. But see if we could do it by way of that base motion. But I'll wait to do -- to recognize people to speak after chairman cooper is done taking us through questions of the presenters. >> Councilmember alter and [4:18:18 PM] then Madison. >> Thank you. So now I have a copy of what cap metro is voting on, and as I see this, this functions well if it's a partnership with cap metro and the city. This document seems to be committing nursing home our -- for the funds identified for 2021, and then they're asking for a resolution to offer -- that will be voted on on August 7th that will provide the longer term commitment. Can someone speak a little bit more to the longer term commitment? Because we're asking voters to support a TRE which goes infinitely into the future and I just want to better understand what's happening on the partnership side from the contributions from cap metro. It's not outlined here. And obviously we are at this point asking the manager to come back with that. We're not actually sending it to the voters yet in the [4:19:18 PM] process. But I would like to better understand how we through T his process are documenting that collaboration and that financial commitment. >> I might call on president Clarke to respond to that. >> Thank you and great question, councilmember alter. We do have it set up documentation that was actually been presented a couple of times during previous work sessions and I certainly will acknowledge that for everything on everyone's plate those things seem like five years ago. What I think would be best is maybe if reinet is still available she could go through it quickly. We're happy to then sit with you and go over more detail, but it's things like cap metro's sales tax, cap metro's fare revenue, parking revenue, things of that nature. But maybe reinet can give a little detail because there is some growth of that over time and to you Howe it comes together. Reinet, are you able to give a little bit better answer than me? >> Yes. Can you hear me? [4:20:19 PM] >> Yes. Thank you. >> Yes. So as previously presented, the revenues from capital metro will come from various sources. First, capital metro plan to commit from its sales taxes an annual contribution starting off 20 million a year in 2023 and then growing over time and then escalating to 30 million in 2027. And thereafter growing by three percent per year. In addition to that, the project connect system will replace sections of the existing route 801 and route 20 and o&m costs currently expended on those routes can be reallocated to the project connect lines. And that will yield 7 million starting in 2028 and will escalate until 2035, for example, that will [4:21:19 PM] escalate to 8.6 million. We also plan to implement parking fees at the park and rides and then with the expansion of the system that system will also generate fare revenue that will grow over time. So in accumulation when you look at all these revenue sources, when the Orange and blue line will start going live that revenue will grow from 50 million in 2028 to approximately 82 million in 2036. Did that answer your question or do you have additional questions? >> I think it gives me a good overview for me and would appreciate seeing it in writing. Would ask that as we're moving forward if we're voting on several things that what the other organization is voting on is also made available to us in the backup so that we can fully understand what we're each submitting to. I think that would help with [4:22:20 PM] transparency and help us to understand the partnership that we're building moving forward. So thank you. >> Councilmember kitchen, did you -- >> I wanted to say, chair, if I could, councilmember alter, I'll take the responsibility. I think the intent was send resolutions to both parties so I'll take responsibility for that. And when we go towards the 7th it's very clear that both resolutions, the city side would be the contract for the voters and cap metro we're calling community commitment will show all these elements in there so both parties could see that fiduciary responsibility and the [indiscernible] Plan that connects it all together. So apologies you did not get that as intended before the meeting. >> Thank you, Randy. Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: >> You probably didn't see her, but councilmember harper-madison was first. >> I thought you responded to that, absolutely. >> Kitchen: I started to, but Randy Clarke answered to I have a different question. [4:23:28 PM] >> Harper-madison: So fortunately most of my questions have been asked by my colleagues, which is great because that means we're all thinking along the same lines. The one question that I don't feel like I got a satisfactory answer on yet is kind of an extension of the question that councilmember alter just asked. I'm curious about -- would like to know what is the level of commitment to completing the project after the initial investment and are there any sort of points of accountability, how do we check back in and say -- and determine whether or not what was supposed to be done was done? >> Question, Randy, do you want to take that? >> Sure, I guess I'll take that. Great question, councilmember. So again, if you all are addressing the initial investment scenario and with capital metro's projects that were on the sequence line, then the idea is that we could go ahead and seek additional partnerships to draw future revenues for the rest of those elements. [4:24:30 PM] When we get towards the -- you've all gotten a copy of the first version of a draft Ila for the Austin transportation partnership. I think there needs to be a mechanism. Hypothetical through there's more revenue available in 2024, 2028, 2040, it doesn't matter, you get the idea. At that point we may have enough revenue to do more projects that are in the project connect system plan and the intent is that would then be a policy decision so that Austin transit partnership would then go back for action by Austin city council and the capital metro board to say you now have enough revenue, via regional, state, federal, public-private partnership investment opportunity. Go forth and go this rapid metro project, do the Orange line extension, do the gold line, etcetera. That's the idea. So you've all passed a system plan back last month. This is the initial investment to build a major component of that and then [4:25:31 PM] as revenues become available through a variety of sources go back to the two policy-making boards to say how would you like to complete the buildout of these systems now that these monies are available? Hopefully that gives an answer to your question? >> Harper-madison: Yeah, it more or less answers my question. It does not help me to respond to most of my constituents when they ask that question. So I would ask that -- in as simplified as terms as possible, I would ask that you shoot me some feedback about how to respond to that question when constituents ask? >> Will do, thank you. >> I think it would be importance to your constituents to know there would be independent auditors on an annual basis providing audits back to both city council and to cap metro so that our reserve active organizations can ensure that the atp is on track. >> Harper-madison: That would be helpful and it speaks to that level of commitment that I'm looking [4:26:31 PM] for to be able to establish that in conversations about the project, the investment and what it looks like moving forward to invest in instruct in this way. >> Thank you. Member Stratton and member kitchen. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Can you guys hear me okay? I've been having some internet issues on my end, I think. >> You're good. You're in soft focus so you look like you came from an old movie. [Laughter] >> Okay. I believe this is a question for Mr. Canally, but it's a two parter. So part one, if the -- we passed the -- the cap metro board passes and decides yes, we're going to support our share of the funding into local government corporations, Austin transit partnership. City of Austin agrees to put any funding in such that is available through tax rate election that the voters [4:27:34 PM] then ultimately decide. So if the voters then make that decision to do so, when are those funds going to be available? When does all this actually officially start? Those pooled resources? When does the first amount of money, whether it be our money from capital metro's side or the city of Austin money first become available for use by the Austin transit partnership. That's part one of my question. >> Okay. Thanks, board member Stratton, that's a great question and I think I can answer both pieces of it in your first question. So as we walk through on the upcoming actions with today's recommendation and the city council resolution determining the investment package and the tax rate in a sense, the next step on the city's side is that would be included in the city's upcoming annual tax rate and budget that will be set this week and then [4:28:34 PM] formally adopted on August 12th, 13th and 14th. Once the city council formally adopts that budget, it would then trigger the referendum, the the election that we've been talking about. Upon passage of that election if it passed, the funds associated with the tree would be part of the upcoming tax revenue from bills we get this upcoming fiscal year to really starting in December and January, which again is a critical piece that needs to be part of the overall model so that we can lower our debt costs to begin funding in all the projects. The same thing, I'll take a crack at this and reinet can give me a virtual slap if I don't get it right. But is that you -- capital metro will also be directing the president and CEO to as you adopt your budget for this upcoming fiscal year there would be funds that would commit cap metro to both of those funding streams together. And once those funding streams are in there, again [4:29:35 PM] atp would be managing those funds to do the implementation and on councilmember Madison's question, APD would be not only an independent audit that chair cooper mentioned, but also atp, all of the meetings would be public meeting, transparent meeting under the governmental code, there would be a website, tracking performance measures around all the investment as adopted by the city council and capital metro board, the project connect system plan and the initial investment. So that's part one, commissioner. >> Board member Stratton as you know, we've sat aside dollars for this, so cap metro dollars would be available as soon as atp is open. >> Board, thank you for that. I appreciate part one of my question. That ties into part my question which is more a Dave couch question. As I go back and as I was looking back through my copy of the presentation, I think [4:30:36 PM] it was back at slide maybe 25 if I'm remembering correctly, looking at the project timeline. Is it my understanding as I read that correctly, I know so much of the focus of this is around in the capital for that matter too is focused around the Orange line, the the blue line and the tunnel because that is where a bunch of of this money is going toned up going into. But is it my understanding as I looked at those that once this money becomes available, effective beginning of the tax year if all this goes through and all the pieces if the fit together right that we are looking at some projects that will be coming online immediately or pretty quickly within 21. We're not going have to be sitting around waiting for eight, 10, 12 years for this thing to actually start. It's not a pay for it now, wait for it later kind of thing. Is that correct, did I see some things on there like red line improvements that are going to continue to go online now, metro rapid buses that are continuing to come online, like park and [4:31:37 PM] rides. Can you continue to highlight a few of those things. Just to clarify what are we going to get initially that -- we know the big things, but are we going to get some of these other things coming out initially as a result of this if we continue to push this forward? >> Yes. Board member Stratton, exactly right. As we start to move forward we'll be able to implement things like the circulators, we'll be a able to go forward with the improvements to the red line that will let us go ahead and bring that frequency to 15 minutes. We'll be able to go out with the first three of the metro rapid lines, expo, pleasant valley, and also the extension to the 803 to manchaca and also to oak hill. Those are early projects that we can do. We have to work through the coordination so that we'll be able to go ahead and get the park and ride's worked in cooperatively. And then the procurement of [4:32:38 PM] the new buses arrest all electric. So there's a lot of it in that direction that we can do at the very beginning very quickly. As you point out it will take a longer periods of time for the light rail because we still have to go through the environmental process, which is much more expensive than what we're going to have to go through for these other lines. >> Okay. I appreciate that. I just wanted to make sure that I was clear that whatever -- that what we're doing here, this isn't all about put the money in or try to commit money or try to hopefully commit money, pay for it now, but not see anything for 10, 12, 15, 20 years down the road. What we together as a cap metro board and the city of Austin and then ultimately I guess the voters of Austin would do is something that we would be seeing real measurable results as early as next. >>> >> Year, baby steps, but that we could see next year, towards the use of project connect early on. [4:33:39 PM] And from there leading up to the bigger things. It's not just do it now, pay for it now, wait for it later kind of things. People can start using this stuff pretty dadgum quickly, but it's not just the superficial things. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, I appreciate it. >> I have councilmember kitchen and then commissioner Travillion. >> I have a question I think for Randy Clarke. We talked about -- someone talked about how the initial investment is to the full project connect plan and that it was a prudent initial investment which allows us to leverage additional dollars over time. But one aspect we haven't spoken to yet is the [indiscernible] Nature of this. And I know for some folks I've talked to in far south Austin, south slaughter, and [4:34:40 PM] other parts of town too that for south Austin the regional aspect and the connecting south to Buda or Kyle or San Marcos is something on the horizon again with their investments. So could you speak to the potential to do something like that over time? >> Yeah, sure. Thanks for the question, councilmember. So wavy long-term regional plan as well, working with campo and other stakeholders on. Part of the nuance that I think the average person needs to understand is that by Texas law transit agencies are based on where voters have voted in to the system and then have allocated their percent of sales tax to that piece. So Austin is a member of capital metro or manor or Leander, etcetera. There are other communities that we've had discussions with that would like to have some cap metro or transit service, but they have not formally entered that kind of arrangement. So we get from time to time [4:35:40 PM] someone from, say, pflugerville and they'll say we want transit service in pflugerville. Now, pflugerville is working through and it's our understanding that we want to move this year's budget process forward to contract with capital metro for the first time and we expect that to happen in the next couple of months. We do that with Round Rock and Georgetown. There are some other communities that have had initial discussions. But at the end of the day we are legally prohibited from running buss in Hutto as an example or San Marcos until that community legally enters a contract or statutorily the upcoming sales tax allocation into the sales tax area. With that said we're growing as a region and have to do more transit service. I think the areas where there's opportunity for larger discussions that are going on as the area becomes more urbanized. Two, this advancing of this program will naturally advance the larger conversation of the region as well as see a major commitment for transformative infrastructure. Three are the other infrastructure projects that are also going on, [4:36:42 PM] trainingwise, that all complement project connect. So an example is I-35 or mopac express. If and when the projects move forward we run a really great express bus service in the northwest right now, councilmember Flannigan avails from time to time I see him on social media mentioning those bus trips. Board member Stratton does as well. And mayor hill does. So we want to replicate that kind of quality through the entire region. We've spent a lot of time talking about councilmember Ellis down in the wildflower area trying to run a really good express service for the individuals who live in the southwest. For slaughter and tech ridge we envision long-term regional transportation centers where you can imagine not only the capital metro, light rail and bus service, but maybe regional service to Dallas as an example, connecting in there and other things like that. So our goal is to always keep growing the systems based upon the partners [4:37:44 PM] wanting to participate in the system. It's a complex question because there are so many different layers to it. >> Kitchen: Thank you. We have people who are working in Austin that live further south like Buda and Kyle. What I'm hearing is assuming those -- those communities are interested in participating. That's the kind of thing that can happen over time with their investment and this will only make it a better investment for them and a better possibility. So thank you for thinking of that. >> I have commissioner Travillion and then councilmember Ellis and then councilmember Casar. >> And this is an extension of the equity discussion and we've had this discussion earlier an I just want to reiterate. There are some route changes that occurred because of cap [4:38:44 PM] remap. And what I really want to make sure that we do between capital metro and the city is to really look at our sidewalk improvement dollars and to really build a focused plan, particularly between -- on the dessau road corridor between Braker and Parmer so that we can make sure that all of our sidewalks that are connecting new bus routes are Ada certified. And make sure that as we continue to build and as we continue to grow that we take care of those communities that had some route changes and some route additions. Just want to make sure that as we have parents with children and people with disabilities that are navigating those changes that we be explicitly [4:39:45 PM] building the program to address the sidewalks in that area. >> Thank you, commissioner. >> Thank you. And I appreciate Randy Clarke bringing up the wildflower center park and ride because that's something we're pretty excited about. And maybe this question is for Mr. Couch. I know that the pinnacle park and ride just opened down at the property that ACC owns at the Y at oak hill. And councilmember kitchen was able to join me during that ribbon cutting ceremony, really nice. But can you explain a little bit more about the 803 extension? Would that just be adding buses and different stops to the existing 803 route or what would that transition look like for extending the 803? >> Yes, it's exactly right, councilmember, it would be the addition of buses. It would be the addition of stops. We currently as you know have leased the space at the pinnacle parking lot. [4:40:47 PM] And in the area where we had the current small parking lot is the area that's going to be under construction by txdot to go ahead and change that interchange around. So yes, it would be the additional buses so that you could have the buses going out from oak hill and also up Menchaca to merge back on the south Lamar section. >> Okay. Do you know at this point how far apart timewise the buses would operate? >> We're looking at something right now that would be the 10 minute frequency and that really would depend upon the time of day obviously. >> That's fantastic and that is much needed in southwest Austin and really appreciate y'all taking that into account and making steps for us to move forward in that participation and ride share. >> Thank you, councilmember. Councilmember Casar? >> Casar: Thanks. And I want to keep my time really short. So I -- my understanding is that the extensions of the [4:41:49 PM] Orange line wouldn't be delayed by us going with the 8.75 option so long as either we have a smaller second election to finish funding them or if we got enough other sources of funding to keep moving, is that right? Because I want to see the full system plan implemented as quickly as possible, but my understanding from capital metro is we could do that on T same timeline or potentially even faster. And that this doesn't -- this wouldn't slow that down. We might have to take those extra steps. >> I'll take a quick answer to that, councilmember. So yes, we are very much committed to the entire system plan, the board approved that. Now, that is a formalized vote in the form of federal transit. We appreciate the city council on that decision as well. It comes down to facial funding -- additional funding sources. In that with txdot, since it is state owned right-of-way. [4:42:51 PM] Once those two, if you will, obstacles or items are resolved, definitely the idea is to advance those programs. So our goal is we clearly want the entire Orange line built. >> And in those places we could have -- we could have things as frequent as every five minutes, plus at every five minutes with this action at 875. >> That is correct. We believe very much that in the area you're referring to there's a lot of transit dependent individuals, people that are current customers, even more will be customers, we want to deliver up to a five-minute frequency. In the corridor program, which I want to thank Mike Trimble who works with Dave all the time. They're doing a great job with that program. They're doing stop changes, signal light improvements. We want to run really, really high quality bus service for the tech ridge north Lamar transit center and to really connect them to the entire transit system. [4:43:52 PM] >> Thank you. And I appreciate what the mayor pro tem said at the beginning here about that you were talking about a 300-million-dollar investment in affordable housing back in 2018 and being able to include that as part and parcel of our mobility strategy sing really powerful and important. So when we get' around to that at 875 with that 300-million-dollar anti-displacement investment will make a lot of sense. >> I've got councilmember pool. >> Thank you, chair cooper and thank you to the staff for additional really stellar work when pulling all of this really comprehensive and complicated system plan together. I am particularly interested in an advocate for continuing to seek out and support our east-west transit access so that we have a lot of northwest -- north-soul, but we need east-west as well. We've talked about that a [4:44:52 PM] number of times. And if there's a way that we can get to the 300 million for anti-displacement, I am very much in support of that. I posted on the message board that I thought that the 8.75 that councilmember Casar had suggested would be a pretty good -- looked pretty good to me. I wanted to ask -- thank you all for getting us to this point. I wanted to ask if, Randy Clarke, if you could talk a little bit about the two train stations that we're looking at in district 7 that are really important that I've been digging pretty deep to try to find the financing for and which frankly the success for the lines going through up the spine of district 7 and the north central part of the city are really going to mean a lot and that's the broadmoor station up at the domain. And then the mckalla place station, which is where the soccer stadium is going to be. [4:45:53 PM] Can you just give everybody a quick update on the status of these two projects? >> Good comment, councilmember kitchen. I appreciate your leadership and support on the red line in that area. And I did want to mention the red line is -- the red line has the potential to become so much more valuable when it can connect into the Orange and the blue because then we're really creating that system that all larger cities have to have to really connect and give everybody that opportunity of access. On the red line specifically we're advancing a public-private partnership with a developer in the broadmoor side of the domain area, but we are looking like we would be taking that action to the cap metro board in August. We thought we were going to take it in July, but from a timing point of view we would be taking it in August. We think that will actually probably turn into our second busiest station once constructed. The goal is to have that station up and running that will connect also to metro rapid and local bus in that [4:46:54 PM] area. And we've had great discussions with Austin fc, you all. I appreciate the resolution you took and the partnership with Austin fc at the stadium. They've had money committed to that. Cap metro actually submitted what's called a ust build grant in this cycle hope to go get some federal money, which is not fta money, it's additional money and that's a did example where there's lots of opportunities on the federal side if you have the right projects and partners. And we're hoping to leverage something like that. If not there's money in project connect forward and if that goes through with the build grant we'll leverage this into the red line as well. Both of those are moving in earnest. We would like to are break ground on the broadmoor domain one as early as maybe even august-september. To get that going. When both of these are complete the idea is that we would close Kramer station because obviously that's redundant and it was never really established in the right location. And now the red line becomes much better. We also have a couple of [4:47:55 PM] double tracking projects in the red line budget. As Dave couch mentioned the goal is to make sure we're not only running more frequent, but bidirectional service. The red line has always only been Leander in. We want to take people both directions on the red line and really feed into the whole system. So thank you for that system and we'll continue to update everyone on that project development. >> Pool: Thanks a lot. Just to close I want to give a shout-out to all of the community volunteers and advocates who have been working really hard on the red line parkway initiative, the 13-mile bike way and pedestrian way that will increase the accessibility around our town even more demonstrably. So people are thinking of different angles in moving this transit system plan forward and I really appreciate everybody's work. Thanks. >> Councilmember, mayor, I don't see any other hands up [4:48:55 PM] so maybe this is a good time for the city to take up its resolution. Mayor Adler we'll go ahead and do that and then we'll bring it back to you for cap metro. What we're going to do is just have discussion at this point. And then after everybody has discussion we'll move into a motion. Let's see where everybody is. Councilmember kitchen, do you want to start us off? >> Yes. I've already -- I just want to add a few things, few quick things. I wanted to speak a bit more to displacement mitigation. And I think that I'm very excited about and I appreciate the work my colleagues have done as well as everyone else to get to a point where we can triple the investment in this TRE. I want to emphasize that we can use that $300 million [4:49:57 PM] and also look at other funding mechanisms and work in conjunction with housing bond money and other funds that have already identified from the [indiscernible]. And we will look at other funding into the future. So while I think the 300 million is a significant investment, it also is a way for us to leverage and grow that amount. I also wanted to suggest that I think it's also a very exciting way for us to continue with what we have committed to over the years in terms of what we put into the Austin strategic mobility plan and also our uprooted study. This really is a step in operational [indiscernible] Commitment that we made in the asmp to mitigation displacement so I think that's important and we will have the opportunity to flesh out things like metrics and planning processes to ensure that we [4:51:00 PM] get results from this. And we'll also through our equity scorecard and other mechanisms. And we'll also have opportunities to really build out our approach to co-creating and working with the community. So those kinds of things we can talk about in more additional and maybe additional levels of detail in our contract with the voter resolution. And so I think it's -- I think there's a lot of things that are exciting about this and combined like this our approach to anti--- or displacement mitigation strategies is very exciting because it adds to the inherent value -- ensures that the inherent value of transit -- one of the values of transit is the ability to increase access and opportunity for the whole city. To jobs and in education and health care and all those [4:52:01 PM] places that people need to get to. And by making an integral part of that as we have pledged to in the past, displacement mitigation strategies we can ensure that everybody truly has the ability to participate in and take advantage of that. >> Okay. Councilmember harper-madison. >> Harper-madison: >> Harper-madison: Thanks, mayor. Councilmember kitchen just remind medicine of the other thing that was on my mind. So I've heard the word -- the words displacement mitigation. But I've also heard displacement prevention. And to Mr. -- I think it was David king that brought it up earlier in his testimony, to his point about prevention, I think we need to be very careful about delineating between the two in which case we're doing both, in which case we [4:53:04 PM] should delineate that we're doing both. >> I think we are should be doing both. >> I think that's an excellent point. We should be doing both. >> Mayor Adler: Councilmember Ellis. >> Ellis: Thank you, mayor. And thank you for your message board post a few days ago. I wanted to briefly daylight that as these conversations have moved organically through the last few months there was discussion of doing the anti-displacement measures as well as active transportation measures within that TRE that we've been discussing. So now as the activist community has asked us to start looking at potential for active transportation as a separate thing, it should have conversation with council over the next few days, but it's allowing the money for the TRE to do more with displacement. This is obviously something we need to be addressing as a community. I think that the location where displacement is going [4:54:05 PM] to be affecting is going to be affecting the people who live there as we move through the possibility of project connect and everything that it has in our community. So if you're looking for information as well about active transportation and conversations that the city council is having, we'll be approaching those over the next couple of days. So I wanted people to know that we have not moved off of that topic. We are just separating that out for this conversation at this point in time. But I'm excited about the opportunity for more anti-displacement measures and the 8.75 is sounds like a reasonable place for us to be and I'm happy to support that and I hope council is moving towards that. >> Mayor Adler: Anybody else want to say anything about the TRE, the direction we're moving on here? Councilmember Flannigan? >> Flannigan: Thank you, mayor. There are a lot of votes to be taken, procedural votes that are required by state law and just processed stuff to get through over the next two weeks both setting max [4:55:05 PM] tax rates, setting actual tax rates, setting budget, budget items, all the things. I'm not going to have the longer conversation about how freakin' spectacular this plan is and how unbelievely exciting the future of this city could look like with the type of transit investment we're contemplating. I don't have to talk about any of that right now. The point that councilmember Ellis made is the one that I'm interested in over the next couple of days. I posted on the message board as well. I feel pretty strongly that the tax rate election is the most fiscally responsible way to make the types of investments we know are going to be required over the long-term. And that's why I get incredibly excited about using a TRE to do project connect because as a fiscal mechanism it is the best method. It allows us to get more for our money. It allows us to be more responsible and start collecting the money earlier. That helps keep the costs down over the long-term and [4:56:05 PM] it sets up a long-term sustainable fund that can cover not just initial instruction, but ongoing maintenance and future repair. I feel the same applies to active transportation and I know there's an active debate in the community about the proper mechanisms for that. I don't know that we have to make that final decision today although if we are contemplating an eight and three-quarters cents that includes project connect and displacement, then we're probably also saying that active transportation that has to be a separate positive bond item. I don't know that I can support that as a way forward. I do think it's important that the TRE be a mechanism that we use. We won't always be able to do TRE ooze, but we can always do -- TRE's, but we can always do bonds. And I think that's the most proper and hospice include responsible to move forward. That's just -- and most fiscally responsible to move forward. If others want to engage in [4:57:08 PM] that path I would be for it. >> Mayor Adler: Okay. Mayor pro tem Garza? >> Garza: Mine's not engaging in that topic. Was there anybody else who wanted to? Doesn't look like it. Okay. Oh, councilmember alter, did you want to address that? >> Alter: I had some general remarks, but I want to just follow up with councilmember Flannigan's point that there are fiscal advantages of moving forward with a TRE and I'm still trying to understand whether if we vote today we are precluding an option for active transportation because there are still a lot of information that we don't have from our staff. And I don't -- it's my understanding that we are effectively precluding that conversation by moving forward today. And so if I'm wrong I'd like to know that. Because we still have a lot [4:58:08 PM] of conversations about the route for active transportation and what is the best mcism to get us there. I think we all agree that we want to make those investments but we have not had a public transportation about how we get there. And with all the different steps we have to make, if we say 875 and we specify that it goes for displacement mitigation, which I think is a wise investment, we will be precluding any option of putting that in the TRE even if the overall amount we want to invest is the same at the end of the day across the two mechanisms. Is that correct? Is that -- is it precluding that? >> Mayor Adler: My sense is that there are multiple votes this week. What we're on the agenda to move on today is to give staff the direction with respect to the amount of the [4:59:12 PM] TRE for the purpose of the dedicated fund for this project connect piece that we have. And then staff knows what size of project to do. So at this point it would so at this point it would be that 8.75 and 300 million, unless people move that in a different direction. Then we have another vote in another two days, three days, where we set the maximum tax rate for the city. And if we are to stay at the three and a half percent that the manager proposed, I would anticipate on Thursday that we will be considering at least the three and a half percent increase, as proposed by the manager, plus the 8.75 associated with the project connect. It would be possible for someone to move for a max rate that went above [5:00:14 PM] that. But between this decision and the decision on Thursday, we probably make that decision. Intervening in that is the resolution that's set before us on Wednesday, we can discuss tomorrow and Wednesday, proprietor -- withrespect to the active transportation element that council member Ellis was talking about a moment ago. >> Alter: But in terms of this vote, if this is setting the TRE, then anything that would go above the 8.75 and the 3.5 would not be able to be in the TRE? >> Mayor Adler: No, what we're set today is what is the TRE for the project connect measure. That's what's on our agenda for today. It's receivable that on -- on Thursday, there could be a maximum tax [5:01:14 PM] rate that's set higher than the eight and three-quarters, plus the three and a half. So if someone wanted to add additional capacity in a TRE, I think it would be required to be able to prevail at that point on a number that was higher than the 8.75 plus the three and a half percent. >> Alter: So I think we can only put forward one TRE. So I think that this decision today precludes that unless we have an opportunity to change it. I just want to be clear what we're voting on. I think this is, you know, a great plan, I think it covers a lot of what we need. But when we start adding the displacement and active transportation at this stage in the game, we need some clarity on the choices because we haven't had the active transportation conversation. >> Mayor Adler: Because I think there's an effective answer, perhaps, but there's also a legal answer. There is nothing to stop the council on Thursday [5:02:15 PM] from setting the tax rate, the maximum tax rate at a number that is higher than three and a half percent, plus the eight and three-quarter pennies. As before, we can only do one TRE, we can only vote to raise the tax rate to a certain level, and ultimately we don't set the tax rate and max that --and make that decision on the tax rate until later in August. So, yes, it would still be possible on the way we set our schedule for someone to move to increase the TRE, to increase the active transportation. I don't know that the will is there to do that, and the conversation we're having today impacts that, but there's nothing that prevents something from doing that. >> Alter: Yeah. And I don't want to imply that that's the direction I'm going. I just -- I'm uncomfortable that we haven't had the conversation about the active transportation and that we have outstanding questions that are making this -- this first. [5:03:18 PM] So -- >> Mayor Adler: In the -- >> Alter: For those conversations over the next couple days, I will say that I think that the broader direction that we are approaching today of adding to a transformative transit plan mitigation money, on the order that we're talking about, I think that is significant because it signals that we're recognizing that the market alone is not going to deliver the kind of housing that we need where we want it, and, you know, we've heard from a lot of our community members about the concerns about the displacement, appreciate council member kitchen leading with her resolution to make sure that this was built in, and I appreciate the moving forward with that. What I -- what I appreciate about this plan is also kind of the financial rockiness of it. I think the TRE is a very strong direction. It is transparent. [5:04:20 PM] And that was part of the reason I was raising the other concerns because I think it is a better mechanism than a bond. I think that what we're -- what we're, you know, moving towards is really to present the voters with a choice. We are not making the choice for them, we are giving them package that we feel strongly will help transform the city, but it's ultimately the voters' choice, and I think it's important that we give them a choice that's backed up with a lot of work, which has been put into it, so thank you. >> Mayor Adler: So let me go back for a second. It's been pointed out that in the TREs you in the TRE, you canonly have one purpose. If the purpose is for project connect, any additions with respect to transportation would have to relate back to active transportation. So the decision may very well be more confining than what I said. [5:05:20 PM] Further comments? Mayor pro tem? >> Garza: Yeah, I just wanted to quickly comment on the mitigation versus prevention. I mean, it may just be semantics, but my mindset was prevention. And, in fact, I think council member kitchen's language that was quoted in one of those slides specifically was talking about prevention. There was mitigation on another slide, but moving forward, that it is strictly prevention efforts. And then just real quickly, I know we're not voting today on the Ila that would create the board, but I just want to add quickly that I had been paying most attention because I had concerns that there were electives, and I don't want to get into the back and forth on that I'm grateful that staff added that it's good to have a council member and capmetro board. [5:06:21 PM] What caught my eye was the 15-year experience level of the other three, and I just want us to be careful about adding levels like that that can have an effect on professionals of color and of women, when we set a bar of a certain number of years of experience because it's -- I mean, I don't think I have to explain. It's harder for women to have access, especially in these fields, as well as minorities. So I just want us to be careful about setting what is kind of an arbitrary number. But we can talk about that more later. >> Mayor Adler: So for me on this, I agree with your last point. I really haven't had a chance to look at -- there were a couple choice that talked about particular language and nominating committees and the like, and nothing I'm doing today should be read as approval with any of those kinds of elements. I don't think those are really properly in front of us, and I'm not entirely convinced yet what has to be decided now and what gets decided [5:07:21 PM] later. But with respect to the question that I think is before us, with respect to approving the TRE, I support that and I support the direction that it seems like the council is going on that. I'm excited that we can adjust the price to taxpayers, to come up with something that I think really reflects a more appropriate point what the city taxpayers' share should be. Without removing all the intent and desire and expectation to get the whole project done and the elements that seem to not be currently funded, the elements mostly that are not going to be done for another 15 years anyhow, and I thoroughly hope and expect that our ability to be able to leverage funds the way we did with the 2016 transportation bond and others, we're going to be able to do here, and I believe that there will [5:08:23 PM] be ultimately investment infrastructure, known that's coming both from the federal with government and perhaps from the state, that enables us to do that. So today is in my mind no indication of any less desire or less expectation to be able to do the whole thing. I support and concur with the really substantial portion on the anti-displacement measures. I wasn't sure -- mayor pro tem, I didn't understand if you wanted litigation or you wanted prevention or whether it's best just to talk about displacement stages that would incorporate both, because I think that they both are real important. But I like the magnitude and the size of this, and I'm real comfortable doing this eight and three-quarters on top of -- and I will be supporting the three and a half percent element because I think that becomes what is the appropriate thing for us to be doing. [5:09:23 PM] And I look forward to the conversation over the next couple times on the transportation. Clear, I don't see any other hands. It seems to me the motion in front of us, as was stated earlier, to approve the eight and three-quarter TRE, which includes a $300 million investment for the transit supportive anti- displacement strategies. There were several people that wanted to participate in making that motion, and I want to try to accommodate that, if people want to do that, is there anyone that does not want to participate in the making of that motion? >> Alter: Mayor, can I just clarify the motion? Because we just had some conversation, and if you look at the resolution that's in the back, it says transit supportive [5:10:23 PM] displacement mitigation. >> Mayor Adler: So I -- >> Alter: I think we just want to make sure that we're amending what was in the backup to have what we've been discussing. >> Mayor Adler: Yes. I understand it to be what the mayor pro tem said. Do you want to read that council member kitchen? >> Kitchen: Yeah. I think that the points that have been made about the language are important here. We're all talking about we want it broad enough and that we're not limiting it to mitigation versus prevention. So I like -- I do like the way that you stated it, mayor, which was transit supported anti- displacement strategies. >> Mayor Adler: So that last clause would read the city council directs directs the city manager to include 8.7% in the fiscal year 2020-2021 budget at a tax rate for purposes of creating a dedicated fund for joint local government cooperation created by the city of Austin, capmetro, verifies in the project connect system plan, which includes a [5:11:27 PM] $300 million investment for the trait supported anti-displacement strategies. >> Casar: Except, mayor, you said 8.7 this last time -- >> Mayor Adler: 8.75. >> Kitchen: Thank you. >> Casar: [Indiscernible] >> Mayor Adler: I think I was reading and talking at the same time. Okay. So I'm going to have the clerk please reflect that that was a motion that was maid by the entire council, in which case we don't need a second. Those in favor, please raise your hand. Those opposed? The council is unanimous, and that resolution is adopted. With that, chairman cooper, I turn the meeting back to you. >> Chair: Wow. I just want to take a breath for a moment and pause and thank council for this huge step forward. We're not there yet. We have a lot of work to do in the next ten days, but what a great feeling it is to of this partnership together and see this level of commitment, and today [5:12:28 PM] really see a fabulous step forward to transforming our city. What a moment to celebrate. So thank you, mayor, thank you, councilmembers. We're not done, but it just feels like a moment that we ought to note for just a second. With that, next on the agenda is -- we're going to pause and see if any councilmembers have any final comments before we move over to capmetro action item. Hearing none, then we'll go to the capmetro action item. Randy, any comments on your part prior to us taking up the motion in terms of what the motion does or clarification? >> Thank you, chair. I will just say as a -- we'll keep the meeting short. I just can't reiterate enough my personal thanks, and on behalf of the entire staff organization, to all of the capmetro staff, consultants that have been involved in this process for a couple years. Also the city staff, [5:13:31 PM] Gina, Greg canally, the entire team has been -- I just can't reiterate how much of a team effort this has been, and I want to personally thank them and the organization. Thank the community for how much they participated in this. We had a virtual town hall and calm hundred people just like that being involved. Clearly people are interested in this topic. They want us all to move forward. And then lastly, I want to thank the city council, mayor and the city council for your current vote and your clear partnership with capmetro. It is -- I hope you feel that we've earned that, and we appreciate your partnership, and, chair, I did not to force you out of it, but I'm hoping to also say that I can then say thank you, board, for your action today to advance all the work that staff has done. With that I'll defer back to you. Thank you so much. >> Okay. Thank you, president Clark. Board members, we have circulated a staff-drafted resolution which needs filling in of [5:14:32 PM] the blanks on the last recital clause, and perhaps a correction, because the draft motion contemplated a hundred million for transit-supported displacement and mitigation, and that number, I think, has just been changed to 300 million and 8.75. So with that change, do we have then a motion before our board? >> Council member kitchen? >> Kitchen: Yeah, I think I'm happy to do this one by acclimation if you want to do that I don't know, chair, or how the rest of our board members feel. Should I just go ahead and make the motion? >> Let's try that I would love to get council's strong endorsement and having everybody on board with the resolution. Our board is learning as we go on this. [5:15:33 PM] >> Mr. Chair? >> Mr. Stratton. >> Do we have to -- do we have to former amend that, or is this something that is -- we're fixing it and then we introducing it? -- Reintroducing it?I just want to make sure that we're clear on whatever we're putting forward and trying to approve by acclimation. >> Good question, and I've been consulting with our lawyer about that. What we have in front of us is the staff draft of the resolution. It has -- it'll be presented, and I think member kitchen contemplated those two changes in the recital clause. And so I think, if I understand her correctly, her motion is to approve the draft resolution and the blanket recital clause with 8.75 cents, 100 million to 300 million, and that would be her motion, by [5:16:36 PM] acclimation. >> Kitchen: Yes. So moved. >> So we don't need a second if it's to be by acclimation. If any of our board members object, we'll take it just as a motion with a regular second. But this motion by acclimation can't be amended and if anybody objects, we won't do it by acclimation. So the question now is -- and we can have questions and discuss it, but can't amend it by acclimation. So questions or comments? >> If I could just say one thing, Mr. Chair. >> Chair: Go ahead, please. >> I just want to say that I initially, after our last meeting, sent some feedback to folks in my community, folks in Williamson county, and some of the feedback that I got, there was some concern about the price tag, what we were going to get for the price. I am extremely excited [5:17:36 PM] and very happy for what the city of Austin and the staff of capmetro have come back and done, having listened to feedback all across the board. And I still maintain what I have said before, that having been around Austin long enough, and where we are now, I believe that we are behind in the investment in our transportation options. A wide range of investment options. This is a part of it. And I'll just state it now, that doing nothing, literally gets us nowhere. Doing nothing gets us nowhere. We'll just continue to be stuck in traffic. So I'm really excited. I thank everyone for the work they've done, how responsive we've been on this. There has not been heart anything that has been more transparent getting us to this point over the -- I still maintain four years that this process has been going on, and I am very excited that this has been the case. I've come a long way in this, because as I've stated before on record, I voted against and [5:18:37 PM] worked against other previous ones. So I'm very glad that we're here. And thank you all for your hard work. Let's get -- let's get this train down the tracks. Thanks. >> Chair: Thank you, member Stratton. Any other board members wish to be heard on this? Very well then. I'll just ask each of you if there's an objection then to doing this by acclimation. Vice chair Garza? Any objection? >> Garza: No next. >> Chair: Member Stratton, any objection for doing it by acclimation? >> No objection. >> Chair: Board member Mitchell, any objection to doing it by acclimation? >> No objection. >> Chair: Council member kitchen, any objection to doing it by acclimation? >> Kitchen: No objection. >> Chair: Council member Renteria, any objection to doing by acclimation? >> Renteria: None at all. >> Chair: Commissioner Travillion, any objection to doing this motion by acclimation? >> No objection. [5:19:38 PM] >> Chair: Thank you. Mayor hill? Any objection? >> No, sir. >> Chair: And no objection from the chair. So this motion carries by acclimation, and what a great step forward, everybody. Thank you very much. How about a round of applause for getting these two motions out. [Applause] Well, that's fabulous. Randy, any comments as to next steps then? >> Yeah, let's say very successful meeting. Thank you again, everyone. Next steps will be August 7th. August 7th we will be coming back to this joint meeting that was talked about earlier. The idea is to have -- staff will recommend an Ila with our goals of incorporation and bylaws for the Austin transit partnership that [5:20:39 PM] formalizes in more detail than we talked about today. Also on the city side, the staff will be representing a resolution, contract with the voters, the equivalent side on capmetro would be what we're going to call the community resolution, resolution. So it will show how all those funding arrangements work. And really, the intent is to go through this step, and ultimately next spring/summer, bring back an agreement between the city, capmetro, and the Austin transit partnership board that will go from 15-20 pages to hundreds of pages of detail of how the entire program would ultimately get together. I just want to say, board chair, sorry, I see his face in front of me and I didn't call his name specifically, but I also want to recognize city manager cronk. He's been a great asset in all this. For boss of us, he more than me, I think, the last two-plus years have been nothing short of chaotic and non-stop, but I want to recognize all his hard work, his [5:21:40 PM] leadership with the city and the city staff to help with this as well, and I just wanted to make sure that was on the record. So just thank you all, and the next step, chair and mayor, will be the joint meeting on the 7th. >> Chair: Thank you, president Clark. City manager cronk, any words from you or assistant city manager? >> Actually, I would ask our assistant city manager to say a few words. Gina? >> Thank you, Spencer. You know, like Randy, I really want to thank city staff, I want to recognize the partnership with capmetro, and I want to thank our councilmembers and capmetro's board and your staffs. They've had -- been generous with their time and really were partners with us throughout this entire process. I'm going to particularly thank my city manager, Spencer cronk for his leadership through this entire process, and my colleagues and the city manager's office. [5:22:41 PM] Greg canally has also been a strong partner from step one with his staff, and our colleagues in the law department, the transportation department, really so many city departments that have been at the table with us and with capmetro. On Randy's side, Eric Bustos and Kelly butcher have been incredible partners, but I want to express my gratitude to the comment for lending their ear to us and to being with us to help craft this plan. You know, this is just such an important step that we're taking here. And, you know, we're asking the community to take this big step with us as we address deficiencies in our transportation network that better connects people to jobs, to health care, to education, to housing. It's an investment in ourselves and it's a big investment in this great city. It's significant transit investment is something [5:23:41 PM] that this community has wanted for such a long time, and we're almost there. This was such a big step. And as council member Flannigan said, freaking spectacular, from where we've had a transit system, the oldest transit system in the nation in Boston, it's -- I want to express my gratitude to the people of Austin and to our councilmembers here for really recognizing the importance of advancing these strategic mobility plan and how important transit is in that process of thank you. >> Thank you, assistant city manager. Final remarks, mayor Adler? >> Mayor Adler: It's an exciting day. I want to say working with the staffs has been wonderful to see because it works so well. I know that Gina and Randy and Greg have just been working on this, [5:24:42 PM] like, non-stop. I don't know what else you do. But there hasn't been a lot of time to do anything else but this, and it's an awful lot of work, and we're real close. Couple more weeks to go, and then it's to the -- then it's to the voters. I'm excited. >> Chair: Thank you, mayor. Thanks so much to all of our colleagues at the capmetro board and city council and for the hundredth time for our staff for really laying it out on the line here. I just wanted to really encourage us to work hard the next -- I think it's 11 days. Feels like we got engaged today, and we've got to get the paperwork done and get married, subject to approval by our parents, the voters. And we're only, what, 99 days away from an election on this. So this, to me, is something that will transform our city and help us to fulfill our [5:25:43 PM] responsibility to the next generation of austinites. And so I'm really excited about it. And unless there's any other business of the capmetro board, we'll stand adjourned at 5:25 P.M.