VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT:

                                                                City of Brawley                                       George Nava

                                                                City of Calipatria                                    Maria Nava-Froelich

                                                                City of Calexico                                      Raul Ureña

                                                                City of El Centro                                    Martha Cardenas-Singh

                                                                City of Imperial                                      Stacy Mendoza

                                                                City of Holtville                                       Absent              

                                                                City of Westmorland                           Absent

                                                                County of Imperial                                Absent

                                                                County of Imperial                                Luis Plancarte

                                                                Imperial Irrigation District                 Javier Gonzalez

STAFF PRESENT:               David Aguirre, Cristi Lerma, Virginia Mendoza, Angela Delgadillo

OTHERS PRESENT:            Eric Havens: Counsel; Gustavo Dallarda, Ann Fox, Mario Orso:Caltrans; David Salgado: SCAG; Cedric Ceseña: City of El Centro; Francis Roque, Roger Martinez; Vasquez + Company LLP; Susan Giller, Bill Gay: Reliance Public Relations, Inc.; Michael Luellen: City of Calipatria; Karina Alvarez: Imperial County Auditor-Controller

PUBLIC:                                Daniela Flores, Javier Lopez

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, February 22, 2023, 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 6:03 p.m. Roll call was taken, and a quorum was present.

II.                  ACTION CALENDAR

A.                  Adopted resolution authorizing remote teleconference meetings in accordance with Assembly Bill 361

1.            Approved the resolution of the Imperial County Transportation Commission authorizing remote meetings in accordance with the provisions of the State Assembly Bill (AB) 361.

2.            Authorized the Chairperson to sign the resolution.

A motion was made by Nava-Froelich and seconded by Gonzalez, roll call:

                                Motion Carried.

III.                 CLOSED SESSION CALENDAR

A.                  Motion to Adjourn to Closed Session

A motion was made by Gonzalez and seconded by Nava-Froelich to approve the closed session, roll call:               

                                Motion Carried.

B.                  CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL – ANTICIPATED LITIGATION

                Initiation of litigation (1 matter) (Government Code § 54956.9 (d)(4))

C.                  Announcement of Closed Session Action(s)

                Mr. Havens stated the following:

·         The Commission met in closed session regarding CONFERENCE WITH LEGAL COUNSEL – ANTICIPATED LITIGATION Initiation of litigation (1 matter) (Government Code § 54956.9 (d)(4)), direction was given.

IV.                EMERGENCY ITEMS

                There were none.  

V.                  PUBLIC COMMENTS

                Javier Lopez, representing the City of Calexico, asked the board to consider giving some funds for traffic controllers in the City of Calexico. He provided various examples on how the City of Calexico must deal with the traffic issue on their own. He also stated that there have been four incidents where traffic controllers have been hit by cars. He mentioned that the west port of entry is for all the valley not only Calexico. He stated that people who work in the Imperial Valley might live in Mexicali and that causes a lot of traffic for the City of Calexico.

VI.                CONSENT CALENDAR

A.                  ICTC Commission Minutes:                                           January 25, 2023

B.            Receive and File:                                                                                                 

1.                   ICTC TAC Minutes:                                           January 26, 2023

2.                   ICTC SSTAC Minutes:                                       January 04, 2023

A motion was made by Ureña and seconded by Gonzalez to approve the consent calendar as presented, roll call:       

                Motion Carried.

VII.              ACTION CALENDER

A.                  2022 State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) Amendment Recommendations for Imperial County

The Management Committee met on February 15, 2023, and forwards this item to the Commission for review and approval after public comment, if any:

1.                   Approved the 2022 STIP Amendment Recommendations for Imperial County, requesting to fund Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 (COVID STIP) funds in the following distributions:

2.                   Programed a total of $1,250,149 from COVID STIP Relief Funds for the East Main Street Road Rehabilitation Project.

3.                   Programed a total of $1,000,000 from COVID STIP Relief Funds for the Evan Hewes Highway Rehabilitation Project.

A motion was made by Gonzalez and seconded by Nava-Froelich, roll call:                                                             

Motion Carried.

VIII.            REPORTS

A.                  ICTC Executive Director

⁻          FY 2023-24 Unmet Transit Needs Survey: The public hearing will tentatively take place in the month of April. ICTC has prepared surveys available on all services websites. There are also physical surveys available on the vehicles for passengers to complete.

⁻          Calexico Microtransit Service - Calexico on Demand went online January 9th. It has been a big success so far. There was a period of a month where it was free. This ended on February 9th. When the service was free, there were about 180 passengers per day. Now that there is a fee, there are about 150 passengers per day. This is a ride-share program that operates within the city of Calexico. There are three vehicles that operate it in a daily basis. Monday-Friday 6am-6pm. The regular price is $2 per ride. Seniors (55+) and riders with disabilities ride for $1.

⁻          Bus Stop along Cole Road in the City of Calexico: This was a request that came from the Unmet Transit Needs Process. ICTC worked with the City of Calexico and the city was able to implement a bus stop along Cole Road.

⁻          Forrester Road Project Study Report (PSR): ICTC has received the PSR in multiple forms and staff have been in communication with Caltrans in terms of comments. A meeting to discuss the draft PSR will be held at the ICTC offices on Monday, March 13, 2023, at 2 p.m.

⁻          State Route 86 Border Patrol Checkpoint is moving forward and there have been some additional design features that have been incorporated. The design is expected to be completed in late April 2023. There are continuous meetings that are held with CBP.

⁻          All other updates are on the Executive Director report on page 63 of the agenda.

B.                  Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG)

⁻          The SCAG 2023 Regional Conference & General Assembly will be held May 4th-5th. It is free of charge for elected officials.

⁻          SCAG’s scholarship program is currently open. SCAG has worked closely with the County office of Education and has distributed this information to all high school counselors. This opportunity is for $4,000 for any graduating high school student or current community college student. The scholarship is focused on public policy and urban planning majors.

-          All other updates are on the SCAG report on page 70 of the agenda.

C.                  California Department of Transportation (Caltrans)- District 11   

-          Call for Projects for the Clean California Local Grant Program is out as of last week. The state is looking for applications for eligible projects that is either infrastructure or non- infrastructure projects that reduce litter, beautify public spaces, and improve public health. The grants are up to 5 million dollars. The deadline for application projects is April 28th.

-          The SR-98 widening project has its Stage 1 has been completed. After discussions between the construction team and the local stake holders, it was decided to go to Stage 3, which is the Westbound direction from SR-111 to Rockwood. This decision was made due to it not having any businesses around it. This will minimize the impact on businesses during the holiday season. Following Stage 3, Caltrans will start with Stage 2.

-          I-8 Colorado River Bridge Rehab project will impact travel to Yuma. There will be detours and construction will start mid-February. There will most likely won’t be any traffic affected until mid-March.

-          I-8, SR-78 Bridge Rehab at Various Locations: Looking to start construction mid-March and will continue the next couple of months.

-          Middle Mile Broadband Initiative: Caltrans is in the final stages of identifying a contractor that will help develop these projects. CDT has approved segments on SR78, SR86, SR111 and SR115 totaling in 178 miles of middle mile broadband deployment.

-          There are many maintenance and traffic operations that are ongoing throughout the Imperial Valley.

-          All other updates are on the Caltrans report on page 76 of the agenda.

D.                  Commission Member Reports

-          Updates were provided by various commissioners.

IX.                INFORMATION CALENDAR

                Imperial County Strategic Plan: Presentation by Susan Giller, Reliance Public Relations, Inc.

⁻          Ms. Susan Giller provided a small presentation on the development of a Strategic Plan to guide Imperial County for the next five years. She requested to meet with ICTC at the March meeting to ensure they have a chance to capture the experiences, insights, and understanding of issues affecting each community and so they can be included in the strategic planning process. She will be providing an idea worksheet and surveys that she would like to collect at the end of the next meeting.

X.                  The next meeting will be on April 26, 2023, at 6:00 p.m. at the ICTC Offices, 1503 N. Imperial Ave., Suite 104, El Centro, CA 92243 and via Zoom Meeting for the public.

XI.                ADJOURNMENT

A.                  Meeting Adjourned at 7:33 p.m.