Administration Center Training Room 1 st Floor Committee Members Present Dorothy Hudson, Chair Frederic Bigio, Vice Chair Scott Whiterell Steve Bruegger Ronald Collins SCAT Personnel Present Rocky Burke, Director Rick Ferris, Fixed Route Operation Manager Kendra Keiderling, Marketing Sarah Blanchard, Senior Planner Phil Lieberman, Transit Planner Karen Roland, Customer Service Manager Lauren Fragomeni, Customer Service Gary Speidel, Paratransit Operation Manager Reba Skwire-Cline, Procurement Bob Fields, Safety & Training Officer Barbara Garrett, Technology Members of the Public Marcia Saunders Leon Moyer Joan O Brien Committee Members Absent Dee Ann Lewis Raquel Cummings Vacant STAR Student SCAT Personnel Absent Cynthia Zambella, Finance Manager Introduction of Rocky Burke Call Meeting to Order by Chair, Dorothy Hudson, at 2:02 P.M. Introduction of Board and Staff in attendance Open to the Public (please limit to 3-minutes per speaker) MARCIA SAUNDERS Would like the bus services to be expanded on Sunday to the Fruitville area, considering some of the people who use the Greyhound service, and that would like to head to the airport. Would be nice if the Route 15 ran as far as Fruitville as well so people can get to jobs down that way, and go the recreational areas down there as well. Would also like to see an increase in shelters around the area due to weather in Florida. Asked to have the meetings published more in advanced. Page 1 of 5
LEON MOYER Is frustrated that he makes a complaint to the website and doesn t hear back from anyone for quite some time regarding his complaint until he send an email into the county commissioner then he gets a response. Has an issue with the bus schedule; says that the buses are running 5 minutes early and that the drivers need to pull over to a safe area and get back on schedule. The bike racks that we use to go over to Lido are way too high. Would like the driver s pay scale to be increased. JOAN O BRIEN Reading a letter she wrote commending some of the drivers that are never too busy to answer her questions and take her to her various doctors appointments. Open to the public closed. Approval of Agenda for January 8, 2015: Approved unanimously with one amendment from Ronald Collins to allow the agenda to add new items of business, by a motion by Dorothy Hudson seconded by Frederic Bigio. Minutes for December 16, 2014: Opposed by Scott Whiterell on a technicality because the staff members names are marked present and were not. Would like the minutes on the website so that people can take a look at them. Postponed motion until next meeting. Discussion: Kendra Keiderling, Marketing: Outcome from the Florida Department of Transportation conference. We submitted in four different categories and SCAT won in all four of those categories. We came in 3 rd place for the real time information on the signs. Signage on the buses we came in 3 rd place for as well, rebranding we came in 3 rd place and for our music video we came in 1 st place, which one Best of the Best. For 2015 we are working with different organizations who host events in Sarasota to help transport people during those events to elevate some traffic on the roads. We are partnering with Visit Sarasota- they are giving SCAT a full page to promote us and using public transportation while visiting Sarasota. Page 2 of 5
Phil Lieberman, Transit Planner: Ridership data were up about 2.3% in riders. As of 2015 we are currently up in numbers from this same time last year. Farebox recovery is around 20% on our busier routes. One of our lowest is the 90X which is only at 4% recovery. The cash fares are accounted for in the GFI farebox systems, the passes are based on an imputed value that is based on the amount of revenue collected for all the pass sales divided by the number of riders who use the passes. This is an estimated value of $0.37 cents per trip. Karen Roland, Customer Service Manager: Customer complaints we are working on tracking the different types of complaints. Explained the process of how a complaint is taken care of at SCAT. Rick explained that we are not out to get the drivers we are here to reinforce better customer service and use some of these complaints as learning experience to better serve the community. Suggestion from Fred to put a card on the bus so that passengers can let the driver know themselves that they are doing a great job. Would like to get feedback from the committee on what they would like to see from SCAT in future meetings. Discussed the annual report. Would like to update the committee on what is going on with our Ride Guides. Committee member suggested a comment card and box be put on the bus for comments and suggestions from the community. Suggestion from a committee member would like to know where to find what rules, regulations, and policy s as to operating on private property. Concern from a committee member in regards to strollers, and shopping carts that not all drivers follow what is said in the ride guide books. Sarah Blanchard,Senior Planner: Went over route 9 in North Port proposal to consolidate four routes into one route: 1) No one would need to make a transfer to a different bus with these changes, and they would run hourly. Page 3 of 5
2) Would need to delete a few segments from some routes. The loop on S. Biscayne will be deleted in one direction. The furthest point you would have to walk would be a quarter of a mile. 2) Recommend stop be taken out of the Shops at North Port and the stop be made on the street. Like it would be at the library, health department, and the shops at Cocoplum. Discussion on the where we can put a Park and Ride on Venice island. Possibly put it at the stop by the library and using their over flow parking lot. Will be meeting with the library staff to finalize this. Status of the system redesign in regards to relocating our downtown transfer station and the impact on any of our SCAT routes, consideration is still on the table. We told the board of commissioners a comprehensive operations analysis study. We are going to be hiring consultants to help us do this. This is still several months out we are hoping to have this done in August 2015. Reba Skwire-Cline, Procurement: The RFP for the privatization for paratransit. It is advertised right now but due to that we are limited as to how much we can discuss. The proposals are due on January 14, 2015 at 2:30 P.M. asked to have the committee placed on the email list for when the meetings would be in regards to the procurement meetings. Advised Committee that meetings are published on County calendar at scgov.net. Rick Ferris, Fixed Route Operation Manager: Discussed an update on the extended service hours for routes 15, 30, 17, 12. We put extra service out at night for UTC and we are not getting the ridership that we thought we would. We re averaging about ten people a night and they are riding the route 12 bus. After the peak is over we will take a look at it again with a recommendation but service will stay as is until April 15 th, 2015. We had a meeting with The Benderson properties in regards to the stop at UTC. The intended stop will be located southeast on Desoto to run every 15 minutes. If everything gets approved we are looking at breaking ground soon after we get approval. CACPT Annual Board Report Review: What is the purpose of CACPT Went over information from the CACPT workshop- which bullet points that you would like to discuss with the commissioners. Went over the low vision application. Page 4 of 5
Discussion on a chase bus for when a bus breaks down. Would like to work towards a minimum time for customers to wait until a chase bus comes. Requesting improvements be made to all bus stops that exhibit unsafe conditions. Request for an emergency phone to be put at the Cattlemen transfer station. Committee requesting badges for all members to ride for free. Request Sunday service and free rides on election days. Supports Greyhound bus using the Cattlemen transfer station. Meeting: Meetings to be scheduled quarterly, on the third Thursday April 16 th, 2015 until further notice. Request staff to provide documentation of last meeting to the new team members. Adjournment at 4:17 p.m. Page 5 of 5