Minutes
NORTH COAST
RAILROAD AUTHORITY (NCRA)
BOARD OF DIRECTORS REGULAR MEETING
Wednesday,
December 17th, 2003 10:00 AM
Healdsburg City
Council Chambers
401 Grove
Street, Healdsburg, California
A.
CALL TO ORDER
Chair Woolley called the meeting to order at 10:03 am.
B.
ROLL CALL
The roll was called with the following members present: Directors
Burton, Hemphill, Ripple, Sears, Simonson, Campbell and Chair Woolley. Also
present were Executive Director Mitch Stogner, General Counsel Chris 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 (7-0) Consent
Calendar Item 2 was accepted as presented.
ACTION – Upon motion by Director Campbell, 2nd by Director
Simonson, and carried (7-0) Consent Calendar Item 1 was accepted with the
following change: Under Property Committee Report change the wording to reflect
that it was suggested that the City of Ukiah present the Committee with how
they might best develop the site under consideration.
ACTION – Upon motion by Director Campbell, 2nd by Director
Sears, and carried (7-0) Consent Calendar Item 3 was approved.
D.
AGENDA APPROVAL
Mr. Neary requested
that an item be added to closed session, potential litigation.
ACTION – Upon motion by
Director Ripple, 2nd by Director Simonson, and carried (7-0) the
agenda was approved with the addition of an additional closed session item.
E. PUBLIC COMMENT
Mike Pechner – On behalf of Mr. James Quinn, Mr Pechner asked if the NCRA was
pursuing funding through Congressman Thompson’s office, Senator Feinstein’s and
Senator Boxer’s offices as well. Mr. Stogner stated that he had been in contact
with all three of the offices.
Mr. Pechner stated that in light of the upcoming FEMA Alternate Project
and the anticipated opening on the south end, it might be appropriate for the
NCRA to promote passenger service in addition to freight service. He further
stated that not only would it be an added revenue source, but that when the FRA
shut down the railroad in 1997, there were 10,000 reservations in hand. In
addition, Mr. Pechner stated that freight service will initially have a
negative cash flow, while passenger service would have a positive cash flow
from the start of operations.
Mr Pechner stated that the NCRA Agenda’s are “lackluster” and that
perhaps this is why the NCRA does not get more press coverage. Chair Woolley
responded that many issues with the NCRA are currently in negotiation and that
there are more things to come on future agenda’s.
Mr. Pechner urged the board to write a letter of support to the new
owners of the California Western Railroad.
(Due to scheduling matters, Items F and G [closed session] were placed
behind Item K [staff reports] on the agenda.)
H. CONDUCT OF BUSINESS
1.
Approve Board Meeting Schedule for 2004
ACTION
– Upon motion by Director Burton, 2nd by Director Sears, and
carried (7-0) the 2004 NCRA Board Meeting Schedule was approved as presented.
I. SMART II MOU
UPDATE – Chris Neary
By way of
background information, Mr. Neary stated that the NCRA is a member of the
NWPRA, which anticipates that it will dissolve and transfer the corridor to
SMART. The negotiations are currently
underway but after the last dissolution meeting between the parties, of which
some NCRA members were present and a consensus was reached, some additional
issues for negotiation came up. One item is the issue of future damages,
specifically future liabilities and the other item was the negotiation of
pending invoices issued to the NCRA from NWPRA.
Mr. Neary is
confident that these issues will be resolved by the next board meeting.
1. Finance – Dir. Burton - none
2. Property – Dir. Simonson - none
3. Passenger – Dir. Hemphill - none
K. STAFF REPORT
1.
Executive Director Mitch Stogner
A) FEMA Alternate Project
Update
Mr. Stogner
stated that the public comment period for the Generic Environmental Assessment
was extended by FEMA from December 5th to December 22nd
to accommodate the Attorney General’s desire to provide comments on behalf of
the Consent Decree agencies. Mr Stogner reported that Caltrans also said that
they might provide comments to address their concerns that ISTEA funds may be
used on the south end of the railroad. Mr. Stogner had a lengthy discussion
with Caltrans District 1 representatives and explained that the reopening of
the south end does not contemplate ISTEA funds, only FEMA funds.
Mr. Stogner stated that all the comments received to date have been positive and he thanked Kaye Strickland from Humboldt County, Hannah Burkhardt from Mendocino County and Mike Pechner from Sonoma County for their contributions to the comments.
B) Caltrans Workshop
Mr. Stogner reported that in November there was a consensus of the board to schedule a workshop with Caltrans, NCRA, legislative staff, the Cogs, and various other interested parties, for the purpose of discussing funding issues. In order for the NCRA to access designated federal and state funding resources, several conditions must first be met. After consulting with Chair Woolley and Caltrans District 1, and CTC staff it was determined that a workshop should be scheduled for January in Humboldt County.
There was a
brief discussion regarding the logistics of the workshop and which members
needed to attend. There was a consensus to appoint Chair Woolley to work with
staff to come up with a format for the meeting. Chair Woolley suggested that
each of the three counties be represented at the workshop.
C) Environmental Consent
Decree Update
Mr. Stogner
gave a brief background on the history of the Consent Decree. He then reported
that Task Order #4 of the decree is nearing the deadline but there is not
enough construction money left to clean the 9 sites. The NCRA has requested to
the Attorney General’s office that four of the 9 sites; Eureka, Island Mountain,
Willits rail yard and Alder Point, be cleaned up with the remaining monies.
There is a conference call scheduled on December 22nd with the
Attorney General’s representatives, Caltrans District 1 and NCRA staff to come
up with a satisfactory compromise. If no compromise can be met, the issue will
have to go before the CTC and there are some scheduling restraints that would
delay the clean-up schedule.
Mort August
of Willdan provided a status report on Task Order #4.
Mr. Neary
pointed out that the NCRA only has a surface easement at the Willits rail yard.
The Environmental Consent Decree project is related to cleaning up the surface;
barrels, oils in containers in various places throughout the yard, etc. Once
that occurs, the NCRA’s responsibility for environmental clean up, under the
consent decree, will be complete.
Mr. Campbell
inquired as to why the NCRA would have to go back to the CTC to modify the
scope of work laid out in the consent decree.
Mr. Stogner explained that under TCRP allocations, any modifications, in
a substantive way, to the scope of work require CTC approval. Mr. Campbell then
asked why the NCRA would change the scope? Mr. Neary stated that Caltrans has
suggested that perhaps this is a change in the scope, not the CTC, and that it
is not a change in scope at all, but a rephasing.
2. Legal Counsel Christopher Neary
A)
Mr. Neary reported that at the October board meeting
in Fortuna, the reassignment of the prime contract for on-call engineering was
approved. After the meeting, Caltrans District 1 communicated to the NCRA that
they were not satisfied with the process involved with the reassignment and
that this may eventually become an audit issue. Mr. Neary then stated that at
the next meeting there would be a strategy presented to the board for dealing
with this issue, perhaps a Declaratory Relief Decree.
He stated his
frustration with the fact that since the reassignment issue was before the
board, two meetings went by with no comments from District 1. Mr. Hemphill
stated that it was more than two months, that this came before the board in
June and that a District 1 staff person was at every meeting since then. Mr.
Neary reported that he recently met with the previous Executive Director, Doug
Christy, and they went over the informal suggestions provided to him by
District 1 staff on the issue. Mr. Neary is confident that the NCRA followed
their informal advice.
B) Mr. Neary reported that next month the
board will have two items before them for consideration: a
quitclaim deed with Arcata
Recycling and Title transfer from NWPRA to SMART.
Chair Woolley
went off the agenda and presented outgoing board member, Budge Campbell, with a
plaque in recognition of his service and dedication to the NCRA.
The
board adjourned to closed session at 11:20
F. CLOSED SESSION
1. Conference with
Legal Counsel – Anticipated Litigation
Anticipated litigation pursuant to Government
Code Section 54956.9 (b) (one case)
2.
Conference with Real Property Negotiator
Property Location: Ukiah Depot Parcel,
adjacent to south side of Gibson Creek
Negotiating Parties: City of Ukiah and NCRA
Under negotiation: Price and Terms, pursuant
to Government Code Section 54956.9
3.
Conference with Legal Counsel – Potential
Litigation
Potential litigation
pursuant to Government Code Section 54596.9 (one case)
The board reconvened into open session at 12:45 pm
G. ANNOUNCEMENT
OUT OF CLOSED SESSION
ACTION – With a
vote of 6-1, the Board
directed Legal Counsel to extend the Standstill Agreement to February 29th,
2003.
L. MATTERS FROM THE
BOARD
Director Burton
announced that there are three remaining bidders for the California Western
Railroad and
that
all three were capable of running the railroad successfully.
Chair Woolley
announced that the next regular board meeting is scheduled for January 21st
in Willits at
the
City Council Chambers, 111 East Commercial Street, at 10:00 am.