NORTH COAST RAILROAD AUTHORITY (NCRA)
BOARD OF DIRECTORS REGULAR
MEETING
Wednesday, October 15th, 2003 10:00 AM
Fortuna City Council Chambers
A.
CALL TO ORDER
Chair John Woolley called
the meeting to order at 10:05 am
B.
ROLL CALL
Roll was called with the following members
present; Burton, Hemphill, Ripple, Sears, Simonson, and Chair Woolley. Members
absent; Campbell. Also present were executive director Mitch Stogner, legal
counsel Christopher Neary, and recording secretary Dina Polkinghorne.
C.
CONSENT CALENDAR
1.
Approval
of Minutes - 06/04/2003 Finance Committee Meeting
2.
Approval
of Minutes – 07/23/2003 Executive Committee Meeting
3.
Acceptance
of Financial Reports
ACTION: Upon motion by Director Sears, 2nd by
Director Ripple, and carried (6-0) the Consent Calendar was approved as
presented.
D.
AGENDA APPROVAL
E. PUBLIC COMMENT
Kaye Strickland:
Commended Director
Sears for all his efforts in Humboldt County on behalf of the NCRA and his
support of balanced transportation in the region. She stated that she recently
attended a Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting in which Assemblywoman
Patty Berg attended. Berg reported at that meeting that she asked to be on the
Assembly Transportation Committee and that transportation and the railroad are
high on her agenda. Ms. Strickland also stated that she had heard that the new
Governor (Schwarzenegger) has put highway, infrastructure, and railroads high
on his list of priorities.
Fred Carmichael: Reiterated what Ms Strickland said regarding the new Governor.
F. NWPRA REPORT
(Director Hemphill)
Director Hemphill briefly went over the history of
the NWPRA and stated that it was set up as a temporary agency with a mandate to
dissolve in 2003 with railroad properties and operating rights south of
Healdsburg being transferred to SMART. He further stated that the NCRA is one
of three agencies which make up the NWPRA and that dissolution negotiations are
now underway between the three parties with Chris Neary representing the NCRA. Director Hemphill further stated that part
of the negotiations include the forgiveness of the NCRA debt on the “Haystack
Landing” loan, forgiveness of various current obligations of the NCRA, and
significant expansion of the NCRA’s ability to run excursion trains south of
Healdsburg. They in turn are asking the NCRA for transfer of the Healdsburg
Depot site to SMART. Director Hemphill also reported that at the staff level
the negotiations came to an impasse so he and Director Ripple met with Sonoma
County Supervisor, Tim Smith (Chair of the SMART board of Directors) in which
the position of the NCRA was reiterated. Director Hemphill felt it was a
positive meeting and is confident in the outcome of the negotiations for the
NCRA. The next NWPRA dissolution meeting is scheduled for October 20th,
2003.
G.
CONDUCT OF BUSINESS
1. Award
of Single Year Audit Services
Executive Director Mitch Stogner stated that the
NCRA received three bids for auditing services and based on a point system, he
recommends awarding audit services to the accounting firm of Aycock and Edgmon.
ACTION - Upon motion by Director Simonson, 2nd
by Director Ripple, and carried (6-0) the board awarded the Single Year Audit
duties to the accounting firm of Aycock and Edgmon.
2.
Adoption of Final Budget for fiscal year
2003-2004
Mr. Stogner stated that Director Simonson led a
budget workshop on October 8th, 2003 and it was attended by staff,
Theda Hawkinson and Stephanie Coleman of Caltrans District 1 office, and Eric
Roeser of the Sonoma County Auditor’s Office. He further stated that it was a
very helpful session in which the proposed budget was defined and recommended
that the board approve this document as the final NCRA budget for the fiscal
year 2003-2004. Director Simonson stated that the contributions of Caltrans
District 1 staff and Sonoma County staff were very helpful. Chair Woolley
thanked staff for all the work that went into creating this budget.
ACTION – Upon motion by Director Simonson, 2nd
by Director Sears, and carried (6-0) the board adopted the Final Budget for the
fiscal year 2003-2004 as presented.
3.
Approval of Reassignment of Prime Consultant
Mitch Stogner updated the board on the reassignment
of the prime consultant. He stated that he had received a revised amendment of
the Willdan contract from Mort August of Willdan in which the prime consultant
is named as HNTB. Legal counsel Chris Neary stated that in the revised version
under sub section I, 21A, the words “active negligence” were replaced with
“passive negligence”. He recommended that the board change the language
back to read “active negligence”. Mort
August of Willdan stated that HNTB legal counsel created the document and that
it was his opinion that this change was not monumental and that the word
“active” could be put back without raising a concern by the parties involved.
Director Sears stated that he was disappointed with
the consultants for taking 5-6 months to accomplish this change in the prime
role. He also stated that he felt the change in the language from “active” to
“passive” created by HNTB at the last moment in the revised document was
inappropriate.
Director Ripple stated that he agreed with Director
Sears but suggested that the board defer to Mr. Neary’s recommendation. Mr.
Neary stated that the change is a minor one but one that needs to be
acknowledged and addressed. He said it’s a technical issue that he will resolve
with HNTB Counsel.
Director Burton asked for someone to go over the
history of this issue since he had been off the board for several months, which
Mr. Neary did. He then inquired as to which firm hired the previous NCRA Executive Director, Max
Bridges, upon his departure from the NCRA.. Mr. Neary responded that Mr.
Bridges went to work for Willdan.
ACTION – Upon motion by Director Hemphill, 2nd
by Director Simonson, and carried (6-0) the board approved the Reassignment
of the Prime Role document with the following changes; remove the word “passive” and
replace with the word “active”.
4.
State/Local Agency Contribution Agreement
Mr. Stogner stated that in
July of 2002 Caltrans did some storm damage repair work on highway 162 in
Mendocino County that required the removal of a section of NCRA track. They
have since informed the NCRA that they will advance approximately $75,350 to
the NCRA to repair the track damage. He also stated that this is unencumbered
money, but it is understood that when the NCRA schedules the repair work
it cannot apply for state
reimbursement.
Director Ripple inquired
whether or not the NCRA could apply federal dollars to pay for the damage. Mr.
Stogner stated that it was his understanding that this agreement only applies
to state monies and that yes the NCRA could apply federal monies to the
project.
Theda Hawkinson of Caltrans
District 1 office stated that the intent of the state entering into this
agreement with the NCRA was that the NCRA should be paid for damage caused by
Caltrans since it is the goal of the NCRA to repair the entire line. She
further stated that at this time NCRA can use those funds through the Cooperative
Agreement as they wish with the expectation that NCRA will fix that part of the
track with their own funds, assuming these state funds are not used to make
track repairs.
ACTION – Upon motion by
Director Ripple, 2nd by Director Sears, and carried (6-0) the board
approved the Contribution Agreement between the NCRA and the State of
California as submitted.
H. COMMITTEE
REPORTS
1. Finance Committee Report
No report
2.
Property
Committee Report
Director Simonson reported
that there is a property committee meeting scheduled for next month on the 19th
of November. Director Sears requested that the date be changed to which
Director Simonson stated that he will look into it with staff.
3.
Passenger
Committee Report
Director Hemphill reported
that the Orient Express has defaulted on their agreement to follow through with
their purchase of passenger cars and that legal counsel is looking into an
appropriate course of action. He also reported that he has worked with staff to
hire someone to secure the cars in the Willits yard, which has in fact taken
place and the cars are well secured. There has also been further damage on the
daylight cars and that is being taken care of as well.
4.
NWPRA
Ad Hoc Committee Report
No Report
5.
Operator
Ad Hoc Committee
Director Ripple reported that
there is a meeting scheduled for October 30th, 2003 with the Ad Hoc
Operator Committee and John Darling of Northwestern Pacific to discuss
budgetary issues and the NWPY business plan.
By consensus of the board, the agenda was changed to move item I, “Closed Session” and J, “Announcement Out Of Closed Session” to the end of the agenda.
K. STAFF REPORTS
1.) Executive Director Mitch Stogner
1.a) FEMA/OES Alternate Project Update
Mitch Stogner stated that the FEMA OES Grant is under
internal review with FEMA, OES, and Caltrans staff for a few more days and that
there will be a 14-day public review period immediately following the internal
review. Assuming that there are no environmental consequences brought up in
either review, and FEMA/OES does not anticipate that there will be, then they
will obligate the funds after getting approval from FEMA DC. NCRA will then do a detailed scope of work
and seek categorical exclusions under NEPA to acquire equipment and begin track
rehabilitation. By the end of November Mr. Stogner stated that the NCRA should
receive between 7.5 and 8 million dollars to do the work between Lombard and
Willits.
1.b) CTC Presentation
Mr. Stogner went over a presentation on the opening
strategy plan for the south end of the line that he anticipated presenting to
the CTC in December. Originally that meeting was scheduled for October 30th,
but had since been postponed by the CTC due to the heavy agenda before the
commission. After reviewing the presentation Chair Woolley directed Mr. Stogner
to make sure that all parties involved knew that this was a draft presentation,
to which Mr. Stogner assured him that that this would be made clear. Chair
Woolley also stated that with the postponement of the meeting more time would
be provided to fine tune the presentation and the business plan.
Because the NCRA will have an operational track for
the first time in several years, Director Hemphill stated that he felt it was
of the utmost importance that NCRA launch some sort of publicity campaign to
ensure that the public is aware of this. He also stated that this will also
make prospective shippers and receivers aware of the transportation opportunity
available to them on the rail.
Theda Hawkinson of Caltrans inquired if the business
plan laid out in the presentation had a baseline starting with the feasibility
study done last year and if so, to make sure that the public is aware of that.
Chair Woolley stated that the feasibility study was done on the whole line and
Mr. Neary added that the log and sand opportunities listed in the presentation
came up after the feasibility study was done. Ms. Hawkinson recommended that
those points be mentioned in the presentation. She also suggested that any
figures, for example an increase in carloads, that differ from the feasibility
study be mentioned in the methodology used.
Director Hemphill suggested that input from the
private operator in partnership with the Operator Committee, be included in the
annual budgetary process of the NCRA. in putting together any long range plans.
Chair Woolley and Theda Hawkinson were in agreement.
Chair Woolley complimented Mr. Stogner for putting
together this presentation without the benefit of extensive railroad operations
experience and additionally stated that he hoped the board felt as satisfied as
he did in the ongoing efforts of the Operator Committee in working on these
issues.
2.) Legal Counsel Chris Neary
No Report
L.1. Removal From Table - Discussion Regarding the
Formulation of NCRA Executive Committee - Robert Simonson
Director Simonson stated that there are many ways
that an Executive Committee could be of great assistance to the Executive
Director and that his desire to have an Executive Committee does not in any way
reflect a lack of faith in the new Executive Director. Mr. Neary stated that with three members
this would be a standing committee, and would require that meetings be posted.
Director Sears stated that he did not see a reason
for having an Executive Committee. Director Simonson stated that he thought
there were several reasons to have an Executive Committee, one of which would
be to handle matters if and when the Executive Director goes on vacation. In
addition, an Executive Committee could be beneficial to the new Executive
Director as a resource for advice on particular issues.
Director Sears felt that the Executive Director
could reach out for assistance at any time to the board without having an
Executive Committee. Director Hemphill stated that perhaps an Executive
Committee could assume some of the responsibilities of the other committees so
that the members aren’t spread too thin. Director Burton stated that he would
be more comfortable if the Executive Director brought any issues that he needed
advice on before the full board.
Chair Woolley stated that with the FEMA Alternative
Project on the horizon the Executive Director will be busier than ever and the
Executive Committee could be a valuable resource to him. In addition he felt
that in compliance with the Brown Act, an Executive Committee could act in an
advisory role and meet via telephone. Mr. Stogner felt that an Executive
Committee would be a helpful tool to give guidance if that is the will of the
board. Director Sears stated the he is opposed to the idea, but that if it were
to be created it should be comprised of the top three officers.
ACTION – Upon motion by Director Simonson, 2nd
by Director Hemphill, and carried (4-2) the board directed staff to define the
duties and geographical membership of an Executive Committee.
Ayes - Simonson, Hemphill, Ripple, and Woolley
Nays – Sears and Burton
L.2) Headwaters Grant – Leo
Sears
Director Sears informed the board that on behalf of the
NCRA he recently applied for a Headwaters Fund Grant in the amount of $40,000
specifically for legal assistance in getting T-21 funds released. He then
stated that he met with local community organizations to seek matching funds
support including the Trade Council and the Labor Council. In addition, he
stated that he is on the agenda of the next Harbor Commission meeting.
There was a discussion regarding the release of the
TCRP funds in which Mr. Stogner explained that these funds are locked into the state
constitution and specifically list the NCRA along with other recipients. To
continue to freeze the funds, the legislature would have to annually suspend
them with a two-thirds majority vote and the Governor would have to declare a
fiscal emergency.
Chair Woolley added that he and Mr. Stogner recently
met with Senator Wes Chesbro who is still very supportive of the railroad and
the NCRA.
Adjourned
to closed session at 11:46 am
Reconvened at 1:25
1. Conference with Legal
Counsel – Potential Litigation
Pursuant to
Government Code Section 54596.9 (two cases)
J. ANNOUNCEMENT
OUT OF CLOSED SESSION
The
board provided legal counsel with direction and received information.
Ukiah Valley Conference
Center, Chenin Blanc Room
200 South
School Street
Ukiah,
Mendocino County, CA