001Good afternoon everybody. Um welcome to the uh regular meeting of the North Oakland Transportation Authority or NOTA as we like to be referred to. Um this is the regular board meeting agenda in front of you. Today is Thursday, March 20th, 2025 and we're being hosted uh by Oxford Township at their facility. Um, I'd like to ask Lynn to do a roll call. And we do have a new face at the table from Village. Yes. Okay. And that's Ashley Ross. Ashley. So everybody at some point you'll figure out who we are. This is kind of pay attention. So go ahead L. Sure. Mike McDonald here. Ed Brafield here. Bill Moore here. Ashley Ross here. Joe Mador here. Amber Granger is sick and excused. Joe Ferrari here. Jeff Curtis is excused. Chris Bernett is excused. Uh Mike
002Flood here. Tanya Waffle here. Welcome everybody. Um do we have a veteran yet? That would be one. Okay, that's qualified. I pledge algiance to the flag 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. I'm like you. It feels weird not having an invocation, but I know I know this is I keep wanting to say everybody stay standing and I give an invocation. Okay, the board has the proposed agenda in front of you. Are there any changes, additions? I'll make a motion to put the agenda as presented. Oh, we got a couple second that Mike won. No, you want Who's it going to be? We got to be faster. That's all there is to it. I guess Bill. Yep.
003Okay. Uh the board has the minutes from our previous Do we have to vote on it? Oh, I'm I'm sorry. Thank you. All in favor of the motion to approve the agenda, please say I. Opposed, please say no. Motion uh agenda is approved. the uh minutes of our last regular meeting from February 20th, 20 25. I'll make a motion approve the regular not board meeting minutes of Thursday, February 20th, 2025 as presented. I'll second it. Motion in the second to approve the minutes as presented. Any questions on the motion? Hearing none. Uh all in favor of the motion, please say I. opposed, please say no. Motion carries. Minutes are approved. Um and then we have the uh special meeting minutes um for the March and catching up here. Um March 6th meeting that were was
004also held at the council offices. I'll make a motion to approve the meeting minutes of the special meeting of Thursday, March 6th, 2025 as presented. A second. Any questions on the motion? Hearing none. Uh all in favor, please say I. I. Opposed, please say no. Okay. Now, we'll have the director's report. Yes. Can you hear it? Another busy month. Um our rides for February totaled um 8,277 uh this month, which was a 36% uh increase from last year's February. Uh it is down a little bit from January. Um but we did have three snow days in February and it's a shorter month. Um our Qite dispatch software is going well. It's uh we still are working through some changes and adjustments with the system and but they've been um we've have our weekly meetings and
005uh they've been working with us. The tablet training is going is going well as well and um right now we'll be soon going to uh digital manifests and getting rid of our paper ones uh very soon. And um our intergovernmental agreement is still in the hands of our attorney and those updates um there's a lot of updates that need to be done there and I've also asked him to look at um our bylaws as well and our OSHA inspection has been um we're really making good progress. We haven't received our official certified letter on the visit that we had, but uh Jeff Brisendine, our lead trainer, uh driver manager right now, has already set up an online safety data solutions uh program and has already uploaded our products and we have probably 80% of the
006issues already accounted for. So that's a serious violation that we didn't have the um all the data management sheets MSDS MSDS stuff which means chem chemical descriptions anything that a driver might including fuels etc. Anything has to be not only identified but labeled and and handling instructions and they're on the they're on the vehicle. It's a it's a website it's all whatever is in the u in the office. So if you have access to it, so basically if you uh Windex, if you ended up drinking Windex, what would you do? You'd go to the site. There's like QR codes that we have around that'll take you right to a website and it tells you what to do. It has like precaution uh sheets and and um it's more a management function, not a a passenger
007function. Yes. Oh, absolutely. No, for employees of Michigan right to know and all that. Okay, got it. Hey, Lynn, how close are you getting completed? Well, we haven't received the actual official letter yet. What's that? the letter for from OSHA. Yeah. So, when we you get a certified letter, they said it was going to take four weeks. We still haven't received it, but we knew from our virtual conversation that we had what the issues were. So, we've already got a jump start on all of I think we're about 80% done with Yeah. Did they give you a fine? And you don't have to give the price, but you didn't get that fine yet, did you? We haven't heard Yeah, we haven't got the official letter yet. So, maybe they're just going That would be nice.
008Well, you know what? Sometimes they might do that. say, "We're making a great effort. It was a surprise surprise." Doom. Right. And then that official letter said, "Did you get it done?" Yeah. Okay. Cuz they're not in for the money. They're in for the, you know, OSHA. Right. Right. Good. So, and our audit is underway. Bandy, our CPA, is working with Raina, who is our new auditor for this year. How is that working out? Really good. Have you met Raina? Yeah, she's great. I really like her. She's great. Uh we hired Rachel Au as our driver scheduler admin assistant. Um and she is unbelievable. I can't believe she's been here for only a month. Um she has an accounting degree. She's got a significant experience. Has already taken 100% of the driver's schedule um in
009no time and has taken on um a lot of admin assistance. It's really helping all of us in admin team. So she's just been a great addition and we're having her help with um standardization of documentation, billing, special events. she's um assisting bookkeeping and payroll and and myself. Um so it's been she's been amazing. Uh our our we finally received our vehicle camera RFP yesterday or the day before from SMRT. So uh I we went through I made some changes, had some of the camera vendors do a review to see if there's anything that doesn't look right. Um and then we had our IT person look at it. So I sent those changes back. So the RFP is expected to be released in early April. So that's uh and the process with that um talking
010to Mel who's in um in charge of the project at SMART said it'll probably be July with all the processes of um that need to go in place um in order to get the actual uh a vendor approved by them. And we uh at the March 6 meeting, we had the ad hoc committee um uh created with Jack Curtis, Mike McDonald, and Chris Barnett. And our leadership conference that was supposed to be next week has been cancelled and it'll have to be rescheduled. The host was ill. Our website is also almost um it's getting very close now. So, um, we're also going to have an internet site for the employee access so that we can have all of our HR documents on there, training documents. There's, um, a lot of great, uh, things that we'll
011be adding to that, which will be which will be good. And we did have one accident uh, that actually ended up uh, it was not our fault, but the vehicle was totaled. There's no injuries. There were no passengers on board. Um, but the vehicle was totaled and I think we have a bio of like 45,000 or whatever. So, um, what date did that occur? That was February 18th. Was it weather related? No, he just ran um a stop and he ran into like t-boned our vehicle. So, it was one of the minivans, but luckily nobody was on board. No injuries. Thank goodness for that. Yeah. And today actually one of our drivers um picked up a rider and he noticed in the rearview mirror that her um face dropped and that she was experiencing a
012stroke. So he had just taken her from um McLaren and went back took her back right back to the emergency and uh saved her life. Her family called and said that she had a number of blood major issues and so yeah really great. So happy to see that. Sounds like a letter of thanks to this driver so he could put it on his vault. It's going to happen tomorrow. We already talked about it. So that was great. So that's enough. Thank you. Next meeting the 17th. Where's that at? Here. Here. All the meetings. Okay. Just so I can put on our calendar. Um it's not on the agenda, but a quick question, Lyn. Um ba basically, how are we looking with construction and things? I mean, we really haven't heard anything. No, we're getting there,
013right? It's moving. It's not. He um uh Steve Bugger is our architect and uh he said that he has heard back from Oakland County. Oakland County has to come up with the general contractor. I've reached out a couple times and I said if there is there any way I can talk to Oak County and um to get it rolling, you know, just to get the process going, but haven't heard um much from that department yet. So, well, is that is that affecting us at this? it seems like it would be affecting us and that we can't move. Right. So that's the that's the B the next step is to pick a general contractor and then go out to bid and then um have review the bids and pick the pick their contractor and then that
014way we can move forward and start the planning process and whatnot. So um I was it was disappointing we didn't have a contractor. Is Eli aware of this that we're waiting? He he knows that he has no um I could ask him to see if he has I think we should we should ask I'll I'll contact our commission county commissioner but this it's kind of ridiculous to have to wait this long for them to figure out what they want to do when we're sitting on the sidelines. Okay. Yeah, I agree. All right. Um, is there a motion or proceed and file or not? I'll make a motion to receive and file the director's report. I'll second. Motion on the floor and a second to receive and file the report. All in favor of that motion,
015please say I. Oppos, please say no. All right, it's an opportunity for the public to speak. Seeing and hearing none, we'll move on then to the approval of financial activity. First part will be informational. What is the pleasure of the board? I'll make a motion to receive and file financial activity. Do you want me to finish it? Approval of bills. How do we Normally we separate and build? Yeah, I I'll second the motion. Okay, thank you. Just a question. Is that cash in Oxford Bank to 1.4 million? Is that just Oh, it was just briefly um Okay. Because we got a um checking from the county. You dumped it out. Yes. I put it into the um ADM Robinson Capital, which is 100% um insured. That's fine. You're surrounded by treasures, right? Right. ADM is
016amazing. Do you use them as well? Yeah. Who? ADM Robinson class. Okay. Okay. Um, moving on to the approval of the bills. What is the pleasure of the board? These would be for the month of February. No, we vote. I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve the bills. uh to be paid for a total of $53,221. I will second that. Any questions on the motion? Hearing none. We have a roll call for that, please. Lynn, yes. McDonald, yes. Breakfield, yes. Moore, yes. Ferrari, yes. Ross, yes. Mador, yes. Flood, yes. Waffle, yes. Okay, motion carries. Thank you. Okay. Um Lynn already updated us on the intergovernmental agreement. Um it's still at our attorneys. Um it's still not too late if any of the board or their the board that your member community has any
017further input. Appreciate getting it sooner than later. Um if you think of something that should be included or shouldn't be It'll it'll be helpful once we get an outline at least. I was say we're going to get an outline in our draft share with them first because and Mr. Chris is aware of the our need to keep moving on this. Yeah, he said I know it's on my to-do list. So, all righty. Um, moving on then to new business. Um it was brought to the board's attention that the Oxford bank policy is for one signer only from their from their requirements. Um what uh in reviewing the notab board bylaws we can affect whatever policy we want on that by resolution or motion. So if we want to require two signatures, we there is probably
018a motion somewhere back be not before computers but probably back in the uh 90s or maybe 2000s where that was done. But I think it would be a good idea um with new signers and new um new policy to go ahead and have a motion. I'd like to recommend a motion to adopt a two signature policy which um I did speak with Lynn about it and she would prefer to have a two signature policy. So unless the board member wants to speak to that. I'd like to make that motion that we uh require the two signature policy. Second. Mr. Mador, it's a comment or question. Yeah. Um it says on there required for withdrawals. So checks also I assume but so so we always they do they have different policy of withdrawals and checks. So
019if you look at at the like um yes we wanted to do a wire transfer it and only requires one signature. All of our checks already have two signature spaces that we've always required. Um so I think Jack just was was flagged when he saw we were redoing the signers that it says in Oxford Bank's policy that just one signature is required. And so um so the bank said well that's our policy but you can set up your own policy. So we you know um if we say that's what I was saying for all withdrawals not just checks but for um aes or any wire transfers or any kind of withdrawal of any type. I think the easy way of saying is we require a minimum of one signature and we can have two if
020we want to. Right. So that's what we just voted for. Yeah. I just said I talked about withdrawals on I didn't know if they had a different policy for checking or if we needed to address that but but our motion for all all banking activity I guess withdrawals or check yeah any at least for checking I don't know about any of the transfers of that but we can we can take a look at that if needed okay so yeah the Oxford bank only requires one so if you want we could set it up if if this motion is to be for any type of withdrawal all. So that's, you know, to to cover I think would make sense just even though the bank doesn't require it, I think it'd be good to have would be
021kind of nice to have too to make sure everybody Yeah. And and your motion was to for a two signature policy, but for all withdrawals or uh for well this all started with checking. Okay. So if we're going to expand it, we'd have to change the motion. Well, I like the checking part of it because when Lyn's got to move money, you don't want her chasing around everybody. Okay. Gotta move money from Robson and Capital to checking. Yeah. Got to find Mike. Got to find you got to find him. Yeah. That's dayto-day. Yeah. And checks. Yes. Check. We've never been dinged on audits for transactional improprieties. So, how was to have two signatures for withdrawals? Right. Right. Yes. But does withdrawal include checking? Should it be checking? Because a withdrawal could be I'm going to
022the bank, here's a check and I'm withdrawing money. Oh, mostly for checks. Are you okay with one signature for withdrawal at the bank? And that's what we're doing right now. Like like I do the transfer from Oxra Bank over to the class, right? And so I a withdrawal like taking money out. Oh yeah, we that that never happens. Okay. Right. Never. That's what I was trying to clarify. That was correct. In my 32 years, it's never happened. But I think what Jack was afraid of is that someone could, you know, based on the o the bank if they got a hold of a check or whatever, they could wash it. Bad guys. You notice how Joe had to remind Mike he's had 32 years experience. So we're saying for checking. Okay. Okay. So we What
023do you have for a motion, Lyn? Uh motion to adopt two sign two signature policy for checking. Yep. Check with roles. Second. Okay. Any questions on the motion? All right. We'll have a roll call vote on that, please. McDonald, yes. Wakefield, yes. Moore, yes. Ferrari, yes. Ross, yes. Major, yes. Blood, yes. Waffle, yes. Okay. Um, moving on to the ad hoc committee. in as much as I'm the only member here. Um, we did try to do a video uh Zoom meeting at least for organization, but we were unable to pull that off before schedules uh wouldn't align. So, I expect that as soon as Mr. Curtis and Mr. Barnett are available, we'll have that organizational meeting. Whether it'll be online or in person remains to be seen. Um, it is our intention to uh to
024visit make an official visit if you would to the not facility. We will be going through whatever records we deem necessary as well as interviewing um some of the staff both it it could be from driver to dispatcher to administration. So, and I think we all heard well those of us that were here um Chris has made a really Chris Barnett made a really valid point that you know most of the organizations like ours or in similar capacity make that their their board does visit the facility or facilities at least once a year and troop the colors make sure that things look as good as they sound on paper, which makes uh good sense. So, I really expect that that will be one of the positive things that comes out of um this committee, but
025uh we'll keep you updated. Are there any questions about it? If not, we can move on to public comments again. Hearing none, we'll go to receiving and filing the monthly rider and mileage reports. I'll make the motion uh receive and file the uh monthly rider and mileage report. I will second that. We have a motion and a second to receive and file the monthly rider and mileage reports. Any questions on the motion? Hearing none. All in favor, please say I. Opposed, please say no. Okay, motion carries. Board member comments. Joe, if we ever get any feedback transit because I'm the affiliated with them as how we're doing. No. And other than the conversations that um Lynn has with the open transit staff um and at budget time there there's a few more meetings between them
026and administration for not um no we don't we don't get very much feedback or analysis from them. I just like to see Lynn and her staff meet with that more perfect example. I was talking like over the phone. My wife and son went to New York. I'd love to have been able to have them get on a not bus, coordinated with open transit, coordinated with Smart, and get them out of the airport. No reason for that not to happen. Well, and that is Well, I don't know about to the airport, but you did one before. We did. We did one for a But that should be regular. I should be able to do that with a service that I pay 0.95 of a mill for to be able to arrange for that. I shouldn't have
027to drive to the airport. Well, we can't speak for Oakland Transit, but the overall goal is to have that interconnectivity exactly to transport, but um in our case at least, we've we still have limitations on what we'll do and where we'll go. And we still mainly while we do accept public ridership, it they have to follow the same rules as as the uh current residents that are disabled, senior, veteran, um what for whatever reason. So yeah, it on the regularly, no, it hasn't happened yet, but it is happening on occasion. But it should to me should be happening on the regular where I should be able to let's say immigrate, take a nod to Woodward and 10 mile, whatever that is. I should be able to connect it to the Smart Oak Transit, get me
028to the next station. Since you bring that up, um, one of the reasons Lynn updates us on the Qide software is because, and I don't think we'll see new software from Smart or cameras from Smart for months. And so Lynn initiated with the board that we get this supplementary software so that we can effectively manage our fleet because it wasn't happening through smart right and and what the idea is is that we'll all be on the same system at some point. So once we're all on the same system then we're hoping to to be able to do more of those crossrips. Crossrips when you do that between two providers and we do some we do a few a week. um where we're taking like a rider from one area to another if they work or
029whatnot. Um but it's very um labor intensive because you have to uh meet up and like it's usually like a fast food restaurant or something and someone there's a lot of coordination involved. It's not seamless. It's not something you could do a whole bunch of them because it just would it just doesn't work with our system. But I think eventually be a way to melt that. There has to be Yeah, these go to the zoo. I can see an animal, right? Want to go to the DIA to look at some art. I can't do anything for this. I just got to pay you money. Well, uh, you could ride, you know, you could take You have to look at it as insurance, Joe. It's there if you just around here. Well, we go further. Is
030that just I mean I mean like in Oakland County. I can't get out to far away places. Well, we could connect you to Smart, you know, we could drive. That's I like to see more of that type of stuff happening, right? Well, let's say Mark Smart smarts line is here, guys. You want to go to the airport? We'll bring everybody here at 10:00 a.m. for this here and I can arrange my flight. Have you Have you met Mr. Cooper from Oakland County? He's the director or the head manager of the Oakland Transit. He would benefit from those words, but they're on a different pace. So, and we're basically following, we're not leading, but we've stuck to our main mission of providing local service. But I was able to do that at a quarter of a
031mill. I'm I'm paying.7 more. I want service. We We went I was able to do that at a quarter of a mill. I was I'm doing what I did. Premillage. We were making that point in the hopes that people would see it and see the logic in it. It apparently it didn't escape residents in the northern and western parts of Oakland County. But maybe said Mr. Cooper told me, "Let's start getting more things out here." Oh, you were promised a Meer lie. Go to Meyer to OU. That never happened. Yeah. Do they do have a fixed bus to UU now? They do. Um I think they have one going road. No. No. I think it goes as far as 10 count. It goes to take a class. I should be able to take it. Yeah.
032Okay. But if you wanted to use a smart bus, we can we can arrange a bus like for you to get to like Great Lakes Crossing that there's a smart thing there or Pontiac is the hub. We could take a bus there. You could arrange it and and go from there. So those are possible. We have to keep that dialogue. That is that is the future, Joe. I mean that's what Oakland County has expressed. But implementing it is and using SMARTT as the point person for just about everything. County the county commission supports smart. So that's we got to work within that framework then to make sure we get the service. I can't I can't delay my 0.95. We have no control over the SK. you know, they could the smart is because of their
033size and support. They're the ones that are saying, "Here's the equipment we need. Here's the here's how much it's going to cost." And then hopefully we get the same deal or better when we go to buy. But it's like the uh the current contract uh for the software. They're uh you know, it's for the camera and installation. the one that was in our packet. Um, the contract, their contract is their RFP is only for them. We're kind of like add-ons. That's that's how we're treated. And and so because because of Lynn's initiative basically and the board's um agreement, we're beyond that. We're getting the tablets and we're getting we're getting our system to work the way it should to serve. I think that's great because I was one that first started ODA before it became
034NOTA. You know, we did that. I remember that we I dealt with Smart and I was there when it was just Addison Joe. Oh, yeah. And when it first started, it was the biggest hurdle. Yeah. Because Smart would throw these monkey wrenches at you. Well, we don't we don't have somebody to write the check. I was talking like over the phone. That's when they're in Detroit. So, I packed my lunch, went down there, and they gave me a check. I didn't even get to my pairs yet because they'll do that type of thing. Yeah. But you got to stay on it to keep things moving. At least under smart before. Yeah. And that all goes to us as an organization getting even better organized than we are now. So, thank you for all. No problem.
035We'll split it with you. And I'm happy to be here. Thank you. Welcome. Welcome from all of us. Did she say she was happy to be here? Yes. Mike. Oh, welcome. Thank you. Yeah. Welcome to us to issue a welcome to you. Hope to see you in the future, Laura. I will. I've arranged my schedule moving forward. So, knock on wood. Great. Great. Thank you for that. We didn't appoint her till the January meeting, right? So, it wasn't, you know, okay. Um, are there any uh Lynn? Anything else? No. Okay. What's the pleasure of the I'll make a motion to journ. I'll second. Any questions on the motion? No motion. All in favor, please say I. All right. That's why I sat back. This is wrong. Thank you everybody for taking some time out your
036busy days.