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Home My WebLink About2002 07 22 Regular E.2 Funding for ADA Paratransit Services in FY 2002-2003 ( . COMMISSION AGENDA ITEM E CONSENT INFORMATIONAL PUBLIC HEARING REGULAR X July 22,2002 Meeting MGR /CA REQUEST: The Community Development Department requests direction from the City Commission on funding ADA Paratransit services in FY 2002 to 2003. PURPOSE: The purpose of this item is to request a final decision from the City Commission regarding the pro rata contribution requested by LYNX for ADA Paratransit services. CONSIDERATIONS: · ADA Paratransit is a demand- or subscription-responsive program, which provi~es door- to-door service to.. transportation disadvantaged, (economically, .mentally, and ,physically" _. general ridership, and human service) patrons and does not conform to the scheduled or fixed routes of traditional mass transit. · The American Disabilities Act requires that Paratransit service area be provided within 3/4 miles of existing bus routes. · LYNX has historically provided door-to-door Paratransit service beyond the required area on a needed or requested basis. · A funding shortfall is projected for the continuation of all transit services in the County, since contributions from funding partners have remained stable by comparison to rising operating costs. · County policy makers are concerned about imposing additional gas taxes to fund public transit in the same year the public has approved additional taxes for road improvements. · The funding shortfall has prompted LYNX to reduce Paratransit service to the required minimum (within % miles of existing bus routes, instead of the historic door-to-door service), effective October 1, 2002. · LYNX has requested that funding partners contribute a pro rata share of funds that would continue Paratransit service beyond the required minimum. · LYNX has provided a updated table of projected Paratransit service costs and trip estimates for FY 2002 to 2003 to serve 50 clients in the City of Winter Springs, summarized as follows: July 22, 2002 , Regular Agenda Item E Page 2 Outside ~ Mile 1,909 2,403 $7,823 .Projections reflect the most recent information available as of May 23, 2002. . On March 25, 2002, the City Commission directed staff to obtain from LYNX and/or work toward the following objectives: a. Documentation of existing and potential ridership in the City. b. Identification by policy makers of a source of funding other than general funds to finance ridership; and ideally c. Identification of a metropolitan wide source of funds to operate a metropolitan wide transportation system. · On April 22, 2002, staff presented LYNX's explanation of the methodology for the study which resulted in ADA Paratransit client counts by residence, number of actual trips taken annually, project trips, and projected costs. · On April 22, 2002, the City Commission approved an appropriation of $52,516 for one (1) year, contingent upon the adoption of an interlocal agreement between the City and Seminole County for the imposition of a new funding source for that project year and for the repayment of the fund expended by the City over no more than two (2) years outside the year of funding. . On Apri122, 2002, the City Commission also directed staff to challenge the Paratransit service costs and trip estimates provided by LYNX, justify the data to the satisfaction of the Commission and present it as additional information at a future meeting date. · LYNX provided an explanation of the methodology used to determine existing,.ADA ridership and projected .operating costs iJ?. the_City, .which subseq~ently_reducec::Lthe initiaL_ _ _,_ ___ _.___m__ _ request from $52,516 to $38,037. This information was presented by staff to the City Commission at the June 10,2002 regular meeting. . On June 10, 2002, the City Commission directed the Mayor to prepare a letter requesting that LYNX further justify the projected service costs and trip estimates. · On June 14, 2002, the Mayor prepared a letter requesting that LYNX further justify the projected service costs and trip estimates, as shown in Attachment A. . On June 20, 2002, the Seminole County Board of Commissioners accepted the recommendations of the Mayors and Managers Committee (Attachment B) and determined the 9th cent local gas tax revenues would only be used to fund fixed route services in FY 2002 to 2003 and that individual cities would be responsible for funding their pro rata share of ADA services during the same period. . The Seminole County Board of Commissioners further committed to working with LYNX's funding partners to identify a funding source for ADA Paratransit beyond FY 2002 to 2003. . The County's decision to limit funding in the next fiscal year only to fixed route services thereby rescinds the City Commission's conditional appropriation of $52,516 on April 22, 2002, and further direction is requested from the Commission for final disposition of this item. July 22, 2002 , Regular Agenda Item E Page 3 RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends the City Commission consider the following alternatives and make a decision regarding ADA funding in FY 2002 to 2003: A. Approve LYNX's requested appropriation of $38,037 without reimbursement from Seminole County; or B. Deny the request. ATTACHMENTS: A. Letter from Mayor to LYNX, dated June 14,2002 B. Letter from Seminole County Manager's Office, dated June 13, 2002 COMMISSION ACTION: ATTACHMENT A /(.~~!2.~!~~~...\ "J\,_ "'~.'> ~\ '.~_' . .:,.... /.-.....--., 'lo. \1\ ii-! .,) '-' 7 '-j 1. , \ U; -:;-___u) III \. . \1~C''lfj-'Or..:rd~..... ;/ . \\. '\. 195'1 '~;V ';~ CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA 1126 EAST STATE ROAD 434 WINTER SPRINGS, FLORIDA 32708.2799 Telephone: (407) 327-1800 Fax: (407) 327-4753 E-mail: contactus@winterspringsfl.org June 14,2002 LYNX Board of Directors c/o Mr. Byron W. Brooks, Executive Director Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority 445 W. Amelia Street Orlando, FL 32801 Dear Mr. Brooks: On behalf of the Winter Springs City Commission, thank you for your recent presentation on ADA paratransit issues that impact the citizens of our City. To better assist us in reaching a decision regarding paratransit contributions, we respectfully request an explanation of the FY 02-03 ADA Cost Analysis provided by your offices. Specifically, we are interested in receiving a clear statement of how these projections were reached, as well as how costs are distributed throughout the County to participating jurisdictions:."'" "'" '.r", , """:' The City of Winter Springs recognizes the importance of the ADA paratransit service and would like to work alongside LYNX and other funding partners across the County toward a long-term funding solution. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated in this matter, and I look forward to hearing from ou soon. ATTACHMENT B 1~d( 1;) I{ Cill/V COUNTY MANAGER'S OFFICE June 13, 2002 RECEIVED JUN ! 7 2002 Ron McLemore, City Manager City of Winter Springs 1126 E. State Road 434 Winter Springs, FL 32708 . CITY OF WINTER SPRINGS City Manager Dear Mr. McLemore: As you are aware, the Mayors and Managers Committee of Seminole Vision met in March of 2002 to discuss the results of the analysis of the alternatives for funding FY 2002/03 transit operating costs. The outcome of this meeting was the recommendation that the 9th cent local option gas tax revenues should be used only to cover the cost of fixed route services. ADA services were recommended to be paid for by each individual jurisdiction according to the usage of their own residents as calculated by LYNX. The Committee also indicated that this recommendation is for the next fiscal year only and that the group should work together over the coming months to develop a long term funding solution. The Board of County Commissio~ers of Seminole County will discuss. transit funding at its June 20th budget workshop starting at 2:00 P.M. or shortly thereafter in the BCC Chambers. The County is requesting that the Cities provide by June 20th if possible an indication of their commitment to funding their share of ADA service for their City. Attachments 1 and 2 provide a breakdown of the transit costs. Please note that the County is recommending full service funding for all jurisdictions. Billing for the service will either be direct or by the County. I want to thank you for the time and effort for each City Staff member that worked with us this past year in resolving transit funding issues. Should you have any further questions, please call Dick Boyer of the Planning Division at 407 ~65- 7382. . Sincerely, .~~.f>~~ . Kevin Grace County Manager JKG/cac Attachments 1101 EAST FIRST STREET SANFORD Fl32771-1468 TELEPHONE (407) 665-7219 FAX (407) 665-7958 ATTACHED SPREADSHEETS ATTACHEMENT 1 The first spreadsheet, entitled "Seminole County Transit Costs - FY 2002-2003", provides' a final costing by LYNX of: 1. Fixed bus route expenses; 2. The Regional Transit Agency (RTA) membership cost; and 3. ADA Paratransit Services. The calculations demonstrate that the County will face a funding shortfall of $104,567 in fixed bus route service and RTA membership costs for the FY 2002/03. Below these figures, the ADA services and costs are broken into three separate scenarios, summarizing the cost of each scenario to the cities and to the County. ATTACHMENT 2 The second spreadsheet, entitled "LYNX FY 02/03 ADA Cost Analysis by Jurisdiction" provides a breakout of the ADA services by city and service scenario. These figures are considerably lower than previously presented in March as LYNX is now able to apply several million in federal dollars to offset the total cost of the ADA service. Dollar figures for the three scenarios of service requested by the sub-committee members are provided in lettered columns: A. Cost to provide service only within the mandated % mile range from local bus routes; B. The additional cost (beyond the % mile cost) to include service to the South Seminole Hospital and an adjacent dialysis unit; and C. The additional cost for service outside the % mile corridor (excluding the two special destinations noted in "B"); and D. Cost to provide full, county-wide service as is currently done. The number of trips by jurisdiction which serves as the basis for each City's charge for service is based up on the historic use of the ADA service by City residents and on a GIS mapping of each client's address to irisure they were assigned to the proper jurisdiction. · Each city's cost for the % Mile Service Scenario is found in Colurim A · Each city's cost for the % Mile Plus Two Service Scenario would be the stnn of Co I A and B. · Each city's cost for the Full, County-wide Service Scenario would be found in Column D. Seminole County Transit Costs '. FY 2002-2003 Fixed Bus Route Service and RT A FY 2002/03 Expenses Fixed Bus Route Service (net of farebox revenue) $ 1,961,241 Maintenance and Replacement Capital Cost $ 128,228 RTA Member~hip @ $0.5/capita (1) $ 182,598 Total $ 2,272,067 Revenues 9 cent Gas Tax (@ 02/03 estimate) (2) $ 1,850,000 Current Altamonte Springs Payment to Lynx (3) $ 150,000 Current Sanford Payment to Lynx $ 100,000 Current Oviedo Payment to County $ 67,500 Total $ 2,167,500 Fixed/RT A Shortfall (County to cover) $ 104,567 C;:__2'"S-~':. .:.kL'.''''-''_:4"",-_",-_~_':::i:--~:L~..:t.~~~~-:...__~_~~,,-~~.'==-=-~_ ~==_:=--:~ ..~=~='-==:.::.::==.I~.:-..:_';~:=:=~..:..-_-::;:~==~ Total Estimated ADA Service Costs FY 02/03 Estimates 3/4 Mile Service Costs Total City contributions County contribution $ $ 3/4 Mile Plus Two ( 4) Total City contributions County contribution $ $ Full, County-wide ADA Service Costs (5) Total City contributions County contribution $ $ 245,596 177,819 Total $ 245,691 179,544 Total $ 326,509 351,421 Total $ 423,415 425,235 677,930 (1) Altamonte Springs share of $20,600 paid to Lynx (2) Revised 9th cent from OMS 3/12(JS) Prior amount was $1,771,750. (3) Includes Altamonte Springs RTA contribution (4) 3/4 mile service plus service to S.Seminole Hospital and dialysis center. (5) Includes service both within the 3/4 mile corridor and outside the corridor. Seminole Lynx Cost Estimates 0529 c.xls FY0203 Full Transit w ADA 6/12/2002 ATTACHMENT 2 LYNX FY 02/03 ADA Cost Analysis by City FY 00101 FY 02103 - Projections Client Count by Actual Trips Projected Trips (4) Projected Cost Residential Address (1) l A B C D Jurisdiction Inside Outside Total Total Trips % outside Inside 3/4 Inside Outside Total Trips Inside 3/4 Inside 3/4 Outside 3/4 Total Costs % Cities of 3/4 Mile 3/4 Mile Clients (3) 3/4 Mile (2) Mile 3/4 + Two 3/4 Mile Mile +Two Mile County Altamonte Springs 119 1 120 6,515 0.0% 7,167 - 7,167 $113,415 $ - $ 113,415 17% Casselberry 58 13 71 2,366 23.1% 2,001 601 2,603 $ 31,674 $ 9,514 $ 41 ,188 6% 1 Lake Mary 1 19 20 563 100.0% - 619 619 $ - $ 9,801 $ 9,801 1% " Longwood 23 92 115 1,931 66.8% 705 1,419 2,124 $ 11 ,160 $ 22,455 $ 33,615 5% Oviedo 22 5 27 1,173 39.3% 783 507 1,290 $ 12,395 $ 8,025 $ 20,420 3% Sanford 104 17 121 4,023 1.2% 4,1372 2 51 4,425 $ 69,193 $ 32 $ 809 $ 70,033 10% Winter Springs 6 44 50 2,185 79.6% 490 4 1,909 2,404 $ 7,760 $ 63 $ 30,214 $ 38,037 6% Unincoroorated 254 162 416 20,187 49.4% 11,236 109 10,861 22,206 $177,819 $ 1,725 $ 171,877 $ 351,421 52% Total 587 353 940 38,943 26,755 115 15,967 42,837 $423,415 $1,820 $252,695 $ 677,930 NOTE: 1 Number of clients is as of March 2002 2 Outside percentage is based on actual trip counts during the first quarter of FY02 3 FY 00/01 total trips is based on actual trip counts for all of f,Y01 and is used to project FY02/03 outside trips. 4 Projected 10 percentage increa~e in number of trips in FY02J03 urisdictional Assi nment Methodolo - The actual client addresses were taken from Lynx's ADA client database that is used to reserve lients' calls for service. These addresses were then geo-coded b~ Lynx to determine the specific location in respect to which county and ity the client's address was located. This geo-coded information "'as then shared with Seminole County's GIS Department to verify and get final geo-coded list of all clients. The final listing of client locations by city was then used to determine which clients were inside and utside of the 3/4 mile ADA service area. o determine the number of projected trips we took the numbet of trips previously provided to the clients and increase the trips by 10 ercent. This conservative projection is based on previous growth;rates and paratransit industry estimates. " o determine the projected costs we took the projected trips and rilUltiplied them by the cost to Lynx to deliver that trip. Sem 0203 ADA Cost Est.xls 6/12/2002