IPTA Spring Iowa Public Transit Association 2012 www/iapublictransit.com Mark Your Calendar CTAA Conference May 20-25, 2012 Baltimore, MD IPTA Annual Meeting & Roadeo June 20-23, 2012 Ramada Inn Waterloo, IA Paratransit Operator Training July 23-26, 2012 DART Des Moines, IA IPTA Mid-Year Nov. 14-16, 2012 Sheraton Hotel West Des Moines, IA From the President s Desk Welcome to the May 2012 edition of the Iowa Public Transit Association newsletter. I was thinking about what I could provide as new information and the list is pretty similar to past newsletters. They re still debating a highway bill at the federal level and the odds are probably against them finding enough common ground in an election year to get a compromise, my money is on another extension until after the election and then see what the lame duck session can accomplish. Your IPTA board members have been working with our federal legislative consultant, Ed Redfern, to make sure that in the outside chance that the conference committee does come up with a highway bill, it will continue to fund bus and bus facilities with a fare share of the funds that are available. There continues to be attempts to take funds from bus and bus facilities to fund rail and large urban systems. There was also an attempt to remove the transit funding from the highway trust fund but at the moment that seems to have died away. Everyone needs to be aware of the conference committee s work and respond quickly should there be any need to contact our legislators to head off problems. On a good note it appears that at the state level the Transit vertical infrastructure money has been approved at the $1.5 million level for the coming year and is currently on the governor s desk to be signed. The competition for these dollars continues to be a threat, but thanks again to the board and members that helped monitor and support the legislators in their efforts to maintain the funding for another year. Special thanks to Mark Joyce for his work with us as our state legislative consultant. Finally one bit of new information I can provide I am officially retiring from the Sioux City Transit Director s position effective May 31. I ll miss working with all of you and the transit community around the state. I think the cooperative efforts of the transit systems in Iowa, the IDOT Office of Public Transit, and the FTA Regional offices in Kansas City Continued on page 2
Continued from page 1 President s Letter make transit in Iowa one of the most vibrant and proactive programs anywhere. The dedication and hard work I see from people involved in transit speaks well of your organizations and serves the traveling public with some of the best quality and most efficient public transportation in the country. I ve experienced some great times and found a lot of personal reward in this part of my career. I ll miss the friends I ve made and I ll definitely miss Bev Thomas and her staff. It s been a pleasure serving as the IPTA president the past few years, but I couldn t have done it without Bev and her support. She s always there to take care of business and coordinate all the details that help make the Iowa Public Transit Association successful. I am planning on attending the annual meeting and roadeo so I look forward to seeing you all in June. Curt Miller IPTA President By Hugh Lively Do You Have Any Change? Wow, five years! Isn t it fascinating how fast time flies? I can t believe that five years ago I first laid eyes on northwest Iowa. Nothing is the same. As I look at my agency staff, almost everyone has changed; even the Board isn t the same as when I first started. I look at this agency and see how much it has changed. We have a new building in Sheldon; we have a new parking lot and buses; almost half of our vehicles are new. Even routes have changed. I look at the transit managers across the State; there are many new faces since I started here, not to mention the change of staff at DOT. Five years, what a difference. Some call it change; I call it progress. Except for the word change, all other things in this world are subject to change. It is an inseparable part of life. Some changes bring progress and some do not, but there is no power that can stop the process of change. Wise people make the best use of change and see it as an opportunity, while the rest just stare helplessly at change taking place. Winston Churchill once said, To improve is to change. To be perfect is to change often. If you fail to change yourself, and remain stubbornly in the past, you will not be an active participant of the future. Change is inevitable. Change brings about variations in our daily life, making us less subject to boredom and tedium. It should, therefore, be welcomed and cherished; not despised. More often than not, change is essential to making progress in life. Seeing change as opportunity is an important first step in moving toward a better future. Some of us embrace change and create enthusiasm and a rewarding experience, while others are resistant to it, creating or resulting in conflict; this can be most evident in an office setting. I have certainly witnessed this in many employment situations. Yet, from those experiences I learned the valuable lesson that in order to move forward, change has to happen. For the success of any agency, change must be constant, ever evolving; ever moving forward. If it weren t for change, none of us would be where we are today. I like Winston, so I ll share with you one last thought from him. Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are, for what you could become. Page 2
Washington Update By Ed Redfern The House and Senate Conference Committee on the Transportation Authorization Bill got underway on May 8 th but is expected to move at a slow pace. It is unclear if they will complete their work in time for the need of a short term extension which would be needed if they don t complete their work by June 30 th Many believe they will not. The Senate bill as passed out of the Banking Committee eliminated the Bus and Bus Facilities account, which in the past had about $900 million in it. They took about $600+ of that money and moved it to the formula accounts they then stole $200 million of those funds and moved it to the rail modernization program to cover a move by Senator Menendez, of New Jersey the Sub Committee Chairman to cover his and New Yorks attempt to use the bus money to cover a lose that would happen for many of the other rail mode systems in the country as they changed the rail mod formula to increase funding permanently for a few states and systems mostly in the NE part of the country at the expense of all the bus systems in the USA. The Chairman put out a press release after the bill passed out of the banking committee bragging about the fact that he had passed a bill that would give their state an additional $63 million a year because of this move. We felt this was wrong and should be exposed and worked very hard to try and get some of those funds back to the bus and bus facilities account. Senator Harkin, CTAA, IPTA and IDOT have leaded an effort to preserve the bus and bus facilities account in the Senate reauthorization bill. We have gotten included in the Senate bill a provision that would keep the bus and bus facilities account but it would be limited to a smaller number of states and systems that do not have a rail system. It would allow for a larger % of the funds to go to the rural systems in those states. For me the important part of what we achieved was to keep the bus and bus facilities account alive in the Senate. The House did keep the account but changed the funding to formula and eliminated the ability for rural systems to participate in that account, as they raised the rural formula to a level that they thought it would take care of the needs. It doesn t as it would not allow you to have enough money to ever build a facility and would probably never provide enough funds to meet the states rural bus needs. We have been working together with other states to try and get our provision or some form of it included in the Conference Committee s final bill. This is not only important for the one year this bill will probably end up covering (FY13). But it sets the way for what ever a new reauthorization bill might look like in the future. Many hours have been put in on this project by Senator Harkin s staff, Richard Bender and Nick Hartman, Scott Bogren of CTAA, Michelle McEnany, Pam Lee and Dan Franklin of IDOT, Jeff Harris, IPTA Legislative director and Mark Little all of whom have help develop the strategy and contacted many systems around the country. Our Amendment included 7 other US Senators as cosponsors and was originally cosponsored by Sen. Moran of Kansas. Page 3
Legislative Meeting in Washington DC Twelve IPTA members traveled to Washington DC February 28-29, 2012 to meet with Iowa Senators and Congressmen to discuss transit funding issues in the state of Iowa. Curt Miller, IPTA President, presents a Friend of Iowa Public Transit plaque to Richard Bender of Senator Harkin s office. IPTA members meet with Richard Bender. Pictured are Elizabeth Presutti, Jeff Harris and Curt Miller. IPTA Annual Meeting June 20-23, 2012 Ramada Inn Waterloo, IA Mark your calendars and plan to attend Page 4
Iowa Transportation Coordination Council By Jeff Harris The Iowa Transportation Coordination Council (ITCC) was mandated by the Iowa Legislature and meets under the leadership of the IDOT. Members include representatives from: Office of Public Transit, Iowa Department of Public Health, AARP Iowa, Iowa Department of Education, American Cancer Society, Iowa Governor s Developmental Disabilities Council, Iowa Workforce Development, Iowa Department for the Blind, Iowa State Association of Counties, Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation Services, Iowa League of Cities, Iowa Department on Aging, CTAA-United We Ride, United Ways of Iowa, Iowa Department of Human Services TMS Management Group as well as IPTA. Jeff Harris from Region 6 is the current IPTA representative. The ITCC meets every other month discussing such issues as mobility management, accessibility of transportation in Iowa, State Transit Assistance Special Project Proposal applications pertaining to coordination, and the encouragement of state and local agencies involvement in the passenger transportation planning process. At the most recent meeting of the ITCC, we discussed topics which included: Iowa Mental health System redesign, goal setting for Mobility Mangers in Iowa, IowaCare Transporation, Veteran s transportation and Community Living Initiative Grants. The goal of the ITCC as stated by their mission statement is Provide statewide leadership on transportation coordination to improve the mobility of Iowans. If ever there is a topic of interest you think IPTA would be served by taking to the ITCC, please contact Jeff Harris at Region 6. Your 1 stop solution company Cummins Cummins ReCon Engines Cummins ReCon Electrical Cummins/Valvoline Oil Onan Generators Voith Transmissions Power Rent Generators Fleetguard Filters Nelson Exhaust Emission Solutions Fleet Tech Fuel Additives Fleetguard Anti-Freeze Pro Heat coolant heaters Interstate Batteries BRANCH LOCATIONS 1680 NE 51st Street Des Moines, IA 515-262-9591 625 33rd Avenue SW Cedar Rapids, IA 319-366-7537 7820 42nd St. West Rock Island, IL 309-787-4300 Page 5