City Council - Regular Meeting

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Hello. Thank you for joining us this afternoon. The mayor is absent today, so I will be filling in for her. Um, we will the clerk please call us. Uh to order. Corus here. Hi Burton here. R here. Nash here. Ste here. Five present when absent. Okay. First up on the agenda uh we have our interim budget changes presented by Alicia. Welcome Alicia.

Uh good evening. Thank you, Madame President. Council members, I have 11 uh interim budget changes for your consideration this evening. Um the first item is from the fire department. They're requesting approval of a $127,000 revenue neutral budget appropriation to purchase a foam cannon and supporting equipment that'll allow firefighters to deploy foam uh more rapidly and efficient efficiently. The second item is from the IT department and this is a one-time um approval of uh to support two related efforts. One is uh relocating the city's core data systems from city hall um to a more reliable industry standard data center. And then the second component is replacing the city's aging uh phone system to a more modern cloud-based communication platform. And it's funded by two components. One is reallocating $35,000 from the department's major equipment budget within the capital fund. And then the second component is 994,000 from the capital fund um from the uh reserve that's designated for the city's technology roadmap. Um so this effort is just taking advantage of two like components. This phone system is being co really costly to maintain and it's being the support is being phased out. And then um the data center is moving to a secure um uh facility that has industry standard cooling systems and is at a off-site location that is um away from city hall west. The third item is also from uh the IT

department and this has no cost impact. It's using already appropriated dollars for the ERP system project but it's asking for um uh authority to FTE authority to hire a temporary um FTE a limited term duration FTE to backfill uh a data engineer. This is to maintain critical data systems and support ongoing data engineering work. Um, so again, no fiscal impact on that one. The fourth item is from the library. The library received a $15,000 grant. And so this is a revenue neutral appropriation request to allow them to spend that grant um uh from the Urban Libraries Council. and it'll enable them to create civic learning opportunities for young adults um within the community. The fifth item is from the parks department and this is related to the Echert Road underground path. Um so the request here is a $1.2 million appropriation request and it's doing a couple of things. Um there's $800,000 in open space and clean water levy resources. Um $400,000 in savings from a completed Fair View Park playground project. And then it's also requesting to appropriate some unappropriated interest earnings from the open space and clean water levy as well. Um so this is the Eert Road under pass that's in East Boise. um providing uh a direct connection between Alta Harris Park, the Dallas Harris Memorial Trail, and the Gula Harris Nature Preserve. And the timing timing wise, um appropriating it now will allow the city

to align the bridge reconstruction. The ACD is funding the bridge reconstruction project that's beginning in the fall. Um and then this project will um get started and and the underpass will um align with the work of the bridge reconstruction. The next uh item is also from parks. This is related to the Alta Harris Park project and parks requests approval of $184,000. It's a budget neutral request to transfer funds from uh the Heritage Fund um which is supported by donations. They've received um funding from the Southern Idaho Soccer League to support the second phase of improvements at the Alta Harris Park. Um and this includes three soccer fields, utilities, parking, sidewalks, um and the green belt within the park boundary. The seventh request is from Planning and Development Services. Um, and this is um a request we've had for the past couple years, and it's a one-time transfer of up to $155,000 um from the housing projects and special activities fund um to the housing and urban development or HUD funds and also um transfer to uh CDBG or the community development block grant fund um to allow Um, this is uh Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me. Because they're um at risk of hitting the administrative cap. So, the federal requirements are that we can only spend up to 10% of the federal funds on staff time or administrative costs. Um, and so we are transferring from the housing projects fund um for the interest that's been generated in that account uh to

this federal account to cover the indirect costs or the staff time there. And then moving on to public works, there is a technical request here to move funds $200,000 from the facility services and operations budget to the downtown library project um for FSO or facilities to um implement a buildingwide fire alarm upgrade. Um and this is in coordination with the renovation project at the downtown library. The ninth request is also from public works. This is related to the uh uh Bloomberg Philanthropies mayor's challenge grant. Uh the city received 1.2 million um to expand the geothermal system um associated with the lusk district project. Um this will implement new multifamily um affordable housing and extend the geothermal system there. Um and once it's completed, it'll become the first US city to use a direct geothermal system for multif family affordable housing. Um also assorted associated with this request is a 24-month limited term duration position to support project coordination and outreach. The 10th IBC is related to the geothermal fund. It's reallocating funds from uh already completed projects. So $114,000. two projects have been completed and the request is to take those reallocated funds or those completed project funds and move it to their urgent repairs budget just to be responsive in case um there are breaks in the system um to be able to be responsive there.

And then the last request also from public works is in the water renewal fund. It is a one-time $4 million budgetneutral reallocation allowing them to uh move funding from the West Boise water renewal facility project to the secondary capacity improvement project. There was a change in timeline. the equipment needs to be purchased and um this allows them to move up seven months in their schedule um by shifting funding um and proceeding with the secondary capacity improvement project. And that concludes the 11 IBC's for May. I'm happy to stand for any questions. I don't see any questions. Um, I'll just quickly there's so many good there's so much good work in here and I know with every IBC comes a ton of staff work. Um, it's really exciting some of these items that we're going to see move forward. Pathways and parks, uh, the geothermal work, library improvements. I mean, um, really exciting to see some of these move forward. Uh, but if no questions, um, I think we need a motion to move these forward. Madame Mayor, um I request that we move forward with the um the interim budget changes for May 12th, 2026.

Okay. I'm going to take that as a motion to approve a motion to approve the interim budget changes. Great. Do we have a second? Second.

Uh thank you. Any further discussion? Yeah, Madam Mayor, just really quick, um you already mentioned this uh once, but I think it's always worth kind of calling out um specifically any sort of philanthropic or grant funding that makes some of these projects possible. Um just because it represents, I think, one a lot of extra work from staff and creativity from staff. Um but then also community partners who are making really incredible projects possible that wouldn't be um possible otherwise. And we're seeing that at Alta Harris. And then we're seeing a huge one um with continued support from the Bloomberg Philanthropies and geothermal um over at the Capitol campus which could really be the first of its kind sort of project in the country um that we would be doing with affordable housing using geothermal to hopefully heat and maybe cool as well. So just want to thank all the um extra work that goes into these these uh projects with grants and philanthropic dollars um because it really does allow the city to do some cool things that we wouldn't be able to otherwise. Um so thanks for that work. Yeah, Madame Mayor, uh, just to make note of a couple other projects is, um, as we go into repairs as we are with the downtown library and we see a need where it's more cost-effective to make an upgrade now, um, on the fire alarm system, it's nice to see that we're going to go ahead and make those recommendations and change our timelines so that it's a more costefficient for the city taxpayers. And same with the public works water renewal fund. I mean, we have a a timeline that can be brought in to this year um, based off some lead time. So, it just makes sense to be uh costefficient with our money and to make these improvements um sooner rather than later if at all possible. So, I'm glad to see the work by the team to be able to bring these forward. Thank you.

Great. With that, um clerk, please call the role. Nash, yes. Dud, yes. Coralus, yes. Holly Burton, yes. Morales, yes. All in favor? Motion carries.

Thank you. Thanks so much, Alicia. Uh, moving on to a five-year consolidated plan for HUD, the um Department of Housing and Urban Development. We'll hear from Melinda. And Madame Mayor, just real quick before we get started, I'm going to have to head out of here. I'm serving on the Boisey School District's long-term facilities uh um planning task force. And so, I wanted to make sure that I was here for the budget. Um but I'm going to have to head out with a couple of other staff members. So, good luck for the rest of the meeting. Sorry I'm missing the presentations. I'll rewatch them a little bit later. But take care. Uh, thank you for that service, council member. Have a great night. Over to you, Melinda. Okay, maybe this is on now. There we go. Sorry about that. Uh, Madame Mayor, Boise City Council members, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here. Um, I'm going to talk to you a little bit about our consolidated plan. And this is all in preparation for coming back to a city council session at the beginning of June where we're going to provide a lot more detail. Um, but wanted to kind of set the stage for you and help make sure that everybody understands kind of the background behind this work that we've been doing. So, as you are well aware, we receive funding through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD. Um, this is really targeted at supporting our low and moderate income community members uh through a variety of ways. The funding budget is set by Congress and then our allocation is determined by a formula. So that shifts year-over-year. Um there are several requirements that we must complete in order to be eligible to continue receiving these funds. Um but first here's a quick overview of the types of things that we can do with the funds. Uh so this goes into public services supporting our nonprofits who are serving low to moderate income community members. It can go into public facilities and improvements. We can use it to acquire land and properties. We can use it for our home improvement and

preservation work. Um, and then we also use it for home ownership assistance. And then we can also fund new construction of affordable housing with this. Um, and then alongside each eligible activity, you must be serving an eligible community member. And so typically, broadly, those are folks who are at or below 80% of the area median income. And then there on your screen, you'll see we just got our updated numbers. So, as of June 1st, um these numbers will go into effect where a household of four, 100% of Boise's area median income would be a little over $110,000. And households at or below 80% of the area median income are earning um $88,550 or below. Um just a note, we saw those numbers go up about $2,000 over last year, um which is expected and also better than previous years between 24 and 25. that number went up by about $10,000. So just as a little context for where those numbers are. So in order to be eligible to continue receiving these funds from HUD, the city must have kind of these three different components. The first one is a citizen participation plan and that really outlines the ways in which our community members can interact um to help shape what goes into those plans and then also provide feedback on how we're spending the funds and then how uh we report out who's been served with the funds and the type of activities that we have done. So that's all part of our citizen participation plan that informs how we do the outreach for our 5-year consolidated plan. So the consolidated plan is looking big picture across our whole community. It's taking data combined with community input to identify the highest needs within our community and then we're using those needs to shape the goals that we're going to develop and therefore then the projects that will hopefully help us meet those goals. Um it's a really broad plan. It's trying to encompass

everything that we might do with our HUD funding over the next 5-year period. And then every single year we are required to complete an annual action plan. So in order to submit this consolidated plan, it also has the first year's annual action plan included in that. And the annual action plan is a lot more specific about the specific types of projects and activities that we're going to do each year with our annual allocation of HUD funding. So as I alluded to, this is kind of the process that we're working through. It's a lot of community input in a variety of ways and then it's also a lot of analysis of uh census data um American community survey data a couple other HUD data sets and then we can combine in local reports that we've had done as well. So things like our housing needs analysis um all of that is taken and then kind of synthesized to identify what the highest community needs are and then that shapes what our goals will be over the next five years. So this is our timeline. Um we've been working on this for quite a while when this started uh a year ago. We started with that data collection process and identifying kind of all the different ways that we were going to gather data and then starting to collect um all of the different points that we were going to look at and then also a lot of um input from our community partners in particular. So the organizations that are serving low and moderate income folks within our community and the other kind of agencies that we work alongside. Um, we had consultants brought on board to do one-on-one consultations with those folks. That way, we really could hear from them what they're seeing in the community, the needs that they're hearing, and then kind of their recommendations for things we should highlight in this plan as well. Um, over last fall was when we did all of our community outreach. So, that was surveys and focus groups um throughout the fall and then that all led into drafting the plan. Um, and then here this spring, we have begun our public comment periods. So there's uh that opportunity for

people to provide their input and then we also hosted one public hearing and then we will be holding that second public hearing here with you all at the beginning of June. So this is just a highle overview of the engagement that we had. We had over 1500 people respond to our community survey. We had two different surveys out there. One was specifically for residents of the community and then the other one was for our partner organizations. So we had over 30 partners respond to the survey. Um and then we also held a variety of focus groups for people to come and tell us what they specifically were seeing and hearing and experiencing. Um we also attended quite a few events to make sure that people were aware of the survey that they could take and these outreach opportunities. And then we did target very specifically certain populations. So folks experiencing homelessness and others to make sure that they also had an opportunity to provide input. Um, since these funds are really targeted at serving low to moderate income folks, we wanted to make sure that we were uh making as conscious of an effort as possible to hear from them and reach them where they were. So, out of the survey u both sets of surveys, you'll see the the bold ones here at the top are the populations that both our community partners and our community members shared that they thought were most important. So, people had the opportunity to rank a long list of different populations. So out of this, our top three populations that folks said we should focus on serving are people experiencing homelessness, people who are experiencing or were previously victims of domestic violence, and people who were at risk of eviction. Um, you'll also see on here children's and seniors, people with mental and physical health needs, and people with disabilities were also among those top categories. We also asked folks about which services in particular were most needed in our community. Again, the ones in bold are the ones that were an overlap between partner feedback and community feedback. So, looking at affordable child care, rental assistance for preventing eviction, also rental assistance to

rehouse people who are experiencing homelessness, and then affordable mental and physical health services. Um, and then those last two there, food banks, and also transportation for people. And then looking at the data, um I know I've been up here quite a few times now talking to you about how housing is still definitely a challenge in our community. And of course the feedback that we um received and the data points here just kind of further echo that. So I'm not going to read all of this to you, but as you can see, housing continues to be a challenge. It's still our highest need, and there's a lot of different reasons why housing is uh unattainable for a lot of folks in our community and definitely uh unaffordable for many. In our survey, we asked people specifically to respond to this question that said, "Housing affordability is the most pressing concern, a moderate concern, or not a concern." You'll see there 60% of the feedback said it is the most pressing concern for our community right now. Um, and then another 34% said it was a moderate concern for them. So, that's a really significant amount of our community that definitely is focused on housing. Um and then on the other side there you can see um does the cost of housing place a financial strain on your household? And again over half of the respondents are saying yes that housing really is a challenge for them to continue to maintain. And then just some feedback that we heard from the community here that really echoes that where folks are having a hard time maintaining their housing. They're having a hard time reaching a place where they feel comfortable uh retiring if they're at that point in their lives. Um, and then really looking at how challenging it is for folks who might have, you know, moved farther out and they might need to spend additional funding or money on transportation to get to and from their work. Um, and just having challenges accessing other services that they might need. And then especially the challenge of finding an affordable place to live.

This really was the piece that kind of summed it up uh for me a lot. It was kind of a theme echoed over and over throughout the feedback. Basically, things keep costing more, but I'm not earning any more money. So, the amount of my income that has to go to housing is increasing every year. So, again, that was kind of the feedback, the data side of it, and that is leading into these community needs that so far what are in our draft plan um rising to the top. So, of course, affordable housing and the need for us to continue to develop and preserve affordable housing and then those services. So there is a limited amount of money that we can put towards services with these funds. It's capped at 15%. Um and every year we spend that maximum that we can supporting our nonprofit organizations who are serving these community members. And then the other component there is looking at what public facility and infrastructure projects we can do in low to moderate income areas of our city. So again, you'll see that's kind of where these goals are coming from. basically those community needs that were identified and then these are those broad goals that we will keep in this plan over the next 5 years. Um and again there the public comment period is still open so we're still soliciting feedback from our community to make sure that these are the things that are resonating um and that make sense for us to be spending our time and focus on but based on the data and what we've heard so far these are kind of the main goals. So just briefly our next steps here again we'll be back in front of you on June 2nd with kind of a deeper dive into the consolidated plan some more of the data in that space and then more details about exactly how much funding we anticipate having over the next 5 years and how that funding will be kind of allocated between the different goals to help us reach those and the types of projects that we plan to pursue. Um, and then that will once we have that public hearing, that will kind of be the last opportunity for the community to provide further input on that plan. And we'll take the next month there to kind of incorporate any comments that we do

receive and to finalize the plan. And then we will bring that back to you in July to request uh approval of the plans before we can submit them to HUD. And then they must be submitted to HUD in August. And that will prepare us for our next program year, which starts at the beginning of the city's fiscal year in October. And that is all I have and I'm happy to stand for any questions you might have. Thank you. Any questions? Madame Mayor, Linda, thank you so much for breaking this down. It's very easy to digest and appreciate that. A couple quick questions. Uh really great job on the survey response from the public. I think over 1500. Um can you kind of tell us how you solicited that input? What mechanisms you used?

Yeah, Madame Mayor, uh Council Member Corass. So, we basically hit every option that we possibly could think of in order to get this out there. Um, it was shared on the city's website, on the city's Facebook page, through the Ino newsletter, and then we also reached out to all of our partner organizations and ask them to share it through their networks as well. Um, so I know it was posted in libraries, on bulletin boards, and community buildings. Um, we went around to a bunch of different affordable housing um, locations and had it put up on billboards in their spaces. Um, and then we worked very closely with a class from BSU and they did some additional outreach to go to different community events and share out kind of QR codes and opportunities for people to take the survey. Um, so really just everywhere that we could possibly imagine we might be able to reach folks, we tried to get the word out that way.

Yeah, it really paid off. Thank you. Um, if I understand the public comment period is still open. Yes. Do we know when that closes? May 19th. May 19th. Okay, great. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. The last thing I'll add is I know um preserving existing affordable housing is really an effective tool in combating the need for housing. Um and I know it doesn't always come with the doesn't ever come with the big like groundbreaking celebrations and ribbon cutting celebrations. Um but it's such an important tool and really appreciate all your work on this. Absolutely.

Thank you. Um okay, I think that's Yeah. Thank you, Melinda. I appreciate it. Uh, next up, we're going to hear from a former council member, Elaine Kle. Welcome home. Good to see you, Elaine. We're going to hear today from Valley Regional Transit um on what they have in store for us this year.

Well, thank you. It's It's always so fun to be back. um you get used to being in this room and miss it and used to seeing all of you guys and and miss that as well. Okay. Oh, thank you. Well, thanks for having me and um Stephen Hunt is also here. If you guys have questions, he may help uh answer those. He certainly helped put this together and um gathered all the data that you guys are looking at today. Hopefully you had enough time to uh look through everything so that um if you do have questions, you've got them prepared. So today talk about a little bit about recent accomplishments. Um dig into the performance this year. Um some of the challenges we've faced as well as some of the real victories. uh and then look ahead to 2027 then and finally go over the funding. So we um had a lot of capital projects this year um that were important ones that set the stage I think for some really bigger ones in the future. uh we had some operation and service changes and challenges that I think um really point to how we're trying to solve some of the things the problems that we see. And then um our outreach and communications team did a really great job this year. So, um, primary on the capital projects is the main street station. Um, adding, uh, the electrification chargers there. We now have four chargers. The buses can charge on route. Uh, we'll be officially open uh, in June, June 8th. Uh, we're still testing now. Some of you may have come to the ribbon cutting for the start of

the testing. Uh hopefully some of you have been down there and seen the ref refreshed finishes. We painted, redid the floor and really uh exciting new artwork where we used to have the history wall. We moved all of those historic panels into a grid uh a little bit further back and wrapped that wall just like you'd wrap a bus in what is a very energetic uh artwork. Alto together it um we've gotten all kinds of great compliments from riders about how nice it feels down there now and great compliments from our operation staff on how well finally the chargers are working. There were some challenges um at first with the way it was talking to the buses, but we've got that um figured out at this point and now we're just testing um through cycles to make sure everything's working correctly. We did three major bus stop improvements this year. One downtown, uh, one out on Capitol Boulevard, and one out on the bench near Town Square Mall. Uh, added shelters in two places, replaced a shelter in another. Uh, did a curb extension with near boarding on one of them and added lots of amenities. Uh the one out on Cole was um previously just a bare bench and now it has a shelter and a bench and trash. Uh the one on Capitol Boulevard right in front of the historic museum um lets people get across the bike lane out to the island and then load on the bus. And then uh at third in Maine uh there's the curb extension which really uh makes it safer for the bus to pull in lane, stop, pick up people, pull out, they don't have to pull off and then try to

pull back into traffic. So all of these are are real um advances for us. Um real time information pilots. Some of you may have seen those on Fair View or State Street where there's a um display uh in the shelter that tells you when the next bus or buses are coming. It's been a real um benefit to riders who may not have a cell phone in their pocket or for whatever other reason are um prohibited from doing trip planning without that. Um we've now chosen the major vendor and we'll be adding those to new bus stops in the future. We have 72 that we've completed um inventories on are slated for improvement. So over the next three or four years look for big batches of projects coming through on bus stop improvements and then we purchase the advertising benches. Um we used to allow someone else to lease them from us and then uh that company made the money on the advertising. By purchasing those we were able or actually they owned the benches. we allowed them to use the space. Um, by purchasing those, we now are making the money on the advertisings and we think over time that's going to add 150 to $200,000 a year to the bottom line. On operations, we had a have a new con um transit contract. So, uh, our operations are not directly run by us. They're what's called a management contract with MV Transportation. Uh we were really um excited and lucky to get two very experienced transit operators uh for our general manager and assistant general manager. They've already come up with a slew of new ideas to improve service uh to improve um

camaraderie with the operators at the base. We're having a bus rodeo for the first time in many years this this Sunday and the folks are really excited to show off their skills in um driving the buses. We're working to improve ontime performance. Our previous um operators had um consistently missed trips and we couldn't quite figure out h why and how. Uh and these guys figured it out in three weeks. um pretty much and it is that we had really lousy on-time performance on a couple of routes to the degree that some of those buses got so far behind schedule that they never were able to make up time. So, one of the things we're doing in June is uh we've already changed some of the scheduling and run more buses in June. We're also eliminating um some really low ridership runs, so ones that have less than one rider per full run uh in order to keep the the budget whole. And then finally, we're co-mingling paratransit and services for older adults. Um we have paratransit vehicles that aren't always busy. We have a service called beyond access that's always over busy. And by allowing some of those rides to get on the paratransit system, we were able to increase ridership with no extra cost and to ensure that folks um always had a seat available times when they didn't previously. Thank you for supporting uh Youth Ride Free for doing the youth roadmap. We're so excited to be a partner in that. Um thank the Blue Cross Foundation as well. We already have 800 kids signed up as of today and uh we're uh targeting a thousand kids uh by the end of the

summer. So to have 800 today is pretty exciting. Uh not this Saturday, but next Saturday we're doing a family bus day ever. So if you want to get out and see families ex uh using the bus system, next Saturday will be the day. We also want to thank you for the improved uh residential passes. We had been working with that on that already. We'd done the award-winning Let's Ride campaign. We'd been looking at ways to improve City Go, but with the partnership with the city of Boisee on the city-owned housing, um we were able we're now able to provide free bus rides to people who live in that housing. We've also been working with Neighbor Works on this. So far we have 500 people signed up, 150 of those already. We just barely opened it in the city facilities. So really exciting. We've been doing more supplemental services. This unlocks advertising re revenue but also wrership. Um people discover the bus this way. So game day bus, we've uh brought it back this year. We've been doing treeine for a long time. Uh we did hide park street fair again last year. We're very successful with it. This year we're trying the AC Boyisee games. Um, so far so good. So very excited about that. And then transit day at the Capitol. We um helped the Community Transit Association of Idaho um co-host and sponsor a day at the Capitol where we did educational events both for uh the legislators but also for community members. We had a good turnout this year. Uh last year was the first year. This was the second I think altogether we had about a hundred people this year. Uh we're shooting for even more next year and you know primary to that is the funding discussions that need to be had

so that we can understand how to respond to growth uh in in this valley uh with a system that right now is not funded in a way that can respond to that. So, we've had some ontime performance challenges. Um, you know, most of this is due to construction. Uh, that construction has taken key bus stops out of circulation. It's also made it very difficult for buses to get in and out of traffic when they do pick up people. And then overall, the construction has caused a tremendous amount of congestion. Um, so we know that and we're responding. Part of it is uh these additional runs that we've added to our uh prime routes on the um nine and the three and the seven. Uh other pieces that we're doing are uh looking at uh figuring out ways to reduce dwell times. Um but just know that over time there will be other things that we can do. Our first um first response to this is to add time to those low performing routes and then eliminate those select runs uh with less than one boarding per trip so that we can make sure that the pe the trips that people are riding on are reliable while uh we work on longer term things which I'll talk about in a minute. Writership is up and down. Um we expected that frankly with the changes that we made uh in 2024. We knew that whenever you significantly change routes it takes a while for people to discover the new one. So some of the ones where the wrership is way down uh are the routes that were significantly changed. You see two that are 100% minus and those are the two uh that were

eliminated during the service change. Uh overall we've picked up all but 2.2% of the riders that that uh would have ridden previously had those routes not not still existed not been eliminated. Uh go into this just a little bit deeper. We had good growth on um a handful of routes. The route 21 which goes from Riverglenn um junior high all the way to the mall has seen 40% growth. Uh the 20 and the 29 which serve the uh west bench and the south side of the bench um have seen tremendous growth in wrership. The route 17 to be fair uh losing the route one means that a lot of riders who used right the seven the one are now on the 17 together. we still not back to where we'd like to be. I think that's one of those future conversations about how to do this part of town better. Um the 42 and the 45 are the improvements we've made in inner county routes. Those are important to get people into Boisey to jobs particularly and they've seen tremendous increases in writership. We've seen declines as well and we'll talk about those in a little more depth here. So, um, the premium routes, we have those those three that run every 15 minutes most of the day and every half hour the rest of the day. They have extended hours. Uh, we picked up a lot of writership on the Fair View and the Vista. And although these percentages are lower, remember that these are are such high performing routes compared to the others that it takes a lot more riders to tick that percentage up. Um, State Street saw a little decline. We're um pretty convinced that that's due to the

construction. We've had key bus stops either uh at the YMCA or out by Pierce Park closed for most of the last year and um you know those those riders just disappear for a time while those bus stops are are closed. Vista had much of the same uh with the closures on uh Capitol Boulevard. It's already seeing an uptick uh now that most of that construction is done. Inner County routes have been very successful. The um peak hour um 45 uh has a 55% plus ridership because we made it more frequent. The 40 the 42 which goes all day and not just peak hour has a has had a tremendous uptick in ridership because people love that they know it's going to be there all day every hour. Once an hour is not very frequent. If that much service can bring 34% riders, we're really excited to think about what what better service could be. The 42s had real on-time performance issues because the freeway is uh backed up every single day. Um we don't do much on the freeway on the 45. It stays more on local roads, so it hasn't suffered quite as much. Um West Boise, we've already talked about that. The 30 minute all day service and the Saturday service on the 21 really helped. um extending the Main Street station on the Overland really really helped. Franklin um coming downtown replaced some of the writership on the old orchard. Um the Oh, we sorry I didn't know we we repeated the Franklin the Warm Springs

Park Center. I already talked about some of that writership um came from the old wine and we still aren't back up to where we could have been with both of them. Uh Ustic Maple Grove while we lost ridership on the Chinan route most of what we lost got picked up uh on this Eustic Maple Grove. So we found that the 8X the 8X was um less ridership than the 8 which was traveling around West Boise West Bench and we think this route actually serves that area better. So declining ridership Chinan um removal of service to five mile and that service moving over to those uh this is only a peak hour route. We're pretty confident it would be successful if it were all day long. Uh same with the um Hill Road one. Uh moving to peak hour really really impacted that. We did add uh with uh the money that we um added through some um work with the garden city last year. We did add another run later in the day on the 10. We think that's going to help. Um, city of Boisey helps subsidize service in Garden City. So, um, we we took that and added ridership to the hill road. The VA loop also lost an early morning trip. So, we know that a little more service on many of these uh could help these declines. The 20 Orchard is a little bit of a puzzle, but it's also one of those kind of new routes. Even though Orchard used to exist, it was just on the bench and went downtown. Now it goes all the way from Hillside Junior High to the airport. It connects all the frequent routes as well as uh Overland and frankly the new writers haven't haven't discovered it yet. So we'll be

doing some route reach is what we're calling it on on that. Um so looking ahead, we've got many more capital projects. Um, we're putting new fair boxes on the buses. Once this is complete, you'll be able to get on the bus and whatever is in your pocket will work for fair. Can be a phone, it can be a credit card, it can be money, whatever you've got, we'll take and we're very excited about that. With that will come a new app which we can integrate better with Lime and some of the other services that that will help us. Uh we got a grant for uh improvements at Town Square Mall. We're working on the design of that. Um I already talked about those other bus stop improvements. We're expanding the orchard facility maintenance yard and ultimately we'll have a small administration building out there for our staff and not just the contractors. We're about to break ground on some of the State Street projects on the raise grant. Although we did the 18th and State Street intersection, we did that with non-RAES monies. So the 23rd, 27th, and the um Bogart, Gary Lane, all of those will be with the raise grant. And then we're working hard with ACHD to complete the design of the whole corridor finally. And then um island improvements will be part of those bus stops. Thank you again for uh your support of these campaigns. We will work hard this year to make these successful. I look forward to having a really really strong report on both of these by next year. And then route is specifically looking at uh routes in um in by alone and not doing big outreach that touches everything but saying what on this route can we do to make that better. on the 20

for instance, there's a series of businesses along there that we think can help their customers understand that it ex exists. Hillside Junior High, um there's some other public facilities, DEEQ along it that we think we can outreach. just getting people to understand that you may have to make a transfer, but it actually is a quicker way to get to where you used to go than one bus ride. So, we'll we'll be doing those kinds of things. On on-time performance, there's a bunch of infrastructure that we can do that will make it better and it's going to be an ongoing project, but it'll be part of these bus stop pro um projects. signal timing and priority, Q jumps, inlane stops, near-level boarding, all of those help the bus run better. For passengers, real-time information we've found is really important. The improved fair collection and then the improved bike ped connections, not to mention the shelters and the shade and the trash and all those things making it a more um attractive, convenient weight. Uh we're controlling costs. Uh we have big inflation impacts. We're um thankfully not on diesel. We're on compressed natural gas. It hasn't seen as much of a jump. The electricity um right now is really saving us having half the fleet almost in on electric. Really, really important. Our new contractors are reducing overhead costs. Uh they've already found some parts and inventory management ideas uh that they're pretty sure will work. They're also reducing non-protect productive hours. We used to have to drive back out to the base to get a a driver to start a new route and now we're congregating those drivers at

Main Street Station beforehand and and off they go. Um so these are the kinds of efficiencies that we're we're working to expand on the co-mingling we think there's additional expansion on it and then we're also exploring lowerc cost service models especially on on demand uh services. So um you know stay tuned we think there might be a way to serve some of the edges of Boisee with some of that. So, we are asking you for a full 5% of your property tax revenue as theou um talks about. I'll show you in a minute um what we um how that works over time. Uh this year, as you can see, much of it is for service, but you are the jurisdiction that has by far the most service and the most writership. Your general assessment goes to planning um service operations inside the administrative part of it and all of our financial services as well as IT and communications. Um so really it's it's not much for all of that. Um your capital assessment this year is pretty low. We've had a lot of capital projects the last few years and um the special assessment um is going to goes to more of those specialty ones like the Town Square Mall. We'll talk about that in just a sec. So, we've we got a transit development operations plan adopted this year. Um it's a five-year plan. It shows all of those various categories and what we expect those to cost over the next five years. Then we worked with your staff and got the projections for what you expect in property tax at 5% and we overlaid them. And if you look at that, we um

a few years ago, some of you were here, some of you weren't. You may remember the city set aside $6 million for capital match. And that was for big projects primarily on State Street, at Main Street Station that we just finished, and at Town Square Mall. Uh over time, um there was actually a a promise of more money that was in that than was in that fund. And so we've worked with staff to figure out a strategy to make that up over the next two years um by keeping costs down over these next two years and putting that extra money into that fund. That gives us time over the next two years to plan for future uh growth and a little bit of money to deal with it if you guys have the appetite. So we're actually pretty excited about this plan and and hope that all of you are too. So, we just want to keep doing what we're doing, improve um the things that we can improve, deliver on these capital projects. Um, most importantly, I hope that um maybe I'm thinking this fall, typically there's a public meeting where you invite the public in to talk. We didn't do that this year and it might be that we talk about doing that later this summer or this fall and using that as a springboard for future planning. I think um I've heard a lot from members of your public that I think would be pretty excited about that. I kept almost on time. I guess I'm five minutes late. Sorry.

Thank you so much, Elaine. Uh any questions?

Yeah, Cor. Yeah, thank you Elaine for a good presentation and for being able to show where we have a good thing, good stories happening and other challenges ahead. Uh really excited for the free best passes for our teens this summer and um 800 already. That's fantastic. Um how are we going to track that this summer? So we have a really robust system. Um, even today, even before the new fairboxes, we use a um service called UMO and you download an app from UMO onto your phone and you get a code and that's how you ride. And because you have to show that code when you get on the bus, we're able to track every single ride that uses that code. Um, there's also going to be, I think, some cards for kids who don't have access to a phone, but it will have the same ability to track that ride through the fairbox.

Great. So, we'll be able to identify how many of our teens are riding and and where they're coming from, what stops, all of those. We'll have really detailed data. And you mentioned that this next weekend, is it um the 13th or excuse me, uh, the bus day ever? Best day ever. Or is that the 16th or the 23rd? The 23rd. The 23rd. Great. Um, and just so people can understand, what is considered a ride on the bus? So, when we're looking at these numbers, what's You get on a bus, you ride it to a destination, you get off. It's not the ride back. It's one ride. One ride. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Thank you. Um, let me scroll down here real quick.

I'll add while you're looking, Council Member, I'll also add, I had an update. We will have a public hearing for VRT on June 2nd. So we'll have the opportunity at that point to hear from Yeah, I knew you we'll be part of a public hearing. I understand that. I just thought it would be good to have a hearing in a atmosphere where we could ask, you know, ask people to dream and

Yeah, absolutely. I I'll add too I think that um that I love the youth bus passes. It's amazing that we've had um I mean you're what 80% to your goal and we're in the second week of May um for the summer. I think that's really great. You know, there's um what an opportunity to unlock for people if they can learn. I know I did learn to ride the bus as a child and venture out on my own as a teen and then and then you understand bus ridership moving into adulthood and the opportunities there. So, I think that's a great program. We we teach people how to drive. We even teach them how to ride a bike. We don't teach them how to ride a bus. That's great. Thank you. Back to you, Council Member Corless.

Yeah, thanks. I'm glad you brought that up, too, Lane, because I know in our teen town hall, we talked about even if if we had a bus that was sitting at a park and kids could just come on and just, you know, just walk on and have that experience of how to ride the bus. I think it could go a long way, too. Um, so we talked about on-time performance and where it's at today. What is the goal for on time performance? So, Stephen, I'm I'm going to ask you to back me up here because, you know, we we've set a goal um many years ago of I think 80%. All right. And then we increased it to 90% and we're nowhere near there overall. And um you know part of it is that we need to look at that goal and see where it's realistic and where it's not. But part of it is uh that we need to do these things I talked about with the inlane stops and the uh priority signals and the Q jumps and the things that make buses actually be able to stay on time. And then finally, I think with these added runs, um, we'll also be able not only to keep that that schedule reliable for people, but also make sure that, uh, we don't get so far behind that we actually miss a run.

Yeah. Because once you miss one, then you're on your on time performance goes way out the window.

Yeah. I could imagine um being you know someone who's riding the bus daily and if you're constantly behind you start maybe making some different choices there. Um I would you know just say for you know Vista is one of our best in class and completely understand with the construction on capital how difficult and challenging that must have been this uh last while and um I hope it's not one that's scheduled for adding more time and maybe looking at some Q jumps or adding more service since I know we have a lot of people uh that have used that and want to continue to use that as well. Yeah, that's one thing I would like to bring back this fall is is really digging into those bus stop improvements and those kinds of things and where we're proposing them.

Yeah, and really great job adding those schedules onto the bus stops too, wherever they're at. I think it's I think that information is just key and critical for people riding the bus. Uh and then the last is on the Orchard bus route. I know we're that one's kind of challenging right now and looking to do some outreach on that. Um can we take a look at sometimes just how that compares to where it was previously when it went downtown? I mean, I'm wondering if we have a route that maybe isn't as desirable and we're trying to stuff people in there instead of developing a route that could be maybe a little bit more useful for people to get directly into downtown.

Yeah. Well, remember that we had the six that a lot of people were used to using to come downtown. We now have the five and the four and the 29 now comes downtown. It didn't used to. and the 45 during peak hour is is direct service between the university and and Town Square Mall through downtown um on the on the southside on front. So um re we recognized when we changed the orchard that it was going to have an impact. We we had no doubt that it was going to and it does and and we will adjust but right now we don't feel like we have enough data to understand are people not riding because it really is the wrong route or because well the construction or because of the on-time performance or and so we're trying to you know tease all that stuff out so that we can have a good answer for you if that makes sense.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, thank you. Um, last I just want to say really great job on being creative. Uh, growing revenue through the advertising, uh, looking at your parts placement, your people placement, how you can reduce costs. I think it's a really good thing you have different buses running on different types of energy. Um, that's really helping out right now, too. So,

yeah, that on that last one, we're just about ready next year. Um, part of the uh grant for Towns Square Mall was a bus purchase and part of that bus purchase is purchasing a new trunch of smaller buses and ones that will be um lowf floor easily accessible buses instead of the typical small buses that we've run in the past. So, we're we're inching toward that goal of having the right bus on the right route. Council member Morales,

Madame Mayor, thank you, Director Kle. Really appreciate and always love your presentations because it's great to see all the awesome bus access that we have and knowing what it was like before change day. Um really really appreciate it. Um I just quick comment, thank you for continuing to look at the number 17 Warm Springs near and dear to my heart. Um and I I think I would just be curious in the future what the um participation or what the usage looks like in terms of the areas. Is it the Warm Springs neighborhood? Is it Harris Ranch neighborhood? Uh is it Park Center developments or is it all equal? Um that are using it and you know at times of days as well. Um I think would be really really interesting. But

and and remember that that route was also on detour for almost eight months. We we had a slew of construction detours last year. Yes. Abs. Absolutely. All kinds of fun stuff. Um I think just a couple questions and I don't know if you'll be able to answer the second one, but um let me know if you need to take a pass. But first one, do you have a number for how much um you know this grant funding it is for these two years of youth ride free during the summer and that's on top of our 5%. Just wanted to Yeah. How much the what is of it?

Yeah. How how much the youth ride free summer pilot is, you know, costs annually or for the two years. Well, we the grant is for uh $20,000 and so uh that would be roughly um 15,000 rides. I'm guessing we might get there. You know, I I would not be surprised. Uh we've been talking to the Boy School District about making at least junior high students uh year round access. So, um I'm looking forward to seeing the success of this if we can go to them like we've recently had to to St. Luke's and St. Al's and say, "Hey, we have so much demand. We can't do it with this money. We need more." I I I we'll see, but I would be excited.

Awesome. Madame Mayor, I do have my three kids signed up. We got to go get our carts, but um so we'll try to help you with that goal. Um and then I guess my other question as our you the Micron project is is looking more and more complete curious if they're ongoing um conversations in terms of community investment um support for

we've had a lot of conversations with them. We haven't gotten a commitment yet. Um I'm moving up the ladder a bit to see if we can move that commitment closer um from conversation. Uh we have I think a really great um solution for a start which would be service from the airport where we have four routes that already connect and then uh some on demand service in southeast Boisee which is probably uh the area of town that has a lease service right now. Um so stay tuned. Uh we I may lean on all of you to help with that because uh we have the plan. We just need the commitment.

Wonderful. Thank you. Appreciate all you're doing. You bet.

Um, thank you, Elaine. I uh I am excited that I know that we're working on the 5% again. I know that you you're doing a lot of work with the resources you have and um it will be interesting to see as time goes on and we're cities are continued to be crunched with budget. I know this this city is committed to continuing the service. We've made a lot of decisions based on our transit decisions. Um, so I know it's important to us and will be um interesting to follow along how how our our compounded budget crunching across each of these cities in the Treasure Valley will will have to make decisions and um and I'm sure that that will then impact future decisions that we're having to make and um not necessarily around the funding percentage but about how that's implemented. And um I know you guys have been so creative in the past, so looking forward to continuing the partnership as things change.

Yeah, you know, the other cities um are more challenging, frankly, than the city of Boisey, but um with one exception. I've heard actually more support for understanding how important transit is this year uh than I have in the other two years uh since I came over here. So I think there's a growing recognition that transit does in fact provide um one piece of the transportation puzzle and that instead of looking at it as oh that other thing and we don't really need it because people will just drive because they can recognizing that you know a some of them can't and b it's not so great to drive anymore and I think so I'm seeing growing recognition of that. Um, obviously funding right now is a challenge and it is for everyone and uh we're getting creative to try and lower costs and increase service. And you know, I'm always optimistic that we'll we'll get there. Regardless, we'll continue providing the great service we we provide in Boisee. Um, and I think it's important for Boise to be connected to the region. So, we will do everything in our power to make sure that that continues as well.

Thank you so much, Elaine. Thanks. And I think with that, we're going to take a break until 6:00. We'll be back. Thank you. Thank you.