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Minibus Contracted Services DU~~E ~ck~ MEMORANDUM October 11, 2006 TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager SUBJECT: Mini Bus Contracted Services Economic Development Director David Heiar is recommending the contracts for mini bus service with Mt. Saint Francis, Sunnycrest, and Area Residential Care be transferred from Keyline to the Regional Transportation Authority. The RT A is eligible for a higher level of state subsidies to minimize the costs of this service to the agencies. I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council approval. PtJ~/ftL Michael C. Van Milligen MCVM/ksf Attachment cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager David Heiar, Economic Development Director n-lE CITY 01-' ~.Jk.~ MEMORANDUM October 10, 2006 TO: Michael Van Milligen, City Manager FROM, D"td J. He~', Erooomt' De,elopmeo' o;rnctO' C'iJ~ SUBJECT: Mini Bus Contracted Services INTRODUCTION The City has provided contracted mini bus service for Mt. Saint Francis, Sunnycrest, and ARC since 2003. Although the contracts actually expired in June of 2005, the City has continued to provide this mini bus door to door service for the same fees that were established in 2003. BACKGROUND When the 2007 Budget was prepared, it became obvious that the local property tax payers were subsidizing this service. It was agreed that new contracts needed to be negotiated and that this service should not be subsidized. Shortly after Transit Manager Jon Rodocker took over the helm of the Keyline system, he had discussions with the RTA staff about transferring this local service to the Regional Transit Authority. The State of Iowa transit funding distribution formula makes it possible to obtain approximately $48,978 of additional funding to our region if this service was provided by the RTA rather than the City. Although the RTA would also have to increase rates to make this service cash flow, the increases would be less than the rates the City would need to charge to make these contracts self sufficient. After months of discussions and analysis the RTA Board has agreed to provide these contracted services with the following stipulations: 1. The mini buses currently assigned to the Mt. St. Francis, Sunnycrest Manor and Area Residential Care (including 1 spare) be transferred to the RTA. The RTA would assume all FT A responsibility for any unused portion of federal funding remaining on the equipment and reimburse the City of Dubuque the prorated share of local match and $1.00 for each bus with no depreciation remaining. Based on the spreadsheet attached (Enclosure A) the RTA would purchase (5) 2002 light duty buses at a total cost of $4,553. Staff will explore alternatives with the City to lease spare equipment on an as needed basis. 2. All driving positions associated with these contract services would first be posted internally at the RTA for possible transfers within the RTA's bargaining unit. All remaining vacancies would be advertised externally to which any interested Keyline transit operator could apply. 3. If contracts are transitioned in FY 07, the remaining prorated State Transit Assistance and Federal Transit Assistance associated with these contracts for FY 2007 would be passed on from Keyline to the RTA by pass-through reimbursement from the City of Dubuque. This is estimated at $21,494 for a 6 month period (see enclosure B). FY 08 payments would come directly to the RTA from the Iowa DOT. 4. The RTA would continue to store the contract equipment in the Keyline bus garage until such time the RTA is able to store the equipment in their facility. 5. The transfer is subject to approval from the three contract entities to enter contracts with the RTA and the RTA's ability to negotiate a mutually agreeable rate of MR Waiver reimbursement for the services with the Dubuque County Supervisors. The transfer of a portion of the transit work load will be beneficial to Keyline in a couple of ways. At the present time the City has an insufficient number of bus drivers to meet the demands on our system. Unfortunately, this often means paying overtime. Another current staffing issue has been the time demands placed on our dispatchers. In fact, there has been consideration given to staffing two dispatchers during busy times to properly accommodate the demand on our mini bus services. We have not always been able to provide the quality of service people expect from Keyline. These staffing issues should be resolved with the transfer of the mini bus contracts. The transfer of these buses will also reduce the work load of the Public Works, Vehicle Maintenance Operator. If the Council agrees with this transition, Jon Rodocker and I will work with the RTA and the three agencies to negotiate new contracts for service. We anticipate the transfer could occur by January 1, 2007. CONCLUSION I concur with the recommendation of Jon Rodocker to transfer the contracted services with the stipulations as requested by the RTA. ACTION STEP The action step is for the City Council to authorize the transfer of these contracted services from Keyline to the RTA. D~~~E ~ck~ MEMORANDUM October 6,2006 To: David Heiar, Economic Director From: Jon Rodocker, Transit Manager Subject: Transition of client based service contracts Introduction At this time, Keyline provides client based (subscription) service to three local agencies although our contracts expired in June of 2005 Keyline continues to honor the contract terms. The Client based Contracts (area agencies); ARC, Mount Saint Francis and Sunnycrest have seen an increase in cost of operations over the last two years. Fuel costs have been the major increase, followed by ridership increases, but the cost per hour programmed into the contracts for FY04, FY05 did not reflect the actual cost. This was a contributing factor in the $200,000 deficit in the Transit budget for FY06. The 2007 Budget recommendations provided for new contracts with increased fees for these services. Discussion The Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) requires a public transit entity operating a fixed route system to also provide a complimentary ADA service. Sec. 37.121 of the FT A's regulations states, "Requirement For Comparable Complementary Paratransit Service. (A) each public entity operating a fixed route system shall provide paratransit or other special service to individuals with disabilities that is comparable to the level of service provided to individuals without disabilities who use the fixed route system. " In addition to this mandated service, Keyline supplies subscription service and dedicated routes for the above-mentioned client based contracts. ARC is charged $3.33 per ride, Sunnycrest Manor is charged $24.83 per hour and Mount Saint Francis is charged $25.11 per hour. The following is a summary for the cost associated with the contracts for FY06 using a conservative cost of $27.00. Actual cost for mini-bus operations is $27.00 to $33.00, but for calculating the cost of the following contracts, we are using the conservative number. Keyline operated 2129.2 hours of service for Sunnycrest Manor at $24.83 per hour, equating to $52,868.04. The actual cost for services rendered at $27.00 per hour, equating to $57,488.40 and a loss of $4,620.36. Keyline operated 1321 hours of service for Mount St. Francis at $25.11 per hour, equating to $33,170.31. The actual cost for services rendered at $27.00 per hour, equating to $35,667 and a loss of $2,496.69. Keyline operated 3811.4 hours of service for Area Residential Care at $15.22 per hour, equating to $58,009.51. The actual cost for services rendered was $27.00 per hour, equating to $102,907.80 and a loss of $44,898.29. Conservatively, the combined approximate loss from the above-mentioned contracts was $52,015.34. Over the past couple of months we have discussed the potential transfer of the above- mentioned contracts with the RTA. They are confident that the RTA could supply the current level of service provided by Keyline. The RTA board has approved the acceptance of the said contracts with the provision that the following criteria be meet. 1. Five (5) 2002 Ford mini-buses would be sold to RT A for $1.00 or the remaining local match. (enclosure A) 2. All driving positions associated with these contract services would be posted internally at the RTA for possible transfers within RTA's bargaining unit. All remaining vacancies would be advertised externally to which any interested KeyLine transit operator could apply. 3. If contracts were transitioned during FY07, the remaining prorated State transit Assistance and Federal Transit Assistance for FY07 would be passed on from Keyline to the RTA by pass-through reimbursement from the City of Dubuque. FY08 payments would come directly from the Iowa DOT to the RTA. (enclosure B) 4. The RTA would continue to store the contract equipment at the Keyline bus garage until such time the RTA is able to store said equipment in their own facility . RT A will need additional operators for these contracts and currently offers full time positions with benefits for their operators. Currently Keyline has several open positions for fixed route operators and any mini-bus operator who is interested, would be given the opportunity to cross-train for a fixed route position. Although current administration and dispatchers for Keyline will remain a fixed cost for the City, this transfer would allow staff to better focus on and maintain the required level of ADA complimentary service regulated by FTA. Another factor to be considered is the proposed part-time mechanic position at public works for the maintenance required for the current thirteen (13) mini-buses. I have meet with Don Vogt and Kevin Cromwell from Public Works on several occasions and we have discussed the maintenance of the mini-buses and how it could be affected if Keyline were to dispose of almost half its fleet. They do not believe there is a need to incur the cost of a part time mechanic position if it was not necessary and Cromwell was confident that the current mechanic staff could provide adequate service for the mini- bus fleet if the fleet is diminished by 5 mini-buses. Conclusion I am recommending the transfer of the client based contracts of Area Residential Care, SunnyCrest Manor and Mount St. Francis to RTA by January 2007. I recommend five (5) of the 2002 Ford Cutaways be sold for $1.00 or the remaining 20% local match, the prorated STA and FTA funds pass through the City of Dubuque for the remaining FY07 amounts and the storage of vehicles at Keyline facility located at 2401 Central Ave. Action Reauired I request this proposal be submitted to the City Manager for his review and Council consideration. Enclosure A Keyline Fleet FLEET II VEHICLES 2569 2002 LD FORD 2570 2002 LD FORD 2571 2002 LD FORD 2572 2002 LD FORD 2577 2002 LD FORD 2578 2002 LD FORD Mileage 108603 109910 117867 107101 90284 63015 Anticipated transfer cost $1.00 $1.00 $1.00 $1.00 $946.60 $3,602.45 Vehicles in bold are over 4 yrs old and the 100,00 mile David Heiar- Contract spread sheet__ __,.~_,..~..,___.~_,_.n~___"'__'_"___"'____._ ..---.----~-..- Enclosure B Keyline RT A FTAlSTA Subsidy FY07 Projection RT A Marginal Cost Contract revenue Additional STAlFTA Net Revenue Increase for RT A Full year Prorate half year $151,000.00 $75,500.00 $141,935.23 $70,967.61 $34,977.00 $17,488.00 $25,912.23 $12,955.61 Keyline Marginal Cost $196,060.50 $98,030.25 Contract revenue $141,935.23 $70,967.61 Subsidy for contracts (loss) $54,125.27 $27,062.64 Formula dollars to RTA less ST A subsidy $11,421.00 $5,710.00 Less FT A Subsidy $31,568.00 $15,784.00 Total $42,989.00 $21,494.00 Difference for Keyline (FY07 savings) $11,136.27 $5,568.64 Keyline FY07 STA $174,053.00 Keyline FY08 STA $168,556.00 Loss of ST A $5,497.00 EAST CENTRAL INTERGOVERNMENTAL ASSOCIATION October 4, 2006 Suite 200 3999 Pennsylvania Avenue Dubuque, IA 52002 Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager City of Dubuque City Hall Dubuque, IA 52001 Dear Mike, After considerable discussion and research, the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) Board of Directors approved during their October 4,2006 meeting the transition of transit contract services currently managed by KeyLine Transit involving Area Residential Care, Mount Saint Francis and Sunnycrest Manor to the RTA for management subject to the following conditions and formal approval by the City of Dubuque City Council: I. All equipment currently assigned to the Mt. St. Francis, Sunnycrest Manor and Area Residential Care (including I spare) be transferred to the RTA. The RTA would assume all FT A responsibility for any unused portion of federal funding remaining on the equipment and reimburse the City of Dubuque the prorated share of local match and $1.00 for each bus with no depreciation remaining. Based on the spreadsheet attached (Appendix B) the RTA would purchase (5) 2002 light duty buses at a total cost of$4,552. Staffwill explore alternatives with the City to lease spare equipment on an as needed basis. 2. All driving positions associated with these contract services would first be posted internally at the RTA for possible transfers within the RTA's bargaining unit. All remaining vacancies would be advertised externally to which any interested KeyLine transit operator could apply. 3. For contracts transitioned in FY 07, the remaining prorated State Transit Assistance and Federal Transit Assistance associated with these contracts for FY 2007 would be passed on from KeyLine to the RTA by pass-through reimbursement from the City of Dubuque. The Iowa DOT calculates $42,989 in subsidy going to KeyLine in FY 2007 for these contracts. FY 08 payments would come directly to the RTA from the Iowa DOT. 4. The RTA would continue to store the contract equipment in the KeyLine bus garage until such time the RTA is able to store the equipment in our own facility. We have been discussing facility options but at this time we do not have a specific timeline for when a permanent storage facility will be available to the RTA but will continue to explore and pursue our options. PHONE (563) 556-4166 IOWA ONLY (800) 942-4648 FAX (563) 556-0348 E-MAIL ecia@ecia.org WEB SITE www.ecia.org . Dubuque Metropolitan Area Transportation Study. Eastern Iowa Regional Housing Authority. Eastern Iowa Regional Utility Services System. . Eastern Iowa Development Corporation' Region I Employment and Training' ECIA Regiona' Planning Affiliation' ECIA Business Growth, Inc. . 5. Subject to approval from the three contract entities to enter contracts with the RTA and the RTA's ability to negotiate a mutually agreeable rate ofMR Waiver reimbursement for the services with the Dubuque County Supervisors. 6. Our target date for transition of the three contracts from Keyline to the RT A for management is January 1, 2007 assuming there are no obstacles with negotiating contracts, hiring drivers, and purchasing equipment. Should we run into any obstacles or difficulties, the latest transition date would be July 1, 2007. Please notify me after you have had time to review our proposal with the City Council and their response to our contract transition proposal. Please feel free to call Mark Munson should you have any questions in this regard. Thank you. Respectfully submitted, JO~~lef ()) ~ RT A Board Chair Cc: Kelley Deutmeyer, Executive Director Lisa Weinhold, Finance Director Dave Heiar Jon Rodocker