MINUTES
NORTH COAST RAILROAD AUTHORITY (NCRA)
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
REGULAR MEETING
Wednesday, November 19th, 2003 10:00 AM
Ukiah Valley Conference Center, Chenin Blanc
Room
200 S. School St. Ukiah, CA, Mendocino County
A.
CALL TO ORDER
Vice Chair Sears called the meeting to order at 10:00 am.
B.
ROLL CALL
Roll was called with the following members present: Burton, Campbell, Ripple, Simonson, and Vice Chair Sears. Members absent: Hemphill and Woolley. Also present were Executive Director Mitch Stogner, Legal Counsel Christopher Neary, and Office Manager Dina Polkinghorne.
C.
CONSENT CALENDAR
1.
Approval
of Minutes - 09/17/2003 Regular Board Meeting
2.
Approval
of Minutes – 10/15/2003 Regular Board Meeting
3.
Acceptance
of Financial Reports
4.
Project
Budget Approval
Director
Campbell requested that item C.4 be removed for discussion.
ACTION: Upon motion by Director Burton, 2nd by
Director Ripple, and carried (5-0) items C.1 through C.3 were accepted as
presented.
C.4 Director
Campbell asked that the word “final” be added to the item so that it reads
“Final Project Budget Approval”.
ACTION: Upon motion by Dir. Campbell, 2nd by Dir.
Ripple, and carried (5-0) item C.4 under consent was approved with the addition
of the word “final” so that the items reads “Final Project Budget Approval”.
D.
AGENDA APPROVAL
Mr. Neary
requested to add another item to the agenda under closed session. The item is
in regards to Cal Western Vs NCRA.
ACTION: Upon motion by Dir. Burton,
2nd by Dir. Campbell, and carried (5-0) the board approved the
Agenda with the addition of “Cal Western vs NCRA” under closed session.
E. PUBLIC COMMENT
Hannah Burkhart – Ms. Burkhart urged the board to get involved with the Cal Western
bankruptcy proceedings. She also inquired as to whether or not the North Coast
Railroad Historical Society (NCRHS), of which she is an officer, should make
comments available to the judge overseeing the proceedings. Director Burton
stated that he has attended these hearings and urged the NCRHS to make comments
before the next meeting scheduled for November 24th, 2003. Mr. Neary
stated that it may be best to submit any comments to the cities involved.
Chris Burkhart – Mr. Burkhart stated his dissatisfaction with the NCRA in terms of
their handling of the Cal Western line.
Director Hemphill arrived at
10:20 am
F. NWPRA REPORT
(Director Hemphill)
Director Hemphill reported that there have been two
meetings regarding the NWPRA dissolution since the last NCRA board meeting.
Under negotiation is the relief of the debt NCRA owes the NWPRA. He also stated
that good progress has been made in these meetings.
G.
CONDUCT OF BUSINESS
1. Executive Committee Duties
Vice Chair Sears set this item aside until after Chair Woolley’s
arrival.
H. COMMITTEE
REPORTS
1.
Finance Committee
No Report
2.
Property
Committee
Director Simonson
reported that at the Property Committee meeting on November 18th in
Ukiah,
a representative from the
City of Ukiah submitted a formal proposal to purchase an acre of railroad
property for the purposes of a municipal park, specifically for a skatepark. He
also reported that Mr. Tom Ashurst’s request to have his lease fee’s reduced
were denied and that
Alpha labs request to lease
railroad property was approved.
Director Campbell reported
that the committee directed the City of Ukiah to come up with a rough design
for the property as a whole in terms of how they would develop the site.
There was a general consensus
of the board to put the matter under closed session at the next board meeting.
3.
Passenger
Committee Report
No Report
Chair
Woolley arrived at 10:30 am
1.
Executive
Director Mitch Stogner
A.) FEMA/OES Grant Status
Mr. Stogner reported that FEMA/OES released the
Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) for internal review and comment on
October 15. Those asked to comment were
given a November 3 deadline. NCRA met
the deadline, submitting comments primarily designed to distinguish preliminary
environmental activities undertaken by SMART from the environmental clearance
sought by NCRA South of Willits.
NCRA legal counsel has determined that the PEA is
consistent with NCRA expectations and does not present any major issues of
concern. FEMA will also seek SMART’s internal comments on the PEA, which will
add at least 2 weeks to the internal review period.
Accordingly, the PEA will not be released for the
required 15-day public comment period until the week of November 24.
B) TCRP Update
Mr. Stogner summarized and updated the board with
the status of the primary program that defines the NCRA’s financial
relationship with the CTC.
The Traffic Congestion Relief Program (TCRP) was
enacted in July 2000 and derives funding from the sales tax on gas and diesel
and earmarks these funds for about 150 projects statewide. The balance of the TCRP funding – which
generates approximately $1.2 billion per year – is apportioned to the State
Transportation Improvement Program (STIP), the Public Transportation Account
(PTA) and local streets and roads.
Proposition 42 (TCRP) includes a provision that
allows the Governor, in times of economic emergency, to request suspension of
the program, which requires a 2/3 vote of the state legislature. A partial suspension of the TCRP was enacted
for fiscal year 03-04.About $300 million was approved for the program with the
remaining $800 million retained by the State General Fund. This $800 million must be repaid to the TCRP
by 08-09. The Governor and the
legislature will revisit the issue of PROP. 42 (TCRP) suspensions when fiscal
year 04-05 budget negotiations begin next year.
The statute that created the TCRP (AB 2928) and
Prop. 42, earmarked $60 million for the NCRA. and the CTC has allocated and the
NCRA has spent $18,796,000 of that $60,000,000
The balance available to the NCRA is $41,204,000 to
be used as follows:
$31,000,000
– For long-term stabilization projects
$4,900,000
- For Willits to Lombard
$2,954,000
– For environmental remediation
$1,750,000
– For local match to ISTEA
$600,000 – For Willits to
Arcata
$41,204,000
These monies are available to the NCRA “subject to
any direction the Commission deems appropriate.”
Mr. Stogner then reported that on October 2, he and
Chairman Woolley met in Sacramento with staff from Caltrans and the CTC to
discuss, among other things, the conditions NCRA must meet in order to access
the remaining $42 million earmarked for the NCRA. Caltrans Deputy Director Brian J. Smith sent a letter to Chairman
Woolley summarizing the discussions from the October 2 meeting and reiterating
the conditions in various CTC adopted Resolutions. These conditions include:
Resolution TAA-02-03, May 9,
2002…
“with the possible exception of funding for
environmental remediation projects, no additional TCRP shall be allocated to
the NCRA until such time that the NCRA demonstrates to the Commission that the
outstanding issues with their current common carrier rail operator have been
resolved…”
Resolution TAA-02-03
December 12, 2001…
“no additional TCRP funds shall be allocated…..until
such time as the NCRA demonstrates to the Commission how it will fund
administrative operations beyond June 30, 2003.”
In an October 23 letter from Cheryl Willis, Deputy
District Director, Planning the NCRA was advised that it must resolve
outstanding audit issues and address CTC conditions prior to the release of
ISTEA funds as well. Because of the need for NCRA to resolve the Caltrans/CTC
conditions in order to access some $41.2 million in TCRP funding and $8.9 million
in ISTEA funding already appropriated by the legislature and Congress
respectively, Mr. Stogner recommended that a workshop be arranged between NCRA,
Caltrans, CTC, and possibly the Sonoma County Auditor’s Office, to review each
of the outstanding conditions. The goal
would be to remove the conditions that have already been addressed, and to gain
greater specificity and understanding of what needs to be done to come into
total compliance with the funding constraints applied by Caltrans/CTC.
Chair Woolley stated that the NCRA, CTC and Caltrans
relationships need to be maintained and was in support of the workshop idea.
Theda Hawkinson of Caltrans District One office
stated the importance of understanding that NCRA recognize that some of these
issues are ten years old. She further stated that it would be beneficial for
everyone to get the history and background of these issues, especially with the
staff changes that have taken place recently. She suggested that with the
recent cutbacks in the state budget, she was doubtful that she and her
coworkers would be permitted to travel and suggested the meeting take place in
Humboldt County.
Loretta Ellard of MCOG said they would be available
to attend.
ACTION: Upon motion from Dir. Ripple, 2nd by Dir.
Hemphill, and carried (7-0) the board directed staff to schedule a workshop
with the appropriate parties. The objective would be to move towards the common
goal of releasing the NCRA capital funding mandated by the State legislature
and Congress
2.
Legal
Counsel Chris Neary
Mr. Neary reported that the standard agreement with
the on-call consultant has been finalized. The Project Manager is Jerry Cheek
and the Prime Consultant role is HNTB.
G. CONDUCT OF BUSINESS
1.
Executive
Committee Duties
There was a general consensus of the board to
table the matter.
Due to time constraints, Chair Woolley moved
item J and item K towards the end of the agenda.
Director Campbell announced
that he would not be seeking a second term.
Director Hemphill stated that he was invited to
attend an Interregional Planning Meeting in Mendocino County but was unable to
attend so Director Campbell attended in his place. Director Campbell reported
that affordable housing was the focus of the meeting and he felt it was a good
exchange of ideas. Director Hemphill further stated that the railroad is a key
component to transportation and housing, looking at the issue with a regional
approach. Director Burton stated that the City of Willits is doing the same
thing, addressing these issues as
mandated by the state.
Healdsburg, City Council Chambers
401 Grove
Street
Healdsburg,
Sonoma County, CA
Adjourned to closed session
at 11:20 am
J. CLOSED SESSION
1. Executive Director
Performance Review
2. Conference with Legal
Counsel – Potential Litigation
Pursuant to
Government Code Section 54596.9 (six cases)
Reconvened to open session at 2:45 pm
K. ANNOUNCEMENT
OUT OF CLOSED SESSION
Mr. Neary announced that the
board provided him direction and received information.
The meeting was adjourned at
2:47 pm