The City Council met in a Joint Work Session with the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) on Monday, December 9, 2013, at 11:00 a.m. at the UTA Frontline Headquarters, Silverton Express Conference Room, 669 West 200 South, Salt Lake City.
In Attendance: Council Members Kyle LaMalfa, Luke Garrott, Charlie Luke, Stan Penfold, and Søren Simonsen
Excused: Council Members Carlton Christensen and Jill Remington Love
Staff In Attendance: Cindy Gust-Jenson, Council Executive Director; Jennifer Bruno, Council Deputy Director; Russell Weeks, Council Policy Analyst; Dan Weist, Council Communications Coordinator; Benjamin Luedtke, Council Constituent Liaison; DJ Baxter, RDA Executive Director; Robin Hutcheson, Transportation Director; Julianne Sabula, Streetcar Manager; and Cindi Mansell, City Recorder.
Others in Attendance: Council Members Elect Lisa Ramsey Adams and Erin Mendenhall.
UTA Board of Trustees and Staff in Attendance: Gregory Hughes, Chair; H. David Burton, Vice Chair; Charles Henderson, Planning & Development Committee Chair; Justin Allen; Robert Hunter; Keith Bartholomew; Christopher Bleak, Chair of the Finance and Operations Committee; Necia Christensen; Larry Ellertson; Jeff Hawker; Dannie McConkie; P. Bret Millburn; Chris Sloan; and Ben Southworth. Staff included: Michael Allegra, General Manager; Dave Goeres, Chief Safety Officer; Andrea Packer, Chief Officer of Communications & Customer Focus; Matt Sibul, Chief Officer of Planning; Bruce Jones, President of Government Resources; Bruce Cardon, Regional General Manager, Commuter Rail Services; and Grantley Martelly, Regional General Manager, Business Support.
The meeting was called to order at 11:32 a.m.
AGENDA ITEMS View Agendas
#1. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS.
11:32:32 AM uta Trustee Keith Bartholomew welcomed those present; introductions of UTA Trustees and Staff followed. He discussed the background of central cities and thriving environments related to the expense of transportation and necessity of mass transit. He said he felt the future would be more like the past and was starting to see recentralization and refocus on central cities in the metropolitan environment. He acknowledged this opportunity for Salt Lake City and the Utah Transit Authority to work together for the betterment of their citizens and constituents.
11:41:56 AM UTA Chief Safety Officer Dave Goeres offered a “Red – Yellow – Green” safety message.
11:51:00 AM UTA General Manager Michael Allegra provided a brief history of UTA development in Utah. He said UTA had worked with Salt Lake City in hundreds of combined partnership projects and the number seemed to increase annually. He said UTA viewed the new Sugarhouse Streetcar as just the beginning of incredible partnership opportunities. He said the focus of UTA was transitioning from capital focus and attention on building lines to operational excellence, or running the best system that could possibly be delivered to this community. He said ridership had increased and was the highest ever, and the UTA focus was on safety, ridership, reliability, and service attributes. Mr. Allegra distributed the 2013 UTA Organizational Chart and encouraged personal contact of any employee. He further discussed future goals in effort to continue enhancement of transit options and thanked the City Council for the opportunity to work together.
#2. SALT LAKE CITY’S TRANSIT GOALS AND VISION.
12:04:25 PM Council Chair LaMalfa presented a PowerPoint and discussed the importance of transit to Salt Lake City. He referenced a Blueprint for Building Communities for Transit, Council Priorities and Transit Goals. He discussed policy or legislative tools available such as zoning, financing, incentives, agreements, local ordinances, and the Transit Master Plan. He said he looked forward to working together with UTA with these tools and determining how they could assist UTA in making choices to achieve both of their strategic goals.
#3. UTA’S 2020 STRATEGIC PLAN.
12:17:38 PM Charles Henderson, Planning & Development Committee Chair, discussed the UTA Board goals in conjunction with the budget and specific to the UTA 2020 Strategic Plan. He addressed recent achievements as well as the envisioned map to the future to build on success. He discussed important elements, such as environment as well as key areas of focus. He indicated the Plan was developed with extensive input from key stakeholder groups, local elected officials, business leaders, rider advocates, and UTA employees. He discussed a change in culture from ridership to customer experience; and said UTA was striving to understand their customer “wants and needs”, and respond accordingly.
#4. WRAP-UP DISCUSSION.
12:46:02 PM Greg Hughes, Chair, said this type of beneficial conversation would inspire other conversations with other entities. He said the overlap of both groups was expressed and it was obvious there were shared goals. He questioned how to take what the City Council did as public policy makers and integrate with public sector makers. He thanked the City Council for their participation and leadership on the transit pass.
Discussion followed regarding ideas for programs, operations, applications, etc. Mr. Hughes explained UTA purposefully makes their Geographic Information System (GIS) information public in the hopes that groups such as school districts, colleges, and cities would collaborate.
Councilmember Simonsen said he felt the next area of transit focus should be east/west corridors to complement the existing north/south. He said people get used to taking transportation modes and then they become more viable.
The meeting adjourned at 1:10 p.m.
This document is not intended to serve as a full transcript as additional discussion may have been held; please refer to the audio or video for the entire content.
This document along with the digital recording constitute the official minutes of the City Council Retreat meeting held December 9, 2013.
clm