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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTrans 2012-01-17 Item 3A - SCATBd - 12/20/11 Meeting SummarySOUTH COUNTY AREA TRANSPORTATION BOARD (SCATBd) December 20, 2011 MEETING SUMMARY Members Councilmember Wayne Snoey Mayor Dave Hill Councilmember Ralph Shape Mayor Pete Lewis Bob Giberson Maiya Andrews Charlie Howard Councilmember Marcie Palmer Councilmember Les Thomas Stacy Trussler Councilmember Clarke Brant Councilmember Bart Taylor Kelly Hayden Brian Ziegler Elizabeth Leavitt Dan Brewer Councilmember Jeanie Burbidge City of Covington (Chair) City of Algona (Vice Chair) City of SeaTac City of Auburn City of Tukwila (Alternate) City of Burien (Alternate) PSRC City of Renton City of Kent WSDOT City of Normandy Park City of Milton Pierce Transit Pierce County (Alternate) Port of Seattle City of Des Moines (Alternate) City of Federal Way L Introduction, Comments, November 15 Meeting Summary After introductions, the meeting summary of November 15 was adopted by the Board. H. Reports, Communications and Citizen Requests to Comment Chair Snoey reported that Sound Transit was awarded a $10 million TIGER III grant for their Light Rail project between the SeaTac Airport and South 200 Street, and Pierce County and W SDOT received a $15 million TIGER III grant for operational improvements in the I -5 corridor in the Joint Base Lewis McChord area. The Chair also informed the Board that SCATBd appointment and dues letters were sent out to member jurisdictions, and that they should make sure to include SCATBd appointment items on their respective council meeting agendas. III. Nominating Committee Report and Vote for SCATBd Officers for 2012 The nominating committee reported that Mayor Dave Hill was nominated for SCATBd` s 2012 Chair and Mayor Lewis was nominated for Vice Chair. Chair Snoey asked if there were any other nominations for SCATBd 2012 Chair and Vice Chair. Hearing no other nominations, Chair Snoey called for a vote on the two nominations. SCATBd ACTION: The Board voted unanimously in favor of electing Mayor Hill for Chair and Mayor Lewis for Vice Chair as SCATBd's 2012 Officers. 67 Page 2 Chair Snoey recognized the services of SCATBd members who were retiring from the Board in 2012, and presented certificates of appreciation to Ralph Shape, Les Thomas, Joan Hernandez, Gordon Shaw, and Bill Boston. The Board also presented a certificate of appreciation to Wayne Snoey for his service as SCATBd Chair for 2010 and 2011. Chair Snoey thanked the Board for this recognition and said that his approach to the SCATBd was to take a more proactive view of the agenda during his term as SCATBd Chair, and focused less on education and more on advocacy for on transportation issues. IV. SCATBd 2012 Legislative Message Chair Snoey passed out a revised draft copy of the brochure with SCATBd's 2012 legislative message. He asked the Board to review the brochure. Chair Snoey reported that he attended the December Seattle Chamber's Transportation Partnership meeting and reminded the Board that SCATBd had talked about lending its support to the Partnership earlier in the year. He noted that the Transportation Partnership was similar to Pierce County's Regional Access Mobility Partnership and was more heavily driven by business interests. Chair Snoey said that the Partnership's goal was to support the Legislature in their development of a transportation funding package. A motion was made, and seconded, for SCATBd to lend its support to the Transportation Partnership. It was clarified that the motion to support the Partnership did not include a financial element. Chair Snoey conveyed to the Board a note from Chris Arkills (who was not able to attend the meeting) suggesting that SCATBd wait and see what the Governor's transportation package looks like before lending its support to the Transportation Partnership. Mr. Arkills said that this would be a good indicator of what the Transportation Partnership should be promoting and then SCATBd could determine if they want to lend their support the Transportation Partnership's message. Chair Snoey called for a vote on sending a letter of SCATBd support to the Transportation Partnership: SCATBd ACTION: The Board unanimously approved sending a letter of support to the Transportation Partnership and requesting the Partnership to include SCATBd's logo on its list of supporters' web page. A motion was made, and seconded, to approve the SCATBd 2012 legislative message brochure. Chair Snoey shared comments from Doug Levy, who suggested a number of revisions to the brochure language. Chair Snoey said the brochure was not just for the legislators, but could also be handed out to the chambers of commerce, Kiwanis groups, and downtown business groups. Citing a lack of space and not wanting to wordsmith the brochure, the Board made minor revisions to the brochure including revising the Federal Way Triangle project description to include SR 161 and revised the description of the I -5 /SR 509 project. State Page 3 Representative Pat Sullivan said he liked the brochure format, and said it had more impact than a letter of support. SCATBd ACTION: The Board unanimously approved SCATBd's 2012 message brochure to the State Legislature, with the suggested revisions. Chair Snoey suggested that 2000 of the brochures be printed and given to Boardmembers for distribution within their respective communities. It was suggested by Boardmembers to hand out the brochure at the upcoming South County Chambers Legislative Breakfast meetings. A motion was made and seconded to budget $1000 from the SCATBd dues to print 2000 copies of the brochure. Jeanne Burbidge said she could also pass out copies of the brochure at their Chamber meeting. Ms. Burbidge suggested printing more copies if it was cheaper, Chair Snoey suggested starting with 2000 copies and reprint the brochures if necessary. SCATBd ACTION: The Board unanimously approved a budget of $1000 for the printing of 2000 copies of the brochure. V. Representative Pat Sullivan 2012 Legislative Session, Working Together to Address Transportation Issues Chair Snoey introduced Pat Sullivan, State Representative from the 47 District and former Mayor of the City of Covington. Chair Snoey said Representative Sullivan serves on the Ways and Means Committee, and was elected majority leader last year. Representative Sullivan informed the Board that the primary focus of the 2012 Legislature will be the operating budget, but there is still great interest in transportation issues. He said based on the recommendations from the Connecting Washington Task Force, the Governor is expected to come out with a transportation package within the next couple of weeks, and said she has made it clear that she wanted a transportation funding package on the November ballot. He said discussion among legislators is focused on the timing of the ballot measure. If a transportation package is on the November ballot, then he expects an operating measure will be on the spring ballot. Representative Sullivan commented on the Transportation Commission's survey on transportation issues, which had less of a focus on new jobs and capacity and more of a focus on preservation and maintenance. He said because of his local government experience, he was well aware of local government transportation funding needs. He recognized local governments needed new funding sources and more direct funding from the state to local governments. Representative Sullivan also discussed how the eastside cities do a good job of pulling their legislators together with businesses to push their legislative agendas. He noted the South County area jurisdictions and business community did not have a similar relationship with their legislators. He said a better effort is needed to bring the groups together. He said without this cooperation Seattle and the eastside cities will have an advantage over the South County area. Representative Sullivan suggested it was time to Page 4 engage with the larger South County companies such as Boeing, so that they could help to help carry SCATBd's message to the State Legislature. Mayor Lewis said that Representative Sullivan's comment of meeting with South County Legislators was an important point to make. He said was up to cities the make sure south end legislators come together with local cities and businesses. Chair Snoey noted that Eastern Washington legislators recognized the importance of the Puget Sound region to the State of Washington economy. Mayor Hill said he was concerned about putting too much on the ballot, indicating that there is a public perception that there is still too much fat in government. He said a transportation funding ballot would be a difficult sell to the public right now, people feel that they pay enough tax. He added that he hoped that there will be a good marketing campaign to sell the need to the public. Mayor Lewis reiterated the need for the South County jurisdictions to work with local legislators to get them to meet with cities, chambers, and business representatives to talk about local issues. He said that they needed to address this disconnect with local legislators and that they needed, at the least, to come together a few times a year. Chair Snoey said 2012 was a good time to push this issue. Jeanie Burbidge suggested inviting State Senator Tracy Eide to a future SCATBd meeting. VI. PSRC Updats Charlie Howard briefed the Board on the Project Prioritization process feedback that they received from the Executive and the Transportation Policy Boards. PSRC staff was told to proceed with the project prioritization process development and apply it to the projects in Transportation 2040 leading to an update process that will begin in 2012 and adoption in 2014. Mr. Howard said the Executive Board directed PSRC staff to delay asking for public comment on the prioritization process in December and a General Assembly vote in early spring as was originally planned. The Executive Board felt the prioritization process was not completely vetted, and that it needed more testing. The PSRC was told to proceed under Executive Board guidance, and reschedule the public comment until a finalized prioritization process was developed in late 2012. Mr. Howard said the prioritization process will be wrapped into the 2012 Transportation 2040 update and will then be reviewed by the General Assembly in 2014. Mr. Howard talked about the PSRC project section process used to allocate Federal grant funds. He said the project selection process was delayed until this year because of funding uncertainties. A subcommittee of the Transportation Policy Board was convened to provide policy advice to PSRC staff on how to select projects. Councilmember Jeanne Burbidge was the subcommittee's Chair. Mr. Howard said that the funding targets were $284 million in transit funding and $136 million on the highway side. He said the subcommittee recommended new project selection policy guidance that included a- 5% set -a -side for maintenance and preservation projects. The maintenance and preservation funds will be distributed out to the countywide groups who will then select local 70 SCATBd Meeting Minutes December 20, 2011 Page 5 maintenance and preservation projects on a competitive basis. The subcommittee asked PSRC staff to craft a funding distribution process that would not penalize jurisdictions that have robust maintenance and preservation programs. Mr. Howard said that the call for project application will be out in the late February /early March time frame. The Transportation Policy Board will review the recommendations at their January 12 meeting, and the Executive Board will take action on the Project Selection Subcommittee recommendations at their January 26 meeting. Mr. Howard also noted that the subcommittee recommended taking a $15 million Surface Transportation Program funds reduction due to the 2010 South Park Bridge allocation from the Regional portion of funds. They recommended including the South Park Bridge project on the list of recommended Regional projects, and having them be incorporated into the geographic equity discussion as a recommended project from King County. Other Attendees: Cathy Mooney, City of Kent Jim Seitz, City of Renton Ed Conyers, WSDOT Robin Mayhew, PSRC Tom Gut, City of SeaTac Paul Takamine, Ding County DOT Monica Whitman, SCA 71