All right. Well, good afternoon everyone. At this time I would like to call to order the June 26,
2025 regular board meeting of North County Transit District. Before we begin, members of the public
who may be viewing the meeting on the district's YouTube page, please note that in order to make
a public comment during the meeting, you must connect to the meeting using the Zoom link provided
on the agenda. In addition, you must also register by sending an email containing your name or phone
number and the agenda item on which which you wish to speak to clerk at NCTD.org.
Suhail Rodriguez, clerk of our board will take a verbal roll call for
attendance. Thank You Madam Chair. Madam Chair Bob Patel. Here. Vice Chair
Sunella. Here. Board Member Martinez. Here. Board Member O'Hara. Board Member Garcia. Here. Board
member Joyce president board member Desmond here board member Etsun
president board member Contreras president or alternately this completes
the role with board member O'Hara and board I'll turn I'm sorry board member
Lee absent all right thank you board member Contreras would you please lead
us in the Pledge of Allegiance thank you so he'll will now provide a safety
brief and review evacuation procedures. In case of an emergency I will dial 911.
In case of an evacuation please take the stairs do not use the elevators. Once
clear to the building do not re-enter unless clear to do so by emergency
personnel. There are fire extinguishers and first-aid kits on each floor of the
building. There is a portable defibrillator on the first floor and
staff on hand trained on CPR procedures if needed. This concludes my safety
brief. Thank you. Are there any changes to the agenda? Yes, Madam Chair. Slide
3 and attachment 15 a was changed to better reflect stop-liberal ridership
along Breeze Route 323 a revised agenda and an errata sheet was sent to the
board and has been updated on our website for public inspection great
thank you and now we'll move on to public communications do we have any
general public comments today yes madam chair we do have two in-person public
speakers here today I will call on the first one miss Joan Brown miss Brown you
have three minutes. Yes, good afternoon. My name is Joan Brown and I've been
taking North County Transit for approximately ten years and as a
impaired eyesight person I would like to suggest several things. We need a better
line, line up in the strip malls to go from the Sprinter and the buses to, to get
to each other, the bus from the Sprinter to the bus and vice versa. And some of
them do and some of them like the, I, I'm in San Marcos now, I lived in Oceanside
for 20 years. May I ask who's representing Oceanside now? Is that O'Hara?
Oh, Japanese. Thank you.
And this is the two lines that I'd like to suggest.
More stops.
It's 347 that goes from Palomar College to UC San Marcos.
and there is absolutely no stops at all on San Marcos Boulevard,
maybe one on each side and they go nowhere.
You have all those stores,
all those offices, blood things and nothing stops there.
You have to walk back the half an hour,
three blocks to get to any stop.
And you have five lights on all of these streets.
So the bus has to stop anyway.
So why there are not more bus stops.
And then the line 353, I believe, that goes up Nordahl.
Nordahl has no stops.
And it passes on and off ramps for the freeway.
And it should have about four stops
because there are four driveways.
So I would suggest that the bus stops there
because the bus stops two blocks up from Nordall
where no one lives, there are no stores,
so you have to walk down to Walmart and everything.
And that's why that bus is always empty,
and I'd like to see you make more money by more passengers.
And in the same way I can say about the campus,
the campus marketplace and the creekside marketplace
really needs public transportation.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ms. Brown.
The next speaker I will call is Maria Campos,
board chair with your permission.
May I translate for the speaker?
Yes, of course, thank you.
And for the record, board alternate comment
has arrived at 2.04.
estar es? Y vengo por la root el seis sero cuatro. She's here to speak around 604.
¿Qué ah se un y a lo das continuaron? Cuando iro? El tres trente cuatro. And 334, which has been discontinued.
Te via la otra es un manestar en las los estab y a los quitar. Y mucho gente los taves perando
This place she says passengers were at the stop waiting for the bus even though it was discontinued and which is persona lo necesitam para
Ninos a las quela many people need this route for their children that going to school
then the middle school from middle school, uh-huh
He he personas que buena al mandado a la vista village
Yeah, nothing about and people that go use this route for vista village to do the grocery shopping cannot use this route
And she's asking if there's in the future an opportunity for this route to be reinstated.
I'm regarding Breeze 304. I'm regarding Breeze 304. This is a correct word for the strength of the vista and the care of the vista.
And now, REES 304 doesn't have proper connectivity to the Sprinter trains.
And now people are having to wait longer to take their trains.
She proposes schedules be aligned with Sprinter connectivity.
And she has signatures petitioning for this route to be reinstated.
Okay.
We can get that for you.
Do we have any other speakers?
No further speakers.
Okay.
speakers. We do have planning staff available to follow up with each of them,
so I think some of them are doing that right now and then of course can do that
as a follow-up as well. So just so that the rest of the board is aware that's
what we were discussing so that we could make sure that they got those questions
answered. Okay, so no other speakers at this time, right? That's correct. Perfect.
Alright, so at this time public registration to provide general public
comment will end.
Before we proceed, I have a couple of quick protocol items
to share.
First, I will ask board members to hold your comments
and questions until after each agenda item has been presented.
When the time comes for board member questions or comments,
please raise your hand and wait until you're called upon to speak.
And then, of course, turn on and speak into your microphone.
When it is your turn to speak, this
will ensure that your comments are heard for those listening
to the meeting online.
And then lastly, when it's time to vote,
so we'll call a verbal vote.
The first item is the approval of the minutes.
Do I have a motion to approve the minutes
for the regular board meeting of May 15th, 2025?
So moved, Edson.
Second, Sonella.
Great, motion by Edson, seconded by Sonella.
So can we please call the vote?
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Any opposed?
On the motion of board member Edson,
seconded by board member Sonella to approve the minutes
of the regular board meeting on May 15, 2025.
Motion passes, O'Hara absent.
Thank you.
We're moving on to our consent items.
There are 13 items on consent for action today.
Are there any members of the public register
to speak on consent or requested
that any of the items be pulled?
No, Madam Chair.
All right, great, thank you.
At this time, we are ending the public registration
to speak on consent items.
Do any board members wish to pull items from consent?
Board Member Martinez.
So I don't necessarily wish to pull,
but I just wanted some clarification on item eight,
the quarterly customer experience report.
Yeah, go ahead.
OK, so just one that caught my eye, which
was on the feedback for LIFT was higher in the court
of report at court of three last year.
I just wanted to learn more about, I guess, one,
the issues in this was concerning to me.
One was the paratransit and feedback
on that and safety and security issues.
And it seems to me, if I'm remembering all the information,
that the lift was probably not meeting all of the goals that
were set for in the performance report, for instance.
So there could be a correlation.
But I was more concerned about learning a little bit more
about the paratransit-related feedback of safety
and security issues.
Don't have to give it to us now if that's not available.
But I would like to understand what those issues were
what the follow-up is.
Yeah, absolutely.
So just in general, whenever we receive a customer,
a piece of customer feedback, the customer service team
receives it, does research to confirm
if it's a substantiated comment or unsubstantiated.
And then regardless, we do reply to the reporting party
to make sure that they understand
that their request was heard and responded to.
I can follow up on the specificity
we can get that to the board.
Thank you any other comments.
Otherwise look for a motion.
Second come to that us all right great so motion by Garcia
seconded by contrast can we go ahead and call able.
All in favor say aye any opposed.
Any abstain.
On the motion of Board Member Garcia,
seconded by Board Member Contreras,
to approve consent items one through 13.
O'Hara absent, motion passes.
Great, thank you.
We will now go on to other business items on the agenda.
The next item will be a brief overview
of the fiscal year 26 operating budget
and fiscal year 26 through 30 CIP.
If you recall, NCTD provided a very extensive overview
of the budget at the May board meeting.
Today's staff is asking the Board to consider the adoption of the budget.
Eun Park Lynch, Chief Financial Officer, will provide a brief presentation.
And I'll go ahead and pass it off to her.
Thank you, Board Chair.
Good afternoon, Board members.
As the Chair mentioned, at the May 15 Board meeting, staff provided an update on the development
of the operating budget, as well as the significant assumptions for revenues and expenses.
The budget presented at the board meeting total 178, 805, 577.
The budget that we are proposing for adoption remains balanced at the same amount.
We have made some adjustments at the line item levels.
However, the budget remains at the same amount that we presented at the May meeting.
The five-year plan, this is a summary of where the operated budget sits
for the next coming fiscal year.
The five-year plan is a reflection of the projected revenues and expenses in the next five fiscal years.
It provides an overview of the different categories of revenues for fair collection, non-transportation revenues,
auxiliary revenues, and all the other grants that we receive at the federal, state, and local level.
It also makes projections on the use of funds for a capital improvement program,
as well as preventive maintenance and operating expenses.
As you can see in this slide, NCTD will have balanced budgets
for next fiscal years, for fiscal year 2026, 2027.
However, beginning in fiscal year 2028, we will,
NCTD will face deficits absent new revenue sources
or significant reductions in our operating expenses
and our CAPR program as well.
The full budget document was made available to the public
on June 10th for public inspection
and for review by the board as well.
So today, we are coming to the board for,
to request the following action items.
We are requesting to close the public hearing
on the proposed fiscal year 2026 operating budget,
as well as the capital improvement program
for the next fiscal, five fiscal years,
and adopt the employee classification compensation schedules,
the cost recovery schedule,
as well as the service implementation plan.
And that concludes my presentation,
and I am available for any questions.
Great, thank you.
So do we have any public comments on this item?
No, we do not.
Okay, thank you.
At this time, public registration to speak on this item
will end.
Are there any board member questions or comments
regarding this agenda item?
I'm just giving it a moment.
Since usually we do, but it looks like everyone seems
satisfied from last time we had an extensive discussion.
So thank you so much for all the hard work.
I know that this takes a lot of time and effort.
It takes months and months of planning.
So I just want to say thank you to everyone involved.
Obviously, Eun, like you always do an amazing job.
So really looking forward to seeing this move forward
and get operationalized.
But in that regard, do I have a motion to approve this item?
So moved, Edson.
I'll second.
Motion by Edson, seconded by Joyce.
can we go ahead and call the vote?
Hi.
Hi.
Hi.
Any opposed?
Any abstained?
And for the record, Jim O'Hara arrived at 2.15.
Thank you.
My apologies for showing up, please.
Okay, thank you.
And the motion of Board Member Edson,
seconded by Board Member Joyce,
to adopt the proposed FY26 operating budget
and FY26 to 30 capital improvement program,
approve the proposed employee classification
and compensation schedule,
The proposed cost recovery fee schedule and the SIP,
or service implementation plan, motion passes.
Great, thank you.
Thank you.
The last item on the agenda relates to a public hearing
on the proposal elimination of a breeze route.
Katie Person's director of service planning
will provide a presentation,
and I'll go ahead and pass it off to her.
Great, thank you very much.
Good afternoon.
Today we'll be asking the board to set a public hearing
for the proposed elimination of Breeze 323.
For context, we regularly review route performance
to ensure the district is intentional
with our operational resources.
NCTD's service design guidelines is a document
that service planning uses as a guidance
for performance monitoring and service adjustments
that need to be made over time.
NCTD has identified service that is underperforming,
which is the subject of this proposed service change.
This map shows the subject route in orange, Breeze 323,
with the surrounding routes in the area in blue.
The 323 provides weekday hourly service
between College Boulevard Sprinter Station and Corey Creek.
Breeze 323 has approximately 67 daily boardings.
The gray circles on the map show stops
with between zero and one daily boarding.
The larger, darker pink circles
mean more boardings at that stop.
Generally, the route sees the most boardings,
most daily boardings at Oceanside Boulevard
and Avenida del Oro, which is served by the 315, 318,
and 325, and the nearby College Boulevard Sprinter Station.
North-south connections in this area is available
between the Route 315 and 325,
while east-west connections are available
through the 318 and the Sprinter.
El Camino High School is more directly served
by Breeze 311 and 313 with trippers scheduled around bell times.
The goal of our public outreach with setting this public hearing is to validate the ridership
trends that we're seeing in our data and then make adjustments from there.
Last fiscal year Breeze 323 had approximately 17,000 total riders in the year amounting
to the average weekday boardings of 67.
This table compares the 323 to the routes in the surrounding area with the next highest
performing route serving twice as many riders as the 323.
The 323 accounts for 0.3% of total breeze ridership.
NCTD has a web page dedicated to the proposed modifications
with instructions on how to provide public comments
via phone, email, or mail, or in-person.
We've also pushed out rider alerts
to trip planning apps like Google Maps, Apple Maps,
and Transit app with information about the proposed change
and a link to our web page.
A legal notice was posted in English and Spanish newspapers
notifying the public of the hearing.
Because the 323 is not anchored by a major transit station,
we opted to conduct ride-alongs instead of pop-up events
to gather feedback and give information to the public
on how to provide public comments.
Bilingual planning staff were on board
with informational flyers that provided information
on how to provide comments and a general overview
of the proposed change.
with that the staff recommendation is to set a public hearing at the July board
of directors meeting for the proposed elimination of braze 323 that concludes
my presentation great thank you for the presentation do we have any public
comments no madam chair all right at this time public registration to speak
on this item will end are there board member questions or comments regarding
this item I'll start with board member Joyce thank you and thank you for meeting
me yesterday to talk about this route. I noticed the ride-alongs and I'm sorry that I didn't bring
these forward ahead of time. These were after having conversations with community members today.
The ride-alongs weren't during that time when kids would get out of school
and are setting the date in July misses all the riders that would be there using it after school
and it is right there on the corner of the school property, so my request would be for
us to delay the hearing until the fall when the schools are actually utilizing this route
so that we can get a full understanding of who's impacted.
While I do know the other two routes that go by the school and they service the student
areas that are to the north of the school, this is the only one to my knowledge that
goes to the Tri-City area and there are students who attend in that area.
So my request of the board would be to delay this until we are able to gather data during
the school session.
Because I am worried about that being in primary impact of this route.
Yes, that's my motion.
Thank you.
I think I saw board member – did you have your hand raised up, board member Garcia?
Okay.
Sure.
And then I'm going to go to board member Edson and then board member Contreras.
I agree with my with my colleague. I think we should look at during school times, the impact for that.
And then I have a question, but that's on a different or you can raise it, or can I second?
Yeah, that's what I need to do. Second first. Great. I hear by second.
All right. Backstand and then just to support that. I think that it's it's a good idea that we do that.
Thank you, Board Member Edson.
I was going to third that, but also I did have a question.
Route 323 elimination, so I read that.
That it was suspected that most writers were taking 323 between
service times for more or less redundant other routes, so if
that is the case, would it make sense to add additional trips on
other redundant routes when we look at, you know,
when we take a look at this again.
I just think it makes sense, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
And we'd want to have that as the goal
of the public outreach is to understand
where we might be able to make adjustments
to the nearby routes to better serve folks
that are taking a 323 currently.
Unless we don't end up eliminating it, obviously.
Correct.
Okay, thanks.
Remember Contaras?
Yeah, I was in line to second that one too.
So it looks like you got a lot of board support.
I have a question.
So I'm looking at the staff report, the agenda report.
The net cost per passenger looks at like 29.92.
How does that compare with the net cost
per passenger for NCTD Plus?
That is a great question.
I do not have that.
It's OK if you don't have it.
I mean, I put you right on the spot.
So, yeah, I will say NCTD Plus costs are typically higher as it's an on-demand service.
The benefits of NCTD Plus are we're able to reach populations that we can't necessarily
with fixed route, and it also provides that first last mile connection, so we do consider
them different services, but it is typically higher than a traditional breeze route, and
we can definitely get that information for you.
Yeah, I'm curious to see that, because it looks like the net cost per passenger for,
you average the entire ridership for all briefs is at $14. I can't remember what
the cost is for NCTD plus but and I know that we haven't rolled this out yet but
this is a comment that I've made in the past regarding NCTD plus that I haven't
seen Tri-City connected and so I don't know if there's if that's something that
we could just get some more information as we're delaying the public hearing so
that way when it comes back if if you all on staff could you know provide us
with a little bit more information because I am curious to see what I mean
this the geographic area of this 323 seems like it could be small enough to
even fit in some kind of an NCTD plus situation. So I am curious to see that
information yeah yeah we and Katie please correct me if I'm wrong the one
of the future phases of NCTD plus is the Oceanside Eastern core so it would
connect you know sort of south of Oceanside Boulevard north of the 78 and
a good at you know the western parts of this route would be included in that
including the Tri-City area so it is in future phases of NCTD plus yeah and and
so that's why I'm just I you know I feel like to make a really good decision about
about what that, because we could still shape the way that that, you know, roll out is for
NCT plus, I just think it would be good to maybe even see if this is a route that could
be absorbed into NCTD plus, but as you saw, I have constituents here that are really upset
about the was it the 334 being eliminated, which is exactly what I told you folks, right,
going to happen because it is confusing to use NCTD plus versus just having a
fixed route. So there are differences and we need to be better at communicating
that and helping folks transition from one type of ride to another. But I am
curious to see if this is an area that could be better served in the future by
NCTD plus and what that cost differential would be. Okay. Yeah and one
One thing that I'll add about the request to potentially delay the public hearing, and
just the rationale for bringing it to you now, we have service changes typically two
times a year.
We wanted to gather enough public feedback.
Should the board decide to eliminate this route, we would then provide the operators,
they, we call them picks, they pick their schedules essentially, and we would just not
include the 323 in that pick.
So this would be all up in advance of the October service change, however, if the board
would like to delay, I would suggest potentially the September or October board meetings that
will give us enough time to conduct the public outreach and then do that same process with
the operator pick for the spring service change.
Can I jump in there real quick also?
Yes, go ahead, Mr. Donohue.
Yeah, I would just note that the rationale for gathering the public feedback now is very
specific to if you look at the system map, the 315 and the 325 are the most likely opportunities
for us to reroute and cover some of the area
that the 323 would eliminate.
And in order for us to do that,
we need enough public comment
before we get to our October pick that Mary alluded to,
which is sort of the precipice
for why we wanted to gather public feedback immediately.
I do think it's probably reasonable to push the vote off
for our final decision for,
that's at least August or September,
but we really would need to make a decision on that
by probably August or September at the latest
because that would provide us opportunity to move routes
like the 315 and 325 which travel along Vista
and really cover a fair amount of some of those routes.
Okay, board member Contreras, you can finish your thought
and then board member Coleman.
Yeah, on that, Mr. Donaghy,
just curious in the motion as it stands,
do we have the ability to conduct surveys to the public
get that public comment or does that need to be integrated into the motion even if we wanted to
lay the vote where we can continue we can start soliciting public comment i just don't know what
the legal parameters on that are no i i fully believe that we have the ability to go out as a
planning team i mean we we do it all the time to gather public feedback and information specific
to routes that exist in the system i'm not worried about that at all so i mean i think the motion
made is fine as is. We're going to continue to conduct informational sessions. It actually
gives us a little more time to do that and then reach out to some of the neighborhoods and see
where there's some redundancy that might be fixed. Okay, thanks. Yeah, so just to piggyback on that,
if the board votes today to set the public hearing for either the September or October board meetings,
September we could capture a little bit of that school ridership when some of them go back in
August some of them do go back in September and we could also capture some
of the potential summer ridership if it exists. October you know puts us closer
to providing the information to the operators letting them know what the
board's decision is and then factoring that into the next service change but
that would give us more time to conduct additional outreach if that's the
board's decision. Okay board member Coleman and then one thing I was gonna
say is don't let me forget that I'd like to ask about the outreach that's when
something. Yeah. Thank you. Just really quickly for my knowledge logistically. So once the
public hearing is set, let's say that the board ultimately decides not to eliminate
this route. What would happen next? Would this route have to be subsidized by another
route or another service entirely or how would that work? No. So we factored into the budget
that you just approved includes the existing services.
And so should the board decide to eliminate this route,
then we would be able to utilize those revenues
in other areas.
But if the board decides to keep this route,
then the budget that you approved would stay the same.
Any other questions or comments before I ask
Board Member Garcia and then Board Member O'Hara?
And Board Member Joyce also?
Okay, so we're going Garcia, O'Hara, Joyce.
Okay.
All right, thank you, Madam Chair.
I forgot to ask regarding the maps, for me, I'm very visual, so it would be very helpful
for me to see the route.
Route number XXX intersects here, intersects here, intersects here, and it gives me a better
idea of what's the distance that people have to travel to, to catch those buses.
So that would be very helpful for me up ahead.
Go ahead.
And then we were, my colleague Jim and I were kind of messing around with the calculator,
and 17,201 divided by 365 is 747.
We only provide 255 days of service.
Okay.
That's what we were wondering.
Okay.
Thank you.
I conclude my questions.
Okay.
Board Member O'Hara.
All right.
What would probably be helpful would be for me at least again being a visual learner
It would be really helpful in entering all these discussions
We have to have the other routes on there overlaid around it so we can see not only where they intersect but
What areas those in those areas in it because people are going from place to another and weeks you assume they're
exchanging bus route to bus route
And so if we knew what the what the overall effect was
Like we've got a we've got a route map here, but I don't know. I assume all this blue is not one single route, right?
so I don't know where they're switching from where to where and what whether we're adding an
Extensive challenge to them or if it's just a deer or it's just a different stop
And I think that would be really really helpful in assessing this decision
And then I think maybe coming up with some of those ideas in this presentation of where the surrounding routes could
Either one of them overlap or where they could put fingerlings in without adjusting their own routes
So that we could get a better idea of where we could where we're actually losing ridership opportunity versus
Having in our mind. I look at this
I think we're losing the whole route and it's not really clear or if I knew the options of
Where they're gonna overpass I might we might only be losing a half mile of service
I don't have that in here and that we really really helpful. Yeah, I think for everybody here
So
Yeah, and I do think you know I I'd like to see us look forward to how to work with the schools and
Work that and I think that we've talked about that within seen us and then we're gonna follow up with that
Question of clarification on
Board member Contreras this question
Are we not servicing Tri-City at all did I hear that correctly? Are we only just not servicing it within CTD plus?
Okay
Okay, and then if we did explore in CTD plus
Would that involve us to talk, talking to us inside about their CSA and their ambulance services so that we don't become the ambulance service for Oceanside in the Shonding area?
Yeah, we can definitely connect with them.
I don't believe that we allow folks that are severely injured to board, you know, our recommendation, if somebody shows up at one of our modes,
whether it's PREES or NCD plus our recommendation is to call 911 and get an
ambulance but we can definitely make sure that the ambulance provider is aware
of that. Perfect. Appreciate the clarification. Thank you. Board member
Joyce and then we'll come to Vice Chair Sinella. I just say that I do see other
opportunities assuming I read the map correctly that there could be ways to
work this route in so I look forward to that. I just want to make sure we have
enough information to do it appropriately, so thanks for the support.
Yeah, we wanted to make the map as visually appealing, and so that's why we
didn't include the numbers to make it clunky, but we can definitely provide a
map to the board. Thank you, Vice Chair Sonal. Can we go back to the slide that
had the ridership? Thank you. Is the 323, I know it's the it's the lowest ridership
on this list of bus routes, but is this the lowest of all the bus routes? Among
them, yes. Yeah, I think it's the second or third lowest of all breeze routes.
Okay, so it's close. It might be the lowest, or the second lowest. Okay. Is there, you
know, as part of the district's analysis, you know, is there a, for a lack of better
way to put it kind of a sweet spot for a ridership where there's a lot of fixed costs, right?
Once you launch a route, there's a bus, right? They all have a bus. They all have a driver.
all need the bus needs to be maintained. Is there is there analysis like what does
it take? When does it ever become so low where it just doesn't
economically make sense? The passengers per revenue hour is a really important
metric that we look at to see if the kind of investment in service hours is
really getting the bang for the buck that we want and so that's why we include
that in the service design guidelines because that really gives us a good
sense of if we're investing X number of hours in this route, how many folks are
we moving within a given revenue hour. So that's a really good metric that we
use and is also consistent with like state TDA reporting requirements and
things like that. So that's a really good metric that we look at and we want to
try to have you know as high of a passengers per revenue hour number as
possible. Obviously fixed route bus is gonna be lower than you know your coaster
or your Sprinter Rail services.
But yeah, we wanna see double digits
in terms of passenger per revenue hour
for most of our breeze services,
especially when we're looking at core and commuter services.
There are of course other routes that serve
kind of more of that local circulation need that folks have.
And so you'll see those as typically lower frequency
providing kind of more of that coverage need,
whereas on our higher frequency routes
we wanna see that high passengers per revenue hour.
Okay, thank you.
Board Member Martinez. Thank you. What is the mileage of this route? The annual
mileage I have is just the singular route. Oh, I don't have the singular trip
mileage. I just have the annual. And then compared to other routes, is this a relatively smaller route? Yes, very short.
Okay. Okay, I have a few questions. Oh, okay. Board Member O'Hara, go ahead. I just have one question. On the on the rider
comparison. This was it wasn't clear in the notes when I went through them.
Boardings, does that include them walking on to the passenger walking on to each
route each time or is it with a starting point of their entire trip? That is just
the time that they walk on to the bus, not the lightings which is the time that
they walk off of the bus. Okay, but in between if they change bus routes three
times is it counted three times? Their boarding would be captured three times.
Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that clarification.
All right. It's my turn now. Okay. So, I know we do a lot of extensive outreach,
but one thing that I wrote down and this is something actually even to our own
staff on Tuesday for something else I was asking and curious about is if
there's a way to do I mean I see it all the time so if our team could maybe look
get geolocation specific surveying or messaging
that we could do just so that way in case folks are missing
the opportunities when you all are out there tabling
or if we put it on our website and people aren't looking
or if it's on social media and they're not looking
at the very least maybe it's an ad or something
that pops up and they're like, oh, I didn't realize
this was happening so I just wanted to suggest
that as another opportunity.
Obviously, whatever pencils out in terms of cost,
I feel like it's pretty cheap based on my own research of it.
So I thought I'd at least throw that out there as an option.
The other thing I was just curious about
is if there is a way to send, either send something
or canvas some of the areas where you know folks are actually
utilizing this service quite a bit.
I think that's something that, again,
for instance, our team is going to do for something else
that we were discussing on Tuesday,
just because I feel like, again,
many of the people may not be aware,
and of course we saw an example of that
where you all did the work,
but still, some folks will just fall through the cracks,
so as much as we can to make sure folks
are aware of what's happening, that would be great.
Other than that, I'm obviously supportive
of moving this to a later,
having the hearing at a later date.
It sounds like, from what I understand,
And I'll have our general counsel and deputy CEO
restate what we're discussing here
and what that would look like in terms of timeline.
But from what I understand,
we could set the public hearing for September or October.
I'll look to the maker of the motion on the second
as to the timeline.
But then basically the outreach piece is included in that
based on the discussion we've had.
So we wouldn't need to include that in the motion
from what I understand.
or would you like that in the motion?
Okay.
It's not necessary.
I mean, we're gonna do the public outreach regardless
and I think we've gotten really good feedback today
from the board in terms of some additional things
that the board is looking for in terms of the presentation,
the mapping, and then also the outreach.
So we appreciate that.
Perfect.
I see board member Edson has a question.
Yes, thank you.
I think the idea of geolocation,
specific marketing is really,
canvassing is really great. But how do you do that in both Spanish and English
or multiple languages? Yeah, for in-person canvassing and when the planners ride
the system we have bilingual staff that would be able to have those discussions
in either language so we would pursue that in terms of any messaging that we
use like on our rider alerts or geo-located messaging we would do that in
both English and Spanish. Okay, thank you. And the only thing that I'll add on the
outreach is the planning team who is familiar with our routes. They choose, you
know, trying to get the most bang for our buck. They choose the highest ridership
routes, they choose the highest ridership stops, but then we also make sure that we
have a printed rider alert on the bus, you know, for as much time as possible in
advance as we can until the route gets eliminated. So even folks that we miss,
there's an opportunity if they're riding the bus they can see that this potential
service change is coming. Great, thank you. So may I ask you to clarify the motion
before we actually vote on it?
Yeah.
Sure.
Oh, board member Joyce.
Sorry, I didn't notice your hand was up.
My question is for setting the date.
If it's set in September, are you
going to be able to use enough September data
from the ridership and the students?
What's the date in September 18?
Yeah, so we will post the agenda hopefully a week before that.
And we will then provide the board with the feedback
that we've received thus far.
The public hearing does not close
and is not until the board votes
to close the public hearing.
So the board in that week span,
we will still be receiving public feedback
and then any member of the public
that wants to come to the board meeting
and participate in the public hearing,
the board will get that feedback as well.
So we will have a good chunk of September feedback
that we will be able to receive
and that the board will be able to digest.
Yeah, if I could just add on to that real quick.
I think what we're gonna find on this initiative,
which is a little different than some of our other ones
the ask that comes back to the board
will not simply be the elimination of the 323.
It will include a reroute of other routes
that serve that area to cover some
of those high ridership spots,
which we'll find through our public engagement process,
which we already have.
The heat map that you saw really shows
where some of those ridership generators are.
Those are the spots we're really gonna kind of jump in on
and try to hone in on.
And I think what you're gonna see when we come back
is the 323 will go away as a route,
but portions of that route that aren't covered currently
by the 315 or 325 or whatever else is there
will now be covered,
interlined through some of those other routes.
I'm almost sure that will be what comes back to the board,
so it'll be sort of a two-tiered piece,
not just a elimination of a route.
Can I ask when OUSD goes back into session?
Because I know CUSD is August 19th.
late August so that I think that should be fine just with the caveat that the
ridership I'm sure will be kind of in flux for the first part of the year and
so while the numbers may not be settled until basically mid-September just so
the board knows when we come back that that kind of settles in the first couple
weeks so okay I'm good with September. Great thank you and the second of the
motion the person who seconded is fine with that as well okay great perfect so
So we'll have Ms. Winfrey go ahead and just make sure that we read it back so we're all
on the same page and then we'll vote.
So the motion as I understand it from the floor is to set the public hearing for September
18, 2025 for the board to consider the proposed elimination of Breeze Route 323 and authorizing
staff to provide detailed information to the public and receive and consider public comment
regarding the proposed elimination of review 323
in advance of the public hearing.
Great, thank you.
So there was a motion by board member Joyce
and second by board member Garcia.
We'll go ahead and call you a verbal vote.
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Aye.
Any opposed?
Any abstain?
On the motion of board member Joyce
seconded by board member Garcia
to set public hearing for September 18, 2025
for the board to consider the proposed elimination
of Breeze Route 323 and authorize staff
to provide detailed information to the public
and receive and consider public comment
regarding the proposed elimination of Breeze Route 323
in advance of the public hearing.
Motion passes.
Great, thank you.
All right, we are moving on
to the Chief Executive Officer's Report
and today we have Ms. Winfrey standing in for Mr. Donaghy.
So I'll go ahead and hand it off to you.
Thank you so much.
So Sean, as you can see is otherwise detained somewhere.
So I'm going to review the CEO's report
with the board and the public today.
The first thing that I wanna chat about
is the bus transition.
As you know, the board approved the insourcing
of bus operations back in December of 2022.
And we are well on our way to making that happen.
The transition will occur this Sunday at 3 a.m.
And we will be bringing in nearly 400 direct employees
of NCTD at that time.
We're very excited to welcome our new employees,
a lot of them back to NCTD.
They were employees of NCTD up from the beginning
of operations 50 years ago to around the 2010,
2011 time period.
So it's a really exciting time for us here.
I really would like to thank all of our staff.
We've all been working very diligently
to make this happen on kind of in a shortened timeline,
as our CEO came in and said,
we really need to make this happen sooner rather than later.
And so we're excited to make that happen.
I really do want to provide a lot of kudos
to our bus operations team.
A lot of them that are sitting out here today,
some of our operators are out here.
I see some familiar faces from the floor.
Our HR team has been working very diligently
to onboard nearly 400 people and our payroll staff,
you and her team have been working very hard
to get everyone set up in payroll.
So I really am excited about this.
I know we all are and we just wanna say welcome home
to our employees on the bus operations side
in our 50th year of operation is very exciting.
If you want any more information,
I think we are going to have some welcome home events
on the 3rd of July.
If you'd like more information about that
and would like to be present,
please touch base with myself or Mary.
The second item I just wanted to mention
is the San Diego County Fair.
We have our fair tripper that's been launched again
this year, which is providing riders
with the admission to the fair and the shuttle
and an opportunity to ride coaster to Solana Beach
and be dropped off at the fair.
And we're doing really well right now.
Our season in stats are not obviously available,
but we will come back to the board
with a marketing update on our statistics for that.
But it looks like it's going quite well.
We have had pretty strong usage.
The third thing I just wanted to mention
is we had the opportunity to partner
with the Community Transportation Association of America.
and our bus operations team pulled together our buses
and some of our staff to assist with another bus rodeo.
And we were able to partner with them
and received some accolades
for the work that we did associated with that event.
And so that was quite exciting.
I think we have another rodeo coming up later this year,
which will provide more information
as we get closer to that time.
Couple of community events I wanted to highlight.
We've had NCTD staff out at the San Marcos Resource Fair
at the State of the City provided information
about NCTD Plus and other things,
and it was quite, it was received quite well.
We also participated in the VISTA City Council
and Environmental Commission
and the VISTA Strawberry Festival,
which was also a lot of fun.
And we, at that time, we provided information
on the NCTD service zone and were accompanied
by board member Contreras and assembly member Lori Davis.
So that was another event that we participated in.
We do have a couple of important upcoming events
that I just wanted to mention.
The Del Mar races starts on July 18th.
We're offering our Pony Express pass again this year.
Similar to the Fair Tripper,
it will provide a coaster service at your admission,
your entrance to the races,
and then you'll also have the coaster trip
down to Solana Beach and the shuttle to the race.
So it's another good opportunity to experience
the totality of one of our important events
here in the region.
And then finally, we do have Comicon,
which is starting on July 24th.
And although we don't have any special packages for that one,
I just wanted to encourage everyone to take Coaster
to Comic-Con.
I think that's a good way to get there and back.
So that will conclude the CEO report.
Thank you.
I feel like you have to be lucky enough to get tickets
to go to Comic-Con.
This is true.
You have to get them well in advance, right?
OK.
Well, two members, do you have anything to report?
I see board member Edson.
Yes, I don't have anything to report.
wanted to ask a question of Ms. Winfrey. Sure. So the San Diego County Fair, as
you mentioned, is up and running and I serve, I've served along on a committee
that is the fairgrounds and all the elected officials it touches and
they've asked since COVID for the express bus from Escondido to be
brought back and I wanted to know if that has happened yet and if not why and
if so is it good is it happening again well and again if if not is will it be
happening next year is there a plan to bring it back there's a lot of if so's
and if not if you followed me sorry yeah it's been a long day so I do not
believe that we have the Express bus this year. I know we have another route
that serves those customers primarily and I think it's been the usage has been
up as it relates to that route. I would have to speak with the planning team to
see whether or not we're intending to bring that back for next year. I think it
depends on a lot of factors related to ridership for this year and so forth.
Yeah only thing I'll add we have had a great partnership with the fair
providing the shuttle service from the Solana Beach station. The 308 which is
not the express but follows the same route as the 408 which is the express. It
drops off near the Solana Beach station and near the fairgrounds so those riders
have the opportunity to utilize the shuttle service as well but we can
definitely get back with you on plans for next year. What's the time start to
finish for the 308 versus 408? We will confirm and get back to you. I have to
imagine that it's quite a bit of a difference with having rode the
308 and had those stops. It's quite a long route. Thanks. Any other questions
or comments? Okay I'll go. I just wanted to go I just want to put in that we
didn't use the fare tripper my daughter and I went to the fare we did use our
pronto card and we took that down to Asana Beach, took the shuttle ride in and it
saved up so much time on parking and it was fantastic and so whether using the
pronto one day or the fair tripper I highly recommend using NCTT to get to the
fair. And living in Delmore we really appreciate it. I know I'm like thank you
for that plug. Board member Joyce and then board member Contreras. So I just
wanted to bring forward some concerns that I've heard from the community. As
you may have seen we had some pretty high profile immigration enforcements
here at Oceanside. And we have a lot of mixed status families and a lot of folks who utilize
many of our modes of transportation are asking if they're safe using our modes of transportation,
is immigration enforcement going to be utilizing those modes to find, track people right now?
I'm not asking for a specific right now, what I am asking is for this organization to be
very considerate about that and what's happening, and to be as transparent as we possibly can
so that people can feel as safe as they possibly can.
And that is just for everyone to know, as a member of this board, that that is a very
present concern from a lot of our community members right now.
Ms. Winfrey?
Yes, I certainly you know, we're aware of the concerns and are very mindful about that.
It's a little bit of a difficult situation, you know, that we're in as a public agency
that is a recipient of federal funding.
So we're trying to be very, you know, cognizant of that and mindful of our community as well.
And so we're not actively engaging in anything related to this issue, but we're, you know,
we're just monitoring and at this point we haven't had any issues thankfully, but we're,
you know, not engaging with it, but we're also just monitoring and ensuring that, you
know, we're being mindful on both sides of this equation for a lot of different reasons.
We, the policy of NCTD is to not engage, to not participate.
I think our Sheriff's TESU unit also has similar,
yes, exactly.
And so I think, at this point,
if we have something like that that occurs,
we just call into dispatch and report,
but we're not engaging at all.
So that's where we are at the moment.
If I could add on to that a little bit,
I think the difficulty and I've dealt with this
at other agencies that I worked at, specifically in Texas.
Because we operate in the public sphere,
law enforcement both locally and at the federal level
have the ability to maintain their presence
in our public space.
Our instruction has been to not impede or to assist.
they do not have access to our worker facilities
without our expressed consent
and or some type of legal action
to justify being on the property.
But the majority of the space that we operate in is public
and is open to all law enforcement agencies
if they deem necessary to do so.
But I think Lori hit the nail on the head.
we have not, we will not assist in the sense
that we're not actively giving out information
or doing anything like that,
but we will not impede anyone's ability
to do those things in a public space.
Comment.
If I may just respond to that as well,
and then I'm happy to go down the line.
I just wanted to say thanks for bringing that up.
I had similar concerns that I had talked to Lori about a few weeks ago and thank you for sharing
what you shared with me. It was literally consistent with what she had told me then too.
So I just am glad that you all got a chance to hear that as well. And of course, if you
have further questions, I'm sure Ms. Winfrey would be happy to answer them. Board Member Edson.
I understand that our bus stops and our transit centers are public space,
but you need a ticket to get on the train, you need a ticket to get on the bus.
Does that change the dynamic with regard to people wanting to create some sort of actions?
It does not because we do not require law enforcement locally to board,
to buy a ticket to board our bus to solve a public disturbance.
Thank you. I think any further discussion about this, we should, you know, consider
agendizing this if the board wants to have a discussion about it. Otherwise, I think,
you know, we probably should just keep to comments only. Thank you.
Board Member Contreras? Yes, I just want to thank Board Member Joyce for bringing this up. It's,
you know, I usually don't give a comment during this, but I was, you know, just second the comments
that were said. And in a second thing, I am curious about the NCTD plus
performance split between San Marcos and Vista that's not clear in the the report
and I don't know if it would, I mean there's a lot of different cells in this
so if you have to do San Marcos and Vista it might make it even more unruly
but I would like to understand those data points as separate but part of the
same, but I you know just to say I think that potentially the conversation that
we were having briefly potentially should be agendized because it seems
that there's a lot of there's more statements to be made and more clarity
to be had. Board alternate comment? Yeah just want to also say appreciate member
Joyce's comments. On another note, as we're constantly thinking about regional
transportation agency collaboration, my boss, Council President Pro Tem Lee, is on
Sandag. I know you're on Sandag as well and others. Has, have you all thought
about having an informational item on the regional plan? The EIR is out, I
I believe for public feedback and it ends July 18th.
So, I'm not sure if this is something that the board wants
to even discuss but I throw that out there.
Yeah, I think if this, if we do want to have a discussion,
our next meeting is I believe July 18th or 17th, 17th.
So, if that is something that the board would like to see,
we would have to agendize for that board meeting.
I'd like to have a presentation from Sandeg on their plan.
Even if it's a day before the public hearing closes.
Okay. We can work with Sandeg staff on an appropriate date for them to come.
It seems like as long as, yeah, it'll be the 17th, yep.
It'll be literally the day before.
They still have obviously more work to do after the EIR is completed.
But yeah, just wanted to make that comment.
Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, not seeing anything. All right. So, do we have any remaining public
Remaining Public Communications. Remaining Public Communications
comments at this time? Yes, Madam Chair, we do have one public speaker for general public comment
on Zoom. Ricardo Favela, can you hear us? Yes, I can. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. You have three
minutes. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, governing board of the North County Transit
District. I'm Ricardo Favela. I'm a fall brick resident and a trustee for the fall
brick union elementary school district. It's important to be aware of the current climate
that our Latino and immigrant communities are enduring. Since the start of this month,
immigrant communities have been under siege and have seen numerous immigration enforcement
operations targeting Latino workers, fathers, mothers, citizens, asylees, residents, and
non-citizens. Community members are suspicious of any activity that appears to be enforcement related.
I know that in some cases routine police traffic stops are being confused for immigration
operations and construction sites where cones are used to direct traffic are being confused
for immigration checkpoints. There's a heightened sense of fear and distrust of all law enforcement.
Families are sheltering at home as much as possible and taking many precautions just to
get to and from work. Our summer school program at Fallbrook has recently saw a drop in attendance
following a perceived threat of immigration enforcement in the neighborhood. It feels
like we're living through a persecution of brown working families. More recently, I have heard
rumors of neighboring transit districts in San Diego and Los Angeles regarding some type of
presence of ICE in their transportation districts. I think it's important for this board to establish
clear boundaries between the NCTD and ICE. I and thank you for clarifying some of those points.
it would be great to see those see that information more clearly defined and available.
This might be something you've already done. I don't know.
But as far as our school districts, many school districts in San Diego have already
updated their bylaws, their policies, and have made resolutions to clarify
this issue at the moment. So I would suggest that a statement or resolution
addressing which measures the NCTD will take in the event that ICE agents board a mode of
transportation to check passengers legal status or if the agents are on NCTD property potentially
disturbing passengers. So that's my suggestion about making it a clear resolution or statement
for this regard. As you know, public transportation is critical for our working families
and your leadership to ensure the safety of our riders is needed at this moment. Thank you very
much. Thank you. No further comments. Okay. Thank you. At this time, public registration
to speak on remaining public communications will end. And the next scheduled meeting is
our regular board meeting July 17th, 2025 at 2 p.m. And with that, we are adjourned.