Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Transit Authority Meeting   2/20/2025

We're going to be coaching you through just in the short term until we have adopted bylaws.

All right and both of you are?

Aye.

And it's three minutes per speaker.

If anybody from the public would like to speak, please use the Raise Your Hand feature to raise your hand and let us know that you would like to speak.

So our next agenda item is selecting a regular meeting time for our calendars, which is critical.

And also happy to share the staff recommendation, but certainly wanted to pose it to you all first.

Why don't you share the recommendation with us?

And since that's already held on folks' calendars, we could have the authority meeting on those fourth Thursdays from four to six, rotating back and forth.

That's right.

I don't think so.

And then we have a partnership meeting next week.

that work, and then they will get a cancellation for the alternate meetings.

And then we can take care of that next week.

So the partnership with the meeting.

This group.

OK. We'll count February, and then we'll move to the partnership next month.

OK.

We will have the fourth Thursday be the authority.

The fourth Thursday of March is going to be the partnership.

No, we're going to talk next week about going ahead and making it every other month.

We'll try to march this part of April RTP.

And then as far as the authority meeting 90 minutes or two full hours right now the partnership is scheduled for two full hours and

Yes, four o'clock.

Four o'clock.

With the partnership.

Some of the members of the board work and ask that this meeting start after.

I would still prefer a five o'clock meeting to a four o'clock meeting, but

Let's start with an hour and a half and see how it goes.

Every time I suggest any meeting schedule that goes after a normal work day, I'm like, well, y'all also have a work day.

We work at the pleasure.

Great.

I think probably planning on that extra time and then we can also...

An hour and a half.

We might want to schedule it back an hour, but we'll see if that works to get started.

That's right.

I always say that.

So we have set our regular meeting time and we will prepare a draft resolution for the next meeting in March.

And I would imagine you, Ann, and Ben are going to take this one on.

And then it goes to section B. I'm going to keep going until somebody waves their hand and starts speaking.

I believe both of you all chose resolution.

All or such portions of the County of Albemarle, why is it not just the County of Albemarle?

Do we have four in mind?

Or where did four come from?

They cannot vote.

And that was also feedback that we got from some of the rural localities is if you're trying to amend this so that UVA can start being a voting member, we're really not interested in being on your board.

Just observe for everyone that the way it's set up, if we maximize the size of the authority, the rural counties are a equally sized voting block.

And one thing that we may want to do going forward is if we do find things, and this is legislation that's existed for some time, if there are suggested changes, we could package some of the suggested sort of technical revisions to the legislation and membership organization if we needed to do that.

I think this covers the ones right off the top.

Does that make sense for them to be able to do it?

Commonwealth Transportation Board, DRPT, Senator, you know, so they're other members that are bringing in state level representatives versus at the local level.

You can only be an officer if you are on the board.

Oh, let's see.

So I'll make that correction.

Is this a legislative thing?

I do not believe that this is in the legislation.

People get on a roll and then they understand it.

What does RTP sit to award?

It's whatever you all want to do.

I won't be around.

I was going to say, if we're doing elections in July, but the terms run concurrent with the elected officials' terms, it's kind of crazy.

I mean, I just think it's easier if you start with how appointments start, like January.

That would be the preference of the group.

Then you'd elect your, and you all would know who is appointed.

I think that makes sense.

I think that makes more sense to me than July.

I think two years makes sense, if this is something, we want to have the same sort of gravitas as they can be, it's important.

and I think it works really well with the jail board and some of the others that I've been on that have that two-year, because it does provide continuity.

Okay, so two-year terms and two consecutive two-year terms.

Okay, which doubles the max.

And then the

So then it calls for a nominating committee, and then it defines the role of the chair and the vice chair.

I wanted to make sure it wasn't the first meeting of the calendar year, so we didn't have to lock into January.

Because it will be post-election, pre-swearing in.

I think it's fine in this sort of way.

What does it entail?

It sounds like a big thing.

Okay, thank you.

And then notify the public of the meeting.

Is there any statement in here, I'm checking ahead, is there any statement that references the PDC as the matrix or a neighbor of all of us?

And you would want the PDC identified as the convener.

So a memorandum of understanding or something like that.

I tried to scoot ahead to see, but I didn't.

A majority will constitute a quorum, but the vacancies will not be considered for purposes of the quorum.

So a majority is three.

We didn't want to have meetings with just one community.

So we want to say that form a representative, a director representing Albemarle and Charleston.

We just can't vote on it.

We provide a resolution in advance and a copy of the proposed resolution will be provided to all of the authority directors.

and then there could be a motion which would be a quorum motion provided.

Votes, of course, they'll be made and seconded, taken by voice or roll call.

Of the voting members, yeah.

I don't have a problem with that.

I'm going to say five.

It's not like we have 50 people.

and even for the person that's trying to take the count.

I feel like that makes a lot of good sense.

Of course, that's where the PDC comes forward to help with preparation of the agenda.

The chair will provide the agenda at least 10 days in advance.

I mean, we do have a, you know, if you're going to pull, bring something up or add

So we could say we'll submit them to the chair no less than one week prior to the meeting?

One week is five days or what do we want?

But you have to post it ten days.

The agenda has ten days.

Okay, so do you want to say no less than five days prior to the meeting?

I wouldn't make it ten.

So is there a difference here that we're trying to establish with a five or a ten?

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

A three-day requirement of notice.

So if you're meeting on a Wednesday, you have to provide the materials that you provide to the board three days in advance of the meeting.

And this is probably, 10 days is probably written just to give the directors ample time to review.

Right.

And then updates up to three days before?

will be provided in accordance with open meeting requirements.

But I would think that this, I would think you all would want to have, ordinarily you would want to have those agendas to you prior with more time than just three days to review.

I would always want a weekend.

It doesn't mean that what you want to work for is maybe a bit more notice.

We don't do that now.

I see we followed the law but we continue with our practice to send all materials out one week in advance.

So how much time do you want to add the item?

And you're only going to, that's a special sort of item.

But then back at the beginning for designees, it says the board committee does make another official to attend the meeting with the authority board.

I just wanted to clarify that it's not a discussion.

So we may internally want to check this paragraph to see about those, Christine.

OK.

Yeah, for the most part.

Yeah, our policy has some things that we need.

In the January meeting, that's an agenda item that we need.

And we'll work on providing those guidelines, and they copy and paste some of those guidelines for another.

For the MPO room for RTP, is it two minutes?

We have three minutes.

I think it's three.

And that's pretty standard, I think.

The board can reorder the agenda for chair.

At the meeting if you need to.

And nobody will speak.

I thought this sounded very severe.

Robert's rule though, if you're right.

Questions.

Speaks about questions and authority discussion.

I don't know what we mean when we say vacancies are not considered.

I would have been treated the other way around, right?

That's how I was reading this.

And in this case, the quorum would be two, which would have to be a city and an accountant.

Correct.

In a way, if you don't have representatives from the localities, then you wouldn't have quorum anyway.

I'm going to go and then the last section that I'm going to do is decorum and it basically sets the chairs responsible for keeping everybody in.

And members could also

You would want to be able to bring other... You see what I'm saying?

Currently there's two members of the authority.

Well, the member of the authority is the City of Charlottesville and then Ben is the representative of the City of Charlottesville.

You could have any member that you appoint as the City of Charlottesville.

I know.

We could say that many will consist of five persons who represent

who represent members of the authority and who are appointed by the board.

And the five can come from any of the contributing parties.

The committee will consist of five persons who represent members of the authority and are appointed by the authority board.

Those are the two committees.

Nothing that actually explicitly says that you can create more, but you can.

Since we just changed the other.

Would it be more consistent with up to six voting members?

Right.

This is much more specific because it talks about VDOT and I do like on the technical advisory committee to have that expertise of VDOT and DRPT for sure, right?

I see that it's not capitalized to indicate that it's a different word but I would still avoid using the word members.

Six persons representing.

I think the reason we have to track that initially is having one non-voting member.

Well, the three members are all non-voting.

So the voting part is a functionary thing.

So I have functional things that will consist of up to six persons representing members of the authority who will have voting power within this committee.

I'm sure there is probably a slightly more elegant way we can write it on the back end.

members of the authority.

And so we keep the rest of that.

All the rest of that is fine, it's really just the first sentence.

And I was trying to think if there were any other technical groups besides VDOT that we needed from DRPT, but I guess that pretty much covered it.

Close to the end, there's some more information about quorum.

We're not recommending any additional committees at this time because we'd like to get the first two stood up and functioning, but if there are other roles that you find necessary for your own advisement, you have the capability to, yeah.

And then any questions about that?

Alright, that works.

It's important to point out that the bylaws say that the executive director will not be a director of the authority.

That would be really cool.

That's good.

Right.

So I think that contract for staff could be that MOU with the PDC.

And we talked about the MOU.

We'll get that budget ready to go on July the 1st, which means we would have to adopt that annual budget in May for July, since the CARTA is an odd month.

The Commonwealth's Auditor of Public Accounts orders that auditors legally authorize to represent the office.

And I'm going to be honest with you, I do not remember what you said.

That's an audit, but it seems strange that we would go to the commonwealth's auditor, public accounts.

I don't know if I can find that.

Is that in the original?

I'd just like to let it check and see.

I'm just not sure if the Commonwealth auditor is who we want.

And is it normal to have it done annually also?

Are those anything?

On my quick review.

That makes sense.

And right now we don't have it.

I understand that.

It's something that probably is in the original language.

That makes sense.

I was under the impression

I just don't remember what it said.

You know how my father-in-law once did and once got a contract to audit the books of Spotsylvania County?

It has to be someone that's not within the organization.

We have our own independent audit system.

So now I'm like, maybe all these guys are.

legally authorized representatives of the Commonwealth's Auditor of Public Accounts, and I just don't know that.

I think it's something we can also get clear to staff.

Here's the video he sent me about it.

He did send me a video about it.

While the auditors are defined by the Constitution, the Code of Virginia, it has a work plan.

As opposed to like a municipality or county jurisdiction, maybe that's the difference?

And it may be, to Christine's point, that if there is direct taxing authority to come

And then bonding.

that the officers of the authority and any employees are bonded.

Officers of the authority and such authorities may be required to give bond

I don't believe it's called out in the legislation.

You would be vulnerable?

And are the employees the TJPDC?

Sorry, officers is actually only the chair in that space.

And having bonding for people who are dealing with financial records is probably very appropriate.

It goes on to say that the authority pays for the bonds, which is sort of equal to like an insurance.

And most of that would relate, I believe, to whether or not there were funds, money coming in and money being disbursed from the organization.

And a chair and vice chair is like a sign-off seat of some sort of checks.

But this is something I'm not as familiar with.

Well this is I think ensuring the authority against you.

Yes, against embezzlement or whatever.

Yes, that would be my understanding.

I haven't seen DNL insurance in any of our other organizations.

Or that if you all act, the Albemarle representatives, if you act on the CARTA, are your actions on behalf of CARTA covered under Albemarle?

I guess that's the question.

So let us spend a little time just chatting about insurance.

I think that is a great question to make sure we check it out.

Does that make sense?

And to your other question, right?

And then finally, we all agree that we'll use Robert's rules of order to round the meeting.

I think we mean the abbreviated.

Because the other, if you really are following it, it is very...

I don't pretend though.

Okay, we'll identify that as the abbreviated.

At the abbreviated manual, I don't know when this question will come up.

Anybody have any other changes or suggestions or thoughts about the bylaws?

That is part of the legislation.

Do we need to add like a definition, so we know we're talking about this kind of bond versus that kind of bond?

I mean again, I would presumably be under the finance piece.

And that's really important.

So it does talk in this about having the authority to bond.

Well, we don't.

No, that makes sense.

We just leave it in there.

Right, because the powers of the RTA are not actually identified in the bylaws or however they're run.

We shall have the powers of the legislation.

That is whatever that legislation is.

You all can do these 14 things that are identified in the legislation.

Very cool.

I mean, that sounds like a great political stunt to make.

Re-election campaign, you could point out.

Honestly, it would be funny.

I think it's best to keep people away from seeing vehicles, buses, any of this, unless it's in a nice empty parking lot.

So goals and intent for CARTA.

When we're looking where we want to invest, the trend division plan points to first we should be looking in underserved areas, areas where we can add frequency,

This is the constrained version?

So we've continued that engagement despite the fact that we're not going to be responsible for the Rural Transit Needs Assessment, but we are still going to maintain that relationship and try to pull them along with us.

Do you all have those sort of relationships with?

So we want to work with all of those to see where we can move forward specific priorities in the region.

What routes do we want to put extra funding on?

If you're listening to DRPT, we'd like some funding.

So when will we know about the grant?

We may say this is our top priority.

Is the notion that we would supplement the work that the city is doing with CAT?

Maybe eventually we get there, but that's not really what we have our eyes on in the near term.

I'm a special timekeeper.

current legislation at the General Assembly, some trends in the Commonwealth related to transit, and then his experience with the different transportation authorities and transit funding that have happened in other regions so that we can continue to educate ourselves but then we can also talk about what might be a path for CARTA moving forward related to dedicated funding.

I was on the VTA board and actually chaired it for a while.

So this is what we're doing, not really, yeah I mean just a general information session and I think they have some sense of what we're doing.

I would think we need to do a little bit more work than it seemed like to me.

Let's talk about, Christine used the word legitimizing the authority, and maybe what we need to do is sort of get a bit more information, hopefully we'll get the grant, we can do some prioritization, identify where are a few of our wins that we want to see, and maybe that's the right time to begin to engage with the legislative body when we sort of have a plan a couple of steps out.

So the Regional Transit Partnership did bring Cree and at that time Sally.

And it's good to do that.

We just might need to do a little more time to get organized.

Certainly we'll want to have a really good sense before we go back to the job.

Then we'd like to leave space for that on the agenda moving forward.

We've done so much work in the RTP that I feel like maybe there's a question we can explore.

Would it be helpful to have a discussion at some point with DRPT about, I just know,

And there's many of them out there.

Katy's left.

I know.

I think the rest just dropped off.

you know like truly right like that sounds stupid but like they are a huge uh locality inside a locality basically um and i'm sure there are coronaries and some of our other um potential uh rural partners and i do think at some point we're gonna have to figure out how how this umbrella works with

So having those discussions I think with Mike Murphy and Jaunt would be really helpful.

We do have a sort of working group that's meeting as well, and so that is with UVA, CAT, and Jaunt, and that those are regular, they've agreed to regular meetings for how difficult to get Robin in a regular time, but we're working through the agenda, thank you Lucinda on that, but I think that that's a really positive sign that we're gonna meet regularly with them to talk about priorities and talk about this study,

So that's a first for that, and I think that's great.

And if we were able to raise $64,000 ourselves, there would be a lot of interest.

That's awesome.

All right.

Thank you everyone.