Operations and Performance Roundtable
 
Monday, December 15, 2003, Meeting Summary
 
 
Attendees:
 
Glen Veal, Chairman
Carl Cady
Dixon Elder
Marilee Fosbre
Steve Orsini
Michael Hodgins
Steve Flude
Steve Cox
Karen Cade
 
 
Glen Veal began the meeting at 2:00 p.m. with debriefing from the Ferry Committee meeting that was held on the Island on December 14th. Meeting included comments received from the public in reference to the 2004 Fare and Schedule Proposal Package to be presented to the Board of County Commissioners on December 22nd. Glen lead the first part of the meeting and Carl ended the meeting with graphs of data and this was important in selling the issues.
 
Marilee brought up a concern about what if the public wanted to attend these meetings? Steve responded that we wouldn’t turn them away they would be allowed to listen in on the meeting. Marilee was concerned about the audience interrupting the meetings. Dixon suggested if someone wanted to make a presentation to do so at the beginning of the meeting and let the Ferry Committee then proceed with their meeting.
 
Steve Flude stated that himself, Steve Cox, and Michael Hodgins prepared the agenda.
 
Discussion was held on different ways that would be possible to have the Ferry Committee elected to their positions. Steve Flude stated this is listed as a task to look into ways to get the Ferry Committee elected and/or appointed to their position in some sort of official capacity. Steve Cox and Steve Flude will look into this thru the Prosecuting Attorney and Auditor’s office.
 
Steve Flude asked if there was any more discussion on the Ferry Committee meeting debriefing? Steve Orsini pointed out that concern he heard from the audience was “Are the fares something that can be accountable?”  There was also concern about the union contract not being signed yet and how we can have these fares based on data that has not been finalized yet. Steve Flude stated that the Union has cancelled two meetings for negotiations with the next meeting being December 17th but could be cancelled due to the County’s Attorney being ill. The deadline is the County would like to have this completed by December 31st otherwise anytime after that then the crew has been working for a year without a contract. After a year, the Management can do anything they want; they can implement the “Best & Final Offer”, this is State Law. The first meeting that was cancelled was due to the Union having the wrong day down, the second meeting was cancelled due to a conflict. The County’s Attorney has stated that after the 12-months has been completed then the County can implement the “Best & Final Offer”. Glen asked if this 12-month period passes, do we have a plan that would address the overtime issue? Steve Flude stated yes the County does. Without getting into specifics, we are essentially trying to redefine how overtime is given and what a persons employment status is determines whether or not they get overtime and if they do how they get the overtime. We are in the process of give/take of the Union’s asking for some changes of employment status of a group of employees, we have are ideas about whether this would be good or not and whether or not this is required. Essentially all the issues that we have talked about in a group; try control overtime, eliminate non-op, and trying to lower the number of hours they are required to be paid for, all of these things are in our proposal. Being there has only been one meeting with the Union, we’re not sure how the Union views these issues and their importance. We have only focused on one primary issue and that has been trying to reclassify certain positions, regular part-time opposed to on-call part time. We are obligated to continue negotiations so long as the law requires it and up until the point where the Commissioners have had enough. Wage proposal is a percent and a half pay raise over the next three years, that’s about in line with the way the other Union contracts are. This is a 3-year contract. They would get a retro paycheck to cover 2003 and this is fairly standard practice with the rest of the contracts that are currently wrapped up or being wrapped up. The only other real sticky point is the Board moved to begin 2004 to have the employees pay for part of their monthly premium for medical insurance. This is included in contract negotiations.
 
Carl stated that he believes there are some final clean up issues that need to be discussed before moving onto the implementation process. One item is the Ferry Committee went away from the meeting is the item related to the leveling of the motor vehicle fuel tax and deficit reimbursement. We went away from the meeting with the understanding that this was going to be a five-year thing, Dixon stated that this was a unanimous vote to accept the five year, Michael stated this item was being discussed as the meeting was finishing there is no argument in that, and in Berk & Associates notes they have written down three-year. This item will be looked into.
 
The other item is the truck rates it was indicated that the base rate was rounded and 125% was used as the multiplier for the other rates, it just seemed to Carl we should follow the math and do the calculations for both of them then round them separately. Michael stated the way we approached it was the summer surcharge is 25% over the winter rate not the posted rate, so if someone looks at the posted rate you have a 25% gap between those two numbers so that is why we rounded the first one then applied the 25%, the numbers aren’t off by a lot but they are a little higher because you are rounding first then adding the 25%.
 
Carl stated there were still some errors that need to be corrected.  Page 16 of the proposal it has a pass price of $36.50 but on the fare schedule it states $37.50 and the motorcycle fare also needs to be updated on the schedule. A minor error on the Car & Driver fare should be $57.60 instead of $57.50, Michael stated this is half of the base cash fare multiplied by 20 equals $57.50 and it was agreed this was a good idea to keep the $57.50 so in the future if you purchase your tickets from a machine you would have an even amount of the .50 cents. Under page 7 on Holiday Schedules it states “When the day before a holiday falls on a Tuesday – Thursday” shouldn’t this be “Monday – Thursday”? Michael stated this would also be changed. There was some confusion on when the holiday falls on a Monday – Thursday what schedule it would run. Michael stated that if the holiday falls on a Monday – Thursday it will run on Sunday schedule the eve of the Holiday will run on a Friday schedule.
 
Steve Flude instructed on how the public hearing will proceed. Typically the Board will open the public hearing then the staff that is representing the group will give brief comments. Steve will give a brief summary of what the Task Force is and what we have done and why we did it. Basically remind everyone that we were to comment and provide information on the fares and the schedule. Then present the Board with the three following recommendations:

• Cost Recovery Recommendation
• Fare Recommendation
• Schedule Recommendation

Karen will be working with Courtney to produce charts for these items to also present at the public hearing.  Steve’s summary will probably be about 5 minutes. Glen asked if he will have to speak? Steve stated that is up to him, Dixon pointed out it would be nice to have the Ferry Committee acknowledge their support for this proposal. Steve said that when the Board acknowledges that he is dismissed and open the floor for public comment, Steve will then introduce Glen as the Chairman and can say whatever he likes but to keep it brief.
 
Since this is a public hearing the Chairman of the Board will set the tone for what he wants. What Steve will pushing from the Board for is we would like to pass our recommendations we are making today in resolution form and we can have those to you at the next Board session. Marilee asked so the other resolutions for the roundtable and the Ferry Committee are not part of this Public Hearing? Steve stated no that our charter is for fare and schedule purposely keeping it very closely focused on those for a lot of reasons. Glen asked about when would the other issues, like the resolutions to the Board? Steve’s thought is to bring these forward when we had an agreement here were ready to go, and the anticipation being that Steve F. and Glen could handle these as part of our regular Stand Alone sessions that are held every two weeks.
 
Steve moved onto the parking lot demolition project. This project sits in contractual process; we have a contact with Northwest Archeological Associates to do the documentation of the building. We can not get this building torn down until Northwest Archeological Associates receives a “Notice to Proceed” then they can go out and take whatever photo documentation they are required to take, once they are satisfied with the negatives then they can make prints of their photos then they will inform Steve and then a “Notice to Proceed” will be given to our contractor, have a pre-construction meeting and then send them out to demolish the building. Demolishing the building should take less than a month, there are 20 working days in contract with the anticipation being the demolition of the building should be complete by the end of January if all goes well.
 
Dixon has a concern that the City of Anacortes will install limit of 2 hour parking signs in their parking lot, Steve Cox stated that he has talked to the City and they are not going to do this, the only signs that are going up are the “No overnight parking” signs. Steve F. stated that we have an agreement with the City during the construction of our parking lot until some unidentified time next year; ferry users can use their parking lot. Steve Orsini suggested to leave the City as is and use their parking area until the signs “No parking overnight” are installed then bring up to the City what does this mean??
 
Steve F. updated the Ferry Committee with the parking lot construction. Trying to set up a meeting with the City to have our final plans approved so we will have all our permits. Had a meeting with Puget Sound Energy last week to discuss the lighting that would go out on the sight. There is a requirement that the lighting be such that would not disrupt people’s lives. We think we have a good solution there and subject to the City’s approval.
There will be a packet of information that will be taken to the City stating here are the plans and the lights and the City has essentially told us not to worry about it we will get our permit. Dixon asked will there be some similar lighting to the lighting in the parking lot going down on the dock area? Steve stated this has not been talked about yet but we can get to that later.
 
The meeting moved onto the review of the general plan sheets for the parking lot.  Steve stated that nearly all the plan sheets have been reviewed by a semi-retired engineer that has been hired to help with inspection and construction ability for other projects besides this one. A bioswale was put in between the two old buildings as our outfall and is not tied into the City’s line; we cannot do that. Moved onto the plans portion currently as they sit. Steve pointed out where the retaining and rock walls will be located. Marilee asked if the parking lot is going to be below street level? Steve stated that he believes it will be approximately 10-feet below give or take a few. Discussed the catch basin locations and about installing a new pipe to lead down into the bio-swale. Once we get our agreement from the marina, we are going to change order in a staircase which we have a constructural consultant on board to design and put this walkway in and make sure our walls don’t fall down and then we are going to try and rent/lease/buy a 10-foot strip to get us to the point to get us over to the lot. Discussed where new sidewalk, curbs, and gutters will be installed. This discussion continued on reviewing the plan sheets and Steve answered any questions the Ferry Committee had. Steve went over the landscaping details. Moved onto the stairway details, which we have already checked with Puget Sound Energy to make sure, the lighting that we are putting out at the sight will cover the stairs. There will be about 70 parking stalls. The total cost of the project will be approximately a million and a half. We are hoping to have the construction of the parking lot being about April 2004.
 
Steve F., Steve Cox, Ferry Crew, and Rick Keisser have been talking about facility improvements. You can get approximately 18 vehicles in the holding lane and hold maybe 2-4 up on the hill. Our thought being we would like to have the queue up lane to be smaller than a ferry load that way if you have a couple of cars sitting at the top of the hill, they might be thinking well maybe I can get on this run rather than having them in the queue up lane and if they don’t get on the run getting ticked off about it. We also discussed items about keeping the ferry on schedule. One item would be to keep walk-ons separate from the autos, to do this properly were composing to put a gate in the location shown on the plans at the end of the terminal and the gate can only be opened by a crewmember. In order for walk-ons to get off the boat, the crewmember has to be in the lead to open the gate and all these folks would go by then the other gate we got, once those people are all by the crewmember will then open this gate to let walk-on passengers on the boat. In the short term, the ferry building right now has the south end being the crew quarters and the north end being the waiting area, Steve F. and Steve C. are working with our facility folks to cut a contract with an architect and be we are going to flip those ends around, so that we put the crew quarters on the north end and the waiting area on the south end and then we will have an enclosed area besides a covered area they can wait in. Dixon pointed out a critical issue that the crewmembers use the same bathroom facilities as the public because this helps in keeping the facilities clean. After walk-ons have purchased their tickets they will stay behind the gate then once they can be loaded the gate will then be closed and if any other walk-ons show up they will either be able to get on this run or have to wait for the next run. Another idea is to move the two portables and relocate them by the queue up lanes. There were concerns with is there going to be a drop-off/pickup area, Steve pointed out there is at least about 50-feet in front of building that could be used for this purpose. Steve F. stated that his thought would be to provide as many ADA parking stalls as required in the area down by the asphalt trail. Along the centerline will be raised pavement markers or continued rounded curb the entire length, the idea here is to get the point across there is definitely an in and an out. Steve Cox stated that how the vehicles would be lined up is Lane 1 first then onto Lane 2, Steve F. stated the lanes are 12-feet wide. 

Steve F. talked about traffic arms and how he would like to give the crew the ability primarily at the end of the day to have the traffic arms come down and it should be obvious that you will not get on the ferry. It would be nice to have the crew be able to click a button and open/close the traffic arms and this would also help with security.
 
Steve F. stated we are also considering installing a countdown clock with a horn on the terminal building. Not only does this need to face out for the customers to see it and also needs to face the crew. There seemed to be concern with what does this countdown mean? Steve F. stated that at one of the meetings it was written on the board that would the countdown clock would state so many minutes before the next ferry departure. Suggestion was to have some kind of reader board stating if there are going to be delays in the ferry runs.
 
Steve F. indicated that now we have the technology to a point where we are seriously thinking about installing web cameras on both sides of the ferry terminals. If we position them right then people can check the ferry status before leaving their homes. Another item being considered is a traffic signal on the eastern side of the approach span that can be controlled by a crewmember so they can control the traffic.
 
Steve F. stated that we have a contract with a real estate company to look into properties located on the Guemes Island side for the purpose of possibly purchasing or obtaining right-of-entry’s to accommodate for ferry parking, etc. and this proceeded into a discussion and possible ideas. The Community Center asked Steve for guidance in helping them to produce more parking.
 
Steve F. and Steve C. would like to have any feedback from the Ferry Committee on these plans by the first of the year.
 
It was decided meetings will be held the 2nd Friday of each month at be held in the Sauk Room at Skagit County Public Works.
 
Next meeting will be January 9th at 2:00 p.m.
Meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.