Good morning, 9 o'clock on the dot.
We will go ahead and get the Metrolink Audit
and Finance Committee meeting underway
Friday, September 8th, 2023,
calling the meeting to order at 9 a.m.
Board Secretary, will you please do housekeeping?
Certainly, because we do have directors
participating virtually.
We will be doing a roll call vote for every action item.
We do request that directors participating
via Zoom, use the hand raising feature
so that the chair knows when to call on you
and that those participating virtually
also keep their cameras on so that we can see you.
And for those in the boardroom,
we ask that you state your name when you speak
so that those at home and those watching the stream
can know who's speaking.
And that concludes housekeeping.
Thank you so much.
Item number two, the safety briefing.
Calling on BJ Takushi,
Senior Manager of Compliance to conduct a safety briefing.
Hi, good morning, everyone.
So to start off our safety briefing,
if we need to evacuate the building,
we will head to my left of these doors.
There's a set of doors that leads to a stairwell down.
Down the stairs out into the plaza level.
We'll meet in the right side of the building.
In case there is an earthquake,
we will drop, cover, and hold
until the shaking has stopped.
In case anyone needs CPR,
I will be the designated employee.
And first aid and AEDs are out in the lobby.
We can ask our partners over at Metro Transit Security
to help us activate some of those.
In case there is an active shooter,
our mantra is run, hide, and fight.
And for those of you that are joining our call virtually,
just make sure you know your exits,
in case you have to evacuate.
And lastly, I would like to invite everyone
that is here from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. We have a demonstration, we have equipment
familiarization for our first responders on the track level at track 15. If you
guys are available, you're more than welcome to walk some of the trains.
We have Amtrak as well. That concludes the safety briefing.
Excellent and thank you for bringing that to our attention that over there on
track 15. Next is the Pledge of Allegiance, Oura Najarian. Please go ahead and lead us.
Thank you. Please rise and join me in the pledge to our flag. Thank you very much. We
are off to item number five, public comments this would be for any non-advised item. Roll
call. Oh, I skipped a roll call. I just figured we were all here. It's been a long few hours.
Roll call, please. Sure. Director Middleton? Present. Vice Chair McAllen?
Director de tray director new in here director Murphy there director Chavez
here thank you director Corcoran director Najarian director O'Connor
director Hughes Leslie chair Bergson here we do have a quorum present okay now
I'll get back on track item 5 is going to be public comments do we have any
members of the public wishing to speak on any items not on the agenda we have
not received any written public comment or any request to speak so we'll move
on to the regular calendar this will be item 6a approval of the minutes from
July 14th 2023 any of my colleagues have any comments questions or revisions that
they'd like to see I'll move approval najarian motion on the promise was second
and a second all those in favor oh we have to do roll call vote because we
we have the live stream, the Zoom, so Madam Clerk, please.
Vice Chairman Callan.
Yes.
Director Nguyen.
Yes.
Director Chavez.
Aye.
Director Najarian.
Yes.
Chair Bergson.
Yes.
That motion carried unanimously.
Excellent.
Item 6B, the amendment to the fiscal year
2023-2024 budget, addition of revenue service
to the Antelope Valley line, continuing expenses
for the Emergency Railroad Track Stabilization Project
in San Clemente, Track Mile Post 206.8 San Clemente No. 1,
Continuing Expenses for the Support Wall Project
at Track Mile Post 204.6 San Clemente No. 2,
and the Oxnard Settlement being presented
by Danny Bueno, Senior Budget Analyst.
The committee will be presenting Item 6B,
Requested Amendment to the FY24 Operating Budget.
This is an item which requests for committee action.
On June 23rd, 2023, the board adopted
the FY24 operating budget.
And after adoption, three items were identified
that do require a budget amendment.
This report identifies those items
and their impact on the adopted budget.
This first item that you see on the slide before you
is related to additional service
on the Antelope Valley line requested by Metro
to better serve their customer base.
This added service is planned to start in October and will result
in an increase to Metro's member support of about $1.7 million as well as a reduction
to the member support of the other member agencies because of a change
in everyone's share of train miles.
Next slide, please.
The second item is related to continuing activities at the two San Clemente slide locations
and is a request to carry forward the balance of unspent funds from FY23 as shown here.
Please note that the final amounts available to carry forward are subject to change
as we are still in the process of closing the FY23 books.
Any change to the amounts shown here will be noted in the agenda item that is scheduled
to go to the board later this month.
Next slide, please.
The third and final item is related to the settlement reached in the matter
of the 2015 Oxnard incident.
Metrolink's share of the settlement is $3.5 million and is allocated
to the member agencies, as shown on this slide.
Next slide, please.
These budget amendments are contingent on approval
from each member agency's board of directors,
and upon adoption of the amendments,
the third and fourth quarter billings to member agencies
will be adjusted to bring the totals
in line with the amendment.
Staff request that the committee recommend the adoption
of this amendment to the board,
and that concludes my report.
Thank you very much.
Do you see a hand raised, Director Nguyen or?
Yes, good morning, this is Director Nguyen.
Thank you for the presentation.
I have some outstanding questions
and significant concerns related to the Oxnard
on how it's been handled and the lack of communication
that's led to the difficult position that we're now in.
While I recognize that the critical and sensitive nature
this issue and respect this agency's responsibility to meet the terms of the settlement agreement.
I also have a duty to the OCTA board to ensure that all the financial investments in funding
to MetroLink have been thoroughly reviewed, embedded, and are consistent with the uses
as originally approved.
My first question would be, Co. Kendall, how can MetroLink commit to settlement terms without
a fully approved funding source?
Thank you, Director Dwin.
This will probably be a tag team between myself and our general counsel.
As the board will recall, this is an action, this lawsuit spans somewhere on the order
of seven to nine years and went through numerous closed sessions related to the nature of where
we would end up with the settlement.
We did not have an idea at the time when the board took action to settle what the entire
cost was going to be so it was not included in any budget at the time.
It was communicated with member agencies that at some point when we did have that settlement
cost we would need to come back before the member agencies to identify the cost and to
request that the, based on the formulas that we use, that each member agency
contribute the share that is, that was presented by Mr. Bueno. So based on that
we were, we proceeded in that fashion. I don't know if Mr. Del Rio has anything
further that he can add, but that was the upshot of it all, is that again we did
not have an idea of how much the settlement was going to be until the
settlement was arrived at and agreed upon by the Board,
at which point then we had to even wait a little bit,
close to a year longer for all the parties
to sign off on that agreement, that settlement agreement,
at which point then we knew how much the dollar amount
would be that we would need to come back
from our self-insured retention to cover those expenses.
And I do see Mr. Del Rio has his speaker light on.
I would just add from a legal standpoint,
This board unanimously approved this settlement
and all the details related to the settlement,
including the SIR in slides that were presented
back in June of 22.
There was a status update in March of this year
as to how the settlement was progressing.
There were multiple parties and it's very complicated,
very expensive litigation that went on for about seven years.
So for all the various parties and the multitude
of law firms that were involved,
it took some time for each of them
to review in detail the settlement agreement,
comment, and make whatever changes had been agreed upon.
So from a legal counsel to board communication,
we could not have provided more detail
than we had provided, and of course,
this board unanimously approved the settlement.
Thank you.
I have a follow-up question on
what would be the contingency plan
if the fiscal year 23 surplus
Is it realized or if one of the member agencies does not agree to fund their share?
Director Wynn, if there's a couple different questions there to unpack but if the surplus
is not adequate, there are a couple of different options.
One of those options would be each of the member agencies back in late July were invoiced
for the share that each member agency would need to provide.
And so a member agency, one of the options would be if the surplus is not sufficient.
And as I think we've shared from the staff to all member agency staffs,
we believe we are in a solid position, not confirmed yet, admittedly,
but we believe we're in solid position that the surplus from FY23 will be sufficient.
but should a member agency choose not to use that surplus,
the other alternative would be that a member agency
could come in with a straight allocation to Metrolink
to cover that expense.
And then thirdly, in the event that a member agency
chose not to pay that obligation,
then the rest of the cost would be borne
by the other member agencies.
Because we still have a three and a half round numbers,
three and a half million dollar commitment
that we have to make through the settlement agreement.
Thank you.
My last question would be in terms of
how can we ensure more prudent and transparent process
moving forward in terms of this discussion
through the budget,
because in terms of the budget development process
that we've gone through?
Well, there's a, first let me be perfectly clear
that all of these actions, as Mr. Del Rio indicated,
it was a seven year long lawsuit
and the discussions in closed session occurred
certainly my entire time here and I do know it predates me.
I can speak to the fact that given that these are all items
that were being discussed by our board in closed session,
that there was had to be discretion shown
as to how much information we can go back to the member agencies.
That said, I did share with the member agency executive directors and CEOs, as well as members
of the staff from the agencies, that we are getting close to a settlement and there will
be an obligation that our member agencies would need to come up with whatever that cost
is.
So there has been that, that has been shared, and it was shared over the course of the last
last year. Lastly, what I'll say is that I certainly realize that in this role, you
don't get do-overs. You may learn lessons, you don't get do-overs. And so, if there's
anything that I would look at is we had a discussion as related to the development of
the FY24 budget, might there have been enough information that we could have conveyed that
as part of an annual budget? Possibly. But again, we didn't get confirmation from Council
all aspects of the settlement until deep into the spring where we actually knew
what the dollar amount was going to be and when we were going to need to be
able to when we're going to be required to make payment. So you know we did learn
some lessons on how we do that but at the same time I think I can again I can
speak personally the fact that I made it a point to communicate with our member
agencies leaders to let them know that something was coming around in the
corner. And I did see Mr. Del Rio raised his hand. One other comment with regards
to the communication issue. Legal counsel is not directly involved in either the
budget or funding process but Jeff and I were invited to a MAC meeting in June or
July where this issue was presented to the entire MAC and we opened it up for
any questions that they may have had. So the communication from legal enclosed
did reach the MAC in the June-July timeframe and it may have been discussed
in previous MAC meetings, we don't participate in those,
but we did attend the one meeting
to provide a status to those members of the MAC.
Thank you.
Thank you.
In consideration to these outstanding issues
and uncertainties, I'd like to respectfully
ask the committee to consider an alternate recommendation.
It would be to bifurcate the recommended action
so that we have the other three budgeted requests,
the Antelope Valley, Casa Romantica, Cypress Shores,
so that those can proceed with the recommended approval
and either defer or advance to the board
without committee recommendations of budget actions
to the settlement agreement.
What this would do is allow each of our agencies
to work through these areas of concern.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments
and that recommendation.
Mr. McAllen.
Thank you very much.
Don Del Rio, in closed session
was the amount of the SIR identified
when we approved the settlement?
Yes, it was.
We had to do a little bit of projecting,
but going back and looking at the slides,
and maybe I'll let Jeff speak to this,
our projection was pretty darn close
to what the final amount was.
Is that correct, Jeff?
Yes, that's correct.
There was a range presented to try and project
what the ultimate cost would be once the costs concluded.
And our SIR is at a certain level?
Yes, the SIR for this claim is approximately $5.2 million which we would be required
to expend before the insurance kicks in.
So, we did have a number that could have been put into a budget.
Yes, it was not a final number but we did have a projected number.
Thank you, so my question to finance is why did we not include at least a placeholder
or a maximum amount into the budget?
I'll take this, Danny.
In my interactions with the CFO, the preference was going to be,
and this is a, it's a catch-22, if we had placed a number in the budget, which,
and if we'd placed a number in the budget based on a range, it is our experience
at Metrolink that when a question comes up on that front and we don't have specifics,
we have questions come from the member agencies about what is this for?
And because we are not final with where things are,
even though we have a settlement agreement,
the decision was made.
Once we know what the precise number is,
and this is what we communicated to the member agencies
as far back as over a year ago,
that at some point we may have to do a budget amendment
to bring this in.
To your point, Chair McAllen,
I don't get do-overs, I learn lessons.
And in this case, this is one of those areas
where I would go back and I would have said,
we're just gonna have to do that and if member agencies
question that range number, we will just have to explain
and be prepared for the potential of some pushback
on what I'll call a plug number
for lack of a better way of putting it.
Well, you could have put in the maximum amount, not a range.
Sure, no, we could have looked at a number
based on what the range was provided by council
and taken the high end of that range
and probably had the room.
And like I said, that's a lesson learned on our part.
Some of the idiosyncrasies here at Metrolink,
I'm still learning even in my, as I go into my third year.
So that was one of those areas where I identify.
And normally these kinds of settlements
are just included in the budget.
And this, in the past, there's been no issue
because it is in the budget and approved
through the budget process,
which is the normal way of handling this.
The unfortunate part of this is that it was not included
in the budget as it went forward.
Otherwise, we wouldn't have this controversy going on.
Yeah, you know, I think I can understand some
of the discomfort that our member agencies have,
But this is something that there's simply no other choice.
Going to the full board, if it's the intent for member agencies
not to approve their proportion of this 3.5,
I think that sets a very dangerous course of action,
both legally and within the components of our JPA.
We knew that we were going to have, that we had a 5 million SIR that at some point that
was going to have to be paid.
We weren't sure until, you know, the case was developed until we saw certain evidence
that was presented before us that we had any liability in this case, and I think we were
we're all privy to that in closed session.
Are we here to, you know,
spank our CEO and the finance team?
We can do that now.
I have no objection to that.
If we're unhappy with the way it went,
let's do it now, but I'm very hesitant
to bring this to the full board and go through this.
It's, you know, it's something that had to be done.
It was an unfortunate accident.
We didn't know until the very end how much of our expended legal fees
and costs would be accepted by our carriers.
We knew what our amount was, but in the end, they have to say, yeah, okay,
we agree with those amounts.
You do get that set off.
So it was a very fluid situation.
Should it have been, you know, presented to the boards, to the agencies
as we made our budget decisions in May and June?
Yes, but this is just, I think, a unique set of circumstances
that we hope won't occur again.
I think, what are you saying, no do-overs?
Okay, no regrets, whatever.
I think our CEO and finance team and perhaps legal team,
although you don't deal that much
in the budget administration, understand what we're saying.
So, I would acknowledge the remarks by those counties
that share the lack of transparency, but urge that we pass this and just move
on with a lesson learned as the CEO said.
Is that a motion for this item?
I would move the entire motion consisting of the three components.
Okay.
Before we get that, I want to make sure because I know Director Nguyen was talking
about bifurcating and I don't know if that takes a priority over the motion
that was just in a second that was just done. We didn't make it as a motion so
we're good. Can I, may I, Chair McAllen I didn't get to clarify earlier that may I
make a motion I'm not sure of the procedure so may I make a motion on the
bifurcation of the in terms of what I asked to have considered on the
community. The bifurcation would have been an ultimate recommendation to recommend the
action of the other three by your request. Again, the Ana Valley, Casa
Romantica, Cypress Shores. So those proceed and get approved. Whereas the
again, the deference, including the deference or the advance of the board
without the recommendation of the settlement agreement. So that would be a
from mine, yes, from me.
So we, although it didn't have a second
and now we have a motion with a second,
but even aside from all that, here's the thing.
This is an action item to be brought to the board anyway.
So it's going to go to the board, the full board,
and bifurcating this item,
I'm not sure from a legal standpoint
if it makes any difference,
if the whole item's still going to the board,
but it could be bifurcated at the full board meeting.
Is that correct?
That's correct.
The committee onto itself doesn't have the authority
to approve or reject, only move to the full board,
which then could have discussion
and could then bifurcate of each other as a full board.
One other thing I would like to add
that I think is important that any potential delay
in paying this settlement
comes with some very serious consequences.
And if I could have Jeff just very quickly
address those consequences, I think it's important this committee understands that.
If we were to miss the court-approved deadline, there would be very grave ramifications from
that.
Judge Burrell, I'm sure, would be very, very upset.
We would likely be sanctioned, and we would likely have to pay the attorney's fees of
the parties who are moving against us.
Yeah, those are a lot of good reasons to take into account any consideration
So I would just say this we have a motion on the floor to approve the staff recommendation
We had a second
Were there any members of the public wishing to speak on this item?
Nice chairman Callan. Yes director Nguyen. No
director Chavez
aye
Director Najaran. Yes
Chair Burksen. Yes a motion carried with director noin voting. No
Appreciate that that was a little interesting
But you can always request that it be bifurcated or pulled separately at the regular board meeting director
We will move along to item 6c corrective action status update fourth quarter ended June 30th 2023
This is a receive and file item presented by
Elizabeth Schleswarty, the senior manager of audit.
Good morning, Chairman and members of the committee.
Next slide, please.
The board directed internal audit to provide quarterly
updates on the corrective action status
related to past internal and external audits.
For the fourth quarter ended June 2023,
there are five items implemented and verified,
five implemented pending verification,
no past two items and 27 items not yet due.
This concludes my item,
happy to answer if you have any questions.
Very quick report, thank you very much for that.
Do we have any questions from any of my colleagues?
Okay, any members of the public
wishing to speak on this item?
Seeing none, this is a receive and file item.
With no other questions or comments,
that will be the pleasure of this committee,
receive and file.
Moving along to item 6D,
the fiscal year 2023 annual audit activities review.
Again, a receive and file item
presented by Elizabeth Bozwarte,
senior manager of audit.
Next slide, please.
So I'm providing the summarize
internal and external audit activities for fiscal 2023,
along with the status of the fiscal 23 audit plan
as required by the internal audit charter.
Next slide, please.
The auditing standards require that internal auditors
to be independent with respect to the entities
for which they perform audit services.
Internal audit is an independent function
reporting functionally to the board
and administratively to the CEO.
Staff is confirming our independence for fiscal 23.
This concludes my item.
Happy to answer if you have any questions.
Okay, again, you're on a roll.
Thank you for the very precise and quick report.
Do my colleagues, committee members,
have any questions, comments?
Any members of the public wishing to speak on this item?
Seeing none, it's a receive and file item.
Without objection, we will go ahead
and receive and file item 6D.
And move along to item 6E, fiscal year 2023,
internal quality assurance review.
Again, receive and file item presented by, again,
Elizabeth Lizuardi, senior manager of audit.
This is my last item.
Next slide, please.
Internal audit, self-perform internal quality assurance review
on an annual basis and presents the results to the board
as required by the auditing standards.
Staff is reporting on the results of the fiscal 23 review.
Internal audit was also recently peer reviewed
by external team with no reportable findings.
The peer review covered the period of January 2020
through December 2022.
Hench for fiscal 23 internal quality review.
Internal audit focused on the period of January 2023
through June 2023.
and based on the steps performed for the review,
we concluded that our internal quality control system
was in place and operating effectively for fiscal 23.
And this concludes my item.
Happy to answer if you have any questions.
Thank you again.
Do we have any questions or comments
from any committee members?
Other than kudos, good job.
We appreciate those kinds of findings.
Any members of the public wishing to speak on this item?
Seeing none, this is a receive and file,
so if that was the pleasure of the committee,
we will do that and move to item 6F,
fiscal year 2022-2023,
preliminary quarterly investment report.
Quarter ended June 30th, 2023.
This is a receive and file item presented by Vivian Avila,
the Senior Manager of Finance.
Good morning, Chairman and committee members.
This is a receive and file item.
This slide shows our cash and investments portfolio
as of June 30th, 2023, which corresponds
to our fiscal year end.
These figures are subject to final audit adjustments.
As shown on this slide, our cash investment balance
as of June 30th was 128.6 million,
which was a decline of approximately 46 million
from the prior year total of 174.5 million.
However, staff was able to maintain
at all times throughout the quarter
the minimum operating threshold of $50 million.
Next slide, please.
As shown on this slide, interest income received
as of fiscal year NQ4 was $772,000.
This is a 38% increase in cash interest income
paid from the prior quarter.
This substantial increase is due primarily to the fact
that the Federal Reserve Bank has increased the Fed funds
rate 10 times since March of 2022.
So increases in market interest rates
followed suit given giving Metro link the opportunity to enhance its interest
income significantly. We've also taken this opportunity to renegotiate with our
two main banks to get higher interest rates on our cash balances. That concludes
my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions the committee may have. Thank you very much for the
report. Any of my committee members wishing to speak have any questions? Larry McAllen. Can you convince my bank to
increase the interest rates on my account. They seem to be slow.
We're trying. We have active ongoing discussions with all of our banks regarding our interest
rates.
All right. One plug for Larry to get some better rates. Maybe you should follow suit
where we're heading over.
Do you have any collateral, Larry, to put up? That might help.
Actually, I don't own anything except my car.
Thank you very much for the report.
Any other comments, questions from my colleagues, any members of the public wishing to speak
on this item?
Seeing none, it's a receive and file item.
That being the pleasure of this committee, we will go ahead and receive and file 6F and
move to item 6G, which is a fiscal year 2022-2023 quarterly accounts receivable status report.
ended June 30th, 2023, a receiving file presented again by Vivian Avela, Senior Manager of Finance.
Good morning again. Next slide please. The first of two slides in this presentation covers our
accounts receivable balances as of the end of the fiscal year June 30th, 2023 again subject
to closing audit adjustments. So on this slide you can see the total receivable stands at 57.1
million dollars of which 15.6 million or about 27 percent is past due which
compares to 18.8 percent past due in the previous quarter. The past dues primarily
relate to operating subsidy payments that were delayed due to pass-through grants
used as funding sources that were not available for drawdown within the year.
I will remark that since June 30th of 2023 the majority of those receivables
have been collected with only three million dollars of that fifteen point
six remaining outstanding. Next slide please. This slide breaks down past two
receivables in a bit more detail just going down the categories eleven
million dollars relates to operating subsidies which we have retired all of
two point seven million since June 30th on other receivables that remains
outstanding and relates to a specific capital project.
In the capital contribution category of $1.2 million, we've collected that receivable of
the shared use agreements.
We have collected the $0.2 million, the $0.4 million.
We do have a payment window that's been confirmed and due from other agencies has been retired
and the last receivable is related to a legal situation that remains outstanding.
That concludes my report, this is a receiving file item and I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thank you for the report, any of my members wishing to speak have a question.
I didn't see Metro's name on those past due balances, is that correct?
Great.
That was a typo, I think.
Good job, good job.
We don't have that great of a track record with past due but I'm glad we've caught up, so.
I'm glad you guys have come around.
Your name usually is on that list,
so it's nice to see it missing.
We have any other comments from any of my colleagues here?
Any members of the public wishing to speak on this item?
Seeing none, this is a receiving file item.
Being the pleasure of this committee, we will do such.
And move to item 6H, fiscal year 2022-2023,
quarterly fuel purchase program update
for the quarter ending June 30th, 2023.
This is a receiving file item
Presented by Alex Barber, senior manager of finance.
Next slide, please.
The purpose of the Fuel Hedge is not to make money
or lose money, but to make costs predictable.
On that basis, it is expected that the sale of positions
or contracts will result in either a gain or a loss,
depending on the movement.
As of June 30th, 2023, the authority's hedging account
had a value of $12.7 million.
This is a decrease of 581,000 from March 31st, 2020.
This completes my presentation, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have
We have any questions from any of the members of this committee
At least we didn't get any margin calls
Those were the bad still tastes bad in my back on my throat
All right with that any members of the public wishing to speak on this item
Seeing none. This is a receiving file item. Thank you for the update. We'll go ahead and move along to item 6i
Financial results for the month ended July 31st, 2023 ridership and revenue operating results
This will be a receiving file item presented by Danny bueno senior budget analyst
This slide shows actual and forecasted ridership recovery from January through July
The line is our FY 24 forecast used for budgeting and the green boxes are actuals
The forecast was developed with the assistance of KPMG spare capital
and as you can see ridership recovery continues
to steadily exceed the forecasted recovery.
Next slide.
This shows the progress we have made each year
for each month since the beginning of the pandemic
with actual shown in various shades of green
for each of the years represented.
Again, the forecast depicted with the blue line is
that provided by KPMG's very capital.
Next slide.
This shows actual fare box revenue versus the forecast
for the month of July.
You'll note that actual revenue was slightly greater
than forecasted for the month.
Next slide.
This is the revenue performance for July.
Forecasted revenue is $2.6 million or a 41% recovery,
while actual performance is 2.7 million
or a 43% recovery exceeding the forecast by $100,000.
Next slide.
This is the same information as the previous slide except now it
is shown by operating line.
Next slide.
Here we're showing the ridership for July.
Like the revenue, ridership was slightly greater
than forecasted for the month.
Next slide.
Forecast of ridership is 400,000 of 41% recovery while actual is 431,000
of 44% recovery exceeding the forecast by 30,000.
Next slide.
This is the same information but now shown by operating line.
Next slide.
Operating statement results for July are based on accruals.
Total operating revenue is $385,000 above forecast while total operating expense
is 3.9 million dollars below forecast.
This slide highlights those specific categories
that are under budget.
Next slide.
Arrow service in July had 19,000 dollars in revenue
and one million dollars in expense.
The expenses are 500,000 dollars below forecasted spending.
Next slide.
Thank you for the report, Director McAllen.
What's the ridership number on Arrow?
We will come back with that number.
the arrow budget is on a continuation basis,
so we didn't have a baseline to compare it.
That would be very helpful.
Thanks.
I know they were struggling to get off the floor
when, you know, from the ribbon cutting,
and hopefully they're up,
and, you know, as I look at this chart,
and we're at 44%, I remember just a few months back
when we were using the old forecasting model,
we were screaming and scratching our heads
that that number was terrible,
but now looking with the new model that we're using,
we're actually above and beyond.
And finally, we're looking at the current forecast
show us that.
So that's really encouraging that not only
the Sperry forecast is very accurate,
but we're exceeding even that by a little bit.
So any other questions from committee members?
Any members of the public wishing to speak on this item?
Okay, we will receive and file this.
Thank you for the report.
and our favorite topic of the day is our chief executive officers report and we
always require him only to give us good news so Europe
right well
all consider what i'm gonna share today good news uh... i'd
earlier this week uh... i
after labor day the monday i jumped on our train uh...
tuesday morning
and uh... took a picture with a conductor which has become my tradition
of the day that I started with this agency.
So it was two years ago on Tuesday that I became your CEO
and I just want to acknowledge the board, the committee members
of course the staff for these two years
and the support that's been given to me as we move
into this new order of our railroad
for Southern California.
So thanks for that.
Tomorrow, I'll be back here for Train Fest.
If you haven't heard about it,
Los Angeles Union Station is hosting Train Fest
where a lot of our equipment will be out
for the public to view,
including one of the F-125 locomotives,
one of our newly refurbished Bombardier cars,
as well as a cab car and then just some railroad equipment
that we use for maintaining our ride away.
I'll be here in the morning for a press conference on that.
and then just lastly mister chair uh... this is september is real safety month
i will talk a little bit more about that at the board meeting which is keep that
in mind
you will see are through our social media
uh... major push again on the importance of real safety
and safety around railroads
that concludes my report mister
thank you for report appreciate that
off to item number eight committee member comments members of our committee
I'm going to head over to train fest myself tomorrow.
Sounds like a great experience for the public to get to see some of the behind the scenes
action of what our trains look like and how they operate.
Any other committee members with comments?
Director Chavez.
Good morning, everyone.
I just wanted to say how great it is to be back.
I know everyone enjoys the summer break when we go dark in August, but I just wanted to
make a comment about the PowerPoint slides and how much I enjoy them seeing
our trains in the different locations. It seems every committee meeting we get
new slide designs and they look better and better each time so kudos to staff
for highlighting our service, highlighting our trains or different
locations that we visit and making our PowerPoint presentations look amazing.
that's all my comments thank you chair comments with that chairs comments I
just appreciate everybody being here we are actually going to get out of here
just in time for the next meeting to start and with that we will adjourn this
meeting at 944 thank you very much for being here meeting is jerked