Yesterday, the Metro Policy Advisory Council (PAC) held its second committee meeting at Metro. Metro has been responsive in creating a space that the Policy Advisory Council could fully engage and bring their best ideas forth.
Upon entering the room, there were many tools for the day. From large color coded spreadsheets with individual responses on the Measure M Guidelines to grouped discussion on 5 issue areas, the meeting was off to a great start. These monthly meetings are open to the public and we highly encourage partners to consider attending.Meeting materials for your reference:
Meeting materials for your reference:
- Agenda
- Survey Results
- April 5, 2017 Meeting Minutes
- Measure M Guidelines – further development for certain components
With an encouraging introduction by Therese McMillan, the remainder of the meeting was self-led, with the agenda being set and led by committee members. The agenda for the two hour meeting was to unpack comments and concerns on the draft Measure M guidelines. In the weeks since the first PAC meeting in April, the committee members were provided a survey to fill out their key issues (over 86 responses were logged on this survey!). The PAC committee then held a conference call at the end of April to begin to distill these responses into potential discussion groups for this weeks meeting.
With this task before the group, thanks to Roderick Diaz from Metrolink, the comprehensive survey of issue areas had been distilled into key areas to allow this committee to dive in pretty quickly into breakout groups for discussion. With a nod to the data driven mindset many in the room shared, members of the PAC self-selected to discuss the issues in depth by small group.
Issues were grouped by the following areas:
- 3% Local Contribution for Transit
- ADA/Paratransit, Transit for Elder Adults and Students, Discounts
- Local Return: Local Return Floor, Other Allocation and Eligibility Issues
- Shovel-Readiness/Project Readiness, Program Eligibility
- Multi-Year Subregional Programs, COG/Metro Roles/Responsibilities, Fund Administration
As an intentionally diverse set of perspectives, the small groups found themselves on different sides of the issues. In regards to the 2% allocation to ADA/Paratransit and older adults and students, insight from Stephanie Ramirez with AARP shared a member’s story of challenging simply being able to easily and with dignity get to lunch with friends. Many older adults – unclear on where resources on how to use Metro, reduced fare options, understanding resources like Access services and more.
Nonetheless, many of the groups were able to report back different items for consensus. Some of the key issues include:
- No support for the Local Return Floor proposal
- Create clear roles and responsibilities for Metro and Council of Governments – esp within the Multiyear subregional Programs
- Addressing Mobility Matrices questions/concerns: can projects be added, how would projects be removed, and more.
Next steps will be for the PAC interim officers to summarize discussions and the range of concerns that emerging around Measure M Draft guidelines and present them to the Metro Board at committee meetings later this month.
Therese wrapped up the meeting saying this new approach is valuable. And needed. We could not agree more and are excited for the next steps. For me – one of the things at this meeting that inspired me – was when William Osgood representing the Los Angeles Small Business Owners remarked that Measure M was not just a transportation measure, but one that addressed a “whole way of life”.
As a reminder, written commentary is due to ThePlan@Metro.Net by Friday, May 26th.
Helpful Background:
Why was the PAC created?
The PAC was created to help implement Measure M — the transportation measure passed by LA County voters in November 2016 — and to help inform the creation of the Long Range Transportation Plan. It brings together 27 committee members (click here to see the list of committee members) spread across 3 groups of stakeholders (Jurisdictions/Council of Governments, Providers, and Consumers) to work together and provide recommendations to Metro staff and the Metro Board of Directors on policy. All committee members have an alternate, making this an impressive and diverse group of leaders.
When is this next meeting? Can I go? How do I sign up for information?
The Metro Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) meets monthly and all meetings are open to the public. The next meeting will be held Tuesday June 6th from 10am – Noon. To sign up to receive meeting notifications and materials please email Metro staffer Vivian Rescalvo.