Capital Metropolitan Transit Authority
Access Advisory Committee
October 1, 2008 Meeting Minutes--DRAFT
Ned Granger Travis County Building
311 W. 14 Street
County Commissioner’s Court room

Members present:

1. Dianne Bomar, Vice Chair Access Committee, Acting Chair
2. Mary Ward, Secretary Access Committee, Chair STS Subcommittee
3. Jane Lansaw, Chair Fixed Route Subcommittee
4. Malcolm Graham, Member STS Subcommittee (proxy for Wm. Brown)
5. David Patterson, Member Fixed Route Subcommittee
6. Sandra Seekamp, New Member Access Committee
7. Boone Blocker, New Member Access Subcommittee

Members Absent:

1. Amy Litzinge
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2. Will Brown (Proxy David Patterson)

Capital Metro Staff Present

1. Nancy Crowther, Staff Liaison
2. Inez Evans, Director of Paratransit
3. Rafael Villarreal, Assistant Director of Paratransit
4. Julie Martin, Business & Community Development
5. Dianne Mendoza, Vice President Business & Community Development
6. Barney Sifuentes Manager of Revenue
7. Chad Ballentine, Superintendent of Paratransit
8. Lenora Givens, Fixed Route Training
9. Betty Craven, MetroAccess Supervisor

Guest Present:

Carlos Aleman, Pat Bartel

Call to Order
The meeting was called to order by Vice Chair Diane Bomar at 5:30 p.m.

Announcements
Jane Lansaw announced that Austin would celebrate its annual White Cane Day on October 15. This will begin with participants walking from the front of the Capitol to City Hall at 8:30 in the morning for the reading of the mayor’s proclamation. Then the participants will walk to Republic Square Park for the celebration.

Malcolm also announced that the Democrats with Disabilities are seeking input concerning the accessibility of their web site. The site is http://wwws.democratswithdisabilites.org/chat. He is also seeking similar input for http://www.chairmanmal.com/transportation. The Austin Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas will hold a picket to protest the film “Blindness at 21 and Guadalupe. The NFBT will hold its annual state convention on October 31in Dallas. Nancy Crowther announced that VSA Arts Texas will hold training for people interested in doing audio description from 1:00 to 4:00 at 3710 Cedar. Amy Litzinger is working on the creation of a new Google list. Diane Bomar says she will help in this effort.

Approval of Minutes
A correction to the minutes was offered by Nancy Crowther. The minutes incorrectly stated that Nancy was present at the meeting. The minutes were approved as corrected.

Welcome to New Members
Diane Bomar welcomed Boone Blocker and Sandy Seekamp as the new Access Committee members. They were praised for the input they have already provided to the Committee.

Staff Updates
Update on Fare Changes
Barney Sifuentes presented on the upcoming fare changes and the use of previously purchased passes and tickets. He announced that HEB, which has not been selling the passes and tickets, recently contacted Capital Metro and is interested in selling them after the fare changes go into effect on October 13. Inez Evans will keep the Committee posted on further developments.

The October MetroAccess passes will continue to be in effect throughout the month, even though they were sold at the old rate of $15.00. Ticket booklets will cost $3.00 until October 10. The new $7.00 ticket booklets will then be delivered to the vendors. After the fare change goes into effect, both the old and new STS tickets will be honored at one ticket per ride regardless of the price that was paid for the ticket. For fixed route 31 day passes, if a customer buys a pass before October 10 but does not validate it until after that date, the pass will be valid for 31 days on the buses. If it is purchased on October 13, it will be sold at the new fare. The day passes will be considered valid no matter how they were purchased. The half price passes are being eliminated in favor of stored value cards of $12 for $15.00.

Business and Community Development, Dianne Mendoza
Dianne Mendoza has been charged with the duty of putting all citizen and community groups under the Business and Community Development. She listed the other groups and gave an overview of the organizational chart. She wished to emphasize the advisory nature of the Committee’s role and publicly apologized to Pat Bartel, who’s nomination to the Committee was rejected by her at the direct request of Fred Gilliam. President/CEO. She said that the reason for this was that there was not enough ethnic diversity on the Committee. Committee members pointed out that ethnic diversity had not been a requirement and had not been mentioned as a factor before the interviews were conducted. She said she recommended to Mr. Gilliam that the slot remain open and that it be filled with diversity. Diane Bomar did support the fact that previous committee memberships had representation from the minority community and it had not been an issue before. Dianne gave a brief historical account of the formation of the Access Committee and a resolution in 1994 which justifies her actions of keeping the slot on the Access Committee open despite the fact that the by-laws were followed in choosing the members. She also said that she had no plans to change the Access Committee by-laws.

Citizens’ Communication
Carlos Aleman and Pat Bartel spoke.

Old Business --Committee Reports
Jane Lansaw reported on the Metro Mobility Working Group (MMWG), which began working on its by-laws last Thursday. She is the Chair and the group may choose to have a Vice Chair as well. The group will meet again on Monday, October 6 from 4:30 to 6:00. It usually meets the first and third Thursdays of the month, but changed its meeting date this week because of prior commitments of members. The motion was made that the remaining Access Subcommittee reports be submitted by email. The motion passed.

Old Business.—IVR Complaints
Malcolm Graham stated that complaints to the STS line and Compliment line might not necessarily be sent to the Department of Transportation. Therefore, he says, it is better to use the Go Line for these purposes.

Adjournment
David Patterson moved and Sandy Seekamp seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed, and the meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for November 5, 2008

NOTE: DUE TO THE LABOR UNION STRIKE, THE ACCESS MEETING HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO NOV 19,2008

Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority
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