Ordinance & License Committee - Regular Meeting

Alright. We'll go ahead and get started for the board of public works meeting for the transit commission meeting for Thursday, 05/21/2026. We'll start with a roll call. Chad O'Donnell.

Just for correction, it's a twenty first.

Oh. '20 I got it.

2020 Kevin Riley here.

Joe Piper's here too.

One step beyond.

Alright. With that, we'll go ahead. I don't see anything for public comments. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance.

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. Alright.

So I think we can go ahead then and start with item 3A approval minutes.

Kevin Riley makes a motion to approve the transit minutes from March 19.

Joe Piper will second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll take a vote. O'Donnell, aye.

Kevin Riley, aye.

Piper, aye.

All right, motion passes. We'll move to item 4A.

The first discussion recommendation item is to review and act on proposed purchase of fare boxes from SPX Genfare. We're bringing forth the proposed purchase of Fast Fare non registering fare boxes from XPX Genfare for 94,922 for a total of 31 units. Our current fare boxes that collect all the fares, the cash fares on the bus are at the end of life. The company no longer supports it, this version and only emergency support is available and there's a lot of points of failure. This is a twenty five or fifteen year old technology system that and in fact just two weeks ago it did fail.

So this was a approved project in the CIP for this year. And we really didn't need a high-tech fair box what we currently have due to us switching to Wisco three years ago. That's really eliminated the need for Wisco takes care of our smart cards and mobile app payments. So we're really just we're really looking for replacement fare boxes that were low tech that could do cash take collect cash fares. And so what we did is we conducted an RFP and very happy with the results.

We've got all four vendors that do this type of fare box in North America responded and we got five proposals and we're recommending the SPX Genfare. It turns out they were the by far they were the best on a technical score and they were second lowest on cost. So they we feel it's the best value. One of the things that really stands out is our current fare boxes are Gen Fare as well. And so what we'd be able to do is reuse the cash box.

So it goes inside the fare box, collects the cash and coin. So we can reuse that part, but also the vault at our Badger Drive facility, we would not have to change that out or do any kind of alterations. With all the others we would have to do that. And we've had very good luck or not luck but the Genfare systems have done well. They've been around for a very long time for forty five years.

They're just down in the Chicago area So they're very accessible. We've had a very good experience with them. So we are recommending this system or this purchase And as always, funds will pay for the 80% and then the remaining funds would be used city operations, but we'd be reimbursing with the federal relief funds so there's no city funds involved in this purchase. We're significantly under the CIP, a budgeted amount of a $160,000.

Piper, I'll make a motion to approve and with the second I have a question.

Kevin Riley seconds.

So

Brian, couple things and I should know this but I don't. When you get on the bus, do you have to have exact change? Or will this system if you have a five, will the system give you will give a rider change back? Or do you need to have kind of exact fare to ride the bus?

With with this, what we're going to well, you do need to have exact change with this. Okay. And that's why we really encourage folks to use Wisco if they don't. And we are I'm gonna preview things of our budget, but we're gonna propose a fair increase and it's not gonna be $2 anymore, it's gonna be $2 and some change. So it's gonna be inconvenient in that regard.

But yeah, we do take exact change. The this system that that we're that's winding down used to give change cards, but that's part one of the things that has been a problem. But with the card, with the Wisco card, you get a lot more advantages of riding and so. So if you get on a bus and you only have a

$5 bill in your wallet Yeah. You can you'd probably you can pay the city $5, but you're not gonna get $3.

You're not getting $3 back. Okay. But we do at at the transit center, we do have ticket vending machines that can buy individual ride rides from the vending machines. So there you can get

You'd get your change back.

You get 5 well, you get change in you get a QR receipt that you can use for future purchases.

Gotcha.

And then the other question I have bear with me. What was the other question I had? Oh, so the idea is that or the COVID dollars is going to kind of cover the city share of this. So we didn't borrow none of this 160 was borrowed as part of the

No, nothing. No, there's no borrowing. In fact, we didn't there has been no borrowing last year's CIP and there's no intention to borrow for any of our CIP projects for this year as well.

And I remember my other question. I mean, off the top of your head, I mean, what what percentage of riders try to pay in cash?

It's it's about 25%, maybe a little bit under that. So we'll collect we'll collect about a $100,000 between fixed route and Metro lift still in cash. But I expect that number to keep going lower as we move on. Great. Thanks, Brian.

Yep.

All right. We have a motion and a second. We'll go ahead and take a vote. O'Donnell, aye. So

I'm just curious, are going to have a little bit more of a security risk apparently with this no? No. Does say it in the texture.

If we didn't go if we went with a non vaulting solution, we would have more of a security risk. Okay. And to mitigate that, that would cost about 38,000 and we still wouldn't have as good of a this is nothing changes and all the you went on the tour that little window, we still use that to put the vaults to put the money in and it doesn't see the light of day until we take it out on the other end.

Sorry. Thank you.

Yep. Can I ask one question? Just I foresee at some point in the future, we're probably going to go completely cashless for mass transit. I can't imagine cities and municipalities are going to keep dealing with bills and coins indefinitely. Do you foresee how long this system will probably be used or is that really not something in the purview of this conversation?

I think that's a greater I mean, you know, we've talked about it some of the transit systems that we work with. Don't feel we could say we're not collecting cash. I don't know. I think that's just going to be a societal thing. You're right at some point, but at least in America, I don't think you're gonna have a could it be ten years? Maybe. I don't know. So

And how long is this system supposed to be in use or lifetime? There

is no there is no technology. So it's just literally hardware. So, you know, it could you know, we're using components of the previous system because it's all just physical hardware. So, you know, it's metal. So metal and a little bit of plastic. So it should last a very long time.

Thank you very much. Yeah.

All right. Any other questions? With that we'll go ahead and take a vote.

O'Donnell, aye. Kevin Riley, aye.

Piper, aye. Okay. Motion passes. We'll move to item five b.

Five b is to review and act on proposed purchase of replacement passenger signs at the transit center. This is another CIP item that was approved in the 2026 CIP. And this would be to purchase eight bus bay signs at our concourse at our transit center. The concourse is where all the buses will come in and there'll be signs at each bus bay that are active. It'll show what route is going there and the next time the bus arrives.

We did have these signs previously at the transit center. They were removed when the ceiling was redone at the transit center so there's no demolition. And we're proposing to purchase it from GMV which is our current AVL vendor and it's just under a $100,000 at $99,985 And also would be included is we'd replace the existing sign that's it's like an airport monitor of arrivals in the lobby and then we can also scroll other messages on that sign as well. One of the nice things about this project over what we had before is there's a push button for visually impaired customers. It'll have braille on there that it will give an audio of when the next bus is coming and also announce what bus base.

So that is an improvement. This is a sole source request and we had a lot of meetings. Alex and I talked about this probably more than either one of us want to admit. We got Brandon involved, we got finance involved and talked a lot about a lot of different ways that we can look at this. And after a very extensive review, we we do believe that the sole source would be the most effective way.

One of the big things is GMV which is the AVL vendor that runs the GPS and all the data comes to feed these signs is they only use one manufacturer, one model of sign for the exterior signs. And that's just to ensure that it works everywhere in North America, make sure the sign works properly. So that was one component and then it has to integrate with GMVs AVL system properly and one of the requirements we would have is that that they would it would have to be an integrator that has worked with GMV if it's an outsider, and there is only one integrator that has done that. And I request a quote from them and they never got back to me. And we suspect it's because this is a much smaller cost or a smaller project than what they're used to.

They're used to having contracts between mostly signed projects are usually between 300 to $500,000 and up. This is much smaller scale. Also another factor is GMV, no matter what if we even use that other contractor, we would have to have that we'd pay a fee to them and it could equal about a quarter of the cost of this project. Some other things is this project is about is less than 50% what we had approved in the CIP. There's a couple of reasons for that.

Number one is the original quote that they provided us, they actually went lower and are providing pricing that they provided in our 2021 contract. And they're also not going to charge us for the lobby monitor. It's a free it's basically a free monitor. So and then to further do some savings the city sign crew has agreed to do the installation. We do are we are putting a caveat that we may incur $10,000 up to $10,000 of additional cost If there's unforeseen issues with electrical, if there's some kind of power issue and stuff we may need to have an electrician come in and help us with that.

But we're excited about this. This is a nice enhancement for especially disabled passengers. And again, the 80% will be covered by a federal grant and the remaining 20% will be used city operations funds but then it gets reimbursed with the relief funds. So again there's no cost to the city.

Piper, I'll make a motion to approve and I don't have any questions.

Kevin Riley seconds. I don't have any questions either.

Alright. With that, I think we can go ahead and take a vote.

O'Donnell, aye. Kevin Riley, aye.

Piper, aye. A motion passes. We'll move to item five c.

Five c is to review and act on amendment to the Clear Channel bus shelter agreements. We haven't had amendment on this for a while, but this was effectively reduced the number of bus shelters in the program from 22 to 20. And just to refresh your memory, if you're if you don't remember, maybe you didn't know about this agreement. But what Clear Channel does is for them to be allowed to advertise in those 20 shelters, they will maintain those shelters. So they clean them, they remove snow and ice, they'll do repairs, and they get to advertise and they also will pay us $700 per year per shelter in revenue as a a revenue share.

Last fall, we moved two shelters. One is the much talked about one by the Hope Center that was on private property and the Hope Center told us it had to leave. So we needed to find a spot in relative short order. We had one, I I do believe that one was moved over by the golf course on Moreland by More Downs because the existing one was in bad shape. And then we had another one at Summit and Grand View that was now out of service due to the service changes we did last June and that was moved to another location.

And what Clear Channel is saying is that those aren't the newer locations weren't as desirable and so they didn't want to include that in the contract. So it is a little bit of a reduction in the revenue received about $1,400 annually, but that'd be effective May 31. There's only three more payments in this contract because the contract expires in about a year and a half. We're recommending this change just to preserve the existing agreement. And our biggest concern, my biggest concern is if Clear Channel said, well, will this be in default or we want to walk away from this contract, then we have to take on those maintaining those extra 20 shelters and we just don't have the manpower.

So if we were to take those over that would be we're looking at an additional $20,000 annually if not more in costs. So we're recommending the amendment.

Kevin Riley will make a motion to accept the review and act on Clear Channel bus shelter agreement.

Piper will second and I just have a question. Brian, is there anything to make you anything is there any concern that they're not gonna renew the contract?

There's very I have a very big concern. They tried to shop this contract a couple times. So there we are trying I I have been in conversations. If you would have asked me this question six months ago, I would have thought they wouldn't even consider it. But now they want to they want to have a conversation towards the end of the year.

So my goal would be to try and do it even if it's not ten years, if it's a shorter term for a few a few less shelters that would be wonderful. We have been removing shelters because we kind of anticipated that even if this agreement goes forward that there would be less and less units or less shelters. But I hope I'm wrong. I hope we can work out something.

Okay. Thanks. Yep.

Alright. Any other discussion? With that, we'll take a vote. O'Donnell, aye.

Kevin Riley, aye.

Sniper, aye.

Okay. Motion passes. We'll move to item five d.

Five d is to review and act on proposed service changes that'd be effective 08/24/2026. This is relatively minor changes. The total reduction in service hours would be 16.5 per week, so it's about 2.5%. It does on an annualized basis reduce our cost by about $59,000 I'm just going to go over the changes real quickly. There's a minor change that we're requesting to the routing of Route 5 just down the street here.

We're just looking to continue on Madison to North Street, then North Street into the transit center. It essentially mean it's the same distance, but we're going from four turns in that three block area to two. So it's just more efficient. And then also the 05:50PM trip on Saturday night were proposed for elimination due to low ridership. On Route 9, we're proposing to eliminate the seven zero five and eight fifteen trips in the morning on weekdays.

So effectively in the morning, we would be going from thirty minutes service to every hour. We're not seeing consistent ridership and with where we are with funding and such, we do have to still make some reductions. And these trips have very uneven ridership from some days it's very, very low to some days it's okay. And we're just it's not like they won't have a ride, it's just they'll have the other trip in the early morning to go on. And then the change to Route 15, there's two.

One of them is and this was a request to South High School staff, is that we go back to going around South High School, so the East Roberta Tenney Loop every trip on weekdays instead of just the before and after school trips because they do have students that use it throughout the day, some of their programs. We definitely have time to do this and it should boost ridership somewhat. So we're definitely in favor of that. And then we're also proposing eliminating the six fifteen weekday trip on Route 15 due to low ridership. With that, I could take any questions.

One thing in the city administrator did ask Alex and I just to kind of provide an update. He will be to the council about where we are in service levels. If this is approved we will be in the city. The city service level of hours will be down to nineteen ninety levels. We'll be about at that level. Thank you.

Kevin Riley makes a motion to accept the proposed service changes for Route 59 And 15.

Piper seconds.

Any discussion? We'll go ahead and take a vote. O'Donnell, aye.

Kevin Riley, aye. Piper, aye.

Motion passes. We'll move to Item 6A.

6A, real quick, just the first quarter ridership summary. We have on the fixed route service, we did see a decrease of about 9% from January to March 2025 compared to 2024. One thing I'd just point out is we did have most of that period, we had a 24% reduction in service hours. So 9% plus some unfavorable weather. When you look at those two factors, it is not as bad or it doesn't look as bad.

But also one of the things our big ridership efficiency measure is passengers per revenue hour increased system wide to 9% from our nine rides from 7.6 over the same period in 2024. So that was an 18%. So we were more efficient with that. So that was good. And then just real quickly, our Metro lift ridership continues to grow. First quarter, it was up 15% compared to 2024. And we're at this highest level since 2012. We're probably going to be around 15,000 rides on that service for the year.

You.

All right. Any other items? That we are adjourned.

Thanks.