About Presentations:

Action: Review and approve, or approve with edits, the November 10, 2016 Oversight Committee minutes.

Summary:  Fresno COG received a letter from the City of Fresno (attached) requesting that the Measure “C” Expenditure Plan be amended to allow the City of Fresno to access a portion ($500,000) of the $25 million in funding that has been previously set aside by the Fresno Council of Governments and the Fresno County Transportation Authority Boards for the High Speed Rail Heavy Maintenance Facility (HMF). The Measure “C” Plan amendment is required because utilization of those funds as established by Measure ”C” Amendment # 1 (which formally set aside the $25 million for the HMF) is conditioned upon Fresno County being awarded the Heavy Maintenance Facility site “prior”  to expenditure of any of the $25 million in funding.  The requested amendment (Measure “C” Plan Amendment #3) would allow for the expenditure of up to $250,000 in calendar year 2017, and another $250,000 in calendar year 2018.  The purpose of the funding request is to pay for non-refundable deposits on 190 acres (site map attached) that have been identified as the preferred location of the HMF in Fresno County.

As has been discussed previously, Fresno County is in spirited competition with other San Joaquin Valley communities to serve as the future home of the California High Speed Rail HMF, which is estimated to create 1,500 new permanent jobs and $245 million in annual earnings.  With that in mind, the City of Fresno hired Continental Field Service to negotiate conditional purchase and sales agreements with property owners in order to control the proposed site during the time that the California High Speed  Authority is deliberating where the HMF will be located.  These conditional purchase and sales agreements, which are assignable, include two twelve month non-refundable deposits of no more than $250,000 per twelve month period and would secure these properties for up to two years.  The actual purchase and sales provisions contained in these agreements can be exercised at any time during the term of the agreements.

Approval of any amendment to the Measure “C” Expenditure Plan approved by the voters in 2006 requires a two- step approval process: 1.) the Fresno Council of Governments Policy must approve;  and 2.) the Fresno County Transportation Authority Board must approve. In the event that both the Fresno COG and FCTA Board approve the proposed amendment, the City of Fresno would enter into agreements to access and expend the allocated funding with the FCTA.  Fresno COG Resolution 2017-01 is attached for approval should the Fresno COG Policy Board choose to approve the proposed Measure “C” Plan Amendment #3.  

The TTC, PAC and the Fresno COG Policy Board all approved the Measure ”C” Amendment #3 and Resolution 2017-01.

Action: The Measure C Citizen Oversight Committee is asked to approve a recommendation to the Fresno County Transportation Authority to approve Amendment #3 and to allocate an amount not to exceed $500,000 from the Measure “C” High Speed Rail program to the City of Fresno for non-refundable deposits. 

Summary:  Fresno COG staff has been working on a possible Amendment #4 to the Measure C Extension Expenditure Plan, Appendix C regarding the types of bikeway designations able to receive funding. Staff would like to discuss Amendment #4 with the Oversight Committee members for feedback. The draft Amendment language will be handed out a the meeting. 

Action:  Review, approve and recommend action

Summary:   Each fiscal year the Citizen Oversight Committee (COC) asks each local agency receiving Measure C Local Transportation Funds to complete a reporting of how they plan to spend the current year's Measure C Local Program allocations. The request goes out the local agencies via a form the COC have instructed staff to develop and revise and updates each year.

Three additional forms were received and are attached for your review.

• City of Firebaugh
• City of Huron
• City of Sanger

Action:  Review, approve and recommend action.

Summary:  At the December 8, 2016 COC meeting Denise DiBenedetto submitted the FY15/16 Expenditure Reports for review. At that meeting the following reports had been requested to return so that the COC could confirm that the requested changes had been made; City of Fowler, Fresno FAX, City of Orange Cove, City of Parlier, City of Sanger, City of Mendota and the City of Reedley.  After that meeting on January 10, 2017, Denise DiBenedetto met with Jeff Markarian from Dedekian, George, Small and Markarian to discuss the flagged items and suggested adjustments or corrections. At that meeting it was agreed upon between FCTA and Jeff Markarian that it would be advisable to wait until the FY15/16 audits had been completed and after the proposed Expenditure Report workshop so that FCTA was not asking the agencies to adjust reports more than once. Considering that there may addition adjustments requested from the auditor this will alleviate any inconvenience for both the local agencies and FCTA so that one final adjustment can be made.

Action: Information ttem. Direction may be taken at the descretion of the committee.

A.  Future tentative COC meeting dates to calendar:

• February 9, 2017
• March 9, 2017 (Very tentative--Fresno COG staff unavailable to host or attend)
• April 13, 2017
• May 11, 2017

B.  Items for next agenda - discussion

C.  Upcoming Meetings of other related Boards/Committees:

• Measure C Amendment #3 Public Hearing, Tuesday, February 7, 2017, 5:30-7:30 pm at Fresno COG
• Transportation Technical Committee Meeting, Friday, February 10, 2017 at 8:30 am at Fresno COG
• Policy Advisory Committee Meeting, Friday, February 10, 2017 at 10:00 am at Fresno COG
• RTP Roundtable Meeting, Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at 2:00 pm at Fresno COG
• Fresno COG Policy Board Meeting, Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 5:30 pm at Fresno COG
• San Joaquin Valley Policy Conference, Wednesday evening, March 8, 2017 through Friday, March 10, 2017. The Falls Conference Center. See attached Flyer for more information.