University Transportation Committee April 4, 2016 – 11:30 a.m. – Parrington Commons, Room 308 Present: student representatives Katherine Sims, ASUW Austin Kinney, GPSS faculty representatives Chuck Treser staff representatives Jamie Grady, WFSE April Millar, WSNA Laura Harrington, SEIU 925 Matt Weatherford, PSO at-large representatives Jean Garber, Dentistry

operational stakeholders Dan Erickson, ICA Jim Angelosante, Interim-Director, Transportation Services Bill Foster, Transportation Services Madelyn Chrisman, SLU Jeremy Eknoian, Real Estate Office Mark Stanley, Student Life & HFS Celeste Gilman, Commuter Services Bob Ennes, Health Sciences Academic Services & Facilities Mushka Rohani, UW Human Resources Lisa McDonald, Office of Planning and Budgeting Staff support Charlie Tennyson, Transportation Services

Guests: Charles Kennedy (Facilities Services), Margaret Shepherd (Office of the President), Kay Doherty (TS), George Donegan (TS), Ann Gigli (TS), Reed Keeney (TS), Michelle Rhoads (TS), Matt Clark (TS), Elizabeth McLaughlin (TS), Phil Miller (TS)

agenda item 1. Call to Order 2. TS Leadership Change 3. Review of TS Financials 4. Adjourn

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Introductions around the table TS Leadership Change 

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Charles Kennedy (Associate Vice President for Facilities Services) opened the meeting and said that the primary purpose was to share with the UTC that he accepted Josh Kavanagh’s resignation on Friday, April 1, and to provide a brief update on his and Interim Director Jim Angelosante’s review of the financial status of Transportation Services (TS) and its programs. Kennedy said that he wished Kavanagh well and thanked Kavanagh for his many years of service to the UW as its transportation director, noting specific achievements such as: o Improvements to the Burke-Gilman Trail; o Advancing the UW to become one of the nation’s most bike-friendly campuses; o Working with local transit and transportation agencies to protect popular UW routes; o Collaborating with local agencies for regional and federal grant opportunities; and o Collaborations both internally and externally to improve mobility and transportation services at UW. Kennedy also thanked the TS staff and members of the UTC for their many contributions under Kavanagh’s leadership and expressed his continued support and gratitude for the work of TS and UTC. Kennedy introduced Jim Angelosante, Director for Finance and Business Services at Facilities Services, as the interim director for Transportation Services. Kennedy added that:

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Angelosante brings a strong financial management and finance modeling background to the interim role, overseeing the entirety of the Facilities Services $300+ million budget; o In light of some budget issues at TS, Angelosante’s review will be helpful in prioritizing and making decisions about sustainable financial models going forward; o Angelosante and Kennedy will return to the UTC once they have completed a thorough review of TS and will seek UTC input and feedback as soon as they have materials to share; o It is very unlikely that new rates will be finalized in time for the May Board of Regents meeting, with the June 9 meeting now the likely target for rates approval by the Regents; Angelosante shared that he was a member of the UTC several years ago and is familiar with its processes and important role on campus, and that he looked forward to working with everyone in the coming weeks and months. Margaret Shepherd, Director for Strategic Initiatives and staff to UW President Ana Mari Cauce, said that she was attending the UTC meeting because she would be working with Sarah Hall in the Office of the Provost and Office of Planning and Budgeting, and Charles Kennedy to make sure the budget review, rate setting process, and other good work of the UTC had the support of and coordination with the President’s Office. Shepherd also said her participation was acknowledgement from her office about the importance of the UPASS program and related budget concerns for a sustainable UPASS program. Shepherd said that President Cauce and the rest of university leadership were extremely supportive of shared governance and that she was interested in receiving thorough feedback and constant engagement with UTC going forward on all issues.

Review of TS Financials 

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Kennedy transitioned to address the UTC regarding Shepherd’s point about making sure that Transportation Services and the UW were able to maintain sustainable commitments to important programs, most notably the UPASS student and faculty and staff programs. Kennedy said that his and Angelosante’s immediate focus would be on making sure the UPASS model and rates were set and sustainable for this year. They will then turn to looking at longer term funding models to achieve the university’s TDM and environmental sustainability goals. Kennedy noted that UW students have been outspoken in their strong support of the UPASS program, adopting a universal UPASS program in recent years, and that he was looking forward to working with students to continue to improve the program. Kennedy made the distinction between the student program and the faculty and staff program, noting that there would be work to do to stabilize the faculty and staff UPASS program and that he looked forward to working with the UTC to do that. Kennedy then turned it over to UTC members for their questions: o Laura Harrington said that she submitted alternative UPASS proposals on behalf of a coalition of unions in February 2016 and that she was hopeful the administration would consider the proposals. She said the unions hoped to maintain the status quo with rates and costs, even hoping for a reduction in rates and to make reductions sustainable. Harrington said there had been a 600% increase in UPASS rates in the program’s 25 year history, and that she, Matt Weatherford, and Chuck Treser had been working and will continue to work to support a sustainable and affordable UPASS program.  Kennedy responded that he was looking forward to a fully collaborative process and that he would need the voice of the unions and all UTC members and partners to look at every possible option. He restated that there was a lot of pressure on the UPASS program at the moment, and that mobility issues in the region will continue to worsen due to the explosion of population growth. As a result of the region playing catch up with infrastructure and transit, a reality may be increased costs associated with quicker and faster mobility solutions. Kennedy also added that the TS team has been successful in the past at advocating and working with transit agencies and others to preserve routes, rates and services, but there are many components that go into the rate setting process that must be fully understood before decisions can be made. o April Millar asked if TS could look into costs and rates specific to the Medical Center parking and commute services and compare them to other hospital services and rates, for patients, staff, and visitors to the facility. She said that decisions about rates should take into account the norms of the rest of the medical community in the region.  Kennedy said that models of subsidies for transportation at different facilities vary greatly, and that one would need to take a thorough and up close look to make sure there was an apples to apples comparison between agencies. But he made clear that all concerns and possible solutions will be considered, including considering competitive rates at other agencies.

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Margaret Shepherd said that she was very interested in hearing from the UTC about what programs and services worked best at UW transportation. She said that the president and provost were both new and that they were not transportation planners or operators, and a result the must depend on the UTC so that they make the best decisions possible for the UW community and not reinvent the wheel when creating a sustainable path forward. April Millar asked if the group would continue to meet monthly  Kennedy said that the group would maintain all currently scheduled meeting dates for now, but may need to cancel or move upcoming dates depending on how long the review process takes. Charlie said that the next two meetings are scheduled for April 18 and May 16. Matt Weatherford said that following a presentation on UPASS funding that Kavanagh gave to the Professional Staff Organization (PSO) earlier this year, PSO issued a survey to its members and collected approximately 2,000 responses asking staff if they would support a universal UPASS program. He said that 69 percent of respondents were in support of a universal program, 13 percent were not in favor, and 17 percent were unsure. Weatherford said that he would happily share that info with leadership. Dan Erickson said that at Athletics, staff were very concerned and confused about any raises in parking rates. He said that he believed frustration stemmed from confusion about where the money goes that is collected from parking and other fees, and exactly how the UPASS program works. For instance as rates go up, there don’t appear to be any improvements in parking facilities. Erickson said that leadership should ensure a fully transparent process and explain the mission and any specific TDM and sustainability goals so that staff understand where fees are going.  Kennedy said that he agreed there needs to be clear explanation, particularly when there is a concern or reality that fees are increasing, so that staff can understand exactly what services they are getting in return. Kennedy agreed that the reasoning for increases hasn’t been clearly articulated and that part of what he hopes a close financial review will yield are some pinch points where operational value can be increased and some cost savings can be found.  Margaret Shepherd said that the Regents are asking for zero percent budgets from every department as a baseline for decision making going forward. They want to understand all new rates and assess any tradeoffs that the UW is making for rate increases. The UTC’s input to the rate process is therefore extremely important when understanding other costs included taxes and other costs—leadership must fully unpack costs and funding associated with programs like UPASS in order for Regents to be able to approve any increases.