PERMANENT CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO THE MTA
MINUTES OF SEPTEMBER 4, 2014
A meeting of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee (PCAC) to the MTA was convened at 12:00 noon on September 4, 2014 in the 16th floor Conference Room, at 2 Broadway, New York City.
The following members were present:
Andrew Albert Stuart Goldstein
James F. Blair Christopher Greif
Gerard Bringmann Trudy Mason
Sheila Carpenter Edith Prentiss
Mark Epstein Michael Sinansky
Randy Glucksman Burton Strauss, Jr.
Neal Zuckerman
The following members were absent:
Francena Amparo Marisol Halpern
Richard Cataggio Rhonda Herman
Francis Corcoran Sharon King Hoge
Owen Costello Maureen Michaels
Mike Godino Scott Nicholls
Ira Greenberg Raymond Pagano
William K. Guild Bryan Peranzo
The following members were on phone:
Matthew Kessler Larry Rubinstein
In addition, the following persons were present:
William Henderson – Executive Director
Ellyn Shannon – Associate Director
Angela Bellisio – Transportation Planner
Bradley Brashears – Transportation Planner
Karyl Cafiero – Research Associate
Rebecca Harshbarger – NY Post
Dustin Jones – Disabled In Action
Yvonne Morrow – Concerned citizen
Richard Schulman – Concerned citizen
Charles Sutter – Concerned citizen
Approval of Agenda and Minutes
The agenda for the September 4, 2014 meeting was approved. The minutes of the June 12, 2014 meeting were approved.
Randy Glucksman welcomed the members to the PCAC’s future office location and stated that staff is working on obtaining passes for all members that will allow them to pass directly through the turnstiles in the lobby, rather than having to gain access through the reception desk.
Chairs’ Reports
The PCAC, LIRRCC, MNRCC and NYCTRC Chairs’ Reports are attached to these minutes.
Jim Blair’s commented that he has been a member of the PCAC and MNRCC for 23 years and in that time he has seen many MTA Chairmen as well as many senior staff and MTA Board members come and go. He said that he has seen a number of notable achievements but also many low points. Mr. Blair said that he has served in a number of roles, including terms as Chair of the MNRCC and the PCAC, and has spent a number of years as the MNRCC’s representative on the MTA Board. This has been challenging work, but it has made a real impact on conditions for the riders. He said that the constant through all of this has been the PCAC, its members and staff and thanked each staff member in turn for their service to the organization and its members.
Mr. Blair said that some time ago, he mentally set the East Side Access completion as his date for leaving the MTA Board and the MNRCC. While he would like to see this major project through to completion, schedule overruns have made this plan unworkable, as current projections are that the project will not be in service until the 2020’s.
Andrew Albert said that he has served with Jim Blair on the Board and will miss Mr. Blair’s intelligence and well-thought out comments at the Board table. He noted that he and Mr. Blair have served together for many years and have always sought first and foremost to improve conditions for riders. Mr. Albert said that Mr. Blair will be missed, both on the MTA Board and on the PCAC and MNRCC.
Mr. Glucksman introduced Neal Zuckerman as the new member representing the MNRCC on the MTA Board and said that he is confident that Mr. Zuckerman will carry on in the tradition of Mr. Blair in advocating for riders and asking the difficult questions that others hesitate to raise. Mr. Zuckerman said that he has been through one Board cycle and is getting into the flow of serving on the Board.
Mr. Glucksman noted that the comments that he made before the Transportation Reinvention Commission have been distributed.
Council Chair’s reports were previously distribute to members. Each Chair called for questions or comments on the material presented
LIRRCC Chair’s Report
There were no questions or comments on the LIRRCC Chair’s report.
MNRCC Chair’s Report
Mr. Glucksman noted that David Buchwald has contacted the PCAC for information on Metro-North operations and that he is now a member of the Committee on Corporation, Authorities, and Commissions and that there should be opportunities for the MNRCC and PCAC to work with Assemblyman Buchwald in the future.
Mr. Glucksman also said that he was part of a group that met with new NJ Transit Executive Director Veronique Hakim
NYCTRC Chair’s Report
Mr. Albert highlighted the NYCTRC’s release of its report on NYC Transit’s service diversion communication. He said that NYC Transit knows that improvements are needed and that the NYCTRC looks forward to working with them. He said that this issue has been a consistent concern of the NYCTRC and thanked all who contributed to the report.
Old Business
Website Report
Angela Bellisio said that the new PCAC website may be ready to launch next week. Mark Epstein noted that different councils may want different things on the site. Ms. Bellisio stated that the content of the website will be largely the same as the existing site and that the changes that have been made are designed to improve the aesthetics and user friendliness of the site. William Henderson said that there could be changes made over time within the framework of the website design and that members will be sent a web link that will allow them to view a sample of the redesigned website.
Edith Prentiss asked why the new site could not be rolled out sequentially, as information is transferred into it. Mr. Henderson said that the PCAC has a functioning website that contains all of the information that will be on the new site and staff does not believe that it makes sense to make the new site live with limited information.
Ms. Bellisio said that the new site will make information much easier to access and that the calendar and ease of finding stories in the website’s archive will be improved.
Mr. Henderson said that the PCAC now has office space in 2 Broadway and invited the members to see the space, which is next door to the meeting room, at the conclusion of the meeting. Matthew Kessler asked about the progress of the new ID system. Mr. Henderson said that the move team at MTA has told PCAC that a new access card system will be implemented in one step and that those PCAC members who do not have NYC Transit identification will be able to receive one of these cards. He said that staff is working to ensure that all NYC Transit passes will provide access to 2 Broadway.
New Business
Presentation – PCAC/ULI project on assessing the economic value of investing in the MTA system.
Ellyn Shannon presented the status of the project and the PCAC’s work analyzing Capital Program reports. She said that over the past two years the PCAC has worked on analyzing the MTA Capital Program and how information related to capital spending is communicated in preparation for the proposed 2015-2019 Capital Program. This work led into the current project. Most directly relevant to this project is the white paper that Jan Wells prepared on the economic value of capital spending.
One of the major goals of the work is to give the MTA a framework for better expressing the economic value of its capital spending. Currently, the MTA’s analysis is limited to direct benefits to suppliers.
Ms. Shannon briefly discussed the process of forming the project team and outlined the groups and individuals that are involved with the project. She said that there are three main elements of the project, including facilitated roundtables, a final report, and an interactive website that will allow interested parties to get information about the economic benefits of the MTA.
Trudy Mason asked how stakeholders are defined in this project. Ms. Shannon stated that all persons in the New York region are impacted in some way by the MTA system, even if they are not riders, and so NYC have some stake, even if not riders. Ms. Mason asked whether the goal of this work is to target elected officials. Ms. Shannon said that the project does not focus directly on the funding of the Capital Program, but instead seeks to improve understanding of the economic value of the MTA.
Ms. Mason commented that when the Capital Program was started its purpose was to restore the system and to keep the system in state of good repair. She said it seems like there are misconceptions that Capital Program is all new. She asked whether the project is differentiating between new projects and the normal repair and maintenance of the existing system. Ms. Shannon said that the economic value of capital spending is being considered as a whole.
Neal Zuckerman said that he would like to see the PCAC have a forum focusing on the value of maintaining what we have.
Ms. Prentiss asked whether the project would be considering freight movement. Ms. Shannon said that this is beyond the scope of the project, and that there are many analyses that would be valuable if there were resources to perform them.
Mr. Albert asked whether the report would show how non-riders benefit from the system. Ms. Shannon said that the focus of the report is on the impact of the system on the economy and thus would include non-riders.
Ms. Shannon said that the project will be holding six roundtables and that there has been an effort to invite a diverse crowd to these sessions. By collecting the issues that are raised multiple times, the project team is able to direct its work toward issues important to community leaders. The project will also include infographics to make it possible for interested persons to quickly recognize the value of capital spending.
Mr. Zuckerman said that he was stunned by the State Comptroller’s report outlining the investment needs of the MTA system over the next 20 years.
Mr. Albert said that the less funding there is available for the Capital Program, the greater the MTA’s reliance on pay-as-you-go capital spending, and this puts pressure on the fare.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 1:40 pm and members were invited to view the PCAC’s new offices.
Respectfully submitted,
William Henderson
Executive Director