001Okay, I'd like to call this meeting to order. This is the regular uh board meeting of the North Oakland Transportation Authority. Uh today is Thursday, June 19th, 2025, and we're meeting at Oxford Township Hall. Um thanks again for hosting. Um if we could, could we have a roll call for attendance of the board? Sure. Uh McDonald here. Flood here. Breakfield here. Sarowski here. Ferrari here. Ross here. Granger is excused. Curtis here. Moore here. Barnettus. Uh Mador is excused. Waffle here. Uh Swack is excused. Or no, she's all right. That's Bill. That's it. Oh, that's she's she's altered. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. It looks like we have a quorum. So we will move into uh business of the meeting. Uh ask everyone to stand for the flag pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the
002flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay. The board has before it an agenda in your packet. Are there any additions, deletions from that agenda? I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as presented. I'll second. We had uh Mr. Flood and Mr. Breakfield. Oh, no. No. Ferrari and Mr. Breakfield has motion makers. Any any uh questions on the motion? If none, all in favor of the motion to approve the agenda as presented, please say I. I. Opposed, please say no. Like that is all in favor. Motion carries. The board has before it the minutes of the last regular meeting. Are there any edits, corrections, changes? If none, a motion to approve the minutes would be
003in order. I'll make that motion to approve the minutes. I'll second that. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any question on the motion? Hearing none. All in favor of approval of the minutes of Thursday, May 15, 2025. Please say I. Opposed, please say no. Motion carries. Uh, director's report. Lynn, your moment to shine. Good afternoon everybody. Just want to hit on some high points over the last month. We've been busy as ever. Uh May ride totals were uh 9,550. Um are we are we've been tracking our surveys on our on all of our vehicles and we've actually had over a thousand responses to date. We had a meeting today. We're by far the highest um of all the providers um of all five providers. And actually they um showcased us at the board
004of commissioners meeting saying what uh great responses that we're getting. We have over 95% overall ride experience ratings and um it's really been helpful. It's you attribute that to the tokens you give out. Absolutely. That's helped. And so that stopped last Friday, but we're still seeing we still got over 200 this week. So it's great. So I think it started and but that definitely helped and I think um they're using uh Qual is is is saying that's how we've really been able to build up our numbers and so um the other providers are following in our footsteps and doing the same thing and starting to see results. So that's exciting. We also receive comments in detail. So it's great. we'll have an um like an Excel spreadsheet and so we can see the writer what
005they rated and if there's any comments and if there's any poor or fair comments we actually get an email immediately so we're able to deal with those. So that's been actually great feedback um and we're using that internally to improve operations when we need it which is great. Um some of our staffing, we did hire a safety and compliance manager. His name's uh Scottlair. He started on Monday and um he seems to be uh I think he'll be a really good fit for the safety position. Uh he is not um filling the PM position like we talked about. We were trying to do both. It's going to be a daily position. So, we're going to just look for um other coverage, maybe not that caliber for the evening um uh work that we needed. So,
006uh but we really excited about the safety position. What's his brief brief background? He is um he has had a number of safety positions. He's actually uh used to own like 10 trucks for FedEx and ran a whole company part of that. He's been operations managers at two different locations for over 100 employees um in big fleets and he's run um the safety and compliance for um been hired out for safety and compliance for a number of companies. So, um he's very OSHA compliant. Um um OSHA 30, OSHA, you know, should have brought his resume, but he's um and he's he's also has a great heart for service. Gave up like two years to take care of his um disabled mother. Um coaches little league baseball and is involved in, you know, in the communities
007and seems like a a great fit. So, we're excited about having him. And uh we're still doing um interviews for administrative assistant and our driver's trainers. We're kind of uh getting close to that. We're hoping to maybe make a decision on those positions next week. And Vandy um uh our accountant got a full-time job and has left, but Rachel, she has an accounting degree. She's fit right in and taken right over. We're very excited to have her. Vandy was filling in um remotely. so much help uh to have uh Rachel in the office every day. So, it's been a a great transition. So, I'm excited to have her be part of that team and she's got a lot of great accounting experience and I'm going to get her right into budgets next. So, that'll be
008um nice to have her help. So, as far as some of our capital and procurement projects, a lot of things going on. We just released our um office and grant expansion project yesterday and it's posted on bidnet on MPTA which is a Michigan public transit authority and also on our website. So that is underway and uh our vehicle camera system uh we've had some issues with that as we've kind of discussed. We have a we have um our smart owned vehicles and our NOTA owned vehicles. And the last time that we met, I think I mentioned that we have a grant and that they found out that we can't use federal grant dollars for um uh for vehicles that SMART doesn't own. So, there's some there was some research going into that. So, right now,
009I I've spoke with the procurement department. What they're trying to do right now is to kind of do a sole source procurement which would expedite the system and kind of use the provider that SMRT has, which is the provider we were looking at anyway. So, um they're trying to just get that passed and if that was it would be a quicker process, but um it still isn't um we still don't have a a definite answer on that. Um Eli Cooper, the transit manager at Oak County, is now on the smart board. he's taken over one of the seats that have left. So, he is fighting for us, which is actually a I think will be great to have um Eli on that smart board to kind of fight for um all the providers, which is
010good. our tablets and our mounts. They were installed uh Smart had a federal grant, so it was no cost to us, but it's when found out that the contractor that they hired um uh did not do a proper job and they actually have to do a full rewiring um take out the wiring, take out the mounts and so that's a process. They was having more issues than us. We've had some issues. So it's they've been I think redoing it at WODS for the last three or four weeks. They're scheduled to come out to us uh next week with a new um company to do the rewiring. Some let's see the the municipal credit contracts. It's a oneanddone contract. Those were mailed June 10th. That's going to really help us out a lot uh versus having
011multiple contracts for all the communities every year. Um, I'm I'm happy that SMR's moving forward with having just one single contract once those contracts come in from all the communities, which I've been getting them in slowly. It'll be great. It's one and done. So, we don't have to ask all the communities each year for those signatures, which will be helpful. And our website, we are in process of getting it's been um we have it and we're going through training. Rachel, I and Veronica have been going through training and trying to update it. Um, and we're hopeful. We have another training meeting next week. Um, but as we get all the data done, I'm hoping maybe in August if we feel comfortable, we can launch the new website, which will be great. I think that's it.
012Thank you. Any questions on the reports or for Lynn directly? I move and file the second report. There are no questions on the motion. All in favor of the motion to receive and file the report, please say I. I oppos please say no. Reports filed. Public comments hearing none. We'll move on to number eight which is the approval of financial activity. Uh first aida theformational we normally receive and file that. What's the direction of the board? I can make a motion to receive and file the financial. I'll support. Okay. We have a motion and a second to receive and file the financial activity. Any questions on the motion? If none, all in favor of the motion, please say I. I. I. Oppos, please say no. Motion carries. The noted bills as of uh May 31st
013or Yes. May 31st. All right. the amount of 28. Um, that is that uh 584,33747. I think it's a little bad. Say that again. It's It's tiny. Sorry. Yeah, five. It's really tiny. I had a hard time. $584,33747. That includes the payroll, um, the debits, and the checks. I'll make a motion to approve the bills for a total amount of $594 33754.49. I'll second that. That made sense. There's a motion and a second to approve the bills as presented. Uh, could we have a roll call vote for approval? Yes. McDonald, yes. Flood, yes. Breakfield, yes. Sarowski, yes. Ferrari, yes. Ross, yes. Curtis, yes. Moore, yes. Yes. Is it possible next time to get it just on the agenda, the number? Oh, good idea. Thank you. Yes. We've talked about that. Just haven't made it yet,
014but Dad, you brought that. I brought because I can't read her printing. I know. Rachel, help me remember information. Yes. Thank you, Rachel. Okay. Uh so we approved the bills for payment and we'll move on to old business uh which first is the status on the intergovernmental agreement. Uh Lynn, I'm not sure the mechanism, but I did go through the agreement and thought that I sent the suggest, you know, the suggestions through. Apparently, they weren't received because I see only Oxford um village has has gotten a uh I know I think yours was in last month's possibly because I know I think we had two comments last month and then we had this comment this month. Oh, but um haven't heard anything else from our attorney. I did email him just requesting that we have
015a draft for our next meeting, you know, so that we can have something to go on, but I haven't received any other and I've been sending him the comments as well. And that'll be August. That'll be August if we if we cancel July. So, correct. We need to stay on top of it. Right. Um any comments or questions from the board on the IG? Mr. hurts section six and section seven. Um, this looks like we took the old section out of the interlocal agreement and just tried to crack it into what it is going on today. And it it's so convoluted here. We do not we are participating but we're don't we don't fund local uh participating governments don't fund not. So a lot of this was talking about uh for example um 6E and
016I'll go to the second statement. This subject subsection is no way obligates the participating governments to transfer additional monies to NOTA. We are participating governments well right we we don't have any monies going to you nor would we have any opportunity to additionally fund it. However above their yearly obligation described in section 7A without the approval of each participating government. Well, the only participating government is Oakland County. Somebody noted that over on the right. But if I go down to section 7A and read it, contributions to not transportation fund will be made by the participating governments and the amount of types of each unit's contribution will be predetermined and agreed upon. Well, that all the money that noted gets comes from Oakland County. I I had noted that as well. Section six and seven would
017tend to lead you to believe that there are other entities participating in funding not and I go back to Michael of this one. The original question is why are we having not board meetings? Well, we are a subcontract. We subcontract not out to the county. get their money and we provide a service. This board directs what service you guys are doing. This leads me to believe there's some participation in payment. So, it really is just the municipal credits. So, um like the CDBG could be potentially given to us, you know, if the communities decide they want to. But I think sections six and seven without going into the CGDB funds because I read that too. But th this should be looked at by an attorney and say here's what we're trying to say here. Mhm.
018Well, that's what we're in the process of doing. Yeah. So, I'm not sure if we're going to talk about getting rid of entire sections. No, the crafting of that those sections, right? There's a lot of changes by different people in their comments. Mention fashion. Aren't you happy I read it? I did. I read it too. So yeah, it's there's like 10 different strikeouts and adding in comment that the section should be re resc and I'm sure that's part of that will be done once attorney still looking at it too and I haven't had feedback from that end. So correct. Oh, you're attorney. Okay. Really? Okay. It might seem a little premature if you pan them. Um I'm not I I He knows that we're still all in talks, but I wanted to get him up
019to speed just where we are today, especially since there's been so many changes. So, the words I was trying to capture from that last statement was we're holding our board meetings because we have an asset that we don't want to lose. And then this local agreement with participating governments, just because you are servicing them means you're participating. So that's where I was getting at. Now back to the balance sheet where you have the buildings at 2,126,000. You're listing a building accumulated depreciation of 244,000. Misleading. This is the only place I see anything about the funds that have been put in by Addison Oran Oxford Village Leonard to buy that property and building. There's nowhere in that in the local agreement that captures the amount of assets you have retention with these other governments. They don't
020have that retention of that asset. you service independence, but if you break Nota up or not no longer provides a service development, does independence have a little bit of ownership in the building? No. Um, that should be specified. It It may be that participating is not the Yeah, that's my comments. Previously, it wasn't an issue, but you're right. I mean, it could be it could open the door to that conversation. So that's good. So we'll super point well taken. Uh Miss Ross, did you you did have your hand raised. Oh, I just again I echo that same thing for participating and contracting. So thank you. Anybody else? We got an email from the state this week stating that the block grants are going away. What happens to this when black go away? Uh there's just
021Orient Township that is currently done and I'm not sure if they're going to continue to give us the block grants because now we have no longer have a um requirement to for the municipalities to contribute anything to NOTA in the past. Um they would use part of their block grant monies to to make up that amount that they owed us. But now that there is no requirement, they may find some other place to put it if if they even have them at all. So it shouldn't um we don't have anything in our budget for block grant money. Okay. Okay. Anybody else? If not, uh beyond then and uh Lyn and I will communicate with not attorney to make sure that they understands the conversation um as well as the notes that he's received on as
022far as ownership and participation. Okay. Uh here's a fun one. 9B building renovation request for proposal status update. Lyn, well um good news is we did finally get it uh issued yesterday on the um on the bidet and MTPA and um the not website. So happy to have that actually out there and in process. So um this is to get a construction manager so that we can start a project. So it's actually on its way. So very happy that we have it out there. So, do we have a a kind of a over overview quick uh timeline like when you know when that that the hiring process and then the start building process or bidding process etc. Uh I have it set for the advertisement was yesterday bids are due uh July 15th. Um we
023have a walkth through ne next Tuesday, no July 1st. We u July 1st is our walkthrough with all the vendors and then interview are going to be the week of July 22nd to pick the um the construction manager. Who's opening the bids? Haven't thought about that. Should it be members of the board or just question? Well, I think that's up to us. Yeah, that's quite honestly. Yeah. Yeah. So, the our director is doing the managerial work on that. Yes. What's the pleasure of the board? Do we have a couple of volunteers that would be willing to sit in uh to go through the bids at some point that would be arranged in the future? It would probably be that date. I I'll What was the date again? The bids are due the 15th. July 15th
024and then interviews begin the week of July 22nd. I think I think it would be good for have a note of board slash community representatives there to at least account for the bids as they're as they're received. And then then with the on with the participation of the uh construction manager, they'll be reviewing them to make sure that the bids are adequate or that they're going to work for us. So we have Mr. Moore. I'll volunteer if I'm walking. How's that? It looks like I'll be able to make it because it'll be almost I don't think I can carry you. So, I walk. Well, I might be with the walker. I'll try. Okay. So, tatively um you're going to make mad I'm going into the hospital opening going to be. So, it's going to be
025at NOA. Sure. It'll be at NOA. Okay. Or we can I mean, if you'd rather it here, it's up to you. No, not is fine. It's fine. um won't take up much time. Will you send them the details? Will you So, tenatively uh Mr. Brefield and Mr. Moore have volunteered. If there's a change in in your availability, please let me and I'll let you know. Well, let me and Lynn know and that way no stone unturned. I'm trying my very best. You know that. Okay. What time was it, Mike? I I didn't write it down in my send us an email. Okay, I will. I think it's 10 a.m. But I have to check. Um I don't know that we need to take formal action on that uh present on the on the participation of
026the board since we own the process. Um okay. The only thing I'd like to know is if AKA could print any smaller for us. Yes, they can. It's a little ring. It is. Lord mighty. And then make it not a mirror image. Mirror image and small. It's really hard. Yes. Yeah. I'm not sure that that's that's not fair. I could send a separate file that you can open up on your computer screen. Yeah. If you'd like. So probably mirror image on the computer screen. Okay. Any other comments or questions on the uh building renovation? If not, we'll move on to the vehicle camera request for proposal update, which we kind of got one in the uh director's report. And Lynn has been keeping me in the loop. um a layman's point of view, it looks
027like SMART's driving the uh RFP process, but we're not going to be able to take full advantage of it because we don't have all federally funded vehicles. So, we have some liability for the cost. Um at least the difference possibly we'll have to buy the camera and install them. So, I think our first goal would be to try and get it the same pricing and installation as Smart Scot if we're going to use the same vendor, right? And if there's a difference, we need to know what that is, why that is, what that is, and whether or not we we're going to go forward with that option. Exactly. Is that right? Yes. and and now that Eli's on the board, he's really going to fight um fight against the the fact that we can't use
028federal dollars into local vehicles because he thinks that we should be able to do that. So, he's fighting on our behalf. He's like, I don't like that answer. I'm going to fight for it. So, it's good that he's in that arena that might be able to help us um reduce our local cost if that's the case. But um somehow we should be able to figure in the cost of not having those cameras in the vehicle without a doubt. Well, yeah, we definitely Yeah, we've been bitten bit by that already. Yes. So cameras are a good point. The cost could be a lot more than the cameras. You know, we talk about the cost not doing something because we don't know the cost, right? We know what the cost is for not doing it. Well, and
029one of the benefits if there is Annie to Eli being involved is that the county is still going to pay for this. We're trying to save them money. If they want to pay for all of it, then we we're pleased to take the money and get it done. But as we all know, the smart process is not a fast process and the end results aren't always as advertised. So, we should all keep our fingers crossed. Enough said. And I have said that in front of smart representatives because it just they it their bureaucracy is just a machine that it grinds one way and uh there's no way to reverse the in the inertia when they get rolling. So the slow burn. Yeah. Until they run out of money. You're talking to Eli. Good idea to
030use Jack's comment. How much is it going to cost us not to have the camera that they might Well, it doesn't. Yeah. see it. What what I was getting at it costs us money right now through MMR the insurance claim. Yeah. However, if we just put them in on the county's dime, we could probably save that money. I know. So, Right. Yeah. And I did build in $100,000 additional budget. So, we've got like $194,000 to do the purchase as part of the budget adjustments which is coming up next. Okay. So, but I think we're all in agreement that's a necessity and not a luxury. So, Moving on then to new business if there's no one else. Okay. Um give us the backstory on the purchase of the replacement vehicle for the total vehicle. Yes. So
031we had a um it was actually a total minivan. Um it was not our fault. It just uh the um driver got kind of t-boned. No one was in the car. Um luckily nobody was injured. U but the but the um minivan was was totaled. We received um I can't find my notes here we got like $46,000 from insurance and this one was under your bill. Yes. Thank you. Where did it go? I was looking I have a budget adjustment to add $55,000. Thank you. Um to to actually replace it with a transit because we're finding we're having a lot of problems with the minivans. So, um, there we've had lately we have three of them. Now, when you open the side door, it it broke the the window in the back because there's some
032issue with the thing. We've had multiple issues with um tie downs and getting the wheelchair securements in there. There's been a lot of breakdowns. We've had it into mobility works multiple times or the provider. So, we're the transits has been more trustworthy. So, we're um we're moving to a transit instead of the of the minivan. So that's why it's a little bit of an upcharge. And it cost 100,592 for a new transit now, which was 80,000 like a year ago or so. So is our insurance company going to be on board for that for a different type of style of vehicle? They're with whatever vehicle we have. Okay. Um, no problem. Just so we don't get that coming back at us. Okay. And this is from the state contract. So this is through um Hra
033who's on the state contract. So it's state pricing. So we don't have to go out for bids. So do we need a vote on this to approve it at at uh at the budget numbers that are shown to purchase the budget 54? Yeah. To to purchase the vehicle for 100,59230 would be great. That way I'll go ahead and make that motion. We have no choice but to purchase a new vehicle for 100,59230. Okay. Thank you. I'll second that. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Are there any questions on the motion? Uh, hearing none. Could we have a roll call in for that, please? Sure. Uh, McDonald, yes. Flood, yes. Breakfield, yes. Serowski, here. Ferrari, yes. Ross, yes. Curtis, yes. Moore, yes. Waffle, yes. Okay, motion carried. We're going to be buying a replacement
034vehicle. Uh, moving on to 10B, 2025 budget uh, amendments. Yeah, Lyn want to hand it over to you again. So, the budget amendments are kind of part of the um right after the balance sheet, we have the uh budget taxual and um just have a few adjustments with revenue. Actually, our revenue increase because we received this new 5311 uh grant which we've been actually fighting for for years to try to get. This is um a continual grant so that we'll get that. It's um it's a match for our rural dollars. It's 18% of our rule dollars, but then we have to back out the LBO that um the local bus operating from that. So there's you'll see in a you'll see that we're adding a budget of 497,292 to our 5311. That's what the budget
035uh formula that they um it came out to. And then I backed out some of the LBO funding of 334 because it just the way the formula works, you have to back it out. So, um, but it's a net gain. So, that's really positive. I also added just some adjustments to the TTI fair income and um, uh, that we do billing for separately and our veterans grant of 4,200. So, that's an additional revenue. And we also had additional interest revenue from from our um ADM primarily ADM that we have um the investments through my class. So those are our additions which is a total of increased revenue of $212,175. And then on the budget and the expense side, excuse me, we have the $55,000 vehicle um replacement cost addition. We have the $100,000 for the
036vehicle camera. that's 155,000 and then um the difference is just put into contingency of 57,175. So right now we have um a contingency of almost 280,000 just FYI. What can you say? Well, we we do have a budget of 194,000 for but we could potentially Yes. But we still have to go through an RFP process. So that's um what the wheels are the gears grind. So those make a motion to approve the 2025 budget amendments as presented. I'll second. Okay. We have a motion and a second to approve the 2025 budget adjustments as as uh presented. Any questions on the motion? Hearing none. Can we have a roll call, please? Sure. McDonald. Yes. Blood? Yes. Brickfield? Yes. Sarowski? Yes. Ferrari? Yes. Ross? Yes. Curtis? Yes. more. Yes. Waffle. Okay. Motion carries. Um, special event service
037discussion. Um, I asked Lynn, Lynn brought me in on the situation with the change in law, etc. And um as you saw or read may have read um I gave her direction to not schedule make the scheduled uh charter that had already been basically uh reserved I guess would be the best way to put it. They put down the down payment um not is going to probably is already refunded that it's in our bills right here. Okay. Yes. So, um, is there any questions on, uh, Lynn did a nice job, uh, on the, uh, board discussion packet for that, but the bottom line seems to be that we can't do charters unless we use our own, uh, not vehicles, which aren't up to the st generally not what people want to charter. They want bigger
038buses, uh, the large style vehicles. Lynn, do you want to fill in the gaps that I have left? Sure. It was it was when we got this new 5311 when I was signing the exhibit where it says no charter for FDA and I'm like, well, we use all cut cutaways, which is the big ones for these events. So then I'm we did MD dot meetings. We talked to everyone and um there's ways we can do it, but then you have to back everything out and be specific on reporting and it just seems like it's pretty laborious. Um, and then their attorney for the pup crawl was asking us to to basically make sure that we're if anything were to happen on this issue, would we be covered for any issues? And our insurance person said
039yes. But, you know, we have a $75,000 per loss that would be our responsibility and we're really not making any money on these events. So um and we've had um yes it's just uh so it became to be like um the the regula the regulations themselves pretty much make it impossible for us to take money for a charter even if it's just for uh fuel and manpower. And we typically we don't charge our communities our particip our member communities um a fee for uh putting money beyond what the expenses are. So um we basically we'd have to sacrifice the federal transit aid money in order to continue to do charters. So it makes no sense. Um Joe, yeah I talked to Lynn a little bit about it. I think you may want to consider buying
040a bus like a 20 seater or something having that on the side for these type of events and tell if you want to do the pub crawl you'll charge x for a driver x for gas why for this $35 a person whatever that figure is because I think the service is needed but have it over on the side for all these different events parks rec might use it might use it it's better than I know our parks w they use like a one of those big buses you go to the tiger stadium If there's 10 of us, rent this from Nota. Why have one of those big chargers that you probably paid a ton of money for? Yes. Ch. Um, yeah. I thought about this in a couple ways. How do you do the driver?
041I mean, it's just like a not a driver going to ride the drive the shuttle trolley. Okay. You're not using a federally funded bus. You're not using the employees reimbured through the DDAS. Like Joe said, you'd have to buy a bus and provide that service for the community. NOTA was started in these communities and everybody has a feeling I can just call NOTA and say, "Hey, can I use a bus this weekend?" That's no longer available. If you wanted to get into the limousine business or chartering business, you'd probably still do so because we are our own entity, you're not being funded by Oakland County for that. So, right, Oakland County. Um, I'm sure there is no Labvada limousine out this way like in the city in Warren. You can call Labvada and say, "Hey,
042pick 12 of us up and drive us to uh the bowling alley and bring us home." Here, we can't say, you know, there's 12 in Oxford that want to go down to Oakland County for something we're come pick us up, we'll pay for. We can't do that. We do have some um providers that we gave them numbers. There's actually some, you know, that we gave them alternatives um which was generous to do. Oh, sure. um on our part and maybe hopefully that'll keep some of the goodwill that was generated in the past. Um some of you that were on the board can remember when we started talking about the trolley. Um it it it's a difficult difficult topic for us to spend note to money to purchase a vehicle for special purposes um that may
043or may not be aligned with that community's direction. So we do have a contract with independents though to to provide those services for the next 10 years that what we signed. Um, some of them are we do actually hire and pay for a separate provider to do those. Um, and then we have like I think 18 that are under contract that we use usually we're using our cutaways for. Um, so those are just, you know, in in some of those instances we might be able to just put them under general service if they're during the day in our normal operating hours and they're for seniors and we're going to set set places. I feel like we could probably work them in in our normal operations. It's when it's out of our hours and people want
044to do, you know, um after hours until like midnight or something that we're, you know, those are that would definitely be a separate charter type service. But there's maybe potentially some of those events we could do it and and just call it a normal service. Um that bus on the sideline won't have to worry about it. Put independence there and everybody else there. The And I think you're just getting when you're doing like a probably you're getting away from the whole mission of you know not I mean I think if you stick within that mission of not exactly what you just said about some senior or something at those kinds of activities then then that's kind of what it's about well put because that was obviously one of the things that is a concern to
045all of us is we have to have priorities we don't want to compete with private business for obvious reasons so um And this wasn't our and we're not we're actually forced to this by the funding standards. So, um it's regrettable and I wasn't aware does does independents reimburse us on those charters or built into what their contract was and Oakland County said just okay that and we'll just pay for it. So, Oakland County agreed to pay for their trips to do it because it's part of this agreement that we made. So maybe we should have that conversation in the other in the other communities as well. That's potentially something. Well, when you take a finely crafted experience for the communities and you say, "No, we can't do that anymore because of the federal requirements and
046the county paying requirements." It's a hard pill to swallow, but you don't do it anymore, right? Any other thoughts on that? because uh if we don't take action, we're out of the business basically. That's the way it is. The charter business. Yeah. Okay. All right. Mike, would it be a good idea to just put a little blurb on our website that we no longer can do that and it saves land? That sounds sure an issue. Sounds like maybe with the explanation of under federal funding standards, etc., etc. so that it doesn't look like we made an arbitrary decision to not do it. Okay, that makes sense. Try to not get a black eye on the Right. Okay. If there's nothing else then, uh, sadly, we're considering cancelling the July 17th, 2025 not to meeting. So,
047okay. Second, Tanya and Mike. Okay. Jack second. Okay. Do we have to have a motion on the special events or we just we're just saying probably done. No, I didn't know if we needed them. Not probably have a motion to motion to just vote on this motion to make it formal. Well, let's let's finish then with the uh cancelling the meeting motion and then we'll move back to the uh special event discussion. Okay. All in favor of the motion to cancel the July 17th meeting of NOTA, please say I. Opposed, please say no. No. Okay, it's canled. Okay, with the board's indulgence, um we'll back up. Um it's been suggested that we should probably formally uh resolve to um end the charter service portion of our service. uh to the public and to our member
048communities and residents. Is there a motion to that? I'll make that motion. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Just discussion on independence. So, do we Oh, I since it's part of our contract, so just for those events. Okay. They're using they're using nonfed buses, right? They're Were these theirs? Shouldn't I ask that question? Some question shouldn't be asked. I'll take that. Motor buses or not buses? Well, they're using their previous their own buses, but they don't use in not. No, they've been um repurposed. They've been re they're now under NOTA. They no longer are under independence, but we don't have money. We don't have federal money in them. No, they're they're federally owned vehicles because they're better ways that they got from Smart just like us. Oh, okay. So, should we go
049back and revisit that relationship then in light of that uh with our attorneys potentially? I can check and see what events are fall under our normal business that we can just use as our normal business. If it's for seniors and whatever general normal operating hours, it would be maybe the extra events that we've committed to that we could maybe charter of just another company and be covered that way potentially. That's a good point because as you may have read in the uh note the uh notes that Lynn sent us, you know, if we're if they're serving our target communities, the veterans, the disabled, etc., um there's there's really no problem. But if it's not it's general public like a pub crawl or whatever might be um where the general public would be getting on and
050off, there is a problem. So let's let's go ahead and proceed with the motion. And if we want if if the the motion maker and support are in favor of it, we'll say except as otherwise contractually required. I'll agree with that, Jack. I It ain't perfect, but No, I just don't like independents being able to provide a service that Nota can't provide. Well, the countyy's going to pay for it though because we're going to say no, we can't use your buses because this is not you're not serving our main our main customers, the seniors, the disabled, etc. and the public. Actually, technically, I guess the county would say we have to serve the public. If that's the case, no, we can't do it. And we'll chart they'll charter another bus uh for that activity. I
051think the majority of them are for seniors um at because it's through their senior center. I think majority of them are senior related. I just don't know what the times are. Okay. Yes. Shouldn't we have some sort of amendment to the contract now that we know when things have changed? I mean 10 years is a long time. Well, independence there's there's a backstory, but you're right. You're absolutely right. Um, we should probably have it reviewed by a legal counsel whether or not we'd be putting ourselves in any jeopardy by doing although we wouldn't be if we're not doing it and they're basically paying for it. I mean, we're under contract, but if the federal regulations have changed since we signed the contract, I mean, I think that would be a reason for us to go
052back and look at things or how we're structured. Well, yeah, but the fine point is is if they're servicing our seniors, etc. I and I get that and they can use a federally funded bus, but if they're serving somebody else and we have a contract, we're not going to violate that. We'll hire an outside third party and the county's that was the county approved that, right? So, we just add we're not we're not doing it ourselves. We're outsourcing it to a third party. Let's play what if. Boy, I hate it when you do that, Jack. But what if I just call up not and say, "Hey, I got a pupp Friday night. Want to note I want to not a bus from 7 to midnight." You're going to say, "No, can't do it." How come
053independents can do it? They work under not. Why don't you send the independence bus out here, have them drive me to my pub crawl and charge me for it? You know, it's a contract. We have a contractual agreement that's defined I mean geographically for Independence Township and that doesn't include I hope the city of the village of Clarkston because that's another whole ugly whole ugly thing. I know. I know. I'm gonna call you up next week and say I want the I want the Independence Bus to come out here because I know you can. Don't know. Okay. We have Jack, we have an amended motion. Yeah. I don't know. I I don't have the answer to it because it's there's no definitive answer. You're saying no, you can't do it, but you do it. Well,
054we're not going to violate the law by using a federally funded vehicle. We're giving it to a third third party. So, but done and dusted. Then I could get my Independence bus up here. Pick me up through notice. No. You got a separate vehicle. You could. Yeah. Oakland County agreed to pay for that. We're not paying for it. We're not doing good. I don't understand what Oakland County is paying for. Well, they agreed to pay for the third party for us to excurs the excursions for third parties. So excited. That's why I say we should maybe we maybe they're smarter than us. We should have negotiated something like that through the county for all of for our people too. But I frankly I don't think I don't think we never intended to get outside of
055our prime service group and we've been forced into it in a sense. Um, but I as long as we don't violate the intent and the terms of the funding requirements, um, this one needs looking into. Yeah. Because we're voting that NOA can't do it. Yeah. But yet you have three buses in Independence that are contracted under NOTA and you're letting them do it. But we wouldn't be doing um I I what I'm thinking is that we wouldn't be doing it outside of our service area and only for so if it's a senior trip to go in our service area and times we would keep those buses and that would not violate it. If it's outside of it then we would use the other providers that we use for the other for the bigger trips which
056we've done anyways. Yeah. For those yeah the other ones we hire a bigger bus for them and that's what they've what they've done in the past and they wanted us to do the same thing. It was part of us making the agreement between them. Trying to be nice in the beginning, you get it in the end. Well, none of us, I don't think, has ever been through this, you know, the transitioning from a private semi-private communityowned system to a mass transit system. But uh we're still not doing fixed routes and we're still serving our primary customers. Um Mike in the original motion we're doing a vote with, you know, to deny providing the service. Did we give a reason why we're not dividing? Should we add the federal guideline due the federal guideline? I believe
057I added that in that motion that Yeah. So I want the motion the mand date we had. Okay. Got our eyes crossed. I didn't draft. Yeah, it's been so long ago. Actually, got something. I'll look at the August minutes and see what it says. Let's Let's uh Rachel's been taking notes. See if she Rachel says what? Taking notes. Piece something together for us. All over the place. Um I don't like it either. Um well I believe the motion was to idea too sometime in the future to formally we don't have toart if we don't make a motion we don't I mean I think that you just keep telling people that the federal requirements don't allow you to do special charter services through motion but he did it well that was the motion originally but federal
058currency. We had a revision to that motion which is doing it. Well, technically they're not violating it because we're we're getting a third party the job and they're getting paid well through not but um by the county. Okay. Yeah. But we're we're we're at an impass here because you're saying exactly what I'm saying is wrong. I have three three buses in Independence that I can contract to go to pub crawl. Yes. No, no, no, no. I would I would um the only events that I would do for them would be ones that would be our seniors in that would be our total only for senior government like our government our it would be government the local community sanctions we do right now. they did this. Orian did this one, right? So, so if it was
059a pupil, I would say no, we'd have to we'd have to hire like the Excite Transportation or another charter company that does those type of service and then um that would be I wouldn't use the the FTA vehicles for those type of What do we want to accomplish with this motion? I don't Well, frankly, that's one of the reasons I didn't want a motion. I didn't think one was necessary. The law is the law. the executive director is aware of it, the organization is aware of it. Don't break the law. Yep. That's the bottom line. Now, if somebody in Independence wants a pub crawl for the public, Independence Township would have to sanction it before we'd even look at it. Right? I mean that's the system that we don't take calls from outside uh organizations
060and say like we have we have done that in the past because we didn't didn't have the FTA funding guideline. But you're right. I think maybe I should just resend my motion because why? It's we're living by the mandate that we're being forced to live with. It's like make a motion that we don't speed. Okay, I'll second it. I mean, they're telling us we cannot use the buses for recreation. If if you if there's a formal motion out there, and we'll have to vote on the one that's already been seconded, but and not the amendment hasn't been second, but um maybe we should just pass a motion acknowledging that the our FTA guidelines on financing, transportation, and the use of buses for charter. are understood by the organization and and we don't have to get
061into a lot of words about we what if this what if that Jack no but they're valid I'm just teasing but I'm so Rachel do you get my motion through Mike yes sir okay so we're back we're back to the original motion if you don't if you want to consider the al an alternate motion then you would vote no on this. If you're fine with the motion as presented, you would vote yes. So, could we could you read it, Rachel? The motion? Yes, sir. From from uh Ed. So, your original motion? Yes. Okay. So the original motion um was to formally end all chart charter services to the public due to our federal guide or due to federal guidelines. That's good enough. That is what's the pleasure of the board. All in favor of the
062motion please say I. I. Opposed, please say no. No. Okay. Motion carried. That's it. Unless there's another motion. What if I'm Oh, no. We all got too many. What if we get on charters? We have um kind of a listing of it. Um we did like the Pineapple Light Show, Corvette Car Show, Tuck Fest Pup Crawl, St. Patrick's Day pup crawl, Meleberrook Theater, Wayne State Planetarium, Independence, and like Landfill. Like the landfill was just like during the day with community like um so that would be something we could they were all public though they were not strictly senior. No, those are public. Would that be an average month? Those those were just in total. So there isn't that many and we've done a couple weddings. Um weddings were a problem because they really didn't pay.
063Um so now we require 50% we used to require 50% deposit up front. Um so not enough for us to consider going into the charter business, right? And we really didn't make much money anyways with it. It was really kind of a community service. Okay, so we're done. We finished 10D. Um public comments hearing none. Uh what's the pleasure of the board on the monthly rider and millet mileage report? Move to receive and file. Second. Motion and second to receive and file. All in favor, please say I. I oppose, please say no. Board member comments. Jack, why don't you lead us off? What? If um I have no comments. Thank you, Mr. Ross. No comments. Lyn, you don't get one. I do. I'll pass. Mr. Moore, I'm just happy to have a actual day off
064next month on July 17th. Mr. Breakfield, I'm good with it. Mr. Carl, happy fourth. All right, I'll make a motion to adjourn. Okay, Mr. Supported. Mike, all in favor of the motion, please say I. I. Oppose, say no. Thank you everybody. We'll see you in August.