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Home My WebLink About2013-56 Mass Transit Report for September 10, 2013MASS TRANSIT Communication No. 2013 -56 Subcommittee of the PCDP Date: 9.10.13 Members: steph b., dan t., russell j.,, jon o., june c., sharon d., terry d., marty m., ferry r., mark h., hannah h. Marty Mimmack, MTS Chair. Madam chair, Mr. Brown and members of the action committee, on behalf of the MT subcommittee of the PCDP, I'm here to transmit the meeting Notes for our meeting held on August 27th, 2013 at the Kea` au Com. Cent. From now on we will not refer to them as MINUTES instead we will call them "meeting notes" to more accurately reflect their content, intent and the fact that they were not generated under formal rules, such as Roberts rules of order. Also, from now on, I will be using, and I'll encourage my subcommittee members to use, the following standard editing nomenclature: 1. parenthesis ( ) for suggested deletions and 2. underscore for additions. This is an effort to increase communication, transparency and tracking of changes. We also now have our Members Roster and each meeting's attendance noted for your reference. For this meeting the Notes were recorded by Hannah Hedrick and edited be me. They are on the back of this pa for your reference. Because of attendance difficulties, the committee is looking for a volunteer that can to lvt� Meeting Notes when Hannah is away. There were a few highlights that are relevant. 1. The subcommittee decided to go back to MTA Administrator Tiffany Kai with a letter requesting more information regarding the decision making criteria MTA uses for establishing infrastructure, bus stops and new routes.) The communication will also ask for related policies, route -level ridership data and statistics, and other current proposals pertinent to implementation of the PCDP Mass transit priorities. 2. Additionally, we discussed Hawaii County Council Bill 108, that at the time was at the committee level concerning the issuance of ANNUAL PASSES and other discounted bus rider passes for students, seniors and disabled. I personally testified "in favor" of the bill since it contained some long desired improvements to bus fare structures. One of our members is an experienced bus driver and is working on this issue and Oreggor Ilagan, who initially voted NO along with Mr. Yoshimoto has stepped up to make amendments that would eliminate the ANNUAL PASSES, because of concerns over theft and fraud, and further reduce monthly costs for students, seniors and disabled from 45 to 30 dollars a month. This Bill has advanced to Council as of August 20th. The subcommittee plans on testifying about the bill as a group. 3. We are continuing to gather information on the current federal funding initiative for mass transit named MAP -21 on the FTA website. Rusty Jones, one of our subcommittee members is working on behalf of Mark Hinshaw's groups to develop a set of reference materials that the County of Hawaii might tap to help expand our hele -on bus service. Through discussion with elected representatives, Jon Olson, discovered that there is a sever lack of any personnel on the State Level that cold answer the phone on federal grant matters concerning the Millions of dollars we should be applying for. Of course that is only a phone call that won't be made because there is no one at the county level to make the call. 4. The Subcommittee is following up on our request to have Councilmember Kern attend one of our meeting so we can discuss his plans to have a Kea "ua bus terminal on the Shipman Park side of Highway 11. Thanks for y our time and efforts. Respectfully submitted. If you have any questions, I'm available at your convenience. Aloha. MASS TRANSIT Subcommittee of the PCDP August 27,2013 - Mee #in Notes Notes were compiled by Hannah Hedrick and edited by Marty Mimmack using the following standard editing nomenclature, parenthesis ()for suggested deletions and underscore for additions. Chair Marty Mimmack called the meeting to order at the Kea'a Community Center. Members introduced themselves and welcomed Chris Cholas. ■ Members present are listed below; members absent are indicated by an "X. MT Subcommittee Roster Chris Cholas -HDRC cscholas@ hawai i .rr.com Dan Taylor -AC dtaylor009C@wildblue.net Hannah Hedrick hedrickhneca@aol.com X Jerry Reiss - j e rpat .98 h i lo @ gmai l .com Jon Olson — Transit Commission jon631 @earthlink.net June Conant -AC jumemc @vahoo.com ( ) x Mark Hinshaw - PVTC bat l e ysdad @ hawai i an to l .net Marty Mimmack - MT Chair mimmackmotivational @yahoo.coM Rusty Jones - rustyinpunaC@gmaii.com ( ) x Sharon Daun — AC to rrydaun2006 @yahoo .co m ( ) x Terry Daun Stephanie Bath stephbath@gmall.com 1. Stephanie Bath August 4 email: Based on emails sent to the MT member list, Marty requested that members filter communications through him and that they address personal issues in individual emails. 2. Meetin g Announcements: September 10 PCDP AC meeting at Kea'au Community Center; September 24 Mass Transit Subcommittee meeting and subsequent meetings will be held at the Kea' au Community Center. 3. Review of July 23, 2013, MTS meeting notes: Marty's revised notes included comments received subsequent to the Jul 23 meeting, including follow -up to the meeting with Tiffany Kai and Marlene q y Ha p ai's suggestion that going after mass transit funding related to MAP -21 is the County's responsibility. 4. New Business A: Preparing for, conducting, and follow -up to NITS meetings (Marty's survey): Attendees P g expressed their preference for a relatively "informal" process, guided by an agenda, with participation "refereed" b y Marty. Chair All official subcommittee follow up is to be filtered through Marty. Civil, respectful communication was emphasized. B: Mass Transit Criteria: Stephanie reported on her email exchange with Kristin Hashhimoto, who attended the July 23 meeting on behalf of Greggor Ilagen, District 4 Council person. Stephanie requested Kristin's assistance in getting the official MTA vision and mission statements (July 31 ), Kristin responded as follows: "MASS TRANSIT Mission Statement: To improve the lifestyle of the residents of the County of Hawaii by increasing their mobility, and providing accessible transportation alternatives to the private automobile." Attendees focused on follow -up to the communications; the most recent was June Conant's July 11 "thank you" to Tiffany and Bill Brilhante, with requests for ridership statistics and "documentation in regards to a Kea' au bus shelter location on Old Volcano Road and the fact that there are funds in the budget for a shelter there." As indicated in the MTS July minutes and June's report, we have not yet asked for "criteria for establishing new routes." (about MTA's "efforts for federal funding, ") ACTION: Based on the communications and meeting with Tiffany Kai, the PCDP Mass Transit Subcommittee will (inquire) draft a letter to Tiffany Kai requesting (provide information) information about the decision making criteria MTA uses for establishing infrastructure, bus stops and new routes.) The communication will also ask for related policies, route -level ridersh data and statistics, and other current proposals pertinent to implementation of the PCDP Mass transit priorities. C: Bill 108: Marty, Stephanie, and Jon testified, as individuals, at the County Council hearing related to Bill 108, on reduced mass transit fares. Attendees expressed concerns about reduced MTA income, security of passes, and economic burdens to riders. ACTION: Rusty will draft a proposal related to a reasonable departure/destination fare structure for MTS submission as testimony to the County Council. 5. Unfinished Business A: Tiffany Kai letter follow -up: See New Business, Transit Criteria Action, above. B: MAP -- 21: Rusty reported that the State of Hawaii is sitting in millions of dollars related to MAP 21. Jon reported that the communication link between the county and State is not functioning but that someone will soon be identified to "pick up the phone." He also learned that the County, to date, has not applied directly for MAP 21 funding. Rusty, Jon, and Dan Taylor will continue to follow -up (report on) and make recommendations to the MTS on MAP 21 that impact policies, data, statistics and Proposals. (issues.) C: Discussion regarding inviting Zendo Kern to an upcoming MTS meeting: ACTION: Stephanie will provide Marty with the issues she would like to see covered in a letter inviting Zendo Kern to attend a MTS meeting; Marty will refine, circulate for input, and send. Agenda for Next Meeting: Marty will build and distribute a draft agenda related to the "ACTIONS" reported above, as well as to other relevant issues. 1 September 11, 2013 Honorable Zendo Kern Hawaii County Council Member District 5 25 Aupuni St. Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Dear Councilmember Kern: MASS TRANSIT SUBCOMMITTEE of the Puna Community Development Plan I'm writing on behalf of the Mass Transit Subcommittee of the Puna Community Development Plan (PCDP). The subcommittee is very interested in your ideas related to improving bus service in your district and would like to invite you to one of our upcoming meetings. The number one priority of our subcommittee is assisting the Mass Transit Agency (MTA) in the implementation a Hub and Spoke bus system for Puna. We would like to discuss ways we can work together to help the MTA implement the Hub and Spoke routing method as proposed in the 2008 PCDP as amended. It has come to our attention that you have identified a location on the "Shipman Park" side of Highway 11 in Kea'au for a bus terminal. Having a bus terminal in the secondary hub of Kea'au is desirable in the future as resources present themselves. our Mass Transit Subcommittee has the following questions: 1. Where is the exact location of the proposed site? 2. How was this site determined? 3. When and how was community input requested or received in determining the location? What was the community input? This is an exciting time as the AC and its subcommitees assist the County in implementing the PCDP. We encourage all Councilmembers to support this by channeling related discussions and pertinent items to the AC. In this way the people can have an active roll in the development of our community. Cont'd on next page Our next two meetings when our key members are available are: • September 27th at 6:30 p.m. at the Kea au Com. cent. • November 26th at 6:30 p.m. at the Kea'au Com. cent. We look forward to hearing from you soon about when you will be able to attend. For your convenience, you may reply via email: mimmackmotivational@yahoo.com Or by phone at 808-315 -7286 Or using the Post Office by writing to my personal address: P.O. Box 1 0748 Hilo, Hl 98721 Sincerely, Martin Mimmack, Chair, Mass Transit Subcommittee of the PCDP