Perhaps the most interesting is the decision to defer action on a possible ballot measure for weekend and evening service.
You may recall that there was some discussion of trying to put a measure on the May ballot of either a property tax or a payroll tax that would fund "phase II" of the system realignment - aka "Moving Forward" - and bring some weekend and evening service to Salem.
They consulted with the Chamber of Commerce - and a striking omission in the board materials is the letter from the Salem Chamber of Commerce!
[GM] Mr. Pollock and Board members met with the Salem Chamber Public Policy Committee on January 8th to present Phase II of the Moving Forward plan and receive feedback on expanding service within Salem-Keizer Transit’s service area and how to fund it. The Chamber’s Board of Directors voted on this issue at their January 21st meeting and sent Mr. Pollock a letter with their findings. [minutes from Jan 22 board meeting]That's as much as Cherriots is sharing. The letter or a summary of its recommendations is nowhere to be found.
That makes you a little suspicious!
Especially considering that there is a full slide deck on a poll that Cherriots commissioned.
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| Regular folks give more support to a payroll tax |
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| Property tax not as favored |
In any case, the disparity between the transparent presentation of the poll and the hidden nature of the Chamber's letter is worth registering.
The upshot: Delay.
Staff recommends the Board delay any decision on when to file notice until further community input is received and considered. Consequentially, this would eliminate a ballot measure for the May 2015 election. Staff also recommends the Board direct the General Manager to seek out additional community input, as proposed above, and bring a report of the finding to the May 2015 Board meeting.This shouldn't actually surprise us. The timeline had seemed compressed, and so at least from here, this seemed like the most probable and expected outcome.
Other stuff - Transit Center, Service Change Plan
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| Site assessment: Walmart on Baxter and Commercial best |
In order to prepare a formal proposal, SAMTD will need engineering support to develop preliminary design concepts to include in the proposal. In addition to the preliminary design concepts, an initial environmental screening evaluation needs to take place to determine the level of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that will need to be conducted prior to full design and development of the SSTC.Cherriots is looking to purchase up to 175 new bus stop shelters.
There's a large report on the proposal to start the new routes and schedules on September 8th. In it are maps and schedules on the "service change plan."
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| Evolution of System Realignment from August to February |
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| Concerns about West Salem: But, we're advocating for a $500 million bridge for you! |
Rideshare Report
And the Rideshare report.
Here's the latest:
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| Drive Less Connect Numbers for Q2, 2014-2015 year October-December 2014 |
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| Drive Less Connect Numbers for Q2, 2013-14 Oct-Dec 2013 |
New users in a list:
303 - Q1, 2013-14
728 - Q2, 2013-14
150 - Q3, 2013-14
139 - Q4, 2013-14
185 - Q1, 2014-15
315 - Q2, 2014-15
The current Rideshare initiative is for car-pooling:
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| You might have seen the Carpool Karma ads around |
Cherriots' Board meets Thursday the 26th at 6:30pm, Courthouse Square, Senator Hearing Room, 555 Court St NE.
4 comments:
I believe the letter from the Chamber to Mr. Pollock qualifies as a public record under Oregon law. I hope you will request a copy and post it on your blog.
Folks who are interested in making sure Cherriots makes the letter public should email the board at board@cherriots.org and ask them to post the letter to the website as part of the board's meeting packet. As Jim suggests, it something that really should be public and in the meeting packet.
As one of the Directors on the Salem-Keizer Transit Board, I hope I can help shed some light on the situation, at least with regards to my perspective. Now that we just approved implementation of our system redesign (Moving Forward Phase I), the next step, which is now my priority, is weekend and evening service (Moving Forward Phase II).
We've been doing outreach to various groups, including the Salem Area Chamber, to try to get a feel for payroll vs. property tax options, but when it became clear that time was too short for a May ballot measure, to me the most prudent course of action is to take a step back and refocus on the bigger picture, namely how important weekend and evening service are to our community.
As our Board of Directors candidates reach out to the public during May elections, we can focus our discussions on our desire to meet the glaring need in our community to have weekend and evening transit service. We can have an open discussion about both funding options rather than the focus becoming more about a specific ballot measure. The funding option we choose is a detail that can wait until the fall, and my hope is that it will be a more clear decision when the time comes to make it.
In the meantime, now that we are implementing improved and streamlined services, I say it is high time to get the community excited about the opportunity we have before us for providing full services to the community!
I hope we can work together in this effort, and please don't hesitate to contact me at brad.coy@cherriots.org with ideas and questions.
Best,
Brad Coy
Salem-Keizer Transit Board of Directors, Subdistrict 2 (Keizer)
Thanks for stopping by!
The opinion here, as you might guess, is that the biggest thing Cherriots could do to generate greater enthusiasm for transit is to ditch support for the Third Bridge and to mount a vigorous case for why investment in transit offers a greater return than investment on a giant bridge and highway.
Even if in a neutral way, Citizens had a clear comparison of how much transit they could get for $500 million vs. the Salem Alternative for $500 million - it seems like that would make for a pretty obvious choice.
It would also be helpful to know how supportive the Chamber is of expanded transit service. By keeping their recommendations private, it feels like business could be trying to frame transit as a frill and amenity rather than a core mobility service and baseline for a municipality.
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