IMPERIAL COUNTY TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION

MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

MINUTES OF October 09, 2024

10:30 a.m.

VOTING MEMBERS PRESENT:

STAFF PRESENT: David Aguirre, Cristi Lerma, Katie Luna, Gustavo Gomez Esperanza Avila

OTHERS PRESENT: Robin Owen, Bryan Ott, Rebecca Villarino: Caltrans, David Salgado: SCAG

,

The following minutes are listed as they were acted upon by the Imperial County Transportation Commission Management Committee and as listed on the agenda for the meeting held Wednesday, September 11, 2024, together with staff reports and related documents attached thereto and incorporated therein by reference.

I.                    CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL

Chair Nick Wells called the meeting to order at 10:30 a.m., roll call was taken, and a quorum was present.

II.                  EMERGENCY ITEMS

There were none.

III.                PUBLIC COMMENTS

There were none.

IV.               CONSENT ITEMS

A.                 Approval of Management Committee Draft Minutes:       September 11, 2024

B.                 Received and Filed:

1.                  ICTC Commission Minutes:                                         September 25, 2024

2.                  ICTC TAC Minutes                                                       August 22, 2024

3.                  ICTC SSTAC Minutes                                                  September 04, 2024

A motion was made by Contreras seconded by Gutierrez to approve the consent calendar as presented; Roll call was taken:

Motion carried.

V.                 REPORTS

A.                 ICTC Executive Director

Mr. Aguirre had the following updates:

o   Active Transportation Program, Cycle 7: ICTC received correspondence indicating five (5) applications for the Imperial County Region. Applications were submitted by the City of El Centro, Imperial County Office of Education, Heber Public Utility District, City of Calipatria, and the City of Holtville.  As a result of the State of California’s budget deficit the ATP program overall funding was reduced significantly. Funding was anticipated to be $568 Million overall but was ultimately reduced to approximately $168 Million. Also, because of the budget deficit and associated cuts, the anticipated Imperial County Regional Share was reduced to approximately $300k. More information is to come pertaining to State and Regional Share awards.

o   2024 Local Partnership Program, Cycle 5In the past call for projects, ICTC staff proposed options to TAC members for the distribution of the LPP funds. The distribution calculations proposed were Option 1- Population and Maintained Mileage Based Distribution and Option 2- Using a Flat Distribution in addition to Population and Maintained Mileage Distributions. The proposed distribution is similar to the Local Transportation Authority (LTA) formula distribution. On August 22, 2024, the TAC committee members reviewed and ultimately recommend Option 2 to be forwarded to the Commission for approval and to authorize ICTC to open the Call for Projects for the Local Partnership Formulaic Program Cycle 5. On August 28, 2024, the Commission approved TACs recommendation. The Competitive Call for Projects for the CTC opened on August 16, 2024, with a deadline of November 20, 2024. There is also a competitive call for projects that is open for submittal directly to the CTC.

o   Imperial County EV Charging Infrastructure Feasibility Study: Staff is currently working on the development of the Scope of Work for the project to proceed to the issuance of a Request for Proposals. A project scope of work was presented to the TAC committee to obtain any additional feedback.

o    ICTC/IVT Operations and Maintenance Facility: The preliminary site plan has been prepared and will be shared with the commission. ICTC was recently informed that it had received a funding commitment for the completion of the design/environmental phases of the project.

o   Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending (CPFCDS): ICTC recently received an award of 4.1 million dollars to be utilized towards the Calexico Intermodal Transportation Center Project. The project has already received awards from the RAISE, ATP and REAP 2.0 programs. We would like to thank our local, State and Federal Partners and Congressman Raul Ruiz for their continued support of the project, ICTC and the Imperial County. ICTC would also like to congratulate the cities of Imperial and El Centro, the County of Imperial and the Imperial Irrigation District on their awards. ICTC will continue to work with all the awardees to ensure that their projects are programmed to enable the use of the project funding.

o   Surface Transportation Block Grant Program (STBG), Carbon Reduction Program (CRP) and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program (CMAQ) 2024 Call for Projects – FFY 2023-2024 to FFY 2025/2026: ICTC staff will be working with local agency staff and programming all approved projects in the Federal Transportation Improvement Program (FTIP). Several projects have already started development for use of the grant funds.

o   Calexico Intermodal Transportation Center (ITC): It is anticipated that the project will start construction in November 2024. The final set of contract documents are being prepared in anticipation of the construction bidding phase.

o   All ICTC Executive Directors updates can be found on page 22.

B.                 Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG)  

Mr. Salgado had the following updates:

o   2024 Southern California Demographic Workshop Navigates the ‘New Growth Reality’: A big thank you to those who attended the 2024 Southern California Demographic Workshop either in person or online. The 35th annual event was presented by SCAG and the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. The workshop consisted of morning and afternoon panel experts. For those of you that missed it, a recording will be available online. 

o   A big thank you to the County of Imperial for hosting a tour with SCAG leadership to Lithium Valley. Southern California leaders also participated in the League of California Cities Imperial Division meeting the night before, where SCAG President spoke about SCAG's commitment to Imperial County and its regional partners. Mr. Salgado also thanked ICTC for providing the transportation on the tour. 

o   SCAG updates can be found on the Agenda.

C.                 Caltrans Department of Transportation – District 11

Mr. Owen had the following updates:

o   The deadline to submit a Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grant application is November 21, 2024.

o   The deadline to submit an FHWA Low-Carbon Transportation Materials Grant application is November 25, 2024.

o   The deadline to submit a Large Bridge Project Grant application is November 1, 2024.

o   A Local Assistance Day Statewide Webinar will be held on October 30, 2024, from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. For more information visit the website at https://www.localassistanceblog.com/ltapevents/local-assistance-day-statewide-webinar-6/

o   Federal Grants 101 Webinar Series, Session 3: All About Benefit-Cost Analysis will be held on Thursday, October 10, 2024, from 10-11:30 a.m.

o   Caltrans-HQ announcement about the next statewide Bi-Annual Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act (IIJA) Transportation Implementation Working Group meeting on October 24, 2024, 9:30 am – 11:30 am. An agenda and list of speakers will be posted prior to the Working Group meeting. Registration is on WebEx to receive meeting access.

o   Caltran updates can be found on page 31.

D.            There were no committee member reports.

VI.                ACTION CALENDAR

A.                  Extension of the ICTC Lease and Sublease Agreements – 1503 N. Imperial Ave., Suite 104, El Centro, CA  92243, Addendum 6

It is requested that the ICTC Management Committee forwarded this item to the Commission for review and approval after public comment, if any:

1.            Approved the sixth amendment of the current lease and sub-lease agreements with Pico Group, LLC, for the property on 1503 N. Imperial Ave., Suite 104 in El Centro; and authorize the Executive Director to execute the lease agreement.

2.            Authorized the Executive Director to sign the sub-lease amendments between ICTC and SCAG with same terms as the original agreement.

A motion was made by Fisher seconded by Gutierrez to approve Action A. Roll call was taken:

Motion carried.

B.            Amendment to the Agreement between the Imperial County Transportation Commission (ICTC) and Nomad Transit, LLC (Via) for the operation of the Calexico Microtransit Service funded by the Clean Mobility Options (CMO) Voucher Pilot Program

It is requested that the ICTC Management Committee forwarded this item to the Commission for review and approval after public comment, if any:

1.            Approved the Second Modification to the agreement between ICTC and Nomad Transit, LLC (VIA) for the Calexico On Demand service in the amount of $500,000 modifying the total contract value to $1,998,875. The modification is contingent upon receipt of said additional funding.

2.            Utilized one (1) of the single year mutual options to extend the existing agreement for up to 1 year. 

3.            Authorized the Executive Director to sign Modification No. 2.

A motion was made by Contreras seconded by Ortiz to approve Action B. Roll call was taken:

Motion carried.

C.            Amendment to the Agreement between ICTC and Nicklaus Engineering for Various Bus Stop Improvement Project – Design Services

It is requested that the ICTC Management Committee forwarded this item to the Commission for review and approval after public comment, if any:

1.                   Approved the First Modification to the agreement between ICTC and Nicklaus Engineering, Inc. for design services of Various Bus Stop Improvement Project in the amount of $23,632.00 modifying the total contract value to $94,859.00.

2.                   Authorized the executive director to sign Modification No. 1.

A motion was made by Gutierrez seconded by Fisher to approve Action B. Roll call was taken:

Motion carried.

D.            A Resolution approving the execution of an agreement with Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) to receive funding from the Regional Early Action Planning (REAP) 2.0 Grant Program of 2021 for $274,133.

                The Technical Advisory Committee met on September 26, 2024, for discussion and recommendation to submit to the ICTC Management Committee and Commission after public comments, if any:

1.                   Authorized the Chairman to sign the resolution approving the execution of an agreement to receive funding form the REAP 2.0 Grant Program of 2021.

2.                   Authorized the Executive Director to sign the Final MOU to ensure compliance with the REAP 2.0 Program requirements.

3.                   Directed Staff to forward the agreement to SCAG.

A motion was made by Hernandez seconded by Gutierrez to approve Action B. Roll call was taken:

Motion carried.

VII.              The next meeting is scheduled for November 13, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. at the ICTC Offices and via Zoom Meeting for non-voting members and the public.  

VIII.            ADJOURNMENT

                The meeting was adjourned at 11:02 a.m.