IMPERIAL COUNTY TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION

MINUTES FOR APRIL 26, 2017

6:00 p.m.

______________________________________________________________________

VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT:

                                                            City of Brawley                        George Nava

                                                            City of Calexico                       Bill Hodge

                                                            City of El Centro                      Cheryl Viegas-Walker

                                                            City of Holtville                       James Predmore

                                                            City of Imperial                        Robert Amparano

                                                            City of Westmorland                Larry Ritchie

                                                            County of Imperial                    Ryan Kelley

                                                            County of Imperial                    Luis Plancarte (Vice-Chair)

NON-VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT:        Caltrans District 11                   Sam Amen

STAFF PRESENT:     Mark Baza, Kathi Williams, David Aguirre, Virginia Mendoza, Michelle Bastidas, Vicky Hernandez, Cristi Lerma

OTHERS PRESENT:  David Salgado: SCAG; Eric Havens: ICTC Counsel; Flavio Vargas: First Transit; Derek Wong and Rick Williams: Michael Baker International

The following action minutes are listed as they were acted upon by the Imperial County Transportation Commission and as listed on the agenda for the meeting held Wednesday April 26, 2017 together with staff reports and related documents attached thereto and incorporated therein by reference.

I.                    CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL 

Vice-Chair Plancarte called the Commission meeting to order at 6:01 p.m.  Roll call was taken and a quorum was present.

II.                 EMERGENCY ITEMS

            There were none.

III.              PUBLIC COMMENTS

Mr. Ritchie stated that at the last meeting, staff provided an excellent presentation regarding the proposed expansion of the Border Patrol Checkpoint at SR-86. The only objection was the funding source.

IV.              CLOSED SESSION

A.                Motion to Adjourn to Closed Session (Kelley/Predmore)

B.                 PUBLIC EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION (Government Code §54957)

Title: ICTC Executive Director

C.                 Announcement of Closed Session Action(s): Mr. Havens stated that direction was given and no action was taken.

V.                 CONSENT CALENDAR

A request was made by Walker to pull consent item C for questions.

A.                 Approved ICTC Board Draft Minutes:                                        March 22, 2017

B.                  Received and Filed:     

1.                   ICTC Management Committee Draft Minutes:               April 12, 2017

2.                   ICTC TAC Minutes                                                      March 23, 2017

A motion was made by Viegas-Walker and seconded by Ritchie to approve consent items A and B2, Motion carried unanimously.

A motion was made by Viegas-Walker and seconded by Predmore to approve consent items B1, Motion carried with 1 abstention by Plancarte.

C.                  Transportation Development Act (TDA) and Miscellaneous Fiscal Audits for FY 2015-16

Mr. Viegas-Walker requested to pull this item for questions regarding the auditor notes.

After detailed explanation by Ms. Williams, staff moved for recommendation of approval.

The ICTC Management Committee met on April 12, 2017 and forwarded this item to the Commission for review and approval after public comment, if any:

1.       Received and file the Transportation Development Act and other fiscal audits for the Imperial County Transportation Commission, for FY 2015-16.

2.       Directed staff to transmit the fiscal audits to the State Controller’s Office.

A motion was made by Viegas-Walker and seconded by Ritchie to approve consent item C, Motion carried unanimously.

VI.              REPORTS

A.                 ICTC Executive Director

                        Ms. Williams had the following announcements:

-          Please “Save the Date” of May 24, 2017 at 5 p.m. for a budget workshop for FY 2017-18 at the County of Imperial, Conference Room C/D.

-          The Transportation Development Act (TDA-State Funds) Triennial Performance Auditor staff will be in Imperial Valley visiting agencies and the transit operators on April 26, 27 and 28.  Requests for information have been emailed to member agency staff by the audit consultants. The audit is a state mandated requirement every three years for all TDA funds received in Imperial County.

                        Mr. Aguirre had the following announcements:

-          Due to recent complaints regarding smoking in and around transit passengers at the

El Centro Transfer Terminal, the City of El Centro is working on installing signage at the El Centro Transfer Terminal. This is per City local ordinance prohibiting smoking in public areas. To further address this issue regionally, ICTC will request that the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and the Social Services Transportation Advisory Council (SSTAC) discuss this issue at the scheduled meetings scheduled in April and May.

-          In recent years ICTC began the transition of acquiring and taking ownership of the majority of the Imperial Valley Transit Vehicle Bus Fleet. The expansion of the vehicle fleet has impacted the available space for storage and operations, and has created a need for additional space and facility needs. ICTC is pursuing the opportunity to acquire the existing (soon to be vacated) Caltrans Maintenance Yard located at 1605 Adams Avenue in the City of El Centro. ICTC Staff have circulated a Request for Proposals (RFP) to complete a comprehensive evaluation of the Adams Avenue facility that were due on April 7, 2017. ICTC and Caltrans Staff are working towards establishing a temporary lease agreement for the facility while the evaluation process is completed. Anticipated costs for the facility evaluation and proposed facility lease have yet to be established. Staff is currently reviewing proposals.

                        Ms. Mendoza had the following announcements:

-          The Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 which allows State to repurpose any earmark that was designated on or before September 2005.  FHWA approved the Earmark Repurposing projects on April 13, 2017.  The following is a list of Earmark Repurposing projects Imperial County in the amount of $6 million:

Ø  City of Brawley , Rio Vista Avenue between Allen Street and Cattle Call Drive, in the City of Brawley,          $86,554.81

Ø  City of Holtville, Pavement Improvements 6th Street between Holt Ave and Melon Avenue in the City of Holtville,     $18,185.95

Ø  ICTC/Caltrans, Road Widening on SR98, from Rockwood Ave to Ollie Ave in the City of Calexico, $3,594,849.51

Ø  Imperial County, Street paving, drainage and ADA sidewalk improvements on Heber Avenue from Highway 86 to Correll Road and south of Highway 86 to Fawcett Road, $1,017,400

Ø  Imperial County/IV Desert Museum, Conservation easement, access improvements and parking facilities at the Desert museum, $719,920.75

Ø  San Diego State University – IV Campus, Parking lot paving and ADA access improvements on CA-78 in the City of Brawley,   $719,920.75

-          RSTP and CMAQ Obligations needing follow up on status of request for authorizations to Caltrans were:

Ø  Brawley, Paving of Wildcat Dr.

Ø  Calexico, Paving of De Las Flores St.

Ø  Holtville, 9th St. from Palm Ave. to Olive Ave. and 6th St. Pavement

Ø  Imperial, Dogwood Road Pavement from Aten Rd. to Southeast City Limits

Ø  County of Imperial, 4 projects

Ø  Westmorland, Paving of H St and 8th St.

Ø  ICTC, Design of New Intermodal Transportation Center in the City of Calexico

Ø  Staff from all agencies have indicated that they would be submitting in April.

Ø  RFA’s should be submitted to Caltrans Local Assistance in May 2017.

                        Mr. Baza had the following announcements:

-          CTC Commissioners attended a Town Hall Meeting in the City of Calexico on April 12, 2017 at the Carmen Durazo Cultural Arts Center.  Staff received good feedback from CTC Commissioners. The City of El Centro did a wonderful job with their presentation.

-          Please “Save the Date” of May 17-18, 2017 for the Imperial Valley General Assembly and Economic Summit. We have confirmed two speakers: Laurie Berman, Caltrans District 11 Director; Vince Mammano, CA Division Administrator, FHWA and Bill Higgins, CalCOG Executive Director.

-          The program activity report for March 2017 is a California HERO Program: The California Hero Program was launched in April 2014 in Imperial County with ICTC as the administering agency.  Attached is a copy of the program activity report for March 2017.

-          A complete list of ICTC updates can be found on Page 110 of the agenda.

B.                  Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG)

                        Mr. Salgado had the following announcements:

-          The 2017 SCAG Regional Conference and General Assembly will be held on May 4-5, 2017 in Palm Desert. Mr. Salgado stated that all electeds will be comped and can reserve a room for $124 a night.

-          A second round of the GoHuman campaign is being developed and will be released at the end of May.

-           A SCAG report can be found on page 122.

C.                  California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)

                        Mr. Amen had the following updates:

-          A full Caltrans report can be found on page 130 of the agenda.

D.                 Commission Member Reports 

-          There were various reports by Commission members of countywide issues and events happening in each of their respective cities/county.

VII.            INFORMATION CALENDAR

A.                 Update for Proposed Expansion of SR-86 Border Patrol Checkpoint

Mr. Baza stated that at the last Commission meeting he presented a design and cost of the proposed alternative for a total of $2.4 million. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stated that they are committed to man the expansion if created but are not prepared to pay for it. Mr. Baza had stated that he planned to bring a fund request to the LTA Board from the 5% set-aside state highway fund but the Commission did not expect that it would cost so much.

Mr. Baza stated that all parties (ICTC, Caltrans and CBP) would revisit the design and cost. Caltrans did work diligently to present a design that was scaled back in price but CBP did not like that option. CBP, at their meeting, did say they were greatly appreciative of all the efforts. They have submitted the request in the new fiscal year federal budget. Mr. Kelley stated that he would like this issue to be elevated on a legislative level.

VIII.         ACTION CALENDAR

A.                 Unmet Transit Needs Public Hearing – Fiscal Year 2017-2018

The ICTC Management Committee met on April 12, 2017 and forwarded this item to the Commission for review and approval after public comment, if any:

1.                   Adopted the FY 2017-18 “Findings” as presented or amended, after a review of the SSTAC response

2.                   Authorized the Chairman to sign the attached resolution

3.                   Directed staff to forward the FY 2017-18 “Findings”, public hearing documentation and resolution to the State Department of Transportation

A motion was made by Viegas-Walker and seconded by Nava, Motion carried unanimously.

B.                  LTF (SB821), Article 3, Bicycle and Pedestrian Project Distribution List, Fiscal Year 2016-17

The ICTC Management Committee met on April 12, 2017 and forwarded this item to the Commission for review and approval after public comment, if any:

1.                   Adopted the attached LTF (SB821) Bicycle and Pedestrian Project Distribution List for Fiscal Year  2016-17

2.                   Authorized the claimant agencies to file Article 3 Claims for the approved amount

A motion was made by Viegas-Walker and seconded by Nava, Motion carried unanimously.

C.                  Agreement for Professional Services for the ICTC Regional Bus Stop Inventory, Signage Replacement and Technology Assessment

The ICTC Management Committee met on April 12, 2017 and forwarded this item to the Commission for review and approval after public comment, if any:

1.         Authorized the Chairman to sign the agreement with the firm of Kimley Horn and Associates, Inc.  for the ICTC Regional Bus Stop Inventory, Signage Replacement and Technology Assessment Project, for a not to exceed fee set at $90,035.00

A motion was made by Ritchie and seconded by Predmore, Motion carried unanimously.

IX.               NEXT MEETING DATE AND PLACE

A.                 The next meeting of the Imperial County Transportation Commission will be held on Wednesday, May 24, 2017 at 6:00 p.m., at the County of Imperial Board Chambers, at 940 W. Main Street, El Centro, CA.

X.                 ADJOURNMENT

A.                 Meeting adjourned at 8:20 p.m. (Kelly/Ritchie) Motion carried.