Board of Directors
Regional Transportation Authority
Transportation
Remote
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Reporting
Edited and summarized by the Chicago - IL Documenters Team
Live reporting by
Christian Gentry
Strategic planning, Recovery ratio, Ridership
Chris Gentry
@TheChrisGentry_
Its that time of week again, I’ll be live-tweeting today's RTA Board of Directors meeting or #CHIdocumenters @CHIdocumenters
08:49 AM Sep 15, 2021 CDT
@CHIdocumenters Today we are going to look at the Regional Transit Strategic Plan, Take a look at the finances of the RTA, look into some long term borrowing, and look in to the 2021-25 Capital Program plans
@CHIdocumenters The Executive Directors report, Leanne Redden, is up.
She starts by pointing out that Fitch giving RTA a AA+ and S&P giving the RTA a AA.
She starts by pointing out that Fitch giving RTA a AA+ and S&P giving the RTA a AA.
Next she moves to the Legislature Update. She mentions the Democratic Budget Reconciliation Bill. Part of that bill would include a 10 billion$ funding bill for low income communities, and a 106$ billion in general public transit funding.
The current federal transit funding bill will expire at the end of the month, so a new funding source will be needed post September.
Redden then announces the 2022 Community Planning Call for Project. This will last from Oct 8-28 and is held jointly with CMAP.
Redden continues by talking about the overall strategic plan.
First we are focusing on the 2022 budget, and coming up with the overall issues to be addressed at the end of this year. https://t.co/T7vOHpHIIo
First we are focusing on the 2022 budget, and coming up with the overall issues to be addressed at the end of this year. https://t.co/T7vOHpHIIo
Debra Shore is up, she is from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MRWD) she is here to talk about the overall strategic plan.
Shore mentions that the overall plan took almost an entire year to create. She talks about the importance of creating strategic goals. She is going to break this down using their goal of "Community Engagement" https://t.co/CwfbDwXxyo
Shore talks about how important it was for the MRWD to get community input.
-Interviews with each Board of Commissioners membes
- Public brainstorming workshops featuring local governments
-Public facing survey
-Internal MRWD employee survey
-Interviews with each Board of Commissioners membes
- Public brainstorming workshops featuring local governments
-Public facing survey
-Internal MRWD employee survey
Shore talks about prioritizing those who are most impacts in Cook county either by high flood risk or due to being low-income
Shore finishes up talking about how the plan was a living document, that once the plan was created it was shared far and wide to get public comment and input even after the plan was finished.
Next up is Tanya Adams from WSP USA. She is here to talk about DEI and the strategic planning process
She highlights heavily the need to integrate the folks who live in the communities you are serving
She also advocates sponsoring, promoting, and integrating diverse hiring practices to ensure that your staff reflect the communities you are serving.
Doug Anderson, team manager of Budget and Analysis is here to talk about the Financial Results.
While not up to pandemic levels, we are back up to around 45% of pre-pandemic levels. The current trend suggests that by the end of the year we will be back to 65%. https://t.co/4eickOfFxt
The RTA sales tax receipts has led to an increase in 51 million dollars mostly on the back of strong Metra and Pace funding
On top of favorable revenue, all of the various departments have led all departments to be under budget. https://t.co/Lp4rn50asw
This has led to a minor issue, as expenses are down, income is up, it means that the budget is getting less money from the favorable government
This has led to a negative recovery ratio. If sales tax continues to overperform, the overall recovery ratio could fall under 50% https://t.co/OPov5ZDFze
Doug Anderson, talks about how there may be a legislative solution. The Board of Directors last month found the budget "substantially out of accord" which lets the state legislature know about the issue.
Director Dillard mentions that if the RTA needs legislative assistance, to push for that earlier rather than later.
Now we are up to ordinances. First up is an ordinance authorizing Long Term Borrowing. RTA Treasurer, William Lachman is up.
Treasurer Lachman, wants to issues 93.6$ million dollars in 2021 bonds, in order to pay off the 2014A bonds. This would save the RTA around 6.9$-10.4$ million$ and improve overall cashflow.
Ice Miller and Hilltop Securities are helping on the transaction,
Next up Tara O'Malley, is here to talk about 7b, the authorization of the 2021-2025.
This would increase the capital funding budget by 46 million, in the amount listed below https://t.co/is7047DDd9
Also O'Malley speaks about the ordinance which would establish the funding amounts for the 2022-2024 operating budgets https://t.co/ld8hOZTWjL
Bea Reyna - Hickey CFO speaks more on item 7c. This is a pretty major increase in funding for the projects. This will not include the ARPA 3rd round of federal funding (which is around 1.5 billion)
Even with a lowered growth estimate, due to the Delta variant, we are looking at a new record budget of $1.393
Jill Leary opens up a discussion on the 2022 Capital Program. This is around $1 billion in funding. This is not ALL capital funding, as much of it was allocated in previous years. https://t.co/XPVFJsSdx8
CTA will get around 70% of capital funding, 25% will go to Metra and around 5% will go to PACE/Other
Director Coulson asks if the one time infusion of CRISA funding could be utilized in capital expenses. Jill Leary says that while it could be used for capital expenses, the current plan by service boards is to use them to cover operating expenses due to the dip in ridership
Director Dillard asks if other transit agencies are using this for capital. Leary says that nearly all, and especially peer organizations, are using them for operating fundings
Director Carey said, that while one time infusion of money is usually best spent on capital, this is not the "usual". Says that we do not know when we will return to normal ridership and wants to have the funding incase we need it down the road.
Next up is 7D, this is an AV update to the RTA board room and conference room at the cost of around $200,000
Next up is 7E, this is an ordinance to settle the eminent domain litigation and purchase of a property on behalf of PACE. This is the propery on 1825 North LaFox st, in South Elgin
The cost of this is $970,000, though this money will be reimbursed by Pace to the RTA. Here is the streetview of the property. https://t.co/YmvhebE21p
Lastly up is 7F, which is approval of board travel expenses. This is $1,257.60. Here is the detailed expense report https://t.co/SuRDMn6X68
Lastly is new business, of which there is none. The next board meeting is Thursday October 21 at 9am.
Agency Information
Regional Transportation Authority
The RTA Board of Directors is a 16-member group of professionals governing the activities and initiatives of the RTA. The RTA is charged with financial oversight, funding, and regional transit planning for the region’s transit operators: the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), Metra and Pace Suburban Bus and Pace Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Paratransit.
Remote RTA meetings are live-streamed via RTA’s Youtube channel.
In-person RTA meetings are typically held at the Willis Tower, in the offices of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. In order to get to the meeting in a timely fashion you will need to contact Audrey Maclennan (312-913-3219 or MaclennanA@rtachicago.org) 24 hours or more prior to the meeting and bring a photo ID.
Documents
No documents available