Re: Recap of Recent Legislative Activities

Board Box

JULY 28, 2010

Item / Board Box Item / Staff / Pages /
1.  / Recap of Recent Legislative Activities for June 2010 / A. Colaiace / 2-3
2.  / Out of State Travel / K. Helin / 4
3.  / Update on appeals Panel Selection / S. Frye / 5-6
4.  / ADEPT Software Implementation Update / S. Chang / 6
5.  / Key Performance Indicators May 2010 / A. Torales / 8-12
6.  / Financial Report for May 2010 / K. Kuo / 13-25
7.  / Executive Summary Update for May 2010 / S. Chang/S. Frye/L. Pacheco/A. Colaiace / 26-30
8.  / Operations Report for May 2010 / A. Torales / 31-46

BOARD BOX ITEM #1

JULY 28, 2010

TO: BOARD OF DIRECTORS

FROM: ANDRE COLAIACE, DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PLANNING AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

RE: RECAP OF RECENT LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITIES

Federal Legislative Activities:

Project Administrator Evie Palicz and I traveled up to Sacramento to brief key lawmakers on Access Services activities and how cuts in state transit funding end up affecting our riders. Our state advocate, Jason Gonsalves, set up and attended the meetings with us.

We met with a number of key legislators and staff including: Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, who chairs the Assembly Transportation Committee; Senator Bob Huff, who serves as Vice Chair of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee; Art Bauer, the Staff Director for the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee; Michael Webb, Deputy Legislative Affairs Secretary for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office; and staff from Senate Transportation and Housing Chair Alan Lowenthal’s office.

In other news, last week the California State Controller’s office announced the regional allocation amounts for the $400 million statewide State Transit Assistance Program (STA) allocation, authorized as part of the "gas tax swap" budget package signed in late March by Governor Schwarzenegger. The California Transit Association writes: “This is a great victory for public transit and our riders, resulting directly from your Association's hard work earlier this year, in conjunction with our members, in opposing the Governor's proposal to completely eliminate state transit funding and in rallying support within the Legislature to get these funds appropriated from the existing Public Transportation Account (PTA) balance. Our Association’s litigation victory last year also created the clear path to making this $400 million allocation possible, by establishing the precedent that transit funds should no longer be diverted to other purposes, leading to the large PTA balance.”

In addition, the Association’s transit funding protection initiative, known as the Local Taxpayer, Public Security, and Transportation Protection Act of 2010, has qualified for the November ballot and is now designated by the Secretary of State as Proposition 22. The initiative, co-sponsored by the California Transit Association, the League of California Cities, and the California Alliance for Jobs, will protect nearly $2 billion annually in public transit funding if passed in November. Between now and then, the “Yes on 22” campaign will be working hard to educate voters about what Prop. 22 will do.

If you have any concerns or questions, please feel free to contact me at 213/270-6007.

BOARD BOX ITEM #2

JULY 28, 2010

TO: BOARD OF DIRECTORS

FROM: KRISTINE HELIN, SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

RE: OUT OF STATE TRAVEL

The following is a list of out-of state paratransit meetings for July 2010.

July 8 – 9, 2010 Salina, KS

Salina, KS, Factory Trip

The below mentioned Access Services staff and traveled to Salina, KS to attend a Pre-production meeting at the El Dorado factory. Hotel & airfare were paid by the factory.

Rick Streiff, Fleet Manager

July 19 – 23, 2010 Washington, D.C.

Washington D.C., ENO Leadership Training

The below mentioned Access Services staff traveled to Washington, DC to attend the ENO Leadership Training course.

F Scott Jewell, Deputy Executive Director, Administration

July 17 – 20, 2010 Eugene, OR

Eugene, OR, APTA Board Member Seminar

The below mentioned Access Services staff and Board members traveled to Eugene, OR, for the APTA Transit Board Members Seminar.

Dolores Nason, Board Member

Doran Barnes, Board Member

Sandy Varga, Board Member

Donna Cisco, Executive Assistant

BOARD BOX ITEM #3

JULY 28 2010

TO: BOARD OF DIRECTORS

FROM: SEAN FRYE, DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER SUPPORT SERVICES

RE: UPDATE ON APPEALS PANEL SELECTION

Due to a rare set of circumstances, the July QSS meeting was canceled because neither its Chair or Vice-Chair could be in attendance. Therefore, at its upcoming August 2010 meeting, the QSS will be asked to brainstorm and then submit ideas about possible parameters to the proposed “new” Conduct and No Show Appeal Hearing Panelists Selection Process” as laid out in Item 6 of the June 17, 2010 Board Box. The QSS will be asked to consider several items before making and sending its recommendations to the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) during its September 2010 meeting. Items to be considered and discussed include: (1) An understanding of what is being proposed-- a revision or a reworking only of the non-staff Appeals Panel selection process and not a reworking of Conduct and No-Show policies; (2) A commitment and ability of Panelists to participate in both types of suspension hearings: Conduct and No-Shows; (3) Terms of service: e.g., concurrent with the panelist's CAC term of appointment, or annual term (January-December) as is specified in the original policy wording?; (4) A discussion about impartiality: Are potential non-staff panelists to be bypassed for selection if they themselves are either under threat of suspension or have unexcused No-Shows at the time of a pending appeals hearing?; (5) Guidance on what should staff do, if in the rare instance, no selected panelist can be found to serve on an appeals panel.

BOARD BOX ITEM #4

JULY 28, 2010

TO: BOARD OF DIRECTORS

FROM: STEVE CHANG, DIRECTOR OF CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION

RE: ADEPT SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION UPDATE

In April 2009, DDS StrataGen ADEPT software was introduced to the Access operation in the Southern Region. The software implementation was conducted in several phases. Reservation and scheduling modules were the first two modules to be implemented in April 2009, followed by the implementation of the dispatching module in mid January 2010.

In preparation for the software implementation, extensive planning and coordination was conducted between DDS StrataGen staff, Global Paratransit staff, and Access IT and Operations staff during the entire software implementation process. All software users went through extensive training on the software interface, usage, and functionalities prior to the software launch date. One of the primary focuses for the software implementation team is to launch the ADEPT software with minimal impact to the customers, as well as, to the overall operation performance in the Southern Region.

Every software implementation is unique and different, especially one that requires the software to learn and adapt new business rules, parameters, and service expectations. From the ADEPT software implementation experience, many lessons were learned by staff. The knowledge obtained from the software implementation experience will potentially be used in future ADEPT software implementations in other service regions.

Since the ADEPT software implementation in April 2009, the software implementation team has experienced various challenges in getting the software to work to the expected level within the Access operating environment. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to operate the software in what is referred to as “dynamic environment”, which is using reservation, scheduling, and dispatching modules simultaneously. The software transition team also had to constantly monitor and adjust various software parameters to gain control and flexibility in order to maintain expected levels of service output.

A decision was made by Access staff in April of 2010 to suspend the usage of the ADEPT dispatching module due to lack of control and flexibility in the dispatching functionality. This action allowed the software implementation team to review, organize, and discuss all of the outstanding issues with respect to the ADEPT software so they can be addressed and resolved. It also provided opportunity for the software implementation team to develop an action plan and identify ways to gain better understanding of the scheduling engine as well as the dispatching module.

To enhance our understanding of the software Access and Global Paratransit staff visited New York City Transit (NYCT) in June 2010 in order to observe firsthand how NYCT utilizes the ADEPT software in what is currently the largest ADA paratransit operation in the country. Additionally, NYCT site was chosen because they have been using the ADEPT software for over eight years. Various observations were made by staff from the site visit in New York, which were incorporated into the action plan.

Since the site visit to NYCT, the software implementation team has gained additional insights to the ADEPT software as well as answered some of the questions developed during the re-assessment process. The team has developed a software re-launch plan scheduled for August 2010 as an attempt to determine whether ADEPT software is a viable tool to be used in the Los Angeles Access operation. The software re-launch will only focus on using reservation and scheduling modules within the ADEPT software, which was the original intent in the project scope. Current DDS software will continue to be used for all dispatching functions during the software re-launch.

Lastly, Access has retained Delta Services Group to help us identify “Success” measurements for the software implementation. Success measurements are vital to the software implementation process by providing tangible and measurable benchmarks.

BOARD BOX ITEM #5

JULY 28, 2010

TO: BOARD OF DIRECTORS

FROM: ALFREDO TORALES, OPERATIONS ANALYST

RE: KEY PREFORMANCE INDICATORS

The following graphs represent key system indicators for the fiscal year as of May 2010. The goal of this communication is to keep everyone informed of the current service performance level in the field.

The operations team uses this and other performance information to monitor our service providers’ performance. Information is also used to determine the level of service that our customers are experiencing when using Access Paratransit.

BOARD BOX ITEM #6

JULY 28, 2010

TO: BOARD OF DIRECTORS

FROM: KANDY KUO, MANAGER OF FINANCE

RE: FINANCIAL REPORT FOR MAY 2010

Attached for your review are the financial reports for May 2010.

Revised and Approved FY 2009/10 Budget to Actual Fiscal Year-to-Date Comparison:

¨  Passengers: 0.1% over budget

¨  Contract Revenue Miles: 2.6% under budget

¨  Trips: 2.7% under budget

¨  Completed Eligibility Interviews: 10.7% under budget

¨  Average Trip Distance: 0.1% over budget at 9.48 miles

¨  Total cost per Passenger (before depreciation): 2.5% under budget

¨  Administration Function is 11.0% under budget

¨  Eligibility Determination Function is 5.3% under budget

¨  Paratransit Operations Function is 1.6% under budget

Attached are the following reports for your review:

¨  Statistical Comparison: May 2009 to May 2010

¨  Expenses by Functional Area

¨  Budget to Actual Comparison of Statistics

¨  YTD Budget Results

¨  Graph: YTD PAX Cost Comparison

¨  Detailed Financial Reports

2

Expenses by Functional Area

For the YTD Period Ending May 2010

% of
Cost / YTD
Actual / YTD
Budget / Variance / % Over
<Under>
Budget / % Over
<Under>
Previous Yr
Paratransit Operations / 89.6% / $ 74,583,756 / $ 75,832,649 / $ (1,248,893) / -1.6% / 2.3%
Eligibility Determination / 5.1% / 4,245,946 / 4,485,215 / (239,269) / -5.3% / 7.5%
CTSA/Ride Information / 0.4% / 353,855 / 381,478 / (27,622) / -7.2% / -10.3%
Administrative / 4.9% / 4,070,373 / 4,572,788 / (502,416) / -11.0% / 5.2%
Total Exp before Depreciation / $ 83,253,930 / $ 85,272,103 / (2,018,200) / -2.4%% / 2.6%

Statistics - - For the YTD Period Ended May 2010

YTD
Actual / YTD
Budget / Variance / % Over
<Under>
Budget / % Over
<Under>
Previous Yr
Number of Completed Cert Interviews / 31,498 / 35,277 / (3,779) / -10.7% / 11.5%
Number of PAX / 2,532,779 / 2,529,800 / 2,979 / 0.1% / -1.5%
Number of Contract Revenue Miles / 18,278,110 / 18,759,770 / (481,660) / -2.6% / -3.7%
Number of Trips / 1,928,552 / 1,981,604 / (53,052) / -2.7% / -4.2%
Average Trip Distance / 9.48 / 9.47 / 0.01 / 0.1% / 0.5%
Purchased Transportation Cost
Cost per Trip / $ 34.58 / $ 34.16 / $ 0.42 / 1.2% / 1.1%
Cost per PAX / $ 26.33 / $ 26.76 / $ (0.43) / -1.6% / -1.7%
Cost per Contract Rev Mile / $ 3.65 / $ 3.61 / $ 0.04 / 1.1% / 0.5%
Total Cost per Pax before
depreciation / $ 32.87 / $ 33.71 / $ (0.84) / -2.5% / 4.2%

Budget Results for FY 2009/2010

For the YTD Period Ending May 2010

YTD
Actual / YTD
Budget / Variance Over <Under>
Budget / % Over <Under> Budget / % Over
<Under>
Previous Yr
Total Exp before Capital @ May 2010 / $83,253,930 / $ 85,272,130 / $ (2,018,200) / -2.4% / 2.6%
Revenue
Passenger Fares / 4,602,969 / 4,329,882 / (273,087)
Other Revenue / 388,216 / 360,000 / (28,216)
Total Revenue / 4,991,185 / 4,689,882 / (301,303) / -6.4% / 12.1%
Capital Expenditures
Vehicles / 2,651,788 / 2,434,563 / 217,225
Other Capital Expenditures / 709,510 / 695,993 / 13,517
Total Capital Expenditures / $ 3,361,298 / $ 3,130,556 / 230,742 / 7.4%
Under Budget @ May 2010 / $ (2,088,761)

Adjustments:

Board Approved capital purchase (30 replacement vehicles per PO) 1,279,013

Board Approved capital purchase (additional replacement vehicles) 221,100

Board approved capital project (SmartDrive Systems) 563,618

Total Adjusted Under Budget YTD May 31, 2010 (25,030)
YTD COST PER PASSENGER BEFORE DEPRECIATION AND CAPITAL COST