City Council - Regular Meeting

I'm going to be there tomorrow though.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It is now 5:30 and I will call this regular meeting of the Burnsville City Council to order. It is our tradition to stand for a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance and we invite you to join us. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Good evening everyone and welcome to our council meeting. It's always good to see people um in the in person, but uh people can also watch us on um burnsvillemn.gov/meings or on Comcast channel 16 or 859. The public can also participate through Zoom by joining us at zoom. us/join. More information is available on our meetings web page and in the council agenda packet. The first item on our agenda this evening is announcements and we don't have any proclamations but we will also hear a report from MBTA. So, our council meetings are scheduled for regular council me meetings are scheduled for Tuesday, April 7th at 5:30 p.m. and Tuesday, April 21st at 5:30 p.m. We have

a work session that's scheduled for Tuesday, April 14th at 5:30 p.m. We have a budget work session that's scheduled for this evening, Tuesday, March 24th at 6:00 p.m. And then we have a closed session for the city manager's annual performance review and that's scheduled for Tuesday, April 7th at 6:00 p.m. in Dakota B. Unless noted, all meetings are held in the in the council chambers. And so it is my great pleasure to introduce to you Luther Wer, executive director of uh MBTA, who is presenting. Good evening, Mr. Winder.

Good evening. And joining him is Miss Joya. Yes. Yes. Thank you guys for your time um through our presentation. Just give an update, general update of Minnesota Valley Transit Authority.

So, as you see on the agenda today, we're just going to talk about MBTA, some ridership. I'll also give an update on service analysis f with a local forward initiative as well as follow up at the last I'll talk about 2026 service changes I always like to start off a little bit about I always understand and everyone may be familiar with the service we provide in MVTA just kind of footprint of what we do understand that we have 24 fixed routes we operate express and reverse commute services local service we also have on demand service which is our MVTA connect followed by our event services which is our to our sporting events concert, state fair, and the Renaissance Festival, which I'll talk about in detail a little bit later. Burnsville um being a city that's um very well established, obviously when we came into when when it came into MVTA, we have a number of services we provide in this in this city. As you see, we have those three express services as well as a number of local local routes. Overall, last year our into this year, our services up 7.8%. Um express up 10% as well as local service was down. um a little a point percent, but that's really related to us retransitioning um some local service, suburban local routes to microtransit. And we'll talk about the increases in microtransit in a minute. As a whole and look at Burnsville um the city of Burnsville ridership um overall from last year there was up from 2024 to 2025 it was up 4.3%. Um, our connect which Burnsville served in our main connect zone up 37%. Our our for fun bus. These are some highlights of some of the great services and some of the major increase that we've seen. Our route our four fund bus was up 34% for the city of Burnsville. Our route 480 up 17% on 465 6.5% and 447 up 3.1%. Let's talk about a little about about connect. So connect is our microtransit service. It really started back in 2019. Um it's always served Burnsville. It's

the original the original zone was Burnsville, Apple Valley, and parts of Savage. Um it's expanded now, as you see. It's expanded to um um we have Rosemont. We have an we have an Egan zone, and we also now have Rapara Lake and a Shakabe zone that is atbased service. And it's $3 each way. The great thing about connect is what we've continued to see is just this iteration of individuals needing in our suburban area of doortodoor or curb to curb or destination service. What we found is that due to the inaccessibility of sidewalks as well as some developments traditional fixed route wasn't always the best was the best mode to provide them with services. Um case in point we come to connect service which is kind of what we call public transit divert I a public transit alternative to Uber and lift important understand that 65% of customers utilize connect um are going to and from work 49% say that if they didn't have um connect they um would they would not have been able to use Uber and this is really the important part of understanding that because there always been conversations about um public transit versus obviously providing this um app-based um alternative to fix routes or fixed route service that 48% of the customers utilize connect or annual household income is under 25,000. So when you think about individuals going 5 days a week to work back and forth the average um suburban um Uber Lift trip being um anywhere between 20 to $30 each way depending upon the time of day and the distance that would be unsustainable for for for annual household income of 25,000. That's why we provide a public transit alternative that we see at at $3 each way. Um, important to understand that 47% of our customers are customers of color and 60% of our riders are women. Now, when we first started this service back in 2019 and 2122, it was about a 50-50 split between men and women, but as you see, as it is, they've taken over. So, um, I think I hopefully hopefully some men get

back on the church, but right now we're at 60%. Um and as we continue to also see this increase of individuals also too um that have disability or consider a long-term health um long-term health um condition. In the very beginning of service is one in five. Now as you see too which we've um we now uped up to one and four over 25% of our customers identify that way. Our age band range as you see as you look about 46% of our customers are between 35 and 50 and 54 which kind of really does hit that sweet spot when it comes to obviously individuals who were for going for an employment. Um we have had challenges in the past and we're continuing to make inroads with our with different vehicle types. We're getting those individuals who are under 35 to utilize the service because we see those cutaways those buses they think it's for the seniors or disabled. They don't realize that it's atbased on demand surge for them. That's one of the big things was for us to get the EJS vehicle, the all electric vehicle, which I'll touch on next actually in a couple slides, as well as just experiment with different vehicle types and different promotions that Julie and her group does are doing his job at just to make sure you understand it's open to everyone in the public as long as they can utilize the app. Our main zone connect ridership as I talked about for is up 37% systemwide is up 33%. And so it's important to note that our main zone ridership um there's been heavy usage between Burnsville, Savage, Rosemont, and Apple Valley out outpasses the overall overall system as a whole. Um average daily ridership on our main zone is 389 rides. And every time I do this, I'm always behind. So we probably have hit 400 by the time um since this slide was put together. Average weight is something we're continue to tackle. It's about 27 as you 27 minutes, almost 28 minutes. Our goal is always a wait time of 20 minutes or less. Um, we know that when we get to 30 minutes and over, we start to see a high number of cancellations. So, what we try to do when we we're in this type of we're in this type of area as far as um I like to call the yellow about to hit the red zone, we look to

either add new vehicles um change um make some add new vehicles to in order to kind of alleviate and bring that bring that weight time back down. That's our goal moving forward as well. Event service. Do you want to talk about event service, Joya, because it's something you're great to survive?

Yeah, absolutely. So, I know the last time that Matt and I were here, we had a lot of conversations about the different types of services that we provide. And like Luther mentioned, our fixed route and our connect service are definitely, you know, very important to our community, but we also have found that there are a lot of folks in the community that want to get to different events that may have parking limitations or parking costs associated with them that can really inhibit people's ability to enjoy those quality of life experiences. So, as you can see here, we provide service to a few different things. So, state fair being our by far our largest event. Um, if you have not tried taking the bus to State Fair, it is so convenient. You can get dropped off almost right at the gate. Um, and it's just $6, you know, and that's round trip. So, it's very, very affordable. It's easy to use, and you have access right down the road at the Burnsville Transit Station. And our buses are coming about every 15 minutes. So, it's very regular service, and again, very easy to use. Um, we also provide service to the Renaissance Festival from Burnsville as well as the um the Minnesota UFC matches, Gopher football, Vikings, and then a lot of different concerts. So, we have an updated schedule that's on our website right now at mbta.com with all of the upcoming concerts. Most of them are at like the US Bank Stadium just because there are so many limited parking options that exist over there and they can get pretty expensive during game day and then concerts. So, there's full schedules there. And then you can see that we have park and rides at Apple Valley, Egan, Shakipi, and Burnsville that all offer these services. But again, the closest one for you guys is that Burnsville transit station just a couple minutes down the road. Um, tickets can be purchased on the app, so it's very easy to use and our customer service operates between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. It helps people through that process if anyone has any difficulties as well. We've also seen those services continue to grow. And what we like to talk about is that it's a really good experience for

individuals that may not have taken transit before to help ease them into trying the service and really understanding how clean, safe the vehicles are um and just building that familiarity.

Also important to note too, there's been there was discussion at the capital this year concerning um sub providers and event services um that it wasn't considered public transit. It's important to note that all we're doing is providing parity in the communities. When you look at Vikings or you look at um things at US Bank or your Twin Stadium or even looking at um where the Lions Field, those are all served by pretty much BRTs or by um light rail. There's been heavy infrastructure put there for people in the region in order to access those access those places. We make sure providers that we actually our community still have access to those as well too. You shouldn't have to just be in the core to have access or have a car just be able to get to US Bank Stadium or be able to obviously get to Alliance Field. And that's why we do we'll provide that service and we'll continue to do so sustainability. Important to talk about. So that's that ejust vehicle. Um we have five of those. Um I've talked about those before. So I won't spend a lot of time obviously, you know, talking with highlights of them. But important to note that we looked at 2025. You know, we've had them now on the road, you know, for a little over a year now. Um it's important to note that um we almost we saved because they're all electric vehicles. They're the first in um the region and one of the first in the nation. um from a purpose-built small microtransit vehicle, all electric. And as you see here, almost 3,000 tons of metric tons of CO was saved um last year in 2025 based on using these vehicles. As well as to look at the equivalent of what that looks like you're driving a car, how many miles that would be as well as when you think about obviously how many trees or acres that were saved there too. Also, what we didn't put in this slide, it's also saved us money as well. The last count we looked at from a standpoint of electric as far as filling with diesel, um $60,000 savings we had last year in fuel cost associated with these vehicles. So, not only are they saving the environment, but they're also saving us financially when it comes to fueling cost. So far, they've been extremely wellreceived and durable. Um the biggest two complaints we have is

the driver's seat, which we'll continue to work on. Um, also too, they have a really large door and during the winter time that door opens up um, pretty substantially and that kind of in Minnesota, yeah, you don't necessarily want to open the door too wide because it, you know, the cold air can maybe creep in a little bit. So, those are programming change to allow the door to open up halfway. Um, so it wouldn't obviously open up the full width and that kind of alleviated that. But so far, customer and driver feedback have been very, very positive as well as to the battery life has met our conditions in this environment. So, we're pleased with it and we'll hope to invest and buy more in the future. The near future if I get board approval. Um, next I want to talk about the highest subset report. That's um so this past like last um session there was a bill put in to produce a high subset report. that report um was produced by the metropolitan council with some information that was provided by suburb providers but we necessarily didn't have the opportunity to see the report or comment before it was shared with the legislature. Um, one of the things that we did have some challenges with how the port was constructed um was that it it looked at a snapshot of suburban local service. Primarily Minnesota Valley and Met Council provide suburban local services. Um, and it had some and it was data from 2023 and 2024. The bulk of those services have already either been eliminated or we've seen increases where they continue to um where they would not be on the report in the future. Unfortunately, the report doesn't highlight um that they've been eliminated. Um nor does it highlight if they were federal pilots like the four route 498 that's been talked about. That's the one with the alleged $200 subsidy. That was a federally funded route pilot route that was um 8020 um that we got a three-year federal grant to provide serving the Golden Triangle area, the same place that $3 billion Southwest Rat Rail is serving. theoretically was supposed to serve those stations but because they were

delayed in our project that was on we have we operated the service. Um once that once the funding ended um we terminated the service because obviously ridership wasn't there but it wasn't this massive amount of regional funds was only 20%. And one thing when you think about federal funds they provide you with funding for a three-year pilot. You needed a three-year pilot. I think anyone um that understands when you work with the federal government, when you turn money back in, you're less likely to get services, get those grants in the future. So, you're going to run it. And also too, we we did our we we did our best to try to get ridership because we this is a corridor that the region is investing heavily in the, you know, very heavily in this region in that corridor. Um didn't work for us. We canceled it, but the report made it seem like that that route is still ongoing and it's simply not the case. Um it's also important to note that just sometimes when it comes to core service as well as suburban local service, we don't have the density. So our costs are going to be a little disproportionately a little bit higher um simply by the lack of density. And that's one reason why we do have challenges with that subsidy with the high subject board because it really focuses on ridership. But it doesn't take it doesn't take out anything that we do in order to reduce the cost whether it be whether it's federal 8020 pilot doesn't show that funds nor does it show nor does it nor does it calculate in the private investment you got in roots like we have roots that we have that we have 100% funded by private employers from a certain leg of it that report would simply show cost versus wrership leading the reader to believe that it's all regional funds so it's a challenge that we have or continue to tell the story talk about it um communicate it but we don't have control of the report, nor do we have control of the messaging, but we do have control obviously to communicate where we're at today and what we're doing to address it.

Another thing that we want to make make aware of just we have a local forward initiative. So, what we've done is we have we have we have this great mind that we were able to recruit from um Utah had opportunity to um see his former CEO and they miss him out in Utah. Um they really do, but we have Eric now. So we're going to do our definitely we have a when we we've always done we've always looked at service and had service changes four times a year and primarily our driving force for for our suburban local service was making sure that the cost for that service was less than what comparable transit link would be. So a transit link average translate trip is $64 $64 um a trip. We wanted to make sure our suburban local was a lot cheaper than that cheaper than that. we see about $40 to $35 on average. Um because if you're going to replace it, you want to replace with something that's more expensive and less and more restrictive. Um what Eric really came in and done is we looking at it various factors whether it be um employment uh also looking at people with disabilities and a certain density and senior populations. And he has an equation he puts that together propensity to people utilizing the service. It's really revolutionary. We're one of the only, we're the only agency in the country that's um utilizing this particular system. It's been developed in house um to look at service evaluation and it's going to serve some really really good results to us moving forward. So happy to continue to share that. We adopted it in 2025 and we're continuing obviously to um to kind of um um continue to go out and tell the story about that and we'll hope to continue to see um continue to see good results associated with that. Um last but not least, just want to focus in on um our spring 2026 changes. We are looking as as we always do with story trans four times a year. We're looking to um transition some of our unproductive local suburban service to connect service. I always want to tell this story too that I think this is another thing about the report that's so difficult sometimes narrative. I got to say go back to 2023 and realize we had a supply chain issue that we weren't able you weren't even willing to buy vehicles

because the chips weren't around. We had the same issue when it related to buses as well too in 2022 2023. We could not procure vehicles. So we had to utilize the vehicles that we had which were larger buses for suburban local. Since that started in 2024 and 2025, we procured more vehicles. And now case in point, we continue to transition from suburban local for some reason that we would like to transition to connect. Um but something we are not weren't aware of, but we were faced with the binary choice. provide customers with nothing which then you'd get some pro put provide customers what we could provide with the funding that we had and use Joy and her good graces and her team to go out and promote as much as possible until we get the vehicles in order to transition to to connect and that's what we're doing today but we'll continue to do we're also looking to do some combining of rout combining of routes um really and really really um thank you Eric and the team we're taking our for fun bus and our route 495 bus that'll be combined in one route um given hourly service and actually cost us less than providing when it was two different when two routes. Um as well as too we're also looking to reduce some redundancies across the regional network. So that's our goals for 2026.

So pertinent to the forun 495 airport service is on that which we had a discussion about that last year which is something that people were very excited about and now starting March 16th you have airport service on an hourly basis and from Burnsville Transit Station and again there is free parking at our station for that too. I have a question. Yeah. Can I take a connect to the transit to get on the the 495 and that one $3 fair will take me through the whole system then? Yes. All right. Thank you.

Yes. In the very in in the beginning of our connect service, our zones were a lot smaller. So what we found is the beginning of the service connect service about 50% of customers utilizing it to go from their homes to um to our transit station so they could access our suburban local service or express service. But that was an iteration during co as things have changed obviously we see more people doing pointtooint but that's definitely a possibility okay and we do have a number of customers that do that this is this is some just some service plans I've already kind of touched on those any questions related to that please feel free to um communicate now if you have any questions additional questions

yes I do any so you're you presented a very uh positive report as to what's going on at MBTA. So, can you elaborate on what's going on at the legislature and what happens to the service if Metroransit takes it over because that's the recommendation that's coming out of committee? And uh I mean I didn't understand that this was a real big thing. Of course, there was last year's report, but um it it is you you mentioned that there was a report and it wasn't quite clear. However, uh according to what I read and you want to tell the story, why wasn't there someone from MVTA except Mayor Hoopa uh testified about the service? However, there is discrepancy from what I hear from you tonight about the report that was given to the legislature last year. So, can you elaborate for everybody to understand because it appears to me if Metroransit takes over there's a lot of risk going on here and what happens to the service to the people of Burnsville. you just gave a very positive report in terms of writership and increases and that's from before co I mean it's postco

and um report is during co so please explain not only to me but to our community what's going on here.

Very good questions. So just want to take it back. So last year at the end of session last year there were two bills that came during conference committee. um one was to eliminate it to burn providers. The other was to rem um to reallocate the um sales tax that counties receive obviously the metropolitan council. We knew at that particular time that this was the goal of certain individual in the committee was to transition obviously funds to Met Council from the counties as well as to also transition the funding the suburban providers have also to Met Council as well. fast forward they needed obviously. So the report was merely a vehicle and that's why it was communicated in such a way in order to achieve that objective and that goal. Understand that when the report was provided to um to um um to the committee on the very first on the first day um even though Minnesota Valley was a primary target of that particular report, we were not asked to testify for that report. It was simply the Met Council Charles Garson gave up and I think he did at that particular time a decent job talking about the improvements that Met Council had been making because they also have roots on that report but I wasn't called obviously ability to go up and have that conversation and to talk about um about MBTA. There was not time at the end of that presentation for any testimony because myself and Dan were were burning the audience but time there was no time to session was over. It was a very last report. They ran the they ran the clock out end of that end of that end of that meeting. Fast forward to um when we were having discussion about the vote was being the vote was being cast. Um at that particular time, it happened to coincide with Southwest um transit day at the capital. That's why they had such a large presence. Thankfully, on that particular time, each person was given one minute in order to testify. There's simply not the ability for us to get in rally resources in one minute to testify for myself to testify about a report that's been skewed so skewed so favor negatively in our favor. So our goal

since you already knew what the objective was going to be was to allow that to stand and have comm and have conversations with our representatives which you have been doing as well as going out and talking the message of what we seen and what what what happens to be but there was no let's be let's be very frank and very clear that was not going that was not rejectable hearing for us nor was that going to be a better outcome for us had we went up and and in a minute and tried to communicate that that's why we're having the conversations today and educating and the more we have had conversations with legislators they do understand. Um we do feel like at this point that's still the minority, but it's something that we have to we have to just correct the record so people know that's simply not you can skew a report and numbers any way you choose it to be and that's how it was skewed. Um and it's unfortunate that also too people must be monitor the individuals who made the report are also the ones who benefit um with the service. Um, but it's something that not only with that bill, there's another bill out, um, I just wrote it down that we just seen, um, you know, House File 4449, um, which looks to obviously limit, um, highway projects and has the Met Council, same some of the same players, um, to limit, um, highway projects, is also to allow the Met Council to do performance standards and also really to obviously take away some of the autonomy that our cities and our counties have. That's a bill that's also being heard and being discussed right now. And also funding also preempts funding as well too. So it's not just subbrant providers that are on that they're trying to react. It's also counties and cities as well too. Um and that's just been the theme and it's a handful of legislators that continue to push that and continue to push that. H um Council Member Schultz, then I'll follow up because it appeared to me that there was a bipartisan effort going on here. And I'm at a loss to try and understand. I tried to read what was in the paper

about this whole story because it has an effect on our uh residents and our business. So, you know, what is it that we need to do? So, uh and a lot of council members are wanting to comment. Uh first, Council Member Schultz. Uh just so our residents are clear on um on what is happening. Uh so we do have in a committee and it passed committee. Um and it is a bill to take away our transit. Yep.

In our southern area which is functioning well and has good writership and is less expensive and replace it with crap

that is more expensive. um because they think, "Oh, well, we we should just we have this really crappy system that people don't ride. So, if we take away other people's transit, we can force them to do this. So, that is what's on the table. And so, if this is of concern to you that you will end up with something worse and more expensive, so however you feel about public transit, the more expensive should be a little indicator there. Um I I know our reps in the area are um you know they they will work with us on this. Um but this is this is something to um not just contact your immediate reps. Um this is something that I would definitely contact the governor's office about. This is something to go right to the top to the governor's office and to say we absolutely do not want this. Kill it.

Okay. Council member Keely,

thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you very much to good friends on the Minnesota Valley U leadership team. We got a great team. It's a great organization. Um, I could speak for half an hour on this as I'm deeply involved and have been for years, but I just want to highlight a few things. There was a uh some interviews recently on Sunday on Boyce Silen. You can um search um his uh podcast and he interviewed Senator Dibble and Representative Cosnik from Lakeville. Uh Cosnik inter introduced the bill in the House. Um and it's interesting to listen to some of the comments like they pick out one route that was referred to with uh by Executive Director Luther that it it is um a single test route that had a very high average. So he actually they cited it as $200 per subsidy and you know that's each way so that's $400 and that's worse than the the Northstar. Uh it was a a pure pilot test that was never uh moved on for obvious reasons, right? The report's 23 24 so it's extremely outdated. It's right during the CO era everybody had uh higher subsidies because our numbers riding the bus were still down but they continue to recover. Um, and the other the other point is it's interesting to hear anybody from the legislature who hasn't been there very long

try and throw out an idea to reverse something that took many years to come to fruition in the late 80s to create these suburban transit providers. And the sole reason that everyone was complaining in the entire donut around the Twin Cities, all the suburbs were complaining, they weren't getting adequate service. Yeah.

Um as an opt- out um suburban transit provider, we don't have the ability to print money and run massive deficits like Met Transit does. We actually have to balance our budget. And so we can't afford to carry high cost routes if if they don't make sense. Um, and so it's it's interesting to hear let's give it all back to Met Transit when they can't run on a budget. They don't report all the numbers. I'll cite the low, if you look at the report, the lowest subsidized route is light rail. Do you believe that after billions to build it and the cost to maintain it and to support depreciation that it only really costs about $2.75 per rider? No, of course not. They don't count the billions that it cost to build it. Uh otherwise, it would be dramatically higher. So, there's a the model of reporting isn't necessarily wholly truthful. Uh it's very misleading actually when you when you snapshot a point in time. And um there was just really no nobody on the on the committee that has any history that understands why we exist in the first place. Dibble should I mean he's been around for a long time.

He's not G. He was not on that committee. He's in the Senate and he's not he's not okayion the the people who were on the podcast podcast.

Yeah. Dibble was one of them but Dibble Dibble was very neutral. I he highlighted like you know this is a 40-y old model and maybe we need to look at this and maybe he's a big supporter of uh microransit and suburb to suburb and the express routes and postcoid changes in wrerships and that kind of stuff. So he was pretty neutral. He just sort of highlighted that we need to have a discussion. Um it wasn't it wasn't quite that type of conversation with Representative Cosnik, but um you know there's there's performative politics involved here. Unfortunately, it's election year. There's u there's a tons there's an enormous amount of fraud. And so I think piggybacking on the fraud case, I think he's not the only one who's going to come out with finding some way of spinning a story to say this is government waste when in fact not one of them brought out uh or talked about the benefits of transit which are many. And it and it cuts across economic benefits. um you know, poor families who depend, who have one or no car, who need public transit. Um the fact that the suburbs uh don't have the density. So, as Luther pointed out, our average cost is going to be higher. That's just a known fact across the country. We're no different than any other city uh or suburb. And so, the other thing that wasn't brought out is we've known for a few years there are a lot of suburbs being supported sort of by Metransit who are very unhappy. So what happened to create us has continued to happen and there are cities who are very probably regretting that they you know back if their folks are still there that they didn't take advantage of the opportunity and and join a suburban opt out and become a suburban transit um uh member. So there's there's a lot of things that are

going to come to play and I think it's important for us to make sure that all the truth gets out there and I think uh Luther and Matt who's in the audience and Joya are doing a very good job of that and that's going to go on and on. We're going to talk to our local legislators. They are diehard supporters of suburban transit. They know exactly why we exist and the fact that we exist with a superior service, a superior customer service uh ranking and and level. Um, I I heard one comment on that podcast that bothered me and it was sort of a a jealousy uh comment about, yeah, they have really nice clean buses out there and coach buses

as if that's a bad thing that we actually operate a clean professional operation that they're jealous of that because they don't live in the suburbs and they're dealing with Met Transit service which is maybe not described that way all the time. Right. Well, if if if it if that comment came from Representative Kaz. No, it was Mr. Dibble. Well, it was the it was the one comment that really stuck out in his conversation that I thought was a little out of place.

Anyway, but my my concern is that if um the story needs to be told, then there there's a lot of work that needs to be done right now. uh or this thing is going to go south very quickly from where I'm sitting and reading what's going on and because it's a bipartisan effort and

it is bipartisan in the House um not in the Senate. Um four authors have dropped off the Senate bill leaving just um Senator Hoffman is the only lone author on the Senate bill. There is no um expectation right now. There's no there hasn't been scheduled for a hearing in the House and I'm excuse me in the Senate. in the house. It was laid over to Ways and Means and there at this time there is no um there's no there's no timeline to have a hearing for it there either.

Chair Tolson's a former chair of transportation and he has no desire and no support and actually questions the legitimacy of bringing this bill forward. So, what I would like for right now for myself and for the members of our community, not only our residents, but business is to get updates on what's going on legislatively because right now I don't like what I'm reading and what's happening. So if it's not going to be circumvented and stories told correctly uh so that we could have a better outcome than what I see this moving towards the dismantling of something that has been worked on and um been successful and you gave a report on that it's going to be devastating uh to our communities and um and it's not going to be good. So, I would like an update on a regular basis uh on what's going on legislatively and what can we do? What can we also have our residents understand about what's going on so that they are informed and they can write letters and they can do what is necessary to save our our transit system.

Great question. On our website, we do have the ability for residents as well as um for customers, businesses, community organizations, there's a web page there that they can go on and put their information and it will generate a support letter. we will send those support letters um to um to the appropriate representative. Um also too, it's also beneficial if anyone reaches out and talks to the representative about their need and their support for for transit. It's important to note that even with um Senator Dibble has been an ally in the past, but there's certain concern and statements really does relate to just our nice clean buses. I just want everyone to understand that Met Council owns the bulk of all the buses in the region. They lease the bus to us. Um, we have some we procure, but those big buses, they're their buses. Eventually, we'll get ownership of those, hopefully in the next couple months, but it's always been in that place. They pay for those vehicles. We just do a really good job of a picking the design we want based on community input and then do a really, really good job making sure our contractor, because we have a superior team, make sure they're clean and they're accessible for individuals in the community who use them because that's not something I think Burnsville or any of our communities would tolerate on the roads. you don't have. So when you hear that it's always been this push pull about our nice equipment or our buses. It's owned by the council. The only difference is the management of it and we're the management just like if you go to Cedar Grove Transit Station as opposed to Egan trans.

Well then that needs to be told. Mhm. That's the difference between that product and this product. So, um, but thank you for reporting and thank you for, um, answering the questions and, uh, for each of the council members to do. How come you I don't know, I keep pressing that button, but it's not showing up on me. So, council member, I don't know. Okay.

Thank you. Thank you for the report. It is really good. Connect seems to be one of our fastest growing segments of what we're doing. And I understand with this bill that's something that they've already said would go away should they take control of this. Do you keep track of how many people use connect to go to and from work? I know several employees at Costco use it. So 65% of the customers you don't have to go to and from work. 55%

65% 65% used to go to and from work. Sport note that bill only allows and that's a misnomer about this bill. Even when you look at the savings, it talks about it. It's talking about $722,000 in savings over two years. That's not there's no there's not those even in the bill con there's no $50 million. That's that's fuzzy math. But um when we um so yes and it only guarantees only guarantee service for one year. After that we our communities would face the same thing that all other suburban communities face. obviously advocating and and hoping that, you know, the council would put some of the resources to provide them with with with more suburban service. So, you're right, they would lose um our connect customers would lose um with loot service. I think some of our express also lose service as well, too. Put note that our local suburban service is $2 local. Um our connect is $3. That transit link alternative, the base is 350. During peak, it's $450. And then there's a 75 cent kicker on top of that per every 15 miles. So that's one of the reason why you know for a number of years customers are complaining about transit lane service. You got to book that a day in advance. Also that is almost twice that's two that's two and a half times what you do for local suburban and can almost twice what you pay for our local connect service. So our customers would pay more and it would be more restrictive and they deny a lot more trips than we would ever than we ever do.

Thank you. Okay. I'm sorry council member Gustoson. It didn't show up on my screen. So anyway, I have a witness. I keep pressing it. Yeah, I want to point out one other thing. During the pandemic, MTA kept our park and rides open.

Obviously, the services reduced with reduced ridership. Uh the Kendrick Trail park and ride shut down for two and a half years. So all of those riders south of Burnsville had to drive to Apple Valley or Burnsville to catch an express bus into downtown. For two and a half years, Metransit just let it sit empty before they finally restarted the service. And I had conversations with a representative that attends the uh I35 solutions and and pitched why don't we just absorb that in MBTA and take that route over. And he said, "We're very open to that." And so what staff within Met Transit would like to see happen and what some legislators would like to see happen doesn't necessarily always match up. Dan, I think that's a really good point and that's something I think it's important to touch on too is that our planning team has a great relationship with Metroransit. Like we work collaboratively with them and our team is constantly trying to find ways to reduce duplication of service and so we do meet with them regularly and have conversations about are there things that make more sense for us to do? Are there things that make more sense for you to do? So it's not like those conversations aren't happening.

You guys should be making the deal. Okay. Well, thank you so much for coming in and giving your report uh and also to we need to correct the record and um because I don't want to lose the services uh for our joint powers for MBTA and for any of the other optout communities because their writers also depend on it. So, thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks very much. Thank you.

Really appreciate it. Okay. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is citizens comments. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to address the council on an item that is not on the printed agenda and not in application form that's going to come before us at a future date? Mrs. Henderson, anyone online? No, there isn't. Okay. Uh, we will then move on. The next item is additions to the final agenda and this is for emergency items only. City manager Lindberg, are there any emergency items to come before the body?

Not from staff mayor. Thank you. May members of the council. Thank you. We will move on. And the next item is the consent agenda. The consent agenda is a group of items that's considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. However, an item on a consent agenda can be removed for a separate discussion and vote. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes an item on a consent agenda uh to be removed for a separate discussion and vote? Mrs. Henderson, anyone online? No, there is not. Okay. Um, city manager Lindberg, does uh staff want to pull anything from Not from staff. Mayor, members of the council, may I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda, please?

To approve. Second. There's a motion and a second. All in favor, please say I. I. Oppose, say nay. And a motion carries. Uh, the next item is our regular agenda. And the one item on the regular agenda this evening is the meeting of the economic development authority. and I will now recess the Burnsville City Council meeting so the Economic Development Authority meeting can convene. President Gustoson. Thank you, Madam Mayor, and good evening. I call the economic development authority meeting to order and would clerk would please note that all commissioners are present. Item number one, are there any additions to the final agenda?

Nothing. Seeing none, I will move on. Number two is the consent agenda, which is the approval of minutes and the resolutions to approve LAA funded down payment. funded down payment assistance policy contract amendment with CE and EDA spending in support of the housing programs. Is there anyone who wishes an item to be removed from the consent agenda for a separate discussion and vote? Seeing none, may I have a motion? So move. Motion by Commissioner Coutz. I need a second. Second. Second by Commissioner Schultz. All in favor?

I opposed. And the motion passes. We move on to item three. There are no regular agenda agenda items tonight. So there's is there no other business? I may I have a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Commissioner Schultz motions to adjurnn. Second. Second by Commissioner Workman. All in favor? I oppose. Nay. Motion passes. We arejourn. Back to you, Madame Mayor. Thank you. Uh and now I will reconvene the Burnsville City Council meeting. And um members of the um council, there are no other items to come before us this evening and a motion to adjourn is in order. Move.

There's a motion and a second. All in favor, please say I. I. Oppose say nay. And a motion carries. Good night and thank you for being with us.