John Musolf Offers His Assessment On Oro Valley's Public Transist Division

John Musolf was good enough to forward to this on to us. We believe our readers will find John's assessment quite enlightening.
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Art
I thought you might be interested in the email I sent to the Mayor and Council as well as the Mayoral and Council Candidates concerning the Public Transit Division.



Public Transit Division

The Town originally created the public transit division to provide a service to enable our neighbors with disabilities to achieve the mobility that many of us take for granted. It would also help those residents that are older and otherwise would not have a way to get to doctor’s appointments or shop for groceries. The Town’s Public Transit Division consists of a Transit Administrator who shall also serve as the Operations Manager for the Town’s Para-Transit service called Coyote Run, and drivers and dispatchers as may from time to time be deemed necessary by the council for the efficient operation of the Transit Division.

Public Transit Division Structure – Current
Transit Administration
Fleet Maintenance
Dispatch/scheduling
Driver Operations
RTA Programs

Expenditure Costs for 2010

Cost $680,919
Minus Fare Revenue $50,900
Minus Fleet Maintenance $69,596
The Fleet Maintenance portion of Public Transit Division has been transferred to a new department for FY 2010/2011.

Assuming no change in Budget Projection – Potential Shortfall (Deficit) $560,523 which must be covered by OV General Fund and other sources.

The OV General Fund ($322,000 for 2010) is the only reliable source of revenue for 2010/2011.


Other Revenue Sources for 2009/2010 that may not be available in 2010/2011.

With the current economic conditions the chances for state or federal grant revenue offsets are virtually non-existent. They were zero for 2010.

Will there be any continuing revenue from the Local Transportation Assistance Fund (LTAF) continuing revenue from the Arizona Transportation Department ($188,544 for 2010)?

Will there be any continuing revenue from Pima Association of Governments (PAG) ($75,000 for 2010)?

Will there be any continuing revenue from Regional Transit Authority (RTA) ($50,000 for 2010)?

Will there be any continuing interest ($2,469 for 2010)?

Will there be any continuing miscellaneous ($6,531 for 2010)?

This analysis does not take into consideration the current capital investment for 9 vehicles (lift equipped) and their eventual replacement?

There is an agenda item on the February 10, 2010 Town Council Study Session to propose establishing the Public Transit as an Enterprise Fund similar to the Oro Valley Water Utility.

Discussion
An Enterprise Fund such as the water utility has a captured client base (non-discretionary – no choice but to pay for water)

The Public Transit(which currently has 755 registered riders) is a totally discretionary user choice.
This is $742/Year per registered rider ($15 per week assuming the rider takes 1 ride per week for 52 weeks and assuming no growth in riders) just to break even.

Recommendations:
· Eliminate Public Transit Division and sell vehicles.
· Seek private outsourcing (profit) such as Sun Tran and donate vehicles.
· Seek private outsourcing (non-profit) such as Interfaith Community Services (ICS) with potential subsidies such as mileage reimbursement and donate vehicles to them. For example, for 5 years I have volunteered to drive people to doctors, hospitals, clinics, shopping, etc while volunteering with ICS using my personal vehicle. There are other volunteers from Oro Valley that constantly do the same.